P-RC3, also known as Persee, was a librarian droid assigned to the library aboard the first Death Star.
Persee was programmed by Lord Alferon Choots Bemming, owner of Bibliotron Systems on Coruscant. Following his construction, he was sent to the Death Star I by Sector Admiral Poteet, where he came into the possession of the station's Chief Librarian, Atour Riten, in charge of the Death Star Library.
Persee's work at the Death Star's library included dealing with complicated data retrieval issues, which he could solve much faster than any Human. Persee was also an assistant to Chief Librarian Atour Riten, and occasionally made tea for the librarian.
Shortly after receiving the droid, Atour modified the droid's programming to disable the droid's spyware, which would have required it to report anything remotely illegal to Imperial authorities, and change its loyalty model to put Atour's well-being above the good of the Empire. Furthermore, any attempt by Imperial authorities to bypass Atour's modifications would cause a complete memory wipe of Persee, destroying any evidence the droid might carry of Atour's illegal activities.
During the rescue of Princess Leia, Persee noticed R2-D2's unusual use of the droid interface plug in a forward bay command office. Using the security cam in the room, Atour and Persee witnessed the discussion between Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Obi-Wan Kenobi, C-3PO, and Chewbacca on how to escape the Death Star and rescue Princess Leia, although with no audio feed Persee was forced to use lip-reading to determine what was being said.
Following the destruction of Alderaan, a group of people, including Atour, Memah Roothes, Rodo, Villian Dance, Teela Kaarz, Nova Stihl, Celot Ratua Dil, and Kornell Divini, decided to leave the station. Atour's plan, which involved stealing a E-2-T Medical Shuttle, required a redirection of Flight Control communications for a bogus "verification" of orders allowing the shuttle to leave. Atour's original plan was to have Persee remain in the library to take the call; unfortunately, Imperial security agents detected Persee's unauthorized data accesses and took it into custody, forcing Atour to stay behind instead.
During the subsequent investigation, the Imperial personnel examining Persee unwittingly tripped the fail-safe that Atour had installed - causing Persee's memory to be wiped right down to the primary nodes. Lieutenant Esture contacted the library to ask Riten about the droid, however Riten was able to convince him that he had contacted the bay door control room by mistake. Before Esture could contact Riten a pilot in an X-wing managed to fire a proton torpedo down an exhaust port, causing the reactor to overload and explode. Persee's body was destroyed a short time later with the destruction of the Death Star at the Battle of Yavin.
P-RC3 resembled a standard bipedal protocol droid for the most part, with a slightly larger head to allow an increased memory capacity. The droid was a metallic blue color with blue photoreceptors. Reflecting its Coruscant background, Persee had a High Coruscanti accent, conveying a sensibility possessed only by those in the upper echelons of society.
- The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia