One of my favorite arcs from one of my favorite Star Wars novels, Resistance Reborn by Rebecca Roanhorse, is literally the drama of the Records Office on Corellia.
It really has the makings of a The Office style documentary show.
Everything from a pompous boss picking on his young assistant, to back alley deals at a seafood bar, to embarrassing luncheons.
Winshur Bratt, executive records officer of the Corellian Engineering Corporation, is power hungry in his new position after the First Order has taken control of the company. He despises his young assistant Yama Dex and does everything he can to ruin her day…for really no reason other than being a controlling ass. He literally gets on her case for her hair not being up to standard. Yama gets her well deserved revenge later though.
Meanwhile fellow employee, Monti Calay, lost interest in the job once the First Order had them dealing with sorting prisoners of war into Concentration Camps…like what the hell? Instead of just quitting, Calay went the extra mile and stole a data pad from Bratt’s office containing the names of the prisoners and agreed to hand it over to the Collective.
The Collective is a secret organization on Corellia looking to stop the spread of authoritarianism with technology.
So Calay plans to meet a Collective operative at his favorite cantina in Coronet City, the Dead Aeronaut, where the bartender is named Smokey…what a place. I remember being fascinated by this chapter as I’m always a fan of Star Wars cantinas. I wish I could’ve been sitting next to Monti, sipping on some watered down gadje and chowing down on “salted squid”.
There’s an odd thing with me and Star Wars food where I’m fascinated by it and also disgusted by it. At the end of the day though, I want it.
Monti meets the Collective operative and hands them the data pad, after eating their salted squid of course. The operative goes to the bathroom to transfer the data (super sketchy) and eventually returns the data pad to Calay. I hope he sanitized that thing.
Eventually the First Order catches on, however Calay is long gone and Winshur Bratt is left to take the blame. Bratt has no idea what’s going on and thinks Yama has something to do with it. He returns to the office after an awkward luncheon with a First Order Colonel and nearly beats Yama to death.
The Colonel forces Bratt to go with him to find Calay. On the way Bratt gains the courage to push the Colonel into the fierce Corellian sea, killing him.
The tale of this super dramatic records office ends with Bratt finding Yama out in the sewers of Corellia…yes the sewers. He angrily engages her but little does he know that Teza Nasz, a former Imperial badass who is now with the Resistance, is with Yama. Nasz squashes Bratt like a bug, ending his miserable existence.
We need more stuff like this in Star Wars! It’s not grand or epic or even important really but it just shows us some “normal” every day life of and business on some of these planets. It’s rare we get to see that sort of stuff in this galaxy we all love.
