Mara Jade goes on the second Death Star, trying to save her master.
Chapter 2: Saving the Emperor
Endor system, approaching the Death Star
Mara's ship left hyperspace near the forest moon of Endor. The Death Star, whose spherical structure was not yet finished, was in stationary orbit around the moon, protected by a powerful and invisible energy field. No other ships were visible nearby.
She had not returned to normal space for thirty seconds that a male voice with an authoritative tone was heard in the speakers of the communication system.
"Unidentified cargo ship, you are entering a restricted space under control of the Imperial fleet, identify yourself immediately!"
"Emperor's Hand here, recognition code Hapspir, Barrini, Corbolan, Triaxis. I must meet His Majesty urgently. Request deactivation of the security field and permission to land in the docking bay closest to the throne room."
"Roger that, ma'am, reduce your speed and stay on hold."
Mara put her ship in stationary position and waited. The communication officer certainly had to transmit her request to a superior. The answer arrived less than a minute later.
"Emperor's Hand, the deactivation of the energy field begins immediately, and we are sending you the docking coordinates. A security officer will wait for you in hangar bay two hundred and seventy three to take you to the throne room."
A few minutes later, Mara landed her ship in the hangar bay that had been indicated to her, next to an imperial lambda class shuttle.
"Wait for me here and keep the ship ready for immediate take off, K3," she said to her protocol droid before disembarking.
As she had been told, a stormtrooper in armor with a lieutenant's shoulder pauldron was waiting for her down the ramp.
"Welcome aboard the Death Star, ma'am, I was charged to escort you to His Majesty's throne room."
The Emperor's throne room was located on top of a two hundred meters high tower at the north pole of the battle station. Mara and the security officer took a turbolift in the rear of the hangar bay, then several corridors they followed a few hundred meters to the entrance of the turbolift that led to the throne room, in front of which were two Imperial guards armed with force pikes. The stormtrooper lieutenant left and she stood before the guards.
"I am the Emperor's Hand, I must see His Majesty immediately," she said, repeating the four codes that identified her as a trusted agent in direct service of the Emperor.
"Sorry, ma'am," replied one of the guards, "but the Emperor does not want to be disturbed under any circumstances."
"It is a matter of the utmost importance, the life of the Emperor may be in jeopardy. Let me in!"
"I regret but my orders are strict, nobody should enter while the Emperor and Lord Vader question the rebel prisoner."
Mara considered her options. She could easily get rid of the guards and force the passage but it was certainly not the best way to achieve her ends. How could she prove Vader's betrayal to her master? She had to act in a more subtle way.
"Very well," she replied. "I'll come back later when they're done with the prisoner."
Along the way, she had seen a computer terminal a hundred meters before the throne room. She retraced her steps and went to the unoccupied terminal. She entered the master access codes that the Emperor had provided her and which guaranteed her full access to the computer systems of the station. Alarms suddenly sounded but it had nothing to do with her intrusion. A voice announced the Death Star entering alert state following the arrival of the rebel attack fleet.
"Attention, red alert, rebel ships coming out of hyperspace in quadrant five, all combat personnel must return to their post immediately!"
The corridor then began to swarm with soldiers and officers going to their combat posts. No one paid attention to her as she displayed the map of the sector she was in and looked for a way to enter the throne room discreetly. She quickly found what she needed: a vent that led up the tower and over a passageway running around the core shaft. An access point was in a lateral corridor about fifty meters from her current position. She turned off the terminal and went to the vent inlet. After making sure no one could see her, she deactivated the security devices, unsealed the grating, slipped into the vent and closed behind her. She lit a glowrod and began to crawl. She had to travel about two hundred and fifty meters to reach the outlet in the throne room.
She had traveled about fifty and reached the bottom of the tower when she felt a vibration followed almost immediately by a disturbance in the Force indicating that a significant number of people had just died. She understood that the superlaser of the battle station was operational and that it had just fired its first salvo on the Rebel fleet. She resumed her way and began to climb. Fortunately, there was no artificial gravity in the tower itself and her ascent was only curbed by the weak natural gravity of the station, equivalent to that of a small moon. It took her nevertheless long minutes to reach the top of the tower, then the outlet grating. She turned off her glowrod and trying to hide her presence, she watched the events unfolding in the room, waiting for the right moment to act.
