Author's Note: Just so that I don't get a zillion reviews about this, yes, I do realize that this chapter and the next few after it are very similar to the movie, and yes, it was intended that way. Please be patient, it becomes more original after the Battle of Yavin.
Chapter Three: Parting Ways
I don't know how long I slept, but the next thing I knew, Vader was shaking me awake.
I could still feel the tear tracks on my face, and the last thing I wanted was to talk to him, but I sat up anyway.
"A ship has been pulled in on the tractor beam," he told me. "The occupants will be coming for you."
I lay back down, not even bothering to question him. "Fine."
It seemed to take forever for my rescuers to show up, and I began to question their competence. In fact, I had nearly fallen asleep again by the time my door was blasted open.
I propped myself up on one elbow and waited for the smoke to clear. When it did, I blinked in confusion.
The stormtrooper before me looked silently back.
But something about him wasn't quite right. Then I realized what it was.
"Aren't you a little short for a stormtrooper?" I asked him, amused.
The helmet tilted, confused. Then a voice from inside said, "Wha . . . oh, the uniform!" and the helmet was yanked off to reveal the most innocent-looking young man I had ever seen. "I'm Luke Skywalker, I'm here to rescue you!" he announced.
I nearly laughed at his ridiculous statement, but managed to hold it in. Instead, I settled for a polite, "You're who?"
"I'm here to rescue you," he repeated. "I've got your Artoo unit. I'm here with Ben Kenobi."
The General! "Ben Kenobi!" I exclaimed. "Where is he?"
Luke gestured happily out into the hallway. "Come on!"
I followed him with as much dignity as I could. If Vader actually thought this child was going to successfully get me off this monstrous hunk of metal, he had even less faith in the Empire than I did.
We began to run along the corridor, only to meet up with an older man dressed like Luke, in a stormtrooper suit minus the helmet, and a Wookiee, both wildly aiming shots at the troops behind them. "Can't get out that way," the man informed us casually.
I glared at him, trying to keep my temper in check. This was not a game, no matter if Vader was secretly protecting us or not! "Looks like you've managed to cut off our only escape route," I shot back, empathizing the word only.
He gave me an insulted look that clearly said, I'm older and wiser, listen to your elders, and retorted sarcastically, "Perhaps you'd like it better back in your cell, Your Highness."
So he knew about my title. Too bad common courtesy seemed to be out of his reach.
Luke was busy talking to Threepio (I was happy to hear that Artoo and Threepio hadn't been separated) when the troops the man had been shooting at began to advance on us.
"There isn't any other way out," Luke told his friend as he and I huddled together, feeling safer just from the physical proximity to each other.
"I can't hold them off forever!" the man snapped.
I couldn't help rolling my eyes. "This is some rescue, " I complained, hoping to nettle the arrogant man. "When you came in here, didn't you have a plan for getting out?"
It worked. He jerked his head at Luke, grouchily shouting, "He's the brains, sweetheart!"
Typical mercenary. Blame someone else when things go wrong.
Luke looked sheepish and somewhat anxious as he looked down the hallway. "Well, I didn't . . ."
Enough! my brain screamed. I snatched Luke's blaster out of his hands and shot a hole in the grate leading to the garbage chute. Not my favourite mode of transportation, but I didn't want the Empire getting a hold on naïve little Luke; they'd chew him up and spit him back out. The mercenary – for I was fairly sure that's what he was – well, him I didn't really care about. As for myself, I was fairly certainVader would protect me, even if he didn't extend the gesture to my homeworld.
"What the hell are you doing?" the mercenary yelped as the bolt flew past him. Too bad I missed him.
"Somebody has to save out skins," I snapped back. "Into the garbage chute, flyboy." And with that, I jumped.
The Wookiee followed my after a few moments, and then Luke. Almost immediately, the three of us realized that the door was sealed after Luke nearly killed us all trying to blast it open.
Of course, the mercenary couldn't keep his mouth shut, once he joined us. "Oh, the garbage chute was a really wonderful idea! What an incredible smell you've discovered! Let's get out of here. Get away from there . . ." He pushed Luke away from the door and aimed his blaster at it.
"No!" Luke shouted. "Wait!"
Too late. I fought the urge to strangle the mercenary as the bolt he shot at the door bounced off the durasteel and around the room.
"Will you forget it?" Luke demanded when we were finally able to stop ducking. "I already tried it. It's magnetically sealed!"
"Put that thing away!" I growled at what's-his-name. "You're going to get us all killed!"
He sneered at me. "Absolutely, Your Worship. Look, I had everything under control until you led us down here. You know, it's not going to take them long to figure out what happened to us."
"It could be worse --" I began, but was cut off by a horrible, hungry moan that seemed to come from beneath our feet. Even the mercenary went white.
"It's worse," he mumbled, but there was no bite in it. The Wookiee howled and tried to hide in the shadows, a rather difficult feat for someone his size. Luke and the mercenary held their guns at the ready.
