"You're sure the market can tolerate these prices?" The man's eyebrow rose over the video conference, a detail that was not missed by the trading partner that resided in the machine alongside their every interaction. A highly specialised computer program, mistakenly named Intelligence waged war against the supplier's digital counterpart, considering its databases for evidence of any human tell.
"I must maintain my margins", came the quick reply from a stony, almost mechanical movement of lips, in a tone that was barely human, let alone humane. The colonies would need the food shipments, and it wasn't like the frontier associations or governments were funding it anymore. Various charities competed for control of the colonies, and to the trader, he was only interested in extracting as much as was sustainable from the market.
"Do we have a deal?" He asked, driving the bargain. "If you don't buy it ... "
It will perish. Or worse, the buyer thought, a competitor will step in and take it in exchange for their own label instead. The buyer hated the timeline they found themselves in. The proliferation of cheap space-bound transport, developed far faster than sustainable nutrition synthesis was problematic. People purchased cheap tickets to the stars, only to pay later with expensive food bills.
"We will buy it, but we expect a volume discount next time." He scowled, knowing that the market was somewhat cornered as the exodus from Earth continued. Earth's industry was the system's food basket, with most manufacturing now having moved to the orbits of moons and asteroids, mined for their resources as a staging ground for expansion.
"It will be deployed within the hour. Your labels will be applied. Your business is appreciated." A smile as the exchange of credits processed.
The hedonistic impulses of humanity, even in the stars - couldn't be satiated. In the new honeymoon destinations of the colonies, food wasn't the only difficult thing to source - so was contraception, and for that matter, medicine, and everything else. Still, it was cheaper than accommodations on Earth. A cheap fare in exchange for the joy of building the flag stones of humanity in the stars.
Back on Earth the only thing that was in abundance seemed to be seats on space transports which took humanity further and further into the stars.
The charities needed their names on the colonies. The traders wanted their profits. The transport operators wanted to fill seats. The people wanted to eat from the abundant food bowls of Earth.
The conflict, and delicate balance between all of these things would surely be the collapse. So many interlinked components, and instruments of industry and commerce - abstractions, derivatives, tokens, stocks, bonds, but the only currency that mattered to those on the various frontiers were calories, not the castles of credits which organisations were legally compelled to pursue.
