Chapter 3: The Transmission

Republic Intelligence Officer Kit Antilles rubbed her eyes once more, straining to make sense of the data scrolling across her screen. Fourteen hours into her shift, her head throbbed, and her eyes burned as she continued her attempts to construct meaning out of the chaotic sea of information that she was tasked with analyzing. According to the reports, another atmospheric anomaly had been detected in the Outer Rim, this time on the planet Savareen. It was the fourth such anomaly, and none of the data she analyzed pointed to a plausible explanation.

The anomalies had become an item of increasing concern within Republic intelligence, which Kit suspected was primarily because it had become a political lightning rod impairing the government's ability to move forward on its ambitious agenda. Three other planets before Savareen had experienced the same anomalies to catastrophic effect – Jedha, Rakata Prime, and Batuu. None of the planets yielded any clues about how it happened, and attempts to study the effects had been met with disaster. The only common denominator Kit could find was that they all lay on the Outer Rim near the edge of the Unknown Regions. Each disturbance had resulted in a gradual, but fatal change in each planets' atmospheric conditions, but without any identifiable source. The disturbances had led to the displacement of each planet's population, which for Rakata Prime had been of negligible concern. However, the phenomena on Batuu and Jedha had resulted in an influx of refugees in some of the core worlds, specifically Hosnian Prime. The Hosnians, a critical voting bloc that Leia Organa's government relied upon, had raised some very vocal concerns about the cost and the consequences of receiving floods of desperate souls with nowhere else to go.

Kit had been tasked with correlating the data and presenting reports on migrant movement to facilitate the establishment of refugee settlements, as the Core worlds were uninterested in receiving and harboring refugees from such far-flung – and if Kit was being honest about the political motivations, backwards ­– worlds. Kit's confusion about the phenomena had trumped concerns about political interests, regardless of how strongly she supported Organa's government. As an Alderaanian by birth, and the daughter of a Rebellion war hero, she tended to see Leia as one of the good guys. However, planetary atmospheres did not just spontaneously change and die without advanced warning, and events like this did not occur so closely together. There was no precedent for it, and the tantalizing, but indistinct connectivity of the events triggered blaring red lights in Kit's skeptical mind.

To her chagrin, Republic Intelligence seemed far more concerned about shepherding refugees and keeping Core systems on board with a legislative agenda than with scrutinizing the cause. Dutifully resigned to her task despite her unspoken criticisms of Intelligence's directives, Kit scanned the new data and compared it to the older official reports on the three planets that suffered the same atmospheric collapses. As part of the Alderaanian diaspora, Kit understood more than most what it meant to watch your planet die. She was born on Alderaan but was off planet when the Empire destroyed it. Her father, Wedge, had avenged the planet's destruction during the attack on the first Death Star, and his involvement in the war alongside her uncle catapulted her family into Republic leadership. When Kit's father was killed after the formal end of the war during an insurrection that nearly brought down the Republic, she had joined Republic Intelligence as a means of monitoring for signs of threats to the Republic. Inspired by her uncle, the Admiral Vax Antilles, and driven by grief from her father's loss, Kit vowed to do her part so that the galaxy never experienced anything like it again.

As her mind wandered into dead end after dead end, Kit had found herself wondering whether her career path had been the right choice. As the daughter of a Republic hero, she could be commanding an X-Wing squadron like her father had and her cousin now did. She had become an accomplished pilot, but her appetite for the activity waned as she saw more and more X-wing pilots policing Outer Rim trade routes against piracy. Her uncle, the Admiral Vax Antilles, had offered her a role in his fleet, but to the disappointment of everybody within her family and within the Alderaanian diaspora, Kit vanished into Republic Intelligence bureaucracy to pursue one solitary intention: eliminate evil in the galaxy for good in support of the one man in the Republic Government who, until recently, still seemed devoted to monitoring for any sign of emerging threat: Han Solo.

Solo had resigned his military commission shortly after the liberation of Kashyyyk, but he had continued to work within Republic Intelligence to root out the remaining Imperial cells scattered throughout the Outer Rim. He had discovered the growing insurrection following the final gasps of the Empire, and his efforts enabled Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa to stop the insurrection before it could fully mature. Many of the last pockets of Imperial resistance had devolved into little more than local warlords and scattered organized crime syndicates, and Solo's impressive array of underworld contacts and equally impressive decryption skills allowed the Republic to wipe out Imperial remnants while taking nearly half of the criminal underworld down with them.

