Holonet Studio 1
Imperial City
Imperial Center
Relinka stared at the new ruler of the galaxy.
Emperor Vader stared back.
"You have a son?" Relinka repeated.
"Yes, I have a son," the Emperor said impatiently.
"A male progeny who is the product of a female human egg and your sperm?" she asked weakly.
She felt the temperature drop a few degrees and shivered. Why had she phrased that so awkwardly?
"Yes, my wife ... my wife," the Sith began, and then trailed off.
Cray had managed to shake loose from his droid reverie and prompted, "Your wife, Your Highness? I did not ... we were not aware..."
"That you are married," Relinka finished through numb lips. Darth Vader married? How would that even work with the suit and helmet and breathing apparatus?
The Emperor's helmet tipped toward her, and she cringed. There were rumors that the man could read minds.
"My dear Pad ... my dear wife is dead," the bass voice choked out, shaking even through the vocoder. "She died nineteen years ago, and I was told by Palpatine that my unborn child died with her. He lied to me. He lied!"
"That is terrible, your Highness," Relinka responded, genuine tears springing to her eyes. She was not herself a mother, but her elder sister had two adorable little boys and she was a most devoted aunt to the tiny rapscallions.
"It is," Vader agreed, and the entire room shook a little, causing both Cray and Relinka to look around nervously. "If I could kill Palpatine again, I would, by chopping him into bits or dropping him into lava. Because of his treachery, I was separated from my precious son for nearly two decades!"
Cray swallowed hard and forced what he hoped was a sympathetic smile. "I know I speak for Relinka and all of your loyal subjects in saying that we are overjoyed that you have now been reunited with, um, uh, Prince Vader."
The Sith's great shoulders slumped slightly. "Well, as to that," the cyborg mused aloud, "we have not yet been reunited, precisely. He works with the Rebel Alliance, you see."
Silence fell for a full ten seconds before Relinka squeaked, "Your son is a Rebel?"
"It is not his fault!" the new Emperor boomed, leaping to his feet and beginning to stride back and forth in open agitation. "He was raised poorly and does not understand the glory of the Empire! The Republic was a bloated mess of idiot bureaucrats who fussed and litigated while the troops died by the thousands and ten thousands on the ground. I will not have my son blamed for his current limited understanding of the galactic situation."
"Of course not, your Highness," Cray responded as he and his cohost also stood up, vaguely aware that sitting in the presence of the Supreme Ruler of the galaxy was a bad idea. "I am certain that he will shortly be, erm, found and uh..."
He trailed away in a morass of fragmented sentences. In truth, his mind was so fixed upon the reality that Darth Vader had a son, a son, that it was hard to think straight.
(An image leaped into his mind, of a boy dressed in armor, with black helmet and dramatic cape.)
"He will be found," the Sith hissed, "and soon, because I am putting a 1 billion credit bounty on my son for him to be delivered to me, alive and unharmed."
Relinka stared at her liege.
He stared back.
"A ... a million credits, your Highness?" she quavered weakly.
"No," the Sith responded impatiently. "A billion credits."
"B...b...b...illion?" Relinka repeated stupidly.
"That is, erm, uh, that is..." Cray continued before trailing away.
"A great deal of money, yes," Vader said with an expansive wave of his hand. "But he is my son, my only child, and I am extremely rich. Moreover, while I have no great opinion of the intelligence of the leadership of the Rebel Alliance, I would think it obvious that their best course of action is to send my son safely to me, and be paid in return. They can buy a great many starfighters with one billion credits."
"Excuse me, your Highness," Cray said in a wavering tone, "but if they purchase starfighters, would they not use them against Imperial troops?"
The Emperor took a menacing step forward and glared down into the male host's eyes.
"I do not care," he intoned. "I want my son. I want my son!"
"Of course, your Highness," Relinka babbled.
"One more thing," the Sith intoned, turning to face directly into the holocamera, "If anyone out there – Rebel, Imperial, bounty hunter, Hutt, Ithorian, Mandalorian – if anyone harms my son, they will wish not just that they had never been born, but that their family, their culture, their world had never come into existence. If my son is injured in any way, I will hunt you down and destroy you and anyone related to you, and anyone you consider a friend or even an acquaintance. I will rain down poison on your oceans and deserts and trees and flowers. I will utterly obliterate anything you ever thought of value. Is that entirely clear?"
Silence fell for a full minute before Cray managed to say, "I think ... I think you have been very, very clear, your Highness."
"Good," Vader said simply, and turned to go.
"Um, your Majesty?" the woman squeaked.
"Yes?"
"What ... erm, what is your son's name?"
Vader frowned behind his mask. Had he never said ... no, he hadn't!
"My son's name," he said earnestly, "is Luke Skywalker."
/
Liberty Star Cruiser
In orbit around Xyquine II
Luke Skywalker lay on the floor, rocking back and forth in a fetal position, banging his head gently against a convenient chair with each rock.
