On the bridge of the Executor, Darth Vader approached an assembly of six bizarre figures. Each had Vader’s clearance to be on the Executor, but none were entirely welcome.

“Bounty hunters,” Admiral Piett muttered to two Imperial controllers on the bridge’s lower level. “We don’t need that scum.”

“Yes, sir,” agreed one controller.

“Those Rebels won’t escape us,” Piett added as he turned away from the controllers. He was immediately distracted by a growl from above. He looked up to see one of the bounty hunters, a tall humanoid reptilian whose long, clawed arms stuck out from an ill-fitting flight suit, which Piett guessed had once belonged to a human pilot. The hunter stared down from the upper level and bared his fangs at Piett.

Piett stared back, hesitant to make a move that the creature might interpret as sudden. But the staring contest came to an end when another controller approached Piett and said, “Sir, we have a priority signal from the Star Destroyer Avenger.”

“Right,” Piett answered as he tore his gaze from the hunter and followed the controller to a console.

The menacing reptilian’s name was Bossk, and he remained standing at the edge of the bridge’s upper level while Darth Vader surveyed the other bounty hunters. There was Dengar, a brutal-looking man with a bandaged head who wore Imperial surplus armor; IG-88, an assassin droid that resembled nothing more than an ambulatory arsenal; Zuckuss, an insectlike alien whose face was partially concealed by a breathing mask, and his partner 4-Lom, a late-model protocol droid.

Finally, there was the hunter who was widely regarded as the most dangerous of all: Boba Fett.

Fett was clad in old green battle armor that he wore over a pale gray reinforced double-layer flight suit. His head was completely concealed by a green helmet with a T-shaped macrobinocular viewplate and a retractable targeting rangefinder that allowed him to view his surroundings without turning his head. He carried numerous concealed weapons, and openly clutched a late-model modified EE-3 blaster rifle. On his back, he wore a missile-firing jetpack.

All the bounty hunters listened as Darth Vader said, “There will be a substantial reward for the one who finds the Millennium Falcon. You are free to use any methods necessary, but I want them alive.” Vader extended a black-gloved finger at Boba Fett and stressed, “No disintegrations.”

“As you wish,” Fett said, his voice a nasty rasp. He was already on retainer for Jabba the Hutt, the Tatooine-based gangster who’d placed a bounty on Han Solo. Jabba also wanted the Falcon’s captain alive, so Fett had no intention of killing him. If he did the job right, he would be rewarded by the Empire and the Hutt.

Boba Fett had another reason for wanting to capture Solo. Until recently, he’d had a perfect record for getting the job done. Any job, no matter how dirty or tough. But several weeks earlier, Fett had made a mistake: Another assignment had left him temporarily unable to follow a tip on Solo’s whereabouts, so he’d subcontracted Dengar, Bossk, and another bounty hunter named Skorr to search for Solo. The hunters not only found and captured Solo, but delivered him to the planet Ord Mantell, where Fett had arranged to meet them. But shortly after Boba Fett arrived on Ord Mantell, Skorr was dead—and Han Solo was gone.

Both Dengar and Bossk had failed enough bounty hunts to assure that neither would ever have a perfect record, but Boba Fett was different. He had his reputation to maintain.

Darth Vader turned as an excited Admiral Piett ascended to the upper level. “Lord Vader!” Piett said. “My lord, we have them.”

The Avenger had the Millennium Falcon on the run. The destroyer fired lasers at the smaller ship, which weaved to evade not only the blasts from behind but the few asteroids that remained in its path.

Inside the Falcon’s cockpit, Leia and C-3PO sat in the rear seats and watched nervously as Han and Chewbacca prepared for the jump to hyperspace. Glancing out the cockpit window, the droid said, “Oh, thank goodness we’re coming out of the asteroid field.”

“Let’s get out of here,” Han said. “Ready for lightspeed?” He reached for the throttle. “One…two…three!”

On “three,” Han pulled back on the throttle. Outside the cockpit, the view of distant stars remained unchanged. Again.

“It’s not fair!” Han protested.

Leia rolled her eyes and gaped. Chewbacca whimpered and raised his furry hands in defeat.

“The transfer circuits are all working,” Han said, then insisted, “It’s not my fault!”

Leia couldn’t believe it. “No lightspeed?”

“It’s not my fault,” Han said again.

Suddenly, the Falcon was slammed hard as Imperial laserfire struck the stern.

C-3PO glanced at a sensor scope and said, “Sir, we just lost the main rear deflector shield. One more direct hit on the back quarter and we’re done for.”

Han looked to Chewbacca and said, “Turn her around.”

Chewbacca barked in puzzlement.

“I said turn her around!” Han said, jumping out of his seat to throw a set of switches on the cockpit wall. “I’m going to put all power in the front shield.”

“You’re going to attack them?!” Leia said with alarm as Han jumped back behind the controls.

When Han didn’t reply, C-3PO informed him, “Sir, the odds of surviving a direct assault on an Imperial Star Destroyer—”

“Shut up!” Leia shouted.

Han banked hard to port, then made a steep, twisting turn. In the next moment, the Falcon was racing toward the infinitely more powerful Destroyer.

Standing on the Avenger’s bridge, watching the Falcon through the viewport, Captain Needa couldn’t believe his eyes. “They’re moving to attack position!” he exclaimed. “Shields up!”

