Regis was thrown out of bed by a violent force, and sat on the ground trying to remember why he was in a bedroom obviously owned by someone wealthy. The room shook under some kind of barrage, tossing bottles from a shelf and sending them rolling on the marble tiled floor. He reached for his bed and rubbed the blue silk sheet between his fingers. He wondered if he was perhaps a nobleman just waking from a terrible dream.

He noticed that the door to his room was open, and he heard a familiar voice coming from down the hallway.

"They just blew out our rear shields, Artoo! If you can't do something about that, then I have to set her down!"

Regis's haze of confusion suddenly parted as he realized he was in a stolen space yacht flown by Sindo, his former teammate. He could even hear Artoo beeping, but the droid's protests were drowned out as the ship buckled once again. They were under attack.

Still on the ground, Regis lurched toward the doorway. "Sindo!" he cried. "We have to get to Dagobah! There's where-"

"I know that!" Sindo shouted. "Artoo's directing me to the landing zone, but we've had Cheka on our tail since we broke out of Tatooine!"

Artoo wailed something about the ship that Regis did not understand.

"Hold on, then!" said Sindo. "They won't follow us in this fog. Why Regis had to pick a fat yacht without any weapons is beyond me..."

Regis leaned his head against the wall and gripped his throbbing temples. Through the pain of his incredible hangover, he was filled with the strange feeling that he had been kicked out of his own adventure. Had Artoo really convinced Sindo to take them to General Kenobi?

The ship heaved as Sindo hit the repulsion brakes. Like a bag of refuse Regis slid across the floor as the ship slowed down. Artoo bleated a warning, then the Luxuriant jumped as she collided with something. Regis was thrown against the wall, his face pressing painfully against a decorative wall hanging. The Luxuriant groaned as she dragged along hard ground. Time seemed to slow down, and Regis decided he had never been in a more miserable position.

They came to a rest. The interior lights blinked and the engine whined pitifully. Footsteps pounded down the hallway, then Sindo leaned in through the door.

"Let's go!" she said. "If they have bombers with them, they'll blow us up just to be sure!"

"Bombers?" said Regis, straining to concentrate through his hangover.

"Yes! We had to buzz through an entire squadron of Cheka ships monitoring Tatooine. I made the jump to hyperspace, but they followed us here. I'm guessing this ship has a tracker onboard. Come on!"

"Are we on... Dagobah?"

"Yes! Now, come on!"

In a daze Regis pushed himself up, then picked his rifle up from the ground. The light blinking in the hallway led him to a sleek party room filled with couches pressed against one wall and bottles rolling on the ground. He could tell the Luxuriant was obviously not prepped for combat or evasive maneuvers. Following the sound of Sindo and Artoo arguing, he found them standing at the entry hatch. Sindo waved to him impatiently, then fled the ship.

Through the entryway, Regis found himself in a warm, soupy fog. The dark trunks of trees hung overhead, like pillars supporting a roof of tangled vines. The sudden roar of a ship's engines flying nearby woke Regis up, and he raced away from the Luxuriant. Artoo squawked in complaint as Regis ran by, throwing himself behind a stand of black trees. Craning his head, he watched as two lights pushed their way through the dense fog. He watched them as they made their way past, feeling like a sand toad wary of predators.

[https://thechristiannerd.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/dagobah1.jpg]

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

"Is that you?"

Turning to the sound of Sindo's voice, he saw her peering at him through the gloom, her blaster held ready.

"Unfortunately, yes," he responded.

"I doubt they'll land," she said. "Not here, at least. Any ship is bound to get hung up in this muck."

"Hopefully we didn't lead them straight to the Imperials."

Sindo gave him a skeptical look, then turned away. Artoo trundled up, beeping and squawking in turn.

"Good," said Sindo. "Hopefully they won't be back. Maybe you can-"

Sindo was interrupted as the ship's music blasted once again, but the joyful tune was now dissonant.

"That's going to drive me crazy," said Regis. "Artoo, can you turn that music off? Actually, turn everything off. And let's hope they forget where we landed."

Regis wandered back to the Luxuriant with Artoo. It was a mess, the hull scorched and battered as it awkwardly rested against several dozen young trees now snapped and partially uprooted. Festive, colored lights blinked on and off. He almost wished Squanto was still alive to see what had happened to his pride and joy.

