A/N - I want to thank you all for the amazing response I've received for this story so far. I think I told some of you that I hesitated about posting it because is it just so very different from my other stories. I hope you continue to enjoy it as it unfolds in what is sure to be a most unusual manner. :)
Chapter 4
Vader made his way back to the detention block, having planted an error in the ignition sequence of the super laser. It would have a cascading effect, since the energy from the giant weapon was channeled into an array from eight tributary laser cannons. An error in one of the cannons launch sequences would be enough to stop the cascade effect, and render the super laser inoperable. At least until the error was discovered, he thought to himself, realizing that he was only buying time, not solving the problem. The team of gunners who manned this awesome weapon would not take long to find and repair the error. Luckily they were not droids, he mused, realizing how fortunate he was that their minds were easily manipulated. They would have no memory of his presence in the control pit, and have no knowledge of the error until Tarkin's little demonstration proved to be a failure. Vader smiled to himself as he thought of how irate the governor would be when his precious space station failed to perform. Though I'm sure performance failure is something he's accustomed to, he thought with dark amusement.
Leia looked up when the door to her cell slid open. She was surprised to see Darth Vader once again and stood up to face him.
"You must come with me," he told her. "But before we go, there is something you must know."
Leia narrowed her eyes, folding her arms over her chest. "What?" she asked suspiciously.
"We are en route to Alderaan," Vader told her. "We should arrive within the next thirty minutes."
"Alderaan??" she asked, her eyes widening with excitement.
"Yes," he replied, hating to tell her the horrific plans in store for her. "Tarkin means to make an example of Alderaan," he told her. "Unless you tell him the location of the Rebel Base, he will blow it to bits."
Leia stood as though frozen to the ground. "What?!" she cried at last. "Is that what all this is about?? You're trying to gain my trust as some sort of trick so I'll tell you the location of the base? Is that it Vader?"
"No, that's not it at all!" Vader retorted impatiently. "Why are you so damn stubborn??"
"I am not stubborn," she returned hotly. "I just know when I'm being manipulated, and you are doing a masterful job right now, Vader!"
"I am not manipulating you!" he insisted in exasperation. "I'm only telling you this for your own protection! If you don't give Tarkin a name, any name that is what he is planning to do. I have disabled the primary ignition sequence, but that will only buy a little time, hopefully enough for Tarkin to get frustrated and back off this idea."
Leia stared at him, the frown not leaving her face. "You …sabotaged the ignition sequence?" she asked, her voice betraying her disbelief.
"Yes, I did," he replied. "I told you that I would protect you, and I meant it, whether or not you want to believe that."
"Why would you want to do that?" she asked warily. "Does it have something to do with my mother? Did you know her?"
Vader was silent for a moment, trying to decide if he ought to tell her the truth. She still hated him, still mistrusted him; would that knowledge that he was her father make any difference at all?
"Yes, I knew your mother," he said at last. "And it is largely due to her that I feel compelled to protect you. Is that a satisfactory explanation?"
"I suppose it will have to suffice for now," Leia said, inwardly dying to ask him a thousand questions about her mother, her father, and the reasons behind all the secrecy. But now was not the time.
"Good, then let us be off," he said. "Tarkin is waiting."
Leia had to hurry to keep up with Vader as they and a group of storm troopers made their way to the control room of the Death Star. Tarkin stood before the large wall screen, on which the planet Alderaan now appeared.
"Governor Tarkin," Leia said when they reached the spot where Tarkin was waiting for them. "I should have expected to find you holding Vader's leash. I recognized your foul stench when I was brought on board."
Vader, who stood behind his daughter, couldn't help but smile at her gustiness.
Tarkin merely smiled in response, and touched Leia's face with one bony finger. "Charming to the last," he replied. "You don't know how hard I found it signing the order to terminate your life!"
Leia moved her face away from his touch with disgust. "I'm surprised you had the courage to take the responsibility yourself!" she spat back.
Tarkin stepped away from her, enjoying the moment immensely.
"Princess Leia, before your execution I would like you to be my guest at a ceremony that will make this battle station operational. No star system will dare oppose the Emperor now."
"The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers," Leia retorted haughtily.
"Not after we demonstrate the power of this station," Tarkin gloated. "In a way, you have determined the choice of the planet that'll be destroyed first. Since you are reluctant to provide us with the location of the Rebel base, I have chosen to test this station's destructive power on your home planet of Alderaan."
Although she had been forewarned of his intentions, Leia was still horrified, particularly with the green orb that was her home glowing on the view screen behind Tarkin.
"No! Alderaan is peaceful!" she protested desperately. "We have no weapons. You can't possibly..."
"You would prefer another target?" Tarkin interjected, advancing upon her, causing her to back into Vader. "A military target? Then name the system! I grow tired of asking this. So it'll be the last time. Where is the Rebel base?"
Leia looked over Tarkin's shoulder at her home world. Please let Vader be telling me the truth...
"Dantooine," she said at last, looking down as though ashamed of her weakness. "They're on Dantooine."
"There," Tarkin said with a patronizing smile. "You see Lord Vader, she can be reasonable," he remarked looking up at Vader. He then turned to General Motti who was standing close by. "Continue with the operation. You may fire when ready."
"What?" Leia exclaimed incredulously.
"You're far too trusting," Tarkin chided her. "Dantooine is too remote to make an effective demonstration. But don't worry. We will deal with your Rebel friends soon enough."
"No" Leia cried, bracing herself for what was coming next.
She felt Vader put a hand on her shoulder, almost as though he meant to steady her. They both waited expectantly as the orders were shouted out to commence the primary ignition. After a moment or two, it became apparent that something was wrong. Tarkin turned back to Motti, his gaunt face red with anger. "What is the hold up?" he snapped. "I gave you an order!"
