Part 4
Aboard the star destroy Chadosiast, is the royal families star destroyer which was given to Carlin for her use and personal ship. The captain of the ship has served the royal family for many years. He is a veteran of the rebellion and the Yuuzhan Vong War. Captain Reed is in his mid eighties and has given up promotion to stay in command of his ship; he loves commanding the Chadosiast and has been doing so for the past forty years of his life.
"Sir, we are picking up a message it sounds like a distress call." said the communication officer.
"Where is the message coming from ensign Zeek?" asked Captain Reed.
"I am not sure sir it seems to becoming from any area of space that has not been explored before somewhere along the outer rim." said Zeek
"Alright ensign contact Master Skywalker and tell him I need to speak with him." said Captain Reed.
"Right away sir." said Zeek.
Willy is in the gym doing his daily workout. He stops in mid push-up because he felt someone watching him. He didn't sense them come in. As he concentrated on who it was, he smiles and continues his last few push-ups. Once he finished he doesn't look at the person pretending that he hadn't sense them come and went over to the far wall to get a drink of water.
"So, do you like watching me workout Carlin?" asked Willy as he turned to look at her.
"Uh…..um…Luke sent me to get you for an emergency meeting" said Carlin turning a bright red of embarrassment.
"Well then I guess we shouldn't keep him waiting then."
"No, we shouldn't" said Carlin as she threw him his shirt and a towel. Carlin, still red in the face, asks "How long did you know I was standing there?"
"Not very long, I didn't sense you enter the room, how long have you been standing there?"
"Oh well…." smiled Carlin turning a deeper shade of red.
"Alright let's get going, I think we have been keeping them waiting long enough." said Willy
They are walking towards the conference room and Carlin was trying to control the color of her face, it is not going well. Willy is saying things that keep Carlin turning a deeper shade of red. She pushed him a few times to get him to stop, but it just made him do it even more. Once they made it to the conference Luke, Jacen and Jaina were waiting for them. As Willy and Carlin entered the room everyone looked at Carlin and they all smiled.
"Willy what did you do to poor Carlin?" jokingly asked Jacen.
"What? I didn't do anything" said Willy in a joking manner
"Well when we sent Carlin to get you she wasn't so red" said Jacen
"Oh well.." started Willy
"The both of you need to stop!" said Jaina
She waved for Carlin, who by now is the deepest color red imaginable, to sit next to her. Carlin horridly walked over and sat done with her face towards the floor. Willy walked to the other side of the table and sat down.
"Alright you four calm down." said Luke "First off I would like to thank Carlin for the use of her star destroyer for the use of our mission, second, the main reason I called this meeting, we have received a distress call from a planet near the outer rim that has been forgotten by the Empire so we had no idea that it was there. I have ordered Captain Reed to set course for the planet." Luke pulled up a holo-chart of the planet. "We do not know the name of this planet since the transmission was too weak to get the whole message, but we were able to send out probes ahead of us and have captured images of the planet and this is what we have. As you can see it is a very barren land with the exception of the most northern point which is where we believe the people that live on this planet are at. Your mission is to go and make contact and see what help we can provide and see if we need to contact Coruscant for add. We are a few days out still and I will call you back here for a final meeting. Any questions?" finished Luke
"Just this one, why after so long have they waited to send out a distress call for help?" asked Jacen
"I do not know the answer to this but it could be either they have just been able to make a long range communication or the orbit of their planet is irregular so communications might be difficult for them. Anything else? No…good, dismiss" said Luke
"Have they responded to the signal?" asked the chubby dark figure from the funeral.
"Yes, my lord they are on their way and will be here in a few days." said a small man
"Very good, Todd, get your people ready we must capture the chosen one alive."
"Yes my lord" said Todd and he ran off to start the preparations for the trap.
The lord is watching his men while they were building the city for which is to give the Jedi the impression that they have been year for generations. He took a data chip and put it into a consol and went over his speech that he will give the Jedi to deceive them and get the chosen one away from the rest.
Jacen and Willy are in the gym working on Willy's light saber skills. Jacen is beating Willy three to zero and Willy is getting frustrated with how much he is losing. This is also a lesson for Willy to learn self control and not to lose his temper when things get tough.
