Part III: The Death Star

Chapter 4 – Escape

"What now?"

Han didn't turn to Luke as he asked the question, but Luke understood that it was addressed to him. All the same—and probably not surprisingly—Arica answered instead.

"Just give me a minute and... and I'll try to figure out where we are." Her speech was still somewhat slurred, but at least she was making sense now.

Luke's eyes swept the corridor they were in, while Han, Chewie and the senator all hovered over Arica. To his relief, he noticed a layer of dust over everything. Clearly this corridor had rarely, if ever, been used. Chances were that it would take some time for the troopers to figure out where they were.

"How do you feel?" the senator was asking.

"I'm fine. Just... just give me a minute." Arica didn't seem at all comfortable with the attention she was getting, and edged back slightly every time a concerned hand touched her. The senator was either ignoring this or simply didn't notice, and he gripped one of her hands with his own, a concerned look on his face. Luke thought about going over to help, but a part of him was still offended by the way she had rejected his assistance in the refuse unit. Besides, there were more than enough of them helping her now.

The scene was almost amusing, Luke had to admit. A wookiee, a hardened smuggler, and an elderly senator—who looked like he was about to collapse any moment himself—all fretting over one girl, who was probably some sort of a spy.

Luke still couldn't figure out who Arica was. He couldn't even figure out what to call her, for that matter. There were so many things pointing to the fact that she must be an Imperial. Her defensive reaction when they found her on the Falcon; her knowledge of the station; the fact that she had tried to keep the droids; that override code she knew off the top of her head... But at the same time, there were so many other things that seemed to prove just the opposite. Both Ben and the senator seemed to know her; she had tried to save them on the Falcon; she had been detained in a high security cell; she had helped them escape from the troopers in the detention area; and she had just saved all of their lives in that refuse unit. If she was an Imperial, then she could have turned them in at any time, why string them along like this?

Unless, she belonged to some other third party. Not the Empire, or the Rebellion, but some other group that wanted the droids and the plans they held for their own purposes.

Luke supposed it made the most sense, though it didn't explain everything, like her knowledge of that Imperial code. Then again, maybe she was just an Imperial trying to defect, but how would Ben or the senator know her?

Luke shook his head. He didn't know nearly enough about the galaxy to even attempt unraveling the mystery of Arica Lafeila, or whatever name she was going by at the moment.

"Luke?"

"Yeah?" Luke turned to see Arica standing, supported somewhat by Han and Chewie.

"Why don't you try contacting the droids? Maybe they can figure out where we should go."

Luke nodded, somewhat embarrassed not to have thought of this idea himself. But when he finally roused Threepio, the droid informed him that they had been forced to leave their former location, and were currently searching for another terminal. They wouldn't be able to provide any information until then.

Luke sighed and closed the link with an apologetic shrug of his shoulders at his companions. Arica had already pushed Han away, and was now trying more subtly to extricate herself from Chewie's grip.

"I suppose this means that you don't know your way around this place," Han told her dryly.

"No, I don't," she admitted. "But assuming it's similar to most Imperial vessels, I should be able to get us back to the ship."

"And what about Obi-wan?" the senator asked.

"He was going to try to disconnect the tractor beam."

"I thought the old man's name was Ben," Han said, incredulously. "Is everyone here going under aliases?"

Ignoring the comment, Arica straightened herself up, brushing some trash off the uniform jacket she was wearing. Even with dirt and grime smudged onto her face and clothing, she was still beautiful, Luke thought, in awe.

"Alright, let's try this way." She pointed in one direction down the corridor, and when nobody moved she started off on her own. Leaving the others to catch up with her.

"Try?" Han mumbled as he fell into step beside Luke. "I've got a bad feeling about this, kid."

Luke had to agree.

As soon as they reached the dead end, Luke turned around to glare at Han. He had been the one to choose that last turn, so as far as Luke was concerned this was his fault. Han's face contorted a bit and he looked like he was about to say something to defend himself, when Arica walked in between them.

"At least now we know our position in relation to the ship," she said.

Han's eyebrows raised and he shot Luke a smug expression. "See, I told you Corellians have a great sense of direction."

