HNN — HOLONET NEWS. SPECIAL RETROSPECTIVE: THE VOYAGE EVERYONE HEARD ABOUT.

Two months ago, Chandrila Star Line's flagship Halcyon departed on her 275th Anniversary Cruise. Two days later she returned with every passenger safe, the galley out of blue shrimp entirely, and a guest manifest that included, by various accounts, a galactic superstar, a Wookiee, and one unclaimed container of Dianoga eggs.

The voyage log lists: unscheduled First Order inspections. Cargo that was not on the manifest. Possibly the least secure brig in the galaxy. And — depending on which passenger you ask — one, two, or several lightsabers.

The First Order declined to confirm the Supreme Leader's personal involvement. Passengers described him as "tall."

A few passengers further described an afternoon in the Climate Simulator where, guided by the ship's Saja, they moved rocks without touching them. HNN could not replicate this at the news desk.

One name does recur in the passenger accounts: a Lieutenant Croy — since, per the First Order's entire one-sentence reply, "reassigned pending review." Reassigned to where, the Order did not say. We asked. We are still asking.

An HNN poll of disembarking Halcyon guests found the overwhelming majority would — quote — "sail again tomorrow." Halcyon passengers are like this. We have stopped trying to explain them.

That is a real statement. CSL sent it to this news organization.

The Aurora sails October 15 from the new N'Orlando Port of Call on Niamos. HNN will be aboard. We are told this is a coincidence.

/// HNN — ALL THE STARS. ALL THE WARS. ALL THE TIME. \\\

HNN SPECIAL REPORT — THE PORT THAT DUG TOO DEEP.

[Filed from N'Orlando, Niamos, outside the under-construction N'Orlando cruise terminal. Our correspondent has borrowed a hard hat. Borrowed without asking.]

QI'RA SKEETER has entered the conversation.

QI'RA — Chandrila Star Line is finishing the Port of Call — on time, on budget, and, according to CSL, entirely without incident. This is HNN. We counted their incidents.

QI'RA — Fifteen weeks ago, construction stopped. For six weeks. CSL's filings call it "a routine geological survey." Routine surveys take four days. We asked what took six weeks.

QI'RA — The REAL story is often found in what they DON'T say.

QI'RA — Then a dig worker's personal holoscan reached this desk.

[The holoscan: dust, work lights, a stone wall half-buried — lines of painted glyphs under the grime. HNN enhanced the markings.]

QI'RA — That is not geology. That is writing.

QI'RA — Six weeks of silence later, CSL had a miracle to sell: one of the famed Shrines of the Whills. And a famous lost one that the galaxy knew from a series of very famous ancient paintings — found under the site of their brand-new terminal. And in the best tradition of corporate archaeology, the accident became "the centerpiece of our grand opening celebration."

QI'RA — They found a thousand-year-old relic site with a terradozer, and the press kit says "curated discovery." I have questions.

QI'RA — So I questioned the dealer who CSL secretly brought in.

DOK ONDAR has entered the conversation.

[Dok Ondar — Antiquarian, Den of Antiquities, Black Spire Outpost, Batuu. On the holo from his shop. Kept doing inventory the entire interview.]

QI'RA — You authenticated the site. What's actually down there?

DOK — The door to a secret the galaxy searched for over the past thousand years. I merely confirmed it was worth opening.

QI'RA — CSL sealed the dig for six weeks. Why?

DOK — Provenance takes time. Anything genuine deserves patience — and anything that does not get patience tends to walk off.

QI'RA — "Walk off." Did something walk off?

DOK — The Exhibition is complete as presented. Do come see it. Look closely — the fronts of things are only half the story.

DOK ONDAR has left the conversation.

[That was not an answer. Our correspondent is aware that was not an answer.]

QI'RA — Item: three weeks ago, perimeter security at the site doubled — AFTER CSL told us nothing was wrong.

QI'RA — Item: Bounty Hunters Guild filings in N'Orlando are up four hundred percent this season. The Guild does not vacation.

QI'RA — Item: freight insurance filed into N'Orlando is up this season — fine-art riders, every one of them. Somebody is buying art, somebody is shipping it here, and nobody will say a word about what it is.

QI'RA — CSL says: nothing is missing. CSL also says the survey was routine, the discovery was planned, and the sentence about guest serenity. When a company this big says "nothing is missing" this many times, unprompted — you're onto a real story.

QI'RA — You'll notice they said "this topic." Not at all suspicious.

QI'RA — Here's what's confirmed: the Shrine is real. The Starship Aurora makes her port call October 15, and every collector, pilgrim, opportunist, and — allegedly — bounty professional in the sector has booked passage.

