Hubworld

In Speculative Fiction, Space Is an Ocean with ports of call of every variety. And no matter the universe, there's always somewhere in The Empire, The Republic, or The Federation that, sooner or later, everyone stops off at for whatever reason. Maybe this world (usually at a meeting point of several hyperlanes) is a fuel station, maybe the Cool Gate network has multiple gates here, maybe it's home to a huge trading depot, whatever the case it's a Hubworld.

Can be (and often is) the capital planet of the government, a Hubworld is a hallmark of Casual Interstellar Travel, and is the rough mixture of a truck stop, an airport, and a hotel IN SPACE!

Mind you, it doesn't have to be a planet. It can also be a space station.

Examples of Hubworld include:

Comic Books

• Point Central in Valerian. It's a massive space station that every species adds to with a "habitation cell" designed to mimic their native environment (and sometimes is formed from said native environment). As Valerian and Laureline themselves note, sooner or later, everything winds up at Point Central.
  • In Empire of a Thousand Planets, Stryte-the-Magnificent is this for the eponymous empire.
  • All the gods of the galaxy have made a home for themselves on Hypsis.
• Transformers:
  • Grand Central Space Station in the original Marvel comic. Thanks to the Great War however, all mechanical races are banned.
  • The Benzene Cluster in Lost Light is mentioned to have been a huge galactic trading hub. Been. Thanks to Adaptus.
    • The Howling Town on Troja Major likewise attracts a wide variety of species who sell, buy, and haggle various goods. Its speciality is funerary practices.
  • Cybertron itself looks to be this in the 2019 reimagining.
    • Cybertron was also this in 'Till All Are One but due to the fact that it was largely undeveloped allowing all the Ragtag Bunch of Misfits from all the Planet of Hats colony worlds to come somewhere free of judgement.
• Nar Shaddaa in the Star Wars comics. Dubbed, "The Smuggler's Moon", it's a nice place for Outer Rim scum to lie low, gamble, drink, trade, and make their deliveries.

Film

• Guardians of the Galaxy:
  • There's Xandar, the capital of the Nova Corps and a thriving multi-species trading hub.
  • Knowhere. A Wretched Hive where all the thieves and lowlives (like the eponymous heroes) come to so they can hide from the authorities and make some quick units. It's mentioned to be quite far from civilized space.
• Star Wars:
  • Coruscant is the shining centre of the Core Worlds where everyone comes to find work, visit, trade, or stop by on their trek through the Inner Core. To emphasize that's it's the metaphorical centre of the galaxy, its XYZ coordinates are 0-0-0.
  • Tatooine, specifically Mos Eisely, seems to be a popular smelting pot for smugglers and crime lords.

Literature

• There are a lot of Hubworlds in the Foundation saga by Isaac Asimov but the most prominent one would be Trantor, a core world that produces huge amounts of food for the whole empire.
• Metascan Omega becomes this in Beast Wars: Uprising. After the Destructons are scared off, the crew of the Dinosaur builds "Dinosaur City" and turns the planet into a booming trading hub.

Live-Action TV

• Star Trek:
  • The oft-mentioned but rarely seen Rigel system seems to function as this, with mention usually being made of its giant population and trading industry.
  • Deep Space 9 itself functions as the last customs station between the Alpha and Gamma Quadrants.
• The Odd Sphere during Doctor Who's Second Great and Bountiful Human Empire. Ships from all over the empire stop by, not because of tourists, but merely to pick up members of the Slave Race that they ship off across the three galaxies humanity owns.

Video Games

• The Citadel of Mass Effect. It's a massive space station where dozens of races comes together to manage the galaxy and everything in "Citadel Space." A completely Justified Trope since the Citadel is a Hubworld shaped mousetrap built by the Reapers.

Western Animation

• Foodcourtia and Conventia seem to be this in Invader Zim though the latter is exclusively Irken.
• Earth in Futurama. Well New New York at least.
• Voltron: Legendary Defender has three:
  • For the military, it's the Galactic Hub (or Universal Station or Space Base). Every warship from the Galra empire stops by, unloads Quintessence to be refined, and then heads out to deliver it. Shiro outright compares it to an airport.
  • For the civilians, it's the Space Mall. Everything you could ever want to buy in one convenient location.
  • Olkarion becomes this for the Voltron Coalition. A role Earth later adopts.
• Per Word of God, Gigantion in Transformers Cybertron was supposed to be this before the initial colonization effort went all pear-shaped.
• Parodied in Star Wars: The Clone Wars. The planet Orondia is completely undeveloped... except for a fuelling station.
• In Star Wars Rebels, the Empire is stated to be running virtually all their Outer Rim operations through Lothal.