Luke's head was pounding, his ribs throbbed, his stomach was squeezing tightly, his mouth tasted metallic and it felt like he was bruised down to the bone. Groaning, he lay sprawled on the cold metal floor of the pod. Every inch of his body ached with an intensity he'd never felt in his life. He couldn't quite catch his breath, so lay there for a long time as the pod finally stopped rolling and slowed to a halt. The front panel beeped quietly, but otherwise all was still and silent.
He had to dig deep to find the strength to sit up and check on his sister. The back of his head thumped painfully and still felt like it was spinning with the pod as he sat upright. He touched his tender lip and was relieved to see it was no longer bleeding, though it did hurt. Leia was lying beside him, her white dress glowing in the dark light of the ship. Her wavy hair fanned out behind her face which was turned away from him.
"Leia?" he touched her shoulder. "Are you alright?"
He heard nothing, so moved closer, calling her name again. Moving her shoulder back, he found that his sister was unconscious. In a panic he rushed forward and checked if she was still breathing. To his utter relief she still was, but it looked like she had hit her head in the tumble. Carefully, he lifted her up and put her in one of the two seats by the control panel and tried to make her as comfortable as possible. Her head lolled to the side despite his best efforts to keep it upright. Luke decided to check the back of it to see if there was a wound. Fortunately, he couldn't see any blood, but he was sure she'd be getting a nasty bump there soon.
They were right in thinking it would be a bumpy ride. The two of them had lasted only seconds in their seats before the velocity of the pod had thrown them about like laundry in their kitchen's washing pod. His bones ached as he lowered himself into the seat next to her and turned to gaze out of the small dashboard window that looked out into the expanse of space. It was black, dotted with an infinite amount of glittering stars and distant planets. Some clumps of stars were so tightly packed together that they just looked like blurry spider webs, an infinite distance away and yet their brilliant light still reached his eyes. He wondered where they were, and how they would ever find a way to Alderaan when it could be so far.
He glanced at Leia. She needed water and some bacta to put on her head. Come to think of it, so did he. Luke took another look out the window, noticing for the first time that the positions of the stars were different here to the pattern he knew so well back on Bakura. He knew the constellations there like the back of his hand. Often he had yearned to travel amongst them with his father, who star gazed with him when the nights were clear. But now that he was up in space, he wanted nothing more than to be back home with his feet firmly on the ground. The mental bond he shared through the Force with his dad was now dark and empty with him so far away. This loss left both him and Leia feeling so desolate, like they had been under a warm blanket all their lives, and then suddenly it had been ripped away and they were left cold and shivering without it. He prayed to the Force that his parents and his baby brother or sister were safe.
Dim lights on the control panel glowed red and flickered on and off, catching his eye. Pressing a few buttons experimentally, a small black screen came to life on the dashboard which offered him access to all the pod's controls. Fiddling about, he found the navigation settings. To his surprise, the small map which appeared seemed to indicate that they were in close proximity to a planet. But where was it? Peering around the edges of the window, he saw nothing but stars.
Stooping in the dim light, Luke stood, ignoring the painful throbbing at the back of his head which came from the movement. He moved to the back of the tiny pod, which was only just tall enough for him to stand at full height. A misty orange square caught his eye against the black metal interior. Taking a closer look, the square turned out to be another window. When Luke peered through it he realised the orange colour was actually part of a massive planet behind the escape pod. He gazed, open-mouthed at the enormity of it. He'd never seen a planet from space. It was ribboned with tertiary shades of orange and brown, huge and intimidating. What was down there?
Going back to the control panel, he read the system's information about the planet. It stated that it was called Tatooine. He'd never heard of that place, but the data said it was hospitable to humans and had several large trading stations. Luke knew that it could be dangerous down there, perhaps even more so that the prison ship they'd just escaped from, but he also knew that Leia needed water, they needed to send that message, and that the pod could have a limited air supply. It was a quick decision to make. It was their best bet to descend and begin the next step of their journey to finding their parents. Besides, if the troopers did come back, it would be a lot harder for them to find them down there than it would be if they were floating in space.
Fiddling about with the controls once more, he managed to get the pod to go into orbit. It was some time later that it began to rumble and increase its speed as they got sucked downwards, descending rapidly into its atmosphere. Leia's unconscious figure almost fell out of her chair as the pod raced downwards, Luke caught her and with difficulty held her on his lap so that she wouldn't be hurt. He remembered what dad said about the Force, and tried his best to gather the energy around them to keep them safe when they landed.
ooooo
He can sense them like filaments of light behind his eyelids. Two beings of immense promise in the Force. Their strength was like none he had ever encountered, except for one. Taking a deep breath in, and out, he meditated, allowing himself to merge with the energy that surrounded him. Focusing deeply, drawing on its power, he was hit with the familiarity of their presence yet again. Who were these beings and why did they seem so familiar?
