Leia gazed around the senate area. She liked
it here: she'd helped to design it after the old one was blown up by
Kueller. She sighed; all memories seemed to lead her to thinking
about Luke these days. She thought of Kueller; she thought about the
holoprojection of his burned body Kueller had sent her when Luke's
x-wing was destroyed. She thought of the twins and she thought of him
protecting them against all the people who had tried to snatch them
from her in the past. She thought of the old Empire and she saw a
young, naive Luke bursting into her cell on the first Death Star. She
had to smile at that memory. Sometimes Luke seemed too serious these
days, but to someone who knew him as well as she did, he seemed even
more impulsive and ambitious than he did then.
She realised
with a start that she was thinking about him as if he was still
alive. When did that happen?
She didn't like to get her hopes up;
she knew they were all doing everything they could to find him, she
wouldn't be here now- she'd much rather be out chasing hunches and
faint-hopes than sat here- if she wasn't looking for the spy they
knew had to exist.
And if they found the spy, they'd
find Luke.
Leia scanned the faces, she knew them all well.
The thought that one of them had betrayed them -betrayed her-
did not sit well with her.
Her feet were hot, she realised.
The room was too hot for her liking but it was too cool for other
senators. There had to be compromises in everything they did now. She
wanted to take her shoes off. She knew Gaeriel -the Bakuran senator
they had met 14 years ago after Endor- used to take her shoes off
during meetings. She hid a smile, thinking about what the others
would say if the Chief of State suddenly took her shoes off.
The
meeting got started. It was the usual nondescript stuff. She envied
Han and his lazy lie-in; he was probably still asleep in their warm
bed. Not having to think about trade lanes or political infights.
A
group of people from a sea-world she'd never heard of had
petitioned to join but another world was protesting it. There was a
minor trade dispute between two planets whose major export was the
same over which sectors they could sell too, the military wanted more
money to increase their security around what was left of the empire
at Bastion... the list went on. Leia wasn't listening too it. She was
studying each of the senators, gauging their reactions, especially to
the idea of stepping up on military alert, but no one seemed
suspiciously annoyed by it. She sighed mentally.
This could
take a while
---
Han gazed around their small but
cosy bedroom: he didn't really like the decor but he'd let Leia
design it in return for her not messing with the Falcons' interior.
With a resigned sigh he heaved himself out of bed. He had things to
do; he couldn't just lie around all day could he? Could he?
No.
Han wondered how Leia was getting on in the senate. He'd
been thinking a lot about this spy they were trying to track. It
annoyed him that it was taking so long to find him. He could be doing
more useful things -helping Wedge, helping Karrde, even going out on
his own to find Luke- but, no. Whatever was happening out there, he
and Leia needed to be here to stop who-ever-it-was from countering
their every move. He knew he was far more useful staying here -it
raised less suspicions about why they would have left in such a
hurry- but Han couldn't help feeling a little helpless.
Absently,
his mind on other things, Han walked into the side of the table.
Holding back a curse he hopped over to the computer desk, sitting
down heavily and rubbing his foot.
Stupid. He had to keep his
mind on track if they were going to catch this guy.
The
holoscreen was still left on after last night. With nothing better to
do, he decided to see if mindless television could give him an
inspiration. At least that was what he told himself. Really, there
was a smash ball contest on he really wanted to see...
Han was
just getting settled when -typically- the door chimed. Han scowled.
Why did this always happen to him, huh? What, they couldn't have
arrived during in the adverts. He considered for a moment just
ignoring it. But only for a moment: Leia would kill him if it was
something important. Hitting the record function on the screen he
pulled himself up and out of the chair and stalked towards the door,
determined to get rid of whoever it was as fast as possible.
The
door slid open to reveal the last person Han would have expected.
"Karrde!" he said as the smuggler slid past him and into
the room.
"Solo." Karrde greeted him. "I was
hoping to catch Leia with you too." No small talk -Karrde was
all business.
"She's in a senate meeting." he paused
"You have something?" he asked.
"Maybe. Maybe
not. It's probably just a hunch but I figured you'd want
everything looking into."
Han nodded. "Well spit it
out-" he stopped. Out of the corner of his eye he caught a look
at the holoscreen, and felt a shiver run down his spine.
Karrde
turned at Han's sudden alarm "Solo-"
"Volume
up." He said to the computer, putting his hand up to quiet the
smuggler. The computer obediently obeyed and the sound of the screen
filled the silence Han's sudden response to its picture had laid on
the room. Karrde didn't object, instead he turned to look at what had
made Han start.
"Who? Borak? He's a high councillor you've
probably-" Karrde started, still confused by Han's reaction to
the footage.
"Not him." Han interrupted him "Him."
he said pointing to the man stood next to Borak. Karrde turned back
to the screen. The guy didn't look particularly memorable. He was
quite tall with short, neat brown hair that was well groomed, smartly
dressed if a little over-fashion conscious. "Who is he?"
Han said to himself, then finally turning to Karrde he explained.
"I've seen him before. He was on Cassrine the night we arrived.
We were in a packed space port, but I can't remember what he was
doing." he rubbed his temples.
At last, the memory
clicked.
"We have to find out
who he is." he told Karrde, heading for the door.
"Now
wait just a minute Solo, you want to explain to me what's going on?"
Karrde put his hand out to stop Han passing.
"That guy,
he was on Cassrine, he brushed past me, just before Luke got ill. I'm
sure it was him that got Luke." Karrde looked dubious but then
just shrugged.
"Okay, if that's the best lead we've got,
maybe we can dig into his past and see if he had any motive to want
to kill Luke." He moved to the corner of the room, fishing out a
comlink from his pocket and thumbing it on. Han hoped they could dig
something up on this guy, he had a hunch he was important, probably
even the spy the were looking for, if he was close to
Borak...
"Han?" A questioning voice said behind him
making him jump.
"Leia." He grinned at her, then his
mind caught up with him "Hey, aren't you out a little early?"
He asked. She moved past him into the room, throwing a questioning
glance back at him when she saw Karrde.
"I felt you'd
found something, so I made my excuses and left. It was almost over
anyway." She added when Han looked like he was going to bring up
the trying-not-to-look-suspicious argument. Instead he said, "Yeah,
I think we've found our spy, you recognise him?" He didn't
mention it was probably also the guy who had injected Luke as he
pointed her towards the now frozen holoscreen.
She studied
him for a moment then "Sure, he's Borak's brother, why?"
"Leia can you remember seeing him on Cassrine?" Han
launched the question at her.
"What?!" She looked a
little shocked but regained her composure "Hang on, Luke was
teaching me some memory recall techniques: let me see..." she
ran back to the memories of that night. She could almost feel the
rain again, hear the thunder in the distance, see Luke's pale face...
and suddenly, there he was.
She gasped; he was there, just
before Luke started to get ill...
"That's what I
thought." Han said, and there was a note of pride in his voice
when he said it too. "There's no other reason for him to be
there. It's him, but I cant think why he'd want to do it."
"No..." Leia said, thinking "His brother is
totally against militarisation, I suppose that could be a way of
letting these who-ever-they-are get those outer rim systems without
the military knowing. But apart from that..." she shook her head
thoughtfully, "I don't know."
"And it doesn't
explain what Luke's got to do with all this either." Han put
in.
"I think I can help you out on that one." A
voice said from behind her. She turned around. Karrde stood behind
her, a worried expression furrowing his features "I've had my
people dig up all they can on him and, well, it turns out he and his
brother lived for the whole of the rebellion in the Empire-"
"Yes,
I know." Said Leia "Borak was one of the ambassadors we
took in from old-Empire sectors after Kueller."
Karrde
shook his head. "Wait a second, I haven't finished," he
paused "His parents were killed together about 18 years
ago."
"So?"
"By the rebellion, his
parents were ambassadors on a mission to plead against the Emperor's
dissolution of the senate to Tarkin..."
He waited. Leia
caught her breath. "They were on the Death Star, weren't
they?"
Karrde nodded. "I think we have our
motive.
---
Swh'hr'ring looked up in
surprise at Elder Fr'h'tokh entered the small medical bay, a troop of
p'w'ecks following obediently behind. Swh'hr'ring wondered why he
always had a guard with him, it was probably just a show of power for
the sake of the crew. Still, it unnerved him to have so many of the
unpredictable aliens in his bay armed with paddle
beamers.
"Swh'hr'ring, the Admiral has signalled us at
attack in two hours, no less. I trust your modifications will be
ready by then?" his glare almost dared Swh'hr'ring to tell him
they weren't.
No, they weren't all ready, but the Elder didn't
need to know that, he decided, the ones that were left were only
minor problems anyway, nothing that would prevent entechment. "Yes
elder, the Jedi will be ready when we reach Sele4, I have been
keeping him sedated until the last moment so that he might be fully
rested for the invasion." He bowed low to his Elder.
Fr'h'tokh
whistled quietly to himself before answering "Good, I would hate
to think that I had put my reputation on the line by backing this
plan."
There was something in the way he said
it...
"Doubts, elder?" He had seemed so excited when
they had tested it a few days ago.
Fr'h'tokh seemed to grow
angry at the accusation, "None at all, as long as you are
right." He warned the younger ssi-ruuk. "If anything
appears to go wrong, sedate him immediately; I will come down once
the battle has got underway to check on his status."
Ahh,
he was worried that the Jedi might not survive the process then.
