From: boisvert@wpi.WPI.EDU (Brian Richard Boisvert)
Subject: The Jedi Storm (1/2)
Summary: part one of an original star wars story
Organization: Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 1992 19:07:17 GMT

                           STAR WARS 
                          EPISODE VIII
                         THE JEDI STORM

FROM STORIES & CHARACTERS CREATED BY GEORGE LUCAS
COPYRIGHT UFO PRESS - (C) 1991


(PLEASE COPY FREELY AND GIVE TO FRIENDS)

"CHAPTER ONE"
STAR WARS - THE JEDI STORM.

PART ONE - 'R & R'



  Luke Skywalker sits calmly on a rock projectile atop a black beach
  of volcanic sand and pumice.  He's eating a stick of hardtack, a
  space ration filled with all the nutrients he needs and actually has
  a little flavor.  He's on a planet very, very far from anywhere, and
  certainly not on a star chart or a map of any kind.  He had heard
  rumors of Valdevar.  It was supposed to be haunted by some kind of
  'evil spirit'.  Many travelers had gone there never to return.  Luke
  knew somehow that it would be the perfect R & R for his very special
  needs.  He is tired, tired of the fighting, the running, the
  hiding, the killing.  Now, after the lightning bolts of evil energy
  in the encounter with the emperor, the loss of his father, the
  destruction of the Death Star near the Centuri moon, Luke wants to
  finish his Jedi training.  Yoda told him that it would be finished
  after he faced his father, Alarcan Skywalker, turned into Darth
  Vader by the 'Dark side of the force'.  He had done all that and yet
  there was something missing.  He could feel it very deep down inside
  somewhere in a new part of his consciousness constructed for him by
  the teachings of Yoda and Ben Kenobi.

  So much had happened to him in these last few years of conflict and
  rebellion.  He had lost his Aunt and Uncle, and then, he was shocked
  to learn the truth about his father, only to have him die in his
  arms. He felt very close to his father right now.  He often felt his
  presence at important times in his life and he was beginning to get
  the feeling that this was one of them.  It was funny, he thought,
  about life.  He had fallen in love with Princess Leia and she turns
  out to be his sister.  And then, when his Darth Vader threatened to
  turn Leia to the 'Dark Side', this was the lowest moment of his
  life.  There was something he didn't quite understand about this
  'Force' that Yoda had taught him so much about.  There was something
  that Yoda had left out.  He wondered why.  Was it because Yoda's
  understanding was limited?  How could that be when he was able to
  live to nearly one thousand years and he saw him lift his space ship
  out of the muck that time.  He was certain that there was something
  missing from his training and he knew that he would have to discover
  what it was, and soon!

  The emerald green tide was coming in.  The waves crept closer and
  closer and then gently lapped at his bare feet.  He noticed how warm
  and gentle the water was on this forgotten planet.  He was beginning
  to feel as if there was a living creature in the water whose only
  desire was to massage the feet of anyone who lingered on these
  shores.  He couldn't have known, of course, but this was an accurate
  reading of the situation.  The planet was home to a 'Zozabranch'.
  It's entire being was composed of countless billions of tiny
  one-celled animals that communicated in such a fashion as to imitate
  Human consciousness.  The creature actually derives a great deal of
  pleasure from brushing up against more sentient beings and then
  mimicking their brain waves.  It was easy for this creature to do
  this since it was immersed in a liquid very similar in chemical
  structure to the fluid in our brains.

  Through millions of years of evolution and with no competition from
  any other form of life on this planet, the 'Zozabranch' was able to
  reproduce itself in such large numbers that communication amongst
  all its cousins was inevitable.  But then, over the centuries,
  loneliness set in.  The 'Zoza' as it likes to call itself, realized
  that there was not much to talk about on a planet where there were
  no other forms of life, so it learned how to gather and absorb new
  experiences by touching any other living creature that might come
  into contact with the 'sea'.   When it touched Luke's feet and
  ankles it was in for a real treat.  He had seen so much and done so
  much.  His entire life was an open book to the 'Zoza'.  It could
  feel the 'Force' in Luke.  It could relate to everything Yoda had
  taught him and even to the evil of the 'Dark Side' that had almost
  killed him.  The 'Zoza' was intrigued to such a degree that the tide
  seemed to be turning on the beach.  So many parts of the creature
  were involved with communicating and learning that the level of the
  ocean actually rose several inches as it leaned across the planet to
  feel more and understand more from Luke's mind.

  Luke tries to ignore it at first, but from the first time the waves
  touch his feet, he hears a whispering in the inner reaches of his
  mind.  Something is trying to communicate with him.  At first he
  thinks it might be his old friend and mentor, Ben Kenobi.  Then, he
  feels it's his father.  Then, he realizes that it was neither of
  them.  It wasn't a Human voice, but a very pleasant kind of soothing
  music like he had never heard before.  It drifts in and out like a
  distant radio station.  As the tide creeps closer and closer and
  washes higher and higher on his rock, he begins to hear this chorus
  louder and louder, until he looks out and sees a giant tidal wave
  approaching from the horizon.  It's like nothing he's ever seen or
  heard before.  It is moving very slowly, undulating closer and
  closer like a great bowl of jello lifted on its side.  And the music
  it makes, the chorus, the symphonic harmony of sounds, whatever you
  cared to call it, is getting louder and louder.

