Chapter 57- Sneaking Past the Shield
Lena watched, stretching out with the Force as they got closer to the Imperial ships. She felt her father and Luke also stretching out with the Force to calm their nerves as well. She reached over and squeezed her father's large, rough hand gently. He looked at her and smiled in a reassuring manner that everything was going to be all right. "If they don't go for this, we're gonna have to get out of here pretty quick, Chewie," Han said to his co-pilot, who growled an affirmative.
"We have you on our screen now. Please identify," a voice said over the comm.
"Shuttle Tydirium requesting deactivation of the deflector shield," Han said, leaning forward as he prepared to send a shield clearance code.
"Shuttle Tydirium submit the clearance code for shield passage," the voice said.
"Transmission commencing," Han said, pressing a button.
"Now we find out if that code is worth the price we paid," Leia said grimly.
"It'll work. It'll work," Han said a little too optimistically. Lena then felt a cold chill to her spine through the Force and looking at her brother, she knew he felt it as well.
"Vader's on that ship," Luke voiced what Lena was thinking.
"Now, don't get jittery, Luke. There are a lot of command ships," Han said.
"No, he really is. I feel it too," Lena said.
"You feel it to, Lena?" Leia questioned.
"Yes. If the Force feels cold, like it does now, that is a sign that someone using the dark side is near and other than Darth Sidious, Darth Vader is the only sith lord here," Lena said, looking out the viewport.
Chewbacca growled. "Keep your distance, though, Chewie, but don't look like you're trying to keep your distance. I don't know. Fly casual," Han snapped when Chewbacca growled again.
Vader strode down the bridge and to Admiral Piett. "Where is that shuttle going?" Vader asked.
"Shuttle Tydirium, what is your cargo and destination?" Piett asked into the comm.
"Parts and technical crew for the forest moon," a voice that Vader remembered all too well came through. Han Solo? So he escaped the carbonite and Jabba the Hutt. The readout of the ship came on the monitor.
"Do they have a code clearance?" Vader asked as Piett straightened to look at him.
"It's an older code, sir, but it checks out. I was about to clear them," Piett said.
Vader looked out the viewport, feeling a lightness in the Force. Luke and Lena! Both of his children were on the ship and from the use of the Force, Lena and Luke could sense him as well as he could them.
Luke looked out the viewport, a look of nervous worry on his face. Me and Lena are endangering the mission. We shouldn't have come," Luke said. Lena reached over and squeezed her brother's flesh hand gently.
"it's your imagination, kid," Han said.
"Han, me and Luke are Jedi. We don't have an imagination," Lena snapped.
"Come on, Princess, let's keep a little optimism here," Han said as they all got their first glimpse of the Death Star. It was like a rotting corpse in space and Lena felt a tremor in the Force akin to revulsion as she looked at it.
Vader looked out the viewport, thinking through ways to get his son and daughter here. He knew that the tractor beam was out as he was on his own ship. "Shall I hold them?" Piett asked, reminding Vader that his men were awaiting his orders.
"No. Leave them to me. I will deal with them myself," Vader said ominously.
"As you wish, my lord. Carry on," Piett said to the tech in the seat.
A long pregnant pause filled the ship and Talon squeezed his daughter's wrist gently. She was feeling nervous like all of them, but she was hiding it a lot better than Luke at this point. "They're not going for it, Chewie," Solo said to Chewbacca.
"Shuttle Tydirium, deactivation of the shield will commence immediately. Follow your present course," the man on the comm said, causing everyone to draw a breath of relief.
"O.K. I told you it was going to work. No problem," Solo bragged as he flew down to the forest moon. Talon heard Lena snort and cough to hide a giggle and he felt almost an urge to laugh at Solo's obvious lie. If anyone had bothered to look over they would have seen the nervous look still on Luke's face.
Vader watched as the shuttle carrying his children got smaller. There was no denying that he had felt Luke and Lena. Both felt too much like Padme and Anakin Skywalker for Vader to ignore that they were here. Vader then made a decision. He had to tell Palpatine they were here. It was disregarding orders, but the emperor hadn't known that Luke and Lena would come this quickly. Just that they would come and fall like he had to the dark side. Of course Vader still had his doubts about them falling to the dark side. Sure, they had his blood, but as up close as he had been at Bespin to both of them, he had seen their mother's spirit too. Padme wouldn't have fallen if the roles had been reversed. He remembered that last time he saw her when she had tried to appeal to him to come back. Vader could just well imagine Luke and Lena trying to do the same thing. Force love them for having their mother's kind heart, but they would both be wrong as she had been.
Vader went to his shuttle. No point in delaying it. The emperor had to know, no two ways about it.