As a child, Celestella was a victim of ongoing assaults on the telepathic Jirel people by their suspicious non-telepathic neighbors. With her civilization and her species collapsing, Celestella and her younger sister Mirenel Linke were eventually imprisoned on Prison Planet 17. The frightened refugee girls were discovered and released by Abelt Dessler, who surprised them with his show of compassion and trust. Celestella grew up as a full citizen under Dessler’s rule, and rose within the ranks of the empire that had become her home (“The Planet That We Head For”, “The Forever War”).