Beware the Power of the Dark Side!

by Tom Angleberger

  The world stops for this scout, but races on for Luke and Leia. Luke spins out of control for a second, but grabs the controls and pulls up just in time to avoid crashing into a fallen log. He swings back toward Leia and the two share a quick look, then zero in on the remaining scout.

  Luke has a shot lined up and is about to pull the trigger when a blast hits his own speeder.

  The Imperial reinforcements have arrived! They aren’t sure what’s going on, but they know Luke and Leia don’t belong on those speeders. They open fire again. Several shots miss but one scores, knocking out the landing gear on Leia’s speeder.

  “Keep on that one!” Luke yells to Leia. “I’ll take care of these two!”

  He hits the brakes hard, the reverse propulsors make a mighty whoosh, and the speeder decelerates so quickly that Luke is almost thrown over the handlebars.

  The two scouts behind him zoom past at full speed. Now behind them, Luke crushes the accelerator and squeezes the trigger at the same instant.

  Laser blasts shriek through the woods and incinerate one of the speeders. Luke is flying so fast already that he nearly runs into the explosion.

  The other speeder drops back a bit now, drawing even with Luke and—smash! This scout is playing the bumping game, too, but he’s made a terrible mess of it—the front stabilizers of both speeders are tangled!

  Neither one can steer and they’re headed straight for a tree.

  Both men struggle desperately to yank the stabilizers loose and at last they break free—but too late for Luke! He can’t dodge the tree!

  He throws himself off the speeder bike—

  KAKAPOW! “Oof!”

  —and crashes to the ground as the speeder explodes overhead.

  Luke tears a hole in the undergrowth as his momentum carries him tumbling painfully forward.

  Meanwhile the scout makes a long, lazy circle to come back and finish him off, laser cannon blazing as he zeroes in on his slow and helpless target.

  BZZRA-pikang! BZZZRA-pikang!

  The blazing green blade of Luke’s lightsaber easily deflects the blasts! The biker scout has never seen anything like it.

  And he gets one last look as Luke steps out of the path of the speeder, then whirls back to chop off the front stabilizers with his lightsaber.

  The speeder and the scout spin wildly out of control and it’s now only a matter of which tree they’ll smash into.

  Ah…that one.

  Crrrrun-KAPKPOW!

  Another fireball in the forest. Let’s see…that’s three fireballs so far. That means there are two bikes left.

  Ah, yes, Leia and the lead scout.

  It has been a nasty chase and it gets even nastier when the scout pulls a pistol and starts taking sideways shots at Leia.

  PZZZEW! PZZZEW!

  But these distract him from the forest whizzing past and Leia is sure she can—

  PZZZEW!

  Too late!

  This shot hits her speeder’s control panel. The speeder lurches, throwing her loose and making a nosedive into the base of a tree.

  ZZRHHMM-KABLOOSH!

  The scout looks back with satisfaction at the particularly large fireball this one made.

  Then looks forward again just in time to see the roots of a fallen tree sticking up through the ferns—

  KRRRAKKAPOW!

  Leia dimly hears the sounds of this fifth fireball as she loses consciousness and slumps to the forest floor.

  WICKET IS A WARRIOR.

  Well, a warrior in training. He’s not unlike Luke Skywalker, actually, back when Luke was a bored teenager on Tatooine, weary of farmwork and dreaming of big adventure.

  Wicket would like an adventure, too.

  And he’s about to get it.

  Wicket is an Ewok…one of those rodentlike creatures that live on this forest moon. You remember: the ones Emperor Palpatine dismissed with a wave of his hand.

  Wicket is a member of a tribe that lives high in the trees of this forest where Luke and Leia have been chasing scout troopers around on speeder bikes.

  Wicket does not like these weird white creatures that fly about with so much noise. They kill Ewoks for sport. Generally when the white fliers are around, the higher you are up your tree the better.

