With the arrival at Elixabeth, I'd completed my familiarization with the D20 rules and expanded the group out to it's current size. We fleshed out the ship's crew by having the newly invited players roll them up and I started the campaign in earnest.
Up to this point, the game routine had been jump to a planet, introduce Alexander to the local nobility and check out the world - then leave. I'd always intended Elixabeth to be the beginning of the real campaign, but I'd let Chris get the feel for being a 'powerful' noble and more or less get his own way. Unfortunately, this tended to make the games focus exclusively on Alexander - which I needed to change.
So, on arrival at Elixabeth I intentionally steered the game into the familiar 'rut' of Alexander level politics. The first thing they saw, as they arrived at Elixabeth, was one of the two Imperial BatRons stationed here departing for jump. With *all* it's auxilliary ships in train. It didn't take long to discover that this fleet had been recalled to Imperial space to reinforce the Sector Fleet. This left Alexander scrambling to high-level meetings to try and ascertain the stability of the remaining BatRon, meeting with the local nobility and senior commanders to determine the state of the planet, attending soires and other social events, etc. All the while shedding the other PCs into other activities until I was left with just Alexander.
At which point I kidnapped him. :)