Chapter Six! Feel the excitement!!
Actually, I'm doubting the overall quality of this one, as it was written by a caffeine-buzzed Auddie in the wee hours of the morning, but you can judge for yourselves, I suppose.
Shoutouts!
Elf: I thank you again…though I doubt I'll ever reach the rank needed for to write an actual SW novel. Still, one can dream. And stay away from the garlic.
Kynstar: Thank you…for reviewing and for letting me use your noise. It's still wonderful.
kayladie: Very kind of you! I love looking inside character's heads, and hopefully you will be seeing much more of it. I plan to look inside every (living) main character's head at least once. And about the space slug line…I just had to do that…glad you liked it.
earthworm and NathanPostmark: You need wait no longer…for the next few minutes, anyway.
Jedi Nifet: Yes…I can relate. I decided to include a progress meter in my bio, and anyone can check up on it now and see how far behind I am…(sigh)
Kitkat: Well, thanks for the two cents! I'm feeling richer already! (grins happily) I wouldn't put it on that level, particularly, but thanks for the ego-boost anyway. It helps to crush that self-despising artist in me. And no worries: your cringe factor shall not register, if I can help it. Which I can, it being my fic.
The Skywolves: Thanks! Nice to hear from another reviewer! How many of you have read this, anyway?
A note: ~~~ will be used to denote a vision sequence. Okay? Okay.
So again, for your united entertainment, Chapter the Sixth.
~~~***~~~
Deadly Potential
~~~***~~~
"Please…"
The voice was being unfairly unyielding...whoever it was.
"Please, who are you?"
Luke sighed heavily and threw a sizable stone into the bog, where it impacted the surface with a viscous-sounding splosh near his half sunken X-wing. He had already figured out the mystery of Master Yoda, but now this other phantom presented itself… by now he'd had it up to his forehead with mysteries. If only they could just solve themselves, and train me, I'd go and help the Alliance and we'd defeat the Empire and everything would be okay…
He glanced over his shoulder hopefully, but saw only the dangling vines and darkly wet tree trunks rising from the scrubby vegetation. Why did Ben send me here if I'm only going to be admonished and ignored? he wondered, trying to release his bad mood into another rock that sluggishly skipped a few times before sinking down into the thin sludge.
Luke rested his cheekbone on his right shoulder, his eyes scouring the ground for another likely stone.
"You must be careful; you could be throwing away something of value," came the voice, with that slightly amused undertone that had run common with it thus far.
Luke jerked his head up, not wanting to miss anything, just in case this ghost had suddenly decided to dissipate again…
But no. There he was, sitting beside Luke, smiling and holding a rock of his own.
Luke studied the gentle face in open curiousity. The light blue eyes twinkled with…with what? He couldn't be sure. It seemed like a mix of mischief, love, wisdom, austerity, and serenity all at the same time…
"Now," said the bluish apparition, "we must focus on what you really want. Is your desire to know who I am more centered around your desire to know why I am here?"
"I suppose," Luke admitted. "I'd also like to know why I am here."
The ghost's lingering smile grew again as he put the phantom-like rock down on the ground. "Yes. What does the Force want with you? Who is Luke Skywalker to the galaxy and the Force? And—" He leaned in, close enough that had he been alive, Luke would have felt a warm breath on his cheek. "what should you choose to do about it?"
Luke scowled, forgetting for a moment that he was conversing with a dead man. "Could you at least give me your name, so I won't have to shout 'hey, you' every time I want to talk with you?"
The stranger's smile still lingered. "I will know when you wish to talk with me. Some times it will be appropriate for my appearance; others, not. Sometimes I will initiate the conversation. But…" His eyebrows rose. "I gave my word to one you know that I would tell you who I am."
Luke waited expectantly as the stranger assumed a meditative position. "So…who are you?"
He opened one eye, the only one from Luke's perspective as he turned to a profile. "Close your eyes, and open your mind."
The young man obeyed, shutting his eyelids tightly down and delving deep inside, making his mind as unrestricted to the Force as he could from his scarce lessons.
Through the Force, the stranger took his hand and led him to a place without time.
~~~
Obi-Wan's words echoed, bounding off invisible walls, encroaching into the ears. "The boy is dangerous, Master. They all sense it; why can't you?"
Blue eyes and blue eyes and blue eyes.
The first pair belonged to the stranger beside him, a light piercing blue. They held authority, fearlessness, a deep pain, and a cautious love. These eyes spoke measures all on their own, of a mentor's crushed hopes and new trust.
The second pair Luke recognized: these belonged to Obi-Wan Kenobi, and held many of the traits of the stranger's. They had a different sort of hardness to them, a cynicism that had been washed away and replaced by heavy knowledge. He had grown too old too quickly too soon, something that could never be changed.
The third pair…the third pair startled him. A long time ago, or what seemed to be, anyhow, Luke had taken a general biology class in school and had been particularly fascinated with the study on eyes. So enthralled, in fact, that he had gone straight to the mirror at home with a power lamp and flicked it on and off, looking at the contractions and dilations of his pupils in captivated interest. He had gotten to know his irises intimately after that exercise.
How alike these eyes were to his. The same affection of color, the same wide-eyed eagerness to absorb everything they saw and never let it go…never…
"…I'll even learn to stop people from dying."
~~~
Luke's mind spiraled from the vision back to the present reality and he realized he was sitting up straight, his spine rigid, his ribs moving over his panting lungs.
The stranger was as placid as ever. "Now you see where I fit into the 'lineage', one might say. I was Obi-Wan's Master, just as he was Darth Vader's."
"Those eyes?" asked Luke, astonished. "Those belonged to Darth Vader?"
The visitor's expression turned grim. "Now you also see how little Vader differed from you when he was young. Any Force-sensitive holds the potential to become a Sith; evil is restricted to no one. The dark side exists in you, Luke. It is your choice alone how you deal with it. Fight it back, and the freedom of the light is yours. Enclose it and ignore it, and tendrils of dark will take root without your notice. Let it run rampant, and it becomes your slavemaster. This is a lesson not easily learned."
Luke swallowed, encasing a smooth stone he had found into the palm of his hand. It felt cool and comforting, absorbing his anxiety as he thought of the irony of the words Vader had uttered in the vision.
The stranger smiled. "Keep that one. It's not something to be thrown into the swamp."
Luke stared at him curiously once more. "But please…what's your name?"
The name was delved from memory of identity, from the definition of a man long gone but not forgotten. "Qui-Gon Jinn. And Luke—tell Obi-Wan he's still the wiser. He'll understand."
Luke nodded, storing the message away. "I will."
The stone suddenly felt warm inside the young man's hand, and he brought it up to look at it, turning it over a couple of times. It seemed almost to glow…
When Luke looked back up, Master Jinn had disappeared.
"Hmph. An eccentricity, he had."
Startled, Luke turned to see Master Yoda approaching, leaning heavily on his gimer stick. "An eccentricity?"
"Always collecting stones, he was. On missions to different worlds, he and Obi-Wan went, and always took a smooth pebble from the planet, they did, before returning."
Luke turned the stone over again. "How many did they collect?"
"Counted, they never were. Matters, it does not; all were destroyed."
Luke looked back up in horror. "What? How? Did the Jedi's home get proton-torpedoed, or something?"
"Hah! What power has a torpedo next to the Force, hmm?" Yoda jabbed out with his gimer stick. "Never a home had the Jedi; learn that soon, you will. Now, continue with your training I will. Come."
Luke looked down on the pebbled shore before following his teacher; the phantom rock was still there.
***
Han's searching eyes pried through the tangled mass of wires as his fingers probed through.
Aha. What have we here? Triumphantly, he joined a couple of snapped ends together, and immediately received a sizable shock of electricity.
Oops. Wrong ones.
Trying to ignore the pain and the rising smell of singed flesh, Han braced himself as the Falcon shifted underneath him and looked again. Wait a minute…I know what's wrong, he mused to himself as he surveyed a particular bunch of wiring, and attacked it eagerly.
***
A veritable cloud of TIE fighters surrounded and preceded the eight-kilometer length of the Executor.
Inside the hulking ship, the level of activity was comparable; officers of all ranks bustled around importantly in the bridge, many others hunched over computers, working furiously.
No one wanted to be responsible for losing the Millennium Falcon.
The crew's driving fear manifested in the tall, darkly clad figure that slowly paced in front of a motley arrangement of species, who had never learned or needed to stand at attention.
Admiral Piett was disgusted by the group but turned away to hide his words to the first controller he stood by. "Bounty hunters. We don't need that scum."
