Imperial Palace, Gymnasium, Galactic City, Coruscant.
"Come on, Luke!" Mara yelled encouragingly as he lightsaber sparred with his father. "Don't let the old man beat you!"
Luke moved around Vader, his green blade occasionally swinging out and clashing with his father's red saber. He risked a glance in Mara's direction. "I don't want to be accused of elder-abuse...so I'm going easy on him."
"You need not worry about that," Vader's voice boomed. "A drunk Kowakian Monkey-Lizard would make a better sparring partner."
"Ouch," Luke gave him a mock look of indignation. "I admit, you are a far better swordsman, but you also have decades of experience on me."
"Also," Mara called out. "A monkey-lizard wouldn't look as sexy in that outfit."
Luke flashed her a smile. "I knew you would like it."
Emperor Skywalker wasn't in his usual Royal garb but donned the tight-fitting and, to Mara's delight, butt-hugging black bodysuit that was worn under the Imperial Knight armor. So far only Luke and Mara wore the distinctive red and black uniform, and even then, that was only on special occasions. The royal couple was hopeful that they would one day find other Force-users who they could instruct in the ways of the Force, but with the impending launch of the Skywalker Exploratory Space Station, and other major projects on the way, there wasn't much time to recruit and train new knights.
Mara watched the two men from a comfortable padded chair brought into the gymnasium specifically for her. She was four months pregnant—not what she would consider in 'a delicate condition'—but Luke refused to let her sit on the cold metallic viewing bleachers, saying it wasn't good for the baby. She smiled as she absently brought a hand down and caressed her almost indiscernible baby bump. She was nervous and thrilled about the impending birth. Luke was the typical anxious, but eager father-to-be... but Vader. Let's just say, Vader's reaction to her pregnancy was something completely unexpected. When it came to Mara and her growing fetus, he was as overprotective as a mama nexu with her cubs. Her father-in-law highly encouraged—almost to the point of demanding—that she'd go to all recommended prenatal appointments, and she was to take all tests ordered by her physician.
His constant monitoring of her prenatal care irritated her so much she almost snapped at him...almost. Fortunately, she thought better of it and instead remained silently seething. Unfortunately for her, she didn't shield her thoughts properly. She had become pissed at Lord Vader and he knew it. Surprisingly, Vader was not upset. He simply sighed and then sat her down to explain his concerns.
"Padme never received any prenatal testing," he had said softly. "She feared a standard DNA scan would be performed which could have revealed me as the father. All Jedi knights and Republic military had their DNA on file with the government. It is used for the identification of remains." He took a long pause before continuing. "I think if she had the normal prenatal tests performed, I would not have been so concerned about her health. I dreamt she died in childbirth and that fear led me down a dark path."
Mara had reached out and placed a hand on Vader's knee. "I understand. I will follow my doctor's advice. I promise." She had looked down at her hand and quickly pulled it away. Over the last year she had gotten so comfortable around Lord Vader that she would find herself doing loving gestures absentmindedly...actions that she had feared might make him uncomfortable.
Mara was pulled out of her musings as Vader went on the offensive striking out with his crimson saber. Luke blocked, parried and surprisingly was able to disarm his father, his saber spinning out of his hand and deactivating before it hit the gym floor.
Luke was so stunned at this turn of events that he stared at the lightsaber slack jawed. "I guess I won." He grinned as he turned to his father, but the smile quickly slipped from his face as Vader's knees buckled and the man went to the floor face down.
Luke deactivated his saber and tossed it aside as he bent down next to his prone father. "Father!" He turned to Mara. "Call for medics!"
Mara already had her commlink out and was notifying the palace infirmary.
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Minutes later medics rushed into the gymnasium with a repulsor gurney. The two humans saw Vader lying unconscious on the floor and stopped. One man got on his commlink and yelled, "The patient is Lord Vader. We need the specialized crash cart and Doctor Trinken."
The medics ran to the former emperor and turned him onto his back. Vader was still breathing, but the sound was raspy and irregular. They looked over the body searching for wounds. "Was there a lightsaber accident?"
Luke shook his head frantically. "No, no, he just collapsed. I think there is a problem with his suit."
The two medics glanced to each other looking helpless. The suit was a self-contained life support unit. If the system was failing then Vader didn't need a medic; he needed an engineer.
Luke knelt beside his father gripping his hand in his own. "Father," Luke sobbed, tears falling down his face. "Please, you can't die."
Vader took a long breath and tried to say something, but the words were unintelligible. Eventually he went limp and the sound of his labored breathing became slow and faint. Luke looked at the medics accusingly. "Do something!"
The ranking medic put his hands out in a calming gesture. "Sire, Doctor Trinken is on his way. He specializes in cybernetics. The call we received at the infirmary only indicated a need for medical assistance in the gymnasium. We did not bring the specialized gear needed for your father, but it is on its way. All we can do is wait."
Mara came over to Luke's side. "That's my fault. I panicked and didn't specify who needed help, only that it was urgent." She put an arm around Luke's shoulder and squeezed.
He turned and encircled her in his arms. "It's okay. The doctor should be here soon."
At that moment an Imperial doctor with white tunic, trousers and the medical corps emblem on his shoulder entered the room. Floating behind him was a large container of drawers sitting on top a repulsor sled. He opened one of the draws and pulled out a cylindrical device that resembled a lightsaber hilt with a tapered end. He dropped down next to Vader and flipped open a small compartment on his chest control panel and pressed the tip of the device into a round port. After a moment Vader began to stir. The doctor looked up to Luke. "Emperor Skywalker, I injected your father with epinephrine to increase cardiac output. Lord Vader has given me instructions for his care. I need to get him to a specialized facility within the palace."
"Where?" Luke asked.
"Emperor Palpatine's old cloning laboratory under the throne room. Your father had me repurpose the facility. New armor has been designed for your father and a surgical operating room was built in the facility for the sole purpose of transferring him into the new life support suit."
The medics lifted Vader onto a repulsor gurney and immediately rushed Vader out into the corridor moving toward the throne room.
As Luke followed the men, he pulled out his commlink and contacted his chief of security ordering him to empty the corridor between the gymnasium and throne room. He didn't need people gawking at his father as they traveled through the palace.
Once in the throne room Luke ran around the gurney to unlock the door leading to the laboratory turbolift, but Dr. Trinken had already done so. That was understandable. After all, the doctor had been working deep under the throne room for who knows how long. What Luke didn't understand was how the doctor managed to come and go into the old laboratory without his knowledge.
"How did I not know about this?" Luke asked as they maneuvered his father's gurney though the door. He was irritated that this was kept from him...literally under his very nose.
The doctor didn't immediately answer as he and the medics pushed Lord Vader into the turbolift. Luke and Mara squeeze in around the gurney to accompany the men.
"I was given access to the lab through a back route," The doctor explained as the turbolift started its downward journey. "Your father made me promise to keep things quiet."
Luke shook his head in confusion. "Why wouldn't he want me to know about a new suit being designed?"
The doctor shrugged. "That is for Lord Vader to answer."
Luke glanced over to Mara and her expression verified she also sensed what he did through the Force...the good doctor was hiding something.
"What are you not telling us?" Mara asked as the lift stopped and the doors opened.
The doctor turned to face her. "Empress, I can stand here and discuss the situation, or I can save Lord Vader. Time is not a luxury he has in abundance."
Before Mara could answer Luke waved the doctor off. "Go, go! Do what you need to do. Just save my father!"
.
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Underground Medical Facility, Imperial Palace, Galactic City, Coruscant.
As Luke exited the lift, he was astonished at the complete renovation of Palpatine's old cloning laboratory. The large room that was once filled with damaged cloning cylinders was now home to a transparisteel enclosed, state-of-the-art surgical chamber with high tech medical equipment. At the center of the surgical suite was the operating table with large lights overhead. The medics pushed the gurney into the operating room and proceeded to transfer Vader from the gurney to the surgical table. Luke and Mara tried to follow but were stopped by Dr. Trinken who pointed to a newly installed staircase. "There is a place to watch upstairs. My surgical team will be here soon. I need time to prepare."
Luke nodded as he and Mara walked up the stairs to a small landing with a long bench seat running along a transparisteel observation window. Luke sat down heavily as he watched the two medics positioned and then repositioned his father under the direction of Dr. Trinken. When the physician was satisfied the two men left the chamber and exited the facility via the lift. After about ten minutes three people in white Medical Corps uniforms arrived, scrubbed up and helped each other don gown, gloves and masks. They entered the surgical area and quickly got to work attaching various cables to his father's life support chest plate before beginning the grisly job of removing his suit.
Luke knew the doctor was in a hurry to detach the malfunctioning outfit but when the team pulled out plasma cutters and started slicing off his father's limbs he thought he might pass out.
Mara grabbed his hand and squeezed. "There is no blood. They are simply removing the cybernetics and the leather suit."
Luke nodded and looked away for a long time. When he glanced back his father was stripped of his suit revealing his horribly mutilated form. He had pasty white skin with keloid scar tissue all over his body. His head had a large gash at the crown and his arms and legs were short malformed stumps. The doctors quickly intubated his father and hooked him to a ventilator allowing him to breathe. At one point the surgical team placed a large flexible catheter into the upper portion of his father's right leg. Luke had to look away as dark blood flowed out of his thigh and moved through a tube into a machine at the side of the operating table. Luke risked another peek, but a second surgeon was placing another catheter into his father's neck."
"Kriff...what are they doing?"
Mara scrutinized the situation. "It looks like blood is getting removed from his leg, going into the machine, and then back into his neck. It is probably a device to oxygenate his blood and remove waste products during the operation. It is basically what his suit does because of his damaged lungs."
"I can't watch this anymore." Luke started to stand when a commotion broke out in the operating room.
"Blood pressure is dropping," one member of the team called out as the staff became a flurry of motion.
"Administer IV push," Dr. Trinken called out.
"One-liter normal saline administered," a member of the medical team stated. "Blood pressure is still dropping."
"Kriff!" The doctor looked at the monitor. "We have an internal bleed. Get the scanner! Find it!"
The team moved a device over Vader's body. "It is a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurism." The man's expression was hidden by a surgical mask, but Luke could feel his panic through the force. Luke wasn't sure exactly what is happening, but it was bad.
"Open him up. We might have time to graft it."
Luke's knees went weak when he saw the surgeon make a large incision in his father's abdomen. He managed to make it to the exit before he vomited the contents of his lunch over the railing of the staircase.
He didn't need to watch further. He could feel his father's life force dimming...the same way he felt the death of Obi-Wan. He sat down at the top of the stairs and cried.
.
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Doctor Trinken found Luke thirty minutes later. Emperor Skywalker had moved from the stairs to the main floor and collapsed in a desk chair that he had found. Mara had pulled up another chair and draped her arms around him, her head on his shoulder, and tried not to cry as she attempted to console her heartbroken husband.
Luke glanced up as the doctor approached. He had doffed his gown and gloves and it was obvious he went to great efforts to get rid of all evidence of blood. He must have changed his scrubs because when Luke last saw the doctor he was covered in his father's blood.
The man knelt next to Luke and put a hand on his shoulder. "Sire. I'm so sorry."
Luke tried to hold in a sob but failed and cried openly. When he regained his composure, he asked the doctor. "If you had a new suit, why did you wait until he was dying to put him in it. You should have switched him into the new suit before things got bad."
The doctor sighed and glanced toward the operating room. "I suggested that very thing to Lord Vader, but he knew there was a high probability that he would not survive the operation." He gestured toward Mara. "He refused to take the chance that he would never see his grandchild. He planned on making the switch after the birth."
"Ohhh," Mara groaned. "He shouldn't have done that. Now he has no chance of ever meeting his grandchild."
Dr. Trinken stood. "That's not necessarily true...at least according to Lord Vader."
Luke's head shot up to look at the doctor. "What do you mean?"
The doctor looked back to the operating room where his team were performing postmortem tasks such as extubating Vader and cleaning the body. He returned his attention to Luke and Mara. "One moment. What I must tell you is on the highest level of secrecy. It was something only Lord Vader and I knew. I have to get my men out of here for now." He walked over to his crew, spoke to them for a few minutes and then returned to Luke and Mara as the other surgeons left the underground medical facility. "Okay," he said as the turbolift doors closed leaving the three alone. Dr. Trinken drew in a long calming breath before looking to Mara. "Empress, you asked me what I was keeping from you. If you two will follow me, I will show you. Lord Vader was very clear that I was to keep his secrets until his death."
They walked to the rear of the new medical center until they came to the door where the birthing room was once located. It was the place where the concubines impregnated by the clone Palpatine gave birth.
When the doors opened the birthing chairs were gone and replaced with something else very familiar: A cloning cylinder and it was not empty. Inside was a tall mid-aged human male with short cropped blond hair. He was lying on his back floating in clear fluid. His face was handsome and serene; his eyes closed in a slumber-like state.
"What the Kriff!" Mara said hotly as she pointed to the human. "Is that Vader's clone? Were you intending on using this man for transplant organs?"
Luke felt sick to his stomach knowing now why his father kept this secret. "Was he actually growing new lungs for transplant?" He turned to Dr. Trinken. "Are you a body-broker?"
Body-brokers were scientists that got around the ban on using viable clones for replacement organs by tweaking the growth process so only the brain stem developed. Since there was no higher brain function the clones could never become a conscious sentient and therefore a loophole was found in the law. Luke had lawmakers tightening up the legal verbiage prohibiting clones for this use. He would have banned cloning outright, but the Imperial planet Khomm had a society based on conformity and to ensure their culture remained unchanged for the past one thousand years all citizens of the planet were clones of previous generations. To ban cloning outright would mean either issuing a planetary exception to the Khommites or totally disrupting their society. He instead opted to strengthen restrictions, but body brokers were still a problem within the Empire.
"This is not a brain-dead organ donor." The doctor said sounding offended. "I am not a body- broker."
"Is that my father?" Luke asked again.
"Technically, yes. He is indeed a clone of your father, but if I woke him now, he would be like a newborn baby. A blank slate."
Luke shook his head in frustration. "I don't understand. Why are you showing me this?"
The doctor pointed down at the replicating cylinder where the submerged man breathed in the oxygen-rich cloning solution that allowed liquid ventilation.
"This was your father's idea. It was a fallback plan in case the transfer to the suit did not work and he perished." The man shrugged looking a bit confused. "Your father told me some outlandish story about soul transference." He looked sheepish as he ran a frustrated hand over his chin. "I didn't believe it was possible, but...well, nobody tells Lord Vader no...so I made him a clone. He left this as the fallback plan to getting the new suit because he wasn't sure if he was capable of accomplishing the transfer." He stared down at the body. "And now that he is dead...I have no idea what to do with this body."
The doctor jumped when the clone started to thrash in the cloning cylinder, eyes wide and his mouth moving as if trying to talk.
"Kriff! This shouldn't be possible." Doctor Trinken went to the control panel and pushed a button to drain the fluid out of the chamber. There was a flushing sound as the liquid swirled down a drain at by the man's feet. The doctor unsealed the cloning pod and swung up the door. The clone was still twitching with a look of panic in his eyes. "Calm down," Dr. Trinken told his creation. "Take deep even breaths."
The clone tried to take a deep breath which resulted in him vomiting up cloning fluid.
"Good, good. Get as much as you can up, but don't worry, the fluid quickly gets absorbed in the body. There is no risk of aspiration pneumonia."
The man coughed up more fluid, took a few deep breaths and then spit. He then turned his light blue eyes toward Luke as Dr. Trinken helped him sit up. He smiled warmly before saying, "Hello, son."
Luke stared at Anakin Skywalker reborn. He opened his mouth to say something, but the words never came. The shock of the day's events was far too much. His field of vision narrowed as he became hypotensive and, after wobbling on his feet for a second, he collapsed to the ground.