Austeren Leader in Hirematia

[Hirematia]

"Of course," Mechhai responds. "Once everyone finishes their dessert I can plug your phone or laptop into our secure internet protocol. I'm highly skeptical of the Paguio Empire sponsoring such terrorism though. The approval rating of Thorne's compromise is already astonishingly low, so they really have no need to sponsor terror. I agree with you that they seem unconcerned, however. An outright ejection would be a risky move, but if this madness continues, I may be forced to support such a move."

[Austerain]

"Thank you," Versace nods, "Understandably so. It astounds me that the Paguioans are so reluctant to take this deal. There is this narrative there that this would abolish their monarchy or change it too much, but as Sinclair said, it only makes their monarch more accountable as a safeguard. My hope is that they will understand this eventually to avoid further escalation with Thorne. The President-Elect would not go to war over this issue (much less any other), but I know that he is willing to go as far as a harsh region-wide diplomatic and economic sanction against the Paguioans. As we know, the economic frustration that might result from this would either lead to the Paguioans leaving the Union, or else a revolution against their own government. He may lack tact in his speeches, but understands this and sees this as a win either way. He knows that despite the low support for his compromise in the Paguio Empire, that many other SLU states are strongly supportive of the move and will use that to the advantage of his goal to expel hereditary/autocratic monarchy in the region."

General Brockwell laughs to himself and says, "Clever. It's no wonder he beat your guy O'Brennen, Thorne has ten times the ingenuity and calculation than him. Personally as a military man, I don't like his dovishness and would rather meet these Paguioans head on but I'm here to simply obey orders. That nuclear war in April was the most excitement my men had for years."

Versace gives him a side eye and says, "Anyway... that's where we will be if the Paguioans reject this. This is why myself and the Secretary of State decided to support his compromise publicly with effort, because it is a better alternative than any of the other options on his table."

[Hirematia]

"I also support the compromise," Mechhai replies. "But if the Paguioans refuse to support it, which they seem to be doing, then we'll be forced to impose sanctions. I will back the sanctions if it comes to that, but I think the best strategy is to convince a Paguioan to give a speech in support of this resolution. Let's face it: no matter how good the deal sounds to us, if the only ones advocating for it publicly are agents of foreign governments, the whole thing will feel forced. Let's work on finding a prominent Paguioan who agrees with the deal and gives a speech in favor of it. The worst that could happen is that they get branded as a tratior by their countrymen, and the best thing that could happen is that the Paguioans will finally recognize what the deal truly means."

"Alright General Brockwell, missile systems are online," Baahubala laughs. "In all seriousness, a war with Paguio would be ill-advised unless they attack first. In our worst-case scenario, we just tell them to get lost, and they lose all their trade concessions with SLU member states. That would tank their economy almost instantly. That should be obvious enough to anyone, which brings me to that Crown Prince boy. He's acting like wanting reform is some sort of unforgivable personal attack, and wants to sacrifice his peoples' standard of living for his personal honor. That sort of self-aggrandizement is one of the reasons I could never support a monarch."

[Austerain]

"Your support is appreciated," Versace says, "You are correct that it feels forced this way, and I would agree that the best strategy is to convince a Paguioan to advocate for it... the only trouble is finding one brave enough to speak out for it. Perhaps the Emperor and Prime Minister will be more open to it since this tragedy happened on their soil?"

General Brockwell nods, "Agreed. The Emperor has indoctrinated his son to not stray from tradition as his father did before him. Even so, it's incredibly selfish and maddening that their future leader sees reform as an immoral and evil concept. That society will never progress unless there is intervention. Either through direct intervention or Thorne's boring indirect form of intervention. We should have never had Sinclair attend the Crown Prince's event of self-glory in the first place, as if we endorse that sort of thing." He looks at Versace.

Versace arches an eyebrow looking at him, "General, you know very well that we had to demonstrate that at least this administration wanted to be cordial even if the next want doesn't. Thorne complained to me about that as well. I hate the concept of monarchy as well, but we have to be diplomatic and tactful with these encounters."

Brockwell says, "Mm. Well, I just hope that by the end of this, no self-glorifying monarch will plague this Union again. They should be more like Kyratistani. Humble and open-minded, not arrogant and antiquated."

