Obi-Wan smiled as Luke parried the stun bolts from the target drone Captain Solo had let them borrow. He was as talented as his Father, and just as good-natured as Anakin had been as a boy. He sighed.

"What's wrong, Ben?" Luke asked shutting down his father's lightsaber.

"Nothing, Luke, just remembering and missing your father," he replied.

"You were really close with him, weren't you?" Luke asked.

"He was as close to a brother as I have ever had. He got me in plenty of trouble too, and he always got me out of it. I miss him, greatly," he said.

Luke nodded, "I can't imagine how hard the Purges were for you."

"It was a very sad time, a sad time indeed," Obi-Wan said.

"What about my mother? Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru talk about her less than they talk about Father," Luke asked.

Obi-Wan sighed, of course the boy would ask about his mother. How to tell this story and not break down and confess the whole truth? The boy just wasn't ready for that; no child should know their father is a monster.

"Your mother was very beautiful and Anakin loved her from the day they first met, of this I'm sure, not that he ever confided it to me," Obi-Wan said.

"Why wouldn't he?" Luke asked puzzled.

"For the same reason I never took a wife, under the old order attachment was forbidden. For Anakin to take a wife, that was a serious breach of the Code at the time. He knew it, she knew it, but their love would not be denied," Obi-Wan said.

"So he broke the rules to be with her?" Luke asked.

At this R2-D2 twittered.

"What do you mean you were there?" C-3PO said.

"Huh?"

"This rusty bucket of bolts claims to have been at your parents' wedding, Master Luke."

Artoo twittered again.

"What! I most certainly was not, you little lying glob of grease, surely I would remember the marriage of a Senator and a Jedi Padawan!" Threepio said, indignant.

Artoo twittered again, adding in a few beeps.

"A memory wipe!" Threepio said.

"He might have a point Threepio," Luke said.

"So you're taking his side?"

Obi-Wan chuckled at the exchange, "I thought you two looked familiar, I should have realized she wouldn't trust this to just any two droids."

"You remember these two?" Luke said.

"Now I do, it has been eighteen years since I've seen them and they aren't rare models," Obi-Wan said.

"Everyone is against me! I have not had a memory wipe!" Threepio lamented.

Artoo twittered and beeped again.

"What do you mean I talk too much!?" Threepio asked, indignant again.

"Well, Threepio, we never mentioned that my mother was a Senator, so you might have a back-up memory module that was missed. We might be able to restore your memories."

A wave of horror washed over Obi-Wan, but then, beeping came from the console that Han was sitting at.

"I hate to end this trip down memory lane, but it looks like we're coming up on Alderaan," he said.

"Thank you, Captain," Obi-Wan said, meaning for more than letting them know they were at their destination, thankful that the Captain had unwittingly bought Obi-Wan some time to think about how to handle this. He never dreamed that the droids would retain so much. It seems like father, like daughter on the proper maintenance of droids. There were probably still old battle plans from the Clone Wars inside Artoo. He shook his head, Oh Anakin, even now you are making my life difficult, he thought.

"Shall we go up to the cockpit, Ben?" Luke asked.

"Yes, we should," Obi-Wan replied.

* * *

Vader led his newfound charges to the hanger bay, a task made more difficult by the Princess's constant sniping.

"So, where are you taking me? And just where is your task-master?" the Princess said.

"Your Highness, I'm sure you have plenty to complain about, but this situation is really serious, and he's trying to deal with it," the being said trying to keep her quiet, for which Vader would've been grateful, but it wasn't working.

"Listen…who…whatever you are, you don't know the first thing about me or him so kindly keep out of this."

"Look, once we get to the ship we'll do the introductions, now if you don't mind, shut your trap," the being said, Vader suppressed a chuckle, it was obvious that whoever the being had been in its previous life, it had little use for fools, and while he would not ordinarily put Princess Leia Organa in that category, she had had a very bad day and it was showing in her current foolish behavior.

"You can't talk to me like that!"

"Seems like I just did! Now I understand you're having a bad day, but…"

"Quiet, both of you, we need to board the shuttle, Your Highness, try to remember that you are still a prisoner," Vader said.

"How can I forget?" she shot back.

They managed to get aboard his shuttle without further incident; Vader took his place at the controls, for even at this point in his life, he preferred to fly himself. He did the preflight checks with quick efficiency and they were lifting off within ten minutes. He turned the ship toward where the Devastator was in her parking orbit; it would take them twenty minutes to arrive, and he set the autopilot and turned to the being and the Princess.

"Now, creature, tell us where you came from, what you are and what is happening to the Death Star," Vader ordered.

"Well, first off, I'm not a creature, I'm a human being, thank you very much," the being said.

"Could have fooled me, I thought you were Vader's long lost little brother," the Princess quipped.

"You are so lucky I don't hit girls, your royal bitchiness," the being said.

"What is your name?" Vader said, cutting off the Princess's sure-to-be scathing retort. While he was finding the Princess meeting her match in insult throwing quite amusing, they did have limited time and needed to stay on task.

"Mario Latan, Lieutenant Mario Latan, Starfleet, serial number 56-86548-Quebec, Sierra, Charlie, Alpha-889, last assignment, USS Saratoga registry number, November, Charlie, Charlie-31911, ship's status, destroyed. I now ask formally if I am to be considered a prisoner of war?" Latan said, his whole demeanor changing, he was now sounding very professional, like a switch. It was clear to Vader that this man was a solider.

"I do not consider you a prisoner of war, your official status is as of yet to be determined," Vader replied.

"Very well, but I reserve to withhold any information that might be used against the United Federation of Planets and or her allies. With this one condition: I will freely share with you everything I know about the Borg," Latan said, relaxing a little.

"Where did the cube originate?" Vader asked.

"Cube, what cube? And what is the United Federation of Planets?" the Princess interrupted.

"If you would be quiet, Your Highness, you will have your answers," Vader said, his voice low, fully indicating that he would not tolerate further interruption, to her credit, she did not respond.

"Ok…the cube came from my home galaxy, which we call the Milky Way. The cube encountered a wormhole while on patrol in the Delta quadrant. Normally the Collective ignores such phenomena as they are notoriously unstable and tend to shred things that fall in them, but this one was different. I was not a drone directly involved in processing the data, so I don't know much about what the scans found, but the Collective decided to attempt to use it as a transwarp conduit, I guess it looked like one to it. That is the short story of how the cube came here, then we encountered the Death Star I believe you called it, the rest you know," Latan said.

"And how did you end up as you are?" Vader asked.

"That is a bit longer of a tale. It basically starts, as best as I know, since this was classified six ways from Sunday and even then they wanted you to swear on your grandmother's grave that you wouldn't talk about it once you saw the information. Anyway, about a year before the Battle of Wolf 359 the Enterprise, the 'aid' of a Q, encountered a Borg cube in the delta quadrant. They got their asses handed to them in that encounter," Latan started.

"This Enterprise was destroyed?" Vader asked.

"No, Q popped them back home before that could happen, but not before making Captain Picard beg," Latan said.

"Q is an odd name what is he?" Leia asked, and Vader permitted the question, as he was curious himself.

"Q is a non-caporal life-form that has extraordinary, dare I say supernatural powers, and he is given to practical jokes, from what I understand. I personally have never had the displeasure. Just to put this into perspective, if Enterprise had to get home under their own power, it would've taken them nearly seventy years to get home," Latan said.

"That is too much power for anyone being to have. Is he a tyrant in your galaxy?" Leia asked.

"No, he's just one individual of a race of beings like him, in fact the reason he had visited the Enterprise was because his own people were punishing him for misbehaving, at least I think that's what the report said. It was a while ago and we were on the eve of battle when I read it, looking for something, anything that might help us."

"So, your ship, it was destroyed, by the Borg?"

"Yes, the Saratoga along with 38 of the other 39 ships that were assigned to try to stop the Borg's advancement on Earth, was destroyed."

"Did you stop the advance?" the Princess asked.

"Yes, somehow, and it's tied up in Locutus, and only the Queen dealt with him directly, so far as I know."

"The Queen?" she asked. Vader knew he should be taking control of the conversation, but, somehow, it wasn't in him to make her stop when she was asking just the questions that he would. He worked very hard not to think that her mind worked the way that his did.

"The Borg are a hive, just like you would find in a colony of insects, but able to impose their consciousness on other beings. Insect colonies have Queens, and so does the Borg."

Vader was sure this was simplified, but he knew that he probably didn't have the capacity to understand everything that becoming Borg would entail. "Who is this Locutus of whom you speak?"

"He was Captain Picard of the Enterprise, the Borg assimilated him to facilitate communication with Earth during the assimilation process."

"How did you survive? If the cube that assimilated you was destroyed," Vader asked.

"I got caught up in a very old subroutine, one dating to the earliest days of the Collective, basically when a cube starts assimilating a civilization, it dispatches a small scout craft to observe the assimilation and report back to the rest of the Collective, I was one of the drones assigned to this, when the cube was destroyed, the scout ship left, not having the ability to continue the assimilation of Earth. Eventually I was placed on the cube that your station destroyed," Latan said.

"It seems you have survived the destruction of many vessels, Lieutenant," Vader said.

"Yeah, lucky me," he said with a sigh, and even Vader could hear the sarcasm in his voice.

