"I guess no one told you," Toni says. "After Phil and John--Captain Alexander--had started working together, they found this ship adrift. They were able to board it, and searched it thoroughly. The computer has never explained what happened to the previous crew, or where the ship originated. Phil insists it's because it's stubborn, but even working with Burt he's never been able to locate any memory sections that contain that information. So all of this is apparently at least foreign if not alien technology. We don't know who built it, or why, or where, nor even when, really. It's enough like our own that we have been able to figure it out, and the medical systems understand human physiology quite well, but nothing tells us more about its origin than that."
She promises to get you information about the history when you get to your room. Since I don't see much else to do here, we'll move to that.
The room is rather spartan, with some sort of bathroom facilities attached at the far end, something like a closet, a recessed platform which might be a bed but that it has no mattress and several dials at one end, and a platform that has the look of a desk attached to a wall. Here there is a screen, and Toni deftly accesses an account that reads something like this:
The Federa-tion started as exactly that, a collection of inhabited planets, human populations spread through this end of the galaxy, who met together to discuss how to deal with mutual problems such as space piracy. Earth was the meeting place of this group, partly for sentimental reasons and partly because it was pretty much in the center of the three-dimensional expansion to the stars. Since Earth hosted the meetings, the Earth ambassador assumed the chair at meetings without objection. And for decades this continued.
The Federation in those days did wonderful things. It established trade agreements, organized disaster relief, settled many disputes. But in the real issues that had brought it together, it proved powerless. Space piracy continued to expand, and no one had the resources to prevent it. Some planets, it was believed, actually supported and bene?ted from these activities, but because of individual planetary sovereignty there was little which could be done about it.
In 2317 that changed. An agreement was reached which gave the Federation full authority over all interplanetary and interstellar space, and authority to pursue violators of interstellar law into planetary jurisdictions where they could arrest not merely those who were directly engaged in space crimes but also those who supported them and bene?ted from them while remaining on the ground. A smaller Council of Seven, led by the Chairman, was given executive control. Taxes were assessed and a military raised and equipped; many of the taxes were collected in the form of equipment, stripping the planetary governments of their own now unnecessary space force militias. But space crime, especially piracy, was reduced drastically within the decade, so the few complaints and objections faded.
But the power of the committee grew; and so did the list of activities which were considered "space crime". It regulated and taxed interplanetary trade, established customs of?ces on all member planets, took control of communications and other satellites, and disbanded the remaining military units as con?icting with its jurisdiction. It then created a uni?ed law and justice system, claiming that for interplanetary com-merce to be successful, laws, procedures, and rights had to be consistent throughout the galaxy so citizens traveling between planets would not be arrested for conduct which was perfectly legal on their own planet. Administrative government burgeoned as law enforcement became part of the Federation mandate, and soon there was only one nation stretched across many planets.
Centralization and regulation increased. The chairman today was the most powerful ruler to have controlled humanity in its known history. No one was allowed to dissent, to object, to suggest that anything should be other than it was, other than what the Committee decided. Planetary rulers had either toed the line or been arrested and replaced by Federation governors.
Questions?
--M. J. Young
