A patron guilty of minor malfeasance can be stripped of all clients and all class C worlds. In some cases the patron may revert to client status if the uplift of a client is found to have failed. This penalty was recently imposed on the Nahalli. In these cases (sometimes called moderate Uplift malfeasance) the patron species of the patrons are themselves investigated for uplift malfeasance. The principle categories of minor uplift malfeasance are:
1.1) Aiding in major uplift malfeasance. This applies to gene-raiders who provided the species being uplifted, or any species that knowingly renders technical assistance to a mismanaged uplift project.1.2) Failure to protect. The uplift-consort of any patron guilty of major malfeasance is "automatically" guilty of this.
2) Modifying clients without regard for prior evolutionary history. Clients must be uplifted with regard for the characteristics they had prior to the beginning of their uplift project (hence the chimp trial of strength on Garth). Minor modifications for aesthetic purposes are acceptable, but major changes (e.g. giving Neo-chimps wings) are not. In extreme cases this may be prosecuted as a case of major malfeasance.
3.1) Performing uplift without Uplift Institute approval. This is a rare crime, but is treated extremely seriously, as the usual reason for not obtaining approval for the institute is either uplifting high dangerous virtual lifeforms or uplifting a species that is not ready for uplift, often ruining the species and wasting its potential.
3.2) Uplifting any species from another order without permission from the Uplift Institute Division for that order. This is in order to prevent devastating inter-order wars as have occurred several times in the past.
3.3) Falsifying project reports. A serious offence in itself, this kind of uplift malfeasance automatically triggers a wide ranging investigation to check for any other form of uplift malfeasance in the clan of the offending species.
3.4) Misleading Institute officials. This crime is treated in a similar manner to the crime of falsifying project reports.
4) Failure to fully realize a client's potential. This crime against Tradition occurs when a client successfully meets the Uplift Institute's minimum criteria for uplift, but the uplift has been deliberately or manifestly stopped short of what could have been done. Victims of this malfeasance have less than than 2-7 times the median chance of successfully retiring. It is difficult to prove, and usually added to a list of charges so that it can be bargained away.
5) Unintentional uplift failure. This charge is rarely made, except post facto when proof of uplift malfeasance becomes trivial. The charge is most common after a client species commits crimes against ecological Traditions.
Any patron found guilty of major malfeasance faces a maximum penalty of extermination down to, and including, the root stock. Their uplift is in turn declared a failure, and their patrons are investigated for malfeasance in turn. The principle categories are:
1) Willfully and flagrantly defeating uplift tests thereby flouting the honor of the Uplift Institute, spurning the wisdom of the Ancestral Traditions, wasting potential, and endangering the Galactic commonwealth.2.1) Uplifting a member of another order against the express wishes of the Uplift Institute Division for the second order. Banned according to the treaties between the life orders, the punishment for this kind of major malfeasance is specified by the second order involved. They are rarely merciful.
2.2) Uplifting a member of another order without permission of the second order, where the second order expresses extreme displeasure over time, based on the substantive progress or outcome of the uplift project in question. This crime is extremely rare, as the close supervision given to rare inter-order uplift projects usually means a successful and trouble free uplift. On the occasions where it does occur, however, the second order involved may determine the punishment.
3) Extreme modifications of clients without regard to physiology or prior evolutionary history. In effect, it is contrary to Tradition to so modify a client that the species is effectively redesigned from scratch. This malfeasance occurs when Organics are treated as if they were Built --and newly built at that.
4) Willful failure to uplift clients. This is a more severe version of minor malfeasance type four. It usually occurs when patrons --due to a combination of unbridled will-to-power and auto-centrism --design clients as mere tools without true sapience. The clients will thus be unable to function in, or independently contribute to, Galactic civilization. The Tandu are currently being investigated for committing this crime against Tradition.
by Robert Shaw, Contributing Editor, modified by Andrew Crystall, Biology Editor in July 1999.
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