![]() The Council of Captains, whose livelihood was their ships and their trade, looked to revitalize the mothballed stations on that route-stations that had collapsed economically with the advent of faster-than-light engines. The Hinder Stars, that bridge of closely lying, generally barren stars between Earth and Pell, became a zone of renewed interest for the Alliance, which governed that region. ![]() It was an agreement equally unpopular on all sides-which spoke a great deal to its fairness-and it was immediately followed by a period in which all former combatants maneuvered for advantage, everyone dreading a resumption of hostilities, but most convinced that war would break out again, probably within a lifetime. The Treaty incidentally left the merchanter Council of Captains with more power than Pell’s Star Station held in the affairs of the Alliance.Īnd the same Treaty ceded the greater expanse of human-explored space to the authority of Union . . . but placed merchant trade exclusively in the hands of the Alliance Council of Captains. The Company Fleet had defied Earth’s authority, rejected the Treaty of Pell, and continued acts of piracy, as apt to prey on Earth’s ships as on Union’s, and now lacking a safe port. ![]() The Treaty of Pell, which ended active hostilities between Union and Alliance, left Earth independent, though militarily reliant on Pell’s Star. ![]() Union came out of the Company Wars with both territory and political integrity, not beholden to Earth or Alliance for either. ![]()
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