Trilogy (46 page)

T
he two glowing balls hovered like alien fireflies above Luke's body lying motionless in the mud. Standing protectively next to his fallen master, a little barrel-shaped droid periodically extended a mechanical appendage to
swat at the dancing objects as if they were mosquitoes. But the hovering balls of light leaped just out of the robot's reach.

Artoo-Detoo leaned over Luke's inert body and whistled in an effort to revive him. But Luke, stunned unconscious by the charges of these energy balls, did not respond. The robot turned to Yoda, who was sitting calmly on a tree stump, and angrily began to beep and scold the little Jedi Master.

Getting no sympathy from him, Artoo turned back to Luke. His electronic circuits told him there was no use trying to wake Luke with his little noises. An emergency rescue system was activated within his metal hull and Artoo extended a small metal electrode and rested it on Luke's chest. Uttering a quiet beep of concern, Artoo generated a mild electrical charge, just strong enough to jolt Luke back to consciousness. The youth's chest heaved, and he awoke with a start.

Looking dazed, the young Jedi student shook his head clear. He looked around him, rubbing his shoulders to ease the ache from Yoda's seeker balls' attack. Glimpsing the seekers still suspended over him, Luke scowled. Then he heard Yoda chuckling merrily nearby, and turned his glare on him.

“Concentration, heh?” Yoda laughed, his lined face creased with enjoyment. “Concentration!”

Luke was in no mood to return his smile. “I thought those seekers were set for stun!” he exclaimed angrily.

“That they are,” the amused Yoda answered.

“They're a lot stronger than I'm used to.” Luke's shoulder ached painfully.

“That would not matter were the Force flowing through you,” Yoda reasoned. “Higher you'd jump! Faster you'd
move!” he exclaimed. “Open yourself to the Force you must.”

The youth was beginning to feel exasperated with his arduous training, although he had only been at it a short time. He had felt very close to knowing the Force—but so many times he had failed and had realized how very far away it was from him still. But now Yoda's goading words made him spring to his feet. He was tired of waiting so long for this power, weary at his lack of success, and increasingly infuriated by Yoda's cryptic teachings.

Luke grabbed his laser sword from the mud and quickly ignited it.

Terrified, Artoo-Detoo scurried away to safety.

“I'm open to it now!” Luke shouted. “I feel it. Come on, you little flying blasters!” With fire in his eyes, Luke poised his weapon and moved toward the seekers. Immediately they zipped away and retreated to hover over Yoda.

“No, no,” the Jedi Master scolded, shaking his hoary head. “This will not do.
Anger
is what you feel.”

“But I feel the Force!” Luke protested vehemently.

“Anger, anger, fear, aggression!” Yoda warned. “The dark side of the Force are they. Easily
they
flow … quick to join in a fight. Beware, beware, beware of them. A heavy price is paid for the power they bring.”

Luke lowered his sword and stared at Yoda in confusion. “Price?” he asked. “What do you mean?”

“The dark side beckons,” Yoda said dramatically. “But if once start you down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny. Consume you it will … as it did Obi-Wan's apprentice.”

Luke nodded. He knew who Yoda meant. “Lord Vader,” he said. After he thought for a moment, Luke asked, “Is the dark side stronger?”

“No, no. Easier, quicker, more seductive.”

“But how am I to know the good side from the bad?” he asked, puzzled.

“You will know,” Yoda answered. “When you are at peace … calm, passive. A Jedi uses the Force for knowledge. Never for attack.”

“But tell me why—” Luke began.

“No! There is no why. Nothing more will I tell you. Clear your mind of questions. Quiet now be—at peace …” Yoda's voice trailed off, but his words had a hypnotic effect on Luke. The young student stopped protesting and began to feel peaceful, his body and mind relaxing.

“Yes …” Yoda murmured, “calm.”

Slowly Luke's eyes closed as he let his mind clear of distracting thoughts.

“Passive …”

Luke heard Yoda's soothing voice as it entered the receptive darkness of his mind. He willed himself to travel along with the master's words to wherever they might lead.

