The History of the Galactic League

The Discovery of Hyperspace

It was 2257 on the old earth calendar before the humans discovered hyperspace travel. It might have occurred sooner if it had not been for the "Final War" that wiped out more than half of the civilization of Old Earth. It might not have occurred even then had it not been for an ingenious young couple working at the University of Auckland who were also the ancestors of one Grant Eaton. They left for the stars on the first manned ship to leave the solar system. They left the results of their research and their research staff behind. It was not long before man started to explore the stars.

The Colonization Era

It took another 100 years for real colonization to begin. Many of the early explorers, including the crew of that first ship, had established small outposts on the habitable planets and moons of nearby stars, but it took the large transport ships for the "mass exodus" that started the colonial period. Contrary to earlier beliefs, there were many habitable planets and moons within a few years travel on those ancient ships, as slow as they were by League standards.

For the next 437 years mankind spread out to all the star systems with 25 light years of old earth. With all of the new resources to draw on the population multiplied and the people prospered. With so many inhabitable planets and moons, there were very few wars.

The New Roman Empire

In 2694 the New Roman Empire was founded. The government of the planet of New Rome built a fleet of hyperspace war ships and began an era of conquest of nearby planets. It took over a hundred years for the ruling class to consolidate the core of their empire. It was their grandchildren that decided they were destined to rule the galaxy. They might have succeeded, at least in conquering the tiny portion of the galaxy populated by humans, had it not been for a small group of planets on the frontier that formed an alliance to oppose and contain the Empire.

Initially it appeared the loosely confederated Frontier Alliance would quickly be crushed by the massive force of the Empire, but the Alliance learned not to try to take the Empire's forces head on. They used hit and run tactics, taking out the Empire's ships where they could and minimizing their own losses. The tyranny of distance worked in their favor. Most of the battles, such as they were, took place on the frontier.

The Maturing of Humans

The war dragged on for over fifty years, with neither side really winning. Then leaders arose from within the societies on the planets under the empire's control. These leaders did not preach revolution, rather they talked about freedom, independence, and peace. The majority of the people were fed up with the empire, and saw the war as foolish. They realized that the only victors were the leaders that sent others to war while they stayed safely behind the lines.

Most of the men and women in the military had joined for the adventure and the chance to go to space. They saw themselves more as peacekeepers, and never imagined actually going to war. The rulers of the empire started to lose their grip on society and on the armed forces. When the generals ordered their forces to war many refused. At first it was just a case of soldiers refusing to fire there weapons. Then the communications people stopped launching the message pods, or sent them to the wrong locations. In some cases they even falsified the messages. Ships went out of service as the maintenance teams reported them beyond repair or requiring unavailable parts. The tyranny of distance coupled with the breakdown of discipline in the military made interstellar war impossible and by 2900 the empire had collapsed.

The Dawn of the Galactic League

With the rulers of the empire disposed, leaders arose from within the former military service. At first they saw themselves only as peacekeepers, but few planets were interested in contributing to the support of an interplanetary peacekeeping service. A few of the ships captains started offering their ship's services for transporting goods and people between the stars in order to support their crews. It was Admiral John Hathaway who had the vision, the leadership skills and the charisma to organize the former military forces into a single interstellar force that took control of all interstellar flight. He became the father of the Galactic League. It was 2944 on the old earth calendar when the official birth of the league was declared. A few hundred years later the league officially adopted the Galactic League calendar, establishing universal standards for dates and time, and making March 13, 2944 on the old earth calendar as day 0 year 0 of the Galactic League Standard (GLS) calendar.

The founders of the Galactic League defined their mission as having three parts: To maintain interstellar peace, to provide interstellar trade and transportation to all member planets at a fair price, and to explore the stars. The first two they went to work on right away. Exploring the stars would have to wait.

The Stabilization Era – 0-1287 GLS

The Galactic League and the former military starship captains who ran the peacekeeping force, successfully put a stop to interstellar war, but there were still many problems to overcome. Many planets were left without a stable government when the New Roman Empire collapsed, and New Rome itself sunk into chaos.

Some planets, especially those that had been part of the Frontier Alliance, had small populations, and were able to quickly stabilize their governments. They quickly joined the league and began trading. Surprisingly to some, so did old Earth. The people of Earth had seen enough war. The planetary government was quick to recognize the advantages of belonging to the League, and the heavily populated planet needed to be able to send out colonists to avoid the problems of overpopulation.

During the first few hundred years there were numerous attempts by various planets to launch hyperspace ships in defiance of the League. Some of these managed to go to hyperspace. Rather than trying to track them, the League simply reinforced the blockade of the planet that launched the ship. Any additional ships that made it to orbit were destroyed, and when the one that made it to hyperspace returned it too was blown up. By 650 GLS most planets had given up the idea of establishing their own hyperspace fleet.

