MetaDrive Inc.

MetaDrive Inc.
Overview
Sector	Industrials
Headquarters	Chi Orionis
Area served	Galactic
Key people	Femi Dakarai (Chairman) Rosaline Merden (Acting Chair, Company Secretary) Bill Turner (Associate) Raan Corsen (Employee)
Products	Hyperdrive technology
Structure
Parent	Sirius Corporation
Historical information
Merged	November 19, 3302

MetaDrive Inc. was a start-up company that specialized in hyperdrive research. It was acquired by Sirius Corporation in 3302.

History

MetaDrive Inc. was founded by Femi Dakarai to develop new hyperdrive technologies. The company first came to galactic attention on August 12, 3302 in a GalNet report on possible imminent economic turmoil, in which it was mentioned that MetaDrive was seeking investment. MetaDrive's fortunes took a sharp downturn in the following weeks. Independent auditor BigSix discovered systemic financial mismanagement that resulted in MetaDrive being placed in receivership, and the company's shares plummeted. Unexpectedly, Sirius Corporation then announced that it was interested in assisting the company to further its research.

On September 23, Chairman Dakarai passed away after a short illness seemingly brought on by long working hours and stress from the company's ongoing audit. Company Secretary Rosaline Merden and MetaDrive's board of directors expressed their condolences and donated a generous sum to the Dakarai family on the company's behalf. Merden became MetaDrive's acting chair, and on October 22, she and the board announced MetaDrive's acquisition by Sirius Corp. BigSix completed the audit by November 19, allowing the acquisition to be finalized.

Records of MetaDrive's audit were leaked by an unknown party on February 17, 3303. While most of the data was unremarkable, one entry mentioning "wake suppression" sparked speculation about the nature of the company's research. A spokesperson for Sirius Corp denied that this implied any sort of experimental hyperdrive project, insisting that "wake suppression" only referred to "sleep-management technology for long-haul travel".

Unknown to the general public, the events reported by GalNet were a veneer concealing much more sinister dealings. Sometime before its acquisition by Sirius Corp, MetaDrive Inc. had somehow obtained a Thargoid ship drive and had been reverse-engineering it to create technology that would conceal Frame Shift Drive wakes, which would allow ships to pass through territories undetected. The Club learned of this and arranged for MetaDrive's board of directors to be bribed or coerced into selling out to Sirius Corporation, which maintained a monopoly on other drive technologies. Femi Dakarai alone was opposed to the acquisition, and consequently he was quietly assassinated, with his death publicly attributed to illness. MetaDrive's research was given to Bill Turner, an Engineer and Club operative, to complete.