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Reprieve

Haven Base

Location: Arbra

System: Arbran

Sector: Bon'nyuw-Luq

Region: Outer Rim Territories

Haven Base was a hive of activity as alarm klaxons sounded nearly drowning out the sounds of the controlled chaos occurring throughout the bunker. Leia stood silently observing in the Command Centre as the occupants of the base went through its bi-weekly evacuation drill, a headset allowing her to hear communications as they occurred despite the near-deafening background sound. She really would have to commend the tech department for the modifications they had been working on with the headset comlinks. They had managed to find a way to alter them so that louder noises were minimized, though not erased, and lower sounds such as vocals were amplified so that they could be easily heard. While the technology had been around in the greater galaxy for several years now, the Alliance didn't have easy access to such resources and had to come up with their own variants as they were able.

She cycled through several comm-channels listening to the progress in satisfaction as she watched the view screens that correlated with the channels. When she reached the channel designated to the pilots and ground-crew she found herself in the middle of a colourfully worded rant by a clearly irate maintenance worker. She paused on the channel and focused on the screens showing hangar bay with a smile as a ranting pilot snapped right back at the other. Trust the pilots and mechanics to find time to bicker and banter in the middle of the bi-weekly drill.

"You son of a nerf-herder! See if I fix your kriffing landing gear when you crash-land again Janson!" the obviously female voice hissed over the link.

"Ouch. It was only one time Talamiin, cut me some slack!" He yelped and Leia could see him dodging away from the fiery woman who chased after him in a hovering chair, a welder raised in her angry fist.

"Cut you some slack?! You just snapped off the cannon housing that I was trying to weld back on after you knocked it loose while doing standard perimeter patrol!" The woman shrieked incredulously.

Leia heard several of the others on the floor laughing at them even as they rushed around trying to continue with the procedures they were supposed to be completing.

Janson released a rather unmanly wail as she finally caught up with him and started swatting at him. "Alright! Alright Tal! You win! I'm sorry!"

She harrumphed and backed off, turning to head back and continue what she had been doing when he muttered, "Besides, if I didn't break it you'd have nothing to do and you'd be bored."

She turned on him with a growl and he darted off to continue working, "Fine! I'll just shut up!"

Leia chuckled and was about to switch channels again when something caught her attention in one of the hangar screens. A single blonde figure moved smoothly through the disarray looking intently at a datapad ignoring everything around him. Leia watched as he effortlessly dodged around boxes and over and under tangles of wires that snaked across the floor and hung through the air like vines without once looking up. A shiver ran up her spine which she quickly suppressed.

Luke.

As time had passed since the rescue at Bespin her friend had progressively moved less and less like an awkward farm-boy and more and more like something not quite human. It was unnerving she had to admit as she watched him side-step a male twi'lek's swinging lekku without pausing or even acknowledging that he had narrowly avoided being unintentionally smacked in the face.

It was only when a stack of military grade containers that one of the deck-crew was pushing across the large space on a hover-cart began to teeter on the brink of collapse that Luke's head snapped up. Leia squinted and her mouth dropped in horror. Each of the containers was labeled in large Basic characters that read EXPLOSIVE. Luke shot forward with his right hand raised, the datapad held firmly against his side with his left hand, and even while he was yards away the metal crates stilled and then tilted back, resettling in a still precarious stack.

Leia heard him release a breath before he spoke, "Here, let me help you restack that."

The human pushing the cart had visibly paled on the screen and a shuddered breath crossed the comm-channel, "That was way too close. Thank the Force you were here, you saved us."

Luke hunched in on himself flexing his right hand as was his new habit. It was almost as if he needed to remind himself that the mechanical hand was still there, "I didn't do anything special. I was just trying to help."

Leia shook her head to herself. Luke used to embrace and almost bask in praise, but that was another thing that had changed since Bespin. Now he acted like it pained him. Unnerving changes or not this was still Luke, and his self-esteem clearly needed a boost. She clicked the microphone on the headset on and spoke for the first time during the drill in a kind yet chastising tone, "That was a good save Lieutenant Commander Skywalker, and don't even try to convince yourself it wasn't. Those containers could have very well blown up half the hangar if they fell wrong."

His head jerked up and he looked unerringly at the exact camera that she was focusing on even though it was designed to be nearly invisible. Despite being on opposite sides of the base it felt like he was staring straight into her eyes. Another shiver slid up her spine before she could stop it.

"Hello Princess Organa," he commented dryly matching her formal address with his own. An unknown person on the channel cursed with the realization that they were being monitored. "We were not aware you were gracing us with your attention. I apologize for anything unprofessional you may have heard."

"Hello Luke," she replied, the warm smile she received through the monitor was worth the breach of protocol and she found herself relaxing. "I assure you that our flight staff being comprised mostly of hooligans is in no way a surprise to me," she continued lightly, her smile clearly audible in her voice.

His responding chuckle was interspersed throughout several others' laughter.

"Now that we've narrowly avoided blowing ourselves to kingdom come yet again I guess we should get back to what we're supposed to be doing, especially since we're being watched, eh Commander?" Antilles' voice cut through the laughter.

"Right Wedge, let's get a move on guys. We don't want to finish behind intelligence again do we?" Luke admonished, a joking tone entering his voice.

Leia smiled to herself as she watched them get back to work with renewed vigor. Luke quickly finished whatever he had been doing on his datapad before he yanked his orange flight-suit up from his waist and onto his arms. As he quickly took command of the situation Leia nodded in satisfaction. Whatever funk he had been sliding into had been pushed away at least for the moment.

As they approached the end of the drill she and the others in the Command Centre began fielding flight codes and exit trajectories, and after several more minutes of the intense evacuation simulation Mon Mothma nodded towards one of the people at the console. He flipped several switches and entered a code before the alarm klaxons went suddenly silent leaving their ears ringing from a lack of background noise.

Mon hit several buttons on the main communications system and typed her personal code in that over-rode the various comm-channels with hers.

Luke looked up as Mon Mothma's voice broke through the sudden silence.

"Congratulations everyone, we've managed to decrease our projected evacuation time by five minutes this time. You should be proud of yourselves. Once you have returned everything to its normal status you are free to return to your daily tasks. As always we will be reviewing the situation and will be debriefing each division separately later today. As you were."

He allowed himself a grin as he slid out of the cockpit of his X-wing and dropped to the floor ignoring the ladder in favour of bracing himself against the drop with the Force. He landed lithely and made his way over to Wedge's X-wing. He watched as his friend clambered down the ladder and hit the ground beside him. "You do a good job of keeping everyone in line," he commented lightly as Wedge slid the helmet off of his head and shook his short hair out.

Wedge laughed and threw the helmet back into the cockpit, "Yeah right. The Princess was right calling us a bunch of hooligans. Sometimes it feels like we have to control children."

Luke burst into mirth fueled snickers, "I know what you mean. I thought Janson and Tal were either going to explode into a fist fight or start making out in the middle of an evac drill."

"HEY! I HEARD THAT!" An angry female voice echoed around the hangar and they heard the whirr of her hover-chair as it moved towards them.

"Oh dear. I think she heard you," Wedge commented, levity in his voice.

"I think you've been taking lessons in stating the obvious from C-3PO," Luke commented sarcastically as he began backing away from the direction the angry female mechanic was coming from.

"No need to be so harsh Luke," Wedge replied in a wounded voice before noticing him backing away. "Hey, where do you think you're going?"

Luke looked at him incredulously, "There are a handful of people on this base that I feel are dangerous to be around when they're angry. Leia is highest on my list. Talamiin is a strong second. In fact, I think she's part nexu," he jokingly confided despite continuing to back away.

Wedge looked at him with his eyebrows raised, "Oh come on, don't be ridiculous."

Luke tensed and suddenly darted off leaving Wedge confused for a moment before Tal came barreling around the corner in a sudden burst of acceleration, her welding torch raised, and given the glowing white metal, most definitely turned on.

Wedge audibly gulped as she roared, "GET BACK HERE AND FACE ME LUKE SKYWALKER!"

He decided it was time to make himself scarce.

Luke sat on a durasteel catwalk with his legs dangling over the edge as he looked around the large hangar feeling oddly comfortable on his perch. He had always been drawn to higher elevation, likely the pilot in him, and despite the events on Cloud City that had not changed.

He had managed to shake the angry woman by doubling back and monkeying his way up a nearby ladder. Some might have thought the tactic unfair to the handicapped woman, but he knew otherwise. He shuddered visualizing her pulling herself up the ladder with nothing but the strength of her arms before continuing to pursue him. He shook his head. That wasn't something he wanted to entertain the possibility of, and he figured it was a good thing she hadn't thought to look up for him yet.

He slumped backwards, using his right hand to hold him up, subconsciously knowing it would support him better, and reached into his flight-suit that he had never bothered to take off. He tugged the datapad he had been reading earlier out of an inner pocket before leaning back forward and resting his chest against the lower railing bar, his arms held out in front of him as he turned the device's screen back on using his thumb-print.

'People usually use their dominant hand's thumb-print, but given your… situation…' the Intelligence Officer began.

'My left will have to suffice,' Luke interrupted harshly, 'I understand.' He flexed his mechanical hand reflexively and forced himself to bury his bitterness.

Luke shook his head and jerked his mind back to the present. The drill had done a good job of distracting him, but now that he was alone again without something to do he was slipping.

He quickly opened up the file he had been perusing when the evacuation drill had started.

Restricted Access

Security Level 3 Required

Data File: NR6-3258U

User Verification: Commander Luke Skywalker - Access Level 2

Quarry Base

Location: Allyuen

System: Allyuen

Sector: Greater Javin; Anoat

Region: Outer Rim Territories; Western Reaches

Status: Unknown as of 3 ABY (38:6:7)

According to what he had read this was one of the locations that the Empire had released probe droids on in an attempt to find their main base on Hoth.

