The Departure Memorial Festival
The funny thing about memorials, kid, is that they're not really about the past. They're about the future. They're about your future. Past, present, future- they all blend together in a memorial. The memory of the past, experienced in the present, as a way of reshaping the future. It's why the Ship Clans have all their trade routes intersect on Luna every three Terran summers. Of all the humans in the galaxy, they are the ones who stepped out of the past into a galaxy they never could have imagined. But they never let that stop them- instead they use that as a reminder of their connections to the past and their chance at reshaping the future.
Every three years, the The Ship Clans retrace their journeys from their origin point- Luna. The view that first inspired humanity to reach for the stars is also the one from which the ancient generation ships first departed on their journeys in an attempt to reach new worlds. Now, they can use -Nth Dimension Engines to make the trip in months rather than centuries. Their rendezvous point is the Central Cupertinian Monastery of Luna. While the monastery did not exist at the time, it was at the same location as the generation ship construction sites. The oldest portions of the monastery are the old barracks and workshops, and so on those years of the festival, the Cupertinans clean out those areas and hand them over to the Ship Clans.
The memorial festival officially takes place on Terran midsummer, but the proceedings stretch out for approximately one month before and after, taking up most of the summer. The first Ship Clans begin arriving in orbit around Luna at the start of summer while the rest of the Ship Clans filter in over the next few weeks.
In those initial weeks, the memorial is the largest trading market in the Sol System, with goods brought from all across human-settled space. These markets are set up within the exterior areas of the monastery, just within the main entrances in the various entrance halls dug into the lunar rock. Merchants and diplomats from all across the Sol System come to the monastery to meet with the Ship Clans. While officially citizens of long-defunct nations, the Terran governments find the Ship Clans useful assets, often through blackmail and extortion. But civilians come from all across the Sol System and nearest colonies as well, hoping to trade their crafts and art for materials from the far-flung reaches of space.
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