Odumin was a male Tynnan who became a legend as one of the most effective and successful agents and executives in the Corporate Sector Authority during the Imperial Period. Odumin started out as a skip tracer before taking a job in the Authority, earning accolades after singlehandedly saving the life of Imperial Grand Inquisitor Laddinare Torbin from an assassination attempt. From there he moved up the corporate ladder, eventually becoming a Territorial Administrator. Over the years, he started to gain notoriety because of his absolute anonymity: he worked exclusively through go-betweens, and only very few had ever seen his face. He commonly worked undercover as a field agent even after becoming an administrator, most often posing as a skip tracer called "Spray."
Odumin eventually became a role model for Tynnans, inspiring many to leave Tynna and strike out into the galaxy themselves. One of his biggest cases came in 2 BBY, where under the guise of "Spray," he investigated a massive slaving ring with several conspirators within the Corporate Sector Authority. In this he teamed up with Corellian smuggler Han Solo and his Wookiee companion Chewbacca, who were also after the slavers. Odumin deftly used the pair as his pawns to expose the slavers and ultimately bring them to justice, although they ultimately escaped his efforts to prosecute them for past crimes against the Corporate Sector.
A male Tynnan, Odumin became one of the few of his aquatic species to venture off Tynna when he left to pursue a career as a skip tracer, which eventually led him to a post with the Corporate Sector Authority. Frequently underestimated due to his friendly manner and unfamiliar appearance, Odumin quickly proved to be a brilliant agent, quickly moving up the corporate ladder after starting as a Detached Duty agent in the Office of the Auditor-General. The Tynnan first made his name when he foiled an attempt by a religious cult called the Church of the First Frequency to assassinate Imperial Grand Inquisitor Laddinare Torbin during a tour of the Corporate Sector. When the cultists pushed Torbin into a variable-gravity pool on a luxury liner, planning to seal it airtight with a force field and drown him, Odumin used his natural swimming ability to pierce the force field and get help, saving Torbin and many others. Odumin. was promoted to a staff position as a result, and while Torbin suggested further rewards, the ever-modest Tynnan declined.
Gallandro, Odumin's most trusted operative.
Odumin further flourished as he advanced, single-handedly breaking the Xiochi slaver gang and earning another promotion, this time to the lofty position of Territorial Administrator. By this time, Odumin— who, as a non-Human, had long found it more expedient to remain anonymous and communicate exclusively through go-betweens— had continued to made himself even more secretive. Believing that a newly-raised Territorial Administrator would be a target for other ambitious climbers, he figured that he could trust only himself, and relied on himself as his own top agent despite his high-ranking corporate position. And to do that, Odumin needed anonymity: he achieved that by operating under the alias of a skip tracer named "Spray," allowing him to freely travel his territory and work without attracting attention or needing bodyguards. That approach worked brilliantly in the years to come. Odumin soon found himself running the largest and most productive territory in the Corporate Sector, and the Tynnan became something of a legend in the region due to his success and the mystery surrounding his identity.
However, Odumin eventually learned he needed help. A run-in with the dangerous Malorm gang nearly cost him the Tynnan his life, and he only managed to escape by tricking them into thinking he was someone's pet. Upon returning home, he hired a group of mercenaries, offering good pay and a general amnesty to do the dirty work he could not and eliminate the Malorms. One of those mercenaries was Gallandro, a gunfighter renowned for the unmatched speed of his draw, and the shootist impressed Odumin enough to bring him on as his new assistant. Odumin began to withdraw from field work in the coming months, delegating an increasing amount to Gallandro, but continued to involve himself more directly on special cases.
In investigating the slaving ring, Odumin used the aid of Corellian smuggler Han Solo and another Corporate Sector executive, Fiolla.
