It includes the whole of Crawlspace, the Sol-centered, seventy-two-light-year sphere explored and colonized by humans in sublight-speed ships before the development of the Bose Drive and Bose Network. Almost eight hundred inhabited planets belong to the Fourth Alliance. They lie within an ellipsoid with Sol at one focus, stretching out seven hundred light-years in a direction roughly opposite to that of the galactic center. The supergiant star Rigel sits almost at the farthest boundary of Fourth Alliance territory. Humans are the dominant species of the Fourth Alliance and account for sixty percent of all intelligent beings there.

By contrast, the Phemus Circle consists of just a score of impoverished worlds, ninety percent human, nestled near the part of the Fourth Alliance closest to the center of the galaxy. The Phemus Circle shares a region where the Fourth Alliance, the Cecropia Federation, and the Zardalu Communion all have overlapping territories. It is a measure of the poverty of this group that none of the larger neighbors has shown interest in developing the Phemus Circle, although the Circle is nominally under the control of the Fourth Alliance and recognizes the authority of the Alliance’s Council members.

The humans of the Zardalu Communion recognize no central authority. In consequence, their numbers and distribution are difficult. Efrarezi and Camefil estimate that no more than twelve percent of all Zardalu intelligent forms are human. Of these, almost one half live close to the disputed borders with the Fourth Alliance and the Cecropia Federation. The number of worlds inhabited by humans in the region of the Zardalu Communion is unknown.

Physical Characteristics: Humans are land-dwelling vertebrate bisexual quadrupeds possessing bilateral symmetry and a well-marked head and torso. The extremities of the upper limb pair have been modified to permit grasping. All sensory apparatus has low performance and is especially poor for smell and taste. The grelatory organ is entirely absent.