Belindi Kalenda

According to her older brother, Tindel Kalenda, Belindi Kalenda's family originated from a remote planet situated in the Outer Rim Territories. However, she spent her formative years with Tindel on Coruscant until his untimely death in a hovercar accident. Following the accident, she was placed in a military orphanage that was intended to groom her for a career in the Imperial Military. However, Kalenda's life took another turn when the New Republic took control of Coruscant in 6 ABY. With no particular loyalty to the Empire, Kalenda decided to pursue a career in the New Republic military. Subsequently, she was among the first graduates of the New Republic Military Academy. Upon graduating, she opted for a career in intelligence rather than active combat duty, joining New Republic Intelligence in 13 ABY. At some point during her career, she was included in a New Republic dossier as part of a personnel assessment.

As a lieutenant, Kalenda proactively sought out Han Solo and Chewbacca to alert them to the disappearance of several NRI operatives on Corellia. During her unsanctioned visit with Solo, she also attempted to enlist his assistance in gathering information from the system, as Solo and his family were en route to Corellia for a trade summit. Specifically, Kalenda requested that he act in a manner that would attract attention, in order to draw out whoever was responsible for eliminating New Republic Intelligence agents. Solo agreed, after Kalenda assured him that NRI did not believe the Corellian system posed an inherent danger to his family.

Kalenda was subsequently assigned to infiltrate the Corellian system, adopting the guise of a struggling trader. Her small vessel was equipped by NRI with a deliberately faulty hyperdrive that was designed to fail upon attempting another jump, effectively stranding her in the Corellian system as part of her cover. However, upon her emergence from hyperspace into the space near Corellia, she was attacked by a pocket patrol boat, which she evaded by executing a micro-jump. As she had anticipated, her hyperdrive malfunctioned immediately after the jump, forcing her back into realspace. Struggling to reach Corellia in her damaged ship, Kalenda noted that she had managed to shake off her pursuer and opted for a nighttime water landing to further obscure any evidence of her survival. Surviving the challenging landing, Lieutenant Kalenda set out for Coronet City, carrying only a small survival pack and some rations.

Traversing the open countryside, Kalenda commandeered a landspeeder to facilitate her entry into Coronet, though she abandoned the vehicle near the town of Bela Vistal in favor of traveling by train. Additionally, she was compelled to pickpocket to acquire credits to cover her travel expenses, until she was ambushed by bandits outside Bela Vistal. Kalenda easily dispatched them and seized their weapons, macrobinoculars, and speeder, which aided her in finally reaching the capital. Monitoring the spaceport in the hope of spotting the Millennium Falcon and the Solos, Kalenda grew concerned by the large numbers of security forces and militia patrolling the city—the heightened security suggested not only a threat to her survival, but also underlying tensions among the populace.

Kalenda's perseverance was eventually rewarded by the arrival of the Millennium Falcon, and she decided to follow the Solos discreetly; knowing that because the family was also being watched by the security services, she would be unable to directly link up with them. Instead, she located an unoccupied villa near the Solos' location and maintained a close watch on them. Her intuition suggested that a previous attack on the Falcon and the relatively weak security provided by the Corellian Defense Force indicated a potential threat to the Chief of State. The battered state—courtesy of the Human League—in which Han Solo was returned to the villa after an evening in Coronet City did little to alleviate those concerns. Thus, Kalenda maintained a constant but discreet watch on the Solo villa.

Despite her best efforts at concealment, Kalenda was eventually discovered, though not by the Corellians. The upgraded astromech droid Q9-X2 of the Solos' hired tutor Ebrihim had spotted her while conducting thorough security sweeps, and informed Han Solo. Solo instructed the droid to remain silent on the matter, as neither the CDF nor Kalenda were aware that she had been detected. When the Solos prepared to leave the villa, Kalenda nearly despaired, feeling her efforts had been in vain. However, Han Solo returned to the villa shortly before the family departed and sent her a signal in Mon Calamari blink code requesting a meeting. Solo arrived at her hideout that evening, bringing additional food, credits, clothes, a pocket blaster, and a comlink to contact him with. Greatly relieved, Kalenda thanked him for the provisions. Solo then instructed her to find a place in Coronet City where she could continue her quiet surveillance effort, as he, too, had felt the rising tensions on Corellia. She agreed and moved into Coronet to continue her role.

