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

> From Brian Bell:

> Not every colony signed up with ITTT (mistrusting the 99 year

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.