Raised on New Bavaria by a series of foster parents who found him difficult to cope with. He enlisted in the Subsector Navy in 2536, then deserted in 2538, stole a ship, and began a career of piracy. A charismatic leader, he soon attracted other criminals and became head of a pirate fleet which eventually spread its operations out of Sector 6, making it an Imperial rather than a local concern. Several Imperial agents attempted to infiltrate; all, until Nevan DarLeras in 2570-72, were uncovered and killed. Melgarie himself died when DarLeras was able to call in a Fleet strike which destroyed the pirate base. MESSENGERS, IMPERIAL: Heralds or military officers with special commissions to carry particularly sensitive or ceremonial verbal or written messages from the Sovereign or a Ranger. All Messengers are protected with special anti-interrogation conditioning which can be triggered by circumstance as well as by a spoken phrase, and on occasion a volunteer is given special conditioning so @ can deliver one of the Sovereign's messages in @'s own words and as close to voice as the Messenger can manage. When acting as such, Messengers wear scarlet tunics and travel in scarlet courier-class ships. MILITARY, IMPERIAL: The Imperial Terran Marine Corps and Imperial Terran Navy. Imperial military personnel are very carefully selected; as a rule, enlisted personnel and Academy candidates have the equivalent of a pre-Empire bachelor's degree; by graduation and commissioning, an officer has the equivalent of three or four doctorates, and all ranks are expected to continue their educations. They are thoroughly tested in all physical and psychological aspects, then assigned where their individual aptitudes, attitudes, and training will be most useful. Note that this definitely includes a person's preferences, part of the Empire's pragmatism: a person does better in a job @ likes, so it is in the Empire's interest to put @ there. If for some reason it is necessary to put someone in a job @ doesn't like, @ will be there as briefly as possible. MINOTAUR, Subsector 2-D: No. systems: 129 Sector: Hydra with 3 inhabited planets: 6 Ruled by: with 2 inhabited planets: 12 with 1 inhabited planet: 27 MIRACLE-WEED: The Ondrian plant that is the only source of rapid-heal. Originally wild, it has been intensively cultivated since 2532, when humans and Irschchans established a colony for that purpose. Miracle-weed has been grown on other worlds, but does not thrive or produce usable rapid-heal. MITHRA, Subsector 6-D: No. systems: 146 Sector: Scorpio with 3 inhabited planets: 4 Ruled by: with 2 inhabited planets: 12 with 1 inhabited planet: 23