Around him, people were yelling and howling. Lots of yelling, lots of howling. Lots of screaming. Questions were being hurled to and fro.
He kept rocking, barely aware that the yelling had given way to the roars of a Wookiee. Within a few minutes, the conference room was silent except for the sharp, outraged voice of Leia Organa of Alderaan.
"He is lying! Mon, don't look like that! There is no way that Luke is Vader's son. The idea is completely absurd!"
"Whether he is or not," General Dodonna returned in a gentle voice, "Skywalker now has an enormous bounty on his head, and every bounty hunter and Imperial in the galaxy is going to be gunning for him."
"Along with some of our own people," Madine added, then took a step back and raised his hands under the fiery weight of Princess Leia's glare. "I'm sorry, your Highness, but the reality is that one billion credits is enough to tempt most sentients."
"He is right," Luke croaked, pushing himself up to a sitting position. Han Solo, who had been waiting nearby, quickly handed him a glass of Tevraki whiskey. Luke threw it down, choked, coughed, refrained from spewing, and then rolled to his feet with determination.
"He is right," the nascent Jedi continued as he glanced around cautiously. The conference room was now empty save for Mon Mothma, Generals Dodonna and Madine, Han, Leia, and Chewbacca. That was good. He could trust these people. "Also, what if it is true?"
"It isn't!" Leia said fiercely. "Luke, don't be absurd! He is lying!"
"With all due respect, your Highness, why would Vader do that?" Madine asked carefully, ready to retreat if the tiny princess tried to throat punch him.
"I don't know," Luke said bleakly.
To everyone's surprise, Chewbacca began roaring at length. By the end of his diatribe, Han was nodding and grimacing.
"So Chewie is old, ya know," Solo said, turning his attention to the other humans. "He lived through the Clone Wars and he says that he heard quite a bit about Anakin Skywalker. He was like, super strong for a Jedi, along with General Kenobi. Luke here has, I guess, shown signs of being strong with the Force, not that I really believe in it, though that shot over the Death Star was..."
"Focus, Han," Leia ordered, tapping her foot impatiently.
"Right. Chewie says that really strong Force sensitives are super rare because Palpatine and Vader killed almost all of them. Vader might need an apprentice and thinks Luke will fit the bill."
Luke actually swayed in relief. Yeah, that made sense, kind of. He had actually met the Dark Lord a few months ago at Cymoon, and Vader hadn't had a clue who he was, though he seemed to recognize the lightsaber ... well, Anakin Skywalker and Vader were enemies so maybe, maybe...
His thoughts trailed off in a bog of confusion and he looked up to find everyone staring at him.
"I agree with Chewbacca," he said in a steady voice. "Vader probably wants me for an apprentice."
"That seems a reasonable explanation," Dodonna allowed, "but we still have the problem of the bounty..."
He trailed off as Mon Mothma, who had thus far been strangely silent, abruptly lifted a hand and pointed at Leia. "Princess, call C3P0 and R2D2 here immediately."
Leia looked puzzled but nodded obediently and turned on her comlink to give the appropriate orders.
"Why?" Dodonna asked curiously.
"Vader said something about R2 and 3PO," the leader of the Rebellion said in a distracted tone as she made her way to a 'puter in the corner of the conference room.
"Did he?" Madine asked.
"He did," Luke said, suddenly feeling shaky. "He did. How did he know...?"
"There are lots of astromechs," Han said, "and lots of protocol droids. He didn't say R2D2, he said R2. He didn't say C3PO, he said 3PO."
"It still seems an odd statement on Vader's part," Mon Mothma murmured. She was now hunched over the terminal and was typing rapidly. All fell silent for a few minutes until she sighed and turned to face them all.
"Look on screen," she directed, and hit a final button.
All obediently turned their attentions to a large screen at the front of the room. A picture hung there, of a tiny, gorgeous woman with dark brown eyes and flowing dark hair. She was dressed in an elaborately decorated robe and behind her, standing protectively near her, was a tall young man with dark blond locks and blue eyes.
"Who ... who are those people?" Luke asked, reaching out a hasty hand to support himself on a nearby chair. The Force was buzzing loudly in his ears now.
"The woman is Senator Padme Amidala, from Naboo; she was a dear friend of mine in the Senate before the rise of the Empire," Mon Mothma said. "The man, well, the man is Anakin Skywalker, Commander. He is your father."
Luke had seen holos of his father before, but always from a distance, never in detail. He took a step forward, his eyes noting the shared blue eyes, the dimpled chin that he saw every day in the mirror.
"This is interesting, no doubt," Han Solo said. "Your old man was a good looking guy, Kid. But why did you pull up this holo?"
Mon Mothma blew out a slow breath and said gravely, "Vader, when he spoke of his wife, he said 'Pad' before stopping."
Leia stared at her mentor, then at the screen, then at Luke.
"Padme Amidala," she murmured in horror.