Luke had a strange reading. It wasn't the Falcon, but it was the engine residue of several other ships, and they were recent. It was the first reading of any kind he encountered in his two dozen or so jumps along this trajectory. This was along the path where Han's ship would have fallen out of hyperspace and ended up, one of thousands to be sure, but the coincidence of ship activity here was too great for Luke to ignore. He followed the ship trails quickly before they dissipated.
It was Artoo who alerted Luke to a tiny outpost just at the edge of scanner range. It was on a small asteroid and Luke knew he was on to something. He maneuvered a path that put him well over and around the little outpost. He hit his engines for a final burst and drifted the rest of the way with all of the ships power off, including Artoo.
As his darkened ship drifted closer he could see the small ramshackle hut of the outpost with some dim green lighting inside. It had no windows but instead was open to space with only two side walls. There was a lone figure in a black spacesuit propped up against the side of one of the interior walls facing out the other way. Luke reached behind himself and fastened his spacesuit helmet on and locked it in place. He slowly twisted and pulled the manual release of his canopy. Instantly the air whooshed out into space and escaped as the canopy popped open and floated back.
Luke's X-Wing drifted closer to the outpost and he unhooked his safety harnesses. Just as his ship was passing below the boulder, he kicked himself out into space. Although he tried to minimize the speed of his ship's drift, he was still moving very fast. Within seconds he was soaring right towards the side wall of the outpost. He thought he would be crushed, or his helmet would crack open from the impact.
He put his hands out and braced himself as he was about to slam into the wall. Then he thought of the force. He closed his eyes and focused on the wall closing in. He could feel its mass fast approaching. He felt every crevice of the loose concrete and metal underneath. He could sense the rust on its surface, the crevices of millions of tiny stress fractures, the density of its interior, the heft and weight of it. Then he pushed against it using the force. He felt the distance between himself and the wall closing now, slowly. Easily and gradually he approached and, with the slightest touch, he landed softly against the wall. He wasn't exactly sure how he did it and he had to stop for a moment and collect himself.
He peered around the opening and into the outpost. Out of the window on the opposite side he could see his large X-Wing drifting past. The figure in the spacesuit did not move. Luke moved in. Lights and dials on long control panels started to beep and turn red for alarm as his X-Wing went through the sensors of the outpost. Luke quickly took out his blaster and grabbed the man in the black shiny spacesuit and turned him around. The man was asleep and was so startled by Luke that when he finally opened his eyes he screamed. Luke waved his arm while pointing the blaster at the man.
"Stop- wait. I don't want to hurt you," he spoke into the small radio broadcasting on all frequencies within a few feet of his spacesuit. "Do you understand? Can you hear me?" Luke continued.
The man nodded and raised his arms. He also slowly drifted back.
"I am looking for a ship, Corellian, white freighter, large- disc shaped. It has a man and a wookie on board. Have you seen that ship?"
"What? No- no ship," said the man in a strange accent as he reached back toward the control panel. Luke guessed he was trying to contact his people so he grabbed him and threw him towards the other side of the small room. He put the blaster right up against his helmet by his face.
"I know they went this way- tell me where they went!" Luke insisted.
"They went to base- but you will never make it! You should turn 'round and forget them. This is Legion space. If you know what is good, you will leave! We show no mercy!" The man said as he spun around quickly and grabbed a long laser rifle hung on a rack on the ceiling. He backed up and prepared to fire. He never had the chance.
Luke spun around as well while putting his blaster away and grabbing his lightsaber. He ignited it and sliced the long gun in two as the man raised it to fire. Sparks and pieces of the gun floated all around the small space. Luke raised the lightsaber to the man's neck and backed him up against the wall. He knew he would not get any further with the pirate. He also knew he couldn't leave him as he was, so he grabbed some loose cables nearby and threw them at the man.
"Tie this around one wrist and wrap it around the other," Luke said. The man grabbed the cable but did nothing. "Do it!" Luke repeated as he raised the lightsaber at the man's helmet, and the man complied. Luke wrapped his wrists a bit tighter and tied them off. He then pushed then man back into a chair in the corner of the room and, turning around, struck the console and control panels with his lightsaber. The panel exploded and went dead immediately. Luke hit a switch on his forearm. The X-Wing powered on and fired its engines. R2-D2 came on as well and squeaked in Luke's ear. The X-Wing came over and picked Luke up.
Luke made his way towards a distant energy source only Artoo could find, next to the largest planet in the system. It was the only energy source that could be a base, or at least it had to be a base. Somehow he knew it just had to be, and that's where he wound find Han. He set a course to get a little closer, but not too close to get discovered by an outpost such as he encountered. Instead he came up with another plan.
Luke kicked off of the cockpit seat and raised himself up and away from his ship. He took a long look at his trusty X-Wing as it dropped away below him. He had a feeling he wouldn't see it again. Artoo was already above him, trailing a long cable that passed close to Luke as he looked up.
"Okay, I'm clear. You can go ahead," Luke said into his helmet radio and with that Artoo opened side panels to let two side rockets spring out and fire on. Luke grabbed the line with both hands and held on tight as the little droid picked up speed and yanked Luke forward. Luke had instructed Artoo to circle in a wide arc all the way below what was hopefully the pirate base, and come up from below. Then he would figure out a way to get in, hopefully before Han and Chewbacca got into too much trouble.