Billi was the Space Minister for the Namerican Empire. He was approached by Claud, the Commandant of the Technology Recovery Section, for approval in developing a faster than light drive for spaceships. Billi initially balked at the idea because of the standard wisdom that FTL drive was a physical impossibility until he was convinced by a discovery made under ruins left by the Burning. Billi was Space Minister about three generations after King Burger ruled.