Odumin stumbled across one of those special cases in 2 BBY, when he uncovered evidence of a large slaving ring in his territory, possibly involving some of his own deputies and Security Police officials. The Tynnan found the stakes sufficiently high to re-enter the field himself, once again taking on the persona of the skip tracer Spray. Odumin learned that the slavers had made a run to the planet Lur, which ended in catastrophe and left one of the ringleaders, Zlarb, dead—this in turn led Odumin to Bonadan, where Zlarb was supposed to meet with his main partner after the job was completed. There, Odumin encountered a suspicious Human whom he believed to be Zlarb's partner, and attempted to jump the man in an unoccupied hangar when the Tynnan feared his target was attempting to take off. The man managed to fight him off, and shortly afterward Gallandro confirmed his identity as Corellian smuggler Han Solo, whom the slavers had attempted to use as their pilot on the Lur run and was after them himself for the 10,000 credits he had been promised. Odumin saw an opportunity to use Solo as his unwitting pawn to lure the slavers out: he figured that since Solo was known to not be a security operative, and that he was unlikely to seek help from law enforcement, the slavers were more likely to expose themselves in dealing with him.
First, "Spray" needed to get himself close to Solo. The Tynnan looked through the voluminous Red List, used by skip tracers to collect debts owed by starship captains, and found that Solo owed 2,500 credits to a pair of starshipwrights on Oslumpex V—that would be his cover. Odumin first attempted to simply break into Solo's ship, the Millennium Falcon, but when he failed to crack the heavily modified lock on the YT-1300 freighter, he was accosted by Solo's towering Wookiee first mate, Chewbacca. Proving himself to be immune to Chewbacca's attempts at intimidation, Odumin managed to convince the Wookiee to take him to Solo, who was meeting with yet another party looking into the slaving ring—Fiolla, an Authority Assistant Auditor-General—at a nearby cantina. Still pretending to be after the 2,500 credits owed, Odumin got exactly what he wanted from Solo, as Solo and Fiolla promised to keep him close until the end of their investigation. The group split up afterward, with Odumin traveling with Chewbacca on the Millennium Falcon as they headed to rendezvous on Ammuud, where they intended to gather information on the slaving ring's ties to a shipping firm headed by the powerful House Glayyd.
Magg, one of the main ringleaders of the slaving ring who was placed in Corporate Sector custody due to Odumin's investigation.
Odumin filled into Solo's position ably on the trip to Ammuud, serving as Chewbacca's co-pilot and passing the time by regularly besting the Wookiee at dejarik. But they very nearly didn't make it to Ammuud at all, when a sleeper bomb surreptitiously placed on the Falcon by the slavers detonated upon coming out of hyperspace, tearing a hole in the ship's hull. Odumin took the ship's controls as Bollux, one of Solo's droids, used its body to plug the breach. The Tynnan managed to bring the Falcon down to a harsh landing in the mountains outside Ammuud's main spaceport, but not before the Tynnan ejected Bollux from the ship in an escape pod, directing it to find Solo. Although unused to surviving in the wilderness, Odumin roughed out a living with Chewbacca over the next several days, assisting in repairing the Falcon, dealing with threats from local wildlife, and preparing meals as they awaited Solo's arrival. He even saved Chewbacca's life at one point, fishing him out of a nearby pond after the Wookiee crashed a makeshift glider in an effort to escape a grazer stampede. Odumin and Chewbacca managed to hold out until Solo and Fiolla finally arrived in a Glayyd shuttle, having attained important evidence from the Glayyds that implicated many Corporate Sector higher-ups in the slaving ring.
