THE FORCE WITHIN
© November 2017 Written by David Wicker
Please do not reprint without permission
CHAPTER 24 - "Snow Trek"
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This entry is Rated: EVERYONE
Han looked over at Luke. He started to say something to him but then the massive gate to the snowy outside wilderness started to open noisily. Quickly Han tapped the side of his ear and a light came on inside his winter mask.
"Luke ?" he spoke, for he didn't just have a question but wanted to test to make sure the device would work if they got separated.
"Yeah, Han ?"
"You ever done this before ?"
Luke shrugged with a smile. "Sure. Not everyone can ride Taun-Tauns but I was learned as a little boy how to do it."
Han shook his head, "No. That's not what I mean. Have you ever traveled in temperatures such as this before ?"
Luke looked at the blinding snow already creeping under the metal door. He quickly tapped his arm and fed in a few values. "100 degrees below zero ?"
"That's right. Frostbite in minutes if you're not careful, kid. Always keep your gear and gloves on. If you can't operate one of your wrist computers because of the gloves, for God's sake don't take your glove off and do it. Call me. I'll relay the main base to take over your controls and activate what you need."
Luke grinned, ready for the adventure. "Wow ! We're really going to do it !"
Han rolled his eyes. There were times when he felt he was insulting Luke by calling him a kid. This clearly was not one of those times.
Nonetheless he replied and smiled as he did so, "Yeah, kid. We're really going to do it. Stay sharp and alert. Be aware of your surroundings from all directions. We don't want any Wampas trying to make a frozen dinner out of us either."
Luke padded his lightsaber. He had never actually used it in combat but had trained himself with it and in subtle ways of the Force once he was back on Yavin from the earlier demise of the Death Star. That seemed so long ago now to him.
The door finally clicked completely open and someone yelled for them to move, almost as if suspecting the pair might decide to not go after all.
But that was not the case. Han gave a slight kick to the rump of his Taun-Taun and with a cut-off bleat, it took forward like a large loping white kangaroo with curved tusks. Luke followed in the rear.
Han kept relaying information to him. "We're using a public communication channel as well. We didn't have time to create a private one. While we've isolated the frequencies, I want you in the future to refer to me as Echo 7, and I will refer to you as Echo 3, Luke."
Luke nodded taking in all the information.
The door closed much more quickly than it opened, allowing for sheer gravity to snap it back in place. Now they were all alone outside and the earlier path that Han made towards the magnetic signal was completely gone now from the consistent snow and bone-chilling winds.
. . .
Back on the Star Destroyer, Vader had cleared out a restaurant of all its patrons so Smite and himself could have it all to themselves.
This was not the first time this had happened and instead of handing Vader a menu, ordered trays of food to be prepared and placed sumptuously on the massive table. There was fresh shrimp, lobster, crab, 10 different kinds of caviar, and the very best and most expensive sushi.
Smite smiled to himself. He would certainly want to have more business lunches with this dark lord as this private meal clearly ran close to a quarter million Empire credits.
While Smite prepared himself a plate of the delicacies, Vader instead was business. He picked up a prepared drink, inserted a straw, drank through his mask and had a lively and personal conversation with Smite.
He learned that Smite's parents were Republic Rebels and that Smite, clearly pro-Empire, had them murdered after he left home. He learned that Smite was a disciple of an old Jedi named Yoda, but was thrown out of class because Smite used nefarious purposes to get ahead of others both in grades and position.
He learned that Smite never did use or trust the Force as much as Vader did, except as a discipline to improve his fighting and hand-to-hand combat skills.
He did not, however, learn Smite's age or his planet of origin, as Smite kept that to himself. While Smite did take the cloak off the top of his head for this luncheon and his hair was in fact gray, his face surprisingly was that of a young boy just becoming teen. A puzzle indeed for Lord Vader.
But there was more to this luncheon than just picking the brain of Smite. Vader wanted to know where the Rebels had gone and had a video conference with a communicator of the outlying other Star Destroyer captains.
One Empire captain claimed to have picked up a galactic contrail of a massive trek heading towards the Hoth Star System. Now Vader knew of the stars in that cluster, especially of Hoth, the primary planet itself. But he doubted the Rebels would choose such an inhospitable key planet. Likely they were on one of the more class-M bodies.
Nonetheless with this new information, he called on a few key Empire pilots to navigate their Tie-Fighters to the Hoth Star System and check out the planets and moons to see where that galactic contrail wound up.
. . .
Luke and Han were making great progress. Despite the visual trail being lost in the snow, Han was fortuitous enough to have made a digital trail with the pathfinder on his wrist. They quickly bee-lined to where it was. And this time, they could see it. It was massive, likely pre-Empire dated, corroded from the slight wetness of the snow and almost buried completely over.
Luke took watch as Han went over to it with a scanner. It wasn't protected with a forcefield or anything. He took another sensing device and held it out. You could hear the Tum-Tum sound as it continued to send out a magnetic signal.
Han spoke through his communicator. "Kid, I'm not liking this. It's a consistent signal but the metal predates Empire, which should be impossible. Unless it's running on a perpetual engine which is also impossible. I'm not sure what's powering it for what clearly has to have been centuries now."
Han looked up at the sky, lit only slightly from a few close stars. "There's certainly not enough light here to glean any power whatsoever to power something this big. It's also too big to bring back to base."
Luke turned his head to look. The device appeared to be over 50-feet long, like a giant metallic rectangle more than half buried in the snow. "What do you want to do, Han ?"
Han spoke, "I'm going to blaster off a small section and bring it back to base. We should be able to figure it out then."
Luke was going to offer Han his lightsaber but suddenly had a terrible vision of Han accidentally cutting his own arm off with it. While the lightsaber was indeed like a sword, the weight of it was a tricky and deceptive thing indeed.
The blade itself, as expected, had no weight whatsoever and because of this, a great many people who attempted to wield a lightsaber without proper training have often lost a limb or two or their life outright in attempting to use them because they could not handle them as a regular balanced sword.
Luke gritted his teeth to clear his memory of the awful scene of Han decapitating his arm with it and kept quiet. A moment later he heard a few shots, the telltale sound of Han's classic Rebel blaster, and Han had scissored himself off a section which he quickly put into a carry case by his belt.
Han spoke, "We have what we need. I don't dare damage it any further. It could be an unexploded antimatter bomb for all we know from the great old Magellanic War which could vaporize this whole planet despite its age ! Let's get this sample back to base to find out for certain what it is."
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