"He
should be much better this time than when we tested him last. "
He walked over to a bench and picked up a small hypo. " I have
tracked down the problems he experienced as being due to a severe
overload of information to his brain during the procedure." He
frowned, looking over at the sedated Jedi, "Unfortunately this
cannot be helped, but I can accelerate his production of endorphines
-his bodies natural pain killers, so to speak- with a substance
called Cotayl3A, it also acts as a non-competitive inhibitor to-"
Rambling on about his pet subject, Swh'hr'ring didn't notice
the Elders annoyance at him "Ah... it suppresses his pain."
He put simply."I also found that, for reasons I'm not sure of
yet, the implant uses a lot of ATP -energy, of a form- when Skywalker
enteches, but his body cannot produce adequate amounts of it on its
own, even if we were to give him a higher supplement of glucose, I
considered giving the implant a direct linkage to a source of ATP,
but I'm not sure if that would work, so instead, we have designed a
carrier molecule, with oxidative phos-" again, the look of
annoyance, "that is" he stumbled, not sure how to
explain it "that umm... we give him an artificial supply that we
create in this small NFIS."
He walked over to
Skywalker's side and pointed out a small grey box no bigger than a
comlink attached to his arm, blinking away happily to itself. Again,
Swh'hr'ring beamed with pride over one of his creations.
"Forgive
me," Fr'h'tokh said with a touch of sarcasm, "but what
exactly is a NFIS?"
"Oh! Umm... Negative Feedback
Injection System." He replied quickly. Fr'h'tokh still looked
perplexed. Another explanation was needed. "It injects various
drugs as he needs them by monitoring their concentration in his
blood"
"Ah." Fr'h'tokh whistled thoughtfully,
at last understanding it "And you are sure it will work?"
He asked.
"Oh, positive Elder!" Swh'hr'ring couldn't
keep the excitement out of his voice.
"Good, you have
less then two hours to get him ready. Be ready Swh'hr'ring, I want no
delays." He swept out of the bay with his small band p'w'ecks
following.
Swh'hr'ring sighed. It was so hard to explain these
things sometimes, he hoped he had done adequately, but he knew the
Elder had been annoyed at all the technical jargon. Still, he
couldn't stand here thinking about it, he needed to make some more
last minute adjustions, and he would need to wake Skywalker to do
that. He looked over at the young man lying prone on the table,
wondered what it felt like to entech someone. Would Skywalker wonder
at the science of it whilst he helped the Imperium grow? Would he see
the irony of it: here they were, using the Force -an energy field
that defied science- to fulfill the scientific potential of
entechment?
He whistled softly, today was going to be great
day for both the Imperium and science.
---
Han
paced outside Leia's office. He wore a thick trail into the tread of
the plush red carpet, glaring at it as he walked. His hands clenched
tight behind his back, he tried to suppress his annoyance. Through
the frosted glass he could make out the slight form of Leia, calmly
trying to persuade a difficult libraries' official to relinquish the
confidential reports of Senator's movements over the past few months.
It should be easier than this, he thought bitterly. All they
needed to do was look through Borak's, or rather Borak's brothers',
movements. It was a lead they couldn't afford not to follow, but the
library was being difficult over what they would let Leia see-
despite her being the Chief of State. He looked at Leia again, it was
barely visible, but she was beginning to share his annoyance. They'd
been in there over an hour. Sure, Karrde was doing some of his own
digging into the senator's brother movement's -and where he was
now, for that matter; no one seemed to know- but Han needed to do
something himself, other than wearing a grove into the floor.
He stopped and turned to enter the room, see if he could help
Leia a bit, she looked up suddenly, shot him a warning glance that
stopped him.
Well, fine.
He wasn't totally
without contacts, he could do a bit of digging of his own. Turning
quickly on his heel, he stalked back towards their
apartment.
---
Han dozed lightly on their sofa,
papers strewn across their floor, useless titbits of information that
were of no real use compared to the library records. There was a beep
as their door opened. Han twisted where he sat to look over his
shoulder at the opening. A tired but triumphant Leia came in,
brandishing a datapad. She grinned at him as she rounded the sofa and
fell backwards into the soft folds of one of their comfier chairs,
"Here." She said, tossing the 'pad into Han's waiting arms,
"I had to use every trick in the book to get that, so don't go
losing it." She looked pointedly down at the littered floor. He
caught the pad, flicked it on.
Ignoring her last comment he
said, "You wouldn't have thought it'd have taken so long to get
a few flight routes out of them." He scanned the 'pad.
Leia
reached over, not getting out of her chair, to flick on another
light. "No, he really didn't want to give me them. But, at least
we got them without having to resort to your idea of slicing the
network." She threw him an amused look. "Though I don't
suppose the mind trick's I used are any less illegal." He looked
up from the 'pad.
"Mind tricks? Why, Madam President,
our standards have dropped haven't they?" She picked up a
cushion and threw it at him. He parried it with a wide grin.
Leia
was about to shoot back a comment when the door beeped. She frowned,
but got up to open it. Karrde greeted her with a curt nod and slipped
into the room. "Karrde," she greeted him, "you have
something?" He went to sit down on the sofa.
"You
could say that." He said, pulling a smaller datapad out of his
pocket. Leia moved around the back of the sofa and stared over his
shoulder. "We, that is... I, managed to hack into the
communications records-" Leia held up a hand to quite him, gave
Han a questioning look. "I don't remember agreeing to
this..."she said, a warning edge to her voice.
"Well,
we had to see who the guy's been calling, and besides, your diversion
with that official was the perfect opportunity." She frowned at
him, looked like she was about to demand a better explanation, but
instead just nodded for Karrde to continue.
"-we got the
whole record of incoming and outgoing calls for the past half-year.
It has some interesting results." He handed the pad over for her
to look more closely at. She took it from him as he continued
"There's an awful lot of calls going out to the outer rim,
and not to planets, those are all to a ship or ships, we checked.
Most of those calls go back a few months, so whatever he's been
doing, he's been doing it for a while. A lot of calls coming in are
from an unregistered source, too."
He twisted around to
get a look at Leia's face; she was carefully staring at the data.
"Seems awfully odd, for a senator's aide to get calls from an
unregistered source, don't you think?" Han put in sarcastically.
Leia nodded.
"Unfortunately, all the calls are from the
same area but not the same place, so we can't pinpoint a location.
Though, the call's source seems to be getting nearer, suggesting its
moving inwards." Karrde added.
Leia nodded again "Did
you notice something else too? Over the past month or so, the other
party has suddenly gone silent. "
"Yes, we noticed
that, Borak's brother has made repeated calls outwards and got no
replies. I doubt its because the source disappeared," Karrde
said
"No, more like they're ignoring him..." Leia
said thoughtfully.
"He's done his bit and now they don't
need him anymore?" Han asked.
"Certainly looks that
way." Karrde shifted to look at Han "What did you get from
his movements?" He asked. Han handed him the pad before replying
"He's made a lot of journeys to a long way away, doesn't
say where. He wasn't that stupid." He said with a sly
grin
"But, he was away for the whole time we were
on Cassrine, and he got back at about the same time as us..."
"I don't think we need any more evidence; it has to be
him." Karrde said, his voice heavy. "He has the motive and
the position to do it, and all the evidence points quite squarely to
him. What about now? Do we know where he is now? We really need to
catch up with him and stop him causing any more trouble, though I get
the feeling he's not needed anymore."
"No, it
doesn't say, he's not on Coruscant though, or on any registered
diplomatic mission. My guess is that since these people haven't been
too talkative, he's gone after them."
"Which means
there's no way for us to catch up with him and find out where Luke
is," Leia said, a touch of disappointment colouring her words.
"But at least he wont be causing us anymore trouble here. We
could go after Luke..." she left the thought unended.
Han
shook his head, "I think we should wait 'till Wedge gets back
and see what he has to say. If he has something definite, then we go.
But right now, we don't know where to look, and you can't just fly
out of here. It would raise too many suspicions. Are you going to
take this evidence to the senate?" He asked her.
She
thought a moment, then looked down into his eyes. "No, if we
need to get out of here and go after Luke, I don't want to be tied
down by this, I don't like the idea of him going free, but if he
can't do anymore harm than he has, we don't need any
bureaucratic difficulties here. You saw how uncooperative the senate
was when you took Karrde's information to them. They don't want to
think about there being any problems at the moment. They'd be just as
slow and difficult with this. I would, though, like to tell Ackbar.
If we have to leave, he can bring it up in the senate without me, and
keep and eye out for our spy."
"I do think we have
to tell someone." Han agreed "So, what now? We just
wait?"
"I think, for the moment at least, that's all
we can do."
---
Fr'h'tokh watched from
the comfort of the cruisers bridge as the star lines reappeared and
the fleet jumped back out of hyperspace, groups of smaller cruisers
winked bank into existence around them, docking bays full of their
new battle droids swarming out into space. Groups of larger, manned
fighters and gunboats followed them out. The manned fighters had been
Fr'h'tokh's idea, he didn't trust the droids entirely and had
petitioned the Admiral to us ships manned by p'w'ecks. After all,
they were loyal once they had been hypnotised, and dispensable. These
ships had more firepower then the smaller droids, but not as good
shielding. The droids were faster too.
"Elder, we count
fifty fighters coming up from the surface. Most are freighters or
supply ships, nothing bigger."
Fr'h'tokh peered out the
bridge to the yellow planet turning below them, yes, he could just
about make out a group of black spots rising towards them
"Good,
have all fighters stand by to engage. Tell them to wait to be fired
on before they attack. Signal the technician Swh'hr'ring to
begin."
He settled back into a comfortable stance and
waited for the battle to begin.
The order had come, now was
the time for a real test of his little brainchild. Bringing up a
tactical display on one of the larger monitors, he choose a suitable
ship to start with, it was s small, one-manned fighter that was doing
a lot of damage to one of the smaller cruisers.
