Zahara Cody

Zahara Cody was the daughter of a family of wealthy Corellian bankers, who disliked her choice to become a doctor. Leaving her family and homeworld behind, Cody travelled to the planet Rhinnal, where she studied medicine and the anatomies of many species including Dugs and Devaronians. After working on several aid missions, Cody decided to join the Empire and was transferred to the Imperial prison barge Purge as its chief medical officer. During her early time as the chief medical officer aboard the Purge, Cody became friendly with a Devaronian inmate named Gat, who she regarded as one of the "good" prisoners. She worked alongside a 2-1B medical droid she affectionately called Waste, as she once referred to him a waste of space and programming but the name stuck. As the sole female on board the prison ship, Dr. Cody found herself the unwilling object of many a guard's fantasy, though many also despised her for her unwillingness to socialise with them and preferring the verbal company of the inmates. Dr. Cody especially loathed the Captain of the Guards, Jareth Sartoris, for his sadism and lack of empathy. After some time serving aboard the Purge, Cody finally reached the breaking point when Sartoris brutally beat prisoner Von Longo to death and she personally witnessed the old man expire after a farewell to his two sons. Unwilling to continue working aboard the barge after the incident, Cody wrote her resignation and personally handed it over to the warden. Though unsure if he would accept it, Cody nonetheless resolved to leave the barge and return home once the ship docked at the prison.

During her last voyage to a penal moon to deliver prisoners, the main thrusters on the Purge malfunctioned and eventually stopped working all together. After drifting, Purge happened upon a derelict Star Destroyer. A scouting party, including Sartoris was soon sent aboard the ship to salvage for parts. They brought back the parts but also a horrible disease, which immediately started ravaging those on board without exception. The boarding party was put in isolation to try to contain the disease, but this proved fruitless as did the isolation suits. Within mere hours, the entire boarding party was dead apart from Sartoris and the infirmary was crammed with dead and dying prisoners and guards. Ever the devoted doctor, Cody and Waste worked tirelessly to try and save their patients or at least discover the nature of the disease. Having avoided infection herself despite the uselessness of the isolation suits, Dr. Cody deduced that she must somehow be immune to the virus and had Waste extract a sample of her blood to synthesise a cure. Unfortunately, by the time Waste had done so, everyone in the infirmary was dead including her friend Gat. Deciding to use the bioscan to see if anyone was still alive, Cody went up to the bridge and spoke with the Purges artificial intelligence, known as Tisa. Cody asked Tisa what the life count aboard the Purge was. Tisa replied six; with two in solitary confinement, located in the lowest levels of the ship. Zahara thought that since solitary confinement was so deep into the ship and was rarely visited, that maybe the infection had not reached the personnel and inmates yet. Contacting Waste in the medbay, she ordered him to meet her down in solitary confinement before heading to the lift.

Cody then traveled down to the lower levels to solitary confinement. When she exited the turbolift, she almost tripped over a couple of guards who had succumbed to the virus. In the second cell Cody opened, she found Han Solo and his first mate Chewbacca, who had not been infected by the virus yet. Just to be safe, Cody injected the two with an anti-virus she had produced with her medical droid Waste, though Chewbacca was very nearly killed by the virus and it was only due to Cody's intervention that he survived. After explaining the situation to the two smugglers, they made their way back to the turbolift, where they were startled by the lack of dead bodies which had been there only moments before. The group entered the turbolift and made their way back to the medbay. When they arrived, all the bodies that had been in the beds and on the floor were all gone; nowhere to be found. Cody found Waste on the floor, ripped to pieces. She had a conversation with Waste, who was barely functioning and managed to gasp out that they bodies had come back to life and when she turned around, Han and Chewbacca were nowhere to be found.

They returned shortly with Kale Longo and Trig Longo, who had been unable to activate the escape pod and who were also immune to the virus. When the group was reunited, they traveled back up to talk with Tisa. Tisa showed them a technical readout of the prison barge. There were red dots on the screen that represented life-forms. When Cody had been there before there were only six red dots. Now there seemed to be hundreds, maybe even thousands, all moving in massive groups. Their only chance of survival was to try to make it out to the derelict Star Destroyer. They traveled to the docking tube the Purge had used to attach itself to the Star Destroyer. Much to their horror, they discovered that the virus had reanimated the corpses of those it had killed into ravenous monstrosities intent on devouring them. Barely managing to open the docking tube in time before the creatures got there, Kale was unfortunately bitten by the undead corpse of his father just as they dragged him through.

After barely escaping the horrific nightmare that the Purge had become, the last surviving members of the prison ship finally made it to the great labyrinth that was Vector. The group's first directive was to travel to the cockpit and turn off the tractor beam. But since Kale Longo was too weak to travel, Zahara volunteered to stay behind with Kale and wait. That decision would soon come to haunt Zahara as it would result in the loss of a great friend.