While the Solos were staying at Corona House, a series of riots were triggered and Corona House was attacked. Solo contacted Kalenda and arranged for her to meet him so they could steal a spaceship. As they drove her groundcar to the nearest spaceport, Solo gave Kalenda a datachip and instructed her to deliver it personally to one of only three people: Mon Mothma, Admiral Ackbar, or Luke Skywalker. Then, with Solo throwing several miniature thermal detonators as a diversion, Kalenda managed to steal an X-TIE Fighter and escape the planet as the only warning the New Republic at large would have of the Corellian Crisis. Shortly after she left, a massive interdiction field settled over the entire Corellian system, isolating it from hyperspace travel.

Piloting an unfamiliar ship, Kalenda acted swiftly upon her arrival in the Coruscant system. She was able to provide a New Republic Intelligence authentication code and was detained aboard the Mon Calamari Star Cruiser Naritus, as her identity was yet to be verified. To her surprise, Luke Skywalker arrived to meet her after she informed her captors that she could only speak to him, Admiral Ackbar, or Mon Mothma.

At the urging of New Republic leaders, Kalenda, Skywalker, and Lando Calrissian traveled to Bakura, where they met with Gaeriel Captison. The New Republic was lacking in vessels, and the Bakuran Defense Fleet had equipped their ships with technology that would allow them to bypass the interdiction field. After the Bakurans were briefed by Kalenda and her companions, Captison and Admiral Hortel Ossilege agreed to provide military assistance. Once Captison provided them with a fleet, Kalenda accompanied the Bakuran war fleet to Corellia as the lead New Republic Intelligence agent.

Upon their arrival into the Corellian system, Kalenda advised Ossilege and the other officers that Centerpoint Station was the focal point of both the interdiction field and a communications jamming signal that had blacked out the Corellian system. She also updated them on the tactical situation: one of the four Bakuran ships, the Watchkeeper, had been disabled by the abrupt reversion to realspace, though thankfully it was still serviceable and the Corellians had only mustered straggling groups of light fighters to oppose their fleet.

As the fleet advanced on Centerpoint, Kalenda learned from Lando Calrissian's friend and future wife Tendra Risant, transmitting with a radionics set supplied to Risant by Calrissian, that a large number of warships were orbiting nearby Sacorria. However, with limited equipment, Risant could provide few details on the size or strength of the force. With little to go on, Kalenda decided to focus her attention on Centerpoint Station, which had proven to be quite a mystery for the Bakuran fleet. Eventually, a small team, of which Kalenda was a part, flew to investigate the station.

Along with Lando Calrissian, Luke Skywalker, R2-D2, C-3PO, and Captison, Kalenda journeyed into Centerpoint Station, landing inside the station completely unopposed. The only occupant they found was Jenica Sonsen, an administrator of the station, who had no clue about the station's use in the Starbuster Plot. Centerpoint had actually been one of the focal points of the Corellian Insurrection and had been used to periodically blow up stars as well as generate the interdiction and communications jamming fields, much to Sonsen's consternation. Sonsen gave them a brief tour of the deserted station, including the central Hollowtown and the Glowpoint. Upon arrival into Hollowtown, though, C-3PO noted that the ambient temperature was rising significantly, which Sonsen informed them indicated a Glowpoint flare that would sear all of Hollowtown. The group quickly rode the turbovator back to the nearest personnel lock, where they briefly braved the scorching heat and toxic gases to race to the airlock. They barely managed to escape before the entire region was rendered thoroughly fatal to human life.

Once they were out of danger, Calrissian, Skywalker, Sonsen, and Kalenda correctly deduced that Centerpoint was in fact the weapon that had been used to detonate stars across the galaxy. Furthermore, they also realized that the planetary repulsors on each of the Corellian worlds would diffuse the deadly beam that Centerpoint used to start a supernova in a star. With that knowledge, Kalenda would later fly to back to the Bakuran flagship Intruder with Lando Calrissian and Gaeriel Captison in the Lady Luck. However, she and Captison stayed behind on the Intruder with Calrissian.

