Belindi Kalenda

"You argue most effectively, Lieutenant Kalenda. You marshal your facts well. You will either go far as an intelligence officer or end your career in the brig for insubordination."

- Hortel Ossilege

Belindi Kalenda was a member of New Republic Intelligence who first joined the intelligence service in 13 ABY. Kalenda was known for her efforts in the First Corellian Insurrection, where she was the only operative to successfully exfiltrate the Corellian system and report back to the New Republic about the conflict brewing within the system. Kalenda continued to act as the lead New Republic Intelligence agent in the Corellian system through the duration of the conflict and was promoted after the incident.

During the start of the Yuuzhan Vong War, Belindi Kalenda was the Deputy Director of New Republic Intelligence. However, the success of the Elan ruse, where the Yuuzhan Vong sent an agent posing as a defector in a plot to assassinate numerous Jedi, and the surprise assault on Fondor by the Yuuzhan Vong caused her to be demoted. In the final stages of the war, the resignation of the disgraced Dif Scaur later led to her finally assuming the position of Director of Intelligence for the newly formed Galactic Federation of Free Alliances, a position she would continue to hold through the opening stages of the Confederation-Galactic Alliance War.

Early life and career
According to her older brother, Tindel Kalenda, Belindi Kalenda was part of a family from a backwater world in the Outer Rim Territories. However, she spent her youth with Tindel on Coruscant until he was killed in a hovercar accident. After the accident, she was taken in by a military orphanage that would have raised her into a career in the Imperial Military. However, Kalenda's life was altered yet again when the New Republic took Coruscant in 6 ABY. Having no particular allegiance to the Empire, Kalenda decided to pursue a career in the New Republic military. Later, she was one of the first to graduate from the New Republic Military Academy. Upon graduation, she decided to pursue a career in intelligence rather than front line service, joining New Republic Intelligence in 13 ABY. At some point in her career, she was included in a New Republic dossier as part of a personnel evaluation.

Ambush
As a lieutenant, Kalenda took it upon herself to warn Han Solo and Chewbacca that several NRI operatives had gone missing on Corellia. While on her unofficial visit with Solo, she also attempted to enlist Solo's help in collecting information from the system, as Solo and his family were heading to Corellia for a trade summit. Specifically, Kalenda requested that he attempt to be as suspicious as possible, in order to attract the attention of whoever had been eliminating New Republic Intelligence agents at will. Solo agreed, after Kalenda assured him that NRI did not believe the Corellian system to be inherently dangerous to his family.

Kalenda was subsequently assigned to infiltrate the Corellian system, disguised as a down-on-her-luck trader. Her small ship had been rigged by NRI with a faulty hyperdrive which would fail upon attempting another jump, stranding her in the Corellian system indefinitely as part of her cover. However, upon her reversion from hyperspace into the space near Corellia, she was attacked by a pocket patrol boat, which she evaded by making a micro-jump. As she suspected, her hyperdrive failed immediately after the jump, plunging her back into realspace. Limping to Corellia in her damaged ship, Kalenda noted that she had managed to lose her pursuit, and settled for a water landing at night to further throw off any hints that she had survived the attack. Surviving the rough landing she was forced to make, Lieutenant Kalenda set off for Coronet City, her only gear a small survival pack and some rations.

Trekking across open country, Kalenda stole a landspeeder to facilitate her insertion into Coronet, though she ditched the vehicle near the town of Bela Vistal in favor of traveling by train. Additionally, she was forced to pickpocket to obtain credits to cover her traveling expenses, until she was waylaid by bandits outside Bela Vistal. Kalenda handily slew them and took their weapons, macrobinoculars, and speeder, which aided her in finally reaching the capital. Staking out the spaceport in hopes of spotting the Millennium Falcon and the Solos, Kalenda grew worried by the large numbers of security forces and militia patrolling the city&mdash;the heavy security not only did not bode well for her continued survival, but also indicated high tensions among the populace.

