Mira Volz, a Human female, was the daughter of Renn Volz, an inventor. Both resided on the planet known as Little Kessel. She aided her father from a secret lab nestled within the Giant Fungi Forest. As the Galactic Civil War raged, Mira joined her father in testing his newest creation, the Ionic Ring Ship, designed to manipulate planetary climates from space. During this demonstration, while transforming Zerm into a paradise, they encountered Imperial Captain Bzorn, who seized the Ionic Ring Ship and imprisoned Mira to coerce Renn Volz into working for him. With his daughter captive, Renn was forced to use the Ionic Ring to devastate worlds harboring Rebels.
However, Mira made her escape from Imperial custody during a mishandled prison ship transfer and secretly boarded the nearby docked Millennium Falcon. After the ship departed, Han Solo, the pilot, and his companion, Luke Skywalker, discovered her hiding in the cargo hold. Mira begged for their help in rescuing her father, a request the two men granted. They intercepted the Ionic Ring Ship at Little Kessel, where Mira utilized her father's lab and his sub-space image transmitter to contact him and prevent an attack on her home world. Thanks to her transmission and a rescue operation led by Solo, her father was freed from the Empire, and the ship was destroyed, denying the Empire this technology.
On Little Kessel, a planet situated along the Kessel Run, Mira was born. Her father, Renn Volz, a gifted scientist, operated from a hidden lab located within the Giant Fungi Forest. Mira served as his assistant, supporting his experiments and collaborating in the testing of his inventions. She was present when her father invented both the sub-space image transmitter and his most significant creation, the Ionic Ring Ship, a device capable of manipulating the climates of various worlds from space. Mira accompanied him on the ship during the device's initial demonstration. They journeyed to the planet Zerm to correct destructive storms that had ravaged the planet's surface. Working alongside her father, Mira helped to stabilize the weather, transforming Zerm into a paradise.
Regrettably for both Mira and her father, Imperial Captain Bzorn learned about the device and its potential for destruction. As Mira adjusted the rains over Zerm's crops, they were interrupted by a Star Destroyer commanded by Bzorn. The captain, along with a squad of stormtroopers, boarded the ship and forcefully took control of the Ionic Ring. Ignoring her father's protests, Bzorn declared his intention to use the device to devastate Rebel planets. To ensure Renn's cooperation, the Imperials seized Mira, taking her off the ship. As her father was coerced into devastating planets along the Kessel Run using the Ionic Ring, Mira was transported to a distant planet, from which she managed to escape during a bungled prison ship transfer. While fleeing her captors, she overheard that the next target of the Ionic Ring was the planet Rion.
Simultaneously, the smuggler Han Solo was visiting the spaceport where the prison ship transfer was scheduled. Solo was there to collect a shipment of spice for Jabba the Hutt, facilitated by his contact Malo. As his ship, the Millennium Falcon, was being loaded, Mira secretly boarded. As stormtroopers searched for the escaped prisoner, Mira managed to leave the world aboard Solo's ship. Knowing she needed to inform her father of her escape to end his forced servitude, she remained hidden as the Millennium Falcon traveled to Randa, the location of a secret Rebel base. As Solo met with his friend, Luke Skywalker, Skywalker's droids, R2-D2 and C-3PO, detected a stowaway in the Millennium Falcon's cargo hold. The droids informed Skywalker and Solo, who listened to her desperate plea. Mira, eager to contact her father, revealed that the Ionic Ring's next target was Rion.
Though Solo was skeptical, he agreed to stop at Rion, as it was on the Kessel Run route he was already taking. Skywalker, more sympathetic and captivated by her beauty, was eager to help, and Mira showed her gratitude with a kiss on his cheek. As the Millennium Falcon flew towards Rion, Skywalker and Mira talked and flirted, with Skywalker expressing his desire to visit her on Little Kessel. Upon arriving at Rion, they were shocked to find the once lush world transformed into a frozen ice planet. Mira explained that the Ionic Ring must have already struck, but Solo decided to investigate. He went to Tana's Resort to speak with the owner and his friend, Tana.
After landing, the group was confronted by freezing inhabitants desperate for food, as the planet's food supply had been frozen. Solo gave some of his spice to the people before Mira and the group met with Tana, who confirmed Mira's fears. The Empire had arrived, demanding the surrender of all Rebels. When refused, the world was frozen. Tana revealed that she overheard the next target was Mira's homeworld, Little Kessel. As they prepared to leave, one of Tana's patrons informed her that stormtroopers had learned of Mira's presence and were coming for her. Mira and the Rebels escaped out the back, but were caught in a firefight with stormtroopers. The ice storms hampered visibility, but the Rebels managed to return to the Millennium Falcon. However, as they boarded, the stormtroopers located them. Luke pulled Mira aboard as Solo and his first mate, Chewbacca, defended them. C-3PO and R2-D2 used the ship's lights to blind the Imperials, allowing the Rebels to escape Rion.
As the Millennium Falcon headed towards Little Kessel, Mira wept, fearing for her father and her world. Skywalker comforted her, and she regained her composure as they arrived. They arrived before the Imperials and the Ionic Ring Ship, allowing them time to plan. Mira guided them to her father's secret lab, where she devised a plan to contact him and prove she was no longer a hostage. Using her father's untested sub-space image transmitter, she hoped to send an image of herself to the Ionic Ring. Skywalker worried about the untested technology, but Mira proceeded anyway.
Mira entered the transmitter, and R2-D2 sent her image to the Ionic Ring Ship. The one-way transmitter left her unaware of what was happening on her father's ship, but R2 confirmed that her image and voice were being transmitted to the Imperials. As Mira tried to contact her father, the Ionic Ring appeared above Little Kessel, and Captain Bzorn demanded the surrender of all Rebels or the planet would be devastated. As Mira called out to her father, R2 moved her image around the ship, trying to get his attention. Solo, impatient, decided to board the Ionic Ring with Skywalker and Chewbacca to stop the Imperials.
As Mira continued her attempts, earthquakes caused by the Ionic Ring began to shake the planet. The storms and quakes from the Imperial attack caused the lab to lose power, weakening the transmission. However, unbeknownst to Mira and the droids, her image was distracting the Imperials, allowing Solo, Skywalker, and Chewbacca to storm the bridge and inform her father that she was safe. At the same time, Mira's image finally reached the bridge, confirming her freedom. Her father stopped the attack, and Captain Bzorn was killed in the ensuing fight, allowing the scientist to rig his ship to self-destruct.
Back in the lab, the sub-space transmitter lost power due to the Ionic Ring's attack. Mira could only hope her message had gotten through as she waited with C-3PO and R2-D2. They witnessed a massive explosion, leading Mira to believe her father was dead. However, the Millennium Falcon soon arrived, having escaped the ship's self-destruction. Mira was overjoyed and thanked the Rebels for saving her father and her world. Although Skywalker had shown romantic interest, it faded after Little Kessel was saved.
Mira was a young woman with blonde hair and blue eyes. During the Galactic Civil War, she had never opposed the Galactic Empire until her father was kidnapped. She was emotional about his loss and her imprisonment, often breaking down in tears. She was grateful for Skywalker's support and flirted with him during their travels. However, the romance ended after her father's rescue.
As the daughter of a scientist, Mira possessed some scientific skills, operating the Ionic Ring to manipulate Zerm's climate. With R2-D2's help, she operated the sub-space image transmitter, aiding in her father's rescue. She also escaped Imperial captors during a prison ship transfer, smuggling herself aboard the Millennium Falcon undetected until it landed on Randa.
Mira Volz was created by Russ Helm and illustrated by Russ Manning for The Second Kessel Run, a comic strip published by the Los Angeles Times Syndicate. Dark Horse Comics reprinted the story in Classic Star Wars: The Early Adventures 6, coloring the original black-and-white panels. The collection omitted the Sunday strips, which often repeated the weekly storyline, though they contained exclusive dialogue and action. One Sunday strip showed Mira kissing Luke Skywalker's cheek, which was absent from the weekly strips and therefore excluded from the Dark Horse reprint.
Two articles in Star Wars Galaxy Collector magazine covered Mira Volz's exploits. ComicScan: Coming Full Circle in issue 3 referenced The Second Kessel Run and Mira's role, while ComicScan: Luke-ing for Love in all the Wrong Places in issue 7 mentioned Skywalker's brief flirtation with her.
The Second Kessel Run identifies Mira and her father as being from the planet Kessel, the namesake of the Kessel Run. However, its depiction as a verdant world with giant fungi was contradicted by later works, such as The Jedi Academy Trilogy, which portrayed Kessel as a barren wasteland. This was retconned in The Essential Atlas, which clarified that the Kessel in The Second Kessel Run was a different planet, Little Kessel.