"The Observer"was a higher life form engaged in studying the "limited beings" that populated the United Federation of Planets. As part of these studies, the observer viewed a December 2380 edition of Illuminating the City of Light.

As a higher life form, the observer created his own taxonomy for beings and planets in the Federation. Some examples of that taxonomy are as follows:

Genders:

• gender-two - shen
• gender-five - female
• gender-seven - male

Planets:

• AC1 - Andor
• AQ1 - Vulcan
• AV9 - Krios
• BT5 - Earth
• DO3 - Delta

(ST novel: Articles of the Federation)