Muftak & Kabe

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Muftak & Kabe are fictional characters featured in the George Lucas creation Star Wars: A New Hope On top of its harsh desert conditions, Tatooine is reputable for not being a friendly place to be, particularly around Mos Eisley's Spaceport, particularly for such an unlikely pair of aliens such as Muftak & Kabe. But despite this, the two aliens had a strong bond and looked after each other around Mos Eisley.

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[edit] Kabe

Born on the world of Chad, Kabe is a young female Chadra-Fan and one of the few Chadra-Fans to survive the terrible quakes that destroyed the Chadrian people. Kabe ended up on Tattooine after being sold into slavery and left behind after her Master's ship was forced to make a speedy departure from the spaceport after a brief stop to refuel. She knows virtually nothing about her species and their heritage and yet retains the instinctive Chadra-Fan drive to pursue pleasure, the desire to tinker and the need to avoid solitude.

Kabe is small, her senses are keen, and she possesses quick reflexes; thus she became quite a talented thief. To her, whether because of her intelligence or her species heritage, thievery is viewed largely as a game and not a crime, but her "talent" provides her with a reasonable living. As with all Chadra-Fans, Kabe is possessed of vision that can see into the infra-red spectrum and also a chemoreceptive smell, both of which were a boon when it came to her chosen career.

Kabe's favourite scam of them all was to parade around dressed as a Jawa and charge the gullible newcomers to Mos Eisley "Service Taxes", on behalf of a local, but fictional, Merchant's Guild. Not surprisingly, the real Jawas did not take kindly to this and many times, Kabe was confronted by the Jawas.

Despite her obvious talent for duplicity and thievery, Kabe was still caught on occasion and it was occasion enough that had it not been for Muftak, her fate would surely have been a quick but painful death before now.

[edit] Muftak

Muftak was born on Tatooine and so knows nothing of his race or his cultural background, though it is known that Talz such as Muftak originate from Alzoc III. The Talz were long ago subjugated by The Empire and subsequently cut off from the galaxy and so only a few Talz are found on any other planet but Alzoc III.

Talz possess great strength and large size (about 2.1 meters in height). Because of this, few people are brave enough to even talk to a Talz.

Muftak was forced to grow up with no parentage and nobody close to being a parental figure to him and was forced to live on the streets of Mos Eisley. But by watching everything (with his four eyes) and listening very carefully, Muftak managed to learn more about the comings and goings of the Spaceport than anybody else with the possible exceptions of Figrin D'an and Garindan.

Muftak took young Kabe under his proverbial wing and sheltered her for a period of five years within the long abandoned tunnels beneath Docking Bay 83. Muftak grew to become quite protective over his young friend despite the fact that their love was purely platonic.

[edit] Behind the scenes

  • Although uncredited, Muftak was played by Laine Liska in A New Hope.
  • The name "Muftak" was not given to this character until he was featured in the West End Games roleplaying game.
  • According to a 1978 memo, Muftak was going to be named Cullatran in A New Hope.
  • On set, Muftak went by the nicknames of Spider-Man and Four Eyes.

[edit] Appearances

[edit] Together

Neither Kabe nore Muftak had any real goals in life and certainly no responsibilities and so the two simply lived off the credits that Kabe managed to steal on a day-to-day basis. The pair became regulars at Chalmun's Cantina where they would often engage the Ithorian Momaw Nadon in semi-intellectual conversations whilst Kabe put into practice her talent for thievery. Whether because of biological makeup or because of a simple intolerance to alcohol, Kabe wouldn't drink very much at all and would pass out at the mere sniff of Juri Juice.

One night, after returning from Chalmun's Cantina, Kabe drunk and Muftak having to carry her, the little Chadra-Fan told Muftak of a plan she had been formulating and wondered if Muftak would help. The plan was a most dangerous mission on account of the fact that it was to rob the town house of Jabba the Hutt. Muftak agreed to help and once Kabe had sobered up some time later that evening, the two put their plan into motion.

They had managed to gain access into the town house through an old vent in the roof, with Kabe's acute sense of hearing, they had no fear of tripping any of the hundreds of traps that Jabba would no doubt had put in place for the benefit of such intruders. Their mission was a success and as they made to leave, they stumbled across Jabba's torture chamber where a rebel agent by the name of Barid Mesoriaam was being held captive. Barid offered the Muftak and Kabe 30,000 credits if they would agree to deliver a datadot to a fellow agent, specifically a Mon Calamari, who would be visiting the Spaceport at some point within the next few days. Barid stressed that the datadot should not be turned over to the Imperial Forces for the Empire had no place for non-humans and it would achieve them no greater reward than the one he had offered.

The pair effected their escape of the town house, but during the process they encountered the Twi'Lek Bib Fortuna and group of Gamorrean guards which, in turn, led to an exchange of blaster fire. Kabe managed to find a small exit during this confrontation, but Muftak was not able to fit through and so he let his small companion escape alone, carrying with her the datadot. But Kabe realised that Muftak's intention was to sacrifice himself for her freedom and so returned to the fight and both were eventually able to escape, albeit with little of the stolen goods.

For a time, the pair considered themselves politically apathetic since political intrigues and tustles did little to effect life on an out-of-the-way world such as Tatooine and even less to effect their lives. Eventually, however, carrying the datadot, the pair had no been thrust into the Rebellion against The Empire, fearing for their credits and their lives. After the few days had passed since the episode at Jabba's Town House, the two met with the Mon Calamari agent when he arrived at the Spaceport and in return they received 15,000 credits and two stolen travel vouchers apparently signed by Grand Moff Tarkin himself.

Kabe and Muftak decided to leave Tatooine for the first time in either of their lives and acquired transport to Muftak's homeworld of Talzoc III and from there onto chad, creating for themselves new adventures and new destinies.

[edit] Sources