The Meridian Protocols

Meridian, the largest independent colony, built a longevity industry unbound by Earthside caution and now wants to export its protocols — cheaper, faster, and by Earth's rules, undertested. Earthside regulators say the colony is running a population-scale experiment and marketing the results as therapy. Meridian answers that Earth's 'caution' is really a cartel protecting its own waitlists. Patients are already booking transfer windows to receive treatment where the rules are looser. The dispute pits colonial sovereignty against medical safety, and threatens to make the transfer calendar itself a health policy, as the desperate vote with their tickets.