Episode 1:
That's No Moon, That's My Ride
Or
Star-Heist of the Star-Lord
Part 6 – Luke Skywalker, 12 Years After the Formation of the Galactic Empire
Ben Kenobi was a monster.
Panting his throat hoarse, sweat stinging his eyes and blinding him, the only reason that Luke was able to be on his feet at all was through sheer willpower and stubbornness. He had already thrown up his lunch, and probably last night's dinner. He would not fall, he would not, he would not.
Tightening his grip on the training sword, the tape that represented the hilt still rough in his sweaty hands, Luke raised the duraplast bar just barely enough to bring the blade up and, with a gasp more than a cry, he attacked. Or at least he tried to, as before he could take two steps Luke's knees collapsed underneath him and he fell on his side onto the hangar deck. He felt no shame in his fall, only a gratitude that he could rest for a little while. The sound of his heartbeat, so thunderous before, lessened just enough for Luke to be aware of the music that was playing in the background on a loop. It was something that Captain Quill had picked out and piped through the public address speakers in the hangar, its thrumming horns and drum beat having energized him when he first started sparring with Ben.
Unfortunately, Luke's rest was truly only for a little while, as he felt himself being lifted back onto his feet by a gentle pressure all around him. This was the power of the Force, to be able to move things with one's mind and it was being used on him to set him back on his shaking feet. The Force, then, was a traitor and an enemy.
"I'm very pleased by your progress," said the monster, his lips curved into a smile, his eyes shining with pride; all lies, Luke was sure, designed to eke just a little more from him. "Now let's continue. Remember to keep your blade up and ready, your feet kept just wide enough to be solid and your knees bent. No, not that far bent. Yes, like that. Begin."
Luke lunged at Ben, his sword in his right hand, aiming to stab the older man in the chest. With a laugh, Ben neatly sidestepped Luke's attack and whacked him in the back with his own training sword. Luke stumbled and nearly fell again, but locked his knees in place. Quickly turning, Luke slashed at Ben in a downward stroke, which Ben blocked and knocked away again.
In a rough ring around Luke and Ben was the rest of the crew of the
Weaver. Bria's eyes were tightened in concentration, watching the two swordsmen fight. Han Solo, Chewbacca and Aphra had a three-way bet going on; not on if Luke would win, but on how many times Ben would hit Luke and where. So far, Aphra seemed to be winning, much to Han's vocal displeasure. Captain Quill, on the other hand, was shouting encouragement and nonsensical advice like "Sweep the leg!"
Ben's practice sword lightly hit Luke on the side of his head, just hard enough to sting his ear. Han groaned loudly while Aphra cackled. "Be mindful of your surroundings, but not distracted.
"Also, sometimes a series of overwhelming attacks can work to break through an opponent's guard. Other times, it's best to step back, recover your energy and wait for your opponent to make a mistake either in attack or defense. It all depends upon the moment. Concentrate on the moment, and feel the Force flow through you," said Ben, his guard up and waiting. With whip-like swiftness, Ben's sword hit Luke on his belly though not enough for it to hurt. "Without closing your eyes. You'll have plenty of time to fight without your eyes soon enough."
A true monster.
-*-
It was Luke's second day on board the
Weaver, the first full day of his new life. His bed had been unfamiliar, the surroundings even more so. But he'd been so exhausted by that day and all of its changes that, though he had thought that he would stay awake all night, Luke had fallen asleep as soon as his head hit his new pillow. The next morning he found a glass of milk, white instead of blue, a ration pack and a note from Captain Quill telling him to continue fixing droids.
It wasn't until noon that he saw another person. Old Ben knocked on the open hatch of the droid maintenance bay, knocking Luke out of the near-trance he was in while fixing a droid. Though Luke had been right that the vast majority of the machines were labor droids, astromechs, and power droids, he had found a few surprises in there. Buried in the pile of droids and droid parts were a couple of protocol droids, and an inventory droid. But most surprising of all were the battle droids, three B1s and two B2s, all of which were missing their heads. Luke had a feeling those weren't the only battle droids in the pile. Luke hadn't reassembled them yet, both because he was unsure if he should and also if he could. But he was looking forward to the challenge.
Luke was fixing yet another astromech, and estimated that he was nearly done with them. Some time in the night, Aphra had left detailed instructions on how to run the droids through a debugging computer she'd left behind, and a promise that she'd be by to check on his progress. The white and red R5, which he learned was named R5-D4, had been a great help once Luke had turned him back on. Luke had the droid cleaning and organizing all of the droids and droid parts Captain Quill had picked up on Tatooine, so that Luke could concentrate on just repairs. The droid had been happily beeping as he worked, which made Luke glad. They were in similar positions, the two of them, both glad to have found work off of Tatooine.
"Hello, Luke," said Ben, his voice as affable as always.
