Admirers of my many exploits often ask me: What is it with you and breaking into things? How do you do it so fast, and with such precision? Is that something you learned at university?

No, of course not. Sava Toob-Nix’s head—hell, maybe his entire body—

would explode at the mere thought of a student crediting her incredible safecracking skills to his teachings.

The truth is, mechanical things speak to me. Droids. Ships. Vaults containing valuable instruments of destruction. The satisfying click of a gear sliding into place or a wire detaching in just the right spot…it’s like a language only I can understand. I feel these words that aren’t quite words deep in my bones, the way I imagine a musician hears the opening notes of their masterpiece symphony.

And I use my understanding of this language to fix things. And also to break things.

Okay, mostly to break things.

Standing at the entrance of the massive vault I’d just successfully broken into, I gazed at my nemesis, buried deep inside. It was positioned on the wall farthest from me, on the other end of a long metal bridge, and it had a glowing, green cast to it. It looked like some kind of super-creepy eye thing that could see right through me. It was…

Ugh. It was another vault.

Well, more like a safe. Smaller, but still yet another thing I’d have to break into.

APHRA:

Hmm. Surveillance already bypassed. Guns, but no visible triggers.

Just an empty room.

[big sarcasm]

Perfectly safe to walk across, I’m sure.

This is where my new and extremely talented little friend, Mr. Stealth Antique Microdroid Dust, comes in.

Bit of a mouthful, that name. Sir, may I simply call you…Stealthy?

[beat]

Okay, then, Stealthy: Let’s go on that adventure—time to see what you can do!

Aphra blows the dust across the room, igniting a web of red laser-beam-like triggers.

APHRA:

Annnnnnd…looks like we got a whole mess of glowing red laser things that are actually highly sensitive security triggers. Good job, Mr.

Stealthy!

Okay…no problem. I’ll crawl under them. Go around them. Turn myself into microdroid dust and float over them, all superior-like.

Safe, if you can hear me: You will be mine.

APHRA (narration):

When there’s no door in sight, I find one. When I can’t find one, I make one. Kinda like I did with ol’ Maz back there. I used all the stuff I stole—er, liberated—from her to make my own door.

I slid to the floor, crawling on my belly, avoiding the bright-red beams of light that would surely lead to my doom if I made contact with them. Well, mostly they’d lead to me getting caught by the uptight, holier-than-thou security that runs this joint, but whatever.