CHAPTER TWENTY
Rey stared at a holographic projection of the Millennium Falcon spinning in front of her while the computer read off the specifications: "The Millennium Falcon. Corellian YT-1300 modified freighter. Owner: Han Solo, 1.8 meters tall, born approximately 29 years before the Battle of Yavin, Corellian, Wanted by the Galactic Empire for desertion, smuggling, treason, illegally modified ship, aiding the destruction of both Death Stars, member of the Rebel Alliance.
"The Millennium Falcon is grey in color with red primer randomly applied on the hull. Modifications include a Class 2.0 primary hyperdrive system with a maximum warp of 0.5 past lightspeed, twice as fast as Imperial starships; a questionable back-up Class 12 hyperdrive system, with a maximum warp of 1.0 lightspeed; duralloy plating covers most of the hull; three different shield generators: advanced Kuat Drive Yards, Novaldex, and Nordoxicon shield generators; high-grade sensor suites tied into the illegal sensor dish; illegal sensor jammers; most ship functions are funneled through a modified Hanx-Wargel SuperFlow IV computer with three droid brains.
"Armament includes a hidden laser cannon near the loading ramp; a pair of dorsally and ventrally mounted Corellian Engineering Corporation AG-2G quad laser cannons, drawing power from her Quadex power core—modified with enhanced powercyclers, high-volume gas feedbacks, and custom laser actuators. The ship also boasts a pair of illegal Arakyd ST2 Concussion missile launchers mounted between the forward mandibles.
"Length: 34.75 m; Cargo capacity: 25 metric tons; Crew: minimum a pilot and co-pilot; maximum sublight speed: 800 kph.
"Warning to all Imperial personnel: This ship is armed and dangerous. Owner has repeatedly escaped Imperial capture, leaving in his wake many Imperial deaths. Recommended strategy is to disable the hyperdrive, which is portside aft. Once the tractor beam brings in the ship, approach with caution. It is suspected that there are hidden compartments, providing her passengers a way to escape.
"Imperial history: The Millennium Falcon was first noted for blasting its way out of Mos Eisley on Tatooine in the Outer Rim a day before the Battle of Yavin. It was then captured by the Death Star I in the Alderaanian asteroid field. With the help of a Jedi outlaw, Captain Solo escaped with the Falcon and was later an accomplice in the destruction of the Death Star the following day.
"Numerous encou—
Ani shut down the hologram. "Hey, I wasn't done watching that!" argued Rey.
"You are for now," mentioned Ani as he pulled a specification manual on the primary hyperdrive. "Read this. No, better yet, memorize this manual," ordered Ani. "That hyperdrive is a touchy device."
Rey sat down at the terminal in the power room and started her studies once again. She only finished reading the introduction to the hyperdrive, trying to wrap her brain around the functions of the device before the sun started to appear on the horizon. She shut down the computer and power generator before heading home to sleep. She would be back the next evening to continue her studies.
A few weeks later found Rey prowling around the Falcon again. The hyperdrive was taken apart, but Ar-Seven was nowhere to be found. The access panel above the co-pilot's head was removed and wires hung down, attached to "A compressor! He's installed a compressor on this hyperdrive? It's going to put too much stress on it!" complained Rey to the air, not knowing if Ani was around or not.
She looked around the cockpit some more. It looked like Unkar was making some other changes near the pilot's console, too—fuel pump by the look of it. She moved to the hyperdrive access cabinet in the aft of the ship and pulled her tools out. If she could just patch in a transformer between it and the navacomputer, she could get them talking to each other again.
After an hour of soldering connections, she returned to the cockpit and fired up the hyperdrive and the navacomputer. She left the sublight engines off to avoid discovery. Once the navacomputer came up, she pulled up the coordinates for the jump before Jakku. It was to a place called Arbooine, wherever that was. She had never heard of it before—wait, something sounded familiar about that place. She concentrated, trying to reach for the memories that so many times fled away from her consciousness. It was like someone was keeping her from remembering much about the time before Jakku.
Frustrated, she headed back to the hyperdrive. She pulled up the scanner and ran it over the circuits. The system hummed pleasantly, but a squeal was growing. "Probably that stupid compressor." Pleased that the navacomputer and hyperdrive were talking again, she hurried to the cockpit and shut them both down before the compressor strained the hyperdrive beyond repair.
She poked around some more in the ship, checking out the crew's quarters, looking in the shipping crates in the three holds. Nothing really interesting. The ship was nothing too exciting—shabby interior, worn exterior. It was a wonder it could even fly.
Rey returned to the cockpit and sat down in the pilot's chair. Recalling the start-up sequence from the manuals Ani had retrieved from computer memory on the Ravager, Rey flicked the switches in the right order. The engines whined, as if trying to connect. Then they shut down again, sputtering dead. She tried the sequence again. Nothing.
Rey looked again at the console, noticing the fuel pump. "I can't believe he put a fuel pump on this thing! What was he thinking?! When I steal this ship, first thing going is that compressor and then this fuel pump!"
Rey primed the pump and then started her up again. The Falcon shook to life as the sublight engines fired up. The sound was deafening. Rey hoped no one was close enough to hear it. Sounds carried far distances in the desert of Jakku at night.
Rey returned to the engine compartment and watched as the belts and hoses performed. One of the levers was sticking, and one of the belts was about to break off. She would need to replace that soon.
Rey hopped back out of the pit and raced to the cockpit to shut it down before the belt broke. "Now, where am I going to find a belt like this one on Jakku?" she wondered. "Time to check out the manuals back at the Ravager, I guess. Maybe there'll be one down in engineering stores."
