To: Ageira | Subj.: Information about instability of Hamburg Jump Gate in Hudson

[Bundeskabinett Sekretariat]

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PRIORITY: High
ENCRYPTION: High
IDENTIFICATION: Laura Caspers, Staatssekretärin of the Bundeskabinett Sekretariat
SOURCE: Bundeskanzleramt, Planet New Berlin
SUBJECT: Information about possible instability of Hamburg Jump Gate in Hudson system

Guten Tag, Sehr geehrter representative of Ageira. My name is Laura Caspers and I was authorized by the Rheinland Government to contact you regarding certain disturbing information broadcasted by some media about possible instability of Hamburg Jump Gate in Hudson system. In case you didn´t notice it, it is this:

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I guess you can imagine that such information is causing public unrest which forced government to take appropriate measures as mentioned in our communiqué in the same channel. The Rheinland Government immediately demands from you information about authenticity of the leaked documents, especially since you didn´t deny the information after it was broadcasted what suggests it might be true. In this case we ask for full information about situation, necessary measures and/or possible solutions.

Mit Freundlichen Grüßen,

Laura Caspers

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[Edison Lawrence]

To: Laura Caspers, Staatssekretärin of the Bundeskabinett Sekretariat

Sehr geehrter Frau Caspers,

Ageira Innovations has just recently issued an official statement concerning the Hudson Crisis. Let me quote the most important part.

Ageira Innovations is hereby confirming authenticity of the leaked report concerning so called Hudson Crisis. Official internal investigation concerning the source of the leak is not yet concluded, however, it is believed that a preliminary working draft of the report was illegally copied from a personal computer of one of the employees assigned to the scientific team sent to Hudson. However, Ageira Innovations wish to underline that the research process of the Hudson anomaly is not yet finished and therefore each and every statement present in various versions of the report, especially leaked preliminary draft, should be treated only as a working hypothesis. At this point, the factual level of danger or its magnitude are unknown, but there are good reasons to believe that if no countermeasures are taken a catastrophic outcome is very likely.

As a result, Ageira Innovations cannot be held responsible for the contents of a preliminary draft of the report which was illegally copied and published, nor any of the consequences of this criminal act. I was also authorized to share with you an excerpt from an analysis of our Chief Security Officer, nota bene, retired officer of BDM.

...even before the unfortunate leak. Now with eyes of every single government agency and terrorist group on Hudson any official involvement of Ageira Innovations is ill-advised due to high risk of irreparable damage to company image and interests occurring in the event of a sabotage. Without a tight security cordon around the site on both sides of the jump gate maintained by both Rheinland and Liberty forces in unison, all following scenarios are within reasonable possibility:
- a sabotage by independent LSF cell disguised as Ageira aimed at dealing a fatal blow to Rheinland at the cost of acceptable collateral damage,
- a sabotage by independent BDM cell disguised as Ageira aimed at boosting morale and resources for a counter invasion by shifting blame on Liberty Government and its corporations,
- a sabotage by a terrorist group disguised as Ageira aimed at spreading chaos or for any unknown reason,
- an unintentional sabotage by Liberty and Rheinland forces resulting from an unexpected border incident; I am not a scientist, but I think antimatter explosions do not work well with sensitive hyperspace technology...

With these reservations in mind we will naturally share with you a possible countermeasure solution on which the R&D department at Pueblo Station is working all day and night since the initial survey. Since I am not a scientist, it will be better if the details are explained by our Acting Chief Executive Officer.

Mit freundlichen Grüßen,
Edison Lawrence,
Managing Director of Legal Department,
Ageira Innovations

[Sebastian Hart]

To: Laura Caspers, Staatssekretärin of the Bundeskabinett Sekretariat

Dear Ms Caspers,

I apologize for the cold tone of Mr Lawrence, but he just makes sure we scientists do not end up in jail or without funding. I trust both his methods and judgment.

