Chapter Summaries

Su Ming watched a recording of an archaeological expedition to Haven IV from twenty years earlier and considered the galaxy’s calendars and the Empire’s treatment of aliens. Dr. Piacha Adams introduced his team and hinted at a major discovery, while Aphra recognized none of them and recalled being abandoned as a child.

• Su Ming confirmed that the recording dated to Great Synchronization Calendar Year 17, twenty years earlier.
• Su Ming reflected on the galaxy’s competing calendars and criticized the Empire’s unequal policies toward humans and aliens.
• Dr. Piacha Adams introduced himself and his team at their Haven IV campsite, promising to reveal their hoped-for discovery once they had evidence.
• Su Ming asked Aphra whether she recognized anyone, but she said she had been only a few years old at the time.
• Mechanical Wolong praised Aphra’s adventurous life, and Aphra said she would have preferred an ordinary childhood.

Su Ming and the others watched the archaeological team’s logs as its members vanished, its equipment was sabotaged, and Dr. Adams descended into madness. Aphrodite concluded that the camp and the well connected to the underground water network were key to finding the discovery.

• Su Ming asked Zero Three to play more logs after the team’s first member disappeared while inspecting the well.
• Dr. Adams reported that Millis and another team member vanished, then later a robot disappeared and the spacecraft and communications module were sabotaged.
• The surviving archaeologists argued and grew suspicious of one another as more disappearances occurred.
• On the thirtieth day, Dr. Adams claimed that something was calling him, walked upstairs, and never returned.
• Aphrodite pointed out that the team began disappearing only after settling at the camp, and that the first disappearance happened at the well.

Aphra tried to send Zero Three into a well, but Su Ming spotted a ship falling toward the camp before the argument could continue. The Millennium Falcon was carrying Han Solo and Luke, and Su Ming prepared to catch it.

• Aphra ordered Zero Three to investigate the water-supply well, but he stalled by listing her embarrassing habits and recordings.
• Su Ming interrupted Aphra and Zero Three, warning that someone was approaching.
• Su Ming directed Aphra to look up as a burning ship descended through the sky.
• Aphra and Deathstroke recognized the falling ship as the Millennium Falcon, and Aphra asked Su Ming to save Han Solo and Luke.
• Su Ming agreed to catch the Falcon as it plunged toward them.

Su Ming stopped the burning Millennium Falcon from crashing into the group on Haven IV, and Aphra helped Luke and the others escape the smoky ship. Luke explained that he was searching for Darth Maul and the Darksaber, but Mandalorians had attacked them and forced an emergency jump to the planet.

• Su Ming slowed the falling Millennium Falcon with the Force, landed it safely, and had Strangle extinguish its fire.
• Aphra cut open the cargo hatch, and Luke, Princess Leia, and the others crawled out coughing and vomited in Haven IV’s foul air.
• Su Ming concluded from what they had eaten that the crew had not followed the group from Franlo and had likely arrived by accident or for another reason.
• Luke recognized Aphra, hugged her, and told her he was searching for Darth Maul and the Darksaber to help the Rebel Alliance gain the Mandalorians’ support.
• Luke said the Mandalorians had attacked them, and the Millennium Falcon had escaped through an emergency jump.

Aphra reunited with Sana, and Su Ming explained their past connection and Sana’s history with Han Solo and the Rebel Alliance. As Aphra and Sana embraced and kissed, Su Ming went to greet Princess Leia.

• Sana stood up and greeted Aphra, who admitted she was working for a new boss.
• Sana and Aphra held hands, then embraced and kissed while Su Ming and the others watched.
• Su Ming explained that Sana had once posed as Han Solo’s wife in cons with Han and Lando Calrissian.
• Su Ming recounted how Sana joined the Rebel Alliance and became Aphra’s confidante and spy.
• Su Ming approached Leia and offered to shake her hand.

