The wind that shrieked through the reactor shaft entirely absorbed the sounds of the clashing band sabers. Chris took one step back and Fred was on him immediately.
"You are beaten," Fred stated with horrifying certainty and finality. "It is useless to resist."
But Chris did resist. He lunged at the dark Drum Major with a vicious blow, bringing his sizzling laser blade to crash onto Fred's armor and sear through to the flesh. Fred staggered from the blow, and it seemed to Chris that he was in pain. But only for a moment. Then, once again, Fred began to move toward him.
Taking another step, the dark Drum Major warned, "Don't let yourself be destroyed as Jason did."
Chris was breathing hard, cold sweat dropping from his forehead. But the sound of Jason's name instilled a sudden resolve in him.
Chris moved agilely across the gantry and took refuge beneath an instrument panel to evade his foe's next blow. But Fred was there in an instant, his band saber slashing down like a pulsating guillotine blade, cutting the instrument complex loose. The complex began to fall, but was abruptly caught by the wind and blown upward.
An instant of distraction was all Fred needed. As the instrument panel floated away, Chris involuntarily glanced at it. At that second, the dark Drum Major's laser blade came slashing down across Chris' hand, cutting it, and sending the youth's band saber flying.
The pain was excruciating. Chris smelled the terrible odor of his own seared flesh and squeezed his forearm beneath his armpit to try to stop the agony. He crawled backward along the gantry until he reached its extreme end, stalked all the while by the black-garbed apparition.
Abruptly, ominously, the wind subsided. And Chris realized that he had nowhere else to go.
"There is no escape," the dark Drum Major of the Flutes warned, looming over Chris like a black angel of death. "Don't make me destroy you. Chris, you do not yet realize your importance. You have only begun to discover your power. Join me and I will complete your training. With our combined strength we can end this destructive conflict and bring order to the world!"
Chris refused to give in to Fred's taunts. "I'll never join you!"
"If you only knew the power of the dark side," Fred continued. "Jason never told you what happened to your father."
Mention of his father aroused Chris' anger even further. "He told me enough!" he yelled. "He told me you killed him!"
"No," Fred replied calmly. "I am your father."
Stunned, Chris stared in disbelief at the black-clad warrior and then pulled away at this revelation. The two warriors faced each other, father and son.
"No…no! That's not true!" Chris said, refusing to believe what he'd just heard. "That's impossible!"
"Search your feelings," Fred said, sounding like an evil version of Keena. "You know it to be true."
Then Fred turned off the blade of his band saber and extended a steady and inviting hand.
Bewildered and horror-stricken at Fred's words, Chris shouted, "NO! NO!"
Fred continued persuasively. "Chris, you can destroy the Empress. She has foreseen this. It is your destiny. Join me and together we can rule the world as father and son."
Chris' mind whirled with those words. Everything was finally beginning to coalesce in his brain. Or was it? He wondered briefly if Fred was telling him the truth- if the training of Keena, the teachings of saintly old Jason, his own strivings for good and his abhorrence of evil, if everything he had fought for was no more than a lie.
He didn't want to believe Fred, tried convincing himself that it was Fred who lied to him- but somehow he could feel the truth in the dark Drum Major's words. But, if Darth Fred did speak the truth, why, he wondered, had Jason Kenobi lied to him? Why? His mind screamed louder than any wind the dark Drum Major could ever summon against him.
The answers no longer seemed to matter.
His father.
"Come with me," Fred soothed, extending his hand out farther. "It is the only way."
With the calmness that Jason himself, and Keena, the Trombone Master, had taught him, Chris Skywalker made, perhaps, what might be his final decision of all.
"Never," Chris whispered calmly as he stepped out into the empty abyss beneath him. For all its unperceived depth, Chris might have been falling into another galaxy.
Darth Fred moved to the end of the gantry to watch as Chris tumbled away. A strong wind began to blow, billowing Fred's black cloak out behind him as he stood looking over the edge.
