Salak Weet

"My friend Salak&hellip; he's not coming back. I know that now. I guess I've known it a long, long, time."

- Noa Briqualon

Salak Weet, also known to the Sanyassan King Terak as the star traveler, was a Humanoid male explorer whose starship crashed onto the Forest Moon of Endor around the year 26 BBY. Weet had been attempting to chart the Moddell sector with his friend Noa Briqualon, but a damaged crystal oscillator in their star cruiser left them stranded on Endor. After setting out to search the moon for a replacement part, Weet was taken captive by a group of shipwrecked Sanyassan Marauders and brought to their castle stronghold. Misunderstanding the tale he told them, the primitive Marauders believed that he had the "power of the stars," a power they could take from him and use to leave the moon. Weet was in turn killed by Terak, their king.

Weet's corpse hung in the castle's dungeon over the years as the Sanyassans continued to hunt for the "power." Although Briqualon accepted that his friend would not return, Weet's father Jimke organized a massive search effort that finally bankrupted him after four years. Weet's fate was confirmed to Briqualon in 3 ABY, when Briqualon infiltrated the Marauders' castle to rescue his captive friend Cindel Towani and came across Weet's skeleton. The skeleton's presence helped Briqualon realize that Towani's own crystal oscillator was in the castle, and, after escaping with it, he and Towani were able to leave Endor.

Stranded
"He told us about this. He told us it was the key to all his power. A power greater than mine. Greater than Terak's.''" "But it's just a piece of a star cruiser!" "''That's right. The power of the stars! It's what Salak was searching for long ago."

- Charal and Cindel Towani, speaking of a crystal oscillator

The Humanoid male Salak Weet lived during the final years of the Galactic Republic. He was the son of Jimke Weet, a renowned kloo horn soloist. Shortly before 26 BBY, the younger Weet set out to chart the Moddell sector alongside his friend Noa Briqualon, a Human who had spent years as a mid-level scout. On the two explorers' maiden voyage, they reached the Moddell sector's Monsua Nebula, from where they broadcast a responder signal. Shortly afterward, their star cruiser crashed onto Endor, a forested moon that had claimed hundreds of ships throughout the millenia due to the presence of nearby gravity shadows and stellar debris. A damaged crystal oscillator rendered the ship inoperable, and the explorers hid their cruiser beneath a layer of foliage, from where they began to enact repairs. Weet eventually left to search the moon for a replacement oscillator.

While wandering through the forest, Weet encountered a group of Sanyassan Marauders who had themselves been stranded on Endor for nearly a century. The Sanyassans captured Weet and brought him to Terak's Keep, the castle stronghold of their leader, King Terak. There, they chained Weet to the walls of the keep's dungeon, and he told his captors of the stranded star cruiser and his hunt for a crystal oscillator. The primitive Marauders were both desperate to leave Endor and fascinated by the "power of the stars"&mdash;their term for the ability to travel through space &mdash;and Terak killed Weet in an attempt to gain that power. When the murder accomplished nothing, the Marauders embarked on a quest to locate Weet's ship and the great power they presumed was contained therein. Weet's corpse was left in the dungeon to rot.

Legacy
"I know that Salek [sic] is still alive somewhere. If anyone has any information, or any of my fans are willing to donate credits to the search, please contact the Salek-Come-Home [sic] HoloNet registry."

- Jimke Weet, interviewed on HoloNet News

In 26 BBY, Jimke Weet organized a massive search-and-rescue effort for his son and set up a corresponding HoloNet registry for the receipt of information from anyone who had it. After four fruitless years, he was forced to file for bankruptcy and abandon his efforts. However, the elder Weet refused to give up hope, and in an interview with HoloNet News, he asked his fans to donate any available credits to the registry in order to help revive the search. Meanwhile, on Endor, Weet's body decomposed into a skeleton as the years passed. Although his name was known to Terak's accomplice Charal, Weet was remembered by Terak as "the star traveler."

Briqualon continued repair work on the crashed star cruiser for nearly three decades. Although he realized that Weet would not return, he refused to admit it to himself until 3 ABY when he shared his story with Cindel Towani, a young shipwrecked Human girl whom he had befriended. The Marauders had attacked an Ewok village and killed her entire family before stealing the crystal oscillator from their star cruiser, recognizing it as the power of which Weet had spoken. Towani learned of Weet's fate after later being kidnapped by the Marauders, and when Briqualon stormed Terak's Keep to rescue her, she pointed out Weet's skeleton and told Briqualon that his friend had been killed for "the power thing." Quickly realizing that she meant her family's oscillator, Briqualon snatched it from the castle; after defeating Terak in battle, he used the oscillator to power his ship and leave Endor with Towani.

Personality and traits
"My friend Salak and I&hellip; we were a couple of young fellows out to tear up the galaxy!"

- Noa Briqualon

As a young man, Salak Weet was eager to set out on his charting expedition, hoping that he and Briqualon could "tear up the galaxy." When kidnapped by the Sanyassan Marauders, Weet revealed information to them. After crashing onto Endor, he was missed by his father, who openly wept to the media.

Behind the scenes
"You see, it was in this Star Cruiser that I crashed to Endor many years ago. My power supply, a crystal oscillator, was shattered. I thought I could fix it but I can't. Without a new crystal oscillator, I can never hope to go home."

- Noa Briqualon, leaving out any mention of Weet in The Ring, the Witch, and the Crystal: An Ewok Adventure

The character of Salak was introduced in Ewoks: The Battle for Endor, a 1985 television movie directed by Jim and Ken Wheat. Although he appears only as a long-dead skeleton, the movie's plot is driven by Salak's past actions. However, he is not included in The Ring, the Witch, and the Crystal: An Ewok Adventure, a truncated children's storybook adaptation of the movie written by Cathy East Dubowski. In the storybook, Briqualon tells Towani that he crashed onto Endor years before, but he makes no mention of having been with a partner. Additionally, the book does not provide a backstory to the Sanyassan Marauders' desire to leave Endor.

Further information on Weet's past was later revealed in the StarWars.com Databank  and in Missing Starship Search Abandoned, a 2002 article published in Volume 531, Issue 49 of the HoloNet News website. The article was written by Pablo Hidalgo and Paul Ens, and it spells the character's name as "Salek," which is contrary to the spelling of "Salak" given in the subtitles of the 2004 Ewoks: The Battle for Endor DVD release, the Databank entries,  and 2008's The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia. However, the article is the only source to provide the last name of "Weet," and as such, the correctly-spelled full name "Salak Weet" has never appeared in Star Wars canon.

Appearances

 * Ewoks: The Battle for Endor
 * Ewoks: The Battle for Endor book-and-record
 * Ewoks: The Battle for Endor book-and-record