Chapter 56 - Fool's Quest

"You want what!" Han shouted.

"Grrrrrraaah," Chewy started.

"Yeah, I know. I heard him the first time." Han folded his arms and stared directly at Luke.

"It'll only be to the edge of the system and back. I feel her there, and she needs my help," Luke begged.

"Raaaaaahwraaah," Chewy growled.

"You want to go. What about that job we got this morning?"

"I can pay you," Luke offered.

"Not this type of money, kid." Han sighed.

"Graaaaagha," Chewy pointed out.

"It's on the way, huh. Okay, I'll take you, but if your sister's gotten into anything with Imperial forces, I'm out. I don't want my ship on their radar."

Luke smiled and Han patted his back.

"Alright Chewy, let's get this cargo loaded."


Elsewhere in that same hangar, three grown Jedi entered and crept low to hide behind the crates.

"Silent mode," Anakin mouthed to R2-D2. His movements stopped making any noise immediately.

Obi-Wan grabbed C3-PO and held him behind another crate. "Why unhand me you…" Obi-Wan's hands went up to cover the protocol droid's mouthpiece.

"Because you lack a silent mode," he whispered.

The droid huffed and stopped struggling.

"Boarded the ship, Luke has. Hurry now, we must," Yoda urged.

"Wait." Anakin stopped them. "Not yet. They're loading supplies. Help me with this crate."

Anakin and Obi-Wan lifted the lid off of one of the crates and managed to move it's contents so they could fit. Yoda then pulled the lid on the container. R2-D2 lit a penlight so they weren't all in the dark.

It was then that C3-PO chose to speak again. "I believe this is one of those circumstances where I am programmed to scold you, Master."

Anakin rolled his eyes. "I'll deal with my wife's scolding later. My kids need me now."

"Ssssh, I think I hear something." Obi-Wan hushed them.


Luke sat in the Millennium Falcon's cockpit, waiting for Han and Chewy to finish their preparations for the voyage.

"Are we loaded yet?" Han asked his first mate.

"Graaaaag Raaaaaaaawrh," Chewy complained.

"What do you mean that last one was heavy?"

"Graag Raaag Wraaaaaaaar,"

"No, we're not undercharging. I weighed them all when he dropped them off."

Rgggggg Vraaaah," Chewy muttered.

"Alright, I'll let you weigh them next time. Less for you to complain about." Han sat down in the pilot seat. "Are we ready?"

Luke chuckled at his friend's banter as Chewy slid into the co-pilot seat.

"Yes. Ready, we are," the voice came from behind Luke.

"Yaa-aah!" The three of them yelled in startled confusion, as Luke turned around to see Master Yoda. And behind him was Luke's Master, Obi-Wan, and his father, Anakin.

"Dad! Master!" Luke started.

Anakin gave his son a mischievous smile. "We understand you were headed offworld."

"Dad, It's just…" Luke was interrupted by a few apologetic beeps as R2 rolled into the cockpit. Luke huffed. "Are you here to stop me?"

"No. We thought we'd join you," Obi-Wan answered.

"Any more passengers about to pop out on us?" Han asked, before he began throwing switches. "Okay kid, where are we headed?" Han asked.

Luke stepped up to point out the approximate coordinates he felt Leia at still.

As Han pulled on the throttle, the Millenium Falcon took off.


Their flight was close enough to Tatooine that it really wasn't worth it to jump to hyperspace. Yet to Luke, getting there on thrusters was seeming to take forever. Add to that the click, click, click of his father's nervously tapping on the ship wall, and it was horrendous. Judging by the death looks Han was giving Luke, their pilot was not amused.

"Luke, why don't you come to the back? We can practice your saber forms," Obi-Wan suggested after a while.

Luke sighed and gave his Master a 'Do we have to?' look.

Obi-Wan replied over their training bond, 'You wanna see what happens when a Wookiee snaps?'

Luke looked over and saw Chewy rocking in his seat. He clutched his head in his hands and his voice was making a low growl, almost like a moan.

"Okay." Luke stumbled out of the cockpit.

"Anakin, why don't you accompany us? You can give us your thoughts."

There was a moment of silence, where the former Master and Padawan eyed each other with similarly communicative expressions, before Anakin got up and followed them out. Behind them Han and Chewy breathed sighs of relief.


Obi-Wan parried a glancing strike, then spun his saber around to strike Luke's shoulder. Luke remembered his father's notes about guarding his left flank, so when he parried, he twisted his saber to guard his side too. Next, he saw an opening on his Uncle's shoulder, so he raised his saber to strike.

"Aaah," Luke stopped his swing when he experienced a bout of dizziness, and Obi-Wan struck the opening that resulted. Their saber's training mode stung where it hit.

"Are you okay," Obi-Wan dropped his saber the next moment as he realized it wasn't a normal sparing goof.

"Yeah, yeah. I don't know what that was. I just…" Luke tried to reassure.

Yoda interrupted them by walking into the hold. "Approaching those coordinates, we are."

"Really?" Luke would've sworn he'd feel something as they approached his sister. They all followed Yoda into the cockpit, as Luke reached out through their bond.

"She's heavily shielded." Luke grabbed onto the back of the Pilot's chair as his head spun in another round of dizziness.

Anakin put his hand on Luke's arm. His eyes were worried.

"I don't see anything nearby. Just that moon," said Han. It's not on any of the charts."

"It's a little far out to be a moon." Obi-Wan noted.

"That's where Leia is." Luke opened his eyes to point at the viewscreen.

"Alright, I'll fly over it," said Han.

As they approached it, their image of the moon grew in the window. "That's no moon! It's a space station," Obi-Wan exclaimed.

"It's too big to be a space station," Han objected.

"A very bad feeling about this, I have," Yoda remarked.

"Yeah, I think you're right. Full reverse! Chewie, lock in the auxiliary power." Han started to push buttons frantically.

"No! Leia's down there! We have to go," Luke objected.

"Why are we still moving towards it?" Anakin noticed.

"We're caught in a tractor beam! It's pulling us in!" Han yelled.

"Try increasing your thruster's power." Anakin suggested.

"There's nothin' I can do about it. I'm in full power. I'm going to have to shut down. But they're not going to get me without a fight!" Han explained.

Obi-Wan put a hand on his shoulder. "You can't win. But there are alternatives to fighting."


Obi-Wan took everyone to the back of the ship to look for a smuggling compartment big enough to hide them all in. Meanwhile, Anakin messed with the ship's computer. He was changing the ship's log to remove Tatooine from it's recent stops, instead sending it hopping around the galaxy.

"Nal Hutta, and Kamino, there that'll send them spinning," Anakin muttered.

Lastly, he turned on the autopilot, modifying it's programming slightly to make it look like it was programmed to come here and land on this space station. The question on why or how anyone could do that would drive their techs nuts.

Anakin smirked. "We're finished, time to go hide," Anakin said to R2-D2 who had stayed to help him with the programming.


After the imperial soldiers finished ransacking the Millenium Falcon, one of the hatches slid open, and Luke, Han, and Obi-Wan climbed out.

"Boy, it's lucky you had these compartments," said Luke.

"I used to use them for smuggling. I never thought I'd be smuggling myself in them. This is ridiculous. Even if I could take off, I'd never get past the tractor beam," Han complained, as Chewy and Yoda dragged a traumatized C3-PO out of another compartment.

"Always a way, there is," Yoda corrected him.

"My Cargo…" Han cried. All of his crates were opened and rifled through.

"Where's my Dad?" Luke questioned after a moment of looking around.

"I'm right here," Anakin slid open a service hatch on the floor and climbed out. R2-D2 followed him.

"Anakin, I and Yoda will head inside and look for a way to turn off the tractor beam," Obi-Wan planned. Meanwhile You three stay here with the droids." He pointed to Chewy, Han and Luke.

"But, Master…" Luke started to complain.

"When we get back we can go looking for your sister together. Until then, no risky business," Obi-Wan ordered. Luke opened his mouth again to complain, but Obi-Wan silenced him with a glare.

"Leave the risky moves to me, son!" Anakin ordered.

"Damn fool. I knew that you were going to say that!" Han exclaimed.

"Who's the more foolish... the fool or the fool who follows him?" Obi-Wan asked.


"How much longer are they going to be," Han worried.

Chewy growled, "Raaaaaaaaar."

"What do we do if they don't get back? Luke? Luke, what's going on?" Han dropped his conversation to run to Luke when he almost fell due to another dizzy spell.

"It's Leia. I think… I think they're torturing her!" Luke exclaimed looking up to his friend. "It's our bond. Even when we have shields up, certain things bang against them. Whenever she was in pain before, I felt dizzy. It was never this bad though. It's like a Rathtar looking for a meal."

"Graaaaaaaaaaaaaar," said Chewy.

"Yeah, I'm not a fan of waiting either," Han looked around. "They got out by putting on stormtrooper armor. I wonder…" Han stared off as a plan started to form in his head.