"Oh, hi, Ben," greeted Luke. "Can I help you with something?"
Ben sat down next to Luke, who had been sitting on the floor of the ship as he fixed the droids. R5-D4 warbled worriedly, but seemed to calm down when Ben smiled at him. "I know that you have questions, so I thought that I would share some of my answers with you."
Luke looked at Ben, confusion and not a little bit of fear welling up inside him. He swallowed, utterly aware that this moment, perhaps even more than when Captain Quill had offered him a job, would change his life; for good or for ill, nothing would be the same. Luke set down his tools and turned to face Ben fully, nodding jerkily.
"My name is Obi-Wan Kenobi, and I am a Jedi Knight," began Ben, or rather Obi-Wan. So far, nothing was truly surprising, until his next words. "Just as your father was."
"My father?" Too shocked for thoughts, let alone words after that initial outburst, Luke could only wait dumbfounded.
"Yes, my greatest friend, Anakin Skywalker. We fought together during the Clone Wars, where he was known to be one of the Republic's greatest warriors. I don't know what stories your uncle told you about him, but I doubt that it was that he was a Jedi."
"Uncle Owen said that he was a navigator on a spice freighter," muttered Luke, his head swimming. He did not expect Ben to burst out in laughter.
"Oh, please forgive me," said Ben, after he had calmed down, though he remained quite cheerful. "Your uncle was not lying, Luke. You could very well say that Anakin was a navigator on a spice freighter, though the
Twilight was something more, and less, than that. Why, I nearly died I don't know how many times because …. Well, well. Perhaps another day for those stories.
"Your father was my very good friend for so long, but unfortunately that time ended." Ben paused, as if considering something. "You say that you know nothing of the Jedi, correct?"
Luke nodded in agreement. Before yesterday, he'd never heard the word, though it seemed that other people knew about them.
"For over a thousand generations, the Jedi Order kept peace and brought justice throughout the galaxy. Or at least we tried. We trained in the Force, to listen to it, to use and be used by it. Though the Force is, in the end, all of one thing, we the living perceive it as having two parts: the Dark, and the Light. The Jedi follow the Light, while the Sith follow the Dark. Long ago, we Jedi believed that the Sith had been destroyed. We were wrong."
Captivated by Ben's story, Luke could only listen with wonder.
"The Emperor is a Sith Lord, and together with his apprentice, Darth Vader, they conquered the Republic and transformed it into the Empire, and killed as many Jedi as they could."
"Is that what happened to my father?" asked Luke, though he knew that there could be no other answer.
"The Emperor killed my friend," Ben said simply.
Luke was silent for a time, unable to truly think as the swirling emotions within him would not settle. Finally, he said, "What was he like? My father."
"As I said, he was one of the greatest warriors that I've ever met, either on the ground or as a pilot. He always led his troops from the front, and would never ask anyone to do anything that he would not do as well. Protective of his friends … perhaps overly protective." Ben frowned a bit pensively, before smiling. "A good teacher as well, though perhaps not with lessons that the Jedi Council would have approved of. I hope that I will be as good a teacher as him with you, Luke."
There was a soft cough at the door, one that was obviously not a real one but something done to draw attention. Both Luke and Ben turned and saw Captain Quill standing there. "Sorry, I was just coming to remind Luke about lunch."
"Yes, of course." Ben had a strange, almost embarrassed look on his face, but that came and went so quickly that Luke thought that he might have imagined it. Ben stood up, and Luke followed. "Once you've finished eating, please come see me in the hangar."
"Is that alright?" Luke asked Captain Quill.
"Sure, sure." Captain Quill then asked, not a little embarrassed but his curiosity clear in his voice, "But who's Luke's mother?"
"Yeah, who is my mother?" Luke had at least known his father's name, and Uncle Owen had told him something about the man, even if it had turned out to be lies. There had been an outline of a man who had gone beyond Tatooine, a dream of freedom – even if his uncle had meant it as a dire warning. But as to his mother, Luke could not say that he gave it too much thought. Whenever the word 'mother' had come about, Luke's thoughts would turn to Aunt Beru. It had never been a conscious rejection of his mother, but that Aunt Beru fulfilled all of what Luke wished and wanted in a mother. Luke had none of the fear and confusion about learning about his mother as he had about his father. Later, as he lay in bed, feeling the pain ointment working on his tired muscles, Luke wondered absently if he had betrayed his mother by feeling that way all of his life, or had betrayed Aunt Beru by asking.
Ben, however, shook his head slightly. "I didn't know your mother very well, Luke. Anakin and she made sure to keep their relationship a secret from everyone, including me. I can tell you her name was Padme. When your father and I first met her, she was working as a bodyguard." He smiled sadly. "Thinking back on it now, I cannot believe I missed all the signs. Perhaps I wanted to miss them. But your father and your mother both loved each other very much."