Vader paced the vast room, examining the dark recesses in search of the young Skywalker.
"You cannot hide forever, Luke."
"I will not fight you," the young man replied.
"Give yourself to the Dark Side, Luke. It is the only way you can save your friends."
"No!"
"Your thoughts betray you, son. Your feelings for them are strong, especially for– Sister! So, you have a twin sister! Your feelings have now betrayed her too. Obi-Wan was wise to hide her, but now his failure is complete. If you will not turn to the Dark Side, perhaps she will?"
"NEVER!"
Giving in to anger, Luke threw himself on Vader and quickly gained the upper hand as Mara had seen in her vision. As a matter of fact, the following events unfolded exactly as she had seen them. She prepared to act, and when Vader seized the Emperor, she blew up the outlet grating with the Force and jumped onto the passageway, switching on her lightsaber.
"Vader, release His Majesty at once!" she shouted at him.
But he ignored her and continued to move forward, preparing to throw Emperor Palpatine into the void. Fearing to hurt her master, Mara switched off her blade and called on the Force. At the moment Vader threw him over the railing, she focused her mind towards the Emperor, seized him and made him float over the void to the other side. As he regained his mind, she relit her lightsaber and advanced towards Vader, who had been seriously wounded by the Emperor's Force lightning and had collapsed at the edge of the core shaft. Luke was lying a few meters away, still shaken by spasms.
"So be it, Anakin Skywalker, you will die along with your son," the Emperor hissed.
Mara was about to finish the fallen Sith when a brutal sensation of danger invaded her mind. Turning her gaze towards the large observation viewport in transparisteel, she saw a rebel X-wing fighter zooming past, followed closely by an Imperial TIE. She immediately realized what it meant.
"My Lord, we must leave immediately, the security field has been deactivated, this station can be destroyed any time now!"
"No, kill them first!"
"Master, please, we have no time! My ship is waiting, ready to leave. Let's abandon them here, they are already wounded and will die anyway when this station will explode!"
In turn, Palpatine was invaded by the sensation of impending peril. He agreed with the advice of his young pupil.
"Yes, you are right my child, let's go! May this station be their tomb!"
With a surprising speed for a man his age, the Emperor headed for the turbolift, followed by Mara. At the tower's base, the two Red Guards who had refused to let Mara in were still there, impassive, while men were running in all directions, trying to reach a ship to evacuate the station. The Emperor ordered the guards to escort them, while Mara walked in front to open the way. Once in the turbolift cabin leading to the hangar bay, he finally inquired about her presence on the Death Star.
"Now tell me, my child, why did you come here? I told you to go back to Coruscant."
"I had a vision, my Lord, I saw Vader betray and kill you. I came to save you."
"I can't blame you for that. You impressed me today, Mara Jade."
"Thank you, master, it was only my duty."
They arrived in the hangar bay where the cargo ship was waiting for them, its engines still on and ready for immediate takeoff. Just before boarding, the Emperor called the commander of the station.
"Moff Jerjerrod, I ordered you to destroy the sanctuary moon if the energy field was deactivated!"
"Unfortunately, Your Majesty, the station is not yet in position to fire on the moon, and will not be for another ten minutes. I fear that the rebels could destroy the main reactor by then. I have already ordered the evacuation of all non-essential staff and I advise you to leave as soon as possible. I'll keep my position no matter what."
"I have no doubt about that, commander."
With these words, he put an end to the communication and boarded the ship. Mara moved to the controls and they left the doomed station. Outside, the space battle also seemed to turn in favor of the Rebel Alliance. They saw the Super Star Destroyer Executor, Vader's flagship, crashing on the surface of the Death Star after the destruction of her command bridge. Mara followed the evacuation directions transmitted on imperial emergency frequencies. It would allow her to leave the zone of influence of the Interdictor cruisers' gravity well projectors that were stationed on the periphery of the battlefield and thus to jump into hyperspace.
