Chapter 19- The Battle in Space and Tracking
Leia and Lena sat next to Luke, both of them with their arms around his shoulders in comfort. Lena hadn't known her brother for long, but already she was starting to love him like she did Cora and her now-departed little brothers and like she loved Leia, Talon, Cena, Aunt Breha, and Uncle Bail. She understood her brother's grief. She had liked Obi-Wan too and the Force screamed with Luke when Vader had killed him.
"I can't believe he's gone," Luke said in a low voice that was cracking from unshed tears.
Lena had wrapped a blanket around Luke's shoulders and Leia stroked his shoulder and arm tenderly. "There wasn't anything you could have done," Leia said, her brown eyes full of sympathy.
"She's right, Luke. My father would have said that it was the will of the Force that Obi-Wan- Obi-Wan knew what he was doing. If you want to be a Jedi, you have to go where the Force leads," Lena said, pressing a kiss to her brother's forehead at his hairline as Han came in in a hurry.
"Come on, buddy. We're not out of this yet," Han said, his voice as hurried as his steps.
Lena grasped Luke's arm as he stood. "Luke, go by instinct. Don't think," Lena said. Luke pulled away and followed Han. Luke went to one cockpit and Han went to the other while Lena and Leia went to the main pilot's cockpit, where Chewbacca sat. Lena sat in the co-pilot's seat, knowing the wookie didn't mind her taking his job as Han was busy.
"You in, kid. O.K., stay sharp," Han ordered over the transmitter to Luke. Lena licked her lips and called on the Force to calm her nerves as Tie-fighters came into her line of vision.
"Here they come," Leia said.
"Yeah, we see them, cousin," Lena said putting her hands on the controls and flying as Han and Luke fired at the fighters who fired back.
"They're coming in too fast!" Luke complained.
"Luke, use the Force!" Lena reminded her brother again as a fighter shot and shook the ship.
"We've lost the lateral controls!" Leia said.
"Don't worry. She'll hold together. Hear me, baby? Hold together," Lena heard Han say the last part only faintly over the blaster fire.
Lena licked her lips for a few heavy moments before Han decimated a ship and cheered loudly, followed by Luke destroying a ship. "Got him! I got him!" Luke cheered exultantly.
"Great, kid! Don't get cocky," Han said from his cockpit.
"There's still two more of them out there!" Leia exclaimed.
"Come on! Come on!" Lena begged the Force as Luke and Han fired and missed and then decimated both fighters.
"That's it! We did it!" Luke exclaimed joyfully.
"We did it!" Leia said, hugging both Chewbacca and Lena. Lena might have felt relieved both something elusive in the Force was telling her not to cheer yet.
Vader came back on the bridge, feeling slightly downcast. Yes, he had had a victory when he destroyed Obi-Wan, but he felt down that his daughter had managed to elude him. She had gotten away and he had the feeling that she had flown the ship. It would take someone very strong in the Force to fly a ship like that. The boy she was with was untrained, so it had to be her. The only upside was that his daughter would now lead him right to where the rebel base was. In Vader's memory was the vision of the girl in the cockpit, her lightsaber in her hand after he had killed Kenobi. She looked devastated as she had blocked blaster bolts with her lightsaber.
"Are they away?" Tarkin asked, unaware of the worry Vader felt for his newly-discovered daughter.
"They've just made the jump into hyperspace," Vader said, squashing all feelings he was feeling towards Lena.
"You're sure the homing beacon is secure aboard their ship? I'm taking an awful risk, Vader. This had better work," Tarkin said, before Vader could answer the question. You're taking a risk? I'm taking a risk. I could kill Padme's and my daughter, Vader thought scornfully. Tarkin didn't understand the half of what it meant to take a risk.
Leia and Lena had punched in the coordinates for Yavin IV and sat back down. Lena wished that she could relax, but the Force was screaming at her in such a way that made it impossible to silence. "Not a bad bit of rescuing, huh? You know, sometimes I amaze even myself," Han said, pulling off his gloves and sitting down in his seat that Chewbacca had given back to him.
"That doesn't sound too hard," Leia said with barely concealed sarcasm.
"They let us go. It's the only explanation for the ease of our escape," Lena said. Leia and Han both looked at her.
"Easy? You call that easy, Princess?" Han asked Lena dumbfounded.
"They're tracking us," Lena said, putting a name to that niggling dread she felt crawling up her spine.
"Not this ship, sister," Han said a little too overconfident for Lena's taste.
"At least the information in Artoo is still intact," Leia said, choosing to ignore Han's statement about not being able to track his ship.
"What's so important? What's he carrying?" Han asked annoyed.
"The technical readouts of that battle station. I only hope that when the data's analyzed a weakness can be found. It's not over yet," Leia said. Lena had a feeling her cousin was right. A weakness had to be found. Talon had said often that technology could never be trusted. So, again, there had to be a weakness.
"It is for me, sister. Look, I ain't in this for your revolution and I'm not in it for you, Princess. I expect to be well paid. I'm in it for the money," Han said, a little too loudly for Lena to buy it.
"You needn't worry about your reward, Solo. I promised you my father will get it for you. If money is all that you love, then that's what you'll receive," Lena said, her patience finally wearing thin as she and Leia stood and Luke came into the cockpit.
Leia looked at Han before looking at Luke. "Your friend is quite a mercenary. I wonder if he really cares about anything or anybody," Leia said as she and Lena left the cockpit.
"I care," Luke said as they left. Lena wondered what that meant. Maybe he wanted Lena and Lena to not think he was as bad as Solo in being like a greedy Hutt.