Number 16 in the Vader's Cat series. (Formerly called Vader and Cat but we decided we liked Vader's Cat better.)

In order they are:

Cracking the Armor
Another Disturbing Crack
Completely Cracked...and the Cat Came Back
Cracking the Death Star
Cracking Imperial Center, or: Cat Goes to Coruscant
Pruneface Cracks, or: Cat vs. Palpatine
Cracking the Dark Lord
Crack to Nature
Cracking His Confidence
A Fleet Full of Crack(pots)
Carbonite Cracks, or: Cat vs. Fett
Farmboy Cracks, or: Cat vs. Skywalker
Cloud City Cracks, or: Cat vs...Cat?
Conspiracy Cracks
Absolutely Cracked, or: Jedi vs. Sith vs. Cat
A Crack In The Family

A Crack In The Family

Luke carefully eased himself past the guard rail and crawled across the reactor pit. He kept his eyes on where he was going and with desperate determination, ignored the possibility of falling. As soon as he got to the far end of the gantry, he grabbed hold of the pipes, pulled himself to his feet, and a white paw swiped at his hand from the other side.

White…?

He craned his neck to peer around and groaned. Vader's Cat perched on his left, glaring down at him with eyes so big that they practically took over his head. On his right, directly at eye level with Luke, there was another, smaller cat with matted white fur. She was thin and looked as if the wind would blow her away at any moment.

Turning back toward Vader, he shouted, "There's another cat here. You can't see her from over there!"

"Leave it!" yelled Vader.

"I can't do that!" Luke insisted. He yanked his sleeve up over his hand and reached for the white cat. Both animals hissed and clawed at him, but he was well prepared for this kind of reception after his last encounter with Vader's Cat. Still, it took him several minutes to get the white one into his flight jacket where he could carry her back across.

Vader spent the entire time grumbling about the insufferable nature of cats, who had to make everything as difficult as possible. Luke had no argument with anything the Dark Lord said, but he still wasn't just going to leave the poor animal to fall to its death. Unfortunately, she was too terrified to understand that the Jedi was trying to help her, and once inside his jacket, she immediately began to scratch and bite at his chest and torso.

He barely made it back across, and when Vader's huge metal hand grabbed the back of his jacket to pull him up, the cat's claws dug viciously into his chest. He grit his teeth against the pain and waited until Vader let him go before he started trying to pry the white cat loose.

The process of coaxing took several minutes, and Vader ignored him the whole time. When he finally had the cat relatively settled—not "calm" by any means but at least not trying to claw his chest to pieces—he wondered what to do next. He didn't want to just put her down, but he couldn't take her back across with him, and the only alternative…

"Give it to me," said Vader with a note of something that sounded like resignation. Luke tried to tell himself that wasn't possible. The mechanical voice just wasn't capable of emoting like that. Yet, when he handed Vader the bedraggled cat, a long sigh escaped his mouth grille.

When he turned around again, Luke saw that Vader's Cat had climbed higher. He closed his eyes and sighed. Well, that's just great, he thought.

"I don't know if I'm going to be able to get him down from there," he told the Dark Lord.

"You had better be able to," threatened Vader.

"That cats hates me. He's not going to let me get close enough," Luke said.

"That cat hates everyone," Vader replied indifferently.

"He doesn't seem to hate you," Luke observed.

"He does that to spite me," said Vader.

"You know, I think you're right," Luke decided.

"Of course I am. Get going," Vader ordered, pointing across the pit.

"Come on…" Luke protested.

"We have already established that you are smaller than I am," Vader reminded him.

"There's got to be some other way of getting him down. A maintenance droid or something that could get out there and—"

"Enough stalling, Skywalker," Vader cut him off.

"I'm not stalling. This is insane," argued Luke.

Vader stared at him silently for several seconds. Then he took a step closer to Luke and jabbed a finger at his chest. "I am your father. Now get out there and get that cat!"