Chapter 57 - Luke Meets the Princess

"Luke, We're going to have company!" Han ruined the moment of reconnection by shouting.

"Get behind me!" Han shouted at no one in particular, as he and Chewy fired at the approaching troops. Luke pulled out his lightsaber and began deflecting shots.

"Some rescue. Did you have any plan of escape when you stumbled in here!?" Leia was frustrated.

'Men! Leave it to me to plan everything.'

"Maybe you'd like it back in your cell, Your Highness," Han rubbed.

"Cover me," Leia said. Despite shouts of protest, she jumped up and dived for the console in the middle of the room. Crouching behind it for safety, she immediately began feeling for a hidden panel below the work area.

"What are you doing?" Han protested.

"Looking for the confiscation drawer." she answered. "Oh, here it is." As she pushed one of the panels it opened up. She pulled out it's contents, her own issued blaster, knife, and lightsaber. The last of which was still wrapped in a unique cloth cover that made it look like a lady's handbag. She then rushed to press a few keys on the control panel.

"Now what are you doing?" Han yelled.

"Something you boys never thought to do." Leia pushed one last button and every cell in the detention area opened up at once.

Most of the cells were empty, but slowly heads started popping out. Of the few prisoners the Death Star had accumulated, Leia knew she'd find her own crew.

"Captain!" Leia exclaimed when she saw Donael amongst them. She managed to pull a blaster from one of the dead troopers near her, and threw it at him.

"Captain Donael Illite, of the White Forty Seventh Infantry," Donael greeted as he took up position beside Han.

"Cadet 124-329" Han greeted the man with a salute.

Luke's mouth dropped. "You were in the imperial army!"

Han waved at Luke to keep it quiet. "I joined to get off of Corellia, a long time ago."

"As do a lot of poor souls." Donael said. "The alliance has no prejudices."

"Where are…" Leia tried to change the subject. She still hadn't seen any of the rest of her crew, or their charge, the real princess Mara.

"Imperials came for them. I suspect they are in interrogation," Donael answered.

"Great!" Leia exaggerated.

Together they managed to defeat the men at the door, and retake the Detention Area. Leia started to read the computer for information on her crew.

"Hurry, we don't have much time. That was one convoy. They're bound to send another when this one goes missing," her Captain, Donael said.

"Or another three," Han helpfully added.

"I'm rushing." Leia was feeling frustrated. She'd neglected to practice the emotional control her master taught her after she'd left Tatooine. "There...Oh. This isn't good."

"Where are they?" Donael asked.

"Separated. Levels Three, Six and Eight," Leia thought hard about what to do. "Luke, you and Han go to level three and rescue the Princess. Her name is Mara. Captain, you and I will go up to level Six and rescue Aretti. Then we'll go up together to level Eight and get Rob."

"You want to split up!" Han acted like it was the dumbest plan ever. Dumber than raiding an imperial Detention without backup. "Again!"

"Again?" Leia asked.

"Yeah, it isn't important." Luke insisted. Leia could tell her brother was trying to hide something, but she didn't have time to drag it out of him now. "Level three, huh?" Luke leaned over to read the computer. "This says she's a handmaid."

"And it said I was a princess." Leia pointed out. "She's Bail Organa's daughter. And he'll be very mad if we leave her here."

Luke nodded and shrugged.

"Wait," Han said. "We can separate, but Chewy goes with you."

Grhhhhhhh Gaaaaaaaah" Chewy confirmed.

"Fine." Leia sighed.

"Alright! Let's go." Han smiled like he won a victory and followed Luke out.


Chewy, Leia, and Donael managed to hitch a ride on a lift down to Level Six, knocking out a couple of lower ranked imperial officers.

"Here we are," Leia said when the lift came to a stop.

"Wait. We should hide them first," Donael insisted. "I think that's a supply closet. Help me drag them in."

Leia leaned over to pick up the shoulders of one of them. When both officers were lying in the closet, Leia reached down to grab the ID cards of the one she'd carried. She and Donael chose not to wear the stormtrooper outfits like Luke and Han for two reasons. One, the empire apparently failed to include Wookie in their one size fits all design. And Two, all available units would soon be deployed to level five, making any officers walking around on other levels highly suspicious. They'd be stopped immediately and they didn't have any necessary passcodes to properly perform the ruse. But these ID cards were different. They opened doors.

