Chapter 7

A guard roughly pushed someone inside.

"You can keep your hostage girlfriend, that Leia Organa, company, until I have settled the matter with those spies from Irithim. Later I will bring you to the Outer Rim and collect my reward for you," Zolgathrii snarled. The door slammed shut.

Leia jumped off her couch and kneeled near Liane who had gotten up on her knees. Cautiously Leia placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Liane, what happened?"

Liane's nose was bleeding, and at some places her clothes were tattered as if she had been beaten. Leia wetted a towel and wanted to clean the girl's face.

Liane grabbed the towel and held it to her nose.

"He will pay for what has done!", She grumbled angrily with a muffled voice, 'I will make him pay for yelling and screaming at me that I had to kill some innocent other hostages!".

She looked at Leia and tried in vain to continue on a normal tone.

"I don't know those men. He has invited them to join him on Ortel for a dinner, but he said to me, that while they were enjoying their meal I should strangle them the way my father punished all his enemies. He wanted me to choke them using the Force. He wanted me to freeze their bodies so they would be paralyzed, then it would be easy for me to suffocate them. When I refused to carry out his murderous plans he started yelling at me that he knows I can do that. I don't want to use the Force that way, Leia. My father killed many of his men that way. I've always hated him for that! I don't want to kill those men; they are senators just like you, Leia. Zolgathrii says that they are spies, they have betrayed him. He says, they have revealed his plans to the Supreme Chancellor. I tried to control him with the Force like I did while I was imprisoned, but he isn't responding anymore. He became outraged when I tried, and his guards began to beat me. One of them punched my nose so violently that it started bleeding, Zolgathrii also hit me with a stick which ruined my clothes. He threatened me to bring me to a planet in the Outer Rim territories, instead of bringing me to Morantan as he promised he would do. He doesn't need my help at all. He will get a lot of money because he would have gotten me out of that prison on Dalmaran. I'll have to make a plan to make him pay for what he did."

She sudden stopped, looked with an angry look around her, jumped to her feet and walked over to the couch. After she sat down, she continued with on high-pitched angry tone.

Leia didn't show her relief about the news that New Republic ground forces has surrounded Zolgathrii's residential palace. She was sure that her brother and general Madine were leading this attack and that it would be only a matter of time before they would rescue her and Liane. Yet she didn't comprehend all of Liane's incoherent angry yelling. Nonetheless, one thing was clear: Liane had opposed Zolgathrii, when he had ordered her to kill the other hostages. He had gotten outraged when Liane had refused to use any of Darth Vader's dark side knowledge to execute them. She seems to have strong will and had refused to use her Force powers to kill innocent men. Her stubborn behavior had been enough for Zolgathrii to discard their temporary alliance. Leia wondered what Luke would think of this development of events. Leia also wondered about the meaning of Liane's strange narrative that Zolgathrii intended to bring her to the Outer Rim Territories where he would get a high ransom for her? Did some else know about Liane's upbringing by Darth Vader? Could it be that an unknown person ... ?

Leia felt that Liane was still furious about Zolgathrii's treatment.

"Calm down a bit, Liane. Your anger won't help you to solve this situation. You'd better take some rest at the moment. Lay down on the couch and relax," she said on a soothing tone. To her surprise Liane listened to the soft spoken words and laid down on the couch. Leia rose and fetched a blanket and a cushion and offered it to Liane.

"Try to get some sleep and forget your anger for the moment," she said, using the same soft soothing tone.

Liane grabbed the blanket, stuffed the pillow under her head and turned to the wall. She didn't say another word, but through the Force Leia felt that Liane's tense emotions and anger subsided. Her breathing had become quieter. Leia reached out to the Force to surround Liane with a feeling of relaxation. The tension and anger left the girl and finally she fell asleep. Leia took the blanket from her couch, wrapped it around her and sat down in one of the chairs. She turned inward, suddenly feeling her brother's presence through the Force

'We've found out who the other hostages must be. They came to Ortel at the invitation of Zolgathrii. He invited them to his residence for a meeting and a dinner. Do you know if they are locked up at the same detention block?' Luke asked.

Leia released her Force trance and looked the sleeping girl on the couch. She rose and wrapped the blanket around Liane. She pulled the chair a bit closer and sat down, wrapping the other blanket around her.