"There seems to be some sort of …malfunction," Motti replied, scanning over the computer readouts frantically. "I…I don't understand it! We were fully operational not three hours ago!"
Leia had to suppress a smile as she stole a glance behind her at the Dark Lord. He stood completely still, of course, his menacing black mask hiding the look of relief on his face.
"Well repair it at once!" Tarkin barked. "This is preposterous!"
"Quite an effective demonstration, governor," Leia said with a smile. "I'm very impressed."
Tarkin's face grew red with anger, and he stalked over to where Leia stood and struck her across the face. It took all of Vader's control not to choke the man where he stood. Instead, he simply helped his daughter maintain her balance. "Perhaps we can …try again when things have been sorted out," he suggested.
Tarkin looked up at Vader. "Get her out of my sight," he snapped, turning around and marching back over to where Motti and two other technicians were trying to find the computer glitch.
Vader took Leia by the arm and escorted her out of the room. When they had reached the corridor, and were out of ear shot, he turned to her.
"Are you alright?" he asked as he took her chin in his hand, looking at her mouth. It was bleeding from one side.
"I'm okay," she said, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. "A small price to pay, considering what might have happened."
"Indeed," Vader said.
"Thank you," she said, looking up at the Dark Lord who became more mysterious to her by the moment. "I am truly grateful for what you did."
Vader merely nodded. "Come," she said. "I will escort you back to your cell. We have to think of a way to get you off of this station."
Leia walked briskly to keep up with him, looking up at him every so often as she worked up the nerve to ask the questions she had been longing to ask.
"How did you know her?" she asked at last. "My mother, how did you know her?"
Vader did not reply at first, not knowing how to tell her the truth, not even sure he ought to. "I…I was once assigned to protect her," he told her, not untruthfully. "When I was a padawan learner."
"A what?"
"A padawan learner," he repeated. "An apprentice Jedi."
"You were a Jedi?" she asked. "How did you…I mean, why did..."
"So many questions for one as young as you," he commented as they stepped onto the turbo lift.
"Sorry, it's just that no one has ever told me anything about my mother before," she replied. "Did you know my father then, too?"
Vader turned and looked at her. "Yes, I knew your father," he replied simply.
The turbo lift doors opened and a pair of technicians stepped inside, putting and end to Leia's interrogation. There were so many questions she wanted to ask him. Never would she ever have imagined herself in this position, under the protection of Darth Vader. But here she was. She could not define what it was she felt when she was in his presence. He had gone out of his way twice now to shield her from harm, and now he meant to help her escape. It hardly seemed possible, and it made Leia begin to wonder just what exactly her mother had meant to him and why.
"I shall return as soon as I can," Vader told her when they were inside her cell once again. "I cannot give Tarkin any reason to suspect that I am aiding you," he added. "Or my ability to do so will be severely curtailed."
Leia sat down on the hard bench, nodding her understanding as she watched him leave, astonished by the turn of events that had just transpired.
Vader made his way back to his quarters, hoping to have a few moments to himself to think, but it was not to be, as he was summoned to the conference room by Tarkin. Resentfully he complied, hating the pompous governor for ordering him about, hating his master for giving him the authority to do so.
"There you are," Tarkin said as Vader entered the room. "Seems our little princess has lied to us," he said, tossing a report on the table. Vader picked it up and read it. Apparently the scout ships that were sent to Dantooine had found only the remains of a base, the Rebels having deserted it several months earlier.
"I told you she would never consciously betray the Rebellion," Vader told Tarkin as he set the data pad down. He couldn't help but feel proud of his daughter for her fortitude. Tarkin, however, had no such sentiment.
"Terminate her, immediately," he pronounced.
Vader made no reply, his mind trying to find an excuse to stay the order until he could think of a way to get Leia safely off the space station. His thoughts were interrupted by a report coming through on the comm..
"Our tractor beams have captured a ship about to enter orbit around Alderaan," the officer reported. "Its markings match those of a ship that blasted its way out of Mos Eisley."
Perfect, Vader thought. "They must be trying to return the stolen plans to the princess," he suggested, though not understanding why anyone would try something so foolhardy. "She may yet be of some use to us."
Tarkin reluctantly agreed. "Go and search the ship," he said. "If the plans are back on board, I want whoever has them captured at once. This has gone far enough."
Vader nodded and then left Tarkin, heading for the docking bay where a Corellian freighter known as the Millennium Falcon was now on board.
As Vader approached the ship, he was struck with a tremor in the Force. He stopped, attempting to contemplate what the source could be, when an officer approached him with a report.
"There's no one on board, sir," he told Vader. "According to the
log, the crew abandoned ship right after takeoff. It must be a decoy,
sir. Several of the escape pods have been jettisoned."
Vader looked up at the ship, nodding his understanding. "Did you find any droids?" he asked.
"No, sir," the officer replied. "If there were any on board, they must also have jettisoned."
"Send a scanning crew on board," Vader commanded. "I want every part of this ship checked."
I sense something….Vader reflected, a presence I've not felt since…there was only one person who it could be, Obi-Wan Kenobi. He has come to rescue Leia…Vader realized as he walked away from the freighter. Do I tell Tarkin? If I do he will try to stop him…Vader stopped in his tracks as he sensed another presence nearby. He turned and looked back at the ship. The second presence was quite distinct from Kenobi's, and yet the Force signature it gave off was equally brilliant, and somehow equally familiar. Not unlike Leia's…he reflected in confusion. He thought no more on it, as he hurried out of the docking bay. Leia needed to be told what was happening, and I need to ensure that it does happen.