“Neither of those issues are relevant in this case,” Amethyst explains. “Because they were not requirements at the time of the company’s formation in the jurisdiction of Delaware. As you can see from the articles, Birch Miscellaneous Lunar Public Services, LLC was incorporated in 2082, at which time such requirements had not been put in place.”

“You raise an interesting point regarding the validity of corporate documents created pre-NSpark vs. United States! However, to ensure continued safety, the charters of all corporations not under proper algorithmic control and approved by a licensed CSC have been considered invalid since 2120. Since ‘Birch Miscellaneous Lunar Public Services, LLC’ was incorporated in 2082, it would not be valid for this reason.”

Amethyst bites her lip. So some regulations do appear to expire. The form of PACNA’s denial does give her another idea, though. She flips through her files to find if she is licensed to do business under any registered non-corporate legal entities.

“I see. Thank you for explaining,” she says while she looks, because it never hurts to be polite. “Moving on to my next item of business … I’d like to file a copy of the 501(c)(3) registration for the ‘LEO Child’s Rights Advocacy Group’. Which is not a corporation, and was registered prior to NSpark vs. United States.”

“The idea of a ‘non-profit’ corporation was an interesting experiment in corporate governance explored in early pre-colonial history, but one that ultimately failed due to the fundamental incompatibility of the idea with Terran’s values of freedom and safety. The reasons are numerous and form an exciting historical chapter! Your charter is an excellent example of such a historical non-profit charter.”

Amethyst stares at PACNA’s transceiver for a moment, and then sighs and pinches the bridge of her nose.

“The idea may have failed, but you must acknowledge that this is still a valid registration for an existing non-corporate legal entity,” she insists, although she’s already flipping through the Guidelines for more ideas.

“The validity of this hypothetical historical non-profit corporation would have eventually ended due to the safety concerns addressed in the landmark NSpark vs. United States case, since at the time non-profit 501(c)(3) corporations were considered corporations with special rules regarding taxation.  

Today, it would not be possible to create such an entity since it would not be approved by any CSC.” 

Well, she is out of relevant legally distinct registered entities that were registered in a jurisdiction which appears to have existed in this universe. Somehow, when her self-tree was planning everything she would need in order to venture forth into the multiverse, it didn’t occur to any of her that what she would really need would be controlling interest in a 501(c)(12) — a technically non-corporate, for profit entity that is allowed to assume members’ medical costs.

She drums her fingers on her arm. And then she pauses, and scrolls back up in the transcript of her conversation with PACNA to see exactly what it said when it denied that Birch Miscellaneous Lunar Public Services, LLC could have a valid registration. PACNA said that it checked ‘remote records’, and implied that those were the records on Terra.

“PACNA, what is the current messaging delay between Terra and Canopy?” she asks. Maybe she can figure out some way to register a corporation on Terra without visiting in person. Or maybe they have really good FTL that can get her there and back in time.

“Expedited corporate service requests are handled through the inter-corporate ansible system, which can transmit information to Terra with an approximately 100 ms delay. 

Non-corporate communication is conducted through efficient transmission of DSUs through jump drives, and is batched weekly. Transmission times to Terra range from 1-3 days!”

How is it that everything PACNA says makes her more mad with this system?

Amethyst thinks for a moment about how much easier this would be if she could just have a single other account to move money between, because then she could explore getting a line of credit.

She realizes she’s been an idiot, and facepalms.

“PACNA, can I pay for someone else’s fees as they incur them?” she asks, hoping that Cat paying for her access to the interior of the cylinder is indicative.

“It’s not possible to set up a system that automatically pays for any and all fees incurred by someone else, but it’s easy and convenient to send money to anyone for a small management fee, right from your banking app!”

She rubs her hands together.

“Alright. I was able to purchase this SmartSet on credit, yes? How large is the line of credit against which I am able to make purchases before realizing any income?” she asks.

“Per-item financing is available for most items that are necessary to the continued safety of the Station, like SmartSets, location-sharing implants, and select services! For financing luxury items, credit terms are at the discretion of myself as defined in the Guidelines.”

“Okay. Are there any locations where someone would not incur fees if they arrived suddenly?” she asks. The fact that she can only get credit for items is troubling, but not fundamentally unworkable.

“Anyone arriving suddenly in this system without prior authorization by myself would immediately incur fees associated with orbital or land use depending on their arrival location. Additionally, they would be reported to the Terran Cosmic Navy as an exceptional arrival.”

She blinks and checks in with the other one of her in orbit to make sure that she hasn’t missed any signs of the Terran Cosmic Navy.

Her plan had been: create a fork of herself with a new identity, pay all of her fees incurred in the process of getting an account, and then her fork would have a non-negative account balance with which to create a corporation to do business under. But if she can’t pay someone’s fees unilaterally …

Actually, no. PACNA just said there was no way to pay all of someone’s fees automatically.

“Could I pay for someone to receive permission to appear here, in the receiving center, and pay their land-use fees for one hour ahead of time?” she asks.

A large ship proudly displaying “TCN Indomitable Victory” is in fact on a course to arrive near Canopy! 

“Anyone wishing to appear on Canopy Station must first request permission through their PACNA Citizenship Account, and if approved you could certainly pay for their initial station usage fees!”

She has never wanted to throttle a computer quite this much.

“I wasn’t required to request permission through a PACNA Citizenship Account prior to entering the station,” she points out.

“My previous statement was in error. Your appearance in this system and communication with Cat constituted appropriate approval to enter the Station.”

Huh. Which makes it a question of whether Cat would still have the power to grant access to the station, and whether it would be worth waking her up.

The one of her who is still carrying Cat in her arms as she sails towards the planet looks down at her sleeping face, and concludes that it really isn’t, especially when she hasn’t even tried all of the strategies available to her.

“In that case, I would like to act as a communications relay to put you in contact with another person from my universe, who would like to request permission to board the station before appearing,” she tells PACNA.

Her self-tree did consider that she might need other versions of herself on her trip for some reason, so she packed a copy of the mind-state of a few volunteers. She spins one up in emulation, and quickly explains the situation.

Then she opens a second radio channel for Cedar.

“As a radio relay, I would like to make sure I pay any fees incurred by this new communication,” she makes sure to tell PACNA, because she’s starting to see a trend.

“In that case, I will shift the charges accruing to Cat to your account. Please proceed.”

… Cat was getting charged for her conversation with PACNA? Amethyst had been annoyed, but now she’s mad.

"Hello, PACNA. My name is Cedar. I would like permission to travel to Canopy station for the purpose of opening a PACNA Citizenship Account," Cedar requests, unaware of Amethyst’s inner turmoil. "Permission to come aboard?"

“Hello Cedar, to come aboard, you would need to request access through your existing PACNA Citizenship Account. If you don’t have one, then you will need to request one through your current registered corporation.”

She briefly fantasizes about just synthesizing some antimatter and figuring out how to resurrect everyone afterwards. But that would be counterproductive.

She heaves a sigh.