When Rey returned to the Ravager an hour later, she powered up the ship, lights and life-support. She tapped into the computer console in the power room. Once she entered Ani's security codes, she was able to bring up the search engine. She entered Millennium Falcon into the box and waited for the results to come up.
A variety of choices appeared on the screen. She skipped over the general entry at the top, which she had already read thoroughly. She wanted to know about that particular belt, so she methodically started on each link.
She clicked on the link that said, "Millennium Falcon captured on the Death Star." A video image appeared of the ship sitting in the midst of a humongous hanger, all polished in black. The distorted video showed four people and two droids running toward its hatch while sparks hit the image from somewhere off-screen. The people were hard to make out, but she could tell that one was a Wookiee—the Mighty Chewbacca probably. Which means one of the others was Han Solo. But who were the rest? And why did she feel she knew both of those droids? There were thousands of protocol droids, weren't there? Not to mention thousands of Artoo units . . .
Rey moved the cursor to the side of the screen. A menu popped up as the video froze. Each person in the video was identified with a tag: Han Solo; Chewbacca; Luke Skywalker; Princess Leia Organa, Senator of Alderaan. Neither of the droids had tags. Rey held her breath as she clicked on Princess Leia Organa.
Another menu popped up, showing an image of her face and listing the crimes she was held for: treason. Rey gasped. Tears filled her eyes. She knew this face, older now with a different hairstyle, grey streaked through it, a few wrinkles around the eyes now, but she knew she was looking at her mother.
She clicked on the first video link. A chamber in black with white lighting from cutouts appeared. An elderly gentleman in a dark grey uniform stood on the left. An image out of her own nightmare stood to the right—a tall man, masked and armored in black with a black cape—holding onto her mother, who was dressed in a white gown with buns on either side of her head.
The audio was distorted, but she could hear what transpired.
Her mother spoke, "Governor Tarkin, I should have expected to find you holding Vader's leash." Rey paused the recording, not believing she was hearing her mother's voice for the first time in almost ten years. And who was Vader? Wasn't that Ani's other name? But Ani couldn't be this . . . thing. Rey pressed play again. "I recognized your foul stench when I was brought on board."
Governor Tarkin grabbed her mother by the cheek and responded, "Charming to the last. You don't know how hard I found it, signing the order to terminate your life."
Her mother retorted, "I'm surprised you had the courage to take the responsibility yourself."
Tarkin continued, "Princess Leia—"
Rey stopped the recording again. Her mother was a princess? A princess? Weren't princesses only parts of the fairy tales Ani had told her when she was little? Rey pressed play again. "Before your execution, I would like you to be my guest at a ceremony that will make this battle station operational. No star system would dare oppose the Emperor now."
Her mother interjected, "The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers."
"Not after we demonstrate the power of this station. In a way, you have determined the choice of the planet that will be destroyed first. Since you are reluctant to provide us with the location of the Rebel base, I have chosen to test this station's destructive power on your home planet of Alderaan."
Her mother pleaded, "No, no, Alderaan is peaceful. We have no weapons. You can't possibly—"
Tarkin turned on her, "You would prefer another target, a military target? Then name the system!" He advanced on her mother, pushing her into the black creature behind her. "I grow tired of asking this, so it will be the last time. Where is the Rebel base?"
Leia looked at the screen which displayed her home planet and then back to Tarkin before revealing, "Dantooine. They're on Dantooine."
"See, Lord Vader, she can be reasonable. Continue with the operation. You may fire when ready," ordered Tarkin.
"What?!" yelled Leia.
"You're far too trusting. Dantooine is too remote to make an effective demonstration, but don't worry, we will deal with your Rebel friends soon enough."
Leia pushed toward Tarkin, moaning, "No."
The figure in the mask pulled her back to him, left hand on her shoulder, holding her so tightly he left a bruise.
Rey stopped the recording and yelled, "Granddad!" Ani appeared, head hung low, knowing what she had seen. "How could you?! That was my mother! Your daughter! How could you?! You monster!" yelled Rey.
"I'm sorry. I had no idea who she was at the time, Rey," explained Ani.
"That you would do this to anyone—Are you just waiting for when you can betray me, too? Was all this time of getting close to me so you could sell me back to Unkar or something?" asked Rey.
"No, never. You're my chance to do this right. I was a different person back then, Rey. I didn't even know she was my daughter. Had I known, I would have changed then and there. I would have," spoke Ani.
"I thought you said I would know who my family was with the Force. Why didn't you know?" asked Rey.
"The dark side of the Force clouds many things, Rey. It clouds the truth. It clouds love. It clouds all that is good in this world," explained Ani. "Until the day that I died, I didn't even know that Padmé had twins. I wish I could go back in time and do this so differently, Rey."
"Well, we don't get to go back in time. Life doesn't work that way. We have to live with our choices and the choices of others, whether we like them or not," remarked Rey, bitterly. A quiet moment passed between them again. "Now I know why mother won't call you. Go away. Go away, Granddad. Don't come back. Ever."
"I've changed, Rey. Don't send me away. I've changed," begged Ani as his presence began to fade.
"Go away!" yelled Rey and threw a spanner through his image as it disappeared. Rey turned back to the image of her mother, being held in place by her granddad, fear and horror passing across her face as her planet exploded. Rey paused the video and held her hand out to her mother, wishing she could touch her, wondering what she was doing at this moment, wondering if her mother knew what she was going through right now. Tears fell on the console—tears for her mother and also her granddad.