Still, the league had its distracters. Many resented the absolute power that the league exerted over hyperspace travel and many politicians campaigned against it. Most of the populace however, supported the league. They liked the idea of no interstellar war and the league's absolute rule about not interfering in the affairs of any member planets meant they were not a threat to the average citizen, regardless of what politicians might say. The hands off policy had a downside. It meant that it took many centuries for many planets to settle their internal affairs, stabilize their governments, and join the league as participating members. The wait was worth it. Peace was maintained and humankind matured so that the vast majority no longer saw war as an option for solving political problems.

The Farralon Incident

Early in the eleventh century GLS, the government of the fourth planet in the Farralon System attempted to develop their own interstellar travel. The planet had evolved from a gold mining camp, and the people were very well off, in fact you might say most of them were rich. They managed to recruit a team of engineers and scientists from New Earth by promising them vast wealth. Although the League had some intelligence as to what was going on, the rule of non-interference prevented them from taking any preemptive action. This lack of action lulled the people of Farralon Four into thinking they could bypass the League and avoid paying shipping fees for exporting their gold and importing the goods they required.

The League simply blockaded the planet, and the starship launched by Farralon Four mysteriously disappeared. Most people believed that the League had captured or destroyed it, but that was never verified. The blockade resulted in severe hardships for the people of the planet, which normally imported vast amounts of food. "All the gold on Farralon cannot feed a hungry child," became a common expression. The government that had built the starship was overthrown in a violent revolution, and no League member had attempted to launch their own starship since.

The New Colonization Era – 1288-1855 GLS

During the stabilization era, many people emigrated from the more populated planets such as Old Earth, New Earth, and New Rome to the less populated ones that would take them. All of this was controlled by the League. No one was allowed to start any new colonies on any of the unpopulated planets. The League sent expeditions on exploration missions, but all of this information was kept confidential. By the middle of the 13th century, GLS, there was pressure to open new planets within League space for colonization. In 1287 the first such colonization took place when a huge League immigration ship transported 68 thousand colonists, with all their worldly passions, from New Earth to the fourth planet of Sigma Draconis. The colonists named their new planet Arcadia. This marked the beginning of the colonial era.

The League carefully controlled colonization. New planets received subsidies from the League to help them get started, and were required to accept additional colonists at a rate calculated by the League scientists to force growth and modernization without overstressing the planet's capacity. In order to maintain voting status in the League, and receive preferential rates and priority treatment on interstellar transportation and shipping, a planet had to accept the colonists delivered by the League, and provide services for integrating them into the local society. Failure to do so meant isolation and a complete cutoff of subsidies. Few planets took this route.

The New Expansion Era – 1856-2750 GLS

By the early 19th century the League recognized that they were running out of habitable planets within League controlled space. Some exploration of nearby stars had occurred and potentially inhabitable planets had been catalogued. The effort was ramped up. Large expeditionary forces were sent to the planets that had previously been catalogued while scout ships were dispatched to the edges of explored space to find new potential homes for humankind.

The expansion was successful. Colonization continued and humankind pushed out the frontiers of League space. The effort was not without problems however. A high percentage of the planets that the scouts identified as potential prospects for colonization, proved to be uninhabitable or required extensive modifications before colonization could take place. The expeditionary forces were expensive and slow and often did a lot of damage to a planet, especially ones that were not ideal for immediate settlement. By far the worst problem was the impact an expeditionary force had on a planet that already supported some form of life. These were the planets best suited for human colonization, but that colonization and even the initial expeditionary efforts were often harmful and sometimes fatal to native plants and animals.

The Discovery of the Ventrons – 1944 GLS

The humans discovered Ventron (Ventron Five, to be exact) in 1944 GLS. It was not the first planet that the League had discovered that supported life; they had found many different planets with abundant life forms by that time. The universe seemed to have no limits to its ability to produce life. Some of it was intelligent, but until the Ventrons, none as intelligent or advanced as humans.

At first Ventron Five had been classified like the others: abundant life, no intelligent species. The Ventrons had evolved very differently than humans. They had a very controlled population, with each bonded pair producing only two or three children in their lifetime. This small population, coupled with an almost complete lack of natural enemies or disease, a non-hostile climate, and plenty of readily available food, meant that high technology was not needed for survival.

Intelligent life had nonetheless evolved. The Ventrons studied the world that they lived in and used their knowledge to make it a better place, but without advanced technology. They had tools, and an organized civilization, but since they built their homes and other buildings underground, nothing of their culture was readily visible to the first visitors from the League.

Perhaps what misled the humans the most was that the Ventrons were completely covered with soft fur, and while they usually walked around on two legs, the only time they wore clothing was when it was needed to protect them from the elements, which on Ventron was almost never.

