New chapter!
Carrying on the tradition of shout-outs, much love to the following: JChavz95, akagami hime chan, LoveFiction2021, EiraFae, Concrete63, youngbones7, Sarahfelixclaremordred, sonsofdurin and also a bunch of people who reviewed in the intervening years between Chapter 36 and Chapter 37. You're all wonderful, lovely people and I appreciate you so much.
Just going back through old reviews, someone pointed out that this story is going to get very long as I continue to add to it - how would people feel about me splitting everything after Chapter 36 into its own story?
Oh also, I've gone back through and made all those updates and changes I said I was going to make to earlier chapters. Mostly I've just added to what was already there, but some bits have been shifted around, so if you're an old fan, you might find some elements of the story have changed - have another read through and let me know what you think!
Coruscant, just over four standard months before the destruction of the second Death Star.
Darth Vader bowed his head, crouched on the floor before his Emperor. He had just received his punishment for allowing Skywalker and his companions to escape from Cloud City, and now his master stood over him, his breathing steady and even despite the cruel display of force he had just unleashed upon his apprentice. Hunched and shrivelled though he was, he seemed to tower.
The crackle of static in the air, the remnant of Force lightning, was beginning to fade, and Sidious was contemplative now. He began to pace, his hands behind his back, "This girl. Tell me more."
"She fled from the ruins of the Hoth rebel base aboard the Millennium Falcon," Vader said, not allowing a single note of pain to bleed into his voice, "I felt her presence then. At Cloud City I was able to study her further – she has had no training, and she is unaware of her ability. Her potential to manipulate the Force is barely a fraction of Skywalker's, but she is highly sensitive to its movements."
"Her history?"
"Happy – apart from the departure of her father. Her hate is buried deep, but still strong."
"How interesting. And her attachment to Skywalker?"
"Very strong. As was his to her. His thoughts were full of her when we fought – her and his other friends." Darth Sidious hummed, pleased. Vader hesitated, then dared to ask a question, "Do you think she will be of use, master?"
"An interesting question, my old friend. For I have just had word of a very distraught senator from Santifar who claims that Skywalker's little friend and her missing daughter are one and the same. She recognised her on the newsholo footage from the ferocious Rebel attack on Cloud City."
"A senator's daughter?" Vader repeated, puzzled. He thought back to what he had seen in the girl's mind. Santifar was a small planet on the edge of the Inner Rim, and from what he could remember, largely tropical. The girl's memories of her childhood – long, low fields and chilly mornings – didn't quite align…
"Yes. If we return the girl to her mother, we achieve a number of goals quickly and easily: Skywalker will be distracted in his attempts to retrieve her, we will reinforce Santifar's loyalty to the Empire, and we will have a potential weapon within easy reach. I trust it to you, my apprentice, to let it be known that if she is captured by Imperial forces, she is to be handed over to you."
"Yes, master."
"Hey, rebel girl. Hey!"
A boot thumped into Alice's thigh, not hard, but enough to startle her from a lingering half-doze into full wakefulness.
The first thing she noticed was that she felt awful – stiff, headachy, sore.
The second was that someone was standing over her, dressed head to toe in familiar metal armour.
Instinctively, she flinched away, half-expecting Boba Fett to lunge at her- but it wasn't him. This person was smaller, their armour a different colour.
"Jumpy, aren't you."
The voice was different too, and hearing it, she remembered what was going on and where she was.
Right. Kidnapped. Bounty hunters.
This was the woman, Chel. She'd put her helmet on, that was all.
Alice pushed herself upright, blinking. It was bright in the transport, much brighter than it had been when she'd drifted off, lulled by the humming of the ship as they hurtled through hyperspace. The gangway was down at the back of the ship, letting in a stream of cold air and the sounds of a busy space port.
"Where are we?"
Chel pulled her helmet off, shaking out her short, choppy hair, "Elforas. Just a pit stop. Here."
She dumped a small woven sack into Alice's lap, then turned her back on her, heading towards the cockpit. Her heart leaping up to her throat, Alice darted a quick glance at the open gangplank, but before she could even think about making a dash for it, Chel called, "I wouldn't, if I were you. It's an imperial space port and you're still dressed like a rebel. You'll be safer if you stay with us."
With an indignant grumble, Alice sat back against the wall and glanced down at the bag in her lap, "What's this?"
"Food," Chel said, "eat up."
Curious, she tugged the bag open. Inside were a couple of pieces of red fruit – they looked a little like a cross between a pear and a tomato, and had a warm, earthy smell that made her mouth water.