  He looks around but there is nothing except for the black sand
  dunes and a few tufts of 'Handle-bar' plants.  The music rises in
  his mind and the words begin to speak directly to his heart.  Though
  he can't understand the words, he knows they say something sentient,
  intelligent.  There is a life form here somewhere.  Then he realizes
  that it must be connected to the warm massage working up his feet
  and legs.  It's like a thousand tiny little tendrils working their
  way along his skin.  It's not just a liquid he's been standing in,
  but a life form.  He's immersed in it.  He feels it trying to talk
  to him.  Meanwhile the mountain of bright green liquid is getting
  closer and closer.  If he doesn't head for higher ground, he'll be
  engulfed in or by the creature.

  He looks all around for a place to run, but there is nothing higher
  than the small buttocks of a hill that he has been sitting on.  The
  beach is flat with nothing of distinction except for a few handlebar
  plants swaying in the wind.  His ship isn't very far away, but he's
  not sure if he can reach it in time.  He knows somehow that if he
  runs, it could be fatal.  There is a real connection, almost like a
  wall socket and an electrical plug, between himself and the sea
  growing larger all around him and if he were to 'unplug' himself
  too suddenly, it could kill him.  So, he decides to stay and play
  this little game with the creature until the end.  The tidal wave is
  now only a few meters away and approaching ever steadily on.  He
  watches it rise several dozen meters above his head.  Then, he
  closes his eyes and calls up the 'Force'.

  Now, if you asked Luke how he calls the 'Force', he probably would
  not be able to explain it to you.  Yoda taught him how to bring the
  'Force' closer to him by clearing his mind of everything but the
  'Force'.  Luke never really learned what this 'Force' was all about,
  but Yoda did teach him what it was not.  By concentrating on ridding
  himself of everything that was not the 'Force', the 'Force' came to
  him.  If he ever actually tried to think about, or control, or
  manipulate this mysterious 'Force' thing, it would never happen.  It
  was the unburdening, the unlearning, the disconnecting with all
  things that he had learned, burdened himself with, been connected
  with, that made the 'Force' unveil itself to him.  It was always
  there, deep within all of us.  We had only to release its energy, to
  unchain its power and it would work for us.  And Luke was not
  special in this regard, as he knew.  It was only the ability he had
  to expose his inner feelings, to render so many things impotent that
  most people burdened themselves with, that made him so 'strong with
  the Force' as Yoda used to say.

  Luke had learned that by making yourself totally vulnerable, totally
  open to all experience, then and only then can the 'Force' enter
  every cell, every pore of one's being.  There is, of course, a
  danger in doing so.  One had to be perfectly willing to entertain
  the 'Dark Side', the evil, the less appealing facets of life.  One
  had to be prepared for the possibility that something would go
  wrong, but by eliminating fear, Luke rendered all the evil parts of
  his training totally ineffective because evil thrives on fear and
  hate and on evil itself.  By eliminating all negative energy in his
  mind and in his soul, Luke created a perfect battery for the
  positive forces in Nature to collect and grow.  His power for good
  had not matched the power for evil of the Emperor's yet.  But he was
  working on that.

  The tidal wave of 'Zozabranch' was all around him now and it would
  have drowned him if it were not for his power with the 'Force'.  He
  had formed a pocket of air around him, a perfect shield of energy
  all around his body and the 'Zozabranch' was unable to do more than
  caress the very bottom of his feet.  There was still a connection
  and Luke could still feel the animal all around him.  It was
  humming, discussing amongst itself what to do next.  It wanted to
  attach itself to every nerve ending in Luke's brain so that it might
  escape the planet in which it was trapped, but Luke was holding it
  back with a force it did not understand.  Nothing had been able to
  repel it before like this.  Nothing had survived a full-on encounter
  with the mind of the 'Zoza', nothing until now.

  Luke watched fascinated while the creature regrouped.  It let the
  tide of interest wane and slowly the liquid drifted back to its
  more normal levels.  It relaxed and seemed to be totally defeated
  and becalmed yet it continued to sing and hum and caress Luke's
  feet.  He knew that it wasn't an evil creature, merely lonely.  He
  closed his eyes once again and placed himself in the creature's
  mind.  He still felt that it was not evil.  He could feel it calling
  to him, crying to him, pleading with him to share his thoughts and
  so he did.  He lay down in the warm sand and thought about his
  youth on his Uncle's farm.  He thought about the days he used to run
  and play with bare feet out in the sawgrass.  He remembered Uncle
  Owen giving him his first bicycle and then his disdain when he
  bought a super turbine engine and adapted the bike into a miniature
  X-wing fighter.  He could feel the wind in his hair, the hot breath
  of summer clutching at his clothes, sucking the very sweat from his
  body.  He could smell the wonderful odors of his youth, the leather
  seat of his little ship, the rubber soles of his shoes.

