"Are you a … ghost?" Elsa stammered.
"In a way, Queen Elsa. I am no longer on your plane of existence. I am only able to communicate with you because your magic is similar enough to The Force that I can tap into it. That's how I was able to transport you here to Hoth with the Force Portal."
"Why have you brought us here?" Anna asked. The question startled the apparition.
"Us?" he asked.
"Yes, your 'portal' brought both me and my sister here." Elsa told him.
"I am sorry, that was not my intent." Obi-Wan seemed troubled.
"Why did you bring us here? We have no understanding of this world." Elsa pressed him again.
"These people need your power to escape the Empire. I brought you here because it was the only way to rescue them. Your power will help Major Derlin destroy the shield generator and allow them to flee this planet."
Anna piped up again. "Seems like kind of a drastic way to solve a problem. How far away from home are we, anyway?"
Obi-Wan answered, "There is no way to measure the distance. You are actually in another time and another galaxy far from your home. Only the power of The Force allowed me to pierce that barrier and bring you here. Your sister's power is that strong."
"You keep talking about The Force, what is that? Major Derlin was talking about it, too." Elsa asked him.
"Well, the Force is what gives a Jedi his power. It's an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us; it binds the galaxy together." Obi-Wan said to Elsa.
Anna pouted, "That's not really an explanation, you know."
Obi-Wan admitted, "I realize it may not be enough to help you understand. Suffice it to say that it exists, and your sister's power is one aspect of it. If you had been born in this galaxy, Elsa, you would be one of the most powerful Jedi Masters ever seen."
Elsa shook her head. "I just want to go back to Arendelle. Will you take us there if we help Major Derlin?"
The question seemed to trouble Kenobi. "I hope to. In truth, I cannot guarantee it."
"So you brought us here without knowing if you can return us to our home?!" Elsa was getting angry now; not so much for herself but because Anna had apparently been dragged along unintentionally. "My sister was to be married; her fiance may never know what happened to her. By bringing both of us here, you have left my kingdom with no clear heir; it could fall into chaos!"
"I can only say how sorry I am. My intention was simply to bring you here, Queen Elsa." Kenobi seemed genuinely apologetic for what could only be his error.
"Sorry isn't going to get us home!" Elsa almost shouted. "What kind of confused old man are you to do something so irresponsible?"
"I can only apologize again. But the risk was necessary." Kenobi said.
"Why? Why was it necessary to kidnap me and my sister and bring us here?" Elsa demanded.
"One of the wounded … will become the mother of a powerful Jedi that has a role to play in the future of the new Republic. If they do not survive, the new Republic will not stand, even after the Empire is destroyed." he explained. "If it were not so critical to the survival of millions, I would not have chosen this path for you."
Elsa was fuming. If this Kenobi had simply ASKED, explaining what he wanted from her, she probably would have agreed. As long as Anna was left behind, so that her life was not disrupted, and so that she could be Regent in Elsa's absence. And could take the throne if Elsa never returned.
"You leave me no choice, do you?" she spat.
"There is always a choice. However, if you choose to do nothing, I will still attempt to send you back to your home."
The two women had sat up when Obi-Wan had first appeared. Elsa's shoulders slumped, and Anna put her arm around her sister and snarled at the apparition.
"You knew she wouldn't run off after we found out what was going on here, didn't you?" Anna was angry.
"She has the heart of a Jedi; I knew she would help. I didn't intend for you to be dragged into this." Kenobi seemed genuinely chagrined.
Elsa shook off her slump. "I'll help. Just get my sister back to Arendelle."
Anna thumped Elsa on the arm and pouted at Kenobi. "WE'LL help. Forgive my sister; she keeps forgetting that I'm her strong left hand!"
Elsa shook her head in surrender. She always lost this argument with Anna. "Okay, WE'LL help. But Major Derlin thinks we're Empire spies and isn't quite trusting of us. How do we convince him to let us help?"
"Tell him that Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi brought you here to help him," was Kenobi's response. He started fading. "I will see you again when I can..." and he was gone.
The two women sat for a moment, then Anna snickered, "THAT just happened. Well, at least we know how we got here."
Elsa wasn't so sure. "Do we? Or are we in some sort of fever dream? Maybe we fell off that balcony in the wind and hit our heads and we're both dying in that chasm..."
"Elsa, you are always so fucking pessimistic!"
"ANNA! Where are you picking up that language?!" Elsa was offended.
"What? Everybody talks like that around here." Anna was puzzled.
"These are soldiers, Anna, soldiers talk like that in barracks. Queens and princesses don't!"
Anna shrugged. "Well, until we are back in Arendelle and have to be queen and princess again, I say, let it go!"
Elsa just glowered at her as she started for the door. Slapping the door button and waiting for it to open, Elsa said, "Go back to sleep. I need to talk to Major Derlin." And she left the room.
Elsa was confused about how to find the Major, but she asked a passing trooper, got straightened out and found herself knocking on the Major's door. "Enter!"
