The Rancor and the TIE

The Empire has announced the crowning of a new Emperor. Han, Luke, Chewie, Lando, and Artoo Detoo raced to Coruscant in a covert operation to figure out who it is.

They've been gone for four days.

Threepio answered the door with a little bow and gestured Kess inside with the formality of a butler and the chatterbox of a housemaid. Thankfully, he turned quickly to get back to cooking dinner and Kess strolled easily towards the smooth white furniture and warm lighting of Alderaan decor.

Leia was already at the mini bar, alone but not lonely, reading one out of several handfuls of datacards. She raised her face and smiled at Kess's entry.

Kess strolled over with fists in her pockets. "Minister." She greeted with a formal nod, "How are you on this fine evening?"

"Would you like a drink?"

"Thank you, no." Kess slid onto an empty barstool. "I'm avoiding alcohol until he gets back."

Leia's brown eyebrow wrinkled, but her mouth grinned. "I didn't say it had to be alcohol."

"Ah." Kess eyed the drink that looked like some tropical concoction and realized Leia wouldn't be drinking alcohol anyway. Pregnant.

The other woman gestured at the mini bar with both hands. "It's fruit juice mania back there. Help yourself to whatever you like."

"Thanks," Kess slide out of the barstool and stepped around. For as small as the mini bar looked on the outside, it made efficient use of shelving and refrigeration on the inside. She didn't browse much and grabbed an aluminum can of iced java. She cracked it open to a quiet hiss. When her eyes lifted again to the bar top, a datapad - with a card already booted up - was sitting dead center for her.

Leia's eyes were already back on her own work. "Until dinner's ready, read."

Kess grabbed the datapad with a gasp of anticipation, "Is this from them?"

Brown eyes flicked up, but she smiled with warm sympathy. "No. It's the arguments for and against the religious law the Rantonan government is going to put to vote tomorrow."

"Ah ha." Kess pressed her mouth. "So when you said you needed a Jedi," she picked up the datapad and grinned. "You meant you just needed someone with the title."

Leia set her chin on her palm and shrugged an admitting eyebrow.

Of course it would only be the title, Kess thought, realizing again who she was talking to. Although the other woman wasn't entirely tested or trained, Kess believed it in her soul that there was nothing with the Force she could do that Leia couldn't do ten times better.

Obediently, Kess set her elbows on the bar and began to read about the Rantonan Proposal of Religious Law.

Within two sentences, her mind drifted to the mission. She closed her eyes and meditated away the worry.

Leia's eyes shifted up from her work, and pressed a sympathetic grin. "They probably just got there."

Kess's eyes popped open.

"It'll be a day or two before we hear from them. Don't worry so much."

"I'm trying but . . . Why aren't you worried?"

Leia picked up her datapad again and ended the discussion with a soft smile. "Relax. They know what they're doing."

"AAAAAAaaaarrrrgggghhhhhhh!"

Artoo burned rubber out of the darkness, wailing his whistles.

A monster's growl echoed angry through dank corridors, far beneath the civilized levels of Coruscant. As that echo rolled down a long-abandoned market alley, so raced the human feet as fast as they could.

Lando was as full speed as his bleeding leg would carry him. Han stopped to take cover behind a support beam, and Luke raced past him with a glowing green lightsaber in hand. Chewie came in behind them all, but turned to shoot in concert with Han, and both trotted backwards for better cover.

Lando ducked into an abandoned shop and dropped his back against the wall. Leaving his bleeding leg stretched out in front of him, he slid down the wall until his butt plopped onto the dusty deck.

Luke fell to his knees next to him, still panting. He switched off his lightsaber in a rush to review the damage to the leg, and turned to Artoo for an emergency bandage the droid had already protruded from a cubby in his belly. Han and Chewie came around the corner, still firing behind them, and Luke didn't stop what he was doing to yell at them for it. "Stop! We're out! She'll go back!"

Han panted and relaxed a little, but he didn't holster his blaster. "She's pretty pissed off."

Chewie came around too, complaining in a low rumble and fumbling to load his crossbow with another charge.

Lando shouted out, "She bit me!"

