At first, I thought I had just died. I was still suspended between the walls, back against one and feet against the other. My ribs were safe. My breath came out in a rush and I sank my feet back to the still quivering pile of garbage. I heard Green Eyes, Furball and Luke give yells of triumph, and I couldn't help but join them. Luke shouted, "You did it!" to the droids and I threw my arms around Green Eye's neck.
When he hugged back I suddenly realized what I was doing and stepped away. Green Eyes himself looked a little taken aback but he was still grinning lopsidedly and I let my own smile spread over my face.
Amid shouts of delight and relief, Luke read the number above the door to Threepio, and the droids opened the door and slowly directed us down the corridor to a deserted room.
There I was properly introduced to Green Eyes and The Great Mop as Captain Han Solo and Chewbacca the Wookie. Solo was a Corellian smuggler (an outlaw, I knew it) and the captain of a small freight called the Millennium Falcon. Chewbacca (known as Chewie) was Solo's first mate.
Luke and Solo abandoned their stormtrooper armor. (Except for the utility belts) "Now," Captain Steamheat Solo began, "If we can avoid any more female advice, we just might be able to get out of here." Jerk. Some "knight in shining armor" come to rescue the "damsel in distress". Well this "damsel" could take care of herself, thank you very much.
"Then let's get movin'." Wow, Luke, thanks for your support. I was about to reply angrily when an alarm blared. Chewie panicked, ran a few (large, Wookie-sized) steps down the hall, and refused to budge. (I later learned that Wookie's have sensitive ears)
Solo aimed his blaster at the control panel. "No wait, they'll hear!" I cried. He ignored me and blasted it. "Come here you big coward," commanded Solo to the Wookie. The big furball shook his head. "Chewie come here."
I jumped in front of him. It was time to show these people who was the princess, and who was the smuggler and outlaw. "Listen, I don't know who you are, or where you came from, but from now on, you listen to me." I started to take the lead, but Solo wasn't put down so easily.
"Listen, Princess, I take orders from just one person, me."
I turned toward him, with an air of poise and refine. "It's a wonder you're still alive." I retorted. "Will somebody get this walking carpet out of my way?" I brushed past Chewie, with only a slight twinge of guilt for the creature. It wasn't his fault Solo was a jerk.
"No reward is worth this!" I heard Solo exclaim. I smiled to myself. Nothing could please me more than getting on the nerves of Captain Hotshot. Except maybe killing Vader and Tarkin.
The two droids, 3P0 and R2, gave us directions to where the Falcon was impounded in the shuttle bays. We rushed onward, always on our guard for stormtroopers and other Imperial cronies. The halls were strangely empty. Not a stormtrooper in sight. With a prisoner and intruders loose, you'd think the place would be crawling with soldiers. But the corridors were deserted. I glanced around at my new companion's faces. No one else seemed to think the emptiness strange. I sighed, wishing Kenobi was here. He was a General and a Jedi Knight, after all. But Luke had told me that he had gone to get the tractor beam out of commission. I nearly flipped when he told me Kenobi had gone off alone.
Finally, we arrived at a window overlooking the Falcon. I couldn't believe my eyes. What a piece of junk! I had never seen that type of freighter before, and it looked ancient. It was circular and flattish, like a disk of some sort, with projections all over it. It was a dull brown, and on the front of the disk-like ship, it split into twin forks. The cockpit was a tinted dome on the right side. I couldn't believe they had actually made it all the way from Tatooine in that thing. It didn't look like it could get off the ground, much less evade Imperial cruisers. I turned to Solo, a sliver of respect forming in my voice. "You flew in that thing? You're braver than I thought."
Solo did not appreciate the remark. "Nice. Come on."
We were rushing along a corridor when we walked right into a whole squad of Imperials. At first I thought it was a trap, but by the stormtroopers expressions, they had no idea we were even aboard the Death Star. Before I had time to react, Chewie roared at the soldiers. They must have been startled, for to my utter surprise, they turned tail and ran, Solo running headlong after them. "Get back to the ship!" he yelled as he disappeared down the corridor, Chewie behind him.
"He certainly has courage." I admitted to Luke.
"What good is it going to do him if it gets him killed?" Luke sensibly replied. I shook myself. Of course Luke was right. It wasn't courage as much as stupidity. If those troopers decided to turn around, Solo would be no match for them, even with the monstrous form of Chewbacca beside him.
Luke Cloudhead and I started back towards the Falcon. We got some more troopers on our tail, and apparently didn't follow 3P0's directions as well as we thought, because we ended up on a tiny platform with nothing but a dark pit before us. I started to turn around, but the stormtroopers were there, raising their blasters to shoot. I don't know how they missed us, but they did, and I had time to dive at the controls. I tried to find the switch that would lock the door, but couldn't find it. "There's no lock!"
Luke Birdstalker grabbed my arm and pulled me away from the controls. He aimed his stormtrooper blaster at the panel and shot. The panel exploded in fiery sparks. "There." Luke seemed proud of himself. "That outta hold them for a while."
Ok, but not forever. "Quick, we've got to get across. Find the controls that extend the bridge!"
Luke glanced at his handiwork. "I think I just blasted it."
I felt myself starting to panic as I thought of those torture sessions with Vader. I shrugged my shoulder, again feeling his gloved hand on my shoulder as Alderaan was destroyed. "They're coming through!"
