Here's my take on the OU, Dolphins and such.
When the Good Old USA went west, a lot of the more libertarian elements, who
had made oceanic settlements along the lines of the Atlantis Project
( http://www.oceania.org/ constitution at
http://www.oceania.org/const/const.html)
joined up - as independent associates - with the Oceanic Union.
Many of these micro-nations had already seceded from the US. They were
often run by large US-based agribusiness cartels, and operated intensive
undersea fish-farming. On the collapse of the US, many very wealthy
people got out while the going was good, and onto their private islands. The
OU's very loose republic was a closer match to the original US Constitution
(before the 70th and later amendments) than the NAC's
Neo-Monarchy. Later, some reverse-emigration happened to Free Cal-Tex,
and there are strong political links between the "Wets" in the OU and
FCT. The real hard-core Libertarians eventually sold up and moved
off-planet, many to the planned Anarchy that is the Alarishi Empire -
and there are some links between the OU and the AE, mainly based on family
ties.
At about this period, before the USA went under, Genetically-modified
organisms were made, originally only as an efficient food supply. But soon,
Tursiops Amicus (Bottlenose Dolphins) were given a more "worldly" viewpoint,
and "wild" Dolphins often joined the pods that did the rounding-up of
the fish, much like the Jackaroos in Australia, Gauchos in Argentina, and even
some
still-surviving Cowboys in Texas. The "wild" Dolphin population of the
Pacific is now almost entirely hybrid, and there are extensive Dolphin
colonies on Beta Comences IV (which has 90% of its surface covered by Water).
It is rumoured that such experimentation also included human subjects -
it's also rumoured that some results of such experimentation by other parties
were given "political asylum" and have their own colonies in a restricted area
of
the Pacific and later, off-world.
What is certain is that some non-humans have passed the standard
literacy and numeracy tests to qualify as category 1 OU citizens, with full
voting rights. Many more qualify as Category 2 citizens, with restricted
rights
similar to pre-adult humans and probationers. The bulk of the remainder
qualify as Category 3 citizens, and are treated as protectees (such as infants
and the intellectually impaired.) Killing a Tursiops Amicus or Tursiops
Truncatus is viewed as Murder in the OU, which has led to some contretemps
with various Japanese Zaibatsu.
Dolphins make great Navigators, and have a rather ruthless streak that make
them favourites for special-ops in non-standard atmospheres. Most of
them are equipped with harnesses, but a large proportion of the military Fins
have full battle armour. Standard OU SAS(Fin) saying "Japanese Mercenary?
Tastes a bit like Pork." This is, of course, said with the mocking smile that
only a Dolphin can achieve.
Nice bit of write-up. Mind if I borrow it for my
Non-Tuffleyverse background material?
--- Alan and Carmel Brain <aebrain@webone.com.au>
wrote:
> Here's my take on the OU, Dolphins and such.
From: "Brian Bilderback" <greywanderer987@yahoo.com>
> Nice bit of write-up. Mind if I borrow it for my
Go for it. Ta for asking.
Alan Brain said
> ...oceanic settlements along the lines of the Atlantis Project
Some of the Atlantis settlements were owned or partially owned by the Prince
Henry Company ("Companhia de Dom Enrique", IIRC), a Portuguese corporation,
which thereby developed expertise in
maintaining and operating man-made habitats. That expertise was later
to be applied to the first starships, and some of the first
extra-solar planetoid settlements--which became the Alarishi Empire.
The AE is not really an anarchy, since there are laws and
governments--it's just that almost all the laws are created at the
sovereignity level instead of the imperial. That way each sov gets to try out
its own ideas. Those which develop effective and attractive
methods of ruling (eg Vishnyy Alarish--someone correct my Russian,
please--or the Believers' Fellowship) will succeed and grow; those
whose ideas turn out not to conform to reality will die. Sometimes "die" means
"so many people emigrate that the habitat is no longer viable"; sometimes it
means "free sex, drugs, and revolutionary music may be everyone's right, but
it would have been a good idea to have someone coherent watching the
environmental controls"; once in a while it means "the inhabitants take sides
and go at it with knives and clubs". The AE is often described as "an
experiment in social Darwinism".
Of course, it's also occasionally said that "the AE has annexed the OU [or
vice versa], but no one noticed." There is absolutely no truth to this rumor.
From: "Laserlight" <laserlight@quixnet.net>
> The AE is often described as "an experiment in social Darwinism".
Getting down to nitty-gritty unpleasantness and realpolitik....
The OU is in an indefensible position, both on Earth and off-world.
Far too much territorial area/volume to even visit regularly, let
alone defend by conventional means.
So it has to walk a tightrope - much as Thailand did in the 19th
century, balancing English Burma on one side with French Indochina on the
other. Another tactic it's gotten very good at is planned and measured
Vandalism. If XYZ S.A. (registered in New Paris) scarfs up a promising mining
colony in OU volume, then there's an upsurge in Piracy round Sigma Darconis,
causing the collapse of the Ivan Popov Insurance Company (registered in Novaya
Moskva), whose major shareholders are (coincidentally) the owners of XYZ. Gain
a billion, lose 2 billion. Pretty soon word gets passed around: You can take
OU holdings, but you can't profit from them.
One of the major policies of the OU is to be quite deliberately mysterious
over many quite trivial issues. "Keep 'em guessing" is the watchword. While
the opposition's intelligence analysts are tied up trying to figure out what
is the significance of Mother Hitton's Littul Kittons, they can't be busy
investigating.... something else. Is the OU the UN's catspaw beyond the inner
worlds? Do you want to risk it? There's evidence to show that the OU was the
last power to get into space, even after the LLAR. There's also equally
convincing evidence (e.g. a bloody huge crater near Murchison, Australia) that
they were involved with the Gilderstern Foundation from the very start. How
come survey vessels reaching an unexplored system often find OU navigation
buoys there? Finding answers to all these questions is easy. Finding correct
answers is another matter.
Having an association with the AE is a godsend. If the AE didn't exist, it
would be neccessary to invent it. It hides the signal by greatly increasing
the noise.
> from the very start. How come survey vessels reaching an unexplored
With the markings om those buoys printed in Russian and Portuguese as well as
English, mind you.
> Having an association with the AE is a godsend. If the AE didn't
A few hours ago I decided to pick out names for one of my new cruiser classes
(equipped with stealth). Signal Noise was one, as well as User Error, Alderson
Loop, Blivet, Undocumented Feature, Unsupported Option, and a few similar
ones.