DarthGladiator45: I never said he was dead...
Konig15: Thanks for the comments!
MMM73181: Yikes! A lot of questions. Unfortunately, I can't answer them at this point. You'll have to wait and see.
WizardJedi: Thanks!
Ann Jinn: I think this answers your first question.
FallenEagle: Thanks, I am continuing.
Lea Nikkaya: I'm flattered that you say that this is better than the movie, despite my opinion to the contrary.
Author's Note: EU characters! This chapter (and whole story)is swarming with EU characters!
Chapter II
"Not this ship, sister!" Han Solo exclaimed at the preposterous idea that was brought up by the princess.
"She is correct, captain," Obi-Wan Kenobi replied as he stood up from the navigator's chair. "If they had wanted to stop us, they would have easily done so."
"I just hope the information on that astromech droid is intact," Leia said as she slumped into her chair. "Either that or the other group was extremely lucky," she added under her breath.
"What's so important about that droid anyway?" Han asked as he looked towards the two passengers in the cockpit with him. "First we run into all sorts of problems over Tatooine because of those two, not to mention that little fiasco back there!"
"He's carrying the full technical readout of that battlestation!" Leia replied, her voice rising in anger. She also stood up from her chair. "I only hope that the analysts back at the base can find a weakness in it."
"Hold on a second," Han retorted. "You're all concerned about us being tracked by the Empire, and then you're leading them straight to your base?"
"It's our only hope," Leia replied as she began to walk out of the cockpit. "A lot of lives were lost to get those plans, I'd rather not let those deaths be in vain." And with those words she walked out of the cockpit and into the lounge of the ship.
Grand Moff Tarkin paced inside of his office aboard the Death Star, a room that despite its spaciousness was the very model of Imperial efficiency. The events of the past few hours ran through his mind, especially the escape of Organa and that Kenobi. He had doubted that Vader's plan of planting a tracking device on the ship would actually work, and now he had no doubt that the Rebels would be on to them. The somewhat less than convincing attempt at stopping the YT-1300 with a small force of TIE Fighters had seemingly done nothing but waste six perfectly good starfighters. He knew the price of failure, he had seen the Emperor and Lord Vader personally execute officers that had failed them. If Lord Vader's plan had failed, as commander of the battlestation he would take the full wrath of the Emperor.
A young officer slowly walked into the room, a datapad clutched tightly in his left hand. He waited patiently at the door until the imposing governor finally allowed him to enter the room.
"Governor Tarkin, we have picked up the tracking beacon placed on the YT-1300 that escaped from us," the officer reported. "They've stopped in the Yavin System, sir, more than likely on one of the moons surrounding Yavin itself."
Tarkin slowly rubbed his chin as he accepted the datapad, a quick glance of the information contained within it was well enough for him. Perhaps Lord Vader's plan wouldn't be such a failure after all, he thought. If they haven't led us on a wild bantha chase.
"Contact the helmsman, lieutenant. Inform him of our new destination."
"Unidentified freighter," the crackling sound from the Millenium Falcon's comm speaker called out. "Please submit your identification at once, this is your final warning!"
"What's taking her so long?" Han Solo muttered as he turned around to look at the entrance to the cockpit. The sensors had already picked a flight of X-wings several kilometers away that were closing towards his ship at a reasonable attack speed.
Maybe we should raise our shields. Chewbacca suggested.
"No, we wouldn't to spook 'em. I know these Rebel types, they're kind of jittery when it comes to intruders," Han replied.
I know that, that's why we should raise shields!
Leia Organa entered the cockpit, seemingly ending the argument over the ship's defense that was happening between the two pilots.
"Let me have the comm," she said as she moved towards the pilot's chair. After Han indicated that the channel was open, the young rebel addressed the pilots. "This is Leia Organa, code Alpha-Dewback-Lambda-41138, this ship is carrying data valuable to the security of the rebellion."
A slight pause occurred before the voice of the pilot came back on. "Organa, this is Red Leader, you are cleared to land. I'm transmitting you coordinates right now, Red Two and Red Five will be your escorts. Nice to see you're still alive, Red Leader out."
Coordinates have arrived, Chewbacca said. All but two of the X-wings have broken off and headed towards the fourth moon of the gas giant.
"Setting course now," Han said as Leia left the cockpit and returned to the lounge, uneager to spend any more time with the greedy smuggler than she had to.
Deep inside a temple in the heart of the Yavin jungle, a decades long slumber was disturbed as the Millenium Falcon landed near the Great Temple. The shade reached out with the Force, trying to reorient himself and determine what had disturbed him. Over a kilometer away, he found them. Five Force-signatures stood out amongst the throng of ordinary people that were on the planet, all with varying degrees of training and potential.
Exar Kun began to observe the most powerful of the signatures first, reveling in the power that the old man had in the Force yet at the same time being reviled by the serene calm that projected out from him. Then, almost as soon as he had begun his observations, it was like he was thrown clear of the presence. How could this be, he thought. The most powerful Sith Lord of all time being bested by a mortal?