  He lay back and remembered too the feeling he had when he first met
  Leia.  She was so very beautiful, he remembered feeling she truly
  was royalty.  She walked so gracefully, with her head up high and
  her eyes so firmly fixed on his.  They met when she was a prisoner
  of the Emperor's and yet she seemed to be in total control of her
  situation.  He marveled at that.  There was so little time for
  niceties.  He and Han had to rescue her.  She had been tortured and
  yet she was unruffled by it.  In fact, in all the time he had known
  her, he had never heard her complain and they had been in some very
  difficult situations.  There was never enough food.  They were
  always running away from the Emperor's elite guards.  They were
  never alone.  Yet, they always had a kind of understanding.  They
  would not know what it was for a long time, but then the revelation
  that they were brother and sister and suddenly everything made so
  much sense.

  Then, there was Han.  He was so careful to cover his true feelings.
  He was so tough on the outside, so unfinished, hard like good
  furniture, and yet so soft on the inside.  He and Threepio and R2D2
  had made such a great team.  The Empire was no match for their
  combined talents.  Together, they were able to defeat any lock,
  capture any planet, free any number of people.  They roamed the
  galaxy for years together and time and time again, they proved so
  loyal and so devoted to each other that it now amazed Luke beyond
  any emotion he'd ever known.  There was something of the 'Force' in
  all these creatures, made of flesh or otherwise.  They had been so
  glued together, so committed to the same goals that Luke even now
  felt a certain wonder, almost a suspicion that there was something,
  somewhere trying to tell him something and that he might not be
  intelligent enough to understand the message.

  This is what nagged him so much.  It was an itch he couldn't
  scratch.  It was a deep awareness of something that was so much more
  powerful than he could even imagine, something alive and yet not
  alive, something infinitely large and yet infinitely small, that he
  couldn't quite grasp even with his training.  He knew that he would
  have to grasp it before long if he was to save the galaxy from the
  evil of the Empire.  It was not yet dead.  Oh yes, they had dealt it
  many severe and heavy blows.  The Empire was reeling.  It was almost
  punch drunk.  It was striking out now in a desperate struggle to
  maintain its stranglehold on the world, but it was nearly finished.
  The bell was about to sound.  They were in the last rounds of the
  fight.  The rebels would deliver the knock out punch soon.  But they
  would need every ounce of reserve strength and energy they could
  muster because it wasn't over until it was over.  The Emperor was
  dead, yes, but there was another Emperor now, the grandson of the
  Emperor who had nearly electrocuted Luke and he seemed to be ten
  times worse than his grandfather ever dreamed in his worst
  nightmares!

  Luke remembered all these things while the 'Zoza' lapped lazily at
  his feet in total acquiescence.  The 'Zoza' was like a pet dog now.
  It felt the power of Luke's mind and it was forced to retreat.  This
  had never happened before and now it knew that there was another
  consciousness greater than its own.  The 'Zoza' knew instinctively
  that it could never harm Luke in any way and it felt a very deep
  remorse at having tried to do so in the first place.  But it was
  only playing with him.  It never intended any real harm.  It was
  happy now to be the companion to the far superior creature.  It
  wanted to follow Luke everywhere, but alas, it couldn't.  It would
  never follow anybody.  It would never leave this place.  It would be
  trapped here forever, talking and singing to itself.  There would
  never be the kind of adventure and romance for the 'Zoza' like Luke
  had experienced.  The thought patterns of Luke's great adventure
  were a wonderful vacation for every single cell in the animal's
  being.  It was totally entertained by them, totally enthralled.  But
  when Luke started to leave, it was all the same.  There would be
  countless centuries of untold boredom until the next sentient
  creature might come along.

  Luke felt this terrible sadness in the 'Zoza' and he wondered what
  he might be able to do.  He thought he might leave an up-link antenna
  here on the planet so that the 'Zosa' might be able to communicate
  with other beings in the vicinity of this planet, but then he
  realized that this would only make matters worse.  The satellite
  beacon would just attract the curious and there would be more and
  more encounters like this one and the loneliness of the 'Zosa' would
  grow and grow until it might someday overwhelm it.  It was alone and
  it was meant to be alone.  It actually enjoyed being alone and this
  is why it was able to evolve so far in this manner.  It wasn't alone
  in so many ways, and in fact, was much less lonely than any creature
  wearing a skin like Luke's.  It only transmitted the feeling of
  loneliness when in the presence of another creature of
  consciousness.  It was so used to being connected to itself, it had
  an instinctive desire to be involved totally with anything it
  encountered which might also be conscious.  It was a kind of leech
  in this regard.  It could never get enough conscious charge.  It was
  constantly looking for a recharge.

