Droma

"If I didn't owe him my life, I'd probably jettison him right here."

- Han Solo

Droma was a male Ryn who had a passion for adventure and a deep concern for his family, and was adept at problem-solving, observing others, and the various sleight of hand techniques that his species was notorious for. Following the outbreak of the Yuuzhan Vong War in 25 ABY, he was separated from his clanmates, and made the acquaintance of Han Solo aboard the Jubilee Wheel while it was being attacked by a Dread weapon. The two became tangled up in foiling a Yuuzhan Vong plot to wipe out the Jedi, and Droma saved Solo's life several times in the process. In return, Solo helped Droma reunite with his clanmates, an adventure which saw Droma assume temporary duties as co-pilot of the Millennium Falcon.

After being reunited with his clanmates on Fondor, Droma traveled with Solo to the planet Duro to help settle two Ryn clans as refugees. After Duro fell to the Yuuzhan Vong, Droma and Solo parted ways. Over the next three years of the war, Droma founded the Ryn Network, a unique intelligence organization that helped undo damage to the galaxy inflicted by the Yuuzhan Vong. Droma began operating the network from the planet Onadax, where he was reunited with Solo and his family in 28 ABY. He led the Solos to Esfandia, where they aided the Imperial Remnant in repelling the Yuuzhan Vong, before disappearing in order to continue operating the Ryn network.

Meeting Han Solo
Like many of his species, Droma lived in the Corporate Sector. He was part of a Caravan of Ryn ships heading from the Corporate Sector to the Plooriod Cluster when the Yuuzhan Vong entered the Ottega system and attacked Ithor. The Ryn were scattered, and Droma ended up a refugee aboard the Jubilee Wheel, along with several other Ryn.

While Droma was aboard the Wheel, the station was attacked by a Yuuzhan Vong Dread weapon. The creature began ripping away the station's exterior bulkheads, and inhaling the passengers into its gaping mouth. Droma resisted the pull by grabbing hold of Han Solo's knees, and suggested to Solo that the two of them close the corridor's blast shield, thus blocking the interior of the station from the pull. Solo agreed, and the two pulled off the risky maneuver, though Droma had to snag Solo's body with his tail in the process. Knowing where the station's launching bays were, Droma led Solo and a large group of frightened passengers there, and summoned an R2 unit to open a locked hatch for them in the process by playing his flute-like beak. Leading the passengers into a civilian shuttle, Solo and Droma took the controls, leaving the station and entering a battlefield full of X-Wing fighters, TIE Interceptors, and Yuuzhan Vong Coralskippers.

An angered Solo attempted to attack the Dread weapon, which had swallowed his friend Roa, but a frantic Droma reminded him that they were piloting an unarmed shuttle. At the copilot's station, Droma used the auxiliary controls to break the ship free of a Yuuzhan vong warship's dovin basals, and helped Solo evade four coralskippers that began to chase them through the melee of the battle. As the Star Destroyer Erinnic and its accompanying armada chased the Yuuzhan Vong fleet off, Solo plotted a course down towards Ord Mantell. After landing the ship at the planet's primary spaceport, the two parted ways, with Solo indicating that he hoped to not see Droma again any time soon.

Foiling a Yuuzhan Vong scheme
Along with many other refugees, Droma stowed away aboard the luxury liner Queen of Empire, with enough credits to secure his passage to Vortex. While on board, he reencountered Solo, who was pursuing a pilot of the Peace Brigade, Reck Desh, to Bilbringi. Introductions were finally made, and Solo claimed to be named Roaky Laamu. The two shared a steak at a cafeteria, but, disliking the taste, headed to a restaurant, which Solo was enraged to discover did not serve Ryn. He ordered two meals to go, and ate with Droma in the observation bay, asking many questions about the Ryn species, which he had never encountered before landing on the Jubilee Wheel. Droma later kibitzed a game of Sabacc involving Solo, telling him that it was a fool's enterprise, and forced Solo to play against the randomizer, which Droma believed was the only worthy opponent. Solo won the game, took the equivalent of his buy-in stakes, and gave the rest to Droma. Droma gave most of it to some deserving passengers of the lower decks, but kept enough for himself to secure passage to Bilbringi, where he believed he could more easily catch a ride to Ralltiir. At the now-empty Sabacc table, he used the game's cards to tell Solo's fortune.