The Star Destroyer’s laser cannons fired at the oncoming ship, but none hit their target. From Needa’s position, it looked like the Falcon was coming straight for the bridge.

Out of pure human reflex, Needa and his men ducked as the Rebel ship roared past the viewport. But instead of the expected collision, there was suddenly silence. Needa looked out the viewport.

The Falcon was nowhere to be seen.

Needa turned to the tracking officer and ordered, “Track them. They may come around for another pass.”

The tracking officer checked his console screen, then said, “Captain Needa, the ship no longer appears on our scopes.”

“They can’t have disappeared,” Needa said. “No ship that small has a cloaking device.”

Consulting his screen again, the tracking officer said, “Well, there’s no trace of them, sir.”

The Avenger’s communications officer looked up from his console. “Captain, Lord Vader demands an update on the pursuit.”

Needa drew a breath, then turned to his first officer and said, “Get a shuttle ready. I shall assume full responsibility for losing them and apologize to Lord Vader. Meanwhile, continue to scan the area.”

“Yes, Captain Needa,” said the officer.

As Captain Needa left the bridge and headed for the shuttle hangar, the Avenger changed course to rendezvous with the Imperial fleet.

On Dagobah, Luke’s muscles strained as his palms pressed against the dry mud. He was standing on his hands, with his legs extended up into the air and Yoda perched on his right foot. Then Luke slowly lifted his right hand and felt his weight shift down the length of his left arm.

Still balanced on Luke’s foot, Yoda instructed, “Use the Force, yes. Now…the stone.”

A short distance from Luke, two rocks rested in the dirt. Luke stared at them and concentrated. One of the rocks lifted from the ground.

“Feel it,” Yoda intoned.

And even though Luke wasn’t touching the rock, he could sense its texture and weight. It’s dry on the top, slick on the bottom…not heavy at all. The rock hovered, then came to a gentle rest on the other.

R2-D2 was standing at the water’s edge, watching Luke and Yoda with fascination, when he heard a bubbling noise from behind. The astromech rotated his domed head and saw the source of the sound: Luke’s X-wing was rapidly sinking into the mucky water.

The little droid beeped frantically, distracting Luke.

“Concentrate!” Yoda scolded, but it was too late. The upper rock slid off the lower, and Luke collapsed, sending Yoda tumbling across the ground. Luke rose quickly and hurried over to R2-D2, who was now chirping wildly. Luke watched his ship sink under the water until only the upper starboard wing remained visible above the surface.

“Oh, no,” Luke said. “We’ll never get it out now.”

“So certain are you,” Yoda replied. He had righted himself from the fall to sit facing Luke, and he wore an expression of mild contempt. “Always with you it cannot be done. Hear you nothing that I say?”

“Master, moving stones around is one thing,” Luke said, then gestured to the X-wing. “This is totally different.”

“No!” Yoda said. “No different! Only different in your mind. You must unlearn what you have learned.”

“All right,” Luke said. “I’ll give it a try.”

“No!” Yoda protested fiercely. “Try not. Do. Or do not. There is no try.”

Luke turned his body to face the water. He closed his eyes as he extended his right hand, aiming his outstretched fingers at the submerged X-wing. He concentrated.

He sensed the X-wing’s dimensions and sharp contours, felt the weight of the ship and the water’s pressure against its hull. Was the starfighter underwater so different from a small rock on dry land? Eyes still closed, Luke felt a stirring from within, and knew the X-wing was rising.

As the starfighter’s nose lifted from the muck, Yoda’s eyes went wide with anticipation. But then Luke grimaced…It’s too big…too heavy…and the X-wing sank again.

Looking defeated and drained, Luke turned away from the shore and dropped to the ground beside Yoda. He told the Jedi Master, “I can’t.” Then he added, “It’s too big.”

“Size matters not,” Yoda said. “Look at me. Judge me by my size, do you? Mm?”

Luke shook his head.

“Mmmm,” Yoda murmured. “And well you should not. For my ally is the Force. And a powerful ally it is. Life creates it, makes it grow. Its energy surrounds us and binds us. Luminous beings are we…” He pinched Luke’s shoulder. “…not this crude matter.”

Yoda made a sweeping gesture and continued, “You must feel the Force around you. Here, between you…me…the tree…the rock…everywhere! Yes, even between the land and the ship!”

Thoroughly discouraged, Luke said, “You want the impossible.” He got up and started to walk away.

Yoda sighed. Slowly, he bowed his head and closed his eyes. Then he raised his small right hand in the direction of the sunken X-wing.

The starfighter began to rise again.

R2-D2 watched the displaced water flow off the starfighter as it lifted from the swamp. Long strands of moss and weeds dangled from the ship as it rose higher. The little droid began beeping wildly.

Luke heard R2-D2’s cries and turned back. The X-wing was hovering high over the water’s surface. He looked to Yoda, then back to the X-wing. The ship slowly traveled through the air, then descended to land on an area of moss-covered ground.

Luke examined the starfighter, brushing some muck from its hull to convince himself this wasn’t another hallucination. The X-wing was real, all right. Luke turned back to Yoda. He knelt before the Jedi Master and gasped, “I don’t…I don’t believe it.”

With a touch of sadness in his voice, Yoda said, “That is why you fail.”