He smiled
inwardly. Now was the time.
---
It was about to
start, Luke could almost touch the smaller aliens anticipation as he
brought up a complex display onto a monitor that looked vaguely like
a tactical read out.
Luke abandoned the Force, knowing it
wouldn't do him any good, but knowing he had to try anyway. The
ssi-ruuk walked towards him, the ominous hum of machinery behind
Luke's head increased. Luke fought desperately as the Force began to
flow through him again. The droid behind him translated the brown
ssi-ruuk's string of high pitch whistles and hoots.
"Relax,
this time should be easier than the last. Your target has been
chosen. The small fighter craft here." The droid came around the
edge of Luke's bed and pointed to a blip on the screen.
Luke
didn't bother with any reply; instead, he concentrated on not
reaching out to touch the pilots mind. Surely they couldn't just
choose who they-
His mind found the pilot's.
"No."
Luke shouted in anger and frustration, forcibly ripping his mind out
of the pilots "I won't..." he started, but stopped as
the Force drew his sense uncontrollably back to the pilots.
The
pilot gasped in shock as Luke smothered his senses. Luke tried to let
go, but his grip on the man's mind got stronger. He felt his
screams; felt the pilot clutching at his head in agony. The small
ship flew erratically as the pilot lost all control of it.
Luke
saw/felt through the pilot's mind the hull of another ship
bearing down on them. The man's mind ripped free of his body as
the ship exploded in flames around them. Luke gasped at the heat and
the pain of the pilot's dying body. His sense pulled the man's
mind back towards him, and Luke knew what was coming next.
As
two minds collided in one body, Luke screamed.
Chapter
Two : A Little Help From Your Friends
Well, Rassa was
a waste of time, Wedge thought tiredly.
Okay, maybe not a
complete waste of time. It had at least told them where Luke wasn't,
and the deserted outpost they'd found there was downright spooky,
though that hadn't told them what happened. Despite the desolate
appearance of the place, Wedge would have like to have stayed and try
to get some answers out of the silent corridors and ships that waited
patiently for owners to return who never would.
Wedge sighed.
Maybe Sele would offer up something a bit more productive, and not
just give them more questions. Corran certainly seemed to think so,
and Wedge had learned long ago not dismiss the hunches of a Jedi.
Rassa could wait: it wasn't like anything was likely to happen there
before they could return.
A cold shiver ran down the back of
his spine, he was starting to get a bad feeling about all this. One
minute to realspace; Wedge took hold of the hyperspace lever and
waited patiently, making sure his s-foils were out and his guns
charged, running the sip through a last minute check over.
Thirty
seconds. He didn't know why he was getting so tense about this.
Paranoia, probably. Or maybe Corran and Luke's tendency to predict
the future was finally rubbing of on him.
Ten seconds and
there was no time left to think about what might or might not
be.
5,4,3,2,1...
With a blur of starlines and a slight
spinning sensation, Rogue Squadron had entered real space.
Wedge
started, combat reflexes keeping him flying despite his frozen mind.
"Sweet stars..." he whispered, unable to take his eyes off
the view that confronted him. Maybe he shouldn't have wished for
better evidence...
Ships swarmed in front of him, against the
backdrop of a huge cruiser that they'd jumped so close to Wedge
couldn't see the edge of. Small, almost invisible black ships
attacked groups of more ragtag ships; freighters and smaller craft.
Space was packed, there was almost nowhere to go, he could hardly see
the big yellow planet rotating behind them.
He got his
control back and banked his x-wing hard left to avoid one of the
strange black ships. Switching the comm to their personal frequency,
he got the rest of his squadron together.
"Listen up,"
he shouted as he watched the x-wings reform around him, "I think
we just jumped into a war zone. Stay sharp and don't shoot unless
someone shoots at you. Repeat: don't shoot! We don't know who's on
what side yet. Acknowledge."
He weaved his x-wing
between the attacking ships, his face being pushed back by the force
of his ship's speed, desperately he searched for a clear area of
space where he could catch a moment to stop and decide what to do.
Apparently, it wasn't his day. Space was swarming with the sleek,
black ships that he'd first seen when they exited hyperspace and the
rag tag of -what he guessed- was the planets defences squad. Which
meant -if his guess was right- that the planet was being attacked and
they'd jumped into the middle of an invasion.
Great.
He
weaved in and out of the ships, noticing with what part of his brain
wasn't concentrating on flying that some of them seemed to have
suddenly stopped and were drifting. But he didn't have time to think
about that, the squadron was now in formation behind him, and his
search for a space had brought him up and close to the underside of
the big, ovoid cruiser. He hadn't had chance to look closely at it
until now, and as he recognised the design, his breath caught in his
lungs. The memory clicked, and with it came an awful dread creeping
into the back of his mind.
"Wedge?" Corran's voice
came over the comm, breaking his thoughts "Wedge? What's wrong?"
His throat was suddenly dry and his mind struggled to
recognise what his friend was saying. "I've seen these
ships before, Corran." He managed. The hull of the ship was
still sweeping past his cockpit; that was one big ship.
"They're
ssi-ruuk. We ran into them after Endor. Luke was in command of a
battle group the Alliance sent out to Bakura after they attacked it."
Wedge hesitated over the next bit,
"And?" Corran
prompted him,
"And Luke-"
He didn't get
chance to finish the sentence, a pair of the sleek, black ships
-their new battle droids?- had suddenly swept in for nowhere and
turbolaser fire streaked across the x-wings hull. "Evasive!"
Wedge shouted, turning his own ship into a sharp loop, coming up
behind one of the droids, pouring energy into its shields. The thing
kept on running, spitting back short, deadly bursts of energy back at
him.
"Damn it, blow up!!!" He shouted at the thing
as it continued to soak up his fire. At last, its shields gave,
Wedge's guns ripped through the armour of the smaller shipping,
tearing it apart as it blew up, the explosion quenched in the
oxygen-starved vacuum.
"Damn it." He whispered.
They had improved their shields even more since they'd last met, he
realised.
"Wedge! You've got a tail!" Rogue 5
shouted in his ear.
"I've got it" Corran shouted
back. An x-wing headed back around , firing just behind Wedge's ship
at the droid stubbornly following his zigzag evasive pattern. The
x-wing kept on firing, getting closer to the attacking droid
"Corran
pull up! He's not gonna blow!" Wedge shouted to him. The x-wing
kept on coming.
Wedge held his breath.
The droid blew,
Corran's x-wing flying through the burning debree. "Damn it
Corran! Don't take so many risks." He chided him, but there
wasn't any sting in his voice as he silently thanked him.
"Anytime
Wedge, anytime."
---
Fr'h'tokh pulled his
beeping comlink from his pocket, but didn't stop walking as he headed
for the medical bay "What is it?" he snapped.
"Sir,
a group of New Republic ships have just started to attack our ships.
Sir, they're causing some serious damage to our battle droids."
a young voice whistled to him. Damn it, he knew it had been going too
well.
"I'll sort it, get the fighters to attack on mass.
See if that helps."
Well,
this sort of situation was exactly what they had Skywalker
for.
---
The rest of the squadron had cleared
the immediate area of the droids, Wedge was beginning to figure out a
way to get them out of there when one his pilots gasped "Uh-oh."
He said
"What?" Wedge asked, wishing he didn't have
to know "I don't like the sound of that."
"Switch
to short range scanning." The pilot said. Wedge switched over,
and his heart sank. A group of at least 20 of the droids had
encircled them. And they were closing in.
The battle was
joined.
---
Swh'hr'ring looked up from his work
as Fr'h'tokh entered the small bay. "Elder. " He greeted
him, not taking his eyes off the screens showing Skywalker's
progress. He was anxious that Skywalker would not reach a pain
threshold that might stop him from enteching as effectively, but so
far, that had not happened.
"How does the battle go?"
He asked as Fr'h'tokh approached.
"Well." The Elder
replied "Their ships are no match for our droids, and Skywalker
is successfully taking out their better pilots that our droids are
having problems with I see." He looked over at he Jedi laying on
the table, his hands clenched, his face a mask of
concentration.
"Yes, I have been deliberately choosing
the better pilots to entech." He was pleased the Elder had
noticed this "I thought it would be more tactically sound."
Fr'h'tokh nodded at this.
"Is he enteching now?" He
asked, curious that Skywalker didn't appear to fighting back too
much.
"No." Swh'hr'ring admitted, "He has been
since the battle began, but I thought it wise to let him rest a
while."
Fr'h'tokh looked at the technician. "I
would tend to agree, as the battle is going so well. However, a group
of 12 Republic fighters have just jumped in system and are starting
to cause some serious damage to the fleet."
"I
understand." Swh'hr'ring said simply, bringing the entechment
machinery back online, he turned back to walk to Skywalker's
side.
---
Luke felt the ssi-ruuk walking
towards him, and knew what the droid would say. It was the same every
time; they would show him which ships to take out on the monitor and
it would just happen. Nothing he could do would stop it, but he felt
compelled to try.
The larger alien followed the smaller one
to his side. Through a haze of concentration and with a sinking
heart, Luke heard the droid show him who would be next to die. He had
tried to shut out his awareness of the droid, but his subconscious
must still have registered the information as still his mind reached
out, dragging his own awareness with it. He had tried to drop back
into unconsciousness, but as soon as he got near, the force seemed to
swell around him and lift him out again.
And he was weary.
Weary from the drugs, weary from the effort of trying to stop it,
weary from all those minds' accusing screams as they tore through his
body. He felt what little strength he'd had to resist the entechment
with before had been leached out of him and he was totally bare to
the Force, unable to have even the slightest control on it.
