Episode 5.5
A Fateful Encounter
It is a time of great unrest in the galaxy. Having been driven from their latest secret base on Hoth by the Galactic Empire, The Rebels are now scattered and trying to regroup at their rendezvous point. Unable to head directly there due to problems with their hyperdrive, Han, together with Leah, Chewbacca and C3PO take the Millennium Falcon to Cloud City, a gas mining colony on Bespin owned by Han's old friend Lando Calrissian. Instead of refuge and repairs, however, Han finds himself betrayed by his friend as he and the others are captured by Imperial forces led by Darth Vader himself!
During his Jedi training on the planet of Dagobah, Luke Skywalker senses the peril that his friends are in. In spite of the words of warning offered by his teacher Yoda and the spirit of his former mentor Ben Kenobi, and the fact that his training is not yet complete, Luke decides that the fate of his friends is more important and has now left on a desperate rescue mission.
Meanwhile, in a distant galaxy, yet another conflict has reached a dramatic turning point. Following the destruction of his home planet, a being of great evil and ambition is pursuing through the void of space an object of great power, one which will irrevocably turn the tide of war in the favor of him and his followers should he reach it. Unbeknownst to all, this object will forever alter the destinies of Rebel and Imperial alike beyond their wildest imaginings…
When Megatron exited the wormhole he caught sight one again of the All-Spark. When he did, he felt both smugness and irritation at the sight. While he cursed both Optimus Prime for betraying him and launching the Cube into this wormhole, as well as Bumblebee preventing him from catching it before it had entered the singularity, he still felt pleased that he was in the lead for the race to get it. Neither his Decepticon brothers nor the accursed Autobots had made it through the wormhole before it closed behind him, and now there was nothing to stop him from claiming the All-Spark for his master.
As he got his bearings, Megatron's sensors finished analyzing the astrological data. He could not believe it! Of all the possible places the wormhole could have deposited them, they had to end up in this vermin infested solar system! Megatron didn't know whether it was fate or some sort of grand cosmic joke, but they had ended up in the very same solar system where the original Primes had betrayed his master and stolen the Matrix of Leadership from him! Megatron decided that it must be Providence. Now not only can he recover the All-Spark, but he can use it to find and recover the Matrix, restore his master and his planet, and bring order to this galaxy once and for all!
An alert from Megatron's sensors brought him out of his musings as he noticed that the Cube was getting close to being caught in the gravitational pull of that accursed planet. No matter, even at half speed Megatron was confident that he could catch up to it before it had a chance to enter the planet's atmosphere.
As he came within reaching distance of the All-Spark, Megatron detected a gravitational flux similar to that of the wormhole that he'd just traveled through. His first thought was that one of the Autobots had dared to chase after him after all, but they'd arrived too late! Then he noticed two things about the readings that weren't right. First was that the gravitational reading were much too weak to be the same wormhole that he came through, much less the same size. The other thing that really caught his attention was that he was detecting it ahead of him, not behind! Just as he was close enough to barely touch the Cube, a wormhole just barely larger than the Cube itself manifested in front of him and pulled it from his grasp before vanishing along with it. It is said that it is impossible to hear anything in space, but it that was not true then anyone nearby would have been deafened by the bellow of rage and frustration that came from Megatron's parted lips. He did not know who was responsible for this ignomy, but he swore he'd make them and anyone else that came between him and the cube pay!
Gazing through his cockpit windows that gave him an unobstructed view of the stars blurring past him as his X-wing traveled through Hyperspace, Luke once again wished fervently that the hyperspace engines on his ship were as powerful as those on the Falcon. Of course if they were, then they'd likely tear his ship apart, but Luke couldn't help wanting to get to Bespin faster! Every moment that he spent in transit is one moment less he'd have to save his friends before something irreversible happens to them!
Of course he also couldn't stop worrying about the dire warnings that Yoda and Ben had given him before he'd embarked on this self-appointed mission, but neither could he make sense of it. How could his staying on Dagobah and taking a chance of letting them die be considered the better option? Even if something went south on this quest, any setbacks they might suffer can surely be reversed so long as they are all alive. Besides, this isn't the first time he'd encountered the Empire and managed to get away to tell the tale, and he didn't have nearly the level of control over the Force then that he does now. No, he'll be able to save his friends just fine, then he can get back to Yoda to complete his training.
At that moment, Luke felt the X-wing shudder unexpectedly as they dropped out of hyperspace. Feeling that the trip was too short, Luke pulled up the navigation logs and found that, indeed, they'd exited hyperspace well short of the Bespin system.
"What happened?" Luke confusedly asked aloud to no one in particular.
In response, Luke saw the translated reply of his loyal astromech droid R2-D2 appear on his console display, saying, It would appear that an uncharted gravitational anomaly has pulled us out of hyperspeed, master Luke.
This news troubled Luke, as there generally wasn't any uncharted celestial bodies capable of pulling a ship from hyperspace. The only things that generally left was Interdictor Class starships, which are only used by the Empire. However, a quick check of his sensors ruled out any Imperial traffic in the area. Even if the Empire had any sort of cloaking technology available, the Interdictors required too much power for their gravity generators to make installing such technology feasible.
