Star Wars_ Rise And Fall Of Darth Vader Part 11

"Lord Vader?" Sheckil said, "I-I'm afraid the damage is quite extensive." Holding the droid's head up for Vader's inspection, Sheckil continued, "As you can see, it's a protocol droid. Probably the Princess's property."

Vader took the head and examined it closely.

"The way these parts were shattered by the blast," Sheckil prattled on, "it's likely the droid was made a long time ago."

Despite the wear and tear to the droid's head, Vader recognized a few small details that indicated Anakin Sky walker's handiwork. He gazed into the decapitated head's blank photoreceptors.

C-3PO.

The last time Vader had seen the golden droid was on Mustafar. I saw you through the window ofPadme's s.h.i.+p as it landed, Vader recalled. Holding this relic of his former life, Vader felt waves of anger and loss sweep over his dark soul. His memory flashed to the day that Anakin had found the droid's skeleton in Watto's junkyard, and Anakin had wondered if the repaired droid might help him and his mother leave Tatooine.

Vader wondered whether C-3PO remembered anything of Anakin Skywalker. He doubted it. If the droid had had any knowledge of Anakin in his memory banks, then he would have shared that knowledge with Luke Skywalker. But Luke remained ignorant of his father's ident.i.ty. Vader felt certain of that.

All things considered, Vader thought as he looked into the droid's eyes,, I should have left you in that sc.r.a.p yard. He had the sudden urge to crash the droid's head, but then realized that Sheckil and Boba Fett were watching him curiously.

Sheckil said, "Shall our technicians attempt to recover the unit's memory, Lord Vader?"

Relaxing his grip on the droid's head, Vader placed it with the other parts in the open container. "The droid is useless," he said. "Have it destroyed." He didn't give the droid another thought as he turned for the door and said, "Come, bounty hunter. I want to discuss our upcoming meeting with the Rebels."

After the tremor in the Force convinced Darth Vader that Luke Skywalker was on his way to Bespin, the Dark Lord sprang his trap. He arranged for Calrissian to escort Princess Leia, Han Solo, and Solo's Wookiee copilot to a banquet room where he and Boba Fett would be waiting. A moment after the banquet room's door slid open and revealed Darth Vader to the horrified Rebels, Solo reached for his blaster pistol and fired at the Sith Lord. With his gloved hand, Vader deflected the fired energy bolts, then used the Force to s.n.a.t.c.h Solo's pistol, tearing it from the pilot's grip so that it flew over the central banquet table to land in Vader's outstretched fingers.

"I had no choice," Calrissian told them. "They arrived right before you did. I'm sorry."

Solo glared at Calrissian and said, "I'm sorry too."

"Lord Vader!" Lieutenant Sheckil said with some excitement after the Sith Lord had exited the banquet room and ordered a stormtrooper squad to escort the prisoners to detention cells. "Our search of Princess Leia's quarters has turned up something ... unexpected."

Walking fast with Sheckil in his wake, Vader made his way through the Cloud City corridors until they reached the s.p.a.cious, brightly lit suite that Princess Leia had occupied before leaving for the banquet room. Two stormtroopers stood in the room beside two Ugnaughts: short, porcine humanoids who worked in the city's gas refineries. On top of a table rested a storage bin that held C-3PO's dismembered parts.

We meet again.

Staring at the parts, which looked no different from when he'd last seen them, Vader said, "I gave an order, Lieutenant."

"Yes, Lord Vader," Sheckil said. Gesturing to the squat workers, he continued, "But according to the Ugnaughts, the Wookiee broke into the junk room and went berserk when he found the parts. He brought them straight here to the Princess. If the Rebellion is interested in preserving this unit, there may be more to this droid than meets the eye."

Reaching into the storage bin, Vader picked up the droid's head. Despite his desire to leave all of Anakin Sky walker's memories buried, another one surfaced ... something Shmi Skywalker had told her son after she had allowed him to keep the droid parts he had secretly hauled into their tiny hovel. She had said, Unless you 're prepared to care for something, you don't deserve to have it.

Behind his helmet, Vader winced at the recollection.

Watching Vader, Sheckil said, "Shall I instruct the technicians to search its memory?" When Vader didn't answer, Sheckil added, "Or would you rather have the Ugnaughts smelt the thing?"

