Vulaada Klam

During the Galactic Empire's era, Vulaada Klam lived alongside her father and mother, and possessed Gurtyl, a cherished qaberworm companion. Sometime during the Galactic Civil War waged between the Empire and the Rebel Alliance, Klam's family's planet found itself on the war's front lines. As the Rebellion's influence expanded to their planet, Klam's parents, swayed by propaganda touting its virtues, relocated their family to Milvayne, a planet under the strict law enforcement of the Milvayne Authority and the Galactic Empire.

Awaiting permission to reside on the planet, Klam, her parents, and Gurtyl were housed in a processing center. However, a nearby family, displeased by the presence of Klam's qaberworm, reported minor discrepancies in her parents' records to the Milvayne Authority, resulting in Klam and her parents being cast down into the Underworld, the subterranean levels of Milvayne City where criminals and outcasts were relegated to a life of destitution. Klam survived the fall, landing on a net, as did Gurtyl, but both her parents were killed, leaving her to fend for herself. Unable to survive alone in the Underworld's harsh environment, Klam relied on Gurtyl's protection and was forced to scavenge for food.

Around 1 ABY, Klam encountered the rogue archaeologist Doctor Chelli Aphra and the assassin droid 0-0-0, who had been banished to the Underworld for causing a public disturbance. Aphra and Triple-Zero, connected by proximity bombs and forced to survive together as fugitives on Milvayne for the amusement of the mad scientist Doctor Cornelius Evazan, were attempting to reach the cyberneticist Professor Prexo, believing he could remove the bomb implants. Spotting Triple-Zero, Klam had Gurtyl seize him, intending to trade the droid for food. Aphra aimed a blaster at Klam, demanding she release Triple-Zero. Upon being freed, Triple-Zero mounted Gurtyl's back, threatening to torture Klam. Aphra convinced the assassin droid to spare Klam, partly due to the fiercely protective nature of qaberworms and partly because she was formulating a plan involving Klam's assistance.

Klam introduced herself to Aphra, who questioned whether Gurtyl could transport them to their destination before the bombs detonated. Klam inquired about Aphra's motivation for helping the fugitives, dismissing the bag of money Aphra offered as useless in the Underworld. Aphra promised to allow Klam to sell Triple-Zero if they reached their destination, and Klam accepted the deal, excited by the prospect of selling the droid for food.

As Klam transported the fugitives on Gurtyl's back, Aphra asked how she ended up in the Underworld. However, their journey was interrupted by the arrival of Tam Posla, bounty hunter and former Milvayne Authority officer, whom Aphra had previously tricked, leading to his death at Triple-Zero's hands. Posla, whose corpse had been reanimated by sentient gundravian hookspores that had developed Force-sensitivity and a fixation on justice after imprinting on a long-dead Jedi, descended upon the travelers, firing a large weapon. The resulting explosion threw Klam and Gurtyl away, separating them from their passengers.

Both Klam and the fugitives survived the blast, but Aphra and Triple-Zero were confronted by Posla, who used the rebuilt assassin droid BT-1, Triple-Zero's former companion, to attack them. After Posla was attacked by the hunters Winloss and Nokk, hired by Evazan to hunt the two fugitives, Aphra and Triple-Zero managed to escape. Seeking further entertainment from the chase, Evazan broadcast a live feed from Triple-Zero's photoreceptors to the citizens of Milvayne City, promising a reward for capturing or killing the fugitives. Learning of the supposed reward, Klam, believing it would aid her survival in the Underworld, contacted the Milvayne Authority, offering to help capture Aphra and Triple-Zero.

Some time later, Klam met the two fugitives, offering to continue helping them reach their destination. Klam led them aboard a bloatbarge, a large vessel used to collect valuable gases from the polluted Underworld. As they traveled, Klam spoke with Aphra, who shared her regrets. Their journey was interrupted by the arrival of Milvayne Authority forces, led by Posla. Lacking weapons to defend themselves, Triple-Zero grabbed Klam, threatening to kill her unless the Milvayne Authority withdrew their forces. However, Klam used Aphra's blaster to shoot the assassin droid in half, revealing she had betrayed them for the reward. Echoing Aphra's description of her own mindset, Klam tearfully knocked the archaeologist unconscious.

However, Klam never received the reward promised by the Empire. Following Klam's betrayal, Aphra and Triple-Zero were scheduled for execution by the Milvayne Authority but escaped after turning the law enforcement officers against the rogue vigilante Posla. The two fugitives were captured by Winloss and Nokk, sparking unrest among the citizens of Milvayne, who had begun to support Aphra and Triple-Zero. The Galactic Empire's Coalition for Progress intervened, shooting down the hunters' starship. The fugitives survived the crash and continued their attempt to reach Professor Prexo. Klam found Aphra and Triple-Zero traveling through the Underworld atop BT-1. As both assassin droids prepared their weaponry, Klam apologized for betraying Aphra, who, though angry, sympathized with her situation.

Klam offered to transport them to Prexo's residence, and the fugitives continued their journey on Gurtyl's back as the citizens of Milvayne cheered them on. They arrived at Prexo's office with ten minutes remaining on the bombs' countdown, only to find Prexo absent. The fugitives were then confronted by a combined force of the Milvayne Authority and the Empire. Aphra ordered BT-1 to destroy their opponents, leading to a violent skirmish.

During the battle against the Imperial forces, Posla returned, still determined to kill Aphra. Triple-Zero approached Posla from behind, setting the undead vigilante ablaze. As Posla burned, he inadvertently fired his blaster, sending a blaster bolt towards Klam. Unable to move, Klam was saved by Aphra, who instinctively shielded her. Aphra threw Klam out of the way and was struck by the blaster fire. Aphra's selfless act inspired the already invested citizens of Milvayne to revolt against their oppressive regime, joining the fight. The timer on the fugitives' proximity bombs expired, but they did not detonate—Winloss and Nokk had successfully tracked down Evazan, and with Professor Prexo's help, deactivated the bombs. No longer bound together by the bombs, Triple-Zero departed with BT-1, leaving Aphra, fatally wounded, on the ground. As the citizens of Milvayne continued to revolt, Klam approached Aphra, crouching beside her.

Despite the near-fatal injury she suffered on Milvayne, Aphra survived and intended to leave the planet without Klam. However, Klam stowed away on Aphra's starship, the Ark Angel II, threatening to self-destruct the ship if the archaeologist abandoned her. Aphra reluctantly took Klam in as a ward. Following the incident on Milvayne, Aphra and Klam sought to remain inconspicuous, doing so for approximately two months, during which Aphra frequently visited numerous spacer bars without Klam. At one such bar, Aphra received a recorded message addressed to her, in which an anonymous buyer offered a substantial sum for the archaeologist to retrieve a sacred artifact from Red Mist, a sacred Migration Shrine of the Slinani religious warrior clan.

Enticed by the promised reward, Aphra was unaware of her client's true identity—Minister Pitina Voor of the Coalition for Progress, who, having witnessed the events on Milvayne, sought to manipulate the archaeologist as part of her plot to assassinate and overthrow Emperor Palpatine. Despite Klam's belief that stealing the artifact would be perilous, Aphra chose to undertake the heist, bringing her young ward along. Inside the Slinani Migration Shrine, the two evaded numerous deadly traps, while Klam chided Aphra for accepting the mission. Aphra played the message she had received from Voor, and Klam was equally astonished by the reward offered by their anonymous client.

To aid in reaching the artifact, Aphra sliced into one of Red Mist's hostile droids, reprogramming it to destroy the other droids and protect them from further traps. With the droid's help, they arrived unharmed at the artifact's location, a red cape. Klam attempted to devise a plan to retrieve the cape from the gravity trap it was held in, but Aphra simply used the reprogrammed droid to fetch it. As an alarm sounded, Aphra and Klam attempted to escape the Migration Shrine, avoiding more traps. However, Aphra was distracted upon spotting the Farkiller of Oo'ob the Apostate, an ancient sniper rifle utilizing lightsaber technology. Klam urged Aphra to leave the weapon, but Aphra insisted on obtaining it, leaving Klam to distract the oncoming droids so she could retrieve it.

Aphra successfully obtained the Farkiller, though Klam sustained injuries as a result. As they departed the Slinani Migration Shrine in the Ark Angel, Klam scolded Aphra for endangering them, and Aphra harshly dismissed her, causing Klam to leave in tears. Sometime later, they arrived at the Abandoned Spice Mine on Unox, where they had left Gurtyl during the heist. Aphra apologized for her treatment of Klam, but they were attacked by the Rebel Alliance Intelligence Service's Extraction Team Misericorde, who demanded they surrender the Farkiller. The strike team caught up with them, revealing that it was led by Captain Magna Tolvan, a former lover of Aphra's whom she had betrayed to escape a situation aboard the Imperial wreckage-prison Accresker Jail.

Tolvan stunned Aphra, taking both her and Klam to the asteroid space station Trading Post Sh'ung-tesk, where the Rebel Alliance had briefly established a base. Rebel Intelligence, also manipulated by Voor, wished to similarly manipulate Aphra in their own attempt to overthrow the Emperor. While Aphra spoke with Rebel Intelligence General Airen Cracken, Klam waited near their ship, playing cards with several rebels. Aphra refused an offer to assist the rebels in their plot and returned to Klam, announcing their departure.

With the Empire searching for her following the events on Milvayne and in Red Mist, Aphra chose to return to the backwater planet Arbiflux, where she had lived for two years as a child with her mother. However, upon arriving at Aphra's old house, they discovered that the Empire had occupied Arbiflux and industrialized the planet. Klam questioned Aphra's decision not to stay with the Rebellion, citing their potential for being scammed. As night approached, Aphra and Klam chose to sleep in the abandoned house, awaiting contact from their buyer.

During the night, Aphra was awakened by a recorded message from General Cracken, who informed her that the Empire had tracked them down on Arbiflux and dispatched bounty hunters to capture them. Aphra quietly woke Klam, who observed the hunters through macrobinoculars. Aphra initially intended to fight the bounty hunters, but when Klam described one of them as a coal-black Wookiee, Aphra recognized the description of her former associate Krrsantan and chose to flee. However, Krrsantan attacked the other hunters, seeking to protect Aphra from the approaching stormtrooper platoon due to the debt the archaeologist owed him. The three of them fled towards the Ark Angel, managing to evade their Imperial pursuers and escape the planet.

Krrsantan informed Aphra that a bounty had been placed on her and all known associates, including Klam. When Aphra inquired about who had hired the bounty hunters, they learned it was Minister Voor, their anonymous client, and realized the job had been a setup. With nowhere else to run, they returned to the Rebel Alliance, meeting General Cracken aboard a ship of the Indigo Squadron fleet. Aphra intended to steal back the Farkiller and thwart the supposed rebel assassination plot to regain favor with the Empire. Anticipating her actions, the rebels allowed her to do so, and Aphra and Klam escaped the rebel fleet in the Ark Angel, but were forced to leave Gurtyl behind, much to Klam's dismay.

To further her plan, Aphra took the Ark Angel to an Imperial Communication Relay on the world of Usk Minor, broadcasting her knowledge of the supposed rebel plot to the entire officer class of the Empire. Klam disembarked alongside Aphra and Krrsantan, and they were confronted by the Imperial forces present at the relay station. Before the Imperial stormtroopers could apprehend them, a starship of the Coalition for Progress arrived, and Minister Voor landed in a shuttle beside the fugitives, welcoming them as heroes for foiling the supposed assassination plot.

Aphra, Klam, and Krrsantan were taken to the Coalition for Progress headquarters on Centax 3, the third moon of the galactic capital planet Coruscant, where Minister Voor intended to record a declaration of Aphra's heroics to be broadcast as Imperial propaganda. Watched by cam droids, Voor gave the former fugitives a tour of the Gallery of Peace within the headquarters, congratulating them for their service to the Empire.

Once the recording concluded, Aphra asked why Voor had hired her for the mission. Unbeknownst to both Klam and Voor, Aphra had deduced that both the rebels and Voor were using her and had sliced into the cam droids, continuing to broadcast events live. Voor explained that the false job she had hired Aphra for was part of a secret plot to overthrow the Emperor, whom she believed was harming the Empire by ruling through terror. Klam was shocked by Voor's plan and doubted its feasibility. Voor admitted to manipulating the Rebel Alliance into similarly manipulating Aphra, and Klam pointed out the convoluted nature of the minister's plan.

However, Aphra revealed that she had known the truth all along and had hijacked the cameras, revealing Voor's plan to the entire galaxy as revenge for her mother's death in an attack on Arbiflux that the Coalition of Progress fabricated to force the planet's inhabitants to accept Imperial occupation. As Voor was taken away by Imperial forces, Aphra attempted to assure Klam that they would be safe as long as they remained within sight of the camera. As Klam and Aphra watched, the Sith Lord Darth Vader killed Voor, decapitating the Imperial minister with his lightsaber. Aphra sheltered Klam, attempting to protect her from Vader. The Sith Lord stood over Aphra and Klam, demanding that the archaeologist serve the Empire.

Both Aphra and Klam were unwillingly conscripted into Imperial service aboard Darth Vader's flagship Executor—Aphra was assigned to a team of archaeological consultants for Project Swarm, the Empire's search for the Rebellion's latest base, while Klam was given janitorial duties. Some time after their forced recruitment, Klam approached Aphra, who had been thrown into a wall after provoking Vader. Klam persuaded Aphra not to anger Vader, but they were interrupted by Professor Rupo Ud, one of the consultants on the Project Swarm team, who ordered Klam back to work.

Shortly after this event, Aphra took Klam on an adventure to Ash Moon 1, situated within the Kartovian Formation. Professor Ud asserted his belief that rebels had once taken refuge there. Discovering that the structure Ud had identified was actually a deathshrine dedicated to the Central Isopter, Aphra requested a favor from Klam as compensation for including her on the mission. Aphra directed Ud toward a booby-trapped carving, while Klam, with reluctance, triggered the trap. This resulted in Ud's demise, but also caused the floor beneath Klam to give way, plunging her into a separate trap. With Ud eliminated, Aphra seized control of the archaeological team, declaring the expedition complete. After capturing a prisoner, who was revealed to be Aphra's father Korin, General Maximilian Veers commanded the Imperial forces to evacuate the moon, and Aphra departed, deliberately abandoning her father.

After Klam successfully escaped the trap, she discovered a holographic message left for her by Aphra. In the message, Aphra explained that Klam would be safer away from the dangers associated with her. As Klam exited the deathshrine, she was confronted by several of the moon's indigenous creatures. Simultaneously, Aphra successfully rescued her father, dispatching him on a shuttle to Ash Moon 1. The shuttle landed in front of Klam, who was being pursued by the creatures. Klam cried out for assistance, and Korin Aphra emerged from the shuttle in a daze. Aphra, observing the approaching creatures, instructed Klam to remain behind him.

Captain Tolvan, under the impression that the younger Aphra was aboard the shuttle, tracked it to the moon. Instead, she encountered Klam and Aphra's father under attack by the creatures. Tolvan descended to the surface aboard a U-wing, which fired upon the creatures, rescuing Klam and Aphra. Tolvan landed and approached the two associates of Doctor Aphra, transporting them to the Rebel Alliance's base on the planet Hoth. Klam, reunited with Gurtyl, contributed to the Rebellion's operations on Hoth, assisting in managing the numerous tauntauns at the base.

