Star of Empire
The Star of Empire was a luxury liner owned by Haj Shipping Lines.
Characteristics
The Star of Empire was an oval starship, nearly two kilometers long, and painted bright blue with decorative lights. With forty decks, it had the capacity to carry five thousand passengers and was staffed by a large crew and droids.
It had an enormous hangar bay where shuttles or smaller ships owned by wealthy passengers, could dock. All kinds of ships were there: from fighters and pinnaces, two barges and skids, plus the service auto carts. It took half an hour to close and pressurize the bay. Space-suited crew received passengers; accommodations were welcomed and escorted to their staterooms, whereas the others, carrying their own luggage, were herded by purser droids. The hangar did not have an energy field but pressure doors operated by the Hangar Control; ships couldn't depart at any time, but pilots had to fill requests thirty standard hours earlier.
The Star of Empire had forty staterooms on either side of the hull, each having a large portal viewing into open space; suites were large and spacious, with vases decorated with stasis-fresh flowers, well-secured crates of Caridian glassware, and Empire-style furniture.
Other places of interest included a low-paying passenger area called the "Starlight Deck" with no viewports, an observation deck, sabacc lounges such as the "Corellia Room", the expensive "Nebula Room" restaurant, cheap cafeterias for the more common passengers, and exercise rooms; there was also a small but extensive library with millions of electronic books in thousands of languages for remote access or download, as well as tutorials and virtual reality games; it had a raised area for readings or VR performances, and cubicles.[1][2]
History
The Star served a cosmopolitan crowd of passengers, Twi'leks, Mon Calamari, Klatooinians, Rodians, Grans; merchants, engineers, technicians, bounty hunters, Imperials. The Haj family was generous and political enough to offer reduced fares to some Imperial military personnel, something appreciated by the senior officers.[1] On the other hand, Rebels might enjoy a more luxurious cabin, thanks to the sympathies of some crewmembers.[2]
Because of this traffic, the Star became a "crossroad" of businesses and criminal activities; the bounty hunter Slyder noticed it, and decided to stay onboard that ship, living in a cabin for years, spying on potential targets and selling their information (and later, their heads) to those interested to become his clients; he didn't need to look for new bounties or search the galaxy for new targets. Slyder sometimes acquired the assistance of the porter droid NB4[2] and during the years onboard the Star he had targeted assassin droids, con men, spies, robbers, Rebels.[1]
In 4 BBY, prior to possessing the Millennium Falcon, Lando Calrissian was travellinga through the galaxy on the Star of Empire and other similar pleasure liners.[3]
As of 1 BBY, the Star was captained by one of the many granddaughters of Old Man Haj. That time Calrissian with Vuffi Raa was traveling again, and met Second Lieutenant Kyle Katarn taking a pleasure cruise on the Star to relax after his graduation from the Academy of Carida; the family of Dol Donar II was also there. In the same time Rebel agents Jan Ors, Ris Waller and Rosco Ross, with A-Cee, came with their ship Truly Sorry for a recruiting mission.[1][2]
The operations were detected by Slyder, as did Katarn's ambivalence, who decided to defect and join the Rebels. This information was sold to Governor Donar, who ordered their arrest. Although the Captain refused to "take sides", Imperial military personnel were recuited to assist Slyder. In the episodic skirmish that followed, the Rebels escaped on the Sorry, not before shooting around the ship's hangar to force the Hangar Control to open the pressure door out of schedule.[1][2]
In 0 BBY, the Star was taken over by a rogue artificial intelligence created by the Empire called SIM. The anthropologist Mammon Hoole, his wards Tash and Zak Arranda, and the smuggler Dash Rendar escaped from the murderous program, and Dash disabled the cruiser with his ship, the Outrunner. Dash planned to sell the Star of Empire to the Rebel Alliance.
Appearances
- Rebel Dawn (Mentioned only)
- Dark Forces: Soldier for the Empire (First appearance)
- Dark Forces: Soldier for the Empire audio drama
- Galaxy of Fear: The Doomsday Ship
- Dark Forces: Rebel Agent (Mentioned only)
Sources
- The Essential Chronology
- The Official Star Wars Fact File 140 (KAT5, Second Chance)
- The New Essential Guide to Characters
- The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia
- The Essential Reader's Companion