Some people wonder why we continue to explore other systems at all. We have enough room on the worlds we’ve discovered to live on for thousands of years without crowding after all. The vast majority of us never leave the world we were born on. But there are always those who wonder what is over the hill, or on the other side of the sea, on another world, or at another star. They are the people that want to see things with their own eyes. They are the explorers.
With the threat of Britain diminishing in the thirty years following our successful war with Mexico, we stumbled towards another war of our own making. Abolitionists demanded Slavery’s end. Slave States in turn threatened Secession, until we passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Local settlers would democratically decide if their territory would be Free or Slave. Sometimes I wonder if they recognized the powder keg they were holding a match to.
I’ve been to a lot of conventions over the years, on many planets. And sometimes off planet too. Gaming conventions, gun conventions, car conventions, spacecraft conventions, they all have one thing in common. They are about boys and girls of all ages playing with cool toys and not caring who knows about it. I like these people. So to all of you who like to play, I salute you.
The farther we travel, the more life bearing worlds we find. The difficult thing is actually exploring all of the star systems now within a year’s travel of Earth. No single government has sent ships to every star in that range. There are too many stars, and too few ships to do it. Private surveyors are the only visitors to many stars, selling their data to the mapmakers. Some stars haven’t even seen that much of us.
I was born to an American cybernetic family. We specialized in business administration, conforming to laws and exploiting loopholes in them. Yes, we have a proud history of being that most detested of all forms of life. Rules lawyers. Trust me when I say that businesses love us. And I do believe I can say that my knowledge of local laws in the Alpha Centauri Trinary Star System helped make the Wolfenheim Project a reality.
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