"How long do you intend to stay on Alderaan, Lord Vader?" The Emperor looked at Vader suspiciously across the holographic connection. "It hardly seems worth your time."
"I believe my…child will be coming here, my master," Vader responded, keeping his language vague to try to allay any more of the Sith's suspicions without actually lying to his face.
"The Force has shown you this?"
"Yes, my master."
"Then carry on." Palpatine reached over and shut off the connection, grimacing at his guards. His apprentice had grown more wayward since the Endor incident, as the Empire had taken to calling the destruction of their death machines, and the old Sith noticed a sliver of anxiety invading his thoughts. What was Vader plotting now? By revealing the existence of his son, Palpatine had hoped to bring the fallen Jedi into line, giving him a reason to obey lest the Emperor order the boy killed. The possibility of turning young Luke to the Dark Side was an added incentive—perhaps he would prove more loyal than his treacherous father.
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After Luke reassured him multiple times that he was fine staying with the old Jedi master, Solo walked back to the Falcon, waving to Chewie to lower the boarding ramp. He climbed aboard and took one last look around before lifting the freighter gently up through the fog.
"I dunno, Chewie," he said as they headed for open space. "Guy didn't look a Jedi to me."
Chewbacca gave an interrogatory bark.
"Short, real short. And green. I've never seen the species before. Said his name was Yoda."
The Wookiee grinned, baring his teeth and rowfing.
"You know the guy, huh? So he's legit. Okay then." Han checked the navicomputer and then flipped the display to review the fuel levels. "So where shall we spend the next three weeks?"
Chewbacca pointed to a point on the map. "My thinking exactly."
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"You have no idea how your presence is going to lift spirits here," Kita said to Leia as she led her through the cavern. "When we heard the reports that you had been killed, all of Alderaan mourned."
"When did the Empire arrive?" Leia wanted to know.
"There was a general evacuation sounded when the Empire's space station appeared," Kita told her. "Everyone who was able fled the planet. A few hours later, the space station left. It was chaos for a few days. There was looting, panic in the streets. No one knew what was going on. When your parents returned a few days later things calmed down, but the Empire followed soon after. Your father warned that the planet might be occupied though, so many people had time to flee the cities."
"And what now?"
"We have groups that infiltrate the cities regularly to drop off food supplies and get as much information as possible," Kita said, patting a young Caamasi boy on the head as he toddled past her. "Unfortunately the Holonet has been completely blocked, so we have no idea what's going on outside. The cities are completely besieged. Your parents are being held at the palace in Aldera as far as we know, but no one has seen them in more than a month."
Leia shuddered. "I have to get to them. This is all my fault."
"What do you mean, Princess?"
"I was the one who attracted the attention of the Empire," she confessed quietly. "I was…I was helping the Rebels. I was the reason the Death Star came."
Kita gave her a long look, then drew her into her arms.
"Child, you are not responsible for the atrocities of the Empire." She gave a small smile. "Emperor Palpatine has hated us since long before you were born." An arm around Leia's shoulders, she guided the princess onwards. "Did you know that I was at university with your mother? Not in the same program of course: she studied government, naturally, and I went into theoretical quantum physics. I think she chose the more complicated course of study."
"She had a bit of a wild streak back then, though not very many people knew. I ran into her one night at a party that was being held in a field outside of town. She had colored her hair and put on enough makeup to drown a nerf so no one would recognize her. I knew her right away, of course, from her voice but everyone else was three sheets to the wind when she got there and had no idea. We danced until sunrise and then she stayed in my dorm room so her parents wouldn't know where she'd been."
Leia giggled in spite of herself, imagining her regal mother as a wild teenager. If she ever saw her parents again, at least now she had something to hold over Breha's head if she was scolded for her reckless mission.
"Do you have any children, Kita?"
"Two sons," she said proudly. "One is a doctor at Aldera Universal Medcenter, and the other…"she leaned in close, "is a mechanical engineer for the Alliance." Standing back up, she patted the princess on the back. "So I owe you a personal debt of gratitude for your efforts on their behalf."
They had reached the rear of the cavern, where a tent was leaned against the rough stone wall. Kita slipped in and held open the flap for Leia to follow.
A young man sat in front of a primitive radio, headphones on as he tapped a code out on an old transponder.
"This is Farn, our resident communications geek and all around tech wizard," Kita introduced him. "Farn, this young lady would like to be part of the next mission to Aldera. What have you been hearing?"
"Nothing good," Farn said glumly. "It sounds like there's about to be another repatriation, and apparently some high level Imp arrived a couple of days ago and is sticking around. Trying to find out more…"
"What does that mean, repatriation?" Leia asked nervously.
"We're not sure exactly what's going on, but every couple of weeks the Empire has been sending in ships with Alderaanis who escaped and returning them to the planet," Kita told her.
"Are they okay?"
"So far they've all been dead."
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The night shift had just started, and Vader passed a line of stormtroopers heading to the bunk space that had been established in the palace's ballroom. He'd heard that Alderaan was a popular assignment for the rank and file soldiers, with a relatively docile populace, temperate atmosphere, and comfortable living arrangements. The sound of raucous laughter erupted from the makeshift barracks, and for a brief moment he allowed himself a bittersweet memory of being a soldier himself, cherishing the camaraderie of dedication towards a common, attainable goal.
