Contact Service / Diplomatic Corps Government Civilian Service The Contact Service is a highly professional branch of the Diplomatic Corps. All First Contact personnel are scientists with a strong background in the Social Sciences - Comparative Cultures, Linguistics, Historical Sciences or Xeno-Psychology. The task of the Contact Service is to initiate relations with aboriginal and primitive peoples so that undue dislocation will not occur through contact with the advanced starculture that discovered them. Heavy handed exploitation and unrestrained colonization by civilian merchants, settlers and prospectors tends to destroy the 'natural resources' a less advanced race represents. The Contact Service thus has sweeping powers, and Contact Officers can declare a planet to be a 'protectorate' if it contains an indigenous sentient race. That means that all unauthorized contact, trade, settlement or other exploitation is stricly forbidden. To this effect the Service can require full cooperation from the Starforces, IPA, or any other appropriate government agency. Often a small Starforce base of IPA base will be established near a protected planet to provide the necessary enforcement. When a more advanced race is contacted, the Contact Service Officer aboard the survey ship will take charge of the whole expedition with the intention of establishing diplomatic relations. The Diplomatic Corps is merely the political arm of the same department of government - Foreign Affairs. Personnel from other branches of the government services may be attached to the Diplomatic Corps as required. |
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