[FT/OT] Trade and Competition (ITTT/NI)

>From Brian Bell:

>Not every colony signed up with ITTT (mistrusting the 99 year
contract).
>Many colonies failed due to loss of a cargo run or because a shipping
>company or government stopped delivering to thier world (not
profitable).
>Others succeded without ITTT (NI for example). Most of the ones who
succeded
>had large initial populations on one or more worlds in a given system
>(providing more "in house" resources and less requirement for
importation
of
>goods).

NI would be one of ITTT's long-time competitors. The two could operate
in
the same (physical and economic) space without too much conflict due to
differing business plans. NI started its colonial business selling
one-way
interstellar colony ships to any buyer - the rebuilding Israelis needed
capital any way they could get it in the early years. The buyer paid all
costs up front, and in return got the same ship and equipment NI used to
start its own colonies. The Eden class colonial transport carried 2500
(most
in cold sleep) colonists and equipment to their destination planet,
dropped
a small orbital platform/com station, and made a one-way atmospheric
entry
to a chosen site. Edens were in mass production from 2095 (just before
the
the settlement of NI in Epsilon Indi) through 2125, when the Diaspora
class
(a re-usable transport with one way colonial "drop pods") began service.

NI colonial contracts were (and still are) one shot, pay as you go, no
strings attached deals. More expensive and risky in the short run than
ITTT's contracts, they appelaed to the Earth's Chalutzim (Pioneers) (as
well
as to those who felt the need to leave Earth at all costs). If you made
it,
you were free and clear, and could join the interstellar community when
your
colony was able. Some colonies received supplemental help from parent
gov'ts, some knuckled under and signed with ITTT when they found they
couldn't hack it. The odd disaster or raid certainly took their toll of
settlements, and some took many decades to re-emerge on the interstellar
scene, but that was what the colonists signed on for.

Starting in the 2140's NI started capitalizing on the terraforming
capabilities developed on its own worlds. Giant (140+ Mass)
atmosphere-capable mobile laboratories, with personnel were contracted
for
some years at a time to help establish or stabilize colonies on the less
hospitable planets. A spinoff of the terraforming "fleet" (The ships
were
"owned" by a bizarre and tangled conglomerate of private contractors,
individual investors, and government sponsors) was a Rescue/Relief/Evac
capability using modified terraformers. They operate under the auspices
of
the Magen David Adom, and are sponsored in part by the UN, Interstellar
Red
Cross, insurance underwriters, and the parent governments of the
disaster
victims.

There's enough business out there, seems to me, for quite a flavorful
Interstellar Economy.

Noam