Like a giant mountain served on a platter, Sirius'
Explorer Colony speeds toward the Galactic hub at .6c (lightspeed).
Here it encounters a meteor shower,
but three fields of magnetic flux protect the community of 200,000
from any meteoric mass smaller than a half km. The colony lives
in a facimile of their home planet, its mountain and valleys providing
familiar climates, nourished by a solar projection.
Now entering their fourth generation aboard the ship there is
evidence of a shift in the attitudes of the populace toward the
parent world. Because it is such a drain on their power to communicate
via tachyons the number of transmissions to the home world has
become less frequent. The Sirian colonists seem free and open
to contact with the Federation, but they have greater curiosity
about the Federation than willingness to offer data about themselves.
In spite of three years of contact the Federation has little information
about the true nature of the Sirians. Though the Federation has
often encountered "explorer shock" (the classic first-contact
reaction), the Sirians seem to be especially secretive. Whatever
attitudes may prevail among the citizens of Sirius colony, our
relations with these galactic wanderers has always been cordial.