Skywalker's body quickly plunged downward. Tumbling head over foot, the wounded Trombone desperately reached out to grab at something that would stop his fall.
The dark Drum Major watched until he saw the youth's body sucked into a large exhaust pipe at the side of the reactor shaft. When Chris vanished, Fred quickly turned and hurried off the platform.
XxX
Chris sped through the exhaust shaft trying desperately to grab at the sides to slow his fall. But the smooth, shiny sides of the pipe had no handholds or ridges for Chris to grasp.
At last he came to the end of the tunnel-like pipe, his feet striking hard against a circular grill. The grill, which opened over an apparently bottomless drop, was knocked out by the impact of Chris' momentum, and he felt his body start to slide out through the opening. Frantically clawing at the smooth interior of the shaft, Chris knew that he could no longer stop his inexorable slide out of the exhaust pipe.
He slid the final few centimeters and then dropped through the cloudy atmosphere, his body spinning and his arms flailing to grip on to something solid.
After what seemed like forever, he caught hold of an electronic weather vane that jutted out from the bowlike underbelly of cloud city. Winds buffeted him and clouds swirled around him as he held on tightly to the weather vane. But his strength was beginning to fail; he didn't think he could hang like this much longer.
Chris managed to hook one of his legs onto the weather vane, which continued to support his weight, but it was already rattling with weakness.
"Jason…" he moaned in agony. "Jason…please."
But he knew it was no use. Jason had said that he would not help him. So Chris spoke again. Concentrating his mind on one whom he thought cared for him and might somehow come to his aid, he called out, "Amanda." Pitifully he called out one last time.
"Hear me…Amanda."
XxX
"It looks like three fighters," Keith said to Bruchacca as they watched the computer-screen configurations. "We can outdistance them easily," he added, knowing the capabilities just as well as Keoni Solo did.
But Amanda seemed to be in a daze. She didn't acknowledge Keith's comments, but stared straight ahead of her as if transfixed. Then, out of her dreamlike trance, she spoke. "Chris," she said, as if responding to something she heard.
"We've got to go back."
"What?" Keith asked in bewilderment.
"I know where Chris is," she said urgently.
"But what about those fighters?" Keith asked.
Bruchacca barked, for once in agreement with Keith.
"Bruce, just do it," Amanda said firmly, assuming the dignity of one who was used to having her orders obeyed.
"But what about Fred?" Keith argued.
But Bruchacca, growling menacingly, conveyed that he knew who was in command now.
"All right, all right, all right," Keith quietly acquiesced.
With all the grace and speed for which the Millennium Trumpet was famed, the case banked through the clouds and turned back toward the city. And, as the case continued on what could become a suicide run, the three pursuing TIE cases matched its turn.
XxX
As instructed by Amanda, Bruchacca piloted the case underneath the city. And to the shock of the others, but to the immense relief of Amanda, a person could be seen dangling just beneath the super structure.
"Look, someone's up there," Keith said, pointing through the main window.
"It's Chris. Bruce, slow down. Slow down and we'll get under him," Amanda ordered. "Keith, open the top hatch!"
As Keith raced out of the cockpit, he thought this a strategy worthy of Solo himself.
"Easy, Bruce," Amanda coached as Bruchacca eased the case so that it idled just beneath Chris' crippled body.
Meanwhile, Keith was climbing out of the top hatch, and when Chris saw him come up he allowed his battered body to drop onto the Millennium Trumpet. Keith quickly gathered him up and dragged him back inside the safety of the hatch.
"Keith?" Amanda asked urgently. She hoped that he'd been successful because the three TIE cases were closing in on them.
"All right, lets go," Keith gave the okay.
Bruchacca quickly maneuvered the craft out from the Woodwind trap and up into the open skies.
Amanda ran out of the cockpit just as Keith was bringing Chris down. She threw her arms around her friend, afraid to think about what might have happened if they'd failed.
Once she'd taken Chris back to the case's small medical room, Amanda went back to join Bruchacca and Keith in the cockpit. She looked out ahead of them and immediately saw the problem.
"Cloud destroyer," she warned, pointing out the window just as Bruchacca swerved to avoid the cutoff trap the larger case was trying to corner them into.
"All right, Bruce, ready for met speed?" Keith asked.
"If your people fixed the metronome drive," Amanda said dubiously. "All the coordinates are set. It's now or never."
"Punch it!" Keith ordered.
Bruchacca pulled back on the met speed throttle and all aboard held their collective breath. But yet again, nothing happened, and a look of horror spread over Keith's face.
"They told me they fixed it! I trusted them to fix it! It's not my fault!" Keith shouted as Bruchacca let out a howl of rage and frustration and quickly jumped up from the pilot's seat. There was work to do.
XxX
Admiral Emily approached Fred, who stood on the bridge of his Woodwind cloud destroyer, and gazed out the window.
"They'll be in range of our tractor beam in moments," the admiral reported confidently.
"Did your men deactivate the metronome drive on the Millennium Trumpet?" Fred asked.
"Yes, My lord."
"Good," the giant black-robed figure said. "Prepare the boarding party and set your weapons for stun."
XxX
As Bruchacca ran into the hold he passed Tim2, who was still working on A-10. He was periodically sending jolts of electricity into his friend's legs in order to get them working again. And while he worked, Bruchacca growled in frustration over the busted interworkings of the case.
"Noisy brute!" A-10 complained. "Why don't we just go into met speed?"
Tim2 immediately fired an answer at him.
"We can't? How would you know the metronome drive is deactivated?" A-10 asked incredulously.
Tim2 beeped matter-of-factly.
"The city central computer told you? Tim2-Sax2, you know better than to trust a strange computer!"
XxX
From his cloud destroyer, Darth Fred watched in fascination as the TIE cases relentlessly fired on the Millennium Trumpet. Fred's case was closing in on the fleeing freighter. It would not be long before the dark Drum Major had Skywalker completely in his power.
And Chris sensed it too. Quietly he gazed out, knowing that Fred was near, and that his victory over the weakened Trombone would soon be complete. His body was battered, was exhausted; his spirit was prepared to succumb to his fate. There was no reason to fight anymore. There was nothing left to believe in.
"Jason," he whispered in utter despair as he went to join his friends in the cockpit. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"Bruce!" Keith shouted down to Bruchacca. "Check the secondary deviation controls."
But Bruchacca had had enough. Using his tool as a club he bashed the panel in with all his strength.
Suddenly the cockpit control panel sprayed Keith and Amanda with a shower of sparks. They jumped back in their seats in surprise, but Chris didn't seem to notice anything happening around him. His head hung in discouragement and deep pain.
"I won't be able to resist him," he muttered softly.
In the Millennium Trumpet's hold, Tim2 raced to a control panel, leaving an outraged A-10 to stand spluttering on his one good leg.
"Tim2, come back here at once! You haven't finished with me yet! You don't know how to fix the metronome drive. Bruchacca can do it. I'm standing here in pieces, and you're having delusions of grandeur!"
Tim2 worked swiftly, relying only on mechanical instinct to reprogram the circuit board. Lights flashed brightly with each of Tim2's adjustments, when suddenly, from deep within the Trumpet's met speed engines, a new and powerful hum resonated throughout the case.
The freighter tilted suddenly, sending the whistling Tim2 tumbling across the floor into the pit to land on a startled Bruchacca.
Keith, who had been standing near the control panel, tumbled back against the cockpit wall. But as he fell back, he heard the reassuring click of the met and he saw the stars outside become infinite streaks of light.
"We did it!" Keith yelled triumphantly.
XxX
Darth Fred stood silently. He gazed at the black void, where only a moment before, the Millennium Trumpet had been. His deep, black silence brought terror to the two women sanding next to him. Admiral Emily and her Section Leader waited, chills of fear coursing through their bodies, and wondering how soon they would feel the invisible, viselike talons around their throats.
But the dark Drum Major did not move. He stood, silently contemplative, with his hands behind his back. Then he turned and walked slowly off the bridge, his ebony cloak billowing behind him.
XxX
The Millennium Trumpet was at last safely docked on a Brass cloud cruiser. Gleaming in the distance was a glorious red glow that radiated from a large, red star, a glow that shed its crimson light on the battered hull of the small freighter case.
Chris Skywalker rested in the medical center of the Brass cloud cruiser, where he was attended by a surgeon student by the name of 9-1b. The youth sat quietly, thoughtfully, while 9-1b gently began to look at his wounded hand.
Gazing up, Chris saw Amanda, followed by A-10 and Tim2, entering the medical center to check his progress, and perhaps, bring him a little cheer. But Chris knew that the best therapy he'd received yet aboard this cruiser was in the radiant image before him.
Princess Amanda was smiling. Her eyes were wide and sparkling with a wondrous glow. She looked just as she had that first time he'd seen her, a lifetime ago, it seemed, when Tim2-sax2 had first projected her holographic image. And, in her floor-length, high-necked gown of purest white, she looked angelic.
Raising his hand, Chris offered it to the expert service of 9-1b. The surgeon student examined the bionic hand that was skillfully fused to Chris' arm. Then the student wrapped a soft metalized strip around the hand and attached a small electronic unit to the strip, tightening it slightly. Chris made a fist with his new hand and felt the healing pulsations imparted by 9-1b's apparatus. Then he let his hand and arm relax.
Amanda and the two students moved closer to Chris as a voice came over an intercom loudspeaker. It was Keith.
"Chris," the voice blared. "We're ready for takeoff."
"Good luck, Keith."
"When we find Kim the Bass and that pit hunter, we'll contact you."
Keith Calrissian sat in the Millennium Trumpet's pilot chair. He had missed his old case, but now that he was once again its captain, he felt quite uncomfortable. In his copilot's chair, Bruchacca noticed his new captain's discomfort while he began to throw the switches to ready the case for takeoff.
Chris' voice came over Keith's comm unit speaker. "I'll meet you at the rendezvous point in Littleton. Bruce, I'll be waiting for your signal."
Again, Keith spoke into his comlink microphone, only this time he spoke to Amanda.
"Princess," he said with emotion. "We'll find Keoni. I promise."
And leaning over, Bruchacca barked his farewell into the microphone- a bark that may have transcended the limits of time and space to be heard by Keoni Solo, wherever the pit hunter had taken him.
It was Chris who spoke the final farewell, though he refused to say goodbye.
"Take care, you two," he said with a new maturity in his voice. "May The Drill Be With You."
Amanda stood alone at the great circular window of the Brass cloud cruiser, her slim, white-draped form dwarfed by the vast canopy of stars and the drifting shapes of the fleet. She watched the majestic scarlet star that burned in the infinite black night.
Chris, with A-10 and Tim2 tagging along, moved to stand next to her. He knew what she was feeling for he knew how terrible such a loss could be.
Standing together, the group faced the inviting heavens and saw the Millennium Trumpet moving into view, and then veering off in another direction to soar with great dignity through the Brass fleet. Soon the Millennium Trumpet had left the fleet in its wake.
They needed no words in this moment. Chris knew that Amanda's mind and heart were with Keoni, no matter where he was or what his fate might be. As to his own destiny, he was now more uncertain about himself than he had ever been, even before this simple farm boy in a distant system first learned of the intangible something called the Drill. He only knew he had to return to Keena and finish his training before he set off to rescue Keoni.
Slowly he put his arm around Amanda and together with A-10 and Tim2, they faced the heavens bravely, each of them gazing at the same crimson star.
