Luke lifted his hand to knock a third time, feeling a bit silly. The door towered over him, easily ten meters tall, and probably two meters thick. It was ancient in construction. No hydraulics in sight, and definitely no keypad for entry. Perhaps his instincts were wrong and no one lived in the castle. It certainly had an abandoned feel to it.
But then he remembered the HoloNet transceiver arrays, and he knocked again. Harder.
The door suddenly swung open. Luke took a step back. His hand sought the hilt of his lightsaber.
A tall, slender man stood silhouetted in the doorway. "No need to pound on the door, we 'eard you the first time," the man said. His accent indicated he originated from the planet Gaulia. "Please, do come in."
"You will let me inside—wait, what?" Luke put down his lifted hand, and let his index and middle fingers relax. So much for needing Jedi mind tricks.
"But of course you must come inside!" The man stuck his head out, looked up at the sky, then at Luke. "It will soon be dark, no?" He shooed Luke past the doorway and shut the heavy, old door behind him.
"No," Luke murmured. "I mean, yes." He couldn't stop looking around him. The receiving gallery in which he stood was one of the largest he'd seen. Only the ceremonial hall on Yavin 4, where Leia had given him his medal, rivaled it for size. And it was so ornate! Vibrant tapestries depicting unknown flora and fauna unfurled for meters down walls of the same polished black stone he noticed on the castle exterior. The stone continued underfoot, causing his boots to echo with every step. The ceiling soared high overhead, so high he could scarce make out where it began. Stained glass windows let in what little light remained outside.
"It's not much, but we call it 'ome." The slender man waved his arms, and the illumination in the hall increased. Luke got his first real look at his companion. The man was taller than Luke, but far more slender, with long gangly legs and arms. His hair shone a bright pale yellow, lighter than Luke's had been during Tatooine summers, while his skin also had a faint golden sheen. If Threepio were human, Luke thought, he might look something like this.
The man clapped his hands together. "Ah! But where are my manners! I am Looma, at your service." He bowed from his waist.
A small, round woman and a squat, heavily muscled man ran into the hall. "See! I told you so, K'gworth!" the woman exclaimed, and she bounded over to Luke. She held out a small hand to shake, her skin as smooth as Aunt Beru's treasured porcelain caf cup and nearly as translucent. After a stunned moment, Luke shook it. She giggled. "I knew you'd be here! I knew it!"
K'gwroth did not seem nearly as pleased to see Luke as Pottz, nor as welcoming as Looma. His arms were crossed and he looked like he wanted nothing more than to throw Luke back into the forest. "You know who will not like this," he said, his voice quivering with anger. "You shouldn't have let him in. This is bad. This is very bad."
"Now see 'ere!" Looma erupted.
"But he could be the answer!" Pottz exclaimed.
The three began to argue amongst themselves, so loud and so fast that Luke couldn't keep up. Nor did he want to. Han, Leia and Chewie were in this castle. He could feel them, Leia especially. They were confined, but otherwise unharmed. He edged away from the arguing trio, following his friends' presence in the Force.
Pottz spotted him first. "He's leaving! Stop him!" The three turned as if one and advanced on Luke.
Luke lifted his hand, his fingers outreached. "You will take me to the three prisoners."
Pottz stopped short. "Wait. You want to go to the dungeons? Really?" She sounded as if she wanted to cry.
Luke tried again. "Take me to the prisoners." Something was off. He could feel the Force, so he couldn't blame it on one of those bubbles. But when he reached for their minds, all he got was…static.
Looma shook his head. "No, no, monsieur, you do not want the dungeons. They are, 'ow do you say…nasty. I will make you up a very nice room, very comfortable."
K"gworth stepped in front of his colleagues, a sharp gleam in his gaze. "The dungeons? Well, why didn't you say so? Follow me."
High above the castle, in the small room at the very top of the North Tower, a cloaked figure bowed before a flickering image of a wizened but powerful presence.
"I beg pardon for interrupting my Master when he has not called to me first, but I bring news that might please His Eminence."
"Rise, my child, and do not fear. You bring me news of young Skywalker, do you not?" The Emperor cackled, his glee bouncing off the stone walls.
The head deep within the cloak nodded. "He is here, my Master. Just as you foresaw."
The Emperor grinned, a most gruesome sight. "You have done well to lure him to your home, little Beast. Now keep him there until I arrive."
Looma wasn't kidding about the dungeons and their state of nastiness. Luke tried to breath through his mouth, but he still caught whiffs of odors foul and unpleasant. He tried blocking out his surroundings with the Force before he realized it was the Force itself that was wrong. It was tainted here. Dank. Murky. Just like that cave infused with the dark side on Dagobah where he saw himself kneeling at the Emperor's side, a jeweled collar around his neck. He tasted bile at the back of his throat, and struggled to keep his focus centered and calm.
K'gworth led the way, apparently unaffected by the dark tendrils that snaked around and through everything in this horrible place. Pottz and Looma followed behind, bitterly complaining about K'gworth and his highhanded manner. The group turned a corner and Luke snatched his lightsaber from his belt, igniting it with a snap-hiss.
But the stormtroopers in front of him didn't react. They remained in the same positions they held when Luke first spotted them: lined up against the wall, arms at their side and legs straight.
"Look!" Pottz nudged Looma. "The boy has a lightsaber!" A large grin lit her round face. "It's a sign!"
Looma shrugged, but his gaze was shrewd. "We shall see, mon amie. We shall see."
Luke disregarded them. He walked over to the nearest stormtrooper, waved his hand in front of the black eyeholes. Nothing. "Is this where they store their armor?" he asked K'gworth.
K'gworth started to nod, but Pottz jumped in. "Oh, we turn off the White Works at night."
Luke turned on his heels to face her. "The what?"
"The White Works." She jerked a thumb at the stormtroopers. "These guys. No use wasting good power packs at night, when no one leaves their homes after sunset. So we turn them off."
"Wait. Are you trying to tell me these stormtroopers are…droids?" Luke could barely wrap his brain around the concept. The stormtroopers he encountered previously were human. He knew that. He even wore stolen armor once.
On the other hand, if the troopers in Woolvertown's market square had been droids, it made him feel a lot better about the ones he took down with his lightsaber.
Luke hated the thought of killing another being. Yet he was responsible for the deaths of millions, thanks to a one in a million shot. It didn't make for the most restful sleep.
Pottz drew herself up to her most indignant height. "They are most certainly not droids!" she said. "They're animatronics."
"Anima-what?"
K'gwroth shook his head. "We don't have time for this. Let's put him in the dungeon with his friends, then we can all retire for a nice peaceful night."
"Animatronics," Pottz said, ignoring Looma tugging on her arm. "Well, really, the White Workers are more like pure 'tronics. So I guess they are closer to droids. They don't have animas, like us."
"Pottz!" K'gworth exploded. "We don't have time! Now, come along, this way."
Luke wanted to question Pottz more, but he could feel Leia's presence, growing stronger. She and the others were only a few steps' away. This rescue mission was one of the strangest he had ever attempted, but so far it was also one of the least complicated.
So now they just had to get out of dungeons, board the Falcon, and leave Diswalt behind. Easy.
And maybe Han would indeed let him fly the Falcon one day.