minute,” C-3PO said, “Where are you going?” Aleu peeked out from her hiding place and watched the two droids exit. She thought, “Unless that R2 unit delivers my message, all will be lost!”

As stormtroopers and captured wolves marched by, Darth Balto stood in the consular ship’s operations forum and wraped his black-gloved paw around the neck of the Tantive IV’s commanding officer, Captain Ninju. Balto was about to proceed with the interrogation when Kaltag rushed up and announced, “The Death Star plans are not in the main computer.”

Balto turned his visor to gaze at Ninju. “Where are those transmissions you intercepted?” the Sith Lord asked as he lifted Ninju off the floor. Balto was losing his patience. “What have you done with those plans?” (Balto’s voice sounds exactly like Darth Vader’s.) 

Ninju gasped, “We intercepted no transmissions. Aaah…this is a consular ship. We’re on a diplomatic mission.” Ninju was about 1 foot off the ground dangling by his neck.

Tightening his grip, Balto asked “If this is a consular ship…where is the ambassador?”

When no answer came from Ninju, Balto decided that the interrogation was over. A horrid crushing sound came from Ninju’s neck, then his body went limp. Ninju’s neck broke. Balto tossed the dead wolf’s body against the wall, Ninju’s impact left a nice dent in the wall. Balto turned to Kaltag and his troops.

“Commander,” Balto ordered, “Tear this ship apart until you’ve found those plans…and bring me the passengers. I want them alive!” The stormtroopers marched off to search the ship.

Soon, a squad arrived at the adumbral port subhallway and moved quietly down its length. It didn’t take long for a stormtrooper to spot Aleu’s gray fur in the white-walled chamber.

There’s one.” said the trooper as he raised his blaster rifle. “Set for stun.”

Aleu stepped out from her hiding place, raising her blaster pistol, and fired at the nearest stormtrooper, her blaster was not set on stun, and the fire projectile punched through her target’s armor, dropping him instantly. Aleu turned to run but another stormtrooper fired a paralyzing ray at her back. Aleu was hit and went sprawling to the floor.

The stormtrooper squad stepped over to inspect Aleu’s inert body. “She’ll be alright.” said the squad leader, “Inform Lord Balto that we have a prisoner.”

The sound of blasterfire from the subhallway reached C-3PO as he followed R2-D2 through the adjoining escape pod access tunnel. C-3PO had thought R2-D2 was heading for the next chamber, so he was surprised when he saw the astromech stop, turn, and open the hatch to an escape pod.

“Hey you’re not permitted in there,” C-3PO said. “It’s restricted. You’ll be deactivated for sure.”

R2-D2 moved into the escape pod and beeped back at the golden plated droid.

“Don’t you call me a mindless philosopher, you overweight glob of grease!” C-3PO reported. “Now come out before someone sees you.”

R2-D2 remained in the pod and whistled at C-3PO. “Secret mission?” C-3PO asked, baffled. “What plans? What are you talking about? I’m not getting in there!”

Yet another explosion rocked the ship, violently rattling C-3PO’s metal joints. Without further hesitation, the golden droid stumbled through the open hatch and into the pod. “I’m going to regret this.” He said, as he entered the pod. The hatch snapped shut behind the droids. Then there was a muffled explosion as the pod’s latches blew away and the pod ejected from the Tantive IV. The pod’s rocket engines propelled it out of the Star Destroyer’s main hanger and into space.

The ejected escape pod didn’t go unnoticed by the Imperials. On board the Devastator, the chief pilot of the Star Destroyer, a husky, saw the pod’s image streak across his main view screen.

The chief pilot said, “There goes another one.”

But the Devastator’s captain, a wolf, had already checked his sensor scopes and ordered, “Hold your fire. There’s no life-forms. It must have short-circuited.”

The pod continued to plummet away from the Star Destroyer. Inside the pod, C-3PO peered through the small circular window that was the vessel’s single view port. Gazing back at the rapidly receding view of the Tantive IV within the Star Destroyer’s main hanger, he commented, “That’s funny, the damage doesn’t look as bad from out here.”

R2-D2 beeped an assuring response.