And
again his mind reached out to the frantic dogfights beyond the
hull.
Again, his barriers flashed up, but they crumbled
quicker than before.
Luke?
He gasped.
What?!
Luke, its Corran. Can you hear me?
No!
Luke's mind recoiled, pulling away from the touch of Corran's mind
whilst trying to passively search for a reason he was out
there.
Luke, are you okay?
Luke shied from him.
And as he did his mind brushed another familiar presence. Wedge? Oh,
no, was it Rogue Squadron? What were they doing here?
What
to do? He had no idea.
---
"Wedge?"
Corran's voice came over his comm.
Wedge took a moment out
from chasing the battle droids to answer him "I hear you. What?"
He asked.
"Luke's here." He answered.
"What??
How do you know- never mind... where?" He asked as he turned
another of the droids turned to expensive scrap.
"On that
big cruiser. There's something wrong. He's avoiding me. And all
these ships we've seen that are just drifting -I don't like it. I
have a very bad feeling-"
"Don't even say it."
Wedge warned him.
"What was it you were saying earlier
about Bakura?" Corran asked him.
And then, suddenly,
Wedge understood what was happening. The last piece if the puzzle
fell into place showing him the whole picture at
last.
"Wedge?"
"The ssi-ruuk power their
droids and ships using human energies."
"I'd
heard that." Corran said, "Wasn't one of Luke's students
studying how they did it?"
"I don't know. Maybe.
Somehow they're able to harness the energy away from the body."
He paused to fire a glancing shot at one of the droids. Missed. They
were too damn fast. "They had this idea, they could use Luke's
Jedi powers to entech- that's what they call it- entech humans
from a distance, without having to capture them and bring them
onboard their ships. It would be a lot more efficient. Luke escaped:
the plan hadn't really been thought-out properly: it was a bit of a
rush job. Luke took over the ship. Apparently they all evacuated.
They were scared to hell Luke would kill them all; something about
dying away from consecrated ground."
He heard Corran's
laugh. "Yeah, sounds like something that would happen to Luke...
so what, you think they've found a way to keep him?"
"I
hope not, if they have we could be in for a lot more trouble than
just this." He thought back to those empty ships... but, no,
Luke would be able to resist anything they did... wouldn't
he?
"Anyway, he'd never willingly entech people. "
Wedge said out loud
Corran's voice took on a strange, distant
tone "Wedge, I don't think he has a choice."
---
The
strain of avoiding Rogue Squadron when his mind was deliberately
targeting them was beginning to really hurt. He squeezed his eyes
shut.
What to do? What could he do?
He only had
one chance; in a moment, he knew, he wouldn't be able to stop his
mind reaching out and snatching them.
Corran? he called
into the Force, hoping the contact wouldn't immediately demand that
his mind grab onto Corran's; hoping Corran's Jedi training would help
him stop Luke...
Luke? You have to resist-
I can't!!
He let Corran feel his desperation as his barriers began to fall, Get
out of here. Now! I cant stop it. He could barely resist it now,
could hear himself screaming with the pain, but he ignored it.
Move
Luke shouted to Corran as the Force flowed over him and past his
defences.
No, Luke I'm with you.
He felt
Corran's presence stretch out to Luke and strengthen his resistance.
For a moment, a single hopeful moment he thought it was going to
work, but even as he gained control again, it's grasp slipped
through his fingers and he- no, not him, the implant, he reminded
himself- reached out again to smoother Corran's sense.
Luke
he heard Corran's gasp as Luke's mind took hold.
---
Wedge
watched Corran's' ship flying in front of him, his words sinking in.
I don't think he has a choice. He looked at the big cruiser,
there was no way they would be able to get on board it without being
noticed, and they were losing this battle fast. They really didn't
have any choice but to go back and get help. He wondered how Leia
would take it-
Suddenly, Corran's x-wing veered off towards
the bottom hull, starting to fly erratically. It took Wedge a moment
to register what was happening "Corran!" he shouted into
the comm, flying after Corran's ship and defending it against the
droids. "Corran! Pull up!" There was no reply.
"Wedge."
Corran's voice came over the comm "I can't-"
"Hang
on, I'm giving you the hyperspace co-ordinates, jump and we'll follow
you." Working as fast as he could whilst flying after the
x-wing, he punched the co-ordinates into his computer and sent
them.
---
Corran's sense fought back against
Luke's pull.
Luke!
I'm trying, I'm
trying! He sent back, feeling despair fill him again as he ran
through his routine of tricks that never worked.
Corran's
sense seemed to change, and then hesitate.
Corran, if
you've got an idea, try it. He sent, fighting to stop his sense
from pulling Corran away from his body.
Corran seemed to
hesitate for a moment, but only a moment, and then Luke felt it.
Corran sent the Force rushing back into Luke's head, directed at the
implant, he gasped at the sudden tidal wave of energy that flowed
through his mind; felt his mind screaming as Corran blasted it, but,
curiously, he didn't scream outloud. It was working, he realised with
a thrill, the Force touch on Corran's mind slipped and flailed as the
implant directed the Force against Corran's attack, but Corran was as
weak as Luke. Distantly, Luke could feel him weakening .
Jump
now! He shouted to his friend. Maybe he shouted it outloud too:
it didn't matter: Corran heard him, and tried to break free of Luke's
lingering touch, Corran punched in the co-ordinates into his nav
computer and put his hands on the hyper space levers.
Luke
tried to pull free, not wanting to think about what would happen if
he were still connected to Corran when he jumped. At the last moment
before the ship flicked out of real space, he sent a fleeting message
of thanks, and Corran was gone.
---
Wedge saw
the x-wing drive back and away from the cruiser before it hit the
hull, blasting up and past the attacking droids, and with a flicker
of puersuado-motion it
was gone. Wedge almost cheered, then
realised he should really be getting out of there too.
"Rogues,
jump now."
He found a clear patch of space and
sent his ship into hyperspace, heaving a sigh of relief as the
mottled backdrop reappeared.
---
Corran felt
Luke's' rush to try and break free of his mind, for an awful moment
he thought he wouldn't make it before his ship jumped, Luke's last
thought to him was a weary thank you, an idea entered into Corran's
head, and as a last minute help to Luke, he channelled healing energy
through the Force to him before he jumped.
Thank you for what?
Corran thought bitterly as he tried to regain his own touch on
reality. Sinking into a healing trance his last thought was to wonder
how the hell they were going to explain this at
Coruscant.
---
Swh'hr'ring was frantic, for a
few minutes there something had been wrong. They had told Skywalker
to target the New Republic ships, but he had resisted. He had
resisted. It wasn't possible, and yet there it was. And
Fr'h'tokh was not happy about it, but for the moment he hung
back.
Swh'hr'ring worked the controls, trying to see what had
gone wrong. Skywalker had been screaming out in pain, but he resisted
the entechment. That was most decidedly not in the procedure.
At last Swh'hr'ring thought he'd found the problem: some of the
implants circuits were.... wrong. He couldn't explain it; it was like
they'd rewritten themselves he frowned.
"Sedate him."
Fr'h'tokh said from beside him.
"Elder I'm not sure
that's wise, I don't know what it would do to him." he answered
truthfully
"Sedate him until you know what went wrong."
his voice was stern, and this time left no room for argument, he
looked across at Skywalker's still form, hoping he wouldn't regret
this he crossed the room to fetch the sedative.
---
Luke
lay, feeling disorientated.
Before Corran had jumped Luke had
felt the Force flow back through him and through his head, he had
felt something happening in side his head, his mind screamed out into
the force as he struggled to get away from the blast. Feeling his
control return, he channelled his own energy. The already damaged
circuits of the implant shorted and died. His mind screamed louder as
the implants failure scorched his brain. Amongst the turmoil in the
Force he was creating, he felt a flicker of recognition.
Leia?
And
then, Luke had control of the Force again, at least in part, he could
still sense the implant trying to pull back out to the battlefield,
but with effort, Luke could resist it. Through the Force, he watched
the big blue alien whistle something harshly at the other alien, and
with a look towards Luke he headed to the corner of the room. This
was his chance Luke knew, for a single minute the alien wasn't near
the control panel where he could alter the implant.
Quickly,
Luke reached out with the Force and into the blue aliens mind, it
honked momentarily in surprise and confusion before Luke sent it into
unconsciousness: restricting blood vessels in the brain so it
wouldn't wake up anytime soon.
But he didn't kill it. There
had been far too much death today already.
With a loud thud
the alien collapsed to the floor. The smaller p'w'ecks jumped up in
surprise. They were unconscious before they had a chance to fire. The
brown ssi-ruuk stopped mid stride and turned to face Luke, fear
evident on its face. Luke grabbed its mind, the feeling bringing up
the memory of entechment. When he had control of it he spoke,
"Walk
over to the side of the table." he commanded it. Obediently, the
ssi-ruuk walked over to Luke's side. "Undo these straps."
he said, indicating the restraints.
The ssi-ruuk seemed to
hesitate, an unreadable emotion spread across its face, but it
obeyed. Flicking switches and entering passwords to open the straps.
The metal seemed to separate achingly slow, until at last he was
free. He flexed his fingers, muscles he hadn't used in days
protesting loudly to their sudden movement
"Which way to
the docking bay?" Luke asked, a plan already forming in his
mind. The alien pointed to the left. "Thank you." Luke
murmured as he sent it to join its master in unconsciousness.
Slowly and carefully he eased up from the table, ignoring as
best he could his aching muscles. He swung his legs over the table
and for the first time got a look at the machinery that had been
behind his head. He whistled softly at the circuitry that arched back
and into the wall. But there wasn't time for this. Walking over to
the p'w'ecks he checked they were out and picked up one of the paddle
beamers, taking a moment to study it. It had been a long time since
he'd seen one of these. The comm beeped, a string of the ssi-ruuk's
high pitched speech came from the speakers. With horror, Luke saw the
droid move to answer the call, shouting back in ssi-ruuvi. Luke
brought the paddle beamer up and swept it across the droid, hoping it
would work on it. He couldn't help but get a little satisfaction in
seeing the droid falter and collapse after the long days it had stood
just out of view telling him who would be the next to die. It wasn't
its fault, but that didn't mean Luke had to like the thing.
Knowing
they'd be on to his escape now, he turned and forced his legs to
run.
---
"Admiral? Incoming message the
battle fleet at Sele4." a young officer called from his
post.
"Lets hear it" Admiral Sh'rtokh replied,
picking up the datapad from where it lay on a console. It was about
time they reported in.
Instead of Elder Fr'h'tokh appearing on
screen, his panicking young captain appeared. He flicked his tongue
out nervously.
"Report." the Admiral ordered
him.
"Admiral." he bowed "The battle goes well,
we have defeated the armada from Sele4." the Admiral smirked at
the use of the work 'armada'
"But?" he
prompted.
The captain hesitated a moment. "We think
Skywalker is loose on the ship." he blurted out.
Ah. So
that was why he was so nervous.
"Do not evacuate
captain. Track him down. I don't care how you get him back, but he
must not be allowed of the ship. Is that understood?"
"Aye, sir," the captain answered, looking sheepish
"but Admiral..."
"No but's, Captain"
he emphasised the word "I will not have you loose
Skywalker. I hold you personally responsible for what happens
next. I suggest you stop panicking and start looking for him."
He
cut of the transmission. In anger, he threw the datapad across the
bridge, sending it crashing into a bulkhead. The bridge went deadly
quiet.
A heartbeat.
"Set course for Sele4."
he told the navigator "It seems we have some problems to clear
up...."
Chapter
Three: thank the Force for small miracles...
Luke ran.
He
must be getting close to the docking bay by now. So far, no one had
attacked him. He had to wonder at that. Last time they had evacuated
the ship when he'd escaped. He doubted his luck would hold out that
far today. Sure enough, he rounded a corner and ran straight into a
pack of very nervous p'w'ecks. Careless: he should have sensed them
long ago. Skidding to a stop he dived back around the corner, hugging
the wall as several blasts hit close by.
They were set on a
low energy level. Reaching out to the Force, he tried to knock them
unconscious as he had in the medical bay, but he didn't have surprise
on his side and he couldn't knock them out.
Well, fine, he'd
fight them then. Their firing stopped, and Luke could sense them
creep slowly forward. He dived across the corridor, letting the Force
guide his aim. Three of the p'w'ecks honked in shock as the paddle
beamer's fire hit them. The fourth kept on firing and, luckily for
Luke, it's aim was terrible. As Luke crashed into the far wall
and bounced back, his beam stroked across its chest and it fell to
the deck. Getting up off the floor he leaped over them and continued
down the corridor
---
Leia screamed.
She
felt the Force rushing through her, but she hadn't tried to connect
to it. Her mind was on fire, a burning sensation running over the
back of her head, she put a hand up to clutch at her head, strangling
her scream.
And then she realised what was happening: she
could feel him, he was a long way off but his presence was
unmistakable.
Luke.
As quickly as it started, the pain
stopped, leaving a blinding headache behind. She sat bolt upright in
bed, her sheets falling to the floor in a heap. Rubbing her eyes she
tried to clear her mind and get back the connection.
Luke
she cried out Luke?
No answer.
As clearly as
she had felt his sense cry out, it was suddenly silent. Gathering the
sheets in her hand she hugged them to her, bringing her knees up to
her chest and pushing back sympathetic tears of pain and a flood of
tears of joy. He was alive. He hurt, but he was alive. She wanted to
jump up and dance around the room screaming her head off in joy 'he's
alive he's alive he's alive!!!! We were right!' but she held back the
urge, instead hugging herself and remembering the long-lost touch of
his mind on hers.
"Leia?" Han's voice sounding
disorientated by sleep and muffled by the pillow. She turned to look
into his face.
Tears of joy she couldn't hold in rolling down
her cheeks. She tried to say "He's alive." but her throat
choked on the words. Seeing her crying, Han sat up and stared
intently at her.
"Hey, Leia, what's wrong-"
"Nothing."
she said, a smile spreading across her tired face "Nothing at
all." she grinned, letting her emotions wash over her. At Han's
confused look she let go of the sheets she'd been clutching and
hugged him tightly, whispering into his ear with a slightly croaky
voice "He's alive."
She held on to him as he
realised what she had just said. She could feel his emotions change,
shock giving way to wonder and finally falling into overwhelming
happiness. He held her away from him and looked into her face. Her
own joy was mirrored on his features.
"How?"
he asked simply.
"I felt him Han, he was there, out of
nowhere I felt his presence." she fell back into his arms
laughing "He's not dead." her laugh turned back into sobs
of happiness, and he held there for what seemed a long time until she
pulled away from him.
Han hadn't heard her laugh like that-
truly laugh out of happiness, hadn't seen her face light up or her
eyes sparkle like that in too long. And her happiness was
infectious.
"Thank you." she said bringing the
sheets up and around her again.
Han looked at her, feeling a
little confused "For what?"
She took his hand and
when she spoke her voice was laced with an earnestness Han was used
to hearing from her brother. "For not giving up. For believing
in him for... for being there for me." It was Han's turn to grin
widely.
"Hun, they'll never be time I wont be there for
you, I promise." he hugged her again.
She looked so pale
and fragile sitting there, her face a picture of relief, visibly he
could see that a huge weight was suddenly gone and she could sit up
straight again. For now, she didn't want to think about why she had
felt the contact, or why there had been that sudden pain.
All
that mattered for now was that he was alive.
Her twin, her
brother, was alive. The tears started again.
---
"Sir,
the first team has failed." An officer reported.
The
captain scowled. "Turn on the stun traps," he said "But
turn the power down; we don't want to kill him." he added,
remembering the Admirals words earlier.
"Aye
sir."
---
Luke felt it as the tortured
energy above head suddenly got stronger. Remembering Bakura, he tore
of a piece of his sleeve and slid it forward on the floor with the
Force, it fizzled and burnt as it hit a hidden energy barrier.
Luke
sighed. He could see the docking bay door too. From behind him, he
heard the approach of running feet. Ducking in time and throwing
himself to the floor, he fired blind while his eyes caught up with
his sudden movement. A group of at least 10 p'w'ecks came running
towards him.
oh, no.
---
Leia
suddenly shivered in his arms. Letting go of her with one hand, he
reached over to pull the sheets closer around them, but when he saw
her expression he froze. Her face, a few moments ago filled with
indescribable joy, was drawn and tight, her eyes were dull.
"Leia?"
she didn't respond. Worried, he shook her gently. "Leia. Snap
out of it. "
With a shiver that ran down her body she
blinked and was back. She looked away thoughtfully, and when she
looked back up there was a pleading, pain filled glaze on her eyes.
"Leia?" he asked softly.
Oh please, no, don't say
something's happened to him.
"He... I..." she
choked. He held her to him.
"Go on." he said,
"I
saw images, people screaming, and accusing voices, and Wedge and
Corran. And death. So much death..." she trailed off, staring
past his shoulder into space he had to ask...
"And
Luke...?"
She turned to look into his eyes "I don't
know, I felt a jolt of fear... I... I don't know." she shook her
head helplessly.
Leia hugged him, wishing she could have held on
to her joy just a moment longer. "I don't know what's happening
to him. He was ... scared."
"Scared. But alive"
Han reminded her. He could almost feel her feelings lift at
that.
"We have to help him." she said, suddenly
twisting herself out his grip and moving towards the wardrobe.
How?
We've no idea where he is let alone what's happening to him, he
thought, but bit back any words he might have said, "Leia..."
She
resolutely ignored him. Had she read his mind?
"Leia, do
you know where he is?" she was pulling on an old pair of
trousers. Her figure was a dark shadow in the low lighting of their
bedroom. She was shaking, he realised. "No. I've got to go
to him. The first contact... he was in pain. It hurt, Han, Like a
burning fire in my mind. I can't explain it. I have to go to
him." All the time she concentrated on getting dressed, not
letting him see her face, scared that if she looked up she would see
her own fears on his face.
Han sighed, why did things always
have to get complicated? Why couldn't they have just enjoyed her
relief that he was alive?
"Okay, but wait till morning.
There's nothing you can do now."
She paused in
pulling on an old shirt, but then continued, flicking long brown hair
out from the back of it. "I have to go now."
She
felt his hand on her shoulder. "Wait till Wedge gets back at
least, we'll have more to go on, anything we do now will just be a
waste. And besides: you look like you need to sleep."
She
had been starting to warm to the idea, but at that last sentence she
flung him back from her, her anger flaring.
"Sleep?!
Sleep!!! Sleep was what stopped me from helping him the first
time. Sleep was what got him in this situation. If I hadn't been
sleeping we'd have found him and everything would have been
all right!"
Her tears flowed uncontrollably now. He'd
thought she had got over her guilt. He must have been wrong. His wife
was very good at hiding things from him when she wanted to. He moved
to hold her, letting his voice get sterner.
"Leia, that
wasn't you fault. You know that. Don't blame yourself for something
you didn't do."
She accepted his embrace, but her guilt
stayed with her. She allowed him to hold her to him and for the
second time in the past 2 months, poured out her grief on him. And
again he took it, holding her up against the pain and sorrow.
