Chapter 21
The Millennium Falcon was not only still very far away from their destination in the Correlia System but the last three remaining TIE Fighters also seemed to be a lot more persistent than Han had actually expected it from them and that could mean one thing: The Empire was definitely looking for to be a force again that could be reckoned with. He knew very well that he would have to inform the New Republic Intelligence Post in the Corellia System about this new environment, once he and Chewie were finally able to arrive there in one piece to deliver the medical goods for the first planet of the System.
Again Han was violently rocked in his chair and he couldn't but think for a very short moment: I really never thought that I would say this, but I hope that we're somehow able to find a way out of this because I've got a woman back home waiting for me to return and there's still so much that I want to do together with Leia. Chewbacca immediately fired some shots back, but the remaining TIE Fighters broke their formation in time before anyone of them could get hit. Because they were well aware of the fact that the only canon of the Millennium Falcon wasn't that fast in adjusting its vector, the remaining enemy ships didn't make it very easy to hit them for quite a while. His train of thought got rudely interrupted as a couple of shots hit the deflector shields of the ship again and as Han was finally completely focused again on the task at hand he screamed back to his Wookie Friend: "Deflector Shields have to fifty eight percent, one way or another we have to find a way to get rid of those persistent Imperial Ships."
Jedi Training Center, Yavin IV
Of course Luke had to think about who he would choose to take over the teaching of the Jedi Padawans during his absence, but he was pretty confident that he was able to find the right person for this position in the very end. Also he couldn't help but think about the future would hold not only for him, his sister and his mother but also the Jedi Order, which he had helped to built after the Rebel Alliance had won the big and brutal war against the Empire.
What a loss it was that so much Jedi had died during the purge in the Galactic War and to make matters worse: One of their one had betrayed the old Jedi Order and it was pretty clear that it was pretty hard to built back the Jedi Order to its former glory.
Leia couldn't help but look out the big window of Luke's personal quarters for quite a while and let her thoughts run freely for a few minutes. She was indeed so much worried about Han's safety out there on his way to the Correlia System, where the new Republic Intelligence had reported numerous sightings of Imperial Ships in the past and that could only mean one thing: The Imperial did have a base either somewhere near that system or hidden right under the nose of them. As she had read the latest intelligence reports she only had been able to speculate about that answer in the past couple of weeks and only know one thing for sure: Like the rest of the staff of the new Republic she hated the fact to not fully being able to tell what they were up against in the future.
But no matter how strong the New Enemy proved to be in the end, they all were pretty determined to stand their ground and defend the newly built democracy with their very last breath.
Naboo, Palace of the Queen
In her personal chambers Queen Mairayn stood at the big window with a very concerned look on her face. The Galactic War had crippled her home world quite a lot; of course a lot of the destroyed buildings had been rebuilt with the help of the very hard working helpers that helped to restore the homes of some people from Naboo.
Solving this kind of huge crisis during her first term as the Queen surely had proved to be a very big challenge to her but she had to get through this one way or another for the people of Naboo. Going through some data files that concerned the terms of former Queens made it very obvious to her, how big not only her responsibility was but how difficult it would definitely be to handle all that in the very end.
Jedi Training Center, Yavin IV
Because he really wanted to take care of this important matter rather sooner than later Luke finally announced to his mother and sister: "I have to take of some Jedi Council business now, but I promise that I'll be back very soon."
"Okay me and our mother will be waiting for your return right here." Leia replied and she was really looking forward to the family vacation to their mother's home world and she could imagine how much she missed Naboo after her very long absence from there.
As she watched her son leave the room, Padme couldn't help but think about how much had changed on Naboo since she had been to her home world the last time. So much time had passed since the last time she had been to the planet where she had born, that she truly didn't know if she would recognize anything or anyone in particular at once and of course that realization kind of scared her a little bit right at this moment. It surely had hit her very hard at first, knowing that Bail had died during the Galactic because of the Death Star that the Empire had used against Bail Organa's home world Alderaan and thinking about how many people because of that destructive weapon really made her so much sad.
The former Senator quickly put those thoughts to rest because she had to focus on the surely bright future that lay ahead of her and her two beautiful children and she was so much proud of everything that Leia and Luke accomplished during all the years that their mother had been absent from their lives.
AN: Thanks to- gaffner for adding this story to her/his favorite stories list, adding me to her/his favorite authors list, her/his story alert subscription, his author alert subscription, Thanks to- Revan Naberrie for adding this story to her/his favorite stories list, Thanks to- David Davies.5851 for reviewing this story. Please read and review