"So, what was going on with Carlin the other day at the meeting?" asked Jacen
"Well I caught her watching me and she didn't say anything she was just standing there, so I decided to embarrass her." said Willy
As they finished their break Jacen goes out to the middle of the dueling mate waiting for Willy to come and start the next round. Willy stands up and ran towards Jacen with his light saber coming down in a sweeping manner. Jacen blokes the attack and gives a force push and throws Willy back, Jacen leaps towards Willy and comes down with a sweeping attack. Willy roll out of the way of the attack and jumps up to his feet to block the next blow that he was sure to come, but when he turn to face Jacen. Jacen wasn't there; Willy reaches out in the force to find him. Willy feels an attack coming from behind. Willy blocks the attack from behind and throws Jacen around as he turns to face Jacen. Willy kicks Jacen to throw him off balance but Jacen grabbed Willy's leg and pushed him to the ground and brought his light saber down across Willy's chest.
"Ha, I win again." said Jacen
"I was close this time, I am going to win one of these times." said Willy
"This may be true but the time is not now, we have arrived at the planet." said Luke
The three of them headed towards the conference room to do the final planning meeting for the mission. Carlin and Jaina were already there waiting for them. As the three entered the room and took their seats Luke put the holo image of the planet and put a new picture for them to see.
"This is Prime Minister Valor of the World Shadda-Ra-Baron he told me that they are having a crisis with a small group of people that lives on the outskirts of the city. I believe these people want a change of government but that is not what we are here for. Your mission is to go down there and determine what the cause of the dipute is and if possible resolve it. If you can't then we will send a delegation of negotiators with the approval of both parties to help end this battle before it turns into a war that might start a galactic war." said Luke
"Master why aren't you coming with us, you are more qualified to deal with this then we are." said Willy
"I am sure this is just a misunderstanding and Jacen is more the capable to handle It." said Luke
Everyone got up and started to head to the hanger bay to get aboard the shuttle.
"Jacen I need to speak with you." said Luke
Once everyone left them Luke said "The force is clouded I can see what Valor's true intentions are. I believe him to be force sensitive, I don't think he knows he is but be careful." said Luke
"Yes master nothing will happen to anyone, we all will come home in one piece." said Jacen
Jacen headed towards the hanger bay to meet up with the rest of them. As he left Luke felt a cold prescience in the room. Something was not right here, something was going to happen but Luke could not determine if it will be more then they could handle. Luke decided to go and meditate on it and try to figure out who this Valor really is and what his intentions were.
As they landed on the planet they saw a man waiting for them. Once the shuttle had landed they head for the ramp to meet this man. As they came off the ship the air was cool and moist. The sun was out and as Willy looked around he noticed that repairs are under way on many of the buildings. He couldn't help but stare at the creature that was running around the grounds and in the trees. They were the most bizarre thing he has ever seen. They were a mix between, from what he could determine, a rat and a bird. They had a tall, face and feet of a rat but had wings of a bird.
"Welcome to Shadda-Ra-Baron, I am Prime Minister Valor, this is the capital city Raze after the first prime minister we ever had here." said Valor
"Hello I am Jedi Jacen Solo, this is my sister Jaina Solo, this is Carlin Kerade princess of Cardia, and this is Willy Drema." said Jacen
"Willy is it, that is a most particular name where is your home planet?" asked Valor
"He is from Bogden." said Jacen
Willy took the hint that he shouldn't give him too much information about who he is since they don't know who this Valor person is. Valor smiled and held out his arm to lead them into the building. As they are walking Valor is elaborating the history of the planet and how his family became into power. As they walked Willy felt something at a door and he stopped walking Jacen noticed this and stopped as well, Valor stopped as well.
"What is behind this door?" asked Willy
"Oh that's where we keep our animals." said Valor "please let's continue there is nothing to see in there."
They continued and entered a grand room. The ceiling was very tall and it made one feel small just by entering it, the walls were made from trees that were once standing where this building now stands. The trees were millions of years old. This room seems to be to make someone feel small and unworthy to be in the presence of the Prime Minister.
"This is our grand ball room where we hold things from public functions to war plans like we are doing now." said Valor
"What is the situation with these people that you are having a problem with?" asked Jacen as they sat down with Valor at a giant table.
"They are my families rival for power here. They have always done protests that were peaceful and none violent but now they have turned violent and we don't have the resources to keep fighting them and they are not going to come to peace terms with us." said Valor
"Is it alright if I send Willy and Carlin to go and talk to the other faction in this conflict?" asked Jacen
"Yes you can but they may not want to talk we have tried countless times to come get them to talk peacefully." said Valor "I will have Todd show you to your rooms that you can use while you stay here if you want."
