Luke Skywalker didn’t know if he’d emerged from unconsciousness on his own or in response to the wampa’s echoing howl. As he opened his eyes and took in his surroundings, he knew he was in serious trouble.

He was hanging upside down. In a cave. His entire body hurt. And he was very, very cold.

He struggled to get his bearings. A chill against the back of his neck suggested the cave’s entrance was behind him. Icy stalactites and stalagmites, resembling many rows of teeth, obscured his view of the cave’s dim interior. He couldn’t see the wampa, but he could hear the snap of bones breaking, and chewing sounds. Judging from what he heard, Luke knew the wampa wasn’t very far away.

Straining his aching muscles, Luke twisted his torso and neck to look up at the cave’s ceiling. His booted feet were embedded in the ice. He strained his arms up and tried to work his legs out, but the ice was too thick, and he didn’t have any leverage. He let his body slump and stretched his arms down, but he was suspended just high enough that he couldn’t touch the floor. To free himself, he’d have to blast his way out, or…

He remembered his lightsaber. He reached to his belt, but the lightsaber was gone. Oh, no! Don’t tell me it’s lost! Luke angled his head, and spotted the lightsaber half buried in the snow on the floor below him.

He stretched out his arm, but the lightsaber was beyond his reach. Fortunately, Luke had another resource: the Force.

According to Ben, the Force was an energy field created by all living things. It surrounded and penetrated everything, binding the galaxy together. Since the Battle of Yavin, Luke had also learned that the Force could be utilized for moving small objects.

Still suspended from the cave’s ceiling, Luke extended his right hand toward the lightsaber. He tried to envision the weapon rising from the snow and arriving into his waiting glove. But nothing happened.

Luke was far from mastering the Force, or even fully understanding it, but he had a feeling that he might be trying too hard. He closed his eyes and relaxed his muscles. He also did his best to remain calm, for in the recesses of his awareness, he sensed that the wampa was moving in the cave. Did the wampa hear me trying to wrench myself free of the ice? Luke no longer heard the sound of the creature’s chewing.

Luke stopped thinking about the wampa. Again, he extended his hand and gazed upon the lightsaber in the snow. The Force binds us.…

He heard the approaching wampa’s heavy footsteps.

The Force calls my lightsaber to me.…

The lightsaber shot out of the snow and into Luke’s hand. Luke activated the weapon, and its blue energy beam blazed to life. As he raised the blade to cut through the ice that bound his legs, the wampa lunged for him.

The lightsaber sliced through the ice, and Luke kept the weapon activated as he tumbled to the cave’s floor. He sprang to his feet just as the wampa was about to pounce, and swung the lightsaber hard. In a single motion, he cut off the monster’s right arm. The severed limb landed on the snow with a muffled thud. Howling in pain, the wampa clutched at its open wound.

Not wasting a precious second, Luke deactivated the lightsaber and scurried away from the wailing beast. He moved by instinct, pushing his way through snow and ice until he tumbled out through the mouth of the cave and into…

A blizzard.

When I wanted to leave Tatooine, I never bargained for this.

Dazed and lost, Luke pressed on, leaving the cave far behind as he moved deeper into the storm.

The snowfall was increasingly heavy at Echo Base, where R2-D2 stood just outside the base’s north entrance. Ignoring the cold flakes that were collecting on his cylindrical body, the astromech adjusted the slender scanner antenna that protruded up from a panel on his domed head. The antenna was topped by a life-scan sensor, and even though he hadn’t picked up any signals so far, R2-D2 wasn’t ready to give up. Still, he couldn’t help but emit some worried beeps.

“You must come along now, Artoo,” said C-3PO, who’d been standing watch with his friend. “There’s really nothing more we can do. And my joints are freezing up.”

R2-D2 beeped, long and low.

