Bevel Lemelisk

"At least make sure you do it right this time."

- Bevel Lemelisk's final words

Bevel Lemelisk was one of the chief designers of the Death Star as well as several other superweapons.

Early career
At some stage in his early life, Bevel Lemelisk had been instructed by Professor Nasdra Magrody of the Magrody Institute of Programmable Intelligence. He also worked with the Geonosians in the production of their attack craft, before working directly for the Galactic Republic in its waning years, aiding Walex Blissex in the development of the Victory I-class Star Destroyer. Before the Clone Wars, Lemelisk had been forced to curb his appetite for destruction, and had kept his ideas for weapons of terror to himself. While working with Blissex, however, his ideas came to the fore to a minor degree, although he was still forced to keep quiet about what he truly dreamed of. When the Republic became the Galactic Empire following the Declaration of a New Order in 19 BBY, Lemelisk was finally given an opportunity to put his ideas into practice, devising a wide array of vastly destructive weapons.

Death Star
A well-respected architect, Lemelisk found himself constantly in the employ of Emperor Palpatine's Galactic Empire. At some time, he ascended to the position of Master of Imperial Projects. In his Imperial service, Lemelisk designed many of the Empire's more sophisticated space stations. Eventually, he was called upon to design the Death Star, a battlestation with the power to destroy planets. The Death Star was the brainchild of Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin&mdash;a visionary, but a man with little real understanding of engineering. Despite Tarkin's close association with the project however, it had originated with Raith Sienar several decades beforehand. With the help of many subordinate architects and engineers, Lemelisk forged a more practical form for the station from Tarkin's initial ideas at the Maw Installation think-tank. Palpatine, hoping to keep the project running, began diverting funds into the top secret project from space exploration and public works faculties.

Lemelisk took to each of Tarkin's challenges with great enthusiasm, meeting with the Grand Moff constantly. Tarkin specifically requested things such as a single weapon with the ability to destroy planets, adequate defense against capital ships and the like, and a hyperdrive unit that could sent the gargantuan station from system to system. In addition to that, Tarkin wanted the station to be self-sufficient, with adequate facilities to reproduce vital supplies. Lemelisk swiftly put the ideas into practice, and although he exceeded the Grand Moff's expectations in areas, he was forced to disappoint him at times. To sustain the massive superlaser array, the station would have to forgo all but the most rudimentary shielding systems, although Lemelisk was confident that the station's surface-to-air defenses would make up for it.

During the design process Lemelisk suffered a near-fatal choking from someone, and was forced to rehabilitate in a bacta tank for a short while. In the interim, Tarkin had a professor continue the architect's work. Eventually, his plans were altered and elaborated on by a variety of different scientists brought to the Installation by Tarkin. Amongst Lemelisk's colleagues in the Death Star development were Frap Radicon, Umak Leth, Ohran Keldor, Qwi Xux, and Tol Sivron. He also served as something of a mentor to some of the less senior participants, such as the Omwati Xux.

At first, Lemelisk started to design a prototype, drawing his plans on reusable durasheet scrolls. After a short period, the blueprints would fade away, preventing the information from falling into the wrong hands. The Death Star prototype, was built and refined at the Maw Installation, guarded by Admiral Natasi Daala. When that had been appropriately tested, Palpatine gave his blessing to a production version. Lemelisk was given the role of chief engineer, and Lord Darth Vader was attatched to the project, serving as a supervisor. To better oversee the progress of the battlestation's development, Tarkin had the architect extracted from the Maw Installation.

Construction on the Death Star itself came to fruition, Tarkin and Lemelisk began moving the project from site to site to avoid sabotage attempts from the Alliance to Restore the Republic. Eventually, construction was taken to the Horuz system, where Tarkin kept constant watch over his pet project. To make crew training easier, Lemelisk made use of existing standard Imperial designs for the station's interior. Deadlines loomed however, as Palpatine wanted the station complete in time for his planned disbandment of the Imperial Senate.