He softened his footsteps as he passed by the door to the ballroom, not wanting to disturb the men and then walked past the empty dining room towards a long, twisting staircase that led down into the family area of the palace.
General Rholar, who was assigned to manage the Imperial occupation of Alderaan, had given Vader a briefing packet that included a layout of the palace upon his arrival. The rooms had all been searched thoroughly, with little effort made towards cleaning up the mess after nothing incriminating had been found. Holding the map, Vader made his way down to a comfortable den fitted with an enormous holoproj. The walls had been covered with paintings and holos that were ripped down as the stormtroopers tore through the residence. Carefully, Vader picked them up one of the frames, looking down at the Organa family portrait from several years previous.
Leia must have been ten or eleven in the picture, smiling prettily between Bail and Breha. Her hair was braided and trussed elaborately around her head, and briefly Vader wondered how they had gotten the girl to sit still long enough to construct the style. Her cheeks were still childishly round, her eyes bright—a perfect mix, he thought, of his own doll-like features and Padme's dark beauty. How had he been so blind? He found another picture, this one just of Leia, posing on top of one of the flying beasts so prized by Alderaani society. The wind whipped through her hair, and she looked straight ahead, leaning down as if she was urging her steed to go faster.
Then his mind flashed to when he had seen his daughter, beaten and broken, close to death after Tarkin's ill-planned interrogation and the torture he inflicted on her. She had survived to fight another day, he reminded himself. Just like her father.
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Kita had left her with Farn for a briefing on the missions to Aldera, and the youth had lit up with excitement when she told him about the supplies she left back in the other cave.
"Six blasters," she counted on her fingers, "A protocol droid, some food, a couple of emergency flares." Purposefully, she opted not to mention the lightsaber.
"And a ship?" he said.
"Well, yes, but I don't know if it will be much use trying to sneak into the city."
"True. But it's good to know about."
They organized a small team to hike back up to the cave and retrieve the supplies. Leia led them towards the Headhunter and popped open the storage hatch, yanking hard to free Threepio from the cramped space and turning him back on.
"Your Highness," he said as his lights came on, "I'm afraid I'm in desperate need of an oil bath."
The young men turned to stare at her. "No way!" one of them whispered. "Princess Leia? I thought you were dead!"
"It would be helpful to maintain that impression with as many people as possible," she said sternly, handing him one of the blasters.
"What happened to your neck?" another asked, and then remembered his manners. "Um, your highness?"
"A bit of a burn," Leia said vaguely, not wanting to get into details. "Let's get the stuff and get out of here, all right?"
They made their way back down the mountainside, Threepio fussing much of the trip, and slipped back into the cave. A woman gave them a hard look as she saw the weaponry.
"I just don't know that it's appropriate," she said to Kita as Leia and her companions made their way back to the makeshift communications tent. "What's the point of beating back the Empire if we lose our souls in the process?"
"We have to be realistic," Kita argued. "Having some protection might make it easier for our teams to get in and out?"
"But if the Empire finds illicit weapons? You remember what happened when they discovered the hidden fuel tanks? Blasters would be far worse."
Leia overheard the conversation. "What happened with the fuel tanks?" she asked.
"It was in Terrarium City. They'd been losing power and so one of the resistance groups from the far end of the valley snuck in some fuel tanks. When they were discovered…" Kita trailed off for a moment, composing herself. "They emptied five city blocks of every adult and brought them all out to a field. Then they made every count off by fives, and shot every fifth person. They made the survivors dig the graves."
Leia turned deathly pale. "No…." Sinking to her knees, she held her head in her hands, breathing hard. "No, no, no." She looked up at the group of youth examining the blasters. "We leave the weapons here."
They planned to leave the next morning at dawn, following a hidden network of tunnels to the edge of the lake. From there, they would hike around the lakeside under the cover of the trees and meet up with another group of partisans that had access to freight transport. The Imperials had been using surface based freight speeders to move the limited food supplies from the Aldera spaceport to the surrounding cities, and Farn's group had been successful in infiltrating the group of freighter drivers pressed into service. Their contact arranged his route so the group could hop aboard, distributing contraband to residents trapped in the city before fleeing back out the way they came.
Kita invited Leia to join her in her sleeping space that evening as they sat down for a meal around the large communal table. The families took turns cooking and serving the meager food supplies. Leia gratefully accepted a bowl of stew from a woman who smiled shyly as she recognized the princess.
"Please don't take this the wrong way, Princess," Kita said as they slurped up the hot nerf meat, "But you don't look well. Are you sure you shouldn't take a few days to rest?" To prove her point, Kita walked back to her space and grabbed a small mirror.
Leia examined herself critically. The marks on her face were faced, but the shadows of bruises were still visible on her pale skin. Her eyes were ringed with deep, dark circles, and she noticed a hint of sickly yellow tainting the whites. The scar on her neck was still bright red, showing no signs of fading. She put the mirror down.
"I have to. It's going to take days to get there as it is. Once I get to the palace, maybe we can find a way to drive the Empire away."
Kita smiled at her. "You've always been an optimist. I remember that from your Senate campaign."
That night, as the lights were turned out and the only sounds were the quiet shuffling of the night guards going their rounds, Leia lay awake, staring into the inky blackness. The sound of screams from lives so cruelly extinguished haunted her. The Empire will pay, she thought, taking comfort in the feeling of raw power that pulsed in her. They will pay.