PART 4: Shadows over pure skies - Mallie & Lars
"Are you sure? Are you absolutely sure?"
The Wookie gave a series of cries.
"I know, I'm sorry."
Mallie crossed her arms in front of her chest and furrowed her brow in thought.
"This changes everything", she said at last. Then she looked at the people standing in a half circle in front of her. There were four of them: Katdella, a Wookie that was working at the Imperial base on Kachirho, mostly doing the heavy lifting, Arnod, a Corellian smuggler and pilot who served as a connection to the network, Ming Wing, with sixteen years their youngest member and a gifted thief and Torald who owned a bar in the city. Together they were forming a cell in a giant network spanning the whole galaxy. They had only one goal: to offer resistance to the Empire.
Mallie was the leader of the cell. She knew many people, mostly Wookies, who opposed the Empire on Kashyyyk and all of her team members did as well. People told them things. They gathered information and in turn whispered them into the right ears, trying to sabotage the Empire wherever they could.
All rebel cells kept strictly separate from each other. Every cell leader had five contacts, five known identities of other cell leaders that he could contact in case of emergency or if they secured important information but for the most part they were on their own. Mallie didn't receive any orders from higher up and the responsibility for her team members lives was hers alone. If she had to contact the network she would send out Arnod but even the pilot had never met a rebel outside of their cell, he would only speak to messengers. Security was essential for their survival. Even so they had lost two members in the last five years. After that Arnod had been assigned to their cells. Ming Wing they had recruited on their own. Every one of them had a history with the Empire. Everyone had lost family, friends and loved ones to them.
"What did she say?", Torald wanted to know and nodded to the Wookie.
"That she was there thirteen years ago when the Empire slaughtered her tribe. She would remember what Darth Vader's personal TIE looks like", Mallie replied with a mix of sadness and anger.
Katdella was their greatest inside informant, working directly with Imperials. Most of them thought Wookies were stupid, not much better than animals and so paid little attention what they said around them. Some even thought just because their anatomy didn't allow them to pronounce words in basic meant they couldn't understand what they were saying.
Hearing the news, the rest of the human team paled.
"Vader is here?!", Arnod exclaimed. "Why? What's he doing here?"
"We have to abort", Ming Wing said, nervously biting her fingernails. "We can't go through with it with him here!"
Katdella roared angrily and made a very rude gesture. Her Shriiwook translated to:
"We can't abort! This is our chance to get him!"
"If we could manage to arrange for Vader to be at the base when the explosives go off... it would be a huge victory", Mallie thought aloud. Oh, she liked that idea. To kill Darth Vader... The man who had killed her family, who had enslaved worlds and brought nothing but terror over the galaxy...
"That's crazy!", Arnod protested. "With our luck he would survive anyway and they'll raze the whole planet for us!"
"It would be worth the risk!", Katdella growled back.
"Would it?" Mallie wrapped her arms around herself and suppressed a shudder. "Please don't misunderstand me, Kat. I despise that man just as much as you do, if not more. But if he dies in a riot on Kashyyyk or even if he survives, the blame would fall back onto your people."
Katdella returned her gaze unimpressed. "It can't get much worse for us", she growled. "And even if we have to sacrifice ourselves... Maybe that will finally wake up all those sheep out there."
"As much as I respect your determination, you cannot speak for your whole race", Mallie said and shook her head.
The rest of the team looked relieved. "Then we will abort?"
Mallie clenched her hands to fists. They had planned this coup for months. All of the explosives were already in place, hidden all over the Imperial base that laid some way outside of the city Kachirho. Most of the staff would be in the city to supervise the festival but the goal was not to kill as many Stormtroopers as possible. It was to destroy their supplies and machines so that when the Gung tribe raided the concentration camp in the north in three days they would encounter less opposition.
Mallie didn't want to abort the mission but it was not because of all the work they had put in it. It was not because she wanted to secure the success of the raid either. Of course that played a role as well but if she looked into her heart, even though it pained her she had to admit that her reason was more selfish. She wanted to see Vader dead. She wanted to see his lifeless corpse at her feet and she wanted to kick it.
She knew that was not very honorable. She knew she was supposed to be better than that but oh, how much she wanted to just grab her blaster, put it to his head and fire. She wanted to see him burn for what he did to her family.
"We will not abort", she decided. "No we... simply have to go about it in another way. We need a scapegoat for the attack so they can't blame it on the Wookies."
"Well sorry to break it to you", Arnod said, "but it will be hard to find a group the Empire despises more than Wookies."
"There is one", Torald whispered. "The Jedi."
The team looked pensive, except for Ming Wing who asked: "Who are the Jedi?"
"That's right, you're too young to know about them", Torald said. "The Jedi were knights of honor and diplomats of peace in the Republic. The Empire branded them all as traitors when a group of them tried to stop the Emperor. Over the years they were hunted down mercilessly."
"I thought the Jedi were just a myth", Arnod said. "And even if they're not, they're extinct. Who would believe that?"
"It would fit our needs though", Mallie argued. "The Jedi weren't a race, they were an order of mixed people from all over the galaxy. Vader has hunted down many of them himself so it wouldn't be too far fetched to say one of them followed him here to set an ambush. Arnod is right in that the Jedi are extinct, therefore even if we blame it on them they won't suffer from it."
"But how would we convince the Imps that it's the work of Jedi?", Ming Wing wanted to know.
"Well... they used those lightsabers, didn't they?"
Mallie shook her head. "We don't have one of those and won't be able to get one in the short time remaining."
Katdella howled: "The Jedi used the Force. If we could imitate that, it should be enough."
Mallie translated the suggestion and the group spent a few minutes trying to remember what little the old legends said about the mysterious Force before the Empire declared it all nonsense. Ming Wing still looked very skeptical but Katdella insisted that the Force was real.
"She says she saw Vader fight with it", Mallie said in a subdued voice as the Wookie began to describe the rebellion of her people. "She says he pushed Wookies out of his way without even looking at them, catapulting them off bridges and into the abyss beyond. He destroyed their barricades and crushed the windpipes of grown warriors without even touching them." Again she had to suppress a shudder as the description brought back old memories. For a moment she remembered standing over such a corpse herself. There had been no visible mark on him but when he'd been transported away on a stretcher his head had rolled this way and that as if it was only connected to his body by a thin layer of skin... with hundreds of crushed bone parts in between.
"You know, Vader always stuck me as creepy", Arnod admitted. "And now you say all the stories about him are true? And you think you can kill him?"
"We have to try", Mallie returned resolutely.
"It's not worth the risk! The chances of it working are low and-"
"You don't understand", she whispered. "I know that you have all lost people. They died in demonstrations or were executed for a crime they didn't commit. They died by the hands of faceless Stormtroopers or in an explosion together with many others. But Katdella and I, we lost people to Vader. We know his face and we will never forget it." She turned towards Torald. "What would you do if you had the name and address of the Imperial judge that sentenced your wife to death because she dared to accuse a Lieutenant of raping her?" Then she turned to Arnod. "What would you do if you found the ship that gunned down your crew?" And to Ming Wing: "What if you knew the face and name of the Trooper that shot your parents?" Her mother had stolen a blaster from a transport, probably intending to use it for something bad (she'd been friends with a Wookie that had suffered the bad side of the Empire) but her father had merely tried to protect her.
She saw it in their faces, in the way their looks darkened.
"The Empire is a terrible dictatorship that doesn't know a thing about fair treatment but this is the man who killed my family. I can't pass this chance up. I understand if you are afraid and if you don't want to help us, I won't hold it against you but we have to try."
For a moment the team was silent but Mallie was proud and honestly touched when at last all of them agreed to help her.
"So how do we do it?"
