Interstellar Inertia

*BEGIN VOICE TRANSMISSION*

“This is Captain Valdez of the freighter Rodosi. I wanna make a damage claim on account of space-tug Helios LXVI. On 5 Delta 2457, my starship was en route to Verbena, the fourth planet in the Delta Pavonis III system, carrying a cargo of nitro nutri-pellets. After I dropped outta the wormhole, I encountered your company’s tug near Nanshaa’s orbit. Nanshaa’s the third planet, in case you stylus-pushing claims admins don’t know your space atlas well.

“Encountered? Hells, I couldn’ta have missed it. Rocks of all sizes was shedding off the massive asteroid your tug was towing through space. It left a trail of debris thousands of klicks long! The tug’s grav-net musta been totally miscalibrated to make that much of a mess. My forward view-screen got hit by a chunk of rock bigger than a hover-ball. Though the view-screen wasn’t shattered—thank the stars—it left a huge crack. The damage to my ship made me detour to Nanshaa for an emergency landing.

“Your stupid rock cost me four days of repair and extra berth costs on Nanshaa. Then, because of the delay in delivering my cargo, I got hit with some bullshit breach of contract claim! Supposedly, we delayed the entire wheat-sowing season on Verbena. Their crazy letter said something about the soil not being productive without nutri-pellets. They’re even claiming some of the settlers might starve if they can’t get the harvest in before second-winter. Un-freaking-believable!

“This isn’t the Wild West back on Terra, you know! There are shipping laws and safety regulations we all got to follow now. Your company’s tug was running in an established space-lane, and that sorta carelessness can be deadly dangerous for other ships. It was your asteroid and your dust, so this whole mess oughta be your problem, not mine. Besides, if the view-screen had shattered, my cockpit coulda lost pressure and killed me and my whole crew! Then you’d have seven lives on your conscience. Not to mention—what if your darned asteroid chunked off a meteor big enough to clear Nanshaa’s atmosphere? Can you even imagine what coulda happened? How many buildings mighta been destroyed and how many people hurt? Let’s not even talk about the settlers on Verbena. Dark stars, your guys gotta be more careful!

“Then again, I bet your tug was piloted by mechs. That’s what everyone’s doing these days, it seems. It don’t matter if you nearly kill other spacefarers or wipe out some settlements on sparsely populated planets if you can save a couple of creds. It ain’t right to let a ship travel through the void, ‘specially through wormholes, without real live people on board to check up on what those mechs are doing. You know, making sure that things like grav-nets are calibrated right, just as a random example. What if the mechs go haywire or poop out? Then you got a random unguided missile ‘stead of a ship. Negligence, I call it, just negligence!

“Anyways, I’m sending you an invoice from my mechanic for repair costs and another invoice for berth costs, plus a copy of the letter I got saying I was in breach for the late delivery. I’m also transmitting my banking details. Though the rock broke up when it crashed into the view-screen, my nav-computer tracked its ballistic path back to your tug. As proof, I can provide the navigation data if I haveta. Let me know if you need more info, or when I can expect my money.

“If I’m not compensated for the damage your space-tug caused my ship, plus those contract damages the Verbenans are tryin’ to pin on me, I’m gonna report this incident to the Interstellar Mercantile Guild and the planetary authorities on Nanshaa. I’m sure they’d be real interested in hearing how recklessly your tug was flying within their planetary zone. In fact, I’m gonna bet I’m not the only person you’ll be hearing from about your tug. You’ve got ten Terran-standard days to pay up.

“Captain Valdez, signing off.”

*END VOICE TRANSMISSION*

#

18 Delta 2457

VIA DRONE FLITTER-TRANSMITTAL

Attention: Captain Valdez

Starship Rodosi

Berth 65

Port Hirmand

Delta Pavonis VIII

Re: Claim No. 98563542HLXVI

Greetings, Citizen:

On behalf of GalaxCore Ltd, this correspondence serves as a formal response to your voice transmission regarding an alleged incident between GalaxCore space-tug Helios LXVI and Starship Rodosi. Your claim is preliminarily denied, subject to GalaxCore’s satisfactory receipt of the information set forth below.

GalaxCore’s Helios LXVI is a drone-tug, with no human pilots. On the date of the alleged encounter specified in your voice transmission, the tug was transporting Asteroid Serial Number C7YT00043V2 to a palladium extraction facility located on Kalgoorlie in the Delta Pavonis III system

.

Asteroid Serial Number C7YT00043V2 contained deposits of palladium. The Interstellar Mercantile Shipping Code of 2442, Section 4943A:1-10, was promulgated to facilitate asteroid-mining for palladium due to heavy demand associated with the manufacture of artificial intelligence control-chips. The Code designates palladium asteroid-mining and related ancillary activities as a “favored economic activity.”

Code Section 4943A:1-147(a)(ii)(1) provides that when a human-operated spacecraft asserts a damage claim against a drone-tug transporting an asteroid in connection with palladium-mining activities, the burden of proof regarding causation rests upon the human spacecraft operator. The burden of proof has been shifted “in recognition of the superior reaction-time and interstellar navigation abilities associated with artificial intelligence.” Along with damage documentation, the claimant must provide evidence their spacecraft maintained a safe following distance of at least five thousand klicks. Proof of current spacecraft registration is also required. Finally, the claimant must submit complete spacecraft maintenance records for the preceding two (2) Terran-standard years to demonstrate the alleged damage was not preexisting. In the absence of full documentation, contributory negligence by the human operator is presumed as a matter of law, and the claim is invalid per Code Section 4943A:1-147(b).

You can provide the requisite information, together with the navigation data referenced in your voice transmission, to GalaxCore Ltd’s headquarters on Proxima Centauri Prime. Your response must be directed to the Claims Department, and to the attention of this claims resolution unit. Reference the above claim number and the following CRS unit code in your communication, or it will be automatically discarded. You may expect a response no later than one (1) Terran-standard year after your provision of supporting documentation. Pursuant to Code Section 4943A:1-150(a), due to the ongoing palladium supply emergency (as recognized by the Galactic Assembly’s Formal Declaration of Palladium Supply Emergency of 2441), this is the sole statutory remedy for property damage claims. No appeal procedure exists.

As to your alleged contractual liability claims, under Code Section 4943A:1-153(d), GalaxCore formally denies all responsibility. GalaxCore was not a party to your shipping contract and exerted no control over the performance of your contractual obligations thereunder. Delivery delays and collision with interstellar debris are standard industry risks. Your failure to make adequate contractual provision for the foregoing is your own error. As a result, your recourse is limited to any proceeds derived from an “act of God” claim under any business interruption insurance policy you may maintain.

Closing Salutation,

Claims Resolution Specialist Unit CRS-73094

GalaxCore Ltd.