"She's down here." Leia led them the way. They reached a room where two troopers were guarding a prisoner strapped to a bed. "There are only two of them. I think we can take them," she whispered.

"Alright, but don't let them call for reinforcements," Donael said.

When Leia and her Captain came around the bend with their blasters drawn, they seemed to catch both troopers unaware. Neither had a blaster drawn yet, so Chewy ran into the room, grabbing both of them and clunking their helmets together. The impact was so forceful both men were bound to be seeing stars when they woke up.

"Aretti! Aretti, are you alright?" Leia rushed to unstrap her crewmate.

"Yeah. One of the Imps, the one in the black mask, I think he was a Sith. He tried to steal my Memnii. But then he was called away. Something about intruders on base."

"Yeah, that might be us. Come now. We have to get down to eight to rescue Rob. Hopefully he'll be less guarded too, if we hurry," Leia said.


Luke and Han's first strategy was to head for a nearby lift. They got half way there when they were stopped by an officer with several patches on his uniform. "Halt,"

Han stopped immediately and held very still. Luke did so as well.

"Why aren't you with your unit?" The officer asked, his tone crisp, like he was telling off an underling.

"Bringing this one to the medics sir," Han answered.

"Wha- Oh yeah," Luke faked a limp in front of the officer.

"Medical is the other way," the officer snapped.

"Oh yeah," Han turned. "I'm still new here."

The officer squinted. "What's your service number?"

"Is that the commander calling?" Han clutched his helmet near the earpiece. "Gotta go! Bye now!" Han nearly pushed Luke as they both ran up the hallway, away from the precious lift.

Behind him the officer shook his head and mumbled something about "stupid freshies," before continuing his day.

When Han let Luke stop for a breather, he pulled out his comlink. "Threepio! Come in Threepio! Threepio! Where could he be?" Luke looked up and shook his head. "Threepio! Come in, Threepio! Threepio, will you come in?"

At last a voice was heard on the other end of the line "Are you there, sir?"

Luke breathed a sigh of relief. "Is R2 there with you? I need you to have him access the plans for the station again. I need a path up to level three."

"You heard him." C3-PO said. A binary beep could be heard in the background. "Oh, he says there is an unguarded path in the service hatch, behind the garbage mashers. R2 you cannot be serious!" C3-PO seemed to sigh while R2 beeped at him. "Fine, you'll have to climb down one of the trash shoots to get there. Just read off the number above the hatch before you do. R2 will have to shut down the masher and unlock the service hatch door."

"Okay. Will do." Luke looked up to Han, who was walking up to a hatch on the wall as he spoke.

"Why did I agree to do this?" Han moaned.

"We're rescuing a princess." Luke tells him.

Over the comlink he heard C3-PO complaining to R2, "Down the Trash Shoot! I'm going to be doing laundry for a month to get the stains out." R2 beeped again. "Oh yeah! They are wearing confiscated armaments. We won't need to wash those."

"Princess, yeah. This better be worth it." Han pulled it open.

"Number 417-8993" Luke read, before he climbed up and took a dive inside.


The large door inside the cesspool opened, thanks to R2-D2's hacking. Han and Luke emerged on the other side of the service hatch smelling like nothing good. They discarded their helmets and their outer armaments, which contained most of the smell before proceeding.

"Okay, Threepio, which way do we go next?" Luke asked.

"Down at the end of your walkway there is a stair. You can climb it up to the third level." C3-PO answered. R2 beeped insistently in the background. "Oh, and you're going to have to return through the Central Air Vents. It can be a maze in there, remember to always go the direction you feel air moving. R2 will hack the system for you."


Han and Luke found the princess in a cell guarded by one of the sleaziest looking officers they could imagine. Luke nearly spat in rage as the officer eyed his prisoner.

"No one's gonna come looking for you, Babe. We might as well have a good time…" Whack! Luke clunked him over the head with his lightsaber handle before the guard could finish.

"I wouldn't count on that," Luke said.

Han pressed the keys necessary to open up the cell door.

Mara jumped out and onto Luke with an excited hug. "You've saved me! You're not with the rebellion." She eyed Luke, stopping at his lightsaber. "You're Jedi!"