Not everyone in Republic governance had been pleased about this wild success, and prior to Leia Organa's coronation as Chancellor, their counterintelligence operation had been dismantled, with most of her colleagues absorbed back into other branches of Republic Intelligence. Kit had been in constant communication with Solo before that time, providing debriefs from the massive sets of data she sifted through, but even that activity had halted under new command and in the face of the influx of refugees. Solo had become more withdrawn, estranged from his wife, essentially abandoned by his command. He was almost never in his office; more often he could be found tinkering with the Millennium Falcon alongside Chewbacca. As far as Kit could tell, the only connections he still had were Chewbacca, and his son, Ben. Kit often wondered why he stuck around, and she worried that a man who spent half of his life smuggling and half of his life fighting wars was now drying on the vine as his purpose in Republic government withered.

While Kit was lost deep in these thoughts, a light began blinking, indicating an incoming transmission. Snapping out of her reverie, Kit regarded the light with curiosity. She keyed a command into her console, and a report came back of a priority signal from a Republic base on Xarthax. Xarthax? she thought to herself. The name registered, but dimly. Slowly, she connected the dots that there was a former Imperial information depot that the Republic had co-opted into its own dump for obsolescent information. Due to the Empire's habit of erasing critical records, especially following Endor, the Republic had enacted legislation that outlawed the destruction of records to prevent future cover-ups of scandals and crimes. Thus, the facility on Xarthax, one of several throughout the galaxy, contained millions of data files all gathering dust while the galaxy forgot. As her memory kicked into gear, she recalled it as having a forlorn, forgotten reputation - a bleak, inhospitable place. She keyed another button to play the transmission.

She watched as the hazy, staticky image showed a shadowy figure enter a room where klaxons blared, alarm lights flashed, and smoke obscured many of the details. A technician stood in the foreground, backing away from the shadowy figure entering the room. A sudden line of light – the color in the feed was monochrome – emerged from the shadowy figure's hand before cutting through the tech. A bright flash followed, and the feed went down. Kit replayed the transmission with sound, and she heard what she imagined to be a snap-hiss followed by a deep vibrating sound pulsating beneath the din of the klaxons and the shouts of the technician. Little of what she saw was clear and attempts to clarify the image were unproductive. She watched it once again, a pit growing in her stomach. She was not much of an expert on arcane weaponry, but the snap-hiss sound reminded her of a lightsaber.

Kit's mental fatigue and brain fog lifted immediately as excitement breathed new life into her tired mind. She keyed for a status report from other observation and communication platforms broadcasting from Xarthax. To her confusion, all other observation and communication platforms were reported "down for maintenance." She tried contacting the facility directly but received no response. She continued in this vein for about 15 minutes before a new report crossed her screen: XARTHAX FACILITY DESTROYED IN REACTOR EXPLOSION; NO SURVIVORS REPORTED. INCOMING KING TIDE PRECLUDES RESCUE ATTEMPT.

Kit sat back into her chair, reading and re-reading the report. Moments before receiving the official notice of the depot's destruction, she had watched what she now felt certain was a man slashing a lightsaber through another man, which Luke Skywalker's new Jedi were not known to do. She debated the next move; she could divert the report to her superiors, who would likely care little about what happened to a remote depot full of obsolete reports. She could report the video, which would likely be dismissed due to its grainy, ambivalent imagery. Yet, the pit in her stomach grew, and her instincts told her there was something much more significant at play here. After calculating consequences and likely probabilities, she arrived at a conclusion and a course of action: she forwarded the official report to her superiors, and she forwarded the video of the suspected lightsaber attack to the Millennium Falcon.

Excitement coursed through Kit. She did not expect an immediate response from either, so she was surprised when it was neither Chewbacca nor Han Solo nor her superior who responded, but the Millennium Falcon's ship computer. She had interacted with the ship's computer before, and she was always astonished and delighted at the antagonistic, sarcastic tone it often took. She wondered where a droid developed such a personality, but she knew that Han Solo had owned the Falcon for decades without ever rebooting the system. She suspected that Han liked a computer with an attitude. She was unsurprised when the ship's computer responded accordingly: "Don't share this with anybody. Solo needs to see it before that three-eyed moron does."

