BoShek

BoShek, a Human male hailing from Corellia, departed his home planet prior to 0 BBY, seeking both thrill and financial gain as a smuggler. This Corellian entered the world of organized crime, accepting missions involving smuggling and espionage, always aiming to enhance his standing within fringe communities. He eventually made his way to Smuggler's Run, where he left a significant impression on fellow smugglers, including Clyngunn. While striving for success in smuggling, BoShek also accumulated a debt to Black Sun, the galaxy's most prominent criminal organization. Prince [Xizor](/article/xizor-legends], the leader of Black Sun, took a particular interest in this debt, suggesting its importance.

BoShek became a familiar figure in smuggling circles, developing friendships with leading smugglers such as Han Solo and Chewbacca, becoming acquainted with influential figures like Clyngunn, and familiarizing himself with the work of Klaus "Doc" Vandangante, a renowned "outlaw tech" in the galaxy. BoShek frequently utilized Vandangante's services, enjoying the company of Vandangante's daughter, Jessa, as much as the quality of Vandangante's work.

BoShek eventually secured a position piloting ships for the Dim-U monastery in Mos Eisley on Tatooine. This monastery was primarily a business operation rather than a religious institution, as Abbot Drayk and the majority of the "monks" conducted an illegal transponder-slicing venture under the cover of the Dim-U's worship of banthas. BoShek's role was to pilot "hot" starships, often stolen but sometimes belonging to smugglers or criminals, to the monastery. There, the monks would modify the ships' transponder codes and emission signatures to prevent official detection. While BoShek transported these ships to Tatooine, they would still be flagged as wanted, necessitating his piloting and smuggling expertise to evade authorities. Piloting was not his only skill; he was also a skilled mechanic and occasionally assisted the monastery's technicians. BoShek also had the assistance of an astromech droid, R4-E1, who was a frequent companion but possessed a strong independent streak and was likely owned by the monastery rather than BoShek himself.

During his employment, BoShek learned about the Force from one of the few genuine monks at the monastery. Intrigued, he decided to study it and attempt to cultivate its power within himself. He frequently meditated and tried to access the Force, but made little progress, only occasionally sensing the presence of others. BoShek was, in fact, Force-sensitive, although he was unaware of it, and his connection appeared to be weak.

During this time, BoShek retrieved the Dancing Goddess, a valuable statue, and personally delivered it to Xizor, settling his debt. He also provided an interview to an Imperial Security Bureau agent at Chalmun's Spaceport Cantina, a popular Mos Eisley establishment. BoShek offered a basic biography of Vandangante to the agent, likely unaware that the individual was employed by the Empire.

Shortly before the Battle of Yavin, BoShek was tasked with bringing the smuggling ship Infinity to Mos Eisley for servicing. He was captivated by the ship, impressed by its design, systems, and performance. His route allowed him to complete the Kessel Run, and he was delighted to discover that he had surpassed Solo's previous record, a fact he eagerly anticipated sharing with Solo, who often boasted about his accomplishment.

However, upon returning to realspace above Tatooine, BoShek was surprised to find two Imperial-class Star Destroyers in orbit. Unbeknownst to him, they were searching for the Death Star plans. BoShek, flying without an active transponder but aware that the Infinity's emissions signature would expose him, immediately descended towards the planet. As he entered the atmosphere, the Star Destroyers opened fire, shaking the Infinity and causing damage. Four TIE/LN starfighters were dispatched in pursuit, but BoShek hoped to evade them closer to the surface. With their entry into the chase, the Star Destroyers ceased firing.

BoShek flew low over the Dune Sea, using a clever maneuver to evade the TIEs and heading towards the canyons of the Jundland Wastes. He navigated up a canyon at full speed, but as one of the TIE fighters approached, it crossed BoShek's wake and crashed into the canyon wall, destroying another fighter in the resulting explosion. BoShek had not intended to destroy his pursuers, aware of the serious consequences, but knew he would now be held responsible for the deaths of both pilots. The remaining two TIEs were now firing to kill. The Infinity was not designed for combat, but BoShek devised an escape strategy based on a trick Solo had once described. He waited until his shields were about to fail, then launched an escape pod as he rounded a corner, creating an explosion intended to suggest the Infinity's destruction and potentially eliminate the remaining TIEs. This strategy succeeded in both objectives. With his pursuers destroyed, BoShek cut his engines and glided undetected into Mos Eisley.