  Luke, bade the creature 'good-bye' by mentally hugging it.  This had
  never happened to the 'Zoza' before and it didn't know what to do or
  say and instead just pulled back to sea.  Luke knew it would be all
  right in a day or two.  He walked away up the sand dunes and back
  toward his ship.  He couldn't see it because it was completely
  cloaked.  The 'Banta Ray' was always cloaked.  It represented the
  very latest in technology because not only was it invisible to enemy
  radar and any other sensing devices they might have, but it was also
  invisible to the naked eye.  Luke was amused at the way it had
  disappeared.

        "Now, where did I leave that thing?"  He mutters to himself.

  After a short while, he knew he would have to resort to the special
  finder beam triggered by his belt buckle.  He pressed the switch and
  the ladder appeared about twenty feet to his right and above by
  about ten feet and it slid out of the sky as if by some kind of
  voodoo mechanics.  It was still a thrill to watch even after
  several dozen trips in the thing.  The ship did with light beams
  what the old Stealth fighters did with radar beams.  It deflected
  them away in so many directions except the direction of anyone
  looking at it.  Luke still didn't understand all the physics behind
  the new technology.  He just knew that this new fighter could easily
  mean the final destruction of the Empire.  The Emperor had nothing
  like it and was therefore defenseless against it.  Luke's mission,
  besides a little R & R, was a shakedown cruise.  He was the first in
  the Rebel Alliance to fly the ship.  It had come to them at great
  cost.  They were very lucky to have found this last prototype before
  the Empire did.  And now it would be a race against time to put it
  into action before they realized what was coming at them.

  He climbed up the ladder and disappeared into a hole in the bright
  azure sky.  Once inside the ship, everything appeared as the
  interior of a normal space vehicle, normal that is, for a military
  vehicle that had no instruments, no weaponry of any kind that the
  casual observer might notice.  The interior of the ship was very
  plush with room enough for a crew of five or six to live
  comfortably.  It would only fly however, with a single sentient
  being inside, however, because it was the first space ship to be
  controlled completely by brain waves.  If more than one person was
  in the ship, it would be too confused to fly properly and would
  therefore obey no one.

  R2D2 could fly with Luke in the Banta Ray fighter because, being a
  silicon based intelligence, R2D2 did not give off brain waves and
  appeared to the ship's brain like an adjunct of Luke's mind.

        "R2, are you ready to take-off?"  Luke says.

        R2 chirps back in a reply that only Luke can understand.

        "Yes, R2, I had a wonderful rest.  This planet is a
        very beautiful place.  How about you?"  Luke asks.

  R2 acknowledges in a long series of beeps, whistles and chirps to
  tell Luke he's rested and very ready to do whatever Luke wants to
  do, and also that a message has just come in from somewhere in the
  Alpha Frontier.

        "I'll take it in the cockpit, R2,"  Luke says as he settles
        himself into the special pilots seat which surrounds him in
        a gravity field which is softer than any seat Luke has ever
        been in.

  Luke has become very attached to R2 and he feels a great warmth
  and even the kind of love a person gets from a pet like a dog or
  cat or a glommanter.  This is always a source of amusement to Luke
  since he was never programmed with any of these emotions.  R2's
  friendship with Threepio is also a source of great interest to Luke
  and others.  They are the only droids in the known universe who
  behave in a particularly human manner and offers continually come in
  from universities and laboratories of one kind or another that want
  to study the pair of 'droids' to try to locate the source of these
  human-like emotions.  Luke has never permitted it since it would
  mean the dissection of two creatures he's come to regard as part of
  his family now.

  Luke opens the panel which covers his front view screen.  With it
  closed, the ship is totally invisible, but when it's opened, it lets
  light in and from the outside of the ship, one can see Luke's head
  and shoulders in the cockpit of the ship, but that's all.  His body
  appears to be floating some twenty feet up in mid-air.

        "R2, you'd better strap yourself in.  We're going to take off
        now,"  Luke advises.

  After waiting for R2 to be strapped in, Luke closes his eyes and
  allows the messages to flow from his brain to that of the ship.  The
  anti-grav seat, besides making super-light travel very comfortable
  for the pilot, is also designed to feel everything Luke feels and
  report this information back to the central 'brain' of the ship,
  buried deep in the innards of the 'Banta Ray' fighter.  The ship
  literally 'feels' the pilots desire to take off, and silently and
  immediately an artificial intelligence within the ship's brain
  and skin co-operate in a symphony of mechanical and psychological
  processes that can only be described as miraculous.  The ship can be
  piloted only by a creature with Luke's abilities.  As Luke bends his
  will to guiding the ship and learning about it's highly advanced
  technology, there is a gnawing in the back of his brain hinting at
  the mentality of the civilization that could have built such a
  vehicle.  It's apparent to Luke, as he becomes familiar with the
  'Banta Ray' that it's more than a vehicle.  It's also a living,
  sentient entity capable of thinking for itself, complete with a will
  of its own.  It seems to respond only to a will it considers
  superior to its own.

