Cay's Dream

"Look&mdash;that ship! Can you feel it? It's Ulic! I can sense him! He came back to us!"

- Cay Qel-Droma senses his brother in the Cay's Dream, before the Battle of Ossus

The Cay's Dream was the personal starship of Sith Lord and former Jedi Knight Ulic Qel-Droma during the Great Sith War. Qel-Droma began to use the ship after he fell to the dark side and became the apprentice of Dark Lord of the Sith Exar Kun in 3,996 BBY. Together, Kun and Qel-Droma waged a war against the Galactic Republic and the Jedi Order. That year, after a supernova threatened to destroy the Great Jedi Library on Ossus, Qel-Droma and Kun traveled to the planet to steal as many Jedi artifacts as possible. When Qel-Droma arrived in his ship, he was greeted by his brother, Cay, a Jedi assisting in the planet's evacuation. When Cay, wanting an opportunity to talk things out with his brother, tried to shoot Ulic down, a dogfight ensued.

Ulic instead shot down his brother, landed his ship, and then killed Cay in a lightsaber duel. As a result, Ulic Qel-Droma, horrified at what he had done, was stripped of his connection to the Force by his former Jedi friends. Qel-Droma offered to bring the Jedi to Exar Kun on the moon Yavin 4, and he subsequently guided a massive Jedi fleet to Yavin 4 in his ship. After a turn of events in which Kun used Sith magic to shed his body and a fire engulfed the Yavin 4 forests, the Jedi assault force departed. Qel-Droma continued to use the ship after the war, renaming it the Cay's Dream after his dead brother. In 3,994 BBY, he returned to Yavin 4 in the Cay's Dream to discover what exactly had happened that fateful day; however, he found nothing.

Description
Cay's Dream was a blue-colored starship that had a vaguely insectoid hull design. The ship featured two wing-like structures on either side, with the cockpit at the front of the ship and four engines at the back end. The cockpit featured a comlink connected to a wire that came down from the ceiling, although it was not necessary for voice communication with other pilots in sublight flight. Cay's Dream could withstand several direct laser strikes to its four engines without being forced down, and it was able to maneuver itself well in atmospheric space combat. The ship had three landing pads that emerged from its underbelly when needed and were retracted during flight. Cay's Dream could be flown by just one individual but could contain as many as seven beings.

History
"We have arrived, Exar Kun.''" "''Yes, Ulic&mdash;Ossus is ours for the taking."

- Ulic Qel-Droma and Exar Kun above Ossus

A starship belonged to the Human male Ulic Qel-Droma, a former Jedi Knight who, in 3,996 BBY, fell to the dark side and became the apprentice of Dark Lord of the Sith Exar Kun. Together, they waged a war on the Galactic Republic and the Jedi Order. Late in the war, a supernova in the Cron Cluster, caused by the use of Sith magic during a battle at nearby Kemplex IX, created a shockwave that threatened to destroy the Great Library on the Jedi world of Ossus. Recognizing their opportunity to take possession of many valuable Jedi and Sith artifacts, Qel-Droma and Kun planned a raid on the Library. Qel-Droma took off for Ossus in his vessel, with Kun alongside him in his vessel, the Starstorm One. They arrived during a mass-evacuation of Ossus, as the Jedi frantically tried to save whatever they could with just hours to go before the shockwave decimated the planet. Flanked by an assault force of Mandalorian Crusaders, Qel-Droma and Kun descended upon the planet. However, Qel-Droma's brother, Cay, a Jedi Knight assisting in the evacuation effort below on the planet's surface, sensed his brother's presence in the starship and went up to meet him in his own vessel, the Nebulon Ranger. Cay pursued his brother through the Ossus skies, as Ulic tried to evade and avoid battling his brother outright. Cay would not be denied and dealt damage to Ulic's ship by targeting its engines; however, Ulic was able to maneuver his craft behind the Nebulon Ranger and shot his brother down. Ulic brought his ship down near the Nebulon Ranger crash site and found that his brother had survived. The two subsequently dueled with their lightsabers, a clash that ended when Ulic killed Cay.

Kun fled Ossus with his ship filled with Jedi artifacts, leaving his apprentice down below on Ossus. Ulic's horrified former lover and fellow Jedi, Nomi Sunrider, used a wall of light to strip Qel-Droma of his connection to the Force. Stunned with what he had done, an extremely remorseful Qel-Droma offered to take his former friends to where Kun was hiding, the moon Yavin 4. Qel-Droma brought the Twi'lek Tott Doneeta, the Vultan Oss Wilum, the Tchuukthai Jedi Master Thon, Nomi Sunrider, Sunrider's young daughter, and the corpse of his brother aboard, while the rest of the Jedi were rallied to battle Kun at Yavin 4. The ship arrived at Yavin 4 backed by hundreds of Jedi vessels, and the assembled Knights created a wall of light around the moon. However, the forest below them suddenly became engulfed by a great fire. Knowing he could not fight the massive Jedi force, Exar Kun had used Sith magic to shed his mortal body and unleash his spirit. The power created by the thousands of Massassi sacrifices required for the ritual, combined with the wall of light, created a conflagration that spread across the moon. With nothing left on Yavin 4 and the fire growing, all the Jedi ships, including Qel-Droma's ship, departed. Qel-Droma went on to name the ship Cay's Dream, after his late brother. Two years later, after a pilgrimage to his brother's grave, Qel-Droma returned to Yavin 4 in the Cay's Dream to discover just what had happened on that fateful day. However, he found nothing on the scorched moon and departed.

Commanders and crew
Cay's Dream was the personal ship of Ulic Qel-Droma after his fall to the dark side and apprenticeship to the Dark Lord Exar Kun. In fact, it was Qel-Droma who gave the ship its name, after his fallen brother Cay. After Qel-Droma's connection to the Force was severed on Ossus in 3,996 BBY, Jedi Knights Nomi Sunrider, Oss Wilum, Thon, and Tott Doneeta also served aboard the ship during the hunt for Exar Kun.

Behind the scenes
Cay's Dream made its first and only appearances in The Sith War, a story arc in the Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi comic book series, written by Kevin J. Anderson and released from 1995 to 1996. The ship made two appearances, in the arc's fifth and sixth issues. In those two appearances, the Cay's Dream was illustrated by Dario Carrasco, Jr. Although the ship was not named in its first appearance, it was given the name Cay's Dream in the sixth issue of The Sith War when it was mentioned that Ulic Qel-Droma gave the ship that name after the Great Sith War. It has still not yet been revealed what the ship's original name was; for the purposes of this article, the Cay's Dream is not mentioned by name when referring to events that took place before its re-naming.

Appearances

 * Tales of the Jedi: The Sith War 5: Brother Against Brother
 * Tales of the Jedi: The Sith War 6: Dark Lord