"Thank you Prime Minister." said Jacen,
The Jedi stood up and bowed to Valor and followed Todd out of the room. Valor watched them leave and smiled to himself. The Jedi are playing into his hand just the way he wants them to. He got up and headed for the door that Willy stopped at earlier. He enters the room and see's that the room as monitors of the hall ways and of the door ways of the Jedi. The Jedi will not be able to move around in secret while they are here. Even though the Jedi can hide from video links and be able to move almost undetectable. This would have worked if the Jedi knew that there were camera's there. Valor made these cameras special and is not affected by the Jedi tricks. As he watched the screens he noticed that Willy left his room and is wondering around the building. Valor decides to go and run into Willy. Valor left the room and headed for where Willy is walking to. Valor turns a corner and sees Willy walking towards him.
"Ah Jedi Drema why aren't you in your room resting?" asked Valor
"I am just walking around seeing this planet and the time is very different here." said Willy
"Ah I see well will you walk with me I would like to show you something to help you get ready for what you're meeting with the Unity group tomorrow."
Sure, lead the way."
Valor leads Willy to his personal office and takes a seat behind a desk and gestures for Willy to sit in the chair opposite him. Willy sits down while Valor get's out paper and data chips.
"I want you to know that every man that we sent to talk to the Unity group have come back with cuts and bruises." said Valor.
He turns his monitor screen so that Willy can see the image that is being shown on it. What Willy sees horrifies him, what he sees is a man at a door and when the door is open, something comes flying out of the door hitting the man in the face. The object was followed by men with sticks and other things and started beating the man. After a few seconds of this the attacking men stop and another man comes out of the door. The man standing over the beaten man is telling him something then everyone goes inside and leaves the man they had beaten on the ground. The screen goes black and Willy looks to Valor with a horrified look on his face.
"Willy that man that was beaten was my assistant Carl, he was able to make it back here and we took him straight to the healing center. He is still there recovering." said Valor
"Well I have an advantage Carl didn't I am a Jedi and I can sense when danger is coming, but I will make sure that they know that they can't do this to unarmed men. Can I see Carl?" asked Willy
"He is to badly injured for guest right now, this happened a day before you arrived and we believe is in a comma at the moment." said Valor
"I think I will head back to my room now, Prime Minister" with a bow Willy heads off to his room. He can't figure out why those men would beat a man so much, he thinks there is more to this story then what the Prime Minister is telling him. Willy decides to go and talk to Jacen with what he was shown.
"Willy people do horrible things when they want to get what they want, some revolutionaries do the crudest things to show the people of a world that they want a change and that they will be willing to do anything to see what that it is done. Now I agree that there is more then what Valor is telling us but we have to go along with what he tells us and determine what really is going on. Go and talk to those people tomorrow and get their side of the story and we will make a deacons after we get the other side of this story." said Jacen
Willy headed back to his room, but he decided to take the scenic route back. He walked around and went pass the room that he stopped at earlier that day. He saw someone go inside the room, he walks up to the door and puts his ear to it. He doesn't hear anything but he is sure that someone went in there. He then heard the door start to open he looked around and saw some drapes and went and hide behind them. He could still see the door and saw the man come out. Willy recognized this man, he was from the video, and it was Carl the man that Valor said was almost beaten to death. As Carl came out Willy saw monitors with video feeds on it. Once Carl had turned the corner, Willy went over to the door and went into the room. As he looked at the monitors he saw hall ways and rooms. As he looked into the monitors of the rooms he saw that they were showing beds and people in the bed. He saw Jacen, Jaina, and Carlin sleeping in their beds. Willy looked for something to record some of this but he saw that Carl and Valor were coming back this way. Willy left the room as fast as he could and went down the hall way and turned the corner. Once Valor and Carl went into the room Willy walked pass it and went to his room. Once he got there he looked for where the camera is located. Once he found it he decided to let it keep recording so that Valor doesn't know that he knows that he is being watched. Willy goes over to his bed and goes to sleep.
"Show me what you found Carl?" asked Valor
"I found that the Jedi Willy has been walking around and he almost went into several rooms that, if he did, would undo us." said Carl as he showed Valor the video playback. As Valor is watching Willy walk around the building he saw that the young Jedi is taking in all that this building has to offer and Valor prided himself that he is able to fool the Jedi so well.
