Sekotan Personal Starship

Characteristics

While customers had the opportunity to personalize their ships, Sekot, the planet's collective consciousness, ultimately dictated the final design. Consequently, all ships exhibited shared characteristics, notwithstanding design variations.

A typical ship featured three lobes: a primary central lobe constituting the bulk of the vessel, and flanking lobes housing the propulsion systems. A long, squared wingspan, often equipped with sensors at its tips, was also a common feature. However, these standard features were not always rigidly adhered to.

Birth

Accessing Zonama Sekot was only possible via a specially authorized and chartered voyage, owing to its remote location. Upon arrival, the customer, typically an extremely affluent individual, would be escorted to their accommodations.

Following payment of Sekot's exorbitant fee, which could exceed 4 billion credits, the customer would be guided to a spacious chamber. The walls of this chamber were covered in small, spiked spheres—bora seeds—referred to as seed-partners by the Ferroans. These seed-partners would then decide whether to bond with the customer and become their ship. This selection process typically involved all the seed-partners detaching from the chamber walls and engulfing the customer in a dramatic cascade.

Once the dust settled, the customer would discover that a select few seed-partners had chosen them, indicated by their clinging to the customer's body. The pods adhered via a small spike, causing minor discomfort but no injury. Three seed-partners per customer was typical, yet exceptions existed. Anakin Skywalker's ship, the Jabitha, was uniquely created from fifteen seed-partners: twelve selected the young padawan, while three others chose Obi-Wan Kenobi.

After a day or two, the Ferroans would detach the seed-partners, and the customer would meet with the designer to discuss the ship's design. A few days later, the customer would be taken to a vast ravine filled with "forging pits"—a natural cathedral, kilometers in breadth, bordered and canopied by immense boras—where the ship's construction would take place. Within this "factory valley," Langhesi forgers would use fire and lightning to process the seeds, transforming them into disk-like shapes.

These seeds, now transmuted into "seed-disks," were then transported by carapods to a shaping warehouse constructed of lamina. Translucent fruits containing thick, "sparkling" fluids (agitated by a screw-like organ at their center) would be harvested, and their globular contents used by Jentari shapers to mold the seed-disks into the ship's flesh and structure. Customers were required to sit within pre-made frames as the Jentari positioned the seed-disks and pre-fabricated (expensive, state-of-the-art) engines, molding the ships around them: organoform circuits; engines (ideally "type-seven" engines from the Haor Chall line of Silver-class light starships); and hyperdrive core units were integrated into the living ship. Globs of fruit juice served as a binding agent, merging the seed-disks (which now sprouted "sinuous, questing pseudopods") with the organoform circuitry. As the Jentari shaped and merged the seed-disks around the customer, the seeds telepathically consulted the customer regarding final design choices. The customer, in turn, was required to shape the ship's final design, adhering to Sekot's subtle guidance while directing the seeds' input during these final stages of design and production. The customer was also asked to remain with the ship for several days after its creation—as it was being fitted and finished with "non-Sekotan instrumentation" to align it with Republic standards—to comfort it during its early existence.

Once completed with transponders, communication and control panels, seating, and other accessories, the living ship's interior displayed smooth, iridescent lines of "green and blue and red, gleaming like a coat of ruby and emerald mineral enamel, yet not just dead brilliance, but a pulsing quality of light that signified youth and life." The starship "glowed faintly from within, and pools of deep-sea luminosity seemed to come and go under its shiny green skin."

With the sentient ship prepared for flight, the pilot(s) were required to swear an oath of absolute secrecy regarding Zonama Sekot before departure. Violation of this oath would sever the bond between owner and ship, resulting in the ship's rapid demise.

Uses

Sekotan ships primarily served as high-speed shuttles, designed for rapid and efficient passenger transport. However, these ships possessed independent thought and a near-telepathic connection with their owners. Sekot, the planet's intelligent essence, could also assume complete control of a ship—typically during crises, as a last resort for planetary defense; the planet's substantial reserve of native defensive ships lacked pilots and were directly controlled by Sekot.

History

Following the planet's departure from its Gardaji Rift orbit within the galaxy's Tingel Arm in 29 BBY, utilizing its massive hyperdrive engines with 300-kilometer-high field guides, all remaining ships located off-world were destroyed.

Due to the demise of all off-world ships, the planet incorporated Yuuzhan Vong technology to cultivate its own fighters during the Yuuzhan Vong War. However, after Zonama Sekot aided in resolving that conflict, the planet resumed the manufacture and sale of living ships.