Vader seemed to continue contemplating the droid's head, holding it closer to his helmet so he could see his dark, distorted reflection on the weathered gold surface of C-3PO's lifeless face.

"Sir?" Sheckil said expectantly.

Darth Vader slowly placed the droid's head with the other parts. "The droid's parts carry the stench of Captain Solo's copilot," he said. "Deliver this box to the Wookiee's cell."

"I... forgive me, sir," Sheckil said, obviously confused. "I don't understand. You ... want the prisoner to have the droid?"

"I am giving the Wookiee what he deserves," Vader said mysteriously.

"Oh," Sheckil said. "Yes ... of course, Lord Vader."

"Captain Solo has an appointment in the interrogation chamber," Vader said as he strode for the suite's exit. "Make sure he gets there."

Vader did not ask a single question of Han Solo in the interrogation chamber that the Imperials had prepared on Cloud City, but he tortured the smuggler just the same. Afterward, he had a team of Ugnaughts prepare a carbon-freezing chamber for Solo, to determine whether Luke Skywalker could survive the freezing process. The test was also witnessed by Boba Fett, Lando Calrissian, Lobot, Princess Leia, and Solo's hulking copilot, who had already managed to partially rea.s.semble C-3PO, carrying the droid's parts in a cargo net that was slung across his furry back. With some amus.e.m.e.nt, Vader noticed that C-3PO still didn't know when to stop talking.

Solo was lowered into the central pit of the freezing chamber, and there was a great blast of steam as he was instantly transformed into a solid block of carbonite. After the block was removed from the pit and Calrissian verified that Solo had survived in perfect hibernation, Vader turned to Boba Fett and said, "He's all yours, bounty hunter." Then he looked to the Ugnaughts and commanded, "Reset the chamber for Skywalker."

The timing could not have been better, for Skywalker had just landed his X-wing starfighter on Cloud City.

CHAPTER 20.

"The Force is strong with you, young Skywalker," Darth Vader said as his prey walked straight into his trap. "But you are not a Jedi yet."

Luke Skywalker had his blaster in hand as he entered the gloomy carbon-freezing chamber, but he holstered it before he climbed a flight of steps to stand before Vader. There, on the elevated platform that encircled the pit, Vader stood still, waiting for Skywalker to make his next move. When Luke reached for his lightsaber and ignited its blue blade, Vader noted that it was indeed the same weapon Obi-Wan had appropriated from Anakin Skywalker on Mustafar. But it wasn't time to share this information with Luke. Not yet.

Vader ignited his own lightsaber. Luke swung first, but Vader blocked the blow with ease. The duel was on.

Luke fought bravely, and even inventively, occasionally impressing Vader with unexpected moves. He even managed to leap out of the carbon-freezing chamber, preventing Vader from rendering him immobile. But Vader stalked him through Cloud City's reactor control room, used the Force to tear heavy machinery from the walls and hurl them at Luke, and ultimately drove him out onto a gantry that extended into the reactor shaft.

As the Bespin winds tore through the shaft, Luke swung his lightsaber to deliver a glancing blow on Vader's right shoulder plate. Vader snarled as Luke leaped farther out onto the gantry. Balanced on a narrow beam, Luke was clinging to a weather sensor with his left hand as Vader swung hard with his lightsaber.

Luke screamed as Vader's red blade swept through his right wrist, and watched with horror as his hand and lightsaber fell away into the deep reactor shaft.

"There is no escape," Vader said as his wounded opponent edged farther away to cling to a sensor array at the end of the gantry. "Don't make me destroy you," he added, increasing the volume of his voice so he could be heard over the high winds. "You do not yet realize your importance. You have only begun to discover your power. Join me, and I will complete your training. With our combined strength, we can end this destructive conflict and bring order to the galaxy."

"I'll never join you!" Luke screamed back.

"If only you knew the power of the dark side," Vader said, and decided that the time had come to reveal all. "Obi-Wan never told you what happened to your father."

"He told me enough!" Luke said through clenched teeth as he clung to the sensor array. "He told me you killed him."

"No," Vader said. "I am your father."

Darth Vader did not know how Luke would react. He could not imagine that the young man would be more shocked than Vader had been when the Emperor had informed him that Luke was Anakin Sky walker's son.