He then attempted to closely observe the three presences near the powerful Jedi, yet he encountered a harsh interference that greatly reduced his ability. Yet, he was able to gain one valuable piece of information from two of them. The two, a young boy and a young woman, seemed to radiate a sensation that was familiar to Exar Kun. A sensation that he had felt over twenty years previously. The feeling had come from a young Jedi Padawan with much anger in his heart, far more than his opponent on that delightful day. Exar Kun rejoiced when that Padawan had released his anger upon the pale woman, very nearly killing her in the process. Could it be that these two were somehow related to that Jedi that was so powerful in the Dark Side?
Another presence, this one inside of the Temple, diverted Exar Kun's attention away from those he considered unreachable. This one was perfect, and ready for the final pushes that would corrupt him to the Dark Side completely. Exar Kun sensed much anger and hatred in his target, the desire to see vengeance done for some great grievance that had occurred recently.
Obi-Wan walked off of the Millenium Falcon's boarding ramp and into the humid air of Yavin. He gazed up at the Great Temple, marveling at the giant pyramid structure. Through the Force, he could sense the native wildlife as they went about their daily habits, a predatory lizard immobilized its prey with a loud trilling before pouncing on it, and several aerial species flew above the trees and landed on top of the Great Temple. He could also sense a tremendous evil lurking in the area, an evil that was hard to locate. The presence seemed both close to him as well as everywhere in the area, the only similarity was the Force Spirit of Qui-Gon, yet it seemed twisted and evil.
Ignoring the conversation that was going on between Leia and the various rebels that had greeted them, Obi-Wan closed his eyes and focused on protecting himself as well as the twins from the prying eyes of the entity. He could feel the presence attempt to break through his shield, and then finally give up after a few seconds of futile effort.
"Ben? Is something wrong?" Luke asked after noticing that his mentor was not following the group as they walked into the temple. The group turned around, wondering if anything had gone wrong, and were relieved to see the Jedi Master still standing.
"I'm fine," he replied as he walked towards the group. One of the pilots changed his pace to walk beside him.
"General Kenobi?" the young pilot asked. "I heard you were a Jedi."
"Oh, I do suppose that I was once a Jedi," Obi-Wan replied, sensing that there was more to this pilot that seemed immediately apparent.
"Keyan Farlander," the pilot said as he introduced himself. "When you have the time, I'd like to talk to you about the Force."
Obi-Wan Kenobi nodded.
Luke watched as Ben and one of the pilots talked to each other about the Force, a concept that was still relatively new to him. He looked into the main chamber of the Temple that had been converted into a hangar, seeing several mechanics work on the Incom T-65 X-wings and the Koensayr BTL Y-wings stationed there. The beeps and whistles of several repair droids emerged from the hangar and out into the open air of Yavin. He glanced at the few ships outside of the Temple, a few Corellian YTs and an HWK class ship that were too large to fit in the hangar.
He could hardly contain the excitement. All of his life he had dreamed of adventure, seeing himself in the cockpit of several starfighters and being a hero, and now he was about to make those dreams come true. As he entered the Temple through the large door, he had to wonder what Uncle Owen would say about this. He had to remember that the last words he and his uncle had said to one another were spoken in anger, and he wished that he could have at least apologized for his outburst at the dinner table.
"Leia, thank the Force you're all right," Vanden Willard said as he saw the Alderaanian princess being followed through the Temple by an odd assortment of people. "When we heard about Alderaan we feared the worst."
Leia motioned to the astromech droid that closely followed the young moisture farmer. "Make sure this R2 unit gets to General Dodonna, it contains important information. What about the Danuta mission?" Leia asked the elder military officer.
"They just arrived a few days ago," Willard replied.
"Good," Leia replied. I can only hope that with those two sets a weakness can be found, she thought. Otherwise we're going to have to make a very quick getaway…
The being in the specialized bacta tank seemed less like a human than a machine; numerous tubes ran from the black mask to some machine the human doctor had never even seen before. The medical droids overlooked the vital signs of the injured Darth Vader, carefully monitoring them for any signs of deviation from the norm. Of course, what was the normal for something like Darth Vader? Had the Emperor not insisted on the specialized equipment on board the Death Star, equipment suitable for treating the cybernetic Sith Lord, Lord Vader would have certainly died before they would be able to reach the nearest treatment center. The bacta was already beginning to affect the lightsaber wound that had completely punctured the scarred body, thankfully missing any major organs. In a repair shop, suitable replacement parts were being cobbled together in order to temporarily repair the black armor that so many in the galaxy feared.
The human doctor knew that this would be his last patient, he felt that anyone that had seen Vader in such a human state would surely be executed after his work was done. Ten days of treatment in the bacta tank were scheduled, ten days that the doctor had to live.
"Sir, he's coming out of unconsciousness again," a medical droid reported.
Knowing Tarkin's orders, the doctor relayed them to the droid. "Give him more sedatives, we can't have him destroy the lab in a rage and inadvertently kill himself."
He watched as the droids pushed a button on the console, and saw the vitals go back to where they had been for the past several hours. But the doctor knew that he couldn't keep Vader in that coma forever, the dose that just been administered was slightly higher than the previous one. By his calculations, he would be forced to let Vader awaken in three days, an event coinciding with the arrival of the Death Star at the Rebel base. May the Force have mercy on them, the doctor thought. I don't want to be them when he wakes up…