Lemelisk found the penal workers on Despayre, the planet the Death Star orbited while being built, to be inadequate, and made sure Tarkin knew his feelings on the matter. The Grand Moff had the entire work crew executed as a result, and then took the architect along with him to a "recruitment drive" on Kashyyyk, home of the Wookiees. Lemelisk was not particularly familiar with the Wookiees, but since they had built the Maw Installation, he was aware of their enormous strength. He watched on as Tarkin's men fired on a Wookiee village, incarcerating the children while taking the men and women as slaves. Back at the construction site, the Wookiees were reluctant at first to work, but with sufficient punishment, drugs, and sonic negative-stimulation transmitters, they were soon brought to heel, speeding production up. During a lapse worker "enthusiasm," Vader payed Tarkin and Lemelisk a visit. He executed two foremen, to the architect's shock, and had their bodies put on display for all the other workers to see. Though he was appalled at the Sith Lord's methods, Lemelisk could not deny that the work from the slaves was more satisfactory after that incident. Even as the building of the weapon ensued, research continued, with Lemelisk doing some of his work at a facility in Trid, Danuta.

Flight and death
"I am most displeased with your performance, Lemelisk."

- Palpatine

The station was completed, but Lemelisk was given little time to rest, as he was quickly reassigned to work on the development of Torpedo Spheres. The Spheres were inspired by the Death Star itself, and had been commissioned by Palpatine himself. Despite his other work, Lemelisk was on board the Death Star to observe the Destruction of Alderaan. Before the Tarkin took the station to hunt down the Rebels however, he and his fellow designers were dropped off at Carida. This was fortunate for Lemelisk, since the Death Star was subsequently destroyed at Yavin. The Alliance had found a design flaw, in the form of the station's two-meter wide exhaust port and had exploited it by having one of their pilots fire a proton torpedo down it. The station exploded causing Tarkin's death in the process. Fearing for his life, Lemelisk went into hiding, taking refuge in his private retreat on Hefi.

Despite his best efforts, agents from Imperial Intelligence located him, and took him back to Imperial Center. At some stage, Lemelisk forgot that the station had failed, and began preparing himself for a commendation from Palpatine. As he stood before the Emperor, a cage dropped around him, while Palpatine reminded him that the Death Star had in fact failed. To the architect's initial surprise, Palpatine did not want him executed, at least not permanently.

The Emperor was greatly disappointed with the failure of the superweapon, and chose to use Lemelisk as an example to others who would fail him. Lemelisk could do nothing as a swarm of flesh-eating piranha beetles came up through holes in the floor. As soon as one of them bit the architect, all of them began to eat him, slowly tearing away at his flesh. They entered his ears and slashed his eyes, blinding him and putting him in excruciating pain for an hour. As a result of his critical wounds, Bevel Lemelisk died.

Death Star II
"The only way for a Rebel to reach the power core is for him to fly to it before we finish construction. And even that won't be an option in a few more weeks, once we seal the armor hull."

- Bevel Lemelisk

Lemelisk awakened shortly afterwards in a clone body, his consciousness transferred by Palpatine's dark alchemy. The Emperor realized that a man of Lemelisk's talents could not be wasted, but he had felt the need to teach the architect a lesson. While Lemelisk was recalling vivid memories of his own death, Palpatine made clear what he did want: a new Death Star, one that would not possess a single design flaw. Amazed at the fact that he was allowed to live, and motivated by fear, Lemelisk set about his task, making sure the new station fit Palpatine's requirements perfectly. Instead of the comparatively large thermal exhaust port that had allowed the Rebels to destroy the original Death Star, Lemelisk designed millions of milimeter-wide heat dispersion ducts. The ducts served the same purpose as the exhaust port, but were virtually invulnerable to blaster or torpedo attack, due to the addition of emergency baffles that would dissipate the energy of any successful hit.

