Dawn came to Svivren with a rosy glow from the hills behind the Wrils Spaceport. With it came the morning breeze that stirred the countryside to life. It looked like it would be a beautiful, early summer day—perfect for the Festival of Great Trade.
Preparations for the festival took days, weeks even. They reconfigured holoprojectors to project decorations throughout the city. Giant banners were hauled out of storage and suspended across the speedways. Cargo speeders had been appropriated and refitted as parade floats. And everyone even remotely involved in trade on the entire planet would be on holiday today.
Smugglers tended to avoid Svivren because of their draconian laws against violence and personal weapons. If a being was caught committing a violent crime they would be executed, immediately, in public for the act. If suspected only, they would probably be executed at the end of their court case. For a smuggler to do business on Svivren involved calculated risks, and low competition. But that just meant more business for the few smugglers that understood how to conduct their trade on Svivren. And for those gutsy few, the rewards were usually worth the risks.
All at once the festival began. The populace erupted from their dwellings as the holoprojectors kicked in, and festive music began to play. It was Svivren at its busiest. Just to add to the chaos, ships from nearby sectors arrived to disgorge their wares in hopes that they too might make a windfall during the festival. The marketplace practically spanned all through the capital of Wrils, but especially from the spaceport to the business district almost 3 kilometers away. Stalls lined the streets, and the crowd was so numerous it was impossible for speeders to stay on the ground. Two klicks to the north of Wrils the parade was organized and began winding its way through the streets, and the skies.