First let me try to explain you the situation. Our jump gates link two distant places in the universe by folding space time continuum through gravity distortion produced by a controlled singularity in a way that it creates two blind funnels that eventually meet and turn into a proper Einstein-Rosen bridge, colloquially called a hyperspace tunnel. Upon receiving severe damage the jump gate systems failed to properly disperse the bridge, which resulted in a half closed wormhole tunnel with an unstable singularity trapped inside of it.

It is impossible to predict with 100% certainty what will happen once the singularity reaches its critical mass due to significant number of unknown variables. The most optimistic scenario is that upon going supernova it will create an anomaly similar to Grande Negra in Texas, just several times larger and on both sides of the bridge. I do not really want to describe pessimistic scenarios.

Our current countermeasure plan includes construction of massive gravity stabilizers on both sides of the Hudson-Hamburg wormhole which would allow to slowly reopen the hyperspace bridge and initiate a process in which excess energy trapped inside would be siphoned out in order to starve the proto-singularity there. Once this process is complete the wormhole will slowly stabilize itself. Once the stabilizers are ready the process could take between 6 to 18 months to complete. Unfortunately, construction of the above mentioned installations and supporting stations would require unprecedented in times of war cooperation between Rheinland and Liberty.


Yours sincerely,
Sebastian Hart,
Acting Chief Executive Officer,
Ageira Innovations

[Bundeskabinett Sekretariat]

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PRIORITY: High
ENCRYPTION: High
IDENTIFICATION: Laura Caspers, Staatssekretärin of the Bundeskabinett Sekretariat
SOURCE: Bundeskanzleramt, Planet New Berlin
SUBJECT: Re: Information about possible instability of Hamburg Jump Gate in Hudson system

Guten Tag, Sehr geehrte Managing Director Lawrence and Acting Chief Executive Officer Hart. Let me reply to you gradually.

Herr Lawrence, danke for your reply and statement, as well as for sharing the risks assessment. Rest assured Rheinland Government didn´t have in mind making any consequencies for the Ageira Innovations. We just hope that this classified information leak will not repeat and you took all possible measures to prevent recurrence of such.

Herr Hart, danke for explaining the problem in the way which is quite understandable even for non scientists. We now understand what is the problem, what are possible consequencies and what is possible solution.

Last important thing we have to know - what you need from us? I understood from your words that quite big and long-term operation has to be conducted on both jump gates - the Hudson gate in Hamburg system and Hamburg one in Hudson system. To support this, two stations need to be constructed, one at each site, and these stations have to be supplied and possibly protected against criminals which are hiding in space wilderness around gates and might endanger the operation. Is that correct or is there something more?

I will conclude my message with two more questions though. Question eins: how much time we have approximately to start with operation before the bad things start to happen? Question zwei: does Ageira expect that Rheinland government will be involved in expenses of the salvaging operation and if ja, what is your estimation about the sum?

Mit Freundlichen Grüßen,

Laura Caspers

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[Sebastian Hart]

To: Laura Caspers, Staatssekretärin of the Bundeskabinett Sekretariat

Dear Ms Caspers,

Thank you for your kind words. Feynman, an early-modern scientist after who we named one of our larger ships, used to say that if someone is not able to explain even a very complicated concept, then he simply does not understand it fully.

As for the time we have left, I am afraid you will not like my answer. In modern science we usually deal with probabilities, like with the half-life of radioactive isotopes. Uranium's half-life is measured as roughly 70 solar years, however, due to probabilistic nature of decay a particular uranium particle can survive whole millennium. Similarly, the probability of the disaster is gradually rising. We estimate about 10% chance now and we expect it to rise to 20% by next month. It is the race of luck against time. At some point we will run out of luck.

As for your other questions, I will have to ask Mr Lawrence for his analysis.

