The Vanishing

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—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".

The station was later found in a completely different location, light-years away in the Phosphura Belt Nebula. All the inhabitants were gone - at least, all the organic life, down to the last microbe. The droids that remained could offer no explanation nor knowledge of what had happened. A new set of Geelan resumed control of the station and worked to restore its status as a lively trading hub. Some relatives of the missing proprietors came to the station to take over their lost family members' businesses.

Text and facts from the “The Vanishing” article on Wookieepedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. Modified for this site.