Harry Potter and the Dark Lord of the Sith

Chapter 18.

Harry didn't like that he was reminded of the Forbidden Forest on Hogwarts grounds. This place was like that--except it was bigger, older, and stranger. At that thought, however, a smile crossed his face. Hagrid would like it here.

He also had to admit that he liked something about it as well. After Hoth, the place felt so... alive. He walked carefully, making sure not to disturb any dangerous creatures. He was certain that someone or something here was watching him.

When choosing his route, he simply picked the path that felt right, since he had no clue what direction Luke was in. I've relied on my feelings too much, he mused. First in coming here, then in landing the fighter, and now, this... Of course, he laughed bitterly, if I stop it, I'll just be lost in the forest on some unknown planet. And it doesn't feel like there's any real malice around me.

The sun, which Harry couldn't see, was probably setting, since it was getting darker. He pulled out his wand. "Lumos!" he said, and immediately regretted it. All around him, white mushrooms exploded, showering him with strange white powder. He turned and was greeted by more explosions. "Nox!" he shouted in exasperation. The explosions stopped.

"Ugh," he said, and began cleaning himself up. Then, once the echoes of the explosions subsided, he heard a deep, rumbling nose behind him. He turned and gulped.

A seven foot tall, white spider with an enormous bulbous head was approaching him. Harry backed into a tree, and raised his wand. "Don't come any closer!" he yelled.

The spider, however, did not seem to be intelligent, like Aragog. It simply ignored Harry, stepping out into the clearing. It looked around, raised itself, and, one by one, stuck its legs into the ground. Then it grew quiet. Harry went on his way, periodically looking back to make sure it wasn't some trick.

Soon it began to rain. Visibility shrank to almost none, but, remembering his first attempt, Harry didn't dare try to light his wand again. After walking for several hours, mostly by touch rather by sight, Harry did see something: a light in the distance. It wasn't a white, electric light, but orange, like a fire. Harry headed there. He arrived at a clearing, and had to keep himself from shouting out. The light was coming from a window of a small mud hut and inside, he saw Luke, talking with someone. Harry approached the building. "You will be... You will be..." an unfamiliar voice whispered.

Harry knocked on the door. "Enter, you may," the same voice said, its tone one of amusement rather than foreboding, as before.

Harry did so. Luke sat on the floor of the hut, eating stew, and next to him set a creature unlike any Harry as ever seen before. It had scaly green skin, white hair, and pointed ears that struck out of the sides of its head. Enormous eyes were rapidly moving, scanning the creature's surroundings. The creature was less then three feet tall, and both its arms and legs ended in thee clawed fingers. The creature wore gray robes and carried a large cane.

"Harry!" Luke exclaimed, breaking off Harry's inspection of the creature. "You made it!"

"Yeah." Harry turned back to the creature. "Hello," he said. "I'm Harry Potter."

"Expected you I have not," the creature told him.

"Harry," Luke said, "this is--" The creature made a gesture at Luke, cutting him off.

"Why are you here, I wonder, hmm?" It tilted its head in a question.

"I don't know," Harry admitted. "I just came with Luke."

"And why followed you him, hmm?" the creature inquired.

"It just seemed the right thing to do," Harry said defensively.

"Right! Know none of us what right is when we do it. Or do not." With that the creature closed his eyes and Harry felt himself probed. It wasn't an invasion, more like a connection. Then it ended.

"Some training you have. Know of it I do not. Tell me you must," the creature finally said.

"Uhm..." Harry didn't want to sound rude, but he couldn't see what to do except plainly say what was on his mind. "Can I eat first?" he asked.

To his surprise, the creature chuckled and motioned him to sit down. Then it poked Luke with its cane.

"Learn from your friend, you could," it said.

Harry raided his eyebrows. The creature chuckled and poured him a bowl of stew. Harry didn't recognize any ingredients in it. He tasted it. It was horrible, but feeling hungry and not wanting to offend the creature, he continued to eat, and soon got used to it. That's what weeks of ration bars will do to you, he thought.

Luke put down his bowl. "Did you land okay?" he asked.

"Yeah. Barely... I ended up on the edge of a cliff. I think one of the wings broke off and fell into the canyon..."

"Great." Luke shook his head. "One fighter in the swamp, the other broken."

"Planning to leave, you are, hmm?"

"Eventually, yeah." Harry looked around. He certainly wasn't going to live on this planet.

"When ready you are, able to leave you will be," the creature said.

"How? What do you mean by ready?" Harry looked at Luke and only got a surprised look.

Harry finished his stew and remembered something. "You said I have some training. How did you know? And what do you mean?"

"Difficult to explain. Difficult... Show me some of this 'magic', you should."

"Uhm... okay." Harry drew his wand. "Wingardium Leviosa!" he whispered, aiming at the empty bowl. It rose and hovered in the middle of the room.

