Rebel Force_ Uprising Part 11

Leia just shook her head.

Luke hadn't known Ferus very long or very well, but there had been something about the man that seemed so familiar, something that made him feel like part of the family. A family that was very quickly dying off.

"How about we move this party to the s.h.i.+p," Han said. "Before we get toasted."

Leia shot him a quick, wounded look, and he immediately softened his tone. "I'm sorry, Princess," he said quietly. "But we have to go."

"I know," she admitted, and released Ferus's hand. "I hate to leave him."

Luke cleared his throat. "We won't."

He shared a glance with Han, and they both bent down on either side of Leia to raise the body of the fallen Jedi.

Leia took hold of Ferus' hand once again. "Let's go."

They walked in silence toward the edge of the camp where the Falcon Falcon was docked. was docked.

Chewbacca had kept the engines running. The entire fleet had jumped into hypers.p.a.ce, along with the Imperials. They were the only ones left in the system, with six minutes to go. But just as they were about to take off, Luke froze.

"What is it, kid?" Han asked impatiently.

Luke raised a pair of microbinoculars to his eyes. More than a kilometer away, a figure in a black robe swept toward an Imperial shuttle.

"Vader," Luke said darkly. "You think he..."

"Yes," Leia said, without doubt. "He killed Ferus."

Luke activated his lightsaber, "And I'm not letting him get away with it."

"Luke, there's no time," Leia said.

"And there's no way you face him and live," Han added.

Luke didn't care. He was tired of running from Vader. It was time to face the enemy head on. After everything he'd been through; hadn't he proven his strength? He felt like he could do anything-and right now, destroying Vader was the only thing he wanted to do.

Leia grabbed his arm.

"Luke, think think. He'll kill you, you know that. And even if he doesn't, even if by some miracle, you manage to defeat him, it'll be too late to escape. You'll die in the shock wave." The enormous sun loomed overhead, blotting out much of the sky.

"Then either way, Vader will die," Luke said. "All I have to do is stall him, keep him from boarding that shuttle, and he's gone forever. Isn't that worth the sacrifice?"

Han snorted. "Sacrifice is overrated."

"He doesn't understand," Luke said to Leia. "But you must. After everything he's taken from you-"

"I won't let him take you, too!" Leia shouted, as close to losing control as he had ever seen her. She grabbed him by both shoulders. "How many people have given their lives so you could survive?" she asked him. "You think you can throw your life away, like it's nothing? nothing? " "

Luke gritted his teeth. "It'd be worth it."

"Nothing's worth that," Han argued. "We'll have another chance. And when the time comes, we'll be there. We'll have your back."

"The galaxy needs you," Leia said. "We need you. And you need us you need us."

Luke had learned something from his imprisonment: No matter how many friends you have, no matter how determined they are to remain by your side, some things have to be faced alone. Sometimes you only had your own strength to draw from; you only had yourself to rely on.

And something told Luke that the day he finally faced Darth Vader would be one of those times.

But not yet.

Not today.

Luke watched the black-robed figure getting smaller and smaller as he swept toward his s.h.i.+p. I will watch you die I will watch you die, he thought. I will make you pay for everything you've done. I will make you pay for everything you've done.

But today, instead of taking Vader's life, he would save his own. "Let's get out of here," he said, and began climbing into the Falcon Falcon. Leia and Han stood in the hatchway, watching him board. Suddenly, Leia's eyes widened. "Behind you!" she cried.

Luke whirled around, fumbling for a weapon. A bloodied and ragged Soresh stood at the base of the s.h.i.+p.

"Did you really think I would let you leave this moon alive, Luke?" Soresh shouted up at him. "You will always belong to me!" Soresh raised a blaster-just as a bolt of laserfire hit him squarely in the chest.

He toppled to the ground.

"See what I mean, kid?" Han asked. He slipped his blaster back into its holster and grinned. "That's another one you owe me."

The shock wave blasted through the star system, steamrolling everything in its path. A small, dead moon was no match for its explosive power. The storm of fire and radiation overwhelmed the moon, blasting it to dust and ash. Within seconds, the moon was gone.

Only glowing radiation and swirling debris were left behind. And still, the supernova's thirst was unquenched. The shock wave rolled on, killing one planet after another. Until what had been a star system was nothing more than a blinding glow, stretching across billions of kilometers of s.p.a.ce.

It almost looked alive, pulsing and expanding, constantly reborn.

But looks were deceiving; it wasn't a life. It was a long and fiery death. For the sun, for the system-and for any living creature foolish enough to be caught in its wake.

"There it goes," Luke said, as the white dot on the viewscreen swelled into a luminous smear, brighter than a galaxy. Hard to believe that he was watching the death of an entire star system.

Harder still to believe that Ferus and Div were lost in the inferno, and would never be seen again.

"You think Vader made it out in time?" Leia asked. They'd left the moon with only minutes to spare and fled the system without looking back.

"He was cutting it close," Han pointed out. "Maybe Soresh did us all a favor and toasted the guy once and for all."

Luke shook his head. It was a nice dream, but he knew better. "He's still out there,"

Luke said. "I can feel it."

There was a tense silence. Then Han cleared his throat. "You know what we all need?"

"Sleep," Luke said. He suddenly realized how exhausted he was, emotionally and physically. This was the first time in a long time he'd had a chance to think-and he didn't like the thoughts that were crowding into his head. "I'll be in my bunk," he said, standing up. "I need to be alone for a while."

"That's the last thing you need," Han insisted. "Follow me."

