From the archives of TrueSpace Network (TSN)
By Peter S. Homer of TSN 29442
To explain how the politics of the ICC have been employed to balance a very delicate situation, let us examine Rubi-Ka.
The planet Rubi-Ka is a galactic power center, only because it is the sole source of Notum, the vital element in the Nano-Bot production, in the the entire Galaxy.
When Omni-Tek® secured itself the lease-ownership of the planet, it was before other corporations knew anything about the Golden Red Dust of the so far unattractive planet. When ICC realised the enormous hold Omni-Tek® would get of the Intergalactic (IG) market they started to sanction the hypercorporation.
Even a hypercorporation with the internal strength of Omni-Tek® still depends on access to markets on the planets owned by other companies. Under such pressure, the unwilling Omni-Tek® yielded to ICC, granting restrictions on what they could and could not do.
These were set down in a 6,730-page contract, but can basically be summed up in the following points (this was in the year 3563):
Omni-Tek® gets a free extended lease of Rubi-Ka for 30,000 years.
Omni-Tek® gets sole ownership and export-rights to the planet's Notum ore.
Omni-Tek® will adhere to the Notum pricing standards set by the ICC.
Omni-Tek® will not persecute inhabitants of Rubi-Ka, who normally would be a free people after 5,000 years. (The normal span of the ICC Solar System lease rights. This clause has led to the interesting rise of something called "The Clans".)
Omni-Tek® will let other companies freely settle on the planet surface to conduct research.
Omni-Tek® will let all Nano-Tek® patents be freely available for reproduction with the standard profit margin allotted to the company.
All this has made Rubi-Ka one of the more interesting places in the Galaxy...