Chapter XXV - Meet The Kids
Trapper had always wanted to ride on a starship. But now that he was actually on board one, he didn't enjoy it in the least. He was too frightened to enjoy anything.
He hoped Mom was okay. Those stormtroopers had beaten her pretty hard before dragging him away. They hadn't been exactly gentle with him either. His arms still hurt where that commander had grabbed him.
Rachel sat across the cell from him, picking lint off her pajamas. She had a bruise on her cheek where someone had clamped their hand over her mouth to keep her from screaming. When she looked up at him, her eyes were bright with fear.
"Don't be scared, Rachel," he told her, unable to keep his voice from trembling.
"I'm cold," she whimpered. "I want Mori."
"Come sit by me and you won't be so cold," Trapper offered. "I can't get your Wookie for you, but I think you'll live without him for awhile."
She snuggled into his side, and he curled an arm around her. Somehow it comforted him to know he wasn't the only frightened one. He took some strength in that.
He must have dozed off, for the next thing he knew two stormtroopers were shaking him awake. He wondered if they were the same ones who had ambushed them near the airport. It was hard to tell. They all looked pretty much alike.
"Stand up," one of them ordered -- he couldn't tell which.
They obeyed. The first nudged Trapper out. He turned while exiting to see the second stormtrooper squatting and whispering to Rachel. She whispered something back.
/What's that all about?/ he wondered.
A dozen Royal Guards stood outside the detention block, resplendent in their crimson helmets and robes. The troopers herded the children toward them and saluted.
"The girl comes with us," said their leader.
"What about the boy?" asked the first trooper.
"Take care of it," the guard replied without emotion.
Trapper thought he knew what the guard meant by that. His guts churned.
The Royal Guards escorted Rachel down the corridor. The first trooper shoved Trapper between the shoulders to get him moving in the other direction.
"I'll handle this," he told his comrade.
"Don't forget to clean up after," the second trooper warned.
His legs felt like Jello as he walked, expecting at any moment to feel the searing of a blaster bolt in his back. He'd seen plenty of action movies. This was always the part where the hero concocted some daring getaway plan. Here he was supposed to somehow dupe his captor and flee. How hard could that be? Troopers were dumb. But fear paralyzed his brain, and he couldn't think of any way out of this situation.
/At least I'll die running/ he decided finally. He glanced around to see if the way was clear. As he was looking, his gaze fell on the stormtrooper's pistol.
/The safety's on!/
All this time the soldier had his blaster's safety catch on! No doubt he'd figured the simple presence of a blaster would threaten a kid into submission. Trapper quietly thanked Luke for teaching him a little bit about Imperial weapons.
He turned around to face his captor. "Can I say something before you kill me?"
The trooper shrugged. "Make it quick."
He pulled off his T-shirt. "Eat my dust!" he shouted, throwing the garment into the stormtrooper's face and bolting down a side corridor.
"What the -- hey!" the trooper shouted.
Trapper didn't even turn to look at his pursuer. He just charged down the hall, looking around desperately for a hiding place. Three more troopers were standing by the wall gossiping, and they gave him curious glances as he sped past.
"Stop him!" the first trooper panted.
As Trapper rounded a corner he spotted a queer-looking droid slowly wheeling its way along. It looked like a miniature Jawa sandcrawler with a pair of grasping arms on the front. On impulse he slapped a button on its front, and he nearly cheered when the droid's top slid open. Its blocky body was hollow and half-filled with clothing. It hadn't occurred to him that they did laundry on the Executor, but with upwards of a thousand crew members on board of course it would be necessary.
By the time the four stormtroopers rounded the bend, Trapper was nowhere to be found.
"He couldn't have gone far," one of them declared. "Search the halls. If you see him, shoot him."
Stormtroopers were not renowned for their intellect, so none of them thought to investigate the laundry droid, where Trapper huddled and hardly dared to breathe.
***
Rachel couldn't remember what the men in the red robes were called. She knew the ones in white were stormtroopers, but she didn't know what to call the red ones. Maybe Daddy would tell her when she got home.
That stormtrooper back at the dungeon had been very nice, not like the ones who had broken her bedroom window and grabbed her. He had told her he and some of his stormtrooper friends were going to try and send her back home. So she had told him something he said he would use as a code word. She hoped he would hurry and get her home. This place was scary.
