Thanks for all the positive feedback everyone.

Chapter Six

Deployment for Bakura



Luke and Anakin were on board Luke's flagship, Flurry. Han Leia and Chewie boarded the falcon an hour ago. Manchisco looked over at Luke and Vader. How the hell Vader got this assignment, she would never know. What were they thinking? Skywalker on the other hand, she could trust but she could not trust the sith lord. Luke was sitting in a repulsor chair as he called out instructions.

Luke called out; "Report?" Anakin was going to let Luke handle most of the commands, when it called for it then he would step in. Manchisco looked over at her navigator, the Duro chittered looking up with red glowing eyes.

"We are ready to jump commander." Manchisco translated.

Luke got on the comm., "On my mark, jump to lightspeed." Luke contacted each ship, and gave them the signal to jump.

After making the jump to lightspeed Luke turned to his father, "time for that healing trance?"

Anakin nodded. "You go ahead and I will keep an eye on things." Luke was a little unsure of leaving his father on the bridge like this, but no one questioned them so far, he knew as soon as he leaves the bridge--most likely the questioning would begin. Luke left the bridge and headed down to his room. He was still unsure why Obi Wan asked his father to do this. He would just have to trust Ben's judgment.

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Anakin surveyed the bridge before him, he felt a lot of hostilities towards him, and he knew this was to be expected.

He turned to navigations, "Report?" Navigations control said something, and Manchisco translated. "Sir, we are right on schedule. We will be dropping out of the first hyperspace jump in four hours."

Anakin replied, "Excellent, continue on surveying, if anything changes I want to know about it." Manchisco nodded, he's changed. She thought, he's not the same person that everyone has grown to fear over the past two decades.

Manchisco swallowed hard and asked the question that had to be on everyone's mind, "Sir if you don't mind me asking." Anakin gave her an encouraging nod, he wanted to try and put the crew at ease as much as possible. "What made you defect over to the alliance?"

Anakin replied, "I have my reasons." He was not to let on with out Luke or Leias permission. Manchisco knew that there was an underlying to those words, but she was not about to press him any further.

Anakin surveyed the bridge. "Any other questions?" Everyone regarded the sith lord in silence, something was different about him, but what?

A communications officer raised his hand.

Anakin acknowledged him. "Yes Lt Shern?"

He swallowed hard feeling fear as Vader acknowledged him, " I was walking by the medical room that Commander Skywalker was in when I heard Leia say,"

Anakin cut him off. "I want to speak to you in private Lt." Shern nodded. Anakin turned to Manchisco, "Captain you have the bridge." He walked out and the Lt followed him. They all regarded each other, the way Lt Shern saying something about Leia and the way the sith lord reacted. Something was going on, and certain people knew about it.

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When Anakin and Shern, found an empty room, Anakin closed the door behind him and spun on his heel and faced the Lt. "Ok, I want this out in the open right here right now."

The Lt looked up into Vaders black mask as the sith lord towered over him. "I overheard Leia say that you were her father and that Luke was her brother. Is that true?"

Anakin nodded; "Yes it is true, Luke and Leia are twins and I am their father. This conversation cannot leave this room. Are we clear?"

The Lt was scared as he replied in fear, "Yes sir, so that is why you defected, you wanted to spend time making amends with everyone."

Anakin nodded as another thought caught up to him, " you did not tell anyone did you?"

The Lt shook his head. "No."

Anakin eyed him. The Lt was not lying. "Good. I am not saying anything unless I have Leia and Luke's permission to do so." The Lt nodded in understanding.

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They walked back to the bridge, everyone's gaze turned on the Lt and the Sith Lord as they reentered the bridge. The Lt was still alive; everyone began to whisper amongst themselves. Anakin surveyed everyone; they were trying to figure out what was going on. He knew that this secret was eventually going to come out in the open, only a handful of people knew about it. Anakin watched as the bridge crew threw questioning glances at the Lt, wondering what that was all about.

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Luke came out of his healing trance 3 and half hours later. He got into his repulsor chair and headed down to the bridge. When he came on deck, the Lt regarded him with sympathies. Luke was surprised to see this; he glanced over at his father with a question poised on his lips.

His father shook his head, //I will tell you later.// Luke nodded as he caught on how to what his father said through the force. Did that Lt find out about Luke and Leia's secret?

Instead Luke said, "Report." Anakin turned to his son, "Commander, we are right on schedule, we make our first drop out of hyperspace in half and hour."

Luke nodded in approval, "Good. He looked over to navigations and asked. "How does our course look?"

The navigation officer chittered. Manchisco translated, "Our course looks good and we will be coming out in twenty-five minutes." Luke acknowledged, "Good, if anything changes you are to report to either Lord Vader or I."

Manchisco acknowledged, "Yes Commander."

Luke turned back to his father, there was something in his stance that said something was wrong. Luke asked through the force. //What is it?//

His father answered back.. //See that Lt that gave you sympathies look?//

Luke wanted to know. //Yes, does he know? //

Anakin threw at him, //Yes he overheard Leia say that I was her father and you were her brother.// Luke looked uneasy. //It's ok Luke I took care of it; I made sure that what I told him would not leave the room.// Luke nodded, he needed to talk to the Lt, it could be a disaster if word of this got out during this mission.

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The navigations officer chattered something. "Commander, Lord Vader, we are coming out of hyperspace." Manchisco translated. "I suggest you strap down." Luke and Anakin nodded as they strapped down for reentry. The star lines disappeared, and they took a few minutes to recalculate. Then they reentered lightspeed.

Luke eyed his father, "time to go back into a healing trance. And I mean for the both of us. Manchisco you have the bridge." Luke commanded.

Manchisco nodded as she acknowledged, "You got it commander."

As they passed the Lt, Anakin said; "Remember what I told you Lt Shern." The Lt nodded, "I will not forget Lord Vader." After the two left the bridge everyone gathered round the Lt.

"So what did Lord Vader tell you?" Manchisco asked as she flung some hair out of her eyes. The Lt replied, "Not my secret to tell, it belongs to Luke, Leia and Vader."

Manchisco thought about this, "It does, does it? Hmmm, not too hard to figure out what is going on." Just then Leias voice came over the comm.

Manchisco nodded to the Lt, who answered. "Is Commander Skywalker or Lord Vader there?" Leia asked.

"No ambassador, they both went into healing trances about five minutes ago." Manchisco answered. "I can go wake them if it is urgent?"

Leia replied, "No it's not that urgent. I would like to know as soon as they come out."

Manchisco said, "I will tell them."

Leia answered, "Thank you Captain. Organa out."

Manchisco turned back to her pray. "Like I said before I was interrupted by Organa, it's not hard to figure out. Is it Lt?"

Shern looked away, "I don't know what you are talking about Captain?"

Manchisco said icily, "Lt, don't play games, we all know that there is something going on between Luke, Leia and Vader. So spill it!" Wedge walked in as he heard Manchisco prompt the poor Lt.

The Lt got up and looked over at his sub ordinate, "Henson, you have communications." Shern walked out.

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Wedge looked at Manchisco in disapproval, "I thought you were always trust worthy Captain?"

She looked over in surprise to see Captain Antillies standing there. "Captain." She greeted him.

Wedge stated, "I always thought that I could trust you, but after the way I saw you pick on that Lt, for classified details is beyond me."

Her face paled as she heard this. Wedge continued, "This is not his secret to tell, he came across the details sometime last night, he was not suppose to hear. Luke asked me to keep an eye on the bridge because he feels that if this information gets out, could spell disaster for this mission."

Manchisco nodded, "It won't happen again Captain."

Wedge acknowledged, "See that it doesn't captain. Are we clear on this?" Manchisco nodded as she realized that Wedge knew what was going on. "Clear Captain Antillies." Wedge walked out, he was determined to track down the Lt.

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He found the Lt in the mess hall. Wedge sat down, and made his presence known. "Well, looks like Luke. Leia and Vader can trust you." The Lt glanced at Wedge in surprise. "Please Captain, don't make me tell."

Wedge sat back in his chair with a serious expression, "I know what is going on, so if you need someone to talk to about this when the pressure becomes to much, you can talk to me."

The Lt glanced up, "When did you find out?"

Wedge smiled as he answered, "I was at that meeting last night in Lukes room."

The Lt returned the smile. "I kind off walked by when I heard Leia tell Luke and Vader that they were in no condition to go. Then I was about to ask Vader about it on the bridge he cut me off and asked to see me in private."

Wedge glanced at him, "Yup, well if any of this gets out it could spell disaster for the mission, the last thing is for people to find out why he defected. He has put himself into danger by coming on this mission. If they find out about his treachery then they will execute him on the spot. So I suggest if you need someone to talk to you can approach, Han, Luke, Leia, Vader or myself, if you can translate wookiee, then Chewbacca as well. Are we clear on this Lt?"

The Lt nodded as he replied "Crystal clear sir."

Wedge nodded. "Good, you can take a few minutes to collect yourself then head back to your post. I will be on the bridge to keep everyone in line until Luke and Vader are back." The Lt nodded in relief to hear Wedge was going to stay on the bridge.

Wedge stood up, "I will see you back on the bridge, you have ten minutes." He walked out of the room.

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Anakin sat at a work desk as he picked up the cylinder and began to attach components inside. He picked up the diamond Padme gave to him sometime after they got married, memories came flooding back of that night, he allowed a sad smile as fond memories enveloped him.

//Padme held out a box and handed it to Anakin. Anakin smiled as he accepted the box. "What is it?"

Padme smiled as she answered, "Open it and see."

Anakin curiously opened the box and smiled in appreciation at the diamond inside. He gently picked it up and eyed it appreciatively. It was the perfect cut to be used in a lightsaber; he looked down into her liquid brown eyes and slowly raised his hand up and tilted her head back and pushed his lips against her soft petal ones.

As she gently broke the kiss she did not break her hold as she gazed up into his sapphire blue eyes. "Encase you either decide to change the color of your lightsaber or decide to make a spare."

Anakin slowly nodded as he thought about the color of his blade now, force how much he loved her. "Thank you. I love you so much Sweet Angel."

Padme smiled with love fully in her eyes for him. "Your welcome and I love you so much too Ani."//

Anakin shook his head to clear the memory from his mind, he noticed that his hands began to shake. He put down the diamond as tears bleared his vision. He missed her so much. He didn't want to give his hopes up, but if she was still alive he was determined to find her.

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