Trial of Tycho Celchu

During the Galactic Civil War between the Galactic Empire and the Rebel Alliance, in 5 ABY, Captain Tycho Celchu volunteered to fly a captured TIE Fighter to Coruscant to scout the planet and gather intelligence on its defenses. His mission was successful, but on his way out, the Galactic Empire captured him and sent him to the secret Lusankya installation, a private prison run by Director of Imperial Intelligence, Ysanne Isard. Isard interrogated Celchu and tried to brainwash him into one of her sleeper agents. When the brainwashing had no effect on Celchu and he fell into catatonic state, he was moved from solitary confinement to live among other prisoners that were held in the installation.

When Celchu began to heal, he was transferred to another prison, on Akrit'tar, where he stayed for three months before finally escaping and returning to service for the New Republic. During his debriefing, he was able to recall some memories from his stay on the Lusankya, but they were scarce. The Lusankya was known for the brainwashed agents it turned loose, and even though the captain remembered being there—unusual as other agents were connected to the Lusankya only after they had been activated—the New Republic considered him to be a security risk. Celchu and some of his friends, such as Wedge Antilles, were confident that he was not an agent; Celchu, however, was prohibited from returning to active duty, and was subsequently held under house arrest.

In 6.5 ABY, Wedge Antilles was granted permission to reform the legendary Rogue Squadron to bolster New Republic morale. Antilles requested that Celchu serve as his executive officer to help train new pilots, and Admiral Gial Ackbar, the Supreme Commander of the New Republic Armed Forces, decided to allow it. The move was made even in light of protests from General Horton Salm, who was leading a BTL Y-wing starfighter wing that was training together with the Rogues. Severe restrictions were placed on Celchu to protect the squadron from his possible betrayal, and he was only allowed to fly unarmed ships, such as the Lambda-class shuttle Forbidden, during the practice sessions and real combat situations. More than once he bent the rules to rescue his squadron mates from danger.

When Rogue Squadron infiltrated Coruscant in preparation for an upcoming attack on the planet, Celchu was considered by New Republic military leaders to be too untrustworthy to participate in planning or preparation. Antilles had other ideas, though, and he clandestinely had Celchu travel to Coruscant with the intent of having an agent on the galactic capital, ready to aid Rogue Squadron, without Imperial knowledge. Under Antilles's sealed orders, his executive officer and Rogue Squadron's protocol droid M-3PO, or "Emtrey," were sent to Coruscant to buy supplies and act as backup if others were to need unexpected assistance. In order to conceal Celchu's involvement, Antilles had Corran Horn's astromech droid, Whistler, file reports that placed the captain on the planet Noquivzor.

During his time on Coruscant, Celchu met with Duros weapons dealer Lai Nootka in The Headquarters cantina. Corran Horn witnessed one of these meetings, but thought that the tall, cloaked stranger with whom Celchu was talking was Imperial Intelligence agent Kirtan Loor. Horn told Antilles what he had seen, but the commander claimed that it was impossible, since the report said that Celchu was among the casualties from Warlord Zsinj's attack on Noquivzor. In truth, Antilles was aware that the Alderaanian was alive and on Coruscant, but he did not believe Celchu had met Loor. Rogue Squadron discovered the captain's whereabouts when he and Emtrey rescued them from stormtroopers after a failed attempt to sabotage Coruscant's planetary shields.

After Horn found out that Celchu was indeed alive, he filed a report concerning the meeting he had witnessed in the cantina. In that report he also mentioned that he had not seen the stranger's face, but based on the individual's height and gait, he had positively identified him as Loor. As Rogue Squadron was embarking to destroy Coruscant's planetary shield, Horn argued with Celchu and threatened to reveal the captain to be an Imperial agent. Celchu answered calmly that he had nothing to fear from Horn's investigation since he was not a spy. After the battle to take down the shield, Horn was heading back to his squadron's base to refuel when he lost control of his Z-95 Headhunter. Ysanne Isard had planned it to make it appear as if the fighter had collided with the side of a building and that Horn had died in the impact, his body disappearing under a collapsing tower. In truth, Isard had captured Horn and taken him to the Lusankyas prison to try and brainwash him.

