Chapter 19 – A Ray of Hope
Obi-Wan left his travel companions behind in the control station, unsure if he would be seeing them again. His concerned reflection focused on the dark presence he'd felt descend upon the docking bay while the ship was being searched. There was little doubt in his mind regarding the identity of that individual, and that he had managed to cloak his own presence from Darth Vader's prying probe at that time gave him no reassurance. He could already sense the Dark Lord resuming his hunt for an explanation of the Millennium Falcon's arrival. Given time, Vader would find his answers. Obi-Wan knew he could not prevent it, but he hoped to postpone it for as long as possible, at least until he could deactivate the tractor beam so Captain Solo could escape with the droid holding such critical information for the Alliance.
So Obi-Wan remained focused on accomplishing just this one small task he had set out do – using only a minimal application of the Force to quiet his footfalls and keep himself hidden in the shadows of the corridors as he cautiously followed the path Artoo had indicated. Even so, his progress seemed to send waves of energy through the Force, causing the balance barely established since Alderaan's destruction to begin roiling once more.
Yes, Alderaan's destruction was surely the cause of that Force blast that had nearly paralyzed him. Had the Force intended for him to prevent that tragedy? Had he been too late? That did seem to be the story of his life, always just a little too late to prevent the most disastrous of incidents.
More ripples washed through the Force, seeming to reach out in search of Obi-Wan, though these were not generated by Vader. These ripples came from the heart of the storm that had been building for over a month now. 'The source is here!' Obi-Wan suddenly realized as he felt its haunting touch caress him just for a moment, then suddenly draw back as if to consider what it had discovered. The sensation was more than a little disturbing, and it left Obi-Wan even more concerned about the possible dangers ahead.
Was this storm come to punish him finally for his involvement in the calamities of the past and present? Was this to signal the end of the Jedi Order's hope for the future with the death of Alderaan and its adopted Princess, or worse her fall to the dark side orchestrated by her father's evil hand? Obi-Wan knew he would likely never know the answers, so he just pressed on as he always had, trying to salvage what he could from the ruins of his failures.
***
Arkus groaned in the midst of his wallowing as he tried to fight off the persistent feeling he was getting from the Force. He pulled his shields in closer around his mind, but still it was prodding him, poking at his semi-consciousness and demanding his attention. 'Get up,' it seemed to say. 'Don't leave this one to die. You MUST not!' The insistent pleas penetrated his strongest barriers and invaded his private sanctuary, refusing to be ignored.
'What am I to do?' he answered finally, trying harder to block out this sensation that brought to his mind a flash of Leia's image with every contact. Her emotional pain was still crying out for comfort like a dull ache in his heart, but he dared not answer it. He wouldn't bond closer to her, not when he knew her death was inevitable. He knew the Emperor would command it the instant he learned of what had transpired over the last few days, and there would be no arguing with that decree. Leia's execution was mandated by her very nature, yet a part of Arkus refused to accept it.
'I can't protect her from herself!' he screamed bitterly, using his father's words as a defense against the burgeoning urge to prevent this tragedy. To act on this instinct would be treason - a betrayal of the Master and of the beliefs Arkus had come to embody. Even the thought of doing so brought a crushing wave of pain through his mind. Arkus drew himself tighter into his ball in response, shrinking away from the agony.
'You MUST protect her!' the voice demanded harshly, unmoved by the distress its command brought Arkus.
'How?' he asked miserably as he realized there would be no escape from this prompting. He didn't know the answer to the question, yet he felt himself get up and begin to move through the corridors in response to the order. This was pointless. He couldn't fight off an entire space station when Vader and Tarkin decided to come for her.
'Get her away from here,' the simple answer came.
'HA!' Arkus scoffed. So simple, like he could just ship her out of there unmolested on a shuttle. How insane was that? Besides, there was nowhere for him to take her; nowhere the Master would not find them. If he did this, if he somehow succeeded in it, they would both be hunted down and destroyed. Another crashing wave of pain – he could not defy his Master.
'You cannot let her die!'
'Then how?!' he screamed back, wincing from the strain of the conflicting commands in his head.
'The Jedi,' was whispered back at him.
'Jedi?! What Jedi?' Arkus demanded.
This time the answer came through in a vision. There was a presence nearby – a weakened yet powerful presence in the Force that existed in opposition to his dark nature. Could it be a Jedi, right there on the Death Star? How could that be possible? The Jedi were dead, or so the Master had said. But then there had been thousands of them – maybe they had not been completely eradicated.
Arkus reached out through the Force to touch the image he had been shown, only to quickly draw back from what he discovered. 'There is a Jedi here! And a ship…' His surprise was stifled by the implication of their presence - there was a chance for Leia to escape this encounter with death. Again he felt the overpowering urge to get Leia off of the Death Star. But in the care of a despicably weak Jedi?! The Jedi were the enemy to be hunted and destroyed. He couldn't dare trust one. Yet he MUST do it. The Jedi was the only way. The pressure pushed harder against his compulsion to do as his Master would desire, inciting a raging debate in his head until he thought he would go insane. Through this torment, he continued to wander blindly closer to his quarters, toward Leia, uncertain of what he was doing or why.
****
Darth Vader worked to maintain his measured calm as he gently prodded the murky clouds that were blurring his perception of the Force. He was having little success in dissipating the distortion, but he refused to end his meditation until he had an explanation for the strange sensations that continued to taunt him ever since that first inkling outside the captured freighter. Whatever it was that was causing these feelings was also powerful enough to hide its presence. Still Lord Vader knew the answer would come to him in time; he needed only to be persistent.
Then as if in answer to his refusal to surrender, the Force suddenly blazed a bright trail past his thoughts and into the heart of the haze. The clouds drew back for an instant, allowing Vader to follow the cleared path to its end. There he found the answer he had been seeking.
'Obi-Wan is here!'
The shock of the revelation broke Vader abruptly out of his meditation, and quickly gave way to an inferno of outraged hatred ignited from the very core of his soul as he absorbed the thought of Obi-Wan being still alive and impossibly involved in this Rebel operation. His first, instinctive reaction called for him to hunt down his former master and brutally destroy him for all the past physical and emotional injuries the abhorrent Jedi had inflicted upon him. That was what his hate-filled fury demanded, but the mature Sith Lord was now too controlled to give in to such an emotion without considering all aspects of a situation. Obi-Wan had come for a reason - one the Dark Lord could likely exploit.
Vader took a moment to settle his emotions and then sought to study what he had learned of Obi-Wan's objectives during that brief contact. The Jedi's mind had been filled with a single purpose – deactivate the tractor beam to allow his friends a chance at escape. Vader needed no further meditation to understand the underlying concern behind Obi-Wan's desperation. The Jedi's mere presence provided all the confirmation the Dark Lord needed to know that the stolen Death Star plans were within his grasp as well, brought on that freighter as he had originally suspected. Given an opportunity, Obi-Wan's companions would likely continue on their quest to deliver the plans to the Alliance. It would be a small matter to affix a tracking beacon to the freighter and allow the Rebels to escape.
'Yes. This could be a most fortunate turn of events,' Vader thought in serious calculation. 'Let the Rebels escape and lead us to their base,' he mused further. Once the Alliance was destroyed, he could end the interrogation of the Princess and award Arkus full custody of her with no slight to his duties to the Empire. His son would have his prized princess - at least until such time as the matter of her life was brought before the Emperor. Vader almost smiled in satisfaction as he considered how this new situation might develop in the deadly game of manipulation he was playing with the Emperor.
'But Obi-Wan will not escape!' Vader vowed suddenly, maliciously. It wasn't necessary to allow him to do so for this plan to work - only that the Jedi be allowed to complete his current task unhindered so the other Rebels could believe any escape was their own doing. And Vader could not have tolerated the thought of Obi-Wan slipping away again even if it had been required for his scheme, for surely it had been dictated by the Force that former master and apprentice cross paths again so that their passionate conflict could be resolved in a definitive manner. Vader would not pass up this opportunity to put to death one of the few remaining foci of his old hatred. Indeed, he would enjoy giving the old master a lesson of his own.
Filled with a new sense of purpose, Vader left his meditation chamber and headed directly for the bridge to advise Tarkin of Obi-Wan's presence and to clearly order the Governor to stay out of this ancient rivalry between Jedi and Sith. He would not tolerate another initiative like the one Tarkin had taken with Arkus over the Princess.
***
The battle in Arkus's head ceased abruptly, and his external awareness came fully into focus as he stared at the entrance to his quarters. Leia was inside; he could feel her presence without even trying. She had brought him there, to the brink of treason, just on the strength of a Force connection that had started benignly enough on Balitar only weeks ago. Past the brink really, he reflected as he considered the bodies of the two guards at his feet. He didn't even remember killing them, though he knew that he had. Apparently he had already decided her life was worth fighting for, but just how far was he willing to take this? What price was he willing to pay? The argument in his head threatened to erupt again, but Arkus pushed it back. There was no more time for thinking; a decision had to be made, or it would be made for him in short order.
A prompting from the Force encouraged Arkus to shed the robe enshrouding him before he entered his quarters. He should face Leia on this matter directly, with no pretenses between them. She deserved that much. Arkus complied almost without thinking, allowing the cloak to slide from his shoulders and pile on the floor before keying the entry code with his breath caught in his throat.
He sought out the Princess inside the instant the door opened, and found her huddled on the couch in the front room, seeking comfort from her own embrace, though her resolve was standing at the ready to take control the instant a threat appeared. She must have known it was him at the door because these barriers did not come crashing down upon his entrance. Instead, Leia raised her eyes to his, blankly at first, then questioningly as she took in his ragged appearance and obvious distress. She looked so helpless just then, so fragile and in need of his protection.
Arkus immediately wished he hadn't discarded the cloak, the one thing that might have provided some insulation against the power she seemed to have over him, but it was too late for that now. Leia had already seen his exposed spirit and her warm reaction was quickly eroding his defenses, allowing their Force connection to strengthen once more as they silently regarded each other for a moment. His heart ached as he felt Leia's pain, prodding him to offer some sort of comfort, and something in her eyes seemed to reach hesitantly toward him, offering a form of support so foreign yet so desired. If he would just touch it…
Suddenly recoiling from Leia's inviting Force touch, Arkus bitterly and forcefully closed down their connection. No matter what the outcome of this conflict - either her death or her departure - she would never be his, and he refused to acknowledge a long forgotten feeling that would only be torn from him again in moments. He used the emotional pain from the severing of their bond to turn back to his hateful anger, and found his strength again in the power of the Dark Side.
There was no conflict in him now. His decision had been made, and he was completely focused on accomplishing his task. This change in outlook was reflected in his expression as the hesitancy was washed away by a forming scowl. He moved quickly, so quickly Leia had no time to react as he forcefully grabbed her by the wrist and yanked her to her feet.
"Come on," he ordered harshly, not waiting for any response as he turned about and began dragging her behind him, her right wrist held fast in the cold grip of his left hand.
Leia recovered from the momentary surprise of Arkus's actions enough to plant her feet and yank back against his hold. He had seemed so open when he had entered, vulnerable and somehow sharing in her pain. She had been so certain she was seeing a glimpse of his inner soul, and thought she had found something more there than the menacing and controlling presence he projected so well. In that moment, part of her had actually wanted to go to him, but that fleeting feeling had been viciously cut off with yet another blast of frigid cold. These dramatic swings in his demeanor frightened her deeply, and she was not at all convinced that she wanted to follow him.
"What are you doing?!" she demanded, her voice wavering with the physical exertion of her resistance.
Leia's efforts were unsuccessful at stopping their progress, but she did manage to get Arkus's attention. He spun on her violently and yanked her closer until their bodies were nearly touching. Peeling his lips back to sneer down at her, he held her in place by the mere power of his cruel glare.
"Best not ask that, Princess, lest I change my mind and rip your heart out myself," he snarled maliciously, drawing deeper into his hatred to fight off the conflicts her question brought forth. "Now come with me if you desire to live."
Again he turned and began dragging her almost painfully behind him as he charged into the corridor. This time Leia was too stunned and frightened to offer any resistance at all.
***
Obi-Wan breathed a slight sigh of relief when he reached his destination undetected. The power shaft he had entered seemed to stretch endlessly from the depths far below into the vastness above, yet not another soul occupied the space to witness his entry. In fact, all on the station had been conveniently quiet during his stealthy passage through the maze of corridors.
As reassuring as that was, Obi-Wan knew it was a temporary condition. The turmoil in the Force continued to grow, and had reached a point that the Jedi could barely get a sense of even the most immediate future. More alarming was the sensation that the storm had found its focus on him. Obi-Wan no longer doubted that he would be unable to escape unscathed. All he really needed, though, was a few more moments of unobserved deeds to accomplish his mission, and the Force seemed willing to grant him this small request.
Casting his concerns aside, Obi-Wan moved quickly across the walkway to reach the generator tower and cautiously edged out onto the narrow catwalk providing access to the control panels. One by one he began performing the necessary adjustments on each of the panels, inching his way carefully around to the next when his actions were completed on the one before him. Only the occasional howl from the wind currents in the shaft seemed to protest his actions.