12 History of the Starwalker's and their Trial

6 months later

I have been learning a lot. Mostly about language. But today Mom let me program a scout bot to search the asteroid belt.

"Now Eddie, remember it doesn't mater what mater you find as it's all mater," that came from Mom when she was helping me plan my rout. "The only reason we go for the large concentrations of particular elements is that it takes less time to process it. If the rock is radioactive have the bot tag it and we will send a tug to move it to the radioactive cluster. Now the things you want to be on the look out for is the key components of blasteel in one rock. So you move these sliders up and all the others down. Now the scout will be looking for concentrations of iron, molybdenum, chromium, tungsten, and carbon (which is rare out here but not in our air scrubbers)"

"Like this Mom?"

"Yes that's right. Now don't for get to bring the bot back to base on a different rout than it went out so it can cover more distance. If you just click on the return to home base box it will come back in a least time/distance run. Usually taking it up over the belt and then back down to us. Its better to plan out an elliptical rout with the farthest point being in the direction of travel and the shallower point being off to the sides of our travel."

I hit some boxes. Make a few adjustments on the scout's flight path

"Good. That should do for a first time rout. Once we find you a rock and process it you and Dad can have some fun mixing it up in the engineering bay making different types of steel and seeing which one is the best for a given application. Like being resistant to blaster fire. Which one is the strongest, which one has the most flex, which one is the shiniest, which one is the dullest. You get the idea. Now that the rout is done what's next?"

"I send it to the Main computer for verification and permission to launch the scout."

"Good, send it. Lets see what the MC has to say."

//flight path approved, materials with sub par value set as target materials, forwarding launch request to MOM and Dad//

*ding*

Mom looks at her tablet and checks a box when we hear Dad over the communications channel "Is Eddie launching a probe?"

"Yes Dear."

"Oh, OK then. See you at diner."

*bleep*//Launch approval granted, safe flight.//

I hit the launch button, Mom changes the camera feed to the scout bay and we watch a probe decouple from a storage rack and launch itself out the bay following the flight path and parameters I gave it. So its going out 50 miles with a cross width of 5 miles. Any rock where the primary scanner picks up that approximate composition it will stop and do a detailed scan and log the find. This sweep should take up to 3 days.

"Now what?"

"Now, we go and make diner. Your father should be here in an hour."

Mom picks me up and caries me to the galley by way of the farm, where we pick up some garlic and tomatoes. We made pasta with a fresh tomato basil sauce, topped with some ricotta cheese. Once it was just simmering on the stove Mom showed me one of her sneaky tricks. She had the ventilation units vacuum the air out of the galley before broadcasting it near Dad.

"3" Mom began to count down "2" "1"

"Not Funny Dear!" Dad just suddenly yells out over the communicator.

A loud noise followed seconds later *CLANG!* followed by Dad speaking over the communicator again. "Be right there."

Mom proceeded to press a few buttons on a work station returning the ventilation back to normal.

Towards the end of dinner dad asked me a question kind with a bit of hesitation. "So... Son you think of making your own ship yet?"

"A little but I don't know enough yet to make a good one. The one I build, I want to be able to travel around the stars, defend my self from pirates, meet interesting people(and shoot the ones that are too interested in me), get in to trouble, get out of trouble. Be able to fix or upgrade the ship in the middle of nowhere as long as I have the parts/materials." I replied back.

"That sounds like a much better list of features than when I set out."

Mom chimed in. "Let me guess you wanted it to go 'fast'."

"Hahaha." dad chuckled in amusement. "At one time I wanted to go fast but that died out after prototype 6 impacted an asteroid. After that I wanted something maneuverable, could spin on a dime and be off in another direction in a snap. Ahhaaa." Dad lets out a sigh before continuing "No this has more to do with Starwalker tradition. We live here in the middle of material wealth. We have what ever we need. We export materials and components, we import luxury food, and cloths. By tradition once you turn ten we load you up on a hyper capable ship with a battle droid. I got an HK-14 and it was a life saver, also liked to call me meat bag, I called it a walking display rack. Where was I, oh yes. We put you on a ship with a full tank of fuel and set you among the stars for 10 years. During those ten years you can not come back except for 5 special occasions and each visit can not last more than 1 week. Those events are; your Mom's Birthday, your Dad's Birthday, Honoring a parent at a funeral, your Birthday, and the twin suns solar event. For that last one you have 5 days before the plasma bridge is completed to 5 days after it breaks. During this 10 years you are cut off financially and influentially from the Starwalker house. Essentially this is a rite of passage for all Starwalker heirs or children who want to be eligible to inherit the Throne of This system. I have reigned over this system for the last 93 years and expect to reign for hundreds more.

