|
Virtual Eclipse | Science Fiction | Role Playing | Club | Help |
| Background | Database | Encyclopedia | News | Training |
A communications company based on Tau Ceti.
StarCom is a communications company that set up an interstellar communications network, similar to what on Earth had been called the Internet. Outside Tau Ceti, they have given out licences for the technology needed to create a system wide network and now concentrate on the system to system communication aspects of the network.
Today StarCom's computers do two things:
As well as setting up a naming convention for documents on all the inhabited worlds StarCom acts as the host for a number of companies that want to present an interstellar presence. For most people StarCom is seen as a way to view up to date documents on other planets, although with the time taken for data to move around StarCom information can actually be up to about 2 months out of date.
StarCom also operate virtual mailboxes for people that move around, such as mercenaries. Users let StarCom know what planet they are on, and where they intend to go next and StarCom does the rest. Copies of emails are sent to any location where the user might be and kept until retrieval is confirmed.
StarCom was set up in 135 AI (2351 AD) to produce a communications network throughout the Tau Ceti system. This network, also called StarCom, had to be able to cope with the delays caused by the speed of light over interplanetary distances. StarCom developed software that analysed what sort of documents are most likely to be used by off-worlders. These documents would then copied and transmitted to other planets or moons in the Tau Ceti system, where they were stored locally on StarCom's storage servers.
The StarCom network allowed miners and other off-world workers to keep in touch with their families on the Tau Ceti homeworld and gave people more of a feeling that they were in a single system wide community, instead of a number of small communities.
In 156 AI (2372 AD) Tau Ceti joined the Eridani Republic, and StarCom adapted their technology to work with the communication drones of an Epsilon Eridani company, called Pony Network. StarCom and Pony Network cooperated in order to get the communication drones (called ponies) to work successfully with StarCom's expanding network of computers. The main improvements to StarCom since its expansion into an interstellar network have been working out compression techniques to reduce the amount of data that transferred between worlds.
In 162 AI (2378 AD) the StarCom network became so large that the company was unable to expand fast enough to administer the entire network. StarCom decided to focus on providing the interstellar parts of the network and granted licences to all the star systems in the Republic that would allow them to administer the interplanetary parts of the network themselves.
In 163 AI (2379 AD) the Eridani Republic gave permission for non-Republic systems to join StarCom. The Star Kingdom of Pegasus was first to apply to StarCom for permission to join the StarCom network and was given a licence that covered all if its systems. The Eden Cluster and Wolf Dictatorship joined the network the following year.
Over the next few years, a number of independent worlds joined StarCom as representatives from the Eridani Republic and Eden Cluster contacted them. However, the other two power blocs withheld knowledge of the technology from non-members and some of the independents near their territory didn't get online for several decades.
In 175 AI (2391 AD), after Wolf was destroyed during the First Interstellar War, its documents on StarCom were the only remaining evidence of its lost civilisation. The next year Pony Network drones due to return from former Wolf Dictatorship worlds began to vanish mysteriously. News of invasion by the Centaur Federation later explained the communications disruptions.
In 177 AI (2393 AD) Troy and its 8 closest allies formed the 9 Star Combine and their StarCom addresses were adjusted to take the new power bloc into account.
In 178 AI (2394 AD) the Centaur Federation made its first negotiations to join StarCom. Pony Network, who had lost 45 drones during Centaur action against former Wolf Dictatorship worlds, appealed against Federation access to StarCom. Despite Federation denials, the Eridani Republic imposed a ten year block on the Federation.
In 179 AI (2395 AD) a second large change to StarCom addresses occurred when the Eden Cluster changed its name to the United Democratic Planets. Expansion of the network stabilised for nearly 100 years.
In 188 AI (2404 AD) the Centaur Federation's second attempt to join StarCom was again blocked when they refused to admit intercepting the drones belonging to Pony Network.
The Centaur Federation finally returned the missing network drones to Pony Network in 195 AI (2411 AD). Three years later they were given access to StarCom's network. However, this access was strictly limited at the Federation end. Even today the average Federation citizen can only access the pages of StarCom approved by the Federation government.
In 215 AI (2431 AD) the Free Worlds Collective joined StarCom. Like the Centaur Federation, they controlled access to StarCom at their end of the communications network. At the time the Collective complained about being kept out of StarCom by the Republic. However, documents declassified by the Eridani Republic fifty years later, revealed that StarCom had offered the Collective access ten times over the previous 30 years and the Collective had turned them down each time.
In 284 AI (2500 AD), the formation of the League of Independent Worlds created the last big change in StarCom addresses.
In 303 AI (2519 AD) StarCom was hacked by Norman Porter, a fanatical Noan worshiper, who uploaded a virus that searched for documents about the star system Eden (DM-41 1288). The virus changed the name "Eden" to "The False Eden". Thousands of files were corrupted and StarCom lost a large amount of data when the virus went rogue.