"She'll never fly again," said Sindo. Moving to stand beside him, she added, "You look pretty rough, too."

"I feel worse than I look."

"Why did you drink so much?" Sindo's brow furrowed in annoyance. "I thought you had gone crazy, but you obviously had a plan. You used to punish soldiers for drinking before an op!"

"Yeah, well." Unable to look at Sindo, he fixed his gaze on the ruined ship. "This wasn't a normal mission."

"Did that astromech put you up to this?"

"He gave me a reason to do it. You did, too. But, making sure it went down the way it did..."

"Lighting up half of Mos Eisley?"

Regis smiled involuntarily. "Yeah, that's been a long time in the making."

Glancing up the entryway to make sure Artoo was nowhere near, she said, "You trust that astromech? I mean, considering the state of this place..."

"I do," said Regis. "He showed me a message meant for an Imperial general in hiding here. Artoo's a droid, he has no reason to lie to me."

Sindo plopped down on the entryway, then looked around warily. "Well, our ship's dead, but we can use it for shelter, at least."

"I wouldn't worry about sticking around here for too long. Did you set us down close to Artoo's coordinates? I'm sure our comrades have plenty of ships of their own."

Again Sindo gave Regis a skeptical look. "I set her down about where he wanted. As well as I could, with the Cheka using us for target practice!"

Regis laughed. "You've still got it, Sindo! Maybe we should have stolen the trashliner, instead. We could have picked up all of Mos Eisley and dumped it in this swamp!"

Sindo could not bring herself to laugh. "I just hope that little guy didn't lead us on a wild goose chase."

The dissonant music powered down suddenly, leaving them in the heavy silence of a primordial world shrouded in mist. Something cried out in the distance, then Regis caught movement as some small creature leaped into a murky pond. Something else crawled through a tangle of bushes. He felt his skin crawling under his armor. The moist air suddenly became difficult to breathe.

"Bit different from Tatooine," he said, the offhand comment sounding disingenuous given their dire circumstances.

"It's creepy!" said Sindo, standing suddenly. "Let's get inside and see if we can get this doorway shut."

"I..."

Regis's sharp sense of alarm suddenly softened as an unexpected feeling of calm came over him. Despite being disoriented in an unknown world, he felt at peace, as if an older, wiser part of himself was gently reminding him that everything would turn out alright in the end. Looking at Sindo, she furrowed her brow quizzically. He wondered if she felt it too.

All at once, they realized someone was approaching - a man in a dark cloak. Though they both kept their blasters held ready, their sense of calm remained, and they felt it was unnecessary to train their weapons on the man in the dark cloak.

The man had dark, rough-looking clothes, but his face was smooth-shaven. Though his hood was raised, they saw kindly blue eyes watching them. He kept his left hand hooked in his belt, and his gloved right hand hung limp at his side, the curled fingers held rigid. He carried no weapon. The man's gaze fell on Regis's stormtrooper armor. A shadow of sadness crossed the man's face as he looked Regis up and down. Regis was suddenly filled with a sense of importance.

"Have you been expecting me?" said Regis. "I need to see General Kenobi. Can you take me to him?"

"General Kenobi?" said the man. The name must have struck a chord, for his calm demeanor was disturbed.

"Are... are you General Kenobi?" said Regis.

The man scoffed. "That's a name I've not heard in-"

Artoo's shrill beeping interrupted. He rolled down the entryway, then bounced over the muddy clearing, eager to be next to the man.

"Artoo?" said the man. "But what are you doing here?"

Artoo began beeping so frantically that Regis could not follow. "You know this droid, sir?" said Regis.

"Of course I know him," said the man, throwing back his hood. "He belongs to me."

He had sandy blond hair, and faint scars tracing along his cheek. He approached Regis, holding forth his stiffened right hand. Regis took the man's cold, dead fingers in his own, and shook his hand.

"It's good to meet a fellow human. I'm Regis, and this is... my friend, Sindo. You already know Artoo. He's the reason we found out about the secret base here. So, are you...?"

"My name's Luke," said the man. "Just Luke."