The Central Authority

Overview

The Central Authority is the biggest government in the Drift. The shared calendar, the Universal Star Date, counts from the year it was founded. It is now the year 107. It says it speaks for every species, but Humans built it and Humans from the old Core worlds still run it. In the Core its police are on every corner. In the Mid it shares power with local bosses. On the Rim most people ignore it until a warship shows up.

The Authority issues ID cards and ship papers, runs customs at Core ports, and runs the courts. Kedra is its capital, and its biggest offices are there.

Who runs it

• Councilors come from the richest Core worlds. Some seats are for life. Most councilors have friends in the big companies.

• Customs and records offices issue IDs and ship papers and collect customs fees at Core ports. A clerk having a bad day can keep a ship in dock for a week.

• The Authority police patrol the Core and the main Jump Lanes. They guard company convoys first and small crews last.

• The courts hear cargo cases, debt cases and criminal cases. In the Core a case can take years. On the Rim a debt court can take a ship in an afternoon.

The bounty system

Piracy grew fast in the 40s, faster than the Authority could build patrol ships. By the year 46 it admitted its patrols were too thin and started paying freelancers to do the catching. That is the bounty system, and today it is how most law works outside the Core.

• An Authority office posts a bounty with a name, a face, the charges and a price. It goes up on bounty boards in bars and docks and on the bounty channels crews watch on their screens.

• Anyone with a ship and a gun can take it. Most bounties want the target alive. Some pay less for a dead one.

• The hunter brings the target to an Authority office or a patrol ship. The officers check the ID, pay the credits and take the prisoner.

• Most bounties are small. A few hundred credits for a bail jumper or a petty thief barely pays for fuel. A few are big enough to change a crew's life.

• Companies and syndicates post their own bounties too. The Authority does not pay those, and some of them are just a legal way to hire a killer.

Bounty hunters are not police. They get no backup, and there is no pay if someone else gets there first. Cops tend to look down on them, even though many hunters are ex-cops.

How it holds power

• Papers. A ship without Authority papers can be seized at any Core port. A person without an ID cannot sign on for a job, rent a bunk or go to court.

• Customs fees. Every Core port charges them. They make Core goods expensive and keep the Authority rich.

• Records. Authority IDs follow a person's debts and criminal charges from port to port.

• Warships. It has only a few, and they mostly guard the Core. When one shows up on the Rim, people talk about it for years.

Across the Drift

• Core. Full control. Long lines at customs, slow courts and police everywhere. Bribes work, but a bribe to the wrong officer ends in a cell.

• Mid. The Authority has offices, but local bosses and syndicates share the power. A crew may pay customs at one port and a syndicate toll at the next.

• Rim. Almost no presence beyond the bounty postings. Rim worlds run their own courts and militias.

Weak spots

• Bribes. Many officers take them. Some sell ID cards and clean records. Honest offices exist, but they are short on money and people.

• Distance. Messages are slow and patrols are thin, so the law gets weaker with every jump away from the Core.

• Defiance. Many Rim worlds make their own laws and dare the Authority to come and stop them.

What it means for a crew

• Keep your papers clean in the Core and nobody bothers you. Let them lapse and you can lose your cargo and your ship.

• The bounty board is the steadiest work in the Drift. It rarely pays well.

• Some cops are honest and some are for sale. It is hard to tell which one is at the airlock.

Reputation

Most people think the Authority is slow, crooked and on the side of the rich Core worlds. Rim crews make jokes about it. Even so, an Authority ID still opens doors, and an Authority bounty on your head still closes them.