Yours sincerely,
Sebastian Hart,
Acting Chief Executive Officer,
Ageira Innovations

[Edison Lawrence]

To: Laura Caspers, Staatssekretärin of the Bundeskabinett Sekretariat

Sehr geehrter Frau Caspers,

I will shortly describe legal status of the jump gate and trade lane network, which I will refer later to as the network. By the point 3.1 of the original contract between Ageira Technologies and the Republic of Rheinland, the latter was given perpetual usus fructus of the network to be erected in Rheinland. Speaking more informally, Ageira Technologies has the property of the network while Rheinland has perpetual possession of it. Without abusus, the third ownership ingredient, Rheinland is not allowed to sell, modify or destroy any component of the network. This is obviously a measure aimed at protecting the technological secrets of Ageira Technologies. At the same time, since Rheinland has the right of fructus, specifically derives the profit from taxation and transportation tariffs, it is its burden to pay the upkeep and maintenance costs. While insurance provided by Interspace Commerce is usually paid in events such as replacement of a trade lane ring destroyed by a stray asteroid, I do not believe it will apply here.

To sum it up Rheinland is the possessor of Hudson-Hamburg jump gate, is bound to pay for its repairs and upkeep and has broken its agreement with Ageira Technologies by severely damaging its components, which is most likely not covered by the insurance. At the same time considering our previous experiences with Rheinland legislative and justice system and the fact that the court appropriate for the case is located in New Berlin, we deem any legal actions both cost-ineffective and inappropriate considering the magnitude of the situation. Considering the extraordinary nature of the situation and the ongoing war I do not doubt that the only possibility of averting the crisis are trilateral negotiations in which a level of Rheinland's and Liberty's participation in costs is agreed upon.

As for the costs themselves I was told that logistically the operation is comparable to two jump gate constructions, but obviously a more detailed estimations can be provided only by Deep Space Engineering as the exclusive developer of all Ageira designed stellar installations, or more conveniently for you, Daumann Heavy Construction which is currently maintaining gate construction site in Omega-11.

Mit freundlichen Grüßen,
Edison Lawrence,
Managing Director of Legal Department,
Ageira Innovations

[John White]

To: Laura Caspers, Staatssekretärin of the Bundeskabinett Sekretariat

Dear Ms. Caspers,

I am pleased to announce that tonight Ageira has finally completed the reconstruction of Hudson-Hamburg Jump Gates. The testing took place and all readings showed good signs. We believe that the crisis is averted, however continuous examinations and investigations will be carried out to constantly observe and assert the situation. We thank you for your patience in this matter of utmost importance.

Ageira Innovations will resume our normal operations throughout Sirius and hopefully, with the blessing of Bundeskabinett Sekretariat will be able to obtain docking clearance to Rheinland Planets and Border Stations. We also congratulate Rheinland on returning Bonn Station to Interspace. With this event taking place, we are now able to feel more comfortable in Rheinland by supplying our products.

With this said, Ageira Innovations have started shipping Docking Ring Parts, which was covered under our usual product names, however with 823 year on the way, we have made adjustments to our shipping manifests and now this product will be identified as separate. We ask for amendment to laws in order to solve any issues before they happen.

Sincerely,

John White,
Chief Executive Officer,
Ageira Innovations

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Information • Recruitment • Flight Logs • Bounty Board • Mission Board • Ageira NeuralNet

[Bundeskabinett Sekretariat]

=[INCOMING TRANSMISSION]=

PRIORITY: High
ENCRYPTION: High
IDENTIFICATION: Laura Caspers, Staatssekretärin of the Bundeskabinett Sekretariat
SOURCE: Bundeskanzleramt, Planet New Berlin
SUBJECT: Re: Information about possible instability of Hamburg Jump Gate in Hudson system

Guten Tag, Sehr geehrter Chief Executive Officer White.

Rheinland government is impressed by the speed with which you were able to fix this extremely challenging and dangerous problem. Ageira once more proved to be excellent in its field of expertise. We want to thank you as well as all your employees which were involved in the project, you did great job.

