"Building the things that build the things." Andrea murmured as she repeated his words back to herself.

It wasn't anything in her tone that spoke of endorsement or indictment, just a recognition. Lhotse's finances suddenly looked different in that context. The corporation already behaved less like a conventional company and more like an institution preserving capabilities. Entire divisions operated at a loss because they maintained infrastructure, expertise and industrial capacity that might become important later. The thought was not comforting, especially if she was meant to be one of the people keeping the profits afloat as part of her new duties. But if Eager was right about artificial space colonisation, then somebody had spent years and enormous amounts of money pursuing an objective that was either extraordinarily ambitious or completely insane. Possibly both. Andrea looked back at him.

"I'm not shutting it down." The answer came immediately. "Not yet, anyway. If Mrs. Everest spent years funding this, and if my predecessor spent years protecting it, and if [i]neither[/i] of them bothered explaining to you what the end goal was, then I don't know enough to make that decision yet." Her expression tightened slightly. "And if I'm being honest, I'd rather inherit an expensive mystery than discover six months from now that I cancelled the one project in the company that was actually connected to whatever they're both chasing. I'd rather have a space station and not need it, then need a space station and not have it."

That was only half a joke.

"Continue operations as planned. No major expansion, no major cuts. But I want [i]complete[/i] project histories, milestone reports, internal communications and budget justifications from the beginning of your predecessor's tenure onward. Not summaries. The originals. Everything you've worked on so I know how we can pivot if we need to. Have it sent to my inbox within the next two weeks." She paused, her finger hanging over the 'disconnect' button. "And Dr. Eager?"

A faint smile appeared.

"If it [i]does[/i] turn out we've spent the last several years building components for a fleet of machines designed to construct a space station the size of Mars, I promise I'll try very hard not to be surprised. I'd suggest you do too. Good night."

The final words were crisp and concise, and as the call closed, Andrea looked out the window. Watching the world go by. Then she tapped her comm and summoned her Virtual Intelligance unit.

"Anything else requiring my immediate attention?"