Revealed Identities

Chapter 6: Escape Routes

"Where are we?" Leia asked tiredly, looking through the cockpit window of the Millennium Falcon as star lines whizzed past them.

"Rempinto System, nicknamed 'The Smuggler's Home.'" Han informed her pleasantly.

"Why don't I like the sound of that?" Leia bit out.

"It's not as bad as it seems your worship. It's actually a pretty decent place. This is where the smugglers of the galaxy house up their mistresses, their wives, their kids...it ain't half bad. I think you'll fit in perfect around here," Chewie growled something that Leia was sure was some sort of snort.

Vader stopped outside his son's door, feeling Luke's emotions ooze around him through the Force. It was clear that the boy had not come to terms with the thought that Vader was his father. The revulsion he felt, and the rejection he projected made Vader's blood boil. Yet the image of Vader losing his control and choking Padme made Vader step back from the room. He made an abrupt turn and headed to the nearest lounge. There he took out his anger by flying things across the room: data cards, blasters...frightened Admirals, whatever happened to be lying around.

After the lounge had been cleared in complete and utter terror, Vader calmed down, realizing that that had not been a smart move. It had been incredibly foolish actually. He just hoped that this would not get back to the Emperor. With a sigh, he wished that he could just escape from the Emperor's slimy hands. A sudden idea struck the Dark Lord. With determined steps, he backtracked his route to his son's room.

Images swirled around in Luke's mind as he tried desperately to remember what had happened to him. All that he seemed to come up with was a blurry image of some people taking him out of his X-wing and treating a head wound that he had gotten.

He put his hand up to his head and rubbed at a small spot that felt as though a bacta-patch had been placed there. Massaging his head, he concentrated on making-out the faces of the people who had kidnapped him. With sudden clarity, a face popped out at him. In his mind's image he saw a picture of a woman with red hair and incredibly green eyes. She was saying something, but what had she said? He took a deep, calming breath, letting the Force flow through him. With clarity he remembered her discussion with two males.

"What did you say his name was?" the woman hissed.

"Luke Skywalker. Geeze woman, are you deaf? I still don't think Aaron should have hired you. We don't know anything about you little girl," one of the men had said harshly.

"Why so concerned?" the other man asked, and Luke realized that it was a Toydarian.

"I know his father," she said darkly. Luke shook his head, but that was all he could remember. He sighed in aggravation. Luke looked at the ceiling in dismay. How had he gotten into this predicament? If Vader was telling the truth...

Luke shook his head. He wouldn't think of that. As far as he was concerned, his father had died years ago. In frustration, Luke banged his fist against the wall and to his utter surprise, felt it crush beneath his hand. His hand didn't even hurt after breaking a wall that seemed incredibly solid. Luke decided he would take the time to worry over the illogical solution in front of him later, but right now Luke had better things to think about: namely escape.

The hole that he had created showed him that the wall was hollow on the inside, probably the reason that he could break it so easily. Getting a firm grip on the edges around the hole, Luke ripped with all his strength, and the walling came out with a great deal of ease. He created a large enough entrance for him to slide through, and with no other notions than subtle and quiet guidance from the Force, Luke started his escape.

Vader had a hard time believing his eyes as he opened the door to his son's room. There was a hole in the wall. A giant hole. The room had been turned into a makeshift prison cell out of a normal room so that Vader had better access to him. He couldn't imagine someone being so incompetent that they would not even check the room and make it prisoner proof. Someone would pay. Vader concentrated on trying to locate his son's Force presence. He wasn't far, but his son's thoughts interested Vader.

Vader's concentration broke. Allowing his son to escape through the inner walls of his practically impenetrable war ship would undoubtedly cause a great uproar with everyone, but for the present, he needed Luke out of the way so that the Emperor could not get his wrinkly hands on him.

Luckily for him he had gotten a glimpse into Luke's jumbled thoughts. They had shown him that of the smugglers had actually been one of the Emperor's hands who had found out about his son. What he didn't like, was the fact that she had immediately made the connection between him and his son. He didn't like that part of it at all. Mara Jade would have to be dealt with before she became a greater nuisance.

Leia looked around her as she came to the conclusion that there were worse places that she could be, but at the moment, her mind was blank of producing any. The place was clean enough, if you only counted clean as being free from clutter.

The people who walked around did not look clean at all. Half of them looked either drunk or in some sort of a spice haze, and the other half looked like they were ready to shoot anyone who asked them anything. Which was probably the truth.

"Don't make eye-contact with anyone," Han commented quietly at her side. They walked through the crowds, Han on her left, Chewie on her right, and C-3PO trailing behind them. They hadn't meant to bring him, but Chewie had apparently forgotten that he had been having a conversation with Threepio in his native language when they had been assigned to leave and turned him off and left him aboard in the store room. They decided that it couldn't hurt to have a protocol droid with them, for Leia's sake. Han had connections down here with familiar people, and familiar languages, but he would not be able to translate to Leia everything being said.

"Look alert," Leia heard Han mutter to Chewie. He growled a response that Leia figured was some sort of indignation at being told the obvious.

"Remind me again," Threepio asked from the tail end of the group, "are we trying to find General Nekem or Master Luke?"

"Hopefully both. We believe that Nekem knows where Luke is. We find him, we find Luke." Han explained.

"Oh I do hope so." Threepio muttered. "And R2 as well." Leia hid a smirk at that one. The relationship between the two droids was endearing at best and comical at worst. She wondered how those two had gotten together.

Their group arrived at a small cubicle in a cantina where Han knew the bartender. C-3PO chatted away without consolation, until a Toydarian leaned over his side of the booth and hissed at them.

"Be quiet. I'm trying to talk here, and I can't hear with that junk piece squabbling away. He'd be better scrap heap, I think." The Toydarian chuckled at his own joke. Threepio huffed. The Toydarian went back off into his own conversation, chatting away irritably in Huttesse.

"Why of all the rude and harsh things to-" Threepio's comment trailed off. His head cocked to the side in a poor imitation of a human listening intently.

"Mistress Leia, Master Solo!" Threepio said in a droid's whisper.

"What is it?" Leia asked exasperated.

"I do believe our irritated neighbor in the box next to us may know where Master Luke is," Threepio said with pride.

"How do you know?" Han asked suspiciously, his head turning to the side, seeing if he could pick up any of the conversation. He'd tuned them out when they had started to speak Huttesse. Han only understood it when he was concentrating.

"Because he just said that he 'found out that there was a bigger bounty on that Skywalker's head than what the conniving Rebel had paid for him.'" Han and Chewie looked at each other. Han slid out of the booth and into the one next to him, pulling his blaster out of its pouch and pointing it at the Toydarian.

Han eyed up the Toydarian. He knew the kind of people that his smuggler acquaintance Aaron usually hired. And it wasn't like Aaron had given him more than the basic information. The Toydarian looked like the type who would work in Aaron's crew.

"What do you know about Luke Skywalker?" Han demanded. Leia rolled her eyes. Nothing like the direct approach she supposed. The Toydarian and his companion gulped nervously before starting to spill what they knew.

Luke couldn't believe his luck as he found his way to the main hanger. The hollow path in the wall had led to a ventilation shaft that he crawled through to where he saw his X-wing.

Something about this seemed incredibly easy to him, and it worried him to no ends. No alarms had been set off, and that made him even more suspicious. He had a feeling that they were letting him escape, but where to? He couldn't go back to the Rebellion now. Even if what Vader said wasn't true, there was some sort of trick behind all of this; he knew that much from his experience with escaping the Death Star.

Waiting for over an hour Luke figured out the pattern to guards moving in and around his X-wing. He noticed that more and more they were becoming lax with their vigilance. Just like the storm-trooper that Obi-Wan had manipulated with the Force they were weak minded and not too observant at their posts. Though the lax guard made Luke think Vader wanted him to escape.

'Very good, son,' Vader's voice entered Luke's mind, making the teenager jump.

'Vader?' Luke asked in wonder.

'The Emperor wants you, but he will not have you. I will not let him touch my son. Think over our discussion. I will never be far from knowing where you are anymore. When you want to, you'll know how to contact me. I suggest you go now while the guards are not looking.' Luke scowled.

'I don't want your advice! And I will not want to contact you.' Luke spat through his mind.

'Perhaps not want, but you will need to.' Vader cut off their connection, leaving Luke confused. He couldn't go back to the Rebellion. Yet what could he do? Luke sighed. First things first, he would get out of this hell hole. He slid open a small vent and dropped to the ground, thudding slightly. It was only a matter of minutes before he had passed the guards, entered his X-wing, and ignited the engines. Artoo beeped a surprised sound upon seeing his master, but Luke didn't care. He waited in his X-wing, keying up his nav computer. He waited until the star destroyer had positioned in such a way that he could make the jump into hyperspace almost as soon as he had exited the hangar. As soon as the nav computer told him he would be clear to jump to the nearest system, he blasted past the stunned guards and into light-space as quickly as possible.

Next part...Using the Force