As Ossilege moved the fleet towards Drall in an attempt to gather information on its planetary repulsor, Kalenda remained on Intruder, advising the admiral with what intelligence she had on the Rebellion. More disturbing was the arrival of the Sacorrian Triad fleet, which outnumbered the Bakuran vessels. Upon seeing two vessels, one of them the Millennium Falcon, launch from the surface, Kalenda noted that the other vessel was firing upon the Falcon. The Intruder snagged both vessels in a tractor beam after the Falcon disabled its pursuer. As it turned out, the Solo children had been piloting the ship while Chewbacca and Ebrihim were imprisoned by the Human League at the Drall planetary repulsor. After the Solos, including the recently escaped Han Solo and the missing Leia Organa Solo, were reunited, Ossilege and Kalenda outlined the facts to the rest of the Bakuran, New Republic, and Corellian advisors on the Intruder, including Kalenda, about the importance of defeating the Sacorrian fleet. The Sacorrian Triad had masterminded the entire Starbuster Plot and with the imminent destruction of the next star—which would doom millions of people—the Bakurans needed to control a planetary repulsor and fire it to diffuse Centerpoint's starbuster.

Kalenda remained on the Intruder in the subsequent Battle of Centerpoint Station. When the Bakuran flagship was struck by four robot ramships, Kalenda was ordered to abandon ship, along with the rest of the crew, by the mortally wounded Admiral Ossilege. Meanwhile, he and the similarly wounded Gaeriel Captison activated the self destruct on the Intruder, destroying a significant portion of the Sacorrian fleet. Shortly thereafter, Admiral Ackbar arrived with a New Republic fleet and quickly defeated the remaining Sacorrian vessels. On Drall, Anakin Solo activated the planetary repulsor, saving the lives of millions. The Corellian insurrection was over, and Kalenda enjoyed an impromptu victory celebration on Drall afterward. She was commended by Airen Cracken for her performance in the Corellian system and was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel and placed in charge of the Operations branch of the Special Threats Division.

Kalenda continued her work for NRI during the Yuuzhan Vong War. At the start of the war, she was the NRI Deputy Director for Operations, holding the rank of colonel. On one mission, she was dispatched along with xenobiologist Joi Eicroth and Fleet Intelligence analyst Yintal to New Nystao on Wayland to meet a Yuuzhan Vong defector, the priestess Elan, and her familiar Vergere. The three New Republic operatives began questioning Elan, who provided information on Yuuzhan Vong military ambitions, the impending assault on Ord Mantell, Yuuzhan Vong culture, and dissension within their society. However, during the debriefing of Elan, they were attacked by an ooglith masquer-clad Yuuzhan Vong assassin, who killed Yintal, as coralskippers began to strafe the city. Kalenda and rest of her party, along with Elan, survived the assassination attempt with varying degrees of injury, but they were forced to move the defecting priestess to another location. Kalenda returned to Coruscant, spending time in a bacta tank to recuperate from her injuries en route, where she briefed the Council on Security and Intelligence on her findings about the two would-be defectors. She informed them that Elan had provided them with valuable military information and recommended that Elan and Vergere be moved to Coruscant through a complicated set of traveling routes and a series of decoy teams set up by New Republic Intelligence to throw off any attempts at pursuit. Her plan was approved, and NRI began to move the defectors.

However, one of the teams responsible for the transfer operation, under the command of Major Showolter, suffered a critical security breach. This resulted in Elan and Vergere almost being captured by the Peace Brigade, who were aligned with the Yuuzhan Vong. Only the last-minute intervention of Han Solo averted their capture. However, Solo later discovered Elan's involvement in a plot to assassinate the Jedi, leading to her death at his hands after she tried to silence him. Vergere, on the other hand, managed to escape and return to the Yuuzhan Vong. Upon her return to Coruscant, Kalenda faced severe reprimand from her superior, Dif Scaur, for her failure to ensure the safe transfer of Elan and Vergere and for her inability to discern Elan's true intentions. Subsequently, she shared Solo's account with Scaur, who then informed her and other intelligence personnel that the transfer details had been leaked, seemingly by an informant or mole within New Republic Intelligence. The Council on Security and Intelligence expressed profound dissatisfaction with New Republic Intelligence's failure concerning this mission. The repercussions of this disastrous event had significant political consequences, with Kalenda bearing the brunt of the blame due to her direct oversight of the transfer and debriefing of Elan. She was even suspected of inadvertently assisting an informant. Consequently, she experienced a demotion to the rank of lieutenant colonel.

Following this disgrace, Kalenda joined forces with Showolter on a reconnaissance mission to Tynna, acting on intelligence provided by Talon Karrde that linked the Yuuzhan Vong's advance to the spice trade. They arrived just as the Battle of Tynna unfolded, witnessing the rapid fall of the largely undefended planet to the Yuuzhan Vong. This event did, at least, confirm the accuracy of Karrde's information. Regrettably, later reports from Karrde, which Kalenda relayed, indicated an impending attack on Corellia. However, this turned out to be a deceptive maneuver by the Yuuzhan Vong; Corellia was merely a diversion, with Fondor being the real target. This second setback further tarnished Kalenda's reputation. Although she participated in supervising the medical examination of a captured Yuuzhan Vong prisoner, the prisoner's swift suicide rendered the examination incomplete and yielded minimal useful data. Tsavong Lah, a Yuuzhan Vong Warmaster, later threatened Viqi Shesh, his operative who had leaked the Elan plan to the Yuuzhan Vong, with exposure to Belindi Kalenda.

