Vader said, “Did you find any droids?”
“No, sir,” the captain reported. “If there were any on board, they must also have been jettisoned.”
“Send a scanning crew aboard,” Vader ordered. “I want every part of the ship checked.”
“Yes, sir.”
Vader looked up at the ship’s hull and said, “I sense something…a presence I’ve not felt since…”
Then it hit him.
Obi-Wan Kenobi.
He’s alive.
Trusting the ship would be thoroughly checked, Vader turned fast and headed back to the conference room.
The Imperial captain turned to a stormtrooper and said, “Get me a scanning crew in here on the double. I want every part of this ship checked!”
While waiting for the scanning crew to arrive, two blaster-wielding stormtroopers walked in opposite directions through the Falcon’s passage tubes to reconnoiter the holds and cargo compartments. When the two stormtroopers reunited at the top of the landing ramp, they exited the ship satisfied that no passengers remained on board.
But inside the Falcon, a floor panel popped up from the passage tube; Luke and Han emerged from their hiding place, a large compartment under the floor. Han had his blaster pistol out and ready.
Luke said, “Boy, it’s lucky you had these compartments.”
“I use them for smuggling,” Han explained. “I never thought I’d be smuggling myself in them.”
Near Han and Luke, another floor panel slid back to reveal Ben hiding in the same compartment. Ben moved slowly, careful not to bump into the two droids who were squeezed in beneath him.
“This is ridiculous,” Han said. “Even if I could take off, I’d never get past the tractor beam.”
“Leave that to me!” Ben said.
“Damn fool,” Han muttered as he lifted himself up to sit at the edge of the compartment. “I knew you were going to say that!”
Ben said dryly, “Who’s the more foolish—the fool or the fool who follows him?”
Chewbacca raised his furry head up between Luke and Han. The Wookiee moaned with displeasure at the way he’d had to cram his large body into the compartment. Sympathetic, Han reached down and patted Chewbacca’s head.
The scanning crew consisted of two gray-uniformed men with a large box of equipment. When they arrived in the hangar, two stormtrooper squads were on guard outside the Falcon. A stormtrooper squad leader approached the scanning crew and said, “The ship’s all yours. If the scanners pick up anything, report it immediately.” Then the squad leader turned to the other troopers and said, “All right, let’s go.”
Two remained stationed at the bottom of the Falcon’s landing ramp while the other troopers filed out of the hangar. A moment after the scanning crew carried their equipment box up the ramp, there was a loud crashing sound from inside the ship. Both stormtroopers assumed the scanning crew had dropped the large box.
“Hey down there!” a man’s voice called from inside the Falcon. “Could you give us a hand with this?”
The two stormtroopers glanced at each other, then marched up the landing ramp. They had no idea that the scanning crew had already been knocked out, and that it had been the Falcon’s captain who’d summoned them into the ship.
Han fired his blaster pistol twice. The stormtroopers never knew what hit them.
In the command office that overlooked Docking Bay 327, a black-uniformed gantry officer noticed the two stormtrooper guards were missing from their stations at the captured ship’s landing ramp. He stepped to a comm console, flipped on the comlink, and said, “TK-four-two-one. Why aren’t you at your post? TK-four-two-one, do you copy?”
When no answer came, the officer stepped away from the console to a window and peered through it, looking down at the freighter on the hangar deck. A single stormtrooper stepped down the landing ramp, then stopped and looked up in the direction of the command office window. The stormtrooper tapped at the side of his helmet.
The gantry officer turned to his aide, who was seated before a wide control console, and said, “Take over. We’ve got a bad transmitter. I’ll see what I can do.”
The gantry officer walked to a closed doorway. He pressed a button, and the door slid up into the ceiling. The officer had expected to see an empty corridor that led to a lift tube that would carry him down to the hangar. To his astonishment, a hulking Wookiee filled the doorway with a stormtrooper at his side.
