It is Your Destiny…
Coruscant
"When they confiscated her lightsaber they must've taken her comlink as well," Luke said. He was sitting in a small room with Master Kenobi, Airen Cracken and Crix Madine. They had just finished listening to the open call that Leia had sent via her communications unit and that Luke had intercepted.
"Yes, we haven't heard anything since then and our repeated attempts to contact the Viceroy have gone unanswered," Kenobi said.
"As well as our communiques to the Imperial contact that organized the visit," Madine responded.
"What're we gonna do?" Luke asked. He couldn't stand just sitting around and discussing what they already knew while his sister could be in danger.
"We'll have to send someone to investigate. We'll have to tread lightly, we don't want to incite a diplomatic incident on a misunderstanding," Kenobi said.
"A misunderstanding? You heard the recording," Luke spit back.
"We all heard the recording and it could be taken in several different ways," Madine countered.
"Relieve them of any unnecessary provisions and then her comlink went dead? When is a comlink unnecessary? When you're taken prisoner, that's when," Luke argued. He wished for the millionth time that he had been able to locate this father, knowing that the two of them would've already been on their way to rescue Leia instead of wading through diplomatic bureaucracy instead. But Anakin Skywalker was nowhere to be found.
"We aren't disagreeing with you, Luke," Kenobi replied thoughtfully. "And the words were probably chosen intentionally, so if we were to overreact, then they could blame us for starting a war."
"Right," Cracken agreed. "A dozen to one, if we show up, turbolasers blaring, Bail and Leia will be comfortably squared away in a posh apartment and the Imperials will have gotten exactly what they wanted."
"War without the blame," Kenobi said.
"Alright," Luke sighed in defeat, but he was far from giving up. "So, we take a couple of StealthX's and sneak ourselves in there." Who knew that his squadron's first mission would involve rescuing his own sister?
"We don't want to tip our hand on the stealth technology until it is fully warranted," Madine countered.
Luke wanted to ask what would be more warranted than a missing Viceroy and Jedi, but refrained. Even though Bail Organa was a close family friend and Leia was his twin sister, he had to tamp down on emotional attachments and look at this as objectively as possible. He had not been doing a very good job of that thus far. Maybe it was a good thing that his father was not aware of Leia's predicament. The two of them together would be hard-pressed into seeing reason.
"Besides, this will more than likely be a ground mission, so sending StealthX's would be a waste," Cracken offered. "Not to mention that they are single-seaters. We aren't guaranteed that the ship that Organa and Skywalker arrived in is going to be available to them on the way out."
"That's why I invited Colonel Cracken," Madine said. "Being our Supreme Commander of Intelligence, he's got the available covert personnel, civilian contacts and vessels to get you into and out of Imperial Space."
"Before I can determine what resources we'll need, we'll need to know the proposed makeup of our strike team," Cracken stated.
"Two Jedi," Kenobi answered. "Probably myself and Skywalker here and two droids. The Viceroy has a particular astromech that is wired with a distress indicator directly linked to his personal comlink. Although probably not on his person any longer, the droid should be able to get a lock on the comlink's location and at least point us in the right direction. We'll need to pair him up with a counterpart droid for communication purposes." Kenobi hesitated. "Captain Antilles will be aware of which droids I am speaking of."
Cracken had begun keying the information into his datapad, rubbing on his chin as he seemed to digest the information that he had received. "I have a ship and crew," he looked at the other members seated at the table. "A trusted resource. They'd have all the right codes and reasons to fly into Imperial space without raising an eyebrow. Right now they're halfway across the galaxy, though. You'd have to rendezvous with them in deep space, it'd probably be best that way for our purposes, anyway."
"We can slip out of Coruscant in our StealthX's. All the better, if our departure isn't well known," Luke said.
"That's no problem for the Astromech, either you or I can have him inserted in our ship. But there's hardly room for a counterpart droid in the cockpit of an X-wing."
"We can disassemble it. Once we rendezvous with the contact, I can put it back together before we reach Imperial Space," Luke said.
"If you have any issues, both of these particular contacts are handy with mechanicals," Cracken offered. "Speaking of these contacts," he said, looking around the room. "These two will most likely be familiar to the both of you, but they're affiliation with us is to remain deeply buried. They'll be a civilian ship that you hired, no more."
"Understood," Kenobi replied and Luke nodded his understanding as well.
Rendezvous in Deep Space, 5 Days Later
Luke had never been more annoyed at how long things seemed to take to get done. Even after everything had been decided it had taken days to get the droids from Captain Antilles and to get the right clearances for him and Kenobi to take the StealthX's on their first official run. He had spoken with his mother, but only under the guise of checking in. He hadn't wanted to worry her unneccessarily. And as of the time he and Obi Wan finally did leave Coruscant, he had still not located the whereabouts of his father. But he was on his way now, and Luke remained focused on his sister. It was difficult to make contact when they were across the galaxy from one another, but he took comfort that if anything terrible would've been happening to her, he would've felt it. At best, he could tell that she was anxious and angry. To Luke, that was good news.
The little astromech that Kenobi had requested chittered excitedly and Luke glanced down at his readouts. "You're right, Artoo. We're coming up to the rendezvous," he said. Something about the droid seemed comfortable and familiar. The two had 'chatted' almost the entire trip through hyperspace and Luke had been thankful for the diversion.
When Luke pulled down on the lever that brought him out of hyperspace, he busied his hands with all the appropriate procedural activities that hyperspace diversion entailed. At the tail end of that procedure was opening up the secure frequency on his subspace comm, and making visual and audio contact with Cracken's crew.
Sure enough, Luke spotted the looming freighter, hanging innocently in the middle of deep space. Its hull pockmarked with carbon scoring and littered with streaks of dirt or grease, Luke couldn't be sure which. He recognized the design as one that was popular back before he was born, maybe even before his father was born. As he floated closer in, without even thinking, he mumbled into his comm," What a piece of junk."
Almost immediately, his speakers crackled in response and a loud voice came over the secure channel. "She'll make point five past light speed," the voice answered him. "She may not look like much, but she's got it where it counts, kid. I've made a lot of special modifications myself."
Han Solo? Luke's mood soared and he wanted to shout the name over the comm but then thought better of it. Even in deep space on secure channels, someone could always be listening. "In that case, I'm impressed," Luke said instead, unable to hide the delight in his voice. "And relieved, in more ways than one."
"Sorry to dispel your low opinion of me," Han countered back. "Now if we're done with the friendly reunion, how 'bout you jettison your butts over here so that we can get this party moving?"