Mustafar – Approaching Atmosphere

"I've got the ship," Luke calmly stated, as he set upon the approach vector for their landing.

Kendy's heart raced, her eyes transfixed on the transparisteel cockpit windows, as they had been since the glowing orb of lava grew from the size of small melon to an angry, boiling planet. Grhan, who was sitting behind her, placed his hand on her shoulder at some point during the previous few minutes. A periodic gentle squeeze reminded her that he was there.

Unlike the young Jedi and his wife, Luke's expression revealed nothing more than what one would see were they landing on Jelucan. Kendy glanced back at Grhan, whose face was calm and silently conveyed, "I'm ready for this mission. Do not worry about me."

As they slipped into the atmosphere, broiling flames encapsulated the Star Gazer, but Luke took the ship through like threading a needle. When they emerged, Kendy gasped. It was only then that the full scope of the volcanic planet's violence was revealed. There was nothing good that could come of a place like this - nothing good at all. Kendy was sure of it.

Nonetheless, things seemed to be going smoothly. In a few minutes, Kendy would begin to scan the view for the enormous structure Darth Vader called his home. Luke began preparations for landing.

Without warning, the Star Gazer fell into a steep descent, then almost immediately felt as though it collided with an invisible layer of durasteel sending Grhan smashing into the back of Kendy's chair. Kendy and Luke slammed against their harnesses with such force that Kendy cried out, feeling something snap in her chest.

Luke immediately began a complex set of maneuvers as the Star Gazer's klaxons screamed warnings and warning lights bathed the cockpit in an eerie red glow. Ghran was scrambling to recover and climb into his seat. Kendy grabbed at her harness clamps when Luke yelled, "No!"

"Grhan!" Kendy cried.

"No, Kendy! Stay there!" Grhan yelled at her.

Luke advanced the power to maximum, the Gazer's engines were barely audible behind the invisible forces smashing against the hull, slamming the ship up-and-down, side-to-side and – in Kendy's mind – determined to smash them into the ground. Luke was in a battle to level the wings and climb, but another massive shift sent the Gazer into a roll, inverting her completely. Almost instantly, she rolled back over to baseline, but then continued past it, now spiraling in rapid succession. They were corkscrewing in a dive towards the boiling red ocean below.

Luke reversed all steps taken in preparation for landing, retracting the repulsorlifts to reduce drag. He calmed his breathing and closed his eyes. Kendy saw this and screamed, "Luke!" His face was completely relaxed, his hands on the controls, but his eyes were closed.

Ghran had somehow returned to his seat and was replacing the harnesses that failed him only moments before. Kendy wanted to reach out to him, to see if he was severely injured, but she couldn't move against the massive forces resisting her. And yet, she saw that Luke was moving. He pulled up on the stick, adjusting the throttle to demand the engines far exceed their limits - at least what Kendy knew them to be. Suddenly the nose of the Gazer lifted slightly and the shuttle's roll and descent slowed. Kendy could hear the engines screaming now, which meant the phenomena that assaulted the Gazer and drowned out their noise was no longer in the battle. It was now Luke Skywalker and a starship. For the first time since it began, Kendy thought they could be on the winning side.

Luke finally leveled the wings and pulled back on the engines, which were clearly capable of more than she had been made aware of – significantly more. Even the cockpit display was in on the deception. The warning lights, that had at one point made the color of the cockpit and the view of the lava through the viewports indistinguishable, were now off.

"We have lift. Everything looks okay – no obvious structural damage. Engines are cooling nicely. We need to adjust to reacquire a landing vector that will put us where we need to be. Are you able to assist, Kendy?" Luke asked calmly. "You were injured. You can admit it, you know." Luke wasn't smiling when he glanced at her – he was concerned.

"Yes, it hurt pretty bad. But, I've felt worse, and nothing is broken as far as I can tell." Kendy turned back to Grhan.

"Why are you looking at me? I just fell out of my chair is all." Kendy was not smiling. She was looking him up and down. He reached out for her hand. "I'm okay, really. Have you noticed the padding extends to the back of your seats? Remind me to thank Lando. He saved my face." Grhan squeezed Kendy's hand.

"I'll thank him, first. I love that face." Now Kendy was smiling. Grhan was relieved – he had his girl back.

"Alrighty, then. Are you ready to share the ship, Idele Solo?"

"Affirmative," Kendy stated. She stole one more quick glance back at Grhan who was calmly sitting in his seat. He nodded toward the controls.

Ten minutes later they were back on course, heading toward the landing platform next to Vader's Castle.


Next Chapter: Star Wars Rebel Fans - this one's for you (me, too)!

A special little boy on Lothal dreams of being just like his heroes, Jedi Ezra Bridger and Jedi Kanan Jarrus. His father worked at the Imperial factory, and was arrested for sabotage when an AT-DT he built collapsed during Grand Admiral Thrawn's surprise inspection. Never knowing the fate of his father made his mother protective. Anything that made him "special" became a secret he couldn't share. Secretly, he knew all mothers thought their boys were special.

Now a young man, he suddenly has hope for the future in the New Republic. A job as a prison guard in a new place with new people might help him see that not everyone has a long, secret list of "special skills" after all. Even more, keeping his secrets to himself might prove to be impossible in a Prison where powerful, dark forces have come to free one of their own.