The Wookiee roared and lashed out at the officer, launching him across the room to smash into a row of barrel-shaped containers. The officer’s aide spun in his seat and reached for his blaster, but the stormtrooper beside the Wookiee aimed his own blaster rifle at the aide and fired first. The energy charge slammed into the aide’s chest, and he collapsed to the office floor.
The stormtrooper was Han in disguise. He pulled off his helmet as he and Chewbacca led Ben and the droids into the command office.
Luke, also disguised as a stormtrooper, had left the hangar deck quickly and came trotting up the corridor behind them. He had a hard time moving in his appropriated armor because he was slightly shorter than the average trooper. Entering the command office, he shut the door behind him, then pulled off his white helmet and glared at Han. “You know, between his howling and your blasting everything in sight, it’s a wonder the whole station doesn’t know we’re here.”
“Bring them on!” Han said. “I prefer a straight fight to all this sneaking around.”
The droids had moved over beside the aide’s vacated seat at the control console. Turning to Luke, C-3PO said, “We found the computer outlet, sir.”
Ben said, “Plug in. He should be able to interpret the entire Imperial network.”
R2-D2 extended a manipulator arm into the computer outlet and beeped to C-3PO, who translated, “He says he’s found the main controls to the power beam that’s holding the ship here. He’ll try to make the precise location appear on the monitor.”
Everyone looked to a small viewscreen that displayed a series of green-colored readouts. R2-D2 beeped again. C-3PO said, “The tractor beam is coupled to the main reactor in seven locations. A power loss at one of the terminals will allow the ship to leave.”
Ben studied the schematics for the power generator terminal that was displayed on the viewscreen, then turned to Luke and Han and said, “I don’t think you boys can help. I must go alone.”
“Whatever you say,” Han replied as Ben headed for the door. “I’ve done more than I bargained for on this trip already.”
Luke stopped Ben at the door and said, “I want to go with you.”
“Be patient, Luke,” Ben said. “Stay and watch over the droids.”
Luke gestured at Han and said, “But he can—”
Ben interrupted, “They must be delivered safely or other star systems will suffer the same fate as Alderaan. Your destiny lies along a different path from mine.” Ben pressed a button on the doorway, sending the door up into the ceiling. Facing Luke, he added, “The Force will be with you…always!”
Ben left the command office and moved down the corridor. Luke watched Ben’s departing form, then reluctantly pressed the button and sealed the doorway.
Chewbacca tilted back his head and barked.
“Boy, you said it, Chewie,” Han agreed. Looking to Luke, he added, “Where did you dig up that old fossil?”
“Ben is a great man,” Luke said defensively.
“Yeah,” Han said, “great at getting us into trouble.”
“I didn’t hear you give any ideas…”
“Well, anything’s better than just hanging around waiting for them to pick us up.”
“Who do you think—”
The argument was interrupted by R2-D2, who was still plugged into the computer socket and suddenly began to whistle and beep a blue streak.
Luke turned to the droids and asked, “What is it?”
“I’m afraid I’m not quite sure, sir,” C-3PO said. “He says ‘I found her’ a
nd keeps repeating ‘She’s here.’”
Dumbfounded, Luke stepped over to the droids. “Well, who…who has he found?”
“Princess Leia.”
“The princess?” Luke said, his eyes wide with surprise. “She’s here?”
“Princess?” Han echoed from beside Chewbacca on the other side of the command office. Neither of them had heard anything about a princess.
Luke asked, “Where…where is she?”
“Princess?” Han repeated. “What’s going on?”
R2-D2 made whirring and clicking sounds as he scanned the computer, then beeped to C-3PO.
C-3PO translated, “Level five. Detention block AA-twenty-three.”
But R2-D2 wasn’t finished, and emitted more beeps.
The protocol droid’s voice filled with concern as he reported, “I’m afraid she’s scheduled to be terminated.”
“Oh, no!” Luke exclaimed. “We’ve got to do something.”
“What are you talking about?” Han asked.
“The droids belonged to her,” Luke replied. “She’s the one in the message. We’ve got to help her.”
