Two-Bit Con Artist
Outer Rim
Astras Ko
[member="Delaney Wilder"]
It wasn't a planet. Not really. It had been, once upon a time. Now they called it the World Tree, Astras Ko, and Neri had never seen anything like it. A tree the size of a small moon, drifting in orbit between a dying star and a gas giant both trying to claim it. It was a unique slice of astronomical history- from a long term view, on the nature of stars and moons and planets, this period was just a blip. A tiny moment. A heartbeat before what was left of the planet would be snuffed out. From the perspective of a more ephemeral mind however, it would likely still be thousands of years before that happened, and as short lived, sapient species are wont to do, the focus was on the moment and the immediate future.
"Must have been a big planet to support trees this big," Neri murmured to herself as she bounded across the (relatively) narrow, swaying branchway linking two branch cities. There were trams that traveled the 'Highways'- artificial constructs between the population centers that clustered high in the canopy and curled around the entire length of the trunk, but Neri didn't want to miss a moment of the view.
Out beyond the branches was darkness. The tree large enough that it created its own gravity field and hold the thin atmosphere. Just enough to breath, though it wasn't as easy for the folks who weren't from here. Fortunately the lower gravity made physical activity almost breezy, balancing it out for the rare visitor. All the way out in the Outer Rim, Astras Ko wasn't a hotspot of galactic activity, and for that Neri was appreciative. The place was gorgeous, the people here finding balances between the needs of an evolving, melting pot culture and the tree itself. But then, when the population was mostly the survivors of the Wookiee, Caamasi, and Ithorian denizens of the original planet, what else could you expect?
Neri had been here for only two days so far, settling in for what she planned on being an extended stay- she'd gotten permission to study the epiphytic plant life that had formed their own mini rain-forests among the World Tree's branches. No sampling, but she respected that. Her friend Ichy, an old contact from her days in the Alliance, had arranged with a few of his 'cousins' for her work there. She didn't actually think they were related at all, but then, the Ithorians had weird ideas about how that all worked anyway.
Laima, the Capital City and where she had flown into- indeed where most people did- came into view through the foliage. Around the city, a shimmer of light, a bubble of thicker atmosphere, generated in most of the larger population centers for comfort. Not unlike the Hydrostatic Bubbles of the Gungans of Naboo, she was almost relieved by the time she got back there. Even with the lower gravity making it easier, she was starting to form a headache between her eyebrows from the thin air outside in the branches of the world tree. Tomorrow when she went out she'd bring a rebreather, she decided. Stepping in through the membrane, a slight tingle against her skin, and she breathed in deeply, with a contented sigh.
"Perfect day," she murmured to herself, readjusting the pack on her back that had her instruments and journal in it.