Deathstroke convinced Leia, Luke, Han, Aphra, and Sana to join an expedition for an alleged underground city, using the missing researchers and the need for ship-repair materials as leverage. He began his secret plan by arranging for Leia to receive the planet’s only protective suit.

• Leia introduced herself to Deathstroke, while Han glared at their joined hands.
• Deathstroke and his allies claimed their communicator was broken and described the planet as uninhabited, with only trees and an ancient artifact to find.
• After Zero Three showed the group the archaeological recordings, Luke wondered whether the Force had affected the missing researchers, while Han suggested a natural explanation.
• Deathstroke proposed that his group and Leia’s work together to search for an underground city and materials to repair their ships, and Leia agreed.
• Deathstroke told BT to fetch the only Hazard Protection Gear for Leia, and Luke thanked him for giving her the best equipment.

Su Ming deduced that the disappearances were triggered by wearing the protective suit and that Dr. Adams had used the team as test subjects while sabotaging their escape. He arranged for Princess Leia to wear the suit as a test, then sent Luke and the others underground to provide an alibi when she disappeared.

• Su Ming reviewed the expedition logs and concluded that wearing the protective suit was connected to the disappearances.
• Su Ming reasoned that Dr. Adams had sabotaged the ship and communications equipment to keep the team from escaping or calling for help.
• Su Ming concluded that Adams had used the remaining suit to record who vanished and that its wearer needed to be a living carbon-based lifeform in a sealed environment.
• After the Millennium Falcon crashed nearby, Su Ming chose Princess Leia as a test subject because her identity made her valuable to his plans.
• Su Ming sent Luke and the others down the well before following with his own group, using the underground setting to give them an alibi for Leia's disappearance.

Su Ming joined Luke, Leia, and the others as they headed into the underground river, while Luke tried to understand how Su Ming had stopped their ship and invited him to join the Rebel Alliance. The group descended into the well, leaving Luke unable to explain freedom clearly and Su Ming skeptical of the galaxy’s prospects for democracy.

• BT brought Leia her protective suit, and she thanked him and called him adorable.
• Luke questioned Su Ming about his abilities, and Su Ming said he was an ordinary human who had simply been born strong.
• Leia emerged in her protective suit, and the group set off toward the well while Han returned to the ship for diving masks.
• Luke invited Su Ming to join the Rebel Alliance, but Su Ming asked him to explain freedom and democracy.
• Luke led the group down into the well, where they waded through chest-deep water as Luke struggled to define freedom.

The group followed the underground river until Leia vanished from her protective suit, leaving Han devastated. Luke tried to sense her life force through the Force, while Deathstroke knew she was alive and that his tiny tracking device had been useful.

• Luke led the group through the underground river, and Su Ming found the working pump near the first disappearance site.
• Leia scolded Han for asking the Rebel Alliance to fund repairs to the Millennium Falcon and urged him to support the children and elders at the base.
• Han discovered Leia’s protective suit was empty and cried out in shock.
• Luke calmed Han with the Force and proposed sensing Leia’s life force through her Midichlorians.
• Deathstroke watched as the group reacted, knowing Leia was still alive and that he had marked her with a tiny needle made using Spider Totem and Pym Particles.

Su Ming misled Luke and the others into searching the underground river for Leia, then split the group into two parties. On Tatooine, an unidentified figure forced his way into Jabba’s fortress and ignited a red Lightsaber.

• Luke failed to sense Leia, and Han became desperate while Sana urged everyone to stay calm.
• Su Ming suggested that something underwater had taken Leia, and Luke accepted the theory, speculating about evil robots.
• Sana proposed splitting up, and Luke sent Su Ming, Aphra, and the robots upstream while the others followed the current downstream.
• Deathstroke carried the reluctant Female Doctor away, and the two search parties separated in the darkness.
• A figure broke into Jabba’s fortress on Tatooine, where the guards confronted him as he activated a red Lightsaber.

Darth Vader confronted Jabba at his palace, demanding answers and assistance for his own purposes. Jabba tried to trap and kill him, but Vader survived the trap and slaughtered Jabba’s elite guards, leaving Jabba to face him alone.

