Equally Cursed and Blessed
by Mina
37/.
Barutte swelled in the cockpit's viewscreen as Luke scanned the surface for the base. He'd never seen the planet from space before and was stunned by the audacity of his comrades for choosing it as their base. And he'd thought that Hoth was as inhospitable a place as they could find... apparently, he'd been wrong.
The planet's atmosphere was stained a liquid red, warning of the gases that made it unbreathable to most life-forms. The mining station itself was a boxy grey complex squatting down low on the tundra. The majority of it was covered by a sealed bio-dome that contained the breathable atmosphere.
Only a large docking complex was not included in that bio-dome, and the shuttle's scanners were reading an atmosphere shield guarding the mouth of the bay, one with the containment power of the shields normally installed in a star destroyer's docking bay. The base looked small and vulnerable compared to the sprawling quarry fields that lacerated the landscape, scattered with deserted mining equipment.
Still, at least it would be a piece of cake to dock with. The shuttle's scanners were picking up an automated landing beacon, just waiting for Luke to get close enough to trigger the tractor beam system which would guide his ship through the atmosphere shield and into the docking bay.
As his eyes and the instruments calculated the quickest way to approach the station, Luke almost missed the faint sound behind him.
It grew louder and the hairs on the back of Luke's neck stood on end, his Force-less senses tingling with a sense of danger. Laughter - that sound was laughter. Slowly, Luke turned the pilot's chair around to face his newly-conscious 'passenger'.
Palpatine smiled at him, but with no humour. There was only vicious triumph in his expression. When Luke said nothing, he chuckled again.
"Young fool," Palpatine cackled, his yellow eyes were septic in the rusty light of Barutte. "And you were so close to victory."
"What?" Luke demanded.
He was tempted to reach for the comm and call Vader, but he checked the urge.
"This," Palpatine almost snarled, "is my ship."
Something inside Luke, a basic instinct, kicked his heart rate into high gear and made his pulse throb in his ears.
Palpatine spoke again, but he wasn't addressing Luke.
"Voice command activation," he said. Luke frowned. The ship's computer trilled. Palpatine smiled. "Activate order sixty-seven. Locate and destroy the source of the last logged transmission. Use any means necessary."
It had been spoken with such melodrama that the next few seconds were something off on anti-climax. Nothing happened. Luke raised his eyebrows at Palpatine.
"I don't think you-"
The ship lurched.
Luke was thrown back into his seat.
In the same split-second, the lights dimmed to emergency power, the forward viewscreen winked to black, and the engine took on a new, deeper pitch as the ship reversed direction in a jack-knife move that pinned Luke to his seat as effectively as any crash-webbing.
"What the hell?" he cursed, fighting against the inertia to turn back to the controls.
He managed to turn the chair around, locked his leg around a support strut to stop the inertia from spinning him back. The ship was knifing upwards, away from the planet.
The controls didn't respond to anything he did. Most of the panels were dark. The navigation readout showed a target outlined in red. The target was moving towards them almost as fast as they were moving towards it. What the-?
"Luke, what are you doing?"
His father's voice, over the comm. Palpatine cackled with a manic sort of glee. Luke glanced at him briefly before slapping the comm to reply, hoping that at least that would work for him. It did.
"I've lost control of the ship," he said, hearing his words tumble out. The deck plates groaned as the ship's infrastructure struggled to cope with the insane acceleration. "Palpatine voice activated some sort of buried command and all the power's been thrown to the sublights. I don't even have visual."
Vader's reply was equally urgent. "You are flying directly towards us."
"What?" Luke said, looking more closely at that targeting screen.
He felt his heart thump painfully in his chest.
"Move!" he said, yelling the word.
"Luke-"
"We're locked onto you - you're the target. She's thrown all power to the drives. Move!"
No response - the blip on the targeting screen continued to scream closer. Luke whipped his head around to stare at Palpatine. The Emperor looked supremely satisfied. But then there was the sound of a wookiee howling over the comm and the blip on the screen made an abrupt turn away from them.
"Father-" he started to say, but the words went out of him as the shuttle made its own abrupt change in direction, throwing Luke against the seat again.
"You see, young Skywalker, I was right," Palpatine said from behind Luke. Luke glanced over his shoulder to make eye contact. "Your father will die. That has always been inevitable."
"You're insane," Luke said. "If we hit the Falcon we'll all die, you included. That's not much of a back-up plan, your Highness."
