The Falcon soared closer to Cloud City, and Lando was the first to sight the figure that dangled like a broken doll from the electronic weather vane. “Look, someone’s up there,” he said, pointing a finger to direct Chewbacca’s and Leia’s gaze.

“It’s Luke,” Leia said. He looked like he was about to fall. Leia tried to remain calm as she said, “Chewie, slow down. Slow down and we’ll get under him. Lando, open the top hatch.”

As Lando ran out of the cockpit and went to the hydraulic lift, Chewbacca jockeyed the ship under Luke. Luke caught a brief glimpse of Leia in the cockpit, then saw the top hatch slide open to reveal Lando.

“Okay,” Leia said as the Wookiee closed the distance between the Falcon’s hull and Cloud City’s bottom. Chewbacca barked, and Leia said, “Easy, Chewie.”

Luke didn’t know Lando, but because he’d arrived with Leia, Luke trusted he was an ally. The moment the Falcon’s hatch was positioned beneath him, Luke let go of the weather vane and fell into his arms.

“Lando?” Leia said into the ship’s comm.

Lando answered, “Okay, let’s go.”

Leia watched Chewbacca paw the controls and the Falcon dropped away from the bottom of Cloud City. Just then, the Wookiee saw three Imperial TIE fighters approaching at high speed.

Leia climbed out of her seat and found Lando supporting Luke in the passage tube behind the cockpit. Lando had wrapped a blanket around Luke, and Leia felt crushed as she imagined the beating Luke had obviously endured. She took Luke in her arms, allowing Lando to enter the cockpit and scramble into the pilot’s seat.

Luke moaned, “Oh, Leia.”

Suddenly, Imperial-fired flak exploded outside the ship.

“All right, Chewie,” Lando said. “Let’s go.”

The Wookiee aimed for some distant clouds, increased power to the thrusters, and launched the ship away from the oncoming TIE fighters.

As the Falcon hurtled forward, Leia moved Luke to a bunk and broke out the ship’s emergency medical supplies. She worked fast and did her best to treat his wounds, and didn’t ask for details when she placed the autotourniquet on his right arm. But Leia suspected she’d be needed in the cockpit, so when Luke was stabilized, she kissed him and said, “I’ll be back.”

Leia entered the cockpit and took the navigator’s seat behind Lando. Both Chewbacca and Lando were flipping switches and adjusting controls as they tried to shake off the TIE fighters that were now hammering the Falcon’s deflector shields with their lasers. As the Falcon entered space, Leia saw a large, wedge-shaped ship in orbit of Bespin, and said, “Star Destroyer.”

It was Vader’s ship, the Executor.

“All right, Chewie,” Lando said. “Ready for lightspeed.”

“If your people fixed the hyperdrive,” Leia pointed out. After all, she’d been disappointed by the Falcon’s hyperdrive twice before.

Ignoring Leia’s remark, Lando said, “All the coordinates are set. It’s now or never.”

Chewbacca barked.

Lando ordered, “Punch it!”

The Wookiee pulled back on the throttle. The engine sounded like it was winding up, then it cut off.

“They told me they fixed it,” Lando said as Chewbacca let out a frustrated howl. “I trusted them to fix it.”

More flak exploded outside the Falcon. Leia sat back in her seat and glared at Lando. Chewbacca jumped out of his seat and stormed out of the cockpit.

“It’s not my fault!” Lando insisted.

After returning to the Executor, Darth Vader proceeded to the bridge and walked directly to Admiral Piett’s command station. Snapping to attention at the sight of Vader, Piett announced, “They’ll be in range of our tractor beam in moments, lord.”

Vader asked, “Did your men deactivate the hyperdrive on the Millennium Falcon?”

“Yes, my lord,” Piett reported. He knew if his men hadn’t done their job, he’d be a dead man.

“Good,” Vader said. “Prepare a boarding party and set your weapons for stun.”

“Yes, my lord.”