Regarding issue which will be probably now brought up again - payment for your services, as now it is finally time to solve this issue, we would like to ask you to wait before peace negotiations with Liberty will be finished because this issue is part of them. If that is not possible, we recommend you to contact government of Liberty. As their representative stated in diplomatic message, which you can see in data attachment with the important part marked, The Republic of Liberty has pledged to defray the majority of the repair costs and thus at least 51 percent of them will be paid by their side regardless of the outcome of negotiations.

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Spoiler

Mister Franz Heider,

Our shared history has shown the value of cooperation in times of need. There are times that we must set aside our differences to work for the good of all humanity. We now find ourselves faced with such a situation.

By now I trust the Rheinland Government has received the complete report on this situation. The Republic of Liberty, in concert with Ageira Technologies and Deep Space Engineering, have sent our best scientists and engineers to the scene to diagnose the problem as a means to determine the proper repair. I'd elaborate further, but I don't have the personal skill set to delve into any specifics. Needless to say, this is no minor problem.

The resolution of this dilemma requires full cooperation between our governments. The repair of these gates will neither come easy, nor cheap. Nor will it be possible to make repairs when our respective fleets are poised to strike. We must overlook years of mutual distrust - and do so quickly - as additional delay might well be catastrophic. It is our understanding that this crisis might exacerbate the instability of Rheinland's economy further than it already has been due to this conflict. Despite not being the party that damaged the gates, the Republic of Liberty, as a benevolent House, has decided to defray the majority of the repair costs to show our good will.

For the second time, The Republic of Liberty is requesting a ceasefire along with mutual cooperation in dealing with this matter.

The Republic of Liberty and Federal Republic of Rheinland must set aside our differences to solve this issue. I exaggerate not when I say millions of lives depend on our working together. Failure to act promptly could result in one of the most devastating catastrophes that the people of Sirius have ever experienced.

- Sam Worthington, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Bretonia

About the docking clearance problem - we are surprised to hear that you have problems with this, considering your corporation kept trading rights, despite restricted, even during whole war with Liberty. Can you elaborate further which planets or stations don´t allow your ships to dock?

And now to the last issue, Docking Ring Parts commodity. This matter...turned out to be more complicated than may be expected. I guess for Ageira this is just administrative change, but for some members of Rheinland government and Bundestag this has much more important meaning connected to unfinished peace and trade restoration with Liberty.

Let me explain why the change of laws was not approved by Bundestag. It may be clearer from these lists:

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Restrictions of Rheinland corporations in Liberty

The Laws of Liberty

III. Trade ships.

The following transport models are not permitted within the House of Liberty. All unmentioned transport class ships, including the ALG Mover, are permitted.

• Colossus Rheinland Train
• Behemoth Medium Transport
• Uruz Container Transport

The following groups have specific exemptions to that list.

• All ALG Waste Disposal vessels with correct transponder and identification papers are permitted to fly the Colossus, Behemoth and Uruz.

(...)

--------------------------- SECTION FOUR: WARTIME ---------------------------

Currently, the Republic of Liberty is in a state of war with the Federal Republic of Rheinland and the Kingdom of Gallia - As such, the following regulations are enforced at all times.

II. Hostile Corporations

Due to the state of war with Rheinland, the following corporations are banned from Liberty house space:

- Daumann Heavy Construction
- Republican Shipping
- Kruger Minerals

Any vessels belonging to the above factions that are caught breaching the borders of the Republic will be treated as enemy combatants and either forced to leave or shot down. These vessels will also have to forfeit the contents of their cargo hold if the officers on the scene deem such an action to be conducive to national security.

Additionally, vessels belonging to ALG Waste Disposal may only transport scrap metal, toxic waste and HazMat canisters within the house of Liberty.

