I'd Rather Kiss a Wookie Chapter 11: Just Like Old Times
Only a few hours passed before the comlink on the wall beeped a few times. In that time Anastasia had unpacked all of the things she took from the jedi temple and changed clothing. She now wore one of the black cloaks over a pair of pants and a turtle neck. She had pulled the sleeve for her missing arm into the shirt so it did not hang loosely. C4 walked to the unit and answered it. The voice that came from the comlink was one of the officers and they spoke in a curt and precise way.
"Lady Anastasia is expected on the main command deck in ten minutes."
"Understood sir." C4 responded as the link was turned off and C4 turned towards Anastasia. Anastasia stood and clipped a light saber to her belt and one of the youngling sabers next to it.
"If you are ready to go Miss."
"I am, let's go." Anastasia said walking to the door and adjusting her cloak so that her lightsabers were hidden and it was not clear that she was missing an arm. After all such things being visible would put her at a disadvantage. Anastasia's strength was that people underestimated her, she was a slight girl she knew, and she knew that it was to her advantage that people suspected her to be an easy target.
C4 lead Anastasia through the halls and as they went she reached out with the force surveying the super star destroyer. It was Vader's flagship in the imperial fleet and the most formidable aside from the Death Star. As Anastasia searched through the force she looked further and found Vader. As C4 lead her through the halls she realized that they were going to Vader, she assumed that he was on the main command deck also.
Three floors later and two hallways to the left and Anastasia entered the command deck. The large windows at the front of the room gave Anastasia a great view of the space before the ship. Smaller star destroyers sat waiting in formation, she suspected that everyone was waiting upon Vader's orders. Anastasia gestured to C4 to stop which the droid did and stood near the door waiting. Vader was standing by the windows with a few other officers and Anastasia approached quietly and stopped a few feet away. Vader turned slightly towards Anastasia and spoke.
"It seems that the rebels have moved further into the outer rim. Where is the rebel alliance?"
"One of the reconnaissance worlds was Issor in the Trulalis system."
"The Trulailis system has been checked a dozen times, there are no rebel bases out there." Anastasia approached and turned on the officer who spoke rejecting her words.
"Yes you would know where to find the rebellion because you have done such a wonderful job up till now."
"I have been an imperial officer longer than you have been alive child."
"Commander control yourself. Why would the rebels go to Issor?"
"It was one of the systems that was decided upon. It is the most likely because the system has been check multiple times. They are assuming that the empire will think as the Commander does."
"What other systems would the rebels go to?"
"The only other place that is likely is Honoghr."
"An imperial system? Would they risk a system controlled so much by the Empire?" The Commander asked, it was clear he did not want to accept anything Anastasia was saying but held his tongue because of Vader.
"Some of the empire controlled systems are the safest for the rebellion. Though they are not on Honoghr, it is Issor we need to check."
"Set course for Issor, direct two other star destroyers to Honoghr. Both systems will be checked."
"Lord Vader, I ask that you allow me to go with the landing party when we intercept the rebels." Anastasia spoke as the commander and the other officer who had not spoken walked a short ways away giving orders. Vader looked down at Anastasia before looking out the window. Two of the ships were moving, turning and preparing for the jump to hyper space she was sure. Anastasia stood next to him looking out the window and watched the ships leave.
"Why do you want to go with the landing party?"
"They have Tarruffa still. I want to bring him back. I owe him my life three times over."
"So you want to go to preserve your attachments? That wookie is a weakness to you."
"You want me to disappear forever and cause you more trouble than I ever did before? If that is what you want then by all means remove my attachments."
"You think that I would allow you to disappear again? Aboard this ship you cannot escape."
"Thought that about the Death Star too I am sure."
"You are not doing a good job convincing me that I should let you go."
"I am willing to be here and to serve the empire but I need my own assurances. Allow me to bring Tarruffa back from the raid and I will be the loyal servant you wanted me to be from the start."
"The wookie buys your loyalty?"
"Had circumstances been different my home world would have been sufficient but you disposed of gambling chip at the beginning of the game."
"Had circumstances been different you would have been found long before I found you wandering blindly through the force." Vader said then went silent speaking to Anastasia through the force.
"How long had you been wandering through the force like that?" Anastasia was confused why he suddenly changed to speaking to her through the force. Glancing behind her she saw that the crew and officers were looking at them occasionally. Anastasia turned back towards the window and watched the ships move. The super star destroyer started moving, changing direction then made the jump to hyperspace.
"All of my life I had been having dreams like that. Except once, it happened when I was awake."
"You were never trained then? By no one?"
"Never, my system did not have any concept of the Jedi, space travel or even the empire. That time that I saw through the force when I was awake, it was of Jedi being killed, all over the place and all at once."
"You felt the force react to the Jedi purge?"
"Yea…" Anastasia didn't say more than that, she had found out about the Jedi purge in the past few years. It was depressing for her to think about it, and when she did it made her want to cry with the injustice of it all. She lived under no illusions of the empire, she served because it was better for her than the rebellion was. She was living as a scoundrel would, only for herself. Well not entirely only for herself, she protected Tarruffa and Star-farts. Though Star-farts was protecting more than just himself and history, Star-farts was protecting the best thing the rebellion had going for them. That was the only thing she would not give to the empire, Star-farts had done enough for her to earn her loyalty.
Traveling at light speed made everything a whole lot easier in the galaxy. In a matter of minutes they would arrive at Issor and she would betray the rebellion openly. She only hoped that the rebellion had gone here and Tarruffa with them. It was standard protocol for the rebellion to split and run when they suspected their whereabouts to be compromised. The capture of Anastasia and the rest of the rebels on the Death Star would have constituted that probable cause to run. The rebellion had many bases around the Galaxy but only a few of them were considered a safe place to go. The Empire was not that far off from the rebellion as they seemed to think. Many times the rebellion was almost ended by the Empire and many times Anastasia wondered if she would make it out of certain situations.
Anastasia glanced at Vader and wondered if he was expecting her to leave now or not, since he did not tell her to go she assumed it was fine if she stayed. She decided that it was safe enough to venture a question, so she spoke through the force.
"Would it be alright if I have my side bag back? The one you took from me on the Death Star."
"Why do you need it?"
"It has my sketchbook in it, I would like that back."
"You mean the book that you have recorded rebel secrets in? No."
"Can you even read the writing in it?" Vader shifted slightly at her comment and she suspected that she hit a nerve there. She knew that English wasn't in the archives, there was little to nothing about Earth recorded because of its status as a primitive planet.
"The droids will determine what language you were writing in and have it decoded within moments."
"I doubt it, droids only know languages from developed systems." Vader actually turned towards her as she said this and responded curtly as he walked away.
"Perhaps you would decode it then, after all you are an agent of the empire now."
"Commander be sure to pull out of lightspeed far enough that we remain undetected. Then scan the system for rebels then notify me. Contact the ships that went to Honoghr and report what they find as well." Vader said walking towards the door, the commander saluted and went back to directing the officers.
With Vader out of the room Anastasia looked once more out at space then headed towards the door where C4 was still waiting. Once in the hallway C4 spoke in its metallic voice.
"If that is all then I will lead you back to your room Miss."
"Let me guess that is where I am to be when Lord Vader does not have need of me."
"Quite right Miss." Anastasia sighed slightly but nodded.
"Very well."
Vader had left Anastasia in the command deck not really because he had something more important to do than stand there and talk to her but because it was too easy for him to stand there and talk to her. She had become quite confident in her years with the rebellion and he was not sure he liked how easy she found it to talk to him. She did not fear him anymore and that bothered Vader. He was supposed to be the most feared enforcer of the Emperor, feared only second to the Emperor himself. Anastasia did not act as if she feared him let alone the Emperor.
Vader returned to his rooms and began pacing the sitting room in a frustration. He needed to control Anastasia yet his main tactic of control seemed inadequate now. He paced past the coffee table and paused his cloak settling around him, he stood immobile for a moment then turned towards the table. On it sat the sketchbook, he had flipped through it briefly before yet had stopped when he encountered the coded writing. He had tried to understand the writing but it was not in the archives and he had not been able to find a droid programed with the language. He picked up the book and sat down and began flipping through the pages. The way Anastasia was drawing had changed from her first book and Vader suspected it was due to the loss of her arm. The images were more varied this time and the pages were often covered with the scrawling in the unidentified language.
