While the crew figured he had no intellingence, as no one bothered to teach him anything, Draygo educated himself by watching the crew pilot the ship and by sneaking any kind of learning material he could find into his literal closet of a living space. His photograpic mind studied anything to do with piloting and star travel, as his dream was to enter the Imperial Academy. Young Draygo despised the Rebellion, as his ship did a lot of business with them, and he felt anyone who would do business with this pathetic lot was just as bad, or worse. As his ship and crew avoided Imperial ships at all costs, anyone whom his ship would wish to avoid seemed okay in his opinion.

Draygo had every intention of deserting these scum and going to the nearest Imperial recruitment office as soon as they landed, but fate intervened. It became widely known of the Imperial defeat at Endor and the declaration of the New Republic shortly thereafter. A glum Draygo sat quietly at a sleazy cantina on Tatooine while his shipmates celebrated this development. The captain noticing Draygo's mood slapped him in the face and told him to cheer up. Draygo then through a fist to the captain's temple knocking him cold. He then ran out of the Cantina and away from that pitiful band before anyone else in the drunken crew could react and give chase.

Draygo made a living performing menial jobs for the next few years when he heard rumors of remnants of the Empire still being active. Using all of the credits he had saved up, he bought passage to the nearest system rumored to still be under Imperial influence, in hopes of pursuing his dream.