She wondered what the reason for this quick change of subject was. Was Alfred trying to portray her as someone more mature and cold? In the beginning? Simple - it didn't. Our exploration of space started quite after the other colonies and for a very long time it consisted mainly of small ships. Only fairly recently has the Nation pulled resources into building bigger warships. And we're still a lot more focused on smaller spacecraft than bigger ones. Most of the building resources for big ships have to be bought or raided. Being dependent on cardamine has not let us colonize other worlds for their raw resources like Bretonia and Liberty.
