Leia saw more stormtroopers coming up the corridor. She fired a burst of laser bolts at them, then darted up a short flight of steps to the waiting lift tube, which fortunately managed to hold her, Lando, Chewbacca, C-3PO’s parts, and R2-D2.

The lift tube carried them to the corridor next to the Millennium Falcon’s landing platform. There was a control panel on the wall beside the door to the platform, and Lando ran to the panel and quickly punched in a coded sequence. Unfortunately, the code failed to open the door.

“The security code has been changed!” Lando exclaimed.

From Chewbacca’s back, C-3PO said, “Artoo, you can tell the computer to override the security system.”

R2-D2 beeped and scooted toward what appeared to be a computer terminal at the base of the control panel. The astromech popped open a panel and extended his computer interface arm as fast as he could, but not fast enough for the nervous C-3PO, who cried, “Artoo, hurry!”

Lando crossed the corridor to a comlink console, then entered his security code to address all parts of Cloud City. Holding the comlink, he said, “Attention! This is Lando Calrissian. The Empire has taken control of the city. I advise everyone to leave before more Imperial troops arrive.”

As Lando turned from the comlink, there was a bright spark where R2-D2’s arm met with the socket. R2-D2 screamed and smoke seeped out from under his domed head. Chewbacca grabbed hold of R2-D2 and tore him away from the wall.

“This way,” Lando said, urging the group to follow him up the corridor.

R2-D2 beeped angrily and tried to move after the others, but accidentally smacked into the wall.

“Well, don’t blame me,” C-3PO said, bobbing along behind Chewbacca. “I’m an interpreter. I’m not supposed to know a power socket from a computer terminal.”

R2-D2 regained control of himself but was still beeping with fury as he sped after his friends.

If Lando had wondered whether his broadcast message had reached the citizens of Cloud City, all doubts were dismissed as he ran into a crowded plaza, filled with people running for the public transport ships. Lando led Leia, Chewbacca, and R2-D2 to another door, and the astromech wasted no time in plugging his computer interface arm into a proper terminal socket.

Suddenly, they sighted approaching stormtroopers. As Leia and Chewbacca opened fire on the Imperial soldiers, R2-D2 rotated his dome and beeped at C-3PO, who—flailing against Chewbacca’s back—was more immediately concerned about the blaster bolts that were whizzing past his head. “We’re not interested in the hyperdrive on the Millennium Falcon,” C-3PO shouted over the blaster fire. “It’s fixed! Just open the door, you stupid lump.”

More stormtroopers arrived, and Chewbacca, Leia, and Lando had to retreat down the corridor. They hadn’t traveled far when R2-D2 let out a triumphant beep. The door slid open.

C-3PO shouted, “I never doubted you for a second. Wonderful!”

R2-D2 retracted his arm from the socket and waited until his friends had made it through the door. When he saw the stormtroopers advance from the corridor, he deployed his built-in fire extinguisher and sprayed opaque gas into the air. While the stormtroopers blundered through the smokescreen, R2-D2 moved through the door to the landing platform.

Despite R2-D2’s efforts, a few stormtroopers managed to find their way to the open doorway. As Chewbacca neared the Falcon’s landing ramp, he tossed his pilfered blaster rifle to Lando. Lando took cover under the ship and fired at the stormtroopers, allowing Leia and R2-D2 time to make it to the ship.

The Falcon’s landing ramp was down. Unfortunately, Chewbacca forgot that C-3PO was strapped to his back. The droid’s squirming didn’t help either.

“Ouch!” C-3PO shouted as the back of his head struck the Falcon’s hull. “Oh! Ah! That hurt. Bend down, you thoughtless—ow!”

While Chewbacca and C-3PO bumped their way up the ramp, Leia turned to fire at the stormtroopers, who were now pouring out through the doorway. Lando saw R2-D2 scoot up the ramp and shouted, “Leia! Go!” Leia ran into the ship, with Lando at her heels.

Chewbacca had deposited the cargo net with C-3PO’s parts on the floor before he ran into the cockpit and started flipping switches, energizing shields, and preparing for liftoff. As R2-D2 entered the Falcon, he extended a retractable claw to grab the cargo net and dragged C-3PO to a safer location.

C-3PO said, “I thought that hairy beast would be the end of me.”

R2-D2 beeped.

“Of course, I’ve looked better,” C-3PO grumbled.

