"Master, I think he means your doctorate has been revoked."
Seeing Aphra's bewildered expression, her robot Zero Three immediately stepped forward and quietly offered a helpful translation.
Darth Vader hadn't built the robot himself, but Aphra had watched him activate Zero Three as though he were remembering something. Through his helmet's breathing filter, each breath rasped like the engine of a ship that had passed through eighteen owners.
Aphra didn't know why, but Darth Vader seemed to have a special attachment to the robot. Before inspecting each part, he carefully wiped it clean, as if it were covered in sand or dust.
But protocol robots were made from standard parts. Zero Three had been shut down for ages, but he hadn't been pulled from a junk heap.
Besides, Aphra couldn't imagine a high-ranking Seth like Darth Vader having a scavenger's habits. It was probably some illusion caused by the Dark Side of the Force.
Yet after activating the protocol robot, Darth Vader had given him to Aphra anyway, along with a few baffling words.
Not C-3PO after all. Put them to good use, and continue serving me.
Besides the black protocol robot with round eyes that glowed red, Darth Vader had also procured her an equally dark Cosmic Mechanic robot named BT-1. Supposedly, he was the same model as Queen Amidala's R2-D2, except he too was entirely black, with a single red electronic eye.
The round-headed robot couldn't speak, but he could help pilot any ship, even in a dogfight.
Fortunately, a robot's loyalty to its owner was beyond doubt. When Aphra defected from Darth Vader, both robots had stayed with her. They had spent the years since roaming the Milky Way Galaxy together.
Aphra had grown up lonely, and she treated them as friends rather than tools or slaves.