He scrolled down the document and picked up where he had left off on it.

"Intelligence shows that the Stalker, an Imperial II-class Star Destroyer, now known to be part of Darth Vader's Death Squadron was responsible for the probe that located Echo-Base on the planet Hoth. Because Quarry Base was located in a nearby sector a single warning communiqué was made to it as the Hoth System was evacuated."

His insides lurched at the mention of Vader, but he chastised himself. He couldn't go around overreacting at every mention of the man he still had a hard time thinking of as his father.

"It is unknown whether the contact was intercepted at that time; however an encrypted acknowledgement was received by Home One operatives between one of the several hyperspace jumps it made after the battle.

It was assumed that Quarry Base had gone to ground with enforced comm silence, however in the three months that have passed, no further information was received.

At 15:06 hours Alliance Standard Time (AST) exactly three months and four standard days after the Base went dark a distress signal was sent out and picked up by an Alliance frigate codenamed Resolve. The signal was then transmitted to intelligence on Haven Base and examined.

Conclusions reached: The encoding has not been tampered with, however it is out of date correlating with their lack of communication for the last three months."

Luke closed the file and allowed himself to slump forward on the rail, his arms dangling in front of him as he stared blankly at the ground below him. So there had been another base near Hoth. Back then he hadn't known because they were so worried about keeping all base locations as secret as possible and his security clearance had only been level 4 at the time. Now he was level 2 and expected to discuss the situation in a command staff meeting later as representative of Rogue Squadron in addition to his position of Lieutenant Commander. So much had changed.

He placed the datapad on the grating beside himself and allowed himself to flop backwards with a weary sigh, covering his eyes with his arm.

'You deserve it Luke! You've done so much for us, you're a hero!' Leia's insistent words reverberated through his mind. 'I was the one who suggested it in the first place Luke. You saved me. You saved us all. Entire planets! And that was before you even had any real battle experience. You've come so far Luke. Don't try and tell me you don't deserve this.'

The words repeated over and over twisting and altering until he suddenly realized it had become a mixture of his father's mental voice and the deep voice produced by his vocodor.

Don't try and tell me you don't deserve this.

You've come so far Luke.

You deserve it Luke!

Son.

Come with me. It is the only way.

Join me, and together, we can rule the galaxy as father and son!

Luke, you can destroy the Emperor. He has foreseen this. It is your destiny!

It is your destiny.

Your destiny.

Destiny.

Two proton torpedoes rocketed forward with precision that could only be lent by the force. Luke peeled away and was slammed forward by the aftershock as the moon-sized terror suddenly exploded in a brilliant flash of light. Elation flooded through him only to be doused as if he had been dropped into a snowbank on Hoth.

He didn't remember this feeling. He curled in on himself as the cockpit of his X-wing faded away. He had never been so cold in his life. And then it started.

Hundreds of thousands, no, over a million voices screaming at once, so loud it was a deafening roar.

Pain. Shock. Horror. Regret. Fear.

He had always avoided thinking about it, but here it was being thrown in his face. He hadn't just blown up a weapon. He had killed more people than he had probably ever seen in his life.

Arms grabbed him and began to pull him down further until he felt like he was drowning in the cold darkness.

My family!

My wife!

My children!

So many lives ruined. So many that would never see a loved one again. So many that had only made the mistake of joining the military, something that he himself had nearly done years ago.

Regret tormented him and he thrashed helplessly against the steely grip of the dead.

Suddenly Leia's voice filtered through it all, 'Don't forget Luke. That battle station would have killed billions every time it fired at a planet. You had to do it.'

You had to do it.

Had to do it.

HAD TO.

Warmth began to build in him, countering the cold that the dead had brought to him.

'I had to do it,' he mentally snapped and he was finally able to snatch his mechanical hand free from the grasping hands. He began prying himself free with a nearly feral growl.

'DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND?!' He bellowed at the unhearing shadows, 'I HAD NO CHOICE! I HAD TO KILL YOU ALL!'

He finally tugged free and glared at the retreating shadows as he panted from exertion.

His father's two voices echoed through his mind, the dual vocals snapping him out of his blind rage, 'It is your destiny.'

Luke jerked back in horror at the realization of how he was acting and began shaking his head in denial. 'No. NO. NO!"

Luke awoke to the sound of himself screaming in denial as sweat poured out of his pores.

He had crushed the datapad in his mechanical hand.

AN: Um… well this is unexpected. I have no idea where this came from to be honest, especially so soon after writing a chapter. Inspiration kind of just grabbed on to me and wouldn't let me go. Violent thing, inspiration.

Somehow I think I may actually be able to continue this story, the idea is dragging me in and I'm actually excited for it.

Again, if you find any mistakes feel free to let me know. I'm remain un-beta'd for the moment.