"No," Luke whimpered. "No. That's not true! That's impossible!"

Remembering how the Emperor had encouraged his acceptance, Vader said, "Search your feelings. You know it to be true."

"No!" Luke shouted. "NO!"

The wind howled, and Vader's black cape flapped wildly at his back. "Luke. You can destroy the Emperor. He has foreseen this. It is your destiny.'" He reached out to Luke, beckoning him to leave the gantry and come to his side. "Join me, and together we can rule the galaxy as father and son."

Still clinging to the sensor array, Luke glanced down the shaft.

"Come with me," Vader urged. "It is the only way."

Unexpectedly, Luke opened his arms, releasing the array and allowing himself to plummet into the deep shaft. Vader leaned out over the edge of the gantry to see his son's rapidly receding form tumble into an open exhaust pipe in the shaft's wall.

The Sith Lord was certain Luke was still alive. If he had died, I would have sensed it.

After Vader left the reactor shaft, Imperial officers informed him that the duplicitous Lando Calrissian had directed all residents and visitors to evacuate Cloud City, and that Calrissian, Princess Leia, and the Wookiee had already escaped in the Millennium Falcon. Vader knew they wouldn't get far, for Imperial technicians had already taken the precaution of disabling the Millennium Falcon's hyperdrive.

Vader immediately dispatched two squads of storm-troopers to find Luke. Confident that Luke and the Falcon's crew would soon be recovered and delivered to him, he made his way to his shuttle and flew back to the Executor. Upon his arrival, Vader remained confident when he was notified that the Millennium Falcon had raced back to Cloud City to rescue Luke.

Let his allies save him, Vader thought. And then I shall capture them all.

While the Millennium Falcon attempted to evade the Imperial blockade around Bespin, Vader used the Force to telepathically call out to his son from the Executor, "Luke."

Father, Luke called back.

"Son," Vader said, and felt a thrill as he realized Luke had accepted the truth.

As the Rebel freighter flew past Vader's Star Destroyer, Vader sensed Luke's proximity and used the Force to call to him again. "Son. Come with me." When Luke did not respond, Vader added, "Luke. It is your destiny."

But then the Millennium Falcon vanished into hyper-s.p.a.ce. And this time, the Corellian freighter was not carrying an Imperial tracking device.

Once again, Vader had been robbed.

INTERLUDE.

Darth Vader had wanted to resume his pursuit of Luke Skywalker, but the Emperor had other plans in mind for his apprentice. After Vader had been directed to oversee the completion of a new superweapon, which had been under construction for some time in the Endor system, he had thought, The Emperor must know I tried to recruit my son to join me against him. He knows Luke could destroy him . . . and that I cannot do it alone.

And so the Emperor had done his best to keep Vader on a leash, instructing him to work with Prince Xizor, who controlled the galaxy's largest merchant fleet, which the Empire required to expedite s.h.i.+pping requirements to Endor. A Falleen, Xizor was also the head of the criminal organization known as Black Sun. Because Xizor had lost most of his family to Vader's genocidal actions on the Falleen homeworld, he had long desired vengeance, and schemed to discredit Vader and win favor with the Emperor. But when Vader learned that Xizor had discovered his relations.h.i.+p to Luke Skywalker and had attempted to kill Luke, he ended his working arrangement with the Falleen most permanently by blasting Xizor and his personal skyhook - a large repulsor craft - out of Coruscant's upper atmosphere. Construction on the Endor Project proceeded. A year after Vader's last encounter with Luke Skywalker, the Executor carried the Dark Lord to the still-unfinished superweapon.

Against Vader's objections, the Emperor-following a plan that had been conceived by Xizor - had allowed a computer that contained plans for the Endor Project to be transported on a single, unescorted freighter through the Both system. With the aid of Bothan spies, the Rebels had captured the computer to learn that the largest of Endor's nine moons was generating a powerful energy s.h.i.+eld to protect the Empire's new "secret" battle station.

The Emperor was confident that the Rebels would take the bait and bring their fleet to Endor, but Vader was more interested in whatever future lay beyond that probable skirmish. Although he had proposed to the Emperor that Luke Skywalker could be converted to the dark side and join the Sith Lords, he was well aware of the Sith order's long tradition of limiting their number to two: one Master, one apprentice. One of us will have to die, Vader mused.