Han, Chewbacca, and Trig went to the bridge of the Destroyer turn off the tractor beam, while Zahara and Kale stayed put. Before they sealed up the hatch, Kale had gotten bitten on the leg. Zahara tried to save Kale by cutting off his leg, but it was too late, the disease had already ravaged the lower half of his body and was starting to crawl up to above his waist. The hatch suddenly burst open and the undead hordes started to break through. Zahara started to drag Kale, but his face was obliterated by a blaster bolt shot by one of the things chasing after them. Having lost a good friend in such a short time, and confronted by the sight of another one (the Devaronian called Gat) attempting to break through and kill her, Cody was forced to flee deeper into the Destroyer to escape.

After fleeing into the maze of corridors that made up the interior of the Destroyer, Cody found herself outside a door bearing a sign that read BIO-LAB 242. She entered it to find dozens of empty, glass-enclosed cells. The whole entire chamber smelled like antiseptic and chemicals, most likely because the ventilation fans had been motionless for quite a time. Walking forward, Zahara noticed the dead computer terminals, all the keys scattered across floor. Zahara continued to walk forward, finding a somewhat operational computer terminal, lines of text and a cursor on the screen awaiting a reply. She tapped a key and more data came zooming past the screen, too fast for her to read. It stopped again, the cursor still clicking. The wall in front of her clicked and opened to reveal a thick pane of glass. Across the pane of glass was another hive-cell. This was contained two yellow corpses dangling from the ceiling by various tubes and wires. Zahara heard another click and the ventilation fans switched on. Without warning, one of the corpses raised its head. The fans were starting to pump fresh air into the cell. Then the other corpse next to it followed by doing the same thing. They started swaying back and forth, all of the wires and tubes starting to peel off of their decaying skin; except for one single wire attached to their chests, collecting a strange black liquid.

Behind her, she surprisingly heard a footstep scraping across the lab floor. She spun around to see nothing but darkness. A shape suddenly emerge from between two workstations, something crunching beneath it's foot. She saw a syringe on the floor, her only weapon. But the mysterious figure had vanished. A loud sound filled the lab. one of the corpses had started to slam it's body against the glass, leaving a giant red smear. It hit the glass again, harder. Zahara then bolted across the room, grabbed two syringes, and felt something move in behind her. Zahara spun around and it grabbed her. Zahara looked and saw that it was a decaying researcher, obviously one that had been infected by the disease. She rammed the syringe into the decaying researcher's eye socket. The thing screamed and collapsed under its own weight. Zahara started for the exit, but the thing was trying to communicate, saying gibberish. The researcher then took the syringe from its eye socket and started to scrape it along the floor, trying to write something. Zahara couldn't understand it. It was a bunch of scribbles. The researcher then jumped on top of Zahara, pinning her to the ground.

The researcher put both of its cold hands around her neck, choking her. Zahara tried to resist but there was no way. There was a metallic cling, like saw on bone. A strange liquid splashed onto her hair, along with the cold hands sliding off her neck. Zahara looked up and saw a surgical bone saw halfway through its head. Zahara was surprised to see a familiar face, Waste. However, it turned out to not be Waste, but a totally different 2-1B. Zahara asked if the 2-1B could tell her anything about what the Imperials were doing here. The 2-1B knew little, but did direct her to a functioning workstation. The 2-1B told her that there was a couple of undisturbed stations in the hangar control center. The 2-1B then plotted a route there, specifically avoiding the hangar itself. Zahara then thanked her rescuer and followed the route the droid had given her.

The 2-1B had been very exact in its directions: first, the droid had sent Cody through a Byzantine of walkways that led her to a service lift, then she continued on the lift all the way up to the pilot's room, and finally through a set of doors that opened to the hangar control itself. Thankfully, Cody had encountered no obstacles or resistance on her travel.

Cody had tried three keyboards before she found one that worked. She typed in the word blackwing. The words "password accepted" crawled across the screen. Cody told the computer to access the Star Destroyer's tractor beam. Cody then told the computer to disable the tractor beam. The computer could not comply because it had already been turned off. Han, Chewbacca, and Trig had succeeded. Zahara then typed in the question "What is blackwing?". The computer responded with the words "Galactic virus dissemination and distribution algorithm." The last thing the computer said was "Project status: In progress." Since the room Cody was in overlooked the hangar, she looked down and saw that all of the infected were climbing into different kinds of spacecraft. Zahara understood now: they were trying to leave the Star Destroyer. Zahara noticed that the things were carrying black tanks on their backs. This disease was a method in which the Imperials could direct the virus anywhere it wanted in the galaxy. As a group, the infected started to move an X-wing, aiming it up to where exactly Cody was standing. There was a blinding column of flame hurtling towards her.

