Luke walked solemnly through the quiet corridors of the small imperial cruise ship, pursued by his desires and fears, unable to sleep. Even Threepio and Artoo sat quietly recharging their batteries as he wandered in the dark. He paused at the end of the hallway, at an open doorway, peering into the darkness and watching the memories of his past flicker before him like an old holoplay, silently recounting his adventures over the recent weeks. Ben Kenobi stepped out of the darkness and placed his hand on Luke's shoulder.

"The force will be with you," he said. "Always."

"Ben?" Luke asked the apparition, but it dimmed once more to nothing. Time froze for Luke, eons of mystery and troubled lifetime passed before he decided he should spend his time practicing with the force instead of moping about the past. He wandered back to the cockpit and meditated in the captain's chair for over an hour, until alarms rang throughout the ship, snapping him out of it.

Kee rumbled into the room worriedly as Luke brought the ship out of hyperspace in the shadow of a looming Star Destroyer. He drew in his breath and held it until the ship entered Coruscant's thin atmosphere, unbothered by imperial ships. Princess Leia sat down in the copilot's chair, her hair clean fixed up into buns, but still in the miner's uniform.

"That seemed a little too easy coming in," Luke said.

"We should land the ship as soon as possible and find other transportation to the rendezvous point," Leia said.

Luke nodded. "All right."

He set the ship down in a parking lot behind a restaurant, and led Leia, Kee, Threepio, and Artoo out into the loud city night. Odd-shaped vehicles flew overhead, around, below in all directions.

A few yellow speeders hovered nearby, awaiting passengers to pay them for a ride.

The five companions walked edgily toward them, glancing about in all directions. Luke stopped and placed his fingers to his forehead, tried to shake clear his suddenly clouded thoughts. The others stopped and looked silently at him. A small rounded off cruiser dropped down from the clouds, barreling toward the yellow speeders-for-hire. Engines started, and speeders scrambled to escape the kamikaze path of the space cruiser, which then set down rapidly in front of the five rebels. They watched silently as the ramp slowly extended, the hatch door slid up, and then a large black-scaled lizard man leapt from the top of the ramp at them.

Kee stepped forward and punched it midair on the side of the head, sending it tumbling off course. Skak rose and leapt again in one motion, tumbled all into the middle of the large furred beast, and the two rumbled, tumbling around the street with no regard for those around, who stood and watched.

"Kee!" Luke shouted. "We can't stay here much longer!"

Kee rolled the lizard man over to the edge, and tried to force him over, but Skak slithered out smoothly and got on top of her, wrapped thick black fingers around her neck. Kee thrashed and punched, but couldn't escape the reptile's iron grasp.

Leia pulled her gun to shoot the lizard, but a red blaster bolt scorched the air and stopped on Skak's scaled back. A brown-skinned man in purple and lavender clothes ran out of the restaurant, cape billowing behind him. Skak turned to find the source of the blast, but in his distraction Kee tossed him over the edge of the sidewalk, turned and watched him flail helplessly through the air for a moment.

"Lando Calrissian," the brown man said, extending his hand to Luke while eyeing Leia with his most charming smile.

Luke shook his hand while Leia smiled back. "We appreciate your help," she said.

"Pretty convenient that you happened to be right there to help us," Luke said, eyeing Lando suspiciously.

Lando chuckled. "I've run into that guy before," he said. "You must be working for the rebellion if he's trying to kill you."

They said nothing.

"Actually, sir, we're on a very important mission to..."

Luke clamped his hand over Threepio's mouth as Kee finally lumbered over to tower over Lando.

"Whatever's happening," Lando said, "We shouldn't stand around too long. You never know when the empire's going to get the drop on you."

Lando turned and headed back for the restaurant. Luke and Leia looked curiously to each other, then Luke walked briskly off after Lando. "Hey!" he called after him. Lando stopped and turned to him, smiling. "Are you part of the rebellion?" he asked quietly.

"I'm a friend of Captain Solo's," he replied.

"I'm Luke Skywalker."

Luke didn't think it possible, but Lando's smile broadened even further. "A friend of Han's is a friend of mine," Lando said. "But if you'll excuse me, I've got some important business to attend. I'll see you again before this is all over."

Luke watched him duck back into the restaurant, then turned and found Leia standing alone at the bottom of Skak's ship ramp, watching him impatiently. He quickly rejoined her and took the ship out into the Coruscant evening.