Chapter 37
Leia was trying her best to keep calm and rationale. She had let her mother talk her into waiting until the next day to confront Winter. It had only led to a restless night's sleep. She gave up about half way through the night, and seated herself at the small table. She looked at the doctored image of her holding a lightsaber. She read through the article. Then she read through every other article that talked about her she could find.
Her mind went a million different directions as to why Winter would do this. Did she do it for Leia to gain more support from the High Council? Was it for morale? Was it for herself? Something else? Someone else?
Naturally of course Leia's mother had voiced her concern about Darth Vader seeing this. This would only make it easier for Vader to target Leia. It only added another level of frustration to the situation.
"You know it to be true. You are mine."
The voice of Darth Vader echoed in her mind. She slammed her fists down on the table. But then she snapped her head back as guilt rushed through her remembering her sleeping mother. Luckily her mother was still asleep. Leia's outburst hadn't woken her up. She let out a deep sigh and curled her head into folded arms on the table. She closed her eyes and reached out for Luke.
It was hard. There must be a large distance between them. It took a lot of thought to push herself to him. But finally she made it to the strong thick walls. She knew on the other side of those walls was Luke. She tapped on the walls. There was no response. She tapped again. Still nothing. It was too hard to keep herself here, so she let herself fall back into her real body.
She hadn't expected Luke to answer, but she hoped he would. She just wanted to know he was all right. That he wasn't in pain. She wanted him to know she hadn't forgotten about him. Most importantly, she wanted to know he was alive. Surely the fact there was a strong wall there meant he was still alive on the other end keeping that wall up.
Right?
By the time the morning had cycled around, Leia's body ached with lack of sleep. But adrenaline and anxiety fueled her. Leia was already dressed by the time her mother woke up. She couldn't bring herself to wear any of the white jumpsuits Winter had loaned her when she first came to the Alliance. Instead she just opted to wear her Alliance uniform. Leia's mother chose the same outfit.
Winter agreed to meet with them at the start of the morning duty shift. Leia and her mother made their way to Winter's private bunk. Winter's bunk wasn't much bigger than Leia's, but it only had one bed. As soon as the door slid open and Leia saw Winter, Leia couldn't contain her anger. She clenched her fists and marched into the room.
"How could you?" Leia demanded as she stormed towards the princess.
"I can explain," Winter said calmly.
"Well by all means, please start," Leia snapped back.
"Leia," came the soft voice of Leia's mother from behind. A hand landed on her shoulder. "Calm down."
Leia took a moment. She took a few deep breaths and tried to let the anger flow out of her.
It was Leia's mother who spoke up first. "Well you know why we're here," she said to Winter. "You changed that image of Leia practicing with the lightsaber. You allowed it out to the public. Why?"
Winter paused as she looked from daughter to mother to daughter. "Simple," she finally said. Her voice was even. Calm. "I'm doing it to save Luke."
"How so?" Leia's mother asked.
Leia herself was suddenly finding herself without words. Winter had paused for a moment. Her eyes went distant as she calculated her next words.
"I plan on having a team inflinitrate the Devastator, break into Vader's personal quarters, and either find Luke or see what information we can get on him," Winter explained.
"Why the article? Why proclaiming me as a Jedi?" Leia asked. "How would this help?"
"Bait," Winter said.
The room was silent. No one spoke.
"Wha-what?" Leia's mother found her voice first. "Did you just say bait? Bait for what? Who?"
Winter crossed her arms across her chest. "Bait for Vader," she said matter-of-factly. "In order to actually get into Vader's quarters, he can't be in them. It would be best if he's not even on the ship. And we need to catch him off guard. We can't give him time to plan, to move Luke if he is kept somewhere in Vader's quarters. But there is very little which would warrant Darth Vader's immediate personal attention. Except for a Jedi."
A chill ran from Leia's feet to her head and back down again.
"Absolutely not!" Leia's mother shouted. "How dare you endanger Leia like this! You never asked! You never considered! Do you know what you have done?"
"I'm doing what you keep asking me to do!" Winter snapped back. "I'm trying to save Luke, or at least get some information on him! You keep insisting that Vader has him. Well that means getting into Vader's quarters. That means drawing him out! That means you have to have something draw him out with!"
