The Wrong Side of Right 8

I stood at the window in my office on board the Executor and gazed out at the planet we were orbiting. Endor was a huge gas giant with nine satellites including the life sustaining forested moon, known as the Sanctuary Moon because it had once been a protected nature reserve during the time of the Galactic Republic. During the rule of the Empire the Sanctuary Moon had been surveyed many times with mixed results.

The moon itself was home to several indigenous species of sentient life including Ewoks, yuzzums and Duloks. While the reports had down played any dangers any of these species posed I had heard rumours that on one expedition the Ewoks had managed to run circles around the first scouting party that had been sent down to explore the moon yet there had been nothing noted about this in the official reports. It would not be the first time that Imperial surveys had completely discounted the intelligence of the local species and I was certain it would not be the last.

Thrawn often spoke of the arrogance rampant in the Empire leading to the silly belief that humans were far superior to all other sentient species in the galaxy. One of these days this misguided belief will come back to haunt the Empire, believe me. It is very unwise to underestimate a species simply because they are physically and mentally different. He had said and I guessed he aught to know as he had experienced this first hand, being alien himself.

Still, as I had looked at the image of the furry little creatures called ewoks I could see how people, particularly Imperial men would be quick to dismiss them as harmless. They reminded me of small bears and they were more cute than threatening. Still, visitors to Tatooine often thought that wamp-rats were cute in their own way and soon found out the hard way this was as far from the truth as possible.

From where I stood I could also see the new battle station which was still under construction. I had not been allowed to accompany Lord Vader when ever he went over to converse with the Emperor so I had no idea just how far along the construction actually was. I found it strange that no one would even speak about it and when I had asked Lord Vader about all the secrecy he had been less than kind in his answer so I left it alone. In the end, I didn’t actually care.

Two days after I arrived, the rest of the fleet began to amass and by then I was busy enough with work for Lord Vader that it didn’t occur to me to ask questions. The Executor was the command ship for the fleet so every operation was run from her bridge. I lost count of the number of drills that occurred and eventually learned to tune out the ear splitting alarm that shattered the peace and quiet. I was pretty certain that what ever the rebels were preparing for it wasn’t this and they would be outnumbered and out gunned beyond their wildest dreams.

It was a good thing that I had brought my lightsaber because in the small pockets of down time, in between the drills and the work Lord Vader had decided that I was the perfect distraction. Despite the fact that his battle droids were an infinitely better challenge than I was, he seemed to enjoy sparring with a live being and I know he enjoyed teaching even though he would never in a thousand years admit to that. For my part I was also grateful for the distraction. If I was trying to concentrate on not losing any limbs and keeping out of the way of his evil little remotes I was not thinking about the up and coming carnage that was sure to happen. It was going to be a slaughter if it worked out the way the Emperor had planned it. The waiting drove me mad. When it ended it was almost a relief.

We were in the middle of a lesson when Lord Vader was suddenly summoned to the bridge. I knew that this was the beginning, the signal he had also been waiting for, but there was something else. He had felt something, a ripple in the force. I had felt it too. Like a slight caress to the back of my neck, making all the hair on my arms stand on end.

“What was tha…?” I started to ask.

“My son.” He spoke with a quiet hush. This was what he had been waiting for even though he had never voiced it.

“He’s here?” I asked. It seemed so surreal to me that this Luke Skywalker would deliberately walk into a situation that would surely mean his death.

Lord Vader suddenly looked at me as though seeing me for the first time. I could have sworn he was smiling. “Of course.” There was such pride in his voice that I suddenly hated Luke Skywalker but I bit it down.

He didn’t say anything else and swept out of the room as though I no longer existed. With nothing else to do and the desire to continue my own workout gone I went back to my quarters, showered and then wandered down to see if Jorae was working.

I lounged in the extra seat beside Jorae who was busy at his work station. I had brought him a cup of stimcaf and his grin had been worth it.

“So what’s going on?” I asked impatient for news, bored and frustrated all at the same time.

He took off his head set, sipped his ‘caf and drew a deep breath. “Well if I understand it right they just let a shuttle go through the blockade to the moon.”

I made a face. “That’s news?”

He nodded. “Yeah because they were using a really old pass code, probably one of the ones the Emperor let slip. We think it’s them.” He said dropping his voice to a low whisper.

I arched an eye brow doing a good Thrawn imitation and said, “Them?”

Jorae grinned. “You know, rebels.” He said. “Probably the scouting party, you know, come to check out the lay of the land and report back to their control.”

“You’ve been watching too many holo war dramas!” I told him with a laugh.

“Do you think they know this is a trap?” Jorae asked looking at me.