Kit snorted at the response. She reminded herself to avoid wiping her astromech droid's memory when it came time for scheduled maintenance.

***

Not for the first, second, third, or even twelfth time, the Falcon's motivators were acting up. Chewbacca had tried to run a diagnostic, but the ship's computer was characteristically unhelpful in the analysis, suggesting to the Wookie that perhaps Han Solo ought to stop putting so much stock in Corellian parts. Chewbacca growled softly to himself that the computer had a point, but Han Solo had not been open to the suggestion. Chewbacca growled a distillation of the ship computer's report aloud in the direction of the cockpit, subtracting some of the more abrasive critiques. No response came, but Chewie had not expected it. His old human friend had been brooding in the cockpit again as he usually had these days, probably lost in his thoughts again.

Chewie had grown frustrated with Han's detachment for a while now, so he busied himself with continuing to solve the motivator problem. He worked through a handful of solutions, each progressively less likely and less practical than the last. He was beginning to wonder whether it would make sense to purchase a set of new Kuati motivators and not tell Han, but he knew how much Han still harbored resentment toward Kuat's involvement in constructing the Imperial fleet. It was true that Corellia also played a huge part, but as Han often pointed out, that part was played out at gunpoint. Kuat had stopped making Star Destroyers, but their motivators were still high quality. . .

Chewbacca's thoughts froze when L7, the ship's computer, issued an alert. Chewbacca keyed the message, which read: PRIORITY FOR HAN SOLO -KDA. Chewbacca cocked his head to the side in curiosity, then played the transmission. He saw the shadowy figure, the beam of light, the downed technician, followed by the burst of static. Initially, he was unsure what to make of the video, but when he requested L7's analysis, the droid spat back, "suspected aural signature of a lightsaber."

Chewbacca rumbled in the direction of the cockpit. No response. Chewbacca rumbled again, this time more insistently. From the cockpit galley came a harried and hassled, "Alright, alright. I'm coming! Relax!" Moments later, the unshaven, disheveled figure of Han Solo emerged into the ship's main hold. "What's all the fuss about?" Han demanded irritably.

Chewbacca gestured toward the computer and replayed the message. Han appeared confused at first, then Chewie pulled up the analysis. Realization began to dawn on Han's face. "Chewie, where's this from?"

Chewie growled the response, and Han replied, "Xarthax?" He paused momentarily then asked, "who sent this to us?"

When Chewie indicated it was Kit Antilles, Han rolled his eyes as if to say, "I should have known." Chewie rumbled another query, and Han responded, "I dunno, Chewie. The video quality is hazy. I just got word that the information depot on Xarthax blew up about an hour ago. Reactor explosion. There are a dozen things that could have made that sound."

Chewie acknowledged the ambiguity of the images, then voiced another query. Han responded with what Chewbacca identified as deepening bitterness. "I doubt it. You know how command is about anything unrelated to refugees these days. I doubt they'd care one way or the other."

Chewie then asked another question, which was one that had just been emerging in Han's consciousness. "Well, maybe, if I knew where to find him," Han said, sitting down in a chair to watch the video again with sound on. "But I haven't heard from Luke in months."

Chewie issued a mournful growl as Han watched the video on repeat, seemingly lost in thought. Chewbacca had the sense of the internal struggle Han was experiencing. He knew that Han was still convinced there was a threat. It had been too quiet since the Republic stopped the insurrection – and only just barely. The near miss with a catastrophic attack on the Republic had only impressed upon Han the fragility of the whole enterprise. The timing of the refugee crisis seemed suspicious, even if there was no proof. Luke kept vanishing for extended periods, and Leia was about to rattle a lot of cages. This seemed like just the clue they had been watching for; in fact, it was the primary reason they had not walked away years ago. And yet. . .

Han stood abruptly, then indicated to Chewie, "Come on, Chewie. Let's see the Commander."

***

The Commander, a cantankerous Gran named Director Voon who had played a prominent role in Malastrian politics before taking a lead role in Republic intelligence following the end of the Civil War, watched the transmission a second time. He blinked his three eyes, then turned to Solo and Chewbacca. "And this is?"

"The Falcon's computer analyzed the aural signature and matched it with a lightsaber," Han explained. Chewie growled a soft affirmative. The commander glanced at the Wookie without comprehension.

"There are a dozen possible explanations for the sonic signature, and we all know how. . . idiosyncratic …your ship is," replied the Gran contemptuously. "And I see your ship was unable to clarify the resolution?"

