If any system could be considered the bright center of the universe, Coruscant fits the bill by its location in the galaxy and cosmopolitan ecumenopolis. As the capital of the Empire, it was the best place to represent it. Its shining megastructures could be seen from outer space, carpeting the surface of the planet in circular and linear patterns. The population growth throughout the centuries led to a lack of developmental areas; a problem solved by constructing future layers of city above each other, connected by massive underworld portals. In time, this resulted in the 5127 levels. Living conditions worsened the further one lived from the sumptuous surface, while safety and even air quality became an issue, rendering the first four levels uninhabitable.
Though eye-catching, the sight of a Tri-Vanquish 1 landspeeder parked near the majestic Galaxies Opera House in the upper level of the Uscru District, didn't raise suspicion.
"Come on, Eels. Hurry up," said Kogo-Leeto from the passenger seat of the landspeeder. The young Rodian tried to calm his nerves by fumbling with a chain code card getting stuck on his cupped fingertips.
"Almost there," said Elynn, typing on her datapad with great speed. Her headset—a customized advanced agent interface—played music and projected a hologram in front of her, displaying the code of the city network she was slicing into. She was an eighteen-year-old Theelin with green eyes, mottled, lavender skin, and short teal hair with pink highlights.
"You know, most people would consider stealing speeders enough excitement," Kogo-Leeto said. "I don't see why you have to add slicing to it."
"Because... what better way to hide a crime than with another? Plus, we're going to need the speed when this goes up. The ISB is cracking down on Shadowfeeds." She gained access to the network. "Yes! Come on, baby." She began to upload data into the level's HoloNet.
"Yeah, but you're not getting paid for that—and neither I am. Can you be an activist on your own time?"
"Some things are worth more than credits, Leeto." Elynn watched the loading bar change from red to yellow.
"Name one."
"Freedom."
"You can buy freedom if you have enough credits."
"Then consider this a public service."
"Which I'm sure will be part of our sentence if we get caught." A police siren blared in the distance. "Speaking of speed. Come on, Eels." Kogo-Leeto tapped the chain code on the side of the speeder.
"Almost there."
The loading bar reached green. The sirens got closer.
"Argh! Come one, Eels. Please!"
"Done!" Elynn unplugged the scomp link of her datapad from the computer terminals and hurried back to the speeder, covering her head with the hood of her sweatshirt sticking out under her short jacket.
She watched as the advertisement for Moogan tea flicker and begin to display scenes of partisan soldiers and Wookiees, fighting side-by-side against Imperial forces. The voice of Saw Gerrera announced the seizing of a wroshyr refinery in Kashyyyk with the help of freed Wookiee slaves. The broadcast played all around the level in every sign, billboard, and hologram.
"Let's see how the Imps manage to spin this one." Elynn leaned against the speeder, admiring her work. The police sirens continued to wail a few blocks away.
"Eels, I beg you. Let's go." Kogo-Leeto clasped his hands together and hung his head low.
"Relax, we have plenty of time to smoke the cops."
"This is the Imperial Security Service," the voice boomed at the same time spotlights fell on the kids.
"E chu ta." Kogo-Leeto's antennae dropped.
"Step away from the vehicle and put your hands up."
"In a cold day in the sun," said Elynn, jumping behind the wheel and speeding away with the ISB craft in tow.
"Are you out of your mind? That's the ISB, not the Coruscant Security Force." Kogo-Leeto held on the best he could as Elynn weaved through traffic.
"You want me to pull over so you can explain to them what we're doing?" Elynn—listening to music—shifted gears to cut a corner so fast, the speeder skidded, missing a commuter by a few centimeters.
"I just wanted to steal a luxury speeder like any good, law-breaking citizen, without making a political statement." The Rodian grabbed on to the side of the craft as it made a sharp turn into a busy street.
"It's called multitasking." Elynn cut into two speeders to avoid being flanked by the ISB.
"Swoop!" Kogo-Leeto pointed at a bike.
Elynn swerved to avoid the collision, forcing the rider to mount the curve. The ISB had a hard time keeping up with the Tri-Vanquish 1's powerful engine and greater maneuverability.
"I'm too friendly to be sent to a labor camp. I don't want to be a Dowutin's pet," Kogo-Leeto said.
One of the ISB crafts pulled to the speeder's side. "Pull over!" the pilot said.
"Yeah, I heard you the first time." Elynn shifted gears and turned the wheel hard to tilt the Tri-Vanquish 1 onto its side, squeezing between two commuters, merging into the entrance to a freeway at the last moment.
Kogo-Leeto sank lower into his seat and covered his head. The ISB had flown higher to continue in pursuit. Unable to shake them off, Elynn flew onto the incoming traffic lanes, zigzagging to avoid a head-on collision.