Stakeout
"I hope that your family comes out of this all right. I'm sorry. That's awfully personal. But I spent so long watching them, keeping an eye on them-" "It's all right. Thank you for saying it. I hope they come out of it all right, too."

- Belindi Kalenda and Han Solo

Kalenda's vigilance was finally rewarded by the arrival of the Millennium Falcon, and she decided to follow the Solos discreetly; knowing that because the family was also being watched by the security services, she would be unable to directly link up with them. Instead, she found an unoccupied villa near where the Solos were staying and kept a close watch on them. Her intuition told her that a previous attack on the Falcon and the relatively lax security provided by the Corellian Defense Force did not bode well for the Chief of State. The battered state&mdash;courtesy of the Human League&mdash;in which Han Solo was returned to the villa after a night out in Coronet City did little to allay those fears. Thus, Kalenda maintained a constant but discreet watch on the Solo villa.

Despite her best efforts at concealment, Kalenda was eventually discovered, though not by the Corellians. The upgraded astromech droid Q9-X2 of the Solos' hired tutor Ebrihim had spotted her while conducting thorough security sweeps, and informed Han Solo. Solo ordered the droid to say nothing of the matter, as neither the CDF nor Kalenda were aware she had been spotted. When the Solos prepared to leave the villa, Kalenda nearly despaired, feeling her time watching had been ill-spent. However, Han Solo returned to the villa shortly before the family departed and sent her a signal in Mon Calamari blink code requesting a meeting. Solo arrived at her hideout that evening, bringing additional food, credits, clothes, a pocket blaster, and a comlink to contact him with. Greatly relieved, Kalenda thanked him for the provisions. Solo then instructed her to find a place in Coronet City where she could continue her quiet surveillance effort, as he, too, had felt the rising tensions on Corellia. She agreed and moved into Coronet to continue her role.

While the Solos were staying at Corona House, a series of riots were triggered and Corona House was attacked. Solo contacted Kalenda and arranged for her to meet him so they could steal a spaceship. As they drove her groundcar to the nearest spaceport, Solo gave Kalenda a datachip and instructed her to deliver it personally to one of only three people: Mon Mothma, Admiral Ackbar, or Luke Skywalker. Then, with Solo throwing several miniature thermal detonators as a diversion, Kalenda managed to steal an X-TIE Fighter and escape the planet as the only warning the New Republic at large would have of the Corellian Insurrection. Shortly after she left, a massive interdiction field settled over the entire Corellian system, isolating it from hyperspace travel.

Intelligence liaison
"Dartmakers out of luck with frequently iced manifolds."

- Belindi Kalenda, transmitting an NRI recognition code over Coruscant.

Flying an unknown ship, Kalenda acted quickly upon her reversion in the Coruscant system. She was able to deliver a New Republic Intelligence authentication code and was detained aboard the Mon Calamari Star Cruiser Naritus, as her identity had yet to be proven. To her surprise, Luke Skywalker came to meet her after she informed her captors that she could only speak to him, Admiral Ackbar, or Mon Mothma.

At the urging of New Republic leaders, Kalenda, Skywalker, and Lando Calrissian journeyed to Bakura, where they met with Gaeriel Captison. The New Republic was short of vessels, and the Bakuran Defense Fleet had equipped their ships with technology that would allow them to bypass the interdiction field. After the Bakurans heard the briefing that Kalenda and her companions provided, Captison and Admiral Hortel Ossilege agreed to provide military assistance. Once Captison furnished them with a fleet, Kalenda accompanied the Bakuran war fleet to Corellia as the lead New Republic Intelligence agent.

Upon their arrival into the Corellian system, Kalenda advised Ossilege and the other officers that Centerpoint Station was the center of both the interdiction field and a communications jamming signal that had blacked out the Corellian system. She also updated them on the tactical situation: one of the four Bakuran ships, the Watchkeeper, had been disabled by the abrupt reversion to realspace, though thankfully it was still serviceable and the Corellians had only mustered straggling groups of light fighters to oppose their fleet.

Centerpoint Station
"The long and the short of it is that Centerpoint is the starbuster. It is the device used to make stars go nova."