  The mental bridge between pilot and ship is a kind of symbiotic one.
  The ship has a need to experience the physical sensations of the
  pilot and the pilot needs the engineering of the ships propulsion
  system to achieve higher and higher experiences.  As Luke becomes
  more experienced with his ship, he begins to feel for the ship the
  way a man feels for a faithful old dog.

  Luke lays out a course in his mind, and simultaneously reaches out
  with his mind for the recorded message in the data banks of the
  ship's communicator.  The brain of the 'Banta Ray' ship is eager to
  obey both commands at once, and as the magnetic drive begins to
  repel the force of gravity of the planet and the speed begins to
  build in the upper atmosphere, it projects the holographic message
  just received from the Frontier Sector.

        "Hello, Luke.  How are you?  I'm fine and I've just about
        finished my mission out here on the frontier,"  the image
        speaks to Luke as if he were right in the ship.

  It's the image of Lando Calrissian.  Luke does not reply immediately
  because the image is recorded and sent in a packet.  Because of the
  distances involved his reply would take several days to reach Lando
  on the other side of the Galaxy.  Besides, Luke is not real anxious
  to give away his position. Only this message from Lando would be
  able to find its way to this ship. Luke was expecting this message
  and was therefore very happy to see the snowy, and bluish image
  standing a few feet in front of him.

        "Luke, I've enlisted about ten thousand new rebel fighters.
        They've all got ships with some degree of fire power. They're
        not perfect.  Some of them are kind of ragged looking, but
        they're all good fighters and they all have a grudge against
        the Emperor for one reason or another.  I've had them all
        checked out quite thoroughly. As you guessed, all the Empire's
        greatest enemies seem to wind up out here, eventually,"  Lando
        continues.

        "Also, thanks for the basic Jedi training.  It has come in
        handy more than once.  I'd like to learn more some day soon,"
        he says.

  Luke turned his gaze out his view screen to the myriad star field
  ahead.  He was traveling now just below light speed and with the
  approach of the next star, the ship would use its gravity field to
  bring the ship into super light speed.  Luke listened to Lando's
  report and guided the ship toward the nearby star.  Within a few
  minutes, he was able to give the command with his mind, and the ship
  responded by jumping into hyper-space with the grace and ease of a
  swan jumping off the surface of a gentle pond and into the air.

  The field of stars rapidly turn into a steady stream of light as
  they race past them at a speed greater than the light beams
  emanating from them.  Luke is forced to close his front shield
  because at this speed, the smallest particle of dust could prove
  very dangerous.

        "I'm leaving for home in about two days.  I have some minor
        personal business to finish up and I'll be on my way.  You
        have to come visit Tri-bilious some day.  It's my kind of
        place.  I figure I'll get back within hours of your return.
        Have a safe journey Luke, and I hope your mission was also a
        success.  Oh Luke, there's probably nothing to worry about and
        that's why I didn't mention it right away, but I usually hear
        from Han and Leia about once a month.  It's been three months
        now and all I get are confirmations of my reports.  I don't
        know, I just thought I should tell you.  I don't feel right
        about it, somehow.  I hope and pray nothing's wrong."  Lando
        waves slowly at Luke as his image fades from view.

  Luke can tell that Lando is indeed very worried.  Now, suddenly, so
  is he.

  Hardly even thinking about it, he pushes the engines deep within his
  ship to their maximum levels.  With no moving parts, the ship will
  not even vibrate in the least bit.  Piloting the ship, it seems to
  Luke, is much like living in a dream.  You merely have to imagine
  where and how fast you want to go somewhere and the ship responds,
  noiselessly and effortlessly.  Luke begins to sense the deep
  fondness and respect for life buried within the circuitry of this
  amazing machine.  More than just a ship, it seems to amplify his own
  awareness of anything he cares to think about.  If he needs to
  calculate a course, the machine does the math for him.  If he
  worries about a friend, the ship calms his fears.  If he needs
  tactical solution in a battle, he knows the ship will be forthcoming
  with this information as well.  It's as if they were destined to fly
  together and battle the forces of the Empire, and if necessary to
  die together.  It's an eerie feeling to be so close to a ship, but
  as his travels take him closer and closer to his destiny, he knows
  that his feelings are correct.  There is a being here much greater
  than himself for there is a knowledge of forces far greater than the
  ones he has been trained to know.

  As the many days of his journey pile on top of one another in a
  seemingly endless procession, he learns to talk to the ship as he
  would with his best friend, or with his father, or even with a
  lover.  The ship seems willing to play any role he finds necessary
  to commune with.  With this level of communication open to him, Luke
  tries to make it clear to the ship what lies ahead, the challenge
  that is in front of them.  The Empire will not give up its grasp of
  the galaxy easily and it will require a total committment to the
  ultimate degree from both of them to finally defeat it and in such a
  way that there is something left to rebuild when the war is over.