"We're going to die! We're going to die!" Kogo-Leeto hid behind his arms and peeked out occasionally only to witness near disaster.
Seeing an opportunity, Elynn applied the handbrake to spin the Tri-Vanquish around and piloted backwards.
"We're dead! We're dead!" Kogo-Leeto wrapped his head with his arms.
"Are you seeing this?" the ISB pilot said.
"Who is this guy?" his co-pilot said.
Elynn flew between two Cargo Master Z-24 Heavy speeder trucks. The ISB ships kept going, expecting to see the Tri-Vanquish zoom out the other side. But it didn't.
"Where are they?" said the co-pilot, baffled.
"We died—?" Kogo-Leeto couldn't believe his eyes. Elynn had wedged the airspeeder between the trucks, traveling along with them in the opposite direction.
As they passed over an underworld portal, Elynn fired the engine to free the speeder, and dove into sub-level access. These gargantuan ventilation shafts served as shipping lanes and carried numerous drainage pipelines from some of the buildings to the planet's surface.
"We're going to die again!" Kogo-Leeto's scream trailed off as they fell.
When the speeder reached the infamous Level 1313, with its dark streets, broken ducts, and water-stained walls, Elynn mingled with the rest of the heavy traffic. Getting to her neighborhood through a series of service streets, she parked in an alley so they could catch their breath. Being the center of the planet's criminal world, law enforcement had little impact on this level.
"That was some driving, Eels," sighed Kogo-Leeto, resting back in his seat. "I can't believe we made it in one piece."
"Meh, just a few scratches," Elynn studied the damage to the speeder. "Nothing that can't be buffered out."
"Being a smuggler has to be safer than this."
"Not this again." Elynn leaned her head back on the seat.
"Come on, Eels. Don't you want to leave this place? Fly across the galaxy? See other planets? Run away from other people? All we have down here are crummy jobs and crowded streets—not even sunlight." Kogo-Leeto looked up at an underworld portal far above them.
"And do what, get harassed by the Empire in a different system?"
"I don't get it. Why are so afraid to leave this place?"
"What's wrong with Coruscant? We live in the center of the galaxy."
"No, we are buried far away from any real opportunity. You can be making a killing with your skills anywhere else. Trust me, I know some people."
"But I don't. Alright? You want to go? Go ahead. I know there's nothing out there for me." Elynn looked away. "Now, let's take this airspeeder to Paika's. He's probably worried sick."
Before Elynn drove out of the alley, they were cut off by a Coruscant Underworld Police speeder.
"Poodoo," Kogo-Leeto said.
The officers stepped out and approached on either side of the airspeeder, noticing the damage. In the dangerous lower levels of the city, law-enforcement wore heavy leather armor reinforced with metal which shrouded their faces, along with a helmet and eye coverings. This provided them with anonymity to avoid reprisal from criminals and to make their numbers appear larger, with many speculating the heavily armored officers are in fact droids.
Kogo-Leeto handed Elynn the chain code he had been fooling around with earlier under the dashboard. Not even her real chain code had any factual information about her—a precaution in case she ever ran into trouble when not steeling speeders.
"Good evening officers, is there a problem?" Elynn smiled.
"We're looking for an airspeeder matching this description," said one of the cops, approaching. "Can I see your identification?"
"Of course."
"This is quite an expensive speeder for a couple of kids," said the other cop.
"500 Republica?" his partner said when he checked the chain code in his datapad. The address belonged to the most exclusive residential tower on the surface of the planet.
"It's a nice night to go for a spin." Kogo-Leeto pointed at the grimy ceiling.
"On this level?"
"Our favorite Toydarian restaurant is down here," Elynn said.
"And how did this happen?" The officer by Kogo-Leeto checked the scratches on the side.
"Oh, you know how people fly in this city," Kogo-Leeto said. "You have to have eyes like an Azumel on the road—and even then..." He motioned at the damage.
"Yeah. And if you kids are from 500 Republica, I'm the Grand Vizier's nephew." The cop with the chain code moved aside. "Step out of the vehicle."
Elynn became agitated and on the verge of tears. "Please, officer. You don't need us to get out. This isn't the airspeeder you're looking for. My dad is off-planet and we wanted to have some fun. The streets down here are so confusing—I got lost. We took a shortcut through an alley. I thought the speeder would fit—We're looking for a repair shop, so I can have it fixed before we go home, or daddy is going have me grounded for the rest of the cycle. Can you let us go with a warning? Please?"
"Alright, miss. Calm down. There's no need to be upset. Here's your chain code. Go home and find a body shop tomorrow morning—topside. This is a dangerous neighborhood and you don't want to deal with the shops down here anyway."
"Let this be the last time we catch you kids down here." His partner waved them off. "Move along now."
