History Literature / TheTruceAtBakura

* DoesNotLikeShoes: Gaeriel Captison ditches her shoes whenever she can, even when sitting behind her desk in the Bakuran Senate. At one point, she wonders when she last walked barefoot in Satuary Park. Luke actually notes that her frequent barefootedness indicates a free and lighthearted personality... except when he's around.

* BurialInSpace: [[spoiler:Dev Sibwarra dies "clean," having used the Force to rid himself of his Ssi-ruuvi brainwashing.]] His funeral allows his body to burn cleanly away as well, shot out of the ''Falcon''s airlock into Bakura's atmosphere.

* EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs: The Ssi-ruuk are more or less an {{Expy}} of raptors, only intelligent and spaceship building.

* MismatchedEyes: Non-villainous example. Gaeriel has heterochromia iridum--one eye is green, the other grey. At one point, she pictures her and Luke having a pack of kids with mismatched green, grey, and blue eyes.

** They also despise droids for historical reasons (malfunctioning droids during the settlement's early days led to deaths) meaning the Ssi-ruuk entechment is particularly loathsome to them.

* ImmediateSequel: It begins shortly after the destruction of the Death Star in ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi''. The Rebel Alliance is still camped on Endor's Sanctuary Moon. Leia and Han share some Ewok wine, and Luke has to spend several hours in bed in order to recover from the Force Lightning he'd been zapped with on the Death Star.

* AuthorAppeal: Kathy Tyers was raised in a fundamentalist background, so she knows about religious conflicts, such as the one between Luke and Gaeriel.

* RealityEnsues:
** As this novel starts about 24 hours after ''Return of the Jedi'' ends, it's the first story to deal with Han and Leia's RelationshipUpgrade. The road is bumpy.
** Despite their victory at Endor, the Rebel fleet is battered, beat up, ships and soldiers in desperate need of rest and repair. They can only send one small cruiser/carrier and a few gunships to help Bakura, against a fleet with five cruisers, numerous support ships, and a practically infinite number of battle droid fighters (which are more powerfully shielded, smaller, and more maneuverable than anything the Empire or Rebellion has).
** At the end of ''Return of the Jedi'', Luke joins the Ewok/Rebel celebration looking no worse for the wear despite being Force-electrocuted within an inch of his life by the Emperor. The opening of this story reveals that Luke is indeed suffering some serious side effects, and he has to get emergency medical treatment.

** As this novel starts about 24 hours after ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'' ends, it's the first story to deal with Han and Leia's RelationshipUpgrade. The road is bumpy.

* FateWorseThanDeath: Entechment.

** Turns out Force-Sensitives can drain the life energy from others at a distance, very useful in concert with a specially-designed entechment rig. Who knew? (This never appears again with the Ssi-ruuk specifically, but the more general [[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Force_drain "Force drain"]] power continues to be used by Sith and Dark Jedi in both ''Legends'' and the Disney EU.)

* OfficerAndAGentleman: Commander Thanas.
* OperatorIncompatibility: Dev's ion paddle beamer is custom built for him as he cannot use the standard Ssi-ruuvi ones.

* PoweredByAForsakenChild: Most Ssi-ruuvi tech uses LifeEnergy as a PowerSource, which needs to be extracted from sentient creatures via the "entechment" process. ([[HumansAreSpecial Humans provide more energy]].)
* [[RaisedByWolves Raised By Ssi-ruuk]]: Dev Sibwarra.

* ReptilesAreAbhorrent: The Ssi-ruuk.
* ScaryDogmaticAliens: The Ssi-ruuk are the first major example of this in the EU--but what's ''really'' scary is that horrible as they are, they ''aren't'' the [[Literature/NewJediOrder scariest or most dogmatic...]]
* SelfDestructMechanism: Imperial warships are revealed to have one, consisting of [[TwoKeyedLock two levers to be pulled together to trigger an immediate reactor overload]]. [[GoDownWithTheShip The commander and the first officer are supposed to trigger it]] if capture is imminent, and failure to do so will cause the hidden [[SecretPolice Imperial Security Bureau]] {{Mole}} to reveal themselves in oready to execute the commander and trigger it themselves if they attempt to surrender.

* [[WellDoneSonGuy Well Done Daughter Girl]]: Inverted. Leia is visited by her father's spirit. She's horrified. He wants her forgiveness. She won't give it. Though later, she decides that she still hates Darth Vader, but if Anakin Skywalker wants to look on her and be proud, she can live with it.

Yesterday, the second Death Star was destroyed, and Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader slain... But today is business as usual, and the Rebels have business helping the Empire. A far-flung Imperial system, Bakura, is under attack by previously-unknown aliens called the Ssi-ruuk. With the Empire in disarray following the losses at Endor, only the Rebellion can render aid in a timely manner. Whilst dealing with the aliens, themselves no picnic, Leia struggles to form diplomatic ties with the Imperials, with (or despite) Han's help, while Luke meets a fellow Force-sensitive and starts falling for a girl who considers Force-users abominations.

Written by Creator/KathyTyers and published in January 1994, it holds the distinction of being the tenth ''[[Franchise/StarWarsLegends Legends]]'' novel [[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Bantam_Spectra published by Bantam]], being published months after ''Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy'' and ''Literature/TheGloveOfDarthVader''. It's also set immediately after ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'', beginning literally [[ImmediateSequel the day after the movie's events]], and for that reason is often cited (along with The Thrawn Trilogy) as being one of the best starting points for readers who want to get into the ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'' universe.

