After the Avenger met up with the Imperial fleet, Captain Needa traveled by shuttle to board the Executor. Minutes later, on the Executor’s bridge, Captain Needa spoke the words that would be his last. As Vader choked him from afar, he clutched desperately at his throat. But it was no use. He dropped to his knees, lifted his head, and tried to rise, then collapsed at the feet of Darth Vader.

Vader said, “Apology accepted, Captain Needa.”

As two black-uniformed Imperial soldiers lifted Needa’s lifeless body and carried it from the bridge, the Sith Lord walked to the nearby command console, where Admiral Piett and his aides were examining data. Seeing Vader approach, Piett stepped away from his console and stood at attention.

“Lord Vader,” Piett said, “our ships have completed their scan of the area and found nothing. If the Millennium Falcon went into lightspeed, it’ll be on the other side of the galaxy by now.”

“Alert all commands,” Vader said. “Calculate every possible destination along their last known trajectory.”

“Yes, my lord,” Piett said. “We’ll find them.”

Vader loomed over Piett and warned, “Don’t fail me again, Admiral.”

Piett swallowed hard, then turned to an aide and ordered, “Alert all commands. Deploy the fleet.”

The Millennium Falcon’s possible destination routes were quickly computed by the Imperials. As the Executor and Star Destroyers prepared to leave the area, every Imperial helmsman, navigator, controller, and technician kept their keen eyes on their consoles and monitors. And because all sensors had already indicated the Falcon had vanished from the sector, not one Imperial soldier thought to look out a window.

But even if anyone had looked directly at the port aft of Avenger’s command tower, they might not have immediately spotted the Millennium Falcon, which rested flat against the destroyer’s hull, right where Han Solo had landed it. Because of the Falcon’s faded white exterior, the Corellian transport blended right in with the Imperial ship.

“Captain Solo, this time you have gone too far,” C-3PO said from his seat behind Chewbacca in the cockpit.

Chewbacca growled at the golden droid. C-3PO answered, “No, I will not be quiet, Chewbacca. Why doesn’t anyone listen to me?”

Leia leaned forward in her seat behind Han. Both were looking out the cockpit window, watching the Star Destroyers move off in different directions.

“The fleet is beginning to break up,” Han said. He glanced at Chewbacca and said, “Go back and stand by the manual release for the landing claw.”

“I really don’t see how that is going to help,” the droid said as Chewbacca climbed from his seat and moved out of the cockpit. “Surrender is a perfectly acceptable alternative in extreme circumstances. The Empire may be gracious enough—”

C-3PO’s sentence was cut short by Leia, who’d reached behind the droid’s neck to switch him off. The droid slumped forward against his seat belt and remained silent.

“Thank you,” Han said.

Leia felt the need to ask, “What did you have in mind for your next move?”

Gesturing at the Star Destroyers, Han replied, “Well, if they follow standard Imperial procedure, they’ll dump their garbage before they go to lightspeed, and then we just float away.”

“With the rest of the garbage,” Leia said, which made Han wince. “Then what?”

“Then we’ve got to find a safe port somewhere around here.” Han activated a mapscreen on his control panel, and Leia leaned closer to him to study the map. Han asked, “Got any ideas?”

“No. Where are we?”

“The Anoat system.”

“Anoat system,” Leia repeated thoughtfully. “There’s not much there.”

“No,” Han said, then noticed something on the map. “Well, wait. This is interesting. Lando.”

“Lando system?”

Han grinned and said, “Lando’s not a system, he’s a man. Lando Calrissian. He’s a card player, gambler—scoundrel.” He glanced at Leia and added, “You’d like him.”

Leia smirked. “Thanks.”

Han returned his attention to the mapscreen. “Bespin,” he said, giving the destination more consideration. “It’s pretty far, but I think we can make it.”

Reading the displayed data on Bespin, Leia said, “A mining colony?”

“Yeah,” Han said. “A Tibanna gas mine. Lando conned somebody out of it.” He leaned back in his seat and added, “We go back a long way, Lando and me.”

From Han’s tone, Leia got the impression that his history with Lando wasn’t entirely friendly. “Can you trust him?” she asked.

“No,” Han admitted. “But he has got no love for the Empire, I can tell you that.”

Chewbacca barked over the ship’s intercom and Han quickly changed his readouts. Then he stretched to look out the cockpit window and saw a wide, rectangular hatch open on the Star Destroyer’s hull. Speaking into the intercom, Han said, “Here we go, Chewie. Stand by.” He waited for several large bits of metal refuse to float out of the open hatch, then said, “Detach!”