Luke rolled his eyes, but decided not to comment. Instead he followed Arica's lead, down a nearby corridor. She had barely taken two steps, though, when she stopped. Han walked briskly around the corner past her—ignoring her staying hand. A moment later, the hallway erupted in blaster fire, and Luke could hear Han's voice yelling out nonsense.

Luke immediately ran to help, only to find Han barreling away from them down the hallway, in hot pursuit of a squadron of troopers.

"Han, what are you doing?!" Luke yelled.

"Get going, I'll meet you at the ship!" Han called back over his shoulder, barely slowing.

Chewie let out a roar and went pounding after him.

"Wait. Chewbacca! Han!" Arica's voice sounded almost desperate. "Han!" She tried one last time, then took a step to go after the two.

"Arica, no!" Luke cried, grabbing her arm to hold her back.

"They're going to get themselves killed!" she challenged.

"I know, but two more of us won't make a difference. We've got to get the senator out of here."

She glanced over at the senator, who stood, not looking at all well. When she turned back to Luke her expression had changed; she was all business.

"You're right, let's get going."

She took off at a brisk pace in the opposite direction. "This way," she directed.

Luke shrugged his shoulders, doubting that she had any idea where she was going. Regardless, he didn't have any better ideas.

"Do you want to lean on me, sir?" he asked the senator, who hadn't started moving yet.

"No, I'll be all right," the senator said. "I simply don't have as much energy as I once did."

Luke nodded sympathetically, and they started off after Arica together.

Ten minutes later, when Luke was sure that they were hopelessly lost, Arica halted abruptly in the hallway and spun around, motioning for them to get into a narrow access hallway. But they barely had time to react when two troopers came around a bend at the end of the corridor and noticed them.

They turned around and ran back the way they had come, cringing as the sound of alarms filled the hallway. They were halfway back to where they had left Han and Chewie when Arica skidded to a stop, pulling the senator after her into another hallway.

"Where are we going?" Luke asked, as he followed them.

"Look at the floor," she explained, pointing down at the uniform gray metal.

"What about it?"

"It's getting darker."

Luke looked down again, noticing for the first time that the color of the metal deepened as they went further down the hallway. "What does that mean?"

"It means that it's getting denser—it's blast resistant."

"And this is good because..."

"This hallway must lead down to the arsenal. It'll have the strongest blast doors in this place. While they're trying to get in, we can get out the crawlspace."

"What crawlsp..."

Luke was interrupted by the clanging of metal covered feet in the hallway. Immediately, all conversation stopped. They were getting closer.

After what seemed like an eternity, they reached a huge set of doors. Luke's heart felt like it might jump right out of his ribcage, as Arica punched in a series of numbers on the control pad.

What if they couldn't get in? he wondered.

The echo from the troopers was getting closer and closer, until Luke was sure they were done for.

Abruptly the doors slid open.

Even the senator found the energy to run to get in. Arica pounded the control panel on the inside closing layer after layer of blast doors.

"Now, fry the controls," she told Luke, and he immediately obeyed.

By the time he turned away from the panel, Arica was on the other side of the room, craning her neck, searching for something on the ceiling.

"Where's your crawlspace?" he asked.

"Hold on," she said. "Hold on... Here it..." Her voice trailed off ominously.

"What?" Luke asked. "What now?"

"This can't be happening," she responded in a monotone, not comforting him in the least.

"What? What can't be happening?"

"There's supposed to be a ladder! What idiot built a crawlspace into an arsenal without a ladder?!"

"Arica?" Luke stepped over to her and twirled her around by the shoulders. "Where is there supposed to be a ladder? And why is this bad?"

Arica sighed but, in spite of her tone of voice, she looked utterly unaffected by the situation.

"The opening to the crawlspace is in the ceiling," she said bleakly, pointing up at a thin, rectangular seam in the metal of the high ceiling. "There should be a ladder to get up there." She paused. "There isn't."

Luke let go of her shoulders. "This is bad."

"Yes, it is," she agreed.

A loud clanging echoed into the room from outside, distracting Leia from Luke's glum expression. More troopers were probably on their way, and it wouldn't take them long to start melting the blast doors through.

"Can't you use the force to get up there?" the senator asked, softly.