Some time after Klam's arrival on Hoth, the Rebellion received a message from Aphra, which was delivered to Tolvan. Tolvan gathered both Klam and Aphra's father to view the message. In it, Aphra apologized for the trouble she had caused and bid them farewell. After watching Aphra's message, which saddened her, Klam sat outside the base with Tolvan and Korin Aphra. They were approached by rebel pilot and commander Luke Skywalker, who informed them that Aphra had successfully sabotaged the Empire's efforts to locate the rebel base, granting the Rebellion more time to prepare. Upon learning that Aphra was still alive, Klam, Tolvan, and Aphra's father speculated about her whereabouts and activities.

Vulaada Klam, a human female, possessed blonde [hair](/article/hair], blue eyes, and fair skin. Her upbringing as an orphan in Milvayne's Underworld instilled in her a resilience to suffering, both her own and that of others. By the time she met Aphra, Klam spoke casually about her parents' deaths and was initially willing to sell the archaeologist to cannibals upon their first encounter. Klam was hesitant to assist Aphra without receiving something in return, and was willing to betray her when promised a better reward, justifying it by Aphra's own tendency to exploit others for personal gain. Upon first hearing Aphra's explanation of her attitude toward others, Klam saw no issue with betrayal if it ensured survival. Nevertheless, Klam was still reluctant to betray Aphra's trust and eventually returned to apologize, assisting Aphra once again.

Klam had a strong bond with her pet qaberworm, Gurtyl, and relied heavily on her while living on Milvayne. She was shocked when Aphra used Gurtyl to distract the bounty hunters chasing them on Arbiflux, and was distraught when she had to leave Gurtyl behind after Aphra stole the Farkiller back from the Rebel Alliance. Klam remained angry towards Aphra about losing Gurtyl for some time.

Following the incident on Milvayne, Klam refused to allow Aphra to abandon her, threatening to self-destruct her ship. After Aphra reluctantly took her on as a ward, Klam frequently questioned or criticized the rogue archaeologist's dangerous lifestyle and actions, especially after they were conscripted by the Empire. Aphra's harsh treatment of her ward, stemming from her own upbringing, affected Klam, who felt inadequate, particularly after their heist in Red Mist. Klam was reluctant to assist with some of Aphra's schemes, such as causing the death of Professor Ud so that she could take control of the Project Swarm archaeological team. Despite the strained relationship between Klam and Aphra, she was saddened when viewing her farewell message after Aphra left her behind for her own safety, but was happy to be alongside Magna Tolvan and Korin Aphra, who both also had trouble brought to their lives by Doctor Aphra.

During her time on Milvayne, Klam was able to control her pet qaberworm Gurtyl, using her as a mount to navigate the planet's Underworld. She also possessed some skill with a blaster, shooting Triple-Zero on Milvayne and using one to defend against bounty hunters on Arbiflux. After traveling with Aphra for two months, Klam learned from her methods, suggesting ways to retrieve the artifact they were hired to steal in Red Mist. She was also capable of piloting the Ark Angel in Aphra's absence, retrieving her and Black Krrsantan when they escaped a rebel starship of Indigo Squadron.

While living in the lower levels of Milvayne, Klam was well-equipped, possessing a pair of heatspex to detect heat signatures through the smog, and wore a breath mask around her neck due to the polluted air. Her clothing was tattered, consisting of a brown hooded coat over a light-colored shirt and pants. After Aphra lost her blaster during an attack by Tam Posla, Klam recovered the weapon, using it to shoot Triple-Zero and knock Aphra unconscious when she betrayed the two fugitives to the Milvayne Authority.

After leaving Milvayne, Klam wore similar clothing, though in better condition, and later began wearing the cape that she and Aphra stole from the Red Mist shrine. During the heist, Klam carried equipment for Aphra, including a slicing kit. On Arbiflux, Klam used a pair of macrobinoculars to observe the bounty hunters approaching Aphra's mother's house, and used a blaster to defend against the hunters. Klam was provided with cleaning equipment when she was conscripted into the Empire as a janitor, and wore goggles and a hat while assisting the Rebel Alliance at their base on Hoth.

Vulaada Klam made her debut in the comic Doctor Aphra (2016) 27, penned by Simon Spurrier, illustrated by Emilio Laiso, and published by Marvel Comics on December 12, 2018.