Salla Zend

"Do you want to lose your fingers or what, Solo?"
"Sorry, Salla, I... I just can't help it."
"Well, keep your hands off my instruments. Nobody flies the Starlight Intruder but me."

―Salla Zend and Han Solo —

Listen (file info)^[src]

Salla Zend was a Human female who was the ex-girlfriend of Han Solo. She and cohort Shug Ninx later helped Solo and his wife New Republic Senator Leia Organa Solo save Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker and foil the reborn Emperor Palpatine's plan to control the galaxy from Byss years after the Battle of Yavin with her remarkably fast ship, the Starlight Intruder (which Zend often claimed was faster than the Millennium Falcon, but in a number of races with the Falcon, the Intruder never came out on top).

Biography

Zend was originally a student with a true gift for fixing and modifying machinery, yet she didn't seek training to become an engineer or a technician, preferring to become a spaceship mechanic aboard a corporate vessel. Eventually, she saved up enough money for a loan, with which she bought her own ship.

Her first time on Nar Shaddaa was eventful, with her getting into a fight with a smuggler named "Jump," who tried to romance her at first, but then tried to be rough; his roughness only got him a dislocated shoulder. Tweaking out her vessel, the Rimrunner, Zend began repaying the debt by smuggling with Han Solo.^[2]

She was one of the many smugglers who fought in the Battle of Nar Shaddaa where she and Lando Calrissian in the Millennium Falcon were partnered up. During the battle, she personally destroyed three Guardian-class light cruisers with her ship's concussion missiles.^[2]

A race with Solo past a neutron star almost ended in disaster when her hyperdrive failed and Solo nearly died rescuing her. Disturbed by the narrow miss, Zend wished to marry Solo, but he refused and said goodbye to her.^[3] She later partnered up with Shug Ninx.^[4]

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Behind the scenes

Salla Zend and the Starlight Intruder first appeared in the third issue of the Star Wars: Dark Empire series, The Battle for Calamari.

Vocal actress Glynnis Talken played Salla in the 1994 Dark Empire audio drama. In 1995, Talken acted out Salla again in the Dark Empire II audio drama.

Although the first edition of The Essential Guide to Characters would firmly establish Salla's species as Human, she does have a "purr" and slight alien reverb to her voice in these audio adaptations.