"Yes, what is it now?" this cooperation with aliens thing seemed like less and less of a good idea the more he actually had to cooperate with them.
"I have detected a suboptimal configuration of your waste tanks." Oh pleas not this stuff again.
"The what?"
"Well you see--"
"Wait wait, how much will this impact the final project" the aliens had an expression of what he presumed was slight annoyance
"In your units, about 1.235kg of mass after changing all of them"
"And how many are there?"
"About 100, why?" Why him? Why always him.
"Look here, we don't care about that. It's to small of a difference." Please let that work, please! But the alien disappointed him once again by continuing to speak
"Maybe so, but over a long enough time--"
"Listen here do you want to know why they are to large?" He blurted out after remembering something.
"You mean.... you know?" Maybe this angle could work.
"Of course I do, now just listen.
Originally all the vast storage tanks were used up rockets boosters that where repurposed for that purpose. Makes seems, a bit extra in the tank and minor control system and viola extra space! So a lot of tools and configurations where developed with this size in mind. When we started to actually produce them offworld there was already a whole ecosystem for support and handling of these older models. Of course since the optimal solution was so close they just used the slightly suboptimal to better be able to function with the older stuff.
So simple story right? Except it doesn't start there. As it turns out the rocket boosters themselves where actually suboptimal. The people designing them wanted them slightly larger but they had too be able to pass through a tunnel on their way to the launch.
This tunnel used the US Standard railroad distance between the rails of 4 feet and 8 1/2 inches. An odd number to be sure, so why that one? Well that was the one used in England, and the US railroads where build by English expats.
So, why did the English use that specific number? Because the people that build the railroads also build the tramways and that's the distance they used.
So again, why? Well because they used the tools that where used for building wagons, which used that distance between its wheels.
Why? Because any other distance would have broken the wagons on some of the old long distance roads.
So who build the old long distance roads? The first long distance roads in Europe where build by Imperial Rome to be used by their legions.
So in the end, why did they establish this specific wheel spacing? Because they had to be usable by the Roman war chariots. Since these where standardized they all used the same spacing. Which happens to be the space needed to fit two horses side by side.
So you see, in the end, its rather simple. The reason the tank is slightly to large is because of the precise measurements of a horses arse."
The alien, having sat in stunned silen as the wave of intormation hit him, could finally get a word in. "So wait, lets me see if I got this right. This thing, the chariot, was thousands of years ago? Before you even hade the most basic of technology or even the glimmer of even a rocket. This has propagated through time to affect your waste tanks suboptimally?" His voice reaching almost a shrill as he got closer to the end. "Please tell me this is an remarkable exception!"
"Oh, you don't even know the start of it!"