QI'RA — CSL is throwing the party of the decade around an excavation site they won't talk about. So naturally… I'll be there. If this channel goes quiet, check the brig manifest for a Skeeter.

QI'RA — This is Qi'ra Skeeter for HNN — first with what we're allowed to say.

/// HNN SPECIAL REPORT — ALL THE STARS. ALL THE WARS. ALL THE TIME. \\\

HNN LIFESTYLE — BRIGHT SUNS & BRIGHTER BEINGS. TONIGHT'S GUEST: HOLOVID DIRECTOR JORG SACUL.

[The sisters' studio set. Three chairs. Unreasonable lighting. Mr. Sacul arrived expecting a fragrance ad. HNN presents the sit-down in full.]

SINYA & GIZA PASSIK have entered the conversation.

SINYA — Darlings. Sinya Passik.

GIZA — Giza Passik. Bright suns —

BOTH — — and brighter beings.

SINYA — Tonight: the only man in the galaxy with more awards than restraint. We adore him. Everyone adores him. That is precisely the problem — no one has ever asked him anything real.

GIZA — Until tonight. Holovid director Jorg Sacul, everyone.

JORG SACUL has entered the conversation.

JORG — THANK you. Forgive the pause — my publicist proofreads my entrances. He has his own publicist.

SINYA — They're doing more work than most leading men.

JORG — I have SAID this. To directors. At funerals.

SINYA — The new N'Orlando Port of Call. Gorgeous. And famously, they dug up a thousand-year-old shrine mid-construction. As a director, be honest: how would YOU have staged the discovery of the millennium?

JORG — More fog. Dawn light. A single worker's glove falling in slow motion — and the WALL revealed at the exact moment the score can no longer contain itself. What CSL did instead was six weeks of silence, which — as cinema — is a choice.

GIZA — Mm. Six weeks. What WERE they doing down there, Jorg?

JORG — Archaeology AND paperwork, Giza! The two great slownesses!

SINYA — Speaking of paperwork. The Halcyon. Voyage two-seventy-five.

JORG — A triumph of hospitality.

GIZA — The one under First Order records review?

JORG — Routine! ALL voyages are reviewed—

SINYA — You were aboard, weren't you?

JORG — I can definitively say — maybe. I was probably filming somewhere aboard away from all the unpleasantness. I'm sure it's documented. There are call sheets.

GIZA — He brought up call sheets.

SINYA — Nobody asked for evidence, darling. Innocent people never bring evidence.

JORG — The AURORA, however — magnificent ship, and I am TOLD I may say the word "magnificent" contractually without limit — the inaugural sailing of the most beautiful vessel CSL has ever acquired recently. A port with a SHRINE in it. The complete legendary Long Road of Veyra — nine paintings, one gallery, never before in history. Fireworks. Destiny. ME.

JORG — And the sacred CSL guarantee — "at Chandrila Star Line, the Passengers are always right" — it's on my contract, right next to my likeness rights.

SINYA — A First Order review, a dig site they won't discuss, and — one hears — half the Bounty Hunters Guild booking passage. In a word, Jorg?

JORG — …Texture.

GIZA — He's very good. You can see why they pay him.

SINYA — Can we talk about what they pay him?

GIZA — Because there is the most delicious little rumor —

SINYA — — and we promised ourselves we wouldn't —

GIZA — — we lied —

SINYA — — that CSL only hired YOU as spokesperson… to bring Lando Calrissian's price down. Because he would be — darling, we're just reading what's written here —

GIZA — — "SO much better."

[Three seconds of silence followed. HNN editors describe them as "exquisite." Somewhere off-thread, Jorg's publicist stopped typing.]

JORG — …ha. HA! What a— what a FASCINATING piece of— you know, rumors are the fog machines of journalism, they obscure MORE than— and what a shame, we appear to be out of—

SINYA — We're live-to-holo, Jorg. Time is editable.

GIZA — We have forever.

JORG — Saculfilm thanks HNN for its— its RIGOR— book your passage, the Aurora sails soon, I am CONTRACTUALLY magnificent— bright suns!

JORG SACUL has left the conversation.

[With such a nasty exit, he may not have removed his microphone.]

SINYA — SO, dear sister: who would play US in one of Jorg's "mostly true" historical event holovids?

GIZA — AS IF anyone else could. He's SO much fun! Darlings — the Aurora sails October 15, with or without Jorg Sacul's dignity.

BOTH — Book passage now. Bright suns!

/// HNN LIFESTYLE — ALL THE STARS. ALL THE WARS. ALL THE TIME. \\\

HNN LIFESTYLE — BRIGHT SUNS ABROAD: WHAT TO DO ABOARD THE AURORA.