Luke tied the bandage around Lando's leg as he huffed. "We walked into her den, Lando. She was protecting her young. She wasn't trying to eat you."

Lando adjusted his seat on the floor and grimaced. "Tell that to my leg!"

Han licked the sweat from his lip as he peaked down the dark hallway. "Luke's right, she's returning to her den. Chewie and I can get back there and put her out."

Luke flared, and launched back to his feet to scold Han. "Don't kill her just because she's protecting her young."

Han dared a wide-eyed expression back at him, "We either do it now, or Lando gets his other leg bit off when we try to get back to the Falcon."

"Kill her now," Lando peeped in pain.

Luke combed back sweaty hair from his temple and offer a hand out to help Lando up. "I'll get us by her when the time comes... now that I know she's there."

Lando hobbled to a half stand, somewhat leaning on Luke's bare shoulder. "We've only been here two hours and I'm already wounded," he swore.

Luke gave Lando his own blaster, preferring to stick with an unlit lightsaber in his hand. "Just like old times, huh Lando?"

Then he turned to Artoo, "Are you getting anything further down that way?" Chewie and Luke took the lead and Artoo was right behind them, beeping about his sensor readings. Han pulled Lando's free arm around his shoulders and adjusted to half-carry the man further down the endless corridor.

Lando groaned, "I'm getting too old for this." He hobbled along, wincing on occasion. He glared at Luke's back. "Why does he always have to be so damned optimistic."

Han was still catching his breath from the previous flee. His eyes darted from dark corner to dark corner as he spoke. "Don't worry pal. We'll be in and out of there before you know it. And then when we go home, you can get laid, too. Then you'll have just as much energy as Luke does."

Lando half smiled, "That's easy for you to say. You're married."

"Married has nothing to do with it." Han grunted as he carried his friend along. "You'll probably have better luck than I will."

The buildings still stood in lower level Coruscant, reaching up into the darkness until they melded together several stories above. What once was a major avenue for foot traffic was empty and dirty, abandon shops were looted, broken windows, falling pipes, age old litter all scattered the ground. Han's voice echoed against the walls, "I think we're coming up on it."

Lando had stopped grunting for a while, but his demeanor was quiet pain. He let go of Han's shoulder so that the man could look around.

Chewie growled from a far corner.

"Yeah?" Han said. "Artoo, go try to plug in."

As the droid rolled towards Chewie, Luke stepped to Han, staring up through the unseen ceiling. Han recognized the expression of the Force at work. "Well?"

Luke pursed his lips, "They're getting busy up there."

Artoo whistled from inside an abandon office. Han grabbed Lando and Luke followed, broken glass crunching under their feet at the walked through the fallen wall into the office. It was even darker in here, but Artoo's lights led the way to the terminal. Lando sat down against the wall, Han started pulling equipment out of the pack, Luke opened up one of Artoo's little doors and Chewie took station at the opening of the office, blaster in hand, eyes darting around.

There was a few seconds of silence between them as they set the equipment up. Through Artoo's terminal, they connected up to an old vid cable, and plugged in the signal to a tiny monitor. When the light of the screen started to glow on Han's face, Lando shifted his body closer to watch over his shoulder. "There. That's the channel."

The men watched the closed circuit channel of an NewsNet report, the camera scanned crowds awaiting to greet the new Emperor, quick takes were given to the different politicians as the planet waited. Then Luke started to look up through the ceiling again. He could feel it. "It's not Palpatine," he whispered.

Lando and Han looked over briefly, but when the vid showed the transport landing, their eyes were back on it. The array of guards and escorts secured the area for the mystery man to step out, then came the new Emperor. A black robe trailed behind him as he stepped out. He bowed in eccentric greeting to those that bowed deeply to him. The hood of the robe hung on his shoulders, Han and Lando studied the face. It was much too young to be Palpatine.

"Luke." Han said, trying to get the Jedi to look at the monitor. "Maybe his kid? I don't recognize him."

Luke's eyes started to narrow, his brow furrowed. He glanced at the screen once to get a look of the face and then looked back up to the ceiling.