"Leia,
this is different. He's alive." he whispered in her ear. She
nodded and pulled away from him, wiping her eyes with her sleeve.
"Come on, sleep on it, well send the whole damn navy after him
tomorrow if we have to. But sleep now."
She looked at him
absently "I guess your right. I just... I hate feeling so
helpless."
An idea struck Han "Can you contact him
again?" he asked.
"No, I... I don't think
so"
"Try." he urged her "Maybe all he
needs is to feel someone is there watching over him. It's probably
the best help you'll be able to give him." he added, hoping she
would listen to him.
"I always listen to you Han, I just
don't always agree." she joked "but, yes, I'll
try."
Sitting on the edge of her bed, she closed her eyes
and concentrated.
---
Luke fired at the
running P'w'ecks, two fell, 8 kept on coming. He turned his mind to
the tortured energy above him powering the stun trap. He could feel
its weariness and sadness. The energy was beyond wanting death or
despair, it just existed now. There would be no cajoling it into
opening the trap.
Luke turned back to face the p'w'ecks. He
couldn't allow himself to be stunned. He had escaped once only with
Corran's help, he doubted he would be able to do it alone. One of the
p'w'ecks fired, Luke moved fast to get out of the way of its beam,
using the Force to leap high above it, but he couldn't move fast
enough to get out the way of the second beam that sweeped out from
his left. He felt it brush his leg and he landed back hard on the
deck, the wind knocked out him.
He tried to stand on it, but
his foot gave way. A few seconds more and they would have him.
Damn
it just open, he thought towards the trap.
The stun trap
disappeared.
Amazed but not about to give up this opportunity
he dived through it.
Close he shouted through the
Force as the p'w'ecks raced forwarded. Five p'w'ecks couldn't stop
and ran headlong into the trap, there was a loud crack and the smell
of ozone, and 5 aliens lay stunned on the deck. The other 3,
distracted by their friends sudden collapse, Luke took out with the
paddle beamer. All 10 now lay on the deck.
Luke stared up at
the trap. What had happened?? He didn't have time to think about that
now. Using the wall to lever himself upright, he leaned heavily on
his right foot and jogged to the end of the corridor.
---
The
door to the docking bay required a password. Luke stared at the
keypad, unable to tell which of the strange symbols he needed to
press. He could sense which had been used the most, but had no idea
what order they went in, and he wasn't willing to try a random
combination in case it was boobie-trapped. A wave of dizziness washed
over him. He pressed his head against the wall, getting his breath
back. It was probably the after effects of the paddle beamer. He
looked down at his numb leg.
This was just what he
didn't need.
He felt despair rising in him again, but
he had the strange feeling it wasn't his own, he reached out trying
see who it had come from, but he couldn't find anyone. He
sighed. Was he going mad now too? It would just be his
luck....
Remembering the stun trap Luke played his last card.
Concentrating on the control panel he channelled the Force through
his mind.
Open he thought at it, adding a silent please
on the end.
Obediently the door swooshed open. What had he
done? He traced back what had happened after his command; he had felt
the Force flowing through his mind, through his awareness, touching
the damaged implant- the implant? It had sent out a pulse of energy
from his mind. He frowned. Well that certainly didn't make
sense. But... 'be glad of small miracles' as his aunt used to say, he
jogged into the docking bay; on impulse commanding the door to
shut.
---
The docking bay was large, but not
overly so. It was grey and poorly lit, with a huge gaping mouth at
its far end leading out into space. In the distance he could see the
last death throws of the earlier battle as the starscape lit up with
turbo laser fire. Moving carefully forward, he took the time to
stretch out to the Force, listening to see if anyone was in the bay.
But it was quiet. Spookily quiet, and he was definitely
alone. He turned to concentrate on the ships. He had dreaded that
there might be no ships on board other than the battle droids. But,
no, there was a small group of one-man fighters that looked like they
had been designed for a smaller race then humans- p'w'ecks?- that
would be a tight squeeze but he would fit it in somehow-
Halfway
across the bay Luke stopped suddenly mid-step. A warm sensation ran
through his mind that felt vaguely familiar. Leia?
Leia?
He called.
Luke her happiness and concern washed over
him in equal amounts as he continued to jog towards one of the
fighters. I'm fine Leia, he lied as he approached one of the
ships and began studying it.
Luke... I've missed you he
smiled, feeling the warmth of his sister's emotion towards him.
I've missed you too Leia. More than you'll ever
know.
---
Leia Organa Solo smiled where she sat
on the bed.
---
Luke rounded the ship,
still trying to figure out just exactly how he was going to get in
it, when he heard a faint but disconcerting sound.
What?
Leia's concern was there again. He let her feel his confusion.
Dropping into a combat ready stance, he stretched out to the Force.
And suddenly there was a very real need for speed, and he knew why
the bay was empty.
They were pumping the air out of the bay.
They probably didn't mean to kill him, just to let him black out, but
Luke had no intention of being caught.
Pushing down his panic,
he used the Force to leap onto the top of one of the fighters, still
looking for a way in.
The air was already getting thin in
here; the system was fast, but, then, this was a docking bay. He had
to find a way to open the cockpit. When he couldn't get it to open on
its own, in desperation he tried to pull it open, but it wouldn't
budge, and he was beginning to feel sluggish. He ran through every
last-minute technique he could think of to keep his blood cells
moving but he was slowly blacking out
Luke Leia's sense
called to him. He sent her a picture of where he was, hoping she
might have an idea. He was starting to see black spots in front of
his eyes. Holding on to the craft as the room began to spin, he
racked his brain for a way out
Luke, what's that on your
arm?
Huh?
The small grey implant on his arm was
blinking faster and faster as Luke ran out of air. Of course! He hit
the small button on its side, hoping it would work fast enough. He
couldn't feel the thing injecting into his arm, but he knew that it
was pumping it's drugs into his blood. He lost his balance on
the ship and fell to the ground, landing on his back.
Luke!
Leia's worried sense broke through his haze of drug-induced
confusion.
At last, after an achingly long time, he could
feel his senses come back as his body began to work again. But the
haze didn't leave him, brought on as it was by the drugs being
injected by the small grey box on his arm. Picking himself up of the
deck, ignoring the wave of dizziness the sudden movement caused, he
ran to the next fighter leaping up on top of it and trying to tease
the cockpit open. In frustration he kicked it. Amazingly, it swung
open.
Luke would have laughed if he hadn't been in such
danger. Han's tricks really are the best, he thought.
Luke
felt Leia's presence drifting away from him. Dropping heavily into
the cockpit, he pulled the restraints across him, shortening them as
far as they would go but realising they were still far too big, He
pulled the cockpit top down, glad that it was tall enough, even if
there was only a couple of centimetres above his head.
Thank
the Force he wasn't tall.
Leia her mind was just an
echo now. He guessed it was due to the drugs. Giving himself just a
moment to study the controls, he silently thanked the Alliance for
versing him in so many different ships, before he hit the ignition of
the small ship and the repulsors lifted it off the
deck.
---
"Get into that docking bay"
Fr'h'tokh glared down at his naieve captain. "We... have tried
to, sir, but the door won't open." He cowered before
him.
Fr'h'tokh honked in disgust. " Cut it open
then. He must not escape!" he shouted.
"He'll be
unconscious, sir -we could wait and-"
"Don't
underestimate him. Shut the docking bay space-side door."
Fr'h'tokh warned, turning an icy glare back on the captain. "Speed
is of the essence." When he didn't get the hint Fr'h'tokh put a
dangerous edge to his voice "Move!"
---
The
small ship was harder to control than it had looked, the strange
symbols on the controls not helping Luke. Managing to manoeuvre
between the other ships, Luke tried to find the throttle on the thing
amongst all the strange buttons, at last he found it, and looking up,
froze for a moment in fear. The bay door was slowly
closing.
Regaining his composure, his hands flew across the board
pushing the ship to give as much speed as it could manage.
He
was slammed back into his seat as the ship sprang forward. Luke held
his breath, flying the ship on instinct and so close to the deck he
could nearly scraped it twice as he fought to control the erratic
flight. As the little fighter headed toward the rapidly narrowing
gap, Luke was pressed into the back of the cockpit by the force of
his flight. It was going to be tight. With the bitter taste of
inevitability, he braced himself for a collision-
And
abruptly, with a grating screech of metal on metal, the ship shot out
of into the deep black of space.
He had it round and gunning
for the yellow planet that filled his cockpit in a moment, flicking
controls randomly, searching for weaponry...
A blast shot out
for the front of the ship. He'd found them.
---
"A
ship just launched from the bay!" one of the techs shouted at
Fr'h'tokh from his side. Fr'h'tokh fumed. He had told the Captain to
be quick and the inept rookie had failed him. Again.
"Captain!"
he called to the small ssi-ruuk bending over a tactical display.
Nervously, the captain walked over.
"Sir, we had some
problems getting into the docking bay I-" he faltered. Fr'h'tokh
glared at him. "You have failed me, Captain, in one of the most
important times for our military, you have put this whole invasion in
jeopardy."
"I- I'm sorry." he stammered.
"Sorry?! I'm afraid that wont do Captain. Get
off my bridge." For a moment, the Elder thought his captain
was going to object. Fr'h'tokh took the paddle beamer of his belt and
pointed at the ssi-ruuk's' chest "Now..." he said, a deadly
knife edge to his voice.
The captain bowed low "As you
wish." With a last look around his bridge he scurried off.
Fr'h'tokh returned the weapon to his belt and directed his gaze to
the rest of the bridge crew "Get all available ships after that
fighter.