“Don’t say things like that!” C-3PO cried. “Of course we’ll see Master Luke again. And he’ll be quite all right, you’ll see.” As C-3PO turned and headed back through the hangar entrance, he muttered, “Stupid little short-circuit. He’ll be quite all right.”

R2-D2 let out a mournful beep, but remained outside, sensors on full alert.

Except for his own gloved hands and the back of his tauntaun’s head, Han Solo could barely see anything but falling snow. He knew that finding Luke in this environment was next to impossible, but if he didn’t try, Luke was as good as dead.

So Han continued looking and kept the tauntaun moving. Eventually, they arrived near a glacial rise that shielded them slightly from the wind. There, Han let the animal rest while he dismounted, carrying a portable scanner from his utility pack.

Han extended the scanner’s antennae and tried to pick up any readings. There were no life-forms within the scanner’s limited range and no incoming comm transmissions, but there was plenty of interference from the storm. Han carried the scanner back to the tauntaun and climbed onto his saddle.

In the hangar at Echo Base, a Rebel lieutenant walked up to his commanding officer, Major Derlin, and said, “Sir, all the patrols are in. Still no—”

Major Derlin raised a hand to caution the lieutenant, who then noticed that Princess Leia stood nearby, watching them and listening. The lieutenant gulped, chose his words carefully, and said, “Still no contact from Skywalker or Solo.”

Chewbacca, R2-D2, and C-3PO were near the cave’s entrance. Hearing the lieutenant’s report, C-3PO turned and approached the princess. “Mistress Leia, Artoo says he’s been quite unable to pick up any signals, although he does admit that his own range is far too weak to abandon all hope.”

Major Derlin said, “Your Highness, there’s nothing more we can do tonight. The shield doors must be closed.”

Leia wished she could blink her eyes and wake up from this nightmare, but she knew she wasn’t dreaming. Luke and Han really were out there somewhere in sub-freezing temperatures, and unless she wanted the cold to spread throughout Echo Base, the shield doors couldn’t remain open. She found herself speechless, and cast her gaze at the floor as she nodded to Major Derlin. It had to be done.

“Close the doors,” Derlin ordered.

“Yes, sir,” said the lieutenant.

At the mouth of the cave, two thick metal doors rumbled along their tracks as they converged to close off the entrance. Chewbacca moaned, and R2-D2 spat out a complex series of beeps.

Addressing Leia, C-3PO said, “Artoo says the chances of survival are seven hundred and twenty-five…to one.”

With a loud boom, the doors locked in place and sealed off the cavern. Chewbacca threw his head back and let out a suffering howl.

C-3PO reconsidered his last statement, and added, “Actually, Artoo has been known to make mistakes…from time to time.”

Leia walked off, and C-3PO returned to R2-D2. “Oh, dear, oh, dear,” said the golden droid. He patted R2-D2’s dome, trying to comfort the distressed astromech. “Don’t worry about Master Luke, I’m sure he’ll be all right. He’s quite clever, you know…for a human being.”

Luke lay facedown in the snow, nearly unconscious. He didn’t want to give up, but the cold had given him little choice. Unable to move or feel, and barely able to think, he was waiting for the inevitable when he heard a voice.

“Luke…Luke.”

Luke recognized the voice. He hadn’t heard it since the Battle of Yavin, when it had urged him to trust his feelings and use the Force to destroy the Death Star. Slowly, Luke raised his head. A short distance away from him stood the shimmering, spectral form of Obi-Wan Kenobi. To make sure he wasn’t hallucinating, Luke said aloud, “Ben?”

“You will go to the Dagobah system,” Ben said.

“Dagobah system?” Luke repeated. I’m not hallucinating. I’m sure of it.

“There you will learn from Yoda, the Jedi Master who instructed me.”

Luke groaned as he tried not to go into shock. “Ben…Ben.”

Ben disappeared—but a lone tauntaun rider materialized where he had been and approached Luke’s position. Luke’s eyes closed and he passed out in the snow.

