Chapters (57)
- Cover
- Doctor Aphra
- DRAMATIS PERSONAE
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- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Vader taps on a keyboard next to Aphra’s main computer.
APHRA:
What are you doing?
APHRA (narration):
Okay, so that was not quite playing it cool, but his dark lordliness just started typing away on my control panel! On my precious ship! I whirled back to my screen, prepared to give him a piece of my mind for messing with such a delicate treasure. But then…
APHRA:
You’ve…unlocked it. You unlocked the Triple-Zero Matrix. You didn’t have the codes. How…how did you do that?
APHRA (narration):
Of course he didn’t answer. And as I’d come to learn…it was usually better when he didn’t. I tried to hide my shock and went back to my whole “going through the motions” thing, pulling out a handy protocol droid body—something I’d stolen, er, taken with me when I’d fought my way out of Coruscant, Utani Xane’s loathsome security detail hot on my tail. I’d decided it was a perfectly reasonable severance, especially since Xane had basically fired me with no fair warning.
APHRA:
Now the Triple-Zero Matrix is ready to take up a brand-spankin’-new home in this boy’s body. And much sooner than I expected. It’s like, dare I say…a mega-droid?
APHRA (narration):
Oof. Okay, that was a slight miscalculation. What was I expecting, that he’d laugh? I dunno, I guess I thought, here’s someone who would’ve been totally into my droid-combining experiments! I was still in intel-gathering mode, figuring out what made the guy tick.
APHRA:
S-sorry. It’s just…You…are even more interesting than I could have hoped, Sir Vader.
DARTH VADER:
Lord Vader. Continue.
APHRA:
Okay. Give me a second to get this installed…
APHRA (narration):
I slid the Matrix into the protocol droid’s head—and there it was, that satisfying click into place. My beautiful mechanical language. For a moment, Lord Vader and the Ark Angel melted away, and it was just me, the droid, and those secret words that aren’t words.
I knew my boy was going to wake up.
And I knew he was going to be magnificent.
Triple-Zero’s eyes light up, glowing red.
TRIPLE-ZERO:
Oh, hello.
I am 0-0-0 or Triple-Zero, if you prefer. I’m a protocol droid, specialized in etiquette, customs, translation, and torture, ma’am.
Charmed to meet you, I’m sure.
May I shake your hand, in the polite manner of organics?
Triple-Zero holds a hand out to Aphra, as if for a friendly shake.
APHRA:
Nice try, Trip, but I already know you better than that, and I know how you feel about “organics.”
TRIPLE-ZERO:
Madam, I am not sure what you mean! I live to serve you blood-filled sacks of flesh, and have nothing but the utmost respect for—
APHRA:
[interrupts]
Override: Imprint “master” on all individuals present. Codename: Aphra and Codename: Vader.
TRIPLE-ZERO: