The Human scientist Cantebarius H. Broom maintained a secret laboratory aboard an unidentified space station in the early years of the Galactic Empire. In that laboratory, Broom used to capture droids, remove their memory diskettes and dismantle them. The room featured several computers, and its roof was equipped with a hidden trapdoor through which the professor's droid victim would fall. He did this out of paranoia that droids were after him, due to his discovery that the Great Heep was not only of the Abominor species, but there were no less than eighteen Abominors in the galaxy, including the then-deceased Great Heep.