Han and Chewbacca had never heard anything about a message either. Han warned, “No, look, don’t get any funny ideas. The old man wants us to wait right here.”
“But he didn’t know she was here,” Luke pointed out. Turning back to R2-D2, he said, “Look, will you just find a way back into that detention block?”
Han sat down and put his feet up on the console. “I’m not going anywhere,” he said.
“They’re going to execute her,” Luke said. “Look, a few minutes ago you said you didn’t want to just wait here to be captured. Now all you want to do is stay.”
“Marching into the detention area is not what I had in mind.” Han wasn’t budging from his seat.
“But they’re going to kill her!”
“Better her than me.”
I can’t do this alone, Luke thought. I’ve got to think of something—anything—that will convince Han to help. Then he had it. Leaning down beside Han, he said, “She’s rich.”
That got Han’s attention. He turned his head slightly. “Rich?”
Luke nodded. “Rich, powerful! Listen, if you were to rescue her, the reward would be…”
“What?”
“Well, more wealth than you can imagine.”
“I don’t know,” Han said, “I can imagine quite a bit!”
“You’ll get it!”
“I’d better!”
“You will.”
“All right, kid,” Han said, rising from his seat. “But you’d better be right about this!”
“All right,” Luke responded. Now we’re getting somewhere!
“What’s your plan?”
Plan? Luke wondered how far he and Han might get in their stormtrooper disguises, then looked at Chewbacca and had an idea. “Uh…Threepio, hand me those binders there, will you?”
The protocol droid picked up a pair of metal binders that happened to be lying on the control console and gave them to Luke.
“Okay.” Luke held out the binders as he approached Chewbacca. “Now, I’m going to put these on you.”
Chewbacca roared sharply and Luke stumbled backward. Luke handed the binders to Han and stammered, “Okay—Han, you…you put those on.”
“Don’t worry, Chewie,” Han soothed as he carried the binders to the Wookiee. “I think I know what he has in mind.”
Han placed the binders over the Wookiee’s thick wrists but didn’t lock them. Luke handed a small comlink transmitter over to C-3PO. Then Luke and Han picked up their helmets and headed for the door with Chewbacca.
“Er, Master Luke, sir!” C-3PO said nervously. “Pardon me for asking…but…what should Artoo-Detoo and I do if we’re discovered here?”
“Lock the door!” Luke said.
“And hope they don’t have blasters,” Han added.
“That isn’t very reassuring,” C-3PO said, clapping his hand down upon R2-D2’s domed head as the two men and the Wookiee left the room.
In their stormtrooper disguises, Luke and Han escorted Chewbacca through a Death Star corridor. There had been no getting around the fact that Luke looked suspiciously small for a stormtrooper, and the effect was worse when he stood next to Han. They’d agreed that Han would walk slightly ahead and to the right of Chewbacca while Luke would stay close to Chewbacca’s left side. It was their hope that any casual passerby would notice the towering Wookiee, not the height of the stormtrooper beside him. This arrangement also was some relief to Luke, who was barely able to peer through the lenses of his oversized helmet. As he gripped the Wookiee’s elbow, it may have looked like he was guiding a bound captive through the corridor, but in fact, Chewbacca was guiding him.
They were heading for a lift tube that would carry them to level five when Chewbacca saw a small MSE-6 droid move toward them. The box-shaped droid traveled on four wheels and was used to deliver orders and documents. Chewbacca roared at the droid for no other reason than he felt like it. The droid shrieked and raced away from him. Chewbacca looked at the stormtrooper to his left—Luke—and barked with amusement.
They proceeded to a row of lift tubes, and passed troops, bureaucrats, and droids who were also walking through the corridor. As expected, only Chewbacca drew any stares.
As they waited for the lift tube doors to open, Luke muttered, “I can’t see a thing in this helmet.”
The lift opened and they stepped in. A gray-uniformed bureaucrat attempted to follow them in, but Han held up a cautioning hand to discourage him. The bureaucrat moved on to another lift.
