Colony Bureau
Officially the 'Bureau of Colonization' but literally no one calls it that.
History
Organization
How many people are in this bureau? What are their jobs? Who does the Colony Bureau report to?
Tasks
Colonies and Starbases: 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.[1]
Procedures
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. [2]
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.)[3]
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.[4]
Statuses
- 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. [4]
- Far Fruit (seriously, what is this)
Enforcement
If a colony is found to be breaking its charter, the Colony Bureau can render it null and call in all the debts at once; this usually means the end of the colony.[5]
Who does the Bureau send if the charter's broken?
References
- ↑ Heartskein, Chapter 11
- ↑ In Good Company, Chapter 8
- ↑ In Good Company, Chapter 9
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 'Sword of the Alliance, Chapter 1
- ↑ 'Sword of the Alliance, Chapter 7