"I'm sure Thorne shall see to that," Versace laughs, "Calm down, soldier."
She turns to Mechhai as she eats a piece of fruit, "I think you all will get along just fine with him."

[Hirematia]

"I'm sure I will," Mechhai replies. "Over the past few weeks I've seen that we share much more in common than I thought, including our stance on the Paguio Empire. I can see our countries becoming close allies under his presidency. People in Hirematia can't get enough of Thorne. And now they've found out about his new policy which gives workers a share in the companies they work for," Mechhai responds. "I support the concept, but I'm worried it might negatively impact the economy, so I want to hold off on implementation. But now the SJS (Hirematia's democratic socialist party) has implemented the policy into their election manifesto, and most Hirematians on the left support the policy. I think a good middle ground for now is giving substantial tax breaks to companies that implement employee ownership, and the more of the company that the employees own, the more tax they can write off. However, I've run the numbers with some help from a statistician and found that I may need to tax income over 1 billion rupiahs at 77% to finance the funding shortfall. Currently the top tax bracket is taxing all income above 500 million र् at 68%. If I raise taxes that high billionaires might start hiding their money or leaving the country and cause even more funding shortfalls. So I'm honestly stuck as to a campaign position on the issue."

"I think the Paguioans will eventually get tired of their monarchy and stage a revolution," Baahubala replies. "Especially if the Crown Prince doesn't significantly mature before Leopold steps down. All nations eventually get sick of being ruled over like children instead of getting to rule themselves. In case this conversation is being recorded, I say this from a hypothetical standpoint," he laughs. "The best way to bring democracy to the Paguioans would be to assassinate Leopold. I would never consider it as Leopold does not violate human rights, but if we wanted the Paguio Empire to become a democracy at any cost, that's the way I would go about it."

"Let's not, uh, discuss assassinations of foreign leaders," Mechhai replies.

"I don't actually endorse assassinating Leopold," Baahubala says defensively.

"Still, its not good to talk about," Mechhai responds. "Now, Mrs. Versace, if you're done with your dessert, I can plug you into our secure internet protocol, you can relay messages, and we can head off to bed. It's already 11:30, and we have a lot to get through tomorrow."

[Austerain]

"I'm glad to hear it," Versace says, "It reassures me that you and your people are open to working with Thorne, as difficult as he can be. As for his partial employee ownership plan, it's certainly bold and out of my own comfort zone as I was against it myself as Vice Chancellor when former Grand Chancellor Asher proposed it. I believe he's implementing his plan in stages, and setting up regulatory bodies to ensure that corruption in terms of managing salaries and benefits is limited and that conflicting factions do not suppress proper management, company investments, and efficiency. As for your impasse on the issue of billionaires hiding money abroad or leaving the country, you can pass regulations to prevent tax evasion from offshore accounts- ensure all profits made from Hirematian products and services are maintained and taxed accordingly within Hirematia. That is the best advice I can think of at the moment, but I can consult with some of Austerain's top economists and pass their advice to you if you're going to use the tax incentives."

Brockwell roars with laughter and places his hand on Baahubala's back, "I certainly don't disagree! Do you think Thorne would allow us to sell arms to the revolutionaries in that eventuality?"

Versace gives him another side eye and says, "Considering that he has criticized me for giving military aid to New Ireland and Wales to help fight against their rebels, I think not, General. At any rate, I don't think anyone else here, including Thorne, would endorse assassinations of foreign leaders."

"Pity..." Brockwell mutters to himself. Versace responds to Mechhai, "Moving on, I would be very grateful you would, thank you. I think we can call it a day."

[Hirematia]

"That sounds great, " Mechhai responds. He leads Versace up to a door with a fingerprint lock on it. Mechhai places his left ring finger on the touch scanner. Then, holds his retina up to the fingerprint scanner (which has a camera behind it). Finally, he says an incoherent string of random letters and numbers. The door unlocks to reveal a room lined with computers, cables, and monitors on every inch of the wall. Mechhai walks up to a table, reaches for a white USB plug connected to the wall behind, and hands it to Versace. "Here you go," he says. "Once it registers on your phone I'll need you to look away so I can type the password in. Once you connect, feel free to send classified intel. I'll have Baahubala stay with you while I go give a short speech from the balcony. Not that I don't trust you, but I have to follow official protocol. It's our Independence Day today, so I'm giving a 15-minute address. Once that's over, I'm going to bed."