I shook my head. “No, I am fairly sure they don’t. I am fairly certain they have no idea what is waiting for them.”

He looked at me then. “You sound like you feel sorry for them!” He could not keep the incredulity out of his voice.

“A little. It will be a slaughter. A lot of people are going to die and for what?”

He shrugged. “They are the ones stupid enough to want to try and take down the government and the Emperor.” He said.

I nodded. “I know but it doesn’t change the fact that a lot of people are going to die.” I said, “That includes a lot of Imperial pilots and ground troops.”

Jorae made a face. “Boy, you sure know how to ruin the mood, don’t you.” He said and slipped his headset back on. “I gotta get back to work, you should go and get some sleep or something, you look like hell.”

He was right and I could not disagree with him. “Yeah, sleep sounds like a good thing.” I actually could not recall the last time I had a good night’s sleep. My nights had been filled with strange dreams full of mixed messages I could not decipher and nightmares that had me waking up screaming blue murder. The images were so jumbled that upon waking I usually had no clear memory of what I had dreamt but the lingering fear of something awful about to happen remained.

“I’ll ping you if something happens.” He said cheerfully as I got up to leave.

“Thanks.” I said and gave him a little wave, leaving him to his work.

As I wandered through the corridors of the Executor I was clear that the tension level on the ship had risen up several notches. Everyone was waiting and it was driving me crazy. Nothing seemed to ease it. I could have exercised until I dropped from exhaustion and still I would have felt the stress.

Restless and frustrated I resorted to the one thing I knew would keep my mind occupied. I went down into the hanger bay where the shuttles were docked and asked the deck officer if he minded if I worked on the Sigiri which had been unofficially dubbed my ship because I used it so much.

“Be my guest, Miss Gabriel.” He said. Preoccupied with other problems the last thing he wanted was to deal with me whining at him, which I would have given half a chance.

I often spent time tinkering with the Sigiri’s engines and ship board systems. It was the one place I felt truly at ease and out of the way. When Lord Vader was busy and did not need my services, there wasn’t much else for me to do on board the Executor. So one day, in the throes of absolute boredom, I had begged the deck officer on duty at the time to give me some mechanic work. I was certified and had papers so it wasn’t as if I wasn’t actually qualified to touch a ship’s engine. It had taken some convincing and only when I had complained about it all enough to Lord Vader had I actually been granted clearance to go into the pits and work. I didn’t get to do it very often but when I could it was a relief. No matter what else was going on in the Empire, ships engines always needed looking after.

I had started seriously looking after the Sigiri after the trip with Thrawn. This had not gone unnoticed by Lord Vader who essentially had the shuttle signed off to me exclusively unless no other was available. I had been so delighted by this I had almost hugged him, but thankfully had managed to restrain myself from this impulse at the last minute. The bad thing about this arrangement was that because the Sigiri wasn’t really mine, other people used her when I was not around which was often enough. The good thing about this was that afterwards there was always something for me to do because despite of the fact that the Empire hired good mechanics, the shuttles were the least cared for. It was the TIEs and the rest of the fleet’s ships that got the brunt of mechanical attention. Only the Emperor’s and Lord Vader’s personal shuttle received such good care, the rest were given a cursory once over to make sure things were working and that was that.

I changed into the coveralls I kept on board the shuttle and vanished into the engine room. As I had feared the last person to use Sigiri had left a mess and before long I was cheerfully up to my elbows in hydraulic fluid and engine bits.

Time always passed differently when I was working on engines. It seemed that while the rest of the galaxy continued on at it’s own pace, my world sped up. I could spend hours tinkering on a ship and never notice how late it had gotten. I could not count the number of times that my father or Jyrki had had to almost physically haul me away to eat supper or go to bed because time had just spun away from me.

By the time I was satisfied that the Sigiri was in peak running order again, nearly six hours had passed and I was actually exhausted. It struck me as odd, when I cleaned off the grime in the shower that fixing engines would tire me out even more so than a stressful physical workout with Lord Vader but I didn’t question it. With a sigh of relief I slipped into bed and fell asleep. If only my dreams were as peaceful as working on a ship’s engines were.

Qui Gon Jinn stood at my side. We were both standing on a hill with a landing pad someplace I had never been before. It was not a world I recognized but this was a dream so that did not mean very much.

“There will be much change.” He said.

“Change?”

“All things change in their time, young Merlyn.” He said gently.

“Where are we?” I asked changing the subject.

“At the beginning. At the end.” He replied cryptically.

“That is not helpful!”

He laughed. “You always want the straight answers where there are none.” His tone of voice was kind, not chiding.