"Look familiar? They're native to Santifar. A little taste of home."
"Oh…" She had to admit, it was a strangely kind gesture, even though she had in actual fact never seen this type of fruit, set foot on Santifar, or even heard of it until several hours ago. "Thank you."
Chel shrugged one armoured shoulder, not bothering to turn around, "Don't mention it."
Huh. I…I think I like her?
A clattering noise from her right attracted her attention. The other two bounty hunters were coming up the gangway, each of them ladened down with boxes. The ramp closed automatically behind them, shutting out the sights and sounds of Elforas and plunging them into gloomy semi-darkness once more.
Well, there goes that opportunity.
"I hate it here," Sen rasped, his voice dripping with evident distaste, "everywhere you go is swarming with troopers. The sooner we're back in the Outer Rim, the better."
"Let's go then - we're fuelled up and the coordinates for Santifar are set," Chel replied, stepping back to let him take the captain's chair.
Alice swallowed, summoning up her courage to ask a question. After all, she'd promised Luke she would try to find out as much as she could.
"How long until we get there?"
For a moment, she thought she was going to be ignored. Chel and Sen were busy in the cockpit piloting them off the planet's surface, and the droid seemed to be unloading whatever supplies they'd gone out to fetch. Just as the silence was nearing unbearable, the droid set down the last box he was holding, and turned to face her, "The journey to Santifar will take several standard hours, assuming we do not run into any kind of trouble."
She nodded, a little hesitant. This droid was a lot taller and more threatening than any of the ones she'd encountered before. She hadn't really thought about the fact that droids could presumably be made to serve any purpose, including battle, but that's certainly what this one looked like it had been designed for.
"Thank you. Sorry, I didn't catch your name?"
The droid's glowing eyes flickered, as if he'd blinked in surprise, "My designation is PX-540, but you may call me Pax."
Hmm, that means 'peace'. How…inappropriate.
"Nice to meet you," she said weakly.
Chel snorted, glancing back over her shoulder, "Nice to meet you? You really must be a senator's daughter – I don't think we've ever had a bounty be so polite."
Alice frowned, "Um, what? Why would you think I'm a senator's daughter?"
She raised her eyebrows, "Maybe because-"
"Chel!" Sen growled, exasperated.
"What?" Chel snipped back, "It's not as if she's not going to find all this out anyway when we get there."
Sen grunted and waved a big scaly hand in surrender, clearly exhausted with trying to restrain his talkative crewmate.
Smug, Chel turned back to Alice, "The senator on Santifar says that you're her daughter."
Alice stared at her. Of all the possible reasons she might have been kidnapped, this was the last thing she would have imagined, "But…I'm not. Why would she think that? How does she even know who I am?"
"The senator's daughter was kidnapped on Coruscant seven standard years ago," Pax said, his eyes flaring slightly brighter in a way that made Alice feel he was studying her intently, "after seeing your face on a newsholo following the skirmish at Cloud City, she became convinced that you were her missing child and took steps to try and retrieve you."
Alice blinked, so blindsided by this sudden turn of events that the only thing she could think to say was, "…I was on the news?"
Chel nodded, "Apparently she made an official request to the emperor for help recovering you from the evil clutches of the Rebellion, but obviously that didn't work out for her. So about a month or so ago she put a bounty out on you."
Stunned, Alice sat back against the wall of the ship. It was awful that this woman had lost her child, even worse that Alice looked enough like her daughter for her to think she'd found her at last…but surely sooner or later, she'd realise the truth, and then what would she do? It was probably too much to hope that she'd just let her go…
"You're really not her daughter, then? No mysterious amnesia surrounding your childhood? Maybe a little trinket you've had since you were small but can't remember the significance of?"
"You've been watching too many crappy holo-dramas," Sen muttered.
Alice shook her head, "No. I know exactly where I come from, and it's not Santifar."
Chel looked pensive for a moment, then lifted a shoulder in a shrug, "Well, as long as she doesn't realise that before she pays us, it's not our problem. Sorry."
Great, Alice thought sourly, thanks a lot.
Half-heartedly, she tried reaching out to Luke again, summoning up images of him among the trees of Endor, hugging Leia and Han and beaming like an idiot, but deep down she knew it was pointless. Even with training, she doubted she'd be strong enough to make a connection from half a galaxy away.
"You should really eat something," Chel said, "we've still got a fair distance to go before we reach Santifar, and I don't want you fainting in front in the senator – if she thinks we've damaged you she might drop the price."
Alice stared mutinously at the fruit in her hand, but her stomach was grumbling and she couldn't ignore it any longer.
Well, with any luck I'll be allergic to it, my throat will swell up and then I won't have to talk to this senator.
The fruit was annoyingly delicious, sweet and tangy, a little like pineapple, and she felt better almost instantly as she ate it – but Alice was determined not to give any sign that she was enjoying it. Being petty was all she had left at this stage, she wasn't going to give that up.
"So what's next for the Rebellion? I suppose your friends have plans to storm the Galactic Senate."
Wow, she really is curious, isn't she. Is this what I'm like? No wonder everyone's so annoyed with me all the time.
"Sorry to disappoint you, but I'm not privy to every single plan the Rebel Alliance makes. Or…any of them, really."
Good thing too, or they might try to kill her rather than rescue her, considering she was being taken directly to a senator who was loyal to the Empire. Alice shivered, thinking back to her encounter with Vader on Cloud City. She really hoped more torture wasn't on the cards when this woman realised she wasn't her daughter.
Chel was right, though, she reflected, as time wore on and the stars kept flying by. Leia and Luke had both promised that they would come and find her…but there were so many more important things that they needed to do right now: a new Galactic Republic wasn't going to build itself, and if they didn't move quickly to capitalise on the death of the Emperor, there was a risk that someone else would seize power, making their job that much harder. She had to try and get out of this mess by herself, that way she wouldn't be a distraction to them.
Seized by a sudden surge of determination, Alice looked up at the droid, surprised by the stiffness in her neck. How long had it been since they left Elforas? "Is there a bathroom I could use?"
Pax considered her for a moment, then nodded stiffly towards one of the doors, "You will find facilities in there."
"Thanks."
It was tricky with her hands still bound, but she managed to get up and hobble on numb feet to the door he'd indicated. Once inside, she stared hard at herself in the rather grimy bit of reflective metal that apparently served the crew of the ship as a mirror. She could find a way out of this. So what if she didn't know what the hell she was doing. She could figure it out. She was smart, wasn't she? And she wasn't alone.
"Ben? Listen…I know I'm not super strong in the Force like Luke…but is there any way you could train me? I just…want to learn to look after myself and maybe get out of here, so my friends don't need to worry about me so much."
For a moment, there was no answer, and she felt pretty stupid. Maybe every time she thought she'd seen Ben, it had actually been a hallucination, maybe she'd never been Force sensitive to begin with-
"My first lesson is to trust yourself, Alice." Ben's voice was wry, but not unsympathetic, "It is important to recognise one's mistaken beliefs, but equally, you must have confidence in yourself, otherwise you will never be able to act decisively." A faint gleam of blue light caught her eye as Ben appeared in the mirror behind her, not much more than a ghostly shimmer, rather than a full-bodied apparition as she'd seen him before.
"Oh, there you are, thank god. I thought you were ghosting me." She wrinkled her nose, "…Literally."
"My apologies, Alice," he said in a mild tone that was nevertheless devastatingly sarcastic, "I'll do my utmost to appear from beyond the grave quicker next time."
Suitably chastised, she ducked her head, "Sorry, Ben."
He inclined his head, indicating that she was forgiven. "I would be happy to teach you what I can, in the interest of helping you to understand your connection to the Force – but it will take time and you will have to take care to avoid drawing the attention of your captors."
"Sure."
He gave her a serious look, "I'm very serious, Alice. The Inner Systems are a dangerous place for a Force sensitive, especially one aware of their abilities and attempting to hone them. There's a reason Luke was placed on Tatooine after his mother died."
Alice paused, weirdly thrown by the idea of Luke's mother. It had never even occurred to her to ask about her. Did he know anything about her?
"Alice."
"Okay, okay, got it. I promise, I'll be sneaky. Just...let me know what you need me to do. The sooner we get started, the better."
Ben gave her a faint smile, "Very well. For now, I think you should prepare yourself. You're about to arrive."
The sudden pounding of a fist on the door made Alice's heart leap in her chest.
"Hey, are you done? We're about to come out of hyperspace."
When she glanced back at where Ben had been, he was gone. Taking a deep breath (and slightly regretting the fact that she hadn't actually taken the opportunity to use the bathroom while she had it), Alice pushed the button to unlock the door and came face to face with a very grumpy looking lizardman.
"Sorry, I was just…composing myself."
He snorted, grabbing her by the elbow and pulling her back into the cabin, "Right."
The ship lurched as they exited hyperspace. At the controls, Chel was guiding them down towards a small planet with just one moon. It was vividly green, the great swathes of forest crisscrossed with delicate, shimmering veins of water that reminded Alice of maps she'd seen of the Amazon rainforest back home. As they got closer she could make out the outline of cities, clustering along the banks of the rivers and breaking through the canopy here and there.
"Wow," she said, without thinking about it, "it's beautiful."
"I can definitely think of worse places to be held prisoner," Chel remarked.
Alice thought of Tatooine, "Tell me about it."
Cold comfort though it was, she found herself holding on to that thought – in the time she'd been here, she'd been through some pretty rough stuff and had gotten out the other side more or less unscathed. She could do it again.
They flew towards the outskirts of a large city where a noticeable gap in the trees marked a landing site. It didn't look particularly busy, with plenty of empty landing pads, but as they approached, the control panel emitted a sharp ping, followed by a hiss of static as a voice crackled over the ship's intercom, "Unidentified transport, please state your name and business."
Sen had taken the captain's seat and leaned forward, "This is Sen Hasp. I have two organic sentients and a droid on board. Lady Oluwa is expecting us – we have the package she requested."
Alice fumed. "Package, really? I'm a person, not an Amazon delivery."
The lights of Pax's eyes flickered in what was unmistakably a bemused blink.
There was a long pause, then the voice asked, "The bounty hunters?"
Sen rolled his eyes, "Yes."
Another silence, shorter this time, then the traffic controller said, a little stiffly, "You're cleared to land. Head for Pad 5. A speeder will meet you there to take you to the senator."
"Got it, Pad 5."
The wing of the shuttle dipped as Chel carved a turn towards one of the empty landing pads, her eyebrows raised, "Well, here we go."
"Relax, we've got nothing to worry about," Sen said, reaching up to flick a couple of switches on the panel above his head, "we brought her the girl she asked for, it's not our fault that she's not her daughter. We'll get what we're owed – you just keep your helmet on and look menacing."
"I doubt whether the senator will have much to say to us," Pax observed, "and it's in our interests to keep this meeting as short as possible. We should avoid talking if we can."
Sen grunted in acknowledgement of this advice, and Alice wished that she could just play dumb too. Regrettably, though, she didn't think she could reasonably keep up the pretence of being a mute: she'd inevitably burst out with something stupid and give herself away.
Their landing was smooth as silk, and Alice had to give it to Chel: whatever else she was, bounty hunter, criminal, gossip – she was clearly an excellent pilot. All the same, she found herself missing the rough and tumble experience that was flying on the Falcon. The old freighter might be a bucket of bolts that creaked and groaned and was constantly on the verge of falling apart, but at least she was something like home.
"Alright." While Sen went to lower the gangway, Chel put her helmet on and came over to Alice, holding up what was obviously the key for the manacles on her wrists, "If I take these off, do you promise not to run away?"
"Sure," she said, shrugging, "why would I?"
"Come on, now," Chel said, sounding amused as she unlocked the handcuffs, "where's that Rebel Alliance spirit?"
"Oh, don't get me wrong, I'm gonna get back to my friends or die trying." Was that her voice? She sounded unusually confident, almost brash, like she was channelling Han at his cockiest, and looking at her own face reflected back at her in the shiny surface of Chel's helmet, she could see there was a determined jut to her jaw that reminded her of Leia. With a swell of pride, she squared her shoulders and continued, "But that doesn't mean I'm looking to get shot by some random stormtrooper in my first five seconds on this planet."
Chel let a huff of surprised, metallic laughter, and she answered with a tinge of something that sounded like admiration, "Well, I wish you luck, rebel girl. If you do get out of here, look me up on Nevarro sometime, in the Outer Rim – I'll buy you a drink."
"Oh." Alice blushed, losing all of her bravado instantly in a sudden rush of embarrassment, "Uh. Okay."
Imagine if I told Leia I wanted to go to some random planet in the Outer Rim which is probably swarming with criminals and bounty hunters because one of my kidnappers offered to buy me a drink. I bet she would loooove that.
"Chel," Sen growled, "enough flirting. It's time to go."
Narrowing her eyes against the bright light seeping in through the open door, Alice could just about make out the sleek shape of a speeder hovering about a foot off the ground. She took a deep breath, and then Chel's hand closed around her elbow and they were heading out of the ship and into the unknown.
Thank you for reading and please review!