After sharing Solo's cabin space overnight and annoying him with his swishing tail, Droma was abandoned again by the annoyed pilot, but caught up to him as he was in mid-conversation with Major Showolter, an agent of New Republic Intelligence. An injured Showolter bid Solo to hide Elan and Vergere, defectors from the Yuuzhan Vong. Showolter had been attacked by Vong agents whom he believed to be searching for them. Droma was surprised to hear Solo's real name, but would claim that he likely hadn't heard of him before. Solo, after sending Showolter to sick bay, wasn't about to allow Droma to involve himself in the situation, but Droma reminded Han that he knew the ship better, including good places to hide the defectors. After Han reluctantly agreed, the Queen was interdicted from hyperspace, and announcements were made over the ship's loudspeakers that the bridge was being assaulted by unknown raiders. The party of four made their way to the ship's docking bay, but on the way, Solo saw Reck Desh and temporarily left the other three in order to confront him. All four were captured by Desh's Peace Brigade companions, and Desh realized who Elan and Vergere were before taking them into custody. Hoping to get rid of Solo, he bid him step into a drop shaft, which Solo survived by grabbing hold of Droma's tail. The move caused Droma grievous pain, but Solo insisted that he wouldn't forget that his life had just been saved.

Chasing after Desh, the two arrived at the docking bay just as New Republic Elite Forces were boarding the ship, which had arrived at Bilbringi. In front of their eyes, the Millennium Falcon arrived, and Leia Organa Solo, Luke Skywalker, Mara Jade Skywalker, C-3PO, and R2-D2 departed down the boarding ramp. Solo forestalled a warm welcome in order to ask his wife where Desh's ship had departed to, and hurriedly introduced her to Droma as he raced up the ramp. A confused Droma followed, and the two left the others behind as they took the Falcon after Desh and the defectors.

New to the Falcon, Droma doubted that it could catch Desh's ship. However, they found the shuttle drifting dead in space, and Droma took over the pilot's station as Solo boarded, found the crew dead, and brought the two defectors aboard the Falcon. Droma recognized Vergere as belonging to a species he had seen before, and warned Solo that she could not have been of extragalactic origin. As Solo realized that the Yuuzhan Vong warship that was firing on them was deliberately missing, he suspected a trap, and left his ship's cockpit in order to confront the defectors. Droma took the controls again, but abandoned his post on a hunch and entered the rear hold, saving Solo's life in the process. Elan had committed suicide by swallowing her bo'tous poison, and Solo had breathed some in. By opening the door to the rear hold, Droma gave Solo fresh air to breathe. Droma then killed the insect-like creatures that the bo'tous spore produced, and raced back to the cockpit while Solo searched the ship's corridors for Vergere. The Fosh fled in an escape pod, and Droma and Solo veered the Falcon away from the Yuuzhan Vong warship, which was then repulsed by the Quasar Fire-class bulk cruiser Thurse.

Solo and Droma returned to Coruscant, where Solo delivered a report to New Republic Intelligence, and, thankful for having his life saved twice, vowed to help Droma find his clanmates.

Co-pilot of the Falcon
In the newly-painted matte-black Millennium Falcon, Solo and Droma began searching for Droma's clanmates, while hoping to uncover any information on Roa's whereabouts in the process. Their travels brought them to Vortex, as well as a lush world of green and purple forest. As they prepared to depart this world for Sriluur, Droma confessed his hesitancy to travel near Hutt space, as Hutts had historically enslaved the Ryn. On their way to Sriluur, Solo received intel from his wife that five of Droma's six clanmates had been evacuated from Gyndine, while his sister had been left behind.