Celchu's imprisonment aboard the Lusankya, Horn's threats to expose him as a spy, and Horn's apparent subsequent death made Celchu's allegiance appear highly suspicious to the New Republic, and only four days later, he was captured and charged with high treason and murder.

The trial of Tycho Celchu dealt with two different charges simultaneously: high treason against the New Republic and the murder of Celchu's Rogue Squadron comrade, Corran Horn. The most suspicious element of the captain's case to the Republic was the time he had spent in the Lusankya prison and the possibility of brainwashing which would have made him one of Director Isard's sleeper agents. Fifteen million credits found in six accounts under Celchu's name was also incriminating, creating an impression that he was being paid by the Empire. Horn's own report about witnessing Celchu in conference with Loor and his threat to expose the captain as a traitor—made only a few moments before his apparent death—were seen as motives for Celchu to have Horn killed.

During the trial, the prosecution also brought up the possibility that Rogue Squadron's failed first attempt to take Borleias was Celchu's fault. However, this accusation was made on a weak basis, since, in the aftermath of the attack, even General Salm had admitted that Rogue Squadron's executive officer could not have had anything to do with the failure. Additional suspicion levied against Celchu was his possible involvement with the apparent death of another Rogue Squadron member, Bror Jace, who had died in an Imperial ambush. Celchu had arranged leave for Jace, allowing him to travel to Thyferra. The captain had composed Jace's flight plan, but the plan had then been leaked to the Imperials, allowing them to ambush Jace.

Tycho Celchu was arrested under the charges of treason and murder in 7 ABY, only four days after the New Republic had conquered Coruscant. The trial began less than two weeks later because of media pressure, and as a result the investigation was still ongoing during the trial itself. Before the trial began, Wedge Antilles asked the New Republic Provisional Council to drop the charges against his friend, but they refused, which almost led to his resignation from military service.

The way the prosecutor, Halla Ettyk, chose to open her case took the defense by surprise, since counsel for the defense, Nawara Ven, had expected her to start with Celchu's time in the Lusankya prison. Ettyk instead began by inviting Pash Cracken to testify in an attempt to prove that Celchu had arranged Horn's murder to avoid exposure. Cracken was not willing to testify against another member of the squadron, but Ettyk's subpoena—and pressure from his own father, Airen Cracken—forced him to testify that he had witnessed an argument between Celchu and Horn before the battle. He told of how Horn had accused the captain of being a traitor and how he had threatened to expose him. Cracken also pointed out that Celchu had reacted calmly, telling Horn that he had nothing to fear from him. Ettyk saw this calm reaction as a sign of Celchu knowing that Horn would be dead soon, while Ven insisted it meant that his client truly was innocent. Since Cracken was unwilling to speak against Celchu, Ettyk interrogated him as a hostile witness, which made it difficult for him to testify in Celchu's favor.

Cracken was followed by another member of Rogue Squadron, Erisi Dlarit, who had also seen the argument between Horn and Celchu. Horn had later told her what it had been about—and also his intent to find the traitor in the squadron—but the prosecution did not ask her to repeat the whole story, since Ven could have claimed it to be mere hearsay. Since Ettyk was not able to bring out what Horn had told Dlarit, Ven was able to illustrate that Horn had spoken with others before his meeting with Dlarit. In turn, Dlarit testified that Horn had been in a bad mood when speaking with her, but without repeating the conversation between Horn and Celchu, Ettyk was not able to prove his mood was directly related to it.