Restrictions of Libertonian corporations in Rheinland

>>Article Two: The Rheinland Criminal Code

§2.1. Contraband possession: Shipping of the following goods in Rheinland is illegal (note the exceptions below):

(...)

Exceptions are as follows:

§2.1.1. Cryer Pharmaceuticals and its affiliates are for medical purposes licensed to carry an unlimited amount of Human Organs and Stabiline.

>>Article Three: Trade regulations

§2. Rheinland declares a trade embargo against Liberty. No traders are to leave Hamburg to the border systems when coming from Rheinland core space with any cargo. This declaration is governed by the following exceptions:

§2.1. Transport of following cargo is allowed:

Blue Jilies
Cigars
Consumer Goods of Rheinland origin
Copper
Copper Ore* mined by Rheinland corporations or their affiliates
Crew
Diamonds
Drill Bits of Rheinland origin
Fertilizers
HazMat Canisters
Industrial Materials of Rheinland origin
Mining Machinery of Rheinland origin
Nanocapacitors
Passengers
Polymers
Rheinbier
Silver
Silver Ore* mined by Rheinland corporations or their affiliates
Synth Gel
Synth Paste
Tourists
Uncut Diamonds* mined by Rheinland corporations or their affiliates
VIPs

§2.2. When transporting goods marked with asterisk (*), ship pilot or captain must be able to provide law-enforcement authorities source of the cargo by stating name of the miner or station from which he obtained it. Obtaining from third party is forbidden.

§2.3. Paragraph §2.1. does not apply for Independent Miners Guild and its affiliates.

§2.4. Cryer Pharmaceuticals and its affiliates are allowed to transport Human Organs, Pharmaceuticals, Scientists, Stabiline and Synthetic Marijuana.

§3. Restrictions of cargo shipping for Libertonian corporations - Ageira Technologies, Cryer Pharmaceuticals, Deep Space Engineering, Interspace Commerce, Universal Shipping and their affiliates within Rheinland:

§3.1. Ageira Technologies and Interspace Commerce and their affiliates are allowed to transport only cargo listed in §2.1. except Blue Jilies, with additon of these commodities:

Bio-neural processors
Jump Gate and Trade Lane Parts
Superconductors

§3.2. Cryer Pharmaceuticals and its affiliates are allowed to transport only cargo listed in §2.4. with addition of Casualties, HazMat Canisters and Nanotubes.

§3.3. Deep Space Engineering and its affiliates are allowed to transport only these commodities:

Consumer Goods of Rheinland origin
Diamonds
Jump Gate and Trade Lane Parts

§3.4 Universal Shipping and its affiliates are banned from Rheinland space entirely.

As you can see from these lists, Libertonian corporations are at this moment much less restricted in trading within Rheinland than our corporations in Liberty, what especially applies to Ageira and Interspace. Thus majority of Bundestag members feels no more exceptions should be made, no matter how purely administrave they are, because this would weaken Rheinland position in mentioned negotiations with Liberty. Rheinland made a lot of exceptions, not to mention your much more relaxed trade embargo on the border than conditions which Liberty keeps.

Maybe if you could show that Ageira is exerting some pressure on Liberty government to lift restriction of Rheinland corporations, Bundestag representatives may change their opinion. Otherwise you will have to wait for outcome of the negotiations between governments.

Mit Freundlichen Grüßen,

Laura Caspers

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[John White]

To: Laura Caspers, Staatssekretärin of the Bundeskabinett Sekretariat

Dear Ms. Caspers,

It is rather odd that Bundeskabinett is not aware that Ageira Technologies lost docking privileges the moment Rheinland decided to act irresponsible and give birth to Hudson Crisis in the first place. We do not know the exact reason of this development by administration but it put all Ageira operations in Rheinland at risk due to decreased security. At this moment, Ageira Technologies vessels are unable to dock with planets, border stations and all military installations. It has been so for the past two years if not more.