Above Sriluur, the Falcon was attacked by a group of coralskippers. Droma attempted to punch in a course to Nar Shaddaa, but Solo insisted on taking on the ships in the planet's atmosphere. Droma immediately applied himself to the task, and proved himself a very able copilot in the ensuing firefight, even destroying several of the enemy craft himself. After destroying the coralskippers, the Falcon entered hyperspace, and Solo complimented Droma on his shooting. Due to a power converter that had been damaged by the Yuuzhan Vong ships, they didn't have enough power to make it to Nar Shaddaa. Droma suggested Kashyyyk as a location to obtain a new one, but Solo insisted on Tholatin.

With a damaged hyperdrive, the Falcon made a long, slow trip to Tholatin. Upon arrival, Droma posed as the ship's captain, with Solo acting as Miek, his first mate. They landed in Esau's Ridge, a rift in the planet often used by smugglers on the otherwise uninhabited world, using passcodes from Solo's smuggling days that Droma claimed they had received from Shug Ninx on Nar Shaddaa. Plaan, the Weequay security chief, informed them of a contractor who was paying freelancers to transport refugees to planets that the Yuuzhan Vong planned to attack, and that a group of refugees was due to be transported off of Ruan very soon. Following the trail, Solo and Droma headed to Ruan.

After passing through Ruan customs, Droma was eager to begin the search, but Solo wondered if his clanmates would have taken up with the mercenaries who intended to transport them offworld. Droma insisted that they were far too clever. With over 100 refugee camps to search, the two checked the central databank on a tip from a BFL-series droid named Baffle, and hitched a ride in the droid's landspeeder to the camp where they had located five of Droma's clanmates. Upon arrival at the camp, Droma was arrested on charges of forgery of official documents, a crime which his clanmates had actually committed. Solo was advised to get offworld, else he would be charged as an accessory after the fact. Droma was forced into labor at a product enhancement facility, but was rescued by Solo, who was executing a plan hatched by Baffle. Convincing Bow, a sentry at the facility, to take Droma in for a medical evaluation, Solo pulled a blaster on Bow in the turbolift of the facility’s east wing, and bid Droma to hide him in a closet. Droma deposited the sentry in a room full of deactivated droids and rendezvoused with Solo, who, unbeknownst to Droma, had reactivated hundreds of the facility's droids as a favor to Baffle. Bow thus escaped his captivity and chased the two out of the facility, who in turn commandeered his landspeeder and escaped.

Hoping to avoid the surface scans of the pursuing speeders, Solo dropped their speeder into an irrigation channel. Locating them, Bow closed a gate in the channel, causing the speeder to crash and deposit the pair in a muddy ditch. Manipulating weather control, Bow then caused a tidal wave to engulf them. After nearly drowning, Solo boarded the floating speeder and dragged Droma aboard, before the vehicle went tumbling over a waterfall. Back in the water, the pair were forced by the current through white-water rapids before being stuck in a fine-mesh net and being picked up by a Scout Collector. Droma reminded Solo that he still owed him one life, and bid him get them out of the machine. Thinking that they were about to be flash-frozen, the pair was shocked to discover that they had in fact been rescued by Baffle, and were directly beneath the spaceport where the Falcon was docked. Thanking Solo for his assistance in reactivating the droids, Baffle revealed that the refugee ship Trevee was headed for Fondor. Droma was surprised to learn that his clanmates were aboard, and not still on Ruan. Baffle suggested that they save themselves three hyperspace jumps and use the Gandeal-Fondor Hyperlane.