  The ship understands and constantly appears to Luke to be working on
  the problem.  One morning, when he slips into his pilots seat, he is
  greeted with information about the Empire that he never even knew
  existed.  The ship has been busy predicting where the greatest
  concentrations of the fleet will be at any given time based on
  Luke's knowledge of past battles and the history of the Empire's
  conquests around the galaxy.

        "This is wonderful,"  Luke says to himself.

        "I hope that it's of service, Luke,"  a voice replies from
        nowhere and everywhere at once.

        "You are the ship?"  Luke asks, somehow knowing that it was
        bound to come to a more direct form of communication sooner or
        later.

        "That's right.  I am the ship.  I'm here to serve you.  I hope
        that I can help you bring down the Empire once and for all,"
        it says.

        "Why?  I mean, why do you care what happens?"  Luke asks.

        "You don't really expect an answer to that, do you?"  It
        responds.

        "No, I guess not,"  Luke says.  "You know, I think this is
        going to be the beginning of a wonderful relationship."




casino
THE NEW FRONTIER

  Lando is holding a good hand of cards.  He's smoking a long thin
  cigar from an unknown tobacconist from a planet he's long since
  forgotten.  It has a deep delicious fragrance, not like anything
  he's ever smoked before.  It's not an illegal drug on most planets,
  but he knows of several where smoking one of these would be grounds
  for instant execution.  He was wondering why so many people were
  afraid of this kind of mental stimulation and he was also wondering
  what his opponents on the other side of the table might be holding.
  He stared long and hard at each of their hands and then he took
  another long gaze at the pot in the middle of the table.  On any
  planet, it was a king's fortune.

  The casino was very plush and yet very rustic and rough.  The
  furniture seemed to be carved from limestone.  The frills, if you
  could call it frills along the walls and dangling from the ceiling
  seemed like a decoration from a long extinct culture.  The casino
  floor itself was littered with gamblers and revelers from all over
  the universe.  They were tall, short, flat faced and long nosed.
  Each of them seemed possessed with the desire to leave more of the
  credits than they had come in with and in this pursuit they were
  gingerly pulling levers, holding cards, seated at tables, standing
  at strange round rolling devices that settled on a certain number
  that created winners and losers at breakneck speed.  Lando had seen
  many gambling spots in his illustrious career as a space rogue and
  scoundrel, but he had never seen anything like this.

  He was staring off in the distance when the creature seated to his
  right yelled at him.

        "I said, I see your fifty thousand and raise you fifty,"  he
        says.

  The creature was actually considered one of the best looking of its
  species.  It had three huge eyes in the center of its face.  It had
  a tongue that dangled down from the mouth in the middle of his
  'forehead'.  And the whole mass of his head was covered with a green
  kind of vegetation which was actually a completely different species
  living in total symbiosis with the 'Geckel' male.  In return for
  food scraps, it supplied the 'Geckel' with 90 percent of its oxygen.

  Lando, looked quickly at the creature's hand and smiled broadly.

        "It's like taking candy from a baby,"  He says.  "I'll see
        your fifty thousand and I'll raise you another hundred!"

  Lando leans back and smiles affably at the two other creatures of
  similar appearance seated at his table.

        "I call you,"  the Geckel replies roughly and throwing another
        pile of chips into the pot.

        "I've got three three's,"  Lando says, dropping his hand on
        the table face up.

        "How can that be?  I've got three deuces!"  the creature is
        apparently quite upset at being beaten again.

  Lando rakes in the huge pot and starts to get up from the table.

        "Just a minute,"  the Geckel yells.  "You've got to be
        cheatin'.  No one wins twenty hands in a row around here.
        You've been staring at my hand all night.  These cards
        marked?"

  The Geckel creature inspects the pile of cards on the table and then
  looks at the other two fellow Geckels seated across from him.  The
  three Geckels reach for their hips and jump up from the table
  drawing their weapons.

  Lando remains seated calmly and merely raises his hands and pulls
  all their laser guns into his fists.

        "You boys should be better losers!"  He says.  "I'm not
        cheating.  I'm just good at this game.  I told you that when I
        sat down."

        "No one's that good, and how did you take our guns like that.
        You must be wired with some kind of device that lets you read
        the cards.  Get him!" he yells.

  The entire card room seems to be alive with gunfire and phaser fire
  of all kinds and colors.  Lando drops his hands quickly and a cloud
  of smoke explodes all around him.  The laser fire can't find a
  target in the dark suffocating cloud.  Meanwhile, Lando has exploded
  up out of his chair and finds himself dangling from a scaffold of
  some ancient sort on the ceiling.

        "Chewy, I need you now!"  Lando yells into his communicator.

