Chapters (57)
- Cover
- Doctor Aphra
- DRAMATIS PERSONAE
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- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
My mom definitely didn’t die in a ditch on a dead-end forest world we only went to because she was so idealistic.
COMMODEX TAHN:
I’m sorry.
APHRA:
Weren’t you listening? There was a war going on. Everyone has a sob story.
Boo-hoo for everyone.
Point being—if you’re not a strong queen, good doesn’t mean anything. And strong and order beats good but weak on every planet in the galaxy, from now until the end of time.
COMMODEX TAHN:
Amidala was good and strong.
APHRA:
Not strong enough.
Triple-Zero? Get him talking.
TRIPLE-ZERO:
At once, Mistress Aphra. And might I just say, that was a very stirring speech, I agree entirely with your points about—
APHRA:
Not now, Trip. Please. Just do your job, okay?
Aphra wanders to the edge of the balcony as Triple-Zero moves in on Tahn.
TRIPLE-ZERO:
Do you have much experience with torture, Commodex? I don’t imagine that being a mortician put you in the line of fire very often.
Then again: You know everyone’s secrets. You quite literally know where all the bodies are buried.
COMMODEX TAHN:
You’re not getting anything from me. I still have loyalty to the queen.
TRIPLE-ZERO:
Oh, you are just adorable.
I love it when you play your part.
Triple-Zero reaches a hand—already crackling with electricity—
toward Tahn.
COMMODEX TAHN:
No…no… noooooooooo!
SCENE 26
INT. LIVING ROOM. COMMODEX TAHN’S HOME. MOMENTS LATER.
APHRA (narration):
As Tahn continued to scream in pain under Trip’s ministrations, I wandered to another part of the house. I like to give people space to work.
Tahn’s home may have been luxurious and beautifully appointed, but it wasn’t cold and sterile the way so many luxurious, beautifully appointed homes are. The walls were lined with holos of Tahn amongst friends and family, their happy faces beaming out at him every morning when he took his caf.
There was so much warmth in those pictures. Camaraderie.
I bet you’re imagining me gazing at these and falling into a melancholy, reflective mindset, where I go deep into my softest feelings and feel all sad about the fact that I don’t have a bunch of my own super-smiley holos to display.
First of all: I don’t have “soft” feelings. I barely have feelings. And I don’t tend to forge lasting bonds of…anything. Those kinds of bonds make you scream out in terror right before you die. Because you can’t bear the thought of being separated from the people you love so much it hurts.
That’s the way my mom screamed, right before she bit it. She revealed her true self, the one behind the brave, pioneer woman homesteader.
And her true self was weak.