A derelict starship

[Jantar Keltainen]

“You’ve probably heard this before, but it’s a trap.”
– Luke Skywalker, to the President of Fondor, warning of minelaying activity in Fondorian space

The Colonies, also known as the Colonies Regions, was the name given to a region of the galaxy between the Core Worlds and the Inner Rim. Due to its close proximity to the galaxy’s economic and political powerhouse – the Core Worlds – the Colonies was a largely wealthy region consisting of booming industrial worlds, trade centres, and garden worlds.

The planets of the Colonies were among the first areas outside the Core to be colonised, some before the establishment of the Galactic Republic, and many worlds in the Colonies were founding members. The worlds here were typically heavily populated, industrialized, and had cultures as well established as the Core Worlds. The planets in the Colonies were extremely wealthy and highly developed, and could be referred to as export powerhouses. Many produced vast amounts of raw materials, particularly food and metals for the production of droids, starships, and military vehicles. Mining operations would often leave entire planets ravaged and bare.

Jantar had done her homework.

 

[Jantar Keltainen]

Fondor was a planet in the Freeworlds Territory of the Tapani sector, famous throughout the galaxy for its extensive orbital shipyards, outclassed only by those at Corellia and Kuat. The Fondor Shipyards were associated with the Techno Union prior to the Clone Wars, and were sufficiently vast to construct Imperial Dreadnoughts.

Almost entirely industrialised, Fondor was an ecumenopolis world surrounded by orbital shipyards and drydocks. Its surface was almost totally covered with factories, cooling towers, and workers barracks, as well as mine shafts leading deep into the planet’s core and office complexes.

History could be useful, but Jantar was picky about the data she mined – no pun intended. It had to be relevant to the task in hand, and her quick brain allowed her to separate the wheat from the chaff as she sought evidence of what she knew had to be present.

 

[Jantar Keltainen]

She travelled here via the seldom-used Gandeal-Fondor hyperlane. It was originally blazed by the Empire to move ships efficiently between Fondor and Coruscant, and it had taken a while to find the necessary jump coordinates. But it had saved her three jumps – and a considerable amount of time to get here.

With the exception of those in the Corporate Sector, few planetary systems had been exploited to the degree that Fondor had – especially for a system so close to the Core. Designated a manufacturing and shipbuilding centre because of the surfeit of resource-rich asteroids and moons –the colossal corporations that dominated Bilbringi, Kuat, Sluis Van, and other shipbuilding centres made a pretence of picking up after themselves, no such efforts had ever been made at Fondor.

The space lanes were perilous with free-floating construction debris, and its several small moons looked as if something had taken huge bites out of them. The planet itself was polluted and corrupted by profiteers providing diversions for the millions of workers who had nowhere else to spend their hard-earned credits.

Not that Jantar had any intention of visiting the planet itself.

 

[Jantar Keltainen]

Through the viewport, Jantar saw brilliant bands of light fly past the ship. She consulted the nav computer screen and said out loud, “Twenty seconds to real-space.”

The ship’s engines revved down to a snarling hum. Outside the viewport, the bands of light suddenly became more brilliant, then appeared to wash away from the ship as it re-entered space. Emerging from the Gandeal hyperlane out past Fondor’s outermost moon, Jantar spotted a large and slightly misshapen planet that was surrounded by numerous orbital stations – like a swarm of tiny moons.

And she reflected on why she was here.

 

[Jantar Keltainen]

The Qixoni Nebula. Grid coordinates K-13.

Or at least it was. Once upon a time, it was a nebula in the Colonies – in this very region of space.

One day, the star of the Qixoni system exploded in a supernova. The heat and energy of the star caused metals and minerals in one of its orbiting planets to become fused into crystals, which were then blasted into space when the planet was destroyed. The sort of thing that happened from time to time in one galaxy or another. Except this one was different. The resultant Qixoni crystals were discovered to make powerful lightsaber focusing crystals.

And Jantar wanted one.

 

[Jantar Keltainen]

Qixoni crystals were dark red – and rare, and it was the latter fact that had attracted her to seek them out.

Reports suggested they were most likely to be found in systems close by to K-13 – which explained her presence. Why Fondor specifically? That was because of a dream. Since she’d acquired Bane’s Heart, she’d considered what crystals to utilise – and that coincided with a dream of Darth Vader. She wondered if this was a link to the person – but soon realised it was about the crystals, given her dreams always featured his saber. But where to go? Tatooine? Coruscant? Mustafar? The list of possible planets was endless.

