Tey How

For other uses, see Tey.

"Sir! They've gone up the ventilation shaft!"

―Tey How — 20?cb=20250116042720

Tey How was the female cyborg Neimoidian communications officer for the Trade Federation Lucrehulk-class battleship Saak'ak. Her vocabulator and data goggles allowed direct communication with the ship. She was also the pilot.

Biography

Invasion of Naboo

By 32 BBY^[6] Tey How was stationed aboard the Trade Federation Lucrehulk-class battleship Saak'ak.^[5] She was one of the more skilled Neimoidian pilots,^[1] having been surgically^[7] fitted with a set of data goggles to facilitate her shipboard duties,^[1] including ship systems.^[8] Througth them she could see constant holographic data read-outs.^[9]

She was present when the two Jedi Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi attempted to break into the bridge shortly before the Invasion of Naboo began. She informed her superiors that they lost communication with the squad of battle droids dispatched to ensure the Jedi were destroyed (under the belief that the dioxis gas killed them), before sealing the bridge at Gunray's command. After Kenobi and Jinn were forced to retreat from the droidekas, How informed her superiors that the two Jedi had entered the ventilation shafts.^[5]

After the invasion Gunray ordered all Trade Federation battleships but the Droid Control Ship to return home. He assigned Tey How to the communications station on the control ship.^[1]

Death

Tey How died in the explosion of the.. — Tey How died in the explosion of the.Vuutun Palaa.

During the Battle of Naboo, she was stationed aboard the Droid Control Ship Vuutun Palaa and under Captain Daultay Dofine's orders launched the droid forces after the N-1 starfighters, as well as activated the ground troops upon their deployment during the concurrent Battle of the Grassy Plains. After Anakin Skywalker destroyed the ship's main reactor with two proton torpedoes and set off a chain reaction, How made her soon-to-be-final damage report to Dofine, who dismissed it as "impossible" and that a starfighter could never have penetrated the ship's deflector shields. How was later killed, along with her captain and cohorts inside the ship, when the chain reaction triggered by the main reactor's destruction caused the control computer console to explode in front of the crew, just as the bridge was incinerated by the explosion.^[2]

Personality and traits

A female^[1] Neimoidian,^[3] Tey How had mottled gray skin^[5] and red eyes.^[4]

Equipment

How had audio and visual mechanics surgically implanted to assist her in shipboard operations.^[7]

Behind the scenes

Originally created for the 1999 film Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace,^[5] Tey How was voiced by Amanda Lucas^[10] (credited as Tyger)^[5] and an uncredited Marc Silk,^[11] aboard the Saak'ak and Vuutun Palaa respectively.^[5] As a result, Decipher's Star Wars Customizable Card Game identified Silk's character as a separate Neimoidian known as Sil Unch,^[12] even though the screenplay had assigned his dialogue to How.^[13] However, Leland Chee considered this an error, and How became the pilot of both ships as was originally intended, while Unch was retconned into a separate Neimoidian seen on the left of both vessels' bridges.^[14]

Secrets of Naboo provided Tey How as an example of a Neimoidian name.^[15]

In Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace 1, How does not speak, with all of her dialogue having either been cut or reassigned to different characters. It is P-59 who reports that Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi had escaped through a ventilation shaft, while an unidentified Neimoidian alerts Gunray of Amidala's transmission.^[16] This continued in Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace 4, where the Vuutun Palaa's imminent destruction was instead reported by a Daultay Dofine lookalike. In addition, How was mistakenly drawn with green skin and without her cybernetics, revealing her to have red eyes.^[4]

Star Wars Episode I: I Am a Pilot identified How as male.^[17]

Star Wars Chronicles: The Prequels, released in October of 2005, states that How is merely wearing a set of data goggles and a vocalizer as opposed to them being surgically implanted.^[18]