Incident on Ardnor

Zine
Title:	Incident on Ardnor
Publisher:	Nikki White
Editor:
Author(s):	Nikki White
Cover Artist(s):
Illustrator(s):
Date(s):	July 1980
Medium:	fanzine
Size:
Genre:
Fandom:	Star Wars
External Links:	The Multiverse Universe
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Front cover

Incident on Ardnor was published in 1980 and contains 106 pages.

It is one of two gen Star Wars novellas published by Nikki White as part of her Multiverse universe series. The second novella is Life Was Not Meant to Be Easy.

Summary

A novella in the 'Chronicles of the Empire' series, an alternate universe story cycle. Darth Vader, for the first time in his life, discovers the joys and despairs of love, then finds himself stranded on an enemy-occupied planet where he must come to terms not only with both himself and his new-found ally, Han Solo, but with himself and face the unwelcome truth that he is not quite the godlike creature he thought himself. He still has much to learn. Not for the squeamish or prudish.

The Author's Plans

In March 1980, the author wrote:

After MV3, I hope to bring out the novella which, follows next in the 'Chronicles' after what will appear in MV3. This is tentatively called 'Incident on Ardnor' and is already written. It focuses on Vader and Solo and should be out June/July, probably 100 pages or so long. Then I might bring out another novella, 'Life was not meant to be easy' which is also in the series - or rather forms a subset all of its own. 'Dracula' is its protagonist. Then around September, I want to do MV4. This schedule is only tentative, of course.

From the Zine

READ THIS FIRST

Having got your attention, I feel that now THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK is on general release overseas and will shortly be released here [in Australia], that this is a good time to re-iterate that what you will read in the following pages is set in an alternate STAR WARS universe, as are all the Chronicles of the Empire! series.

Thla novella was plotted in 1978 and written in mid-1979 hence takes no account of the events or developments in TESB; nor was it ever intended to. It is based firmly on my own extrapolations of the characters of Han Solo and Darth Vader as I interpreted them from multiple viewings of STAR WARS. Not able to swallow the concept of a character of total evil and not finding any evidence in Vader's behaviour and attitudes in the film to admit same (if you want cosmic evil, try Sutekh in DR. WHO's "Pyramids of Mars" or pure evil on a lesser scale, try Davros in "Genesis of the Daleka"), I have attempted to give him a cultural background and set of attitudes which are so different in many ways from those of the dominant human, cultures of that galaxy, that his actions have resulted in misunderstandings on both sides.T his is not an attempt to whitewash him - he is arrogant and superior and lives life on his own terms and doesn't give a damn for the opinions of mere humans, so is as much to blame.

Therefore, the Darth Vader of this series is very much more alien than TESB would have us believe, particularly if a certain line near the end is to be taken at face value. In this novella, this alienless is brought out more to the fore than hitherto - he may. be humanoid but he is by no means human. So be prepared for some startling revelations about Sithian physiology.

I had hoped that by the time INCIDENT saw print MOS EISLEY TRIBUNE no.5/6 would be out with the first Chronicles story of all, WITCH-CHILD, which describes Vader's early life, the nature of the Sith and their world and how all the various elements in his background and personality combined to lead him to turn on the Jedi and cause and their destruction. Since this was not to be the case, I will give' a brief summary of my concept of the Sith here.

They are the oldest race in Galaxy 7, who held sway over an empire long before humans evolved. Originally a vaguely felinoid race, they evolved, after a series of atomic wars in the dim past, into a highly telempathic race of very tall, very strong humanoids. They need their superior physical attributes to survive the hostile environment of their planet where many plants and most animals are poisonous or deadly in the extreme and where sudden earthquakes, steams, floods etc. are common. They became superb hunters and fighters who place; more store on their personal abilities and courage than on, technology. Their planet's elliptical orbit (into which the wars had knocked it) gave them very long and severe winters, temperate springs and autumns and short, fiercely hot summers. The vagaries of the climate appear to have led to similar uncertainties of temperament among the people. The society is very feudal and rigidly structured. The planet is ruled by an oligarchy, the Council of the Dark Lords/Ladies (this is a unisex culture where distinctions based on sex alone are not made). A Dark Lord (or Lady) is the head of one of the clans into which the aristocracy is divided. Each clan may have several hundred members all of whom live together in the clan redoubt., a vast fort ress on the ancestral lands, where they are governed by formal modes of address and behaviour to use to each other. The Dark Lord/Lady is the one elected by the other clan members as the most psionically gifted and the most intelligent of them all. The position is for life (the Sithian lifespan is 500 standard years or more).

Only the clan head has the right to wear a distinctive breath-mask with the helmet, armor and robes. Each clan's mask is slightly different in shape, design and pattern and it is by these one can tell from which clan a Dark Lord comes. Even if he is not wearing his clan's badge or totem, usually an animal or bird or flower in stylised heraldic form on his robes (that of the Vader clan is the snow- tiger, possibly the most beautiful and most vicious of Sithian beasts). No one not of the Dark Lord's family is permitted to look on his face unless he permits it. The penalty is death. The wearing of the mask is part of full battledress (the fighters do not have life—support systems -- even the Rebels in SW wore respirators in their ships as did the TIE-fighter-pilots). It is also designed to frighten and overawe the enemy much as the devil-masks worn by samurai and sumo ninja did in feudal Japan, frothing is more off-putting than a man whose face is never seen, particularly if he is from a mystical warrior race like the Sith. It enhances his aura of mystery and other-worldliness.

The armor is worn by all Sith when serving in their forces. The robes are the mark of the aristocracy and only they are permitted them. Black is the colour of nobility just as purple is in our culture. They do not have the custom of marriage but instead take mates at regular intervals, remaining in pairs during the child's early life or at least until it is born when the mother departs back to her own clan and the father rears it in conjunction with other members of his clan, each one being the best in that particular field of instruction. The Sith may be a patrilineal society (but not a patriarchal one) but the men earn the privilege!

As for what has gone before the events of INCIDENT, this should be plain to those who have been following the series in MULTIVERSES and from the opening paragraphs . To recapitulate: after the Battle of Yavin, Vader's spaceship was sent out of control into deep space where it was picked up by a patrol from the Ensovaari Empire of the next galaxy and taken to a space station there. Somewhat later, the Millennium Falcon en route from Yavin 4 to pay back Jabba the Hut on Tatooine, hit a space warp caused by the massive explosion of the Death Star and arrived outside that same station Vader had been taken to.

The Ensovaari, a race of matriarchal, matrilineal telepaths with a high technology, are at war with the Catherine, another matriarchal race of like technology but not telepathic and much more aggressive. The Catherine have invaded the Ensovaari Empire and all forces are committed. Vader talks himself into leading the Male Auxiliaries i.e. the space fleets of the few races who allow men an active role in life. Han also joins the Auxiliaries, more out of desperation. Among them are the USS Enterprise and the Klingon battlecruiser, Klothos, both drawn into the same universe some years earlier. At the time of INCIDENT, the Auxiliaries have served tougher successfully on a number of missions.