"It's such a small system," he says, and means it, thinks it must be terrifyingly vulnerable. It was all there in the game: only three food-producers, and no real way to develop more; belters with so little to lose and plugged into every transit system, with access to everyone; the military volatility from the martian side, knowing it's their only real point card.

(He does not think: a thousand food producers don't do any good if surplus and population are lightyears apart; he doesn't think about how vulnerable they have always been, if he dared to think about threatening the mothdrive.)

"Anything worth shooting for everyone goes down. So what do people think is worth it?"