Chapter Ten: Escape
The same day~ Theed Palace, Naboo~
"Admiral Piett." The loud and clear voice of an officer announced his presence at the door.
Piett's head snapped up from the spread hologram of the blockade's warships. "Yes," prompted Piett.
"Admiral," the officer continued stiffly, "You asked to be notified if anyone tried to access a main database."
"Yes," Piett replied, now turning all his attention to the reporter.
"We've just received word that three individuals accessed one of the main Imperial databases a few hours ago," continued the man. "They have been unsuccessfully identified yet far, but it appears they did not have any permission or rights to access the information they did."
Of course. No one had rights to access information unless Piett himself gave permission. "Which information did they access?" Piett asked the officer. He would figure out how they managed to access it later; right now it was vital to know that they had seen. Knowing the information accessed by these three men would give Piett clues as to what they were ultimately after. If they were indeed unauthorized individuals, they could very well be connected to the Princess' kidnapping.
"They accessed the history of Imperial transmissions in the past three weeks," answered the officer. "But we are unable to tell any more than that due to our own restricted navigation of the system."
"That's impossible," Piett breathed. "No one has access to those codes anymore. Only the highest-ranking officials had access to that information." And they were all dead.
"It appears they had all the codes, sir."
Impossible. "Did they delete these past transmissions?" Piett needed to know if these men could have potentially had been covering up the evidence of secret transmissions directly connected to one of his inside officers.
"It is unknown, sir. We only know that they accessed this information, but we do not know what they did with it."
Piett brought his hand down on the surface in impatience. Damn! These men were the closest lead he had had in a few weeks; he needed to find some way to lead him to discovering the Princess' location. Piett whirled on the officer, who looked startled at Piett's sudden loss of composure. "Is there a security hologram?"
"It appears that three men entered the base at 1527 hours, and did not have any difficulty slipping past security…" the security officer said, replaying the hologram from earlier that day for Admiral Piett.
Piett frowned in frustration as he watched the hologram unfold in fast forward in front of him. Security was bad, just as he'd expected. Somehow the men had managed not only to slip past the guards and enter the database, but also to access the top-secret information that not even Admiral Piett had been privy to in his days under Lord Vader.
"…In fact," continued the security officer. "None of the guards reported anything unusual."
"Freeze the hologram," Piett commanded, trying to get a closer look at the identities of the three men. The shortest man was a young human with blue eyes and long blond hair. Piett would have been foolish if he did not recognize the man who he had been trying to track ever since he had been promoted to Admiral. His mind went back to many hours he had spent pouring over the biography of Luke Skywalker, learning his history and researching his past at Lord Vader's command. In the hologram, Skywalker was wearing a dark robe, with black clothes underneath. At his waist Piett recognized the hanging hilt of a lightsaber. He had only seen a few up close in his lifetime, due to the fact that the Jedi were nearly extinct, but in the past few years he had become familiar with the weapon, as it had been the choice weapon of Lord Vader.
The second man Piett also recognized. He found it hard to mistake the familiar Corellian smuggler Han Solo, whom he had met only a few months ago at the Peace Conference, accompanied by Skywalker and Princess Organa. The man had been on Imperial surveillance for a long while, and was known to be a member of the Alliance and a close friend of Skywalker.
It was the third man, however, that confused Piett. The man was tall and wore dark robes, clothing Piett distinctly identified as Jedi garb. He had light brown hair, and appeared to be around the same age as Skywalker or Solo. He looked vaguely familiar, but Piett could not quite put his mind on where he could have possibly seen the man. "Are these men able to be identified?" he asked the security officer, wondering if it would be possible to obtain the identity of the third individual.
The security officer pressed a few buttons on the hologram control panel, and the hologram immediately zoomed in. "We can see if we can match their physical features with a known individual, sir."