Iella Wessiri was also called to testify, and with her help, the prosecution attempted to demonstrate that Celchu had a motive for Horn's murder. In addition to her role as Ettyk's aide, Wessiri was also serving as an investigator in the case and her discoveries were included in her testimony. Eager to prove that Horn had seen the accused meeting with Loor, Ettyk pressed Wessiri with questions about Horn's report and asked one too many, forcing Wessiri to admit that she was not sure if Horn had correctly identified the hooded figure in the cantina—he had not seen the stranger's face and that was enough reason to doubt the identification. As a former member of CorSec, Wessiri had experience with murder investigations and legal processes, and based on her testimony, Ven was able to show that the trial had proceeded unusually quickly. After Wessiri's testimony, Admiral Ackbar, as the chairman of the court, decided to postpone the trial another week to allow more time for investigation. Later, the members of the court were informed that the true reason of the delay was a bombing threat made against the courthouse.

When the trial proceeded after the break, Antilles was called as a witness. Originally, he had hoped to clear his friend of the charges, but Ettyk skillfully made his answers support suspicion of Celchu. Even the minor problems Rogue Squadron had faced after its reformation were somehow traced to its executive officer, and Antilles was disappointed when he was not able to prove otherwise. Other members of the squadron were also called to testify but their value as character witnesses was minimal. During the trial, Rogue Squadron—along with Ven—were dispatched on missions several times, forcing Admiral Ackbar to postpone the trial even further. While Ven was away, Whistler and Emtrey—who were helping the defense and working under Ven's orders—stayed on Coruscant to collect and process evidence that they would use in court.

While searching Imperial funding records, New Republic investigators had found fifteen million credits from six accounts that were connected to Celchu. Tsillin Wel was called as a witness, since the female Quarren had spent years studying Imperial funding in an attempt to find secret projects and double agents; she had investigated a similar case earlier, when General Crix Madine, now one of the judges, was accused of having been paid to betray the Alliance to Restore the Republic. Wel told the court that there had been no money going out from any of the six accounts and that there was no indication that Celchu had even been aware of their existence. The encryption had also been light compared to the amount of money found in the accounts; usually agents of similar level only received credits in the thousands. The defense claimed that this proved that the Empire was trying to frame Celchu and that he was not a traitor.

The trial took an unexpected turn when Nawara Ven was contacted by Kirtan Loor—using Lai Nootka's previous alias, Hes Glillto—who offered to testify on Celchu's behalf in exchange for the New Republic protecting Loor from Ysanne Isard. Loor also told Ven that he could provide the identity of the traitor in Rogue Squadron. Information about the unexpected witness leaked to Isard, who thought it was Evir Derricote—whom, in turn, she believed had escaped from the Lusankya prison. Isard decided to send her brainwashed puppet, Diric Wessiri, to stop Derricote before he could get to the courtroom. In the parking facility of the courthouse, Diric fired at Ven; his wife, Iella; and Loor—who Diric believed to be Derricote—whom they were escorting. Ven was wounded and Loor died, but Iella was able to return fire and inflicted a mortal wound on the attacker before realizing it was her husband.

What Ettyk had discovered about Loor's testimony beforehand was enough to show her that the captain was innocent, but Loor's death and Ven's wounds complicated matters. Admiral Ackbar wanted to postpone the trial again to give Ven enough time to recover, but Celchu wanted to take advantage of his attorney's absence and testify himself. Ven had told him not to do so since Ettyk would ruin him in cross examination; the woman agreed with Ven's statement and also told Celchu not to testify. Whistler wanted to bring in another witness who would leave no question about Celchu's innocence; Corran Horn had contacted the droid, informing him that he was alive and had escaped from the Lusankya. While the court was still unsure about their next move, Horn walked in and declared that he wanted to take the stand.

