Rise of the Teenage Conquerors

Episode 1.34

Lando, joined by Leia, took Luke into the hold to tend to his arm while Lumina, Ben, and Leana headed back to the cockpit. Chewbacca barked a tense greeting as they entered.

"Where is Lucas?" Leana demanded, rounding on the other two. "What happened to him?"

Ben and Lumina hurriedly told the story, about how Lucas had stolen Vader's lightsaber back on Hoth and how that had led to the Sith Lord ordering him frozen in carbonite and taken to the Executor. "But that also could have been for his offense against protected music," Ben mused, narrowing his eyes thoughtfully.

Leana just gave him a bewildered stare. "What?"

Lumina waved it off. "Lando contacted Lobot and found out that Lucas has indeed reached the Executor. I don't know how we're going to reach them...." She trailed off, her brow pinched in concentration. "Wait, that's it. That's it!" Spinning to face Leana and Ben, Lumina's expression was formed in an eager expression, her hands gesturing wildly. "We surrender. We surrender to the Empire."

"Uh, Lu?" Ben voiced. "Does that have to be our plan or is there, like, a Plan B or something?"

Lumina sighed in exasperation. "Don't you see? Surrendering is the only way we'll be able to get into the Executor's hangar bay. Vader wants Luke alive; therefore, he'll willingly take the Falcon unharmed. That was his plan in the movie, remember? They were going to take the Falcon, board, and use stun blasts to take prisoners. And that was by force. If we just surrender, we'll get brought into the hangar bay, or at the very least docked on the underside of the Executor. It's our only option to get Lucas back."

Leana and Ben exchanged a glance. It may be crazy, but Leana knew Lumina was right. It was the only way to get to Lucas.

"I'm in," she said.

"So am I," Ben nodded. "We just got have a really good plan, Lu, or this whole thing will end badly."

****

"Surrendering?" The Imperial on the comm channel repeated, sounding just as surprised as Lando, Leia, and Chewbacca had been to learn of Lumina's plan. "Why?"

"What do you mean, why?" Lumina snapped into the comm, leaning over Lando in order to do so. "We're surrendering, dammit! You shouldn't care why!"

"Well," the officer said slowly. "It's just that you guys made such an effort to escape – why would you surrender after escaping Imperial custody?"

"Hold it," Lando said, frowning. "Do you not want us to surrender?"

"No, no, that's not it," the Imperial assured them. "I'm just confused. For all you know, you could go into hyperspace right now and be away from us."

"What does he mean, for all we know?" Leia repeated.

"The hyperdrive wasn't fixed," Leana told her briskly.

"Well, we've received new information," Lumina said to the controller. "We've decided to surrender!"

"Okay, okay," the Imperial said, sounding flustered. "Please hold."

The group exchanged glances, Lumina tapping her fingers quickly on the console. Leana could feel the tension emanating off every single one of them. They had gone over their plan, but there were so many things that could go wrong. So many things that probably would go wrong.

"Sending hangar coordinates to you now," the Imperial said finally, causing all of them to jump. "A TIE fighter squadron will escort you in, to ensure you don't try anything funny."

"Guess I'll just cancel my standup routine, then," Ben said. Despite herself, Leana covered her mouth with her hand to restrain a laugh. "You know, I've always wondered why Imperials wear grey uniforms. I mean, what's up with that? They all want to wear drab colors, as if to show how boring they are. It attracts all the boring people. It makes people think they don't have a sense of humor. I mean, it's so depressing."