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Vacation Part 7: Culmination
by Lianne Burwell
July 2003
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Lando stared at the ship in disbelief. "You can't seriously 
expect that thing to fly!"

The ship, tucked into a small niche in the rock near the 
top of the island, was practically an antique. It obviously 
hadn't been touched since Corrin had landed it on the small 
island where he'd been living in hiding. The salt in the 
air had corroded the metal sides of the vehicle and it was 
obvious that the ship's seals had deteriorated to the point 
of being useless.

"The moment we take it out of the atmosphere, it's going to 
be leaking air like water out of a sieve!"

"Probably," Corrin agreed cheerfully. "However, all it 
needs to do is get us to the docking station."

"And past all the weapons that will no doubt be firing at 
us," Lando pointed out. "No offense, but this thing isn't 
going to be up to any maneuvering. It'll probably come 
apart at the seams the first time we try to dodge 
anything."

"A lot of people say the same thing about the Millennium 
Falcon," Luke said from where he was checking the landing 
struts. One was folded where there shouldn't be a fold.

"That ship is a classic," Lando said, hotly defending his 
old ship. It might belong to his friend Han Solo -- and had 
for a long time now -- but he still remembered it fondly. 
"And it's been lovingly cared for. It might not be much to 
look at, but it has the heart."

"And so does this ship," Corrin said, fondly patting the 
side of the small ship. A cloud of rust flew away from the 
metal, making Lando cough.

"Well, I suppose we don't have much of a choice," he 
admitted grudgingly. "And if Luke can hold it together long 
enough for it to get us to the docking station, that's all 
it needs to do." It was obvious that Force was the only 
thing that was going to be able to hold it together.

Corrin grinned. "That's the right attitude. He who dares, 
wins."

Lando blinked at the non sequitur. It sounded like a quote, 
but not one he'd ever hear. Still, the sentiment was a good 
one. Still, "Just remember, some of us aren't self-
healing."

"Corrin, do you have any tools we can use? This is going to 
take a lot of work before it's ready to fire up."

"Of course."

Corrin headed up the ramp, into the small ship.

Lando leaned over to Luke. "Do you really think we can get 
this thing flying?"

Luke shrugged. "I guess we'll find out. I think we can make 
it to the station, but it's going to be so much space junk 
afterwards. But what are our alternatives? Swim to the 
north pole? Besides, without any bodies, they'll be looking 
for us. Sooner or later, they're going to find us."

"We could wait until then and take one of *their* ships," 
Lando suggested hopefully, looking at the ship with a lot 
of trepidation.

Luke looked like he was considering the idea, then shook 
his head. "Just reacting is bad tactics. Besides, this has 
the advantage of being something they won't expect. That 
gives us a better chance at success."

"I suppose," Lando said reluctantly. "Well, we better get 
started then. This is going to take a lot of work and the 
sooner we start, the sooner we finish."

And the sooner they would head into space in a leaky 
deathtrap. Lovely.

* * * * *

During the next few days they fell into a routine. They got 
up with the sun and went to work on the ship. Luke worked 
on the engines, while Lando and Corrin went over every inch 
of the ship, checking for metal fatigue and plugging all 
the obvious holes in the seals. They weren't going to have 
much time once they took off, and it was obviously going to 
be a one-shot deal. Once they took off, there would be no 
going back; they didn't have the option of landing and 
taking off a second time, considering the shape of the 
landing gear.

Actually, the longer they worked, the more confident Lando 
got. Luke was a wizard with engines; he quickly had the 
ship's engines purring like some sort of feline. They would 
work, there was no question about that. The bigger question 
was whether the ship would hold together *around* the 
engine, and after checking the ship's infrastructure, Lando 
was pretty sure that it would.

The only thing that wasn't going to hold for long were the 
seals. The moment they were out of the atmosphere, they 
would be losing air. However, the cockpit was as close to 
airtight as Lando and Corrin could make it and it would 
just have to hold for a little while.

And the reason for that was the ace up Lando's sleeve. 
Lando was a paranoid ex-smuggler, so he had a remote for 
his ship. With the device that he had managed to hang onto 
through their recent adventures, he could start his ship's 
engines from a distance, send her into basic maneuvers, 
even fire her laser canons although he'd prefer to avoid 
doing that. There would be a lot of innocent people on the 
station.

But if worst came to worst, he could get the Lady Luck to 
blast out of her docking bay to rendezvous with them.