Watching the screen, they saw the robed man stop in the middle of the entourage, fold his hands together in a monk like gesture, and bow his head as if in prayer.

Lando looked at Luke again, but the Jedi's eyes had slammed closed and his mouth pinched shut.

"Oh shit."

Without opening his eyes, Luke spoke in a carefully soft voice. "Go now." He whispered roughly. "I'll ... meet you in... the air."

"He knows we're here." Han asked warily.

Luke's teeth were started to clench with concentration, "Not... yet..."

Lando leaned over and whispered. "Do you know who it is?"

"Get..."

When it was clear they had lost Luke to the concentration of covering up their presence, Lando started to stand and Han started pulling the equipment apart. Chewie joined in. Soon, there were hustling as fast as they could. When Han and Lando were ready to start hobbling the three-legged race back to the Falcon, they stopped. "How will you get out?"

Luke didn't respond immediately, but suddenly opened his eyes with a big fat sigh. "I'll get out." He assured. "They're coming for me. They don't know you're here." He pulled himself to a stand and started searching the giant walkway. "I think it's his son, or something. He's young, pretty untrained, but nearly as strong as Palpatine was. Get a message out as soon as you can."

Han stressed his question again, "Yeah but how will you...?"

Luke suddenly flashed a smile as he trotted backwards, in the opposite direction. "You'll see."

When Luke turned and ran, Han shook his head in disappointment. "He's bordering on stupid."

"Yeah. He got that from you." Lando grinned, "C'mon, let's get moving."

Luke grabbed a power cell and a rope climber and found an abandoned elevator without a car. He climbed two stories to find what was left of the dangling cord and secured the climber pieces to it, then grabbed hold with both hands on the top part, set his feet on the tiny foot hold on the bottom part, and looked up. A flip of a switch, and the climber scaled the cord at five feet per second, carrying Luke along with it. In only a few minutes, Luke was at Level 124 and deep in the inhabited masses of Coruscant.

He unhooked the rope climber and dropped it back down the shaft, already feeling faint touches on the Force of the Emperor looking for him, and finding him again. But now Luke was so close it would head the Dark Man's ability to pinpoint a location. Luke intended to move faster that the Emperor could sense. He ran down the cleaner hallway, unlit lightsaber in hand, and sensed for nearby Imperials. Almost expecting to find a Stormtrooper first, he was slightly hesitant to take advantage of the young Imperial cadet he ran across. Luke shot around the corner and lit his saber in the boy's face. The cadet froze in place in terminal fear and raised his hands in the air.

Two minutes later, the cadet was in his underwear and tied to the desk sneering the Jedi buttoning up a gray and black Imperial jacket with almost naked rank insignia. "Thanks." Luke told him, stuffed the unlit saber in the jacket, and trotted back out into the hall.

Luke marched through a travelway like a cadet trying too hard to be military and was conveniently ignored by stormtroopers and officers. He saluted when necessary, and put a nervous look on his face when higher ranks glanced at him. The act fit the uniform to a tee, and Luke had no problems making his way onto a small pad with rows beyond rows of TIE fighters.

Looking over the activity of the Imperials, he shook his head. TIE fighters didn't have hyperdrive. He needed a bomber or a Lambda shuttle. He marched into the TIEs looking for the right candidate and found it. A TIE interceptor: solar panels bent slightly inward, and the cockpit door wide open. When no one was looking, Luke climbed in, stuffed his body into the tiny corner meant for cargo, and closed his eyes to concentrate.

In less than a minute, the air raid alarms sounded, and Luke smiled. He heard the loudspeaker ordering all pilots to their craft to intercept a rebel ship escaping the system. Luke located the pilot's mind that was headed for this craft and shaded the man's focus so he wouldn't notice Luke in the corner. The pilot climbed in, punched in his code, and power up the ship. Luke reached out with the force and sent a voice into the pilot's head. The pilot searched out the cockpit window, and then opened the door again to look for the source of the voice - outside the ship.

Luke sent the call again, and the pilot climbed out to report as ordered.

