The South Americans are the most powerful of the non-aligned powers. They maintained strict neutrality between the Western Alliance, Russians, and Chinese as we expanded into the stars. Their worlds became trading posts where traders of all nations are welcomed, for a small import-export tax of course. And their own freighters carry goods that cannot be acquired through official shipping to all the worlds. They are a vital cog of the interstellar economy.
Christian was Cowboy Four in the old days. Christian Mack his name was. We called him The Knife after some old song. The Peloran named him Ram. He’s real loyal and real determined, and he stood with Charles when it wasn’t shiny. I think both names fit him good. He became Cowboy One when Charles retired, and has commanded the Cowboys real good since then. Without him, the little disagreement we had with Charles’ family after The War would have ended way worse.
Alcyone has five stars. The blue giants, Aa and Ab, have fancy scientific names. The locals call them Ace and Deuce. The white dwarfs, B and C, our astronomically huge mines of star stuff, we call Buck and Cash. And then there’s Alcyone D. It’s a little hotter than our sun, and it’s in a pretty screwed up neighborhood. Most of the planets are long gone, but the three survivors are all habitable. Lots of people live under the never-ending light of Dixie.
The Holidays are an amazing time. Humanity has celebrated during them for thousands of years, from the old Winter Solstice observed by many cultures, to the Jewish Hanukkah. The rise of Christianity brought Christmas and Boxing Day, and the Romans brought us New Years when they changed the traditional calendars to begin in January. So many cultures and religions celebrate something during the Holiday Season that is easy to find a reason to celebrate.
While we spread out towards the Pleiades and the Chinese emphasized the Hyades, most of the Russian Post-Contact expansion drove straight up, from an Earth perspective, towards the Polaris Sector. They were out of our way and free to fortify as they saw fit in the corridor to that region. They did so well that our fleets never generated a major penetration of the sector during the entire War.
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