With the flaws eradicated, Lemelisk set himself about improving on the original Death Star in other ways. To start with, he enhanced the station's superlaser targeting system and rate of fire. This allowed it to target and destroy moving targets, such as capital ships. The architect also made the station significantly larger in size, to accommodate the larger power supply units needed to operate the enhanced weaponry and systems. To fend off starfighter attack, Lemelisk inserted several batteries that could create a blanket of anti-starship fire. When completed and carrying its full TIE Fighter complement, Lemelisk believed that the new battle station, dubbed the Death Star II, would be invincible.

During production, Lemelisk was executed by Palpatine a further six times whenever the Emperor perceived any slowness or lack of enthusiasm from the architect. Using magic stemming from the dark side of the Force, Palpatine shuttled Lemelisk's consciousness through six new clones, testing the process to see if he himself would be able to survive it one day. While working on the Death Star II, Lemelisk also found time to build the Tarkin, which was essentially a stripped-down version of the Death Star featuring only the destructive superlaser. He also recalled the experience of his first death to Mammon Hoole, who would eventually publish it over a decade after Lemelisk's final death. During the station's development, he found himself on Kuat, where he was the subject of a kidnapping attempt undertaken by Bossk, who was working for the Zann Consortium.

Presenting his new designs to the Emperor, Lemelisk boasted that the Death Star II could only be destroyed while it was under construction. Palpatine believed him, but so did Mon Mothma, leader of the Alliance, who launched an attack on the station while it was being built over Endor. In the resulting battle, the station was destroyed, and Palpatine died his first death. Palpatine would later return in a clone body, and replace Lemelisk as Master of Imperial Projects with Umak Leth.

Life after Palpatine
"I am most displeased with your performance, Lemelisk."

- Durga Besadii Tai

In spite of his return, Palpatine was widely believed dead. In the wake of the Endor fiasco, Lemelisk travelled to Kuat, and joined the Imperial design team there. There, the Eclipse, a gargantuan Star Dreadnought, was under construction. Lemelisk applied his superlaser expertise to the ship, granting it the power to crack a planet's crust. The New Republic, successor to the Alliance, captured Kuat, forcing the Eclipse team to retreat to the Deep Core. Lemelisk however, chose not to follow them, as he had begun to hear rumors of Palpatine's resurrection and wanted to give his former master as wide a berth as possible. Instead, Lemelisk chose to fall in with Durga Besadii Tai, a Hutt crime lord, who controlled both the Besadii clan and the Black Sun crime syndicate.

Durga intended to have Lemelisk build him a superweapon that could match the Death Star for power. In order to generate adequate resources for the project, Lemelisk also designed Automated Mineral Exploiters&mdash;large cargo containers with moving mechanical mouthparts on one end, that would seek out high concentrations of valuable metals in asteroids, and then retrieve them. Durga was adequately impressed with the machines, and put them to use in the Hoth asteroid field. During a test of the machines however, two of the Exploiters turned on one another and eventually destroyed each other, incurring Durga's wrath. Though Lemelisk had asked not to be disturbed as he was working on a complex three-dimensional crystal-lattice puzzle, he was brought before the Hutt lord.

Discovering what had happened, Lemelisk tried to soften the blow of losing the two Expoilters by retroactively labeling them "prototypes." He reasoned that delays were to be expected, and he would be able to reprograms the machines so such a thing would not occur again. The architect then urged Durga to refocus on the construction of the Darksaber, for which Lemelisk would need the original Death Star plans to work from. Durga stole the plans from Coruscant, giving them to Lemelisk to incorporate into his Darksaber design. Lemelisk tackled the project with the same relish and enthusiasm he had when he had designed the first Death Star.

In his new design, Lemelisk stripped away everything from the Death Star plans, until he was essentially left with just the superlaser complex, much like his design for the Tarkin. Although the station itself was smaller, Lemelisk increased its power, since the reactor core would essentially only have to power the weapon itself. Instead of choosing a spherical design, Lemelisk went with a cylindrical one. As the weapon looked much like a gargantuan lightsaber, the architect dubbed it "Darksaber." Durga was adequately impressed with the plans, and gave the go ahead to begin construction on the superweapon.

