Chapter Eight: Not All That It Seemed
That was not what Luke had wanted to hear.
Vader stood up, grabbing Luke by his elbow, and dragged him out of the house and into his shuttle, Luke struggling the whole time. Vader threw Luke down on one of the chairs, and used the Force to keep him from getting up.
"My Lord, what about the rest of the slaves?"
"They'll find out sooner or later that the transmitters have been dismantled, and find their way back home," Vader said.
He turned back to his son, who appeared to not even be listening to what was going on. Vader gently probed his mind to see what he was thinking about.
"One of the other slaves means something to you," Vader noticed.
"Don't read my thoughts!" Luke paused, to let his anger subside. "But yeah. Marle' won't know what to do. Her family's dead and she doesn't have any friends. I was taking care of her. She was like my little sister," Luke said, dreamily. "I wonder what she's doing right now?"
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Marle saw everything that happened between Luke and Vader. But she wished that she could have heard what was going on inside the little house that Luke and Vader had been in. And even more, she wanted to know why Vader bothered with Luke. Luke was just a regular person. Wasn't he?
Marle' watched the shuttle carry Luke up to the Executor.
"Good-by, big brother," she whispered.
She was about to go find some kind of transportation, when she saw something else that kept her eyes watching the heavens.
It was a ship. Or rather a big hunk of junk! And it was about to land right where Vader's shuttled had landed earlier. Obeying an impulse, Marle' ran towards the ship.
The first person she saw come down from the ramp was a girl, not much older than her. And right behind the girl was a man and a big Wookie. Luke had told her about these people. They were Luke's friends!
"Hi!" Marle' said, running towards the ship, and stopping at the bottom of the ramp where the others were.
"Hello!" Han said, looking at the dancing outfit that Marle' was wearing. Marle' blushed, but Leia was ready to get down to business.
"Is our friend here? His name's Luke Skywalker, he's got blonde hair…….."
"Yes, I know who you're talking about," Marle' interrupted. "And no, you just missed him."
"What do you mean? Where is he?" Leia asked. Marle' pointed up to the sky.
"Up there. He left with Vader five minutes ago."
"No! Han, we're too late! I told you we should have left earlier!"
"But even if we had left earlier, we wouldn't have had done enough research…….."
"Ah! Don't give me that research speech again! If it wasn't for you and you're stupid research, we would have gotten here with time to spare!"
"Are you guys married?" Marle' asked. Han smiled, but Leia looked horrified.
"Of course not!"
"Sorry. It's just you guys argue like it," Marle' giggled. "But if you want to help Luke, we're gonna have to act fast, before they jump into lightspeed."
"What do you mean?" Leia asked.
"We can storm the Star Destroyer and rescue Luke."
"Are you crazy?" Han yelled.
"Probably. Come on, we don't have much time!"
Marle' ran up the ramp, followed by Chewie. Han and Leia stood still for a few minutes before following the others.
Up in the cockpit, Han started up the Falcon, while Leia and Marle' settled behind him.
"This is crazy, just so that you girls know," Han said.
"Okay, we know!"
Han lifted the Falcon up into the sky, and toward the Star Destroyer.