Vader had gone on the hunt to track them down already, he was well aware. Now he was waiting eagerly on the report from his apprentice to find out just what was going on, but for the meantime his only way of getting answers was to meditate.
Since first sensing them the day before, he had been immediately wary, suspecting them to be a threat. He was not used to such anomalies in his empire. But the more he focused, the more he could tell that they were not trained in the dark side of the Force. In today's meditation, he had spent countless hours lost in the Force's energy, searching, focusing, stretching out and reaching towards them. He could now tell that they were young and innocent, perhaps children. There wasn't a trace of darkness there, much like how Anakin had been when he'd first met him as a young boy. The feeling of familiarity hit him again. It felt just like him… no… it couldn't be… and yet…
His eyes snapped open and he turned abruptly in his chair, his meditation broken. Looking outward towards the vastness of space, his grey fingernails dug into the armrests and his eyes glowed yellow with malice and fright. He knew what he had felt through the Force, it was as clear to him now as the view of the stars before his eyes.
Somewhere out there, Lord Vader's offspring were alive!
For the first time in many many years, he felt genuine surprise. Shock, even. The revelation shook him. In nine years their presence had gone totally undetected. He imagined that a certain Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi, or perhaps Yoda, who had evaded his attack all those years ago, had something to do with the cloaking of such powerful Force signatures.
This could also mean that Senator Amidala was alive. The Emperor's mind raced with the implications of such a thing. He didn't know whether she had survived the childbirth at the time of Anakin's immolation and rebirth into Darth Vader. But when his apprentice awoke, he had deliberately told him that he himself killed her in his anger. At the time this fulfilled the dreams he had created in Anakin's mind of her death, and simultaneously severed all his loyalties to her and his old life. He had become so powerful in that moment with nothing to distract him from total immersion into the dark side. Things had worked out well, despite the disfigurement to his apprentice.
But then later he had seen the reports from Theed. They stated that she had indeed died, buried with her stomach still full with child. Foolishly, he had put the matter to rest after that. But now in hindsight he realised it could have been staged somehow, perhaps with a vital suppressant, to protect her and Anakin's offspring and to keep them in hiding.
He placed a wrinkled, aged hand on his chin. Shock faded from him and was instead replaced with anger. He let the emotion run through him, making him stronger. How dare the Jedi keep such powerful children from him. Even after Order 66, he had not been thorough enough. Seething with hate, he was now determined more than ever before to extinguish the last of them once and for all, and those children would be his. He would mould them into perfect Sith, as he did with their father.
But then, his mind started down another path. If Vader's children were alive, and potentially Senator Amidala, that meant that Vader would know that he had lied to him, at least initially, and he would be furious. His own words echoed in his mind from the eve of his empire's conception.
It seems in your anger you have killed her….
No, I couldn't have, she was alive! I felt it….
The Emperor remembered the sheer power that emanated from his apprentice as grief, rage and guilt bore down on him. It had been glorious. What would happen when the anger, pain and hate that fuelled his power was suddenly turned against him? Would he dare?
He already had paranoia that Lord Vader would soon try to overthrow him, just as he had killed his master, Darth Plagieus. It was the way of the Sith. He had seen no signs of disloyalty so far, but that could all change with the arrival of his own heirs. Would he willingly hand over his children to be trained in the ways of the Sith under his direction? What would happen if the children were defiant? Would Vader stand by if he killed them? Vader's emotions ruled his existence - the Emperor knew the answer to that question would be negative.
To find his children could throw the man he had worked so hard on for so many years into an internal conflict. He had spent so much of his life masterminding his empire into existence, from grooming Anakin, commissioning the clone army, starting the clone wars, turning the Republic against the Jedi, executing Order 66…it could all be undone by these children if he did not play his cards right. Nothing could pose a potential threat to his position as Emperor.
This put him in an incredibly precarious situation.
Getting up from his seat, he slowly paced the dark view point from his chamber, the spider web window looming above him. If Lord Vader found the children, he had no doubt that he would recognise them for who they were. A plan formed in his mind. He had to get the Skywalker offspring to him as quickly as he could. He would asses their midi-cholorian count, and then enrol them into his Sith academy where the foundlings of Project Harvester were sent. That way, he could keep them all under his control without angering Lord Vader into an assassination attempt. If his calculations were correct, they would be nine years old. They would need a great many years of training before being powerful enough to be any kind of threat.
There was only one flaw in this plan: Senator Amidala. It was unlikely she was alive, but it could be possible. If he were to find her with the children in hiding, she would not let him take their offspring away and he doubted that Lord Vader would be able to kill her. Even though he was a fine Sith apprentice, he knew deep down within him that he could not kill his wife or his own flesh and blood. The encounter could therefore result in any number of outcomes detrimental to his position of power.
To cover his own back, one of Vaders most trusted men was loyal to him, and kept him informed of all Vader's doings. He would keep track of every movement of his apprentice, and urge him at once to return to him with the children as soon as he found them. All he could do for now was to wait.