As he flipped through he found more images to do with the empire, of star destroyers and storm troopers. There were five pages filled with little thumb nail drawings of peoples faces the majority of them were the storm trooper clones, others were aliens yet each was given the same amount of space and was displayed in a gridded list. At the top was a short bit of writing followed by a galactic star date. Vader realized that it was a death toll, that the faces were those of the people Anastasia had killed. He wasn't really interested in this, he was trying to find a way to decode the writing. He flipped through more pages, the book had to have at least a hundred or more pages.
Turn the page and there it was, that face. Vader looked down at the face of Anakin Skywalker and it caused him to pause. It was not a sweet drawing of Anakin and Padme it was darker. The picture was complete background and all, it was on Mustafar. The image brought back the painful memories and Vader had no doubts now that Anastasia knew who he was in a previous life. The page showed the moment before Anakin caught fire from the lava flow, the moment where he had lost his legs and arm.
He turned the page banishing the image and memories from his mind. Though he did not like the next page anymore than the previous, it was of him as he was now. Standing on the command deck of his star destroyer and her standing next to him. She wore black jedi robes and had both of her arms intact. Vader wondered if it was a vision she had from the unifying force that she had drawn. He knew that she drew what she saw through the force so it was not so farfetched for her to draw visions of the future she had. The next few pages were covered in writing, after that it was more drawings of the galaxy and of him. Occasionally there would be a drawing of Anastasia herself but much of the drawings were far too personal for Vader's liking.
Vader flipped closed the book and went to the inner room; here was the meditation pod that Vader could breathe without his mask. It was specialized for his needs it maintained a super oxygenated environment for him to breathe without his respirator. Sitting in the meditation pod he closed himself into the chamber, it beeped letting him know that the atmosphere was properly adjusted and he removed his mask. In a meditation chamber it was capable to manage a greater use of the force for the more subtle arts such as healing and sight. Vader had tried many times to heal himself through force healing abilities yet every time he began to succeed in healing himself something went wrong and what little success he had was reversed. He remained scarred.
Vader opened the book again holding it up as he reclined in the chair he cursed as several pages fell from the book falling around his chair and onto the floor of the meditation pod. He picked up the papers and noticed a small metal object that had fallen with the pages. Picking up the object he realized that it was a necklace. It was small silver with a pale purple stone set in it. He looked the thing over and wondered if the thing had some sentimental value or if it was just a thing women did, collect jewelry. He set the necklace off to the side and went through the pages that had fallen out. Many of the pages had writing on them and few doodles but nothing to noticeable.
Anastasia followed C4 as it lead her back to her room and once she was there C4 left to get her an evening meal. Anastasia sat on the couch with the practice light sabers she pried open the panel revealing the interior workings of the blade. She sat with her feet propped against the coffee table and she held the blade between her knees and carefully reaching inside began to adjust the mechanics. The first time she altered a practice saber she had messed it up so much that the blade had overloaded the casing and cause the thing the explode, it had nearly caused her to lose her other arm. Her remaining arm was so covered with scars that it was difficult to pick one out among many. And the pink scars from light saber burns were those that showed the most. Once she was done meddling with the saber she closed it up again and taking it in her hand hit the button and the blade came screeching to life. She swung it through the air light saber gave a threatening hum and satisfied that it was properly adjusted she turned it off and began on the second.
After altering the blades of lightsabers enough she had found that the sound the blade made as it was swung through the air could tell her how the blade was adjusted. She had become so used to this chore that she cast her mind out past her immediate surroundings and the force within her room further. She halted in her search it was the alarm that the next room caused her, the room next to hers. He was in that room, though he seemed occupied with something. Anastasia paused not allowing her mind to touch Vader's but remaining paused just beyond the static reach of Vader's mind. It was a time after leaving the Death Star that Anastasia learned that the black silk of Vader's force that surrounded him was the extent that he was monitoring his surrounding through the force. She debated on letting him know she was now aware that he was in the room next to her, yet she did not do so. She withdrew her sight to the confines of her own room once more.
She wanted too much to have what contact she could with him. She knew that if Vader saw her mind now she would not be able to hide her emotions. She was too tormented by her emotions and unable to control them she feared that they would expose her. Anastasia put the light saber aside and ran her hand over her face, trying to control herself. In the little time that she had spent in the service of the empire again she had nearly exposed her feeling half a dozen times and many of those times were in the presence of Vader.
