Callista Ming

"It's something even the Masters don't reveal about the inner nature of the secret heart of the universe. The deepest and darkest secret of all that the Force lets you see. The universe has a sense of humor."

- Callista Ming

Callista Ming was a Human Jedi Knight from Chadra during the waning years of the Galactic Republic. A former Padawan of Djinn Altis, Callista survived the initial stages of the Great Jedi Purge and made contact with other survivors on Belsavis. When the automated dreadnaught Eye of Palpatine came to demolish the settlement, Callista and her lover Geith launched a desperate mission to sabotage the ship. They were successful, but in the process, Callista shed her physical body, remaining embedded in the ship as a disembodied ghost.

Many years later, Luke Skywalker and several other Jedi were brought onto the ship as it resumed its mission. Callista, in spirit form, communicated and began to fall in love with Luke. She later took the body of one of the other Jedi, Cray Mingla, after Cray gave it up to stop the superweapon once and for all. However, in the process, Callista lost her ability to touch the Force. Despite this loss, Callista helped thwart Admiral Daala and the Death Seed Plague conspiracy, though she and Luke parted ways forever.

Early life and Jedi training


Born on the water-world of Chadra, Callista's lightsaber bore a ring of stylized tsaelke sea-creatures around the hilt in token of her heritage. She lived on an ark in a deep-water ranch with her father, unhappy stepmother, and Uncle Claine. She also had an Uncle Dro. The ranch would follow the planet's Algic Current, ranging from the equator to the arctic circle. The first time Callista used the Force was to move some ice that had trapped her with several cows. Afterwards, she knew she had to join the Jedi, but could never make her confused father understand why.

Rather than going through the normal process of separation from her parents and training in the Jedi Temple, she was recruited into the Jedi Order by the maverick Jedi Master Djinn Altis, who operated from the gas giant world of Bespin. She trained under Altis for five years on his praxeum ship, the second Chu'unthor While there, she met and fell in love with another Jedi trainee named Geith. During the Clone Wars, she knew General Obi-Wan Kenobi, and she herself fought in the war.

The Eye of Palpatine and the children of the Jedi
Djinn Altis, Callista, and Geith survived the Great Jedi Purge, and remained in contact with other survivors such as Master Plett, who was sheltering a group of Jedi children on the remote world of Belsavis. But they discovered that the newly-formed Galactic Empire had built the massive dreadnaught Eye of Palpatine to attack Belsavis &mdash; a sort of proto-Death Star armed with super-heavy experimental turbolasers. Callista and Geith attempted to sabotage or destroy the massive ship, but were only partially successful, and both died in the attempt, Geith in an attempt to flee the ship to warn the others and Callista during a failed attempt to disable the ship's main computer. Hit by the enclision grid protecting the center, her physical body was slain. Callista, however, used her talents in the Force to essentially 'haunt' the battlemoon's gunnery computer.

Reawakening and a new life
"Luke, I died thirty years ago. I'm just... I'm glad we had this time. I'm glad I stayed to... to know you."

- Callista, in what she thought would be her final address to Luke on the Eye of Palpatine

She remained there for thirty years, until Jedi Master Luke Skywalker and several other New Republic Jedi discovered her mind in the Eye of Palpatine and assisted her in destroying it. During the process, the two fell in love, and just prior to the station's destruction, Callista transferred her spirit into the body of Cray Mingla who was willing to die and be with her dead lover.

Unfortunately, the process severed her connection to the Force. Luke remained loyal to Callista despite this and took upon himself to aid her in reconnecting with the Force. To this end, he took her to a number of places to try and spark her connection to the Force back while they also tried to deepen their relationship. These included Coruscant, Dagobah, Mulako Corporation Water Quarry, and Hoth, where the two narrowly survived a ferocious wampa attack and got caught up in the battle against the Darksaber. Later experiments revealed Callista could still touch the dark side.

Leaving Luke
It was while repelling Admiral Daala's assault on the Jedi Praxeum on Yavin 4 that Callista realized she needed to strike out on her own to rediscover her Force connection. Remaining with Luke put too much pressure on her, and was too painful. Sneaking into a stolen Imperial TIE Bomber, Callista infiltrated the Knight Hammer and managed to set off a large number of bombers inside the hangars, severely damaging the engines of the ship. Callista went on to confront Admiral Daala, preparing to sacrifice herself to stop the renegade Admiral, but was shot by Daala. She was presumed dead, but revealed her survival to Luke, while still leaving him.