"We're not. He is. I'm just the dashing pilot and sidekick."

Mara laughed. "Well you're my saviors… Wait, do you know Luke Skywalker? His sister was with me when we were captured."

"Yes, I'm Luke. Leia is going after the other members of her crew right now."

"Princess, we're going to have to take the back way out of here," Han apologized as he found and pulled open a hatch by the vents.

The vents were large enough for two to crawl through simultaneously. When Han got to the first junction point, he turned around. "Which way, boss?"

Luke looked up, startled by the title. "Uh, that…" Luke started pointing left.

Han developed a tic to his eye.

Luke changed his mind and pointed right instead, "That way."

Han smiled and turned right. "Luke always knows the way out of any situation, I say."

"Oh, have you been on many adventures together?" Mara asked.

"N-nn" Luke started to answer.

"Oh yes, Many." Han answered instead. "There was that time we fought off a bunch of Hutt thugs."

Luke only gave him a look of perplexed confusion.

"You remember. The ones who were trying to kidnap the former Queen of Naboo."

"Oh! You mean Mo…" Luke tried to say.

"Yeah, Luke, here, was so brave he fought them blindfolded." Han cut him off.

The princess looked impressed as she batted her eyes at Luke. "I'd love to hear more sometime."

"Yes, well. We have to get out of here first." Han turned around and continued crawling the direction R2 was leading them.


Leia's group made it back to the lift and down to level eight without trouble. They met said trouble when they got there, or more accurately, they heard it down the corridor. Rob was screaming. He was in an 'interrogation' chamber and there was a guard stationed outside the door.

They also faintly heard the shouting of an interrogator from inside. "Where is the Rebellion base?" More screaming followed.

Leia eyed her companions and one by one they all nodded. It was clear they had to do something.

Donael motioned a plan to everyone. He and Aretti would go around a bend in the hallway and find a way to attack from the other end. Leia and Chewy would stay there. They would attack together.

Leia and Chewy found an empty room to tuck themselves into while they waited for the others to get into position.

As they were waiting, Rob started to pronounce words amongst his screams. "Ya- Yav."

'Yavin Four! Uh oh!' Leia recognized. "We really don't have any more time to wait. He gives it away, we won't be able to take that back."

Chewy nodded. "GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" He charged at the door. Leia managed to shoot down the guard, but inside the room they were made immediately aware of the attack. Chewy managed to grab the next two the second they emerged from the room. Leia got to the door and shot the last trooper in the leg.

Leia and Chewy entered the room on high alert, knowing it usually wasn't a trooper's job to tor- 'interrogate' a prisoner.

Rob was strapped to a table. Visible wounds were all over his face and neck. As Leia walked around the room, Rob started to move and moan suddenly.

The next thing Leia knew, a man dropped from the ceiling and grabbed her. He knocked her blaster from her hands and placed a knife to her throat.

"What'ch ya gonna do now, Princess? No weapon. We're all gonna sit down and have a nice long chat."

Leia took a deep breath and practiced the basic methods in using the Force she was taught from an early age. 'Control,' Leia released her fear. 'Sense,' Next she reached out and felt her blaster was well out of reach, but her disguised lightsaber was still attached to her belt. 'Alter,' Reaching out, she turned the Saber with the Force and activated it.

The saber sliced right through his midsection. The man didn't have time to scream as he collapsed dead on the floor.

It was then that Leia remembered the other spectators in the room. Chewy was unstrapping Rob, who stared at her with wide eyes.

Leia held her breath, as she remembered his unkind words for her Jedi brethren.

"Captain," Rob broke the silence to greet the two who were entering.

"It seems we're late for the party," Donael said, eying the body and Leia's Lightsaber.

"Just the usual theatrics," Rob replied. "Nothing my crewmate couldn't handle."


Hello,

It's my head canon that Han Solo makes a good wingman, so I had him trying to help Luke and Mara. Of course Mara is still seventeen, but not for much longer.

The one thing that still bugs me about this chapter is the other prisoners released by Leia in the beginning. They are kinda red-shirts in this and if they survived, they don't get any mention past that initial scene. As are the unnamed rest of Leia's crew in the previous chapters.

In the next chapter we'll see what Obi-Wan, Anakin, and Yoda have been up to.