She thought these men looked pretty in their red clothes. She liked the color red. Mommy was always dressing her in pink and purple. Those were nice colors, but she liked red.
"Where we going?" she asked loudly.
One of them looked at her. "To the Emperor."
"Oh." She didn't like the Emperor. He looked ugly. And he was scary. She always shut her eyes on the part of the movie where he was zapping Luke. It looked like it hurt.
They stopped in front of a big set of doors guarded by two more red-robed men, who opened the doors for them. She smiled and waved at one of them.
"Your clothes are pretty!" she shouted.
"Uh... thanks," he replied.
"You don't address guards while they're on duty," the man next to her scolded.
"What's that mean?"
"When they're standing by the door, don't talk to them."
"Why not?"
He sighed. Grownups did that a lot when she asked questions. What was wrong with asking questions? She just wanted to know how things worked and why.
"He's supposed to be doing a job," he explained. "He can't do it if you're talking to him."
"Oh. Okay."
They went inside a big room with lots of windows where she could see the stars and part of the Earth, all pretty with swirls of blue and brown and white. Staring out one of the windows was a man in blue robes with lots of white hair that stood up a little. Just beside him was a big black chair with buttons on the arms.
"Your Highness, we've brought the girl," the man beside her said.
"Good," the man in blue said, turning around. "Now leave us."
The man bowed and left.
Rachel screwed up her face, confused. The Emperor didn't look like the Emperor from the old movies. He looked more like the man from the two new movies, with a big- sleeved robe covered with fancy stitches and a big friendly smile. The only difference was that his face was really pale and his eyes were a funny orange color.
"Hello, Rachel," he said in a nice-sounding voice. "Do you know who I am?"
She nodded. "You're Pal-puh-teen," she said slowly, trying to get all the parts right. "I saw you on 'Fan-tum Menace.'"
"Really?" he said, his smile getting bigger.
"Uh-huh." She cocked her head. "You sure got a big nose."
He laughed a little. "You're a cute child, Rachel." He sat down on the throne and patted his knee. "Come sit with me."
She didn't want to. The Emperor was a mean man, even though he looked nice right now. She knew that. He made everyone in the galaxy scared of him, even Vader. Nice people didn't scare other people on purpose. And he had shocked Luke in the movie. That was really mean. Luke didn't do anything to deserve getting shocked.
"Come now, Rachel," he said in a very nice voice, sounding almost like her grandpa. "I don't bite."
She shook her head.
"At least come a little closer?"
She looked at her feet, took one step, and looked back at him.
"Well, that's a start," he replied. "Tell me, child, how do you feel?"
"I'm hungry," she whined. "And I left Mori at home."
The Emperor pushed a button on his chair. "Meal for one, child portions," he ordered. "There now, you can eat and feel better. But who is this Mori? Is he a pet?"
"Kinda." She looked down and dug her toe into the floor. "He's a Wookie doll."
"I see. Well, if it makes you feel better, I can get you a new Wookie doll. He won't be as special as Mori, but he'll still be yours."
"Thank you," she said shyly.
"Thank you, your Highness," he corrected. "You say that to me from now on, all right? It's a way to show respect."
She didn't want to show respect to the mean old Emperor, but she nodded anyway. "Yes, your Highness."
"Good, Rachel," he said with a really big smile. "You're so smart, and you learn so fast. I think we're going to be good friends."
A droid brought in a tray with some good-smelling food on it and gave it to Rachel. She sat down on the floor, set the tray in her lap, and started eating. She knew she should use her manners, but she was so hungry.
"Slow down, little one!" he told her. "You'll choke yourself."
"This is good," she said with her mouth full. "Thank you." Then she remembered. "Your Highness."
"I'm glad you enjoy it. Stars, you really were hungry."
She ate everything on the tray and even licked it clean. She wondered how long she and Trapper had been in that dungeon. Long enough to miss breakfast and maybe lunch too, she thought.
"Now child," the Emperor said once the droid had left with the tray, "I'd like to talk to you. What do you know about the Force?"
She stared at him. "You mean you don't know nothin' about the Force?"
"I know plenty about the Force. I want to know what you know, though."
"Well, the Force is where you pick something up without touching it, or you go like this and something flies into your hand." She held out her hand. "Or you go like this and trick somebody's brain." She waved her fingers. "Or you go like this and they choke." She made a C-shape with her fingers. "Or you shoot lightning from your fingers and shock somebody, though that's not very nice to do."
He nodded. "Go on."
She thought a minute. "The Force has a light side and a dark side and it holds the universe together. Like duct tape, Cody says. He thinks it's funny, but I don't get it."
"Keep talking."
"Ummmm... people who use the Force have lightsabers. Sith have red lightsabers and Jedi have blue or green ones -- except Mace, his is purple. The Jedi are on the light side. They wear robes and have funny haircuts and they're the good guys. The Sith are on the dark side. They wear black and are all named Darth and they're the bad guys..."
"Stop there, Rachel. Now who told you the Sith are bad?"
"No one! They just are!" She rolled her eyes. Did she have to explain this to him? "Jedi are good and Sith are bad and they fight each other!"
"And how do you know this?" he asked, giving a funny little grin.
"I watched the Star Wars movies."
"Ah. And do all movies tell the truth?"
"Uh-uh. There's a dragon in 'Sleeping Beauty,' and there's no such thing as dragons. People fly in 'Peter Pan' but they can't really. Candles and clocks and teapots can't talk like in 'Beauty and the Beast'..."
"I get the point, Rachel," he interrupted. "So if those movies are wrong, what makes you say the Star Wars movies are accurate?"
"What's that mean?"
"Accurate means correct."
"'Course Star Wars is correct! It told all about you guys!"
"And everything happened in real life like it happened in Star Wars?"
She hadn't thought about that. "No, I guess not. You and Vader didn't die like in the movie."
He smiled really big. "So if it's wrong about us dying, it could be wrong about the Sith being bad guys."
"Nuh-uh! The Sith are still bad! Dark is evil!"
The Emperor made a tired grown-up sigh. "Rachel, you have to learn to not believe everything someone tells you just because they say it's right. You're old enough to make your own opinions."
"What's opinions?"
"An opinion is what you think of something or someone."
"Oh, I got lots of opinions! I think Jedi are good guys and Sith are bad guys, and I think you're mean and ugly!"
He closed his eyes and whispered to himself "It's easier than converting Skywalker, it's easier than converting Skywalker, it's easier than converting Skywalker..."
Trapper had always wanted to ride on a starship. But now that he was actually on board one, he didn't enjoy it in the least. He was too frightened to enjoy anything.
He hoped Mom was okay. Those stormtroopers had beaten her pretty hard before dragging him away. They hadn't been exactly gentle with him either. His arms still hurt where that commander had grabbed him.
Rachel sat across the cell from him, picking lint off her pajamas. She had a bruise on her cheek where someone had clamped their hand over her mouth to keep her from screaming. When she looked up at him, her eyes were bright with fear.
"Don't be scared, Rachel," he told her, unable to keep his voice from trembling.
"I'm cold," she whimpered. "I want Mori."
"Come sit by me and you won't be so cold," Trapper offered. "I can't get your Wookie for you, but I think you'll live without him for awhile."
She snuggled into his side, and he curled an arm around her. Somehow it comforted him to know he wasn't the only frightened one. He took some strength in that.
He must have dozed off, for the next thing he knew two stormtroopers were shaking him awake. He wondered if they were the same ones who had ambushed them near the airport. It was hard to tell. They all looked pretty much alike.
"Stand up," one of them ordered -- he couldn't tell which.
They obeyed. The first nudged Trapper out. He turned while exiting to see the second stormtrooper squatting and whispering to Rachel. She whispered something back.
/What's that all about?/ he wondered.
A dozen Royal Guards stood outside the detention block, resplendent in their crimson helmets and robes. The troopers herded the children toward them and saluted.
"The girl comes with us," said their leader.
"What about the boy?" asked the first trooper.
"Take care of it," the guard replied without emotion.
Trapper thought he knew what the guard meant by that. His guts churned.
The Royal Guards escorted Rachel down the corridor. The first trooper shoved Trapper between the shoulders to get him moving in the other direction.
"I'll handle this," he told his comrade.
"Don't forget to clean up after," the second trooper warned.
His legs felt like Jello as he walked, expecting at any moment to feel the searing of a blaster bolt in his back. He'd seen plenty of action movies. This was always the part where the hero concocted some daring getaway plan. Here he was supposed to somehow dupe his captor and flee. How hard could that be? Troopers were dumb. But fear paralyzed his brain, and he couldn't think of any way out of this situation.
/At least I'll die running/ he decided finally. He glanced around to see if the way was clear. As he was looking, his gaze fell on the stormtrooper's pistol.
/The safety's on!/
All this time the soldier had his blaster's safety catch on! No doubt he'd figured the simple presence of a blaster would threaten a kid into submission. Trapper quietly thanked Luke for teaching him a little bit about Imperial weapons.
He turned around to face his captor. "Can I say something before you kill me?"
The trooper shrugged. "Make it quick."
He pulled off his T-shirt. "Eat my dust!" he shouted, throwing the garment into the stormtrooper's face and bolting down a side corridor.
"What the -- hey!" the trooper shouted.
Trapper didn't even turn to look at his pursuer. He just charged down the hall, looking around desperately for a hiding place. Three more troopers were standing by the wall gossiping, and they gave him curious glances as he sped past.
"Stop him!" the first trooper panted.
As Trapper rounded a corner he spotted a queer-looking droid slowly wheeling its way along. It looked like a miniature Jawa sandcrawler with a pair of grasping arms on the front. On impulse he slapped a button on its front, and he nearly cheered when the droid's top slid open. Its blocky body was hollow and half-filled with clothing. It hadn't occurred to him that they did laundry on the Executor, but with upwards of a thousand crew members on board of course it would be necessary.
By the time the four stormtroopers rounded the bend, Trapper was nowhere to be found.
"He couldn't have gone far," one of them declared. "Search the halls. If you see him, shoot him."
Stormtroopers were not renowned for their intellect, so none of them thought to investigate the laundry droid, where Trapper huddled and hardly dared to breathe.
***
Rachel couldn't remember what the men in the red robes were called. She knew the ones in white were stormtroopers, but she didn't know what to call the red ones. Maybe Daddy would tell her when she got home.
That stormtrooper back at the dungeon had been very nice, not like the ones who had broken her bedroom window and grabbed her. He had told her he and some of his stormtrooper friends were going to try and send her back home. So she had told him something he said he would use as a code word. She hoped he would hurry and get her home. This place was scary.
She thought these men looked pretty in their red clothes. She liked the color red. Mommy was always dressing her in pink and purple. Those were nice colors, but she liked red.
"Where we going?" she asked loudly.
One of them looked at her. "To the Emperor."
"Oh." She didn't like the Emperor. He looked ugly. And he was scary. She always shut her eyes on the part of the movie where he was zapping Luke. It looked like it hurt.
They stopped in front of a big set of doors guarded by two more red-robed men, who opened the doors for them. She smiled and waved at one of them.
"Your clothes are pretty!" she shouted.
"Uh... thanks," he replied.
"You don't address guards while they're on duty," the man next to her scolded.
"What's that mean?"
"When they're standing by the door, don't talk to them."
"Why not?"
He sighed. Grownups did that a lot when she asked questions. What was wrong with asking questions? She just wanted to know how things worked and why.
"He's supposed to be doing a job," he explained. "He can't do it if you're talking to him."
"Oh. Okay."
They went inside a big room with lots of windows where she could see the stars and part of the Earth, all pretty with swirls of blue and brown and white. Staring out one of the windows was a man in blue robes with lots of white hair that stood up a little. Just beside him was a big black chair with buttons on the arms.
"Your Highness, we've brought the girl," the man beside her said.
"Good," the man in blue said, turning around. "Now leave us."
The man bowed and left.
Rachel screwed up her face, confused. The Emperor didn't look like the Emperor from the old movies. He looked more like the man from the two new movies, with a big- sleeved robe covered with fancy stitches and a big friendly smile. The only difference was that his face was really pale and his eyes were a funny orange color.
"Hello, Rachel," he said in a nice-sounding voice. "Do you know who I am?"
She nodded. "You're Pal-puh-teen," she said slowly, trying to get all the parts right. "I saw you on 'Fan-tum Menace.'"
"Really?" he said, his smile getting bigger.
"Uh-huh." She cocked her head. "You sure got a big nose."
He laughed a little. "You're a cute child, Rachel." He sat down on the throne and patted his knee. "Come sit with me."
She didn't want to. The Emperor was a mean man, even though he looked nice right now. She knew that. He made everyone in the galaxy scared of him, even Vader. Nice people didn't scare other people on purpose. And he had shocked Luke in the movie. That was really mean. Luke didn't do anything to deserve getting shocked.
"Come now, Rachel," he said in a very nice voice, sounding almost like her grandpa. "I don't bite."
She shook her head.
"At least come a little closer?"
She looked at her feet, took one step, and looked back at him.
"Well, that's a start," he replied. "Tell me, child, how do you feel?"
"I'm hungry," she whined. "And I left Mori at home."
The Emperor pushed a button on his chair. "Meal for one, child portions," he ordered. "There now, you can eat and feel better. But who is this Mori? Is he a pet?"
"Kinda." She looked down and dug her toe into the floor. "He's a Wookie doll."
"I see. Well, if it makes you feel better, I can get you a new Wookie doll. He won't be as special as Mori, but he'll still be yours."
"Thank you," she said shyly.
"Thank you, your Highness," he corrected. "You say that to me from now on, all right? It's a way to show respect."
She didn't want to show respect to the mean old Emperor, but she nodded anyway. "Yes, your Highness."
"Good, Rachel," he said with a really big smile. "You're so smart, and you learn so fast. I think we're going to be good friends."
A droid brought in a tray with some good-smelling food on it and gave it to Rachel. She sat down on the floor, set the tray in her lap, and started eating. She knew she should use her manners, but she was so hungry.
"Slow down, little one!" he told her. "You'll choke yourself."
"This is good," she said with her mouth full. "Thank you." Then she remembered. "Your Highness."
"I'm glad you enjoy it. Stars, you really were hungry."
She ate everything on the tray and even licked it clean. She wondered how long she and Trapper had been in that dungeon. Long enough to miss breakfast and maybe lunch too, she thought.
"Now child," the Emperor said once the droid had left with the tray, "I'd like to talk to you. What do you know about the Force?"
She stared at him. "You mean you don't know nothin' about the Force?"
"I know plenty about the Force. I want to know what you know, though."
"Well, the Force is where you pick something up without touching it, or you go like this and something flies into your hand." She held out her hand. "Or you go like this and trick somebody's brain." She waved her fingers. "Or you go like this and they choke." She made a C-shape with her fingers. "Or you shoot lightning from your fingers and shock somebody, though that's not very nice to do."
He nodded. "Go on."
She thought a minute. "The Force has a light side and a dark side and it holds the universe together. Like duct tape, Cody says. He thinks it's funny, but I don't get it."
"Keep talking."
"Ummmm... people who use the Force have lightsabers. Sith have red lightsabers and Jedi have blue or green ones -- except Mace, his is purple. The Jedi are on the light side. They wear robes and have funny haircuts and they're the good guys. The Sith are on the dark side. They wear black and are all named Darth and they're the bad guys..."
"Stop there, Rachel. Now who told you the Sith are bad?"
"No one! They just are!" She rolled her eyes. Did she have to explain this to him? "Jedi are good and Sith are bad and they fight each other!"
"And how do you know this?" he asked, giving a funny little grin.
"I watched the Star Wars movies."
"Ah. And do all movies tell the truth?"
"Uh-uh. There's a dragon in 'Sleeping Beauty,' and there's no such thing as dragons. People fly in 'Peter Pan' but they can't really. Candles and clocks and teapots can't talk like in 'Beauty and the Beast'..."
"I get the point, Rachel," he interrupted. "So if those movies are wrong, what makes you say the Star Wars movies are accurate?"
"What's that mean?"
"Accurate means correct."
"'Course Star Wars is correct! It told all about you guys!"
"And everything happened in real life like it happened in Star Wars?"
She hadn't thought about that. "No, I guess not. You and Vader didn't die like in the movie."
He smiled really big. "So if it's wrong about us dying, it could be wrong about the Sith being bad guys."
"Nuh-uh! The Sith are still bad! Dark is evil!"
The Emperor made a tired grown-up sigh. "Rachel, you have to learn to not believe everything someone tells you just because they say it's right. You're old enough to make your own opinions."
"What's opinions?"
"An opinion is what you think of something or someone."
"Oh, I got lots of opinions! I think Jedi are good guys and Sith are bad guys, and I think you're mean and ugly!"
He closed his eyes and whispered to himself "It's easier than converting Skywalker, it's easier than converting Skywalker, it's easier than converting Skywalker..."