Kanonstaven Förlorade stjärnor indikerar att en kejserlig fraktare skickades för att hämta honom bara några timmar efter förstörelsen av Death Star:
After a few hours at her post, Ciena’s ears rang with the squeals of badly filtered transmissions.
[...]
Shortly after Ciena had sent this information to command, she received a message to report to docking bay forty-seven. Nash shot her a look as she walked out, clearly as curious as she was about what could possibly be going on. She hoped to be able to fill him in soon.
Instead, she found she had a new assignment.
A stone-faced commander told her and the other pilot, "Lieutenant Ree, Lieutenant Sai, you're to take a Gozanti class freighter to the Yavin system to rendezvous with Lord Vader and bring him back to the Devastator."
Lost Stars Chapter 10
Eftersom Devastator parkerades runt resterna av Alderaan vid tiden, inte oerhört långt ifrån Yavin, var han sannolikt bara ute i rymden för mer än en vanlig dag.