Han grimaced, "No, and we tried. This came from an obsolete security camera moments before the explosion."

Director Voon rolled his three eyes, then retorted, "So, you want me to conduct an inquiry on a forgotten base on the Outer Rim that will be underwater for the next month because you think you saw a lightsaber in a grainy video?"

The commander had spoken Han's apprehensions out loud, and even having thought it through, Han did not have a suitable response. "Who sent this to you, anyway?" asked the Commander, growing irritated. "Wait, don't answer." The Gran keyed a commlink, then barked, "Antilles! My office. Now."

Han then took a turn at rolling his own eyes before responding, saying, "Look, Commander. I get that it's far-fetched, but this is the first time we've seen a lightsaber signature. . ."

The Commander interjected, "a suspected lightsaber signature."

". . . in any observation since Luke Skywalker tracked down that rogue Jedi on Dantooine," Han Solo stated, not allowing the commander's interruption to throw him off track.

"And?" the Commander replied, unmoved.

"And? Well, don't you think it's worth checking out?" Solo demanded.

At that moment, Kit Antilles entered the room, interjecting, "You wanted to see me, Commander." Han looked at her. She looked exhausted and haggard, but excited.

"Antilles, what have I told you about sharing information with Solo without running it through Officer Specks first?" barked the Commander, still looking at Solo.

"Not to?" responded Kit.

"Precisely. And you did it anyway. Now Solo is here feeding me this ridiculous story about lightsabers, asking me to divert precious resources away from the refugee crisis for a wild bantha chase," the Commander continued, still not looking at Antilles.

Kit, defiant, stood her ground. "The Falcon's spectral analyzer is the best. . ."

Kit didn't get a chance to finish her sentence as the Gran bellowed, "Enough! Kit, you're on leave until I can find another place to put you. It's only thanks to your Uncle that you're not flying Kowakian lizard monkey shipments to Nal Hutta. Out of my sight." When Kit opened her mouth to protest, the commander barked, "Now!"

Kit glared daggers at the Gran before reluctantly backing out of the office. The Commander turned his attention to Solo. "As for you, Solo. We've indulged your continued existence within this operation for long enough. You served the Republic well, and we're all so grateful for your service to the Republic and the Rebellion," the Gran stated with thinly veiled sarcasm. "But I have more important problems to deal with. I'm giving you a choice. Retire, and take a pension. Or I order your immediate removal without pension."

Han swallowed, perturbed but unsurprised. "So, that's it? I help clean up the Empire. . ."

"And you sail off in your flying garbage can to herd nerfs on some remote planet. Yes." the Gran finished.

Chewbacca uttered a rolling Wookie curse. The Gran, angry, looked at Chewie, asking Han for clarification. Han replied, "It's Wookie for 'May the Force be with you." The Gran's tan face took on a tinge of pink, but Han and Chewie did not give him a chance to respond as they stalked out of the room.

As they walked back to the Falcon, Kit caught up with them. Han waved her off before she could even speak, saying, "Not now, Kit."

Kit ignored the dismissal as she launched into her tirade, "That sack of poodoo was never going to listen to reason. I KNEW something like this was going to turn up. I just knew it! And I know you knew it, too."

Han turned to her, pointing toward her chest. "Look, kid. All I know is that I'm getting dumped out of the back of a Star Destroyer like yesterday's garbage." Han lowered his hand, and some of his irritation subsided into a more sober realization. "It's time to walk away."

"Walk away?" blurted Kit, angrily.

"You heard Voon; the Republic doesn't want me around. We've been looking for proof for six months that there's some connection with these anomalies, and we've got nothing to show for it." Han was calm, but it was clear there was a note of pessimistic resignation, as if he had realized that it was no longer worth fighting battles anymore. Han and Chewie both turned away and began walking down the corridor toward the Falcon.

Kit frowned, disappointed at Han's defeatism. She persisted, following Han and Chewie and continuing to make her case. "Han, what about the attacks on the Outer Rim?"

"We found nothing," Solo replied, continuing to walk down the hall without turning back to look at her.

"And Rakata Prime? Jedha? Batuu? Savareen?" Kit persisted, adding extra emphasis to each planet.

"Nothing, nothing, and…" Solo paused before the door. He turned to Chewie, who rumbled, to which Han said, "Yeah, that's right. Nothing."

