Tzarina

"I am the last survivor of a crashed cruise liner, the Star Tours Tzarina. If you promise to tell others of our fate, I will tell you where the wreckage is. Perhaps you can find something salvageable there. Agreed?"

―A commoner, to a spacer^[1]

Tzarina was a passenger transport starship operated by the space travel agency Star Tours during the early stages of the Galactic Civil War.

Description

"Tell the Star Tours company that they need to fix their droids, they're crazy!"

―A commoner, to a spacer^[1]

A Star Tours luxury yacht, the Tzarina was the largest ship in the Star Tours fleet at the time of its commissioning.^[1] The vessel shared many traits with the CR90 corvettes manufactured by Corellian Engineering Corporation, particularly the hammer-shaped cockpit.^[2] Like many other Star Tours ships,^[3] it was piloted by a pilot droid.^[1]

History

"I was one of many who were lucky enough to be some of the first passengers on Star Tours newest luxury yacht. Everything was fine until the droid captain changed course towards Yavin to show us something "neat". The ship was hit by a strange T.I.E. Fighter that was tumbling out of control. Our hyperdrive initiated and drove us straight into this planet. You must let others know..."

―A commoner, to a spacer^[1]

The Tzarina was introduced at the time of the Battle of Yavin. During its inaugural flight, the vessel was involved in a tragic accident that cost most of its passengers their lives. For unknown reasons the ship's droid captain decided to change course towards Yavin to show his passengers "something neat". Once there, the yacht collided with an unidentified TIE Fighter variant that was tumbling out of control through space. The collision caused the Tzarina's hyperdrive to initiate and throw the ship into hyperspace. When it fell out of hyperspace half a galaxy away it crash landed in the Yumaou Risoath region of the planet Dathomir, in Quelii sector.^[1]

The crash soon attracted the attention of scavenger beasts in the area looking for food.^[1] A herd of vicious purboles then settled in the wreckage of the Tzarina.^[2] Only one passenger was known to survive the crash and find his way to the Dathomir Trade Outpost,^[1] months later.^[3] There, the commoner told others his story. In exchange for passing on his tale, the survivor offered to tell spacers the location of the ship and possibly something salvageable within its wreckage.^[1]

The Galactic Empire later discovered that a Rebel spy was on the liner at the moment of the crash.^[4] In 1 ABY,^[5] Lieutenant Sabol dispatched an agent to search for Rebel documents among the wreckage of the ship, in particular documents containing information about the location of a high-ranking Rebel officer that the Empire wanted assassinated.^[4]

Around the same time, the smuggler Kirby was operating near the crash site.^[6]

Behind the scenes

The wreckage of the Tzarina was a location in the 2003 video game Star Wars Galaxies, a massively multiplayer online roleplaying game developed by Sony Online Entertainment and published by LucasArts,^[2] prior to its closure on December 15, 2011.^[7] The crashed ship was identified as the Star Tours luxury yacht Tzarina by a herald NPC^[1] added to the game with the "Publish 1" update, released on August 3, 2003.^[8]