Chapter 315 (1/2)
ONE WEEK BEFORE CASE OMAHA
!NEBULA STEAM WINS LANDMARK CASE!
UCN - No'osmo'o
In a surprising turn of events the Lanaktallan owned registered franchise company Unified Nebula Steam (Negative Liability Company registered in Unified Council Space) has won its case against the Executor Council. The company found itself cut off from its parent company Confederate Nebula Steam Game Provider LLC with the disconnection of Gal-Net from the Confederate SolNet. The Executor Council moved to forbid Unified Council Space citizens from accessing software they had purchased previously before the state of war existed between Council Space and the Confederacy.
Citing interstellar commerce law, Unified Nebula Steam sued the Executor Council for lost profits, damage to commerce, interference in legal exchange, and breach of contract. The Executor Council had countered with the fact that Unified Nebula Steam is an authorized franchise of the Terran owned Confederate Nebula Steam Game Provider LLC and thus falls under interstellar warfare clauses.
In a surprising 2,5874 to 0 decision, the Unified High Legal Council found for UNS, as well as fining the Executor Council after it was found that the the Great Grand Most High of the Executor Council had attempted to create his own digital distribution program hosting pirated Terran entertainment media. Additionally, the Unifited High Legal Council determined that each member of UNS is to be paid nearly eight thousand credits in in-store currency to be paid for by the Executor Discretionary Spending Fund for 'illegal seizure of assets not related to a crime” due to their UNS accounts being locked.
Unified Nebula Steam has, as of this writing, opened its electronic doors once again and Terran media, often considered subversive and psychologically dangerous, is available to any Unified Council Citizen who opens a free account or currently possesses an account.
Unified Medical Council has warned that Terran entertainment media may cause addiction or psychological stress.
Despite this, market analysts estimate that UNS has, of this writing, done more than 132 quadrillion credits of business.
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As the Great Most High of Planetary Maintenance Da'amo'o knew he should publicly care that half the systems were no longer working right, but to be honest, the only people complaining were those suffering the 'accidental' 'malfunctions' that kept occuring. The people who fixed the systems were happy with Da'amo'o, because he just hit the ”AUTHORIZED” button on their overtime without any argument. The people who lived in the areas were happy, as many towers and hab-blocks were seeing maintenance personnel for the first time in generations.
Da'amo'o couldn't believe how easy his job was now. All it had taken was boredom after the Pink Panty Fairy and her wildly and excitingly subversive friends had been locked behind the Executor Council's stupid rules.
He rubbed all four hands together as he looked at the clock. At last, those no-fun killjoys over in the Executor Council Palace had lost their stupid lawsuit and now had to chew sour cud. He had heard the lamenting over their Discretionary Fund being robbed all the way to his offices.
For his own part, to punish them for being no-fun killjoys, he had made sure that the offices of the High Executors and above suffered from environmental system failure and ordered work crews to work in overlapping shifts around the clock to fix the problems. He had ordered only the smelliest and lingering of cleaners to be used in their offices and buildings and estates. He had ensured 'malfunctions' had made their personal galloping lawns turn brown and brittle, had made sure their private kitchens and cud dispensers always broke down.
He rubbed his hands together again.
It was so easy to do. A few weeks lessons on computer interface programming and other systems programming, some discrete hiring of some coders through a Mr. Johnson entity on the seedier parts of Gal-Net (which he loved), and the entire planet was now controlled from his interface. From the smallest valve and tiniest micropump to the largest turbine and reactor.
All controlled from his overlay. It finished booting up and he smiled. The little 'splash screen' of dancing neo-sapients depicted as big eyed cartoons all waved wrenches and tools over their heads as they chased a flaming Terran made him smile.
He was proud of that screen. It brought him great pleasure to see.
It brought about a sensible chuckle.
Which was the best kind of chuckle.
Da'amo'o examined the mass overlay when it came up. The computer overlay program had generated problems for him to handle as well as had identified actual problems. He quickly checked his pool of workers near each location, looked at their skill ratings and talents and class skills, and quickly sent them to each spot.
Sure, the game actually shut down valves and caused sewer backups in Most High estates, or wiped the memory systems of the cud dispensers, or reset the clocks, and made a hologram of a flaming Terran walk around asking inane questions (taken from articles about boring conversations that Da'amo'o had placed in a weighted list), but Da'amo'o had ensured that the interface generated problems never affected the people who worked and did jobs.
After all, if the hab complex his prized Level 8 Pipe Maintenance Crew (with the Endurance Perk and HiKruth Patience Perk) inhabited suffered maintenance failures, why, they took a hit to their morale and family bonding stats! That could damage their repair scores! Which meant the real world repairs took, gasp, longer and could lead to cascading failures!
It had been difficult to codify the real world into variables and mathematics that his overlay graphical user interface could understand.
Da'amo'o had heard rumors that some neo-sapient and Lanaktallan maintenance workers had taken to lighting candles that had his image upon them as the paychecks had been cashed and the 'doss' (to use that wonderful phrase from his favorite subversive game) had flowed into everyone's pockets.
He wasn't sure how to add that into his interface and it nagged at him.
Still, his interface beat the long grinding decades long boredom he had endured before he had gotten copies of those wonderful Terran entertainment media.
The Pink Panty Fairy and her friends had opened his mind, he had to admit.
His interface pinged and he saw an alert pop up.
Oh no, a wild wandering Terran had appeared!
Almost trembling with glee he clicked the icon and watched it open up.
The Second Great Most High of the Executor Legal Offices had his personal bathroom fail. Oh, a rare shiny failure.
Plumbing Backup
Door locked
Environmental system malfunction - uncomfortable chilliness
Flickering lights
Trapped Citizen
Interactive Burning Terran VI manifestation!
The job was worth 12 seconds of leisure time if he got it done quickly and cleanly, another 5 seconds if he managed to banish the Terran before it could destroy the cud-dispensers!
Do'omo'o rubbed his hands together and checked his nearby maintenance teams. He was pleased to see his Pukan Exorcism Team was well rested (getting a bonus) and had spent family time (another bonus) and were eligible for Terran Manifestation Hazard Pay (more bonus).
He quickly tapped the icons, dispatching a real world maintenance team to rescue the Second Great Most High from the bathroom, to fix the lock, the plumbing, and the lights, as well as dispatching the Exorcism Team to banish the Terran before he damaged more of the Executor Legal Center.