Going through the slew of questions I’ve started asking myself, and then deciding how to present them in a blog, I decided to start with organisations. The big collectives that might be mentioned, who might dictate the way some characters act. I knew they existed, I had even gone so far as to give them some spiffy names, but I hadn’t gone much deeper.
What sort of organisation is TerCon? Is it like the U.N., or the U.F.P? Or is it more a hegemony than an actual organisation?
The more I’ve thought about the Terran Confederacy, imagining it in my mind, the more I’m divided on what I feel. Even worse, the more I read other fiction, the more my ideas sway too and fro. What I’ve finally pinned down, however, is the idea of Hegemony. A sphere of influence centred on Earth, with a free exchange of ideas and citizens across the stars.
I love that idea, it is superbly libertarian, which I love, and it allows for a population that can be drastically different from planet to planet, rather than an Earth colony being a damned near mimic of Earth.
Sadly, this has forced more reconciliation in my ideas. If TerCon is really hegemony, imposing as few laws as possible, does it make sense for TerCon to have a joint military? That is, a fleet, an army, with all the necessary trappings. In my mind, the simple answer is no. Planetary defence would be the responsibility of the individual planet, rather than the Confederacy as a whole.
But I need a united fleet, or something like it! Whatever am I to do? Well, like all good ideas, you can mutate them, as you need to. I realised that, in the brightest days of FTL travel, there might have been a rather seedy element that took advantage of travellers – yes, pirates. Pirates are why there is a fleet.
TerCon, in an attempt to stymie pirates and stellar highwaymen began to create small fleets - technically Battle Groups – from donated ships from individual Charter signatory worlds. Essentially, if Planet X is part of the Confederacy, that planet has most likely provided a cadre of ships, not to mention soldiers and officers.
This idea creates a small fighting force, one capable of coping with Pirates and small, pinpoint situations. Which does actually help explain away why a secret organisation like the Castimon Ordo has been able to cause so much trouble.
So, the TerCon is a hegemonic organisation, happy to maintain peace between worlds and encourage all manner of discovery, while imposing minimal number of interstellar laws (laws usually only pertaining to piracy and interplanetary crime). The only real “Pangalactic” policy in the TerCon is the Reintegration Agency.
The Reintegration Agency, or RA, was tasked, by all Charter Signatories (the Charter in question was signed after the third FTL Diaspora, and created the TerCon) to seek out, study, and when possible bring worlds of Terran Colonisation back to the TerCon. Essentially, find our lost sheep and bring them home. The RA is the only truly massive organisation the TerCon runs itself, and it is directly associated with the TerCon Military Services.
But is a small collection of warships and soldiers enough for the TerCon to protect people? Probably not. While I have a lot more stewing in my head about the TerCon – content I plan to post – this question will lead directly into me talking about the mercantile organisations in Terran space, and how important I plan to make privateers.
