Second Thoughts

Chapter note: Please review, this is just a spur of the moment idea, hope you enjoy!!

Summary: A stormtrooper recalls his time on Tantive IV, the ship Darth Vader attacked in search of the death star plans.

The soldier sat in the solid gray chair in the solid gray prison cell. The room had a cold chill to it. It felt as if death had overran the room. There was nothing other than the small gray chair, four walls of pure depressing gray color, and a toilet. The northern most wall had carvings on it, most likely drawn by past prisoners, of the glorious empire.

The soldier was dressed in the white armor of a imperial trooper. He was a prisoner to the rebellion, so of course his weapons were seized. Even though he was a prisoner he felt a since of joy and freedom. Freedom from Lord Vader. He remembered the last thing he said to him, "Find Senator Organa and do not fail me." He sat on the chair in total silence recalling the last moments before his capture. . . .

Immediately after Lord Vader had given me the order to find the senator, I began to search up and down the winding corridors of the space ship Tantive IV. Luckily I found nothing; therefore, I could not fail Lord Vader. I was in enemy controlled territory so I had to hurry back to where the other troops were gathered and already celebrating victory. I could feel a rush of emotion come over me, joy, excitement, and more, even though we were yet to win the battle. It almost seemed as if the depressing colors of the ship were being drowned out by my exhilarating emotions.

I had just turned the second corner on my way back to my allies and was now in a quickening run down the seemingly endless hall. Sweat beads rolled down my face on the inside of the pasty colored helmet. I was now turning the second to last corner and as I did I heard the treading of footsteps.

Now standing across from me at the end of the long hall were five armed rebel soldiers. They all looked the same, all wearing the same hard helmets. They wore light, green tunics tucked into what seemed to be army pants. A microphone extended from the top of their helmet down to their mouths.

I knew I couldn't fight them I was outnumbered and the only weapon I had was a blaster pistol. I watched as they approached slowly, guns pointed at my face. If I even manged to shoot at one within seconds I would be dead blaster bolts covering my body. I also knew though if I were caught I would most likely end up as a prisoner, but at least then there was a chance of escape. I loosened the grip on my gun to the point that I barely even knew it was there. They were now mere footsteps away and I could almost look into the barrel of their guns.

Slowly, I raised my hands in defeat and knelt on the ground beneath them. I placed my gun next to my legs. One of the commanding officers of the squad withdrew electric cuffs a device they used to bind someones hands together. One of the lower ranks kicked my side and sent a sharp pain throughout my body. Another grabbed my weapon and gently placed it into a holster on his belt. The other two grabbed my arms in an attempt to restrain me from causing any violence. I wasn't going to try anything so I just let them go. The commander violently slapped the cuffs onto my wrist. It sent an electrical jolt through my body causing a searing pain.

They lifted me to my feet and began to carry me off towards the end of their ship. My armor made me weigh twice as much making it an extremely daunting task to drag me though the ships hallways. Within just a few standard minutes screams from down the hall were cheering. "We found the Senator, she is in Vader's custody," were the cheers main point. You could then here the thunderous roar of footsteps as they bounded down the empty corridors.

Without a word the Rebels picked up speed as they were now approaching their only hope of survival: The ship's escape pods. As they looked violently around for an escape pod they finally found one, and only one. One pod could hold two people comfortably and they had six. I just had to kind of laugh at my self at their misfortunes. They were going to leave me behind along with the two youngest recruits and squeeze in three. That was the plan I was praying for. But of course, they knew I had known some valuable information so they hurtled me into the cramped pod and the two senior officers also crowded in. This was making me very uncomfortable.

The pod was like any other escape pod mostly all glass so you could see where you were going. The inside was no more than 4 ft. by 4 ft. I was severely cramped in an escape pod with two enemies. It was not looking good. The rebels began to talk of precisely how they planned on destroying the massive battleship the empire was making. They had never even seen the plans and they figured they knew what to do. Really though it didn't concern me in the slightest any longer. I ignored the two old rebels and had begun to think to myself, "I wonder what they'll do to me, will they kill me?" Questions like this flooded my mind for a while until I felt electricity overrun my body and suddenly my vision was failing and it was getting colder. Then I fainted.

I awoke several hours later as the two older men hauled me onto the back seat of a speeder bike. The commanding officer sat in front of me. He looked as if he were nearing fifty, tufts of gray hair shown just out of his helmet. He turned to see if I were security strapped in. His face was wrinkled and voice was deep. Right across from us the other rebel, who looked just a little younger, mounted a speeder similar to ours. The engines flickered to life at first, then it became a loud roar. The speeders left there location and zoomed into the forest.

At first I had no idea where we had landed. The place was filled with thick forest and over all of the green treetops I could see a stone temple that pierced the heavens. It was a tan color and several outpost surrounded it although few seemed to be manned. As the speeder bikes approached I realized I was on Yavin IV, base planet of the rebels. It must have been coincidence we landed on this planet. They calmed the roaring engines of the speeders as we neared the large doors of the stone temple. They hurled me off the bike and then on to my feet and dragged me to the great doors.

They called out some kind of code to the inside. This also meant nothing to me so I just kid of fell into a trance totally unaware of what was going on. For a few seconds anyway. When the rebels noticed I was dazing off, the lesser rank soldier inconspicuously drove the butt of his gun into the unsuspecting me. I toppled over, but then forced up by the troops. I just barely noticed the massive doors creak open. Many rebels stood inside, either running errands, fixing tanks, preparing weapons, everyone was doing something.

"Hello commander Briggs," the elder rebel holding me said with a bow. The other soldier followed with the same type of bow.

"We are glad to see you with us, we heard no one survived, so do you know the whereabouts of the princess?" the commander asked. "He must have been referring to Leia!" I thought to my self. She was probably dead in the clutches of Darth Vader's hands.

"No sir," the soldiers replied in a weak voice. The commanders head bowed in defeat, but then as quickly as he was crushed he was rejuvenated again, "Take the prisoner to the prison room!" he ordered pointing a finger towards me.

Finally they had allowed me to walk on my own, but they still had the hard metallic barrels of their guns driving in to my back. If I would have made even the slightest movement except straight towards the prison room, my body would be laying on the floor motionless. I continued to walk a straight path towards the prison room. Finally I saw the dull lifeless room and at first resisted to walk inside. I could feel the chill of the room ripple down my spine. I tried to fight the temptation to run and was eventually shoved face first into the stone ground.

Now here I was, sitting waiting to be questioned about all I knew. I had been sitting in the lifeless prison for hours, and was ready to get out no matter how. The chill in the air reminded me of Vader's last words, "Don't fail me." He said it with such menace and a slight bit of fear. I fell back onto the chair and relaxed and brought myself into a deep meditation. "Was the empire truly the way, was it actually just.?" These were questions that had entered my mind just minutes ago. I buried them in my mind, they were the thoughts of treason, but somehow they began to resurface.

Finally though I made up my mind when someone would come in here to question me, no matter what happened, I would stand by the Empire till the very end, even if it meant death.

Final Comments: Hope you all enjoyed, I will right about what happens to him in another story called Prisoner. Flashback was in italics and thoughts to himself in bold. Please review!!!