  But Wicket has climbed down to the forest floor to check out the place where he saw two white fliers crash. When he arrives, however, he sees a creature that is not a white flier. This creature is not encased in hard white armor, but wears soft green cloth.

  And parts of this creature that stick out from under the green cloth look even softer. Wicket sees smooth skin…without fur! That is something he has never seen before.

  What is this thing? Is it dead? Can you eat it?

  He must find out. So he pokes it with his spear.

  This is a foolish thing for him to do and he almost dies for his foolishness.

  Princess Leia really is a warrior, not just a warrior in training.

  Prodded by the stick, she wakes up and sees Wicket standing over her.

  Immediately her hand jerks for her blaster! Though she’s still groggy from the accident, she could draw her gun and shoot a hole through Wicket before he has time to squeal for help.

  But she doesn’t.

  And why not?

  Well, if Wicket had been a hideous creature with fangs and claws she would have.

  But Wicket is…cute. He’s tiny—shorter than R2-D2 even. And he’s all fuzzy. I mean all over—belly, face, feet, all fuzzy. And he’s got a pug nose and two big shiny eyes peering out from under a little hood.

  What she doesn’t realize is that if she had been an ugly creature he might have lunged at her with fangs bared and spear stabbing.

  But…each one has instantly charmed the other. So for a moment they just look at each other there on the forest floor.

  Then Leia stands up and Wicket jumps back in alarm. She’s enormous!

  But she’s talking to him in a friendly way.

  “I’m not gonna hurt you,” she says. Of course he has no idea what the words mean, but he hears nothing threatening, only kindness.

  She looks around. It looks the same in every direction: ferns, trees, fallen logs.

  With a start she remembers how she got here, the mad chase through the forest and her fall off the speeder. Instinctively, she reaches for her comlink to call Han—then remembers that they agreed that using the comlinks would be a last resort.1

  She runs down her options.

  She could find the wrecked bike and maybe follow her own trail back to the other rebels. But then again, there are probably more Imperials out there right now following the same trail to find out what happened to all the missing speeder bikes.

  Maybe it would be smarter for her to move on toward the rendezvous point. But, she realizes, she has no idea how to get there. Nor does she know where she is right now, for that matter.

  For now she’d better just stay out of sight, she decides. The mission could—and must—proceed without her.

  She sits down on a fallen log. And sighs. Is her part in this adventure over already?

  “Well, looks like I’m stuck here,” she tells Wicket. “Trouble is, I don’t know where here is.”

  And then she realizes that, of course, this little creature probably knows exactly where here is.

  “Maybe you can help me,” she says.

  He growls, but not in an unfriendly way.

  “I promise I won’t hurt you,” she repeats. “Now come here.”

  She pats the log, inviting him to sit down. Wicket climbs up but doesn’t sit. He’s curious, but cautious.

  Leia has an idea for breaking through the language barrier. She takes a nutri-stick from a pocket and holds it out to him.

  “All right. You want something to eat?”

  Yes, he does. Ewoks always want something to eat.2

  He’s never had a nutri-stick before but instantly recognizes it as food. He takes it and finds it very pleasing. An Ewok’s diet is
usually roots, nuts, and spit-roasted splledarks. Maybe a boar-wolf if the hunting parties have been lucky, or verkles3 if the hunting parties have been unlucky.

  But this is soft and chewy and—

  He jumps back in alarm! The tall creature is taking off its head!

  “Mer chee WAYA!” he snarls, waving his spear again. “Ner esso oohSUM!”

  “Look, it’s a hat,” Leia assures him. “It’s not gonna hurt you. Look.” She puts it down on the log and he taps at it with his spear. And then he notices that her head is covered with fur. Very long and very beautiful fur.

  “Mer bollup bollup,” he chatters. And sits down next to her to finish his nutri-stick.

  “You’re a jittery little thing, aren’t you?” she says.

  And then suddenly he’s up again, spear ready. But this time he’s not threatening Leia, he’s protecting her.

