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ceilings, but there’s room for plenty more living space in those unused areas! They could
double
the population here, with just some creative redesigning.”
    “The ecosystem is supposed to be balanced for the existing population,” Harley pointed out, doing his best to sound factual and not contrary. “According to their engineers, a satellite this size could not carry the resources needed for double the population.”
    “In an
optimal
scenario,” Lambert repeated. “But these people live in relative luxury now! They can afford to cut back on resources… food… power use… and spread the wealth a bit.”
    “That’ll be a hard-sell to the U.N.,” Harley stated.
    “The U.N. may feel differently, when the populations of the world are banging on their doors,” Thompson commented.
    Lambert shared a glance with him, and nodded in agreement. “Harley, when we get in, have the staff work up a plausible emergency operations scenario for the satellites, based on our original specs. I want it ready in the morning to present to the U.N.”
    Harley nodded, put his tablet in his suit pocket, and said no more.
    ~
    The Presidential Compound was not much of a compound, in a traditional Earth-bound sense of mansions or collections of houses surrounded by acres of land. In fact, beyond the one building, there was not much land that was actually devoted to it as grounds. But it was situated in one of the protected parks on the southern side of Verdant, where individual access was generally limited in order to avoid damage to the flora and fauna there. Since access was controlled anyway, it made sense to put a high-security building there.
    The four-story structure, equipped with apartments, work areas, independent security and communications stations, and the Presidential residence, had been leased to the U.S. Government as their secure facility on Verdant… what some people liked to call the “
High
-High House.” The building was nondescript from the outside, owing to the simple vertically-oriented carbon façade, and to the high-security windows that blended in with the design of the façade so well that outsiders could not accurately tell where walls ended and windows began. The President used the compound as a retreat, occasionally for actual relaxation, but usually to conduct business away from the rigors of the High House in Denver. It was also the unofficial United States Embassy on Verdant, and as such, had a small contingent of American citizens and a few Verdant citizens always stationed there.
    Those workers were all outside the entrance to the compound, like a line of expectant servants greeting their Lord and Master, when the tram with the President pulled up to the gate. Once they’d received the official “all clear” signal from security, Lambert got out, and ran down the line greeting and shaking hands with the embassy staff, all of whom he could address by first name. Thompson followed behind him, speaking directly to a few of the embassy staffers, shaking hands with most of them. Harley followed along, addressing only a few people that he knew directly, and otherwise remaining unobtrusive. Once that was accomplished, they all headed inside the building, and the President, Thompson and Harley took the right arm of a double flight of stairs that led to the second floor, and the Presidential offices.
    The interior of the building belied its simple exterior, being filled with antique furniture, rich dark woods (half of which had probably been on the endangered lists when they were harvested), expensive accents and state-of-the-art IT. A lot of trouble had been taken to rebuild some elements, like antique lamps, to function with modern lighting units and ambient sensors, but continue to look like their counterparts of past centuries. The overall effect was that of a late-twentieth-century corporate office, considered by historians to be the high-point of modern business opulence, if not efficiency.
    The