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Family Relationships
Ikin's father is still living on Falar, along with his three sisters, the youngest of whom is ten years old. They live just below the poverty line, thanks to the death of Ikin's mother, an engineer on board a salvaging craft. Ikin sends home a portion of his paycheck every week to help them out.
History
The first born of four children, Ikin was very happy and curious as a child, and he loved his family despite the fact that his mother was rarely around, frequently being off on one of the salvaging company's ships. Shortly after his youngest sister was born (hatched?) the ship Ikin's mother was on had a fatal systems failure and was hit by the wrecked ship it was attempting to salvage, knocking out the life support system and causing the death of 17 people. The company blamed the negligence of the life support engineer, Mrs. Saerin, for not reporting that the life support systems weren't rated for impact sooner, as it would be important for the trade, and refused to pay restitution, even going so far as to try to get Mr. Saerin to pay damages for the ship. A short, bloody legal battle ensued, the end result of which was the company dropping the damages, and Mr. Saerin dropping the restitution case. The damage had been done, however, and the legal battle drove Mr. Saerin into poverty.
The legal battle had taken its toll on Ikin as well, as the fact that his father settled with the company was, for many people (Including Ikin himself) tantamount to admitting that his mother was responsible for the accident. That quickly developed into something of an inferiority complex, which his family's relative poverty didn't help. He quickly withdrew into his shell and began taking on far more schoolwork than most of the other children, so that he would have an excuse to not interact with them. This paid off in the end, when Ikin was able to attend Falar Central University on a scholarship, where he did the exact same thing; taking on every class even TANGENTIALLY related to engineering that the university offered. A few classes required teamwork, however, and he actually had to make ONE friend in college. They worked well together, and managed to graduate in the top 10% of their class. They had a plan to head to Eiru to find engineering work together, but the family of Ikin's friend got her a job closer to home, and Ikin wound up going alone. Once there, he found out that the Pyracan military was hiring contractors, so he signed on with the MCV Alopex.