“Let yourself go …”

When Yoda perceived that Luke was as relaxed as the young student could be at this stage, he made the tiniest of gestures. As he did, the two seeker balls above his head shot toward Luke, firing stun bolts as they moved.

In that instant Luke sprang to life and ignited his laser sword. He leaped to his feet and, with pure concentration, began deflecting the bolts as they spun toward him. Fearlessly he faced the attack, and moved and dodged with extreme grace. His leaps into the air, as he jumped to meet the bolts, were higher than any he had achieved before. Luke wasted not a single motion as he concentrated only on every bolt as it sped his way.

Then, as suddenly as it had begun, the seeker attack
was over. The glowing balls returned to hover on either side of their master's head.

Artoo-Detoo, the ever-patient observer, let out an electronic sigh and shook his metal dome-head.

Grinning proudly, Luke looked toward Yoda.

“Much progress do you make, young one,” the Jedi Master confirmed. “Stronger do you grow.” But the little instructor would not compliment him more than that.

Luke was full of pride at his marvelous achievement. He watched Yoda, expectantly waiting for further praise from him. But Yoda did not move or speak. He sat calmly—and then two more seeker balls floated up behind him and moved into formation with the first two.

Luke Skywalker's grin began to melt away.

A
pair of white-armored stormtroopers lifted Captain Needa's lifeless form from the floor of Darth Vader's Imperial Star Destroyer.

Needa had known that death was the likely consequence of his failure to capture the
Millennium Falcon
. He had known, too, that he had to report the situation to Vader and make his formal apology. But there was no mercy for failure among the Imperial military. And Vader, in disgust, had signaled for the captain's death.

The Dark Lord turned, and Admiral Piett and two of his captains came to report their findings. “Lord Vader,” Piett said, “our ships have completed their scan of the area and found nothing. The
Millennium Falcon
definitely went into light-speed. It's probably somewhere on the other side of the galaxy by now.”

Vader hissed through his breath mask. “Alert all commands,” he ordered. “Calculate every possible destination
along their last known trajectory and disburse the fleet to search for them. Don't fail me again, Admiral, I've had quite enough!”

Admiral Piett thought of the
Avenger'
s captain, whom he had just seen carried out of the room like a sack of grain. And he remembered the excruciating demise of Admiral Ozzel. “Yes, my lord,” he answered, trying to hide his fear. “We'll find them.”

Then the admiral turned to an aide. “Deploy the fleet,” he instructed. As the aide moved to carry out his orders, a shadow of worry crossed the admiral's face. He was not at all certain that his luck would be any better than that of Ozzel or Needa.

L
ord Vader's Imperial Star Destroyer regally moved off into space. Its protecting fleet of smaller craft hovered nearby as the Imperial armada left the Star Destroyer
Avenger
behind.

No one on the
Avenger
or in Vader's entire fleet had any idea how near they were to their prey. As the
Avenger
glided off into space to continue its search, it carried with it, clinging unnoticed to one side of the huge bridge tower, a saucer-shaped freighter ship—the
Millennium Falcon
.

Inside the
Falcon'
s cockpit all was quiet. Han Solo had stopped his ship and shut down all systems so quickly that even the customarily talkative See-Threepio was silent. Threepio stood, not moving a rivet, a look of wonder frozen on his golden face.

“You could have warned him before you shut him off,” Princess Leia said, looking at the droid that stood motionless like a bronzed statue.

“Oh, so sorry!” Han said in mock concern. “Didn't mean to offend your droid. You think braking and shutting everything down in that amount of time is easy?”

Leia was dubious about Han's entire strategy. “I'm still not sure what you've accomplished.”

He shrugged off her doubt. She'll find out soon enough, he thought; there just wasn't any other choice. He turned to his copilot. “Chewie, check the manual release on the landing claws.”

The Wookiee barked, then pulled himself out of his chair and moved toward the rear of the ship.

Leia watched as Chewbacca proceeded to disengage the landing claws so that the ship could take off without mechanical delay.

