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said, "but we’ve got company coming up the road." It was a vehicle full of Imperial stormtroopers policing the area, looking for the cloud car they’d just shot down.
    In a flash, Luke, Leia, and Kate were out of the car, hurrying along the road on foot. And just as fast the stormtroopers reached the wrecked cloud car, swarming all around it. Then they divided up to hunt for the passengers who’d escaped. At the same moment, Luke suddenly spied their best hope for safety-a narrow tunnel with a ladder that went straight down, a sort of passageway underneath the factory barge. Kate popped down the tunnel first, to make sure the ladder was safe. Then Leia started to descend.
    Luke sensed danger close behind him. Without hesitating, he drew his lightsaber, raising the bright green laser-sword threateningly. Three stormtroopers were fast approaching. As Luke fought with two of the Imperials, the third strormtrooper reached into the tunnel and pulled Leia back up. From down below in the darkness, Kate could see Leia dangling and gritting her teeth, as the princess kicked and swung her arms. Leia’s feet reached the safety of the metal floor of the factory barge, but her enemy had her in his grip. No sooner had Luke toppled one of their foes with his lightsaber, than he felt another one of the stormtroopers shoving him, pushing him right down into the tunnel. Luke plunged, reaching out with one hand to grab the rungs of the ladder.
    "Oh no, Commander Skywalker," Kate screamed, "you’re going to-" But before he toppled into Kate, Luke broke his fall, just in time to see the stormtrooper slam a metal cover over the top of the tunnel, leaving them in total darkness.
    CHOOOIIIIIIIG!
    A clamp twisted over the tunnel cover. Outside, on the surface of the factory barge, the stormtrooper who held Leia then turned a valve.
    "Luke!" Leia screamed, her voice muffled by the metal. TCCHHHHHHHHH . . . Poisonous gas flowed from the factory, through the valve, down a pipe, and directly into the tunnel.
    In the darkness, Luke climbed the ladder and pounded on the cover that sealed him in. But it was closed tight. There was no way out.
    "You’re an organic creature, you have to breathe!" Kate exclaimed. "But if you breathe the poison, you’ll die!"
    Luke held his breath, closed his eyes, and concentrated. He focused his thoughts on the Force.
    Luke knew how to move objects using the Force. He had learned how to do it in Yoda’s swamp back on the planet Dagobah, while training to be a Jedi Knight. Perhaps now he could use the power of the Force to move the latch that held the tunnel cover in place. As Luke desperately held his breath, nothing happened, at first. But then the Force was with him. The clamp holding the cover shut began slowly to slide loose. Clinging to the ladder, Luke pushed up on the cover. Then he leapt out and gasped for air. Kate climbed up the ladder to follow him out.
    Together they looked around in all directions, trying to find the princess. But the stormtroopers had taken Princess Leia away!

CHAPTER 6
    A Tale of Two Captives
    While Han was waiting for Luke and Leia to return with Kate, he showed Ken his two streamlined cloud racing cars in his cloud car garage. One was blue, the other red.
    "If I enter the Cloud Car Racing Finals," Han explained, "I’ll probably drive my blue car-the Custom Model-Q Foley." Han opened the door on the driver’s side of the blue car.
    "Want to see what it feels like to sit at the controls?"
    "Thanks, thanks a lot!" Ken said. And as he settled into the comfortable, cushioned seat, he asked Han, "How old do you have to be to get a license to drive a cloud car?"
    "Eighteen for humans," replied Han. "Twenty if you’re an alien. Except for Biths. They let Biths drive at age ten because they’re advanced bipedal craniopoids who reach maturity at a young age."
    "In that case, I wish I were a Bith," Ken said. "Say, what does this do?" He touched a green button near the steering