He'd cleaned out the control and tested it, very briefly. 
He sent a query burst to his ship and received a 
confirmation signal. Doing even that much was a risky move, 
but they needed to know that the salt-water hadn't damaged 
the sturdy little device.

By the end of each day, the three of them were exhausted 
and just fell into bed. Corrin still refused to let them 
give up the bed and secretly, Lando was glad. He ached in 
places that he couldn't remember aching before. Luke was 
doing better than him, but not by much. As a result, they 
ended up *just* sleeping, although the cuddle-quotient was 
certainly enjoyable. They just didn't have the energy for 
anything more.

Finally, after five days of intensive work, they were ready 
to go.

* * * * *

"Engines at seventy percent," Lando called to where Corrin 
was monitoring the engines. It was the best they'd been 
able to coax out of them, but it would be plenty for such a 
short -- they hoped -- trip. "Last chance to back out."

Corrin smiled at him. "Ready to go."

"You don't have to come with us."

"Yes I do. It's time I came out of hiding. Besides," he 
added pragmatically, "they'll be able to trace the ship 
back to the island, so I would have to leave anyway. And 
you'll need someone to man the weapons."

That was true. Lando would have his hands full keeping the 
ship on course. As for Luke, he was currently sitting 
cross-legged on the floor between the pilot and co-pilot 
seats, already deep in a trance. His was the most important 
job of all. He was going to be using the Force like he'd 
never used it before, holding the ship together, the air in 
and doing what he could to deflect any incoming energy 
beams. Privately, Lando wasn't sure that he could do it, 
but he wasn't going to say it out loud. This was their best 
chance, so they were going to take it. And if their luck 
ran out... Well, so be it. It had taken them further over 
the years than anyone had the right to expect.

They waited until noon to take off. With the docking 
station in geo-synchronous orbit over the north pole and 
the sun to the south of their position, they would use its 
glare to hide them from naked eye sighting. The solar 
radiation would give them a little protection from 
electronic scanning. With any luck, that would get them 
close to the station before being detected.

"Station coming into line of sight," Corrin announced from 
the co-pilot's seat. At that point, there would be nothing 
to disguise their approach. Lando could feel the sweat 
starting to bead on his forehead.

Behind him, he heard a high-pitched whistle, quickly cut 
off as Luke closed the leak. Already, the air pressure had 
dropped several points. Luke might be able to plug the big 
leaks, but there were too many tiny leaks. They had twenty 
minutes, a half hour at the most, to get to safety.

"We're being hailed," Lando said as a light blinked. "Our 
grace period is at an end. Do we try to bluff it?"

Corrin grinned. "Let me try." He put on a headset and 
turned activated it. "This is the cruiser 'Cory Raines.' We 
have an emergency. We require immediate docking clearance." 
Lando was impressed. Corrin manage to put just the right 
amount of controlled panic into his voice. He sounded 
stressed, but in control, dealing with an emergency.

There was a moment of silence, then the speaker crackled to 
life. "We have no record of your arrival in this system." 
It was barely understandable through the static.

"We were en-route to Marrat when we hit an uncharted dust 
storm," Corrin bluffed, naming a planet five systems over 
from Sandrica. It was a not bad explanation, and would 
explain the condition of their ship, at least until someone 
got a closer look at it. "We're losing air fast and we need 
to dock for repairs."

There was a long silence while Lando held his breath. 
Finally, the static-filled voice returned. "We have 
activated a landing beacon on the following frequency." A 
string of numbers were read off and Lando punched them into 
the guidance computer. "You will be met by security. Please 
have your papers ready."

"Suspicious lot, aren't they?" Corrin said, turning off and 
removing the headset.

Lando shook his head. "Well, at least we won't have to 
blast our way in. We will have to get through the security, 
though, and all we have are your two lightsabers."

"Well, we also have this." Corrin reached under the fire 
control console and withdrew a small blaster of a design 
Lando had never seen. Lando's eyes went wide, then he 
grinned.

"And what is that doing there?"

"Well, I've been boarded a few times in my life, so I keep 
holdouts around wherever I might be." He checked the 
readout. "It's old, and it has enough power for a dozen 
blasts at most. After that, I doubt it can be recharged. 
Pity. It was a handy little toy."

Lando accepted the blaster and tucked it into the waistband 
of his borrowed pants. Suddenly he felt a little less 
naked.