• Darth Vader killed the guards and an alien butler as he made his way to Jabba’s auction.
• Darth Vader interrupted the auction and forced Jabba to clear the hall before speaking privately.
• Darth Vader told Jabba he needed answers and help for himself, while Jabba warned him about the bounty on his head.
• Jabba triggered a hidden trap beneath Darth Vader, but Vader used the Force to remain hovering above the opened floor.
• Jabba sent dozens of elite mercenaries to attack Darth Vader, who deflected their shots and killed them without moving from his place.

Darth Vader forced Jabba to reveal what he knew about Obi-Wan and Luke. Meanwhile, Deathstroke explained his plan to rescue the princess while letting Luke and the others get lost underground, and Aphra worried about Sana.

• Darth Vader choked Jabba until he agreed to tell him everything he knew about Obi-Wan and Luke.
• Harley asked Deathstroke whether he knew where the princess was, and he admitted the underground expedition was a ruse to separate Luke's group from her.
• Zero Three and BT asked for replacement parts while Deathstroke said the princess's rescue could earn Aphra a payment from the Rebel Alliance.
• Aphra worried that Sana might fade from soaking in the underground water, but Deathstroke assured her the planet posed no unusual danger.
• Harley and Aphra joked about Sana's skin and lips while Harley revealed that she understood tanning and had seen through Han Solo's desperation to find the princess.

Su Ming’s group found Princess Leia in a laboratory beneath a parallel version of Haven IV, a planet existing in Hyper space. They stayed to investigate the strange facility and search for the Bezen Symbiote, while hidden observers watched their movements.

• Su Ming dismissed Harley’s suggestion to kill the mercenaries following them and had the Adjutant teleport the group to Princess Leia.
• A Mandalorian emerged to inspect Harley’s discarded wrapper, while a hidden apprentice and her brown-robed mentor discussed being watched.
• The group appeared beside an unconscious but breathing Princess Leia in a laboratory beneath another version of Haven IV.
• Su Ming explained that the facility existed in Hyper space, and Aphrodite realized the group had crossed from one Reality Dimension to another.
• Su Ming searched the laboratory for useful equipment and refused to leave before locating the Bezen Symbiote.
• Su Ming persuaded Aphrodite to stay and investigate by promising fame, fortune, and alien beauties.

Su Ming, Harley, Aphra, and their companions woke Leia and claimed they had all mysteriously ended up inside an unknown powered building. As they prepared to explore, Aphra demanded payment for protecting Leia, but Leia refused to spend Rebel Alliance funds on herself, and the chapter ended with Aphra threatening to sell her to Jabba.

• Su Ming revived Leia with mineral water, and Aphra wondered whether her earlier jump through hyperspace had brought them to the planet.
• Harley convinced Leia that the group had searched for her and become stranded together, while Leia failed to contact Han or the others.
• Su Ming offered Leia the choice to join them as they searched for communications equipment or a ship, warning that she might die if she separated from them.
• Aphra demanded fifty thousand Credit Points from the Rebel Alliance for rescuing Leia, but Leia refused to spend the Alliance's funds on her.
• Aphra criticized the Rebel Alliance for making human pilots bear its risks, then threatened to sell Leia to Jabba, prompting Leia to warn her about Sana.

Su Ming led Aphra, Leia, Harley, and Zero Three through the underground base, where they found the remains of a missing archaeologist killed with a Lightsaber. As they realized something else was in the tunnels, Aphra heard a woman call her name, and Harley saw the voice appear in a pale-blue caption box.

• Su Ming proposed that Aphra sell Leia's love medal to Han Solo, and Aphra accepted Leia as a hostage for the future sale.
• The group found Pete's skeleton, and Su Ming identified the remains while Leia recognized Lightsaber wounds that suggested a Sith Lord had killed him.
• Aphra examined the skeleton and concluded that Pete had died in the base about twenty years earlier, shortly after going missing.
• Aphra heard a woman call her name from the wall, and Harley said she saw the voice in a pale-blue caption box in the darkness.

