The Essential Guide to Force Exile/Salyeh Gau

"For me, I still have more to do in the fleet. To pass on what I have learned. To teach juniors right out of the academy how to shoot straight. To continue the living legacy of this ship and this fleet."

- Salyeh Gau

Salyeh Gau was a female Zabrak born on Iridonia. In 2 BBY, her parents fled the planet to escape Imperial reprisals and journeyed to distant Yanibar. Slightly Force-sensitive, she was considered for Zeison Sha training as a girl, but ultimately decided against it. The training had been rigorous, and the more Salyeh saw of the incredible feats of some of the Zeison Sha masters, the more frightened she was. She also knew that most of her friends and family were not Force-sensitive and that following the path of the Zeison Sha would lead her away from them. Instead, she quit her training and walked away from her Force talents, a decision which puzzled her instructors, who had always thought the hard-working but impressionable Salyeh Gau had potential, just lacked the confidence and control to master it. Her most impressive decision of her training was ironically her decision to leave it.

Shortly after she left her training, Yanibar was attacked by the Zann Consortium. Salyeh remembered well huddling in her apartment with her family while the city was bombarded. After the Yanibar Guard repelled the invaders, she volunteered to help clean up the debris from the battle. In the process, she and her friends met several Yanibar Guard crews also on cleanup duty, many of whom were only a few years older than the teenagers. Their leader encouraged the young people to consider serving in the Yanibar Guard, and Salyeh seriously considered it.

When her family's business went under in 6 ABY, Salyeh realized that her best means of providing for them was to join the Yanibar Guard. She did so, joining the Yanibar Guard Fleet and was trained as a gunner. Her first posting was on the cruiser-carrier Aayla Secura as a basic crewmember. The first offworld mission her posting took her was to a planet called Ta'antos, where the Yanibar Guard became embroiled in a local civil war, only to be hastily extricated by the ship's captain, Destra Starkellos Zel. Though Salyeh did not directly participate in the action, or even set foot on the planet, she did hear about the insubordination of a Yanibar Guard Marine officer, Major Aertijn Tamble.

In 8 ABY, while surveying the Chistoba asteroid field, the Aayla Secura came across a New Republic assault frigate, an older vessel that had been sent on deep space patrol. A tense standoff resulted as both captains were suspicious of each other. They both activated shields and armed weapons, preparing starfighters for launch in case combat was imminent. Salyeh was summoned to her turbolaser station from her sleep, preparing from imminent combat, her first brush of action. However, Captain Zel explained to the other captain that they were a surveying ship from a distant power in the Unknown Regions who meant them no harm, and also said that he wouldn't fire first. Backing down, the Aayla Secura retreated without incident. The incident remained with Salyeh for years afterward, influential in her decision to stay with the Yanibar Guard.

The next few years were largely quiet, with only short patrols near Yanibar, along with ship upgrades. In 10 ABY, she was on the ship when it was struck by the Cosnollian Comet, suffering heavy damage and crippling the ship. Salyeh was one of the fortunate few who survived through the days of freezing temperatures and low power, nursing a broken arm. When the ship made it back to Yanibar, she considered leaving the Yanibar Guard or transferring to a shore posting, but her crewmembers asked her to stay, and her family still needed her financial assistance.

By 14 ABY, Salyeh had been promoted to the lead turbolaser fire controller. She continued to serve with the ship, feeling that it and its crew were like family and home to her. Her parents had established a successful business, so she did not need to keep aiding them, but she felt like she belonged in the Yanibar Guard. By 26 ABY, she had earned the position of chief gunner on the Aayla Secura, which earned her a bridge position. Nevertheless, she always thought of the forward turbolaser battery where she had spent twenty years of her career as her home away from home.

The Aayla Secura was one of the many vessels called upon in 28 ABY when the Yanibar Guard sent a large relief force to the planet Rishi to defend that world from Yuuzhan Vong attack. A small Yanibar Guard task force had already been trapped there, and when the Aayla Secura arrived, they helped a group of beleaguered starfighters escape their pending destruction. The venerable cruiser-carrier served valiantly in the battle, which ultimately resulted in the mutual withdrawal of the Yuuzhan Vong and Yanibar Guard from the planet. It was Salyeh Gau's last battle.

With Yanibar damaged from Yuuzhan Vong attack to the point that they were planning a mass evacuation over the next decade, there was little for the Aayla Secura to do, as most long-range missions were canceled in favor of aiding the evacuation effort. Another consideration was that the Niman-class cruiser-carriers were nearly forty years old and needed retiring. One by one, they were decommissioned and replaced with newer Remembrance-class cruisers. In 35 ABY, the Aayla Secura was decommissioned. Just before the ship was formally withdrawn from service, Captain Zel walked its bridge one last time, joined by people who had served with him for years, including Chief Evins, Doctor Tenelly, Gunner Salyeh Gau, and Commander Darik. They walked around the ship, sharing stories. They even ran into Aertijn Tamble, who had recovered from being thrown out of the military and married his love from Ta'antos, though Salyeh was not pleased to see him. The five crewmembers gathered one last time in the memorial room of the Aayla Secura to share one last memory over a glass of wine of the same vintage as one used to dedicate the ship forty-one years earlier.

After the Aayla Secura was decommissioned, Salyeh Gau accepted a position as a trainer, continuing to serve in the Yanibar Guard as it departed for the legendary planet of Atlaradis three years later.

Behind the scenes
Salyeh Gau was created for the short story The Final Voyage by Atarumaster88. When writing her, Atarumaster88 imagined the character as having an accent from her childhood on Iridonia. When writing her backstory, he realized that her chronology required some rearrangement of the events he had had in his head. Another challenge when writing Salyeh was her relative lack of development in The Final Voyage. To help deepen her character, he created the idea that she was slightly Force-sensitive, but had turned her back on it. Out of all the crewmembers in The Final Voyage, she is the only enlisted crewmember, and Atarumaster88 wanted to particularly denote that she was just an ordinary person, despite her importance to the crew. Her rank was partially inspired by the character of Miles O'Brien from Star Trek, who despite being an enlisted crewmember nevertheless had considerable experience and was respected by many officers. Gau's ultimate fate of accepting a training position mirrors O'Brien's decision at the end of Deep Space Nine to accept a teaching position.

Appearances

 * The Final Voyage