This right of passage has several key things you need to by completion, (1) Live well.Come back with stories to tell, don't come back skin and bone from starvation, and don't place your self in survival sleep for the duration. Your great-grand uncle did that. He left the system, put his ship to power saving, then hoped in to a hibernation capsule for 9 years and 300 days. Once he woke up he went to a slave market and bought a girl then came back. He was banned from inheriting. All was not lost with him as 30 years later he seemed to have grown up and started a tourist business. And now we have that horrendous tourist trap of a station.

(2) Find a girl(s).I only found 1 girl right for me your great-great-great-grandfather found 5. He died a happy man at 937 years old.

(3) Make the galaxy a better place.This goal is simple, yet complex. Go out there and make someone's life better. Your great-great-grandfather found a shipping company that was doing poorly and hired on as a cargo delivery specialist. He took his ship and made 2478 on time deliveries in 9 years, he ended up marrying his bosses daughter who was also the local dispatch operator. But your Great-Great-Grandfather had one goal. Do a job well. Which is what he did. With him doing a job well the reputation of that transportation outfit increased providing more and better jobs to people in the community who needed them.

This Trial, I guess we will call it that, was started by the 4th generation of Starwalker's after the clan moved to this system.

The 1st generation was full of hard working people who established this system. They named it Geminis twins for the two suns and two planets that orbited in opposing orbits. The suns they named Castor and Pollux the planets were called summer and winter due to the overall climate.

The 2nd generation continued what the first started once the first was gone but fell in to a rut.

The 3rd generation was living on the success of their forefather and no longer up keeping the systems and infrastructure of the planets and stations. The only thing they did right was to rent out the mining rites to out of system persons and corporations.

The 4th generation saw what was happening and funneled funds in to a private fleet to fight off the corporations and bounty hunters that were soon to appear and take over from the family. At the death of the last 3rd generation elder the 4th generation made their move. At that time our family numbered 300. Once the corporations got notice that their mining contracts were now void they attacked. It was a bloody battle for the family we lost 284members of the family. At that time it was decided to turn this system in to a monarchy the 16 would reign as co rulers and any decision that affected the whole system had to be voted on and only passed with a unified vote. Lets just say it was chaotic. This was when they made up the rules for the Starwalker trial.

The 5th generation was a moderate success. The Starwalkers that made it back were stronger for the trial. On the other hand due to our war with the corporations those of the 5th generation that used their family name to gain influence in the outside galaxy were all killed. Upon the last ones return the trials rules were changed. The person taking the trial would not be allowed there last name until completion, and a combat droid would accompany them to keep watch over the Starwalkers on trial.

Once those changes were made deaths due to assassination went down 90% but accidents still occurred. This trial has gone on for the last 9000 years. We became a prosperous clan. Those out on trial came back with many treasures, technologies, artwork, and plants. We became a system that was at the forefront of culture and technologies. This was our golden age. We had dignitaries from far off planets, the Sith and the Jedi. Those last two never got along. (Twix Left, Twix Right) At the time they did the same exact thing with a little differences. One was strength thru control the other was strength thru emotion. Both were derivatives of the same thing. The Starwalkers of the age had already brought back copies of the teaching of the Jed'di. Later the Jedi splintered forming the Sith and the Jedi. At the time the Sith wanted more freedom from the order and the new order of Jedi did a whip like action and made there code and rules more restrictive to prevent another sith order from appearing.

4000 years ago the sith civil war occurred it also marked the end of our golden age. The records don't state how it happened or why but both winter and summer were destroyed. The Starwalkers of the age new what was coming but had no way to stop it so the evacuated as much of the population on to freighters as possible. Over the next 2000 years our population declined quickly we went from 7 billion clan members to 9000. Only half of those were from the planetary disaster.

Then 2000 years ago your great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Grandfather came along and began to rebuild what was lost. He began what he called project New Eden. He took two automated cargo haulers and programed them to move large rocks from the belts in to a large mass in a stable orbits around the stars. This project has been going on for the last 2000 years. 200 years ago your Great-Great-Great-Grandfather began to re-form the atmosphere. As it stands now. New Eden has a stable orbit, .99 Gravity, and 90% atmosphere. And an average temperature of 400 degrees (F). So its more like Hell at this point.

Don't worry its cooling off and in another hundred years or so it should be in a liveable range.

So that's the condensed version of your family history and why we send you out on these trials. Currently the Starwalker family lies at 18 and 3 are this generation decedents, one of which is you.

So from tomorrow onward we will be taking and hour out of your day to familiarize you with ships and ship repair." Finished Dad and I woke from my trance imagining all the different key story points happening in my mind.