Another day passed in which Liane's anger and hatred for Zolgathrii sometimes exploded. More than once she jumped angrily to her feet if she heard noises outside the door. One night she awoke with a jolt.

"I will kill you, traitor. You can't treat the daughter of Darth Vader the way you did!" She yelled.

Leia pressed her hand over Liane's mouth.

"Liane, stop screaming! You have been dreaming! Forget Zolgathrii, forget your anger. His attention is focused on the fights outside at the moment."

Liane, however, wasn't able to accept Leia's reassuring reasoning. She pushed Leia away and paced up and down the cell.

Leia sat down in her chair and looked at the angry girl.

"You can't do anything now, Liane. I assure you, that nothing is going to happen as Zolgathrii told you. He won't bring you to the Outer Rim Territories."

A pair of dark angry eyes looked at Leia. Leia walked over to Liane and pulled next to her on the couch, wrapping the girl in some compassionate Force feelings.

Reassuringly and gently she started to talk to the upset girl.

"Liane, again you are the obstinate angry girl I met on my first visit at Iritihim's detention building. Once again, you're behaving as princess Liane Solichor, the Dark Princess of Morantan. Being a princess you should behave as a member of a royal house, like me. You should behave calm and with dignity," Leia said with a soothing voice, while reminding the girl about her descent.

Liane shrugged, looking at Leia with angry eyes, but after a while she shook her head.

"I'm not, what you are thinking I am. I'm not a real princess. I'm not a member of a royal house, like you. I don't know anything of my birth. As a young girl I lived among a group of women of a Baroonta clan. It was odd, for there was only one man, Eremian. He was the leader of the clan and took care for the vrouwen. I've gotten my first education from those women. They taught me to read and write and other basic things. They were living on an island in the archipelago separated from the mainland of Morantan by a wide ocean. I have been living with them until I was about seven years old. One day a tall man, clad in a black cloak with a black mask, came to the island. He took me with him and brought me to a stronghold in the Morantan jungle where thousands of armed men where under his command. At first he told me he was my new teacher, and he would complete my education using with, what he called, the Force, but later he said, that I was his daughter. So I'm not a princess at all. His officers addressed him as Lord Vader. While I grew up his officers started calling me 'Dark Princess', or even Lady Vader, because I had learned, to use the same evil power my father often used. They often said, that I resembled him, but I hate that title. I don't want to be compared with him, for my father was a very mean and cruel man," Liane screamed.

It took some moment before she composed herself again.

"He once told me, he had been a slave in his youth and had worked for different masters. I guess, that's why he wanted to control and overpower everyone and everything. You can't imagine how frightening he was. All the officers on Morantan were scared to death, if he entered the stronghold. He taught me to use a strange power - he called it: the Force -, but he used that power himself in a frightening way, for he killed many of his men if they opposed him, suffocating them at a distance. Their death was horrible to watch. He taught me how to use that power, but I always hated him when he forced me to practise on animals, innocent creatures which had done nothing wrong."

Leia held her breath; Liane was telling her about her life under Anakin Skywalker, her real father.

"My father told me, that I needed the knowledge and power of the Force, for one day he would bring me to Coruscant to be the advisor of the Emperor. During his stays at Morantan, he instructed me to use the Force in a lot of different ways. He said, it was an energy field I could feel and it would help me to keep everyone and everything under control, once I would be the Emperor's assistant. If he wasn't present I had to practise his lessons until I could flawlessly carry out his teachings. In fact it were these teachings through which I became scared and afraid of him and the way he used the Force. Many times I've even hated him, and I wanted to run away from the stronghold. I once did, but he found me, and punished me, locking me up permanently in his private wing of the stronghold. He forbade his men to talk to me and allocated several droids to take care of me. I was constantly being watched."

There was a long silence. Liane stared in the darkness of the cell, thinking of Darth Vader, her father.

"Oddly, he seemed to have changed after he had been away for almost a year or so," She continued in a soft voice. "He returned to Morantan unexpectedly, and he immediately ordered me in his private chamber. I felt that something had angered him, for when we were alone, he reprimanded me for something I had done. He didn't punish me, as was always his normal habit, if the commander had informed him about my behavior during his absence. Instead he gave me some very strange instructions. I remember every word he said."

