healing, an aspect that had not
appeared on Irschcha.

Had Medart not been selected as a Ranger, he planned to specialize in
xenoanthropology, and has in a sense done so, though not formally. His
interest in the variety of cultures humans and non-humans alike can
develop has led him to study and visit as many as his assignments
allow; while he is not totally familiar with all the cultures in the
Empire, he is the Ranger normally called on when there is an
inter-cultural problem.

MEERCLAR, Subsector 9-F:
No. systems: 111 Sector: Ursa
with 3 inhabited planets: 5 Ruled by:
with 2 inhabited planets: 12
with 1 inhabited planet: 28

MELGARIE, Jord: HPUJE-7895-2835 (? 2518-20 Nov 2572) Found 18 Jun
2518 by Subsector 6-G Rescue Service, alone in an escape capsule from
which all identification had been removed. He appeared to be
approximately four months old, and medical tests showed him to have
been a subject of major genetic engineering (which explained the lack
of identification, if not the abandonment).

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 personn