Colony Bureau

Officially the 'Bureau of Colonization' but literally no one calls it that.

History and Location

Ravinger Shelby is credited as the creator of the Colony Bureau, though he didn't head the formal organization that was later established. The Shelby Range of the Mediger Scale is also named for him.

Location

The Colony Bureau's headquarters is on Selnor, but its original office was on Karaka'Ana and it maintains that office as a satellite and archival site.

Organization

How many people are in this bureau? What are their jobs? Who does the Colony Bureau report to?

• Planetary Evaluation - This department works with various mapping and scouting agencies, as well as Fleet and Alliance authorities, to evaluate newly discovered planets for suitability for colonies.
• New Charter Assignment - This division processes petitions for colony worlds and matches them with available planets. It also oversees the initial colonization efforts and, assuming they succeed, turns the world over to Charter Management for longer-term oversight.
• Charter Management - This division assigns client colonies to managers who keep an eye on its status until it is eligible for established world status. Mediators, who are assigned to colonies with financial difficulties, are also part of this department.
• Evaluation and Forfeiture - This division handles colony status evaluations and, if they fail, the forfeiture of assets and the return of that world to the new assignment roles.
• Exit Team - This division evaluates colonies identified by Charter Management as candidates for independence and, if those worlds pass muster, launches them as full-fledged member worlds of the Alliance.
• Starbase Division - This team works with Fleet to assign charters for starbase spheres. Once they've assigned the sphere, however, management and oversight is jointly administrated with Fleet, which (in practice) does most of the work. Fleet owns and manages all starbases, which makes their construction plans identical. Fleet also manages the physical integrity and defenses of each starbase. But the city-spheres are contracted to the Colony Bureau, and are separately managed by the groups of people who choose to settle them.

Additionally, the Bureau has strictly administrative departments:

• Records - This division maintains records of prior colonies (both successes and failures).
• Accounting and Payroll - as expected
• Public Relations and Education - this department handles public appearances and creates and distributes educational materials about colonization processes.

Processes

Scouting

How is the Bureau informed of new worlds available for colonization?

• Goldilocks worlds
• Terraformed worlds

Scouting bonuses were paid by the Colony Bureau when a discovered world was successfully colonized, a metric they defined as the planet having been settled long enough to leave the indenture period. Since such bonuses arrived decades after the worlds were discovered—if at all—they were widely held to be mythical.

New Worlds in Political Contention

Planets discovered in contested zones, border zones, or that can be argued to be within the jurisdiction of an allied power (or near enough their space to make it a matter of security), are negotiated for with the power in question: this makes it a matter for the diplomatic corps, rather than the Bureau. So far this has been a rare enough event that Fleet officers are unaware of how precedence is handled.

Requests

Any group may request permission to claim a world, city-sphere, or part of a world. The most typical actors are:

• Private organizations - These can be organized by members of a species, ideological or religious communities, or commercially (as in groups that seek any comers, so long as they are willing to participate in the financial success of the venture). Private requests have been as small as a single person and as large as the typical metropolis.
• Existing worlds - Planets that want to sponsor colonies to relieve population pressures, or to give different groups in their populations a chance to succeed or grow, can and have sponsored colonization requests.
• Alliance government - In some rare cases, a newly discovered world is of sufficient importance due to location, resources, or political reasons (such as negotiation with alien powers), that its colonization becomes a matter of galactic national security. In those cases, the Alliance government will spur a colonization effort.

Application

The application requires the following information:

• Colony Name (must follow Alliance guidelines for naming)
• Type - What kind of colony are they seeking to establish? Do they want a city-sphere or a world? I.e. a mining group might want a resource-rich system, while a religious group might be more open to various kinds of planets
• Joint or Solo - Is the group willing to share a world with another colony group
• Mission statement - why is the group seeking this colony and what are their plans for it.
• Funding Designation - Every group is required to explicate their plan for funding the colony.
• Principal population - numbers and make-up of the proposed colonists, and a plan for attracting more or incentivizing local population growth.
• Homeworld - if the group is being sponsored by a homeworld, what world is responsible
• Contacts - All groups must designate several contacts for the Bureau: a governor, an asset manager, a records-keeper, and several backup contacts.
• Proposed Governmental System - Is the colony a monarchy? Republic? What is the civic architecture?
• Preliminary assets - anything the group is bringing to the process: money, materials, ships, specialists, etc.
• Plan and Timeline for Initial Settlement - including any disruption in traffic caused by large numbers of ships departing, and requests for Fleet escort depending on location

Applying also requires a deposit on the colony fee.

