Lucia gripped her mother's lightsaber—now her lightsaber—her eyes following the small seeker droid Ben had programmed to fire gentle shocks that she was meant to block. Small stings all over her hands and face attested to how well that was going. She raised her blade as the droid spun toward her again, and the universe tilted around her. A rushing in her ears and distant sense of loss filled her awareness, and she barely felt the droid leave another sting on the back of her hand.
Shaking her head to clear it, she saw Ben leaning against the wall for support. He was paler than the whitest sands on Tatooine, his eyes focused on something beyond his surroundings. "What's wrong?" she asked, her voice strained.
He shook his head slowly, still staring into nothingness. "I felt a great disturbance in the Force… as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror... and were silenced." He turned his head toward her, his gaze gradually coming back into focus. "I fear something terrible has happened."
The door slid open, and Captain Solo stepped through, pulling her hair out of her face and tying it at the back of her head. "Well, you can forget your troubles with those Imperial slugs. I told you I'd outrun 'em."
Lucia's fingers tightened on her lightsaber hilt. Was that what she had felt—a 'great disturbance in the Force'? Only the Empire could have done something on such a scale.
"Don't everyone thank me at once," Solo said sarcastically. When no one responded, she continued, "Anyway, we should be at Alderaan about oh-two-hundred hours."
Ben nodded. The colour had returned to his face, and he nodded toward Lucia. "We have time for a few more exercises."
Pushing the memory of pain and loss to the back of her mind, she turned back to the droid. And yelped when it stung her cheek.
"Try to see where the remote will be; not where it is. The Force will guide you," Ben told her.
She eyed the droid warily. "You mean it controls your actions?" That didn't sound pleasant.
"Partially," Ben allowed. "But it also obeys your commands."
Somehow, that made sense to her. She faced the droid, trying to feel what Ben was talking about. She had always had a sense of the life around her in a way that others didn't seem to have. But she had no idea how she was supposed to feel the Force flowing through her.
The droid feinted to her right, then darted left and around behind her. A sharp pain in the back of her left leg dropped her to one knee.
Captain Solo snorted a laugh, folding her arms under her breasts. "Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side."
Lucia raised an eyebrow at the captain. "I take it you don't believe in the Force?"
Solo shook her head and sighed, brushing a loose strand of hair out of her face. "Kid, I've flown from one side of this galaxy to the other. I've seen a lot of strange stuff, but I've never seen anything to make me believe there's one all-powerful 'force' controlling everything." She gazed challengingly at Ben. "There's no mystical energy field that controls my destiny. It's all a lot of simple tricks and nonsense."
Ben just smiled and stood up, hefting a large helmet which he handed to Lucia. "Put this on and try it again."
Lucia eyed the helmet, both eyebrows raised.
Ben gently placed it on her head, lowering the blast shield, effectively blinding her. "This time, let go your conscious self and act on instinct."
Lucia stood very still, her grip on her saber and Ben's voice her only connections with the world around her. "I can't even see. How am I supposed to fight?"
"Your eyes can deceive you. Don't trust them."
Resisting the urge to roll her eyes, Lucia waited for something to happen. A shot to her upper arm startled a yelp out of her and she rubbed the sore spot with her free hand. She could hear Solo snickering at her. This was ridiculous.
"Stretch out with your feelings," Ben said, his voice calm.
Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath and tried to visualize the threat. As if in a dream, she lifted the saber to block, and felt the droid's next bolt bounce off the blade.
"You see? You can do it." She could hear the smile in Ben's voice, could almost feel his pride.
Solo snorted again. "I call it luck."
Lucia pulled off the helmet as Ben replied, "In my experience, there's no such thing as luck."
"Look, good against remotes is one thing. Good against the living?" Solo shook her head. "That's something else." She turned toward the cockpit. "Looks like we're coming up on Alderaan."
Lucia handed the helmet to Ben as Captain Solo left. "I did feel something. I could almost see the remote."
His smile lit up his face. "That's good. You have taken your first step into a larger world."
Coming out of hyperspace was nothing like entering it. The ship shuddered, rocking like a funnel flower petal in a windstorm. Ben's expression told Lucia this was not normal, and she followed him into the cockpit where Captain Solo and Chewbacca were busy with the controls, steering the ship through a cloud of flying rocks.
"What's going on?" Lucia caught herself against the wall as the ship lurched around one of the larger chunks of debris.
Solo was examining a readout. She hit the edge of the console with her fist, letting out a frustrated growl. "Our position is correct." She waved her hand at the window. "But no Alderaan!"
Ben stepped forward, his eyes fixed on the view through the window. "Destroyed…" he whispered.
"The entire starfleet couldn't destroy a whole planet," Solo insisted, pulling the tie out of her hair, then shoving it into a knot at the back of her neck. "It'd take a thousand ships with more firepower than I've—" She broke off and leaned forward as an alarm sounded on her control board. "There's another ship coming in."
"An Imperial fighter," Ben said quietly.
"There aren't any bases around here," Solo said, frowning as the tiny TIE fighter raced past the window. "Where did it come from?"
Lucia bit her lip. "If they identify us, we're in big trouble."
"Not if I can help it," Solo said firmly. "Chewie, jam its transmissions." She leaned forward, her hands dancing over the controls, sending the Falcon after the fleeing TIE.