Then she began to see him on board a ship – his ship – the Executor, his Star Dreadnought. Which was built…here. Once she researched the planet and wider area, it all made sense – although no single site of a likely find presented itself. But she knew that somehow the Force would guide her – she just had to be determined.

 

[Jantar Keltainen]

Jantar searched the stars for something…anything. She’d set up the ship’s scanners to help her search, but she expected the Force to be the way she’d locate any crystals – given the nature of their relationship with the cosmic power – and her connection with it.

From her seat, Jantar looked through the cockpit’s viewport to the surrounding starscape, searching for any signs. Seeing nothing but distant stars, she wondered if this was a fool’s errand.

Then she saw it – standing to get closer to the viewport – as if that would make any difference at this distance.

She felt it, more than saw it – an insignificant speck below a star cluster. A dim sliver of light and it was moving. Not at any pace, but it was moving.

She checked her scanners. Whatever it was, it did not appear on her sensors.

She checked the equipment. All the systems are operational, but she was getting a dead signal from the electrophoto receptors as well as the full-spectrum transceivers.

“Strange,” she breathed. “Could it be jamming the sensor array?”

Her astromech arrived in the cockpit and its bleeps told her it was conceivable – but not possible to tell unless they got much closer.

 

[Jantar Keltainen]

As her ship sped toward the unidentified object, it appeared to slowly grow and elongate within the frame of the viewport. The sliver became a thin stick, the stick became an oblong, the oblong transformed into a thick cylinder, and then the cylinder became...

A derelict starship.

It appeared to be about four hundred metres long, sixteen times the length of her ship, and it drifted at an odd angle across the airless void. Illuminated only by the light of the Fondor system’s sun, the derelict’s grey-metal hull was pocked by numerous small holes.

She checked the data available. There was still nothing from the sensors.

“According to the sensors, we should be looking at empty space.”

The droid responded with a series of beeps.

“No, there’s nothing wrong with our sensor array.”

“The dents on the hull were probably caused by micrometeorites,” Jantar observed. “Looks like it’s been adrift for a very, very long time. Those two facts suggest this could be just what I’m looking for. Take over.”

@Jantar Keltainen

 

[Jantar Keltainen]

The droid matched the speed of the drifting derelict and manoeuvred the ship so they could have a clear view of the hull.

Finally, she spotted it, a human sized hole. “Keep her steady,” she said and left the cockpit.

 

[Jantar Keltainen]

Jantar checked the seal between her helmet and g-suit, then opened the air lock. Pushing away from her ship, she floated across space before reaching the derelict's hull. Her boots' positive-grip soles would prevent her from drifting off into space.

She stepped carefully toward the hole she’d spotted and was finally able to enter the derelict ship. She was surrounded by darkness. She took a deep breath, then removed a glowstick from her belt and activated it. The interior was instantly illuminated by a blue glow.

She spotted a hatch and moving awkwardly, opened it. Still holding the glowstick, she ducked through the hole.

She found herself in a high-ceilinged chamber that adjoined the area she’d entered the ship from. It was lit only by the glow of her artificial light. Closing her eyes, she focused on the Force, willing it to yield to her command.

Instantly she sensed a number of small Force signatures – which she presumed were crystals. But before she set off for the closest, an aura far more powerful caught her attention. They say that you’ll know when you find a crystal that is attuned to you – and Jantar believed she had found hers.

 

[Jantar Keltainen]

She made her way through the ship. It was a slow process – the systems were no longer functioning and so each door had to be manually overridden. But she believed the wait was worth it – it actually heightened her excitement to reach the crystals.

Finally, when half of her air was spent, she reached the place.

Many small crystals had punctured the hull and although they resonated with the Force, they felt weak to her.

As she opened the final door, she came across a small meteorite – and she knew that, contained within it – was the crystal that called to her. She considered how best to progress. She decided, finally, the push the hunk of rock out of the hole it had made. Trying to tear it apart here was both problematic in terms of accomplishment – and dangerous, given the location.

If she could take it on board her ship, then take it to the surface of a planet, she could approach the challenge with the luxury of time and resources – both of which were denied her here.

 

[Jantar Keltainen]

The meteorite was secured in the small hold of her ship and she breathed a sigh of relief. Her next through was where to take her find. And the answer seemed so obvious.

So, she lay in a course for Ambria.

She’d been there before, seeking the saber she now carried – and awaited crystals to enable it to function once more.

The small desert planet, located in the Stenness Node of the Inner Rim, seemed the perfect place to bring her saber back to life. It was, after all the place where Bane trained Zannah. It was also where the apprentice became the Dark Lord of the Sith when she defeated her master.