"We blow up the base as planned", Mallie said. "Then we position a bait at the ruins, someone who will play the role of the Jedi. If Vader dies, very well. We'll just wait for the reinforcements that will come from the city. If not he will probably engage the bait immediately since it will be the only enemy in sight. The explosions can be set off from a distance so the team will be safe. Whether it's Vader or the reinforcements, the bait will use the Force to attack them. We can imitate this with repulser technology and strong magnets that we have to hide in the rubble beforehand."
"That's a stupid idea", Arnod protested. "Whoever plays the bait would have zero chances of surviving."
"I know", Mallie answered and straightened her shoulders. "That's why it will be my role."
Immediately her team was protesting with Katdella howling the loudest.
"You can't do it", she told her Wookie friend softly. "If you posed as the Jedi the entire purpose of not blaming the Wookies would be moot. They would think you're merely a normal Wookie just discovering her Force powers."
"Revenge or not, we can't allow that", Torald decided. "If you're captured-"
"Jedi never get captured. They get killed immediately. All the stories say that, Vader never leaves survivors. You know I would never betray you even if I were to be captured - but I won't."
"You can't kill Vader!"
"I'm not trying to!", Mallie exclaimed. "I know I couldn't beat him. But there is a chance he could die in the explosion. If he does I have a fairly good chance of imitating a Jedi for the troops and getting out of there alive."
Arnod was the first to relent. "Fine. I don't like it but I'll help you."
"We will make sure Vader is in the middle of it when the bombs go off", Torald agreed.
Ming Wing remained silent, she looked everything but happy.
"Good. First we have to find Vader, find out why he's here and then ensure he goes to the base. If everything else fails we will just have to wait until he's about to leave the planet again." Suffice to say she'd rather not do that as every minute they waited meant the Imps had a chance to discover the explosives but they had to make sure the Sith was caught in the fray himself. This might be the only chance Mallie would ever get to avenge her family.
XxX
"What are you so fidgety about?", Marvin asked annoyed. They were walking through the streets of Kachirho. Everywhere colorful lights could be seen and music heard. There was a huge crowd in between various market stalls offering goods, food or games. In the beginning Luke had been excited and happily checked out everything but as time passed on he had started to look over his shoulder frequently. He would bump into people without noticing and run off into unexpected directions.
"I'm looking for someone", Luke answered, having to raise his voice in order to be heard over the music.
"Who?", Marvin called back into his ear.
"A friend. I'm supposed to meet her here. But... There's something else..."
Marvin scowled. If he was supposed to meet a friend then why was Luke looking so nervous? And when would he have had the time to make a friend on Kashyyyk anyway? Or any other planet for that matter.
Suddenly Luke's face lit up and he pushed through the crowd so fast Marvin had trouble following him.
"Leia!", he called out, waving at someone. "Over here!"
Marvin pushed through the crowd, which was made easier by the fact he was still wearing his military outfit. At Luke's insistence he had taken off his helmet which he had strapped onto his belt but people still recognized the white armor and made room for him.
Marvin arrived just in time to see Luke approach a group of girls. When they got closer, said group split up. Some of the girls seemed to quickly take their leave and left with one of two guards. By the time Luke got there, only three persons remained. Marvin immediately scanned them for threats. The most menacing one was a tall man in red and brown armor with a blaster rifle strapped to his back. Marvin assumed him to be a body guard of some kind because the other two were young girls. They wore expensive dresses with flower patterns on them. The girl with the yellow robe drew his attention first simply because of her odd hair color. It flowed over her back in snowy white cascades. The second girl, wearing a green dress, had dark brown hair that was braided in a way that formed a bun at the back of her head. Both of them were very beautiful for their young age (around Luke's) and obviously of the wealthy kind.
Luke had apparently addressed the brunette for she smiled widely at him in recognition. She stepped forward and Marvin saw her grab the fabric of her dress in preparation of making a curtsy and he had to smile when Luke, totally obvious, ignored all protocol and went to hug the life out of the poor girl.
"It's so good to see you again, Leia!", Luke exclaimed happily.
"Luke!", the girl now identified as Leia protested, "let go of me!"
Reluctantly, Luke did but continued to hold her at an arms length. He gazed at her up and down in what Marvin knew from experience was considered very rude in most cultures and said: "Wow, you're beautiful! Even more so than at night."
Leia's friend gasped in shock, the brunette went an angry shade of red and Marvin decided Luke had dropped enough bricks for now.
"Luke, why don't you step out of the Lady's personal space and introduce her to me?", he suggested. Even though he knew he probably just witnessed a royal social blunder, he couldn't help the grin forming on his face. Vader might be Luke's father but Marvin had helped to raise him as well and it showed. He was so proud of the kid.
While Marvin was amused and Luke oblivious to the awkward situation, Leia was torn between being embarrassed and relieved. She was embarrassed because Luke was leaving hints about their nightly activities, namely him visiting her in her dreams, that could very easily be understood in a wrong way. The relief she felt came as a surprise to herself and was a bit more complicated. For years now she had dreamed about Luke and though she hated to admit it, a small part of her had always thought that maybe she was just imagining it all. Maybe she had a stupid crush about the nice boy she met several years ago without realizing it and her imagination went from there. Maybe she was crazy. Seeing that Luke was real, that he knew her and had kept his promise of finding her at the festival was a relief. Also she hadn't slept the entire night, thinking about how he would treat her. Just talking in a dream was one thing but a real face to face encounter was another thing entirely. Would he be reserved? Awkward? Would he laugh in her face for being so stupid as to fall for his tricks, mock her and than arrest and torture her for information about her family? When she readied herself for the journey she had honestly wondered if inviting him hadn't been a big mistake and she had convinced herself that the celebration would be boring at best and a nightmare at worst as soon as Luke joined the fray.
But contrary to all her expectations, Luke had been just as cheerful and open as he always was with her. The hug was unexpected though. Luke rarely ever touched her in her dreams and when he did it was not... real. When she woke up she could remember every word he'd said, she could remember what he'd done and what he'd looked like but she couldn't remember what his touch felt like. She couldn't remember what she smelled either, she guessed those senses were just not deemed as important by her subconsciousness. But now he was hugging her and for the first time and she noticed that he smelled faintly of motor oil and smoke. He didn't smell like an evil mini-Vader or even like the virtual prince of the Empire that he was. He smelled like somebody who spent more time lying under a speeder or a ship, getting his hands dirty in a way that had nothing to do with blood. That was kind of reassuring.
The last person in the group (not counting the princess' bodyguard who tried very hard not to make a face as his ward was tackled) was Winter Chalice.
Winter had been growing up alongside of Leia. She had not been adopted into the royal family but still the princess was like a sister to her (a younger sister that constantly got into trouble and that she had to protect and look out for at all times). She used to believe she was Leias first confidant (maybe just after her mother) and so it came as a great shock to her that Leia apparently had a friend she didn't know about, as she usually knew all of her friends. Well, that was not entirely correct. She wasn't shocked that Leia had a friend she didn't know. That wasn't that surprising, especially seeing as it was a male friend but it was the identity of said male that shook her to the core.
Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader's only son and heir, was treating Leia as if they had known each other their entire lives, as if they were best friends and that not just since yesterday. When had that happened? When had Leia even had a chance to get to know this boy? She didn't! And even if she did, she should be smarter than that! This family was hardly proper company for the princess. Oh, they might have a high standing in the Empire but with Bail Organa's line of politics, such a connection was beyond unusual. Maybe it would be less surprising if Leia wasn't so eager to follow in her father's footsteps or if Skywalker wasn't known to never leave Vader's side and not mind it. But those two came from completely different backgrounds, both feeling comfortable where they were and yet they were befriending a person that stood against everything they believed in? It didn't make any sense to Winter.
Following the prompting of the Stormtrooper (of all people) Luke finally let go of the princess. Winter had never seen a trooper without his helmet or out of duty. In her mind they were all robotic things. It was well known that the Stormtrooper Corps evolved from the Clone troopers of the old Republic. Those clones were aging quickly and would all be old men by now. The Stormtroopers were recruited from the civilian population and while that was no secret, people tended to forget it. Their training was said to be so rigorous it left no place for individuality and forged them all into single minded units that served no other purpose than following commands.
