"There is a turbo-lift down this corridor," he announced. "It should take us to one of the hangar bays. Then..."
Worf's sudden stop alerted Sisko to something.
"What is it?"
"Storm Troopers approaching... fast!"
Then, from around the corridor, they heard the footsteps. It was difficult to tell how many troopers there were, but they were coming toward them with some urgency. They came into view, and to Sisko's surprise, laser blasts were raining down upon them. They were actually being attacked. He then saw who they were being attacked by: a lone man, dressed in black and white, and what appeared to be a Wose.
"A Wookie!" said Kurn.
Sisko quickly surmised that these two were the cause of the alert on the station. Logically, they were enemies of the Empire, and it looked like they needed help.
"Fire on my mark!" Sisko ordered. "...Fire!"
The troopers did not know what hit them. The combined blasts from Sisko's men and the two strangers soon cut the troopers down. The man and the Wookie stopped not far away from them.
"Thanks!" he said. "But who the hell are you?"
"Commander Benjamin Sisko, of the Free Federation starship Defiant. These are my men!"
"The Free Federation, huh? That's just the Rebel Alliance, only from the other side of the galaxy! I'm Han Solo, this is Chewbacca! Hey, you didn't happen to see a kid and a princess around, did you?"
"Can't say that I did," said Sisko. "What are you doing here? You don't look like Imperials!"
"We're not! We're trying to get back to my ship in the main hangar bay!"
"Then it would appear that we are heading in the same direction, Mister Solo! Perhaps we should help each other!"
"Fine by me! Let's go! And by the way, it's Captain Solo, of the Millennium Falcon!"
A brief alliance formed, they continued on their way down the corridor. Another fire-fight with another party of storm troopers halted their journey, but they soon made it to a position overlooking the hangar bay. A short time later, they were joined by a young man and woman, the people Solo was looking for.
"Looks like you found company, Solo!" the woman said. "Who are you?"
"Commander Benjamin Sisko, of the Free Federation..."
"This is Luke Skywalker. I'm Princess Leia Organa of Alderaan! We've been trying to get in touch with the Free Federation for months now!"
"Can we do this political stuff later, Your Highness?" Solo asked impatiently. "I want to get out of here!"
"It might be best if we all left in your ship," said McQueen. "The Imperials may be looking for transporter activity!"
"Good idea," said Sisko. "Where is your ship, Captain Solo?"
Solo walked over to the window, and pointed down to a beat-up looking cargo ship on the deck.
"You came in that thing?" asked Sisko. "You're either mad or brave!"
"It's not as good as one of your starships, Commander!" replied Solo. "But it suits me fine!"
Then, Skywalker took a communicator out of his pocket.
"Threepio, where are you?"
"We're just across from the ship, sir."
"Then we're right above you," Skywalker replied.
"We've got problems!" said Solo. "The ship is surrounded!"
"Can't we make some sort of distraction?" said Worf.
As Solo looked down at the hangar, he smiled.
"Looks like we don't have to!" he said. "Look! The storm troopers are moving away! Now's our chance!"
With Solo and Sisko in the lead, the group moved down some steps, and were soon on the hangar deck. While the others followed Solo aboard the Millennium Falcon, Sisko and Skywalker soon found out where the storm troopers were going. They were watching a battle, a duel of Jedi Masters, between Darth Vader... and Ben Kenobi.
"What's Kenobi doing here?" asked Sisko.
The battle seemed to have reached a stalemate, neither of the men gaining the upper hand in the battle. Then, Kenobi heard and saw Sisko and Skywalker. Then, for some reason, he stopped fighting. He raised his lightsaber, and held it close to his head. Vader then took his chance, and brought his lightsaber down upon Kenobi. But instead of slicing him in two, Kenobi just vanished, leaving nothing but his robes behind.
"Ben!" Skywalker screamed.
This alerted both Vader and the storm troopers to their presence. The troopers began to fire at Sisko and Skywalker, who fought back with blasts of their own. One blast hit a computer panel, closing a door, and stopping Vader from entering the fray. As the engines of the Millennium Falcon roared to full power, Solo urged Sisko and Skywalker aboard. Sisko had to virtually drag Skywalker aboard. Solo raced to the cockpit, and took his seat beside Chewbacca. They were soon joined by Sisko and Kurn.
"Let's hope the old man shut off the tractor beam!" said Solo. "Or this is going to be the shortest flight in history!"
Kenobi had done his work. The Falcon took off without restraint, and was soon on its way.
"I suggest you go to warp as soon as possible, Captain," said Sisko.
"This isn't one of your fancy starships, Sisko!" Solo snapped. "I have to get the nav-computer to work out our course!"
Then, the ship rocked. As Chewbacca looked at the sensor screen he roared. Solo soon confirmed what he had detected.
"TIE fighters! Power up the guns, Chewie, and take over here!"
Solo went into the main passenger compartment, and soon, he and Skywalker were manning the Falcon's two gun turrets. Leia, meanwhile, took Solo's seat next to Chewbacca. It seemed like a whole squadron of TIE fighters had been sent after them. Solo and Skywalker were matching them blast for blast, but they were still having trouble. From his seat in the cockpit Sisko watched Chewbacca maneuver the ship. It seemed that the Wookie was an extraordinary pilot, but their three combined skills did not seem to be enough against a whole TIE squadron.
Then, Sisko had an idea.
"Chewbacca! Where is your communications system?"
Chewbacca roared and pointed to the computer panel next to Sisko's chair. He turned, and quickly studied the layout. It was crude, but it looked like he could operate it. Putting on one of the headsets, he began to operate the computer.
"What are you doing?" asked Leia.
"Calling in reinforcement, Your Highness!" Sisko replied. "Chewbacca, I'm inputting a new set of coordinates into your computer. Head for them!"
The ship lurched as Chewbacca changed course, with the TIE fighters close behind.
"Turn now!" Sisko shouted.
The ship lurched again as Chewbacca flew upwards, then suddenly, in the direct path of the oncoming fighters, several ships began to de-cloak—the Valkyrie, the Defiant, the Liberator, the Saratoga, and the Klingon ship. The fighters did not know what hit them. They were soon all destroyed. Moments later, Solo and Skywalker joined them in the cockpit.
"Where the hell did they come from?" asked Solo.
"The Alpha Quadrant!" Sisko smiled. "Now, Princess Leia, I believe we have business to discuss."
"We do, Commander," said Leia. "But I want to get to a safe place first, the Rebel Base in the Yavin system."
"Where's that?" asked Kurn.
"If you beam back to your ships, then follow us, we'll soon get there!"
In the main control room of the Death Star, Tarkin gazed out towards the stars. He was soon joined by Vader.
"Is the homing beacon secure aboard their ship?"
"Yes," Vader nodded.
"Then this will be a momentous day! The death of the Jedi Knights, and the destruction of the Rebel Alliance!"
No comments:
Post a Comment