"Hmm..." the creature whispered, and raised a clawed hand. Harry felt the bowl become heavier, and slowly pushed down. He tried to resist, but eventually it softly landed on the stone floor and sat motionless. No matter how much energy he put into the spell, the bowl sat there.

Harry couldn't believe it. "What did you do?" he asked the creature.

The creature replied with a question of its own. "What know you of the Force?" it inquired.

"Very little," Harry admitted. "Only what Luke could tell me."

"Strong, your presence is in the Force. Trained as a Jedi you could be... but can the commitment you make, hmm?"

"What?" Harry was stunned. A Jedi? Luke often talked about the Knights, but hardly anything was known about them. But the creature was asking the question with all seriousness.

"Your magic. For evil it can be used, as well as for good."

Harry touched his scar. "Yes," he said.

The creature sat with its eyes closed for what seemed like hours. "Sense I," it said, "that important role you have to play... but clouded the future is. Resist the path of evil, Jedi training can help."

"I know what evil is. I will not become part of it," Harry insisted.

The creature looked at him with sadness. "Many I knew, who made proclamations like that. Too many. Easy the path of evil is. Strong its allure."

Harry wondered at what this meant, but finally decided that there was a reason his instincts told him to come here in the first place. He nodded at the creature.

"Train you both I will," it said, gesturing at Luke. "Together stronger you will be." Then it laughed. "Say it, you can."

Luke smiled at Harry. "Harry, you've just met Jedi Master Yoda."

XXXXXXXX

Hermione entered the briefing room and sat down next to Wedge. Jan Ors input a datacard into a reader, and a screen in front of the room displayed a map of the galaxy. The intelligence officer zoomed in on a portion of the Mid Rim around Ord Mantell. The system she highlighted was a little closer to the galactic core than that planet.

"Suran Minor," she informed them. The planet appeared ordinary enough, with about three quarters of the surface covered in ocean, and the rest by continents with varied terrain. "Officially," Jan said, "home base of the 19th Imperial Stormtrooper Corps, the 54th and 76th Imperial TIE Fighter Groups, and several minor units. Nothing unusual. But a few months ago, things began to get suspicious."

"Like what?" Hermione asked.

"The base got a new commanding officer, General Queder." Jan pushed another button, and an image of a man, apparently in his forties, appeared. "There was no record of him in any Imperial service--not Army, not Navy, not the stormtrooper units, nothing."

Hermione knew what that meant. They're hiding his background. Recognizing the acknowledgments, Jan resumed her briefing. "Once we dug deeper, things became quite clear. He has been reassigned from the Imperial Department of Military Research."

"And here's a new addition to the base," Jan told them, changing the image again. The screen now showed a blue-tinted hexagonal Imperial seal, and over it was a flask with red liquid inside. On the perimeter of the seal, were letters, forming the name of the organization. The letters read: Imperial Center for Chemical Welfare

Some in the audience laughed. Jan Ors gave them a nod, and pushed a button on her datapad. "Here's that organization's unofficial logo," she said.

The new logo was almost identical to the previous one. It differed by only two letters, but, of course, the two letters changed everything. The logo now read: Imperial Center for Chemical Warfare

"What do they do in there?" someone asked.

"Nothing good," Tycho Celchu replied.

"No," the intelligence officer agreed. "Nothing good. They're researching and testing chemical weapons. The facility is relatively new--and we should thank the Force for that. None of its products were used at Hoth. The High Command decided to take the facility out."

Wedge raised his hand. "Excuse me, Major Ors," he began, "but if I understand Imperial standards correctly, they would build that facility so it couldn't be vitally harmed by orbital bombardment. It could only be destroyed permanently from the ground. So what do you need us for?"

She looked at him carefully. "Who said your mission was to destroy it? We know all that, and we're going to send in a team of commandos--after you perform aerial reconnaissance for them."

"I see," Wedge said. "Why us? Do they have seven Star Destroyers in orbit around that planet?"

"No," Jan said. "They used to have one, but--this may sound preposterous to you, since you were at Hoth, but we're wearing the Empire down. The Rebellion is taking its toll. They have been forced to pull off the better ships off such garrison duty and throw them into the war against us. The garrisons' replacements--if they come--are, shall we say, below average? Older ships, substandard crews, incompetent officers. No, that's not why we asked you."

"Then why?"

"Because, while the fleet forces in the system are halfway in the junk heap, and need to be hauled the rest of the way, the 19th Corps and the 54th and 76th Fighter Groups are crack units. The fighters they use are the new TIE interceptors. You're the only unit that would have a chance to get close enough to get the kind of details on their defenses that we need."

"Thank you, Major. We'll take it from here." Wedge rose. "We'll need to get our fighters refitted for reconnaissance work. After we do that, we go to sleep. No late-night sabacc games--that means you, Wes. And not a drop of alcohol, either. Dismissed."