But Luke Skywalker did not introduce the Stormtrooper as his bodyguard. That the trooper dared to speak without being prompted and then even mock Vader's son while doing so spoke of a closer relationship. Luke confirmed this by introducing the trooper as his friend. He called him 'Marvin', which was another surprise, didn't troopers go by designation numbers only? You know, like droids? Winter didn't like Stormtroopers and she had heard some pretty terrible things about them, both rumors and solid facts. But she did wonder what was so special about this trooper. Her mistress, princess Leia, answered Marvin's exaggerated bow with a tight smile. She did not seem to be surprised at his presence and so Winter was reluctantly ready to ignore the man for the time being. But after the celebration... oh, then Leia would have some serious questions to answer.
XxX
Beru Lars took another uniform out of the basket, folded it and added it to the growing pile. For a moment she halted, looking down at the gray fabric. She remembered when she came here she had hated the mere thought of working for her captors. Very soon though she learned that merely sitting in her cell all day was incredibly boring. By taking one of the few jobs prisoners were allowed to do, she could earn a beggar's fee that allowed her to buy small things, like books. Those were really valuable to pass the time.
The work was easy, just laundry, sometimes repainting walls or cleaning. She didn't mind it and in fact it gave her back a sense of normality. The other women in her cell block complained loudly and frequently how such work was beneath them or it was something to be done by droids, yet they still did it because they too had nothing else to fight off their boredom.
Beru sighed and reached back into the basket only to find it empty. She took it back to the corner were the empty ones were kept and then continued to carry the folded laundry to another table where one of the women would collect it later.
Only four more hours to go before she would be back in her cell. It was Monday, twentieth day of the month. Only ten more to go before she would see her husband again.
Imperial prison was not all that bad, at least not as much as she had feared when she first received the sentence. What was bad was that she was separated from her husband. Beru saw the need for separate women's and men's prisons but where she had been used to seeing her Owen every day, now she was lucky if they could hold each other once every month for a measly two hours. In the beginning, it hadn't even been that much. A whole year had gone by before she had gained enough good behavior points to be allowed any visits at all but by keeping quiet and not making any trouble they had been able to get more privileges with time.
Still it was not the same. Beru loved her husband and was glad for seeing him at all but it had been six years now. She knew their marriage was damaged, maybe irreparably simply from being separated for too long. The question whether or not they could fix it wasn't even there because they were stuck in this prison for the rest of their lives. There would never be anyone else for Beru for Owen was still the only man she got to see (not counting guards) but the passion of their youth was long since gone.
It was strange in a way. The long time between meeting her husband had made a successful relationship almost impossible but Beru was still thinking quite regularly about her nephew, about little Luke and she felt she loved him still the same and it still pained her to not be able to see him or know if he was alright. The total lack of information threw her mind into disarray. The image she had of Luke in her head became more and more perfect. She still faintly remembered that the child could be annoying sometimes or drive her nuts with worry when he did something stupid but the more time passed the more she missed him. She also feared for him, how could she not, the last thing she heard was that he was in the grasp of a monster after all. Was he even still alive? Not knowing that drove her crazy but she was not yet at the point where she wished for confirmation of any kind. As long as she didn't know anything, she could cling to the hope that Luke was somewhere out there, that he had escaped his father and was happy.
"Lars, Beru?"
Beru turned around to see a very bored looking Imperial guard standing at the doorway with a datapad.
"That's me", she said, making sure not to look the man into the eye.
"Get your things and report to the northern gate."
Beru was confused, she didn't know of any work that was done at the gates and why would anyone ask for her specifically. She began to move, she had brought no belongings to her work, but not two steps into the corridor the Imp drawled:
"From your cell, prisoner. You're being moved."
Moved? As in, in another cell? Or another prison? Right now she was sharing a cell with three other women and while that had been annoying at first she had just gotten used to it.
"Why am I being moved?", she asked.