"Please do. Check the identity of the tallest man." Piett
Nodding, the security officer pressed a few more buttons. Within about a half-minute, a long list of names appeared on the datapads. "It appears that this individual's features do not match any other individuals in our current database," the security officer reported. "It is possible that this individual could possibly have been wrongly assumed to be deceased and removed from the database."
"That is not possible," Piett said, stepping towards the datapad. "This list contains all individuals, both deceased and living, for the past ten years."
"According to this list, sir, the individual does not exist."
Piett shook his head. "Expand your search." It was possible, sure, that this particular individual may have been born outside the grasp of the Empire and had not been documented as other individuals in the galaxy, but Piett found it highly doubtful that the individual did not appear anywhere in the Imperial database, including all of the Empire's past security holograms. The man had to match someone.
"Sir, the individual does not show up in the past twenty years," the security officer said.
"Try twenty-five," Piett replied. If that didn't work, then he would have to find his own ways of tracking the individual.
Obediently, the security officer re-entered the information and checked the system for matches. "A match, sir."
"Who is it?" Piett leaned forward.
"A Jedi knight of the Old Republic by the name of Anakin Skywalker. He disappeared during the Jedi Purges and was assumed dead, although his body was never found."
Skywalker? That could not possibly be a coincidence. "How old was he at the time?" Piett asked the security officer.
"According to these records, about twenty-two, sir."
"And this individual matches?"
"Yes, sir, but the age does not match up-"
"I want more research to be done on Anakin Skywalker," instructed Piett. "Find out who he was, how he died, and how he might have come to know these codes."
"Yes, sir," the security officer said.
Piett turned toward another officer in the room. "Captain, I want the three men to be tracked. Bring them in here immediately for questioning. Also, call the other officers in for a conference."
"Yes, sir," the officer replied, bowing stiffly and exiting the room.
Leia woke up from her sleep abruptly, her eyes snapping open and adrenaline pulsing through her body. Although her dream was quickly fading from her mind, she lay there for a moment, keeping very still and concentrating on steadying her breathing. She did not want anyone to know she was awake; she wanted to have a few precious moments when her captor believed her to be sleeping.
Under Leia's cheek, the surface of her bed was cold and metallic, making her breath mist and her shoulders shiver. She could feel the chill breath of the cell's air sweep across her back, raising goosebumps on her skin. The thin clothing on her back did nothing to warm her against the coolness of the cell. For seemingly the hundredth time, Leia wished desperately that she was wearing something warmer, even though she knew she should be grateful that she had been treated as well as she had. Her mind drifted back to her time in the Death Star cell. She had not been so lucky that time.
Though her hands were bound, Leia reached to feel for the small metal clip that she had stolen off of one of the guards just a day ago and was now stored safely and out of sight in her bra. It had become a habit of hers in the past few hours, just to make sure that the clip was still resting against her skin. She had been working slowly to unwind the clip into a makeshift tool that would allow her to pick the lock and free her hands. Then she would be one step closer to escape.
As Leia worked at the clip with her restrained hands and her teeth, her mind began to drift off to think of Han and Luke, both of whom she worried about constantly, knowing they were probably worried sick about her. Staying in the cell left her a lot of time to think, and as much as she appreciated being left alone, the loneliness caused her to worry.
A sudden noise echoed near Leia, startling her, and she quickly slipped the clip back into its hiding place. She could hear a set of footsteps approaching her quietly, and she recognized their soft padding instantly. It was her captor, an assassin by the name of Ze Renne. Only she treaded so lightly. Leia lay very still and closed her eyes, wishing Renne to believe she was still asleep.
The footsteps stopped somewhere nearby to Leia, pausing, and Leia knew that she was studying Leia, checking to see if she was awake. After a few silent seconds, Leia heard the beep of Renne's transmission device.
Renne's footsteps quickly retreated a ways, and then second beep echoed, this time farther away. Suddenly, Leia could hear a distinctly male voice speak from the transmission device, directly addressing Renne. Leia strained to hear the conversation.