Su Ming and his companions followed the voice calling Aphra through an ancient tomb, then returned to the surface to search the cave where Aphra had hidden escaped Beicen Symbiotes. They left to find the Symbiotes before investigating the mysterious presence calling Aphra.

• Su Ming told Aphra that something was using the Force to call her, and he suspected it was not human.
• When the voice called Aphra again, Su Ming blasted a hole through the tomb ceiling and led the group back to the surface.
• Aphra used her terminal to guide the group through the rainforest to the cave where she had hidden her supplies.
• Su Ming found that the Fridge's power failure had freed the Beicen Symbiotes, which had escaped about two years earlier.
• Su Ming decided to search for the Symbiotes as snacks before dealing with the presence he called the 'Soul-Snatching Ghost.'

Deathstroke’s group encountered the Bezen Queen and her Symbiotes hiding in insects near the cave. The Cloak of Levitation absorbed the attacking Symbiotes, while the queen possessed Harley, whom Su Ming believed would drive it insane.

• Harley identified the Bezen Queen among the ladybugs and offered to make a deal, but the queen threatened to possess her.
• The Bezen Queen and her followers abandoned their insect hosts and attacked the group as clouds of black smoke.
• Su Ming sent out the Cloak of Levitation, which captured and absorbed the Bezen Symbiotes.
• Aphra worried that the queen had possessed Harley, but Su Ming said Harley would overwhelm it with her complicated mind.

Harley trapped the Bezen Queen inside her chaotic Inner World and began psychologically tormenting it with questions about identity and symbiosis. The Queen remained unable to escape as Harley launched into what she called their first consultation of a billion years.

• Cloak devoured the fleeing Little Bugs, and Su Ming promised Little Sprout that Harley could make the queen find more bugs for it to eat.
• The Bezen Queen entered Harley's mind and found itself trapped in a bizarre world of walking cats, a circus, and a human-killing factory.
• Harley revealed that she controlled the Inner World's space, time, and rules, and told the trapped Queen it would remain there for a billion years.
• Harley began questioning the Queen about whether a symbiote or its human host became more intelligent through exercise.
• Harley asked whether the Queen had ever taken a dump that belonged to it, leaving the Queen meowing in confusion.

Harley treated the Bezen Queen and transformed her into a self-proclaimed human, while Aphra’s mysterious call led the group deeper into the underground structure. The chapter ended as they reached a hall with a spiral staircase descending farther below.

• Harley told Deathstroke that the Bezen Queen had changed and accepted the payment for the captured Symbiotes.
• Harley revealed the Queen as a beetle named Bebe, who meowed and believed herself to be human.
• Zero Three compared Bebe’s sense of self to his own, and Deathstroke offered Mechanical Wolong the possibility of a human body.
• Aphra heard the mysterious call again, so Deathstroke had Strangle carry the group back into the underground passage.
• Aphra led everyone to a decaying-metal hall where a spiral staircase descended, and warned that she sensed danger or needed to pee.

Su Ming and the others followed Aphra into an underground cave and discovered an ancient Jedi spaceship. A powerful, ghostlike figure appeared and claimed to be Aphra’s mother, leaving Aphra furious and demanding to know what it really was.

• Aphra led the group down into a cave and identified a damaged ship as an ancient Jedi Penumbra-series vessel.
• Aphra proposed repairing the ship, while Su Ming sensed that it carried an unclean and powerful energy.
• The ship glowed blue as debris floated into the air and a cloaked figure called Aphra toward it.
• Killa Kan aimed its weapons at the figure, but Princess Leia stopped the group and asked whether it was a Jedi Spirit.
• Deathstroke dismissed the Jedi Spirit idea, and the figure revealed a face resembling Aphra’s mother and claimed to be Master Aphra.
• Aphra recognized the resemblance but rejected the claim and demanded that the figure reveal itself.