Finding his family
Solo and Droma headed to Fondor, where they gave First Fleet Command and Control a legitimate transponder signal and identified themselves as the Falcon. Nevertheless, control told them that the Trevee had dropped its cargo in an area off-limits to unregistered ships, and would not let them proceed. Thinking quickly, Solo and Droma figured that the mercenaries who had made the drop would want to flee far away from where the Yuuzhan Vong would be attacking, and decided on Tholatin as the most likely location. While preparing to make the jump, they located the Trevee at the edge of Fondorian space and attacked it, telling the protesting Fondorian Flight Operations that the Yuuzhan Vong were coming. As if on cue, the Yuuzhan Vong arrived, and Solo and Droma aided a group of X-Wings in destroying an enemy vessel. The X-Wing pilots turned out to be Kyp's Dozen, and squadron leader Kyp Durron assigned two of his craft to aid the Falcon in pursuing the Trevee.

The outgunned crew of the Trevee agreed to help them recover the refugees from the empty shipyards where they had been deposited, and the pirates, along with Droma and one of the dozen's pilots, set to work rescuing them. Droma was reunited with five of his clanmates, and stayed behind to locate fifty unaccounted-for refugees before blasting off in the Trevee. Meanwhile, Kyp Durron rescued a number of prisoners from the Yuuzhan Vong clustership Creche and brought them aboard the Falcon, including Roa and Sapha, Droma's sister and final missing clanmate. Solo later told his wife that he figured he and Droma were about even, and asked her to locate a planet for the refugees where the Ryn wouldn't be treated like riffraff.

Duro
As world after world closed its door to refugees, Droma joined Solo and his son Jacen on Duro, whose government had begun allowing refugees to live in camps on the planet's surface. Solo had registered with SELCORE as a sponsor of the Ryn in order to settle them someplace, and Droma and Jacen were aiding Solo in his efforts. The trio administered Settlement 32, which contained two Ryn clans, among other refugees. Though Solo was the official administrator, he admitted that Droma, along with the Ryn Mezza and Romany had thought through most of the administration. When the settlement was infested by Naotebe winglings brought onto Duro by the Yuuzhan Vong infiltrator Nom Anor, Droma aided in the evacuation of its refugees, staying behind until everyone had boarded a land crawler.

The refugees were brought to Gateway, the main SELCORE complex on the planet, where Droma held off having his fur shaved in the decontamination process until the quarantine order against the refugees from Settlement 32 was lifted. Wearing chemical suits, he and Jacen led a team of refugees back to the settlement to seek out any spaceworthy vessels that had survived the infestation, only to discover that it had been overrun by Fefze beetles. The team was forced to flee from the swarming beetles, and Droma remained behind with Jacen, using a vibroblade to kill several of the insects, and convincing Jacen to throw his lightsaber at the swarm, which he had realized were attracted to light sources.

After it was discovered that the Yuuzhan Vong had infiltrated the settlements, the Solo family decided to evacuate the refugees from the planet as quickly as possible. Han Solo and Droma snuck around Gateway, looking for a cargo hauler that could be used to transport passengers, but ended up fleeing from the Yuuzhan Vong beasts Sgauru and Tu-Scart and were discovered by Vong warriors. Hiding in a pile of mowed grass, the pair discovered a cavern with an old TaggeCo WQ 445 transport. After gathering as much refugees aboard as possible, the two realized they were finally saying goodbye to eachother, and both regretted the fact. Droma also regretted that he had never been able to properly meet Luke Skywalker. The comm unit aboard the hauler was dead, prompting Solo to give his comlink to Droma, suggesting that at the end of their acquaintance, it was Droma who finally owed Solo. Solo then boarded the Millenium Falcon and escorted the hauler, flown by Droma, to a jump point outside of the planet's orbit. Droma took the ship to the Senex-Juvex sector, which he thought was still accepting refugees.