Leia shrugged. "I could jump up there easily, but it'll take a minute to activate the opening latch. I don't think I would have enough time to do it."

"Why can't you activate the latch from down here first?" Luke asked, jumping on even the slightest possibility.

"I'll try, but I don't think I can do it." She sighed. If only she had more powers... if only Luke had more training.

"You managed to stop the walls," Luke challenged.

Leia considered that for a moment. Could she call on her master's power again? She touched experimentally at their connection, but her body immediately sagged, weakened by even that small touch. That last exchange in the garbage room had really drained her, physically and emotionally, there was no way she would be able to repeat it now.

"I... I can't. I've never been good with fine control..."

She trailed off, at the expression on Luke's face. He was counting on her, she realized. He really believed that she would get them out of this.

Why are you trusting me? she almost wanted to scream. Surely he knew what she was. How could he not know?

Luke turned away from her suddenly at the sound of more scrabbling at the door, followed by a high pitched hissing sound. The three of them watched silently for a few moments, then Luke abruptly turned back to her, grabbing her arm.

"Do it," he told her, in a commanding tone.

"I can't..." she began to protest.

"Do it," he repeated.

Leia stared at him. He almost made her believe that she could do it. But she couldn't ignore the facts. She simply didn't have enough power for it. Maybe if Luke had...

A thought suddenly dawned on her. "Help me."

Luke loosened his grip, puzzled. "What do you mean?"

"Between the two of us, maybe we can get it opened," she explained.

"But before... when I tried to help..."

Leia shook her head. "This is different."

She could see the question in his eyes, but, thankfully, it disappeared. She didn't want to have to explain it right now.

He nodded once. "What do I do?"

Leia paused. She'd never really worked with anyone but her master before, so she wasn't quite sure where to start. Finally, she let instinct take over.

"Here, hold my hands," she instructed, internally questioning whether the physical touch would really help much.

Luke quickly moved his hands to grasp her much smaller ones. Glancing down at their joined hands, Leia was surprised to discover how comfortable she felt gripping his warm, callused hands. Was this the force's way of telling her that she was going about this the right way, or was it something altogether different?

She looked up and saw Luke smiling softly at her. Had he felt it too? she wondered, before giving him a quick grin back.

"Now, close your eyes," she said, doing the same herself, "and reach out with your senses to the crawlspace."

She imagined the crawlspace opening in her mind's eye. Almost immediately, she felt the brush of Luke's light against her, and she tried melding their powers together. They slipped into each other's senses almost seamlessly. Leia acknowledged this, but it didn't surprise her; she had known somehow that they would.

The internal mechanism of the latch appeared with surprising clarity to them both. Almost as a single being they reached out to turn the tiny gear, keeping the latch in place. Then they moved back to the opening itself. Leia was never quite sure which of them initiated the move, in spite of the fact that Luke shouldn't have know the sequence of steps.

With a single thrust through the force, the small door burst open into the crawlspace above it. At the same moment the temporary bond between herself and Luke broke.

She glanced, confused, at Luke and followed his distracted gaze to the door. Tiny wisps of steam had appeared at its edges. It wouldn't be much longer now.

She dropped Luke's hands without so much as a second thought, and began searching the room.

"What are you looking for?" Luke asked.

"A rope or cable... Something that we can use to lift the senator up with."

"Oh." Luke began searching on the other side of the room.

"Leave it be." The senator's voice suddenly halted their frantic rummaging.

"What do you mean?" Luke asked.

The senator looked at him, a small smile on his face. He reminded Leia for a moment of the old Jedi, in spite of how very different they looked.

"You two go. Leave me here."

Luke gaped in shock. "No!"

"Listen to me," the old man insisted. "My life is not worth the risk of yours. It never has been. I'm glad that I was given the chance to have seen you." He glanced back to Leia, and she understood that he was speaking to both of them. "I know now that our cause will be victorious. Leave now. You must."

Leia stared at him, a myriad of thoughts and emotions churning through her, but one question rose above all the others. Who am I? she almost yelled, but her tightly held control prevented the words from slipping out.

He was right, of course, her only chance of saving Luke was to leave him here.

"We can't just leave you here," Luke insisted, though.

"Luke, he's right," Leia said, softly. "We have to get out of here."