Out on deck, TX-412 stood on duty. It was an abnormal day, and there would be a lot of rumors spoken about at the end of the day. About the Princess of Alderaan who somehow stole classified intel, and then made it disappear just as fast. About the mysterious ship, sent unmanned to land on their station, which hadn't been in this system for more than a day. There will even be some whispers about the Hutts and Cloners being involved in sending it. But at this moment, the soldier stood on duty with a clear head and his mind focused on standing guard.

"Help, Heeeelp," came a cry from inside the Corellian Freighter parked inside.

"Who goes there?" TX-412 demanded to know.

"Thank the Makers! We're saved." This was followed by the binary beeps of a protocol droid.

"Yes. We were stolen by pirates, who have since abandoned this vessel. Sir, can you come aboard and help me free my shipmate from this hatch?"

TX-412 knew it was against regulation, but he could only think about the rewards he'd get, presenting his superiors with droids that the crews missed. So with hope for a promotion, he used the comm in his helmet to summon a crewmate, "Help me with this, will you."

"Sure." When his friend arrived they both climbed onto the ship.

Whack

The soldiers didn't see the Wookiee that came at them. They were both knocked unconscious and stripped of their armor. One of the rumors told later that day would be about the two stormtroopers caught in their undersuits, trying to sneak back to their chambers.


After tricking the control room attendant out of his post, Chewy knocked him out too, they all ran into the control room.

"Okay. R2, plug into the main computer. See if you can find any mention of Leia, or anything to let us know where they're holding her," said Luke.

The droid obeyed. After several minutes, he beeped again.

"He says he can't find any mention of Leia. But there is a princess, Princess Mara, in Level five. Detention block A A-twenty-three. I'm afraid she's scheduled to be terminated," C3-PO interpreted.

"Terminated," Luke repeated. "Oh no! We've got to do something."

"What do you mean?" Han questioned. "We came here to rescue your sister."

"But they're going to execute her!" Luke urged. "Come on, she's a Princess. She's rich."

"Rich?" Han was interested.

"Yes. Rich, powerful! Listen, if you were to rescue her, the reward would be…" Luke spelled it out.

"What?" Han questioned.

"Well more wealth that you can imagine."

"I don't know, I can imagine quite a bit!"

"You'll get it!" Luke promised.

"I better!"

"You will…"

"All right, kid. But you'd better be right about this." Han looked at Chewie, who grunted a short grunt.

"All right," said Luke.

"What's your plan?" Han asked.

"Uh... Threepio, hand me those binders there will you?" Luke moved towards Chewbacca with electronic cuffs. "Okay. Now, I'm going to put these on you."

Chewie let out a worried growl.

"Don't worry, Chewie. I think I know what he has in mind." Han reassured.

Chewy let Luke bind his wrists with the cuffs.

"Master Luke! Pardon me for asking... but, ah... what should R2 and I do if we're discovered here?" '3PO nervously asked.

"Lock the door!" Luke suggested.

"And hope they don't have blasters," Han finished.

"That isn't very reassuring," said '3PO.


Leia tried to lie still in her cell. The tortures her captors put her through were still sending jolts of pain down her back, but she'd almost thoroughly convinced them she knew nothing. The last thing they said to her was a threat that she would die soon, if she didn't tell them where the plans were. They really were running low on material. The stupid bucketheads had assumed they were somewhere on that ship. She couldn't possibly have transferred it anywhere while fleeing. She only hoped they'd blow up the scraps and move on, before they moved on to torturing her crew. Or that Luke would hurry and get to Juno in time. With all the torture, and the presence of another force sensitive, Leia had to strengthen her shields and couldn't afford to track her brother's bond.

Bang. She heard a blaster going off somewhere near her.

'What was that?' Leia knew she couldn't do anything. Still, she closed her eyes, leaning her head down, and tried to reach out with the force.

At that moment, her cell door was opened, and a stormtrooper stepped in. "Princess, we have to hurry."

"Aren't you a little short to be a stormtrooper?" she asked, recognizing her brother under that getup.

"Leia!" Luke took off his helmet. "It's me."

Leia slapped him once. "I told you to go to Scarif! Not to come rescue me."

"I sent Galen to Scarif. We actually came to rescue the princess. She's scheduled to be executed!"

"Oh, I guess that was more than a threat, then." Leia sighed as she pushed her way out into the hallway.

Han saw Leia emerge from the cell. "Princess," he muttered and he rolled his eyes.


Hello,

Now we're in line with the Original Trilogy timeline. This is the part I had a dream about all that time ago. What inspired me to write this fic in the first place.

A portion of the dialogue comes from the A New Hope Movie transcript online, so credit where it's due. The next parts will deviate from the movie script except for maybe little bits and pieces. Luke willbe rescuing a Princess that's not his sister in this one...mic drop.