"Don't shoot to kill, tell them to aim to
damage the ship, heard it towards our tractor beams. Don't fail me
again." He added as the crew hurried to carry out his orders.
Skywalker would not escape him.
---
Lines
of fire lanced out at Luke's ship as a swarm of the small black
droids flew in from Luke's right. Reaching to the Force, he stroked
the fire button and poured energy into the woefully strong shields,
had the minor satisfaction of seeing one shatter and explode before
sending the fighter into a stomach churning loop to his left and
down, he held his breath as he approached the huge cruisers hull.
Luke decided he didn't like the battle getting this close to the big
ship; they probably had tractor beams, which his little ship would
never be able to break free of.
And he didn't doubt they were
deliberately forcing the battle towards the ship for that purpose,
and the yellow planet- his only chance of escaping seeing as the
little ship didn't have a hyperdrive- was getting further and further
away.
At the last moment he pulled up and away from the hull,
climbing back into space.
Another group of droids came up from
underneath him.
Damn it.
For the first time, he
was glad they weren't shooting to kill: even with the Force, he would
have been long dead against this many ships.
Another beam of
energy splashed next to his cockpit. Luke could almost imagine he
felt the heat of the blast. They were getting closer.
He sent
his fighter straight for them, hoping his hunch that they were not
ready to kill him was right. Or maybe it wasn't, they weren't moving
out of the way very fast-
At the last second, the droids
scattered, Luke weaved the little ship through them, hearing it groan
from the manoeuvres he was asking from it. As he made it through the
cloud of fighters, he realised he was headed directly for the planet.
He grinned. At least he wasn't having all-bad luck today.
A
sudden wave of dizziness spread over him. He shivered. The small grey
box must still be pumping drugs into his system, he realised. And
Luke didn't have the time to figure out how to shut it off.
The
droids he'd just got rid of had banked around and were following him
fast, spraying a hail of deadly energy behind him. Luke flew the
little craft evasively, flicking in and out of the battle debree that
still cluttered the area, hoping his shields would hold if he flew
into anything too big. He had the ship up to its full speed, but the
droids were closing fast: he remembered from Bakura that they were a
lot faster than many of the other ships he had encountered.
In
the distance he could see another wave heading towards him, trying to
sandwich him in.
Where were they getting all those ships
from- ah. He shouldn't have asked that.
The other wave was
firing at him now, and even with the Force as his ally, the fighter
bucked under the onslaught. Luke was asking too much of the little
ship, ominous groans sounded from its engine, absently he glanced
down at the panel to see what was wrong- and with that one moment's
lack of concentration, one of the droids beams hit.
The ship was
kicked out of control, spinning around wildly, only adding to Luke's
dizziness. The force of the jolt on the ship threw Luke into the side
of the cockpit, knocking his head into the wall. Pulling himself back
into the seat he fought with the controls but the stabilisers were
obviously shot, and it continued on its mad, erratic course. He felt
a trickle of warm blood running down the side of his face.
More
droids came in firing, targeting his weapons, he realised. They still
weren't trying to kill him. Luke tried to persuade the little ship to
avoid them, but the beams hit on target and with a blinding flash
Luke guns were gone
Oh, no...
They were swooping
round and coming in for another pass, and Luke didn't have either
control of the ship or weapons. He swallowed hard... maybe there was
still something he could do. It had worked on board the ship; maybe
it would work on the droids too.
Forcing himself to relax and
ignore the throbbing of his head, he stretched out with the Force
towards the droids.
Like with the stun trap, he sent them
single, simple command:
Cease-fire.
They kept on
coming, weapons blinking-
And then, abruptly, one half the
droids stopped shooting and shot past his craft.
All right!
Now what? There were still at least fifteen droids out there firing
at him. He had to think fast...Instead of words this time Luke sent
the droids a mental image; one of the droids exploding hoping it
would have the same effect. He bit his lip, hoping his Force-picture
would work. The firing droids got closer, their shots getting nearer
even though his ship was spinning dizzily out of control-
And
then, out of nowhere, the droids that had swept past Luke reappeared,
travelling at a terrifying speed, they aimed directly for the other
droids.
In a series of sudden, violent explosions they
collided. Luke gasped as the space around his fighter erupted in
fire, the heat close enough to fry some more of circuits the droids
weapons hadn't already taken out. What little oxygen there had been
in the ships fuelled the fire as the explosion blossomed outwards.
Luke threw his hand up to shield his eyes and looked away. Then, the
oxygen burned, the fires raced back inwards and fizzled out as the
fighter shot out of the fireball.
Luke opened his eyes and
turned to stare back at the destruction behind him.
"Wow,"
he mouthed, watching the burning embers. He couldn't begin to guess
why it worked but he knew that somehow he was able to control
circuits that used entechment energy. Thanking the Force for small
favours, he turned back to his fried circuit board searching for a
way to fix it. He felt something ominous touch his sense and looked
up from his work.
The small yellow planet filled his vision,
now immeasurably huge and with sandstorms raging across its surface.
With a start Luke realised the fighter was ditching down towards the
planet, dragged by the inescapable force of gravity it plunged
downwards and into the raging atmosphere.
Chapter
Four : Back Down To Earth
Luke? There was no reply. She
could still feel his presence in the Force, but his own grip on her
mind seemed to be failing
Luke? She tried again, but
he didn't hear her. She didn't break the contact though, instead she
stayed with him, with the faint hope he could still sense her but
also she didn't want to pull away form her brother's sense again
when she'd only just found him, it was very comforting to know that
he was still alive and fighting back. She smiled.
What else
had she really expected from Luke?
Hoping he wouldn't
have called it an invasion of his privacy, she tried to find out
where he'd been all this time. Digging deep into his memories she
shivered, there was something dark there, she knew, something he was
mentally avoiding as he fought to get free of the ship. It was
wrapped up tight in a box, sealed with a loud mental command shouting
do not open!!! And she couldn't open it.
She could feel
his concentration as he flew the little craft for all it was worth,
and his quiet dread at the thought of being recaptured, memories
surfacing.
And suddenly, the lid of the box flew open. For a
few seconds she got a glimpse of the inside. She heard shouting,
accusing voices, people screaming, images of a small brown alien
writhing in agony, the memory of the touch of cold metal against
skin, the dread at the touch of a friend's mind-
The box
lid snapped shut, the seal tighter than ever. She gasped at what she
had just seen. What had happened to him?
---
"Sir,
The droids have... they..." the young tech officer struggled to
describe it.
"I saw what happened to them."
Fr'h'tokh interrupted, honking softly to himself. How had Skywalker
done that? He would have to ask Swh'hr'ring about it, but obviously,
the Jedi had found some way of controlling their battle droids, and
that could be dangerous if Skywalker made it back to New Republic
space, which meant it was more important than ever that they
recapture him and make sure he did not escape again. From the
fighter's last trajectory, it looked like it was heading-
somewhat erratically- for Sele4.
The fighter would probably
be capable of re-entry as long as it hadn't been too damaged in the
fire-fight, and after he landed would be their best time to recapture
the Jedi. "L'ar'tok, prepare a landing party- "
"Sir!"
his comm officer shouted excitedly. "Sir! Incoming message from
the Admiral." He gestured to the datapad he held out to his
Elder.
The Admiral? He most certainly knew of Skywalker's
escape...he hoped there wouldn't be too higher price to pay for their
mistakes. He took the datapad from the anxious young ssi-ruuk and
headed into the captains' ready room to take the
conversation.
"Sir." he said as the door shut behind
him "It is an honour to hear from you." he greeted the
Admiral formerly.
Admiral Sh'rtokh scowled at him. "Have you
recaptured Skywalker yet?" he asked, not waiting on
formalities.
"Ah... no, sir. My captain proved quiet...
inadequate at the task. Skywalker's ship is at this moment heading
down to the planet. We will recapture him when he reaches the
surface."
He hoped it would be good enough...
"No,"
the Admiral said. Fr'h'tokh flicked his tongue out nervously "My
ship will be with you in a few hours time. This must be done
properly. Give Skywalker a few days of freedom- we have destroyed all
their hyperspace-capable ships and we are successfully blocking all
calls; he isn't going anywhere. When I arrive we will collect him
from the surface. Your technician- Swh'hr'ring- I'm sure will need
time to fix whatever error allowed Skywalker to escape the first
time. Do not be overly concerned with his escape, though it will
delay us a while, a few... teething problems were to be
expected. Expect my arrival in approximately 20 hours." the
Admiral was about to sign of when he must have caught something in
Fr'h'tokh's expression.
"You disapprove?" he asked.
Fr'h'tokh knew better than to go against the Admiral's orders, but
still..."No, Sir, I just wonder if we are giving Skywalker too
much time to rest before we recapture him." he said, tying to
sound subordinate enough to appease his Admiral
"I think
perhaps that will not be so, I doubt he will have escaped your ship
unscathed and any healing that Skywalker does can only be to our
benefit -we know little about medicine for the human anatomy. Jedi
are renowned for their ability to self-heal. Maybe he will do the job
for us."
Ah, Fr'h'tokh decided that did may sense, in a
way, but he wasn't happy about it. Still he wouldn't push the
matter.
"I understand sir." he said simply.
When
the Admiral signed off, he tossed the pad onto the small table in the
room. It was annoying that the admiral had stopped him going after
Skywalker immediately, but there was nothing to be done about it now.
Striding out of the room, he decided he was going to have some stern
words with Swh'hr'ring.
---
Leia felt a hot
jolt of fear run through her. She searched Luke's emotions and found
the reason for it- he was about to crash.
