Rescuing the Princess

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Luke, Malia, Han and Chewbacca made their way through the sterile grey corridors of the Death Star en route to the detention block. Presently, a mouse droid rolled up to them. Chewbacca roared at it and the droid squealed away.

"Real subtle." Malia muttered as the group pressed on.

Presently, the group reached the lifts. As they waited for one to arrive, the group watched as officers, droids and technicians walked past, none of them giving the quartet so much as a second glance. As far as the Empire was concerned, Luke and Han were Stormtroopers and Malia and Chewbacca were their prisoners. A lift soon arrived and a fleet trooper exited, allowing Han and Chewbacca to enter the lift. Malia followed them in and Luke brought up the rear, bumping his shoulder on the door frame in the process. "I can't see a thing in this helmet." he grumbled

"Why don't ya tell the whole station that?" Han retorted as the doors closed and the lift began to ascend to level 5.

~8~

Obi-Wan hid in an alcove as a platoon of Stormtroopers marched past. Once the coast was clear, Obi-Wan came out of hiding and resumed his journey towards the tractor beam controls. All the while he could sense a presence he hadn't felt in 19 years. He knew that Vader was aboard this station and his instincts told him he would encounter his former pupil soon.

~8~

As the lift continued its ascent to the detention block, Luke noticed that Chewbacca's binders had come undone. "This is not gonna work." Han said pessimistically

"Why didn't ya say so before?" Luke retorted

"I did say so before!" Han shot back

"Well, it's too late to back out now, Fly Boy." Malia told him, "We'll just have to hope."

Just then, the lift doors opened and the quartet stepped out to find themselves at detention block AA23, where an officer and several fleet troopers were manning the desks. The officer immediately looked at the four newcomers. "Where are you taking that girl and this... thing?" he asked suspiciously

"Prisoner transfer from cell block 1138." Luke replied

"Reckon you can get me a room by the pool?" Malia asked cheekily

"Quiet, girl!" Han snapped, playing the part of a trooper on escort duty.

"I wasn't notified." the officer said to Luke, "I'll have to clear out." He gestured to two of men his men who drew out their blasters and approached the quartet.

As one of the troopers reached Chewbacca, the Wookie sprang out of his loose restraints and tossed the trooper across the room. "Look out, he's loose!" Han said, continuing the charade.

"He'll tear us all apart!" Luke said, handing Chewbacca a blaster from a weapons rack.

"I'll get him!" Han said as he shot the officer with his own blaster

Malia meanwhile kicked the other trooper in the face, knocking him to the floor. "This is for my mom and dad!" she spat as she began kicking and stomping on the fallen trooper, her anger towards the Empire spilling out.

A third trooper came hurrying out of the cell bay having heard the shots, but Han swiftly dealt with him, then he, Luke and Chewbacca began shooting the cameras to buy them some privacy. "Look out!" Luke warned as he saw a fourth trooper enter the fray. He quickly dealt with the trooper and approached his cousin, who was still kicking and stomping on the second trooper with a look of cold fury in her eyes. "Malia..." Luke began, carefully putting a hand on the young woman's shoulder, "You can stop now. He's dead."

Malia seemed to snap out of her frenzy at her cousin's voice. She turned to him and held out her wrists. Luke removed her binders and she grabbed a blaster from the weapons rack. Han meanwhile had moved to the desk and shoved the dead officer out of the way. "We gotta find out which cell this Princess of yours is in." he said as he fiddled with a few controls, "Here it is, 2187. You two go get her, I'll hold 'em here." Luke and Malia went off down the cell bay while Han removed his helmet and switched on the radio. "Uh, everything's under control, situation normal." he said into the radio.

"What happened?" an officer's voice said over the other end

"Had a slight weapons malfunction." Han lied, "But, er... everything's perfectly alright now. We're fine, we're all fine here now, thank you... how are you?"

"We're sending a squad up." the officer said

"Uh, negative, negative!" Han said quickly, "We have a reactor leak here, uh, now. Give us a few minutes to lock it down. Large leak, very dangerous."