Horn began by informing the court of how he had been captured during the battle, taken to the Lusankya prison to be interrogated and brainwashed, and how he had heard stories about Celchu's time there from the other prisoners. He continued by divulging how he had compared his files to Celchu's during his escape and noticed that they were both tagged as "unsuitable for conversion." This and other pieces of information in Celchu's file had shown Horn that the captain could not be the traitor and gave him a chance to figure out the identity of the real spy. Before Horn was able to tell the name of the traitor, General Cracken told him to keep his silence and led everyone to an adjoining room where they were able to see the Lusankya, which was in truth an Executor-class Star Dreadnought buried under the Coruscant cityscape, blast its way up through the surface toward the planetary shields. Isard, who knew that the successful prison break from the Lusankya would compromise her continued presence on the planet, used the ship to escape to Thyferra, where she had plans to hinder the bacta deliveries to the New Republic.

Horn's return and testimony, combined with the comlink call Admiral Ackbar received from Antilles, convinced the judges that Celchu was truly innocent. Both Antilles and Horn were able to give evidence that the true traitor in the unit had been Erisi Dlarit, who had escaped from Coruscant aboard the Lusankya. Horn was also able to add that General Cracken had known from Emtrey—who had been inserted into the Rogue Squadron to monitor Celchu's actions—all the time that the captain was not a spy but had allowed the trial to go forward to lure out the real traitor and find the evidence against them. General Cracken also knew that since Isard had been willing to let Celchu be condemned to death the Captain had not been brainwashed and had no use for the Director of Imperial Intelligence as an agent. To clear the captain's tarnished reputation, the general arranged a public ceremony where it was announced that Celchu had willingly played the role of a victim to fool the real traitor. General Salm, who had been extremely suspicious of Celchu from the beginning, was angry at General Cracken, who had withheld the information and led Salm to misjudge Celchu and treat him unfairly.

After his reputation was cleared, Celchu was given the opportunity to return to active duty, and he was even offered command of Rogue Squadron when Antilles resigned in protest after the New Republic refused to act against Ysanne Isard, who had taken control of Thyferra. However, the executive officer decided to follow his friends and resigned as well, taking the money Isard had funneled to him to be used in the squadron's private war against her.

Celchu himself stayed calm and confident during the trial even when he knew that a loss meant that he would be condemned to death—he said that it would still be better than what the Empire could have done to him. He believed that if he was allowed to testify he would be able to convince the judges that he was innocent. He also made friends with Diric Wessiri, who had similar experiences from Imperial imprisonment and who was allowed to visit him in jail.

Counsel for the defense was Celchu's companion from Rogue Squadron, retired Twi'lek lawyer, Nawara Ven. Ven was often pressed with questions of why he, an "alien," was defending a Human in the court. He considered the speciesist question and publicity of the trial to be both good and bad for their defense. At times, he was unsure of his ability to defend Celchu against a well-known prosecutor like Ettyk, but the captain and other members of the squadron assured him that they trusted him completely.

The droids Emtrey and Whistler—the latter of which was sure its master had made a mistake thinking that Celchu was a traitor—helped Ven prepare Celchu's defense. While Ven was away during squadron missions the droids did some investigations of their own under Ven's orders. Whistler was not happy to see Horn's former partner, Iella Wessiri, helping the prosecutor and working for the opposite side of the case but agreed to reveal some evidence the droids had found to the woman—the droids had discovered that the captain's actions had slowed down the spread of lethal Krytos virus. They believed that if Celchu had truly been a spy and a traitor, he would have found a way to slow down the attack against Coruscant and thus give the virus more time to spread.

The prosecutor in the trial was a famous attorney from Celchu's home planet of Alderaan, Commander Halla Ettyk. Following the destruction of her homeworld, which occurred while Ettyk was offworld deposing a witness, she had worked on General Cracken's counterintelligence staff. Although she had not worked as a lawyer for seven years, Nawara Ven knew Ettyk's reputation and would have been happy to have her removed with some conflict of interest, but he was not able to find any. However, Ettyk was not hostile toward Celchu and did her best to treat him fairly, even warning him against witnessing while Ven was in the hospital. When Ettyk heard that Kirtan Loor was willing to testify in Celchu's behalf, she was ready to admit that the suspect was innocent, and after Horn gave his testimony, she was quick to remove all charges against Celchu.