- Belindi Kalenda, to Hortel Ossilege

As the fleet advanced on Centerpoint, Kalenda learned from Lando Calrissian's friend and future wife Tendra Risant, transmitting with a radionics set supplied to Risant by Calrissian, that a large number of warships were orbiting nearby Sacorria. However, with limited equipment, Risant could provide few details on the size or strength of the force. With little to go on, Kalenda decided to focus her attention on Centerpoint Station, which had proven to be quite a mystery for the Bakuran fleet. Eventually, a small team, of which Kalenda was a part, flew to investigate the station.

Along with Lando Calrissian, Luke Skywalker, R2-D2, C-3PO, and Captison, Kalenda journeyed into Centerpoint Station, landing inside the station completely unopposed. The only occupant they found was Jenica Sonsen, an administrator of the station, who had no clue about the station's use in the Starbuster Plot. Centerpoint had actually been one of the focal points of the Corellian Insurrection and had been used to periodically blow up stars as well as generate the interdiction and communications jamming fields, much to Sonsen's consternation. Sonsen gave them a brief tour of the deserted station, including the central Hollowtown and the Glowpoint. Upon arrival into Hollowtown, though, C-3PO noted that the ambient temperature was rising significantly, which Sonsen informed them indicated a Glowpoint flare that would sear all of Hollowtown. The group quickly rode the turbovator back to the nearest personnel lock, where they briefly braved the scorching heat and toxic gases to race to the airlock. They barely managed to escape before the entire region was rendering thoroughly fatal to human life.

Once they were out of danger, Calrissian, Skywalker, Sonsen, and Kalenda correctly deduced that Centerpoint was in fact the weapon that had been used to detonate stars across the galaxy. Furthermore, they also realized that the planetary repulsors on each of the Corellian worlds would diffuse the deadly beam that Centerpoint used to start a supernova in a star. With that knowledge, Kalenda would later fly to back to the Bakuran flagship Intruder with Lando Calrissian and Gaeriel Captison in the Lady Luck. However, she and Captison stayed behind on the Intruder with Calrissian.

Showdown
"Go. Now. That is an order. You-you have been a good officer, Lieutenant Kalenda. Do not waste yourself now over a pointless gesture. Go."

- Hortel Ossilege's final order to Belindi Kalenda

As Ossilege moved the fleet towards Drall in an attempt to gather information on its planetary repulsor, Kalenda remained on Intruder, advising the admiral with what intelligence she had on the Rebellion. More disturbing was the arrival of the Sacorrian Triad fleet, which outnumbered the Bakuran vessels. Upon seeing two vessels, one of them the Millennium Falcon, launch from the surface, Kalenda noted that the other vessel was firing upon the Falcon. The Intruder snagged both vessels in a tractor beam after the Falcon disabled its pursuer. As it turned out, the Solo children had been piloting the ship while Chewbacca and Ebrihim were imprisoned by the Human League at the Drall planetary repulsor. After the Solos, including the recently-escaped Han Solo and the missing Leia Organa Solo, were reunited, Ossilege and Kalenda outlined the facts to the rest of the Bakuran, New Republic, and Corellian advisors on the Intruder, including Kalenda, about the importance of defeating the Sacorrian fleet. The Sacorrian Triad had masterminded the entire Starbuster Plot and with the imminent destruction of the next star&mdash;which would doom millions of people&mdash;the Bakurans needed to control a planetary repulsor and fire it to diffuse Centerpoint's starbuster.



Kalenda remained on the Intruder in the subsequent Battle of Centerpoint Station. When the Bakuran flagship was struck by four robot ramships, Kalenda was ordered to abandon ship, along with the rest of the crew, by the mortally wounded Admiral Ossilege. Meanwhile, he and the similarly wounded Gaeriel Captison activated the self destruct on the Intruder, destroying a significant portion of the Sacorrian fleet. Shortly thereafter, Admiral Ackbar arrived with a New Republic fleet and quickly defeated the remaining Sacorrian vessels. On Drall, Anakin Solo activated the planetary repulsor, saving the lives of millions. The Corellian insurrection was over, and Kalenda enjoyed an impromptu victory celebration on Drall afterward. She was commended by Airen Cracken for her performance in the Corellian system and was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel and placed in charge of the Operations branch of the New Republic Intelligence Special Threats division.

