Golas Aram

Golas Aram

Golas Aram was ahover chair-boundSiniteenmale who worked as a prisonarchitect for theGalactic Empire and various other organizations. He helped the Empire build several prisons and helped with the conversion of the ancient prison shipAshmead's Lock on theplanetKashyyyk into something suitable for the Empire's purposes. He eventually retired to the planetIrudiru, where he built himself a heavily defendedcompound away from other life forms, most of whom Aram considered idiotic. Aram was eventually captured from his compound by a group lead by thesmugglerHan Solo and theNew RepublicpilotNorra Wexley, who were searching for theWookieeChewbacca, a prisoner of Ashmead's Lock. The former Imperialloyalty officerSinjir Rath Velus then interrogated Aram, and after threatening to damage the Siniteen's intelligence, successfully got him to share what they wanted to know about the prison. Aram was then let free, and the group traveled to Kashyyyk, where they discovered Aram had not shared Ashmead's Lock's password and had to fight their way through its defenses.

Biography[]

The prison architect[]

Golas Aram was a freelanceSiniteenarchitect who specialized in designingprisons. During his career he created such structures for various criminals groups includingKanjiklub, theJunihar Cartel andSplugorra theHutt and also designed several prisons for theGalactic Empire, including theLemniscate on theplanetCoruscant, theasteroidprisonOrko 9 and theGoa Penal Colony. He also did work for the Empire on the prison ship known asAshmead's Lock, which was a relic of an ancient civilization known as thePredori found on theplanetKashyyyk. With Arams aid, the Empire converted thealien vessel into a functioning prison which they used to incarcerate various dissidents. He eventually chose to retire to the planetIrudiru, where he built acompound near the town ofKai Pompos with heavy defenses and stocks of animals such asmorak forhunting.^[1]

A not-so-quiet retirement[]

Following the capture of theWookieeChewbacca by the Empire and his confinement, thesmugglerHan Solo traveled to Irudiru in the hopes of gaining information from Aram about the prison so that he could free Chewbacca. Solo watched Aram's compound for Xdays, noticing that the Siniteen regularly swept his property for listening devices. A group led by thepilotNorra Wexley then arrived and also began scoping out the compound, having been led to it by intelligence from theBlack Sun and the captive ImperialAdviserYupe Tashu while searching for Solo. Unaware of Solo's presence, the group then observed Aram's compound for several days, in which time Aram did not venture outdoors. Wexley's group then attempted to remotely bug Aram's home, but were stopped by Solo, who drove a herd of Aram's morak toward them before they could fire the listening device at the house.

Solo and Wexley's team then devised a plan together to capture Aram for questioning, initiating it under the cover of night. First, thebounty hunterJas Emari began shooting theland mines that surrounded Aram's compound. The explosions acted as a signal for Wexley's sonTemmin Wexley and hisB1-series battle droidMister Bones to cut the conduit that connected Aram's compound to the wind farm that powered it. This deactivated theturret-droids andlaser fences that also protected Aram, and allowedSinjir Rath Velus to enter the compound. Alerted to the intrusion, Aram set his manydroid protectors on the trespassers and then destroyed half of the his computer systems and attempted to flee using tunnels buried beneath his home. He found Solo waiting for him in the tunnels and shocked him with his hover chair before continuing on to a landing platform with asolar shuttle he planned to use to flee to family he had on the planetSaleucami. Wexley however, was waiting for him at theshuttle and knocked him out.^[1]

Under interrogation[]

Wexley's group picked up Aram in theirSS-54 assault shipHalo and Sinjir then began interrogating him on board for information about Ashmead's Lock. Aram refused to divulge anything under the threat of physicaltorture, instead complaining about the damage his captors had caused to his property and insulting their intelligence. He finally broke when Sinjir threatened to drive a small antennae through Aram'sear, damaging hisbrain and his intelligence. The Siniteen quickly shared all he knew about the jail, but failed to tell the group about the password they would need to safely enter. Satisfied, the group let Aram free and traveled to Kashyyyk, where upon reaching the prison they were nearly captured by its defenses due to their lack of a password. Ultimately the group managed to free those imprisoned in Ashmead's Lock, and later went on toliberate all of Kashyyyk from the Empire's control.^[1]

Personality and traits[]

Aram was a Siniteen male who was bound to ahover chair due to the state of hislegs by the time he retired. He considered making inescapable, self-sustaining prisons his art and believed that Wexley's team only managed to break into his personally designed compound by luck. While living on Irudiru, Aram was extremely paranoid, hiding behind an unusually high number of defenses and regularly sweeping his home for bugs. When captured he cared little for threat to his physical form, and was happy to insult and criticize his captors, who he considered far inferior in intelligence. This changed when they threatened his brain and intellect, and he quickly gave them most of what they wanted, although still leaving a trap for them by omitting the need for a password at Ashmead's Lock.

Behind the scenes[]

Golas Aram first appeared in the novelAftermath: Life Debt, which was written byChuck Wendig and released in2016.

Appearances[]

• Aftermath: Life Debt(andaudiobook)(First appearance)

Sources[]

• "Battle Droids and Other Droids of War" —Star Wars Encyclopedia
• "Accessories and Structures" —Star Wars Encyclopedia

Notes and references[]