The Vanishing

"If you're tired of making the same old planet-fall, as well as sorting out the kilometers of tariffs and regulations at most starports, check out Zirtran's Anchor. Oh yeah, I know all about the 'mysterious vanishing' part, but that's the way the sabacc cheater chip trips up the cars. No one ever becomes a free trader to lead a boring life."

- Platt Okeef

The Vanishing was the colloquial name for the disappearance of the space station Zirtran's Anchor sometime during the reign of the New Order. The disappearance occurred after the Galactic Empire sent a representative to the space station to monitor commerce there, angering the free-trading Geelan who owned the establishment. When the Geelan named Whisk the Elder prophesied that the station would befall a catastrophe if the Empire did not ease its hand there, Imperial Admiral Vence Tabok ignored him.

Only days later, Whisk's prophesy came true: visitors to the Besberra system, where the station had previously been located, found no trace of it or its inhabitants. Rumors spread throughout the galaxy that the station had fallen victim to an attack&mdash;either from Rebels, or pirates, or the Empire. Another story held that Emperor Palpatine had an active investigation into the station's whereabouts. Other tales ascribed the station's disappearance to the bad luck of the Zirtran brothers, the station's former owners, finally catching up to the Geelan. Yet another claimed that the Geelan had stolen an artifact from an entity that dwelled in Wild Space, and that the entity had taken its revenge. One final rumor claimed that the hyperdrive of the barge at the heart of Zirtran's Anchor had finally started working again, taking the station with it. The event took on the air of a folk tale, referred to mysteriously as "the Vanishing".