Gadrin and Hedrett

Gadrin and Hedrett was the name given to the neighbor cities of Gadrin and Hedrett in Cularin, sometimes mistaken as a single city.

When Reidi Artom first landed on Cularin, she set her ship down in a clearing next to the , a river almost two kilometers wide. There she met the Hiironi irstat. When she returned, she helped build the original buildings of the first town, Gadrin, where the river flowed into the base of Cloud Mountain. The population expanded quickly, and a second town called Hedrett was started on the other side of the river. Reidi linked the two towns with a great bridge. Soon they became cities and expanded into the jungle. The Tarasin, seeing unchecked expansion of the cities as bad for their world, opposed any new building. After the Tarasin Revolt, humans and aliens erected the first platform cities. As more off worlders moved there, Gadrin and Hedrett dwindled into backwater towns. Gadrin was originally planned on a grid, but rapid expansion during the town's early years caused the leaders to abandon that plan, letting people build wherever they wanted. The buildings are made mostly of wood from the surrounding jungle, but after prefab buildings were brought in, the city became a mixture of wood, metal, and plastic structures. Hedrett held to the grid system much better, and builders in Hedrett used mostly prefab metal construction.

Gadrin looks more native and older than its sister town. In size and population, the two towns are very similar. Gadrin boasts a population of 18,000 offworlders and 2,000 Tarasin. Hedrett rates its population at 16,700 offworlders and 2,900 Tarasin. The similarities end there. The towns have developed as if each was trying to be different from the other, as though the river somehow made the town on the other side a rival or enemy. A governor rules Gadrin. In theory, the people can elect a new governor every four years. In practice, real elections have not been held in over thirty standard years, and no one really minds. Democracy, the people have found, can be a lot of work. The residents would rather spend their effort on commerce instead.

Reidi Artom dreamed that the leaders would serve one term each and then return to private business, so that the duty of government would fall on everyone. Again, practice differs greatly from this ideal. Within the last thirty years, "professional" politicians have changed the electoral system to the extent that the governor appoints other needed officers, and the people ratify his choices with a public vote. No campaigning accompanies these votes. Many of the citizens don't know when elections are held, and they simply don't care. This ignorance results more from apathy than any real attempt to conceal the vote from the citizens.

Voting in Gadrin is a formality. If the governor had to choose from a longer list of candidates, he would probably be unable to decide. Hedrett, on the other hand, governs itself through a Town Council composed of nine senior counselors and twelve junior counselors. Each junior counselor's vote on any matter counts as half that of a senior counselor, so the total number of votes on any issue can be as high as fifteen.

Unlike Gadrin, the people on this side of the Estauril participate in their government. They enjoy elections, or at least find them entertaining. Votes on major issues not only attract all the counselors, but a number of citizens who don't have any pressing business at the time. The citizens harangue the counselors and argue with them as if they could also vote, thus prolonging debates. No one can say that the public is not involved in every decision. Election of counselors follows a similar practice. Elections for empty seats are held with a week's notice. Interested candidates can campaign all they want after they've filed a petition to run for office and made a lengthy speech to the Town Council. Unfortunately for the residents of Hedrett, no major issues of interest have surfaced in two years, not since Senior Counselor Westa Impeveri upset popular favorite Karid Blakken. Blakken had the votes recounted, because he suspected Impeveri of rigging the ballot box, but Impeveri was proven innocent.

Gadrin is closely connected to the platform city of Lissken. It imports as much galactic culture as it can from that spaceport. Holotheatres, opera, concerts, and dance recitals are all available. Of course, most of the people don't attend these displays of culture. The governor enjoys them immensely and has little difficulty spending public credits on what some would call his own entertainment. Hedrett has its own spaceport, which it uses to premiere music and arts before Gadrin can get them. The original spaceport for Gadrin was built across the river, where there was no city.

Hedrett grew up around the spaceport, eventually annexing it officially from Gadrin. Gadrin's governor, Barnab Chistor, has since authorized the building of a second spaceport, but plans have not even been completed. Hedrett's docking bays are so convenient that no one really sees a need for another facility closer to Gadrin. Gadrin is the home of a unique cultural feature. Because this was Reidi Artom's first settlement in the system, Gadrin keeps a memorial to her memory and a museum of her artifacts. Reidi Artom's discoveries throughout the system brought fame, interest, and credits. She used all three to develop Cularin and advance the level of technology to a standard comparable with the Core Worlds. For this, she is beloved among the residents of both Gadrin and Hedrett. She was also admired among the residents of the platform cities. A statue of Artom fully 20 meters tall graces the front of the museum that holds her logbooks, personal effects, holovids of her travels before reaching Cularin, and other curiosities. The museum is open to all. With the advent of the platform cities, Gadrin and Hedrett have faded in significance in the affairs of Cularin. The Hiironi irstat lives nearby, but the most advanced commerce takes place in the platform cities. Whether the sister towns can regain home of their former glory, or even want to, remains to be seen.