Quelev Tapper

Quelev Tapper was a smuggler whom Talon Karrde rescued from an Imperial assault force following the death of Jabba the Hutt. Even with the assistance of Karrde, Tapper's smuggling operation was reduced by nearly 75%, leading Tapper to merge his operations with Karrde's and become his second-in-command.

Tapper was instrumental in providing freighters to Karrde during the Bacta War, but he was subsequently killed on safari on Varonat while trying to wrestle his blaster from a Krish; his job later passed to the woman who helped his chief escape the ambush: Mara Jade.

Biography
"As for this asteroid, Tapper found it, but before he could exploit it he ran into some Imperial problems. After our groups merged, he brought it to my attention. We're using it until we find something more suitable."

- Talon Karrde explains the original of his asteroid base to Booster Terrik

Quelev Tapper, a Human male, led a smuggling organization that operated during the Galactic Civil War. Following the Battle of Endor, Tapper's group profited immensely from the subsequent collapse of the Galactic Empire. However, by 6 ABY, his operations were firmly within Imperial-held territory and a governor learned the location of Tapper's headquarters. An Imperial force was sent to destroy the smuggler's base. Smuggler chief Talon Karrde was in the area conducting business, and he came to Tapper's aid. Tapper and a quarter of his organization survived the Imperial assault; Karrde and Tapper agreed to a merger, and Tapper folded his organization into Karrde's operation. In turn, Tapper became Karrde's trusted lieutenant and right-hand man, and the two would often check out business ventures together.

During 6 ABY, Karrde heard a rumor that a ship belonging to Emperor Palpatine himself, the Emperor's Shadow, had crash-landed on the planet Kaal in the Yushan sector. The rumor also said that the ship was equipped with a cloaking device. Karrde and Tapper traveled to Kaal to investigate the rumor; while Karrde posed as Syndic Pandis Hart, chief purchasing agent of the Sif-Uwana Council, Tapper purchased a submersible craft from a local dealer and began searching for the yacht near the Unis Islands. Karrde, posing as Hart, entered into negotiations with Tirgee Benyalle, the ruler of Kaal. Benyalle was selling the rights to buy and harvest food from Kaal, and had attracted delegations from the Galactic Empire, the New Republic, and Warlord Moff Utoxx Prentioch. While the other three were negotiating for the full rights to Kaal's food production, Karrde only planned to request that the Sif-Uwana Council be allowed to conduct its own harvesting operation in a specific area. Tapper's role was to locate the yacht, allowing Karrde to define an area for the deal so that he could recover the vessel in secret.

Tapper's search bore fruit, and he located the yacht submerged near the Unis Islands and relayed its location to Karrde. Tapper remained on-station while Karrde negotiated with Benyalle. Shortly after, Karrde communicated with Tapper, and told him to rig the ship to blow. In the interim, the negotiations had fallen apart when Imperial Admiral Uther Kermen had declared his intention to take the planet by force. As fighting between the forces of the Empire, Moff Prentioch and the New Republic broke out aboard Tirgee Benyalle's luxury sail barge, Karrde allied himself with the New Republic delegation who had saved Benyalle. The New Republic delegation had taken control of the sail barge, and Karrde entreated them to trust him and steered them towards the Unis Islands and parking them above the crashed yacht. Tapper surfaced the yacht, taking on Karrde, Benyalle, the New Republic delegation and the loyal members of the sail barge's crew. The submersible sped away from the sail barge as the charges that Tapper had planted on the yacht detonated, destroying the yacht and the sail barge above. With his reasons for being on Kaal eliminated, Karrde pulled out of negotiations with Benyalle and allowed the New Republic to cut a deal with her.

Prior to Tapper's Imperial troubles, he had learned the location of a hollowed-out asteroid that had been mostly stripped of ore, but the assault on his organization had occurred before he had a chance to exploit his find. Once he had joined Karrde, he informed the latter about the asteroid, and Karrde set up a temporary base in the asteroid. In 7 ABY, Karrde and Tapper met with Booster Terrik, a former smuggler who was operating on behalf of Rogue Squadron leader Wedge Antilles. Antilles, along with the rest of Rogue Squadron had resigned their commissions in the military following the news that the New Republic would not interfere when Ysanne Isard&mdash;formerly in command of the Imperial forces based from the galactic capital, Coruscant&mdash;took control of the planet Thyferra and its Bacta Cartels. Cut off from official New Republic support, Antilles and the Rogues fought a private war against Isard, and needed supplies. Terrik, a long-time family friend of Antilles', acted as a middle-man in procuring proton torpedoes, concussion missiles, and their respective sensor packages and launchers. A deal was struck wherein Karrde would supply the required equipment in exchange for Bacta that Rogue Squadron had "liberated" from convoys control by Isard.

