"Admiral, Madame President…the shock wave caused only minimal damage to our position up here.", one of the control room analysts called out from their data station.
What should have been somewhat good news was greeted with only stunned silence as Han, Leia and Lara continued to stare at the horrific scene in the valley below on the command dome viewscreen. To say that anyone down there wasn't so lucky would be an understatement. A gigantic dark plume of vaporized rock, forest, metal and water had become ash that was soaring into the Nuldarra atmosphere, moving higher and spreading wider across the sky with every second. Where the cities of Mandor One and Mandor Two had been on the surface was now a hellscape of glowing bright red chaos that resembled the violent molten surface of a newly formed planet.
Lara looked away from the screen again, just as she had done when she sensed what was going to happen in the moments before the devastation. She felt as if she might vomit on the floor of the room right here where she stood if she didn't force her mind to try to gain some control of her physical body. For the moment, she suppressed the urge but her thoughts continued to reel and she wasn't sure she would be able to control herself completely if she actually looked again.
"We have an incoming holo-transmission.", announced another of the control room technicians, shifting everyone's focus temporarily away from the horror on screen.
"From where", Han asked. "The Ackbar?"
"Negative, sir.", came the reply. "It is coming from what appears to be the flagship of the three vessels we have been trying to hail."
"Show it at once-!", Leia commanded as she rushed over to the holographic area where they all had spoken with her brother just a day before.
The image of a large man winked into existence on top of the circular table. He was dressed in dark clothes and had a hood over his head that made his facial features other than a dark beard almost impossible to see. The fact that this transmission seemed to be experiencing some interference, making it come in and out of focus every few seconds not only made the image a bit disconcerting, but it also seemed to make the eyes under his hood glow brightly in the shadow that covered most of his face.
As soon as the hologram was visible, both Leia and her daughter were again filled with a dread. This man must have been the source of their earlier detection of the Dark Side of The Force.
"Who are you?", Leia shouted at him, with what she felt was an unconvincing attempt at authority.
The holo apparition neither moved or replied.
"Are you responsible for this destruction?", she continued, outwardly projecting irritation but feeling anxiousness bordering on fear deep inside. "There were over ten million sentient beings in those cities. I DEMAND that you…"
"Your demands mean nothing to me", the hooded figure interrupted in a calm but curt, dismissive tone that seemed to be somewhat distorted by the interference.
"I have tracked a small freighter named Millennium Falcon to your location.", he continued coldly.
"What do you want with the Falcon?", Han interjected.
"I don't want that pile of garbage.", said the man, raising his voice for the first time. "I want the GIRL that was piloting it."
"The girl that is standing right next to you.", he continued.
"She wasn't piloting it.", the Admiral replied. "It's my ship and I….."
"Stop lying…ADMIRAL SOLO", the hooded man snapped with a sneer of condescension. "I KNOW she was piloting that ship when it arrived here recently."
Although the change in the figure's voice was barely perceptible, Lara froze when she heard it. Fear gripped her to her very core as she had a realization of just who this creature was. She knew beyond a shadow of a doubt now that it was he who had just ended the lives of millions just as easy as it was for him to take breath into his lungs. As she stood motionless, the man moved for the first time, reaching up to his shoulders to drop his hood. The face was older, thicker and MEANER but she knew it was him. She could never forget or forgive the monster whose eyes she was staring into again.
Lara glanced at her parents and saw heartbreak in their eyes. Both of them dropped their eyes to the floor almost simultaneously. Her father wrapped his arms around her mother, pulling her closely as they touched foreheads together. In any other situation, this gesture of love between them would have been beautiful and touching but Lara could see only crushing defeat. She knew that they has also recognized him.
"Lara", he said turning his attention to her. "You will board a transport craft and pilot it to me. The coordinates are transmitting now. If you refuse or don't come alone, I will destroy more metropolitan areas, two by two until you comply. You know, from experience that I am deadly serious. Please do your best to convince everyone there of that."
"One more thing", he added, now addressing the whole group. "Don't let me detect any kind of activity from the fighters you currently have on your landing areas. I trust I have made myself clear"
With these words, the hologram disappeared, leaving the Solo family and everyone else in stunned silence.
"Get me a transport.", Lara said stoically after a about a minute had passed.
"He'll kill you if you go.", replied Leia emphatically.
"Do you want him to kill millions more?", he daughter asked.
Leia just pressed her lips together and sighed.
"I'm going with you.", Han exclaimed. "And don't try to say no"
"Dad, he'll sense you on board", she replied. "You heard what he said. It's not a bluff."
"I won't let you just fly up there to your death.", he barked.
"I'm not going to my death.", Lara answered. "He couldn't kill me before and now he clearly wants something from me. I'm not about to just give him what he wants. I'll buy time to figure it out, don't worry."