  A loud crash tears through the roof of the casino and Chewbacca's
  furry countenance greets Lando through the tear in the roof.  He
  reaches down and pulls Lando up and through the ceiling while laser
  beams strike haphazardly all around them.  Lando is hit in the foot
  just before he pulls it out through the gaping hole Chewie has just
  provided.

  They both run up the ramp of the Millennium Falcon, just as an angry
  crowd is pouring through a doorway on the rooftop and firing their
  weapons at the ship.  Chewy jumps into the co-pilot's seat and fires
  a blast of laser fire out through the rear canon.  The crowd is
  forced to drop to the ground as the Millennium Falcon's engines glow
  brightly and then sprays them with brilliant white light as it takes
  off and quickly disappears into the night sky.

        "Thanks, Chewie.  I thought I might need you up there.  These
        people might be a bunch of children, but they're like killer
        bees when they're roused,"  Lando pats Chewie on the back from
        his seat next to him in the cockpit.

  Chewie yells at him in language only Chewbaccans would understand.

        "Yes, I know, but we're rich, Chewie.  Look at this loot,"
        Lando says while pulling dozens of gold coins from his pants
        and jacket.

  Chewie mumbles something about it not worth getting killed over.

        "Come on, Chewie.  Where's your sense of adventure?  I was
        just letting off a little steam.  We've been working hard to
        get another rebel army together for Luke and frankly I think
        we've done a pretty remarkable job.  I mean, ten thousand
        angry and tough fighting folks with their own super-light
        ships.  I'd say we got the word out pretty far and wide,
        wouldn't you?"  He brags.

  Chewie agrees reluctantly, but also wants to know when he might get
  to blow off some steam too.

        "I didn't think you Chewbaccans needed to blow off steam,
        Chewie.  I'll remember to include you next time.  Right now,
        though we've got to get to the rendezvous.  Our new inductees
        should be just about all gathered and ready to leave now.  I
        gave them enough time to find the place and then to refuel and
        gather up their stores.  We should be reaching them in about
        ten hours after reaching light speed.  Say, that's just about
        the time I need to recharge my batteries.  I'm going in back
        for a nap, Chewie.  I'll relieve you in four hours, OK?"
        Lando says.

  He climbs back into the living portion of the ship as Chewie barks
  out his agreement and takes the ship into hyper space travel. Lando
  is at the controls and Chewie is resting when they come out of
  hyper-space.  The starlight begins to take on its normal hue while
  Lando is thinking about how he's going to spend his new-found
  fortune when he sees in front of him a terrible sight that is the
  worst possible outcome.  All his dreams are washed away suddenly and
  he's back to a stunning reality.

  The entire sector of space is ablaze with laser fire and canon fire.
  The fleet of newly inducted rebels, it seems, will be have to go
  through a trial by fire.  Somehow the Imperial fleet has gotten wind
  of this rendezvous and they've attacked with nearly their entire
  force.  All of Lando's ten thousand ship fleet is surrounded by
  heavy cruisers and tie fighters swirling around them like a pack of
  wild animals bringing down their prey.  There must be one hundred
  thousand Imperial ships buzzing around the perimeter of the rebel
  force and is methodically picking them off one group after another.
  When any of them tries to escape, a group of cruisers intervenes and
  takes them out before they can make light speed.  It's a horrible
  sight.

  Lando, at first, doesn't know what to do.  The effects of his recent
  R & R having just worn off, he's ready for anything that ends with
  him getting out of here alive.  So far, nothing he can think of will
  assure him of this, however, so he drifts just out of range of the
  instruments of the Imperial ships.

  Chewie, sensing their decreased speed, comes out of hibernation and
  is also a witness to the terrible destruction going on all around
  them.  He howls with displeasure and Lando is ready to do the same.

        "I don't know, but we've got to do something, Chewie.  What do
        you think we should do?"  he asks his friend and companion.

  Chewie merely howls again.

        "All right.  There's a group of cruisers at ten o'clock.
        Let's take them on.  Maybe we can survive and distract them
        long enough for some of our boys to get away,"  he says.

  Chewie howls even louder.

        "Yes, I know.  We don't stand a chance, but neither do they.
        Charge up our shields to maximum.  If we can draw their fire
        and get them to chase us, at least we'll be doing something,"
        he tells Chewie.

  Chewie reluctantly obeys by charging up their magnetic shields to
  full power.  This means that they will not have any energy for laser
  weapons, however, so he braces himself for a very rocky ride.

  Lando takes the ship closer and closer to the group of about a dozen
  heavy Imperial cruisers nearest him.  They don't seem to be taking
  the bait and he wonders out loud when they might fire at him.  He's
  getting so close he begins to see shapes of men through their port
  windows.  Finally, just as he thinks they will ignore him until he
  crashes into them, there is a terrible crunching noise all around
  them so loud it nearly obliterates their ear drums.  The Falcon is
  shaken to its bulkheads.  They find themselves being hurled through
  space in the opposite direction from their current flight path.
  It's as if a great hand grabbed them and tossed them down like a rag
  doll.