Yuuzhan Vong War
"Colonel Kalenda, since you've been attached to this fiasco from the beginning, I'd like you to start by telling me which parts of Han Solo's report can be considered fact and which parts can be dismissed as owing to an obvious case of space giddiness."

- Dif Scaur, to Belinda Kalenda

Kalenda continued her work for NRI during the Yuuzhan Vong War. At the start of the war, she was the NRI deputy director, holding the rank of colonel. On one mission, she was dispatched along with xenobiologist Joi Eicroth and Fleet Intelligence analyst Yintal to New Nystao on Wayland to meet a Yuuzhan Vong defector, the priestess Elan, and her familiar Vergere. The three New Republic operatives began questioning Elan, who provided information on Yuuzhan Vong military ambitions, the impending assault on Ord Mantell, Yuuzhan Vong culture, and dissension within their society. However, during the debriefing of Elan, they were attacked by an ooglith masquer-clad Yuuzhan Vong assassin, who killed Yintal, as coralskippers began to strafe the city. Kalenda and rest of her party, along with Elan, survived the assassination attempt with varying degrees of injury, but they were forced to move the defecting priestess to another location. Kalenda returned to Coruscant, spending time in a bacta tank to recuperate from her injuries en route, where she briefed the Council on Security and Intelligence on her findings about the two would-be defectors. She informed them that Elan had provided them with valuable military information and recommended that Elan and Vergere be moved to Coruscant through a complicated set of traveling routes and a series of decoy teams set up by New Republic Intelligence to throw off any attempts at pursuit. Her plan was approved, and NRI began to move the defectors.



However, one of the teams handling the transfer, led by Major Showolter, was compromised. The result was that Elan and Vergere were nearly captured by the Yuuzhan Vong-allied Peace Brigade. Only the timely aid of Han Solo prevented that from happening, but Solo later determined that Elan was part of a plan to assassinate the Jedi and killed her after she attempted to silence him, while Vergere escaped back to the Yuuzhan Vong. Called back to Coruscant, Kalenda was reprimanded by her superior, Dif Scaur, for her failure to both safely transfer Elan and Vergere as well as to determine Elan's true motives. She then provided Scaur with the account she had received from Solo, and Scaur informed her, along with other intelligence staff, that news of the transfer had apparently been leaked by an informant or mole within New Republic Intelligence. Furthermore, the Council on Security and Intelligence was highly displeased with New Republic Intelligence's failure in this mission. The fallout from the debacle had political ramifications, much of which Kalenda bore the brunt of, as she had been directly in charge of the transfer and debriefing of Elan and was suspected of having unwittingly aiding an informant. As a result, she was demoted to lieutenant colonel.

Disgraced, Kalenda later partnered with Showolter on a scouting mission to Tynna based on information provided by Talon Karrde linking the Yuuzhan Vong advance to the spice trade. They arrived just in time to witness the brief Battle of Tynna as the largely undefended planet quickly fell to the Yuuzhan Vong, which did at least confirm the intelligence that Karrde had obtained. Unfortunately, later reports from Karrde, relayed by Kalenda, indicating an attack on Corellia turned out to be a disinformation effort by the Yuuzhan Vong; Corellia was a feint, as Fondor was the true target. This second failure only served to disgrace Kalenda further. She did help supervise the medical examination of a captured Yuuzhan Vong prisoner, but as the prisoner committed suicide shortly after capture, the examination was far from complete and yielded little information. Yuuzhan Vong Warmaster Tsavong Lah would later threaten his operative Viqi Shesh, who had leaked the Elan plan to the Yuuzhan Vong, with exposure to Belindi Kalenda.

