Society and Culture
Kessleran society is defined by one’s profession. The majority of citizens are members of Working Groups: professional teams that have consistently maintained the same ship system or provided the same service aboard Kessler for generations. Masters (graduated professionals and experts in their field) lead the Groups, while students learn and work underneath them – and so the skills necessary to keep the ship running are passed down by a chain of didactic descent.
Anyone may apply to transfer to any Working Group before they graduate and join the workforce, but it is taken as an insult to both the old group and its Masters to transfer to another Working Group after graduation and restart training. The new group and Masters, however, are welcoming, seeing the desire of a qualified transferee to join their team as the highest compliment.
Kesslerans are keenly aware of the value in material goods – like the station itself, they claim whatever they discover, and will only part with their treasures in an exchange of appropriate value or when they have extracted all possible use from it. By the same token, they are extremely respectful of the possessions and values of others. They are also far less reticent when it comes to knowledge; curiosity is a Kessleran virtue, and attempts to distort or hide potentially useful information are viewed poorly (though concealing data from those who would themselves attempt to warp the truth is seen as fair game).
The work of Kessler takes its people from one wildly different world to the next, and they are consummate tourists – eager to indulge in the culture of their hosts, whenever they step away from their duties for “shore leave”. Within Kessler itself, the most important dates in their calendar are the symposia – when the Masters of the Working Groups gather to make an account of their Group’s work, show off their research, and discuss matters of policy both local and distant.
Other celebrations of note aboard Kessler include:
- Deep Clean: the life support systems aboard Kessler require constant maintenance – including a yearly full-spectrum system rinse to ensure proper function. Each zone is scrubbed in sequence, and rebreather masks are worn throughout the process to avoid breathing in dislodged pollutants. Kesslerans look forward to the day off each year, decorating their masks for the occasion so as to amuse each other and reassure their children that an intensive and frightening process can be fun, too.
- Harvest-tide: whenever Kessler completes an engagement, it opens its arms to traders and visitors – that they might sift through the piles of valuable ex-garbage that the ship has gathered and processed. Much celebration ensues, during which even the shrewdest Kessleran merchant might let their hair and/or prices down.
- the Noise: Kessler experiences a regular sonic phenomenon, a sound of deep and reverberating pitch that is heard throughout the ship simultaneously. This note is of uncertain origin, though there are many theories – feedback from the manifold reactors, resonance from the settling of the tractor beams, the scream of an immaterial captive in a dark zone, and so on. When the keening kicks up, workers are released from non-essential work and operations are wound down so that the sound can be appreciated; for Kesslerans, the Noise is familiar and relaxing, but it can be extremely unnerving for their guests.
- Recovery Day: the anniversary of the ship’s reclamation, which is to say its fortuitous early arrival in Alliance space. Kesslerans pay respect to the reclaimers and those who have been lost aboard – including the ship’s owners before the Alliance took command. All of the ship’s external lights are turned white for the day, in imitation (and veneration) of the galaxy it calls home.
The inhabitants of Kessler are “Kesslerans”, and concepts or objects belonging to Kessler are similarly termed “Kessleran”.