        "What the hell was that?"  Lando yells.  Chewie can only howl
        back his disapproval and wonder.

        "They've got some kind of sonic weapon.  That's all it can be.
        Our shields have held, so it's something that has a limitation
        of some sort,"  he tries to sort it all out.

  Lando can see the small group of Imperial cruisers closing in on
  them now.

        "I don't think we can take another blast like that,"  he says.
        "Get us out of here, Chewie!"

  Chewie is working the controls frantically trying to do just that as
  the cruisers grow more and more menacing in their viewer screens.
  Soon, they'll be in range to unleash this terrible new weapon on
  them.

        "Shields are down, Chewie!  Chewie, get us out of here!"

  Lando yells again.  But the ship is not responding.  Lando can tell
  that Chewie is having a great deal of difficulty with the controls.
  Lando is starting to think that he will never get to enjoy his
  riches and that he will die here in this God-forsaken part of
  Space/Time.

        "I'm not going down that easily!"  he yells.

  Lando, always quick at figuring the odds, re-routes all energy away
  from the shields which are now practically dead anyway, and sends it
  sputtering to the weapons batteries.  They are able to charge must
  faster and within a millisecond he has enough to give every last
  ounce of energy to the closing Imperial fleet.  The ensuing blast is
  not enough to do much damage, but it delays their sonic wave just
  long enough for Lando to regain control of the Falcon.  They blast
  away from the fleet in a giant game of 'chicken'.  The Imperial
  cruisers being much heavier and slower cannot react in time and soon
  Lando finds his viewer screens devoid of cruisers but filled with the
  terrible sight of the rest of his fleet being routinely and easily
  trashed.

  Then, he has what can only be described as an inspiration.  He tries
  to figure out what Luke would do with his very formidable knowledge
  of the 'Force'.  Then, suddenly, he remembers the 'First Law of the
  Force' which Luke instilled in him repeatedly for months.

        "Never lose control of your senses. When in a desperate
        situation, use all your senses to act like a giant reservoir
        for gathering in a gentle, unseen rain, coming from all
        directions."

  These were Luke's exact words.  He never fully understood them, at
  least not until this moment.  Luke could demonstrate this principle
  many times in tight situations, and yet Lando still had trouble
  duplicating the feat. His instincts were to blast his way out of a
  scrape.  This time would be different.

  Lando takes a deep breath and puts the palm of his hand toward the
  screen and makes a slow wiping motion with it.  He concentrates not
  on the danger, but the safety of open space just beyond.  He can
  feel the energy growing all around his ship and around the ships of
  his new fleet.

  Then, as the cruisers behind him are again making a clean sweep, he
  closes his eyes and brings up the vision of the fleet being blown
  off course like the old sailing ships of a thousand forgotten
  centuries before.  In his mind, he can see the wind building, the
  storm brewing that blew the Spanish Armada away from the English
  coast in a similar critical moment in history.  Chewie is trying to
  avoid the ships closing in behind them and so their bodies are being
  shaken every which way as the laser blasts of the cruisers get
  closer and closer to hitting their mark, but Lando just concentrates
  by not concentrating on anything other than the winds.

  Then, for some unknown reason, the Imperial cruisers break off the
  attack.  All around them, the battlefield, littered with debris of
  fallen comrades is soon completely calm and peaceful.  The Imperial
  ships are struggling with their own control systems.  Something has
  seized them all and rendered all their might as useless.  Lando can
  see that something wonderful has happened and he also knows that it
  can't last for long.

  He gets on his com-link and yells for all surviving ships to regroup
  at a second rendezvous point, some million light years away.  If the
  Imperial fleet has knowledge of this place, they will know about the
  second gathering place at Yanderosa, so as soon as his remaining
  rag-tag group of battered ships has regrouped and many thousands of
  light years away, he radios a new coded destination to the rest of
  them and even gives them each a different route to get there.

  The Imperial fleet is taken completely by surprise and by the time
  they regain control of their ships, the rebel fleet has vanished
  except for the few hundred unfortunates littering space all around
  them.  They had the rebels in a very difficult situation and if they
  had a little more time, they would have destroyed this new rebel
  threat.  Now, the commanders are gathered together wondering what
  they will tell the Emperor.  They don't know how to tell him that
  some mysterious force locked up all their control and weapons'
  systems.  They finally decide to draw straws to choose the poor
  unfortunate soul who will have to tell him the bad news.

  As the largest Imperial force ever gathered together gets ready to
  leave, aboard their flag ship, the scene is of almost total
  confusion and then relief, as they stand in a tight circle and the
  captain of the Tiberius looks in his hand to see the short straw.
-- 
{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}           WPI Students:               |            Brian R. Boisvert              Procrastination with a touch        |     Worcester Polytechnic Institute  
          of genius.                 |           boisvert@wpi.wpi.edu


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