"5
minutes to realspace Captain," his nav officer called.
"Thanks
Dankin," he replied easily "Be ready to jump back to hyper'
quickly in case we run into any trouble."
A quiet murmur
of laughter spread across the bridge. They all knew as well as he did
that this was a token mission. He should really quiet them, but then,
this wasn't a military ship and he liked to think of all these people
as his close friends, so he'd let it slide.
"1 minute."
Dankin got his hands ready on the hyperspace levers.
He noticed
how easily Dankin fell back into the role of navigator after having
been captain of his own ship for years now.
"30 seconds."
The bridge crew began to tense.
"Ready on the guns."
He said needlessly. His crew wasn't trigger-happy, but they were
prepared, no matter how harmless the situation seemed.
"10."
Dankin gripped the levers harder.
He counted down and on '1'
he pulled back the hyperspace-lever. The stars reappeared, stretched
and out of proportion. Space returned and Dankin caught his breath. A
smallish yellow planet turned on the bottom half of the bridge's
front screen, one of its moons sluggishly following it. But it wasn't
the planet that had made Dankin start. Three large ovoid cruisers
were heading straight for them, turbolasers blazing.
"Full
evasive!" He shouted,
"Torr, Cait, get on the
forward quads." The captain shouted after a heartbeat of
adrenaline-induced shock.
He was already out of his chair and
heading for the nav station. The cruisers grew larger on the screen,
bristling with weapons and bearing rapidly down on them.
"Get
me a reading on those weapons." He clipped as he made his way to
hang just behind Dankin's shoulder "How fast can we jump back?".
Dankin turned to look at him. His face gave the answer away
before he said it, "Captain, they've got interdictor cruisers
already coming up behind us. We're here for the duration."
Dankin said.
He nodded, turning back to face the sensor
station for the report.
A fresh-faced man hurried over "Sir,"
he shoved a datapad into the Captain's hands and gestured to a bunch
of figures displayed on it. "The computer's never seen anything
like them before, but we count at last 200 turbolaser emplacements,
and a whole bunch of ports that could be anything from proton torpedo
bays to tractor beams. Whatever, I think the weapons are the last of
our problems: look at those shield readings..."
The
Captain stared down at the 'pad, finding the reading, and whistled
softly. "Okay, get back and try and find a weakness." He
said to the boy, turning to the comm panel and flicking the
intra-ship communications on, hitting the alert-button so that all
the ship except for the bridge resounded with the urgent noise of a
siren,
"Everyone, this is Aves, if you haven't got a
battle station to go to, strap down, were going into battle and it
looks like it might get a little rough. Watch your backs." He
flicked it off again and moved back behind Dankin.
The
cruisers filled the viewscreen now. "Dankin, turn us around,
we're going after those interdictors." Dankin nodded and had the
ship swinging around as the captain moved back to his seat. They were
hopelessly outgunned, but they weren't out yet.
"Are Torr
and Cait there yet? Good, patch me in." He waited a heartbeat
"Torr, Cait, keep your fire on those interdictors if you can,
were not going to be able to take out those cruisers, so we're going
to have to run for it. Got that?" When they confirmed he turned
back to Dankin "Try and keep them as shielded from those
cruisers as possible."
"Aye, Captain."
The
cruiser let go a hail of small black ships that descended onto the
larger freighter, raking it with turbolaser fire. Torr and Cait shot
back but the shields soaked up the energy like it was nothing, coming
around again and again to fry weapons circuits onboard the ship.
There was the distinct smell of burning on the bridge.
"Deak!"
He called to the comm station "Can you get a message out to
Karrde?"
The young man clung to his console as the ship
rocked under turbolaser fire, "Will do captain!" He yelled
over the chaos of people shouting orders to each other.
"They're
coming round for another pass." Dankin said, a quite note of
resolution in his voice.
"None of that, Dankin." He
warned him, though he too couldn't see a way out of this one, the
small black fighters were simply too fast.
Suddenly the ship
lurched to the side throwing them all of their feet. Deak's console
exploded in a shower of sparks and molten metal. The young man was
dead before he hit the floor.
"Damage report." He
shouted over the warning sirens, picking himself up the floor.
"Sir, we've lost Cait."
A cold lump formed
in his throat. She'd been with him for years now.
"Incoming!!"
someone shouted.
He didn't have time to react; the ship
lurched and threw him violently into a bulkhead. He felt bone snap as
he hit the wall and collapsed to the floor. His last glance showed
him the look of horror on Dankins' face as the ship dived
uncontrollably towards the yellow planet now filling the cockpit's
screen.
His own terror swelled up inside him before his
thoughts fled away with his consciousness.
The shuttle entered the
upper atmosphere with deceptive ease, shedding speed as it went.
Locally the weather was clear and silent; breaking through the upper
atmosphere the shuttle lifted up again, then headed down towards a
group of bright lights that represented the largest spaceport the
planet had to offer. Taking his eyes off the spectacular view he
turned to look at the other passengers. Leia lay with her head in
Han's lap: sleeping off the months of negotiations and bureaucratic
double talk it had taken them to get even this far. They should wake
her, really, but somehow they didn't have the heart.
Han sat
fidgeting in his seat: unhappy with having to sit back and let
someone else pilot, alternating between staring out his window and
glancing absently at the sleeping Leia's discarded notes.
The
shuttle settled with a soft hiss and a final whine from the
repulsors. Han looked down at Leia, bent and whispered something in
her ear, she opened her eyes and smiled widely.
"Well,
your worshipfullness, looks like you got your wish for a holiday.
Cassrine is certainly away from it all." Han said. She threw him
a rye look.
Trying to get her hair back into some resemblance
of a style, she said, "Why do you think I picked this mission?"
"Point. Ready, Luke?" Han was already moving for
the exit. Luke moved to stare out the open door with him.
"I
guess so. Leia, isn't someone supposed to meet us?"
"No,
didn't I tell you? We're going to meet with them tomorrow.
Something about the time zones being wrong."
"Oh,
great." Han said sarcastically "So how do we find our hotel
then?"
Leia looked up, annoyed despite herself. "I
had thought of that." There was an awkward moment of
silence until Leia continued, "I've got a map, it should be with
these data files." She brandished a bag and started rummaging
through it.
"Ermm...." Luke started,
"You're
right, we should get off the ship first."
"Don't do
that," Han said mock menacingly "I swear you're
getting worse at it."
Leia smiled widely, "Like
listening to half a conversation? Sorry."
She headed for
the shuttle door.
---
The world outside was
revealed to be hot and uncomfortably sticky: a blast of hot air hit
them as they stepped out from the temperature-controlled shuttle,
descending the ramp to a gravelled spaceport surface. There were
ships of various sorts and several were probably of dubious
backgrounds. Some were obscured by metal gang trees with techs
crawling all over them, others were loading and unloading goods;
again she suspected not all of legitimate sources. A shabby cantina
was on one side of the port, looking very neglected but probably well
used.
"Not exactly high-tech." Han muttered. Leia
ignored the comment, mainly because she had to agree.
"That
looks promising." She said to Luke, pointing to a large prefab
structure next to the cantina.
"Some form of customs?"
Luke asked dubiously. The lack of any proper control for entry onto
and leave from the planet certainly reinforced Leia's suspicions
about the illegal nature of the cargo being loaded onto those ships,
and of course their captains.
"Tell me again why were
trying to get this lot to join the republic." Han said, looking
round the shabby landing pad and arching a doubtful eyebrow.
Leia
shrugged off her annoyance "The Cassrine haven't been in space
all that long: galactically speaking that is. A lot of what you see
here comes from other cultures who imposed their own ideas on them.
They're supposed to be a highly cultured race: this spaceport
was built by the Empire during the time it occupied Cassrine, until a
few years ago. I guess they haven't got round to changing it yet."
The shuttle rose behind them and with a flair of repulsors
climbed for space.
"Hmmmm" Han said, a little
too sarcastically for her taste, "We better go find some of this
culture of yours then, though I don't see what they can offer
the Republic."
Leia turned to face him, "Han, the
Republic's not just about what we can get from others, it's
about what-"
"Spare me the speech Leia. All I meant
was its getting dark." He pointed a hand towards the sky "If
we don't find this hotel soon, we'll never find it." He started
to walk towards the building. Leia threw a glare at his back.
"Relax," Luke said, moving to stand beside her
"He's just trying to rile you"
She turned her glare
on him, "Oh, and that makes it all right?"
Luke
flinched. "Leia..."
She softened as she looked into
his face and rubbed a hand across her face. "Sorry." She
said quietly "It's just, well, we haven't been getting along
well recently,"
"I'd noticed."
"I
guess we're both tired: we've hardly seen anything of each other
lately." She trailed off, staring absently towards the huge
building. Taking a deep breath and getting her composure back, "Come
on, it is getting dark."
---
They
managed to find their way through the old customs building, policed
by a single guard, who didn't bother to either search them or
wish them a nice trip. The holovid proved far more interesting for
him. When Han had commented sarcastically on the lack of security,
Leia had pointed out that it was just the sort of place Han would
have loved just a few back. His pride ruffled by the reminder of just
how respectable he was becoming, Han didn't comment
further on the state of the spaceport. The local form of public
transport, a ground-based train system called the trans-line, carried
them to the main terminal for their connection to their meeting with
the planet governors. Or at least, that had been the plan.
In
contrast to the landing pad, the terminal was a cavernous and ancient
building, with an arched transparisteel ceiling crossed with
durasteel girders that filtered through what little sunlight was
getting through the rain clouds. Rain clouds which were responsible
for both the throngs of dripping tourists and businessmen, as well as
for the many trans-line carriers grounded on their platforms. The
public-relations officials in their crisp red suits were not
happy.
Han stood glaring at one particularly intimidated
official, waving their tickets in front of him
"Look,"
he said, a bit too loudly "All we want is to get to our hotel,
is that so much to ask for?"
The official stuttered,
"I'm sorry sir. Most of the carriers are down due to the storm.
Unfortunately, those which are running, aren't going in the
direction you would like to travel in. You'll have to take the
trans-line which is going nearest, which I'm afraid will still
be several kilometres away from you're destination, or stay here
tonight."
He took the opportunity of Han's moment
of thought to scurry away, moving to a group of slightly less
intimidating though no less irate tourists.
Han turned to face
Luke and Leia. "So much for that idea. I told you it'd never
work. Luke, can't you just..."
"No."
"Why
not? I mean, it's not like its gonna hurt anyone and-"
Rather than looking exasperated, Luke just looked mildly
amused, "Han, I can just make people do what I want them to just
because it's convenient."
Han looked slightly
disgusted; "You Jedi are no fun sometimes. Well, I guess that
means we stay here tonight because the trans-line goes nowhere near
where we need to be. Which hotel though...." Han forced his way
through the crowds of dripping wet aliens and over to a public info
terminal. Studying the terminal for a moment, he began experimentally
punching keys.
As they forced their way through the crowded
building to join him, Luke felt something brush the back of his neck.
His automatic reaction was to move his hand to search for whatever
had hit him. Nothing. Luke frowned and looked around the crowd but
got no help there. Probably just an insect bite, then.
He
listened to Han and Leia argue over which hotel looked the best. This
was going to be a long trip. So far they hadn't stopped arguing since
they'd got here and Luke was beginning to get tired of it.
They
stood inside the small booth, which Leia noted with some disgust was
badly in need of a clean. The storm had come on very suddenly:
apparently there was nothing unusual about that. Cassrine's
climate was not unlike Coruscant's for it sudden and violent
storms. The heating unit in the booth was obviously shot.
Luke
shivered; despite the wretched weather he hadn't expected it to be
this cool. He felt an ache in the back of his neck and his eyes hurt.
Shutting them against a strange dizziness he was feeling, he rubbed
the nape of his neck and tried channelling the Force to take away the
increasing pain.
Someone was saying his name. He should
answer. He should open his eyes, should answer them.
"Luke?
Are you all right? Luke?"
With an effort he opened his
eyes "Yeah." His voice didn't sound too good. He swallowed
and tried again,
"Yeah I'm fine, why?"
"You
look pale, buddy, what's wrong?" Han said, staring intently at
Luke's face.
"I'm fine, really, I just felt a bit dizzy
for a while." They didn't look convinced but Luke changed the
subject.
"So, where are we staying then?"
With
a last dubious look in his direction Leia answered, "The only
place with any room left is here, on the outskirts of town. She
pointed on the display to an isolated building surrounded by dense
woodlands. We'll need to take the trans-line though."
The dizziness was fading but the pain in his neck refused to
go, "Great, lets get moving then."
---
The
hotel was better than she had expected. It was large, obviously
exclusive (and it should be, she thought, considering what it was
going to cost for them to stay here) and set in large grounds of
dense woodland. She was told that the tropical woods extended a long
way past the back of the hotel and provided some beautiful walking
areas, when the sun shined. From the trans-line terminal they had
taken a speeder out to the hotel. Leia looked at Luke: she could tell
something was wrong without even using the Force. He was unnaturally
pale and quite, staring out at the torrential rain. His arms were
crossed across his stomach in what she thought was a slightly foetal
position.
Luke she sent. Luke startled out of his daze
and turned to look at her.
I'm okay, really
You're
not, what's wrong? He seemed to consider trying to convince her
he was okay, then thought again.
It's probably nothing
Leia looked at Luke and frowned. "Luke..." she started.
Han interrupted with a gasp, "Wow... would you look at
that." The speeder had turned a bend in the road so that their
hotel was visible "Okay Leia, I guess you were right about
culture after all."
The huge building loomed over them
as they approached. It was huge and elegant; spiralling to great
heights without even a hint of the blocky architecture of the
spaceport. It glistened white in the moonlight, light shone out the
windows warmly. Leia thought the style reminded her of Alderaan: like
a house she'd been to her in her childhood. As the speeder drew to a
stop before the massive double doors Leia and Han jumped out the
speeder making a dash for the dry foyer. Luke following slightly more
slowly and came to stand next to Han: hair wet and hanging over his
face, blinking it out of his eyes he said,
"I'm not sure
they're going to appreciate us" Leia looked them up and down.
They all looked half drowned, and out of the 3 of them she was the
only one dressed for such an exclusive hotel. Han wore his old top
and trousers that he felt so confident in, even though before they'd
left Leia had argued that they might need to appear smart. Luke
wasn't much better; he wore just an old black top and trousers,
and she hadn't even tried to persuade him to dress smart. It wasn't
like she'd ever been able persuade him of anything. She wasn't
the only headstrong one in the Skywalker line.
"How long
have you two had those clothes anyway? I'd swear you wore the same
stuff at Endor."
"Hey!" Han said, "I've
only had these a couple of years, thank you. " Leia
grinned.
Luke just shrugged "The same. They're just
more comfortable."
"We'll just have to sweet-talk
them, I guess." She replied and stepped into the huge
hallway.
---
Han dragged their sodden bags into
the room and dumped them on the floor. Water ran of their sides and
puddled on the floor. He turned back to see Leia step in and shut the
door behind her, and then brush disgustedly at her clothes.
I'm
glad we didn't have to travel tonight, anyway. It's starting to
get really heavy out there." She said, wandering into the room
and casting an expert eye over the furnishings before dropping into
the sofa.
Luke wandered past her, a distracted look on his
face as he went to look out the window. She watched him, then turned
back to Han, "I'm still not sure about using fake ID's Han,
maybe we should have told them who we were, it wouldn't do any harm."
She spied the mirror over in a corner and walked over to it. "Oh
my--" She gasped when she got a look at the strangled halo of
wet hair that had previously been her neat braids.
"No
one's going to know where to contact us." She continued,
tugging at the pins that held the drenched strands in place. Han came
to stand up beside her, brushing at his own drenched features. She
stifled a grin and bit down a remark about his vanity. He didn't like
her bringing it up.
"That was the point, Leia. A little
bit of privacy - remember? Besides, I'll call Winter and tell
her where we are."
She smiled warmly at him, the last of
the braid falling limp over her shoulders. She wandered over to their
bags to dig out a brush. "Yeah, maybe. I'm surprised they bought
it, really."
She'd expected Luke to come in at this
point and mention it hadn't been the most honest use of a mind
trick.
He didn't. Instead, he continued to stare out the
window and at the rain. She turned towards him,
"Luke?"
When he didn't answer she touched his shoulder lightly. He jumped,
startled, and whirled to face her. "What's wrong?"
He
gazed past her as he spoke "Nothing, I think I just need some
air." He answered absently.
Leia stared into his face,
not sure what to say. "Luke, it's throwing it down out
there. At least wait till it stops." she said, walking back over
to place the brush on a table. Luke looked back at her, and she could
feel him trying to find a way out of this. He looked around the room
like a caged animal. "Luke, you really don't look too good- "
she started.
"I'm fine, Leia. I think I need some air,
that's all." She looked over at Han, he just shrugged. She
frowned, but she wasn't going to stop him if he really wanted to, and
besides, some time to themselves would be nice.
Luke was
already at the door. "At least put something warm on." She
said, feeling like his mother.
He smiled at that, " I'm
not going for long. See you tomorrow." He walked out, shutting
the door quietly behind him. She stared at the door for a long while,
a nasty feeling in the pit of her stomach. Han came up beside her and
took her hand,
"Come on, your worship. He'll be fine..."
With a resigned sigh, she tuned back with Han to find some dry
clothes.
---
Luke wandered down the little
used pathways. At first it had started out as a wide trail but now he
was having to concentrate on his walking to keep from tripping or
loosing the path. That was good. It kept his mind from wandering:
kept him from thinking too much. The pain behind his eye's wouldn't
go away, at times it was horribly intense, at others it's was a mild
but constant ache. The path was treacherous: Luke lost his footing
and slipped, catching a wet branch to break his fall. This was
ridiculous, even on Yavin4 he'd never had any trouble traversing the
jungles: and this was not Yavin4.
Climbing back to his
feet and trying to shake off the sense of dread: of something
impending that had fallen over his consciousness like a black cloud,
he considered going back to the hotel. But the heat: the recycled,
cleaned air, all of it had seemed so suffocating: he'd had to get out
of there, he'd needed the fresh air: the quite of the forest, he
couldn't go back. He turned and stared at the welcoming hotel, rain
washed down his face: his hair clung to his head and fell in his
eyes. He had come out here for a reason: what had that reason been?
He sighed: his thoughts were dazed and confused: running away from
him even as he tried to think. He couldn't remember what he was doing
out here.
He walked on.
The rain beat mercilessly
down and the cold permeated his aching body. He came to another
branch in the road. Taking the path on the right he walked deeper
into forest. You could easily get lost in these woods if you wandered
too much, but standing bright and clear like a homing beacon behind
him was the hotel: he would find a way back if he needed to. For now
Luke concentrated on the forest ahead. He could sense its vastness by
the living creatures within it. There was life everywhere, all adding
to the deep stream that was the force, adding to and amplifying it.
Luke rested against a sodden tree, and let his mind relax
into the tidal flood of life energy. What was he doing out here? Back
in the hotel it had seemed so, so...necessary. Now it just
seemed foolish. There had been a reason, he knew there had been one.
What was it? Frustration ate at the corners of his mind as he
tried to think straight, tried to gather his thoughts but they
crumbled like dust in his hands and died.
Use the Force,
Luke! The Force!!
What?
Who said that?
It
was a half remembered voice...
Ben!
No, Ben was gone,
was it his own subconsciousness? He seemed to hear himself; it felt
so long ago,
"Something has been damaged. Find it. Heal
it, Fight back."
Heal it!
Whoever, whatever
it was, he heard the truth in the statement. No more hesitation, no
more confusion, he hadn't the time; suddenly he knew. Knew that he
must trust the voice. He must trust himself.
Unquestioning, he
stretched out to the Force. He brought it to him, sought to wrap it
around himself, to cure whatever it was that was making him so ill.
That was why he was out here: the quite, to touch the
Force fully. Now he had the time and the quite to, Luke traced the
ebb and flow of his own mental presence in the Force, he felt the
beat of life, the inescapable chaos of life.
He concentrated
and felt something else. Like a scorch mark on his presence and
growing. Growing fast.
Forcing down panic and fear, he
concentrated all the strength he had to seek out the mark, sought to
suffocate it and to destroy it. But its touch was slippery and no
matter how his mind tried to grasp it, his touch fell short of the
mark.
Where had it come from? A raking pain clawed up his
spine and threw him violently out of the Force. His legs gave way and
he collapsed to the drenched ground, sinking into the mud.
Something ran through his veins, something burned him from
the inside. What? How? He would have felt anything like that long
ago, He would have known. Wouldn't he?
Images swirled
in front of him; whatever it was, it was hallucinogenic. Gasping for
breath, his mind spun memories of things he'd never even experienced,
so that they attacked him, betrayed him, lied to him; so that he
believed them.
He tried to gain his feet under him, or was
that another illusion? He thought he heard someone crying, did he? It
wasn't real. He knew it was, he knew, didn't he?
"I
loved you as a friend, and as a student, as a son"
"Forgive
me if I fail to say you impress me"
"You destroyed
my life!"
"I can't stay with you
Luke..."
"When I look at you it seems like a vital
part of you has been burned away by what you've gone through. If
that's what it takes to become a Jedi maybe I don't want the
job!"
"They don't trust you."
"I am
your father"
"Now, young Skywalker, You will
die."
"No!!!" He screamed, his mind in
agony as the visions flicked before him, as accusing faces glared at
him, as the Emperor leered in the anticipation of his death. He
screwed his eyes tight and tried to stop the storm from washing over
him. Taking up the last of his strength he shouted Leia through the
Force, but he knew it was a barely heard whisper. Again and again he
called, but to no response. She was there, that much he could
sense, but she didn't answer.
His consciousness was sinking
beneath the illusions towards a black night. He was exhausted; his
last effort was to pull back inside himself. He was dying, that was
all he knew, that was all that was true. All else was an illusion,
figures conjured from his dreams; from his nightmares.
"I
am dying. Will Leia know?" his thought said, even as it fell
apart. "I can't find the Force. I will truly die, then."
But then his thought fled far away as a black flood took
him.
---
Leia lay, her head resting on Han's
shoulder. The comm beeped for attention as it had done for the past 2
minutes. Couldn't she be free of calls out here? It was probably just
some bureaucrat wanting her advice on some minor point: she could
ignore it. The bed was warm and she was finally relaxed: it could
wait. The noise continued relentlessly, throwing the covers back she
dashed to the unit and hit the "quite" button. She dived
back into bed, curled up tighter and pulled the duvet over her head.
She was not awake.
---
Han was already
dressed when she woke. Pushing scattered hair from her face she
stretched, Han turned and smiled.
"Good night?" He
asked,
"Mmmm" She said, "I haven't slept
like that for ages." She looked out the window; it hadn't
stopped raining yet, but it looked a little brighter. She felt
strange for some reason, something she couldn't quite put her finger
on... Well; it was probably just waking up in a strange bed. Han sat
down next to her.
"Want to guess the time?" Now that
she looked out the window it did look brighter than she would expect
of early morning.
"Enlighten me." She said.
Han
grinned "An hour before noon."
Leia startled... the
meeting!! Han held up a hand before she could speak. "It's okay,
we got a mail last night just before you went bed; their delaying the
meeting to give us time to get settled in the other hotel.
"Thanks
Han."
Han gave her his best confused look "Me?"
"Yes, you...." she said smiling now too.
Han
made a face "Can't keep anything from you can I?" He
stood up and moved to do up his boots.
"No." Leia
said with a straight face as she stepped out of bed. "Where's
the luggage?" She asked after she couldn't find it in any of the
wardrobes.
"Ermm...where we left it in the lounge last
night."
Leia smiled. "Right."
She
opened the huge doors that opened into the lounge area. She spied the
luggage in a corner and walked towards it, something still flicked at
her consciousness but she couldn't focus on it. Out of the corner of
her eye she saw a flashing on the comm unit: incoming message. She
walked over to it, was about to turn it on when she realised she
wasn't exactly dressed to take calls. Pulling out a pair of trousers
and top she hurriedly dressed. Sweeping her hair back behind her head
and tying it in a knot she sat down at the unit and pressed
"receive". One of the girls on the front desk turned to
face her with a professional smile.
"Mrs Antilles?"
She said, using the fake but common name they had given the desk, not
pausing to let Leia answer, "Apparently our records show that
you had a repeated call last night from an unknown source, listed as
urgent."
Urgent? Leia frowned. Maybe it had been more
than a bureaucratic call after all. The woman continued "Would
you like us to notify the source that you are now taking calls?
Although the source is classified, we call still call out and notify
it that you are available."
"Yes please do, thank
you." The woman on screen disappeared and Leia waited for the
call to come in. Han walked in, saw her at the terminal and walked
over.
"What's wrong?" He asked, obviously not at all
surprised that something would be wrong.
"I'm not
sure..." Leia answered. The screen showed a blast of static then
started to rearrange itself.
"Coming from a long way
away." Han muttered.
The face of their 7 year old son
appeared on the screen, "Anakin!" Leia said, surprised, and
then her eyes caught up with her mind: his face was pinched in
anguish and his eyes were red and swollen "Anakin...what's
wrong?" She asked.
"Mom! Where have you been?
What's happened to uncle Luke?" Leia's mind froze.
Luke!
Her mind numbed. That was what had been tugging on her
mind.
Vaguely, she heard Han say "Luke? Luke's fine,
kid."
Leia felt her voice choke in her throat "No,
he's not." She said.
"Mom, I felt... I... he's
gone isn't he?" Leia squeezed her eyes shut.
Somehow,
she knew Anakin was right. Clinging to the chairs arm she stretched
out for her brothers comforting presence: she was no Jedi but she and
Luke had always been ...connected. She stretched but felt only a
black vacuum where he should have been. Nothing. He wasn't
there.
Han looked at Leia, at Anakin; didn't understand what
was going on. Luke was fine, wasn't he?
"Anakin, what's
wrong? Did you have a bad dream?" He asked, not sure what else
could have caused such an emotional reaction in his son.
"No,
I...."
Leia opened her eyes, told herself to breathe,
tried to gather her thoughts, to force down the panic that had
started to rise in her. She breathed deep. Luke had gone out last
night; he hadn't looked too good. No, that wasn't true. Leia had let
Luke leave last night, knowing in her heart that something,
something intangible was wrong. And she had let him go.
Guilt
washed over her, she let herself feel it. What had she done? What had
her selfishness, her need to be with Han, cost her brother?
"Anakin, what did you see?" Anakin blanched from
her gaze, looked at his feet. He didn't want to remember, she
realised. Had it been that bad?
"Anakin..."
"I,
uh-" His voice broke off, squeezing his eyes shut he continued,
"there was rain and woods, trees. I saw Uncle Luke, he wasthere
was pain and confusion. Then he..." The colour drained from his
face,
"Go on honey, we have to know, we have to find
him." Leia urged,
"It hurt." Anakin said at
last, his voice a hoarse whisper, "it hurt and... he was calling
out, mom, but no one was answering. No one came." Then
Leia heard it, it was so well hidden from her that she might not have
felt it; her son was accusing her. Her son blamed her for not
answering Luke. Where had she been that his uncle could not have
reached her?
Where had she been?
"Anakin,
I-" What should she say? That she had been with Han? She shut
her mind from her sons silent hurt.
Luke she thought,
stretching out again to the Force. "I'm going to try and find
him." She heard herself whisper.
It felt strange reaching
out to the Force like this. Whenever she had touched it so deeply
before it had been with Luke. Then he had been a firm presence
guiding her. Now, she felt like she was floundering in the dark.
Locking out all other awareness, she concentrated on the presence of
her brother, what the touch of his mind normally felt like. Tried to
find something, anything familiar. The Force was around her, touching
her as she touched it. It was clear and open to her, but it was vast.
Where to look? She focused on the forest, felt its life beat, scanned
it, searching for a sign, any sign.
Her mind slipped across a
part of the Force that felt burned and confused. It was in turmoil,
the careful balance broken and destroyed. Breathing deep, she tried
to focus closer on it. The Force erupted in chaos around her,
screaming at her but she couldn't understand what it was saying. She
thought she heard Luke whisper, Leia.
She thought she
saw him lying in the mud, the rain heavy, his eyes squeezed shut in
pain. Blood was running down his face
Leia, please.
She felt a black cloud smother her; her brothers'
panicked thoughts fell silent.
Horrified, Leia recoiled from the
vision, her mind adding to the turmoil in the force. It felt
suffocating, closing in on her.
He's dead. It whispered to
her.
And you did nothing to help him.
How
could you?
Leia ran from the Force. She broke out and
gasped for air. Trying her best to mask her face - for Anakin's
sake- she rose shakily out of the chair. Out of view, she let herself
fall to the ground. Han looked at her, then back at
Anakin.
"Anakin." He said, "When was this? When
did you" Dream wasn't the right word "...see
this?"
"About midday here, but I don't know when
that was where you are. Seven hours ago, maybe. Dad, you have to find
him, he-" Han looked at his youngest son, realised that there
could be nothing he could say to him until they found Luke alive,
except perhaps a few words of comfort.
"He'll be all
right, your uncle's a survivor, don't worry. When we find him, you'll
be the first to know." Anakin, looked in to his fathers eyes and
Han was struck -not for the first time- by just how much he resembled
Luke, the fiery intensity behind those eyes....
"Promise?"
"I
promise." He let Anakin close the connection first, then reached
across and turned the screen off. Leia was sat on the floor, head
bowed in her hands. Tentatively, Han touched her shoulder.
"Leia..."
She jumped and whirled around, her face streaked with tears.
"Han,
he's... he's dead. I felt it. Just like Anakin said. And, and he's
not there. Do you understand? He's not there!" He moved
to hold her but she pulled away, "And I didn't feel a thing."
She whispered.
"Leia, you're jumping to conclusions.
We have to go find him. For all you know, that was the future you
saw..." he broke of when he saw the look on Leia's face
"No,
it was the past." She said, more certain of it than she had ever
been of anything in her life. "I saw him, Han. He was bleeding,
and" She didn't know how to describe it "cold."
Han felt desperate. He needed to go out there and find Luke,
but he also needed to be here to comfort Leia. How could she be so
certain of this? How could she trust this...vision...so completely?
Another crazy Jedi thing, probably.
"You're right,"
she said "we have to find him."
Han bit back a
comment about her reading his thoughts; now wasn't the time. She
seemed to pull on some inner strength, started for the door, a
haunted look still in her eyes.
---
The rain
bit at her face and the wind pushed damp, clammy hair into her eyes.
Annoyed, she pushed it out of her way. Her sodden, ruined shoes
skidded along the forest path, struggling to gain a grip on the
treacherous ground, splashing thick mud up her legs. Thrusting sharp
claw-like branches from her path and ignoring the pain if they hit
back at her and contacted when she let go, Leia plunged through the
forest with burning tears running down her cheeks. The rain didn't
help, it blinded her, chilled her, reminded her of her vision. Her
hair lay limp and clinging to her skull, her hands scratched and
bloodied as she forsook haste for speed and the forest undergrowth
ripped at her skin. Pulling herself over the fallen hulk of a huge
tree, and landing in a heap in the clayey mud behind it, she paused
to give her shaken feet a rest.
In the old days, she thought, in
the old days I wouldn't have been hindered by my own clothing:
wouldn't have listened to my aching legs.
In the old days I
wouldn't have realised just exactly what it was that I'd
lost.
Despair and panic swept over her in equal parts as she
thought of Luke lying bloodied and dying somewhere in this forest.
Dying , and she was stopping to catch her breath. Angry and disgusted
at herself, she pushed of from the tree and plunged down the steep
path, only defined by the flowing torrent of mud as it flowed down
the steep hill. She bit back stinging tears. She would not
cry. She was Leia Organa Solo, ex freedom fighter ,president to the
new republic, Princess of the destroyed world of Alderaan, and sister
to man who had taken down Darth Vader: she would not cry. Not until
they found his body, not until she looked into his face and knew he
was dead.
She wondered what could possibly have happened to
him. Luke had always been so secure in her life: sometimes he seemed
invincible: certainly she'd never seen anyone beat in him combat, but
then the vision hadn't felt like he'd been fighting, he seemed more
confused, somehow. What had been so powerful that he hadn't been able
to fight it off?
Han came running down the slope behind her:
shouting her to stop. She barely heard him, the driving wind and rain
throwing his words back at him. The wind seemed to howl through the
trees in mocking laughter. She rubbed tears from her eyes. She would
not cry. The path forked, again. Again she chose on instinct
the path she thought Luke would have taken. She could have stood
before it deliberating over which path was right and still have been
no closer to knowing: still have chosen on impulse. She seemed to
remember Luke's voice. "You have to give the force more
control." He had said that a lot to her in their training
sessions, during the moments she had managed to snatch between
council meetings and diplomatic visits
I'm sorry Luke. I'm
so sorry, she thought into the Force, hoping beyond hope that he
would hear her. Bitterly now did she regret not training fully, it
mixed with the sour taste off the rain, the salt of her tears. She
would not cry.
A huge buttress stuck out into the path.
She caught her foot on it, tripped and fell to the ground. Mud and
water swirled around her, seemed to envelop her. And she longed for
the darkness, for peace from this hell of not knowing, of being so
afraid of what she knew to be true. She welcomed the darkness.
Two
strong hands clasped her under her arms and pulled her to her
feet.
"Leia..." Han said.
Before she had
resisted his comfort, now she collapsed into it, despite the urgency
her mind felt to keep moving. She sobbed. Wrenching, heartfelt sobs
of pain and grief. Tears that tore Han apart as he tried to comfort;
her even as his own mind chased itself in circles. Gathering long,
wet hair in his hands, he held her to him, allowing her pain and loss
to flow through him.
"It'll be all right." He
whispered into her ear. She pulled away from him: small and scared
and frightened.
"No, it won't." She said with
such assurety that Han stayed quite. His cool, confident, independent
Leia broke down into hysterics. "He's not there!!" She
screamed her voice rising high and scratchy "I didn't feel it! I
didn't feel him!! He would have, if it were me! Its my
fault !!!" Rain washed down her faced as she screamed at the
injustice of it all, as she screamed at Force, at the planet, at
herself. Painful guilt and shame washed over her as she allowed
herself to feel what she really felt. It bent her double, made her
want to cry out, but she took it.
"Its my fault."
She whispered at last, falling into Han's embrace.
Rain fell
around them, the promised sun of morning dying under its assault.
At
last Han lifted his head, gently moving Leia from him, he said "Come
on. Lets go back for help." He started to pull back up the path
with him, but she hung back, staring into the forest
"I
can't." She said, "I have to carry on." Her voice
was stronger now, more certain, more true to herself.
"He's
here, somewhere." Her eyes seemed to glaze over. Luke was
powerful, his...pain...when he had died had ripped through the Force,
she thought she could feel a trace of him, a footprint left in the
Force.
"I have to go on." The conviction in her
voice and face, eyes more alert now, lips still pinched in pain but
no longer trembling from inner guilt, was enough to silence any
protest from Han. He nodded and headed back up the path alone.
Struggling past the mud flow, he turned back to look at her.
"We'll
find him, I promise." She watched his lithe figure disappear
into the trees. Leia started to run down the path again after her
brother.
Luke she thought into the void she ran
towards.
The day was dark now, it
didn't feel like noon; more like midnight. And it was cold to. Too
cold.
Muddied and dripping he ran into the hotel lobby. Trying to
orientate himself through the dark cloud that seemed to have
smothered his mind, he ran to the front desk. A young boy, probably
not beyond 20, sat behind the desk, frowning at a computer screen.
Han paced up to the desk and waited for the boy to respond. When he
didn't Han glared at the boys back and coughed loudly.
"Umm,
excuse me?" He said, careful not to exaggerate the 'excuse' bit:
he did need this kids help after all.
"Sorry." The
boy responded "I'll be with you in a minute." Han stood
waiting for a full minute before his patience broke. This was
ridiculous, Luke was out there somewhere, he didn't have time for
this!
"It's important." Han said sharply,
"I
won't be a moment."
Enough talk; he was wasting
time "No, you won't." He said reaching across and
flicking the off switch on the monitor "Now listen up, because I
don't have much time -our friend has gone missing and-"
He
started to tell the boy to contact whatever form of police they had
on this backwater planet, but was interrupted.
"Really."
The boy said testily, his anger eclipsing his youth "and how
long has he been gone?"
Confused, Han answered warily
"About 10 hours."
"Well then, in that case I
can't help. He's not missing."
"What do you
mean he's not missing!? He's not there! " Han
shouted, echoing Leia's words earlier, not in the
mood for this
cat and mouse game
"We have to wait 22 hours before
someone's missing," He said. Seeming very pleased with himself,
he turned the screen back on. His patience gone, Han began to get
angry. This boy was making a game out of Luke's life.
"Fine
you quote rules if you want to. But my friend is out there dying.
Tell me -now- if your going to help him or not cause he doesn't have
another 12 hours to live and I for one am not going to abandon him."
Han's voice must have been sharp; the boy visibly flinched.
"I'm sorry your friend is missing, but-" his voice
got louder as Han looked like he was about to interrupt "but
he's probably collapsed in a bar somewhere or something. Thinking
he's dead is a bit hasty, don't you think?"
The growing
feeling that he was too late was gnawing at Han's consciousness. This
was taking too long. This wasn't going to work. Han was going to have
to reveal their identities to prove to the kid he was serious. He
didn't like that option, decided to give the easy way one last try.
Levelling the blaster square at the boys face he said, "Call for
help. Now." emphasizing every word.
The boy shrank back
from the fire in Han's eyes. Amazing how a blaster pointed at someone
could change their whole perspective on life.
"Uh...yessir...I'll
need details though...."
Han faltered a moment; should he
reveal their true identity? If he did he might get more help. Their
position in the new Republics hall of fame did have its
bonuses, but it would also mean that the media would be out for the
event. "Luke Skywalker's Dead!!!" Would be shouted out
across the galaxy before they had even found a body. His stomach
turned at the thought of finding Luke's body...they had been friends
for so long...the thought stuck sour in his mind, held back by his
minds own defences. Luke was not dead. Could not be
dead.
Han made a decision; there really wasn't any choice.
"Fine: I'll drop the pretence. The person they'll be looking for
is Luke Skywalker."
The boys eyes widened, his hands
trembled over the keyboard. Then his mind seemed to catch up. "Oh,
of course. Well, that's not funny and I'm not laughing."
"Shut
up and listen." Han snapped, thoroughly fed up with the boy's
attitude now. "My name is Han Solo. My wife, Leia, is out there
in the rain now looking for him,"
Terror set into the
boy's face as he recognized Han. Suddenly numbed, the boy muttered
"yessir" and starting tapping furiously at the
keyboard.
---
Han ran back to join Leia,
carrying a comlink so he could keep in touch with the search team,
who hadn't arrived yet. The boy had said ten minutes: it had been
half an hour. Han ran down the gravel track leading to the woods.
Behind him, the boy appeared. "Wait!!" He shouted
into the wind. Han decided to pretend he hadn't heard him, he ran on
"Wait!!! What does he look like!?" Han stopped. That was a
good question. What would Luke look like? He had been holding up a
Force disguise, but would that have dropped? Probably.
The noise
of the rain and the trees moving in the wind almost drowned out the
boys voice "and where do they look?"
Already
drenched though he been in the rain for a few minutes, rain running
down his face and clothes, Han turned to see the figure of the clerk
in the hotel doorway, hopping anxiously from foot to foot.
"I
don't know." He said honestly. For a moment, just a moment, Han
almost saw Luke as he'd first known him: the naive farm boy who took
too many risks. The kid better not be dead. "Anywhere,
everywhere, I don't know!"
His own words brought back to
him the hopelessness of this search. The woodland must cover at least
ten km squared, maybe more. How far had Luke gone? How long was it
before he...before whatever had happened, happened? He didn't know
the answers, he couldn't tell them where to start looking, but he
felt that just to look wasn't enough.
Turning back to stare
into the dark of the forest, he tried to sort out the impossibilities
of the search. Where would a Jedi master go on such a bad night?
Where couldn't a Jedi Master go?
There were no
limits, when it came to Luke, he realised, no limits at all. He
didn't even have had to have stuck to the path at all.
Luke,
being Luke, could be anywhere.
The rain fell harder. His
clothes clung to him, cold and clammy. Something played on the edge
of his consciousness. There was something about all this that
felt wrong somehow. He didn't know how to describe it.
What
was it? His mind screamed, what was it?
He couldn't
think. The rain drove his thoughts out of him. He couldn't think. The
answer seemed to invade his consciousness, seemed to make itself
felt.
He's a Jedi Han went cold " 'where couldn't
a Jedi master go?' " His body froze: horrible, terrible
realization creeping up his spine. He's a Jedi.
No, not
yet anyway. What, now, should he tell the search team? To look for a
nonexistent body? Ben's cloak and saber had remained -had Luke
carried his saber? Putting a hand to his forehead he forced himself
to think back: what had Luke been wearing?
Bright lights swept over the tree tops and swept
towards the hotel. Han recognized the whine of repulsors as dark
shadowy shapes descended to the lawns. A huge wind blew up from the
repulsors, the trees and grass bent in protest. Han held a hand in
front of his eyes and bent his head to keep the flak thrown up by the
wind from going in his eyes. The ships landed with a brief shudder as
Han ran towards them, seeing the clerk do the same. The ramps dropped
and a group of heavily kited men descended to the dark lawn. The
search team had arrived.
"Let me handle this," the
clerk said from behind him " I know them".
He jogged
towards a burly looking man, the man recognized him and his face
broke into a huge grin "Hey! What's this about New Republic
heroes? You think that'll make us get here any quicker, hee?"
The boy looked back at Han, gave him a half hearted smile,
then whispered something in the mans ear. His smile faded to be
replaced by something bordering on embarrassment, something on
disbelief.
"Come on," Han said, braking the silence
"I want to find Leia; this day's getting
darker."
---
The forest had parted into a
slight clearing, the waning sun barely showing through thick black
clouds. The storms had hit, trees bent under the force of the wind,
it was no longer possible to talk to someone stood next to you. It
pushed at them and held them back, the rain blinding their eyes. And
it was getting worse. The search team had come equipped with goggles;
that helped a bit but the rain stilled blurred Han's vision as he
fought his way past the thick undergrowth and into the clearing.
According to the sensors she should be here somewhere-- Han spotted
Leia. She was sat on a stump, gazing absently at her hands, her hair
was forced down and straight by the rain. He couldn't see her face
but he knew she had been crying.
"Leia!" He
shouted, but the wind stopped his words. He struggled through the mud
towards her "Leia!" He shouted in her ear. She jumped and
whirled to face him. The look on her face was surprise. Of course,
she wouldn't recognize him in the goggles. Pealing the goggles from
his face, he said, "I thought we were never going to find you!!"
She just nodded, her throat too numb from the cold to shout
back. "Leia...." Han started, ready now to bring up the
'subject' of Luke's death. He had deliberated on how to tell. Should
he say it outright? Gradually come on to the subject? Or should he
hope to hell that Luke wasn't dead and that they'd find him?
"Its
all right Han. I know." She replied, looking into his eyes with
a haunted expression. "We aren't going to find him are we?"
She was so much sober than she had been earlier: Han had expected
more hysterics: more denial. But he should have known better: she'd
always been strong.
"No, not if he's dead." He
answered truthfully. "But we don't know that he is
dead..."
"Except they can't read any other life
forms in the forest, can they?" She countered solemnly.
"No,"
Han admitted, "but that's not say they're not wrong. The
storms, the wind, even the trees could effect their sensors. Don't
give up." He added as she seemed to slip back into depression.
"I have a hundred men sweeping the forest, and they're well
armed with sensors and night sights. We'll find him."
"If
he's here to be found." She said, but seemed to straighten a
little "Come on. I-"
"Captain Solo!!!" His
comlink screamed at him. Han reached for his belt: then did a retake
as he remembered he'd attached it to his collar so he could hear over
the howling wind "Yes?"
"We've found something
sir..."
"We're on our way." Han said with
renewed hope that he didn't dare feel, grabbing Leia's hand he pulled
her to her feet and ran back into the thick off the forest. Maybe
Luke would be all right after all.
---
Leia
approached the clearing: her mind giddy with hope though at the same
time she tried to remain calm. This was it!!! She knew it was
here that Luke had last been.
She knew.
They
came to a fork: took a sharp right and dived down the path towards
the light of the searchers luma. Leia was aware of a tingling in her
mind as she approached the light. Even as she ran she felt repulsed
from the area... She wanted to slow but Han pulled her on. Hoping it
was nothing Leia ran on. The Force felt louder as they neared the
search team: it murmured around her in confusion: she tried to hear
what they were saying: but, as in the hotel, she couldn't understand.
She frowned. No, it wasn't the Force speaking to her... it wasn't
sentient like that it -she collapsed to the ground: clutching her
head in pain.
She didn't feel the ground as she hit it hard:
didn't feel the mud swell up around her: didn't hear Han's sharp cry
or feel it as she dropped his hand, but she did feel one thing: she
felt Luke. It wasn't as vague as before: she didn't have to search
for it: instead she heard it clearly and this time she understood
It
was like a vision: but not a vision: more like a dream where
everything fell into one. Vividly she felt his panic as if it were
her own: felt too the...something that ran in his veins, burned at
him. She felt his fear, saw him fall, collapsing to the ground with a
cry of pain. Images assaulted her: Ben Kenobi: the Emperor, herself,
accusing and full of hate and grief. Finally she felt him call to
her, felt despair at not being able to wake her, and then she felt
nothing. She gasped for air: felt her cold sweat as if she'd
just come out of a nightmare.
Someone was calling her name.
Who? "Leia!" She heard "Leia are you okay?" She
tried to see who had said it, realised her eyes were shut. Han stared
at her in concern.
"Yes," she managed, "yes,
I..." she broke of as she saw what the man behind Han held. A
cold lump formed in the back of her throat. Han turned to look at
what was she was staring at.
Luke's lightsaber.
He
looked with lost hope at the searcher holding it. The man, seeing his
grief said "We, ermm, also found a black tunic and such."
Han didn't want to but he had to ask: Leia was too dumb
struck to speak.
"Did you" his voice cracked
"umm...did you find a body?"
"No, sir, but
we're still looking."
Leia shook, scared and feeling very
much alone. She reached for Luke's saber. "May I?" she
managed to say.
"Oh, of course." The man said,
handing the saber over.
She held in her hands, gripped it
tight, never willing to let go. Tears welled in her eyes. He was
dead. She'd known it all along, but the thought struck at
her.
He was dead.
She had said she would not
cry, not until she had found the body and looked into his eyes and
known that he was dead. But she was denied even that.
Tired,
exhausted, racked with grief she let herself fall to floor, closed
her eyes and clutched his saber to her
Luke, no! She
felt the tears and didn't deny them any longer. No!!
---
Leia
allowed the medic to run a scanner over her. She stared out at the
mottled backdrop of hyperspace outside the medical wing's
window. Han had insisted they check her over. Leia knew there was
nothing wrong with her. Well, not physically anyway. It had been
three days now, three days. It felt so fresh still. She could still
see him; still feel him as he- her mind still choked on the word. In
time, she would learn to accept what had happened. In time.
"Well,"
the medic said, drawing Leia's attention away from the view port.
"Your clear. I've run a full chemical analysis and virus scan:
there's nothing. I think we can safely say, your going to be fine."
She gave Leia a warming smile, Leia managed a slight smile in return,
but she didn't feel it. She'd known she didn't have whatever had
killed Luke, she'd be dead by now if she did. But her collapse
in the forest had worried people, despite her urging that it was from
the vision: nothing else. Every member of the search team had been
scanned, though it felt like Leia had had to spend the most time
here. She rubbed at the synthflesh that covered a long cut in her
leg: where the forest had fought back against her.
The medical
bay door opened, and Han stepped in. She managed a wider smile for
him, "How are you feeling?" He asked cheerfully, sitting on
the end of her bed.
"I'm okay I guess," she
answered, almost truthfully "though it gets a little lonely in
here."
Han nodded; he'd had the same treatment yesterday
and knew what she was talking about. "Don't worry, you'll be out
by tonight."
"I hope so, there's not much to do
around here. They wont even let me watch the holovid channels"
she smiled ryely: but Han looked away sheepishly.
Leia
frowned "Han...?"
"I, ah, I.... that might be
my fault. I didn't think you'd really want to see what the news is at
the moment."
Leia's face fell in recognition.
"Oh.
Thank you." No, she wouldn't have liked to have switched it on
to find Luke's death still blaring across every channel. She could
just imagine the tacky tributes. Old news footage endlessly repeated,
with hurried, trashy biographies. No, she wouldn't have wanted to see
them "They're still trying to find out what happened?"
Han hadn't expected the question. So far Leia seemed to be
handling this whole mess by not mentioning it. To Han that had seemed
out of character but he'd accepted it all the same. He didn't expect
such an outright question,
"They're analysing his
clothes and lightsaber now; trace elements test, that kind of thing.
But, Leia, I think you have to realize that they probably wont find
anything. It was raining pretty hard, anything important probably got
washed away."
"Yes I know, but at least they're
trying."
Han knew what she meant; until he had told them
who they were looking for, the search teams hadn't been all that
cooperative. He was glad the whole thing was in New Republic hands
now.
"I think we should just wait and see. What are you
going to do now?" He probably shouldn't have asked her this yet,
but Leia just straightened.
"I suppose I'm going to get
on with my life. It hurts, Han, but I still have you, and the kids,
and everyone. Its, just...I never expected him to die like that."
She looked straight into his eyes "You think of Luke Skywalker
and you think of a naive farm boy blowing up a death star, of dozens
of dog fights with impossible odds that he somehow survived. Of our
father and the Emperor. Of the academy, and how he overcame every
problem thrown at him. You see him as lucky, the great thing's he's
done as one never-ending story. You don't realize that one day it has
to end, that he can't go on forever. I knew that. We are all
going to die, aren't we? But Luke not like that. Not by
some stupid bloody insect bite, or venom or whatever the hell it
was!" She breathed deep, calming herself "I...I always
thought he'd die for some great cause, or that he'd grow old with me
and we'd sit around the table laughing at things that used to
terrify us. I never thought of him dying like that...."
She trailed off.
Han looked at her and understood. She was
right, he knew, the idea of him dying for something so meaningless
just didn't feel right, but there was nothing to be done about it.
The kid was dead, and there wasn't a damn thing he could do.
An
idea struck him "Maybe, maybe you'll see him again..." He
said cautiously.
"What?" Leia said,
confused.
"Well, didn't Obi-Wan always used to come
pestering Luke, and you've seen your father, right? Maybe, maybe Luke
can do the same..." Leia brightened. Maybe she would see him
again.... maybe.... Luke was certainly as strong as Obi-Wan had been.
Well, she frowned, she thought he had been, but then Obi-Wan had
never really shown his true powers had he? No, Luke was certainly as
strong as their father had been, wasn't he?
She hoped so, Luke
she thought please hear me, please tell me what
happened.
"Maybe..." She said.
This was ridiculous: she couldn't
read this speech any longer, full of "his death was tragic"'s
and "we shall all miss him"'s .
She started to
say something about the academy, but choked on her words. She
couldn't say any more. She stared down at the speech she was meant to
be reading, saw tears fall on the screen's readout, blurring it.
She looked back up at her audience. Silence. Several hundred people
fidgeted, several thousands smiled in sympathy. She imagined the
thousands watching her close up on a holo screen all over the galaxy.
She felt like letting her knees give way and falling into her tears
like her body commanded her to do. But she wouldn't. That was not the
answer. No she realised that this wasn't about a nice, wrapped
up little speech to appease the New Republic's citizens, this wasn't
about them at all this was about Her. This was about Luke.
She looked one last time at her speech, officials walked towards her:
probably to pull off screen before millions witnessed the Chief of
State's breakdown to tears.
With a wave of her hand she
sent them away. She threw the data pad down, and looked directly into
the cameras "That datapad held a speech about Luke Skywalker,
about how much he did for all of us. It was about one of the best
pilots this galaxy he's seen, it was about the Jedi knight who freed
us all of Palpatine and many other people who have seen fit to want
his power, about the Jedi master who rebuilt the Jedi out of nothing.
But it wasn't about my brother." she leaned closer to the
cameras "Perhaps it is my duty to tell you all of what Luke did
for us: but you all know it already. I would rather talk about,
rather remember, my brother. Luke meant a lot to me. Much more than a
lot. I loved him as dearly as I do my husband and children. "
In the background, Han clutched Anakin's hand harder and the
twins face's grew harder.
"I never knew I had a
brother, not for 22 years of my life." An advisor in the
background shook his head furiously at her: they had agreed that
there would be no talk of their heritage, "When I found out Luke
was my twin, it was like having my eyes opened for the first time.
Though we had only been connected through a terrible knowledge about
our father I have never, not for one day, regretted having a twin. We
were already close, but this made us closer.
He was always
there for you: for what he believed in, but he was much more than
just a two-dimensional hero, much more than a list of battles we won
because of him, much more than his victories. He was my brother, and
a good friend, and if he hadn't done all these things, hadn't helped
us so many times, I wouldn't have loved him less, and I couldn't miss
him more."
She stepped down to silence, had she gone
about this wrong? Maybe she shouldn't have mentioned their father.
The whole chamber erupted into clapping, everyone rose to their feet
and cheered, halfway down from the podium Leia turned to look at the
people. They all clapped her. Wedge grinned broadly and winked at
her. She smiled: the first real smile she had smiled since his
death.
---
Han walked with Lando towards his
and Leia's suite. "That was some speech." Lando said, a
touch of admiration in his voice. "She had guts to do that. If
it had gone wrong, the council would have wanted her neck for
bringing up Vader again."
"Ah, well, she must have
spent too much time around me." Han said, but then turned
serious "I hope she got through to a lot of people out there, a
lot of people in the Republic are using Luke's death for publicity."
Han didn't say it but Lando knew who he meant: the military. Blatant
"Are you the next Luke Skywalker?" campaigns trying to get
kids to sign on. What a mess.
"So where do you go from
here?" Lando said.
Han frowned "I don't know. You
know, if you'd asked me what I was going to do next a couple of weeks
ago and I'd said I didn't know, it probably would have had something
more to do with me and Leia not getting on. This whole mess has
brought us closer together."
"One positive thing I
suppose."
"Don't even say it, Lando."
"Any
news from the labs yet?"
"No, the waits starting to
kill me."
Lando stopped and looked at his friend "You
don't think it was an accident, do you?"
"I'm not
saying anything, its just Luke, dying from a bug bite? Luke?
It just doesn't seem real. He'd have known wouldn't he?"
"Why
don't you ask Streen or Kyp?"
"I have: they're
nowhere near as trained or as strong as Luke was: but they still say
that he probably should have known."
Lando turned
serious, "Han do you realize what your saying? If a bug didn't
kill him, who did?"
"I don't know" Han's said
quietly, "I really don't know."
---
Leia
sat trying to reach the force deep enough to call for Luke. Back on
the medical frigate, after they had left Cassrine, Han had suggested
that Luke might be able to manifest himself to her like Obi-Wan had
been able to. So far there had been nothing. Leia had thought that he
would have come to say good-bye at the least. Hadn't he realised how
bad she felt? He had to know: didn't he?
Luke?
It
made no sense: why didn't he come? Well, Luke had said that Obi Wan
didn't always come when Luke needed him. Maybe it couldn't be helped.
He would come one day though. He had to.
---
Han
strode down the corridor, letting Leia be alone with her for thoughts
for a while. She was taking this badly, but the kids were taking it
worse: they'd been very close to their uncle. Han sighed: he'd always
thought that one day Luke would have taught them about the Force, now
he guessed that would be up to Streen or Tionne or someone: the Jedi
no longer had a Master.
A young woman ran towards Han,
shouting his name. He stopped to let her catch up. "Captain
Solo!" she said, "I've been calling you for
ages!"
"Sorry." he said "I guess I've got
a lot on my mind," she flinched "Sorry, I didn't mean it to
sound like that. What can I do for you?"
She regained her
composure "We have the results of Jedi Skywalker's clothes and
lightsaber, if you want to view them."
Han was shocked.
That was quick, even considering all the pressure from the
press. Despite what he'd said a few days ago about the wait for the
results, he really hadn't expected them yet.
"Where are
they?" he asked her.
"I'll show you," she
gestured for him to follow and headed back up the hall way. Maybe now
they would get some answers. The young woman led him up to the
science labs, "Doctor Hall." she said and started to turn.
Seeing the lack of recognition on Han's face she said "Over
there." and pointed to a woman with steely grey hair tied up
tight on her head, bending over a computer read-out.
"Thank
you" Han said and walked towards the doctor "Uh... Excuse
me?"
The woman whirled around to meet him "Ah,
Captain Solo?" she said, "We've analysed the evidence you
sent us."
He didn't like the way she used the word
'evidence'. She strolled over to a different screen and starting
punching keys "We had a tough time getting any readings at all:
they were washed clean. But this is what we did find."
The
screen showed an array of long chemical names that Han didn't
recognize, except one: "Spice?!" he said, recognizing its
chemical name. Shock turned to anger Are you sure?"
"Yes,
but it was only on the clothes."
"I find that very
hard to believe." Han said, his voice bordering on suspicion.
Spice
"Luke would never have touched that stuff."
He said
"Oh, maybe not, but you see, these garments were
not bagged as soon as they were found so it is entirely possible that
Skywalker never touched the stuff." She turned her intense glare
on Han "But its also possible that he Did."
This
was ridiculous; he knew Luke hadn't taken any spice. Han had
been with him the whole time they had been on Cassrine, and besides;
where would Luke have got any? He'd been ill ever since they'd
arrived at the spaceport... An idea crossed his mind something Luke
had once told him about spice and another drug. He turned to the
scientist.
"What would happen if you combined any of
these chemicals with spice?" he asked.
"We looked in
to that," she said "but not a lot as far as we can
see"
"But have you looked into what it would
do to a Jedi?" He asked, trying to remain patient, if he was
right about this...
"No." she frowned "I don't
think we'll have any records on it...though I can try."
Han
tried to remember the other chemicals name...the memory clicked: "Is
one of those chemicals more commonly known as Glastine?"
"Yes,
this one. She pointed to a chemical name, "but I don't
see-"
"Then you don't need to do any research,
that's why he died." He swore under his breath.
"I
don't understand," she said, it was her turn to be
impatient now.
He looked at Hall, from the scowl on her face
he realised that his sudden conviction probably sounded just a little
crazy given he hadn't really explained it yet.
"Luke once
told me that if you put spice and Glastine together its a concoction
that, umm " Han didn't know how to put it, "that
amplifies the Force, for ordinary people it just gives them a high as
they think they can touch the Force but it would send you mad
if you were a Jedi." He waited for her to object but instead she
just stared at him "Luke knew that! He'd never have taken
the two, especially not together. And look at the quantities: their
almost identical...."
"That still doesn't explain
why he died...surely that wouldn't kill him."
"No,
it wouldn't, but would any of these chemicals be dangerous?" He
asked.
"We're still waiting for analysis on a few samples
that we think we're the poison of some local insects, it looks like
this one," she pointed "or this one, could have been
lethal, but their still looking into it back at Cassrine. I think
these are your killers, not the spice."
"I'm not
saying the spice killed him, I think maybe it was a distraction so
that he didn't notice the real drug at work."
"Or
the infamous Jedi wasn't as morally sound as we were all lead to
believe, and the spice was his. You don't need the spice for the
venom to have worked. It would have worked alone."
Han
was starting to get furious at what she was implying. Luke would not
have taken spice. "Look, he's a Jedi, right?" Han said "He
probably would have known about any insect venom if he had it in him,
but if he was distracted by the effects of the spice, then maybe he
didn't find out until it was too late." He let what he was
saying sink in.
"You think someone put together a soup of
spice, Glastine and this venom and somehow injected him with
it?"
"Yes! And it would have felt like an
insect bite too: he probably wouldn't have thought about it at the
time"
"It's possible," she admitted coolly
"but it could just be the venom and-"
"No."
Han interrupted her "He would have felt it if it was that. He
had to have been distracted so it would have worked."
"Do
you realize what you saying? Somebody murdered Luke Skywalker. That
is not going to go down well in the senate."
"I
don't care how it goes down. Luke was murdered," he
looked at the screen "can I have a readout of that?" He
asked.
"Sure." She shrugged "Why?"
"I
don't know. It might help." He ripped off the sheet as it
finished printing "What are you going to put in your report?"
He asked.
"I'm not sure yet. I need to think about
this some more." She stared thoughtfully at the readings in
Han's hand.
"Well, make sure I get a copy when you've
finished. I don't like this one bit."
---
Han
stepped into the huge docking bay at Coruscant's main spaceport.
Hoping that he wasn't too late he peered around the bay until he
spotted a small innocuous looking ship in a corner. Innocent looking
enough, but Han would bet that, given its owner, it had a sting
behind that unpresuming facade.
Quickening his step he walked
towards the ship, aware that there were probably several trigger
happy 'employees' watching him with charged blasters, he tried to
look relaxed. Han continued the mental battle he'd been fighting all
day. Leia didn't know he was here, she thought he was out tweaking
(or hitting) the Falcon's alluvial dampers into shape. They had
been playing up lately. It was a good excuse to get out. It was also
a lie.
Well, Han had told enough lies in his life, a lot
bigger ones than this and not always in a 'good cause'. It wasn't the
lie that bothered him. It was if Leia found out who he was with that
he worried about: or rather: why he was with them. Luke had been her
brother, her twin. They had almost been closer than that,
probably if they hadn't been separated for over half their lives they
would have been inseparable. Would have been. But the kid was dead,
and Leia was taking it like hell. It had been weeks and she was still
running round like he'd died yesterday. Han sighed. Yeah, it hurt
when he thought of Luke as being dead. It didn't seem real somehow.
But it was, and there wasn't a thing he could do about it. And now he
was here, chasing a hunch that probably wouldn't lead anywhere, but
that his conscience wouldn't let lie. If Leia found out there was a
chance, just a chance that he was murdered, it would break her heart.
So he was here racked with guilt at not telling her and hoping that
if he was right she would forgive him
A tall dark man appeared
from behind the ship, blaster holstered and hands free.
"Solo."
He greeted Han, "Good to see you again."
"And
you Karrde." Han replied.
"Been keeping well?"
Talon asked casually.
"What do you think?" Han said
bitterly.
"Ah yes, I was sorry to hear about Skywalker. I
had always admired his... capabilities." Karrde nodded at the
far shadows of the bay. A man Han hadn't known had been there stepped
into the light and holstered his blaster "Chin, continue
prepping the ship. I want to be out of here in ten minutes."
several other men appeared from the shadows and left the bay with
Chin to go unload some 'goods'.
Karrde turned to Han, "Solo,
I am sorry to hear about Luke's death. I'd always counted him as a
friend." Han waited for Karrde to continue "I came to,
amongst other things, offer my condolences to your wife, and to bring
a warning."
A warning? Han hadn't expected this.
When Karrde had called Han last night to arrange a meeting Han hadn't
known what it was about but he had decided to use the opportunity to
see if he knew anything about Luke's death.
"We
shouldn't talk about these things here but I have been getting some
strange reports out of some of the rim worlds. I thought that in the
New Republics present state of demilitarisation you might not have
heard."
He didn't say it but Han heard it all the same:
Luke's sudden death had caught the Republic unprepared and Leia
wasn't the only one still reeling from the shock, the whole republic
was still picking itself up off the floor.
It would have been
a great distraction, Han thought.
"What kind of reports?"
He asked.
Karrde shook his head "Not here. Meet me at
Byphssm in a standard week." He eyed the bay warily, "I
don't think I entirely trust this spaceport's security."
Han
couldn't leave Leia now, but Karrde sounded serious, and it was
unlike him to overreact to anything. Besides, Byphssm was far enough
outside republic territory that Han might escape all those tacky
tributes that littered the news channels, "Okay Karrde, I'll
trust you just this once."
"Glad to hear it.
Byphssm, Solo, and don't be late."
Han watched Karrde
stalk aboard his ship, wondering if he was doing the right thing. He
grimaced. Probably not, but then that had never stopped him
before.
---
Han sat slumped in a chair in their
lounge. Leia looked out of their bedroom door at his sleeping form.
Probably she should wake him: he'd disappeared earlier that day, and
then called later to say he was going to do some work on the falcon.
Leia had taken an early night. Han must have come back in while she
was asleep and not made it to bed before dropping off. She crept up
to him, intending to wake him with a good-natured gibe, but she saw
something that interested her on the table in front of him.
Papers:
some sort analytical report. Leia frowned wondering what Han was
doing with a science report.
Moving carefully past his
sleeping head and stepping over his feat she snatched the papers from
the table and got a look at the title:
Though I have no authority in such matters I would
suggest that the subjects death should not be treated as the result
of natural causes or as being accidental."
"Han." She said. He
moaned slightly in response "Han!" She said louder. "Wake
up!"
The door to the twin's room opened, "Mom?"
Jaina's voice asked.
Leia gave herself a heartbeat to
bring down her tone "Its okay honey: go back to bed." She
said.
"But-"
"It's okay really,"
she opened her eyes and looked at Jaina's frightened face "Go
back to bed," Jaina looked like she was about to protest but
then moved back into her room and shut the door. "Han." She
said sharply but quieter now.
He came awake with a groan
"Leia? What time is it?"
She fumed, standing over
him, fire burning behind her eyes. Confused for a moment as he was
still waking Han looked around, and spotted the papers lying
scattered on the floor. Leia, seeing where he was looking, gave him a
questioning look.
"Ah."
"No excuses Han.
The truth; why didn't you show me this as soon as you got it. It's
dated yesterday for crying out loud! Why didn't you tell
me?" Remembering the children she tried to keep her voice
quite.
Han moved to sit up and looked into her eyes. "I'm
sorry, I just didn't think you needed to know it, not yet
anyway."
"What do you mean 'not yet' when were you
planning on telling me?"
"Look, Leia, I didn't want
to frighten you. I-" he stopped and looked at her. "I-"
"Oh,
never mind." She interrupted him "It doesn't really matter
any more." She slumped into a chair.
"Murdered."
She whispered shaking her head slightly in disbelief.
"Leia,
I've been trying to figure out who could have done it, and
well, there are a lot of people who are... uh, were pretty mad with
Luke. I just can't figure out who it would be."
Leia
nodded. A question came into her mind "How did you know what
spice and gasrine do? I hadn't heard that before."
Han
shrugged "Luke told me. We were travelling to Creish Station
when he got me talking about some of my old smuggling days. I
mentioned that I'd smuggled the two together. That's when he told me
about them."
Leia seemed to take that in. Suddenly she
tensed, and looked straight at Han "What?" He asked.
"Han,
you don't think? "
"Don't think what?"
She
swallowed "That we were drugged so that I wouldn't hear him
calling?"
Han stared at her. Of course, but they hadn't
found anything in the tests onboard the medical frigate, had they?
"But nothing showed up on your scan."
"Well, I
wasn't scanned until 3 days after he died. It could have been a very
short lived drug."
"Just a knock out drug would do
it." He agreed.
Leia felt like a weight she hadn't even
known was there before had been lifted off her shoulders. It wasn't
her fault that he'd died. Somehow, it was a relief though at the same
time she didn't want to think off him as being murdered. Finally she
would be able to look Anakin in the eye again, would be able to hope
that her son trusted her again. She sighed. "I hope it's
worth it." She whispered under her breath.
---
Han
had two days before he'd have to set of to meet Karrde at Byphssm,
and he still hadn't told Leia. Considering how badly shed taken it
when she'd found the reports two days ago, he wasn't looking
forward to it. Still; it had to be done. But first, he really had to
get those alluvial dampers fixed or the Falcon wasn't going
anywhere fast. Caught up in his own thoughts, Han didn't notice the
large furry form that come charging around the corner. They ploughed
straight into each other.
"Hey! Watch it you- Chewie!!"
Chewbacca howled in recognition and gave Han a bear hug.
"Okay
pal, okay. Where have you been? I sent the message weeks ago."
Chewie looked downcast at that, howled mournfully.
"Aw,
Chewie I didn't mean it like that. Its just, well, we've been having
a tough time of it lately." That seemed to work only to depress
the wookiee even further .
"But where have you been?"
Han asked, less sharply this time. Chewie howled something about
being out in the forest with his son. Kasyyuuk's transponders
had been down for two weeks and all the backlog of messages and mails
had brought it down again when they'd finally got it up. Chewie had
only found out about Luke's death by overhearing a conversation as he
came back from the trek. He'd rushed to check his messages, and found
Han's.
"That's okay pal, I understand. I was considering
coming out and getting you, guess I probably should have done from
the sound of it."
Chewie howled something. "Leia's
not holding up to well and neither are the kids, though for Jacen it
hasn't seemed to have sunk in yet. He thinks his uncle's just off at
the academy again." He shook his head sadly.
"You
would have loved the memorial service though, Leia threw out the
speech and did her own thing..." He trailed off. His best friend
had just learnt about Luke's death and all he could do was talk about
the memorial service. "Damn it, Chewie! It just doesn't seem
real. He can't be dead; it's just not possible. I keep running
it over in my head and it's all wrong somehow."
Chewie
looked at his friend sympathetically. When he'd first heard of Luke's
death he had been distraught. He'd been ready to tear arms off the
first person to get in his way. But when he'd found out it was from
an insect bite -of all things- he'd been incredulous. Han gave
him a strange look "Chewie, its not that simple. I think he was
murdered."
Chewie just stared at him, howled something at
him "I don't know who, pal, if I did do you think I'd still
be hanging around here? I've got the report." He showed a pile
of well thumbed papers to Chewie "It's not much use,
really, but I've been going over it anyway."
Chewie
looked around the open corridor, howled a question "Yeah, your
probably right: we shouldn't discuss this in the open. Come
on."
---
The bar was a dive. The bar
tender scowled as Han and Chewie entered. Han wondered if it was
because he recognized them or because he didn't. They pushed their
way to a back booth, it was cheap furniture: a lot like the cantina
in Mos Eisley, Han frowned at the memory: regretted thinking about
it, seeing Luke, the wide-eyed flying farm boy, for the first time.
"H'okay." He said as they sat down. "This is
what we've got."
He let Chewie study the report whilst
he drank and stared around at the patrons. Most we're non-human, and
those that were human didn't look all that savory. Most were huddled
in little discussion groups, telling well-worn stories of miraculous
escapes and daring feats: all well animated by hand movements and
cheers from their companions. Others just sat in a dark corner on
their own, looking out soberly (or not so soberly) at the
bar.
Chewie whuffled and growled as he read the report. When
he'd finished Han said, "So what do you think, pal?"
Chewie
growled and looked like he was going to rip arms of the nearest
available sentient.
"Easy, Chewie. I know it hurts, but
we've got to figure out who did it before the trail goes cold."
and before I get tangled up in whatever mess Karrde has dug up,
he thought. Chewie howled something "Yeah, Luke did make a lot
of enemies: that's the problem." He took the report off
Chewie. "Maybe there's something here we're not seeing." He
said slowly, scowling at the black and white pages Chewie howled
doubtfully "Something really obvious."
