The Long Drift
A stranded convoy established the rescue obligations that became the Circuit.
A navigation disagreement stranded thirteen ships between compatible relays. Competing owners initially refused to disclose fuel reserves, fearing seizure under salvage law. A group of passengers published a combined inventory and arranged transfers before the lawyers could settle ownership.
Everyone survived the final evacuation, but two habitats lost a winter of supplies. The settlement replaced salvage claims with shared recovery costs and reserved emergency berths for travelers without sponsors. Four years later those practices formed the basis of the Circuit charter.
Five habitats agreed to pay for passage they could not individually guarantee.
Rainward received a distress message from an unbuilt ferry.
Five inhabited systems share a network that has begun receiving tomorrow’s distress calls.
A terraced ocean city whose public transport timetable doubles as its constitution.
A new district learning to negotiate with a city that calls it temporary.
An industrial city beneath shielding ribs on a mineral-rich frontier world.