Pit Stop Planet

Chapter 1 - Population: 1*

"This sucks", I thought as my ship detached from the train, falling away from it and the gate. The Invincible was a planet-hopper, more or less a sports vehicle that rich parents bought for their kids to tool around the local star system in, not a serious vessel for exploring the wilderness at the edge of civilization. Yet here I was. As expected, the only ship out of the dozens that had attached to the train was mine. No one else would come to a place like this. Beautiful, scenic Imperial Interstellar Claim 414802. A frankly rather dull system with a small yellow star. The nearest planet to the star was a tiny, rocky world that orbited so close it was practically skipping across the surface of the star. After that came a super-Neptune with a host of moons. The second of which had life — a developing, early-land colonizing ecosystem with a largely nitrogen atmosphere and abundant (perhaps a bit too abundant) oxygen.
The second moon of the second planet had no name, of course, it was simply known by it's claim number, IIC-413802b2. I, as its ruler and only resident would get to name it. Which might be exciting if it matter to literally anyone else in the universe and, let's be honest, it doesn't.
Yes, I got to rule a planet. This was nowhere near as exciting a prospect as you might think, though. Was I a noble? I sure was. I'm the fourth oldest son of Baron Viridian, or I guess I'm actually now Baron myself, but, again, it literally doesn't matter. Being a noble wasn't a big deal, anyway. The Empire is old and there are hundreds of thousands of worlds in it and thousands upon thousands of nobles. It basically meant I had rich parents, tutors, and, as the fourth-oldest son of a minor house with control over a few worlds, most of which only had a few people, it meant nobody expected much of me.
That, I admit, might've been my problem. I considered myself a scholar of classic media and hoped to one day maybe get a job doing something with that? Did the galaxy really need another academic studying early 21st century visual kinetic media? It really didn't and I'm not a great writer, anyway. But it would've at least been a job and kept my parents out of my hair.
And yet, not two weeks ago, my parents had called me and told me it was time to have a family meeting.

"We're old," my father explained as teams of large men and women loaded our furnishings onto the deep space hauler that my parents that converted into a recreational vehicle. Well, what was left of them, after most had been sold off to fund their vacations.
"Really old," my mother continued. "I turn 109 in a month!"
"But you look as lovely as the day we met!" my father interjected. I really wished they wouldn't flirt at a time like this. "So we're retiring and ceding the Barony to you."
"Me?!" I shouted, "What about Jarel?" Jarel Viridian was my older brother and logically the first in line of succession.
"Jarel joined the Stellar Knights, remember? They need to renounce their inheritance."
"Wait, really? Uh, then Faith?" And here I'd thought the Stellar Knights were just a bunch of cosplaying dorks, but it turns out they're a bunch of cosplaying dorks in a weird cult.
"We haven't been able to find her since she left on a voyage of self-discovery." So much for my older sister.
"...Miron? Now, I'm sure they're not in a cult or off on a voyage of discovery," I still had one more shot at freedom and Miron and I had always been relatively close.
"Miron joined a convent."
"What?! When?!"
"Yesterday, when we told them about our plans."
They hadn't even said goodbye! I guess we weren't as close as I thought.
"Ok... well, maybe this won't be as bad as I thought. I... we still have the castle, we still have our holdings. I can make this work."
"About those..." my mother said in an apologetic tone. "I'm afraid we've sold most of them. Oh, but not all! There wouldn't be much of a point to being nobility with no holdings to rule. We have a lovely little planet."
"Oh? What's it called?" I demanded.
"Oh, it's... er..." she stopped and looked away, whispering something to her computer.
"Tell me without looking it up!"
"Oh, you know I could never remember all these things! It's ICC-414802b2. It's a lovely planet! Er, I assume."
"You've never seen it?"
"It's a bit distant, you see. But I'm sure you'll love it!"
"You're shipping me off to some planet you've never seen that doesn't even have a name!"
"Now, now, we're not shipping you off. You have a choice in all this! You're an adult, after all. What have you done with the allowance we've been giving you? Surely you must have quite a savings by now."
I did, if you counted the accumulating value of my classic Earth media collection. Otherwise I was nearly broke.
"Can your friends take you in?"
Oh. My friends. Yeah, I definitely had those. Ha. Ha.... Well, okay.
"Well, then! It sounds like at least you'll have a home, and you have your planet hopper and we'll provide you with some of our old camping gear, even! Listen, dear, the truth is, we've been in a bit of a precarious financial situation for a while now and the chickens have come home to roost, so to speak. So, off you go! It'll be an adventure!"
Well, crap.