[The sisters' studio set. Two chairs, one itinerary, and a third chair HNN booked for a guest who had not yet agreed to come.]

SINYA & GIZA PASSIK have entered the conversation.

SINYA — Darlings. Sinya Passik.

GIZA — Giza Passik. Bright suns —

BOTH — — and brighter beings.

SINYA — Five days until the Starship Aurora sails from N'Orlando, and every being we know is asking us the same question.

GIZA — "Yes, but what do I DO aboard?" Tonight, we answer. Nobody paid us to. We checked.

SINYA — First: the CSL Gallery. The Long Road of Veyra. Nine paintings that have never hung in the same room. Until now.

GIZA — Scholars have argued for centuries about where that road leads. Some of them stopped arguing and went looking. Not all of them came back with an answer.

SINYA — The Chandrila Vacation Club's own Concierge, Ni'Cole Dayba, gives guided tours. Her advice: look closely. When we asked why, she smiled.

SINYA — Next: Ship Maintenance. The Aurora's Engineers will let ANY passenger into their Maintenance Room, and they promise nothing will go wrong.

GIZA — I adore a promise like that. Wear sleeves you can roll up.

SINYA — Lunch comes with a show. Friday: Starcruiser! The Musical.

GIZA — Saturday is listed as "Surprise Lunch Acts." We pressed for names. They said "surprise." Twice. With feeling.

SINYA — After dark, the C.S.L. 22 Lounge, with some very fun performers on the schedule.

GIZA — Order something with a garnish. It photographs better.

SINYA — And the Sabacc Den: Sabacc for Charity, with every tournament entry donation going to the National MS Society.

GIZA — Losing at cards has never felt so virtuous.

SINYA — Then the Training Bridge. Up to twenty passengers crew one training voyage together, choose a Captain, and argue about where to jump.

GIZA — There are millions of possible combinations, so you can lose that argument to complete strangers again and again.

SINYA — And one hears rumors… of cameos. And secret endings.

SINYA — Speaking of Captains —

GIZA — — we invited the Aurora's real one.

[HNN sent the Captain's office four requests. The fourth was accepted. The Captain maintains she did not accept it.]

CAPTAIN MA'LI FICENT has entered the conversation.

MA'LI — Ficent. I have a ship to prepare, so let us be quick about whatever this is.

SINYA — Captain! The Aurora sold at a famous bargain, and the seller's own channel calls you, and we quote, "a good captain."

MA'LI — Generous of them. I barely know them.

GIZA — Ohnaka Transport Solutions. Freight people. You must hear things.

MA'LI — I hear engines. I am now a Chandrila Star Line officer. I could not tell you what a sealed Kaminoan cloning vat fetches off the books. Nobody could.

GIZA — Not even a ballpark?

[The Captain took a long, dignified pause.]

MA'LI — But if I had to guess I'd say forty thousand.

SINYA — That was very specific, Captain.

MA'LI — It came up at a dinner. I left early.

GIZA — Last question. What should passengers do first aboard your ship?

MA'LI — The Training Bridge. Every voyage there is a training exercise. Nobody gets boarded, and nothing goes missing.

MA'LI — On a training exercise.

MA'LI — And whatever they do aboard, they must never say the words "Star Points" within earshot of the Vacation Club. I asked about Star Points once. I am still being told about Star Points.

NI'COLE DAYBA has entered the conversation.

NI'COLE — Did I hear something about the wonderful benefits of CVC Star Points?

MA'LI — No.

NI'COLE — Members earn them on simply everything, and there are fourteen tiers, and the eleventh tier is my favorite —

MA'LI — This interview is concluded. Ficent out.

CAPTAIN MA'LI FICENT has left the conversation.

[The Captain was booked for four minutes. She used ninety seconds of them.]

NI'COLE — …I'll catch her at the CVC Office!

NI'COLE DAYBA has left the conversation.

GIZA — A Twi'lek Tingle at the C.S.L. 22 Lounge says Ni'Cole finds her before she reaches the bridge.

SINYA — I may as well just GIVE you a Twi'lek Tingle right now, because we both KNOW she is going to find her. Relentless dedication to her craft.

GIZA — And did you SEE the gorgeous outfit she was wearing?

SINYA — But getting back to the voyage, there's one thing nobody can schedule: the Jobs Board.

GIZA — Keep your Nav close. Characters all over the Port of Call and aboard the Starship Aurora have Jobs for you: a hand, a favor, a witness. None of them are on the schedule. You find them, or they find you.

SINYA — Darlings, the Aurora sails October 15. Do everything.

BOTH — Bright suns!

/// HNN LIFESTYLE — ALL THE STARS. ALL THE WARS. ALL THE TIME. \\\