Posted by Bret on 11/02/17 at 03:45 PM
Category: Books
“Change of Heart”, by Elizabeth Wein, comes from the perspective of an Imperial Navy Trooper. This story follows "An Incident Report."
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WARNING: This is a plot summary of the short story, spoilers ahead:
An unnamed Imperial Trooper is assigned as Vader's escort around the Death Star. He is present when Vader enters Princess Leia's prison cell, and brings in the interrogator droid. He watches with fascination as the young princess remains defiant. Vader doesn't scare her, although the interrogator droid does. Nevertheless, despite the fear, the princess remains resolute, and does not give up any information. Afterwards, the trooper is with Vader has he takes the princess to the command center, where she strides into the room with confidence to meet Grand Moff Tarkin. The trooper watches as she sharply rebukes, and even insults, Tarkin. Tarkin informs her that he has already signed her execution order. This doesn't faze the young woman a bit. She continues to insult Tarkin. Surrounded by the most powerful Moff in the Empire, the most terrifying dark presence known, and many faceless troopers, the princess did not budge. Until finally, Tarkin threatened to destroy Alderaan. The trooper watched as the princess finally buckled, but even at that point, faced with death and destruction of her planet, she held out. The princess spoke the planetary name of "Dantooine" as the location of the Rebel Base. The Trooper watched in disbelief as both Tarkin and Vader seemingly fell for it. He knew she was lying, because it was exactly the same thing he would do himself in that position. And then he watched Alderaan was blown up. The trooper knew she had lied. He knew he should say something to his superiors to let them know that any effort to search for a base on Dantooine was fruitless. He could save everyone the time, effort, and resources. He could be recognized for his perceptiveness, and be rewarded. But he knew that he couldn't anymore, because he couldn't betray the princess, after everything she just did. At that moment, despite all of his training, the trooper realized he had just had a change of heart. He had just joined the Rebellion.
Note: This story, conceptually, is nearly identical to the second story in the book: "The Bucket," in which a stormtrooper on board the Tantive is so taken by Princess Leia, as well as the actions of his own forces, that he decided he needed to get away from Vader's command ship and do something less brutal with his military service.