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Tirane (Alpha Centauri) |
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In a bizarre case at Tirane's World Court of Human Rights, a former employee of the
major Bio-geneering company GenEng, Rachel DePula, has alleged that the company has
made vast profits from DNA taken illegally from millions of members of the public. She
reminded the court yesterday that large scale postal questionnaires were issued to humans
throughout the Core Worlds in a typical survey by GenEng several years ago. Typically for
mailshots like this, a high number of responses was guaranteed by the possibility of
winning over two million Livres in prize money from full and prompt replies. What Ms.
DePula is now claiming is that the returned forms were only part of the story, and that
the "lick and stick" envelopes were the real reason for the postings. She has,
she claims, detailed evidence tying up the responses chosen by the participants with large
scale DNA pattern matching for those who replied. "Your spit is now GenEng
property" she said, "and they are going to sell it back to you in the
form of tailored genetic drugs for all your problems". A spokeswoman for GenEng
described these suggestions as "Preposterous! This is the most pathetic conspiracy
theory we've ever had to hear", but was unfortunately unable to convince Judge Wu
that reporting restrictions should be maintained. (Lawcom) |
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Station 7 (Davout) |
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Hydrogen cracking station number seven on the frigid world of Davout has ceased
production following a declaration of independence by the management and staff of the
owning Japanese company, Fuji PowerSat. This remarkable manouevre was allegedly a
result of changes in conditions of service, pay and leave entitlements according to
a radio message received by the independent trader "Jimi Hendrix". This
could possibly end in harsh retaliations against the 200 employees if Fuji respond as they
did to a similar event late last year at an Earth orbital production facility. Readers
may remember the use of independent mercenary units to break the strike on the Golden
Dawn microwave transmission station that ended in the deaths of twenty-three employees
back in October. Fuji PowerSat shares were down eighteen points as a result of this
announcement. |
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Beta CVn 4 (Beta Canum Venaticorum) |
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Phillip Delacorte, the French minister of colonial agricultural exports, arrived today
at Premiere. He will be staying for two weeks and is scheduled to meet the French
independent farmer organization, MdM, Renee Quist of the Ministry of Produce and
others. Delacorte, who is recognized as one of the top negotiators in the French
government, has been sent to Beta Canum to oversee the growing discontent from Earth over
the apparent overpricing of food products exported from BC-4. Readers may remember that it
was Delacorte who settled the King crisis commonly known as the "Copper Affair"
in 2294 when British miners went on strike on the mining planet of King for better mining
tariffs. (Scanet) |
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Hardings' Landing, Botany Bay (Botany Bay) |
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Certainly the strangest murder case of the year, if not the decade, has been scheduled
to go to court here on Botany Bay next week. Dr Velgar Oslond is accused of killing his
wife's lover by poisoning her and later killing her by not poisoning her. Dr
Oslond, one of the leading lights in the field of gene therapy is alleged to have treated
his wife, Felicia, to develop a dependence on the contact mycotoxin gataline having
first ensured his own resistance. It is claimed that he then secretly salted her food with
the poison to maintain her health. Such was the concentration of the toxin in her
metabolism that it was sufficient to kill her lover, Hugo Lesseps, after a weekend spent
together while Dr Oslond was away on business. The prosecution further alleges that after
an argument on his return, Felicia Oslond left him, unaware of her programmed dependency.
Less than a week later, deprived of mycotoxin, she'd lapsed into a coma.
The medical team that attended to her found traces of gataline and, assuming it was the
cause of her collapse, actually filtered as much as they could from her bloodstream and so
unintentionally hastened her death. Dr Oslond's defence team are claiming these
accusations are the "biggest bunch of hocus ever to defame the legal system".
(Infocorp) |
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Hengist, Beowulf (Beowulf) |
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Professor Oscar Proust has achieved his ambition to orbit the tiny asteroid of Hengist
by human power alone! Oscar (43), a lecturer of planetary physics at Beowulf's leading
University, first noticed three years ago that the tiny 30km asteroid known as Hengist
was just at the limit at which a fit human could achieve orbital velocities. There
were problems, however: Hengist's gravity is only one one thousandth of that of Earth, so
Oscar had to somehow stay on the surface of the body as he accelerated to the necessary
velocity of 12.5 m/s. Using a fifteen metre angled framework, elasticated bungies to hold
him down, explosive release bolts and a pressurised skin-suit from New Space Solutions,
(not forgetting a sum of over eighty thousand Livres and over two years' planning), he
achieved a low-Hengist orbit yesterday. A de-orbit burn from a spare oxygen cylinder at an
altitude of twenty metres ended a two hour trip. Ecstatic, he commented "my team
are already looking into suitable asteroids for an attempt by bicycle".
(WeirdStories) |
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