"Liane," He said gravely. "I've taught you many ways to the use of the Force. You're not always as obedient to me as you should be, for this time the commander has told me you have been reading a forbidden book, haven't you?" I could do nothing else than to admit I had, for he always knew if I lied. "Liane", he said, "in that forbidden book you have read about the Jedi Knights, so now it's time to tell you, that the Force can be used in two different ways. The first way gives you power and the possibility to control everything and everyone, to control and master any unexpected situation. The second way can only be used to defend yourself against enemies or opponents. The emperor, you and I are using that first most powerful way and for a long time there wasn't anyone who could use the Force in that other way. But a certain Luke Skywalker has mastered that second way of the Force and he has become a very powerful and dangerous opponent, a Jedi Knight, a servant of the other use of the Force. The Emperor has ordered me to bring him to Coruscant, but Luke Skywalker might come to Morantan while I am away and when that happens you must use your skills of the Dark Side to overpower him, take him prisoner and put him in detention. The commander will inform me and I will come back to bring him to Coruscant. But beware, Liane! He is my ..... he is my most dangerous enemy and yours too, don't let him control you." It was so strange, Leia, for he stopped in the middle of that last sentence.'

Leia closed her eyes, took Liane's hand and gently squeezed it.

"I didn't fully comprehend what my father meant," Liane said. "If that second way of the Force could only be used for defense, than why was my father frightened of that use of the Force power by a Jedi Knight, called Skywalker. Nevertheless I promised him that I would do as he had ordered. That's why I've attacked Jedi Skywalker at Morantan. Because my father had emphasized that he wanted the Jedi alive, I had set my blaster for at the lowest stunning level, so he would be easily defeated, before I could take him prisoner. I became so scared when I wasn't able to defeat him the way I had planned, for whatever I tried, how fast I fired, he repelled all the blasts with his lightsaber. Instead he defeated me and I expected that he would kill me, but he ordered his men to treat me with respect and make sure nobody would harm me. When he visited me in the prison building he was always calm, kind and friendly, treating me with respect and trying to reassure me. He never reproached me for my attack, not even during that hearing in court. Leia, I must have been a dangerous opponent, but why didn't he kill me?"

"Luke Skywalker is, as you said, a servant of the Good Side of the Force, a Jedi Knight, Liane. Your father and the Emperor have been using of the darker side of that energy field. They called themselves Sith lords. The Jedi Knights don't use unnecessary violence against their enemies, but use the Force to help people and bring order, peace and justice," Leia said kindly. She considered if she would tell Liane, that Luke was her brother, but she decided not to. Liane shrugged her shoulders.

"My father always said that enemies had to be killed, otherwise they would revenge themselves one day. But Zolgathrii was supposed to be an ally, I trusted him and now ... " Her voice trailed off, but her eyes got a dark and angry look again.

"Hush, Liane, calm down, and listen to me. From the beginning Zolgathrii wasn't really interested in you. He only wanted make use of the abillities you possess for his own benefit. He didn't expect, you would oppose him. You are known as Darth Vader's daughter and you have gained some knowledge of the Force's dark powers, but you're certainly not your father's equal by no means. Your use of the Force's powers are only a fraction of what Darth Vader could achieve, but you also seem to have a very strong will which has prevented you from killing the other senators without a good reason. Because the New Republic's elite forces have landed on Ortel, Zolgathrii has to face a lot of new problems. Those men will rescue us. Come on, let's try and get some sleep. Shall I keep you company? We can talk a bit more before we fall asleep again."

"You talk as if you have met my father, haven't you?" Liane asked surprised. For a moment Leia looked into a pair of inquisitive eyes.

"I have indeed met Darth Vader, Liane. I was once his prisoner. He frightened me too, when he interrogated me, but I don't want to talk about him now. We'd better get some sleep."

Liane lay down and shifted a bit so Leia could lay down too and put an arm around her. Liane was now completely calm again, but Leia still felt a lot of uncertainties and anxieties in her. Again she surrounded Liane with kind and comfortable feelings. What a strange story the girl had told her about Anakin. Why had he brought her up at the Dark Side? Why had she been living among a Baroontarian clan in her youth? What had Zolgathrii done to the other senators? And what were his intentions with his threat, that he would bring her to the Outer Rim? With a sigh Leia closed her eyes, but suddenly she clearly felt her brother presence. She immediately touched his mind within the Force.

Leia smiled at these comforting thoughts, which seemed to fill her mind. She looked at Liane, who had fallen asleep again.