Agency

Agency has several meanings, some of which are more pertinent to this Wiki than others.

First, there's agency as a concept. That is, the capacity to act. To exert power. People who act are agents; they have agency. Which, in a SFnal context, isn't quite limited to humans, but extends to other people, too. Living creatures, in general, can possess agency. Things that act may be called agents, in a way, but do not possess agency, inasmuch as they are, well, things. (See human agency.)

Second, there's agency in the institutionalised sense of an organisation of agents, or, by metonymy, of the place where these agents work, or that of an organisation of agents considered in itself.

Agencies in Fiction and Fictional Agencies

The Central Intelligence Agency is a United States organisation in the real world. Alice Sheldon worked for it. But it's also represented in fiction, and some notable female characters have worked for it, such as Sydney Bristow.

The Trans-Temporal Agency is a fictional agency in some of Joanna Russ's stories.

Etc.