"Death means nothing to me. This body is weak and old. In death, I will become more powerful than you can imagine."
Luke felt his stomach clench with nausea as the shuttle made another sharp turn. He shook his head - had the loss of the Force unhinged Palpatine, or should Luke be listening to the warning bells ringing in his head?
He whipped back around to scan the scopes again. The Falcon was keeping ahead of them - just. He supposed he should be grateful Xizor has blown the armaments, after all. His hands flew over the boards, trying and failing to get something to respond to him.
"Damn it!" he swore, striking the board with his right hand.
Chewie howled at him over the comm.
"I can't get anything to respond," he said.
"No!" Vader suddenly said. His voice sounded strained. "Back off!"
For a second Luke thought Vader was talking to him - then he realised he was hearing only half a conversation.
"Stand down the fighters, Captain," Vader was saying. "No one is to fire on that ship!"
A soft cackle from behind him. Luke ignored it.
"Father, let them target the drives. If they can disable them-"
"No," Vader snapped. "You're flying too fast and too erratically for them to be that accurate. They could destroy the entire ship."
Luke wetted his lips.
"Better that than we ram you," he shot back. "Let them try."
"No!" Vader snapped, and there was a snarl of anger and frustration in his voice, the strain of denying the only choice immediately available to them.
The ship groaned ominously as it hurtled through a move only a fighter could attempt safely. Luke's stomach spun as he finally grabbed for the crash-webbing and buckled it across his chest. This could be a bumpy ride.
"Father-"
"No."
The emotion in the word lanced right through him, cut at him. Denial, in a desperate voice.
And then, softly, Palpatine whispered, "There is another way to save him..."
Luke couldn't turn and face him again. He was scared of the fury that was lashing through him. Without the Force, he could still strike out at the old man. He could kill him, if he had a mind to. To be this close to victory made defeat all the more painful.
"The command can be deactivated," Palpatine said, his voice low, "with the right words." Luke gripped the arms of the pilot's chair. "But you will have to take it from me," Palpatine continued, the words slithering into Luke's mind. "You've done it before."
"No." Luke shook his head.
The ship bucked suddenly, as if buffeted by the hand of the Force.
"Come now, don't be so modest. I know Vader has shown you how to invade another's mind and rip the information you need from them."
Luke finally turned back to throw him a defiant glare.
Palpatine's gaze seemed to pierce Luke's shell of stubborn determination.
"You are scared and angry, which makes you all the more powerful. I could not stop you."
For a moment Luke saw himself coming to his feet, dashing towards the older man and shaking him, as if the information would just fall from him like credits from upturned pockets. He shook the impulse away and narrowed his eyes on Palpatine.
Then he remembered the advice his father had urged on him from the moment they had parted: to practice maintaining his shields at all costs. Clearly, letting Palpatine anywhere near his mind would be a mistake. He wasn't foolish enough to think he could just grab the information and be done with it.
"I'm not letting you anywhere near my mind," he said. "I won't give in to your games."
"Ah... pride. I knew it was in there somewhere. This is no game, boy. Kill the ysalamiri, regain the Force, and take what you need to save your father," Palpatine urged. "I could not stop you. Not with that Skywalker temper fuelling your need."
Force help him, he was tempted.
He imagined, for a moment, what it would be like to touch the Sith Lord's mind. He envisaged it to be like dipping his toes into a deep river, and being swept off his feet by unseen currents. Some instinct told him that Palpatine was hardly as defenceless as he was making out. Luke would be sticking his head in the rancor's mouth. Naive he might be - but not that naive.
Luke's gaze shifted to the back compartment, to the weapons rack and the compartment where the ysalamiri had been stored.
Palpatine followed his gaze, and smiled.
Unbuckling the crash webbing, moving against the momentum of the ship, Luke stood.
The Falcon moved through the planet's upper atmosphere as though she were dancing, responding to Vader's piloting with an ease that at any other time Vader would have relished. But not now.
The shuttle followed them doggedly, chasing every twist and turn despite its bulky design, straining the ship's infrastructure. No lambda-class shuttle was ever designed to withstand that kind of speed or stress. All the power - life support, weapons and shields included - had been shunted to drives. It was more like a meteorite hurtling after them than a ship. A darkened missile intent on its own destruction.
