Peckhum struggled to make ends meet by working as a caretaker for one of the many Orbital Solar Energy Transfer Satellites that orbited Coruscant through the use of an old freighter, the Lightning Rod. Apart from being a caretaker, Peckhum also ran supplies to the Jedi Academy, being one of Luke Skywalker's trusted workers. During one of his supply runs, while he was on his way to Coruscant, he met a child named Zekk and took the young orphan under his wing. They became friends, sharing with one another what they were able to earn or obtain.
In Peckhum's absence, Zekk would often leave the apartment to explore Coruscant's undercity, where he discovered that he had something of a talent for finding things that were valuable. This talent was hit-and-miss, though. On one occasion Zekk climbed down forty-two stories of an abandoned turbolift shaft to find that what seemed to be a glittering object was actually a piece of foil wrapping stuck to some ooze.
Zekk would give the valuable scraps of metal, trinkets, and lost objects that he found to Peckhum, who knew how to sell them and who to sell them to in order to put food on the table. However, the things that Zekk found were collected faster than Peckhum could sell them and as a result, they accumulated inside their apartment.
On one day in 23 ABY, Peckhum came home from a shift on one of the mirror stations to find Zekk missing. With the help of Jacen and Jaina Solo, he discovered that his friend had left him to become a Dark Jedi at the Shadow Academy, which orbited Coruscant. Along with Jaina and Lowbacca, he used a solar mirror to burn out the Shadow Academy's cloaking device, exposing it to the New Republic fleet. However, the station powered its hyperdrive and escaped into hyperspace before the fleet could inflict any significant harm upon it. Though this development caused him quite a bit of despair and alarm, Peckhum took some solace in the fact that Zekk had defied his new teachers so that he could keep a promise made to Peckhum before he had joined the Shadow Academy.
After the Shadow Academy had been defeated and Zekk was redeemed from the dark side, Peckhum gave Zekk the Lightning Rod as a gift, and took on ownership of the state-of-the-art Thunderbolt, a freighter the New Republic had been trying to give him for years. He continued to run supplies for the Jedi Academy on a regular basis. He also provided supplies to the jungle-confined Imperial pilot Qorl. His help ended in 24 ABY, when the former pilot asked him not to return. During the Yuuzhan Vong attack on Yavin 4 in 26 ABY, Peckhum and Streen were trying to obtain some supplies on Corellia, thus being unable to help with the evacuation of Jedi children.