Construction begins
Construction commenced in the Hoth asteroid field, with the hive-minded Taurill being used to build the superweapon. The Taurill were an idea of Durga's, and one that the architect initially deemed inspired, but many years later historian Voren Na'al would erroneously credit Lemelisk himself with the decision. The architect spent hours explaining the project to the Taurill, and though he was at first apprehensive, he soon understood that the primates would be able to complete the task with speed and enthusiasm. While Durga was away on Nal Hutta briefly, the project was overseen by General Sulamar&mdash;a boastful Imperial officer that Lemelisk despised. Pleased to see his project take shape, Lemelisk would observe construction from Durga's Orko SkyMine ship. Sulamar claimed that he would be able to obtain surplus Imperial computer cores for the project, but Lemelisk severely doubted the general's ability to do so.

The only real problem Lemelisk had with the Taurill was that they were easily distracted, by things such as asteroids colliding. When they returned to their work, they were often in different positions to where they had been beforehand, effectively creating flaws in the station. One day, while observing the construction, Lemelisk noticed that a large portion of the Darksaber's framework was in the wrong position. Incredibly frustrated, he reprimanded one of the Taurill, which was all he needed to do, due to their hive-mind. Lemelisk ordered them to tear apart the incorrectly built section and start again, hoping that neither Durga or Sulamar would notice the error.

In two days, the Taurill were able to disassemble and reassemble the erroneously built superstructure. At one point, Lemelisk thought the mistake would be discovered by Sulamar, but the General failed to notice the problem. While the Taurill were still fixing errors in the construction, Lemelisk was contacted by Durga and summoned to Nar Shaddaa, where he was to inspect Sulamar's surplus computer cores. It was a trip that Lemelisk did not want to take, and he was fearful of any possible encounters with the lowlifes that walked the Vertical City's streets, but he grudgingly set out to do his duty.

To his amusement, the computer cores turned out to be archaic, and designed for use with sewer systems. Lemelisk surmised however, that he would be able to make them work with the Darksaber's systems, after heavy modification. Durga surprised him by appearing during the architect's inspection of the modules, but Lemelisk assured him that units would be up to the task, before returning to the construction site.

Darksaber fails
Development and construction was further hindered by Durga's reliance on inferior materials, dooming the project before it had even been completed. Working with General Sulamar to to overcome delays, Lemelisk faced threats from Durga, who insisted that he would suffer the same repeated deaths he had sustained under Palpatine. Lemelisk, however, doubted that Durga could pull off the feat as the Emperor had, and found himself fearing a botched job more than yet another death. Nevertheless, Durga planned to use Darksaber to extort protection money from star systems across the galaxy. His actions caught the attention of Chief of State Leia Organa Solo, who dispatched General Crix Madine on an investigation mission.

Madine discovered the Darksaber and its purpose, and together with his commando team, infiltrated the weapon. He was thwarted before he could do any damage, but Madine was still able to send out a distress signal to General Wedge Antilles, who responded by bringing in his fleet to attack the Darksaber. Durga remained confident and, shortly after executing Madine, he began warming up the superlaser while pushing the Darksaber's engines to the limit. Lemelisk, appaled at the improper use of the superweapon, slipped away and fled the Darksaber on a small shuttle. Durga, attempting to bring the Darksaber out of the field, brought about the superweapon's shuttle and his death when it collided with several asteroids. Lemelisk's shuttle was shortly thereafter picked up by New Republic forces.

