Star Wars: Lost Stars

Chapter 2: Part 4

The day Thane left Jelucan felt . . . perfect. Like he could do no wrong, like all the constellations had finally aligned to guide him out. His parents said their good-byes at the house and didn't bother taking him to the spaceport. It was a relief.

Boarding the vessel to Coruscant was even more satisfying because Ciena was there, too, though she remained on the boarding ramp hugging her parents so long that the captain threatened to leave her behind. Thane and she had become a team to get into the academy; it was only right that they should arrive there together. Best of all was the moment when the transport shuddered into hyperspace - their first experience of lightspeed - and the two of them grinned at each other in total delight.

Then they arrived on Coruscant, and it was like getting punched in the face.

Thane had always known Jelucan was a backwater world. Holos had told him the galaxy was far bigger and more sophisticated than anything he'd ever had the chance to see before. So he'd thought he was prepared. But when he stepped off the ship and saw Coruscant for the first time-

The buildings stood as high as Jelucan's mountains. Although sunlight slipped through various glass structures, the overall effect was one of profound claustrophobia. The ground was impossibly far below, and the sky was cut into thin slivers. Hundreds of smaller aircraft zoomed or hovered between skyscrapers in a nonstop buzz of negotiation and commerce. Every single person seemed to have direction and purpose, to be perfectly at home in this huge metal cage, this city that had swallowed a world. Thane, however, tried not look out the windows any longer because the view made him feel so small.

At first he thought Ciena would be even more overcome. Her childhood had been spent in the open valleys, in houses only slightly more sophisticated than tents. Surely this would be too much for her.

Instead, she was elated. "This is where everything happens," she gushed as the two of them walked through the corridors of the spaceport, buoy droids floating ahead as beacons to guide them toward the academy shuttle. "It's like- electricity, this incredible energy all around. Don't you feel it?"

"Definitely," Thane said. "Totally electric."

Ciena gave him a look. "Hey. Are you all right?" But then they'd reached the shuttle, along with a handful of other new cadets, and they got caught up in the whirl of activity that was the first day of attendance: collecting data chips with the information they'd need, learning about tonight's reception for all cadets, and introducing themselves to cadets from other worlds. Imperial officers, stiff and correct in dress uniforms, moved among them as the shuttle pulled away and joined the dizzyingly swift Coruscant air traffic. Thane had to keep himself from flinching every time another craft came within two wingtips - but in a planet-size metropolis, apparently pilots were used to small margins of error.

The intensity only sharpened when they reached the academy itself. As the new cadets walked out of the shuttle, Thane realized hundreds of students were already there. Hundreds more seemed likely to pour out of the other shuttles coming up behind them. The entire time he was checking in, he couldn't help feeling lost. When he glanced toward Ciena, she was smiling even more brightly. Before long they were separated from each other in the crush of people trying to figure out where they should be.

Thane's data chip gave him the location of his dorm room and the information that he'd have two roommates. They couldn't be worse than Dalven, he thought, determined to make the best of it.

Still, as he raised his hand to hit the door chime, Thane felt unbelievably small.

The door swooshed open to reveal a slim, black-haired guy with a narrow face and rigid bearing - so correct that it took Thane a moment to realize this was no administrator but one of his roommates.

"So your the one from, what's it called, Jelucan?" When Thane nodded, the guy scoffed. "Why did you bother ringing the chime of your own room? It's ridiculous."

"Charming, isn't he?" said another guy - the tallest of the three, stick thin and long-faced, with long brown hair he'd knotted at the back of his head. His accent was aristocratic but his smile infectious. "Mr. Personality here is Ved Foslo, native to Coruscant-"

"Of course," Ved cut in, lifting his chin. "My father, General Foslo, works in central intelligence."

"-and, as you can see, he manages to work in a reference to his father within the first minute of meeting anybody." As Ved scowled, the tall guy stepped closer to shake Thane's hand. "Me, I'm Nash Windrider from Alderaan. And my father makes carpets. Impressed yet?"

"Very," Thane realized he'd started to smile. "Mine does slightly dishonest accounting."

"Always handy," Nash said. "You never know when you're going to need to cook the books. Come in and get comfortable - as comfortable as you can be on the lower bunk, that is. We grabbed the two best bunks already."

Nash turned out to have traveled to more than a dozen worlds already and had visited Coruscant several times. He didn't even ask Thane whether he'd been intimidated at first; he assumed as much and swore everybody felt that way the first time they landed on the planet.

"They should pass out inhalers at the spaceports," Nash said as they hung out, sprawled on their beds to await the welcoming ceremony and dinner that night. "Or tranquilizers. Something to help people deal."

"I don't see what's so strange about Coruscant." Ved remained completely stiff but overall didn't seem so bad. "Have you really never been to a real city before? Or any other Core World at all?"

Already Thane knew honesty would serve him best. "Nope." He stretched out on the bunk beneath Ved's, trying to get used to the hard mattress. "Never even been to a city bigger than Valentia back home, and I'm guessing the entire population of Valentia would fill about - seven levels of this one building."

Nash rested his hands beneath his head. "You'll get used to it, Thane. Soon we'll all be Imperial officers and you'll have traveled to a hundred worlds, and when you go home you'll be as jaded as Mr. General's Son here."

Ved gave Nash a dirty look, but Thane couldn't help laughing.