Navigators and explorers are a special breed — they blaze the paths others will follow. They must have strength, drive, and hope, and be more than a little fearless. But nowhere is it written that they must have luck. Gav and Jori Daragon make their living charting the routes of hyperspace and selling those routes to traders and haulers. When a starswarm cluster batters their ship, they land on the planet Cinnagar, destitute and forlorn, and convince the relatively amiable Aarrba the Hutt to make the necessary repairs.
While out mapping new hyperspace routes, Gav and Jori Daragon's ship, the Starbreaker 12, is damaged. They take it in to Aarrba the Hutt's repair dock on Koros Major, and he repairs it, but decides to hold it from them until the repairs can be paid for in full. Having encountered a series of setbacks, Gav and Jori have been forced to sell off their family home to pay for repairs to their starship.
Meanwhile, one of Merchant Lord Ssk Kahorr's drone ships crashes into the red supergiant Primus Goluud while using one of the Daragons' routes. Angered, Kahorr tasks his lieutenant Tk'lokk with finding out who approved that route into the Goluud corridor in order to exact compensation.
While wandering through the streets of Cinnagar, a ragged Jori watches Empress Teta, and Jedi Knights Odan-Urr and Memit Nadill. traveling on a carriage. Memit believes that getting the carbonite mines back into production will help make the Koros system wone of the richest in the galaxy. Odan-Urr addresses the crowd, telling them that he has come to help secure the Empress' new alliance for the good of the Republic. Jori wishes that she and her brother had been Jedi due to their Force-sensitivity but regrets that they lacked the patience for that rigorous training.
At Aarrba's Repair and Salvage, Gav asks Aarrba when he and his sister can have back their ship. Aarrba reminds them of their debts and disagrees with the siblings' reckless business practices. He is later accosted by a pair of bounty hunters, who warn him that he and Jori are in trouble with Ssk Kahorr over their dangerous hyperspace route. The hunters had managed to track them down by questioning and murdering Shodon Ko of the Hyperspace Navigator's Guild.
While feeding on insects, a vindictive Ssk Kahorr hires the bounty hunters to hunt down and kill Gav and Jori. The bouny hunters catch up with the siblings but they are able to escape with help from Odan-Urr and Memit Nadill. The Daragons duck into an alley, and Gav decides to steal back the Starbreaker 12 and go farther than they ever have before. They sneak into Aarrba's dock and do so, but are quickly pursued by Cinnagar security forces. Jori punches in random coordinates, sending the Starbreaker 12 into the unknown.
The front matter of Tales of the Jedi - The Golden Age of the Sith 1 dates the story to 5000 BBY.
- UPC 761568954166; October 1, 1996; Dark Horse Comics; Direct edition
- UPC 070989324787; October 1, 1996; Dark Horse Comics; Newsstand edition
- ; November 10, 2015; Marvel Comics; Digital edition, Legends
- Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi — The Golden Age of the Sith TPB
- Star Wars Omnibus: Tales of the Jedi, Volume 1
- Star Wars Legends Epic Collection: Tales of the Jedi Vol. 2
- Star Wars Legends: Tales of the Jedi Omnibus
- Star Wars Year By Year: A Visual History, Updated and Expanded Edition
- Star Wars Year By Year: A Visual History, New Edition