Crystal Web Station

Crystal Web Station was a space station built around a huge crystal asteroid which floated in deep space.

History
The station had three massive crystal engines which anchored it in place, holding it in a web of glowing energy lines. These engines kept the station from drifting into the Voidfire Nebula, which it was placed precariously near to, so as to keep a constant location for arriving ships. Without these engines, the station would have drifted into the nearby nebula, where it would suffer severe damage to the computer and electronics systems due to the clouds of ionized gas.

Due to peculiarities of hyperspace travel in the nebula, Crystal Web Station had become a necessary stopping point for ships travelling along the three major spacelanes which intersected in the nebula, including the Hydian Way. The most advantageous drop-and-jump point along all three hyperlanes was in the vacinity around the Crystal Web Station. From this location, all the major star systems along each route could be accessed with a single recalculated jump, thus cutting days or even weeks off the longest hauls. Before the station was discovered, travellers had to bypass the hyperlane cluster completely and use a slower, less direct pathway.

Though it is not known exactly when the Crystal Web Station constructed, it is known that it had to be sometime between the Imperial survey of the nebula in 8 BBY and the accident that forced Daran Tal's scout ship out of hyperspace in 1 BBY as the station was already fully functional when Tal arrived at it. The intelligent crystal spiders, which Tal named the Lucents had built the station to interact and get to know members of the galactic community.

The Lucents welcomed Tal with open arms, and he quickly formed friendships with the crystalline beings. He learned some small details about them in this time, but they would always remain secretive about their homeworld, simply gesturing vaguely towards the nebula whenever he brought it up. In the time he spent with them, he learned that the Lucents were natural navigators, and used no instruments to plot courses or calculate jumps. Additionally, he discovered that their crystal technology was based on principles similar to but different from the technology used by the galaxy at large.

The more Tal learned about them, the more he was convinced that the Crystal Web Station could provide the Lucents with precisely the contact they desired while also turning a tidy profit. He outlined his plan to the Lucent leaders, got their agreement, then had them calculate a jump for his ship so that the plan could be brought into action. When he returned to the station two months later, he brought with him a small staff to man the station. Hoping to turn the Crystal Web Station into a smaller version of Cloud City, designed to serve all travellers in need of quicker routes along the three major hyperlanes. Knowing that the Empire had a distinct dislike of non-humans, Tal took the title Baron Administrator and became the visible, if not actual, leader of the station.

The Lucents stayed the real leaders of the station, remaining behind the scenes and keeping the station in good repair. They guided the ships through the ionized regions with their Crystal Star Tugs and calculated lightspeed jumps for them while they observed the beings moving around the station. The Lucents built the station for the comfort of other beings. Except for their private levels and hidden access tubes, the station looked much like any deep space station that could be found throughout the Galaxy. Even in areas designed for others, however, alien touches abound. The architecture had a distinct web pattern and crystalline construction could be seen throughout.

Levels 1-59
Located on the bottom of the station, this was the most alien portion of the station, as it was designed to provide the maximum comfort for Lucents. The upper levels of this section contained the Lucent living areas. Crystal webs stretched across the open decks to form nest platforms. On each platform, a different Lucent family kept a nest. At the very bottom of this section, built into the crystal core itself, were the power cells and energy generators which constantley emitted a hum and glow. These generators provided power to the entire station, much the same way as standard power cells do for the rest of the galaxy. The technology, however, appeared alien as it took the form of crystals and glowing webs that look as beautiful as they were functional.

Levels 60-79
These decks were generally off limits to visitors as it was the area in which most Lucents worked, and the secret access tubes leading throughout the station originated from here. Most of the Crystal Star Tugs were docked in service bays on this level also, while the maintenance bays and deep storage facilities stretched towards the crystal core. Many of the stations supplies were stored in special units on these decks. In addition, the Lucents maintained a number of huge factories designed to accomodate their unusual manufacturing style on these levels. The most impressive of these crystal web looms were used to weave kilometers of crystaline building materials.

Levels 80-89
These are the second "highest" levels on the station and are generally called the merchant and visitor decks. For those visiting the station, this was the heart of the complex; hangar bays and maintenance docks gave way to port services and a ring of inns. The hangar bays ranged from small craft bays extending to docks for multideck hangars suitable for large freighters and small capital ships. Hangars were located all over the exterior of the station, but visitors were most often directed to those connecting to levels 80-89. Port services included refueling depots, maintenance and repair stations, customs and enspection, trade councils, and jump coordinate scheduling.

The cost for receiving a hyperspace coordinate uplink was generally 10 credits times the ship's cargo capacity in metric tons. The inns situated throughout these decks ranged from multibed bunk houses right up to luxury suites that costed a fortune. There was a place to rest and clean up for every taste and budget. The merchant ring was built around the crystal core itself, and featured a wide variety of shops, cantinas, restaurants, casinos, and entertainment facilities. Most visitors frequented these decks, basking in the light of the beautiful crystal while they conducted business, meet people, spend credits, and have fun. Because these decks were furnished by the merchants who established the shops here, they have the most "human" (or equivalent alien standard, depending on which race owned the shop) in feel and design. The outer structure and station surrounding these shops, however, maintained the alien design favored by the Lucents.

Levels 90-100
The "top" levels of the station housed the control centers and administrative offices that kept the place running smoothly. Lucent controllers monitored all incoming and outgoing space traffic, watched for changes in the ionic field emanating from the nebula, and oversaw all the stations systems. The Baron Administrator and his staff also had offices on these levels, though he and his security chief, Klaar, spent most of their time wandering the station than they stayed cooped up in their office complexes.