[Austerain]

Versace follows Mechhai into the SCIF, "Thank you very much, I appreciate this. You have my regards in the celebration of your Independence Day."

She plugs her phone in and looks away as Mechhai enters the passcode. After that she smiles and bids Mechhai good night, starting her conference call with the Director of the ABI and her Defense Secretary.

[Hirematia]

After bidding Versace goodnight, Mechhai leaves to give his address, in which he gives thanks to the "veterans, police officers, and first responders who keep our country safe." He also takes a moment to "celebrate our beautiful democracy, our beautiful culture, and our beautiful nation." He wishes the nation a happy 204th anniversary of independence from monarchy and heads off to bed. It is midnight when he goes to bed.

[Austerain]

During her call to Austeren officials, Versace finds out that the gunman had been under surveillance by the ABI for the past few months for death threats to high level Austeren politicians. ABI Director Meacham tells Versace that surveillance revealed that the gunman had met with an attorney last week that is closely linked to the Emperor and several high officials within the Paguioan government. Defense Secretary Warner tells Versace that she suspects that the Paguioan government had ordered the assassination to silence Sinclair and Presa. Upon hearing this, she tells them to inform the President-Elect of this new information before going public with it. After hanging up, she and her aides are directed to their rooms to get some rest before the next day

***

[Hirematia]

Mechhai wakes up at 8:00 AM. He gets ready, gets dressed, and heads into the dining room for breakfast at 8:30, waiting for others to arrive. MK Baahubala and Labha Gururaja, Minister of Economy and Treasury are already seated. While Baahubala is seated in his dress blues, Gururaja is wearing nothing but a bathrobe.

"Put some f***ing clothes on man," Mechhai laughs.

"Alright, alright," Gururaja chuckles. "I'll go back and change."

Gururaja leaves the table to change into a suit. He arrives back five minutes later.

[Austerain]

Versace, Daniels, Taylor, and the aides wake at 6:30 in order to receive briefings, work on their agendas, and make calls back to their respective departments and colleagues in Austerain. Versace is on the phone with President-Elect Thorne:

Versace rolls her eyes , "James, I want you to be patient. We're not even 100% positive that there was collusion with the Paguioan government until we have phone and financial records. Ye-yes, James... it doesn't necessarily mean anything, it's just a suspicion... no... just wait until we have more details before you do or say anything until we know for sure... they're on the verge of agreeing with some of your terms, saying anything else against them will endanger the agreements and escalate the tensions... that's not nice to say about the Crown Prince. He may be young by our culture, but a teenage leader is quite normal in countries like that... yeah I know, 'outdated traditions', you don't have to keep repeating... okay... alright... I'll be back in Austraton soon, I have discussions with Mechhai for thing you'll like for the country... that's right... patience please... okay... tell the governor I said hello... alright thanks... see you then."

Versace sighs as General Brockwell laughs and says, "Difficult man, isn't he?"

Versace responds, "Quite. He wants to go ahead with further economic sanctions against the Paguioans for the alleged collusion. I told him we weren't 100% positive."

"You know he didn't want this compromise in the first place," Secretary Daniels looks up from his laptop, "He would rather have no monarchy at all within the Union. He's probably half hoping that they reject the reforms so he can make life difficult for them."

"Probably," she responds, "He is one of Austerain's most intimidating politicians. Now he wants to be the strongman of the region."

Secretary Taylor pipes up, "He's also more popular than you are, Sarah. The people love him."

Versace grumbles as she gathers her papers, "Don't tell me you're enraptured by him too. He has an egotistical and cultish mentality about him, if you ask me. He shows little pragmatism and is too much of an ideologue."

Daniels says, "You said the same thing about Giorgio before you agreed to be his Vice Chancellor all those years ago. The people love ambitious ideologues, even if you don't."

"Mm," Versace replies as she places her Austeren flag lapel pin on her blazer, "God help us."

The four Austerens and their aides finally head downstairs. Versace nods her head at the waiting Hirematians, "Morning, all."

[Hirematia]

"Good morning all of you, Mechhai replies. Sorry I didn't get up sooner. I try to wake up at 7 each day, but sometimes you sleep past the alarm. Anyway, I heard from Baahubala that you were up at 6:30 talking with Thorne. If you don't mind, what was the conversation about?"