Han wasn't totally convinced but he knew how clever and wily his daughter could be and he wasn't going to be able to talk her out of it anyway. To be honest, what choice did they all have? They had to comply. Another round of blasts from the sky was something they could never live with and needed to be avoided at all costs.
"What do you think?", he said, turning to his wife.
"We have to go along with it.", she replied somberly. "Let's get her to a ship. We don't have a lot of time to waste."
Finn was caught in a whirlwind of activity on the landing pads. Alarms were blaring, power was out in some areas, pilots were scurrying around everywhere checking on their fighters and there was even small fire that had the attention of what looked like a group of about a half dozen maintenance workers. It was chaos, but considering that just a few minutes ago he thought he was going to be incinerated like the surface of the planet below him, he could definitely deal with a little panicked activity. As he resumed heading to the command dome, he spotted Lara and her parents all hurrying down a set of metal stairs that most likely were an emergency exit of some sort.
"LARA-!", Finn cried out to get her attention.
She shifted her gaze in his direction as she descended the last of the steps and hurried towards him with Han and Leia struggling to keep pace behind her.
"You ok?", she asked as she reached him.
"Yeah, I am now.", he answered. "But a few minutes ago I thought I was gonna be fried where I stood."
"We all did.", Lara replied.
"Where are you going?", Finn wondered.
She simply stared at him, giving no answer, but the concerned look on her face made Finn feel a bit uneasy.
"Are YOU ok?", he asked in return.
"I'll explain.", she replied somberly. "Follow us."
"Over there….to the back of landing pad 14", Han Solo exclaimed as he pointed off in the distance.
Finn joined all three of them in rushing to what looked to be a small escort ship. He was now even more confused with the chaotic activity around him, but as he hustled along with Lara and her family he realized he probably should just expect it. Everything he had experienced so far with her had been quite an adventure. It only made sense that the ride wasn't quite over yet.
The small group arrived at the vessel as its flimsy boarding ladder was lowering. There was no way that more than two people could fit in it and it didn't look like it had any shielding or defensive capabilities either. Lara walked all around the tiny craft, inspecting it as she completed a full circle around. When she got to the narrow ladder she gave it a shake, seemingly checking how sturdy it was…as if that was somehow important.
"With all due respect to the Admiral and you, Madame President.", Finn spoke, addressing Lara's family. "Would anybody mind telling me what is going on?"
Lara turned to her friend and reached for his hands. She grabbed both of them in hers, squeezed tenderly and looked the young man directly in the eyes. She wasn't angry like he had seen her so often before in the short time that they had known each other. Her eyes and facial expression exuded a calmness that he had never seen from her and there was even a little bit of weary confidence in her look. He was a bit shocked that she reached out for his hands and was now clutching them gently but at the same time he now felt a strong connection with the girl, something he honestly, perhaps selfishly, had been hoping to feel since they fled the junkyards of B'wynn.
"Finn", she began. "The devastation we all just witnessed. It was my fault. This happened because we came here."
"Lara, you know that is not true.", Leia interjected emphatically with a small hint of anger in her voice. "You had nothing to do with what he did, then or now"
"What WHO did?", Finn asked immediately, scanning the faces of all three to glean any indication of what Lara and her mother meant.
"The boy that murdered my friends", Lara exclaimed. "He is up there, in orbit. His ships were the ones that fired. The same ships we evaded at Anoth. He tracked us here somehow and now he wants me to come to him or he will fire again."
"WHAT?", Finn blurted out incredulously. "That doesn't make any sense. How could it be him? How do you even KNOW its him?"
"We don't have time to answer all this, Kid.", came a reply from the Admiral. "It's all true, we saw him, spoke to him after the blasts hit."
"You're not going to just deliver your daughter to him, right?", he continued with a frantic look first and Han and then at Leia.
Neither one had a chance to reply before Lara spoke up.
"It's not their choice, it's mine. Only me going alone will save lives", she said.
"But I won't let…"
"Finn", she interrupted as she looked at him with a calm, comforting look in her eyes. "It's the only way. I'm going to be all right. Trust me."
Lara continued to maintain a grip on both of his hands and squeezed just a bit harder on them as she spoke these last words to him. A smile crossed her lips as she let go and for just a brief moment, Finn actually believed her.
"Mom, Dad", she said as she turned towards her parents who were also clutching each other's hands. "I have no idea what is going to happen, but I do know that I love you more than you will ever know."
Tears welled in both Han and Leia's eyes as they pulled each other close to embrace. Sensing the gravity of the moment and wanting one last bit of comfort before she headed into uncertainty, Lara joined in the embrace.
When she finally felt it was time for to go, she drew back and spoke to them one last time…"May the Force be With You."