After the New Republic's transformation into the Galactic Alliance, Kalenda found herself stationed on Mon Calamari alongside the rest of the government. Shortly after, Cal Omas, the newly elected Chief of State, tasked Kalenda with assisting Han and Leia Organa Solo in coordinating a mission to re-establish connections with worlds isolated by the Yuuzhan Vong's advance. Jaina Solo and Jagged Fel also joined the mission. Ultimately, the frigate Pride of Selonia and Twin Suns Squadron were assigned to support the Millennium Falcon as the primary naval force. Their meeting was interrupted by a comlink call for Jaina Solo from Tahiri Veila, a Jedi Knight who was experiencing significant emotional distress. Solo requested that Kalenda trace the comlink, which she did. Kalenda then led the three Solos to Tahiri, who had entered a state of delirium. Following the Recapture of Coruscant, she was appointed Director of Intelligence, succeeding Dif Scaur, who resigned under political pressure due to the Alpha Red pathogen incident.

Kalenda continued to serve as the director of intelligence for the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances throughout the duration of the Second Galactic Civil War. In the early stages of the conflict, Kalenda briefed Admiral Cha Niathal and Jacen Solo regarding a meeting organized by the separatist movement, instigated by the Bothan faction, to elect a new supreme commander. Recognizing the strategic advantage of disrupting this gathering and potentially capturing or eliminating the attendees, Niathal instructed Kalenda to allocate all necessary resources to gather intelligence on the meeting. These efforts would eventually culminate in the Battle of Gilatter VIII. Later, Kalenda informed Cha Niathal, who was now serving as the temporary co-Chief of State, that Doctor Toval Seyah, a scientist and intelligence operative, had been removed from Centerpoint after being suspected of espionage by the Corellians.

When the intelligence service was brought under the direct control of the Galactic Alliance Guard, Kalenda was replaced in her role by Heol Girdun. After the war concluded and both Niathal and her co-Chief of State, Jacen Solo, were removed from power, Natasi Daala was selected as the new chief of state. Kalenda then resumed her position as director. However, Daala initiated a purge within the ranks of the Galactic Alliance Defense Force, dismissing officers who had not publicly denounced Jacen Solo. Kalenda was among those who lost their positions as director of intelligence, with Borath Maddeus, who enjoyed a strong working relationship with the chief of state, taking her place.

Kalenda's superiors recognized her for her courage and resourcefulness. She demonstrated dedication to her job and carried out her missions professionally, even when the orders seemed illogical. Kalenda would not argue with a logical suggestion or order, even if it went against her personal feelings. She preferred to maintain a calm and composed demeanor, even when facing danger. However, she was still capable of expressing her personal feelings; beneath her professional exterior, Kalenda was sentimental. Kalenda also had a reliable sense of intuition, which she attributed to a minor Force-sensitivity. Many of her decisions, including her choice to discreetly monitor the Solos during their time on Corellia, were based on her intuition or her sense of duty. While she had a strong sense of duty, she was willing to rewrite or creatively interpret her orders to achieve her goals, or even act independently without any orders.

Her wide gaze and offset eyes often gave the impression that Kalenda was not directly looking at the person she was speaking to. This trait sometimes led people to believe that she was blind. Kalenda used this perception to her advantage, making a blind woman one of her favorite disguises.

Having been trained by the New Republic, Kalenda was considered a skilled field agent. Her abilities included using blasters, engaging in melee and unarmed combat, pickpocketing, forgery, infiltration techniques, and piloting repulsorlift vehicles and spacecraft. Kalenda was also proficient in swimming, computer programming, demolitions, machinery repair, and lip reading. By the time of the Yuuzhan Vong War, Kalenda had also learned to speak Huttese.

Kalenda was first introduced by Roger MacBride Allen in his Corellian Trilogy. She later returned as a supporting character in The New Jedi Order book series and the later Star Wars: Legacy of the Force series, and was mentioned in Aaron Allston's X-Wing: Mercy Kill.