After the New Republic was re-organized into the Galactic Alliance, Kalenda was stationed on Mon Calamari with the rest of the government structure. Shortly thereafter, Kalenda was ordered by the newly elected Chief of State Cal Omas to help Han and Leia Organa Solo coordinate a mission to re-establish relations with some of the worlds that had been cut off by the Yuuzhan Vong advance. Included in the mission also were Jaina Solo and Jagged Fel. Eventually the frigate Pride of Selonia and Twin Suns Squadron were tasked to support the Millennium Falcon as the primary naval force. However, their meeting was interrupted by a comlink call for Jaina Solo from Jedi Knight Tahiri Veila, who was in considerable emotional turmoil. Solo requested a comlink trace from Kalenda, who provided the trace and brought the three Solos to where Tahiri had gone into a fit of delirium. Following the Battle of Yuuzhan'tar, she was appointed Director of Intelligence after the politically-pressured resignation of Dif Scaur over the Alpha Red pathogen incident.

Confederation-Galactic Alliance War
Kalenda remained the Director of Intelligence for the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances into the Confederation-Galactic Alliance War. During the opening stages of the war, Kalenda briefed Admiral Cha Niathal and Jacen Solo on a meeting that the separatist movement, instigated by the Bothan faction, was holding to elect a new supreme commander. Niathal, recognizing the value of disrupting such a meeting and killing or capturing the attendees, instructed Kalenda to devote as many assets as needed to gathering intelligence on the meeting. These efforts would lead to the Battle of Gilatter VIII. Later, Kalenda reported to Cha Niathal, now the temporary co-Chief of State, that scientist and intelligence operative Doctor Toval Seyah had been pulled off Centerpoint after being suspected as a spy by the Corellians.

Personality and traits
"It's horrible. I can't stand just sitting here, doing nothing."

- Belindi Kalenda during the Battle of Tynna

Kalenda was noted by her superiors for being both brave and resourceful. She was dedicated to her job and her missions professionally, even following orders that did not make sense to her. Kalenda would not argue with a logical suggestion or order, though, even when it conflicted with her own personal sentiments, preferring to keep a calm, cool composure even in the midst of danger. However, that did not stop her from expressing her personal feelings; Kalenda was a sentimental human underneath her professional exterior. Kalenda also possessed a reliable sense of intuition that she attributed to marginal Force-sensitivity. Many of her decisions, including her choice to discreetly shadow the Solos during their stay on Corellia, were based on what her intuition told her to do, or what her duty demanded that she do. While she did have a strong sense of duty, she was not above rewriting or creatively interpreting her orders in order to get what she wanted, or even acting on her own initiative without orders at all.

With her wide gaze and offset eyes, Kalenda would often appear to not be directly looking at the person she was talking to. This trait would lead her to sometimes be mistaken as blind. In response, Kalenda used the perception to make a blind woman one of her favorite disguises.

Skills and abilities
Trained by the New Republic, Kalenda was considered a competent field agent. Her skills included the use of blasters, melee and unarmed combat, pickpocketing, forgery, infiltration techniques, and piloting repulsorlift vehicles and spacecraft. Other fields of knowledge in which Kalenda was proficient included swimming, computer programming, demolitions, machinery repair, and lip reading. By the time of the Yuuzhan Vong War, Kalenda could also speak Huttese.

Behind the scenes
Kalenda was first introduced by Roger MacBride Allen in his Corellian Trilogy. She would later return as a supporting character in the The New Jedi Order book series and the later Legacy of the Force series.

The name Kalenda is possibly inspired by Kalenda, a form of Afro-Caribbian stick fighting. Calinda, a folk dance and music form derived from the stick fighting, is another related word that might have inspired the name.

Appearances

 * Ambush at Corellia
 * Assault at Selonia
 * Showdown at Centerpoint
 * Agents of Chaos I: Hero's Trial
 * Agents of Chaos II: Jedi Eclipse
 * Balance Point
 * Star by Star
 * Force Heretic I: Remnant
 * The Unifying Force
 * Exile
 * Fury