They wanted us under control. We declined the invitation. They started a public relations campaign to make us look dangerous. It was really good. I have to give them props for that. They knew how to talk to the frightened and uneducated masses. Of course, it wasn’t hard to make us look dangerous. All they had to do was show footage of us in action in The War to prove that. The trick was getting people to believe we could turn on them. They were real tricky.
Memphis is an amazing world to live on, or visit for that matter. It was colonized by Egypt, not the Elvis Reenactors Guild, but even so there actually is an American district on the world where the Reenactors put on quite a show. Myself, I work at the Memphis Interstellar Spaceport, maintaining the massive white walls reminiscent of ancient Egypt. The entire capital in fact is built to emulate ancient Egypt, giving it a very unique look.
There have always been rich and powerful families. Some have named conspiracies after them. Many thought that Contact would secure their fortunes for generations. The Peloran though followed a policy of ignoring the world’s great families in favor of working with smaller groups. This was not welcomed by the great and powerful, and they did not relinquish their power easily, or without a fight.
After Alpha Centauri, we traveled to Epsilon Indi and colonized the water world of Pacifica. The best hyperdrive mankind could engineer spent two years taking us to the system. It was an island of order in a sea of chaos, a completely different world, with no easy communication with home. A new frontier. Most people couldn’t conceive of that. It took a special person to pass the colony mission qualifications. Only the best of us went to the stars.
After The War, we just flew around for a while. Visited the Core Worlds, spent a few days on each. Did a lot of partying. Then we had to do some more fighting. There were people out there that were scared of us. Thought we were dangerous. They wanted to control us. We fought and died to protect their freedom, and they wanted to shackle us in return. We didn’t take that well. Not well at all.