"…Piett's discovered that three individuals broke into the main database and accessed the history of transmissions in the past three weeks."
"You promised no one would be able to access those," hissed Renne. "You said the codes were protected, and that everyone who used to know the codes were dead."
"No one knows where they got the codes," replied the male voice sharply. Leia recognized the voice; she had heard it a few times in the past three weeks. It was the man who had hired Ze Renne, an Imperial officer who Leia knew went by the name Dumas.
"Is it possible they could have traced the transmissions back here?" snapped Renne.
"It's likely… the reason for their intrusion," Dumas replied, his voice low. Leia turned her head slightly, trying her best to hear his words. "The men were of Alliance affiliation…"
Men of Alliance affiliation? Leia dared not breathe, for fear the moment would come crashing down on her as if it was a dream. Luke and Han. It had to be them. Who else would have gone such lengths to save her? Leia felt her throat constrict. Finally. Finally they were coming to rescue her. It was about time.
"Who are these men?"
"Piett won't reveal… wants… take them in for questioning," was the broken answer. Leia frowned with frustration. If only Renne would step a bit closer.
There was a short silence, then Renne's reply. "What do you want me to do?" Her voice was hard, as if she expected an order as a reply.
"Make sure they don't get any further," commanded Dumas. "I need them gone. Kill them."
Leia nearly stopped breathing, horror growing within her. No. Not after all they had been through. She had to find some way to warn them. They were probably somewhere in Theed at the moment, trying to follow the transmission data for a lead. Sudden images flashed through Leia's head, nearly making her heart stop: Luke, lying on the ground, dead. Han, lying on the ground, dead. Shot by an assassin's blaster. Her determination doubling, Leia gritted her teeth shifted slightly on her side, reaching once more for the clip. She would have to escape tonight.
"…All three," Renne was saying to Dumas.
"All three," was the answer, "I'll send you their pictures." Then quiet resumed as the transmission ended.
Leia laid still in silence, doubt and worry growing within her as her mind stuck a realization. Three? They had said three, not two. Luke and Han must have taken someone with them. Not Chewie; Dumas had specifically said three men. Her doubt increased. Luke and Han would have undoubtedly needed a guide for them to access the Imperial database; not even Han and Luke, as good and skillful as they were, could have figured it out by themselves. Not even most of the Imperial troops, much less the Alliance, had ever known that information.
Their father. Leia's alarm spread. Luke had gone to get him. It was the only solution that made sense; their father was one of the only ones, if not the only one who currently had access to those codes and that secure information of the Imperial database… Anger spread through Leia. Surely… no, what if their father was planning to betray Luke and Han… what if their father would take the opportunity to return to the Imperial ranks? By turning in two of the Empire's most wanted, he would undoubtedly be welcomed back as a hero. Feverish aggravation spread through Leia's body and mind.
Ze Renne's footsteps drew closer. She knew Leia was awake. "I hope your friends know what's coming for them," she said in low voice. "…But then," she continued, adopting a frightfully cold tone that contained a slight hint of mockery, "I don't really know what they expected when they landed on a planet controlled by the Empire."
Leia, trying her best to retain her dignity while bound and lying on the metal bed, shot Renne a glare of disgust. "You'll be in over your head."
A faint ghost of a smile spread over Renne's smooth cheeks, but it was smothered against the cold stones of her eyes. She looked at Leia as if she was looking at a child, but with a paradoxical combination of interest and disinterest. With a small smile, she then turned, leaving Leia alone in the cell once.
Once alone, Leia burst into action, pulling out the clip with her teeth and returning once more to the task of freeing her hands. It took her about twenty minutes, but eventually after a particularly long strain she heard the satisfying click of the lock on her left hand, shortly after which she was able to work out her right as well. Once picked, she allowed the chains bounding her hands fall to the ground with a loud rattle. Leia stood, rubbing at her wrists absentmindedly. She would need some type of weapon, a blaster, perhaps, but there were none in the cell. Determined not to lose any time, Leia pushed onward.