  “Yee so nolla nolla…” he whispers.

  “What is it?” she whispers back.

  KERFZZZZZZZZKRAK!

  A laser blast hits the log just next to them.

  Instantly, they both fling themselves off the log and crouch behind it.

  Blaster ready, Leia risks a peek over the log and—

  KERFZZZZKRAK!

  Another blaster shot hits the log. And she has no chance to see where it came from. She ducks back down.

  Wicket is gone…but a biker scout has arrived.

  “Freeze!” he barks. Then, “Come on, get up! Give me that blaster!”

  Leia considers an attack. She might be able to surprise him: lunge in and knock his gun aside. But she realizes that this scout couldn’t have been the one firing the shots. There must be at least one more hidden in the forest with his blaster fixed on her right now.

  So she reluctantly hands over her gun.

  “She’s disarmed,” says the scout, and his partner emerges from behind a tree.

  “Go get your ride to take her back to base,” the first scout says.

  “Yes, sir!”

  Leia and the first scout stand looking at each other for a moment as the other one stomps back through the ferns.

  The scout touches a button on his glove to activate his helmet comlink. “Base? This is—”

  But suddenly he is screaming in pain. He looks down to see that Wicket has driven a spear into the gap in his armor at his right knee. The sharp stone tip of the spear is ripping right into his leg.

  By the time he remembers to look up again, it is too late. Leia has picked up a branch and is swinging it hard, right at his head. Without his helmet the blow might have killed him. As it is he is knocked out and crumples.

  But before he even hits the ground, Leia has snatched the blaster out of his hands.

  Leaping up onto the log, she sees the other scout jumping onto his bike.

  KERFZAPP! KERFZAPPP! KERFZZZKRAK!

  Her third shot hits him and he slumps over the controls. Unfortunately for Leia, his bike now crashes into the other scout’s bike and both explode in a double fireball.

  KRRRKOOMSHKAKOOMSH!

  And then she hears a squeal.

  The first scout, though still sprawled on the ground, has revived enough to grab Wicket by the throat.

  KERFZZZKRAK!

  Leia kills him with his own blaster.

  There is a sudden silence in the forest.

  Leia and Wicket look at each other with new respect. Each realizes that they have underestimated the other.

  And Leia now knows she has an ally she can trust.

  “Let’s get out of here,” she says and the meaning is clear to Wicket.

  He sets off through the forest with surprising speed, leading her back to the safety of his treetop village.

  Of course, there is no real safety for Wicket or Leia in the treetops of this forest moon….

  Not while the great Death Star hangs up there in the sky.

  DARTH VADER has been restless ever since he sensed Luke’s presence on that shuttle headed for Endor.

  That is where he should be. Confronting Luke…and, if necessary, erasing that part of his past forever.

  But the Emperor has forbidden it. The Emperor has told him to wait.

  The waiting is driving him mad.

  Each thought of Luke leads to thoughts of Luke’s mother, Padmé, the woman he loved and destroyed. And those are thoughts he cannot allow. His Sith powers give him great control over his feelings. It takes constant effort—even after all these years—to keep Anakin’s memories buried, but he can do it.

  Except not today. Not while he feels Luke so near.

  And certainly not while he is forced to wait—unable to block out his feelings with action. If his master would only let him loose he could do so much!

  But his orders are to do nothing.

  So he stomps back and forth in the Death Star’s holding room, waiting for his master to call him. The Emperor calls up various dignitaries, council members, even that fool Jerjerrod. But Vader waits and waits—his own mind driving him closer and closer to madness.

  Another of Anakin’s memories slips through his defenses: Master Yoda and his constant chant of “Patience, Padawan, patience.”

  For a moment, his hatred of Yoda gives him relief from those other feelings.

  And then, at last, one of the Emperor’s annoying red-robed guards motions to him.

  Now another wait in the elevator. And now the long walk across the little bridge and up the steps. And at last he stands before the throne.

