The roars of another Wampa Ice Creature finally awakened the battered young

Rebel commander. Luke's head was spinning, aching, perhaps exploding for all he

could tell. With painstaking effort he brought his vision into focus, discerning that

he was in an ice gorge, its jagged walls reflecting the fading twilight.

He suddenly realized he was hanging upside down, arms dangling and fingertips

some thirty centimeters from the snowy floor. His ankles were numb. He craned

his neck and saw that his feet were frozen in ice hanging from the ceiling and that the

ice was forming on his legs like stalactites. He could feel the frozen mask of his

own blood caked on his face where the Wampa Ice Creature had viciously slashed

him.

Again Luke heard the bestial moans, louder now as they resounded through the

deep and narrow passageway of ice. The roars of the monster were deafening. He

wondered which would kill him first, the cold or the fangs and claws of the thing that

inhabited the gorge.

I've got to free myself, he thought, get free of this ice. His strength had not yet

returned fully, but with a determined effort, he pulled himself up and reached for the

confining bonds. Still too weak, Luke could not break the ice and fell back into his

hanging position, the white floor rushing up at him.

"Relax," he said to himself. "Relax."

The ice walls creaked with the ever-louder bellows of the approaching creature.

Its feet crunched on the frigid ground, coming frightening nearer. It would not be

long before the shaggy white horror would be back and possibly warming the cold

young warrior in the darkness of its belly.

Luke's eyes darted about the gorge, finally spotting the pile of gear he had

brought with him on his mission, now lying in a useless, crumpled heap on the floor.

The equipment was nearly a full, unattainable meter beyond his grasp. And with that

gear was a device that entirely captured his attention—a stout handgrip unit with a

pair of small switches and a surmounting metal disk. The object had once belonged

to his father, a former Jedi Knight who had been betrayed and murdered by the young

Darth Vader. But now it was Luke's, given him by Ben Kenobi to be wielded with

honor against Imperial tyranny.

In desperation Luke tried twisting his aching body, just enough to reach the

discarded lightsaber. But the freezing cold coursing through his body slowed him

down and weakened him. Luke was beginning to resign himself to his fate as he

heard the snarling Wampa Ice Creature approaching. His last feelings of hope were

nearly gone when he sensed the presence.

But it was not the presence of the white giant that dominated this gorge.

Rather, it was that soothing spiritual presence which occasionally visited Luke in

moments of stress or danger. The presence that had first come to him only after old

Ben, once again in his Jedi role of Obi-wan Kenobi, vanished into a crumple of his

own dark robes after being cut down by Darth Vader's lightsaber. The presence that

was sometimes like a familiar voice, an almost silent whisper that spoke directly to

Luke's mind.

"Luke." The whisper was there again, hauntingly. "Think of the lightsaber in

your hand."

The words made Luke's already aching head throb. Then he felt a sudden

resurgence of strength, a feeling of confidence that urged him to continue fighting

despite his apparently hopeless situation. His eyes fixed upon the lightsaber. His

hand reached out painfully, the freezing in his limbs already taking its toll. He

squeezed his eyes shut in concentration. But the weapon was still beyond his reach.

He knew that the lightsaber would require more than just struggling to reach.

"Gotta relax," Luke told himself, "relax…" his disembodied guardian. "Let the

Force flow, Luke."

The Force!

Luke saw the inverted gorillalike image of the Wampa Ice Creature looming, its

raised arms ending in enormous gleaming claws. He could see the apish face for the

first time now, and shivered at the sight of the beast's ramlike horns, the quivering

lower jaw with its protruding fangs.

But then the warrior divorced the creature from his thoughts. He stopped

struggling for his weapon, his body relaxed and went limp, allowing his spirit to be

receptive to his teacher's suggestion. Already he could feel coursing through him

that energy field generated by all living beings, that bound the very universe together.

As Kenobi had taught him, the Force was within Luke to use as he saw fit.

The Wampa Ice Creature spread its black, hooked claws and lumbered toward

the hanging youth. Suddenly the lightsaber, as if by magic, sprang to Luke's hand.

Instantly, he depressed a colored button on the weapon, releasing a blade-like beam

that quickly severed his icy bonds.

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