Prelude

The United Stars of the Galaxy, commonly referred to simply as the Union is a multicultural society that started out, a little over three thousand years ago.

It all began with three human societies. The Sarans who acted and looked just like the ancient Egyptians that built the Pyramids; their rebellious sons that adopted ancient Rome as their role model and the humans of Earth, now commonly known as Terrans came together, united under common laws and goals in the year 2220.

The very next day the young Union received its first member, the amphibious non-human Ult.

Now 2806 standard years later, in the year 5026 (Old Terran Time), there are almost 5000 member societies, with representatives gathering in the majestic and impressive construct known as the Assembly Sphere on the Unions central planet, Pluribus Unum.

Representatives and members from as far as the M32 galaxy met here either in person or telepresent via the marvelous Avatar technology to discuss all those issues and problems a huge mega society might have.

Individuals of the smallest Union species were no bigger than a corn of rice, while the biggest one, a sentient galactic nebula measured several light minutes across. There were beings that lived inside stars and had no physical body; others resembling giant pizzas crawling over the superdense metallic helium of a Jovian supergiant.

The truly gigantic Bandrupo and the small fuzzy Holdians; the Petharians, native to a planet where liquid magma was as common as water on a garden world.

The beautiful Delicates from the distant Large Magellan cloud, resembling a skilled artists dream who tried to combine the most beautiful woman with butterflies, chiffon veils and colorful paradise birds and somehow succeeded. All these and many more were just examples of the diversity of this mega society.

Here on Pluribus Unum, the heart of this mighty and diverse Union. The representatives of Union members and Union citizens came together in a place known far beyond the Union as the Assembly Shere.

From the outside it represented itself as a majestic hemisphere, it’s apex at 6,400 meters.

The Assembly, however, was a perfect sphere, meeting the ground at its equator and extending another 6,400 meters below the ground.

Seven trillion cubic meters of internal volume, the walls lined with alcoves, almost 19 million. Of which a little over two million were occupied.

The United Stars of the Galaxies had done away with presidents and ministries. With politicians and political parties. It was governed instead by its citizens.

It was a bold idea and it kept evolving and changing, as galaxy-spanning mega civilizations went. The Union was still young.

When ministries faded away, councils took their place. When leaders and presidents were abolished, new institutions developed.

While everyone agreed, the Union had no official leadership. Some individuals had percolated to the top.

There was Mothermachine, the largest sentient AI in the known universe. She was the originator and leader of the X101 Sentmacs.

There was the Klack Queen, unchallenged ruler over all that was Klack. Trillions of ant-like insectoids with advanced technology and a vast empire.

The voice of the Pan Saran emperor had great influence over the voting results, and so it was the case of Saran Queen.

While Terrans had no prominent leader, the immortal Admiral of the Fleet McElligott was a prominent figure.

Of course, there was Admiral Stahl, also an Immortal and also of Earth, and while he was among the most beloved individuals, he was not a member of the Assembly.

Chief above all was the Narth Supreme. The vast majority of all Union citizens considered him to be the unofficial leader.

While this entity firmly rejected this and insisted to be nothing more than a Union citizen. When the Narth Supreme suggested something, it always received nearly one hundred percent of Union-wide votes.

Other institutions developed, like the Grey Ghosts. Chosen guardians of the Union’s secrets.

The friendship of a representative of a small and unimportant world called Nilfeheim, a Saresii leader and the Narth representative created another one of these organically developed Assembly institutions. These three became known as the Wisemen of the Assembly, as their counsel and opinion on all kind of issues were often requested and almost always applied.

Egill Skallagrimmson, the representative of Nilfeheim disliked that prominent role. He resented the fact that the suggestion of the Ult, making the Wisemen a real institution was overwhelmingly agreed upon and even received a Union-wide vote of over ninety-eight percent.

Chapter 1 »