"Carl don't worry there is nothing that can stop us now, we will capture him tomorrow and it will be done." said Valor.
Valor watched Willy has he enters his room and wonders about the room as if he is looking for something. Willy goes out of the camera's view and then comes back and goes to bed and falls asleep. Valor thought this was strange since he didn't change out of his robes; it seemed as if Willy was looking for the camera and either didn't find it or he found it and decided to leave it, be for now.
"Carl do we have video of the outside of this room?" asked Valor
"No sire we don't, we only have video of the area's where the Jedi are and will go. We also didn't have enough cameras to cover all of the hall ways and this is a blind spot between two cameras." said Carl
"There is no way for someone to get into here without the key correct?" asked Valor.
"Yes my lord this room is secure from the outside." said Carl
Valor thinks that Willy knows something but decides that it is not important since he can't stop him now. Valor smiles and left the room and went to his office and went to the adjacent room and went to sleep.
Willy and Carlin are heading towards where the Unity group is at. The Unity group contacted Valor and asked if they can see the Jedi. As Willy and Carlin were traveling along the road in a speeder Willy couldn't stop thinking about what he saw last night. Carlin noticed that Willy is distracted with something.
"Willy is something wrong?" asked Carlin
"I can't tell you here." whispered Willy indicating the driver of their speeder.
Carlin shook her head and sat silent; until the driver looked over his shoulder she turned to Willy and said "What are the plans for the talks?"
"Well since they asked us to see them we can assume that they are willing to talk and we shouldn't be worried about being hurt, but we should keep aware of where everyone is at when we are talking to them." said Willy touching her lag.
They started to land and the driver said "Were here." Carlin and Willy got out of the speeder and walked over to a building with armed men standing at the door. The men opened the door to let the Jedi in. As they entered Willy took note of where everyone was. There are two armed men at the door, one armed man at each corner of the room, and two more armed men standing behind a man sitting at a table in the center of the room. Willy and Carlin sat down in the chairs that are there.
The room that they are in isn't that big so it seems like the men in the corners are right next to Carlin. She is becoming agitated and restless. While Willy is talking to the man about what is going on, she looks over at him and then back to the man trying to act like everything is fine. One of the men from a corner behind her takes a step closer to her. She turns to look at him but he hasn't moved, she looks back at the man talking with Willy and again she felt the man move but again when she looks he hasn't moved. She felt it again but ignored it this time and tried to concentrate on the conversation that is going on.
"…..but that is not what we want from them." said the man
"They have video of you beating a man and I know that Prime Minister Valor isn't afraid to use it against you to make you lose all of your support, Praden." said Willy
"We never beat anyone that is not like us, look your Jedi can't you tell when someone is lying or something?" asked Praden
"Alright let's say you didn't beat him, why would Valor try to convince me that you have beaten a man so severe?"
"He is a cruel dictator and doesn't want to lose his power and wealth that he has."
"Would you be will…..Carlin what's wrong?"
Willy noticed that Carlin was agitated and kept looking behind her shoulder.
"I don't know something doesn't feel right, Willy can I talk to you alone for a minute?" asked Carlin
"Praden will you accuse us for a minute?" asked Willy
Praden bowed his head in acknowledgement and Willy and Carlin went outside to talk.
"Something is playing with me, the man behind and to the left of me, I feel him moving towards me but when I look back to check he hasn't moved." said Carlin she has a scarred face on her.
"Look how about you stay out here so that nothing else happens to you. I can handle the rest of this." said Willy
Carlin shook her head and let Willy go back inside alone. She took this time to explore the area to see what this planet is like. She stayed within eye site of the building so that she can get back there if Willy reached out for her in the force. As she went to the back of the building she heard a repulse of a shuttle coming from the front of the building. She ran around to the front and found that Valor was standing at the ramp of a troop carrier and troops on either side of the door and some going around to the back. She goes up to Valor to find out what is going on.
"Prime Minister what is this?" asked Carlin
"This rebellion ends today, we have had enough of their talking and hurting of my people." said Valor
"Where are Jacen and Jaina?"
"They are back at the Capitol building they have put up a good fight for the rebels but I am going to end this today."
"But Willy is in there he can be injured."
"Don't worry my troops have orders not to shoot the Jedi he will be safe."
As the troops start to enter the building, Carlin felt something from the building. She jumped and tackled the Prime Minister as the building exploded. She felt a sudden loss of life and she couldn't believe what just happened. She looked at the Prime Minister then back at the building and then back at the Prime Minister.