“Are you sure this thing is safe?” C-3PO said, unconvinced.

Soon, even the Star Destroyer was just a distant speck, from the droids’ perspective. And the escape pod kept falling, all the way to the harsh surface of Tatooine.

After the stormtroopers revived Aleu, they placed binders on her wrists and escorted her through the Tantive IV. Aleu couldn’t help but notice that the white-walled corridors were now scorched and the air was filled with the sent of blaster fumes. The ship she had received from her father as a tiny pup…was now wrecked.

Darth Balto and dressed in a black Imperial officer’s uniform was Kaltag, stepped out through an open hatch and entered the corridor in front of the stormtroopers with Aleu. The stormtroopers stopped walking, and Aleu faced the Sith Lord.

“Darth Balto,” Aleu said, “Only you could be so bold. The Imperial Senate will not sit still for this. When the hear you’ve attacked a diplomatic—“

“Don’t act so surprised, your Highness,” Balto interrupted. “You weren’t on any mercy mission this time. Several transmissions were beamed to this ship by Rebel spies. I want to know what happened to the plans they sent you.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Aleu said, feigning innocence. “I’m a member of the Talbourne clan, on a diplomatic mission to Alderaan!”

Balto pointed a paw at her. “You are part of the Rebel Alliance, and a traitor.” Balto snarled. “Take her away!”

As the stormtroopers led Aleu out of the Tantive IV and onto the Star Destroyer, Balto and Kaltag turned to continue their inspection of the Rebel ship. As they walked down a long white-walled hallway leading to an intersection, Kaltag said, “Holding Aleu is dangerous. If word of this gets out it could provide sympathy for the Rebellion in the Senate.”

“I have traced the Rebel spies to her,” Balto said. “Now she is my only link to finding their secret base.”

Walking faster to keep up with Balto’s long strides, Kaltag added, “She’ll die before she’ll tell you anything.”

Leave that to me,” Balto said. “Send a distress signal. Then inform the Senate that all aboard were killed.”

As Balto and Kaltag arrived at the corridor intersection, Imperial commander Star stopped them and said, “Lord Balto, battle station plans are not aboard this ship, and no transmissions were made. An escape pod was jettisoned during the fighting, but no life-forms were aboard.”

Balto seethed. He said, “She must have hidden the plans in the escape pod. Send a detachment down to retrieve them. See to it personally, Commander. There’ll be no one to stop us this time.”

“Yes, sir.” Star said.

Balto stepped to a viewport and gazed down at the sand planet. He thought about Tatooine, Nome…and Jenna. “To think I lived in Nome…that was my home before the Jedi came and took me and Boris away. My mother breathed her last breath on Tatooine, and for years I felt such…agonizing loss. I still had Jenna…Jenna…the love of my life. The one dog that loved me for me, not because I was a hero. Then in my anger…I killed her, and I could never forgive myself and I never will. I was also going to be a father, but I guess that will never happen again. I’m so sorry, Jenna. That was a while ago. Now I feel nothing, this planet means as much to me as a speck of dust, and all of its inhabitants might as well be dust, too.” The Devastator set course for the Death Star.

Chapter 2 — Tatooine

”How did we get into this mess?” C-3PO said. “I really don’t know how.” He and R2-D2 were trudging down a deep sand dune, and sand was already getting into his gears. C-3PO sighed. “We seem to be made to suffer. It’s our lot in life.”

The droid glanced behind him. His footprints and R2’s treadmarks extended all the way back to the landed escape pod, which was still in sight where they’d left it. Had there been a less sand spot to land on Tatooine, R2-D2 might have steered for it, but since Tatooine was a desert world, R2-D2 had two choices: sandy desert of treacherous rock formations. R2-D2 wisely opted for sand, and beeped at C-3PO to remind him of this, but the golden droid wasn’t listening.

“I’ve got to rest before I fall apart,” C-3PO said, trying to remember the last time he had a bath. “My joints are almost frozen.”

R2-D2 beeped, encouraging C-3PO to keep moving. C-3PO ignored him again and stopped to look around. There was a rock mesa to his right