vexillology

First contact was a remarkably smooth affair, perhaps because the Intergalactic Federation representatives have been through the process many, many times before and the Federation has been studying Earth for more than fifty years. As it were, the first casualty that could even be remotely associated with alien contact was 76 year-old scholar Søren Andersen, generally considered the finest student of vexillology the planet has ever produced. The distinction earned him a spot in one of the early cultural contingents that were granted access to the Federation archives. Colleagues later remarked that he appeared entirely unfazed by, even oblivious to, the rather bizarre and varied physical presence of alien representatives, and alien technology made travelling no more taxing than a ride in an elevator. By all accounts he appeared perfectly fine until, finally, he was admitted to the Flag Hall, sporting nothing but the flags, in the broadest sense of the word, of just under 740,000 Federation members. There, his heart managed to handle the strain of undiluted rapture for eight of the finest minutes a human being can be granted.