Lando called up a scan of the station on one flickering 
monitor. "Here's where they want us to dock," he said, 
pointing out one of the arms of the station. "And here is 
where the Lady Luck is docked. We need to get to the 
central spoke of the station, up two levels and half-way 
down the opposite arm."

"Piece of cake," Corrin told him. Lando raised an eyebrow, 
and Corrin explained, "Old expression. Means easy to do."

"Then your definition of easy is very different from mine," 
Lando said sourly. It was a lot of ground to cover, and he 
doubted that the station security was going just stand back 
and let them by. "We could try for the right arm instead of 
docking where they tell us to," he suggested.

Corrin shook his head. "We'd have to plot a path around the 
station to get there. The moment we tried, they'd know 
something was up and they'll open fire. I think our chances 
will be better inside."

"I agree," Luke said, opening his eyes as they approached 
the station. "If we don't attract attention, they won't 
worry about us until it's too late. If we deviate from 
their instructions now, they will know that something is 
up."

Lando grimaced. "I hate it when you're right. So we fight 
our way through the station."

"Well, they aren't likely to try anything in populated 
areas. Bad for business, after all. We're probably going to 
find the heaviest resistance at the bay where Lady Luck is 
and after we launch."

"Assuming we make it that far," Lando replied morosely. 
Someone had to be the realist in this trio.

"If you two are finished psyching yourselves up, we're 
here."

Lando turned back to the screen to see the entrance to one 
of the stations giant landing bays. The blaster was 
comforting in its solid weight. He felt more than saw Luke 
get to his feet and come to stand behind him as he 
carefully maneuvered the ship into the bay. He didn't have 
to fake a ship in distress; the controls starting to spark 
under his hands and the ship shuddering around them. The 
'Cory Raines' was on its last legs.

The landing bay was right in front of them, but the ship 
kept threatening to slip to the side. One of the thrusters 
was gone. Lando shut it off, then turned the ship to the 
side so that the remaining maneuvering thruster was pushing 
them towards the gaping maw. One last nudge and they were 
in. He shut off the engines immediately, and the ship 
dropped to the deck. It held steady for a moment, then one 
side dropped with a groan as the landing gear gave way.

Lando let go of the controls with a sigh of relief. That 
had been close. Too close for his tastes. But now the bay 
doors were closing, and the outside pressure was 
equalizing. "Any landing you can walk away from..." he 
muttered to himself.

"Exactly," Corrin said, slapping him on the shoulder. "Nice 
flying."

"Thanks."

"And here comes the welcoming committee," Luke said, 
pointing out the viewport at the approaching security 
guards. He grinned suddenly, and Lando raised an eyebrow in 
question. "Just remembering the first Death Star. Han was 
supposed to be taking us to Alderaan, but the planet had 
been destroyed, and we got captured. We hid in the Falcon's 
smuggler's holds, then knocked out the troopers sent in to 
scan the ship and used their armor to walk out."

Lando rolled his eyes. "Sounds like something Han would 
come up with," he said wryly. "Unfortunately, I don't think 
that's going to work here."

"So, suggestions?"

"We play along for now," Luke said firmly. "The main 
security office is on the same level as the Lady Luck. With 
any luck, we can get them to escort us most of the way 
there."

Corrin grinned. "I'm sure we can arrange for a little 
luck," he said.

They exited the ship together as the party of guards 
reached the bottom of the ramp. Lando glanced back at the 
ship, and it was obvious that the ship was never going to 
fly again. The landing gear was completely shot, and the 
hull was so full of holes that only someone foolhardy or 
desperate would try to patch it instead of just stripping 
the interior of anything useful and selling the rest for 
scrap.

The security force was five strong, which seemed a little 
much for three spacers in distress. One of them was eyeing 
the ship with an amazed expression, while the others looked 
far too alert and suspicious for Lando's peace of mind. 
They'd done everything they could to make sure that they 
weren't noticed when they took off from Sandrica's surface, 
and the vector they'd used to approach the station was 
consistent with their story, but there wasn't any way to 
make their cover story airtight.

"Papers?" the lead guard asked, his hand twitching towards 
his blaster. Lando had to fight to keep his own hands away 
from the blaster tucked under the back of his jacket.

Corrin stepped forward, his hands held out from his side 
and a pleasant smile on his face. "I'm afraid they were 
destroyed when a stray meteorite took out the compartment 
they were in. We're lucky we weren't killed," he added, and 
even though there was no sign of that sort of damage, Lando 
found the explanation completely reasonable, and he started 
to nod along with the guards. Luke reached over and touched 
his wrist, and Lando felt the urge to agree go away.