He shook his
head. "But I've been over it hundreds of times! So have the guys
at the military: none of us can find any clues. Ah, well, I guess we
try again, hey? Go get us another drink whilst I start reading
through all the bureaucratic stuff to see if there's any facts
underneath."
As Chewie left to try and get another drink
from the bartender Han started the report. It hadn't changed since
the last time he'd read it. He read the introduction: the description
of the tests used, and had just got onto the non specialized facts
when chewy pushed himself back into their cubicle. "Thanks,
Chewie." He said as Chewie sat opposite. He said something,
"No, I-" Han stiffened and stopped the mid
sentence.
Chewie howled excitedly "I don't know, its
just...something... "
He read the facts again mass,
colour, trace elements, age... Han stopped. Age? He read it again "No
older than 1 year." He said out-loud.
Chewie asked.
"No older than one year." Han
repeated.
Luke
just shrugged "2 or 3 years. They're just more
comfortable."
"Well just have to sweet-talk them I
guess" she replied and stepped into the huge hallway.
No, they cant, he thought. Chewie said
something slowly "But if they aren't Luke's clothes then..."
he looked up into Chewie's face "If they aren't his clothes
he doesn't have to be dead!" He shouted, as realisation set
in
"It was a set up Chewie. A damn set up. He's not
dead!"
Chewie howled for him to calm down, not because
the whole bar was staring at them, but because he couldn't let
himself believe it.
"No Chewie, what other explanation
is there? Those can't have been his clothes. It's not
possible. He's alive."
---
Luke drifted:
his mind felt the cool touch of darkness break over him. The depth of
the Force returned to his mind and he felt it wash across his mind,
driving him back towards the darkness. I am drowning.
It
showed him images, thing's he'd never known. A woman's face, tear
streaked but laced with joy: flesh torn from flesh. Leia. He knew. He
was taken; torn from her, he felt her crying out to him as the
distance broke their link. She was taken to Alderaan and initiated
into the royal family. He was thrown unceremoniously into the arms of
the Lars. A farm boy. Raised to be poor and a nobody. She revealed in
wealth. He worked for nothing.
Was he bitter? He'd never felt
jealousy towards the differences in where they were sent before. Yes,
he realised, he was bitter. She had had everything: he'd had nothing.
He couldn't understand why his mother had let him go, tossed him
aside so easily but stayed with Leia. He felt rejected and alone. Now
Leia's spirit cried out to him, he tried to shut it out, shut it up.
Tried to wrap his arms around the screaming the child. Put his hand
across her mouth so she wouldn't scream, close her eyes so she
wouldn't cry. But the pain was too deep and she cried louder. He
tried to hide but there was in no way he could hide from what was in
his mind. She hurt. Her agony cried to him now and his spirit cried
with her. He tried to stop it but it was loud and his mind demanded
that he cradle it, hold it to him, to give it solace.
Leia
His mind stretched out of the dark to his twin, searching for the
crying child, but he found only echoes of the past, a turmoil where
her emotions had stretched thoughts to him. He felt himself slipping
back towards the dark.
The light beckoned and he clung to it.
Senses flooded back to him. His body ached, his head screamed. He
tried to lift a hand to it. He couldn't. Confused, he fought with his
eyes to see why. Bright white light burned him as he forced them to
open. To see. He shut it out and concentrated on what he could see.
He couldn't move his head, panicking he reached out with the Force to
see why.
He was held in place by hands and feet tied to the
table, but his head was covered. He couldn't feel the air on his face
he realized, couldn't hear himself breathing. Forcing down his fears
he let himself fall into the Force and see himself. His body was
limp, unmoving on the table surrounded by darkness lit by white
lights. He wore the same clothes he had worn on Cassrine. Cassrine?
What had happened?
Then he saw his head and reeled in shock.
Wires and metal supports ran to a metal plate that surrounded the top
half of his head, like a living thing they circled his head,
intertwining and in places reaching for his flesh. He reached out to
pull at the unit, but it wouldn't budge: the wires would not be
freed.
A slight noise caught his attention and he stared in
horror as a metal point reached for his exposed head. His mind fell
back from the Force and he lay, panicking but not moving, hearing the
noise loud and throbbing in his ears. Felt the metal point touch soft
weak skin, and felt no more.
---
The huge ship
cut through space. Roughly oval with huge blisters on its front, the
cruiser bristled with ion cannons and turbolaser emplacements. The
sleek hull curved around the front of the ship reaching the layered
bottom of the ship with landing bays and tractor ports. The huge
drive at the back glowed blue and hummed with fresh power. Backlit by
a swirling gas giant it reoriented itself and swung around to polar
north, and with a kick and flare of puesudo-motion it jumped into
hyperspace.
The mottled starscape was reflected on the battle
cruisers main bridge on the viewscreen. Elder Fr'h'tokh smiled in
anticipation. Victory. He could smell it. At last the waiting was
over, they were free to attack, and the Elder was sure the Admiral
would carry out his orders swiftly and effectively, and he was sure
they would win. Ssi-ruuk did not show any emotion, but if it were
possible Fr'h'tokh would have smiled. 14 years ago they had sent out
their first attack force at this galaxy's emperor's invitation.
Fr'h'tokh relished in the irony of it. A human had introduced the
ssi-ruuk to these worlds, and the ssi-ruuk would take all they had to
offer. Quite conveniently the races of this galaxy had solved the
small problem of repaying the invitation in battle droids -as had
been agreed with their emperor- not that His Potency the Shreeftut
had ever intended to carry out the agreement, the Elder thought, but
at least it was one less detail to take care of.
Yes, 14
years ago a scout force had been sent to discover the defensive
capabilities of these systems, when that scout force had not returned
it had been rumoured that the humans were obviously greatly
underestimated and, since all ssi-ruuk feared dying away from
consecrated land, His Potency had delayed all attacks until further
news could be brought. Then, some 4 years ago a lone escape pod had
been found on the outside of ssi-ruuk territory, the story of the
invasion's failure had reopened old wounds but it had also inspired
new spirit in the people. They heard how the escape pods had been
meticulously destroyed, that there had been no attempts to take
prisoners or stop so many ssi-ruuvi lives going to waste. The news
had outraged the populace. Fr'h'tokh thought fondly of that time: he
had orchestrated many of the propaganda reports against these races
and encouraged more of his people to sign on. He had brought
his people this far.
The young ssi-ruuk's story had been
elevated into legendary status, the boy hailed as a hero as they
heard of his escape by hiding in battle debris waiting for his chance
to jump into hyperspace, of how the hot debris had burned out his
hyperdrive so that he was kicked back into normal space years away
from ssi-ruuvi territory, and how he had survived by going into
suspended animation for ten years. It had been 4 long years of
preparation, but it had been worth it: tacticians had studied deeply
all the young hero had to offer: forcing every little fact out of the
boy (this, of course, had not been shown to the populace) about the
Skywalker project. Unfortunately the boy had only been an underling:
but the information he had been able to provide had told them enough.
And now they were ready to attack, and their greatest hopes had been
realized.
The plan had taken almost a year to formalize: but it
was perfect in every sense: and so far, it was working.
Their
greatest hope for the upcoming battles lay sedated below decks.
A
small P'w'eck whistled at Fr'h'tokh. He looked at it in disdain; the
soulless creatures were almost as detestable as the humans. "Elder"
it whistled, "Master Swh'hr'ring wishes to speak with you."
He
stepped over to the comm and gave his authorization code. The face of
the slightly younger ssi-ruuk from the warrior cast that dominated
the military appeared before him, Swh'hr'ring honked in excitement
"Elder" he said, "the human has awoken at last."
his long tongue flicked in anticipation
"The operation
went well?" Fr'h'tokh asked, showing none of Swh'hr'ring's lack
of control. Emotions were such basic things. But Swh'hr'ring could be
perhaps forgiven; there had been a while when they had feared
that
Skywalker would not survive the drugs they had given him
on Cassrine.
"Very well, elder, all indications show that
it will work perfectly. I ask now to proceed to the next step within
the entechment room."
Swh'hr'ring was excited, but it
was best not to become too hasty. There were many battles yet to be
won. "You are certain that the implant will have no adverse
effects?"
The other ssi-ruuk looked a little downcast at
that "We won't be able to tell that until it is tested."
He said, obviously eager to begin testing.
"Not yet, we
we'll wait a few hours, a few days maybe, before testing. I want to
be absolutely certain Skywalker's brain does not reject the implant."
He brought up star maps of the surrounding systems. They
showed chart projections and unknown areas; for all their research
the ssi-ruuvi had still a lot to learn about this region of space.
All the same, the Elder spotted a likely target. "Yes, we will
wait a few days before testing. First, we still need to pick up some
more supplies. We need to make an assault on an outpost on the edge
of their territory with the resources we need." He took a moment
to scan the chart some more "There's one just a few light years
from here. Sele. After that, he should have had plenty of time for
rest and we can proceed with the tests. Monitor the human and inform
me of any change." Swh'hr'ring nodded eagerly and Fr'h'tokh cut
of the connection.
Yes, he could indeed taste victory.
Han
scowled at his co-pilot "I was getting around to it."
He said " I didn't just come here because you asked me to,
Karrde. I need your help. I need you to see if you can't come up
with some information. "
"Really. Cash or
account?"
Han scowled again. "Considering I'm about
to run off to get the military to help you with your missing systems
neither would be my choice."
"A joke, Solo. Just a
joke. How can I help?"
"We've found evidence that
Luke's death was a fake." Karrde's face remained neutral though
his body language belied some surprise "We think it was a set
up. I was hoping you might be able to help us find out what happened.
We have no idea where he could be,"
"You think he's
alive?"
"Yes, and he might need help, because
wherever he is, Leia can't find him."
"Solo, I
hate to break this to you but there must be hundreds of people who
would have liked to have seen Luke dead."
"Yes but
how many would want him alive?"
"And how do
you keep a Jedi under your control? What makes you think he's alive?"
Han launched into his explanation, Karrde looked sceptical at
the whole story "Normally, I would say that it's not that
much to go on. But then, I know Luke well. Are you sure they didn't
just get the dating wrong?"
"I've had them go over
it about ten times. The dates are right."
"Hmmm,
well where Skywalker is involved, anything is possible. I might still
be inclined to say it is a fluke, especially considering that Leia
cant seem to reach him, but it all seems a little coincidental."