"There's something alive down there!" Luke stated unnecessarily.
"It's your imagination," the mercenary told him, but his eyes said that his imagination was working overtime, as well.
"Something just moved past my leg!" Luke insisted, eyes wide. "Look! Did you see that?"
The other man squinted at the water. If the situation weren't so serious I would have made a remark about his eyesight. "What?"
Luke only had time to yell, "Help!" before he was dragged completely under the water.
"Luke!" the mercenary bellowed, beginning to flail about in what I presumed was meant to be a search pattern. "Luke! Luke!"
And then he surfaced with a gasp. "Luke!" I screamed, and snatched up a pole for him to grab onto. I held it out to him. "Luke! Luke, grab a hold of this!"
"Blast it, will you?" Luke groaned as he attempted to reach the pole. "My gun's jammed."
"Where?" the mercenary asked, squinting again.
"Anywhere!" Luke cried in both desperation and exasperation.
The mercenary fired his blaster, but it did little good, except for getting Luke dragged downward again. The mercenary continued to shout his name until suddenly, the walls shuddered.
We froze, then gave each other frightened glances. The Wookiee, almost forgotten in the corner, gave a shattering howl.
And then Luke surfaced again. "Grab him!" I ordered the mercenary, who obeyed me for once. "What happened?" I demanded of Luke.
He gave me a confused look. "I don't know, it just let go of me and disappeared."
The mercenary tensed. "I've got a very bad feeling about this . . ."
And then the walls began to close in on us. Literally.
What was Vader thinking?! I realized that he wanted to douse any suspicions about our deal, but really, this was going a little too far!
"The walls are moving!" Luke exclaimed, once again stating the obvious. I was going to have to talk to him about that little habit. Specifically, how to break it.
But first things first. "Don't just stand there!" I snapped. "Try to brace it with something!"
We did try, but everything we moved either bent or snapped under the pressure of the walls, which continued to move slowly but steadily inward. The Luke brightened.
"Wait a minute!" He pulled out his comlink. "Threepio! Come in, Threepio! Threepio!" But the droid didn't answer. Luke frowned. "Where could he be?"
Luke continued to try to raise the droid as the Wookiee, whimpering and whining under his breath, tried to physically hold the walls back with his paws. His friend was trying much the same tactic, only with his back instead of his hands. We spotted another pole at the same time and again tried to brace the walls, but it didn't work and I ended up sinking into the garbage. I tried to lift my feet, but garbage was being pushed onto them, burying me.
"Get on the top!" the mercenary yelled at me over the grinding noise the walls made.
"I can't!" I nearly wailed back as Luke still exclaimed over the absence of my protocol droid. Damn it, Vader, make it stop!
The mercenary reached out to me, and I gripped his hand tightly, noting vaguely that my own hand, so tiny in his, was white and shaking with fear.
"One thing's for sure," he grouched as he attempted to pull me up. "we're all going to be a lot thinner. Get on top of it!" he repeated urgently.
"I'm trying!" I replied.
Just as I managed to join the mercenary on top of a garbage heap, Luke comlink rang. He answered it, and though I couldn't hear the greeting from the person on the other end, Luke's exclamation of, "Threepio!" was all that was needed for my hopes to rise once again. Perhaps we weren't going to die here after all.
It took some repetition, but eventually walls were stopped – and just in time. We bolted out the now-open door into a deserted hallway, where Luke and the mercenary discarded their clumsy, helmet-less stormtrooper outfits, taking only the utility belts. And then, of course, the mercenary decided it was time to get all high and mighty again.
"If we can just avoid any more female advice," he said in a casual yet superior tone that gave me an almost irresistible urge to smack him, "we ought to be able to get out of here."
Well," Luke said optimistically, "let's get moving!"
But then the Wookiee noticed the creature that had attacked Luke trying to get out of the garbage chute, and the mercenary aimed his pistol at it.
"No, wait!" I hissed at him. "They'll hear!"
But he shot anyway. And, as I'd predicted, the noise banged and echoed throughout the chamber. I was furious. Luke simply shook his head.
By the Force, how had these two ended up friends?
As the mercenary tried to bully the Wookiee into moving, I decided I'd had enough. I moved over to him.
"Listen," I told him waspishly. "I don't know who you are or where you came from, but from now on you do as I tell you. Okay?"
I hadn't meant to give him a choice, but obviously he thought he had one. "Look, Your Worshipfulness," he snapped back at me, "let's get one thing straight! I take orders from one person! Me!"
I let my upper lip curl slightly as I replied, "It's a wonder your still alive." I lengthened my stride only to nearly trip on the heels of the Wookiee. Frustrated, I growled, "Will someone get this big walking carpet out of my way?" Moving around him, I stalked off, leading my so-called rescuers to the docking bay.