He safely reached the monastery, where he collected a note and passed it to a Dim-U street preacher. Having completed this task, BoShek headed directly to Chalmun's cantina, where he knew he could find Solo and Chewbacca and boast about breaking their record. Upon entering, he immediately found Chewbacca and informed him of his new record. The Wookiee was not particularly concerned, and they exchanged brief banter before BoShek sensed a powerful presence in the Force. He turned to see a boy, an old man, and two droids in the doorway. Unbeknownst to BoShek, the boy was Luke Skywalker, and the old man was Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, both strong in the Force. Kenobi approached BoShek and greeted him with, "May the Force be with you, my friend." BoShek had never revealed his fascination with the Force to anyone, but the old man sensed BoShek's struggles with it. Kenobi asked BoShek for transport off-world, suggesting he could train him in the Force during the journey. However, as BoShek did not have a ship, he declined, suggesting Kenobi ask Chewbacca, standing nearby. Kenobi offered BoShek parting advice, warning him about the dark side and emphasizing the need to resolve his alignment within the Force before he could successfully wield it, urging him to embrace the light side.

BoShek then excused himself, allowing Kenobi to speak with Chewbacca, and moved to the other side of the bar to get a drink and search for Solo. When Kenobi drew a lightsaber to defend Skywalker in a bar fight, BoShek was knocked off his feet in the ensuing chaos. He focused on refilling his spilled bitter and inquiring about the unusual number of stormtroopers in town, receiving no answers. Finally, he spotted Solo seated in a booth. BoShek intended to join him, but a constant stream of individuals entering Solo's booth prevented him. When the bounty hunter Greedo drew a blaster on Solo, BoShek nearly drew his own weapon before noticing Solo subtly drawing his blaster from under the table. Amused, BoShek simply observed as Solo eliminated the threat.

BoShek moved to follow Solo out of the cantina, but upon exiting, he was confronted by a local law enforcement officer. The officer intended to arrest BoShek for the earlier incident, not knowing BoShek was responsible but simply seeking a scapegoat to appease Darth Vader. BoShek claimed he had been inside the cantina all afternoon, and when the officer looked inside, BoShek kicked the blaster from his hands and knocked him unconscious.

BoShek quickly walked away, but heard the officer shout as he regained consciousness and gave chase. BoShek ducked inside the wreckage of the Dowager Queen, where he removed his flight suit and purchased a tattered cloak from a vagrant to disguise himself. As he prepared to leave, he saw the officer waiting outside, blaster drawn, having seen BoShek enter the Dowager Queen. Unsure of his ability to avoid detection, BoShek remained inside, searching for another exit. He found only a ramp leading to where several street preachers addressed the crowds below. As more police arrived, BoShek decided he had no escape and instead rubbed grime on his face and hands to darken his complexion, pulled up his hood, and began preaching to the crowd from a window, hoping to blend in with the other preachers. BoShek briefly considered preaching Dim-U doctrines but knew little about them and decided to deliver a sermon on the Force. Borrowing heavily from Kenobi's words, BoShek pieced together vague doctrines and buzzword-laden promises, angering the other preachers who felt he was mocking them and encroaching on their profitable racket. The police moved onto the observation deck behind BoShek, observing all the preachers, but Het Nkik's attack on a stormtrooper patrol nearby caused a commotion, drawing the officers away to investigate. As soon as they left, the other preachers began beating BoShek, angered by his perceived mockery.

BoShek fled outside, where two preachers continued to pursue him. There, the first officer recognized BoShek and nearly shot him, narrowly missing. BoShek hurried down the street, with the preachers still chasing him, causing the officers to hesitate firing for fear of harming the religious leaders. He reached a used-speeder lot, where he tossed a handful of credits at the dealer and leaped into a still-running XP-38A landspeeder that had just been purchased, claiming he was taking it for a test drive, and sped away.

Now beyond the reach of the police, BoShek slowed to a normal speed and was about to head to the safety of the monastery when he encountered a stormtrooper checkpoint. Unable to escape, he stopped, and the stormtroopers began questioning him. They were interrupted by the roaring takeoff of Solo's Millennium Falcon nearby, which gave BoShek time to think and turned his thoughts to Kenobi, who he knew had gained passage with Solo. BoShek wanted to use the Force to escape but recalled Kenobi's words that only the "pure of heart" could use it successfully. Promising the Force and himself to return the stolen speeder and quit his smuggling career if he could escape the Empire, BoShek hoped he could change enough to access the Force. Reaching out with all his concentration, he urged them through the Force to let him go. His effort was weak, but these troopers had been touched by the Force shortly before, when Kenobi evaded their scrutiny. The brush of BoShek's Force presence caused them to replay their thoughts from Kenobi's earlier effort. Confused by their talk of droids but profoundly grateful that they let him pass, BoShek moved on, attributing it to a miracle of the Force. Exposed to the reality of the Force and its power, BoShek vowed to follow through on his promise and resolve his situation, driving the speeder back to the dealership and planning to leave behind his life of crime.