It is 8:55. Tajasane Maamuashi, Minister of Public Transportation walks into the room. She greets everyone and takes a seat.

Jani Sivasaa, Minister of Environment, darts into the room. "Sorry I'm late," she says. "Getting used to this new sleep cycle is difficult. I just graduated from college, so I'm used to going to bed really late and getting up around 8:30 for my first class."

"She's one of the brightest young minds in the country," Mechhai replies. "She's just too humble to tell you. As a high schooler, she invented a cheap and efficient method of water filtration, she led several environmental initiatives as a college student, and she invented a method of removing CFCs from the air using a material that can be used to make billboards. She's been working on creating an environmentally-friendly alternative to CFCs lately."

"That's true," Sivasaa replies. "I stayed up until 2 AM modeling different molecular structures and estimating their heat retention capacity. Although I mainly did it then because I couldn't fall asleep," she laughs.

[Austerain]

Versace responds with a chuckle, "No need to apologize, it gave us time to deal with some business this morning. As for the conversation, the President-Elect was concerned about some of the revelations we've found regarding the gunman that killed our Deputy Secretary of State. I found out last night from the ABI that he met with a Paguioan lawyer that is closely associated with the Emperor and several high ranking officials. I suspect that there was collusion but we're not 100% positive on that until we have phone and financial records, as I told Thorne. He wants to advance toward harsher sanctions against the Paguioans, but I've told him that it might endanger the agreements and escalate the tension."

Secretary Daniels looks at Versace, "As I said before, he hates the very existence of any monarchy in the Union and probably is half-hoping that they reject further reforms. He wants to make life very difficult for them so he can push them out if they don't comply."

"He just wants to be the intimidator of the region, being the most intimidating politician in Austerain isn't enough for him," Versace grumbles.

As Minister Sivasaa enters the room and they listen to Mechhai's boasting of her, Versace and the other Austerens are rather impressed. Versace smiles as she shakes her hand, "It's always good to see a bright young woman in public service contributing so much to her country. Austerain could certainly use more like you, and such innovative technologies for the environment."

[Hirematia]

"It's an honor to meet you," Sivasaa says as she beams.

"Now that everyone is present," Mechhai says, "Let's eat some breakfast. The chef is coming to meet everyone shortly and he will take our orders. You can get almost anything you want. Western-style breakfast, Chinese breakfast, Hirematian breakfast, you name it. He'll even make you a pizza if you want. Just so you're aware, the Hirematian breakfast is a thin and crispy rice flour crepe with an egg cracked over it, served with coconut chutney and chili on top. It's called rajadosa."

"This Thorne man is going to be fun to work with," Gururaja says sarcastically. "I respect his grit and idealism but he has to understand that geopolitics is not the campaign season. As a former businessman, I can confirm that sitting in your chair and telling your client that you want a 1 million rupiah contract and will settle for no less is a horrible negotiating strategy. The kind of businessman to do that would wear a funny hairdo, obsess over spray tanning, and try to make appearances on reality TV to boost their ego."

As he finishes talking, the chef walks out to greet everyone. "Greetings, Madame Versace," he says. "And greetings to her team also."

[Austerain]

Versace chuckles, "You're very right, Minister Gururaja, his rhetoric does sound as if he's still in campaign mode. It's unproductive even if it makes him popular with the people. He wanted to expel monarchy from the region altogether at first, and my Secretary of State had to sit down and vigorously negotiate in order to find a compromise. Is that goal possible? Perhaps. Is it wise? Not at all. Hopefully once the weight of this office sets in, he'll start taking a more pragmatic approach."

In response to Mechhai, she says, "We're here so we might as well allow ourselves to be open to trying Hirematian cuisine. Good morning, chef," she says as he greets everyone, "What would you recommend?"

[Hirematia]

"I would...uh.... suggest rajadosa, hannaaharivana, sihianna. Sorry, English is very new for me, so I may be slow and have bad grammar."

"Hannaaharivana is what we had for dessert last night, except a larger portion, and sihianna is a rice porridge mixed with honey, nuts, and sometimes tapioca balls. Yes, you can ask for yours with tapioca balls if you want. Those are our main 3 breakfast items in Hirematia. Another breakfast item that's not traditional, but popular with urbanites, is guacamole. Ever since the markets opened up, Hirematia has had a never-ending guacamole craze. Many people will even eat bowls of guacamole for lunch and dinner, and some public transport lines have started handing our pre-packaged guacamole cups to commuters on their way to work. People will crack raw eggs in them, put bits of chicken and pork in them, sometimes even put lamb and goat, and call it a meal."

