CHAPTER 11

He tried to restrain his pacing. He really did. At least since he noticed he was the subject of amusement for the entire bridge crew. Vader had never experienced such emotion coming from his men. They had all been properly fearful of him, avoiding catching his eye or his attention for the first part of their journey. After their first task had been completed, and before they could make the next jump an urgent message arrived from Coruscant. They had expected a change of orders, or a message from the Emperor himself and instead stole glances at the man in lieutenant uniform who was informing Lord Vader that someone had gone missing. Strangely enough the person appeared to have escaped from Vader's castle. So they had all continued to tinker at their stations, while Vader paced impatiently and the Assailant hung in space, waiting.

Finally, after what seamed like hours, an incoming call was received. Eager for news about the escapee, the crew, as discreetly as possible, craned their necks towards the flatscreen displaying the caller. Instead of the lieutenant, or a prisoner spewing curses, they were treated to the image of a blond mop of hair and a pair of sleepy blue eyes that still managed an enthusiastic: 'Hi, Dad!'

Vader could have hit his head against the wall. He couldn't say if it was for relief or annoyance.

'Where were you?' straight to the point, not letting either emotion seep through.

'I kinda lost track of the time looking at some sketches.'

Vader could feel his skepticism was received unaltered at the other end of the transmission.

'On level 15. I found an unlocked doo…' Luke faltered, wondering if he should rephrase that; his father would know the truth and he was in enough trouble already…

Vader however had heard enough and from what he knew of his son, could tell exactly which 'open' door and the room behind it had caught Luke's attention.

'Make sure it stays closed until I return and listen to lieutenant Max. I don't want to receive any more emergency calls.'

'Ok. Bye Dad!'

'And get some sleep!' he added before he could stop himself. In front of him, a waving Luke was replaced with the image of space outside.

Vader started pacing, his annoyance gone. Behind him he could feel the amusement, shock and sympathy of the crew.

Vader had always loved the stars, the sight of them stretched beyond the view of whatever ship he was on. They had sung out to him with countless possibilities, emotion, adventure, but mostly they had sung out with life. It had been a long time since he allowed himself to experience these feelings. The sight that had calmed and reassured him for years had become nothing more than a way to distance himself from others as he stared at them without truly seeing them.

Since Luke had entered his life he had allowed himself to experience this small pleasure, one of the few still accessible to him. And now, even they had lost their shine – to Luke. Vader could remember another face he had preferred to see. He knew his attachment to his son was already unbreakable. No matter what Luke would do, no matter what he chose to become he would always be Vader's son, a son he wanted by his side. But this was something deeper than caring and more dangerous: Vader knew he loved Luke with all his heart, and that his son was fast becoming the center of his universe. And that could prove to be very dangerous – especially to Luke.

In his private office, Palpatine scowled at the report from his agent aboard the Assailant. Not having access to the bridge he didn't know the reason for the several hour delay before the ship's second jump. He did mention that a series of highly encrypted calls had been made, after a first received message of unknown origin. It angered Palpatine that the agent wasn't able to decipher the codes. It wasn't curiosity, for the Emperor knew with certainty that the first call had been sent from Vader's own castle on Coruscant and that the subject of the exchange was Vader's son.

Exactly what the brat had done Palpatine didn't care to know, what he did care was that it had been enough to distract Vader from his duty. A duty which would be carried out to the desired conclusion, in the required time frame, but in this case Palpatine cared for more than just the final result. It angered him that Vader had taken into his head to play father. The Emperor knew one of his servant's greatest failings was the stubbornness with which he pursued the path of his choosing.

He had known, years before, that once Skywalker decided to find his missing wife he would let nothing stand in his path and be willing to move mountains to achieve his goal. Which is exactly what he had done. Followed her trail which led to the very Jedi who had denied their help in locating one of their most outspoken supporters in the Senate. The beauty of it was that Palpatine himself hadn't needed to lift a finger to ensure Skywalker's turn against the Order. To him it had been obvious that the Jedi, aware of the relationship between Amidala and their Chosen One, and considering the implications of her pregnancy, would have decided to remove her from Skywalker's life the only way possible. One innocent comment to Master Windu regarding the senator's declining health had made even the oblivious Jedi aware of her condition, and paired with an equally innocent question about Amidala's only close relationship being her 'friendship' with Skywalker had been enough. A week before Skywalker and Kenobi returned from the Outer Rim the meddlesome senator had disappeared never to be seen again. Skywalker's outrage when he returned to find her gone had been a thing of beauty. And his absolute rage when a distressed Motee had informed him Amidala was with child sent chills down his spine. It was surprisingly easy to take that betrayal and blow things out of proportion. Before long Palpatine had to enlist Skywalker's help to 'save' the Republic from the Jedi that were planning to take over. And while his best legion was 'containing' the rebellion at the Jedi Temple, and Skywalker was disposing of the Separatists on Mustafar the Republic came to its long awaited death, only to make room for the first Galactic Empire.

If only the miserable Jedi had been more proactive and killed the senator and her brat. By that time Anakin Skywalker was out of control, and Palpatine was enjoying the destruction wrought by his protégé. But, of course, Jedi did not like to waste potential, especially since the war had diminished their numbers. The boy could be trained to be a Sith now, but for all the patience the Emperor had exhibited in gaining absolute power, he had none left for educating a child. Maybe if he lived to adulthood, Palpatine would reconsider his decision and train him. However, his experience with the previous Skywalker and the boy's interfering with Vader's duty made the Emperor suspect it wouldn't be long until he killed the boy out of sheer annoyance.

Over the next days Luke sat at his terminal browsing the Holonet in search of starships. He already had a number of favorites the designs of which he planned on studying in greater detail. But for that he needed his father. Although Luke thought he had a good basic knowledge he couldn't understand most of the schematics or how certain improvements on the design affected the model's performance. Luke had tried showing the schematics to Max but the lieutenant had no experience in this field so he was no help at all. What he did was suggest Luke borrow an astromech droid from the hangar and get him to explain. So far that had proven to be another failure. Most droids didn't even pay attention to him, and others had no idea how to explain anything. That left Luke eagerly awaiting his father's return.

AN

This chapter comes with the story of how Anakin became Vader. As I mentioned before there are several differences between Journey and cannon, which I don't want to edit. My own version of ROTS is somewhat close to the official one, mainly because I waited for Episode 3 both for inspiration and to decide on the finer details. That being said:

- Padme disappears before Palpatine is abducted by Dooku and Anakin doesn't have nightmares of her dying in childbirth

- the war lasts for another 2 years

- Anakin discovers the Jedi are responsible for Padme's disappearance and that Palpatine is a Sith

- he doesn't participate in the massacre at the Temple but ends up fighting Obi-Wan on Mustafar