The Ryn Network
Droma's association with Solo gave him high standing among his people. The Ryn had traditionally been leaderless nomads, but Droma began to turn what many others in the galaxy regarded as their weaknesses into strengths. As Ryn traveled many places, saw many things, often stowed away aboard ships, spread news to each other via gossip, and were rarely stopped by security, Droma used all of these facts to their advantage and founded the Ryn Network. Near the beginning of 28 ABY, he began running the network out of the Thorny Toe on Onadax, and only intended to stay there for three months, believing that dormancy would compromise the network's secrecy. However, it took six months for him to ensure that the network was running smoothly before he was able to leave. At the end of these six months, Han Solo came to Onadax in the Falcon, accompanied by the Pride of Selonia, having been told by the Ryn Goure on Bakura that another Ryn would be waiting for him there. Solo was summoned by Droma while playing a game of sabacc, and was interrogated by the Ryn, who remained hidden and spoke to Solo over speakers, not revealing his identity. A frustrated Solo prepared to leave Onadax, only to find Droma banging on the side of the ship and demanding to be let in. Surprised, Solo let his friend onboard before departing the planet.

Aboard the Falcon, Droma told Han, Leia, and Jaina Solo that he had applied to be a part of the Ryn network, but had been rejected. He asked them to drop him off at Juvex, which was on the way to Esfandia, a planet that was being attacked by the Yuuzhan Vong. Esfandia was one of only two places to contain a relay center servicing the Unknown Regions, which Luke Skywalker had recently led a search party into. As such, the Falcon and the Selonia headed to Esfandia, where they discovered a Yuuzhan Vong armada led by Commander B'Shith Vorrik, and an Imperial fleet led by Grand Admiral Gilad Pellaeon that had been chasing Vorrik's fleet across the galaxy. Solo pledged them to Pellaeon's fight, and took the Falcon planetside in order to locate the relay base. On the surface, Droma was the first to hear a strange noise, which turned out to be Esfandia's inhabitants, the Brrbrlpp, who were speaking in trinary code. After C-3PO spoke to them at length, a plan was hatched to protect them under the Falcon's shields while presenting the ship as a cold target to the Vong armada, which would in turn converge and become an easy target for Pellaeon's Star Destroyers. The plan made Droma very nervous, but was set into motion.

As the Vong bombarded the area around the ship, it soon became apparent that they couldn't go anywhere. Droma suggested faking surrender, and, believing that they were going to die, was ready to reveal himself as the head of the Ryn Network. But the Brrbrlpp insisted that the Falcon hide in their nesting plains, where they then discovered the relay base, under the command of Commander Ashpidar. Ashpidar gave Droma and Leia a tour of the base, indicating that she believed a traitor to be in their midst. Droma was wary of Eniknar, her Noghri security chief. Droma and Solo then took Eniknar and two other members of Ashpidar's team on speeder bikes to reprogram the relay transponder, where they rendezvoused with Jaina Solo, Jagged Fel, and Tahiri Veila. Droma helped lay mines around the base while it was being reprogrammed. Several Yuuzhan Vong appeared riding Tsik-Serus, and a battle between the two sides ensued.

Droma took a hit to the steering vane of his speeder, and then brought an unconscious Jaina on Fel's speeder back to safety, while Fel and Veila remained behind to cover his back. After waking up, Jaina took out one of their Vong pursuers with a thermal detonator, but a second pursuer managed to cover them with the sticky threads of netting beetles, causing them to pull over. Droma told Jaina of a trick he had seen Veila do earlier --- using the Force to close the throats of the Tsik-Seru's plasma launchers. Jaina mimicked the move, and the vehicle exploded, but its Vong pilot survived and came after them. It knocked Droma out of the way before a Brrbrlpp distraction allowed Jaina to kill it. Pellaeon's fleet then defeated Vorrik's, and in the aftermath of the victory, Droma quietly slipped away on the Ryn ship Fortune Seeker, which had arrived in the system and docked with the Selonia. Before leaving, Droma offered Veila a role in the Ryn Network, having received positive reports about her from his agents on Galantos and Bakura. Veila declined, but later informed Solo of Droma's true role in the organization. Droma had had to leave without telling Solo himself, as the less evidence of the network and Droma’s position as head that existed, the better.

