Grath Gelenek

Grath Gelenek
Appearance
Race	Muun
Gender	Male
Biography
Career
Department	Ministry of Civil Engineering
Rank	C-4
Positions	Associate Minister of Civil Engineering
Past positions	Minister of Civil Engineering
Past affiliations	JUGANOTH Mining Corporation
Commendations

Biography

The first records of the existence of Grath Gelenek appear in GY 9, when he arrived in what was then known as the Antipose system controlled by the New Republic.

THE "GAND" PERIOD: Grath went to work with Twiggy Samp in JUGANOTH Mining Corporation in the Antipose system, operating mines and hauling raw materials. Eventually he graduated to construction activities in the system, though he still spent a lot of time in Juganoth as well as in the New Republic government faction. One of the shipyards he built in the system was named in memory of Twiggy Samp, his early mentor. Every shipyard that Gelenek constructed in the system eventually produced a Home One Cruiser for the New Republic government.

In those days, Grath was never seen in public except in a Gand atmosphere suit, and the world assumed that his story of his birth and early life on Gand was true. It was during this time, while working for Juganoth, that Grath had a ring-side seat to witness the looting of Juganoth by its then-leader, Morden Veritas.

Veritas suddenly stole all the credits, most of the raw material stockpiles, and even some of the facilities owned by Juganoth, and disappeared. For many months, Grath and other Juganoth employees struggled to collect all the stolen raw materials and quarantine them in various places; in Antipose system where Grath was working, all the stolen RMs were locked away in two spaceports. These were subsequently recycled to make way for new developments on Trevi III, and unfortunately nobody remembered to move all the stolen raw materials, and they were destroyed along with the spaceports and no longer exist.

THE GALAXY SHIFT: By a series of unlikely chances, paparazzi working for the galactic tabloids managed to obtain some aerial images of Grath Gelenek relaxing in his private residential compound one day, and broke a scandal story in the news revealing that he was not in fact a Gand at all. What had made the reporters suspicious was his exceptional height for a Gand. The images showed Gelenek without his atmosphere suit, which would have been fatal to any Gand, and he was forced to admit that he was in fact Muun, from an old and highly respectable Muun family high up in the financial world of his species. By this time he had risen to take charge of the entire Antipose system for the New Republic, and had completely built out several of the nine planets in the system. The government chose to ignore the scandal, and he remained in charge. His leadership was challenged to its limits, however, by a series of fundamental shifts in the nature of life in the galaxy and the New Republic. The most fundamental of these, of course, was a sudden and never-explained rift in the space-time continuum that suddenly shifted entire star systems to radically new positions around the galaxy; Antipose system vanished from its original location in the northwest quadrant of the galaxy and reappeared, this time as the Trevi system, in the southwest quadrant where it remains today. One of the former planets in the system vanished altogether and has never been seen again, while several of the space stations and some of the ships (including a Home One cruiser) reappeared in other star systems far from where Gelenek had constructed them.

THE FINANCIAL REVOLUTION: Shortly after the galaxy shift, a major revolution also occurred in the way that the New Republic (and other governments) organized their budgets. Previously, governments and other groups earned tax revenues based on the population size on each planet. This had yielded the unfortunate practice of building "tax planets," which in reality were gigantic slum-worlds filled with virtually nothing but vast hives of highrises and skyscrapers to maximize populations and thus revenue. There was no concern for realistic balance of jobs, residences and other amenities that make these populations happy. The process by which the "tax planet" system came to an end is still poorly understood by political scientists and economists, but suddenly the source of all government revenues shifted from population-based taxes to actual income from government-managed facilities operating in the free market. This income depended on a realistic balance of construction and also on the morale of the people on each planet, with disastrous results for most governments and their budgets. But fortunately, Grath Gelenek had ignored the tax planet system as aesthetically displeasing, and already had been constructing balanced cities and planets in the system for several years when the financial revolution occurred.

The Trevi system became one of the financial pillars of the New Republic, and remains the richest and most productive system in New Republic space to this day, thanks largely to his original instincts and continued energetic building-out of all the planets in the system.

THE ERA OF SYSTEM GOVERNORS: As a Muun concerned mostly with financial success, it is not surprising that Grath Gelenek has remained in one large system with nine very promising planets for the entire time since his arrival in the galaxy, and that he has developed that system into by far the leading source of New Republic revenue. He built and continues to operate more than seventy mines in the system, using the raw materials to build out the entire surface of planet after planet, culminating in the total urbanization of the large gas giant Trevi IX in the system. Eventually, the habitable surfaces of all planets in Trevi will be completely coverd with cities, except for the special hunting preserve that Gelenek has created in the southeast corner of Trevi V, a huge, temperate planet. The hunting preserve has several types of terrain with a multitude of different game to hunt, and hunters from all factions friendly to New Republic are welcome to make expeditions to Trevi V at any time. Virtually all construction on all planets in Trevi system was accomplished single-handed by Gelenek, with brief ancillary assistance from a few other visiting pilots from time to time, but his contributions go well beyond the strictly fiscal. As Minister of Construction and Engineering for the New Republic for a few years (and now as Vice-Minister working closely with his protégé Coren Rinou who has taken over as Minister) Gelenek invented and implemented the idea of System Governors, putting some of the most enthusiastic, reliable and experienced New Republic citizens who particularly enjoy construction of cities in charge of specific systems. These Governors plan and manage all construction in a system, putting their personal stamp on its appearance in the galaxy, and in return receive a large monthly bonus to their regular New Republic salaries based on their personal construction activity each month. Gelenek continues to administer this highly effective system which has led to an extended boom in construction and economic growth throughout the New Republic.

Career History

Civilian Service Record

Ministry of Civil Engineering
Insignia	Paygrade	Duration	Rank/Position
	C-4	Year 18 Day 116 - Present	Associate Minister of Civil Engineering
	C-5	Year 16 Day 283 - Year 18 Day 116	Minister of Civil Engineering
	C-4	??? - Year 16 Day 283	Associate Minister of Civil Engineering

Citations and Awards

Civilian

Award	Name	Given By	Date
	Hydian Star of Excellence	Coren Rinou	Year 20 Day 2
	Master Builder's Award	Coren Rinou	Year 20 Day 2
	Rimma Star of Service	Coren Rinou	Year 19 Day 163
	Master Builder's Award	-	Year 18 Day 329
	Minister Citation Award	-	Year 18 Day 116
	Governor's Citation	-	Year 18 Day 116
	New Republican of the Month	-	Year 16
	Miner's Silver Award	-	Year 12 Day 112
	Miner's Bronze Award	-	Year 11 Day 342
	Prospector Excellence Award	-	Year 11 Day 8
	Miner's Bronze Award	-	Year 11 Day 8