PEOPLE Captain Elena Reddy, 34, in charge of her ship. Will do anything, even bend the rules, to do the right thing and help the zillions of beings in the known galaxy. Commander Mark Cain, 40, first officer of the ship, which means second in command. He follows rules, does everything by the book, so much so that he carries “the book” of regulations with him. Major Nikama Shiksaa, 24, weapons officer, third in command. From the planet Visalia, she is the only non-Human among the crew. Like her people, she is tough and rigid and thinks Humans are strange. Ensign Matthew Chelm, 23, pilot. While the rest of us seek out new life and new civilizations, he’s just looking for a clue. Lieutenant Benjamin Guinness, 30, information officer. He knows everything about everything and keeps track of it. Ship’s Computer, v2.0.1. Runs every automatic function on the ship, and has better things to do than to talk to us carbon-based life-forms.

SHIPS AND FLEET The Starship Starship, Captain Reddy’s space vessel. She insists that it’s the best ship in the Coalition fleet. It isn’t. Coalition Space Forces, the fleet of ships that goes around in space and protects the Coalition, which has a bunch of planets including Earth and Visalia (which is one star over from Earth’s sun) that get along well and work together. The ships also explore the galaxy, because it’s really big and you never know what you might find. Admiral Gillman, the guy in charge of the fleet. Sure, he’s a person, but we’re putting him in this category because of the red tape. ALIENS (a.k.a. other people, just not from Earth) SIRIUNS, from the planets of the star Sirius, the brightest-appearing star (actually a binary--look it up yourself) in Earth’s night sky for you backward folks who haven’t been anywhere else. An ancient race, smarter, more powerful, so arrogant and pretentious it hurts, but nice folks, really. Everyone wants to get in good with Sirius. They’re rich and famous. Cool. VISALIANS, from Visalia, the fourth planet of Alpha Centauri, which is the closest star to Earth’s sun. Tough, militaristic race. They don’t want to conquer anyone, though. They just want to be left alone. They’re our friends. Pains in the butt, but friends. EXTREME-OIDS, beings from the planet X-Trem who always travel in pairs of extremes. PARAN-OIDS, beings from the planet Paran; very tough but very easy to defeat in battle because they’re afraid of their own shadows. MANY OTHERS, as it's a big galaxy....