A short time later, while on Mon Calamari, Solo was commed by a member of the Ryn network whom he believed to be Droma. The Ryn warned him of small, unpiloted drones that the Yuuzhan Vong had been developing. Although he didn't know what their function was, he did know that the Vong were excited about them, and suspected that they were dangerous. Before Solo could glean any more information, he found his comm unit dead.

It is unknown what became of Droma after the Yuuzhan Vong War, although the Ryn Network was still active as of 41 ABY.

Personality and traits
Like many members of his species, Droma was a shrewd observer and very perceptive, which allowed him to perform the various sleight of hand techniques that the Ryn were famous for, and to often finish other people's sentences. Perhaps owing to his species' nomadic nature, he felt that possessions were merely things to be lost, and he shared many of the Ryn's superstitions, such as never sleeping twice in the same spot or eating thrice from the same bowl. Droma was a self-proclaimed professional pilot, scout, and all-around spacer, and Leia Organa Solo observed that despite his deep concern for his family, he was a rogue and a drifter at heart, addicted to adventure.

Droma displayed a knack for calming situations down, including several instances where he convinced Han Solo not to strike out in anger. He could often be sarcastic and bitter,, and at times challenged Solo, accusing him of such things as attempting to outrace tragedy, and of using his anger to cover up heartache. Although Droma's sarcasm often frustrated Solo, his companionship was a sobering experience, and Leia thought of their relationship as not entirely amicable yet still perfectly natural. Droma believed that everyone lived for love.

Droma was not a very strong swimmer, but, owing to his tail, was well-equipped for acrobatics. He was a very able co-pilot of the Millennium Falcon, and displayed skills as a mechanic, although he was better at intuitive problem solving than he was with hydrospanners or macrofusers. He was also fluent in several languages, including Basic, Ryn, Huttese, and some Binary.

Physical Appearance
Like most males of his species, Droma had short, smoke-coloured hair covering most of his body, and sported a head of snow-white hair and a drooping white moustache. His nose was a chitinous beak that curved down over a thin-lipped mouth, and was perforated like a musical instrument. He favoured wearing a brimless cap of bright red and blue squares, which he wore at a rakish angle, as well as a brightly coloured vest, culottes, and ankle boots.

Behind the scenes
Droma was created by author James Luceno as a major character in the Agents of Chaos Duology, two paperbacks books published in 2000 as part of The New Jedi Order. In both books, Hero's Trial and Jedi Eclipse, Droma acted as a partner and copilot to a grieving Han Solo, and helped Solo come to terms with the death of Chewbacca. Droma's adventures with Solo continued in Kathy Tyers's Balance Point, the next book in the series. As Luceno had also created Droma's species, the Ryn, in Hero's Trial, no image of Droma or any member of his species existed until the publication of Hero's Trial in August 2000. As such, Luceno provided Tyers with a sketch of Droma while she was writing Balance Point. Tyers praised the character,, and felt that Luceno's way of writing him couldn't be duplicated. Droma would later appear in 2003's Force Heretic III: Reunion and The Final Prophecy. His major role in The New Jedi Order earned him entries in 2002's The New Jedi Order Sourcebook and The New Essential Guide to Characters.

The word "droma" is an Irish-Gaelic word meaning "back". There is also a Droma Gypsy Music Festival occurring annually in New York, which, despite the parallels between the Ryn and Earth's Romany people (also known as Gypsies), seems to have been named for the festival's 2008 venue, Drom.

Appearances

 * Agents of Chaos I: Hero's Trial
 * Agents of Chaos II: Jedi Eclipse
 * Balance Point
 * Recovery
 * Edge of Victory II: Rebirth
 * Star by Star
 * Force Heretic I: Remnant
 * Force Heretic II: Refugee
 * Force Heretic III: Reunion
 * The Final Prophecy
 * The Unifying Force

Notes and references
Droma Droma