"What do I care? Just do as I told you", the guard snapped.
Beru ducked her head and hurried in the direction of her cell. On the entire way she wondered what was going on and why.
Once at the northern gate, she got the shock of her life. She was not being moved. The Officer in charge told her to head to the public landing bay - she was being released.
Beru had so many questions. Her sentence was for life, how could she be released? And what about her husband? The Officer told her someone was there to pick her up but who could that be? Her friends on Tatooine had probably all forgotten about her by now and anyway, she didn't know anyone with enough money to rent a starship. Part of her was convinced that this was all a malicious plot. Maybe Vader had decided to finally get rid of her and she was walking right to her death?
But trap or not, she couldn't very well go back to the prison and the hangar was the only place where she could get off planet.
She'd been given the number of the hangar bay she was to head towards. Once there she saw a starship around the size of a freighter but oddly shaped and in far too good a shape to belong to anyone she could've known. Sure enough, she didn't recognize the young man that was tensely standing by the boarding ramp.
"You are Beru Lars?", the man asked her neutrally once she approached.
"Y-Yes, that's me. The guards told me..."
"Go inside", he cut her off, nodding towards the ramp.
"Huh?"
"Inside", he repeated with a voice like steel. Beru noticed how cold and unfeeling his eyes were and she shuddered. However, she didn't move.
"What is the meaning of this?", she wanted to know. "Why am I being released? Where do you want to take me?"
"Not your concern. You're lucky. Tatooine. Now get inside", the man answered short and clipped.
Suddenly another voice called out to her from behind. "Beru?"
The woman turned around and gave a small squeal when she saw her husband.
"Owen!", she cried out and ran at him, hugging him hard. Whatever was going on here, she was not in it alone! Her husband was with her.
"Beru, dear, what are you doing here? What's going on?"
"Force be damned", the stranger cursed. "I will not repeat myself a third time. Come with me or stay, I don't care either way. We're leaving in five minutes." With that he turned around and boarded the ship.
Owen turned to Beru with a questioning look.
"I - I don't know anything either. They said that I'm released and that there was someone here to pick me up. That man said he was heading back to Tatooine."
"We will find out what this is about", Owen reassured her and took her hand. Beru nodded and together they walked up the ramp.
In the corridor they met the young man again who was talking with a blonde woman in Imperial uniform.
"I see, you are here", she said with a tight smile. "Can we start then?"
"Whenever you're ready", the man answered after which she left for what was probably the cockpit.
Owen gathered all the bravery he had and built himself up in front of the man.
"Now, I believe you owe us some answers! Where are we going, why are we leaving and on whose orders are you taking us away, young man?"
His answer was a half incredulous, half angry look.
"I owe you?", the yet to be named solider (at least he looked like one) repeated. "You should be thanking me on your knees for wasting my time to come here. As far as I'm concerned, you two are the most useless and primitive humans I've ever had the displeasure of encountering. You have been pardoned of your crimes. I will transport you back to your home and do what is necessary to get you back to your previous state of unimportance and ignorance. The who or why does not concern you. If you fail to cooperate, you will spend the journey bound and gagged. Do you understand me?"
"Yes…"
"Good. The journey will take a few hours, you can rest in the crew quarters." He pointed towards one of the doors and then without another word left them alone.
XxX
AN: We're slowly building up another story arc here. SK's interaction with Luke's relatives will be interesting and bear surprising fruit.
For everyone who realized where I am going with the Kashyyyk plotline, I ask you to please not reveal it in the reviews. We wouldn't want to spoil the surprise for the rest of the readers. Also, stop tackling Wookiepedia just because now I've made you curious. We want to keep the foreshadowing to a minimum, don't we?
But even if none of my little plot twists surprise you any more, I very much enjoy writing all the interactions between the different characters and I think I make it exciting enough for you to stay with me. Oh, I am so looking forward to the 500 review mark. That should be celebrated. Maybe I could grant the 500th reader a wish or something? Like a mini scene, an outtake to write? That's something to think about.