While colonies are permitted their own local government (within reason), to become Alliance members they must agree to the trade and legal interactions that apply to all member worlds. No colony group is granted a charter otherwise. Violation of Alliance law, as it applies to member worlds, results in immediate revocation of the colony charter and evacuation of the colony by force.

Assignment

How do groups apply for and receive permission to claim a world? (Is there a lottery? About how many groups request the right to colonize? What's the waiting list like? What are the criteria used for evaluating an application?)

• Planets are not named until they're awarded to an alien power (at which point the alien's name is registered), or to a settling group, at which point they can register a name with the Bureau (inevitably granted, unless it's something egregious). Until that point, the world is referred to by its starchart designation. (Usually Sector-Solar System Number-Planet Number.)

Note that a colony group can choose to share a world (and list criteria they consider necessary to do so, in the other group), and so a single world might be licensed to multiple groups if they are judged to be capable of working harmoniously together.

Charter Award

Once the charter's awarded, the colony enters its initial period, set aside for them to travel to the colony and put down on it. How long do they have? What's the typical process?

Most colony vessels are designed to be disassembled into useful pieces for the nascent colony, rather than left intact.

Colony Fee

When the charter is awarded, the group is now responsible for paying the colony fee. This is the Alliance's cost for discovering and mapping the planet; seeding the area with well repeaters and buoys; protecting the area with Fleet assets; and administrating the colony and its interface to the rest of the Alliance. If the world requires terraforming or other adjustments, that is rolled into the fee.

Stages/Statuses

All colonies proceed through a timeline intended to take them from new colony to independent member world. That timeline is separated into stages.

Stages

• Application - the colony group has requested a colony through the application process
• Charter Grant - the colony has been granted a charter to settle a world
• Staging - the colony group is sending resources to the world to facilitate initial settlement; at this stage, the people on the planet are transients, with primary residence elsewhere
• Settlement - describes the first year after the colony has put down its permanent residents and is in the process of building its first settlement
• Consolidation - the period during which settlers are taking actions that make their ability to stay on-world more likely to survive disasters or setbacks; this should lead to self-sufficiency
• Extension - wherein the colony is self-sufficient and diversifying to ensure that self-sufficiency (usually proved out within a generation)
• Petitioning - the colony is Extended and has applied for independent membership in the Alliance
• Independence - the colony has been visited by the Exit Team and fulfilled all requirements, and has been granted status as a member world

At the point of independence, the colony's file is closed and remanded to the Records division, and the colony manager is taken off their case file and assigned a new client.

Financial Statuses

The financial health of a colony is measured with a separate status scale, depending on the funding mode indicated on the colony application.

• Private - Bankrolled by the group out of its own pockets, either in advance, or in ongoing payments. Privately funded colonies can be in good standing, or in arrears.
• Indentured (all export profit dedicated to paying off debt incurred by settlement). Most common method to colonize worlds under Alliance jurisdiction; average time spent Indentured is 25-30 years. Indentured colonies can be profitably indentured, or "troubled." (Same with partial indentures).
• Partial Indenture - Any combination of private and subsidized payment for expenses. This is the second most common method of payment.
• Tranche - If a colony group is being sponsored by a homeworld, the homeworld pays its expenses as a tranche off its contributions to the Alliance. While rare, a tranche colony can run short of funds, at which point it is no longer in good standing, but 'on hold' until its funding is re-negotiated with the homeworld.
• Far Fruit (seriously, what is this) - this is probably a status for colonies initiated by the Alliance, prior to their becoming independently sustainable. Far Fruit colonies are always in good standing, financially. If they need resources and the Alliance isn't in a position to provide them, however, the colony is said to be endangered (regardless of whether the lack is literally endangering the populace).

Enforcement

Insolvency

Colonies consistently in arrears are assigned a Mediator whose goal is to work with the colony manager (at the Bureau) and the colony governor (on site) to help the colony achieve financial stability. The initial goal is to restore the colony's ability to make payments, not to pay off the debt. Insolvency is not considered an urgent offense; it's expected that colonies will run into trouble, or have failed to understand the challenges of funding their endeavor. More colonies have financial disruption than don't.

Criminal Activity

Breaking Alliance law is a more serious offense than financial difficulties. Depending on the severity of the offense, the Bureau can do nearly anything, from replacing the government to nullifying the charter. The latter usually means the end of the colony and is considered a last resort. Note that financial difficulties, while not as severe as criminal acts, can lead to criminal activity, compounding the offense, as in the case with Gledig colony. Investigation and enforcement of Alliance law is Fleet's task; colonies suspected of criminal activity are reported to Fleet, at which point the Bureau only becomes involved in deciding the ultimate fate of the colony after Fleet has finished its investigation, at which point if any enforcement of that decision is required, Fleet becomes the tool, or Ground Forces.