====== Science, Technology & Research ======

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The development and exchange of technology is one of the key aims of the Galactic Cooperation, making it an excellent place for inventors and researchers from all manner of scientific disciplines. Of the many organisations dedicated to the advancement of science and technology, the largest are the Zeitgeist Research Department and the Aspexx Corporation, two groups with strikingly different approaches to their research.

===== Zeitgeist Research Department =====

Welcome to the Galactic Cooperation Technological Zeitgeist Research Department!  Here, researchers from across the galaxy volunteer their time and work to improve the Cooperation's understanding of the universe, creating and maintaining vast compendiums and system reference documents for all of the wonders of the galaxy.

Though the Cooperation is generally incapable of paying vast sums to its researchers, the free access to all to to the Zeitgeist's resources has, miraculously, resulted in a highly extensive and generally reliable encyclopedic reference for galactic occurrences. Despite being a part of the Cooperation, the ZRD lacks formal structure or hierarchy.  Rather, it relies on the good will of its members to contribute reliable information and peer review it accordingly.  Often this can mean finding information is clunky - or that the quality or detail of information varies wildly - but ultimately the free access and the vastness of the catalogue of data means that the ZRD is a must for most scientists and explorers.

Of particular note is the Zeitgeist Research Department's [[Shared:Bestiary]] and [[Shared:Environmental Hazards|Environmental Survey]], which are frequently compiled and updated for borderland systems as new varieties of lifeforms are discovered, and the after-effects of mass terraforming operations are identified.

===== Aspexx Corporation =====

Despite its size and prolific growth across the galaxy, the Aspexx Corporation is not, as any lawyer will tell you, a monopoly.  Their competitors are legion and varied, and they of course have to fight tooth and nail to maintain their place in the galaxy.  From software to weapons to products designed to improve your daily life, Aspexx simply can't help itself from trying to make the galaxy a better place! Sure, oftentimes when a new innovation comes from outside of Aspexx some facsimile appears in Aspexx's shelves, but that's just how innovation works! Espionage and back alley deals? Oh, don't be silly - you could find yourself on the wrong end of a lawsuit for saying that!

Though their less altruistic approach to research has made them unpopular in certain circles, the Aspexx Corporation does have a stellar record of sticking up for intellectual property rights where new technologies are involved. This was of particular note in the advent of Interstellar Gate technology; though the ethos of the Galactic Cooperation encouraged free access to technology, many of its members had concerns about the possibility of individuals setting up unregulated and potentially dangerous Gates. With planetary leaders unable to restrict use of this technology amongst their populations without violating a core principle of the Cooperation, the stability of the Cooperation was threatened - that is, until the Aspexx Corporation intervened.

Aspexx stepped in early in its existence to purchase and claim the exclusive rights to Gate technology, exploiting a loophole in that they were an interstellar organisation rather than a planet subject to Galactic Cooperation law. With Aspexx profiting from this valuable technology, the threat to both planetary security and the space-time continuum reduced, and the people of the Cooperation broadly appeased, this solution put an end to the conflict with a vaguely positive outcome for all involved. Centuries later, for better or worse, the Aspexx Corporation remains the sole organisation capable of constructing and repairing Interstellar Gates such as the [[the_incident#the_orion_gate|the Orion Gate]] of the Keter Borderlands, and the precise working of the technology remains a closely guarded secret.