The lead guard looked confused for a moment, the shook his 
head slightly. "You'll need to come to the security 
office," he said.

"Of course," Corrin agreed, waving for the man to lead the 
way.

The corridors of the station weren't deserted, but they 
were strangely underpopulated. The station was a busy 
crossroad for the system, so there should have been a 
constant flow of bodies, both staff and visitors. The 
discrepancy was making Lando very nervous. A glance at Luke 
showed that the Jedi was equally uneasy. He was also pale 
and almost stumbling as he walked. Holding the ship 
together through the brief flight had obviously left him 
drained.

The lift moving between the levels of the station was large 
enough to carry heavy equipment, but the eight of them were 
the only passengers. Luke moved to the edge of the lift and 
leaned back against the wall. Lando took his hand and tried 
to will some of his own strength into the other man. Luke's 
eyes were closed, but he smiled slightly at the touch.

Lando was getting more and more uneasy the longer this went 
on. They hadn't been searched for weapons, or asked for any 
more details than they had already given. Perhaps Corrin 
was using some sort of Jedi mind trick to keep them from 
thinking about it, but Lando wasn't sure. Luke was very 
strong in the Force, but he couldn't remember the younger 
man ever using this sort of control against five at the 
same time. One mind or two, perhaps.

The lift glided to a stop, and Lando pushed away from the 
wall, surreptitiously checking to make sure that he could 
reach his blaster quickly. There wasn't really much of a 
plan from that point on except to try to reach the lady 
Luck and blast their way out, preferably without hurting 
anyone if they could avoid it. A simple plan that verged on 
impossible.

The doors hissed open and Lando realized that they were 
screwed.

"You are very difficult men to get a hold of," the official 
standing in the corridor said with a smile that showed more 
teeth than a Cairnhound. The hutt-sized man wasn't wearing 
the opulent robes he had at the gambling table, but the 
materials of his uniform-like outfit were just as rich, and 
there was no mistaking him. If nothing else, his scent gave 
him away; sickly-sweet, like something rotting in the hot 
sun.

"I hadn't realized that you were trying to reach us," Luke 
said mildly. "Did you try leaving a message at the resort?"

"Very amusing," the man said, his eyes fixed on Luke.

"So, what seems to be the problem?" Lando broke in, not 
liking the expression on the other man's face. "Having 
trouble finding a date, so you have to resort to 
kidnapping?"

The man's gaze turned  condescending when he turned to 
Lando. "You mistake me. I have no need of a 'date.' 
However, there are many markets where a Jedi, especially 
one as highly placed as General Skywalker, will bring a 
handsome price. As for you and your new friend," he added, 
waving a dismissive hand in Corrin's direction. "You have 
been sticking your nose in places where it does not belong. 
Very unfortunate for you."

Behind him, Lando could hear the hum of blasters powering 
up. He tensed, then dropped to his face when Corrin yelled 
"Now!"

The blaster bolts that were obviously intended to kill 
himself and Corrin passed harmlessly over their heads. 
Luke's 'saber was in his hand, and he deflected the bolts 
that came near him. The man next to him was not so lucky. 
One bolt only grazed his arm, but the other struck him dead 
center in the chest, with an emphasis on 'dead.' Luke waved 
his hand and the guards went flying.

In the confusion that followed, Lando scrambled to his feet 
and took off running on Luke's heels, Corrin right behind 
him. None of them doubted that pursuit would be coming, and 
fast.

"This way," Luke said, ducking down a side corridor.

Lando could hear the pounding of many feet coming after 
them. The guards had obviously recovered, and they'd been 
joined by friends. "Faster," he urged.

They turned another corner, and there was the blast door 
leading to the bay where the Lady Luck sat. Lando had never 
seen such a beautiful sight. He grinned and headed for the 
door, but Corrin grabbed his arm and held him back.

Lando opened his mouth to demand an explanation, then shut 
it when he saw what the other man had seen. "Shit," he 
whispered to himself.

A security barrier came down behind them, cutting off their 
pursuers, but it didn't do them much good because there was 
a matching barrier in front of them, barely visible as a 
red glow around the perimeter. So close and yet so far.