  The Emperor is turned away from him and does not bother to turn around.

  So Vader waits yet again.

  At last the Emperor speaks.

  “I told you to wait on the command ship.”

  And at last Vader delivers his news. “A small rebel force has penetrated the shield and landed on Endor.”

  “Yes, I know,” hisses the Emperor.

  How does the Emperor know? Did one of the biker scouts manage to get a message back to base? Did some flight controller finally realize that there was one shuttle too many? Or does the Emperor simply know these things?

  Vader isn’t asking any of these questions. His question is, Then why have I been kept waiting?

  But of course he dares not ask it, hardly dares to think it. The important thing is that he convince the Emperor to let him go deal with it. To take some action, at last.

  “My son is with them,” he says.

  Finally, the Emperor turns around to look at his servant. Vader’s black mask gives away no sign of emotion, of course, but the Emperor can see much deeper than that.

  “Are you sure?” he asks.

  “I have felt him, my master.”

  “Strange, that I have not,” the Emperor croaks from beneath his hood. “I wonder if your feelings on this matter are clear.”

  “They are clear, my master.”

  “Then you must go down to the moon base and wait for him.”

  More waiting? This is not what he was asking for!

  “He will come to me?” asks Vader skeptically.

  “I have foreseen it,” chortles the Emperor. “His compassion for you will be his undoing. He will come to you and then you will bring him before me. Now go….”

  “As you wish,” replies Vader with a bow, but the Emperor is already turning away again.

  Vader strides back to the elevator, this time with great purpose.

  But as he rides down to the docking bay where his shuttle waits, another memory surfaces:

  He was a boy on Tatooine. A slave boy. While working in Watto’s scrap yard, he found some bit of junk he wanted. A broken servomotor he thought he could repair and use on the droid he was building.

  He asked his master, Watto, for it. With a glance, Watto saw that it was worthless, so he grunted, “Yes.”

  But as Anakin walked away, Watto called, “Nothing’s free, boy. I’ll work you harder tomorrow.”

  And he did.

  Why did he think of that, he wonders. And why should he be thinking of the past
at all?

  That was Anakin’s past, not his. The past was dead…all except that one mistake: his son.

  And now at last he was about to correct that mistake by bringing Luke to the dark side. And if he couldn’t do that, then he’d erase the mistake entirely.

  ALAS, WE KNOW THE TRUTH for certain now…this entire mission to the forest moon of Endor is a trap.

  The Emperor knows all about the stolen shuttle, the strike team, and the plans to blow up the shield generator.

  All the secrecy, all the comlink jamming, all the biker scout chasing—it’s all been pointless. The whole thing is pointless.

  When Han Solo and his strike team reach the shield generator, they will find a large force of troops waiting for them. They’ll be captured or killed and the shield will remain in place. The rebel fleet’s attack—and the Rebellion itself—will be equally doomed.

  It’s all an elaborate trap—foreseen and crafted by the Emperor himself.

  But there is a less elaborate trap out there. One that the Emperor has not foreseen.

  This trap is made of ropes and vines and baited with a hunk of fresh meat.

  It’s the smell of this meat1 that gets Chewbacca’s attention.

  He and Han and Luke have separated from the rest of the strike team. For hours they have been trying to find Leia, assisted by R2-D2’s sensors and, I’m sorry to say, somewhat hindered by C-3PO’s plodding and complaining.

  Luke is certain that Leia is still alive—he can sense it. Some time ago they found her helmet near the site of four wrecked speeder bikes and several dead scouts. This made Han sure she was still alive, too.

  Now they are trying to follow her path through the forest undergrowth, but it is slow going, especially with droids—and especially with C-3PO.

  “Oh! These vines! I’m hopelessly entangled! You’ll have to go on without me, Artoo! The princess is more important than—”

  Han and Luke have tuned out his constant complaints and perhaps we should do the same.

  Suddenly Chewbacca cocks his head, draws in a deep breath, and runs growling off in a new direction.