BoShek's role in the destruction of the TIEs quickly became known, leading to Imperial warrants for his arrest. He was the subject of an interview between an ISB agent and Clyngunn, in which Clyngunn provided a brief summary of BoShek's career and suggested that BoShek had purchased the Infinity, likely a misunderstanding of BoShek's role in piloting it during his record-setting Kessel Run. The report was included among several on leading underworld figures compiled by ISB commander Maximillian Seerdon and forwarded to the office of the Emperor shortly after the Battle of Yavin. Ironically, BoShek's interview on Vandangante was included in a later addendum.

BoShek successfully left behind the monastery and smuggling life, making his way to Stoga, a remote world where he believed he could avoid attention from either side in the escalating Galactic Civil War. There, he lived peacefully for several months, finding honest work and enjoying a simple, uneventful life. Tam, an old friend, also lived on the planet in a junked freighter, and BoShek would visit occasionally. BoShek also hoped that in the peaceful environment of Stoga, he could connect more deeply with the Force. However, the harder he tried, the more distant he felt from it, frustrating him and causing him to slowly lose the faith he had gained after the events on Tatooine.

One morning, approximately six months after his escape from Tatooine, Rasha Bex entered BoShek's life. She told him that she had encountered a Rebel cell on Stoga loyal to Garm Bel Iblis, but disagreed with their methods and wanted to leave, leading them to try to kill her. She had arranged transport off-world but needed to reach their meeting location. Reluctant to get involved but more reluctant to allow the attractive woman to be killed, BoShek agreed to give her a ride on his Flare-S swoop. However, the Rebel agents were in pursuit, and BoShek found himself dodging blaster fire while racing through Stoga's fields and canyons at high speed. Only after speeding through a small canyon and across a chasm did BoShek lose his pursuers, whose catamaran-style speeder was too large to fit through and whose launched missile barely missed him.

BoShek made his way to Tam's home, where he planned to rest for a few hours and then continue to the rendezvous point. He had a brief conversation with Tam, who urged him not to revert to his old lifestyle and risk the balance and happiness he had found, before going in to see Bex. She inquired about his past, and he gave her a brief account. When he expressed his apathy towards the ongoing war, preferring to remain neutral and live without concern for a future that might not come, Bex disagreed, arguing that the future was too important to ignore and that he must take a stand for one side or the other. The argument did not progress far, and the two fell asleep against each other.

BoShek awoke to the sound of whispered conversation in the next room and quickly realized that Tam, a Rebel sympathizer, had betrayed Bex to Karn, the leader of the local Rebels. He reached out to the Force but found no answer. Acting on instinct, BoShek burst through the doorway, blasters drawn, surprising Karn and Lhira, Karn's lieutenant. With blasters to their heads, he forced them to disarm and then retreated with Bex through a back exit. There, they encountered another Rebel, a burly Weequay seeking a bare-knuckle fight. Instead, BoShek slipped a long, heavy implement from his tool belt and struck the Weequay across the face, knocking him down. With BoShek's swoop sabotaged, the pair set out on the Weequay's.

Bex's rendezvous point was directly across an old, rickety bridge left over from an abandoned mining operation. BoShek sped towards it, and Karn, knowing he could not catch them in time, stopped and sniped the bridge's supporting cables, causing it to collapse. BoShek leaped the swoop across the falling bridge, making a last-minute jump as it plummeted into the chasm and snagging a cable attached to the far end with one hand, with Bex hanging onto the other. Under fire from the Rebels, BoShek was surprised to see them driven off and himself hauled to the top by Rasha's contacts—multiple trench-coated and well-armed men. Once they were pulled to the top, Bex gave BoShek a passionate kiss and handed over information on the Rebel cells to her superior. Only then did BoShek realize Bex was an Imperial spy. Furious and feeling betrayed, BoShek drew on the Imperial commander as Bex pleaded with him to lower his weapons, explaining she had never intended to involve him in the war. Dejected, he surrendered. Bex offered to drop all charges if he used his piloting skills for the Empire, but BoShek despised the Empire's methods and ideology and refused, preferring prison to a life as an Imperial officer. Instead, he urged Bex to disregard Imperial propaganda and defect to his side—the unaligned.

BoShek's influence grew, causing Bex to commit treason against the Empire at Ahakista. Wyl Tarson, the Rebel spy in charge of the operation she joined, exploited her feelings for BoShek to manipulate her actions. Soon after, BoShek managed to break out of prison, resulting in active Imperial arrest warrants for him.