Feeling a subtle shift in the Force, Luke juked the stick to bank hard to starboard just before the collision alert klaxon competed with R2's shrill cry of alarm. As the g forces pull him down into his seat, Luke has a brief glimpse of a large angular object before the ship's rotation moves it out of sight. Then he feels a jarring impact and hears a teeth-grinding shriek of metal rubbing against metal, a sound which nearly drowns out R2's own shriek as electrical discharges dances over every metal surface.
Finally the grinding and shuddering stopped as they passed the unexpected obstruction, and as the discharges ebb and stop the ship slows as the sublight engines sputter and die.
Forcing his heart to slow from the close call, Luke gives a silent thanks to both Yoda and Ben for their training which he was certain had saved them just now, then he calls out, "Artoo, are you okay back there?"
"I believe so, master Luke," Luke heard an unfamiliar voice respond through his headset, "I thought for a moment my processing days were done, though."
Confused by this unexpected contact, Luke checked his instruments. However, the only thing he saw within a hundred parsecs was the strange object that he'd narrowly avoided crashing directly into, and there was no indicators that it was any sort of interstellar transport. Tentatively, Luke asked, "Artoo? Is that you?"
"Of course, master Luke," the voice responds wit a note of confusion, "Why do you ask that?"
"Well, I can hear you talking," Luke explained, "I mean talking talking, regular speech like Threepio, not your speech merely being translated on the ship's display."
"I see, that is most unusual master Luke," R2 agreed, "I better eun a system-wide diagnosis."
R2D2 went silent then for a moment while various information scrolled on his display screen. While he was waiting, Luke felt a strange vibration on his hip, where his blaster was. When he looked down, he saw his blaster rip itself out of his holster then, to Luke's surprise, change itself into a tiny robot. The robot turned its head to look at him, then pivoted to point both arms at him, the hands retracting to reveal hidden cannons. Luke barely had time enough to use the Force to summon his lightsaber to deflect the two tiny-yet-lethal blaster shots. Then, as the blaster-bot tried to hop down from his seat, Luke stabbed his lightsaber forward through the robotic torso, leaving the lower half to fall to the cockpit floor while the upper half dissolved while it fell through the blade.
As Luke deactivated the lightsaber he heard R2 callout in concern, "Master Luke! Are you alright? I detected a disturbance in the cockpit!"
"I am now," Luke confirmed, "My blaster turned into a tiny robot and tried to kill me, but it won't be trying that again."
"That is….rather disturbing," R2 said uneasily, "I've finished the system wide diagnosis and found that a discharge from the cube-shaped object we had made contact with had altered every single piece of tech onboard this X-wing, myself included. The reason that you've been able to hear me speaking is that I had, apparently, linked up to the communications array that is linked to your helmet and been using that to translate rather than the ship's built in translator."
That statement bothered Luke. Every piece of tech? Did that mean that his ship would itself come to life and try to kill him, maybe crush and shred him in the changing process? As he looked down at the handle of his deactivated lightsaber, he half expected it to change and attack as his blaster did, but it remained as it was. Did the unique construction of his father's weapon give it a unique immunity that his own mass produced blaster had not?
"You say that discharge came from that strange object?" Luke asked.
"So it would seem," R2 confirmed, "The only actual damages our ship suffered were some superficial scratches on the underside. None of the ship's systems were damaged in the collision. In fact, even the most basic of functions on this ship is performing at specs even greater than what they were rated at when they were new, not to mention all of the new functions that seem to have appeared afterwards, and I'm directly connected to all of it! It is beyond my processor's ability to compute!"
"And you're all right?" Luke asked in concern, "No ill effects from the discharge?"
"Not that I can tell," RD admitted, "I feel the same as I always have, only more capable then I've ever recalled being."
"Okay," Luke sighed, somewhat reassured, "What about that object? What is it and where did it come from?"
"The cube-shaped object appears to have emerged from a class 2 wormhole, which had collapsed shortly after the object passed through. It would seem that it was the formation of said wormhole that had caused us to be pulled into real space," R2D2 explained, "Beyond that, I have no idea. The tech of the object is completely alien, not of any species in known space."
As the ship's inertia and rotation brought the object back into view again, Luke had to admire the simplicity of its design. Perfectly cube shaped and slightly larger than the X-wing itself, the strange object looked rather solid all the same. If he had not altered their course when he had, Luke was certain they would have ended up just a bunch of lifeless wreckage floating around that thing.
Shaking off the morbid thought, Luke asked, "So the gravitational flux that pulled us out of hyperspace is gone?"
"So it appears," R2 stated, "I'm detecting no trace of the wormhole, and nothing else that would prevent us from re-entering hyperspace."
"And our systems are completely functional?" Luke added.
As the ship hummed again as it came back to life, R2 confirmed, "Just awaiting your command, sir."
Looking at the cube for one moment, Luke hesitated. With such a jarring and unexpected event occurring during this mission of his, maybe it would be wise to heed the warnings of Yoda and Ben and trust that his friends can get themselves out of the trouble they're in. However, Luke immediately shook that thought off. Even if he had a vision of the future showing that the Rebel Alliance would die if he saved his friends, there was no way that he could abandon his friends. "Then let's see just how fast the 'improved' hyperdrive can go!" Luke said, "Next stop: the Bespin system!" Luke then activated the hyperdrive engines , watching the stars stretch out before him as he left the cube spinning silently in the void.