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- "Is it a trap?"
"Of course." - ―Luke and Mara Jade Skywalker, upon discovery of Lumiya's datapad
Lumiya's datapad was an electronic device utilized by the Dark Lady of the Sith during her preliminary instigations of the Second Galactic Civil War. Well-hidden within one of her many safe house apartments in the Zorp House complex on Coruscant, the datapad was discovered in 40 ABY by Coruscant Security Forces and members of the Jedi Order during an investigation into the recent activities of Lumiya. Despite the lethality of the Dark Lady's trap-laden device, Jedi Master Mara Jade Skywalker was able to successfully bypass the safeguards and confiscate the datapad for future examination.
Description
- "That sounds like a small charge from someone as dedicated to overkill as she seems to be."
"It is. That's because it's backed up by poison." - ―Luke and Mara Jade Skywalker discover the defense mechanisms
During her seduction of Jedi Knight Jacen Solo to the dark side of the Force, Dark Lady of the Sith Lumiya made use of a specialized datapad with which she engaged in espionage as she manipulated the opposing factions of the Second Galactic Civil War. Lumiya modified her datapad to intercept communications within the Zorp House apartment complex of Coruscant's Galactic City, as well as to hack into the classified records of the Galactic Alliance Defense Force. The datapad included a self-replicating program that, left unchecked, would have eventually spread throughout the entirety of the military network. However, Galactic Alliance Intelligence operative Winter Celchu discovered and eradicated the malignant code. By all outward appearances, Lumiya's datapad was the same as any other commercially-available model. Countermeasures were installed to suit the Dark Lady's required anonymity, which included an explosives package situated near a smaller-than-standard battery. The explosives, which could destroy the datapad and disintegrate the handler's appendage in the process, also triggered the secondary trap: Trihexalon poison, affixed beneath a thin layer of spray-on sealant.
Lumiya's datapad was spliced into one of a series of data cables just above a ceiling panel in a secret apartment she kept in Zorp House. The self-destruct mechanism, which would also disperse the gaseous poison when activated, was rigged to breach the air duct it was located near, thereby spreading the Trihexalon throughout the building's ventilation system and exposing the entirety of its occupants to the deadly toxin.
History
- "Our security has been compromised. An analysis of the data banks where that file was stored indicated that the only times it had been accessed in recent years was when automated backup programming refreshed it and compared it with static stored copies. Military programmers could find no other signs of intrusion, so I requested assistance from Intelligence, which revealed the method used…"
- ―General Tycho Celchu discusses the existence of the code that originated from Lumiya's datapad
In 40 BBY, Lumiya's secret apartment, and subsequently her datapad, were discovered by Zorp House's Neimoidian maître d’hôtel, who in turn contacted Coruscant's security force. Two detectives, accompanied by Jedi Masters Luke and Mara Jade Skywalker, forced entry into Lumiya's apartment, where Jade Skywalker found the datapad as it had been left by the Neimoidian. She commenced to disassemble the device, during which time she discovered and avoided the traps implemented by Lumiya. The female Jedi connected the datapad to one of her own and discovered the basic intercept-and-redirect algorithm programmed into the device. Once those present determined the start and end points of the transmissions, Jade Skywalker reattached the battery cover and secured the poison, explosives, and datapad, before they all departed in pursuit of the Dark Lady's trail.
Behind the scenes
Lumiya's datapad's first and only appearance took place in Exile, the fourth novel in the Legacy of the Force series, written by Aaron Allston. In the abridged audio version of Exile, narrated by Marc Thompson, much of the detail regarding the datapad is omitted and is instead relegated to a fleeting mention in the audiobook's thirteenth chapter.
Appearances
- Exile (First appearance)