My words echoed around the walls of the rift.
A fleeting sense of premonition made me duck the red blaster bolt aimed at my head. Several stormtroopers stood a level above, raining blaster bolts down on us. Luke was instantly firing back. One trooper screamed and fell into the abyss. "Here, hold this." Luke handed the blaster to me and started messing with something on his utility belt.
I started blasting away at the stormtroopers left on the ridge. The door behind us shot open a few inches. One opposite us fell backwards, shot. There was one left, but Luke was ready. He had attached one of the hooks to a cable line, then tossed the hook so that it wrapped around a pipe on the ceiling. "Good luck." I told him and kissed his cheek. Hanging onto him for dear life, Luke jumped off the narrow ridge and swung to the other side. The wind tore at my hair and clothes, and the dark rift loomed threateningly below. It was terrifying and exhilarating all at the same time.
We made it across just as the door we had been at a few moments ago shot open. I still had the blaster and fired a few shots before we left. Luke and I made it to the doorway closest to the Falcon. Solo and Chewie were waiting for us. "What kept ya?"
"We ran into some more friends." I answered sarcastically.
Solo once again ignored me and said, "She seems to be alright if we can get to her. I just hope that old man got the tractor beam out of commission." It took me a second to figure out "she" was the Falcon and "that old man" was Kenobi. Luke called Threepio who reported that he and Artoo where across the hanger. We were watching the Falcon, trying to see the best time to make a dash for it. Suddenly, the stormtroopers guarding the ship saw something and moved toward it and away from the Falcon. "Okay, lets go." Solo directed.
Taking the opportunity, we darted across the bay towards the Falcon. Something caught Luke's eye, and he halted, taking a few steps in the same direction as the stormtroopers. "Ben?" I heard him exclaim incredulously. I turned to look.
Two figures stood in the doorway, one robed in brown, and the other in black. I was startled to see both bore lightsabers, one red, the other blue. It was Vader and Kenobi, locked in a battle to the death.
Kenobi heard Luke's voice, and glanced up at him, smiling. The old man raised his blue saber up in front of his face. I nearly cried out in terror as Vader swept his red blade across the Jedi's shoulders, killing him instantly. Kenobi's robe and lightsaber fell to the ground, empty of a body.
"No!" Luke shouted.
The cry startled the stormtroopers and they whirled around and instantly red flashes were whirling past my head, dangerously close to making contact.
"Luke! Come on!" Solo and I both cried. Chewie roared. Luke was still hesitating to join us, undoubtedly seeking revenge for Kenobi.
"Luke! It's too late!" I shouted.
"Blast the door, kid!" Solo added. Luke did so, closing the blast doors blocking the approaching Vader from aiding the guards. Luke took one last glance and ran aboard. Solo rushed into the cockpit. The Falcon roared to life and we were off.
I was wandering aimlessly around the ship when I noticed Luke looking rather depressed. I found a blanket and put it around his shoulders and sat beside him. Both of us were silent for a moment.
"I can't believe he's gone." Luke and Kenobi must have become good friends in a very short time. I knew how he felt about his loss. More than he knew. My home had been destroyed. He had lost a friend. And yet, I didn't really know what to say. "There wasn't anything you could have done." I finally ventured. I wished I could have done something about Alderaan.
Suddenly I remembered what I had told Luke when Kenobi was killed. "Luke! Luke it's too late!" That was what I had thought when Alderaan was destroyed. "Too late." Too late for Kenobi, too late for Alderaan. Too late. It's too late.
I jumped when Solo charged in. "Come on, where not out of this yet." Solo climbed a ladder to the upper gun well while Luke took the lower one. I joined Chewie in the cockpit. Four TIE fighters screamed overhead. I jumped in surprise. I could hear the turbolasers exchanging fire. Chewie maneuvered the Falcon in sharp turns and dives that made my stomach flip. One of the fighters got a good hit on us. "We lost the lateral controls!" I cried to Solo.
"Don't worry. She'll hold together." I hoped so. "Baby, baby, hold together." I heard him mutter under his breath. Comforting.
"They're coming in too fast!" Luke cried.
Solo blasted the first one.
In a few moments, another blew, hit by Luke. "I got one! I got one!"
"Great, kid! Don't get cocky!"
"There's still two more out there!" I reminded them that the danger wasn't over yet. Luke blasted another TIE, which exploded in a huge ball of flame. My stomach was still flipping, but I tried to help Chewie. The Falcon's controls were similar the other ships I had been on, even if the ship itself wasn't.
The last TIE fighter wasn't slacking off. After a few tense moments, Solo finally blasted him. "We did it!" shouted Luke.
"We did it!" I echoed his cry and threw my arms around Chewie.
I was alive, I was on my way back to the Rebellion, and I was free.
Princess Leia Organa of Alderaan has escaped.
Or so she thinks.
Ah, but my precious prisoner with the mysterious Jedi powers is no Jedi. She doesn't know that there is a homing beacon aboard the hull of that strange smuggler's ship. She doesn't know that she will do us more good free than a prisoner.
She doesn't know she is leading us straight to her precious rebel friends.
I told Tarkin she would never consciously betray the Rebellion. So now she is betraying her friends, she just doesn't know it.
For all of her strong will and Jedi power, she is so completely helpless.