"Head to Coruscant, my child," said the Emperor, "let's leave this fiasco behind us."
Luke was still paralyzed by the Emperor's Force lightning when he saw a young redhead armed with a red-purple lightsaber emerge from the other side of the core shaft and challenge Vader. The latter ignored her and she then called on the Force to catch the Emperor and take him to the catwalk by her side while Vader collapsed at the edge of the pit. The young woman approached, her saber lit, with the clear intention to finish both Skywalkers. Luke began to concentrate to bring back his own lightsaber he had previously thrown to the ground when the young woman suddenly looked away towards the viewport. He also understood what was going on: Han and Leia had succeeded in destroying the security field generator and the rebel ships led by Lando aboard the Millennium Falcon had begun their attack on the station. He remained motionless as the mysterious young woman exhorted the Emperor to leave as soon as possible.
Luke then remembered that he had already seen this ample red hair and that magenta blade before. It was almost four years ago, a few months after the battle of Yavin, during a mission on Poln Major on the edge of the Unknown Territories. He had then helped an Imperial agent to free the wife and daughter of the sector governor who had been abducted by a warlord from the Unknown Regions. He had not seen the face of the red-haired woman and did not know her name, but he was impressed by the dexterity with which she wielded her magenta blade, deflecting the kidnappers' shots while running on a platform suspended above the ground. He had no doubt that she was the same person.
When the Emperor and his young agent had left the room, Luke recovered his lightsaber and went to the rescue of his father who had fallen to the ground. He was still alive but seemed to breathe with great difficulty.
"Father, come! We have to leave as quickly as we can."
"No, Luke, ... save yourself... it's... too late... for me," he replied with difficulty.
"No father, you come with me."
Luke helped his father get up and walk towards the exit of the room.
"We have to find a ship to leave this station before it is destroyed, can you guide me?"
"Yes... my shuttle... is in hangar bay... two hundred and seventy three... It's not... far away."
They also left the throne room by the tower's turbolift. At its base, they arrived in a corridor crowded by staff trying to reach evacuation points.
"The turbolift... three hundred meters on the right," said Vader.
Although wounded and helped to walk by an unknown young man, the Sith Lord still inspired enough fear and respect to give them way without asking questions. They reached the turbolift without trouble.
"Father," asked Luke, "this young woman who came to rescue the Emperor, who is she?"
"Her name... is Mara Jade, but... she is better known as... the Emperor's Hand."
"Is she like you were? A slave of the Dark Side?"
"She's not a Sith... not yet. But she's strong... and ambitious... You should not... underestimate her, Luke. The Emperor will surely... offer her... to take my place... as his new apprentice."
They arrived in the hangar where an imperial lambda-class shuttle was waiting. As they reached the ramp, Vader collapsed again.
"Luke," he said, "help me... take this mask... off!"
"But you'll die!"
"Nothing... can stop that... now. Just once... let me... look on you with... my own eyes."
Luke removed the triangular helmet, then the face mask. He heard the sound of release of the pressurized oxygen that had been feeding the burned lungs of Anakin Skywalker for so long. He then saw for the first time the face of his father. His bald skull bore many burn scars. His dark circled and sad eyes stared at him, eyes that bore no more trace of hatred. Luke felt his own eyes fill with tears.
"Now go... my son... leave me."
"No father, I've got to save you!"
"You... already have, Luke! You were right... about me. Tell... your sister... you were right."
He then sighed a last time and his head fell to the ground. Anakin Skywalker – Darth Vader – had just become one with the Force. As Luke pulled his body inside the shuttle, the Death Star suddenly began to shake violently. He realized that his friends had just destroyed the main reactor. He rushed to the shuttle controls and took off as flames began to invade the docking bay. He moved away from the station as fast as possible before it exploded in a burst of incandescent plasma.
Note: The meeting on Poln Major between Luke and Mara mentioned in this chapter takes place in Timothy Zahn's Novel Choices of One.