"Come on remember what you learned." Anastasia said to herself as she tried to talk herself out of just telling Vader why she returned instead of dropping off the map completely. Anastasia could feel the force reacting to her emotions and beginning to manifest yet she did not want to alert Vader.
"Meditate, calm and collected. Let everything go. The Jedi way, just do it the Jedi way." She said to herself repeating some of the things Star-farts had said to her. So she began to meditate focusing on her breathing and trying to calm down. Anastasia had trouble with this most of all, control. It was so easy for her to take to the dark side of the force and use it to express the emotions she wouldn't or couldn't express herself. Tarruffa had over the years of traveling with her become accustomed to these 'temper tantrums' as he called them. Anastasia didn't disagree, she felt childish when this happened, when her emotions became too much for her to manage.
As she tried to calm herself down and control her emotions Anastasia began to hum a tune from a film she saw on earth. She couldn't even remember what the movie was or what the song was called but it was one that stuck in her mind and she would often hum the tune for the sheer comfort it offered.
Anastasia had been trying to calm herself down for near fifteen minutes before the comlink beeped then announced that they had arrived at Issor. Almost immediately after the com beeped Vader spoke through the force.
'Stop your pathetic attempt at mediation and get out here, we are going to the command deck.' Anastasia frowned and left her room, she should have known that Vader would be able to sense her torrent of emotions that she had been failing to control with her meditation.
In the hall Vader was waiting for her, as soon as C4 followed out of the room he began to walk cape billowing behind him. There was an eagerness to his walk that he did normally have. He was looking forward to having the rebellion in his grasp, to crushing them forever.
Upon reaching the command deck Vader walked up to a man and said.
"What is the situation Commander?"
The man in grey turned to Vader and saluted and said.
"We have scanned the planet and found a place that could be a rebel base but there are no life signatures in that location. We have deployed a probe to investigate closer. We should have the results momentarily." Anastasia shifted slightly as she became tense, she could feel Vader become impatient waiting for the results from the probe. Though what Anastasia could see was that she wasn't the only one who was tense, every officer had become tense. It wasn't until Anastasia noticed this that she assessed the room with the use of the force. The room was permeated with the black silk of Vader's presence, wrapping around everyone and affecting their mood.
'You better hope that you are right and the rebellion is here.' Vader said to her through the force, Anastasia looked at Vader again and frowning slightly responded in the same fashion.
'I cant read their minds, these are the locations I know of.'
'You seem uncertain that they are here.'
"Lord Vader, we just received word from the ship at Honoghr there are no rebels on the planet."
"Commander! Probe results have come back negative the base is abandoned." Another man said from where he sat at his console.
"Begin scanning the surrounding systems and check on all systems that the rebels have used previously. Alert me with anything you find." Vader turned towards Anastasia and said in a tone that was a no nonsense sort of tone.
"You, come with me."
"Yes Lord Vader." Was the only response Anastasia could muster as she followed Vader from the command deck with the eyes of the crew watching them. The walk through the halls was without talking yet the air seemed to hum with Vader's anger. Anastasia wondered where he was taking her and why he was even bothering with taking her away from the others. Before he had no problem asserting his power in front of others, so why was he taking her to someplace private.
As they turned down the hall to her room Anastasia wondered if Vader was going to simply lock her up in her room. Vader did not stop at her door however, he stopped at the one beside hers. He stopped at the door to his rooms, once the door slid open he turned and looked at Anastasia. She didn't need to be told what to do, she obeyed the silent command and entered the room.
Anastasia looked around the room, it was about as personal as she expected for Vader. There were no personal items lying around, and the whole room had a stale sterol quality to it. The sound of the door closing pulled Anastasia's attention as she turned back towards the door. As she turned Vader grabbed her cloak roughly and threw her against the wall pinning her there. Anastasia gave a small whimper at the rough treatment.
"Trying to buy a little time for your rebel friends to escape? Leading us to an old abandoned base?"
"No those are the two locations I know of."
"Stop lying to me!" Vader said his anger rising as his hand wrapped around her neck his grip tightening. He was barely controlling his anger and though Anastasia pulled at his hand she could not move it.