Cody was able to warn Trig, Han, and Chewbacca via comlink; telling them to stay away. Cody was able to get in muddled words such as "under attack", "too many of them" and "laser cannon." Trig, Chewbacca, and Han finally made it to their destination, Freebird. The group had thought that Cody was gone, but they had no choice: they had to board the shuttle or face being eaten by the infected. With much opposition from Trig, the trio boarded the shuttle. Onboard the shuttle, they found Pauling and Tanner, two of the surviving crew members of initial leakage of the virus aboard Vector. The group powered up the shuttle, with Han as the pilot. Multiple ships followed, with the undead piloting. Han blasted out of the hangar and the shuttle made it outside to space; but not before one of the infected slithered onto the ship. The infected crewmember tore Pauling and Tanner apart and devoured their flesh, while Chewbacca and Trig hid in the corner. Han headed for the cabin and saw the sight. He groped for his blaster, but the comforting feel was not there. The next thing everyone heard was a blaster being shot, by Zahara Cody herself. Chewbacca then ran over, picked up the undead Imperial, and began to slam it down on the shuttle floor. Cody told Chewbacca to put it down, that she should shoot it again. The thing started to convulse, grayish liquid spewing from its mouth. The group looked out the viewport and saw that all the ships had stopped moving, their undead pilots dead once again. Cody told them that Blackwing's flaw; that the infected people could not stray far away from the source of the virus. She then explained to the trio that the grayish substance inside the tanks they had seen earlier was a highly refined version of the virus, and that those same tanks had leaked. The leakage of those tanks was the reason for the virus spreading on Vector.

The only four survivors from the entire population of Vector and the Purge eventually landed on Galantos. Han and Chewie went one way, explaining they planned to get their ship out of impound, while Trig went with Cody to the planet Chandrila. Trig and Cody went to deliver a letter to Kai Zook, one her husband had wrote to her and her children before falling victim to the plague. She then invited them in for something to drink. Trig told Cody that he could imagine himself settling down there someday.

After the Vector incident, the Blackwing project was not canceled but relocated to a secret Imperial Research and Prison Facility on the remote planet Dathomir. The Empire recruited high profile scientists from all around the galaxy to participate in the project.

However, in 1 ABY an accident happened in the Imperial Research and Prison Facility and the virus escaped containment another time. Again, the virus killed most of the people in the area and turned them into hungry zombies. The undeads included mostly Imperial soldiers and prisoners from the Imperial Research and Prison Facility as well as indigenous Dathomiri Witches.

In place of sterilizing the area with an orbital bombardment, the Empire promptly established a Quarantine Zone to contain the infection. Indeed, Darth Vader was not eager to lose the virus and the research data. The few people who survived the initial virus outbreak, mostly Imperial staff and prisoners, were trapped in the Quarantine Zone. They established five camps inside the area, Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta and Epsilon, to try to live in safety while waiting for an evacuation. Indeed, the camps all came under regular attack from the zombies. Moreover, all rescue teams were attacked upon landing in the area and their members were killed before they could find the survivors.

Doctor Zahara Cody and Trig Longo soon arrived on Dathomir and were dropped in Camp Alpha from the Millennium Falcon by Han Solo and Chewbacca. Cody and Longo had decided to distribute to the survivors of the Quarantine Zone an anti-virus developed by Dr. Cody during the Vector incident. Cody provided the vaccine to the survivors as well to the spacers that arrived in the Quarantine Zone. In fact, Darth Vader had dispatched Captain Piett to recruit volunteers in order to enter the quarantine zone and obtain an original sample of the Blackwing virus in the research center. In the meantime, both the Rebel Alliance and the Black Sun managed to steal Imperial authorization for the Quarantine Zone and Han Solo and Guri sent their own agents to find the virus before the Empire. Dr. Cody and Longo agreed with distributing the anti-virus to every spacers, independently of their affiliation.

Zahara had a habit of forming friendships with prisoners who visited sick bay. Zahara cared very much for the inmates and felt bad for them. When many inmates became sick and flooded the medbay, she made curing them her top priority. She would do anything for them. This caused her to be shunned slightly by other imperial personnel. After the Purge's voyage, she planned to leave imperial corrections. Zahara concluded that even though she was going to leave Imperial Corrections, she had gained invaluable life experiences and learned more about herself than she could ever imagine. Even when sick inmates and guards had flooded the medbay, Zahara had not regretted what she had done for the Empire.

In a letter to her father, Zahara stated that she was planning to resign her post soon and take a position in another organization. She also wrote a second, shorter letter telling him of a medical situation aboard Purge that had killed many people. She stated that isolation and quarantine had no effect to the virus and that she felt it only a matter of time before she became infected as well. She was one of the few people immune to the disease. Zahara Cody made an anti-virus which she gave to Han Solo, and Chewbacca. She did, however, manage to survive the events, along with Han Solo, Chewbacca, and Trig Longo.

The letters were later recovered aboard Purge after its occupants were all but wiped out by the plague.

As a doctor and chief medical officer aboard Purge, she had a great and ever expanding knowledge of human anatomy and physiology. Zahara was a headstrong individual who persevered through every sort of complication she encountered. Zahara was also a relatively strong individual. On one such occasion was when Zahara encountered an infected researcher aboard Purge, she thought on her feet and reached for one of the needles and stabbed it into the researcher's eye socket. She soon overpowered the researcher with brute force and threw him off of her.

Zahara Cody appeared as a non-player character in the 2003 video game Star Wars Galaxies, a massively multiplayer online roleplaying game developed by Sony Online Entertainment and published by LucasArts, prior to its closure on December 15, 2011. Zahara Cody was added to the game with the "Game Update 14," a.k.a. the "Death Troopers" update, released on October 12, 2009.

• Death Troopers: Recovered Messages from Purge
• The Essential Reader's Companion