Fortunately for Luke, the tauntaun rider was not a hallucination, either. Han Solo slid off his mount and trudged as fast as he could to Luke’s motionless body. Behind him, his tauntaun let out a low, pitiful bellow.

“Luke!” Han said, taking hold of his friend. “Luke! Don’t do this, Luke. Come on, give me a sign here.” He leaned close to Luke’s face to make sure he was still breathing. He was, but just barely.

Han was trying to think about what to do next when he heard a rasping sound. He turned in time to see his tauntaun stagger and fall dead to the snow-covered ground.

Temporarily stunned, Han stared at the fallen tauntaun. Then he grabbed Luke’s arms and dragged him to the tauntaun’s body. “Not much time,” he muttered. He knew he’d have to work fast, before the tauntaun’s corpse froze.

Luke moaned, “Ben…Ben…”

Han figured Luke was delirious. “Hang on, kid,” he said. He took Luke’s lightsaber, ignited its blade, and cut the dead Tauntaun’s belly wide open.

“Dagobah system…” Luke mumbled. “You will go to Dagobah…”

Struggling to get Luke inside the carcass, Han explained, “This may smell bad, kid…but it will keep you warm…till I can get the shelter built.”

Oblivious to everything, Luke moaned, “Yoda…”

“Agh!” Han gasped as the gutted beast’s rancid stench swam over him. “Agh…I thought they smelled bad on the outside! Agh!”

With Luke tucked more or less into the tauntaun’s body cavity, Han removed a pack and took out a shelter container. The shelter would offer pitiful protection against the bitter cold…but it was all Han had.

The next morning offered clear blue skies for the Rebel pilots who raced over Hoth in the four snub-nosed T-47 snowspeeders—enclosed two-man craft that allowed a pilot and gunner to be seated back-to-back. Each of these four carried only a single pilot, to allow room for Luke Skywalker and Han Solo, should either be found. After skirting a high plateau, the snowspeeders veered off in different directions to search for the missing men.

Rebel pilot Zev Senesca’s comm-unit designation was Rogue Two. Zev had been on Hoth long enough to have a hard time believing anyone could’ve survived the previous night’s blizzard. Also, the war had claimed too many lives for Zev to be much of an optimist. He was grimly concentrating on the scopes that ringed his cockpit when he heard a low beep from a monitor. Activating his transmitter, he called out, “Echo Base…I’ve got something! Not much, but it could be a life-form.…”

Zev banked his craft, made a slow arc, then raced off in a new direction. Switching to a different transmission frequency, he said, “Commander Skywalker, do you copy? This is Rogue Two.” No response. “This is Rogue Two. Captain Solo, do you copy?”

“Good morning,” Han’s voice sounded from a speaker in Zev’s cockpit. “Nice of you guys to drop by.”

It had been weeks since Zev had felt any reason to smile, but the one that broke out across his face went from ear to ear. “Echo Base…this is Rogue Two. I found them. Repeat, I found them.” He steered the snowspeeder to follow the source of Han’s transmission, and soon sighted Han’s emergency shelter. Han stood beside the shelter and waved, safe at last.

Luke wondered, Am I dead?

His whole body felt empty, drained of life, yet there was a lightness about him. I feel like I’m floating. But what’s that pressure over my mouth and…is something pinching my nose? And what are those whirring noises? Opening his eyes, he saw blurred lights and rising air bubbles, and thought, I’m drowning!

He had emerged from unconsciousness to find himself submerged in a transparent cylindrical tank filled with warm liquid. A breathing mask was strapped over his mouth and a small clamp sealed his nostrils. From Luke’s perspective, the tank’s shape produced a distorted view of strange figures moving outside. But as his vision adjusted, Luke recognized the figures as 2-1B, an older medical droid that served the Rebel Alliance, and his assistant, the multiarmed droid FX-7. It was FX-7 who was responsible for the whirring sounds.