"A fighter that size couldn't get this deep into space on its own." Ben's voice was thoughtful.
"It must have gotten lost or something," Lucia replied. The fighter was making a run for a bright spot in the sky, racing for his life as they gained on him. "It's headed for that small moon."
Solo smiled a grim smile. "I think I can get him before he gets there." The bright spot grew into a perfectly spherical shape, reflecting the light from the stars all around.
"That's no moon," Ben said. "It's a space station."
"It's too big to be a space station," Solo replied, but her voice was unsure, fear creeping into her tone.
Lucia just stared. She had a very bad feeling about this.
"Full reverse!" Solo shouted. "Chewie, lock in the auxiliary power!" The engines roared, but they kept moving forward. "We're caught in a kriffing tractor beam. We have to shut down the engines." She stood up, running her fingers through her hair, leaving a few strands loose of the tie. "But they're not going to get me without a fight."
Ben laid a hand on the captain's shoulder. "You can't win. But there are alternatives to fighting."
Hanna crouched in the dark, tight space under the floorboards, mashed up against Chewie on one side and the wide-eyed farmgirl on the other. She hardly dared to breathe as she listened to the stormtroopers overhead. When the sounds finally faded away, she pushed up, throwing the panel overhead aside and taking a deep breath in relief.
"It's lucky you had these compartments," Lucia said, standing up next to her.
"I use them for smuggling." Hanna shook her head. "I never thought I'd be smuggling myself in them." She vaulted out of the hole in the floor. The Falcon's landing ramp was open, displaying a view of the interior of a gigantic docking bay. She blew out a breath in frustration. "This is ridiculous. Even if I could take off, I'd never get past the tractor beam."
"Leave that to me," the old man said, coming up to stand next to her.
She raised an eyebrow at him. "Damn fool. I knew you were going to say that." He probably figured he could use the 'Force' to turn off the beam, or some such nonsense.
He merely smiled at her. "We'll need to get into their computer."
Rolling over a couple of stormtroopers for their armour had been easier than Hanna had expected it to be. She eyed Kenobi suspiciously, wondering if the old man had used some of that hocus pocus on them. He was leaning over the computer terminal, examining a map of the space station. She shook her head at herself. He was just a crazy old man. None of that claptrap was real.
Lucia's golden protocol droid spoke up, translating for the astromech who had plugged in to access the computer directly. "He says he's found the main computer to power the tractor beam that's holding the ship here. He'll try to make the precise location appear on the monitor."
Hanna watched over Kenobi's shoulder as the screen flickered, displaying several parts of the map in quick succession.
"The tractor beam is coupled to the main reactor in this location," the golden droid continued, indicating a point on the monitor. "A power loss at the terminal will allow the ship to leave."
Kenobi rubbed his beard thoughtfully. "I don't think you two can help. I must go alone."
Hanna rocked back on her heels, nodding agreeably. "Whatever you say. I've done more than I bargained for on this trip already."
Predictably, Lucia wasn't so willing to stay behind. "I want to go with you," she complained.
Hanna rolled her eyes. You'd almost think the old man was the girl's father, with how attached to him she was, despite that they looked nothing alike.
"Be patient, Lucia." Kenobi rested his hands on the kid's shoulders. "Your destiny lies along a different path than mine. The Force will be with you… always."
That had sounded rather final to Hanna's ears. She frowned at the old man, but he didn't so much as glance in her direction as he turned and walked away.
Lucia watched Ben leave, her throat tight, a sinking feeling in her stomach. She had a sudden urge to run after him, to stop him, but a stream of whistles and beeps from Artoo turned her head around. He was still connected to the computer, but was rocking back and forth in excitement, in danger of breaking something.
"What is it?" she asked, bending to peer at the screen.
"I'm afraid I'm not quite sure, miss," Threepio replied. "He says 'I found him', and keeps repeating, 'He's here'."
Lucia straightened up, frowning at Threepio. "Who has he found?"
The golden droid actually seemed startled at the astromech's reply, and when he spoke, his voice was higher. "Prince Alaric."
Prince Alaric. That was the boy from the hologram, who had seemed so familiar! "He's here?"
"A prince?" Captain Solo asked, leaning over to look at the screen.
"Level five. Detention block A-23," the protocol droid continued. "I'm afraid he's scheduled to be terminated."
Lucia's stomach fell. "No! We have to do something."
"Now, look, don't get any funny ideas," Solo interjected. "The old man wants us to wait right here."
"Ben didn't know he was here." Lucia laid her hand on Artoo's head. "Can you find a way into the detention block?"
"I'm not going anywhere," Solo declared, crossing her arms over her chest.
Lucia turned around and glared at the captain. "They're going to execute him!"
Solo raised her eyebrows in a 'so what?' expression. "Better him than me."
Lucia clenched her fists, disgusted with Solo's attitude. Did she really care about nobody but herself? Wait. She cared about money. "He's rich." A prince would have to be rich, right?
Solo's arms loosened slightly. "Rich?"
"Yes." Lucia pushed the advantage. "Listen, if you were to rescue him, the reward would be…" She paused, trying to think of a suitable amount, but gave up. "Well, more wealth than you can imagine."
Solo unfolded her arms. "I can imagine a lot." They glared at each other for a minute, then Solo looked away, shaking her head. "All right, kid. But you'd better be right about this."