"So that's it?" Kit asked, angrily.

"That's it," replied Han, as he keyed the code for the door.

Han was nearly through the door when Kit called out, "Alright then. I'll have to do it myself. Hey Chewie, you really want to spend the rest of your life nerf herding with this loser?"

At the word "loser," Han turned around, and Kit could tell she had struck a nerve.

"Look, kid," said Han, and Kit had the sense that a dam was about to break. "I spent half my life fighting the Empire. And while Luke trained Jedi and Leia crusaded on the galaxy's problems, our marriage fell apart while I did the dirty work. I liberated Kashyyyk…" Chewbacca interjected an angry Wookie phrase, and Han corrected, "We liberated Kashyyyk, we destroyed the Imperial remnants, and we stopped that blue-skinned freak at Utapau. And now that three-eyed moron is sending me off without so much as a thank you. . ."

Kit interjected, matching his tone and his anger, "No, you listen, Solo." Han's eyebrows rose a full inch at the gumption of her using his surname. "You think you're the only one who lost something? My dad died fighting Thrawn, and he always said that if he was going to put his life in anybody's hands, it was you or Luke Skywalker. I'm certain that was a Dark Jedi, and I'm not going on vacation when there might be a new Darth Vader running around killing Republic soldiers. I'm going to get to the bottom of it, one way or the other."

Han was taken aback. He had never heard Wedge say that before, and the notion moved him. "Wedge said that?" he asked.

Kit cocked an eyebrow, her arms folded. As he regarded her ferocious, stubborn posture, a fleeting image of Leia shouting at him about "walking carpets" floated back to his mind. After that, a second memory of a Sith Lord stopping a blaster bolt with his hand emerged, followed by the instant freeze of carbonite. He knew the dangers of a dark Jedi as well as anybody, hence why he had followed the inner workings of the galaxy's shadows for so long, desperate to make sure that nothing like it ever happened again. His vigil had also been for his son's sake; if darkness rose again, his son would be on the front lines, and Han had always shuddered at the thought of Ben facing a Sith Lord. He looked into Kit's eyes, determined, driven by grief and conviction, and he felt something yield. He threw up his arms in exasperation, then said, "Alright. I'll take you to Xarthax. Go ahead. Poke around, meet some soggy locals. After you're done, I'll drop you off wherever you like." Han turned, and with caustic bitterness in his voice, called over his shoulder, "I got nothing better to do."

The concession left Kit feeling more annoyed, if possible. The Han Solo she had trained under and worked for years ago would have bolted out of the office the second there was some lead to follow. He would do anything to be out in the field, sifting through the dirt, unearthing clues. The thought of what he had been through softened her stance momentarily, but her anger about having to handle things alone kept her edge sharp.

Han and Chewie began to walk away, and Han called over his shoulder, "Get your stuff together. I'm not gonna sit around all day." Han then continued along, leaving Kit alone in the corridor. She let out some of her frustration in a deep sigh, then went the opposite way to pack up for a trip to Xarthax.

***

Director Voon had walked out to the flight deck to watch the back end of the Millennium Falcon disappear once and for all. Han looked down to see the Gran smirking, or whatever it was that passed for a smirk with that obnoxious species. Han looked down with disgust, disdain, and resentment before he made his decision. After nudging the ship into the air, he gripped the ship's throttle before muttering to his lifelong friend, "Punch it, Chewie." The ship immediately jumped into full sub-light thrust, blasting out of the hangar bay like a mynock out of Mustafar. Voon tumbled backward into a nearby protocol droid, which prissed and fussed, leaving the Gran entangled and swearing in his native tongue.

As the commander fought to extricate himself from the entangled droid, a figure dressed in Republic military fatigues approached. Voon looked up, and recognizing the officer's rank, stood and saluted. The officer waived his hand vaguely, and the Gran's eyes went blank. The officer, speaking in a deep voice, suggested, "You will order Han Solo's immediate arrest."

The Gran concurred, "I will order Han Solo's immediate arrest."

The officer added, "The Chancellor shall not learn of the attack on Xarthax."

The Gran repeated, "The Chancellor shall not learn of the attack on Xarthax," and the Commander left the hanger bay. As Commander Voon drifted back to his office, Officer Specks watched the Falcon disappear into the horizon, and a smile stretched across his face.