An exploring party of another species arrived. They were not welcome. In fact, they were the very people the Centaurians had been fighting their interminable war with, the sluglike inhabitants of Alpha Centauri's fourth planet. Although the fighting in their home system had temporarily subsided, it very nearly began again on Tupelo. It was touch-and-go for a while, but the sides paused long enough to talk a bit before opening hostilities. They discovered they had much in common. The Slugs in the exploration party were as tired of war as the Centaurians. Cautiously, both sides agreed to try the experiment of peaceful coexistence. They even agreed to share the same island, though at some remove from each other, a decision made easier by the fact that the Slugs preferred the damper, danker climate of the jungle to the plains that had attracted the Centaurians. The two sides signed a solemn compact, undertaking to together occupy what they called the Planet of Peace without fighting, and they created a Joint Governance Commission to mediate any conflicts that might arise.