Seated on a crate in the Millennium Falcon’s main hold, C-3PO was almost entirely reassembled except for his lower left leg, which he held across his lap. Since boarding the Falcon, R2-D2 had been working as fast as he could to put his friend back together, and was now using a retractable tool to repair C-3PO’s right foot.

Chewbacca ran into the hold and grunted loudly to himself. C-3PO remarked, “Noisy brute. Why don’t we just go into lightspeed?”

While Chewbacca lifted the deck plates to uncover the access pit, R2-D2 beeped his explanation.

“We can’t?” C-3PO said. “How would you know the hyperdrive is deactivated?”

As Chewbacca jumped into the pit, R2-D2 whistled knowingly.

“The city’s central computer told you?” said C-3PO, surprised. “Artoo-Detoo, you know better than to trust a strange computer.”

R2-D2’s extended repair tool sparked against the golden droid’s right foot.

“Ouch!” C-3PO cried. “Pay attention to what you’re doing!”

In the pit, Chewbacca confronted the hyperdrive with a fusioncutter. There was an unexpected flash of electric current, triggering a surge that caused sparks to fly in the Falcon’s cockpit.

On the bridge of the Executor, Vader gazed through the viewport and watched the Falcon attempt to evade the pursuing TIE fighters. Focusing his attention on the ship that carried the young Skywalker, he said aloud, “Luke.”

On the Falcon, Luke’s head lifted from his bunk. He said, “Father.”

Son, Vader said from across space, come with me.

Luke’s head fell back to the bunk. “Ben,” he moaned, “why didn’t you tell me?” Then the ship’s hull shuddered. Luke rose from his bunk, taking the blanket with him, and proceeded to the cockpit.

In the cockpit, Lando shouted into the comm, “Chewie!”

In the main hold’s access pit, Chewbacca heard Lando and angrily smashed the fusioncutter against the hyperdrive mechanism.

Back in the cockpit, Lando and Leia looked up in surprise as Luke entered. Wrapped in the blanket, he gazed out the cockpit at the Executor and said, “It’s Vader.”

Then Luke heard Vader’s voice again from across space: Luke…it is your destiny.

Luke sank back into the seat behind Leia. He closed his eyes and groaned again, “Ben, why didn’t you tell me?”

The Executor was closing in on the Millennium Falcon. Admiral Piett turned to a lieutenant and said, “Alert all commands. Ready for the tractor beam.”

“Artoo, come back at once!” C-3PO cried in the Falcon’s main hold. “You haven’t finished with me yet!” Indeed, C-3PO was still holding his left leg. As R2-D2 scooted past the access pit that contained the furious Chewbacca and over to the main engineering console, C-3PO said, “You don’t know how to fix the hyperdrive. Chewbacca can do it. I’m standing here in pieces, and you’re having delusions of grandeur!”

R2-D2 extended his manipulator arm to move a circuit on a control panel. Suddenly, the control panel lit up, and the hyperdrive kicked in.

“You did it!” C-3PO shouted as the entire ship tilted up, sending R2-D2 rolling backward into the open pit to fall on top of Chewbacca. The hyperdrive engines roared.

In the cockpit, Luke was already seated, but Leia and Lando were nearly thrown off their feet as the ship blasted into hyperspace.

In the blink of an eye, the Millennium Falcon was gone. On the Executor’s bridge, Admiral Piett gasped, then looked at Darth Vader and cringed.

Vader was still facing the viewport, gazing at the area where the Millennium Falcon had been just moments before escaping into hyperspace. He turned slowly, then proceeded across the walkway, away from the viewport. Below Vader, the technicians in the bridge’s lower level looked up at him, waiting for him to react to the situation.

Maintaining his slow stride, Vader glanced to his right and barely noticed Admiral Piett. The Sith Lord could practically taste the Imperial officer’s fear, but as angry as he was at losing Luke, he knew that Piett—unlike some recently deceased Imperial officers—was not at fault. Vader had much to contemplate, so he looked away from Piett and kept walking.

Without a word, he left the bridge.