The Corporate Dark Stations

These are a whole class of space station. There are too many of them to name. These facilities all operate under the same general guidelines and for very similar purposes. With the level of freedom and low level of system-wide governance, a number of corporations have built stations out in the void, where they can do anything they want, with no oversight and no fear of uprising. Each station is its own isolated kingdom.

The Problem With Planetary Facilities

Every company wants to get ahead of the competition. That can be cutting-edge research, dangerous research, or maybe just crimes against humanity. These all carry risks, some bigger than others. It’s just not practical to operate on a planet. Not if you want to truly get ahead of your competition.

Liability

If one of these facilities should have an accident, or even if the corporation wanted to destroy the facility, the neighboring properties would pose a problem. It’s a restriction, if anything happens, intentional or otherwise, that means property damage. In those jurisdictions, the company is liable for the cost of damages, lost lives, and more. A bribe probably cannot completely solve the problem on a world like Poli.

A Free Workforce

What’s worse than liability and all the risks is a workforce with freedom and choice. Any facility on Poli, the Parthenon, or any of the planetary bodies has to contend with workers who can just leave. These people aren’t desperate. They’re free to get higher wages elsewhere. They can walk onto a transport and be somewhere else. This lack of control drives up operating costs and creates a defiant workforce.

The sad fact of the matter is, these people breathe the air without paying. They enjoy public services. They’re freeloading and weighing down the true innovators of the system. They’re leeches who should be paying for their air, paying their fair share, and of course, working eagerly to earn their fair keep.

Espionage

It is incredibly hard to secure a planetary facility. If a thief gets into the crowd, there is not enough police presence to locate, execute them, and prevent the theft of corporate intellectual property. In fact, in most cases the police will not perform the execution. People believe they are just free to do whatever they want without repercussion. Thieves can just get away with it and at worst they’re given some minor jail time, while disrupting the greatest innovations in human history.

The unfairness, the notion even that an employee the company has deeply invested in could go to a competitor. It makes a planet-based facility seem utterly worthless.

The Solution - Dark Stations

A station floating in the void, fully under company control is expensive, but it offers great opportunity. These facilities are purely company property and are not beholden to anyone. They are remote so no one can claim liability issues for the destruction of a facility. Everyone on the facility of course signs a waiver, or implicitly accepts the risk, terminating those liabilities. The workforce is captive and fully dependent on company compensation for their air, food, and water. Most are too lazy to fully pay off their debts and so they cannot just leave for a competitor.

Even better is that the measure of access control prevents spies from easily coming or going. Espionage is virtually impossible at these facilities.

Kukulkan Station

Population: 15,000 Owner: Engar-Anselm Corporation Purpose: Genetic Research Access: Semi-Public

Kukulkan Station is built into a 50 mile wide asteroid. The facility was slowly spun up over the last few decades to serve as a new research lab specializing in genetic specimens. To offset the costs, a portion of the facility was leased out to partner corporations. This partnership had necessitated some measure of public access. Ships may dock and perform regular commerce without any significant obstacles.

There is strict access-control on the Engar-Anselm side of the station. Here workers have to pay for their food, air, and water. As is standard practice those rates often require working a standard 100 hour working week. Those who fail to maintain payments can of course go without or finance their debts.

Most new workers join in, believing they will pay lower taxes or receive other benefits that would not be avilable on Poli or other worlds.

Secret Operations

The reason for all the secrecy? Engar-Anselm believe they’ve cracked the genetic key to human immortality. The research however requries human subjects. It would be impossible to handle public scrutiny and explain the losses on the major planets. In space? Each volunteer signs a waiver and is put in the recycler if they fail to complete their research trials.

Other Dark Stations

Other facilities are of a similar nature. Some operating mining resources, factories, research. These each are slices of what life is like in the corporate-systems beyond New Athens. They’re dystopian and controlling. They rely on a measure of obscurity to function, have a heavily armed police presence to ensure order, and will of course take every legal action against troublemakers.