Harry Potter and the Dark Lord of the Sith

Chapter 8.

"Well, there it is," Han announced. "Yavin Four. Your friends should be here," he turned to Leia, "unless the Empire already found them."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence," she replied dryly.

"How can anyone live there?" Hermione asked. "Those storms are huge!"

"The base isn't on Yavin itself, the gas giant," explained Leia. "It's on that moon." She pointed to port. "There, do you see it?"

"Oh," Hermione said. "Yeah, I see it."

As they got closer to the moon, surface features could be marked out. Oceans, continents, islands, forests, and deserts were all there... but no cities or any artificial lights on the night side. Harry was mesmerized.

"It's beautiful," he said.

"Yes," Leia agreed. "And if the Empire has its way, it'll be gone. Just like Alderaan."

"Attention, unknown ship!" a voice blared out of the speaker on the Falcon's dashboard. "State your name, cargo, and destination."

Han was about to begin, when Leia leaned to the microphone and said, "Chancellor Finis Valorum."

"Naboo-Trade Federation crisis," the reply came. "You may proceed. Prepare to receive landing coordinates."

"What the heck was that?" Han demanded.

"Code phrases of the Alliance High Command. We pick terms from the history of the Old Republic. It's a good thing that this ship's so fast. If we arrived tomorrow, the phrase would be changed."

"What do these things mean?" curiously asked Hermione.

"Finis Valorum was the last leader of the Old Republic before Palpatine," Leia said. "The Trade Federation-Naboo crisis was the event that forced him from power. As far as details go, even I don't know much. The Empire, understandably, keeps information about its rise well-hidden. We may never know the truth."

As they talked, Han piloted the Falcon into the moon's atmosphere and settled it into a level flight. Soon a large stone pyramid showed up on the horizon.

"Wow!" Ron exclaimed. "That thing's larger than the ones in Egypt!"

"Egypt?" Leia asked. "What's that?"

"It's a country on our planet," Ron told her. "One of the first civilizations arose there... about six thousand years ago. They built very large pyramids as tombs for their kings. But that one's larger. Is it a tomb, too?"

Leia looked at him. "We don't know its purpose, but I don't think so," she said. "We haven't found any thing inside to indicate that. But of course, we may have been preceded by robbers by thousands of years. We use that pyramid as a base--headquarters of the Rebellion." Leia sighed. "Now that Alderaan is gone, this is the closest thing I have to a home."

"In that case, welcome home, Princess." Han grinned at her. "I hope your friends have the money to pay me."

Leia scoffed and headed towards the exit without looking back. The trio followed her, and Luke joined them at the hatch.

When they exited, they found themselves in front of a welcoming committee lead by tall gray-haired man with soft features. His face flushed with relief when he saw Leia.

"You're safe!" he exclaimed. "When we heard about Alderaan, we feared the worst."

"We have no time for our sorrows, Commander," she declared. "You must use the information in this R2 unit to help plan the attack. It's our only hope."

The technicians took Luke's droid away. See Threepio went with them. Han followed Leia off elsewhere. The three wizards were left with Luke.

"What will you be doing?" asked Harry.

"I'll join them as a fighter pilot," Luke said, not a hint of doubt in his voice.

"I'll come with you," said Harry. "If we're stuck here, we might as well do some good."

"Harry!" Ron was struck with fear. "Do you realize how dangerous this is?"

"Yeah, it's dangerous," Harry granted. "As dangerous as coming face-to-face with Voldemort? I doubt it."

"In that case," Ron declared, "We're going with you."

"No." Harry was adamant. "You have families. Parents and brothers and sisters," he looked at Ron, "Who care about you. The Dursleys will only be happy if I get blown up. No one will miss me."

"What do you mean, no one?" Hermione almost shouted. "The Dursleys may not care, but we do. So does Lupin. And the whole Weasley family. And McGonagall. And Hagrid. Neville, Padma, Hannah, Luna..." she trailed off. "You've got a pretty loose definition of no one," she concluded, out of breath.

"Er..." was all Harry could manage.

"Forget it," said Ron. "We've never let you run off on your own into danger, and we aren't about to start now."

"You have a family." Hermione looked at Harry. "And don't you ever forget it."

By this time, they were inside the temple. Luke was asking for all directions, and they simply followed him. Finally, they entered a room that was full of obviously high-tech computer equipment. Standing in the center was a dark-haired, hawk-nosed man slightly younger than Luke.

"I'm Wedge Antilles," he introduced himself. "So you're going to fly for the Alliance." He looked them over, his face emotionless until Luke struck out his hand.