Karrde appointed Melina Carniss to liaise with Terrik; Carniss was a former employee of Jabba the Hutt, and Tapper was smitten with the woman. As the conversation came to a close, Tapper made an off-hand comment regarding attempting to locate the Another Chance for Antilles, or the shipyard that had constructed the Death Star, since finding either seemed as likely as destroying the Bacta Cartel with a handful of snubfighters and freighters. Terrik pointed out that the Rebel Alliance had, in fact, recovered the Another Chance, and not to bet against Antilles. Tapper apologized, meaning no offense.

During Antilles' campaign against Isard, Tapper commanded one of Karrde's freighters, the Starry Ice, and led a convoy of ships to rendezvous with Rogue Squadron and their allies to transfer munitions. The meeting was set to take place in the Alderaan system; Tapper took the Starry Ice and a dozen other freighters to the meeting, loaded with equipment. Rogue Squadron and their Twi'lek and Gand allies were covering a dozen freighters under Booster Terrik's command, led by the Pulsar Skate. As the transfer was about to begin, the Immobilizer 418 cruiser Aggregator and the Victory-class Star Destroyer Corrupter decanted from hyperspace. As the freighters scattered, Antilles led the starfighters against the Imperial force. The resulting battle ended in the destruction of the Corrupter, and the retreat of the Aggregator. Antilles called for the surrender of the surviving TIE/ln starfighters and the various escape pods from the Corrupter, which was accepted. Antilles arranged with Tapper to recover the escape pods and extract any ransom he deemed fit from the survivors. Tapper was also interested in acquiring the surrendered TIE fighters, but Antilles refused to hand them over, classifying them as "prisoners of war". Tapper relented, noting that Antilles would soon be buying spare parts for the captured starfighters from Karrde. It was later discovered that the location of the meeting had been sold to Isard by Melina Carniss. Karrde and Terrik arranged for Carniss to leak the location of the Rogue's base at Yag'Dhul, thereby precipitating the final battle in the Bacta War that brought down Isard.

A year later, Tapper accompanied Karrde to the planet Varonat, located on the Ison Corridor, aboard the Uwana Buyer. Karrde had heard that a Krish, Gamgalon, was using Morodin-hunting safaris as a cover for more illegal activities. Curious as the nature of the business and whether or not it was something that Karrde could cut him in on, he posed as Syndic Pandis Hart, chief purchasing agent of the Sif-Uwana Council, while Tapper took on the role of Captain Seoul, his pilot. Feigning hyperdrive trouble, the Uwana Buyer landed on Varonat, in the settlement of Tropis-on-Varonat. There, the pair enlisted the services of a hyperdrive mechanic to repair the drive on the Uwana Buyer, which had been expertly gimmicked by one of Karrde's associates, Chin, and allowed Gamgalon's come-up flector, Fleck, to "convince" them that they should join one of Gamgalon's safaris. Karrde agreed, and Tapper, playing the role of hired employee, made a case that he should be allowed to join Karrde on the hunt. Paying 17,000 credits, Karrde and Tapper availed themselves of the services of Great Jungle Outfitters, a shop that catered to supplying the safari hunters with every need.

Returning to the Uwana Buyer, Tapper commented that he hoped that their shopping trip had given Gamgalon's people enough time to search the ship to determine if they were a threat or not. Investigating a noise from the aft section of the ship, Tapper and Karrde found a young woman working on the hyperdrive. She introduced herself as Celina Marniss, and her knowledge about the cause of their hyperdrive failure and general attitude and demeanor impressed Karrde. After a night's sleep, Tapper and Karrde joined the safari expedition. Led by a Krish named Falmal, the group consisted of two other guides&mdash;the Human Buzzy and the Rodian Jombo&mdash;and four other hunters&mdash;two Duros by the names of Hav and Jivis; a Thennqora called Tamish; and Cob-caree, a Saffa. Loading into Aratech Arrow-17 airspeeders, the party headed for the base camp that the safaris commenced at, and from there hiked through the jungle for several hours to make camp near to the Morodin hunting trail. As the camp was erected, Tapper and Karrde discussed their fellow hunters and came to conclusion that they were not fellow smugglers in disguise as they were, tromping through the jungle for clandestine meetings with Gamgalon, but rather wealthy bored beings looking for adventure. Karrde posited the idea that they could have been legitimate businessbeings that Gamgalon wanted to deal with, but Tapper pointed out that there were many other places such meetings could have taken place.