"Can I please have a guac bowl with a raw egg," Sivasaa asks the chef.
"Can I get sihianna please," Maamuashi says.
"Can I take an egg with chili powder," Baahubala says.
"I'll get a rajadosa with pork inside," Gururaja says.
"Can I have the rajadosa," Mechhai says.

The chef looks up from his notepad before leaning back down towards Mechhai. After Mechhai whispers into his ears, he says with surprising clarity, "What would the Austeren delegation like to order?"

[Austerain]

"The guac bowl with lamb, please" Versace requests.
Daniels asks for the egg, Taylor requests the sihianna, and Brockwell asks for the rajadosa.

They all thank the chef as he rushes off to the kitchen after taking their orders

[Hirematia]

"Just as a heads-up," Mechhai adds, "People normally only order their guac bowls with meat for lunch or dinner. For breakfast people usually eat it plain or with a raw egg. Nothing wrong with ordering it of course, just informing you."

"I'm not so sure about that," Gururaja replies. "I've seen his personality types in the business world before. Power only makes these people crazier. And to think I'm going to have to help negotiate an economic pact with not only an ideologue, but a full-blown socialist also... His 'workers' ownership' plan is going to tank your economy. Look, I share many left-leaning economic views. That's why I work on this administration. But the government mandating that corporations implement employee ownership is simply put, a bad policy. If you really want employee ownership, incentivize the corporations to do so."

A waiter pulls out a cart holding everyone's breakfast. He serves everyone their food one by one.

[Austerain]

"Ah, no harm to have it for breakfast I suppose, even if it's culturally unusual," Versace chuckles

"Honestly," Versace continues, "I think he's instituting that workers' ownership plan to satisfy the party he has formed a coalition with. The Nationalist Islanders are democratic socialists, and that was central on their own platform. Thorne himself? He's a social democrat with the rest of the Progressive Democrats. To satisfy his own party, he had to change the plan to make it a gradual change and to put a mechanism in place to prevent corruption and maintain corporate efficiency. I told him, 'you can't allow workers to hold management hostage for their unreasonable demands for high wages and benefits', so his plan isn't too far out there with the proper regulations and regulatory bodies in place. He isn't going about this the wisest way, but I think we've talked him down to doing what's feasible to maintain a robust economy while encouraging reasonable higher wages. His party wouldn't support it if those mechanisms weren't included. Hopefully he surprises you in the negotiations, Minister Gururaja, that's my best hope."

Everyone begins eating as breakfast is served.

[Hirematia]

After Mechhai takes a few bites of his rajadosa, he replies, "That seems reasonable. "

Gururaja responds, "That's good to hear. Social democrats are usually good to work with, just as long as they're not economically protectionist. How much of a protectionist is Thorne? And will he have to strongly consider the Nationalist Islanders' demands when he negotiates with us?"

[Austerain]

"I don't see him as too protectionist as he's never really spoken out against free trade among SLU Member States," Versace says before taking a bite of lamb, "But of course like every politician, we will likely be wary of anything that would cost Austeren jobs and such in any economic deal. I don't think you will have to worry about the Nationalist Islanders' demands too much during the negotiations, he wouldn't advocate for a policy of theirs that was blatantly incompatible with his own party's economic policies. At best, he might be protective when it comes to trade of tropical produce and coffee, which are major products of the southern islands that the Nationalist Islanders represent."

Secretary Daniels says, "Right. On the environment, the Nationalist Islanders and Progressive Democrats both agree, as I'm sure you all do, Minister, on the importance of environmental protection and investment of technology that is environmentally friendly. Before we came here, Thorne's team suggested that we propose highway roads of specifically engineered solar panels, solar panels along the side of the highway bridge, or engineering piezoelectric crystals into the highway roads to create renewable energy for both Austerain and Hirematia. The costs would increase a bit but it could pay itself off. Rather an interesting idea."

