"Leia, we've been searching all night," complained Biggs. "He's nowhere in sight."
"It's all my fault," Leia said. "It's all my stupid fault. I never should have put the plans into Artoo's memory banks."
"You never told me how you got the plans in the first place."
"I'd rather not talk about it. Anyway, it doesn't matter now, does it?" she asked bitterly.
"Wait a minute!" Biggs exclaimed suddenly. "I think I see him!"
************************
The Imperials had traced the plans to a moisture farm on Tatooine. Disguised as Tusken Raiders, the storm troopers had ransacked the place, killing the old man and woman who lived there. But the plans were nowhere to be found.
"Lord Vader," the commanding officer said to the hologram of the Sith Lord, "we cannot locate the plans."
For a moment, the only sound was the awful woosh of Vader's breathing. Then he replied, "They are still somewhere on Tatooine with the plans. Find them and kill them."
"M'lord, what if they have already escaped?"
"They have not."
The commanding officer wanted to ask how he could be so sure, but Vader's tone of voice was one that discouraged any further questioning. "Yes, milord. And the moisture farm?"
"Destroy it."
***************************
"Artoo!" shouted Leia, running toward the squat dome-shaped droid. "Artoo, you stupid droid, don't you ever do that to me again! Do you realize all the trouble--" She stopped in the middle of her sentence when Artoo began beeping angrily.
"What's he saying?" Biggs asked, but she was too busy yelling at Artoo to translate.
"No, I did not tell you to get a transport to Yavin IV! I said that if anything happened to us you had to get there on your own." More beeping. "Artoo, stop being so stubborn! We need to go and you're coming with us!" Three short beeps and a whistle. "What?"
At that moment, Biggs screamed, and Leia spun around to face a masked Tusken Raider.
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