A low growl, distinctive of the Morodin, was heard from the jungle and the entire camp readied themselves. Falmal ordered the party to split into the same groups that had travelled together on the airspeeders. While the others dispersed, Tapper and Karrde remained with Falmal. Following him into the jungle, they followed the Morodin slime trails and encountered one of the creatures. Falmal urged Karrde to shoot it, but Karrde hesitated because the beast remained still. From the side, Tamish and Cob-caree, accompanied by Jombo, came out of the forest and killed the creature. Over the next two hours, pilots and airspeeders shuttled meat and trophies from the kill back to base camp. Tapper helped the process, while Karrde retreated from the group and isolated himself with a melodium and began to fiddle with the comm-relay he had bought in an attempt to locate Gamgalon's transpond markers. Tapper joined his boss when the work was done, commenting that many in the camp thought Karrde was sulking.

Following the transpond marker to the site of the kill, the two men discovered that the earth around the slime trail had been freshly cultivated. Hearing a noise from the direction of the camp, the headed deeper into the jungle and discovered a large herd of Morodins. Observing them for a short while, Tapper and Karrde came to the conclusion that the beasts were, in fact, a sentient species. Gamgalon and a group of Krish discovered them, tipped off by Falmal's suspicions about the pair. Gamgalon proceeded to explain his operation to Tapper and Karrde, and revealed that he could allow no word of his operation to be leaked. Karrde attempted to reach an agreement with Gamgalon; but Tapper grabbed the rifle out of the hands of one of the Krish, jammed it into his torso then dove for the cover of a tree. Bringing the rifle to bear on Gamgalon and Falmal, Tapper was struck by a pair of blaster bolts fired by a Krish concealed along the ridge. With a gasp, Tapper died. Karrde was subsequently rescued by Celina Marniss, who distracted Gamgalon and Falmal with recorded Morodin growls and then killed the pair. As the pair left the planet on the Uwana Buyer, Karrde revealed his true identity; Marniss did the safe, introducing herself as Mara Jade.

Personality and traits
Quelev Tapper was a light-skinned male, with brown hair and green eyes. Slender and handsome, he was a physically imposing individual. He maintained a serious demeanor, and was always business-like. A naturally suspicious man, he was the perfect counter to Karrde's polite grace, and often assumed the role of "Hypothetical Hrongar" when Karrde outlined his more elaborate ideas.

Tapper was of the opinion that idealists caused a lot of trouble in the galaxy.

Behind the scenes
Quelev Tapper's death would most naturally be placed in the middle of 8 ABY, around half a year before Heir to the Empire, because this is the timeframe in which it is stated in that novel that Mara entered Karrde's employment.

However, the French RPG Magazine Casus Belli 89, has Karrde and Mara working together on Sluis Van in 6 ABY. Although it is not clear whether this publication is canon, its canonicity has not been conclusively disproved either, and if we were to accept its validity, it would impose an earlier date for First Contact: we would have to suppose that Tapper's death took place soon after X-wing: The Bacta War, and that subsequent events prevented Mara taking up Karrde's offer of a job for a further two years.

In The Smuggler's Alliance article in Star Wars Gamer 3, it states Tapper was killed on Tropis-on-Varonat.

Tapper is mentioned twice in The Official Star Wars Fact File. Firstly, in Mara Jade Skywalker's entry, he is simply refered to as a "safari hunter". The entry goes on to state that Jade was living on the planet Tropis at the time, and that she rescued both Talon Karrde and his companion. In Talon Karrde's entry, Tapper is constantly refered to as "Tapper Quelev". It also states that Tapper's organization merged with Karrde's four years prior to his death after Karrde rescued him shortly after the Battle of Endor.

Appearances

 * X-wing: The Bacta War
 * X-wing: The Bacta War