Title: Who Killed Moff Tarkin?
Chapter: 8. The Sublime meets Sublimation
Keywords: Mystery, murder, Tarkin, Luke, Vader
Rating: G
Genre: Adventure/Horror/Mystery
Timeline: Post ESB
AN: I haven't dropped off the face of the earth, just been on holiday. This new chapter is dedicated to Master Liz - hope you enjoy it.
28th DAY OF THE FIFTH MONTH, 10.00 HOURS – THE CROWN PROSECUTION SERVICE, LEVEL 10
As the old Alderaanian nursery rhyme about rowing boats went, life was but a dream and right now Leia's dream was quickly becoming a nightmare.
"I am afraid," said the judge in her annoying nasal tone, "that this court injunction cannot be lifted,"
"Why?" snapped Han, speaking out of turn once again. The judge, her sharp features contorted in a most unflattering expression, shook her sparse grey locks in disapproval.
"Mr Solo, kindly refrain from making any noise until this session is over,"
Han looked as if he wanted to jump right out of the seating area and forcibly change here self-satisfied tone.
"Your excellency," said Leia firmly, "the jury has accepted the evidence I have provided. Surely it is uncustomary for the judge over-rule a jury's decision."
If anything, the judge looked even angrier than before as her glimmering eyes narrowed into tiny slits.
"Princess Organa, although the jury's opinion in this matter is duly noted, as the judge I must take evidence presented in previous hearings into account when reaching my decision. You have shown that Lord Vader may exhibit unorthodox behaviours but in the light of all the evidence I rule that the injunction stands!"
"If I may be so bold to ask," replied Leia trying to keep her voice even in the heat of her anger, "what was so compelling about the evidence Lord Vader provided yesterday?"
"Previous hearings are confidential and information can only be divulged without written consent from all those who participated," snapped the judge, "this appeal is henceforth closed."
With one decisive strike of the drum set before her on her high perch towering above the rest of the court room, the judge effectively ended all legal avenues of protest. The jury, six rather dour Andaman citizens seated in front of the judge, looked almost apologetic as Leia, Han and Chewie were escorted out.
Once outside the oppressive courtroom, Han Solo burst into a particularly vile string of curses that would have scorched even the ears of Lando Calrissian (if the gambler had been on Andaman instead of staking out Jabba the Hutt). Chewie expressed his wholehearted approval and added several less than generous comments about the judge's mother.
"I can't believe it," hissed Leia as the idea of walking back into the courtroom and strangling the judge became more and more appealing.
"What do they think they're playing at?" growled Han, glaring at the legal and paralegal personnel that were milling through the transit corridor, which they were injudiciously blocking.
Chewie growled a warning and extended his hand towards the exit.
"I know, I know," snapped Han, "we need to talk elsewhere."
28th DAY OF THE FIFTH MONTH, 10.00 HOURS – LUKE'S QUARTERS, PENTHOUSE
Having a cadre of stormtroopers outside his room was a new height of humiliation for Luke until the said cadre had decided it would be more prudent to guard him inside his room.
Five blank white masks stared down at him with unwavering attention as he flopped down on his couch and pulled out a datapad from under the coffee table. It was the guide to Andaman culture that they had been ordered to memorise before starting the mission, but Luke being the opposite of a bookworm had simply ordered 3PO to give him a brief summary of the contents.
"You know, you're free to help yourselves some drinks," said Luke wryly,
The stormtroopers didn't even twitch.
It was like having five living statues standing in his room and Luke resolved to simply treat them as bad art.
Opening the datapad, he saw that someone had made amends to the contents whilst he had been (and really still was) a captive of Darth Vader. Flipping casually to the new page, as to not alert anyone to his surprise at the discovery, Luke stared at the huge table of figures at greeted his eyes.
Oh, my, Chewie's really done it this time, he thought, fighting to keep his expression impassive. The skyhook's mainframe computer!
When he finished reading, Luke shut off the datapad and tossed it carelessly onto the couch. The less interest he displayed, the less likely it was to alert the Andamans or the Imperials to the astonishing amount of information Chewie had managed to gather. Most of the data was just the mundane administrative lists that every organisation in the galaxy was plagued with: lists of imports, exports, shuttle flights etc.
However, hidden within the vast spreadsheets were some very intriguing and equally worrying information.