[Hirematia]

"We'd need to work out a few specifics on the bridge and get a price estimate before I would officially support the idea," Sivasaa replies. "But I definitely support the concept. The most important question in that regard is getting the electricity off the bridge in the most efficient way possible. If feasible, I would support implementation of both solar panels and piezoelectric crystals."

"We're not much of a coffee-producing nation," Mechhai replies, "But we do produce quite a bit of tropical fruit, especially mangoes, coconuts, and guavas. We were originally aiming for a full free-trade agreement, but we may settle for free trade on most items with preferential tariffs for protected industries. On an unrelated note, do Austerens mostly drive gas vehicles or electric ones?"

"If you may, I do have a rough schematic of the bridge," Maamuashi says. She pulls it out. "The red arrows are rough migration routes of various marine animals. The arrow that intersects the bridge is a sea trout population that migrates towards the warmer waters near Hiremath during the winter. As you can see, this bridge is a very ambitious project."

[Austerain]

Secretary Daniels says, "I would expect that cables would run along the underside or within the bridge (accessible through a maintenance door and stairs) to power stations on either side. We've also thought about the use of wind turbines along the bridge."

Versace responds, "I believe that would be of mutual benefit to the produce industries of both sides, Premier Minister, a good step to take. As for vehicles in Austerain, around 67% of Austerens drive electric cars now ever since the government took the initiative several years ago to subsidize electric cars and invest in electric power stations, but many still drive petroleum vehicles. Gas vehicles are slowly phasing out, thankfully."

Secretary Taylor pulls out her version of the bridge and says, "Hmm, quite a challenge. If the construction of this feat as a tradeoff would disturb the migration patterns, do you think the best course of action would be a tunnel under the sea bed? It would be more expensive and an even greater undertaking, and of course we wouldn't be able to install any sort of solar energy technology with it other than the piezoelectric crystals. A tunnel would minimize the impact on the migration patterns of sea life however."



"Rather than connecting the bridge from Hirematia to the city of Danford in the Province of Romana," Taylor continues, "How would you all feel about connecting to the rural outskirts of Austraton in the Province of Austra? It would cut the distance a bit and impact less of the migrations if we're sticking with the bridge, not to mention it would be closer to our capital and directly connect to the highway we have running through the area."

Versace nods, "Are there landowners in the path of that connection to the highway?"

"No," Secretary Taylor says, "It's federal-owned property due to the military base nearby. We wouldn't have to worry about extra expenses with paying landowners." [eminent domain in Austerain is illegal]

General Brockwell says, "Right, we really have no need for that parcel of land by the base, the area is just an expansive buffer."

[Hirematia]

"That route looks to be about 287.441 kilometers (178.6608 mi)," Maahumasi replies. "The reason we originally planned for the bridge to go straight to Danford is because we were unsure of any nature reserves that might be in the area between Danford and Austraton. I'm afraid that a tunnel of the length we're talking about would raise the price and construction time much too far to be worth it. Sivasaa has informed me that the trout swim in a year-long loop, staying in the area between our nations between May and October, and crossing through the area where the bridge will be in late August to early September. If we get accurate time estimates, we can time the construction so that the trout will be off of Hiremath when the bridge is completed. I'm not too concerned about the bridge itself disrupting their migration patterns, as they generally follow ocean currents, and I've found that a combination of a self-anchored suspension bridge and a cable-stayed bridge would be best for this project. There would only need to be one support every 100 meters, and the width of each support would only need to be 6 meters wide, growing to 8 meters underwater. As for why I think a tunnel would be a bad idea, take a look at this map." (Each black line indicates a downgrade of 30 meters, or 98.4 feet).



"We're at a similar point in our transition to electric," Mechhai responds. "We also passed a law saying all new car models have to be electric effective 2018, and all cars sold must be electric by 2032. Most of our gas stations now have electric charging stations as well, so the government hasn't really needed to subsidize electric charging stations except in the earliest stages. The reason I asked is because if you were much farther behind in electric development, you could expect backlash from communities in Southern Hirematia. The whole 'stinky foreigners bringing in their polluting cars' argument would become popular if your nation was farther behind on electric vehicle development, and that sentiment would extend to other areas, such as trade and diplomacy. Another question: are trains a popular way to get around in Austerain? If they are, we could consider adding a rail line to the bridge as well. We could add a separate deck below the main deck-"

"I've done the math on that idea already," Maamuashi replies, "And the bridge would collapse in 50 years if we implemented that. However, that doesn't mean we can't connect our nations by rail. I saw a concept of using floating tunnels instead of bridges. I don't think that a floating tunnel would be able to take the amount of motor vehicle traffic that we're expecting, but the idea could work for a train system. The tunnels would be attached to large red buoys, and the buoys would be attached to the underside of the bridge. The only other solution would be to beef up the bridge design so that it could support a lower deck, but that would be significantly more expensive and less eco-friendly.