He could hear Palpatine's voice whispering over the comm, but the Sith Lord was talking too softly for the words to be made out. Vader gripped the controls tighter, kicked the Falcon into a starboard spin down into the next layer of atmosphere. What was Sidious telling Luke? What poison was he spreading? What -
In a moment of disorientation, Vader was back in the visions that had haunted him for too long, since that first attempt to introduce Luke to the dark side aboard the Executor, so long ago now.
"I never wanted this," Luke had said, standing above Vader with the pale shadow of the dark side in his grey features. "I just wanted... I just wanted to save you..." Luke had laughed then, a dry, brittle laugh, raking across the air between them - the yawning chasm between them. "He didn't tell me I'd have to pay for your life with my soul."
Chewbacca roared out a warning and Vader hit the left thrusters instinctively, veering sharply away from the chasing ship. Outwardly, he regained control of their hurtling descent towards the surface, where he hoped the atmosphere would slow the shuttle down at least a little. Inwardly, he thought he might just be about to come apart.
"I sold myself for you, just as he asked - don't act so disgusted, Father. I did it for you."
Was all they'd done these last few months for nothing? Did all the sacrifices mean nothing? Had all the lessons against anger and fear gone un-learned?
"Luke," Vader called over the comm, hoping the boy would hear him. "Palpatine's promises are poison. Do not listen to him."
As if Palpatine was a bogeyman Luke could just cover his ears to. Vader's gut churned.
He glanced to the Falcon's scopes - a squadron of TIEs had followed them down. They were not made for atmospheric flight... but still, they might be able to target the shuttle's engines, might be able to pinpoint them...or they might not. But shouldn't Vader be willing to take that risk, rather than risk creating his visions of the future?
He couldn't give the order.
If they blew the drives off now, the shuttle would hurtle to the ground. In space it could have been tractored in. Down here... even if the TIEs were successful, the ground would rush up to meet it.
"He cannot die," Vader said, through clenched teeth. His fist came down on the control panel, leaving a dent. "I will not allow him to die."
/The cub is resourceful/ Chewbacca said, although the wookiee must have known Vader had been talking to himself. /Do not give up so easily./
Vader turned an angry glare on his co-pilot. He was about to say, You have no idea what he faces, but the words didn't make it to his lips. Because Vader recognised the fear in them, and was suddenly irritated with himself. Fear would only cloud his judgement now - hadn't he learnt that yet? And the wookiee was right: Luke was resourceful.
And so was Vader.
He glanced again at the sensor readouts of the Rebel base, the automated systems that remained online. And yes - that might just work. He put the Falcon into a sudden twist, kicking the thrusters to full power and arrowed down towards the abandoned base.
"Luke?" he called over the comm, hearing his voice sounding calmer than it had moments earlier.
"I'm here," Luke replied.
"The Emperor-"
"Don't worry. He's... gone back to sleep." Luke paused. "He's still alive, but those Force pikes pack a lot of energy."
A slight smile stretched Vader's lips.
"Indeed."
He should have known his son would not be swayed by Palpatine's lies now, not after coming so far. He pushed the Falcon's throttle open as wide as she would go.
"I have a plan."
Luke let out a breath of relief.
"I was hoping you'd say that!"
He glanced again over his shoulder at Palpatine. The man's head had lolled back in his seat, but his breathing remained steady. Luke wasn't sure whether he was supposed to be relieved or disappointed that the force pike hadn't killed him.
The ship was shaking more now, and Luke gripped the seat arms as he turned back to the navigational scopes.
"You're taking us down to the surface?"
"To your Rebel base," Vader confirmed.
Luke furrowed his brow. "I can't land-"
"You will not have to. The base is protected by the automated pilot system - it will not allow a ship to crash through the atmospheric barrier. The tractor system will deploy to slow you down and bring you in."
Luke felt a smile creep over his face. But -
"The engines will probably blow with the stress," Luke pointed out. "This isn't going to be a pretty landing."
"Indeed. Can you get rid of the Force-dampening creatures? With the Force, together we can control the descent and protect you from the impact."
Luke frowned. He didn't relish the idea of killing the creatures.
"I'm not-"
"They would most likely die in a crash, Luke."
Luke sighed.
"All right, I'll -"
The words were cut off sharply as the shuttle made a sudden lurch to starboard. Sparks seared across the interior of the ship, and Luke put his arms up to shield his face from the heat of them. The air was flooded with the acrid smell of ozone.
"Did you see that?" Luke said.
There was a pause from the comm. For a second, Luke had the sensation of falling alone in the dark.