The Ventrons avoided the first visitors, and in keeping with their own practices, they studied these intruders in detail before making any contact. The humans classified the Ventrons as non-intelligent herbivores, and tried to make pets out of some of the early ones who were unfortunate enough to be captured. Usually they captured only a single member of a pair. Unless the other one managed to join his or her mate in captivity, the separation invariably led to death. But those unfortunate pairs sacrificed their lives rather than expose the Ventron civilization prematurely. Ventrons soon learned to stay out of sight of the human visitors, with the result being that the humans believed the population to be much smaller than it was.

Ten years after the first humans landed on their planet, the Ventrons introduced themselves to the League. They had quickly learned both the spoken and written language of the humans, but wanted to study the humans and their culture thoroughly to assure themselves that their society would not be threatened. When the Ventrons initiated the first real contact, they caused quite a stir.

They took to human science and technology quite readily, and surprised humans with their intelligence level. They had already been quite advanced in mathematics and natural science in their own right, and taught the humans as much as the humans taught them. Ventrons, it turned out, possessed a deep understanding of nature and the balance of life that most humans did not.

At that point in both species' social evolution, Ventrons had also possessed a deeper respect for all forms of life, and that, combined with humans' innate curiosity and willingness to learn, had enabled the two species to overcome the somewhat bumpy start that had been caused by the humans' basic ignorance. Ventrons did not hold a grudge about the humans' attempts to turn them into pets, and though they maintained, for the most part, their traditional social habits, they enjoyed the close working relationships with humans that came from joining the League.

Ventrons had evolved much differently than humans, and in addition to being highly intelligent, they had some unique abilities. One of the most useful and least understood was the ability of a bonded pair to communicate instantly over great distances. The Ventrons naturally assumed that the humans could communicate with their mates in the same fashion that a bonded pair could, and the humans, who had no concept of the abilities of the bonded pair, were totally confused by it all. When the humans did learn of the communication capability, they were immediately interested in studying the phenomenon to try to duplicate it with artificial means. All efforts to do so, however, ultimately failed.

Cross-breeding between Ventrons and humans was prevented not only by the fact that they were not cross-fertile, but also by their social needs. Ventrons required bonded mates to survive, and they could not bond with humans. There simply was no sexual attraction between the species. They could and did, however, become close friends.

The Birth of the Alpha Teams – 2750 GLS

By the mid 28th century, with an increasing demand for new planets to colonize, the system of scouts and expeditionary forces with strained to the limits. It had become too large and cumbersome to administer and the mixed results had left damaged planets and lost lives. A new and better way had to be found.

A decision was made to train and deploy three teams with highly trained teams of specialists. These teams were tasked with both the discover and the initial exploration of new planets. The first three teams were drawn from the most experienced and highly qualified scientists and engineers that the League had. They were subjected to intense physical and mental training. They were cross-trained in multiple disciplines and tested and retested for suitability for the mission. The goal was for each of the three teams to discover and explore at least one planet suitable for colonization. The goal was met only six years into the program, when team two reported back with a habitable planet and two habitable moons located in Ursa Major. The star had previously been catalogued by astronomers as 47 Ursae Majoris.

The Age of Exploration - 2750-3011 GLS

The program continued in parallel to the scouting and expeditionary forces. The old guard fought against the funding of the alpha team program politically, but the alpha teams were delivering results so the program was continued on an experimental basis. The Alpha Teams consistently delivered superior results at a much lower cost. Far too often expeditionary forces destroyed the habitats of local species or otherwise damaged the newly discovered planets. The Alpha Teams had minimal impact on planets they discovered and provided the league with detailed reports and recommendations concerning the planet and the potential for colonization.

Due to political interference by the League Assembly, it took far longer than it should have to shut down the old League Expeditionary Force, which had grown into a huge bureaucracy, but in 2864 a bill was passed terminating the LEF. The Academy had been established years earlier with mission of training potential Alpha Team Explorers. By 2900 the League had nine Alpha Explorer teams and the support staff to manage the program and follow up with newly discovered worlds. Preparing them for colonization. As the Alpha Teams pushed out the frontiers of League space, the League grew, as did the need for inhabitable planets. In the last half of the 30th century the effort was expanded to 27 teams. By the turn of the century to the year 3000, the Galactic League covered an area of space approximately 100 light-years in diameter and about 25 light-years thick.

The Discovery of the Galaxy Keeper – 3011 GLS

In 3011 GLS Alpha Team Eleven discovered a Crystal Pyramid on the third moon of Travix Seven. After carefully studying it, and the city that surrounded it for months, they were suddenly transported across the Galaxy to Beltaria. Alpha Team Fourteen was sent to find them. Together they met the Galaxy Keeper, and the future of mankind was changed forever.