Former CorSec investigator, Iella Wessiri, also helped Ettyk in the court. Wessiri was Horn's old partner from CorSec and had decided to bring her friend's murderer to justice, but the defense did not see this as a conflict of interest since Wessiri was known to be thorough in her investigations. From time to time, Wessiri was more convinced of Celchu's guilt than Ettyk. This was most apparent after Wessiri had given her own testimony and revealed that she had some doubts about Horn's identification of Loor in the cantina. Wessiri was not present when the captain was found innocent because of the shock of being forced to kill her own husband.

Since Celchu himself was a soldier and the New Republic judicial structure was yet to be developed, three judges were chosen among the highest military leadership. Admiral Ackbar, General Horton Salm, and General Crix Madine were placed as judges.

As the Supreme Commander of the New Republic Armed Forces, Admiral Ackbar was chosen to be the chairman of the court. He was forced to divide his time between leading military campaigns, taking part in New Republic Provisional Council meetings, and the trial. Ackbar was seen as a fair and neutral judge who was not biased either way. When Horn proved Celchu innocent, Ackbar was evidently happy to clear him from all the charges.

The defense would have been happy to deny General Salm from the proceedings based on conflict of interest, since it was well known that Salm had been extremely suspicious of Celchu from the beginning. In the end they decided to leave him be, because if they had failed to get him replaced, they would have only made sure he was against them. When General Airen Cracken revealed that he had known all along that the Alderaanian was innocent, Salm was angry at the Intelligence leader, whose actions had led Salm to misjudge Celchu and treat him unfairly.

General Crix Madine from New Republic Intelligence was considered by Ven to be the most sympathetic judge to the defense. Madine himself had been accused of being a double agent in a very similar trial, and because of this, Ven conjectured he might feel a certain sympathy towards Celchu. Ven believed that during his time among Imperials, Madine had also met Ysanne Isard, who the defense said had manufactured the evidence used against the defendant.

The trial was widely publicized around the New Republic, partly because the Republic wanted to show that it was different from the Empire that had shrouded its judicial system in mystery and xenophobia. The New Republic government also wanted to show that its trials followed the law and that there was no question about the right judgment. Having closely followed the process and changes of public mood concerning the trial, former Imperial Moff and leader of the Black Sun Fliry Vorru—one of the real double agents among the New Republic's original task force—believed that New Republic was only doing harm to itself by continuing to press its case against Celchu with only circumstantial evidence.

The whole trial was recorded for holo broadcasts, and frequent summaries were shown in the news. At first, the New Republic intended to deliver direct broadcast, but the decision was reversed in fear that the trial would turn out to be a media circus. Journalists were still around the courtroom and wanted to interview all the witnesses. Publicly, Celchu was branded guilty, and his alleged treason was compared to the crimes of Prince Xizor and Darth Vader. This ill will spread even to the jail in which Celchu was held, where he was kept in solitary confinement for his own safety.

One thing that increased public interest in the trial was that the accused was a Human, while his defense attorney was a Twi'lek. The trial was also important for the New Republic as it provided a distraction from the Krytos virus, which was responsible for many deaths in the galactic capital. While the New Republic labeled Corran Horn as a hero of the battle where they had captured Coruscant, accusations of treason against the government dominated the publicity of Celchu's trial over the murder charge.

The trial of Tycho Celchu appeared in Michael A. Stackpole's third X-wing novel, The Krytos Trap, although it was first mentioned in the previous novel, X-Wing: Wedge's Gamble. The trial was later mentioned in two other novels by Stackpole, X-Wing: Isard's Revenge and I, Jedi, as well as in Aaron Allston's first X-Wing novel, X-Wing: Wraith Squadron.

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