Argai Minor

"From [Yaga Minor] we go to Lonnaw in Droma sector. After that, we'll cut through the edge of Glythe sector to Argai in Haldeen sector."

―Captain Pakmillu^[2]

Argai Minor, also known as Argai, was a Colonies planet located in the Haldeen sector. When the Galactic Republic exploration and colonization vessel Outbound Flight was launchd in 27 BBY, Argai Minor was one of the stops on its shakedown cruise through Republic space.

Description

Argai Minor,^[1] also known simply as Argai,^[2] was a planet^[3] located in the Argai Minor system,^[1] a part of the Haldeen sector^[2] in the Slice portion of the Colonies.^[1] It shared its name with the Outer Rim Territories^[4] planet Argai.^[5]

History

"That's a lot of stops."
"Most will just be flybys. We won't actually stop unless there are problems."

―Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi and Captain Pakmillu^[2]

Argai Minor was a scheduled stop on the Outbound Flight's shakedown cruise. — Argai Minor was a scheduled stop on the *Outbound Flight*'s shakedown cruise.

In 27 BBY,^[6] the Outbound Flight, a Galactic Republic vessel on a mission to explore and colonize the Unknown Regions, was set to launch from the^[2] Outer Rim^[4] planet Yaga Minor. As part of a three-week-long shakedown cruise^[2] along a route mapped through the home sectors of several of the project's principal supporters in the Republic's Senate,^[4] the starship was scheduled to stop at Argai Minor, a fact that the vessel's captain, Pakmillu, pointed out to Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi when the latter visited the ship before launch.^[2]

Shortly after the Outbound Flight left Yaga Minor's star system, Kinman Doriana, assistant to the Republic's Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, contacted his secret master, the Sith Lord Darth Sidious. Doriana relayed to Sidious the fact that Kenobi and his Padawan student, Anakin Skywalker, had unexpectedly joined the Outbound Flight's mission. In turn, the Sith Lord, who did not wish for Skywalker to be killed during the planned attack on the vessel, ordered Doriana to arrange for the Padawan to leave the Outbound Flight.^[2]

Sidious's servant immediately began to plan his further actions accordingly, eventually ruling out the possibility of intercepting the starship at its next scheduled stop, in the Lonnaw system, and realizing he would have to instead to make the attempt at Argai Minor. Doriana's deliberations were interrupted by Sidious, who ordered Doriana to carry on with his original instructions since the Sith Lord had decided he would himself arrange for Skywalker's departure from the Outbound Flight. Ultimately, the starship visited Argai Minor before eventually leaving Republic space.^[2]

Behind the scenes

The Haldeen sector planet Argai was first mentioned in the 2006 novel Outbound Flight by Timothy Zahn.^[2] 2008's The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia equated it to^[7] the Tion Cluster planet Argai, which had originally been introduced in Mission to Lianna, a 1992 West End Games' Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game adventure authored by Joanne E. Wyrick.^[8]

However, the 2009 reference book The Essential Atlas introduced an "Argai Minor" star system, placing it in grid square M-9 and therefore near the Haldeen system and far from the Tion Cluster's Argai system.^[1] The StarWars.com Online Companion to that book later also placed both the Argai Minor and Haldeen systems in the Haldeen sector, therefore confirming that the world from Outbound Flight had been retroactively established as Argai Minor.^[9]