* * * * *

Luke stopped, trying not to give into the urge to despair. 
Despair was one of the dark emotions, he remembered Ben 
telling him. And that led to the Dark Side, a state he had 
not desire to revisit. Still, their position seemed 
hopeless.

They were trapped in a narrow corridor, escape in sight, 
and there was nothing they could do. There was no access to 
the security field's controls, and when he tossed a fruit 
he had slipped into his pocket before they had boarded the 
ship at the barrier, it was vaporized in an instant. No 
simple stun field, this one.

I guess this is it," Lando said wearily. He looked 
resigned, but not scared, and Luke drew strength from him. 
They had both faced death in the past, and if this was the 
time they didn't escape it, at least they could face it 
with dignity, knowing that they had done a lot of good over 
the years.

Security had caught up with them and stood on the other 
side of the barrier behind them. The expressions on their 
faces was not promising, and Luke lit his 'saber again. 
They might die, but they would not go down without a fight.

"Lando," Corrin said suddenly, still focused on the barrier 
in front of them. "Start your ship."

Lando frowned, then shrugged and obediently pulled out his 
remote. He pressed a sequence of buttons, and a moment 
later Luke heard the sound of the Lady Luck's engines 
starting up. "No what?" Lando asked, sticking the small 
device back into his pocket.

Corrin removed his lightsaber from his belt and handed it 
to Luke with a soft smile. Corrin turned briefly to glance 
at Lando. "Look after Luke," he said. Then he stepped 
forward.

"No!" Luke cried out, but Lando grabbed him and held him 
back from following as Corrin stepped into the field. The 
field flared brightly, and for a moment, Corrin stood 
there, haloed in bright blue. Luke could see the smile on 
the man's face clearly.

And then he was gone. For nothing. Behind them, Luke could 
hear one of the guards snickering, and he had to force down 
a wave of anger. Anger was of the dark side. Instead, he 
focused on the grief.

Then a soft glow formed like a cloud of gas, hovering in 
mid-air. There was a tiny flash of blue, then another, and 
another, each growing in intensity until it was if an 
electrical storm had been compressed into the corridor. 
Arcs of light hit the walls, creeping along until they 
reached the control panel for the security field and it 
exploded in a shower of sparks.

With that, the security field shorted out, but that was not 
the end. The lightning was spreading out even further, 
blocking them just as surely as the security field had. 
Lando was tugging on his arm, shouting that they needed to 
make a run for it, but Luke was frozen in place as one blue 
arc reached out towards him coming closer and closer until 
it brushed against his foot.

Immediately, it shot up his body, followed by the rest as 
if he had suddenly become a lightning rod. Electricity ran 
along his limbs, making them spasm, until it reached his 
head and his world exploded.

He might have screamed, but he couldn't tell. The Jedi 
Holocron had shown him images of the past, but that had 
been nothing like this. Thousands of years worth of images, 
memories, ran through his mind as he experienced Corrin's 
life as if it had been his own.

He saw the men and women of the ancient homeworld, living 
and dying long before the human race had even dreamed of 
reaching out to the stars. He saw times of back-breaking 
labor, but also joy that seemed all the more sweeter for 
it. He saw battles that sickened him with their ferocity, 
and yet it seemed to him that there was something more 
honest about swinging a sword and cutting into living 
flesh, seeing the life die from a man's eyes, than battles 
in space, when technology gave a distance that made war 
seem so... antiseptic.

The shock of the force assaulting him actually lifted him 
right off the ground, then dropped him to the hard deck 
beneath him. Lando pulled him to his feet, then stumbling 
down the hall, but Luke was oblivious. In his mind he was 
now seeing the first brave souls moving out beyond their 
world's atmosphere, taking their first steps to new worlds, 
new star systems. Some of those souls were Immortals, 
looking to leave the reach of the Game. Luke saw one of 
them clearly, tall and slender, with a strong nose and 
laughing eyes, and he knew this man was the one Corrin had 
told him of. The one who had seen what his kind could do, 
could become. And, somehow, it seemed that he saw Luke too.

Lando was buckling him into his seat on the Lady Luck, 
cursing a steady stream at Corrin and the syndicates both. 
Luke wanted to reassure him that he was all right, but he 
was beginning to shut down from information overload. So 
much he didn't know. So much that the stranger who wasn't a 
stranger needed to teach him.

The ancient immortal smiled in his mind. "Sleep. Learn," he 
said.

And they lurched away from the station into the blessed 
dark of space.

TO BE CONTINUED