Secondly, we are in no position to officially pressure Liberty Government regarding trade embargo. Hudson Crisis took a huge toll on our influence and I we will need a few more months to regain our status among Liberty politicians. However, Ageira Innovations have already contacted ALG Waste Disposal about their troubles in Liberty and offered our assistance. However, they refused it due to lack of potential financial benefit. We have also contacted Daumann Heavy Construction in order to improve our relationships and lay down the plan for closer cooperation.

As you can see, we have already started the discussion on multiple channels. I am yet to hear of Rheinland Corporations making similar discussions with Liberty on their own accord. Which begs the question, why are you asking for our pressure if your corporations aren't making the first step? If the fact that your planets require Docking Rings' maintenance which Ageira is offering to provide without any additional strings attached is not enough as a sign of good will, I do not know what else we can offer what we haven't already done.

Ageira Technologies supplies many planets and many stations with our products. We have the benefit of choosing our contracts with partners who want to keep their Network working. From what we see and hear - Bundeskabinett has reservations. We are offering to prevent a disaster when a Docking Ring goes out of order and civilian shuttles are using it, causing the lift to dispense and ripping hulls to pieces as a meteor on top of making surface unreachable to general population. Please, reconsider our offer for the sake of humanity that you put in danger once more.

Sincerely,

John White,
Chief Executive Officer,
Ageira Innovations

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Information • Recruitment • Flight Logs • Bounty Board • Mission Board • Ageira NeuralNet

[Bundeskabinett Sekretariat]

=[INCOMING TRANSMISSION]=

PRIORITY: High
ENCRYPTION: High
IDENTIFICATION: Laura Caspers, Staatssekretärin of the Bundeskabinett Sekretariat
SOURCE: Bundeskanzleramt, Planet New Berlin
SUBJECT: Re: Information about possible instability of Hamburg Jump Gate in Hudson system

Guten Tag again, Sehr geehrter Chief Executive Officer White.

The issue with Ageira´s docking rights seems to be relict of previous kabinett under leadership of kanzler Schulte. Unfortunately, as it happens often during governmental changes, responsible people left their seats and those which replaced them were not properly informed about all matters. I can assure you on behalf of new government of kanzlerin Neumann that if we would know about this problem, we would start working on the solution much sooner.

Government already gave instruction to federal polizei, which is responsible for docking rights on all planets except Holstein and Baden Baden, to fix this issue. We hope it will be done as soon as possible, but as you maybe know, these technical issues are implemented by Sirius Identification Commission and they the party which is responsible for update of software used during docking sequences. Feel free to contact them on your own to speed up the whole process.

We also consulted the issue of docking on military installations with ministry of defence and representative of Rheinland Military, however they stated objections against Ageira ships docking there due to security reasons, pointing out that if any materials or Ageira personnel will be needed there, they will be picked up by military transport ships from nearest planet or border station. If for some reason this would not be possible, some one time exception may be granted.

Regarding the pressure on Liberty government, I would like to point out that if even key Liberty corporation like yours is struggling to gain influence, why do you expect that banned foreign corporations, from house which was war enemy until recently, could have any better position for lobbying or exerting pressure? Honestly, even representatives of Rheinland government are so far struggling to establish proper diplomatic channels with their counterparts. This is the reason why we wanted to try to use local corporations like Ageira or Interspace Commerce, which have interest in restoration of trade between Liberty and Rheinland, to help us. We hoped you could have better access to representatives of Liberty government and thus better position for negotiations, but it seems this is not the case.

I can inform you that another diplomatic attempt to reach peace agreement including restoration of trade was launched recently by Rheinland ministry for Foreign Affairs. Hopefully things will finally move forward soon and no reconsidering of your offer will be needed because trading restrictions will be lifted for all Rheinland and Liberty corporations. At least this is what Rheinland government proposed.

However if Liberty government will reject it for some strange reason, we will return to the issue again in month or so.

Mit Freundlichen Grüßen,

Laura Caspers

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