"What the Hell just happened?" demanded Carlin.
"I….I don't know they must have had the place ready to blow if we showed up." said the Prime Minister.
Carlin was getting angry and she was going to lash out at the Prime Minister, but the shuttle from the Chadosiast. It landed next to the troop carrier and Jacen came running out and stopped Carlin from getting to her light saber Jaina was close behind him and took Carlin from him and started to calm her done.
"Prime Minister I believe that you do not want the Jedi help or that of the Galactic Alliance, when you are ready to make trade agreements with the GA then you can contact Coruscant and they will send a delegation. Jaina, get her inside we have to tell Luke what has happened down here. Good day Prime Minister." said Jacen
As the Jedi left Valor smiled to himself and went over to the debris. He looked it over and he went over to a metal door in the ground. He waved over a group of troopers. As the door opened seven men came out and two of the men were dragging another person.
Valor smiled "Welcome Jedi Willy Drema of Earth."
Willy had a look of surprise on his face when he heard Valor say that.
"Oh yes I know exactly who you are, and you will join me or you will die. Take him away"
Valor grabbed Willy's light saber from his belt before they took him to a speeder. Valor smiled and went to another speeder as the troops got into the carrier. Todd and Carl are in the speeder that Valor is getting into.
"Todd, Carl we have done it we have deceived the Jedi. The force is clouded to them. We have to get off this rock and hide our prisoner." said Valor
"Yes my Lord" said Todd and Carl in unison
Back aboard the Chadosiast, Carlin is in her room and is not allowing anyone to see her. The droid that serves her goes to answer the door and tells the person at the door that she doesn't want to be disturbed, Carlin could hear who it was at the door.
"Alright please tell her that I would like to speak with her about what happened down on the planet." said Luke
Just as Luke turned to leave Carlin came running out of the room and embraced him in a hug. Luke returned it and said "Carlin you need to talk to me about what happened down on the planet."
"I know but I...I left him in there all alone because I couldn't control my senses." said Carlin in between tears.
Luke led her back into her room and sat her down on a couch. He went and got some cafe and sat down next to her.
"Alright Carlin whenever you are ready to talk go ahead." said Luke
Carlin is able to control the tears that were coming out of her
"Well when we got the meeting with the rebel leader I kept feeling the man behind me getting closer to me but when I looked back he hadn't moved. After a while Willy noticed that something was brothering me, and we went outside to talk and I told him about what I was feeling. He told me that I should stay inside because I think he felt like that it would be better for not lose control or something. I shouldn't have left him alone." said Carlin
The tears started to run all over again and she tried to control the tears but when she was able to get a handle on them, Luke touched her on the shoulder and she leaned against him and started again.
"Carlin there was no way that you could have known what was going to happen, your force senses are not that strong yet, neither was Willy's and I believe that Valor is the Sith lord that was behind the attack on you when you guys went out on that day on the town." said Luke in a fatherly voice.
Carlin got off of him with a few tears still coming out.
"But I didn't tell him how I felt and now…" the tears started again
"Carlin, there are many things that we wanted to tell him, the force is mysteries thing and it works in mysteries ways. There are things called force ghosts of people that we know that have come back to talk to us. I myself have talked to my old master Obi-Wan Kenobi when I was still young fight for the Rebellion, he came back to tell me to seek out Jedi Master Yoda, and after Yoda died Obi-Wan came back and talked to me about my father and I found out that Leia Solo is my sister." said Luke
"So what you are saying is that Willy could come back and talk to me?"
"This could happen but you must accept that he has passed on."
"I am going to find Valor and kill him." said Carlin
"Now Carlin don't take vengeance on Valor you should bring him to justice so that he can be held accountable for what he has done and if he is the Sith lord you should leave him for me since I have dealt with his kind before and you are too young and with the loss of Willy it will be hard for you to control your emotion around Valor." said Luke
"Yes master, does this mean I am going to have time off?"
"I think that is for the best since you just lost your father and now the loss of a really good friend."
"Well I think I lost more than a friend." said Carlin
Luke smiled at this and got up and headed for the door.
Luke turned around and looked back at Carlin "Carlin talk to Jacen and Jaina they are having a hard time as well and can help you out. Seek them out for comfort."
"Yes Master goodnight
"Goodnight"
Luke headed for the bridge for to tell Captain Reed to head back to Coruscant where he and the Solo twins will disembark.