"Who is this?!" the officer demanded, "What's your operating number?"

Having ran out of excuses, Han promptly shot the radio. "Boring conversation anyway." he muttered, then shouted after the two cousins; "Luke, Malia, we're gonna have company!"

Luke and Malia hurried down the cell bay until they reached cell 2187. Malia stood guard outside while Luke entered the cell to find Princess Leia Organa asleep on the cell's bunk. The Princess woke up upon Luke's entry. "Aren't you a little short for a Stormtrooper?" she asked dryly

"Huh?" Luke blinked in surprise, then remembered that he was wearing Stormtrooper armour. "Oh, the uniform." He removed his helmet. "I'm Luke Skywalker, I'm here to rescue you." he said to Leia

"You're who?" Leia questioned as she sat up.

"I'm here to rescue you." Luke replied, "We've got your R2 unit. We're here with Ben Kenobi."

Leia immediately jumped to her feet. "Ben Kenobi? Where is he?!" she asked urgently

"Come one!" Luke urged and he led her out of the cell to join Malia

"Hey, Han. We've got her!" Malia shouted down the cell bay

Han and Chewbacca meanwhile were readying themselves for the expected company coming their way. "Get behind me! Get behind me!" Han urged his friend and they both took up defensive positions as they heard the lift arrive.

The lift door was blown open and Stormtroopers burst out and opened fire on the two intruders. Han and Chewbacca managed to gun down the first two troopers and they both ran off down the cell bay. "Watch to your left." the Stormtrooper commander told his men, "They went down the cell bay."

Han and Chewbacca reunited with Luke, Malia and Leia. "Can't get out that way." Han told them

"Looks like you've managed to cut off our only escape route." Leia told him dryly

"Maybe you'd like it back in your cell, Your Highness." Han retorted

Suddenly, blaster fire from the Stormtroopers whizzed by uncomfortably close, so the group all dived for cover behind wall pillars and Han, Chewbacca and Malia returned fire. "C-3PO, C-3PO." Luke said urgently into his comlink, "Are there any other ways out of the cell bay? We've been cut off!" More shots whizzed past. "What was that? I didn't copy."

~8~

"I said all systems have been alerted to your presence, sir." Threepio said into his comlink, "The main entrance seems to be the only way in or out. All other information on your level is restricted."

Suddenly, both droids heard a tapping on the control room door. "Open up in there!" a Stormtrooper's voice demanded from outside

"Oh, no." Threepio groaned, realising that they'd been found.

~8~

"There isn't any other way out." Luke told the others as they fired back against the Stormtroopers who seemed to just keep coming no matter how many were shot.

"We can't hold 'em off forever. Now what?!" Han grumbled

"This is some rescue!" Leia commented, "You came in and didn't have a plan for getting out?"

"He's the brains, sweetheart!" Han retorted

"Well, I didn't..." Luke began to retort, only for Leia to snatch his blaster from him and shoot open a grille in the wall next to Han.

"What the hell are you doing?!" the smuggler demanded

"Somebody has to save our skins." Leia retorted, moving across the cell bay and firing a few shots at the Stormtroopers to hold them off. "Into the garbage chute, Fly Boy." she said to Han, then she tossed the blaster back to Luke and jumped into the opening she'd just created.

Chewbacca began to follow when he suddenly got cold feet. "Get in there!" Han told him

Chewbacca growled in protest

"Get in there, ya big furry oaf!" Han snapped, "I don't care what ya smell! Just get in there and don't worry about it!" And so Chewbacca reluctantly dived into the chute.

Luke turned to Malia to see that she was shooting at the Stormtroopers with an almost single-minded determination to stand her ground. "'Lia, go on." Luke urged her, "Ya can't do anymore here, get down there!" Malia snapped out of her trance and jumped down the chute.

"Wonderful girl, that princess." Han said to Luke, "Either I'm gonna kill her or I'm beginning to like her. Get in there!" So Luke dived into the chute. Han fired a last few shots at the attacking Stormtroopers then he dived into the chute himself. The next thing Han knew, he was landing in a heap of rubbish and he found that they'd all landed in a rubbish compactor. Chewbacca was trying to force the door open while the Humans were recovering from the dive. "Argh!" Han grimaced at the pong from the rubbish, "The garbage chute was a really wonderful idea." he said sarcastically to Leia, who gave him a dark look in response. "What a wonderful smell you've discovered. Let's get outta here. Get away from there." he ordered Chewbacca, who backed away from the door and Han aimed his blaster at it.

"No, wait..." Malia began, but it was too late. Han fired and everyone was forced to hit the deck as the shot deflected off the door and ricocheted around the compactor.

"Will you forget it?! I already tried it! It's magnetically sealed!" Luke exploded at Han

"Put that thing away, you're gonna get us all killed!" Leia added angrily

"Absolutely, your Worship." Han retorted snidely, "Look, I had everything under control so ya led us down here! Ya know, it's not gonna take 'em look to figure out what happened to us."

"Could be worse." Leia shot back

Suddenly, a horrible growling noise echoed through the compactor. "I think it's worse." Malia said uneasily

"There's something alive in here." Luke warned

"That's your imagination." Han dismissed him

Malia jumped suddenly. "Something just touched my leg." she squirmed

"Look!" Luke said, pointing to a tentacle swimming in the water, "D'ya see that?!"

"What?" Han asked, seeing nothing.

Suddenly, another tentacle wrapped itself around Luke's leg and dragged him underwater. "Luke!" Malia cried, rushing forward and desperately searching on her hands and knees through the water to try and find her cousin. A moment later, Luke popped back up with tentacles wrapped around him. "Get off him, ya stupid thing!" Malia growled as she tried to free her cousin from the creature that had snared him.

"Blast it!" Luke choked out, "My gun's jammed!"

"Where?" Han asked

"Anywhere!" Luke shot back, and so Han began wildly firing his blaster into the water to try and free Luke from the creature. The creature suddenly dived underwater again, taking Luke with it and Malia too, as she was still holding onto Luke.

Han, Leia and Chewbacca could only stare in horrified silence for a moment as they assumed the worst. Suddenly, a metallic clanking echoed around the compactor and then Luke and Malia reappeared, both soaked wet but thankfully very much alive. "Help them!" Leia urged Han as they both helped the two cousins to stand. "What happened?" she asked them

"I dunno." Luke coughed, "It let go of us and disappeared."

"You both alright?" Leia asked them

"Oh yeah, terrific!" Malia retorted sarcastically, spitting sewage water out of her mouth.

More metallic clanks sounded. "I got a bad feeling about this." Han said uneasily

As if on cue, the walls of the compactor began to close in. "The walls are moving!" Luke hollered, realising that the walls would crush them all like bugs.

"Well, don't just stand there, try and brace it with something!" Leia urged, picking up a discarded piece of metal and holding it up against one of the approaching walls. Malia rushed to help her while Han picked up another piece of scrap and tried to stop the other wall, and Chewbacca attempted to stop the wall with his Wookie strength, but even he wasn't strong enough to stop the enormously heavy metal wall.

Luke suddenly remembered his comlink. "Threepio? Come in, Threepio!" he hollered into it, receiving no answer, "Threeio! Where could he be?!"

~8~

Threepio's comlink lay switched off on the desk in the control room, while the droid himself was nowhere to be seen, as was Artoo. The door burst open and a group of Stormtroopers stormed into the room, one of them rather stupidly bonking his head on the bottom of the door. "See to him." the commander ordered, then he and several of his men searched the room. They found the bodies of the two officers Han and Chewbacca had killed then they heard urgent tapping on a storage cupboard door. "Look, there!" the commander said as one of his men hurried over to the cupboard and opened the door.

The Stormtroopers found Artoo and Threepio hiding inside. "They're madmen!" Threepio said, remembering Malia's advice about pretending to belong, "They're heading for the prison level. If you hurry, you might catch them!"

"Follow me." the Stormtrooper commander ordered his men and they all hurried to the door. "You stand guard." the commander ordered the trooper who had hit his head, then he and the others hurried away.

Threepio came out of the cupboard and retrieved his comlink from the desk. "Come on!" he urged Artoo and the two droids headed for the door, where they found the remaining Stormtrooper on guard. "All this excitement has overrun the circuits in my counterpart here." Threepio lied, "If you don't mind, I'd like to take him down to mainteneance."

"Alright." the Stormtrooper conceded, still too dazed from whacking his head to realise the deception.

Artoo gave an amused beep as he and Threepio quickly made their escape.

~8~

"Threepio! Come in, Threepio!" Luke yelled frantically into his comlink as the walls of the rubbish compactor continued to close in.

"Get on top!" Han urged the two women

"I can't!" Leia said as she just couldn't find her footing

"It's too slippery!" Malia added

"Where could he be?" Luke grumbled as he still couldn't get any response from the droid, "Threepio, will you come in?!"

~8~

Meanwhile, Artoo and Threepio had managed to sneak into an alcove facing the hanger the Millennium Falcon was captive in. "See if they've been captured." Threepio ordered Artoo, who plugged his datalink into a computer terminal and began searching for the others.

~8~

"One thing's for sure, we're all gonna be a lot thinner." Han said as the walls continued to close in.

"Oh, shut up!" Malia snapped as she tried yet again to scale the wall, but her wet boots wouldn't grip and she slipped down again.

"Get on top of it!" Han said to Leia

"I'm trying!" Leia shot back, having no luck scaling the wall either.

~8~

Artoo checked the Imperial records and found out that Luke and the others were still at large.

"Oh, thank goodness they haven't found them." Threepio said in relief, "Where could they be?"

Artoo whistled some advice to him.

"'Use the comlink?' Oh, my. I forgot. I turned it off." Threepio realised, then he switched the comlink back on. "Are you there, sir?" he asked

"Threepio?!" Luke's voice gasped

"We've had some problems."

"Will you shut up and listen to me?!" Luke interrupted frantically, "Shut down all the garbage mashers on the detention level, will ya?! D'ya copy? Shut down all the garbage mashers on the detention level!"

"Shut them all down! Hurry!" Threepio hollered to Artoo, who immediately got to work with his datalink.

~8~

Just as the rubbish compactor's walls were about to crush the quintet inside, they suddenly stopped. "Ha, ha!" Han laughed in relief

"What?!" Luke blinked as he opened his eyes

"Yes!" Malia laughed in relief

"Hey, Threepio!" Luke chortled

~8~

The quintet's yells and laughs carried over the comlink. Threepio thought they were screaming. "Listen to them. They're dying, Artoo." Threepio said sadly, "Curse my metal body, I wasn't fast enough. It's all my fault. My poor Master and Mistress."

"We're alright!" Luke said over the comlink, "You did great!"

Then Malia's voice came over the comlink; "Hey, Threepio, we're in unit number 3263827. Could ya get Artoo to open the pressure maintenance hatch and let us out?"

~8~

Obi-Wan made his way down a corridor until he reached a walkway over a vast chasm. Attached to the walkway was a circular power terminal which powered the tractor beam. Obi-Wan carefully shimmed around the edge of the terminal until he found the controls, then he began disabling the tractor beam.

Author's notes: And so Princess Leia makes her first in-person appearance in this story. I know she and Malia don't really interact in this chapter but I'll try to get them to interact a bit later, maybe once they're away from the Death Star. Note that I made reference to the classic goof where the Stormtrooper smacks his head on the door. I just couldn't resist that! When planning this story, I briefly considered having Malia be the one who the Dianoga tries to drown instead of Luke but I ultimately decided to stay true to the film and have it still be Luke, though Malia does get pulled underwater with him too, so I think it's a fair compromise. So, I hope you like this chapter. Next time, we escape the Death Star and say goodbye to good old Obi-Wan. See ya then!