Dibs on the crashed alien spacecraft

It is quite simple, an alien space craft makes a crash landing pretty much intact somewhere in the Mid-Western part of the US.

However, it just happens to land near one of the research facilities of a Mega Corp doing business in materials engineering and energy research.

So who gets to lay first claim to the spacecraft?

First, we have the corporation whose top engineers wouldn't such a rare opportunity to study the materials used to build the spacecraft. Also they were there first.

Or the government who is usually the one to claim crashed UF Os in most stories that involved crashed UF Os.

Of course, I would prefer that the Mega Corp could score some samples in either case.

edited 3rd Nov '13 11:00:03 AM by Worlder

According to federal law, the gov't has jurisdiction over all crash sites. I would have to imagine that they would assert their authority over an alien spaceship, would be game-changing technology. That said, if the engineers of your mega-corp were considered qualified, they could easily get a gov't contract to investigate the ship.

If you want the corporation to get the thing, just have them swag it before the feds get there.

Realistically, the Feds are going to get it because they're going to track it coming down and they will tear the state apart to find it if it's not there when they arrive.

Maybe. It's also possible that they'll believe a story about how the thing mostly broke up in orbit/on impact, and the megabucks being paid to the corporation's pet congresscritters could help stop people looking too hard at how that doesn't quite add up. Except for one lone intrepid investigator who plays by her own rules & is a loose cannon etc. etc.

Even failing that, it would be easy for the corporation to steal a few bits and pieces before the feds get there, even if they leave the main bulk of the wreckage.

Honestly, the federal authorities would pounce on anyone seeking to steal from something like that for some really basic reasons. It could be some kind of new weapon from a foreign enemy, or otherwise dangerous; less likely, it could actually be from outer space, in which case the nature of the thing and the degree of threat that it poses would need to be examined in toto. Scavenging from the wreck would be a direct violation of national security protocol.

Fine jumping through bureaucratic hoops to get a hold of the thing.

I think that it might be a clever idea to have a materials research company get into a legal battle with the DHS and the FBI over who owns the rights to a spacecraft that crashed on their land. "It's a matter of national security!" "It landed on one of our Quonset huts! FEMA should rebuild it if it's a federal issue!" "No!" "Yes!"

Not that hard to get sub-contracted by the govt to analyze the thing.