In the Hotel Universe, Lunograd, van Rijn tells his business associate, Bayard Story:
"'Story...it will not be announced right away, but I bet you rubies to rhubarb the Commonwealth government has already dispatched a task force to Mirkheim. And I am not the least bit sure Babur will take that meekly-weakly.'" (III, p. 73)
On Babur, Sheldon Wyler tells his captive, David Falkayn:
"'The main fleet of Babur is off to grab Mirkheim. And scoutboats have reported human ships on their way there.'" (VI, p. 95)
Two very different perspectives on exactly the same event.
The Home Companies argue that the Solar Commonwealth has a duty to mankind and to civilization to safeguard the phenomenally valuable planet, Mirkheim. (Where we think "oil," they think "supermetals.") The Home Companies are corporately integrated with the Solar Commonwealth government. When van Rijn asks about the rights of the original discoverers of Mirkheim, Hanny Lennart of the Home Companies replies:
"'That can be decided in the courts, after Mirkheim is secured.'" (III, p. 69)
Why can the discoverers' rights not be acknowledged up front - just as they would be if the planet were of merely academic interest?
Van Rijn replies that the Home Companies buy and sell judges like shares of stock. Can the Commonwealth judiciary be that corrupt? Surely, if nothing else, the Home Companies' competitors would expose such corruption? Surely the issue is that the Home Companies are more likely to win a case by hiring expensive lawyers rather than that they are certain to win it by bribing judges?
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
Given both how enormously valuable Mirkheim's supermetals were and the decline in adhering to long established standards and principles, the claims and rights of its discoverers and the Supermetals Company would be too easily swept aside. Was it perhaps a mistake for Falkayn and Old Nick to have kept Mirkheim's location a secret after the events in "Lodestar"? A legal and public relations campaign to get the Supermetals Company's ownership of Mirkheim recognized eight years before Babur tried to seized it might have succeeded. Or it might not, of course.
I think you are right. While I can believe some judges were indeed corrupt, I think it's more likely the Home Companies and the Commonwealth gov't would depend largely on expert lawyers skilled in the intricacies of the law for obtaining decisions favorable to them.
Sean
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