"I'm Luke Skywalker," he said.

"Skywalker?" Wedge got excited. "Son of Anakin Skywalker, the famous Jedi pilot?"

"Yes," Luke answered. "Don't look at me like that," he told Wedge. "I know nothing about him. I found out he was a Jedi less than a week ago."

"I'd like to hear that story sometime." He looked at the wizards. "And who are you?" he asked.

"Just give him your names," Luke cautioned. "We have no time to tell stories." He turned to Wedge. "Somehow, they ended up on the Death Star, in the same cell as Princess Leia. And they helped us a lot. I don't know if we'd get off if they weren't there."

"All right," Wedge conceded. "So, let's get you into simulators and see how good you are." He pushed a button on his control panel and the four doors on the cubicles in the corners of the room opened. Harry got into his machine and put on a helmet. The door shut, cutting him off completely from the outside world.

Suddenly, a screen lighted up in front of him, portraying a hangar and right ahead, behind the glass of the cockpit, a long, narrowing nose of a fighter. He looked to the sides. The fighter had elongated wings with long, spear-like extensions on their tips that Harry assumed were weapons.

Wedge's voice emerged from headphones in his helmet. "The controls of an X-Wing fighter," the pilot told them, "are set up for someone to be able to grasp them instinctively." Harry took the yoke in his hands and realized that Wedge was right. It did come naturally.

"Remember, this is a qualification test, not a training program," Antilles continued. "Really good pilots are born, not made--although your talent will go to waste without training. Unfortunately, we have no time to do that for you. Any questions?"

"What does the test consist of?" Luke asked impatiently.

"Three stages. First, I'll launch the same program for the four of you, separately." He paused and resumed. "Then, I'll put all four of you into the same sim-room, where you'll face a computer enemy as a team. Finally, you'll fight each other, two on two. Oh, and one more thing. In the second round, one of the enemy fighters will be flown by me," he declared with obvious delight. "Okay, enough talking, or we'll miss the battle. Ready? Go!" He launched the program, and Harry saw the hangar get replaced by stars, space, and enemy fighters.

XXXXXXXX

When Harry got out of the simulator an hour later, he first went to the restroom. Then he returned and sat down next to Luke and his friends.

Wedge stood up with a small computer (or "datapad", as Harry learned) in his hands. "Interesting," the pilot muttered.

"What's interesting?" Luke tried to hide it, but he was worried.

"The maximum score for the test is 90," Wedge said, "with 30 points for each stage. The cutoff mark, at which we allow a pilot to go on active duty, is a score of 70. Your scores were: Luke Skywalker, 86; Hermione Granger, 83; Ron Weasley and Harry Potter, tied at 78. Did any of you have pilot experience in an X-Wing or another Incom vehicle? Or in fighter simulators?"

"Well, I piloted skyhoppers, but I've never even seen a starfighter."

"None of us has any experience with fighters, real or simulated," said Harry. He decided not to mention broomsticks at this time, since he wanted to explain that in detail. When there's time, he thought.

"In that case," Wedge resumed, "wow. That's all I have to say. I myself have only got past 80 after two months training. To be honest, this was the last thing I expected. Now there's a problem. We only have three unassigned X-Wings available. One of you"--he pointed at Harry and Ron-- "will have to stay on the ground.

"Wait, Mr. Antilles." Harry scratched his head. "How come we're tied? I shot him down when we faced each other... I think."

"You did," confirmed Wedge. "But in the team simulation, he got extra points for getting me."

"So what do we do?" Ron asked, looking at Harry.

"What else?" Harry replied, reaching out into his pocket and pulling out a silver sickle. "Heads or tails?" He held it out to Ron.

"All right..." Ron agreed. "It's just..."

"Just what?" asked Harry.

"I'm not sure how I want this to turn out. If you get killed, I'll always wonder what would happen if I flew instead." He saw Harry lift his eyebrows, and scowled. "Don't try to tell me that you'd not think that if I die!"

"I won't. It's just that that can be said about any choice we make." He thought about what Dumbledore once told him. "We always wonder if things might have been better had we decided on something else. And we'll never know for sure. There's no way to escape that in our world, and I doubt that it's different in this one."

Everyone stood, listening, and Harry's little speech went uninterrupted until Wedge, talked to someone on the comm and approached them.

"Sorry to interrupt," he said, "but it's time for the briefing."

Harry smiled, and Ron grinned back. "Heads or tails?" Harry asked again.

"Heads," Ron called.

Harry tossed the coin. It spun, flew almost to the ceiling, fell back and plinked on the floor. They came up and looked at it.

It was tails.