The location could not have been more perfect if it tried.

 

[Jantar Keltainen]

From a distance, Ambria looked beautiful. An orange world with striking violet rings, it was easily the largest habitable planet in the Stenness system. Yet anyone landing on the world would quickly realize that the beauty faded soon after entering the atmosphere.

Jantar had been here before – on her quest to find the saber that she was now going to reassemble – this time with a pair of crystals in it. It would be attuned to her and finally she would have her own weapon. One worthy of her focus – although she knew her abilities with the weapon would need to improve if she were to do the saber justice.

The ringed planet was an insignificant world: too few resources and too few people for the Republic fleets that now controlled the sector to worry about. For all intents and purposes, the world was forgotten.

 

[Jantar Keltainen]

Many centuries earlier, the failed rituals of a powerful Sith sorceress had inadvertently unleashed a cataclysmic wave of dark side energy across the surface of the world. The sorceress had been destroyed, along with almost all other life on Ambria. What survived was little more than barren rock, and even now plots of fertile ground were few and far between.

The Jedi had once tried to cleanse Ambria of its foul taint, but the power of the dark side had permanently scarred the world. Unable to purify it, they succeeded only in concentrating and confining the dark side in a single source: Lake Natth. The homesteaders brave enough to endure Ambria’s desolate environs gave the lake and its poisoned waters a wide, wide berth.

Of course, that’s precisely where Jantar headed now.

 

[Jantar Keltainen]

She was surrounded on all sides by a desolate, arid wasteland stretching out as far as the eye could see.

One of the benefits of the location was that there was no chance of anyone sneaking up on her. She’d see a ship coming in to land from several kilometres away. And if they came to her in a ground vehicle, she’d hear the grinding of its engines or feel the unmistakable vibrations of its heavy treads as they churned their way over the uneven terrain.

Instead all she heard as she sat there, cross-legged, was the gentle lapping of Lake Natth’s dark waters against the shore not five metres from where she sat.

 

[Jantar Keltainen]

And then she set to work. She’d stripped Bane’s Heart back to its constituent parts – and had spent the last day removing the Qixoni crystals from the meteorite she’d brought with her. Two felt the most viable – they felt warmer to the touch and more vibrant to the eyes, although she knew this was a personal experience, to others different crystals would have had the better Force connection.

She knew the saber was originally constructed here – some thousand years before the Battle of Yavin. The customised weapon included a longer than average hilt and was designed to be powered by two crystals. Once complete,the saber would produce blades that were three-quarters of a meter in length each. The design was to compensate for the proportions of Zannah’s frame.

 

[Jantar Keltainen]

The typical lightsaber had a pommel cap which typically held a backup power cell. All of the lightsaber mechanisms were contained within the hilt. High levels of energy generated by a high-output power cell was unleashed through a series of focusing lenses and energisers that converted the energy into plasma.

The plasma was projected through the crystals that lent the blade its properties. A power insulator was installed on the hilt to protect the wielder from any energy discharges.

This saber was often referred to as a double-bladed lightsaber or saberstaff. This, combined with the shorter blade length would give Jantar greater speed and manoeuvrability – at the expense of reach and leverage, but the aim was to create a shield of impenetrable defence.

 

[Jantar Keltainen]

Slowly Jantar constructed the hilt – taking her time and entering into a state of moving meditation as she used the Force to levitate the components as she assembled her weapon.

Finally, after a time that the young Sith could not measure – it was at least many hours – but could have been days – the construction was complete.

Tired, but exhilarated in equal measures, she stood and twirled the hilt in her hand, judging its weight – and transferring it from one hand and back to the other before holding it with both – the saber horizontal to the ground, her arms outstretched at waist height and her knuckles on top of the hilt.

 

[Jantar Keltainen]

Then she activated it. The lightsaber emitted a buzzing hum upon ignition and thrummed mildly when deactivated.

She reactivated it and now performed standard Soresu training moves – her hands moving ever faster as she manipulated the blade.

She quickly understood the weapon required precise wrist control and a light, but nonetheless firm, grasp to effect the twirling manoeuvre that her Master had instructed her on – that would be the source of her wall of near-impenetrable defence.

The hypnotic patterns woven by her ignited lightsaber would also serve to unsettle unsuspecting opponents, who became increasingly frustrated as their attacks were repeatedly parried—instead of blocked—with minimal effort.

Then, so her Master told her, when the enemy finally faltered, Jantar should retaliate with lethal speed.

Now, all she had to do was try it out...who to kill first?