There was a time, long ago now, when my home planet was teeming with my race as the dominant species on the planet. We were exploring the oceans, wilderness and Solar System with alacrity, unknowingly being watched by sentient races from faraway planets. That changed, of course, when a scientist formed a wormhole to Alpha Centauri. This kind of technology brought the Galactic Federation to our tiny blue planet with an offer: Those of us that wanted to join, could, if we left our planet permanently, while those that stayed would have to undergo the sterilization of our existence from their memories and all of our cities and other evidences wiped from the surface. This resulted in eighty-five percent of us joining the Federation. That was more than fifty thousand years ago.
There are forty-seven races that make up the federation, including humans. All have had several Diaspora from their home planets over the ages. Virtual immortality is a way of life for us, for those that want it. After a few centuries, the process renders you sterile, but most generally are sick of having children for that long, anyway. Hell, most people get tired of living for centuries and just don't renew. I don't mind this as much as a whole stinking lot of my brethren did. Of the 2.5 billion humans that left in my Diaspora, only a few thousand remain. The biggest shock many, and I have found this among all the races, is that, "We weren't the first?". My Diaspora was the third. Surprised? I sure was. Neanderthals aren't the simple, stupid brutes we all thought they were. Not many of them left, either.
The technologies of the federation are, as you'd imagine, fantastic and awe-inspiring. Everything that may be possible is probably existent out there. Our Diaspora was brought on because one man grasping how to bend space-time in a way that allowed us to travel any distance by stepping through a portal. That is only one method of travel among several that lead to a Diaspora, although it is a common variety. The Malnesians from Malnese(a race of there meter tall humanoids with no hair and seven fingers on each hand, orange skin that smells horrific) are the masters of the wormhole, extending one almost 5 billion light-years between points. Their planet is on their seventh Diaspora, each time joining for wormholes.
Due to these technologies, most of the federations citizens have no "jobs" as you think of them. We have hobbies that we take very seriously, however. The most common of these are Homewatcher, which is exactly what you think it is. Homewatchers keep track of those left behind on their home planets or, more likely, other races worlds. It can be quite gripping watching a civilization develop over the course of a few centuries or eons. Not interfering can be the hardest part of that hobby. It is the main reason I stopped doing it a thousand years ago.
Money, economy, conflict on a grand scale does not exist in our galaxy by some miracle of the cosmos. Differences between the races exist, but we generally don't go to war over them. Barfights, however, can be a grand old time. Our technologies have rendered most struggles in life inert so the most indigent being can sit at home for as long as they like doing nothing. We are a free galaxy, as so many others out there are. The main conflict is truly between the Free Galaxies and The Others, but we will discuss them later.
My home is space since we first started exploring the solar system. I was born on a ship and rarely made a planetfall my entire life. When the offer of joining the federation came, I jumped at the chance, since I never thought I would ever slip the bonds of my solar system. I flitter around the galaxy in my ship, a small personal cruiser with all the amenities, doing odd things like delivering goods and helping homewatchers. I've been known to escort the occasional Newcomer(what we call people who have just left their world)helping them to adjust to their new lives in the federation. I was the head of the systems military when the Diaspora came, so I advise the federation on military matters when they need it(not often, don't worry). I'm currently on Ganymede Base with homewatchers doing exactly that,even though the government, such as it is, doesn't know it. Seeing Earth and watching a society I eschewed a thousand years ago as too backward to reach a diaspora for at least five thousand years and realizing I was wrong. Somehow, somebody figured out that freedom is the best way to achieve technological superiority.
end of part one