The door on her cell was not hard to break through; Leia had learned much from her time with Han and Luke, including how to pick through a simple combination lock. Her time with the Alliance had demanded that she learn such skills, in case of situations like her present. She had to be able to fight her way out of tight situations.
Leia pushed the metal door, and it swung open with a long drawn out creak. Leia glanced around her, where the entrance of her cell intersected a long metal hallway, much like the ones she had encountered on the Death Star. The hallway outside of her cell was empty, but Leia still trod softly and cautiously. Each time she rounded a hallway, she made sure that there were no stormtroopers were in the vicinity. She could not risk being caught again, or the security would be tightened and she may never get a chance to escape.
She found her way through the compound's hallways quite easily; she had had many experiences trying to find her way out of unfamiliar places. She was almost out of the building when she accidentally rounded the final corner too quickly and ran head-on into a set of stormtroopers, who were patrolling up and down the hallway in front of the compound's exit.
"Stop!" shouted a stormtrooper when they spotted her.
Leia attempted to slip back around the corner, but found herself face-to-face with two more stormtroopers, who, hearing the shouts, had come running and were now raising their blasters towards Leia.
"Hands up!" snapped one of the two stormtroopers, and Leia, finding herself weaponless, raised her hands in defeat, her hopes of escape coming crashing down. No. She would not give up so easily.
One of the stormtroopers moved toward her cautiously, his blaster pointed towards her. Once he had reached her, he set his blaster aside and roughly checked her body for weapons. Leia waited patiently until he was straightening back up, and then she brought her elbow down into his neck, hard, and twisted herself around, putting both her hands on his blaster. She heard the stormtrooper's cry of pain, but she gritted her teeth and wrenched his blaster out of his hand. He fell to the ground. Before the second stormtrooper could react, Leia shot him in the chest, and he likewise crumpled.
At that, Leia took off with a new burst of energy, firing insistently at the patrol of stormtroopers by the exit. Confused by the rogue shots, the stormtroopers had mistakenly left a gap in their defense, through which Leia seized her chance and slipped through. Leia burst through the compound's exit. Although she could feel the heat of the laser blasts close to her skin, Leia's adrenaline pushed her onwards.
To Leia's disappointment, the area outside the compound opened to a ship hangar, not outside, and it was filled with Imperial fighters. Leia scanned the hangar. It was large, but to her relief she saw that the hangar entrance was near, wide and gaping, with the Nubian sun streaming through, beckoning her.
As blaster shots began to whiz past her again, Leia put on a burst of speed, trying to keep close to the docked fighters for protection against the lasers shots. Every now and then she stopped to lean against the hull of one of the fighters to catch her breath, occasionally exchanging a few shots of her own. Each time she dared to look behind her, she saw that her pursuers were drawing nearer. Leia was not bothered. She was almost to the hangar entrance, almost out of the compound.
Suddenly, as if her situation could not get any worse, a new group of stormtroopers, jogging into the hangar, blocked her exit. Leia gasped in surprise and dismay, and skidded to an abrupt halt. Praying that they hadn't seen her, Leia quickly slipped against the concrete wall of the hangar, pressing herself as far in as she could to avoid detection. Leia slid to the ground, taking shelter behind some large metal cylinders that covered her hiding place. As far as she knew, the stormtroopers who had entered through the hangar entrance had not seen her. And if she was lucky, the troopers who had been pursuing her had not seen where she had hidden.
Leia closed her eyes in relief, struggling to control her breathing. She pressed her hand against her side, where she had developed cramp from running so hard for so long. She forced herself to calm, and her brother's words spoke in her head, as if he was right beside her. Be at peace. Let the Force flow through you and guide your actions.
Leia reached that state of internal peace, and opened her eyes to the silver barrel of a hand blaster.