Luke realized he was in the Echo Base medical center, and that the liquid in the tank was bacta, a synthetic chemical that made wounds heal quickly and left no scars. Luke’s last conscious memory was of Ben, appearing before him in the snow. Who rescued me? And how?

Then he saw his friends. Leia, Han, Chewbacca, R2-D2, and C-3PO were gathered on the other side of the medical center’s window. They waved to him. Still groggy, Luke returned the gesture, then felt his body being lifted out of the tank.

It was time to return to the world.

“Master Luke, sir, it’s so good to see you fully functional again,” C-3PO said to Luke, who now sat on a bed in the medical center’s white-walled recovery room. Leia smiled as R2-D2 rolled up beside Luke’s bed and beeped.

“Artoo expresses his relief also,” C-3PO translated.

Luke was by no means fully functional. He was tired and sore, and his battered features were nasty evidence of his encounter with the wampa. But he was alive and he would heal.

Behind Luke, the door slid open with a soft hiss, and Han and Chewbacca entered.

Han asked, “How you feeling, kid? You don’t look so bad to me. In fact, you look strong enough to pull the ears off a gundark.”

Luke grinned. “Thanks to you.”

“That’s two you owe me, junior,” Han said, referring to the Battle of Yavin, when he’d prevented Darth Vader from shooting down Luke’s starfighter.

Han swiveled to lean against the foot of Luke’s bed and face Leia. “Well, Your Worship, looks like you managed to keep me around for a little while longer.”

“I had nothing to do with it,” Leia retorted. “General Rieekan thinks it’s dangerous for any ships to leave the system until we’ve activated the energy shield.” Indeed, the Rebels had been working round-the-clock on the power generators so the energy shields would be ready when needed.

“That’s a good story,” Han said. “I think you just can’t bear to let a gorgeous guy like me out of your sight.”

In bed, Luke grimaced. Han was his friend, but the Millennium Falcon’s captain was also so full of himself that he could be unbearable. How can Han talk to Leia that way? She’s a princess! Sometimes I wish he would just keep his mouth shut.

Coolly glaring at Solo, Leia slowly shook her head and said, “I don’t know where you get your delusions, laserbrain.”

Chewbacca tilted his head back and produced an amused, gurgling bark.

“Laugh it up, fuzzball,” Han said reproachfully. “But you didn’t see us alone in the south passage.” He moved toward Leia and slinked an arm around her back. “She expressed her true feelings for me.”

Stunned, Luke’s eyes darted from Han to Leia and back to Han. Is Han serious? Does Leia really want…?

“My…!” Leia gasped, her temper boiling over. Han eased away from Leia as she released a barrage: “Why, you stuck-up…half-witted…scruffy-looking…nerf herder!”

“Who’s scruffy-looking?” Han asked, looking genuinely insulted. Then he turned to Luke and said, “I must have hit pretty close to the mark to get her all riled up like that, huh, kid?”

But Luke wouldn’t meet Han’s gaze. He was too angry. Even the droids sensed the tension in the air.

Leia composed herself, then moved closer to Luke’s bed. Looking at Han, she said, “Why, I guess you don’t know everything about women yet.” Then she leaned over Luke and kissed him on the lips.

Luke thought, Huh?

C-3PO, who had been standing just behind Han, nearly tripped over himself to get a better view. After seeing that Leia and Luke were indeed in an embrace, the baffled droid redirected his gaze from Chewbacca to Han to see their reaction. Chewbacca made a curious whimpering sound. Han did his best to keep his expression relaxed and neutral, as if seeing Leia and Luke interested him only mildly.

The kiss lasted about three seconds.

Leia pulled away from Luke. She looked at Han, who kept his expression neutral as he met her gaze. Then, without any further word, Leia walked to the door and left the room.

Han turned his casual gaze to Luke. Luke put his hands behind his head and leaned back into his bed, trying hard to keep a smug smile from his face. Well, Han, do you have anything to say now?