Outside the Falcon, laser bolts glanced off the ship’s shields as the stormtroopers continued to fire. But before the Imperials could do any serious damage, the Falcon lifted off the landing platform and roared away into the twilight sky.

Inside the Cloud City reactor shaft, Luke moved carefully along the gantry that was secured to a large, rudderlike vane. The vane was used to create desired changes in airflow, controlling the city’s movements through Bespin’s skies while routing Tibanna gas to processing facilities. Even though the gantry had a protective railing, Luke kept close to the vane and tried to shield his body from the strong, continuous wind that whipped through the deep shaft.

Luke edged around the vane to an open doorway that led into a narrow control room. The room was dark, only illuminated by the winking lights on the control consoles that lined the walls. Knowing that an activated lightsaber would reveal his position, Luke kept his weapon off as he stepped in.

Vader’s close, he thought as he walked past the control consoles. Dangerously close.

Vader emerged sooner than Luke expected, leaping out from the shadows with his red lightsaber blazing. Luke jumped back and activated his own lightsaber’s blue beam in time to block the attack. But Vader swung wildly, slicing into machinery on either side of the narrow room as he drove Luke back through the open doorway.

Vader followed Luke onto the gantry, then brought his lightsaber down hard against Luke’s blade. Luke stumbled and fell back against the metal-floored walkway that extended out to a cantilevered platform. He raised his gaze to find himself staring up the length of Vader’s extended lightsaber.

“You are beaten,” Vader said, looming above Luke. “It is useless to resist. Don’t let yourself be destroyed as Obi-Wan did.”

Remembering how Darth Vader had cut down Obi-Wan, Luke felt a sudden surge of strength, his face twisting with anger. He flicked his wrist and his lightsaber’s blade whipped up, smacking Vader’s blade aside and allowing Luke to quickly scramble to his feet. Vader lunged again with his weapon, and the two men exchanged a swift series of blows.

Luke swung hard and connected with the black armor plate on Vader’s right shoulder. The Sith Lord snarled in pain as bright sparks exploded from the shoulder plate. But Vader never lost his grip on his lightsaber, and he swung again at Luke. Luke dodged the attack, darted past a vertical array of weather sensors at the platform’s outer edge, then leaped to a beam that extended from the platform to another tall sensor array. Below the beam, the immense shaft fell away farther than his eyes could see.

Balancing on the beam, Luke turned as Vader’s lightsaber sliced through the weather sensors. Luke raised his lightsaber to block another blow from Vader, but as his left hand clung to the damaged sensors and he struggled to maintain his footing, Vader’s lightsaber lashed out again—

—and cut off Luke’s right hand.

Luke screamed. His hand arced away from his right arm, carrying his lightsaber with it. The lightsaber automatically deactivated, and the weapon fell with the severed hand down into the shaft.

Vader moved forward to the edge of the platform and gazed down at Luke. Luke clutched his wounded arm to his chest and slumped down upon the beam.

“There is no escape,” Vader said as Luke moved away from him, crawling backward to the outermost sensor array. “Don’t make me destroy you.”

But Luke kept crawling. He felt dizzy and sick. His only goal was to put distance between himself and Vader.

Seeing that Luke was utterly defeated, Vader switched off his lightsaber. “You do not yet realize your importance,” Vader continued. “You have only begun to discover your power. Join me and I will complete your training. With our combined strength, we can end this destructive conflict and bring order to the galaxy.”

Reaching the end of the beam, Luke wrapped his arms around the outermost sensor array. Turning to face Vader, he screamed, “I’ll never join you!”

“If only you knew the power of the dark side,” Vader said, reaching out to clutch the air with his black-gloved fist. “Obi-Wan never told you what happened to your father.”

“He told me enough!” Luke said as he wrapped his arms around the sensor array and lowered his feet to a metal ring. Wincing, he added, “He told me you killed him.”

“No,” Vader said, his fist still clenched. “I am your father.”

Luke’s eyes went wide. My father? But Ben told me…

“No,” Luke whimpered. “No. That’s not true! That’s impossible!”

“Search your feelings,” Vader said. “You know it to be true.”

“No!” Luke shouted. “No!”

The wind picked up, and Vader’s black cape rippled at his back. “Luke. You can destroy the Emperor. He has foreseen this. It is your destiny.” He opened his left hand and held it out to Luke. “Join me, and together we can rule the galaxy as father and son.”