Without further comment Vader turned back to the controls, finding they were still about ten minutes out from Devastator. Then with no warning, the Death Star's turbo lasers began firing. Vader began evasive maneuvers, but then realized it was foolish to try as the weapons were firing completely randomly. He settled back onto direct course for Devastator. As the great ship came into the shuttle's view screen, Vader saw her get hit by no less than eighteen turbolaser blasts, with her shields down. The green bolts ripped through the Star Destroyer, breaking her back, it wasn't long before her hyperdrive went, taking the lifeless hulk into oblivion. Then the Death Star vanished into hyperspace.

"We seem to have a problem," Vader told his two companions, "What will be their principle objective?"

"With the Death Star under their control, they'll seek out a world to assimilate," Latan said.

"What will they be looking for in a world to assimilate?"

"At this point, a large population will be their driving parameter for assimilating a world."

"That leaves only one possibility…"Vader said.

"Coruscant…" Leia breathed.

"Yes, Imperial Center makes sense as their next target," Vader said, and was slightly amused at the Princess irritated expression at the planet's official name.

"Can we get there in time?"

"No the Death Star may be slow, but this shuttle is slower still, we'd get there maybe a day after they do. Our best course of action is to get to a holo-transmitter to send warning to the Emperor before the Death Star arrives," Vader said.

"Why can't you call them from here?" Latan asked.

"This shuttle doesn't have the power to send a transmission that far, however, the Princess' home world isn't far from here, and they have the equipment I require. Don't get your hopes up, Your Highness, I intend to arrest your father upon our arrival on Alderaan," Vader said, then turned and after setting the shuttle's course sent them into hyperspace.

* * *

Weapons test complete, native navigation charts do not match navigation records, conclusion: we are not in Galaxy 001. Designate galaxy as Galaxy 765. Navigational control achieved, sphere's propulsion now online. Objectives: populate sphere, assimilate worlds of this galaxy. Heading to largest population world. Assimilation of Imperial Center has priority.

The Collective was rapidly assimilating the immediate area around its original beam-in point. It had adapted to the organics' weapons quickly and the numbers of drones at its disposal was rapidly growing.

Utilizing sphere's faster-than-light drive. Arrivals at destination in 4 days, 7 hours and 22 minutes, download and analyze all information about target world. Population, 1.5 trillion, population includes many species, many forms of technology. Prepare maturation chambers, extract genetic material from new drones, begin growth cycle. Accessing stored data…Queen genetic profile found, activate maturation alcove. Begin Queen growth. The collective must grow. Less then 10% of station area under the Collective's control, approximately 1 % of population assimilated. Sphere's primary weapon next priority: consideration of alteration possibilities. Weapon is currently wasteful.

As the Death Star flew through hyperspace the Collective attempted to study it, but its control over the massive station's sensors was not very good, primarily to a lack of drones to handle the task.

Organics assimilated in the last hour: 150, designated assimilation groups, goal: 300 organics assimilated in the next hour. The Collective must grow. Successful implantation of Queen. Earth Days until Queen is mature: 6500. Technology data found. Assessing information…World of Kamino…technology: rapid maturation methods…cloning… assimilation of Imperial Center: first priority, assimilation of Kamino next priority…the Collective must grow.

* * *

"Reports of sightings are spreading from the initial point of contact, thus far our weapons have been quite useless," the comm officer reported.

"Damn, is there any progress in getting us out of hyperspace, or at least determining where we are going?" Tarkin demanded.

"None so far…new report sector 3, northern hemisphere, decks 34 and 35. Stormtroopers reporting alien beings installing equipment, they are now firing at them…no effect, the beings are approaching…we've lost contact with the troopers sir," the officer said.

"At the rate they are spreading, how long until they get here?" Tarkin asked.

"If the rate of expansion doesn't increase, they will arrive to this bridge in four days, if the spread is exponential, a day and a half, maybe less." the officer replied.

"Where is Lord Vader? His place is here, planning the defense of the station," Tarkin said, realizing that the foreboding Sith Lord hadn't been seen in hours.

"I don't know, sir," the officer said.

"Find out," Tarkin said.

"Sir! We got into the navicomputer," another officer called out.

"Finally some good news, where are we going?"

"Imperial Center."

"Shavit…we need control of this station before we arrive, gentlemen, or so help me every last one of you will hang!"

"Sir, Hanger Bay Five reports that Lord Vader's shuttle is no longer on board."

Cold dread settled into Tarkin's gut as the realization that Lord Vader might have been correct in being cautious with the cube, but he pushed it down. Nothing would deny him the place of greatness, especially not some half-droid abominations, no matter how resilient they proved to be.

"Do we have communications?" Tarkin asked.

"Not yet," came the reply from one of the nameless faces.

"Get on it, we might be able to give them a few hours warning at least," Tarkin said. Then his thoughts turned to Vader, Oh, my friend, if you only knew what I plan to do with your desertion.