News Flash for October 10

Stellvia Corporation Declares Independence, Gains An Heir

Maico Tange, freelancing for the Daily Illuminator
October 10, 2014

In a move that surprised almost nobody who actually knows the higher-ups in Stellvia Corporation, the company's president and owner Noah Scott declared independence from Australia at 9:00 UTC today. When asked about the reason for this move, Mr. Scott said that he was taking this momentous action in order to present his unborn daughter with the most freedom that he could possibly give her. Less than an hour after Mr. Scott's declaration, Mrs. Leda Scott gave birth to a healthy baby girl, who the happy parents have named "Helen Yoriko". A.C. Peters reports that both the mother and the daughter are healthy.

While everyone has congratulated the happy family on the safe arrival of their newest member, reactions to Stellvia's declaration of independence from other leading figures was mixed. Constance Walker, Australia's Diplomatic Counsel to Fenspace, went on record saying, "While we are sad to see Stellvia Corporation leave the protection of the Australian government, we cannot fault their desire to live unencumbered by another nation's rules. Australia went through a similar process at the start of the last century, after all - we can't begrudge them the same chance that we took then." When told of the declaration of independence, The Jason's only comment was "What took them so long?" GlaDOS of the Soviet Air Force offered to send the new company a celebratory cake, but was overruled by General Mal Fnord, who echoed The Jason's comment.

Today's leader of Grover's Corners was also asked to comment; while Mr. Imre's statement is unprintable in this publication, it was on the whole in approval of Stellvian independence.

However, Chris Marsden's opinion of StellviaCorp's move was one of disapproval. "They're leaving themselves open to Boskonian takeover, kaboomite or no kaboomite. And the people in Washington aren't going to be happy that Scott's cut their ties to Earth - that's going to make it difficult for them to do business with the United States." While not speaking as strongly as Mr. Marsden, Artemis Foundation's administrator Sullivan Dwyer agreed with the second of his concerns, commenting that his superior's actions were likely to make cooperation between Artemis and NASA difficult in the future.

Captain Dodge of the USS Stingray also expressed misgivings about StellviaCorp's declaration. "They're a good shore leave port, but I don't think COMSUBLANT is going to let us dock there for a while - at least, not until they sign a treaty with the U S of A. That's not going to be good for morale on my boat."

At least three groups aboard Central Station welcome Stellvia Corporation's move, expecting that Mr. Scott will be too busy running his new nation-state to try to run the L5 cluster. Two other Central Station groups expressed dismay at the declaration, expecting Mr. Scott to become even more active in local politics than he has been so far.

The definitive word on the declaration will, as always, come from the Dandelions, once they've determined which filk about the event is the most popular.

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