From a loudspeaker, a voice announced, “Headquarters personnel, report to command center.”

Han glanced at Chewbacca, who tilted his furry head at the door. Trying not to look relieved at the opportunity to make an exit, Han tapped Luke’s arm and said, “Take it easy,” then followed Chewbacca out of the room.

Ever polite, C-3PO added, “Excuse us, please,” and trotted after R2-D2, leaving Luke alone.

Walking fast, Han arrived first at the command center, followed by Leia, Chewbacca, and the droids. Inside the dim, low-ceilinged room, General Rieekan stood beside Wyron Serper, the center’s senior controller, who was seated before a console screen. Seeing Leia, General Rieekan said, “Princess…we have a visitor.”

The group gathered around the console screen and examined a comm-scan display map of Echo Base and its surrounding areas. On the map, a small, unidentified blip appeared to the north. Rieekan said, “We’ve picked up something outside the base of zone twelve, moving east.”

“It’s metal,” Serper reported.

“Then it couldn’t be one of those creatures,” Leia said, referring to the wampas.

“It could be a speeder, one of ours,” Han suggested.

Serper raised a hand to adjust a control on his headset. “No,” he said. “Wait—there’s something very weak coming through.” Serper switched on an audio speaker, allowing the others to hear the intercepted transmission, a strange series of choppy electronic noises.

Looking to Rieekan, C-3PO said, “Sir, I am fluent in six million forms of communication. This signal is not used by the Alliance. It could be an Imperial code.”

With that possibility in mind, the gathered Rebels listened even more attentively to the signal. After several seconds, Han decided, “It isn’t friendly, whatever it is.” Without waiting for the general or anyone else to issue an order, Han turned to his first mate and said, “Come on, Chewie, let’s check it out.”

As Han and Chewbacca headed for the hangar, Rieekan thought they might require backup. To Serper, Rieekan said, “Send Rogues Ten and Eleven to station three-eight.”

Trouble had arrived.

When the Imperial probot was finished sending its message, it retracted its two high-frequency transmission antennae down into its sensor head. Then the droid hovered away from its hiding place behind a wide snowdrift, where its telescopic sensors had maintained an unobstructed view of the Rebels’ power generator.

The probot was heading down a ridge toward the Rebel base when its sensors detected movement by a nearby snowbank. The probot spun its sensor head and directed its primary visual sensors at the snowbank, where a Wookiee’s snow-covered head had popped up.

Chewbacca ducked as the droid fired three rapid laser bursts. The laser bolts missed the Wookiee and bored into the snowbank.

But Chewbacca was just a decoy, and Han—concealed behind a rise of glacial rock—was right behind the droid. While the droid was still distracted, Han rose and snapped off a quick shot at the droid’s hovering form. Unlike the droid, Han didn’t miss.

The fired bolt slammed into the droid but barely dented its metal plating. The droid responded by quickly rotating its cylindrical body in midair and firing back at Han. But Han had already ducked and the droid missed again.

Han came up fast and fired a second blast at the droid, again meeting his mark. After the way the droid had taken his first shot, Han knew he’d be lucky if he could disable it. So he was surprised when—a moment after his second shot hit the droid—the droid exploded into smoke and flames, leaving nothing behind but a fine spray of black-metal dust across the snow.

In the command center, General Rieekan stood next to Leia, who sat at a comm console and listened to Han’s report. From the comlink, Han’s voice said, “’Fraid there’s not much left.”

“What was it?” Leia asked.

“Droid of some kind,” Han answered. “I didn’t hit it that hard. It must have had a self-destruct.”

“An Imperial probe droid,” Leia deduced.

Han said, “It’s a good bet the Empire knows we’re here.”

It had been anything but easy for the Rebels to establish a base on Hoth. But if there were even a slight possibility that the Empire knew the location of Echo Base, no one was safe on the ice planet. With grim resolve, Rieekan said, “We’d better start the evacuation.”