CHAPTER 21.

The Endor Project was a new Death Star, which was suspended in a synchronous...o...b..t around the forest-covered Sanctuary Moon of the gas giant Endor. When construction was completed, the new Death Star would be even larger than the original. Its primary weapon, the planet-destroying superlaser, had been redesigned so that it could be recharged within minutes and finely focused to fire at moving targets such as capital s.h.i.+ps. Imperial technicians regarded it as the deadliest invention of all time.

As Vader's shuttle carried him from the Executor to the fragmentary framework of the new battle station, he surveyed the enormous superlaser with contempt. Even if it succeeds where the first Death Star failed, he thought, it is an infant's trinket compared to the power of the Force.

After landing, Vader informed the Death Star's commanding officer, Moff Jerjerrod, that the Emperor was displeased the station was not yet operational. Upon learning that the Emperor himself would soon be arriving in the Endor system, Jerjerrod commanded his men to redouble their efforts.

By the time the Emperor arrived via shuttle to a grand Imperial reception in a Death Star docking bay, Vader had received a report from Tatooine that Jabba the Hutt was dead. Evidently, Luke and his allies had successfully liberated Han Solo from the Hutt. After Vader informed the Emperor that the Death Star would be completed on schedule, the Emperor said, "You have done well, Lord Vader. And now I sense you wish to continue your search for young Skywalker."

"Yes, my Master."

"Patience, my friend," the Emperor rasped. "In time, he will seek you out. And when he does, you must bring him before me. He has grown strong. Only together can we turn him to the dark side of the Force."

"As you wish," said Vader. He had not forgotten how Anakin Skywalker had obeyed Palpatine's command to kill Count Dooku, and had no reason to doubt that the Emperor had already planned a test for Luke to determine whether Vader would remain his apprentice.

"Everything is proceeding as I have foreseen," the Emperor sneered.

As Vader escorted his Master through the Death Star, he wished he could see the future so clearly. Palpatine had lured Anakin Skywalker to the dark side, re-created him as a cybernetic monster, and remained the more powerful of the two Sith Lords. Although Luke Skywalker had defeated Vader at the first Death Star, evaded him on Hoth, and escaped him at Bespin, Vader did not believe his son could resist the Emperor's power. Luke has to join me. I cannot lose again.

The new Death Star's construction continued. Vader had just learned that Rebel s.h.i.+ps had a.s.sembled in the Sull.u.s.t system when he was summoned to the Emperor's throne room. Perched atop a highly s.h.i.+elded tower at the station's north pole, the throne room had large circular windows that allowed the Emperor a wide view of the forest moon and the battle station's upper hemisphere. The throne itself was a high-backed seat that was set atop a broad, elevated platform. The back of the seat faced Vader as he mounted the steps that led to the throne.

"What is thy bidding, my Master?"

Swiveling in his throne to look at Vader, the Emperor said, "Send the fleet to the far side of Endor. There it will stay until called for."

"What of the reports of the Rebel fleet ma.s.sing near Sull.u.s.t?"

"It is of no concern," the Emperor said dismissively. "Soon the Rebellion will be crushed and young Skywalker will be one of us! Your work here is finished, my friend. Go to the command s.h.i.+p and await my orders."

Soon after Vader returned to the bridge of the Executor, he was looking through a viewport when he saw a Lambda-cla.s.s shuttle approaching Endor. The shuttle had transmitted an older Imperial code for clearance, but Vader permitted the s.h.i.+p to proceed to the forest moon. Luke is on that s.h.i.+p, he sensed with utmost certainty.

Although the Emperor had instructed Vader to remain on the Executor, Vader was compelled to report this latest development in person. After returning to the Emperor's throne room on the Death Star, Vader noticed that the Emperor actually seemed surprised to hear that Luke had arrived on Endor.

"Are you sure?" the Emperor asked.

"I have felt him, my Master."

"Strange that I have not," the Emperor said warily. "I wonder if your feelings on this matter are clear, Lord Vader."

"They are clear, my Master."

"Then you must go to the Sanctuary Moon and wait for him."

Skeptical, Vader asked, "He will come to me?"