Episode VI, Part IV

Han and Mace and Mina, who by now had rescued C-3PO and R2-D2, went to the central computer room of the Imperial Palace, where they sought to disable the shields of the Death Stars using the stolen codes.

The two Sith Lords guarding the entrance were no fools, and they had orders to attack any strangers on sight.

C-3PO and R2-D2 distracted them, and so allowed the heroes to overpower the Sith Lords. But the two droids were badly damaged. R2 in particular was wrecked almost fatally, and 3PO lost his left arm. (Think of Kane Starkiller having lost three of his limbs, all but the right arm, in the 1974 rough draft.)

Imminent death awaited R2-D2 if his mind was not transferred to another body soon.

Still, the guards were slain, and the room was breached, and the codes transmitted.

With the shields lowered, Akira Valorum, piloting the Millennium Falcon, and Marcus Whitsun, in his own silver starfighter, each respectively approached one of the half-finished Death Stars.

Marcus found some unexpected opposition: a Rebel starfighter, approaching fast, with its guns trained on him.

Heda Horus, knowing that the Death Stars would soon be destroyed if she did nothing, had decided to emulate her mentor and hero, Darth Vader, by taking personal command of a starfighter to intercept the Rebel pilots. She did Vader one better: she used Leia’s own X-wing to disguise her approach, while the rest of her squadron used ordinary Imperial craft.

But Marcus Whitsun was not deceived, for he knew that Imperial pilots had different tactical approaches to dogfighting than Rebels.

He fired on the X-wing’s engines, even as she fired at him. But, taken off guard, she only sheared off one of his starfighter’s wings.

And Heda Horus, her craft irreparably damaged, plunged toward the surface of Ton-Muund below.

She survived. But her hair was singed off, and her eyes blinded, in the crash; and she lost several teeth.

Old Annikin, back in the Third Clone War, had been smarter. In her childish vanity, Heda was proud of her hair, and refused to muss it by deigning to wear a helmet. Annikin, however, had seen enough battles by then to know it was worth following the Republic regulations for pilots, and so he came through his crash on Utapau with few facial scars to show for it.

(Remember GL's own car crash?)

Heda had not realized that the Rebels, with their increasing paucity of resources, could no longer even find enough parachutes for their pilots. But nor would she have cared overmuch, had she known; for the Imperial mentality held that starfighters were more precious than personnel.

As Heda plummeted to the planet below, Marcus flew into the core of the Death Star.

Across the raging void of disputed space, Akira Valorum had already done likewise.

The reborn Lando Kadar, who now realized the true goodness of Luke’s heart, was enraged at Leia’s attack.

He was weakened, and had lost his right hand. But he still had one lightsaber left, and one hand to wield it. So, even as Leia swung with her lightsabers at Luke, Lando used his own saber to block the blow.

A second duel resulted, one which Lando had no heart to fight. In an attempt to force Leia to back off, he swung his saber high at her. But, as he had hoped, she dodged the blow. Now Leia pressed on, and Lando knew he had no hope of out-dueling her in her madness. So he charged at Leia, and used his weight to fling them both bodily through the great glass window, down toward the lava fields of Condawn below.

But they did not die; instead, they landed on a rocky precipice overlooking the vast lava fields below. Lando was protected from the searing heat by his armored suit. But Leia’s clothing caught on fire, and her remaining hair was burned off.

Still, Lando had saved Leia from herself, and because they held fast to each other, they both lived. Even as she burned alive, he smothered the fire with his own cloak—though she bore the scars of it on her body to the end of her days.

And they realized their folly at last, and laughed at themselves. And Luke Starkiller, by now standing on his own two feet, extended his hands through the shattered window to help them both.

Luke’s hair and beard had not yet begun to whiten. But Lando’s hair was already beginning to go gray at the temples.

In the throne room of the Emperor, the slaves, led by Han and Mace and Mina, confronted Lord Pestage. They asked him to yield, so that they would not have to kill him and his kin.

The Emperor was unwilling to go out gracefully. He was angered by what the Rebels had done to his beloved homeworld; and in truth, he feared the wrath of the planet’s liberated underclass.

Lord Pestage’s finger hovered near a button on his throne—a red button, long hidden behind a secret panel, which in direst emergency would set in motion a chain reaction to destroy the entire planet.

The fingers of the former slaves tensed on their stolen guns.

Just as doom was about to fall on Ton-Muund, a woman appeared from a secret entrance, crying for mercy: Alana Organa, sister of Zunia, the Emperor’s most beloved concubine.

As one close to the Imperial royal family, Alana had been given prior warning of the impending destruction of Organa Major. So she spirited herself away, to live in seclusion with her brother-in-law, the Emperor, on Ton-Muund.

TENNO

She was still beautiful, and her red hair (in a Sith topknot) was not yet gray. After all, she had been given the finest life-extension treatments which the Emperor’s scientists could devise.

Now Alana bore a broken nose, and the Mark of the Sith was a black tattoo upon her forehead—for she had resisted only once, long ago on Sullust X.