---
The
little ship twisted and writhed as it plunged down through the
atmosphere, a flaming shell engulfing the ship as it shed speed. Luke
could feel the sweat pouring off him under the intense heat inside
the cockpit. He fought to concentrate on the panel in front of him he
was desperately trying to fix but his eyes kept on glancing out of
the cockpit and past the burning halo to see the planet's surface
bearing down on him, blindingly bright but with a queer radiant
beauty of the suns' reflected light.
The control panel he was
working on sparked suddenly, electricity racing across its surface.
Small bits of melted plastic burned into his skin, he grasped the
joystick pulling it back and, amazingly, he had control again.
As
he fought to bring the ship out of its dizzying spin, it bucked under
him.
Blast it he thought. The ship lurched as it hit a
patch of turbulence rattling the ship violently around throwing Luke
away from the controls. He climbed forward grabbing the yoke again,
trying to hold it steady as the ship began to spin uncontrollably. He
hoped the repulsors still had enough life left in them that he'd be
able to land the craft instead of it making a nasty blotch on the
dazzlingly white surface. Gaping canyons, sheer sided cliffs and huge
mountainous sand dunes reached up to greet him as the ship continued
its plummet through the atmosphere, the fiery halo was now a tail
clinging on behind the ship as still Luke tried to shed speed,
forcing the ship out of its nose-forward dive to the hard
earth.
Wild, unpredictable turbulence threw the little craft
around as it were a feather in the wind, every effort Luke made to
right the craft being countered by the shove of a violent gust
sending the craft dangerously close to those sand dunes or canyons.
Luke tried to aim for a space bare of any of those unforgiving
landforms. He managed to get the thing almost level as the ground
accelerated towards him, the craft lurched suddenly as the
stabilisers gave way, sending the fighter careening to wards a
towering cliff-face, Luke clung on, hoping he wouldn't end as a
small fireball against it's craggy, bare sides.
Points of
sharpened rock, hundreds of meters high reached up from the sides of
the cliff like razor-edged teeth trying to snag the small ship. Luke
determinedly aimed for the sand filled wasteland beyond the cliff's
side.
Using the Force, he tried to tease the little craft
away from their rocky sides, whilst not sending it into another spin.
The towering cliffs were past and the sandy ground spread out to
meet him, he put all his effort into slowing the ship down. As the
surface raced towards him, he gritted his teeth and clung onto the
stick. At last, the repulsors fired, he felt them whine reluctantly
as they kicked in.
The suns reflection blinded him now that he
was out of the cliff's shadow again, the ground suddenly dazzlingly
bright. Only a few meters left...the right repulsor choked and died,
sending the crafting lurching over.
The right side wing hit
the ground with a jarring jolt that threw Luke against his
restraints. The ground wasn't as sandy as he had thought; grit and
pebbles flew up with the sparks as the wing made contact, blowing
around him as the cockpit window gave way in a hail of transparisteel
shards that cut at him. He held onto the controls, not daring to let
go of the joystick yet and closing his eyes to the storm: hoping the
craft would hold together. It careened along the ground shaking him
in his way-too-large restraints, but, mercifully, they held.
The
wing finally snapped sending the ship rolling over and over as the
second wing gave way under the assault. Luke held on, willing the
craft to stop. More stone and sand swirled round him as the craft
stopped rolling and started sliding along the ground again with a
loud screech that tore at his ears.
The restraints ripped and
then snapped. Luke had only a moment's feeling of horror before he
was flung clear of the doomed craft by its own momentum.
The
ground rushed towards him, somehow the speed seeming more real than
when he had been inside the ship.
His last memories before he
hit the ground and blacked out were of the tremendous bang as the
fighter exploded dramatically in a mushroom cloud of blasted sand and
hot metal, and the feeling of pain as the fire reached him, scorching
his skin where the flames took a hold of his clothes.
And
then nothing.
---
Leia woke groggily from a
deep sleep. Sunlight streamed in through her window, bright and
warming. She turned lazily, pulling the sheets into a more
comfortable position and snuggled down into the bed. She could feel
Han's presence in the next room over, he was talking to someone, but
she couldn't tell who. Probably, she should get up and go find out
who it was, but the bed was just too comfortable. As her small
bedroom clock beeped on the hour, she lay, counting the beeps. When
they past ten she began to wonder how it had got so late, she opened
her eyes to look at its display.
12 o'clock !??!
She
sat up in surprise. She must have been really tired last night.
Keeping the sheets hugged around her body, she reached over to the
chair for an old pair of combats and a shirt that lay there. Funny,
she couldn't remember wearing those yesterday, and she never left her
clothes in a heap like that. Shaking her head, she figured it'd come
back to her when she woke up some more. She dressed, brushing sleep
from her eyes and resisting the urge to yawn. Picking up her
hairbrush and beginning to snag the knots out of her hair, she
strolled into their lounge. Han turned round to look at her as she
walked in, his face a mixture of concern and relief. After a
heartbeat, he turned back to the comm,
"Yeah, Wedge,
we'll meet you in the medical bay. See you down there." he
flicked it off and walked over to Leia, studying her face. She
continued to brush her hair, pulling the brush firmly but softly
threw the length of it.
"Are you okay?" he asked,
taking a hold of her shoulders and staring intently into her eyes.
Confused, she put the brush down and stared back into his eyes
"What? Yes, why wouldn't I be?" She moved past him,
heading for the kitchen area. He turned to watch her walk,
"After
last night..." it was his turn to be confused. What was up with
her?
"Hmmm? What about it? You should have woken me you
know I-"
"Leia, I couldn't wake you! You were out
cold! What happened last night?" he paced over to her
side,
"Last night? I-" she shook her head "I
cant remember" the haze started to lift and she turned
back to look at Han.
"Luke..." she whispered,
putting a hand to her head in concentration. She shook it in
frustration.
"You can't remember?" he asked
her.
"No, I-" she broke of as images flooded into
her mind; strange black ships and aliens, vague images battle;
overlaid by the image of a huge sandy planet. She gasped. How had she
forgotten last night?
"What?" Han asked,
concern etched into his face.
"Why couldn't I remember?"
she said, not really asking. Images flashed, again, of the planet
bearing down on her.
"I don't know," he said "but
you've been out cold since about midnight."
Leia nodded,
Han obviously wanted to know what shed seen last night. "he
umm...he was on some cruiser, he escaped, but he crashed and then..."
she shook her head "I guess when he blacked out, I must have
gone with him."
"But is he okay?" Han asked,
trying to break through her hazy memories.
"II
don't know. His ship blew up- I felt the heat- I don't know."
Han
sighed. He guessed he was going to have to wait before she told him
everything that had happened. "Come on, I'll make you something
warm to drink. Then we have to go meet Wedge."
Leia just
nodded again, and then her thoughts caught up with her
"Wedge!
He's back?" Of course he was back, she'd heard Han speaking to
him. This haze upon her consciousness was effecting more than her
memory.
"Yeah, he got back last night, caught a few
hours sleep before calling us." he frowned "He wouldn't
mention what happened over the comm. Corrans' in the medical bay."
he added quietly.
"Why?" Leia asked, concern in her
voice now, too.
"I don't know, he wouldn't say."
Leia thought for a moment. One of those images... it had felt like
the touch of an old friend... Corran? Maybe.
"Come on,
lets skip the drink, we need to find out what
happened."
---
"Wedge!" Han
greeted their friend as they entered the medical wing. The Imperial
Palace had one of the best medical facilities you could find anywhere
in the galaxy, and all the strange equipment always made Leia feel a
little uneasy.
Wedge turned around to face them "Hi,
Han." he said with a slight smile "You sure know how to
pick the difficult assignments don't you?"
Leia looked
at the Corran lying on the bed next to him "How is he?" she
asked.
"He'll be fine." Wedge said, dropping down
into the chair at his side "He went into a healing trance when
we jumped out and- sorry, I guess I better start at the beginning."
he visibly braced himself before he started. Something intangible
crossed his features.
He reached and took Leia's hand
squeezing it. The movement sent a shiver down her spine. She didn't
need the Force to tell this wasn't going to be easy to hear.
"Come
on." He said, dropping her hand "We can talk over here."
He couldn't
let himself be taken back to the ssi-ruuk cruiser. Not just for
himself, but for everyone else; he had come that close to
killing his friends, had killed others who were just as innocent as
they were. He couldn't let that happen again. The very essence of
being a Jedi knight was to protect others, and here, now, protecting
them meant protecting them from him.
It wasn't so much his
Jedi morals kicking in, as it was a sense of inevitability brought on
by his own humanity.
He thoughts went back to Ben on the first
death star. Luke knew that his death wouldn't be for quite such a
high purpose as Obi-Wan's had been, wouldn't have anything to do with
the Force really. Which was strange, in its own way, after having
been trained in the Force for over 15 years now, Luke had fully
expected that when it came, his death would be either to help
preserve the lightside or defeat the darkside. It was surprising to
realise his death with be about humanity, not the Force.
Or
maybe that was what the Force was about; life and death; lightside
and darkside.
He'd never liked the title 'hero'- what
was a hero but a perfect man who killed?
It wasn't an image
that stuck on him well.
Maybe no one would even know he'd
died here, maybe they'd never even know he'd survived Cassrine. Dying
in defence of people who would never even realise you'd died for them
was probably the most heroic deed you could do.
Not that it
mattered whether it was heroic or not, whether it was to do with the
Force or not, it simply had to be done: there was no trick Luke had
to miraculously escape the ssi-ruuk. He could try, but if they caught
him he might never get the chance again to stop them.
He
sighed, resigned to do it.
Inevitably, his thoughts went to
all the people he wouldn't see again, all the things he'd never do.
But then, he'd done enough.
Now it was just a question
of how.