"Father-"
"Your port stabiliser blew," Vader finally replied.
The crash-webbing pinned Luke to his seat as the shuttle began a seesawing motion.
"Your starboard stabiliser won't be long."
At which point the ship would plummet in an uncontrolled fall. Well, at least it made Vader's job of avoiding the shuttle's ramming attempts easier. Luke swallowed thickly. Somehow, all the times he'd imagined how he might die in this war, it hadn't included this particular scenario.
"Luke-"
"I'm here."
"There's no time to kill the creatures. I'm taking us down to the Rebel base now."
The shuttle was banking sharply to starboard, listing as it went down, tearing apart the orange clouds of the lower atmosphere. It was not travelling nearly as fast without both her stabilisers working and Vader throttled back to help it stay on their tail, keeping it lolloping after them like a lame bantha.
He scanned the horizon. Below them stretched the empty rocky plains of the planet, the surface slashed with the scars left from the Empire's mines, which had stood empty for years. And coming up fast was the blocky grey structure of the base.
"We're approaching the base," Vader said, for Luke's benefit.
The calm tone he was striving for was under threat from the adrenaline accelerating through him.
"Father... if this doesn't work-"
"Brace yourself," Vader interrupted sharply, cutting off any risk of Luke foreshadowing a disaster with misplaced last words.
"If this doesn't work," Luke continued stubbornly, "I need you to do something for me."
Vader felt the muscles in his jaw tightening. It will work, he wanted to say.
But those were words he didn't want to spend the rest of his lifetime regretting. If this did go wrong, and he'd refused to hear Luke's request...
"Quickly then," he said.
"Say goodbye to Leia for me."
"You have my word," Vader said, both relieved and disappointed that the request was about his sister.
"Oh," Luke said, "and by the way - if you blame yourself for this, I swear I'll come back and haunt you into insanity. Forgive yourself, or all of this will have been for nothing."
Vader was momentarily unable to reply. Surprise and then confusion raced through him, and just an edge of discomfort at the thought of ever being able to shrug the blame for this situation from his shoulders.
The Falcon registered two tractor beams coming to bear on them. Vader let the Force guide his hands, manoeuvring the ship away from the beams' grasp at the last possible moment.
And then it happened.
The shuttle shot underneath them, racing along under the combined power of the tractor beam and its own engines. For a fraction of a second, the Falcon struggled to maintain height above it. Within the same heartbeat, the shuttle attempted to reverse drives to pursue its suddenly uncooperative prey. The tractor beam resisted. Two forces pulling in opposite directions: only one of them could win.
A flash of light flared from the underbelly of the shuttle.
Chewbacca roared in alarm and reached across Vader to get to the flight controls and give the Falcon more height.
The shuttle was briefly obscured by a screen of racing flame and light.
The comm screamed with a high pitch static that echoed the unvoiced tension in Vader's chest.
When the light dimmed, the shuttle was a klick below and in front of them, heading down fast for the base, both stabilisers and the sublight engine now venting a trail of thick, dirty smoke.
Chewbacca barked again.
"I see it," Vader said, but the wookiee growled at him.
/One tractor beam has failed/ Chewbacca said irritably, gesturing at the Falcon's scopes.
Vader's eyes flashed to the readout. And yes - the wookiee was right. One of the generators had blown with the stress.
He looked back to the falling shuttle, the ship dropping with too much momentum for one tractor beam alone to bring her in neatly. The rocky ground in front of the docking bay beckoned.
One day I will be... I will be the most powerful Jedi ever. I will even learn to stop people from dying...
But maybe not this day.
"Which way?"
The 'pilot' looked up and down the corridor that led away from the airlock. He thought he knew this ship, but in the dark Executor was an entirely different place.
"That way," he said, pointing left with his gloved and suited arm. "Come on."
"You're sure? I don't recognise this corridor," the 'medic' said, leaning over his shoulder. Filtered through the suit's vocoder, his voice sounded slightly metallic. Then with a low whistle he added, "Damn, it's hot in here."
"Hell of an understatement," the 'pilot' muttered. "Come on, we're running out of time. Have you -" He cut the sentence off abruptly as Skywalker's astromech droid bumped him in the back of the shins. "What the-?"
The droid scooted past him with a derisive electronic snort, heading forward determinedly. It paused, turned back, and let out an impatient hoot.
"Touchy little droid," the 'medic' muttered, but he started jogging after it.