During 1 ABY, BoShek had a meeting with Jeffren Brek, an agent from the Imperial Security Bureau, in Bestine on Tatooine. Brek sought information about a missing shipment of ryll intended for a Rebel medical facility, but BoShek revealed very little. BoShek was also searching for the missing shipment. When he learned that a spacer was looking for him regarding the spice, BoShek located the individual and, with the help of some friends, tried to get rid of his competition. However, the spacer proved to be more skilled and defeated the Corellian. After being threatened with being handed over to the Empire, BoShek reluctantly admitted that he had heard the shipment was hidden in Skip 52 of the infamous smugglers' den, Smuggler's Run. His opponent then confined BoShek in a maintenance closet and left to investigate the lead.

BoShek was someone who lived for the present, embracing his current situation rather than dwelling on the future. He also preferred to avoid getting involved in the galactic civil war. Although he sympathized with the Rebel Alliance and disliked the Empire, he didn't see it as his responsibility and preferred to stay out of trouble and live his life without unnecessary sacrifices. He prioritized his own well-being and, after his encounter with Kenobi, aimed to live a simple, honest, and detached life.

However, BoShek wasn't entirely cynical. His fascination with the Force showed a willingness to believe in the supernatural, and he continued trying to tap into it even when he didn't see much progress. After talking to Kenobi and seeing the Force in action, BoShek's belief strengthened. This belief diminished when his further meditations on Stoga only led to disappointment, but his successful leap across the canyon from the collapsing bridge restored some of his faith in the Force.

Despite his interest in the Force, BoShek maintained a pragmatic mindset, willing to resort to violence to protect his interests. With multiple Imperial warrants out for him, he feared for his safety and wanted to avoid the Empire's attention.

BoShek had some sensitivity to the Force, but it appeared to be quite limited. He meditated regularly for a considerable amount of time, yet he could only occasionally experience a fleeting sense of other people's presence in the Force. When Kenobi entered Chalmun's Cantina, BoShek detected a strong presence in the Force that he associated with Kenobi, although he might have actually sensed Luke Skywalker, who was untrained but possessed significant latent power. BoShek later attempted a mind trick to escape a stormtrooper checkpoint, but he only partially succeeded, merely re-triggering the effects of Kenobi's earlier mind trick. Encouraged by this minor success, he intensified his meditation efforts, but he was met with disappointment as the Force seemed increasingly elusive the more he tried to grasp it. By 1 ABY, BoShek's Force abilities had improved, allowing him to read the minds of others.

Basil Tomlin, an uncredited actor whose identity remained unknown until 2016, played BoShek in A New Hope. The character's costume included a high-altitude Windak pressure suit from the 1960s. Despite his appearance in the original film, the character was largely forgotten until 1995, when a Star Wars Customizable Card Game card was released, identifying BoShek and providing a brief summary of the events that would be further developed later that year with the publication of Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina, which featured the short story At the Crossroads: The Spacer's Tale by Jerry Oltion and introduced BoShek. According to Oltion, the name BoShek is a Tuckerization that pays tribute to twentieth-century SF writer Robert "Bob" Sheckley, known for his many spacer stories in the 1950s.

Despite the story establishing BoShek as a Force-sensitive film character with connections to Kenobi and a life-changing mission, BoShek did not reappear for another extended period. He was eventually brought back by Jeremy Barlow in Empire 23, with illustrations by Brandon Badeaux, in 2004, depicting BoShek after the events of At the Crossroads. Barlow mentioned that BoShek's story would continue in an arc of Star Wars: Rebellion, where Nas Ghent would recruit BoShek into Black Eight Squadron as a follow-up to the Star Wars Tales story "Walking the Path That's Given," but Rebellion was subsequently canceled.

BoShek's only other appearances were in 2006, when he was featured in the Underworld: A Galaxy of Scum and Villainy article in Star Wars Insider by Abel G. Peña and Ryan Kaufman with illustrations by Joe Corroney. In the article, his name was incorrectly capitalized as "Boshek." BoShek was also credited as the in-universe author of an entry on "Doc" Vandangante in the online supplement to that article, Underworld Appendix: Swoops, Spice, and Wretched Rogues. BoShek has since been briefly mentioned in the 2007 Rebellion arc The Ahakista Gambit, which features Bex.

In 2009, BoShek returned in a scenario for the Star Wars Galaxies Trading Card Game card set Agents of Deception, which takes place after the events of The Bravery of Being Out of Range. In this scenario, he is a free man but still wanted by the Empire, with no explanation given for the significant change in his situation. A later expansion, Threat of the Conqueror, resolved the issue by including a quote from BoShek explaining that he had escaped from prison.

In the Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope radio dramatization, a character, simply referred to as 'Spacer', voiced by David Alan Grier, mentions Chewbacca to Obi-Wan Kenobi, using different dialogue than BoShek.