"Mom . . ." Leia said softly, but her plea went unnoticed.
"You-you don't understand!" Leia's mother screamed at Winter. "You understand nothing! You do not know the depths of what you have done! What you have brought on to my daughter!"
"Mom," Leia said again. This time she had found herself. Her voice was steadier, yet it still went unheeded. Leia's mother started to pace around the room.
"He's going to get her too!" Leia's mother voice was filled with worry and edged on panic. "You've only painted a larger target on her back! He'll get her just like he has Luke!"
"Mom," Leia said, "Stop." Leia's mother turned her. Her face a mix of anger and sorrow. "I want to hear to Winter's plan." She turned back towards the princess. "I assume you do have a plan."
There was a small sigh of disapproval from Leia's mother, but otherwise she didn't say anything.
"I do have a plan," Winter said. "There is planned to be a practice of Imperial navy maneuvers over Tureen VII soon. It will be between two fleets, one of which is Vader's. Tureen VII is currently under a blockade due to helping supply the Alliance. Two star destroyers have been stationed there, but the real problem has been the squadrons of TIE fighters stationed on the two moons. Nothing had been able to get in. The people of Tureen VII are dying of starvation."
"Like Brolsam," Leia's mother said softly.
"No even worse," Winter said. "The Empire needed the people of Brolsam to tend to their fields. Tureen VII? They are not spared the same kindness. The Alliance has been desperately trying to find a way to break through the blockade. Previous attempts have failed. We simply do not have the ships or manpower to overcome the blockade."
"And Leia wielding a lightsaber suddenly tips the odds in the Alliance's favor?" Leia's mother said darkly.
"No," Winter said. She had kept calm and collected the entire time. "The reason why Tureen VII was chosen as the spot, was to practice practice military exercises while having to take into account a planet's gravity."
"They could have picked an uninhabited planet," Leia said. But she already knew the Empire had chosen carefully.
Winter continued. "It isn't just to practice with the effects of planetary gravity, but also to gauge the aftermath of the battle on the planet. We don't have details of the military exercises, but this game might include one fleet having to 'protect' spots on the planet. The goal is to see how well they can. What will the fallout be on the planet? What damage will the cities and the people take?"
Winter paused as she turned and looked out the small viewport her room had the luxury of having.
"So," Leia's mother said. "You plan on interrupting the exercise, using that chaos to get a team to infiltrate Vader's layers and hopefully rescue Luke. But . . . but this won't save the people of Tureen VII. You said so yourself. The Alliance doesn't have the manpower or resources to break the blockade. What chance would they stand when two fleets are there?"
"I know," Winter said softly. She turned back to face the other two women. "I honestly don't expect the blockage to be broken. But I do plan on stopping the military exercises, and hopefully sending supplies down to the planet."
It was a hard choice, Leia understood. The Alliance had to pick and choose its battles. They couldn't be everywhere. They couldn't do everything for everyone who deserved it.
"But you still haven't said how," Leia said. "Nor how do I fit into any of this."
"It's simple. Create a disruption right as the exercises start. The good thing is that we'll have the element of surprise, but also their weapons will either be loaded with blanks or set to lower power levels. They'll have to switch them back over to engage in a real battle. Granted once they do, we'll have two fleets on us, but by that time our forces should be in retreat. The goal isn't to engage them. The goal is to drag them away from Tureen VII. What else is more tempting than real Rebels?"
"What if they don't give chase?" Leia's mother asked.
"They will," Winter said. There was a dark sense of experience in her words. Winter knew all too well the lengths the Empire would go to destroy the Alliance. "Especially with Vader there. Hopefully it's his fleet that pursues us, leaving the other fleet behind. But that's where you come in Leia." Winter was looking straight at Leia now. "We need Vader come after us. More importantly, we need Vader himself to leave his ship. We need you to act as bait. We're hoping a slip of using the wrong frequencies, frequencies the Empire would be monitoring, would give away that the Alliance's new Jedi has joined the fray."
"And?" Leia's mother asked. Winter looked over at her questioningly. "What happens next? How will you keep Vader away from Leia? Prevent her from being captured?"
Winter took a deep breath. She looked over at the pair and a confident smile came across her lips. She explained the rest of her plan.