“Why are you here?” I asked, impatience leaking into my voice.

“I see much potential in you but like Anakin you have a wild streak, you will need to watch that. The Darkside is seductive and you are at a turning point.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“Be mindful of your emotions. Be mindful of the living force, let it be your guide not your fear or your anger.” He paused for a moment then added, “You cannot go where he is going; you cannot follow in his footsteps.” Qui Gon said gently, laying his hand on my shoulder.

I frowned. “I don’t understand what you are telling me, as usual!” I snapped.

“I can only serve as a guide, nothing more.” He laughed and then drew a deep breath. “Everything is going to change.” He said and then shimmered into nothingness. “Remember all you have learned, it will save your life.”

I shivered as the air suddenly grew cold and the sky dark. I looked up expecting to see storm clouds but instead saw the Executor plunging down towards where I stood. I opened my mouth to scream but no sound came out. Instead I suddenly found myself in an EV suit out in the vacuum of space. It was the strangest sensation and as the stars whirled about me I felt my stomach churn. I knew I was going to be sick if I didn’t get out of the suit but when I tried to move around to catch my tether line I realised there was none and I was free floating in space and there was nothing else around me, no ship, no safety line nothing. I was utterly alone. The panic I felt swelling in my chest was so great I thought for certain the entire galaxy could hear my heart beating. I had no idea what to do and just when I though it could not get any worse a loud alarm started to sound in my helmet. I looked at the gauges on my wrist and saw I was running out of oxygen. When I opened my mouth to scream I realised I could not breathe, the alarm in my helmet sounding louder than anything else I had ever known. As the stars spun around me all I could think of was Thrawn and that I did not want to die.

I woke up nauseated and gasping for breath, soaked in sweat and shivering. The alarm in my dream was the comm by my bed and when I answered it I was anything but polite. The young voice on the other end sounded non-plussed and bored as he told me that I was to take the Sigiri to the Battle Station. The Emperor wished to speak with me.

I wasn’t sure what was worse. The dream I had just had or going to see the Emperor. With a sigh I got out of bed, showered and dressed. I grabbed my satchel with my lightsaber, my ident cards, and a couple of books tucked in it, threw a shawl across my shoulders and made my way to the landing bay. I shivered, despite the warmer clothes I was wearing, as I sat down in the pilot’s chair and started the engine warm up sequence.

I had not been to the Battle station before so the docking procedure was interesting. As I navigated my way around the superstructure I could see where it was still unfinished and under construction, but I was certain this was just for show and that the station itself was more than battle ready. It was an awesome sight. I might have spent longer staring at the technological wonder except traffic control broke into my thoughts requesting clearance codes then giving me my landing instructions.

Once the ship had touched down on the incredibly shiny floor and I had shut the engines down, I slipped my ident cards over my head but left my satchel onboard the shuttle in the cockpit under the pilot’s seat. I didn’t think it was a good idea to visit the Emperor with a lightsaber tucked away on my person. I was so nervous that sandjiggers squirmed in my gut. I had to work hard to calm myself down. I was sure that whatever it was the Emperor wanted from me, it was not good, nothing he did was good. When I walked down the ramp, two stone faced officers were waiting for me. I was a little surprised when they requested to see my identity tags because usually no one bothered but they were not taking any chances.

When I asked what was going on I was given no answer only a filthy look. Once my tags had been cleared I was told to follow them, so I did. I had a terrible sense of foreboding in my gut and the nausea I had experienced in my dream became very real. I had to fight to keep my breathing steady and remain calm. My palms were sweating and cold shivers ran the length of my spine. I wondered if everyone felt this terrible sense of doom when ever they were summoned before the Emperor or if it was just me being paranoid.

To distract me from the sense of impending doom, I concentrated on remembering the way I had come from the docking bay and the land marks along the way. The battle station was indeed huge and full of people as well, most of whom did not even bother to glance up as I passed by. We entered a turbo lift which was so fast I thought that my stomach had fallen out of my belly. When we reached the top and the doors opened I knew a real sense of fear without any reason. At one of the Officer’s insistence I got off first, they followed close behind me.

One of the Royal Guardsmen who was standing at the side of the closed entrance moved slightly and the officer on my left said. “The Emperor will see you now.”

The doorway to the Emperor’s observation chamber opened and I walked into almost darkness. I stood for a few moments while my eyes adjusted. The pause was enough to allow me to see the vastness of the area I was in and take stock of the astonishing view that was being afforded by the huge round picture window.

“Come closer, young Merlyn.” The Emperor’s voice drifted out of the darkness. “I have something I wish you to see.”