The lift tube doors closed. Han pressed the button for level five and said, “This is not going to work.”
“Why didn’t you say so before?” Luke said.
“I did say so before!”
They’d been expecting the door to open in front of them, and were surprised when they heard it open from behind. They turned and stepped into detention block AA-23.
An Imperial lieutenant stood behind a semicircular control station of the detention security area. Behind him, two black-uniformed soldiers stood against a wall, and a short flight of steps led up to a cell corridor, where a third soldier appeared to be inspecting cell doors.
The lieutenant at the control station sneered at the sight of Chewbacca and said, “Where are you taking this…thing?”
Luke said, “Prisoner transfer from Cell Block one-one-three-eight.”
“I wasn’t notified,” the lieutenant replied. “I’ll have to clear it.” He signaled to the two nearby guards. Both guards drew their blasters, then one guard approached Chewbacca.
Chewbacca roared and lashed out with one mighty hand, smashing the guard with enough strength to launch him off his feet. Then came total chaos.
Han shouted, “Look out! He’s loose!” and tossed his blaster rifle to Chewbacca.
Luke shouted, “He’s going to pull us apart!” as he fired at the startled guards. Chewbacca started shooting at the security camera eyes and laser gate controls. Laserbolts pinged and exploded all over the room.
Han shouted, “Go get him!” and grabbed a blaster from a fallen guard. The lieutenant finally realized that Han and Luke weren’t real stormtroopers and reached for his own blaster. Han disabled him. Then he, Luke, and Chewbacca kept blasting until every security sensor was a shattered mess.
The lieutenant had collapsed on top of his control station, where an alarm was beeping wildly. While Chewbacca clutched his Imperial blaster rifle and watched the lift tube doors, Luke hurried into the control station and pulled the lieutenant’s body aside. Han ran up beside Luke and said, “We’ve got to find out which cell this princess of yours is in.” He scanned a data screen. “Here it is…twenty-one-eighty-seven. You go and get her. I’ll hold them here.”
Luke ran up the steps and entered the detention corridor. Han removed his stormtrooper helmet and placed it beside his blaster rifle on the console. He switched off the b
eeping alarm, flicked on the comlink system, and said in a calm tone, “Everything’s under control. Situation normal.”
Over the intercom, a voice asked, “What happened?”
“Uh…had a slight weapons malfunction,” Han said, trying to sound official. “But, uh, everything’s perfectly all right now. We’re fine. We’re all fine here now, thank you. How are you?” Han winced at the lameness of his own words.
“We’re sending a squad up,” said the voice from the intercom.
“Uh, uh, negative, negative,” Han said. “We have a reactor leak here now. Give us a few minutes to lock it down. Large leak…very dangerous.”
“Who is this?” came the intercom voice. “What’s your operating number?”
Han briefly considered answering, then picked up the blaster rifle, aimed it at the comlink system, and fired at point-blank range, shattering the system. “Boring conversation anyway,” he muttered, then turned to look down the detention corridor and shouted, “Luke! We’re going to have company!”
Luke heard, and ran faster past the recessed doorways that lined the corridor. When he found cell 2187, he slapped a button on the wall and the cell door slid up.
And then he saw her.
Princess Leia was sleeping on the bare metal slab that served as a bed. She appeared to be wearing the same white gown that she’d worn when she’d made the holographic recording. Luke stepped down into the cell, thinking, She’s so beautiful.
Leia opened her eyes and lifted her head. She had an uncomprehending look on her face as she said, “Aren’t you a little short for a stormtrooper?”
“Huh?” Luke replied. “Oh…the uniform.” He reached up to pull off the helmet. Shaking his hair free, he said, “I’m Luke Skywalker. I’m here to rescue you.”
Leia remained on the slab and said, “You’re who?”
“I’m here to rescue you. I’ve got your Artoo unit. I’m here with Ben Kenobi.”
“Ben Kenobi!” Leia cried, jumping up. “Where is he?”
Star Wars Trilogy Page 8