"Thank you, officer." Elynn beamed and drove away.
Kogo-Leeto laughed. "I swear, I don't know how you get away saying those things, Eels."
"It's my natural charm." Elynn winked at him. "By the way, 500 Republica? Really? Couldn't you choose another address?"
"Who was going to give us a hard time if we lived there?"
Elynn pulled over. "Alright. Hop off. I'm going to have to explain to Paika what happened to the airspeeder. You don't want any part of it. I'll bring you your cut at Retro's."
"Great." Kogo-Leeto stepped off the speeder. "And think about what I said, Eels."
"You know I won't. Later."
Elynn drove to a nearby garage, Paika's SpeederWorks, a mechanic and mod shop in a commercial area, renowned in the criminal world as one of the best chop shops in the system. Stolen vehicles arrived to be modified, dismantled, or to be erased of any traces of their former owners. A tattooed Ugnaught was working on a swoop bike with an arc welder as Elynn entered.
"Hey, Grunts," Elynn hoped off the speeder. "How's that swoop bike going? Did you manage to fix the altitude controls?"
The Ugnaught stopped working, lifted his goggles, and grunted his response.
"It's 'bout time ya got here," a gruff voice called out over the noise from somewhere in the garage. "I was worried sick." Paika Ah-Caatu, a Talpini whose lower body had been replaced by a headless R-series astromech, wheeled over to Elynn. He wore a utility vest and belt jammed with tools "Where have ya been? Ya should have been here hours ago." The stogie in his mouth swayed with every word.
"I'm a speeder thief, not a railcrawler conductor," Elynn said. "Things never go exactly as planned."
"They would if ya didn't waste your time with them Shadowfeeds."
Shadowfeeds were unauthorized propaganda spread through the sabotage of legitimate HoloNet networks. A tactic first utilized by the Separatist Alliance during the Clone Wars.
Oh, fodder. "You saw that?"
"As did the rest of the kriffing level."
"Nice." A satisfied Elynn grinned.
"What in the name of my missing legs is this?" Paika noticed the state of the airspeeder.
"A SoroSuub Tri-Vanquish 1 airspeeder as requested." She motioned at the stolen vehicle, ignoring the comment.
"Ye know what I mean. What are we, Jawas? I can't sell it like this. It was supposed to be brand-new."
"So? This is a mechanic shop last time I checked. I do the stealing; you do the fixing. That's the deal, remember?"
"Were ye chased by da cops again?" Paika narrowed his beady eyes. "Argh! Ye'r gonna to be death of me, Eels."
"No. This is going to be the death of you." Elynn snatched the cigar from Paika's mouth and dropped it in a bucket near her. The liquid inside caught on fire, which was extinguished by a rushing DUM-series pit droid.
"We're all gonna die one day, ya know?"
"Then what's the hurry?"
"I'll have ya know that I survived the crashing of a Providence-class dreadnought during the Battle of Coruscant—"
"'When it took out a control tower as it skidded down the landing strip.'" Elynn tilted her head side to side, rolling her eyes as she finished the sentence for him. "You need to survive another disaster, Paik. That one's getting old. Now, I stink, I'm tired—I want to take a shower and hit the sheets. Good night." Elynn stepped inside a cargo lift.
"There's some food in the da oven, if yer hungry," Paika said as the elevator went up.
Grunts mumbled something by him.
"She's an adult now. I can't tell her what ta do."
Grunts mumbled again.
"Nah, she fakes it well but she ain't meant for this kinda life. That ain't how she was raised."
Grunts grunted a response.
"Yeah, that's what I'm afraid of."
Upstairs, Elynn entered her neat bedroom, while eating noodles from a bowl. Posters of podraces, swoop bikes, music bands, and classic holovids such as Seven Jedi, Hidden Space Fortress, A Fistful of Credits, and Loth-Wolf and Cub covered the walls, as did some martial arts paraphernalia. A skylight provided a view to an underworld portal high above in the distance.
"Hi, Chak-Chak," Elynn said to a black and white tooka-cat, sleeping on a bed fashioned from the repulsor pod of a swoop.
Chak-Chak meowed, greeting her owner. She stretched out and hopped on the small bed, cuddling next to Elynn, who sat with her back against the wall. She fed the tooka a morsel from her re-heated dinner and petted her.
Elynn watched the ships passing through the underworld portal, feeling the hollow sensation in her chest she had been experiencing lately. She hated to admit it, but Kogo-Leeto was right. Coruscant had been an accident in her life, not a choice. Intuition told Elynn her place lay somewhere in the galaxy, but reason demanded her to remain. As the years went by, the memories of the treasured past she tried to hold onto faded away, only to be replaced by fantasies. With a resigned sigh, Elynn pressed the switch on the wall to close the skylight, plunging herself into welcome darkness.