Thoughts on the Quarren, RE: P5 of TPM Retrospective

Given that there should be none at this time, how can we make sense of there being Quarren? An isolated colony has to be one of the most elegant options. Let's work through it and see what's implied.

I don't have exact years mentioned for the Mon Cal timeline. For first contact with the Empire, that is definitely before the first movie: Ackbar interacts with Tarkin. They could have met each other as early as 10 BBY, or as late as a few months in 0 BBY. That does give us a little wiggle room, we can shuffle some dates as needed. The other key date is what year the Mon Cal reached out into space, that's our focus.

Personally, I think the Mon Cal had been in space for multiple centuries. They had time to work out all the details of space travel, including a limited form of hyperdrive. Mon Cal had explored the nearby star systems, and it's very likely that they set up a colony or few. However, before first contact with the wider galaxy, their range was sharply limited. There was a tiny bubble of Mon Cal space at the edge of the galaxy. I put this era, the small fishy empire, somewhere between 4000 and 200 BBY. 

That range limit causes some real problems, though. Discovering a colony world in Mon Cal space would lead to more exploration of the area. We cannot say a nearby Quarren colony was discovered, yet the homeworld was not. By my reasoning, there are about three possible answers: 

1) While setting up their local colonies, a ship full of Quarren settlers went off course. Whether that was intentional or not, they wound up in Republic space. Their colony got its senate representatives in the usual way. Basically what you suggested, a splinter faction that refused to discuss their homeworld. 

2) At some point before it developed spaceflight, advanced aliens visit the planet Mon Calamari. Their flying saucer abducts a bunch of Quarren, for reasons we cannot explain. This one is appealing because of the age it allows for. Our mystery Quarren colony could have been created in the year 100,000 BBY, for all we know. The only constraint is that anatomically modern Quarren had evolved, leaving an enormous margin. You could easily have a colony 8000 years old, or any other number you care to mention.

3) Basically the same as option #2, except it happens at a different time. During the time Mon Calamari had only primitive FTL systems, starting to explore local space. Advanced aliens arrive, crossing paths with a ship on the fringes of Mon Cal space. This time the aliens are pirates and slavers. Using superior Republic, Hutt, etc technology, they make short work of the aquatic ships. The target ships just happened to have a crew of Quarren, who are promptly clapped in irons. That slave ship eventually led to a free Quarren colony, within Republic space, and at a time when Mon Calamari hadn't been discovered.

With options #2 and #3, you don't even need to explain the keeping of secrets. The squid men were abducted, they would dearly love to go home. It's just that they don't know where home is, and nothing on any Republic star charts seems familiar.