Third Committee of Union
The Third Committee of Union (ThirdComm) is the current ruling government of Union, founded after the downfall of the authoritarian Second Committee of Union (SecComm). It upholds a post-scarcity, socialist society in metropolitan worlds, ensuring universal rights, high living standards, and unrestricted access to information. However, its influence weakens in the diaspora, where corruption, piracy, and corporate power persist. ThirdComm struggles to control the megacorporations that SecComm empowered and faces the ideological opposition from groups like the transhumanist collective Horizon, or the NHP worshipping cult-like society HORUS.
ThirdComm governs union through a combination of technological infrastructure, economic policy, ideological influence, and a loose military oversight. ThirdComm relies on a decentralised yet highly interconnected system to maintain stability across its territory.
1. The Blink Gate Network
Faster-than-light travel is only possible through Blink Gates, massive transit points owned and operated by Union. These giant, circular structures allow ships travelling through them to near-instantaneously appear at any other Blink Gate in Union’s network, and worlds located nearest to these Gates easily maintain a metropolitan quality of life.
2. The Omninet
The Omninet, Union’s interstellar information network, is the backbone of ThirdComm’s governance. IT ensures instant communication across settled space through the Blink Gate Network. The free flow of information is a conerstone of ThirdComm governance, ensuring that citizens are educated and aware of their rights.
3. The Three Pillars
ThirdComm is built upon three foundational principles called the Three Pillars. These pillars guide ThirdComm’s governance, ensuring the stability and progress of human civilisation across known space.
- All Shall Have Their Needs fulfilled.
- No walls shall stand between worlds.
- No human shall be held in bondage through force, labor, or debt.
For a society within Union to be considered a metropolitan world, their society needs to have these three pillars incorporated at its core. For societies in the diaspora of humanity however, only some (if any) of these pillars are incorporated, and only to varying degrees.