"Not without him."

Luke's tone left little room for argument, but Leia was not about to back down.

"Do you want all three of us to get blasted?!"

"No, but there must be another..."

Luke's face seemed to suddenly light up. Leia stood by, puzzled, as he began pulling and pushing at the various compartments of the stormtrooper's utility belt that he still wore.

"Yes!" he cried, in triumph, as one of the compartments popped open to reveal a long thing coil of cable line.

Leia opened her mouth in disbelief. She should have thought of that.

The surprise lasted less than a moment, though, and then she was back into action, grabbing at five nearby rifles, unhooking their straps.

With a few words to Luke, they both set to work fashioning a makeshift harness around the senator, whose protests were completely ignored.

A small white circle had appeared at the center of the blast door and was slowly spreading out, replaced at the center by a reddish spot.

"Alright," Leia said, "we don't have much time. Luke, I'll give you a boost up there, but when you feel like you're about to start falling, try pushing back against the ground with the force."

She laced her fingers into a step and rested them above her knee. Luke nodded and took a two-step bounding start before planting his foot on her hands and pushing off. At the same moment, Leia pushed up at him physically and through the force. His arms and legs flailed ungracefully, but he shot through the opening of the crawlspace, with room to spare. On his way back down, he grabbed at the opening with his hands and pulled himself inside.

Leia let out a small sigh of relief, when his face appeared at the opening, grinning.

She rolled her eyes; he had enjoyed that far too much. "Now send down the cable, Luke."

When the tiny white line had been uncoiled far enough, she deftly slid it through the harness, tying it in the most secure knot she could manage.

She was about to jump up to join Luke, when the senator's large hand fell softly on her shoulder.

"Your mother would have been so proud of you, Leia."

Leia's breath caught in her throat. The idea of having a mother had never crossed her mind, let alone one who might somehow be proud of her. If only the old senator knew, she thought.

"Th-thank you," she said, anyway, avoiding his gaze.

In a single graceful motion, she found herself next to Luke. The two began pulling the senator up almost immediately, using their physical strength, the force, and sheer determination.

By the time they had him up there, their hands sported long red welts. They ignored the pain, though, and quickly slid the door back in place.

"Do we know where we're going now?" Luke asked, glancing uncertainly up and down the seemingly endless stretch of ladder, above and below the large landing they were situated on.

"Two floors down, right, then left," Leia responded, unconsciously motioning with her hands. "I don't know the exact route, but that should get us close enough to figure it out."

Luke nodded, an impressed expression on his face.

"Do you think you can make the climb, sir?"

The senator looked up, still somewhat winded from their run through the halls. "I don't have much of a choice, do I?" he said.

Leia shook her head. "Not really," she agreed.

Less than a minute later, when the troopers finally broke through the blast doors into the arsenal, the three escapees were half-way down to the next floor. Too far away to hear the explosion.

"Are you sure you know where we're going?"

Leia was suddenly very happy to have the senator leaning on her; he was the only thing keeping her from shoving Luke into the wall. The boy was wonderful, but if he asked her that one more time, she might have to hurt him.

Instead of trying to explain the logic of the route they were taking as she had the previous times, she bit out a quick "no" from between clenched teeth.

To her utter astonishment he seemed to accept this and for the next few minutes there was no sound other than their own heavy breathing.

Considering his age and what he'd been through in the past hour—not to mention whatever else he'd gone through in interrogation beforehand—the senator was holding up reasonably well. At least he was still on his own two feet. But since the climb down the ladder, he had been leaning on Luke and Leia heavily as they made their way through the maze of corridors. They had hit a few dead ends, but Leia was fairly sure that they were still headed in the right direction. The rising ceiling only confirmed this; they had to be getting closer to the hangar.

At the end of a long corridor, Leia suddenly sensed danger and pulled up immediately, pushing Luke and the senator against the wall and aiming her newly acquired rifle at the sharp turn they had been about to take. The nose of a blaster appeared, and both Luke and Leia were about to fire, when a loud growl stopped them short.

"Chewie?" Luke called out.

For a moment Leia tensed nervously, her finger still pressed lightly against the trigger. She wasn't quite so ready to believe that their companions were still alive.

