Fed II Star newsletter - masthead The weekly newsletter for the Fed II game by ibgames

EARTHDATE: February 26, 2006

OFFICIAL NEWS
Page 4

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URBAN SPACEMAN INVESTIGATED FOR MONEY LAUNDERING

The owner of the Urban Spaceman bar on Venus is being investigated by Galactic Administration treasury officials over alleged corruption and possible money laundering, following the discovery of a pricing anomaly on the sale of the bar's speciality food items.

The investigation centers on the chili-dogs, of which the bar sells a great deal, particularly to the off-duty spaceport workers and the transitory crews from visiting ships. The meal is generally considered to be substandard and rather unpleasant, but its popularity was put down to the undiscerning nature of the bar's clientele. However, it now appears that there may be something more sinister going on.

Investigators following a tip-off by an Adventurer discovered that instead of being charged the 10 groat cost of the chili-dog, they were being given groats instead - 110 groats per dog. In other words, eating at the Spaceman's bar could get you rich, eventually, if you could stomach that many rubbery, spicy meals.

They took the Spaceman in for questioning and demanded to know why he was giving money away with his house special. He professed to be shocked at this discovery, and claimed that he knew nothing about it. After some thought he ventured a guess that it may be a glitch in his automated tills.

The investigators did not believe his protestations of innocence. How could he not have noticed, they asked, when surely this discrepancy must have had an effect on his takings. Surely the reduced profit, the too-low bottom line, would have alerted him to any glitch. But the Spaceman denied this, saying that he makes most of his profit on drinks and the food is already a loss leader, so it's quite feasible that he wouldn't notice a discrepancy of 120 groats on a serving.

The Spaceman has been allowed to return to his bar, and he is now charging his customers for the chili-dogs, rather than giving them a side order of groats. The investigators are convinced that there is something more to this episode, and are going to continue their sleuthing. They have a number of sensible theories about what was going on, such as that money from the crime syndicates on the moon was being laundered through the Venus bar, or that the Urban Spaceman was receiving stolen or smuggled goods from the visiting space crews and using this method to pay for them. They also have some more wild and wacky theories, to do with Martians in disguise infiltrating the Solar System and using the Urban Spaceman bar as a collection point for their sinister and dangerous weaponry, but everyone knows the Martians haven't been a threat for many years, so all except paranoiacs and conspiracy buffs can discount that possibility right away!

Since we at the Fed II Star firmly adhere to the motto "Never ascribe to malice that which can be explained by incompetence" (Napoleon Bonaparte), we think that the Urban Spaceman probably was the victim of a computer glitch and his own carelessness.


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