System: Itani system
Starport Type: Limited Service
Traffic: Rare
Control: Controller
Landing: Directional beacon, controller
Docking Areas: Docking bays
Docking Fee: 25 credits per day
Customs: Local checkpoint
Services: Food, repair
Capsule: Formerly a way station for travelers using the nearby hyperspace nav beacon to journey around the Itani Nebula, Darknon Station is now a backwater stop for pirates, smugglers and bounty hunters on their way to more lucrative ports. It often serves as a brief stopover for quick repairs for such spacers. Few stay on the station longer than a week, usually because they have pressing business elsewhere, the station starts sounding like it's going to tear apart, or an Imperial cruiser shows up as part of its regular patrol duty.
Although decrepit, Darknon Station still offers some limited starship services. Although only six of the original 18 docking bays are still operational, the station does offer repair services as well as meager meals and accommodations. And although the station's one customs official checks out everyone coming and going through the customs checkpoint, he doesn't seem to care who they are, what they're doing, or what cargo they're carrying as long as they don't bring it onto the station and don't cause any trouble.
For spacers, Darknon Station offers a remote haven from the galaxy's bustling starports and the Empire. But few stay for long. Rumors abound that the abandoned sections are haunted, and the starport controller, Rexis Lovech, is mentally unbalanced. If spacers occupy one of his docking bays for too long, he sometimes forces them to leave, saying he needs to make room for other starships in the now nonexistent traffic holding pattern around the station.
Before you step out of your ship into one of Darknon Station's docking bays, be sure to check your main entry hatch's pressure readings. If the red-light indicator is on and shows no pressure and no atmosphere outside, give Lovech a call in Darknon Control. Either he's just forgotten to activate the magnetic seal and repressurize the bay, or the bay's experiencing equipment problems.
Rumor has it that Olev and Darknon Station itself are somehow supported by the Empire, even though there is not a visible Imperial presence on Darknon Station. Certainly this would account for occasional reports of Imperial Customs cruisers on patrol and for the reason Rexis and Sergeant Nethius never seem to need any supplies.
There were once reports that the Galaxy Shop had an actual lightsaber for sale. Most folks thought the reports were rumors spread by T'nadar Nadar, but Nadar insists he possessed the lightsaber and intended to sell it to the highest bidder. But he had the lightsaber no more than three days before it mysteriously disappeared, stolen right from beneath Nadar's snout.
Sometimes the Van Serai's squatters can be helpful. I once paid a squatter to sit outside the quarters where a competitor of mine had taken residence for the night. A few extra credits insured that the squatter moaned and babbled incoherently all night, keeping my competitor awake and later making him late for his appointed cargo pickup. Guess who picked up the cargo run instead?
Grumpy Gulek isn't as stupid as he might look. He intentionally sealed up most of the transparisteel viewports so patrons would have to sit at one of the two booths. The darkened ceiling of the Stormview Lounge is designed so conversations at those two particular booths are acoustically projected to two different points behind the bar, where Gulek normally works.
Gulek enjoys overhearing supposedly private conversations of his patrons in the booths. He uses whatever information he can in tracking down spacers wanted by certain bounty hunters willing to pay the greedy Rodian small sums for information about bounties. Fortunately, the acoustics don't allow patrons in the booths to hear all of Gulek's grumblings to himself about how miserable he is on Darknon Station.
The Itani Nebula used to be the haven for a small band of pirates. They'd hide their strike ships just within the nebula, masking their profiles and locations from ships en route to Darknon Station. These swift ships could easily jump out at any prey veering near the nebula, and would quickly disable, board and loot such target ships.
I once heard of a pirate band based in the Van Serai Hotel on Darknon Station that preyed upon freighters passing through the system. The group was led by some ruffian named Larkin. However, they recently disappeared mysteriously while prowling the edge of the nebula. Some say they were snagged by a magnetic storm, but others believe they took on a target too big for their own guns.