Derlin was sitting on the side of a cot in his office. "Elsa. What in the name of the Force are you knocking on my door at this hour for?" She had clearly woken him up.
"I would apologize, Major, but this is important. Does the name 'Obi-Wan Kenobi' mean anything to you?"
"Of course it does. But I would have to ask how it means anything to YOU if you are who you say you are." He eyed her with a look of suspicion. Elsa groaned internally. She needed him to trust her, and this seemed to make him more wary of her, not less.
"Because he just appeared to my sister and me to explain that he brought us here to help you." Elsa explained.
That woke him up. "What?" He stood up and rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands. "I think this calls for caf. Come along and you can explain this to me."
He waved her toward the door, and they walked to the room used as a cafeteria. Like all such rooms where soldiers or others worked around the clock, the caffeinated beverage dispensers were working. Derlin got two mugs of caf and motioned with them to Elsa to take a seat. At this hour, there were only a few of the troopers sitting around, although there was a steady stream of people coming in, getting mugs of the steaming beverage, and leaving again. They sat, and Derlin placed one mug of caf in front of Elsa, then took a long pull of his own drink.
"Okay, please start from the top. Maybe now I have enough active brain cells to understand what you're trying to tell me."
Elsa recounted the conversation with Kenobi. Derlin watched her face intently, clearly trying to catch her in a lie. When she finished, he shook his head and drank the last of his caf. She sipped at her own, although it was cooler now.
"So, how are you supposed to help us?"
Elsa was startled. She had thought that Derlin would know. "I don't know...shouldn't my power be able to help you destroy this shield generator thing?"
"It depends. What can you do with your power?"
This question stymied her for a moment. "What do you need it to do?"
"Kill every storm-trooper on this fucking ball of ice!" he snarled. He wasn't angry at her; he was angry at the situation he found himself in.
His vehemence startled her. She still didn't understand the depths of hatred for the Empire that seethed inside the people in this base, inside him. How could she? She hadn't lived through the terrors of the billions of lives lost on the whim of the Emperor, or his designated executioners like Tarkin or Vader. Derlin had said it to her when they first met; he couldn't sum up 30 years of history in an afternoon.
The thought of killing still haunted her nightmares. She had killed in self defense. Once. It had … changed her. But she still considered killing to be a last resort. Suddenly she remembered the two storm-troopers she had encased in ice when they had shot Anna. Okay, twice. She had been so distraught about Anna, thinking that she would die, that she had completely forgotten the two men she had killed, for they were certainly dead now. "Elsa, what is wrong with you? You killed two men with no more thought than swatting a fly."
Derlin saw the play of emotion cross her face. Distaste. Startlement. Then disgust. "What? Killing not your cup of tea, Your Majesty?" he sneered. He had misinterpreted her expression as being a judgment of him, when she was really judging herself.
Elsa didn't realize the misunderstanding, and chose to ignore what seemed to be his contempt for her. "Not generally, no, Major. Forgive me, but it isn't something I have had to personally do very often. As a ruling monarch, of course I have dispensed justice to murderers and traitors. And I have killed in self defense. Twice. But it still troubles me."
"Shall we speak of justice, then? The Empire has killed billions of people, for no better reason than to show its power. Remember what I said about Alderaan? That planet was totally destroyed by the Empire, with no warning. Every man, woman, child, dog and cat died a horrible death. Those are the people we are dealing with. This is a war to the knife, I'm afraid, and niceties are hard to come by. If those bastards find us before we can destroy that generator, we're all dead. Including you and your sister. There will be no mercy." He hoped he could get this … civilian ... to feel the terror the Empire could dispense so casually. She needed to feel it in her gut, or she and her sister would become just two more victims of the evil of the Dark Side.
He stood suddenly, went to get another mug of caf, downed it in one gulp and then returned to sit with her. She had simply stayed at the table, a troubled look still on her face. She was staring at her hands, wringing them on the table in front of her. He sat down, and she looked up at him to listen to whatever else he had to say to her.
He continued his thought as if nothing had intervened. "For that matter, a quick death will be a mercy. Anyone they capture alive will be questioned with their fucking torture bots. With the drugs, that can last a long time. If you and your sister are captured, your impossible stories will have them digging into your brains until either they finally believe it, or you're dead. My advice? If you see you're about to be captured, shoot your sister, than yourself. It's a cleaner death." He was breathing hard, his eyes flinty and unfocused.
Elsa shuddered. The mercy stroke. She had been afraid that Anna would need that once, she had steeled herself to give the order if necessary, but it would have killed her, too, to do it. It seemed they were both in such a dilemma now.
"Let's see if we can use my powers to avoid all of that, Major. And that when we get you off this planet, Kenobi can return my sister and me to our homes." Elsa was shaken, but determined. Derlin just nodded in agreement.
Author's Note:
Leave it to Anna to make the comment that's been on the mind of every Star Wars fan since 1977!