"Yes, sir." Unperturbed, the controller worked on.
"Those Rebels won't escape us," muttered Piett, half to himself. He was less than eager, however, to share his sentiments with Darth Vader, who evidently disagreed with him.
Better smelly help than none at all, I suppose, the admiral thought to himself, but his brief woolgathering was interrupted by the second controller.
"Sir, we have a priority signal from the Star Destroyer Avenger."
"Right," Piett acknowledged, heading for the stairs that would take him up out of this sunken pit of machinery.
The array of creatures consisted of some of the most notorious bounty hunters in the known galaxy. There was Bossk, the Trandoshan; Vader wasn't staking much on him, since the reptile was known to have his bloodlust cloud his reasoning. Zuckuss stood there also, an insectoid with breathing tubes coming up the front of his suit. Dengar, a battle-scarred, mangy-looking human, managed to look dangerous enough despite his otherwise dingy appearance. IG-88 was one of the ill batch of assassin droids that had butchered their makers just after their first activation, and his cold logic won him many the head prize. Finally, there was Boba Fett, recognizable to almost any criminal and non-criminal alike, in the shadier sections of the galaxy especially. His reputation was well-deserved, and Vader thought it most likely that Fett would be the first one to catch up to Captain Solo. Fett had the logic and the edge of battle that were so necessary in his trade…plus, he had hunted Solo before.
All these creatures needed was a little motivation to get them going: in the form of promised credits.
"…There will be a substantial reward for the one who finds the Millennium Falcon. You are free to use any methods necessary, but I want them alive." Vader stopped in front of Fett pointedly. "No disintegrations."
"As you wish," came the tracker's flat filtered voice.
At that moment, Piett suddenly appeared beside the Sith lord, his excitement smothered but still recognizable. "Lord Vader! My lord…we have them."
***
Their flight was smoother than any others Leia had ever taken through an asteroid field…though all her rides under that category now totaled at two.
Obi-Wan's concentration was intense, sweat beading on his forehead as he glided past deadly obstacles, sometimes passing easily, sometimes narrowly missing a collision. But at the great speed they were traveling, both Leia and Chewbacca marveled that they had made it alive so far. Even Han never would have tried to maneuver here at such a velocity, and it was probably a good thing he wasn't in the cockpit right now, seeing how the general looked to be risking his baby.
Neither could yet know what measures the Force spoke to Obi-Wan. It filled his mind, showing him the most likely path and guiding the hands that firmly gripped the pilot's controls.
Leia sighed in relief as they burst out, leaving the deadly field behind. It was one thing to dodge asteroids, but dodging asteroids with Imperials on your tail was nerve-wracking at the absolute least. "Well," she said, "now all we have to worry about are the Imperials."
"Pinch me," Obi-Wan said under his breath, more for the sake of lightening the atmosphere than providing satire. They already had the captain for that.
Several kilometers out from the asteroid belt, he veered to follow a path that ran parallel to the belt while the Star Destroyer Avenger loomed up behind them.
Chewbacca barked as proximity warnings erupted from various screens.
Han burst into the cockpit. "Okay, let's give it a shot!"
Obi-Wan easily slipped back into one of the secondary chairs, giving Han the pilot's seat. "Keep the rear deflector shields up; it won't be long before the Destroyer comes within range."
"Not after this, they won't. Ready for lightspeed?" Han reached for the throttle. "One…two…three!"
A distinctive pitched whine throbbed somewhere in the guts of the ship as the stars remained stubbornly fixed.
Chewbacca growled angrily.
Han yanked back on the throttle again, his eyes wide. "The transfer circuits are working… It's not my fault!"
Chewie whined, agitated, as the ship rocked under the sudden enemy fire.
"No lightspeed?" Leia sounded as if she had expected something to go wrong.
"It's not my fault," Han repeated, bewildered.
Obi-Wan spotted a screen flashing. "Our main rear shielding is gone."
The Jedi didn't need to go into elaborate detail for Han to figure out what would all happen to them if one more direct hit came through. The captain's decision was made in a moment, and he squared his jaw.
Chewie, Leia, and Obi-Wan saw it, and simultaneously thought, Uh-oh.
"Turn her around."
Chewbacca yowled in protest.
"I said turn her around!" Han snarled. "I'm going to put all power in the front shield."
