The Kamau Institute
"Good afternoon and welcom to the Kamau Institute, may I have your name and pronouns please?" The reception staff were smooth in their delivery, and completely unbothered by group in front of them. "My name is Basil Mwangi, he/him. We have an appointment at 1500 hours." Basil did his best to sound friendly, but the rest of the crew behind him were making the impression difficult. They were great in the field and great as guards, but this place was outsid eof all of their tax brackets to be in, especially during the day. But no one was even blinking about it. "Excellent Mr. Mwangi, if you'll follow Amber, she;ll take you to your meeting room." A young woman in formal attire, far better fitting than what they were wearing, was revealed as a door slid open silently. She smiled and beckoned the increasingly uncomfortable group to follow her down the well light hallway, past meeting rooms, a break space, and of course the restrooms. "Number 8B is your room, wait here and the director will be with you momentarily." They didn't have a chance to respond before she disappeared. Minutes later, an elderly woman and her assistants and bodyguard entered. Authority radiated from the tall, grey haired woman, and she took them in at a glance while her assistant passed her a tablet. "Gentlemen, lady, I beleive we have a lot to discuss about the future of New Mombasa, and how you can help make it happen." Basil smiled. This was the kind of job he'd always dreamed of.
A small arm of the arcology array that is New Mombasa is the home to The Kamau Institute, and to be honest, most peopel have no idea wha tit is, what it does, or what it's goals are save for it's strident support for local universities and sports teams. And that's precisely what they like people thinking. The Kamau Institute is one of several private organizations dedicated to the the collection of and research into antecessor artefacts. It's a dangerous and deeply grey area field of work, where things thread carefully between criminal and official streams. To their credit, the Kamau Institute is fairly ethical and prefers to keep the bulk of its operations in the clear legally, however, their competition isn't always willing to play with the same rules. So sometimes they have to flex and remind people who need to know that they're not pushovers. The Kamau Institute is based in New Mombasa and the immediate area around it (within a 50km radius), but is very much a global operator on Tanit II and has satellite offices in a few O'Niell Cylinders that support asteroid mining operations, and a small facility on Carteia.
A small arm of the arcology array that is New Mombasa is the home to The Kamau Institute, and to be honest, most peopel have no idea wha tit is, what it does, or what it's goals are save for it's strident support for local universities and sports teams. And that's precisely what they like people thinking. The Kamau Institute is one of several private organizations dedicated to the the collection of and research into antecessor artefacts. It's a dangerous and deeply grey area field of work, where things thread carefully between criminal and official streams. To their credit, the Kamau Institute is fairly ethical and prefers to keep the bulk of its operations in the clear legally, however, their competition isn't always willing to play with the same rules. So sometimes they have to flex and remind people who need to know that they're not pushovers. The Kamau Institute is based in New Mombasa and the immediate area around it (within a 50km radius), but is very much a global operator on Tanit II and has satellite offices in a few O'Niell Cylinders that support asteroid mining operations, and a small facility on Carteia.
Structure
At the top of the institute is the Board, a group of five prominent citizens with collective interests; their names and information are a closely guarded secret. Below them are the is th epresident, who acts as a figurehead for the Directors, each of whom is in charge of a different branch of the institute. The names and information of the President and Directors is limited access, with only very perfunctory information being made public per the laws of New Mombasa and the TSL. Below them are the managers, supervisors, researchers, and staff.
Culture
The Kamau Institute is dedicated to their cause, which is the study, understanding, and application of knowledge extracted and learned from antecessor artefacts. From the top to the bottom, the Board to the custodial staff, they're in it to win it. This also translates into a culture of mild paranoia, as they know that they have competition that's not friendly if not completely criminal who are willing to target them. As a result, the culture is often reminiscent of an intelligence agency's. The institute is also deeply professional and has a strong culture of documentation based on some less than expected and highly energetic results that have cost them a few lab facilities.
Public Agenda
To the public, the Kamau Institute is a local operation that's deeply involved in education, research, the local sports teams as a sponsoring organization. They promise a brighter future for all, and work extensively to make sure that bright children in hard circumstances don't fall through the educational cracks. Behind the scenes, it's all still true, but with the added aspect that they want to utilize the potential information and technology that can be gained by studying antecessor artefacts for the public good.
Assets
In New Mombasa itself, there's the institute's headquarters and main facilities, in the NM-7 sector of the arcology array. The facilities are on level 30, and have access to a VTOL pad and private gardens. After some less than ideal events, all research was moved into the Kamau Institute Field Research Facility, 20 km inland. The research facility is a sprawling compound of protected buildings, a living area, and subterranean levels. A second research facility, a secret one, has been built into Osas Atoll, or more specifically, under it. Research 2, as it's known, has its highest point 30m below sea level at low tide, and its deepest areas are 150m down. Carefu lengineering has limited its thermal and electromagnetic signatures, and heavy kelp and coral growths aid in camouflaging it, enhancing its optical camo systems. Research 3 was another secret underwater facility, but it was destroyed and buried during a raid five years ago by the criminal Domon Syndicate. The cover story was a Great Stellar War era UXO detonation, which has held to date. At any given point, there are at least a half dozen research teas in the field, with temporary camps set up.
Offworld, the institute is represented in several O'Niell Cylinders and on Carteia. The reason is simple. Antecessor artefacts have been recovered from the inner and middle asteroid belts, and there's terrestrial sites on Carteia. Operations in both areas are dramatically more risky than on Tanit II because of the environmental conditions and vectors that hazards and threats can apporach from.
In terms of personnel and staff, the Kamau Institute is extremely healthy, with over 1200 full time employees. Staff include researchers of all kinds, like technicians, engineers, logistics and planning, and security staff. They also maintian lists of reliable contractors for jobs that either need to be off the books or that require special skills that they don't maintain in-house.
The institute maintains a small fleet of surface and subsruface vessels, a handful of GEVs, and several VTOL aircraft. When they need larger vessels, aircraft, or access to orbit or offworld locations, they contract services using their list first. If no one is available from it for the need at hand, they have a set of metrics and processes they use to find someone with the skills and equipment they need.
History
The Kamau Institute has been operating openly for 50 years, and has an unofficial history that traces back to the foundation of New Mombasa. Its unnamed founders recognized the potential advantages that understanding antecessor technology and artefacts could bring humanity, and set about making up a way to access and distribute this knowledge. 60 years ago, a series of brutal clandestine battles and operations were conducted against their secret organization by competitors looking to remove them as competition. The survived, but two fo the original seven founders and thier families were killed. After that, they detemrined that they would go selectively public as a shield, and the Kamau Institute was born. In the time since then, the institute has worked overtime to interlace themselves into as much of New Mombasa as they could safely, gianing both social and law enforcement protections at the same time. Attacks have dropped off since these actions were taken, but the possibility is never fully absent.
One of their major accomplishments in translating antecessor technology and artefacts into something usable by modern peoples is an alloy of titanium, aluminum, and scandium that solved the ductility issues of traditional titanium aluminum alloys through a unique smelting and forging process. Carefully presented with a trail of "research", Alumtanium entered the world 20 years ago and has rapidly become a favourite material in a number of fields looking for strength, temperature resistance, and anti-corrosion properties. Processing is still outside the capabilities of most, but it's rapidly catching on and as more is made, the price goes down. Current research is excited about a potential upgrade to photonic communication that may improve fidelity over long range.
Improving Tomorrow Today
Type
Educational, Scientific Institute
Location
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