Callista resurfaced in 13 ABY, to warn Leia Organa Solo not to meet Seti Ashgad on Nam Chorios, the "Planet of Twilight". Callista had become aware of the Death Seed menace there, but Leia chose to ignore the advice. There she aided Leia in defeating the Hutt Dark Jedi Beldorion after Leia escaped from Ashgad's estate. When Luke heard of her message to Leia, he traveled to Nam Chorios to try and persuade Callista to return, but was shot down and drawn into the Death Seed conspiracy led by Ashgad. After the conflict was resolved, the two did meet. Although painful, their brief meeting &mdash; consisting of one look &mdash; brought resolution to their relationship and they realized that going their separate ways was for the best. Luke Skywalker eventually went on to marry Mara Jade. There was a rumor among the students at the Jedi Praxeum that Mara had arranged for Callista's permanent disappearance.

Later in 13 ABY, she was working on the Gamorrean trading-ship Zicreex. Bogged down on Gamorr during slush-time, she became caught-up in the murder of the Gamorrean warlord Vrokk. She eventually solved the murder, revealing the murderer to be a Kheilwar from Af'El.

Relationship with Jedi orthodoxy
There are some unanswered questions about Callista's time as a Jedi Knight under the Galactic Republic and in the early years of the Empire. Jedi Master Djinn Altis was a maverick, allowing Jedi trainees to become romantically attached, and he taught techniques &mdash; such as the ability to preserve one's consciousness after death by transferring it to an inanimate object &mdash; which were lost to, or condemned by, the mainstream Jedi Order. Yet Callista seemed to have been unaware of the heterodoxy of her own training: for instance, she seemed to have accepted Luke's assumption that the "children of the Jedi" were the children of Jedi parents, rather than, as seems more likely in the light of recent revelations, Padawans or younglings.

Nevertheless, Callista was an important witness not simply of the diversity possible in the Jedi Order in the last years of the Galactic Republic, but of the survival of fragments of its organization after the Purge. Some of the children from Belsavis became Imperial agents or trainees at Luke Skywalker's Praxeum, but the final fates of Masters Plett and Djinn Altis, like that of Callista herself, remain unknown.

Personality and traits
Callista, even in spirit form, had a wry sense of humor and easy-going nature, but was also pragmatic. She was also very dedicated to the Jedi way, albeit the unorthodox brand practiced by Djinn Altis, and was willing to sacrifice her life to save others of the Order. She could also be stubborn, utterly implacable once her mind had been made up. Callista, owing to her upbringing on Chad, also had an affinity for water and watery places. Once she realized that she could only touch the dark side of the Force, Callista said that she would rather never use the Force again if she would have to turn to the dark side. Showing an independent streak, she left Luke forever in her own search to regain her connection to the Force.

Geith
Despite the traditional Jedi ordinance against romantic relationships and marriage, Djinn Altis allowed his students to develop serious relationships. Callista had a serious relationship with Geith, a fellow trainee who was a skilled pilot. The two entered the automated Eye of Palpatine Dreadnaught and attempted to disable it. Callista wanted to access the gunnery room and disable it from within by causing the enclision grid to misfire, but Geith disagree and left in their Y-wing to seek help, over Callista's protests. The Dreadnaught's gunnery systems killed Geith, and Callista later shed her body to stop the war machine.

Luke Skywalker
In spirit form, Callista met Luke Skywalker when he was brought onto the Dreadnaught years later. The two quickly grew attracted to each other, and another Jedi, Cray Mingla, gave up her body also to stop the Dreadnaught, allowing Callista to enter it. Luke and Callista's relationship deepened and grew more intimate, but hit a snag when she discovered she could no longer touch the Force. Despite Luke's best efforts, she realized that she wouldn't be content unless she could touch the Force and that Luke's power was overshadowing and interfering with her progress. After learning she could only touch the dark side, Callista left Luke on her own journey, though she readily admitted that she loved him.

Behind the Scenes
Callista was first created by Barbara Hambly for the Children of the Jedi trilogy as a love interest for Luke Skywalker. In many ways, Callista's personality is similar to Luke's except that for much of the series, she is frustrated by her inability to use the Force, making her a dramatic foil to Luke's command of the Force. No other author besides Hambly has written any original work with Callista as a character. Interestingly, her surname was not revealed until the short story Murder in Slushtime, written after the trilogy of novels.

Appearances



 * Children of the Jedi
 * Darksaber
 * Planet of Twilight
 * Murder in Slushtime
 * Vision of the Future
 * Survivor's Quest
 * Agents of Chaos I: Hero's Trial
 * Agents of Chaos II: Jedi Eclipse

Notes and references
Callista Callista