Chapters (57)
- Cover
- Doctor Aphra
- DRAMATIS PERSONAE
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- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
APHRA (narration):
For a moment, that triumph was all I needed. Then it slowly dawned on me that I also needed to figure out how to climb back to safety.
Thankfully, Mr. Darth Vader saved me, or I’d probably still be hanging from that blasted ledge, dangling over a death drop.
He’d slashed his way through all the security droids. Now he advanced on Utani Xane, stabbing him unceremoniously in the back with his lightsaber.
UTANI XANE:
Gukk!
APHRA (narration):
Honestly, it’s better than what that little worm deserved.
You liked being the big, bad curator—eh, Xane? Lording your power and narrow-minded thoughts over me like I was a bug, a mindless drone assigned to do your bidding and nothing more.
Well, I guess now you can curate your own death.
[beat]
Sorry. That sounded better in my head. Note to recording: Let’s consider deleting that part later.
Vader gazed at me, hanging off the ledge, the Matrix still clutched protectively in my free hand.
DARTH VADER:
Doctor Aphra. I have need of you.
APHRA (narration):
I know, right? Darth Vader—his lordliness, feared throughout the galaxy, just straight up murdered Utani Xane without a second thought—came here for me? Probably most people would have let go of that rickety ledge thing and taken their chances with a very long plunge to a most certainly painful death.
But I’m not most people.
He extended a hand.
I took it.
There was my door.
A beat as Aphra tries to let the momentousness of this sink in for us…
APHRA (narration):
Wait, wait. This was a big moment. I need you to really understand the…the epicness. The majesty. Let’s try that again.
Recording: Overwrite that last bit with this bit. I mean, if you think it sounds better.
Eh. Keep both bits and let me decide later!
Okay, let’s do this…
Aphra clears her throat theatrically, then starts over with more panache.
APHRA (narration):
But I’m not most people.
He extended a hand.
I took it.
And then I totally gave a speech!
APHRA:
Lord Vader, I, Doctor Aphra—rogue archaeologist, initiative-taking genius, definitely too good to be assistant curator to someone as blah as Utani Xane—
UTANI XANE:
[dramatic death choke]
Crooooooaaaaaaak…
APHRA:
Silence, Utani Xane, you dying worm! Lord Vader, I accept your amazing offer—whatever it is—and am pleased to be at your service!
A weighted beat of Vader’s breathing.
APHRA (narration):
He didn’t say anything. As I’d learn, he often didn’t say anything. But as he stared back at me with those dark, empty pits—the eyes of his helmet…I just knew this was the beginning of the most important partnership of my life.