His voice is so hypnotic, Luke thought, and felt part of himself falling under Vader’s spell. But only part of him. Luke looked down into the deep shaft that seemed to stretch down to forever.

“Come with me,” Vader urged. “It is the only way.”

Luke looked directly at Vader and felt a certain calmness as he thought, No. It’s not the only way.

Then Vader watched in astonishment as Luke released his arms from the sensor array and fell, down, down into the reactor shaft.

There was nothing to break Luke’s fall. As he tumbled through the air, he looked up, half expecting to see Darth Vader leap down after him. But all he saw of Vader was a rapidly receding black speck at the edge of the already distant vane.

Suddenly, Luke was aware that he was no longer falling straight down. Twisting his body, he saw that he was caught in a powerful air current that was drawing him toward an open exhaust pipe in the shaft’s wall.

Luke sailed into the exhaust pipe, a metal-lined tubular tunnel that twisted down and away from the reactor shaft. The pipe’s walls were smooth, sending Luke on an uncontrolled slide until he entered what seemed to be a dip in the pipe, and slowed to a stop. But before he could plan his next move, a trapdoor dropped open beneath him, plunging him down another pipe.

Luke’s mind raced, trying to figure out where the second pipe would carry him. As the pipe twisted into an almost vertical slope, he guessed the pipes were designed to expel stray matter from the reactor shaft. He extended his limbs in an attempt to slow his descent, but the effort was too much for his drained, battered body. He continued to slide.

The pipe terminated at a retractable hatch, and as Luke’s body neared it, the hatch opened. Luke fell through the open hole and slammed into some spindly horizontal metal bars. He desperately grabbed at the bars and caught them.

He realized he was clutching at an electronic weather vane that was secured to the wide underside of Cloud City. Below Luke, there was nothing but clouds.

Luke felt so helpless. Then he thought of the spirit of Obi-Wan, who had come to his aid before, and he gasped, “Ben…Ben, please!”

But Ben had said he could not interfere if Luke chose to face Vader, and so there would be no response.

Luke’s muscles strained as he struggled to get a better hold on the weather vane. He looked up to the hatch from which he’d been ejected. The hatch was still open. He began to shimmy up the weather vane, but as he reached for the hatch door, the door automatically lifted and locked in place.

Then Luke slipped down the weather vane, but somehow caught the horizontal bars with his legs so that he dangled upside down. The pain was almost unbearable.

“Ben,” Luke cried again. But when Ben did not answer, Luke thought of the one other person who might be able to help him. “Leia!” he cried out.

He didn’t even know if Leia was still on Cloud City, or if she was in any position to help him. Still, he clung to the weather vane, searched the surrounding clouds, and yelled, “Hear me! Leia!”

The Millennium Falcon was flying fast away from Cloud City but had not yet left Bespin’s upper atmosphere when Leia heard Luke’s voice. She was sitting in the pilot’s seat, looking through the cockpit window, and at first she thought the voice was just some trick of her imagination. But then an image formed in her mind, an image of Luke, injured and dangling from some kind of metal array at the bottom of Cloud City.

“Luke…” Leia said. Then she turned to her right, where Chewbacca sat behind his controls. She said, “We’ve got to go back.”

Lando was standing in the area behind Chewbacca’s and Leia’s seats. Lando had just informed Leia that the Falcon’s sensors had detected the approach of TIE fighters, so he was surprised by Leia’s sudden decision. He said, “What?”

“I know where Luke is,” Leia said.

“But what about those fighters?” Lando asked.

Leia commanded, “Chewie, just do it.”

As Chewbacca reset his controls, Lando said, “But what about Vader?”

Chewbacca roared at Lando.

“All right, all right, all right,” Lando said, knowing better than to argue with the Wookiee.

The Falcon looped around a wide cloud formation and sped back to Cloud City.

Darth Vader strode through a white-walled corridor in Cloud City. An Imperial officer and a squad of stormtroopers traveled in his wake as he headed for his shuttle’s landing platform. “Alert the Star Destroyer to prepare for my arrival,” he said to the officer, then walked toward his tall Lambda-class shuttle.

Vader knew Luke had not perished in the reactor shaft. If he had, I would have sensed it. Vader would have searched for Luke himself, but upon learning that Princess Leia and Lando Calrissian had escaped in the Millennium Falcon, and that Imperial scanners had detected the Falcon was now returning to Cloud City, Vader had revised his plan. He would return to the Executor, and allow the princess to rescue Luke.

Then Darth Vader would capture them all.