[aside:] Reliev’d am I this training to complete,
If only for this day, which hath been years.
But is this not a strange and troubling thing?
Where only moments past I felt at ease,
Now there’s some sprite within that troubles me—
A chill, a solemn aura in my bones.
I would not much ado o’er nothing make,
But still shall I ask Yoda what it is.
[To Yoda:] I feel a cold, a presage here of death.
What is it that I sense within this place?
[Yoda points to the opening of a cave.
YODA
With the Force’s dark side
Is that place yonder quite strong.
A place of evil.
Discover thou shalt
That wherever good is found,
Evil is nearby.
Here on Dagobah
’Tis also so. For e’en here
That evil place is.
Bound thou art now, Luke,
To enter it, and face its
Deepest darknesses.
LUKE
But Sir, I prithee, tell me: what’s within?
YODA
Only that which thou
Shalt take away with thee, Luke.
[Luke begins to enter the cave, carrying his weapons.
R2-D2
Beep, meep, meep, squeak, beep, whistle, meep, beep, nee!
[Luke enters, bringing his weapons, as Yoda and R2-D2 remain outside.
LUKE
What twists of knotted vines and tangl’d fates
Await me in this hole? I shall go in,
And prove that I am not afraid of it,
Nor any task or misadventure here.
What evil can await I have not seen?
For I have facèd evil enemies
Who kill’d my mentor and my family.
What evil in this place can greater be?
Now doth time seem to slowly beat its pace.
And all is like a thick and restless dream.
But wait, who comes unto this deep, dark place?
It moves with grace—is it my father good?
Enter shadow of DARTH VADER.
Nay, nay, how I have been deceiv’d, abus’d!
For it is Vader here, my greatest foe,
The cruel defiler of my father’s youth.
I stand preparèd to do battle as
A Jedi, full of rage and righteous hate.
Now up, lightsaber, light my keen revenge!
Lay on, Darth Vader, damnèd henchman vile.
And now we fight! Yet seems it that my limbs
Are made of stone—but he is slower still!
I see my chance to strike, and let it fall—
The blow that shall release my father’s soul.
Now Vader’s head doth fall onto the ground
And I feel no relief, but only pain.
The mask doth split, his visage to reveal!
O, I shall see the face that kill’d a man,
That kill’d a thousand fathers like my own.
But wait, what is this here—and can it be?
This is no face of Vader: ’tis my face!
The horror, O the horror! Darker yet
That e’er I had imagin’d possible.
The greatest evil I may face—myself!
[Exit Luke, in fear.
YODA
Now hath he seen it,
And he shall ever see it
Till he sees it through.
[Exit Yoda.
R2-D2
O strange and somber night that falleth here—
My master Luke all out of sorts from what
He spies inside this hole. What lesson is
It Yoda hath reveal’d to him inside?
I would that I my master could protect,
But such is not the role I have to play.
And thus, since I may not protector be,
My path shall be to play the fool and watch:
I shall maintain my droidlike silence and
Bear witness as the boy becomes the man,
The learner doth become the Jedi true.
Content yourself with this, R2, and rest,
For other times than these require your best.
[Exit.
Space, aboard the Empire’s Super Star Destroyer and the Millennium Falcon.
Enter ADMIRAL PIETT and IMPERIAL CONTROLLER, with DARTH VADER and BOUNTY HUNTERS, including BOBA FETT, aside, aboard the Super Star Destroyer.
PIETT
These bounty hunters, O they reek! We have
No need for their most wretched scum.
CONTROL.
PIETT
The rebels surely shall not ’scape us now.
CONTROL.
We have been hail’d by the Avenger ship.
PIETT
VADER
—There shall be rewards
Aplenty for the one who finds the swift
Millenn’um Falcon. Ye may use whate’er
Approaches, weapons, means, or what ye will,
But mark ye welclass="underline" I want them all alive.
[To Boba Fett:] There shall be no disintegrations. Clear?
FETT
As you wish. [Aside:] The darkest Sith that e’er did live, and I am his choice to find those he cannot. Yet who am I? A mere bounty hunter like the others here? Nay, far more. I am Boba Fett, the vilest, fiercest, most deadly hunter in the galaxy. More than that, Darth Vader knows that I shall serve him well and faithfully in the pursuit of Solo. He knoweth well that Boba Fett doth worship at sweet compensation’s throne, and would happily betray my own kin to earn the great reward that hath been promis’d. I would kill Solo without a thought, for what is he to me? Disintegrations, indeed. I would disintegrate, disembowel, dismember, destroy utterly Han Solo, for I know him not nor care what he hath done to earn Darth Vader’s ire and the scorn of Jabba of the Hutt. I shall play my bounty hunter’s part, obey the dark lord, take my prize from the Empire, and receive a second prize on the dunes of Tatooine. A double prize—’tis wonderful a bounty hunter to be.
PIETT
[to Darth Vader:] My Lord, the ship hath been discoverèd!
[Exeunt Darth Vader, Boba Fett, other bounty hunters, Admiral Piett, and Imperial Controller.
Enter HAN SOLO, CHEWBACCA, PRINCESS LEIA, and C-3PO aboard the Millennium Falcon.
C-3PO
O, praise the maker! We are venturing
Out of the ast’roid field, and are alive—
Miraculous! [Aside:] I almost am convinc’d
That Captain Solo bears a hero’s air.
HAN
Now let us hence. Chewbacca, art prepar’d
For lightspeed?
CHEWBAC.
HAN
—Now one, two, three, and go!
[The Millennium Falcon makes a sound and fails.
CHEWBAC.
HAN
—’Tis not fair. I say, it is not just!
C-3PO
[aside:] A hero, did I say? O man of folly!
CHEWBAC.