Luke was too tired to argue. He waited as Han set the s.h.i.+p to autopilot, then followed him and the rest of his friends to the main hold.

"You, too, grease buckets," Han told the droids, when they hesitated. "Consider it an order."

Everyone settled around the large table in the middle of the main hold, and Han poured them all gla.s.ses of lum. Then Han raised his own gla.s.s. "To absent friends," he said. "Their sacrifices won't be forgotten."

"I thought you didn't believe in sacrifice," Leia teased him.

"I believe in getting the job done," Han said. "So did Div."

"And Ferus," Leia added, quietly.

Chewbacca roared, giving Han a hearty thump on the back.

"When you're right, you're right, buddy," Han said. He raised the gla.s.s higher. "Okay, to absent friends-and present ones." He glanced at the droids, then at Leia. "No matter how annoying they may be."

"To annoying friends," Leia repeated, holding his gaze.

As they clinked their gla.s.ses together, the room bubbled with laughter and conversation. Luke leaned back in his chair and let the sounds of friends.h.i.+p wash over him, thinking about how much he'd lost-and how much he still had left. He wondered how long they had before the next crisis, the next battle, the next loss. Because as long as there was an Empire, and a dark side, these moments of peace could never last. There would always be another fight. But one day, Luke promised himself, there would be one final fight-and one final victory.

Luke could only hope that when the day came, he and his friends would face it together.

TWO YEARS LATER.

The world was white. Snowflakes swirled in gusts of icy wind. The ground lay buried far beneath a thick layer of snow and ice. As the sun dropped beneath the horizon, the temperature dropped well below freezing. By day, the planet Hoth was only barely habitable; at night, it was a dead zone. There was no shelter from the snow, no refuge from the raking winds. It seemed impossible anything could survive such wintry torment.

And yet, two creatures stumbled blindly through the frozen landscape.

One rode a tauntaun, prodding the weary animal to take one more step, and yet another, and another. The cold bit into him with sharp teeth, but he pushed on, scanning the horizon for any sign of life.

Several kilometers of snow and ice lay between him and what he sought. A lone man, crawling through the snow, losing strength by the second. Soon his limbs grew too numb to move, and he collapsed facedown in the snow.

A third figure watched them both. A figure unbowed by the wind. A figure that was draped only in a thin, brown robe, and yet did not feel the cold.

He had been watching for a long time, watching and waiting.

But now, that time had ended.

The time for action was upon him.

Han Solo was steering his tauntaun the wrong way. If he continued on his course, he would lose himself in the blizzard and never find his way back to Echo Base. While Luke would lie helpless in the snow, growing weaker and weaker, until he finally succ.u.mbed to the cold.

Obi-Wan reached out with the Force. Using the Force was different now, beyond the grave. He was stronger and weaker at the same time. In many ways, he was the Force. It animated his spirit, gave him this strange half-life-but it also separated him from the living world. He couldn't save Luke himself. But he could help Han.

Just a few degrees to the east, and a bit to the south, and Han would be on a direct course to his friend. It was little more than a gentle nudge in the right direction. Han trusted his instincts-Obi-Wan was only giving those instincts a bit of help. Whether Han would be able to keep Luke alive and get him back to the base, Obi-Wan couldn't know.

But he had faith in both of them. He'd never seen such strong wills to survive.

It was time. Han would find Luke soon, and before he did, there was something Obi-Wan needed to say.

"Luke," Obi-Wan said, materializing before him.

There was no response. Had he waited too long?

"Luke," he said again, louder.

Luke raised his head. "Ben?" he asked weakly, his eyes widening.

There was so much Obi-Wan would have liked to say, but there was little time. "You will go to the Dagobah system," he said.

"Dagobah system?" Luke sounded confused. It was not surprising. Very few humans had ever heard of Dagobah-it was one of the reasons Yoda had stayed safely hidden for so long.

"There you will learn from Yoda, the Jedi Master who instructed me."

Luke didn't understand, but he soon would. Obi-Wan had no doubt the young Jedi would follow his instructions and find his way to Dagobah-and there he would find Yoda, and his training could finally begin. Obi-Wan had watched the boy for three years, waiting to be sure sure that he was strong enough to learn the Jedi way. That he wouldn't be tempted to the dark side. That he was not another Anakin. Obi-Wan knew he shouldn't blame himself for the rise of the Empire-the rise of darkness-but he still bore the guilt. that he was strong enough to learn the Jedi way. That he wouldn't be tempted to the dark side. That he was not another Anakin. Obi-Wan knew he shouldn't blame himself for the rise of the Empire-the rise of darkness-but he still bore the guilt.

He refused to release another such evil on the galaxy. And so he had waited, and waited, desperate to be sure.

But he had finally come to accept: You could never be sure.

You could only hope; you could only believe. He had come to know Luke well these past years, and he knew that Luke was no Anakin. He was his own man, strong enough to take on the burden and gift of being a Jedi. The training would be difficult, and there would be many temptations along the way. Luke would hear the call of the dark side...but Obi-Wan believed the boy would resist. And once Yoda had the chance to know Luke, Obi-Wan was sure he would agree.

Trust your instincts. Trust the Force. Words he had learned from his Masters, repeated to so many Padawan, to so many fallen friends. Words he had learned from his Masters, repeated to so many Padawan, to so many fallen friends.

He was finally ready to follow his own advice.

As Han Solo appeared on the horizon, Obi-Wan allowed himself to fade away. It was only a matter of time now. Luke would survive to fly to Dagobah. He would train. He would learn. Soon, he would be ready. The Jedi would return. And the fight for the galaxy could truly begin.