Chapters (57)
- Cover
- Doctor Aphra
- DRAMATIS PERSONAE
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- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
All I did was put a few of those old droid pieces together and reactivate the whole shebang. You know, so instead of dusty old parts, we’d have a full-on working mega-droid, built from seemingly disparate bits but put together by a genius—that’s me!—who’s able to think outside the box. Don’t you think a mega-droid would have been way more exciting for the museum patrons to take a gander at?
See? Initiative.
Utani Xane didn’t view it that way. Can you believe he not only fired me, he tried to have me arrested?
Okay, so. This wasn’t just because I built a mega-droid…the mega-droid also went on a total rampage that I hadn’t predicted and almost crushed Utani Xane and a few of the wealthier museum patrons and…
well. Let’s just say the museum would have needed a fortune in repairs in order to reopen. Actually, they would have had to build a whole new museum.
Xane lost his post, obviously. And now he was here to bother me again.
His face was unreadable as he examined the Triple-Zero Matrix, his clumsy fingers mishandling the delicate artifact in a way that made me want to scream.
If Triple-Zero could’ve spoken right then, I bet he’d be screaming, too.
Because he’d know this annoying bureaucrat was about to imprison him.
But then, an unexpected twist…
SECURITY DROID:
Curator Utani Xane…incoming TIE fighter.
APHRA (narration):
It was time to take some initiative again…
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INT. CORRIDOR. QUARANTINE WORLD III. KALLIDAHIN SPACE. MOMENTS LATER.
APHRA (narration):
Ahhh, the glorious feeling of disruption. For a few moments, Utani Xane and his goons scrambled to figure out what was happening. Who was on that TIE fighter? And why were they here?
I didn’t know and I didn’t care, but I was sure of one thing—somehow all this chaos was going to give me the chance to escape!
UTANI XANE:
The vessel hasn’t communicated at all? No clearance codes? This is most displeasing…
SECURITY DROID:
Apologies, Curator. We have no scheduled visitors, deliveries, or—
UTANI XANE:
Then who…
The ominous sound of Darth Vader’s breathing echoes down the corridor…
UTANI XANE:
[flustered—but also a bit scared]
L-lord Vader! This is a quarantined world. Treaties clearly state—
DARTH VADER:
Enough.
APHRA (narration):
Whoa! “Lord Vader” as in the one and only Darth Vader? I’d thought he was a myth, a bogeyman parents used to get their unruly younglings to behave.
As someone who regularly fights death and wins, he’d never sounded that scary to me, but even I had to admit: He cut a pretty intimidating figure in all that ominous black armor, striding toward Utani Xane with purpose. Personally, I thought the cape was a bit much, but hey—
you don’t attain bogeyman status with tastefully understated costuming.
Naturally, my first thought was: