Chapter Seven: A City in the Clouds

The Doctor steadied the Tardis controls as he and Obi-Wan piloted the freighter from Dagobah to Bespin. Jennara was meditating in the back, but the Doctor could sense her thoughts occasionally flicker to him. She wanted to talk about what happened outside the Cave; that he knew, but now was certainly not the time for that. Perhaps at some other point, it would be, but the Doctor and Jennara both knew that they had to concentrate on helping Luke.

They were his only hope.

"We're coming up on Bespin," said Obi-Wan. "We can only hope that Luke hasn't gone and done something rash."

"Like challenge Vader to a duel?" asked the Doctor, to which Obi-Wan solemnly nodded his head.

"If he fights Vader, he will tell Luke the truth," said Obi-Wan.

"Which one?" asked the Doctor, though he knew the answer already. "Which lie of ours will Darth Vader disprove?"

"That Anakin Skywalker is dead," said Obi-Wan. "When, in reality, he has only been replaced by Darth Vader and has become twisted and evil."

The Doctor only partially agreed with him. While he did agree that Vader would tell Luke about his true heritage, the part about Vader being truly evil just didn't sit right with him. Maybe it was what Padme Amidala had said in her dying moments. Maybe there was good in him. The Doctor decided to keep the thought to himself, just in case Obi-Wan didn't agree with his thoughts.

"That's the one," said the Doctor. "We have to find Luke before he finds Vader."

"Agreed," said Obi-Wan as he and the Doctor piloted the Tardis into Bespin's atmosphere. The Doctor couldn't see Luke's X-Wing anywhere. He figured that Luke must have landed already, and he accelerated toward a landing pad, any landing pad at all that would get him and his friends into Cloud City.

"It looks as though we have company," Obi-Wan reported suddenly. The Doctor looked out of the cockpit of the Tardis and saw that a security vehicle had formed up on the old freighter, and it did not look to be in the mood for tea with fish fingers and custard.

"State your business!" commanded the pilot in the security ship. "State your business or we will shoot you down!"

The Doctor hesitated for a few seconds, and that was apparently enough to give the security officers reasonable suspicion and a chance to fire on the Tardis.

"What's going on out there?" asked Jennara, who came in a moment after the first blast impacted on the ship's starboard side.

"We're being harassed by law enforcement," the Doctor answered quickly before keying the ship that had contacted him mere seconds ago, adding to the pilot, "Woah! There's no need to shoot at us. Just let us pass." He sent that last directive with a small hint of Mind Trick. Hopefully, it worked on the pilot.

"Not a chance!" shouted the pilot, and the Doctor silently cursed. "State your business!"

"You will let us pass," said the Doctor more forcefully, sending the directive oozing with Mind Trick. This time, it definitely worked, as the pilot sounded a bit dazed when he spoke again.

"I will let you pass," said the pilot in a dream-like voice. "You are cleared for Landing Pad 324. Have a nice day."

"Thank you very much, my good man," said the Doctor as he accelerated the Tardis toward Landing Pad 324, just as the pilot instructed.

"You can use Mind Trick to influence a guy in another ship?" asked Jennara. "Without even looking at him?"

"Surprised?" asked the Doctor cheekily.

"Impressed," replied Jennara with a slight flirtatious edge.

"You should have seen Yarael Poof in his prime," said the Doctor, reminiscing about his old Quermian friend. "He could make people see double when fighting him, and he could project an image into the mind of anybody within two kilometers of his location."

"Wow," said Jennara, though she did not seem as impressed as she had been with the Doctor, oddly enough, perhaps because she didn't know Yarael Poof. Even still, the Doctor was always impressed with his deceased friend's skill.

The Doctor skillfully landed the Tardis onto Landing Pad 324 and opened up the access hatch. The three Jedi strolled out of the ship and started to walk across the platform to the door that led into Cloud City. They had gotten about halfway across when the doors suddenly opened, revealing a squad of Imperial stormtroopers chatting away. One of them carried a case of Bespin ale along with his blaster. Evidently, they were going to have some sort of party out on the landing bay. They would never get the chance.

"What the-" cried the trooper at the head of the squad. "It's Jedi! Blast them!"

Before the stormtroopers could even raise their blasters, the Doctor, Obi-Wan, and Jennara had brought out their lightsabers and activated them. Green, blue, and yellow blades of energy blades shot out of their hilts to defend their Jedi handlers from their enemies. Arcs of light deflected blaster bolts left and right as the Jedi ran back to the Tardis for cover. When they moved behind the ship, all three Jedi crouched low to avoid the blaster shots.

"Oh, perfect!" shouted Jennara over the blasterfire. "The Empire's here!"

"No, it's okay," said the Doctor. "These guys appear to be the only squad out here. Nobody else is coming."

Of course, at that moment, another group of stormtroopers arrived and joined their comrades in firing at the Jedi.

"You were saying, Doctor?" asked Obi-Wan cheekily.

"Okay, tactical error on my part," said the Doctor. "Actually, I'd call this a logistical boo-boo."

"Is there a difference?" asked Jennara.

"Yes, actually. See, with tactical errors, I don't immediately have a backup plan. With logistical boo-boos, I do."

"And the plan is?"

"You know that thing that I do where I have really good ideas?"

"Yes?"

"I'm very sorry, but this is not one of them."

At that moment, the Doctor decided to run out from his cover and scream at the stormtroopers, "LOOK AT ME I'M A TARGET!" Every single stormtrooper responded by immediately firing at him. The Doctor deflected around fifty bolts in just under three seconds using his mastery of the acrobatics required for Ataru. After those three seconds had passed, the Doctor noticed a good half of the stormtroopers attacking them were thrown off the platform by Jennara and Obi-Wan's combined Force tactic. Even still, there were about twelve stormtroopers left to deal with. The Doctor thought it wouldn't be a problem at all.

The Doctor reunited with Jennara and Obi-Wan, and the three Jedi continued to defend themselves against the remaining stormtroopers. While Jennara and Obi-Wan had their minds totally focused on defense, a good portion of the Doctor's mind was elsewhere. He could sense something. Someone. The presence he felt was male and Mandalorian, and he had sensed it many times before during his travels through the galaxy with Jennara.

Bounty hunter Boba Fett was here in Cloud City. With him was something very important. The Doctor didn't quite know what it was, but it had something to do with this Lando Calrissian man, somehow. He got the feeling that he should have started going after Fett. Several instincts were screaming at him to find Fett and retrieve whatever important thing the Mandalorian had in his possession.

But he didn't. His thoughts about Boba Fett were interrupted by a small silver glint that caught his eye. He followed it, and the glint streaked over the heads of the Jedi and right under the Tardis's underside. And at that moment, the Doctor knew exactly what the glint was.

It was a thermal detonator.

Before the Doctor could reach out his hand and save his beloved Tardis, the thermal detonator exploded in a fiery sphere of orange, yellow, and red. Smoke poured from the sphere as the Tardis was caught in the blast and broke apart. The Doctor felt a pain in his hearts that reminded him a little of the pain he felt during Order 66. When the Tardis exploded, it felt as though the Doctor had lost yet another old friend, and he felt saddened by the loss of his and Jennara's old freighter.

The Doctor, Jennara, and Obi-Wan all wordlessly decided to avenge the destruction of the Tardis. Together, they rushed against the stormtroopers, who had shielded their eyes from the blast, and cut them down one by one before they could even react. In seconds, it was over. Twelve stormtroopers lay dead at their feet, and the skirmish was finished.

The Doctor deactivated his lightsaber and placed it back on his belt. Jennara and Obi-Wan did the same, although the Doctor could sense that both of them were wary of additional stormtroopers.

"Where there is a group, there is a battalion," warned Obi-Wan. "We must be cautious."

"I agree," said the Doctor.

"Well, let's go find Luke, then," said Jennara, leading the way into Cloud City. The Doctor followed her, resolving in his head not to go after Boba Fett. He had come here for Luke. Boba Fett could surely withstand the Doctor's absence for a little while longer.

Though Luke was not as strong of a Jedi as the Doctor, Jennara, or Obi-Wan, the Doctor had no trouble locking onto his powerful Force signature and finding the path that he had taken on Bespin.

"This way," he said, pointing out a portion of the route Luke had taken. "Follow me."

The route took them all the way to Cloud City's carbon-freezing chamber. Carbon freeze was a very common method of storage often used for transporting valuable goods, usually tibanna gas, across the galaxy unharmed, but something different had happened here. Something terrible happened here, but Luke was not present for that. That, again, had something to do with Lando Calrissian, but the Doctor couldn't quite put his finger on what exactly had happened here.

"I sense a confrontation," said Jennara. "It began here."

"I feel it, too," said the Doctor. "Vader found Luke. Or Luke found Vader, whichever you like."

"We've got to find Luke," said Obi-Wan urgently.

"Right, yes," said the Doctor. "I'm locking onto him now." Even as he said this, the Doctor had Luke's Force Signature picked up, and he already had a pathway that Luke and, he supposed, Vader had taken.

The Doctor could sense Luke with increasing strength as he, Jennara, and Obi-Wan followed the path laid out to the Doctor by the Force. The path led them far away from any place that was fit for people. They were now in the inner workings of Cloud City. They eventually came upon a room that had a lot of crates and pieces of pipes that had been discarded. They still bore the touch of the Dark Side, and the Doctor quickly concluded that Vader had used those the Force on those objects to fling them at Luke. But something was odd. Despite the fact that these objects were marked with the Dark Side, there was just a bit of the Light Side underneath the surface. Curious.

The Doctor thought nothing more of it. Jennara was calling to him.

"Doctor!" she said. "Look!"

The Doctor saw that a large, circular window had taken quite a beating. In fact, there wasn't much of a window at all. It had clearly been destroyed by something, but what? It didn't really matter, as the pathway called for him to jump out the window.

"This is another one of my brilliant ideas that aren't actually that brilliant," the Doctor said as he moved toward the window.

"Is it better than running in front of angry stormtroopers and shouting, 'Ooh, ooh, pick me!'?" asked Jennara.

"At least we're not getting shot at," said the Doctor in response. "Geronimo!" he shouted as he jumped through the window and onto a narrow walkway extending out from the wall. Jennara and Obi-Wan landed right behind him, and the Doctor moved forward along the path to Luke, which ke knew was reaching its conclusion. He could sense Luke and his fear at facing Vader. Clearly, the Sith Lord was winning their engagement. The Doctor knew that they had to hurry. Luke would not last much longer, and he had little way of knowing whether or not Vader would kill him. The Doctor didn't care whether or not they could train Leia if Luke died; he would not allow Luke to die on his watch.

At last, the Doctor heard the clash of lightsabers. He stopped, and Jennara and Obi-Wan stopped just behind him, watching in dread as Luke Skywalker fiercely battled with Darth Vader.

Dramatic tension is dramatic! Well, friends, it's Friday, which means that we've got a new chapter on our hands! I hope you enjoyed this one! Let me know your thoughts in a review! As always, I love hearing feedback from you guys! Let me know!

Also, quick sidenote. I'm sorry for killing off the Tardis. I'm so sorry. But don't worry, friends. There will be a Tardis Mark II in a future installment! (psst: it's Return to the Temple)

Also, the "clash of lightsabers" thing is totally a reference to the score that accompanies the fight between Luke and Vader in their epic fight scene. So, that's pretty cool.

This is going to be a quick note, friends! Nothing much in the way of news for either Star Wars or Doctor Who. When I hear something, however, I'll definitely be talking about it here!

Next Friday: Luke discovers the ultimate truth about his family.

And that about does it for this author's note. Until the next chapter, my friends!