Along the way, Solo and Fiolla had encountered Gallandro, whom Odumin had previously dispatched to investigate the tie with the Glayyds. Odumin had been regularly using the Falcons communications equipment to keep in touch with his lieutenant, and when it became apparent that Solo and Fiolla were on their way, he directed Gallandro to activate a transceiver aboard their shuttle. That transceiver served as a beacon that attracted the presence of both the slavers and Gallandro, aboard a Corporate Sector Authority Victory-class Star Destroyer. Still keeping his cover, Odumin took the controls of the Falcon as Solo and Chewbacca fought off the slavers in the freighter's laser turrets, fending them off until Gallandro's Star Destroyer arrived and tractor beamed all the remaining ships, including the Falcon. It was then that "Spray" revealed his true identity as Odumin, the Territorial Administrator, with the slavers in custody and what he felt like an airtight case. Despite the fact that their assistance had proven invaluable in his investigation, Odumin still planned to prosecute Solo and Chewbacca for previous crimes against the Corporate Sector Authority, although he promised to pursue leniency for the two smugglers. However, Solo took advantage of a brief opportunity to seize the upper hand: when Odumin and Fiolla stepped into a safety cage that was to take them back to the Authority destroyer, Solo quickly attached it to the Falcon and took off, effectively kidnapping both of them. Using the two as leverage, Solo negotiated his release and a hefty payment, before returning the Tynnan unharmed.
Although Odumin's exploits turned him into a legend in the Corporate Sector, he had an even larger impact on his homeworld of Tynna, where he was regarded as a major role model. Although his identity remained a closely guarded secret, and an almost entirely fictional biography contained no actual image of him, Odumin's adventures and successes inspired more Tynnans than ever before to venture offworld and enter the galaxy at large.
As an agent and Corporate Sector official, Odumin managed to build a considerable legend despite a natural shyness and a desire for personal privacy so extreme that almost none alive knew his actual identity. Extremely sharp, detail-oriented and professional, Odumin valued people more than many others in the Corporate Sector hierarchy, but nevertheless had a ruthless side and knew how to get what he wanted. Those traits combined to make him one of the most effective executives in the Corporate Sector Authority—that, and his gift for working undercover, as he long trusted only himself to do his dirty work. Odumin had a gift for fading into crowds, and had a naturally friendly demeanor that kept those around him from guessing his true identity. But that amiability masked an absolute fearlessness: he was often the first to spring into action in a dangerous situation, and even Chewbacca was shocked by how the unassuming Tynnan, who was well aware of his own unimposing stature, was one of the few beings he could not cow with his fearsome Wookiee threats.
Key to Odumin's success as both an agent and an executive was his persistence—when the Tynnan set his mind to something, nothing could throw him off the trail. But aside from his indefatigability and unflappability in the field, Odumin had a number of practical skills that helped him in his work. The Tynnan was a proficient pilot and hyperspace navigator, even ably flying the notorious fussy Millennium Falcon on his own in a combat situation. He was a keen strategist, employing tactics from dejarik in real-life situations to positive effect. And while he wasn't much of a fighter—his species had poor eyesight, and he once claimed to Han Solo to have never fired a weapon in his life—he was physically able in life-or-death predicaments, directly saving the lives of the Imperial Grand Inquisitor Torbin and Chewbacca. In those incidents he showcased his deft natural swimming ability, which he honed in his youth on the cool lakes of his homeworld of Tynna, something he continued to find joy in later in life.
All these traits helped Odumin earn the trust and faith of Solo and Chewbacca during the investigation into the Corporate Sector slaving ring, and the Tynnan even struck up a particularly friendly rapport with the Wookiee, he was ultimately a stickler for the rule of law and order—even though he hoped to change the culture of the Corporate Sector Authority for the better. Odumin still fully intended to prosecute the two smugglers even after working so closely together with them, only standing down when the opportunistic Solo kidnapped him and Fiolla.
Odumin first appeared in Han Solo's Revenge, a novel written by Brian Daley and released in 1979. He was first pictured in 1993's Han Solo and the Corporate Sector Sourcebook, by Mike Vilardi.
- A Guide to the Star Wars Universe
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- A Guide to the Star Wars Universe, Third Edition, Revised and Expanded
- The Essential Guide to Alien Species
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- The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia, Vol. II, p. 404
- The Essential Atlas
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- The Essential Reader's Companion