/TENNO

TOMOE

She was still beautiful, and her dark hair (in a Sith topknot) was not yet gray. After all, she had been given the finest life-extension treatments which the Emperor’s scientists could devise.

Now Alana bore a broken nose, and the Mark of the Sith was a livid brand upon her forehead—for she had, in truth, never resisted, even long ago on Sullust X.

/TOMOE

(Basically, she’s Padme AND Thea von Harbou: Fritz Lang’s wife, author of the novel version of Metropolis, screenwriter of the film—and, subsequently, a Nazi Party member during Hitler’s rule. But, additionally, this whole scene is based in large part on Kriemhild/Gudrun’s intervention to stop Siegfried from fighting her brother Gunther in the Nibelungenlied, a moment memorably dramatized in Fritz Lang’s silent film Die Nibelungen.)

One of the startled Rebels fired at her, shooting for the heart. But because he was unaccustomed to wielding blasters, he shot her in the stomach, paralyzing her.

(“That’s not funny… that’s not…”)

And, as the Emperor saw his beloved sister-in-law lying wounded and in pain on the floor before his throne, his heart began at last to melt. He yielded to the Rebels, and gave up his signet ring, and let mercy reign for Alana’s sake.

R2-D2, whose old body was fast dying, was uploaded into the unused shell of a silver protocol droid, which allowed him at last to speak in a human voice.

Overhead, the torpedoes of Akira Valorum and Marcus Whitsun found their marks, and two Death Stars exploded.

TENNO

But on the way out, his spacecraft was shot and badly damaged by an Imperial fighter: the last of Heda Horus’ crack squadron. It was piloted by a droid, an ace even more talented than Heda—Mara Lamiya.

The Emperor had wanted a clone of the man he deemed the finest pilot in the galaxy: Luke Starkiller. But not enough of Luke’s DNA had come into their hands until his encounter with Vader on Kashyyyk.

It took several years to grow a clone body to maturity properly. So, rather than miss out on having a Luke of their own to fight in the Galactic Civil War, Lord Pestage ordered Darth Vader to do the next best thing: reconstruct Luke’s personality matrix, and put it into a droid.

It amused Vader to insert the matrix into a silver-plated, feminine-bodied protocol droid. But the newly christened Mara did not mind.

(In the 1975 second draft, C-3PO is one of the four-person crew in Luke’s starfighter when it destroys the Death Star.)

Faced with this new threat, Marcus returned the fire, and dealt a crippling blow—even as she did the same to him. Their spacecraft now spiraled down together toward the surface of Ton-Muund far below.

Marcus, using his own parachute, bailed out before the crash. He survived mostly unharmed—save for a badly burnt hand and a lesser burn on one cheek.

Mara did not fare as well in her crash as Marcus or Heda had.

She would have been destroyed in the inferno; but with the Emperor’s surrender, technicians were freed to get to her in time. They could do nothing for her broken chassis; but they uploaded her mind into a new golden body.

/TENNO

TOMOE

But on the way out, his spacecraft was shot and badly damaged by an Imperial fighter: the last of Heda Horus’ crack squadron. It was piloted by an ace, one in fact even more talented than Heda—Mara Lamiya.

The Emperor had wanted an equal to the man he deemed the finest pilot in the galaxy: Luke Starkiller. Mara was the pilot who best fitted the bill.

For Mara herself was Luke’s twin sister, hidden by Annikin Skywalker so many years ago. She had grown up on Ton-Muund, hidden among a noble family. But they failed in their charge, and went over to the Empire. Young Mara, innocently following her parents' lead, did likewise.

By virtue of her great skill in dogfights, Mara Lamiya earned a place second only to Admiral Horus in the Imperial starpilots’ battle roster.

Her heroism at the Second Battle of Yavin IV led to Mara becoming the youngest pilot ever to be decorated with the Golden Cross of the Empire.

She went to Kashyyyk in Lord Vader’s retinue, and there piloted one of the fighters that harried the Millennium Falcon in its escape. But she failed to stop them, because she was shot down.

She survived, thanks to her Ring, and walked away with few injuries, thanks to her helmet and her good sense to keep her golden hair boyishly short in pilot fashion. But her goggles had been pierced by a piece of shrapnel, and she lost an eye—which she replaced with a metallic silver one.

For her failure, Vader had taken away her Golden Cross, to “encourage” her and her fellow pilots to do better.

Now, she was determined to prove that she could. She wanted her medal back.

Marcus, using his own parachute, bailed out before the crash. He survived mostly unharmed—save for a badly burnt hand and a lesser burn on one cheek.

Mara’s crash was worse.

She would have been destroyed in the inferno; but with the Emperor’s surrender, medical technicians were freed to get to her in time. They could do nothing for her broken body; but they uploaded her mind into a bronze protocol droid body of feminine shape.

/TOMOE

Akira Valorum did not fare as well as Marcus, or Heda, or even Mara. Han Solo’s beloved ship, the Millennium Falcon, died that a galaxy might live.