The Falcon’s landing claw released, and the transport drifted away along with the debris that trailed from the Imperial cruiser. As they drifted farther from the ship, Leia felt increasingly elated. Granted, she would have been more relieved if the Falcon’s hyperdrive had actually kicked in when it was supposed to, but if it hadn’t been for Han’s quick thinking and cunning piloting skills…I have to give him some credit.

As Han kept his eyes on the departing Star Destroyer, Leia touched his shoulder and said, “You do have your moments. Not many of them, but you do have them.” She kissed his cheek, then settled back into her seat.

The destroyer’s three main ion engines flared brightly, then the ship launched forward and vanished into the distance. Han fired the Falcon’s sublight engines and veered away from the debris, heading in the opposite direction of the Imperial ship’s trajectory.

As the Falcon sped away from the debris trail, there was a sudden flare from behind a large piece of drifting scrap—which wasn’t scrap at all. It was Slave I, a highly modified Firespray-class patrol-and-attack ship, equipped with numerous hidden weapons. And it was the personal transport for the bounty hunter Boba Fett.

Fett had correctly calculated that the Millennium Falcon had never actually escaped from the Avenger, and had only avoided detection. Now, as he accelerated after Han Solo’s ship, it seemed his calculations would pay off.

Slave I had long-range sensor scopes and an illegal masking-and-jamming system that made it virtually invisible on most scanners. The special technology had allowed Boba Fett to infiltrate the Imperial Fleet, locate the Millennium Falcon, and maneuver Slave I into the Avenger’s debris trail without alerting anyone to his presence. Fett was so confident in Slave I’s supreme stealth that he kept the escaping Falcon within visual range as he computed its trajectory.

Fett checked his computer readout: The Rebel ship was heading for the Bespin system. As the Falcon was traveling at sublight speed, the bounty hunter concluded there was something wrong with the ship’s hyperdrive. And because Slave I’s hyperdrive was fully operational, Fett knew he’d be able to reach Bespin before Solo.

The bounty hunter considered his next move, then transmitted a coded message to the Executor.

On Dagobah, R2-D2 stood near some equipment cases and watched as Yoda continued to instruct Luke. The Jedi trainee was yet again standing on his hands with his feet extended up, but R2-D2 noticed Yoda had refrained from perching on one of Luke’s feet this time, opting instead to remain on the ground.

Yoda said, “Concentrate.”

Luke closed his eyes. Two equipment cases rose from the ground, then hung suspended in the air.

“Feel the Force flow,” Yoda said, his voice soothing. “Yes.”

The astromech droid felt himself being lifted, and momentarily thought he might have unwittingly stepped on the back of a rising creature. When he realized the only thing between him and the ground was Luke’s will, the little droid beeped nervously.

“Good,” Yoda said. “Calm, yes. Through the Force, things you will see.”

Still standing on his hands, Luke opened his eyes, then closed them again.

“Other places,” Yoda continued. “The future…the past. Old friends long gone.”

Suddenly, Luke’s mind was overwhelmed by an unexpected vision. His eyes opened wide and he shouted, “Han! Leia!”

The suspended objects fell to the ground. Unlike the equipment cases, R2-D2 screeched on the way down. Luke tumbled and rolled over onto his side.

Yoda shook his head. “Hmm. Control, control. You must learn control.”

Luke looked dazed and rattled. He wanted to tell Yoda about the vision, but wasn’t sure how to put it into words. Hesitantly, he said, “I saw…I saw a city in the clouds.”

“Mmm,” Yoda muttered. “Friends you have there.”

Luke looked anguished as he recalled, “They were in pain.”

Yoda nodded. “It is the future you see.”

“Future?” Luke said with alarm. “Will they die?”

Yoda closed his eyes, meditated briefly, then opened his eyes and gazed at Luke. “Difficult to see. Always in motion is the future.”

Luke thought, If I saw the future, is it also possible for me to change it? He pushed himself up from the ground and said, “I’ve got to go to them.”

Yoda sighed. “Decide you must how to serve them best. If you leave now, help them you could. But you would destroy all for which they have fought and suffered.”

Luke couldn’t stand the thought of his friends suffering. He thought, Could Yoda be right? If I try to help, would I really be doing the wrong thing? He gazed hard at Yoda, hoping the Jedi Master would suggest other alternatives for action, or interpret brighter possibilities for the future.

Yoda remained silent. And in the silence, Luke knew there was nothing left to say, because Yoda was right: The future was difficult to see.

Luke nodded sadly.

And Yoda knew Luke had already decided what to do.