But Luke's faith was borne out when a huge hairy form suddenly blocked her view. Leia let out the breath she had been holding in a loud gasp. Chewbacca responded by howling in pleasure and wrapping her in a wookiee-hug that was just a bit too tight for comfort. All the same, she found herself smiling when he let her down to go after Luke... smiling right into the eyes of Han Solo.

"You're alive," she breathed in disbelief, trying to remember in the back of her mind how she knew his first name. He hadn't been introduced that way, had he?

"Last I checked," Han answered, looking at her for another moment with a wide grin on his face, then rolling his eyes at his co-pilot, who was currently pumping the senator's hand enthusiastically. "Alright, alright, Chewie. I'm sure the man would like to keep his hand."

Chewbacca growled in protest, but dropped the senator's hand all the same.

"What took you so long?" Han asked as he led them around the corner to a small alcove, opening into the hangar bay.

Leia glanced at Luke, who shrugged and left the answer to her. "We had some trouble getting a door open," she answered innocently.

Han looked at her incredulously, as Luke stifled a laugh, but Leia ignored both of them and looked out at the hangar bay. The Millenium Falcon rested where they had left it—open, but with no outward sign of tampering. Of course, Leia knew that a tracking device had most likely been planted, but that wouldn't prevent their escape. A still functioning tractor beam might, however.

"How are we going to get past all of those guards?" Luke asked.

"I suppose Han could run at them, screaming, like..."

Leia trailed off as soon as she sensed him. He was here, nearby. And his anger and hatred was overflowing in a way she had rarely felt. Her eyes scanned the room and immediately found him. His red saber flashed brilliantly against the drab background, interrupted only by the bright blue of the Jedi's saber as it crossed and intercepted his strikes. Vader was slowly backing the Jedi toward the docking bay, each lunge and parry bringing them further into view.

Leia stood transfixed. She had rarely seen Lord Vader use his saber—he had more personal and far more effective weapons at his disposal—and even then she did not remember ever seeing him in a saber duel. Only the Jedi used lightsabers, and the Jedi were gone.

Or so she had thought.

This old Jedi, this ancient relic, this anomaly, had survived. He had survived and—inconceivable as it was to Leia—he was holding his own against Lord Vader. A man she had always considered, deep in her heart, to be the most powerful man in the galaxy. The man she had so intensely envied and admired. The only man who could... the man who would, one day, destroy her master.

He could not die.

All thoughts of her companions flew from her mind and, grabbing her rifle, she took a step to join the fight—to kill the Jedi if she had to. A strong hand on her arm was all that stopped her.

"Hey!" Han yelled, when she tried to twist out of his grip. "There's nothing you can do to help him. Now's our chance to get to the ship."

He motioned with his head at the freighter and Leia noticed for the first time that the guards had abandoned their posts to surround the Jedi. Luke was already almost half-way across the bay with Chewbacca not far behind, practically dragging the senator along.

With a last look back at the combatants, Leia turned and ran with Han. A moment later, something hit her strongly through the force. She stumbled and nearly fell, but caught herself in time to see Luke abruptly change directions, firing at the troopers.

Without a second thought, she went after him, firing to cover them both.

"Luke!"

"Ben!" Luke cried.

Leia glanced over to see that the duel was over, the Jedi was nowhere in sight. Vader must have killed him, she realized, as she tried to grab at Luke. He seemed intent on going straight for Vader, though.

"Luke, let's go. It's over!" She managed to catch hold of his belt and pulled at him to get back.

"No! Ben!"

A brief, but intense moment of pain surged through Leia, and she felt her fingers slipping. Suddenly Luke's expression changed, however, and with a few parting shots he ran—allowing Leia to guide him up the ramp and onto the ship.

End Part III

A/N: Sorry, Ben still had to go L

Jacinto: Hmmm.  I have to think about that one for a while longer.  You may be right—Obi-wan wouldn't have allowed himself to connect so intimately with the rest of the galaxy if he was trying to hide, so what would he look like?  I was trying to go for the idea that even though he doesn't have as much potential as Anakin or Luke, he is (through training) far more connected to the force in actual fact.  I'm not sure how to paint that distinction as well as keep in mind the fact that he's hiding.  I'll have to think about it some more.