* AndIMustScream: Victims of entechment are still aware of themselves.

* BlatantLies: People being enteched don't feel pain. They only ''think'' they feel pain, the screaming body is already dead, the life energy transferred to the catchment arc instantly. Dev only ''thinks'' he feels their pain in the Force. Entechment is a wonderful thing, freeing you from a fragile human body and putting you into an awesome battle droid (or just the electricity to run shipboard circuits), and you'll never need to feel fear, or pain, or loneliness, or even think for yourself ever again. It's a great joy the Ssi-Ruuk bring, isn't it?
* {{Chestburster}}: Downplayed. The Olabrian Trichoid parasites Governor Nereus infects Luke Skywalker with before letting the Ssi-Ruuk abduct him. The eggs hatch in the stomach, the larvae migrate to the lungs, where they grow and develop before chewing their way over to the aorta to finish maturing in a pool of slowly-clotting blood.

* FantasticCasteSystem: The Ssi-Ruuk have a strict caste system where members of their kind are divided by profession, which also corresponds to color. Blues are the rulers, Golds the clergy, Silvers scientists/technicians, Reds soldiers, Greens manual workers, Blacks spies or assassins and Browns are outcasts (born from unions of different castes, which is forbidden) who do the most menial work in their society. P'w'ecks are below even this, a {{slave race}} used as {{cannon fodder}} by the Ssi-Ruuk military.
* FantasticDrug: Bakura's namana fruit, its main export after repulsorlift coils. It can be rendered into several different forms, including nectar (diluted in water to create a kind of liquer) and candy. It directly stimulates the pleasure centers of the brain, creating a euphoric sensation. Bakura's governor strictly controls his "namana habit," only having nectar in the evenings and limiting himself to two candy breaks per day.

** They also despise droids for historical reasons (malfunctioning droids on an early colony led to deaths) meaning the Ssi-ruuk entechment is particularly loathsome to them.
** The Ssi-Ruuk, for their part, believe they're superior to all other species, regarding them as being fit only for entechment and slavery. P'w'ecks, a very closely related species, are the {{slave race}} of the Ssi-Ruuk. All this is justified and taught by their religion.

* MagicAIsMagicA: Averted. The Ssi-Ruuk are decribed early in the novel as being Force-blind as a species, yet Bluescale has almost supernatural hypnosis powers.
* MindRape: Bluescale keeps Dev Sibwarra properly "renewed" for his joyous service to the Ssi-Ruuk, which involves blocking out many of his memories and hypnotizing him to tell them things he'd rather they not know. Even Luke can feel the pull of the Elder Ssi-Ruu's powerful personality.

* UngratefulBastard: {{Subverted}}. The Rebels send a substantial military force to aid the Imperials, and only ask for their cooperation and friendship in return. [[spoiler:Played straight later, as the Imps turn on them as soon as the enemy fleet is in retreat]]. Not that the Rebel intervention was completely altruistic either. Bakura is a small-scale producer of repulsorlift engine components, and gaining the system's allegiance would be a major asset for the Rebellion, as well as being the first world they'd liberated from Imperial rule after the Emperor's defeat. Leia's job is to get Bakura to join the Rebellion, Luke's job is to defend them from the Ssi-Ruuk. Mon Mothma is also tentatively hopeful of making an alliance with the Ssi-Ruuk, imagining how effectively they could challenge the remaining Imperial fleet with that alien military force on their side. That plan is dropped when the full evil of the aliens becomes apparent, however, and it becomes clear they want to entech ''everyone''.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: The Ssi-Ruuk are beaten back from Bakura, but this was only one of their fleets, they're still out there, still aware of the galaxy at large, and the deal Palpatine made with them to keep them out of the galaxy is still void (since Palpatine is, you know, dead). They are never heard from again until ''very'' late in the ''Literature/NewJediOrder'' series, although the ''Literature/XWingSeries'' and ''Literature/JediAcademyTrilogy'' state that the New Republic mounted at least one counterattack against them offscreen (another story indicates they were beaten to the punch by the Chiss, [[Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy Thrawn's species]], whom the Ssi-ruuk attacked later).

* YoureNotMyFather: While grappling with the revelation that Darth Vader is her biological father, Leia states in internal monologue that she will own no man other than Bail Organa by the title of "Father." Period. [[HoldYourHippogriffs Enter Data. End Program.]] Later, Anakin appears to Leia as a force ghost. She all but says this verbatim.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: The Ssi-Ruuk are beaten back from Bakura, but this was only one of their fleets, they're still out there, still aware of the galaxy at large, and the deal Palpatine made with them to keep them out of the galaxy is still void (since Palpatine is, you know, dead). They are never heard from again until ''very'' late in the ''Literature/NewJediOrder'' series, although the ''ComicBook/XWingSeries'' and ''Literature/JediAcademyTrilogy'' state that the New Republic mounted at least one counterattack against them offscreen (another story indicates they were beaten to the punch by the Chiss, [[Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy Thrawn's species]], whom the Ssi-ruuk attacked later).

%%* DistressedDude: ...Wedge has to be saved by Luke a lot, doesn't he?