"It's the t- truth." Anastasia gasped out. Vader tightened his hold on her and Anastasia began to see spots. Her face twisted into a glare and she quickly brought her knee up in a savage attack. Not expecting her to attack Vader let her go with a snarl and made to grab her. Although Anastasia was still seeing spots she did not pause to give Vader the opportunity to grab her again. She dropped to the ground kicking out Vader's legs sending him falling backwards, the attack left a jarring pain in her leg like she had just kicked solid steel. As he fell Vader sent Anastasia flying back with a force push, upon hitting the wall Anastasia reacted with the force herself. Vader was already on his feet again when Anastasia used the force to pull his cape up and twisting around him in attempt to constrict him. Though focusing on doing so was difficult with her swimming vision.
Vader smacked his cape out of the way his physical strength overpowering that of the force Anastasia used. Anastasia tried to get up but it was useless Vader was holding her in place with the force trapping her on the floor. The few steps it took to reach her were like the footsteps of doom as his anger was thick in the air. Anastasia took a deep breath clearing her mind and focusing all of her attention on the force holding her. She enveloped it with her force and then compressed upon it seeking to fuse the two separate manipulations and take control of that which held her down.
Vader was reaching down towards her when she finally succeeded taking enough control over the force pressing upon her that she was able to loosen the hold slightly. While maintaining this slight control she shot out from where she was against the floor pushing herself away from Vader. Though he perhaps expected something of this nature because he caught hold of her cloak and pulled her back and pinned her between his chest and the wall not allowing enough room for her to attempt kicking him again.
Anastasia tried to struggle free but any movement had her either pressed into the wall or Vader and he wasn't letting her go anywhere. So she finally stopped struggling to get away but she glared at Vader instead.
"Are you quite done?"
"I wasn't lying, those are the two back up locations I know of. It is standard protocol to change the locations if a team is known to be captured."
"I might believe you if you weren't so actively shielding your mind from me."
"I deserve some privacy too, why should I open myself to you when you keep your thoughts locked up like some prized gem?"
"You have nothing until I say you can have it. Open your mind to me or I will force you to show me your thoughts." Vader said the silk of his force twisting around Anastasia for emphasis that he was vastly stronger than her.
"Or we can sit and have a proper conversation and I will simply tell you everything you want to know. Remember I asked to return to your side." Vader let out a sigh that hissed out from his respirator and he pushed Anastasia towards the couches. Anastasia sat quickly and Vader sat on the couch opposite from Anastasia's.
"You are going to make a list of all the systems that the rebels have been hiding on or had as back up bases for when they run."
"I don't have a problem doing that but you know they wont return to an old base."
"You will do as you are told. You are also to make a list of all the names of the rebel leaders you know."
"Understood…" Anastasia said waiting for Vader to command more information or send her away. Though he did not do that, he simply sat there, and it became one of those moments that Anastasia wished she could see his face. She was sure that if she could see his face she would have a better understanding of what he was thinking. As it was it was like looking at a statue, she could not discern anything through the force or by his expression, he had perfected the ability to appear rigid and commanding all the time.
"Vader? Is there anything else, or should I leave?"
"Show me the code that you used in your book." Anastasia just sat there for a moment, she hadn't expected him to actually ask for her help with sorting it out. She debated on refusing to help him with it, after all there were things in the journal she really didn't want him knowing mostly because it was about him.
"Well?" He asked in a threatening tone.
"The only thing is that it isn't a code, it is a language. I could try to teach you the language if you want."
"Just program it into a droid."
"Ah, well it isn't an easy language to process like that. It is very contextual."
"You are trying to tell me that the pathetic language you spoke on that rock I found you is more complicated to program into a droid than the Wookiee language?"
"No, I suppose not. Though, it would be easier to simply teach it to you than program it into the droid."
"Very well, go make those lists I will send for you when I have time for this." Anastasia stood and made her way to the door she reached out for the button to open the door but paused when Vader spoke.
"You will go to the training room each day and work on your fighting and force skills. Your droid will take you to and from the training room. If I sense you wandering aimlessly I will not be kind, am I understood?"
"Yes, thank you." She spoke turning back slightly to look at Vader in acknowledgement of what he said. Then she left returning to her own rooms in silence. Once the door to her room slid shut she sighed and leaned back against the wall rubbing her neck.
"So this is how it is now."