[Austerain]

Taylor says, "Understood, so a highway tunnel would be out of the question with such depths. For the distance and for the sake of costs, a cable-stayed bridge would be best. The timeframe seems feasible if we can have enough workers and materials out concurrently."

"Regarding gas and electric cars," Versace adds, "The Nationalist Islanders and Progressive Democrats do plan to propose mandates and incentives to phase out gas cars quicker since they're rather unpopular in the southern islands. With the majority they have in our Congress, they'll have enough votes to pass such incentives to counter the the efforts of pro-petroleum Progressive Conservatives. We do have a high-speedy railway system that is being upgraded this year. We could certainly add a line to Hirematia, Premier Minister."

"Right," Taylor says, "Submerged floating tunnels certainly could work, but would it affect any of the migration patterns?

[Hirematia]

"The tunnel shouldn't affect trout migration," Sivasaa replies. "The tunnel only occupies the top 15 meters of the ocean. Sea trout usually swim at depths of 40-50 meters during their migrations in order to take advantage of ocean currents."

"Like I said before," Maamuashi replies, "I've found that combing design elements of cable-stayed bridges and self-anchored suspension bridges would be the best design. It would be better at distributing tension over a bridge of this length and it would be slightly more economical. Also, submerged floating tunnels would be able to follow the bridge over the entire distance, but we would need to dig tunnels about 1 kilometer away from the ocean front."

[Austerain]

"Very good," Secretary Taylor nods, "That shouldn't be an issue, then. As for the bridges, we could certainly use that design. For the roadways, if we use the engineered solar panels, the cost of maintenance would be lower since we would not have to worry about little issues such as potholes or pavement cracks, and there would be no need for repainting the road surface markings. And it's rather a relief that you drive on the left here as well, so that we do not have to worry about having more costs to construct an interchange from left-hand traffic to right-hand traffic and vice versa."

Taylor reads the numbers for the solar panel roads, "Mm, a roadway of solar panels would be rather costly. Strips of piezoelectric crystals embedded in the pavement would be much cheaper as they produce electricity upon pressure or vibrations. These could also be used in the tunnel as well to power the lighting and ventilation with a battery to store the power and a backup source on land. Here's a render of what the potential layout with be."

She takes a small map from her bag. Yellow indicates roadway, black indicates a railway. The thicker the yellow, the higher density the road.

[Hirematia]

"Using piezoelectric crystals to power the tunnel is a great idea, but I think we should exploit the strait's excellent solar power potential," Sivasaa replies. "The concept I had in mind was not a solar roadway but a series of solar panels along the sides of the bridge as well as in the median. It would be much less costly and provide about 72% of the energy that a solar roadway would produce, not even including the crystals."

"Indeed," Maamuasi adds. "If both are implemented we should be able to produce enough energy to power the train at a minimum of 32% expected daily capacity. After creating small energy reserves, we should be able to split the rest of the power equally between our nations. It would definitely free up much of Southern Hirematia's land for farming. As for how the bridge and the train would connect to Hirematia, they would take off from a small section of a park in the city of Dilvamastra. The train would start from Dilvamastra train-metro connector station, which is slightly behind the city, which leaves room for a tunnel."

[Austerain]

"With both of these sources of energy, there is tremendous potential," Taylor says, "Upon a reflection, a solar roadway would require cleaning from time to time, which means that a lane or two would have to close periodically (which means more traffic). Solar panels along the sides with the piezoelectric crystals in the pavement would be the most efficient option."

Secretary Daniels says, "The excess energy would certainly help power rural communities in the area as well, and the extra supply would lower the energy costs for both sides. Will there be a joint authority to operate and manage the bridge and energy maintenance or will we privatize it?"

Taylor responds, "A joint agency would be best, I would not recommend privatizing this project, though some Austeren companies may partner with us for construction if you all would find that acceptable."