Final execution
By the time his career as a scientist and architect had ended, Lemelisk had created no less than six superweapons&mdash;the Death Stars and their prototype, the Eclipse, the Tarkin, and the Darksaber&mdash; that carried the ability to destroy planets. In New Republic custody, he was tried for crimes of genocide on Coruscant, and held on Orinackra for four years, although he was briefly given the opportunity to study the worldcraft owned by the late Lord Hethrir. He became one of the few individuals to be executed by the New Republic for war crimes, offering little more than defiant indignation in his final moments, requesting that his firing squad made sure they "do it right this time."

Personality and traits
An ambitious man, well-respected for his work, Lemelisk was proud of technical achievements he had made, especially breakthroughs in things such as superlaser technology. Though he feared Palpatine, he was confident enough to make boasts about the vulnerability or lack thereof concerning his improved Death Star II. He was not a perfectionist however, and could afford not to be due to his connections to high-ranking Imperial officials. At the same time, he disliked failure, and would not tolerate it even from himself. Nevertheless, he was a practical man, and would always caution against impractical designs or technologies.

When presented with a particularly difficult challenge, Lemelisk went giddy with excitement, as his generally relished such opportunities when designing. He presented a jovial side of his character to the public, constantly joking or complementing others. But he was never truly happy unless he was designing weapons of mass destruction, forcing him to restrain his dreams and aspirations during his work for the Galactic Republic. While working for the Empire, however, Lemelisk was allowed to make his dreams become reality, and jumped at the chance to do so.

Lemelisk was so focused on his work that he cared very little for his own health, and grew corpulent over the years. He did not like to be disturbed while working on projects or puzzles, and would grow indignant when interrupted. While working for Durga, he found himself constantly cowering before the Hutt lord. Contemptuous of Durga, he eventually attempted to talk down to the Hutt during his meetings, but would often be humbled by his new master's violent temper. He would also clash frequently with Durga's military supervisor, Sulamar, often calling into question his suitability for the role he had been given.

The architect did not like certain non-Humans, such as the Mon Calamari. While touring the Death Star with Tarkin, Lemelisk sat in a shuttle piloted by the Grand Moff's slave, Ackbar. Simply being near the Mon Calamari made Lemelisk sick to his stomach. Although he respected the Wookiees for their strength, he found their refusal to embrace modern technology contemptuous. During construction of the first Death Star, Lemelisk was far more concerned about deadlines than the wellbeing of others.

Lemelisk was also a forgetful man, neglectic to remember things such as the need to eat, or shave, or the fact that the Death Star had failed at Yavin. To pass the time when he was not designing or overseeing construction, he would work on puzzles that tested the limits of his intelligence, and would grow exceptionally angry if interrupted.

A Death Star Is Born
"Titanic?"

- Bevel Lemelisk, suggesting a new name for the Deep-Space Mobile Imperial Battle Station

In the early stages of the Death Star's production, Lemelisk joined Wilhuff Tarkin and Tol Sivron on a journey to Imperial Center. There, they met with Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine, to discuss some details of the Deep-Space Mobile Imperial Battle Station. To start with, Palpatine wanted the name changed. Despite suggestions from both Lemelisk and Sivron, the Emperor went with Vader's suggestion of "Death Star," much to Tarkin's ire. After making a failed request to have safety rails installed in the battle station's interior, Palpatine pointed out that the thermal exhaust port was "too freakin' big," and as a result, Tarkin had Lemelisk and Sivron contract it to approximately two meters in width. Leaving the meeting, Lemelisk accidentally left the technical readouts to the "Death Star" behind, but Vader retrieved them for him, while urging Tarkin to be more careful in future.

Behind the scenes
In Star Wars: Empire at War: Forces of Corruption, Bevel Lemelisk appears on Kuat in a kidnapping mission when Bossk must kidnap him, but this is likely non-canon.

Appearances

 * Death Star
 * Star Wars: X-wing
 * Star Wars: Rebellion
 * Star Wars Missions 19: Bounty on Bonadan
 * Star Wars: Empire at War: Forces of Corruption
 * Jedi Search
 * Children of the Jedi
 * Darksaber