Kidnapped in Coruscant

[Caira Ayryn]

The Sky-Taxi had waited where it dropped her off, and Caira asked if the driver would be a cicerone for her in this area. The driver said he only knew so much, but drove her around the area pointing out landmarks, restaurants and hotels that most of his passengers had stopped at. Over the beauty of these places, the girl noticed a reoccurring theme that was dressed in white and etched with black patterns. “Who are they?” Caira asked naively.

“Oh, those guys are Storm Troopers. They patrol.” The taxi driver would not be willing to mention more, for fear of conspiracy.

“Hm. There sure are plenty of them. What are the citizens so afraid of?” Caira inquired to the sky-taxi driver.

“Uh... Well I suppose safety is the number one priority of both the people and the Empire.” He said again, hoping to pass a possible sting operation.

"Looks like something happened down there," She voiced, now gauging the driver's reaction, rather than the enormous size of the city.

Caira didn’t know why the driver began to give short answers, he had been a good enough guide as he listened to all her musings, but his presence was curt and robotic. “Steep way down,” she observed and motioned to the millions of feet below them.

“Down there are the lower tiers. I make a good profit on Tier One, so I don’t usually leave it and sometimes cross between the second or third for good clients.”

“How many Tiers are there?”

“To the ground? Seven. I wouldn’t go down there if I were you miss. Stay up here where you are protected by the Troopers.” He warned ruefully.

“No, actually I meant people who live in this place?” The city was large, and surely had a nearly infinite population of those coming and going.

“No clue miss, its a busy place and no one has enough time to memorize and monitor every face, that's why the Empire does it for us. Anyway, some call us the City in the Sky.”

“Camelot has Dalaran, which floats as an island in the sky.” The monk pointed out, getting a bit annoyed with the man's games.

The driver gulped, “Yeah but there I would be out of a job.” he laughed consciously and drove her around so she could see innovations of buildings, architecture infused with tech, and some other workings that included robots.

"What's it like to drive?" Caira asked, now looking at the wheel, gas peddle, brake mechanism and screen that lined the windshield like a monitor with instructions on it.

"Like ridin' a bike."

Caira remained silent, never in her life had she owned a bike. They skated across the lower parts of this tier, until Caira finally asked what it was like in Tier two.

“Most people who just arrived don’t go past the first, but I’ll happily take you down there.”

They sunk below on the hovering air frequencies, below the resorts and sleek sheen of buildings as Caira noticed a flicker in the sky, and the driver told her it was an automated projection. As they drove around the lower city, less Storm Troopers clogged the frequencies in the area. The Prime got out of the cab and then noticed that the driver was part cyborg, she wondered if that was why she could identify an Equality for Ai-All bumper sticker on the side of his hovercraft.

“There are plenty of similar looking offices around, so don’t get lost missy.” The driver gave her a wave, and dropped her off. Now in the city, it was colder than ever.