The Weather Balloon of Alien is a massive, environmentally stunning nation, ruled by The Great Baxlily of Nooid with an iron fist, and renowned for its punitive income tax rates, suspicion of poets, and complete absence of social welfare. The hard-nosed, cynical, devout population of 3.583 billion Alienians are ruled without fear or favor by a psychotic dictator, who outlaws just about everything and refers to the populace as "my little playthings."

The large, corrupt, moralistic, socially-minded, well-organized government juggles the competing demands of Defense, Law & Order, and Administration. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Zebulon 5. The average income tax rate is 50.4%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The sizeable but sluggish Alienian economy, worth 74.7 trillion Galactic Credits a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. However, for those in the know, there is a large, well-organized, fairly diversified black market in Information Technology, Door-to-door Insurance Sales, Woodchip Exports, and Arms Manufacturing. The private sector mostly consists of enterprising ten-year-olds selling lemonade on the sidewalk, but the government is looking at stamping this out. Average income is 20,849 Galactic Credits, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Newspapers may not print any negative stories about the government, park rangers perform full-body searches on suspected fungus smugglers, there is a growing belief that consciousness is a simulated illusion within a computer-generated reality, and soldiers' positions are given away by the glint of their bayonets. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to the all-pervasive police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Alien's national animal is the Human, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, and its national religion is Ashtar.

Alien is ranked 102,163^rd in the world and 1,987^th in The East Pacific for Lowest Crime Rates, with 65.59 law-abiding acts per hour.