On the Wings of Valkyrie

Chapter CXLV

Admiral Piett exited the turbolift and found himself, for the first time in many months, in the dark hall that housed doors to the offices and other personal chambers of Darth Vader and his apprentice. There were other rooms on the floor of course—two more sets of rooms separated from those of the Sith and prepared for their owners, whoever they may be. Piett had never seen them occupied until the day before, when Lady Eclipse had assigned Commander Skywalker one. The Admiral didn't know if the decision meant something or was simply done in the interest of decreasing possible discord between the Rebel and the rest of the crew. Regardless, he had no plans on asking.

Piett walked up to the door that led to the Dark Lady's office, pressing a button that would alert her to his presence outside. He'd made a mistake in not alerting the Commander before entering the Sith Lord's meditation chamber to give a report once, and while there had been no repercussions, the Admiral had no plans to replicate the experience. He was still trying to forget the image of what Lord Vader looked like with his helmet off. With it came thoughts of weakness and pity that Piett refused to associate with the man.

The officer waited for several moments, but the door remained closed. Deciding enough time had been allotted for anything that should not be seen to be taken care of, Piett opened the door. It was unlocked, a usual custom when the Lady was aboard as almost all datawork was to be on her desk prior to its destination on Lord Vader's (assuming it ever got to the Commander's, Piett had never said anything, but he was rather sure Lady Eclipse was basically Lord Vader's assistant, secretary, and whatever else all rolled into one). There was quite a pile up of the datawork, as evidenced by the fact that several stacks of datapads resting on the table were taller than Piett himself. Lady Eclipse, however, was not present.

The Admiral frowned at the development. Now, were he looking for Lord Vader and if this were the Dark Lord's office, Piett's next destination would have been the door to the Commander's meditation chamber or Lady Eclipse's office were she aboard at the time, but there weren't exactly back up locations for the Dark Lady herself. When not about the ship, with her Master, or in her office, she was often in her personal rooms.

And you couldn't pay anyone aboard the Executor enough money to dare enter the Lady's personal chambers, with or without her presence and permission. Needless to say, Piett didn't care if the door was unlocked, he wasn't bothering.

Of course, at this stage of the day, he would expect the Lady to be well awake and, considering the load on her desk, not relaxing. Not that he was even sure she did relax. Perhaps the training room? It was worth a try.

Piett exited the empty office and went further down the corridor to a different door. He opened it without preamble and was met with chaos personified. The Admiral had limited experience with lightsabers, and thus was rather unfamiliar with the wide range of sound the rare weapon could emit at any point. However, he could now say with certainty that he knew what it would, in general, sound like to listen to a duel between Force users. He could also say, with a greater degree of certainty, that he wished for no part in said duel. The two sabers, green and purple, moved in blurs, making the glowing weapons appear more like a fan rather than blade, snapping violently when impacting the opposing color. A new sound came about when the dancing light of electricity met one of the moving fans, more of a sizzling than a snap. The lightning, like the blades, were different colors—green against purple or gray against green. The wielders moved at either near or perfectly inhuman speeds, enough so that it took the man a moment to recognize Luke Skywalker and even longer to finally take a guess at the Jedi's adversary, though Piett had hardly managed the guess before the two duelist stilled, blades locked in a contest of strength and wills.

"What is it, Admiral?" Lady Eclipse questioned, sounding a bit out of breath though appearing not nearly as overworked as Commander Skywalker. Her mask was off and, unlike with Vader, said mask did not appear to be hiding much of anything. The officer wasn't exactly shocked by her appearance—Piett had seen her holo on the wanted list in the past months—but it was still odd. Perhaps even made more so by the fact her voice sounded so different without the mask, less harsh.

Piett shook himself from his musings: "M'lady, there is a ship hailing us by the name of Tantive IV. It has transmitted your clearance codes and requested permission for docking."

"Granted," she stated, breaking out of the blade lock and sending the Jedi on the defensive before the two were trapped in another contest of strength. Piett took the pause as a signal to continue.

"The pilot has asked to meet with you upon arrival. I was requested to say: The Rebellion rides on the wings of Valkyrie." The Admiral figured it was a code phrase of some description. He had heard of the Rebellion's newest warrior many times before—Valkyrie had the distinction of being the second most wanted female on the Empire's hit list, just behind Lady Eclipse herself. Considering current company, Piett wouldn't have been surprised if said Rebel agent was about to join Commander Skywalker on the Executor's unexpected guests list.

"Sounds important," the Rebel commented through gritted teeth, desperately trying to win the lock despite the position he'd been trapped in that gave Lady Eclipse the advantage. "What's it mean?"

"Trouble," Lady Eclipse answered, a minute frown forming on her otherwise expressionless features.

"Draw?" the Jedi asked, sounding hopeful. In a quick movement of black and purple accompanied by a rather hard sounding thump, Commander Skywalker was laying on the floor, green saber nowhere in the vicinity with Lady Eclipse's blade at his throat. The Rebel groaned: "You win. Again. Go easy on your big brother, will you?"

"We aren't related, I was born over a decade before you, and that's a fast track way of getting you killed," the Lady deadpanned, deactivating her blade and returning it to her belt before heading towards Piett. Something black came flying at her, and she caught it in her hand, bringing it up to her face. "Come on," she stated as she placed the object—her mask, the Admiral realized as the modifier started altering the tone and pitch of her voice even as she spoke, "if Ahsoka's using that, then you'll need to hear it too. Admiral, have you prepared the transmission relays as I asked?"

"Not yet, m'Lady," Piett admitted. It had been rather late when she had ordered the preparation of a holocomm relay to some planet called Minerva. She hadn't made it sound urgent, but he'd been working under Sith long enough to know once something was mentioned, it better be ready by the time they asked about it again. For Lord Vader, such time limits were hours at best; for Lady Eclipse, the expectations were a tad more humane, thus the Admiral had been a slight bit lax on making sure the holocomm was ready within eight hours considering all the other tasks he'd needed to complete. "They should be online soon."

"Get them up before the meeting is finished. I will have to relay this to my Master." The words Lord Vader does not permit delays need not be said.

"Consider it done, my Lady."

~*~

They were approaching a turning point, Luna could feel it in her bones, in her soul. And she didn't like it. Not one bit.

Mostly because she currently did not like what she was sensing from Ahsoka over their bond. It wasn't exactly a strong bond by any means, but it was enough for Luna to know there was no way in the galaxy she was going to like the news that her friend was bringing them.

Not that hadn't been obvious with the phrase Piett had used. It simply could not be good. In no universe could it be good, not with the context it was to be used under.

A door opened, allowing Luna to see Ahsoka waiting on the other side, and the girl felt her heart drop. And if that weren't bad enough, just behind her, she felt a ripple of shock as Luke gasped, as though he'd been hit by a stun bolt. Even as he did so, she watched Ahsoka go through a similar reaction, as though they had both felt something.

However, Luna, no matter how she searched the Force, felt nothing.