One innocuous looking line in the imports spreadsheet for this week claimed that the skyhook had received enough durasteel to build a freighter…or two. Another equally unassuming row of numbers indicated that a large shipment of Irradium was about to arrive, which to Luke's calculations could power thirty turbolasers or a small army of snub fighters.
However the most disturbing thing had nothing to do with durasteel or Irradium. As he had scrolled quickly through the food imports spreadsheet, using the force to enhance his attention, dactyl crystal supplements stood out from the vast lists of numbers and items that had been recorded. Only with the help of his force sense did he hone in on a single figure halfway through the spreadsheet. The last import of dactyl crystals was large – no it was massive. For several moments Luke's over rout brain attempted to remember just what dactyl crystals were used for but only the vague memory of it being some kind of essential vitamin was unearthed.
Dactyl crystals – it could be something vitally important.
He needed to find a way of informing Han and Leia without Darth Vader knowing.
28th DAY OF THE FIFTH MONTH, 10.30 HOURS – LUKE'S QUARTERS, PENTHOUSE
Han and Chewie came barging into his room without ringing the intercom, as usual, and were greeted by the barrels of five raised blasters all set to kill.
"Oh great!" said Luke jumping up from the couch, "you guys can leave now;" he gestured dismissively to the stormtroopers, "I'm a free man again."
"Um about that," muttered Han, suddenly looking very sheepish. The armed stormtroopers, sensing that events were moving in their favour, did not lower their blasters.
"What happened?" asked Luke, feeling his initial jubilation giving way to uncertainty. He attempted to peer at Han's expression over the bulky armoured stormtroopers but found he was indeed rather short by stormtrooper standards.
"You see," said Han slowly, not making any move to push aside the squad of stormtroopers or even throwing a casual insult at them, as he was prone to do, "there has been some problems,"
"You mean the injuction still stands?" cried Luke unable to believe what he was hearing. Stretching out to the force, he tried to find any hint of deception or amusement in the force but was met only with a dull apprehension. This was not a joke.
"Yeah, when you put it like that," mumbled Han, looking rather embarrassed, as if it was entirely his fault that Luke was about to permanently become Lord Vader's ward.
"But – but that's ridiculous," exclaimed Luke, his voice going up an octave in fright. "No one could be so- so –so…" He was too angry and confused to formulate any more words. Feeling his legs turn into lead weights, Luke sank back onto his couch in despair.
Taking hold of the wax paper that the fresh violets decorating his quarters had been wrapped in, Luke scrunched it into ball and hurled the offending object at the nearest stormtrooper. The small purple ball bounced harmlessly off the his pristine white armour without sticking and landed at Han's feet.
"We're re-appealing," replied Han regretfully as he took a step towards Luke and found his nose inches away from the wrong end of a blaster.
"Don't bother," snapped Luke bitterly, "The Andamans have already decided who to support."
"Well, we can always call off this whole negotiation and head off home," suggested Han, "Vader can't get you there."
"No, the mission is more important," said Luke, shaking his head. "We need to get through these talks, even if I have to lick Vader's boots."
"Stars, you don't know how much I want to just blast that perverted, evil, black-hearted piece of bantha poo-,"
Suddenly Han frozen as they both heard the distinctive rasp of a respirator as the doors to Luke's quarters slide open and Darth Vader entered, looming like a cartoon villain over Han's left shoulder.
"You were saying, Captain Solo?" demanded the Dark Lord, one hand conspicuously caressing his lightsabre.
Han's expression flashed comically from pure shock to anger and then fizzled into something resembling a weak sarcastic smile.
"Your Lordship," he muttered with the obviously fake sincerity he usually reserved for Hutt crime lords and melodramatic businessmen who thought too much of themselves, "I was just about to tell Luke the good news…"
"Your presence is prohibited in these quarters, Captain Solo," rumbled Vader stepping menacingly towards both Han and Chewie, who despite their combined bulk could not block the towering Sith Lord from view.
For a second Luke was almost afraid Han would drop his act and just attempt to tear Darth Vader apart with his bare hands but Chewie places a firm restraining hand on Han's shoulder.
"That's alright," said Han with false grace, "Chewie and I were just about to leave, the air's getting a bit stale in here."
With a backward glance that was anything but nonchalant, Han turned to Luke and said,
"Look after yourself kid, and while you're here make sure you use the room service."
"Don't worry, I've already gone through ten bottle of blossom wine," replied Luke in jest, "see you soon buddy,"
The Dark Lord of the Sith calmly stepped into the room to allow Han and Chewie to leave, which they did so with extreme restraint on Han's part, though the courteous image was spoilt by the length of unfurled purple wax paper that was firmly stuck to the bottom of Han's left shoe like an extendable limb.
After the duo and their various acquired appendages had disappeared from view, Luke suddenly felt the weight of the silence in the room bearing down upon him like an invisible force. Darth Vader waved the stormtroopers away and they trooped out like automatons leaving just the two of them staring at each other across two feet of purple carpet.
"I have bought your possessions," rumbled Vader, holding out a tattered calico bag that Luke had bought with him all the way from Tatooine. Inside he knew were his personal effects: a well worn toothbrush with a sparse covering of white bristles, a plastic cup from Alderaan courtesy of Leia, and several small ornaments he had collected on his missions to various deserted corners of the galaxy.
At a loss at what to say, Luke settled for a indiscernible murmur that would have made Aunt Beru smack him around the head if he was still back on the farm. His aunt had always said that "manners maketh a man", and even if the Emperor had just killed all their cattle, she would still invite him in for a drink.
"You have problems articulating," stated Vader depositing the small bag carefully on the couch beside Luke, "that will change."
"Uh," muttered Luke, not wanting to get into another argument with his captor, the last one had severely tested his vocabulary to the point that halfway through their conversation Luke found he could only understand half the words that were emanating from Vader's vocal box.
"I trust the quarters are to your liking?" demanded Vader with what Luke knew was entirely feigned concern.
"Look, I'm fine, you're happy, can you just leave me alone now? Unless you want to strap me to that table and start your interrogation."
If Vader's mask would allow him to convey emotion, Luke was sure that he would be looking very annoyed.
"Young one, you do not yet understand your importance,"
Luke opened his mouth to snap that he was heard that phrase at least a dozen times in the last day but something stopped him. A spark in the force ignited causing ripple through the energy field. Vader tilted his helmet back as if listening to a silent noise coming from behind the doors.
"You can feel it too?" asked Luke as the rippled died down leaving both occupants of the room with only vague feelings of foreboding.
"Something is going to happen," whispered the Dark Lord, his voice magnifying Luke's fear. "Something terrible is about to happen."
28th DAY OF THE FIFTH MONTH, 15.00 HOURS – CHEWBACCA'S QUARTERS, PENTHOUSE
Wes, Wedge and Hobbie sat in uncomfortable silence across the Princess and Han Solo, whilst C3PO and Chewbacca handed out some oddly shaped lumps of baked dough that were supposed to be cookies. Not wanting to offend their wookiee host, who had unfortunately also baked the biscuits as part of a leisure class on level 10, all three pilots chewed the baked product without complaint.
Han, who's taste buds had long since been demolished by poverty and Corellian moonshine, was gobbling down the lumps as if they were the last of an Alderaanian delicacy.
"This is what we have found out," said Leia extending the datapad containing all of Chewie's illegally obtained information. As the three pilots glanced around nervously at all four corners of the ceiling as if looking for hidden cameras, Leia waved the newest piece of Alliance technology under their upturned noses. "Everything is being jammed boys. It's the new DEMP technology, the magnetic waves could jam the communications of a Star Destroy if it was in range."
"Man, I've being hearing about this for months!" said Hobbie
"Why didn't we use it earlier?" demanded Wedge
"Stars, that box is ugly," muttered Wes,
Leia, who thought that the design of the device had a certain charm to it, simply glared them into silence.
"Look, the Andamans have been buying shipload of Irradium from somewhere, and putting onto this skyhook."
"Maybe they're interested in radiation science," suggest Wedge casually. Choosing to ignore the comment Leia continued,
"We've also discovered something even more interesting, courtesy of Luke and his quick thinking," she gestured to Han who looked righteously hurt.
"I did some quick thinking too, your highness, if I had plucked that piece of paper off my shoe…"
"Whatever," said Leia in her least impressed tone, "Luke discovered that there has been a massive increase in the amount of dactyl crystals being imported onto this skyhook."
Two blank expression stared at her from across the coffee table but Wedge Antilles at least looked slightly more enlightened.
"Dactyl crystals are essential for the survival of Acrona, a species native to the Teke Ro system," explained Leia feeling somewhat exasperated by their level of general knowledge.
