The planetoid Sirius Major is the capital of the Sirius Trade Federation. All the major Sirius corporations have their headquarters within the planetoid.

The Sirius Trade Federation is effectively a trading cartel. All corporations with rated assetts above a limit deternined periodically by the Federation Board are entitled to a seat on the Federation Board. The very largest corporations are entitled to an additional two to three members depending on size.

Corporations are allowed to run their own internal affairs but the Federation Board is responsible for external affairs and items which will effect more than one corporation. Practically this means that the Federation Board is ultimately responsible for virtually everything.

The Federation Board appoints committees to oversee areas such as defence, the administration of justice etc. Internal corporate disputes are generally delt with "in-house" but can be referred to the appropriate committee. Inter-corporate disputes can also be brought before these committees or the Federation Board itself. But occassionly the corporations result to more direct action amongst themselves. This sometimes results in fighting between them. The Federation Board does accept this, but at all times the actions must be cost effective. The Sirius Trade Federation tries to avoid any action that would result in monetary loss.

All corporations are expected to contribute to the defence of the Sirius Trade Federation. In practice this means that most corporations provide direct funding to the corporations which actually build and operate the various branches of the Federation Defence Forces. The potnetial for graft is enormous. The Federation military is technically under direct control of the Federation Board, but as its personnel are drawn from the corporations the quality of the military varies enormously. The equipment is state of the art, but is supplied at the cheapest possible price to manufacture since profit is the biggest motivation. This sometimes means that reliability becomes an issue.