Leia's heart sank; maybe he was even crazier than she had thought. "You're going to attack them?!"
"But sir," piped up Threepio, who had wisely remained silent until he could no more, "the odds of surviving a direct assault on an Imperial Star Destroyer—"
"Shut up!" Leia snapped, barely turning her head to address the droid properly.
Thoroughly chastened, Threepio stood in utter silence.
***
The Avenger's Captain Needa stared incredulously at the little freighter as it steeply banked for a full turnabout, heading directly for the bridge in which the captain was standing. As it raced up close to the hull, Needa said, "They're moving to attack position. Shields up!" Is the pilot going to ram us? he wondered, ducking with his men as the Falcon barely missed the bridge window, whizzing out of sight.
"Track them," ordered Needa. "They may come around for another pass."
The tracking officer looked up in confusion. "Captain Needa, the ship no longer appears on our scopes."
Impossible, Needa thought, an inkling of icy fear growing in him. "They can't have disappeared. No ship that small has a cloaking device."
"Well, there's no trace of them, sir."
Then the communications officer piped up. "Captain, Lord Vader demands an update on the pursuit."
Needa remembered a vile curse he had picked up at the Academy. It seemed appropriate for the situation; there was no denying he was already a dead man. He drew a breath. "Get a shuttle ready. I shall assume full responsibility for losing them, and apologize to Lord Vader. Meanwhile, continue to scan the area."
"Yes, Captain Needa."
Needa knew that if he came back alive, his brave action would capture the loyalty of his men even further…but that was a considerably big if.
***
Luke remembered running down the ravines and climbing rocks on Tatooine. The climate, though hot, was dry, and his sweat would always evaporate quickly. The heat would have been much more oppressive for someone who hadn't lived on the desert planet virtually all his life.
But here on Dagobah, the humidity was suffocating to Luke, refusing to absorb his perspiration. His skin was slick with sweat, making it more difficult to grab onto the vine and swing his way across an opening. Plus there was the added weight of Master Yoda, who was strapped to his back like a Tusken child would have been to its mother. The Jedi Master watched Luke's movements as the young man climbed up another vine, flipped over in mid-air, pranced quickly through a tangle of roots and avoided heavy patches of fog.
Yoda could feel his student steadily growing weary. "Run," he encouraged. "Yes. A Jedi's strength flows from the Force. But beware of the dark side. Anger…fear…aggression. The dark side of the Force are they. Easily they flow, quick to join you in a fight. If once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny; consume you it will, as it did Obi-Wan's apprentice."
Luke halted in a clearing, hunched over, catching his breath. "Vader," he remembered. "Is the dark side stronger?"
Yoda's answer was sure and immediate. "No…no. Quicker, easier, more seductive."
That's some good news, anyway, Luke thought. "But how am I to know the good side from the bad?"
"You will know, when you are calm, at peace. Passive. A Jedi uses the Force for knowledge and defense, never for attack."
Luke was puzzled. "But tell me why I can't—"
"No," Yoda interrupted. "No, there is no why. Nothing more will I teach you today. Clear your mind of questions. Mmm. Mmmmm."
Luke had nearly caught his breath, and he let Yoda down to the ground before pulling his shirt off a nearby branch, hearing Artoo beep in the distance. Something was making him feel cool, all of a sudden.
He turned to see a huge dead tree, the base forming a dark open hole. The roots themselves added to the twisted feeling that emanated from the cave.
Luke knew that was where the chilling feeling was coming from. "There's something not right here."
Master Yoda prodded at the ground with his gimer stick from his seat on a nearby fallen log. "That place…is strong with the dark side of the Force. A domain of evil, it is. In you must go."
"What's in there?" Luke asked.
Yoda rose his head, gazing at his student with large solemn eyes. "Only what you take with you. Your weapons…" he added as Luke warily picked up his belt, "you will not need them."
But the sinister cave overruled Yoda's advice, and Luke strapped the weapon belt on, heading into the opening.
The light was dim, but to his surprise he could make out the straight-edged silhouette of duracrete. Someone had lived here, once. He couldn't imagine who would wish to make such a place their home, though.
A lizard croaked at him as he passed, its tongue flickering out to smell the air that hung with a heavy organic smell, reminiscent of rotting vegetation.
Luke pushed in deeper; the cave grew darker. His pupils widened to accommodate for the dimming light as a heavy quietness blanketed him.
The world turned strange, then. Time slowed to perhaps half its speed as a loud mechanical hiss reached his ears…Darth Vader rounded a bend to confront Luke.
Fear shot through the youth and he snapped his lightsaber to life, only realizing now that he had come in with it in his hand. How did Vader get here? Luke wondered.
The red blade followed the blue up, the two colors casting an eerie glow that seemed more shadow than light.
Luke felt his fear, and it manifested into a swing at his hated enemy. The one with the blood of billions on his gloved hands. The one who had destroyed Leia's home planet. The one who had killed Ben, and his own father.
The fight was brief. Luke soon found an entrance and swept up at Vader's neck, severing the encased head, which flew off as if it had a life of its own and rolled to a stop on the ground, face-up.
Luke could hear the pounding of his heart booming loudly in his ears as he brought his saber up past his face…and the front of the mask exploded.
Terrified, Luke blanched, almost dropping his lightsaber. It was his face inside that mask…
Then, as the head and the body faded away, he realized it had all been a vision…a horribly realistic one, but a vision nonetheless.
The meaning was not lost on Luke.
"Now you also see how little Vader differed from you when he was young…"
"Once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny."
"Any Force-sensitive holds the potential to become a Sith; evil is restricted to no one."
***
A circle was drawn, and lapped over by another. And another. And another.
The gimer stick dug into the sandy dirt, drawing circles.
Yoda had been the supervisor of many circles. Many had trained under him, and died of battle or illness or even old age. He had seen countless rings spin before him, and become wiped away for new rings.
This was just another new circle.
This was just the momentous end of the beginning. Another contradiction, so it seemed. Circles had no ends; they had no beginnings. And yet they had to start somewhere.
A circle only became a circle when the stick ended where it had begun.
***
Excerpt from Traitor by Matthew Stover:
"'A lightsaber is an interesting weapon,' Vergere said conversationally. 'A blade unique in the history of warfare. A paradox, not unlike the Jedi who wield it: those peaceful warriors, who kill in the service of life. Have you ever noticed? The blade is round. It has no edge. But it is a lightsaber—which means it is nothing but edge. Curious, yes? Symbolic, one might say.'"
***
When Luke stumbled out, Yoda was still sitting there on the log, staring at him tranquilly.
"Now," said Yoda, "is not the time to ask why. The time, it is, to ask what if."
***
What if?
The simply convoluted question stayed in Luke's mind for the rest of the day, consistently staying with him at the back of his mind.
What if?
Now he was upside-down, one hand straining for strength and balance. His other hand was in the air, drifting about to keep the balance and occasionally jerking, only seldom staying still.
He had to ignore the rush of blood that came down to his brain. He had to focus, to put the third and smallest rock atop its two larger brothers.
"Use the Force," Yoda murmured, perched on his foot, the one that managed to stay steady. Luke had almost forgotten he was up there. "Yes." The quiet gravelly voice drifted down to his ears.
Artoo's frantic warbling, however, intruded much more caustically than Yoda's voice, and Luke lost his concentration and his balance at the same time, falling over.
Yoda's eyes widened as his perch suddenly disappeared, and shouted, "Concentrate!" as he jumped away just in time.
Irritated, Luke looked over at Artoo once he had recovered himself.
Artoo chirped wildly, trundling off to the edge of the bog. Luke quickly followed after him, Yoda coming up behind.
Only the tip of the X-wing was visible now as the swamp let up a few noxious bubbles.
"Oh, no," groaned Luke, imagining himself to be stuck in this mudhole for the rest of his life. "We'll never get it out now."
Annoyed, Yoda stamped his foot. "So certain are you. Always with you, it cannot be done. Hear you nothing that I say?"
Luke shook his head and gestured out at the sunken fighter. "Master, moving stones around is one thing. This…is totally different."
"No!" Yoda was unbending. "No different! Only different in your mind. You must unlearn what you have learned."
Luke sighed. "All right, I'll give it a try…"
"No! Try not! Do…or do not. There is no try."
Nodding, Luke stretched out his hand, closing his eyes, focusing, picturing the X-wing.
Artoo twittered in amazement as the S-foil began to slide out of the swamp, slowly being drawn out with an unseen hand…then gave out a mournful warble as Luke's control dissipated and the X-wing slipped out of sight.
Panting, Luke dropped down to seat himself on the ground. "I can't…it's too big."
"Size matters not. Look at me. Judge me by my size, do you? Hm?"
Luke could only shake his head.
"And well you should not. For my ally is the Force. And a powerful ally it is. Life creates it, makes it grow. Its energy surrounds us, binds us. Luminous beings are we…" Yoda reached out and pinched Luke's bare shoulder. "…not this crude matter. You must feel the Force around you." He gestured at their surroundings. "Here, between you…me…the tree…the rock…everywhere! Yes, even between the land…and the ship."
Luke stood, letting in a bitter edge to his voice. "You want the impossible."
Yoda felt the sour taste of disappointment, and turned away as Luke got up and left him. Now there was one thing left for him to do to bring Luke back.
Artoo burbled in mechanical incomprehension as the X-wing majestically rose out of the swamp, passing by to land on solid ground, covered in weeds.
Luke, attracted by Artoo's noisemaking, came up to brush his hand against the nose of his fighter, and turned to Yoda in wonder. "I…I don't believe it."
"That," said Yoda firmly…sadly… "is why you fail."
***
Rest did not come to Luke as he sat cross-legged by his X-wing. If he had been five years younger, a tear would have come trickling down his face. But he sat as stoically as he could, if only to try to prove to himself that he could do it, that he could do something.
Out of the corner of his eye, he caught a slight movement, and turned to see Qui-Gon standing a few meters away.
The spectral Jedi tossed his stone up in the air, catching it with the same hand. "Yoda did not say you had failed. He said only that you fail up to this point. It is not irreversible."
"It doesn't feel like I can make much good out of anything, right now," Luke bit out.
Qui-Gon regarded him, a bit humorously. "Everyone is, at one point in their life, a failure. The question remains; what are you going to make of it? Will you learn from your mistake, or will the cave vision come to pass?"
Luke glared at him suddenly. "Never. I never want anything to do with the dark side."
The apparition nodded solemnly. "Remember those words well, young Skywalker."
***
The Avenger waited hopelessly for her captain to return.
"Apology accepted, Captain Needa," Vader said dispassionately, watching his latest victim slump to the floor.
Needa, clutching desperately at his throat, was not quite dead. In Vader's opinion, the man hadn't quite outlived his usefulness, but just needed to be taught an unforgettable lesson.
That, and he would be demoted by several ranks. But it would take some time for him to fully recover.
Vader gestured for a couple of troopers to drag off the motionless form, then saw Admiral Piett with two others hurrying up to him.
"Lord Vader," Piett said brusquely, "our ships have completed their scan of the area and found nothing. If the Millennium Falcon went into lightspeed, it'll be on the other side of the galaxy by now."
"Alert all commands," Vader rumbled. "Calculate every possible destination along their last known trajectory."
"Yes, my lord," Piett promised nervously. "We'll find them."
"Don't fail me again, Admiral," Vader warned before leaving Piett.
The admiral swallowed uneasily, and turned to an aide. "Alert all commands. Deploy the fleet."
***
It had been long enough, Threepio figured. He had to drive some sense into these scatterbrained humans. "Captain Solo, this time you have gone too far."
Chewbacca turned his head to yowl savagely at the droid.
"No, I will not be quiet, Chewbacca. Why doesn't anyone listen to me?"
Han ignored Threepio and pointed outside the crammed cockpit, addressing Chewie. "The fleet is beginning to break up. Go back and stand by the manual release for the landing claw."
Chewbacca barked in acknowledgement and wormed his way through the rest of the cockpit's occupants, and out the door.
"I really don't see how that's going to help," Threepio continued. "Surrender is a perfectly acceptable alternative in extreme circumstances. The Empire may be gracious enough—"
Leia cut off the droid's ceaseless prattle by a simple flick of his power switch, and the golden form slumped over.
"Thank you," muttered Han.
She leaned over to look around his seat at the board. "What did you have in mind for your next move?"
"Well, if they follow standard Imperial procedure, they'll dump their garbage before they go to lightspeed, then we just float away."
"With the rest of the garbage." Leia thought better of adding the comment, This thing will fit in nicely. "Then what?"
"Then we've got to find a safe port somewhere around here. Got any ideas?"
"No," Leia said as Han called up a diagram of the local area. "Where are we?"
"The Anoat system," replied Han, studying the map.
Obi-Wan stirred in his seat. He'd managed to ward off Vader's searching senses; they were still hidden. "There were no ports in the Anoat system, when last I checked."
Leia nodded. "There's not much else there, either."
"No…well wait," said Han, leaning forward, a faint grin curling the edge of his mouth. "This is interesting. Lando."
Leia squinted at the screen. "Lando system?"
Han shook his head at the idea. "Lando's not a system, he's a man. Lando Calrissian. He's a card player, gambler, scoundrel. You'd like him."
"Thanks," Leia replied sardonically.
Obi-Wan wisely decided not to ask.
"Bespin," Han continued. "It's pretty far, but I think we can make it."
Leia read off the screen. "A mining colony?"
"Yeah, a tibanna gas mine." Han leaned back in his chair, appearing to contemplate the screen. "Lando conned somebody out of it. We go back a long way, Lando and me."
Leia thought to ask the crucial question, the one that prevailed in the minds of every Rebellion leader. "Can you trust him?"
"No. But he has no love for the Empire, I can tell you that." Han reached out and tapped the screen's bluish light off.
"The fleet's deploying," observed Obi-Wan; his presence had been nearly forgotten by Han and Leia.
Han leaned to the intercom. "Here we go, Chewie. Stand by…" Only the barest second passed. "Detach!"
A metallic groaning sounded out beneath them as their former perch seemed to roll away. Compared to the Avenger, the Falcon was a mere fleck of metal, and it drifted away as such, into the outpouring junk that trailed from the stern opening in the Star Destroyer.
***
Vader had been right; mere logic would not have won out, nor a bloodthirsty scenting nose. A formidably resourceful mind had locked on, and would not let go until he had received what the Sith had promised.
Boba Fett quickly analyzed the Falcon's condition as it began blasting off, and followed it discreetly for a short distance. Solo would have already gone into lightspeed at this point; the hyperdrive had to be damaged. The freighter's sublight engines, however, were in the best condition possible; they were able to reach higher speeds than Fett's Slave I engines when in top condition, something the bounty hunter would be able to remedy after cashing in his next head prices. Though now it didn't matter how fast the Falcon's sublights were; anything with hyperspace capability would be able to beat it to Bespin by a good eight hours, starting at the same point and time.
But there was still the Jedi to reckon for. The bounty hunters had been warned that there was a Master aboard, fully capable of battle. It was… fortunate… that Fett had thought to bring along a little friend to help him in this. He hoped the ysalamiri was as effective as he'd heard from his sources, for their sake. If he survived the encounter, anyhow.
Now he calculated the trajectory, remembering that not too far away lay the gaseous planet Bespin, its only settlement owned by a man called Lando Calrissian, an acquaintance of Solo. They had actually saved each other's lives directly and indirectly more than once, including from encounters with Fett himself.
Well. Fett had dealt with Calrissian before. Even though the man was a gambler and generally thought to be spineless when it came to physical confrontation, Fett recalled Calrissian had little qualms for standing up for something when it meant credits, or even the life of a friend. Fett would just have to see if that quality had lasted these years.
"Executor, this is Slave I."
***
It was going to be a long trip. Han sauntered back to the bunks to check on the woman he'd tranquilized a little while ago, to make sure she was properly fitted for the journey. He had no intentions of letting the last episode repeat itself.
The door slid open under his command, and he stared in incomprehension. She wasn't lying on the bunk he had put her on…in fact, she wasn't in sight.
"What the hell…" he muttered, ducking in to check. He kicked himself for that later.
Han was promptly grabbed by the collar, aggressively shoved stomach-down to the floor, and sat upon; he went still at the sound of metal being bared, and felt a point come to rest at the base of his skull as the door hissed shut.
"You may be the captain," growled a voice, undoubtedly the woman's, "but that doesn't mean you're in charge."
"We can talk this out, right?" he grunted, trying desperately to recall a pressure point that he could reach from his ungainly position.
The knife pressed harder, almost enough to draw blood. "You'd better hope we can."
Han wondered if Chewie was close enough to do something…maybe he could kick up and get her in the back…no, that would drive her forward along with the knife…he could make a snatch for his blaster…that wouldn't work, either; her leg was right over the holster, blocking any grab he might make…plus she was seated just in the right position to render any sudden moves slow and ineffective.
Then the door shot open, and a familiar voice barked, "Mara!"
She didn't move, just flicked her eyes up at Obi-Wan coolly. "Where's the fire, Kenobi?"
Obi-Wan didn't have to be a Jedi to see the bloody murder in her eyes. "Get up. We can solve this another way."
"No," she cooed, the most hair-raising sound Han had ever heard come from a human, "I don't think so. This time I'm solving it my way."
"Mara," he said, "I don't want to have to hurt you—"
She laughed, a beautifully careless sound, flicking the knife indiscreetly so that it nicked the back of Han's neck, making a drop of crimson sprout. "Wrong again, Kenobi. This time you won't do anything, because he's already mine." She swiftly drew back her knife hand.
Obi-Wan realized then that she wasn't aiming for Han yet. The blade flew toward him, and he ducked, yanking it out of its path.
Mara brandished another and smiled gleefully as it flashed downward, her wrist to be intercepted by Obi-Wan's neatly placed kick that continued on to lay her out upon the floor.
Han scrambled up, his blaster suddenly in his hand, drawing a bead on his attacker. As Mara leapt up, he fired.
The blue wave of a stun beam swept over her and she collapsed numbly.
Han's eyes were wide as he holstered his blaster and looked down at his rescuer. "What took you so long?"
"You might want to sit," advised Obi-Wan. "Some of her knives have a temporary paralysis poison on the tip."
"Of course they would," Han snarled, his knees buckling.
Obi-Wan quickly caught him and half-dragged him over to the bunk, ignoring Han's caustic behavior. He had expected his presence to be resented; after all, Han's life had just been saved by someone the captain had never really liked anyway. That added to his general personality combined for a sour effect. It was just the way things worked.
"How long?" Han managed, feeling the numbness spread alarmingly down his spinal cord.
"You'll be up in five minutes," Obi-Wan assured him. "This sort of soporific is only meant to deaden an opponent's motion for an easier kill. You got a slower acting concoction, I suppose, in all likelihood meant for torture."
"Thanks for savin' my ass," Han mused as if drunk, "though I guess it was th' least y'could do."
Obi-Wan couldn't resist a small grin as he pushed Han farther onto the bunk. "What did you give her earlier?"
"'Alf a vial o' anesthetic," Han drawled, barely able to enunciate clearly by now, and cursed. "It shoulda knocked 'er out f' three hours…can't figure out 'ow sh' got up s' soon…"
Obi-Wan spotted the medkit still lying just outside the door, and looked inside it. Finding the half-empty vial still attached to the syringe, he inspected it. "Seems to me you used the weakest formula in the kit."
Han cursed again, trying to swallow his saliva before he started drooling. "Thass my luck. Give 'er the rest of it, 'n' clip 'er to th' bunk."
***
She knew Kenobi would be there when she awoke; it was no great feat to figure that out. He would be there by the bedside or wherever else she had been put, patiently waiting to reason with her as diplomatically as possible.
What she hadn't figured on was the additional company. She opened her eyes to stare down the nozzle of a blaster.
"Even the people who aren't always in charge can still make rules," Han growled at her, with an absolute lack of tact.
Well, she thought, glaring up at him malevolently, blast diplomacy.
Then came Kenobi's calm voice, irrevocably smoothing any raised fur. "Mara, please understand. You're here because there was nowhere else for you to go."
She fixed her still-blazing green eyes on him. "That doesn't mean I have to appreciate it."
Or anyone else, Han added silently, lowering the blaster but keeping an eye on her. Who knew; she might feel inclined to rip out the bunk post, after that little warm-up with Threepio's arm.
Kenobi's eyebrows seemed to be lifted painfully high, widening his already earnest eyes. Mara had never seen a more open expression. "Even if there was somewhere else to go, this would still be the best. Don't you see, Mara? I need you."
She couldn't help snorting cynically. "You need me? No, you mean the Order needs Jedi. Don't deny it; you're looking for a trainee, not an Emperor's Hand."
That snapped Han's blaster back up very quickly. "So," he snapped at Obi-Wan, "you didn't think life in general was enough of a challenge on its own?"
Obi-Wan shook his head wearily. "She's not a Hand anymore. Mara, please consider. I'm offering to remedy the situation because I'm accountable for your… setback."
"Damn right, you are," she snarled. "And if I don't like your compensation, I think I'm going to spread the love."
~~~***~~~