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THE FEDERATION
OF THE HUB:
An Overview

James H. Schmitz knew one of the cardinal rules of writing science fiction adventure: don't inflict the reader with irrelevant background material—get on with the story! And so Schmitz seldom comes right out and tells us any facts about the Hub. (After all, when was the last time world geography came up in your casual conversation?) Part of the fun of reading Schmitz is piecing together the clues dropped here and there, because the Hub is an amazing place to visit.

Still, readers new to Schmitz might benefit from an overview of what the Hub is, and how it got there.

In Schmitz's future, humanity moved out from Earth slowly. In the first thousand years or so of interstellar travel only sporadic colonies were founded in what he refers to as the "Old Territories." Terratype planets were rare and hard to find. In "The Symbiotes" we learn that "Old Territory people thought it had been proved there'd be a permanent shortage of habitable planets around. So that sets it back about eleven hundred years, when they'd begun to get range but didn't yet know where and how to look."

By the time of "Blood of Nalakia," humanity has discovered a dense cluster of Terratype worlds known as "the Hub Systems." It is there that most colonies are formed. The Hub (as opposed to the Federation as a political organization) is a star cluster—most likely a global cluster with fairly distinct boundaries.

But "Blood of Nalakia" is the only Hub story that mentions both Earth and the Hub. After that there is a huge break in human history known as "The War Centuries."

Though he never wrote any War Centuries stories, Schmitz had some very concrete ideas about what happened then. "Humans fought one another for many star periods throughout [the Hub] with a sustained fury rarely observed in other species." In one story he even lets drop the reason for the wars: psychological control of planetary populations. There are hints that entire planets died. One of them may have been the Earth.

The Earth—or, at least, its historical significance—is known to the inhabitants of the Hub, but they have no contact with it. There are references to species of monkeys, otters, horses, and sequoia trees that were "preserved in the Life Banks on Maccadon"—but there is no definitive word as to just what they were preserved from.

Out of this centuries-long, vicious war was founded the Federation of the Hub.

The Federation is big. We learn in Legacy that there are twelve hundred and fifty-eight member worlds (including two hundred and fourteen restricted worlds), with a combined population of over six hundred billion. This provides Schmitz the room needed for all sorts of disparate cultures and adventures. If that weren't enough, there are worlds outside the Hub like Precolonial worlds, I-Fleet territories, and the domains of various nonhuman intelligent species.

Although the sheer size of the Hub is mentioned several times, Schmitz never tells us its precise dimensions. Instead we are given the more relevant measure of how long it takes to travel from world to world. Some Hub planets are mere hours apart by "subspace" FTL flight. The frontiers are much farther. Manon is two weeks' travel from the Hub, and Nandy Cline is three.

Neither are we given a timeline for all this. Unlike most science fiction writers who have written a large number of stories set in a single future universe, Schmitz organized his stories "horizontally" rather than chronologically. The majority of the stories, including all of the ones involving Telzey Amberdon and Trigger Argee, take place within a very short time span—not more than three years. We are given a cross-section of life in the Hub, rather than a linear series of adventures taking place one after the other.

Almost all the Hub stories take place 200 years after the founding of the Federation. But there are only two clues as to how far this is in our future. One is Trigger's statement about the Old Territories being explored "eleven hundred years ago." The other is that the dust jacket of the rare collection A Nice Day for Screaming, and Other Tales of the Hub states that the date is 3500 A.D. But we don't know if that date came from Schmitz or the publisher.

The physical facts about the Hub are less interesting than the political facts. But, again, the picture we get from Schmitz is impressionistic rather than precise.

The Federation is sometimes referred to as the Overgovernment—indicating that it is indeed a Federation in the political sense, and not just in name. Planetary governments take care of such things as taxes, police, courts, etc. To outward appearances, the Federation simply handles defense, colonization, and relations with alien species.

But appearances are deceiving. There's a lot more going on behind the scenes. Because of our vantage point, we get to see more than the average citizen of the Hub. Schmitz has some exciting tales to tell, and exciting events tend to draw in the Federation.

The Federation has several major worries. Number one is preventing the return of the War Centuries. Second, is protecting the Hub from hostile aliens. And number three is advancing humanity as a species.

The Federation is ruled by the Council—and the Council rules by sending out members or deputies to direct the activity of the Departments. Telzey's mother, Federation Councilwoman Jessamine Amberdon, is one, and is a member of the powerful Hace Committee. (It's very interesting that this is an ethics committee.)

Often, these officials only pop up after the action is over, and seem mostly concerned with judging the performance of the actors. As one alien observes: "The Federation Council, though popularly regarded as the central seat of authority, frequently appears to be acting more as moderator among numerous powerful departments."

These Departments include the Psychology Service, the Federation Navy, Precolonization (or Precol), Conservation, and Outposts. Despite that fact that Schmitz flew for the Army Air Force in WWII, he has little to say about the armed forces of the Hub. Heslet Quillan works for Intelligence, but we never see the organization. Trigger and Tate both work for Precol, but we see little of that. We never learn much about any of the other Departments of the Hub except, to a certain degree, the Psychology Service.

The pattern appears to be that each of the Departments goes about its business as it sees fit, reporting to the Council as needed. When the Council thinks something is important enough, they send a Deputy, or even a Council Member to take charge, investigate, or overrule the Department.

The overall impression which Schmitz gives us is of a powerful but loosely organized government. Except for the complete absence of any form of hereditary privilege, the internal structure of the Federation seems almost quasifeudal. The Departments rule their "fiefdoms" with great latitude, with the Overgovernment serving as a court of last resort and occasional overseer—much as did the medieval monarchs.

The danger of political abuse in such a system is obvious, but seems to be counteracted by the Overgovernment's determination to leave the basic workings of Hub society in a state of semianarchy. Even such institutions as "private wars" are allowed, apparently in the belief that to suppress such violence by police action would run the risk of placing a political straitjacket on the Hub. Thus, if the various Departments of the Federation wield immense power, so too do the various nongovernmental institutions and agencies of Hub society.

But here we are verging on sheer guesswork. The simple fact is that Schmitz never had much to say about the political structure of the Hub in the abstract. Unlike some science fiction writers who have created complex future universes portrayed in many stories, Schmitz was not a "theoretical synthesizer." He was always content to let the reader get mere glimpses of the various powerful forces behind the scenes, as his characters encountered those forces in the course of their various adventures. The end result may be frustrating for political scientists, but it is pure pleasure for those readers who are simply looking to spend some enjoyable hours lost in Schmitz's imaginary universe.

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Framed