Ducking to stay out of view, Luke moved out of the corner and onto the pilot's seat. He reached out of the door and wiped a shroud of confusion over the Force, "Gimme your helmet." He called out casually.

The pilot paused, but took off his helmet and handed it over.

"Thank you." Luke slapped the helmet on his head, closed the hatch, and grabbed the controls. The TIE interceptor rose into the air with a dozen others, ready to blow that pesky rebel craft out of the sky.

Han flew fast and furious. Chewie fired out of the top turret, Lando from the bottom turret, and Artoo had his little clamps clutching the wall to keep his body from rolling around. The TIEs came at them like bees, firing green shots into the sky, and the navcomputer was simply not computing fast enough.

The first TIE that zipped by them was shot in the solar panel from the top turret and splintered in the air, but the second and third... and fourth got several shot in before Lando and Chewie could brush them off. Dead ahead was clear passage, but a wall of TIEs screamed in formation right on their rear, and more were joining the fight in flocks. And they were gaining.

Han glanced back at the navacomputer. "Come on, baby, hurry up."

A TIE interceptor fell back from the rest of the formation and shot at the ass of another TIE, splintering it in the sky. The formation started to break up as confusion rolled through the Imperials, but kept up chunks of the original formation. Luke followed the lead of his gang as if trying to find the same traitor everyone else was.

From the turret, Lando frowned out to the scene. "He's gonna get himself killed."

Han couldn't see the mess behind them, "He can handle it," he reported in the mike, but then he prayed aloud under his breath, "Don't get yourself killed, kid."

Luke's soared his TIE in calm formation with the others, but kept one eye on the ass of the Falcon, now gaining distance because of the distraction, until Han hit it and the thing disappeared in hyperspace.

Instantly, he cranked the stick and spun the TIE wobbling on his axis away from the formation, making it look like he'd been shot. The remaining TIES panicked and started shooting at each other in misunderstanding of who was causing all this.

He kept his eyes closed to keep from getting dizzy with the spinning view and used only the Force as his collision detector. Within a few seconds, he was far enough away from the mess that he slowed his spin and flattened out. He shot a grin out the side of his craft as Coruscant twisted entirely out of view, and hit the hyperdrive for a short spit in any direction.

He was at lightspeed for only a split second before he dropped out again. He could see Coruscant now the size of a pebble in the distance. Luke was laughing a loud, cackle-like laugh as he programmed the hyperdrive at his leisure, and was still laughing when the TIE zipped into hyperspace for home.

At the Senate Meeting, Kess is in the audience with aides and press. Leia is allowing senators speak their minds about an issue without interrupting them. So far, it's been a boring meeting.

Kess turned her eyes to see Leia at the head of the debate table half way across the room. As if on cue, Leia's eyes flicked over to see Kess in the darkened audience. Behind her political stoicism, brown eyes sparkled with new humor.

Kess lifted a brow.

Leia shifted in her seat and turned her visible attention to the senator that was speaking, her face instantly blank again, but her hand gently set down a datapad onto the table of other notes and nudged it a tiny bit in Kess's direction.

Come read this.

A flood of curiosity doused her fiery nerves, particularly now that Kess was sensing a bubbling humor from Leia. Kess stepped silently from the audience dais and outside the sharp divide of overhead lighting and darkened nobodies. By the time she rounded to Leia's head of the table, the Minister of State - without breaking her attention of the speech - had taken the datapad off the table and reached it back behind her chair for Kess to grab, palm open.

Kess took a deeper step back into the shadows and Force Pulled the datapad from Leia's hand to her own.

Leia didn't bat an eye. She simply put both hands in her lap and continued to listen to the arguments.

Kess tucked into a darker corner with the note and read.

TO: LEIA .CMD

FR: HAN .MIL

RE:

Luke thinks it might be Palpatine's son or similar relation. Strong in the dark side, but young and untrained. They seem good and busy with welcoming him to the throne. Lando will need a med vac and a blood transfusion. Got bit in the leg by a Rancor. All else ok. Back on 66.03.04 or so.

Love you, Han

Oh yeah. One more thing. You're idiot brother is behind us in a TIE. Don't shoot the kid down when we get back.