"How much is 'massive'," asked Wedge curiously,
"Well over 2 tonnes have been imported in the last month,"
There was a sharp intake of breath as Wedge sat looking stunned at the revelation.
"I taking that expression to mean it's a lot," muttered Wes,
"2 tonnes! Are they going to move the entire population of Crona to this skyhook?" demanded Wedge in disbelief. "One Acrona can take about 10 grams a day of that stuff before it gets poisoned like us."
"What do you mean 'like us'?" asked Han sensing that there was something Leia had forgotten to tell him or didn't know herself. Judging by her expression, which mirrored his own, is was news to Leia.
"Dactyl crystals are poisonous to most sentient beings in its gaseous form," explained Wedge in his matter of fact voice, "the compound is like carbon dioxide, it doesn't have a liquid state but changes straight from a solid to a gas – called sublimation. The sublimation point of dactyls is just above room temperature making it one hell of a substance to transport."
"I'm taking it that you have personal experience," commented Han
"I used to run the stuff back when I was in with Booster Terrik and his crew. Everyone even the Acrona would wear breathing masks when handling it. Leave the things in the sunlight or near a radiator and bam! Your world goes up in yellow smoke. I hope the Andamans have got their stash in cold storage or we are all dead meat in a tin."
"What exactly happens to people like us if we breathe in dactyl gas?" asked Leia trying to keep the morbid curiosity out of her tone.
There was a slight pause as Wedge attempted to find the correct words to describe the awful scene.
"Have you ever poured salt on a slug?" he asked looking slightly paler than a few moments ago,
"Yep," said Hobbie, looking uncharacteristically happy at the thought.
"Well that's what happens to you but on the inside. The gas draws out all your moisture from your lungs, gut, blood vessels - everywhere it can diffuse to - and it diffuses faster as the temperature increases. You end up drowning in your own mucus basically and you can always tell if someone's dies of dactyl poisoning by the yellow foaming spit that leaks out of their nose, eyes and ears … it's disgusting."
"Oh," said Leia, for once too stunned to be eloquent, "then we have a big problem." Chewbacca roared in agreement.
"Yep," said Han lightly, "the dactyl crystals are being stored in level 1, the only level without air-con."
AN: Some back ground information:
The Acrona are an actual canon species in the Star Wars universe, who appear in the Jedi Apprentice series. According to wookieepedia they do live in the Teke Ro system on a planet called Crona.
Dactyl crystals are also canon and are essential for the Acrona's survival. However the part about sublimation is not canon, but sublimation (as any scientists will know) is well known chemical process.
I wrote an entire backstory to the Andamans - but that would bore everyone to death but there are some important points for the plot line: (
If anyone has been wondering the Andamans are not fully Human - they are a humanoid subspecies. Originally they were humans who emigrated from the core worlds for idealogical reasons (i.e their anal-retentive paranoia prevented them from living in normal society). Over millennia due to geographical isolation they have evolved some very unusual traits not seen in humans but they are still able to have children with humans, and therefore cannot be a separate species.
Andama - the most important planet in the Andaman system is home to the largest plasma reserves in the outer rim. Plasma can be used to power everything from spaceships to scooter (plasma is the lightening like stuff seen at the end of Phantom Menace when Qui-gon duels Darth Maul in the hall of walkways without railings) and is thus during war time a valuable commodity.
For all the time the Andaman state has existed (first as a monarchy - hence crown prosecution service - and then as an oligarchy) it has been independent of any galactic governing body. No senators were ever sent to represent Andaman interests. The droid armies that were stupid enough to enter the system during the clone wars were blown to smithereens. The Empire didn't bother to take the system by force in the beginning because:
1. There is only plasma - every other planet in the system was thoroughly uninteresting
2. Andamans are armed to the teeth at all times with a mine field around every planet capable of causing extensive damage to Star Destroyers
However once the Andamans banned Imperial trade in the entire region (including vast swaths of space not within their own solar system) and started to destroy trade ships, the Empire performed half-hearted offensive campaign that obviously ended in defeat. Thus for twenty years, Darth Vader and the Empire decided to leave the backwater of a system alone as long as they continued to trade with the outside world.
The reason why Andaman suddenly become so important to the Imperials is hinted at in the story but not fully explained yet because Leia doesn't know.
If anyone actually wants more information feel free to ask
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