Shaking her head incredulously, she turned to Han. “What do you have in mind for your
next
move?”

“The fleet is finally breaking up,” he answered as he pointed out a port window. “I'm
hoping
they follow standard Imperial procedure and dump their garbage before they go into light-speed.”

The princess reflected on this strategy for a moment, and then began to smile. This crazy man might know what he was doing after all. Impressed, she patted him on the head. “Not bad, hot shot, not bad. Then what?”

“Then,” Han said, “we have to find a safe port around here. Got any ideas?”

“That depends. Where are we?”

“Here,” Han said, pointing to a configuration of small light points, “near the Anoat system.”

Slipping out of her chair, Leia moved next to him for a better look at the screen.

“Funny,” Han said after thinking for a moment, “I
have the feeling I've been in this area before. Let me check my logs.”

“You keep logs?” Leia was more impressed by the minute. “My, how organized,” she teased.

“Well, sometimes,” he answered as he hunted through the computer readout. “Ah-ha, I knew it! Lando—now this should be interesting.”

“I never heard of that system,” said Leia.

“It's not a system. He's a man, Lando Calrissian. A gambler, con artist, all-around scoundrel,” he paused long enough for the last word to sink in, and gave the princess a wink, “…  your kind of guy. The Bespin system. It's a fair distance but reachable.”

Leia looked at one of the computer monitor screens and read the data. “A mining colony,” she noted.

“A Tibanna gas mine,” Han added. “Lando won it in a sabacc match, or so he claims. Lando and I go way back.”

“Can you trust him?” Leia asked.

“No. But he has no love for the Empire, that much I know.”

The Wookiee barked over the intercom.

Quickly responding, Han flicked some switches to bring new information to the computer screens, and then stretched to look out the cockpit window. “I see it, Chewie, I see it,” he said. “Prepare for manual release.” Then, turning to the princess, Han said, “Here goes nothing, sweetheart.” He leaned back in his chair and smiled invitingly at her.

Leia shook her head, then grinned shyly and gave him a quick kiss. “You do have your moments,” she reluctantly admitted. “Not many, but you have them.”

Han was getting used to the princess's left-handed compliments, and he couldn't say that he really minded them. More and more he was enjoying the fact that she shared his own sarcastic sense of humor. And he was fairly sure that she was enjoying it, too.

“Let'er go, Chewie,” he shouted gleefully.

T
he hatch on the underbelly of the
Avenger
yawned open. And as the Imperial galactic cruiser zoomed into hyperspace, it spewed out its own belt of artificial asteroids—garbage and sections of irreparable machinery that scattered out into the black void of space. Hidden among that trail of refuse, the
Millennium Falcon
tumbled undetected off the side of the larger ship, and was left far behind as the
Avenger
streaked away.

Safe at last, Han Solo thought.

The
Millennium Falcon
ignited its ion engines, and raced off through the train of drifting space junk toward another system.

But concealed among that scattered debris was another ship.

And as the
Falcon
roared off to seek the Bespin system, this other ship ignited its own engines. Boba Fett, the most notorious and dreaded bounty hunter in the galaxy, turned his small, elephant's-head-shaped craft,
Slave I
, to begin its pursuit. For Boba Fett had no intention of losing sight of the
Millennium Falcon
. Its pilot had too high a price on his head. And this was one reward that the fearsome bounty hunter was quite determined to collect.

* * *

L
uke felt that he was definitely progressing.

He ran through the jungle—with Yoda perched on his neck—and leaped with gazellelike grace over the profusion of foliage and tree roots growing throughout the bog.

Luke had at last begun to detach himself from the emotion of pride. He felt unburdened, and was finally open to experience fully the flow of the Force.

When his diminutive instructor threw a silver bar above Luke's head, the young Jedi student reacted instantly. In a flash he turned to slice the bar into four shiny segments before it fell to the ground.

Yoda was pleased and smiled at Luke's accomplishment. “Four this time! The Force you feel.”

But Luke was suddenly distracted. He sensed something dangerous, something evil. “Something's not right,” he said to Yoda. “I feel danger … death.”