"Is she still alive?" asked Luke, though he knew what the answer would be.
"No, I'm afraid not." Ben's eyes were at once compassionate and resolute. "She died of heart failure not long after you were born."
"Oh." There really was nothing he could say to that, and though he felt a sort of distant sadness there was also no real sense of loss.
"We'll speak more about your parents in the future, I'm sure. But for now, why don't you have lunch and then meet me in the hangar." With that, Ben left, presumably to set up for Luke's training.
Captain Quill looked at Luke, who couldn't meet his eyes and instead fiddled with some tools that were near to hand. R5, who had been silent during Ben's series of revelations, crooned slightly in what Luke imagined to be sympathy. Luke himself wasn't sure what he felt. Hearing about a father he never knew, a warrior who fought in the Clone Wars, but one who died, made him both sad and happy and some other feelings that he could not name. What he did know was that he wanted to learn more, and he felt that by training with Ben he could in some way get to know his father.
"Sorry, bro," said Captain Quill. "That sucks."
"Yeah." Then, Luke looked up at Captain Quill, a smile on his face. "But I'll be fine."
"Good man," said Captain Quill, smiling and punching Luke in the shoulder. It hurt, it hurt a lot, but Luke made sure to not show it beyond a wince. The idiot was definitely like Fixer. "Now go get something to eat."
Whether he had meant to do it or not, Captain Quill's punch had shaken the last of Luke's funk from his mind. Perhaps he wasn't so dumb after all. Smiling in truth at that thought, Luke was sure that with a good meal inside of him that he would be ready for anything.
Luke was wrong. He wasn't ready at all.
-*-
Han Solo was a monster.
"Noooooo," groaned Luke in misery, as he died in a fiery ball of superheated plasma.
"Sorry, Kid, that's another one for me," said that smug son of a Bantha. "We'll be going again from the top in a minute."
The lights turned back on, and the screens of the cockpit turned opaque. Then, the screens cycled through green, blue and red before showing the inside of a battleship of some sort. Luke ran through the preflight checklist that was scrolling through a small monitor on his left. He impatiently went from one step on the list to the next, making sure to click on the monitor each time and announce it aloud. Then came a growl on his headset, which brought Luke up short.
"Chewie says that you missed checking your cockpit pressure," translated Han. "Now I don't know about you, but I like breathing. It's one of my favorite things."
Chewbacca howled something softly, and then began chucking.
"I said, one of my favorites, not the favorite." His voice was jovial when he spoke with the Wookie engineer, but turned strict when he spoke to Luke. "Space combat isn't anything like flying your speeders on a nowhere dirtball like Tatooine. In space combat, the best die; the lucky die. But the unprepared, the badly trained – those die first. You want to die last, after everyone else that's been shooting at you has gone up in a puff of atmo and sparks. Just maybe, if you're the best and the luckiest, dying last means dying on a bed of old age. But the only way you get there begins with running through your checklist, and doing it right. So do it right, kid."
"Yes, sir," Luke said, knowing that Han could hear the whine in his voice but unable to stop himself. Luke then went through the checklist again, and then again, and again until Chewbacca growled his approval.
-*-
It had been after Luke had recovered somewhat from his lesson with Ben Kenobi, which had lasted for about three hours, and cleaned himself up a little, that the young boy found himself lifted off his feet by a tall, hairy alien.
"Quill says that you're gonna be flying one of our snubfighters, and guess whose job it is to train you up?" asked Han Solo rhetorically. He had a cocky grin on his face, which to Luke's recollection seemed to be the only expression on his face when it wasn't in a scowl. "Seeing as how there may come a time when I need you at my back, and I hope that day is far, far away, I'll have to make sure that you're up to snuff."
With only a shaky nod from Luke, the three of them went to another bay inside the labyrinthine interior of the
Weaver. In design it was much like the droid repair bay, a big metal box with a hatch for a door. Unlike the droid repair bay, the only things inside were what looked like seven starfighter cockpits, all of different types. Each cockpit was jammed next to the other, with thick cables connecting them together and to a large holoprojector. The holoprojector itself had a few folding chairs in front of its display.
Chewbacca opened the first cockpit, which was painted blue and black, and had the words "Atari Star Wars" written on it. Though he had never seen them before, Luke knew that these were professional flight simulators meant to professionally train pilots in military academies. He grew excited at the thought of being in one of these.
His uncle had taught him how to fly their airspeeder, a T-16 Skyhopper, and use it to keep a lookout over the farm and help to tend their crops. The first time that he'd flown by himself, the feel of the engine beneath him, the frame of the ship rumbling with turbulence, Luke had never felt more at home. The thought that he could learn to fly in space, get some serious speed and power underneath him, exhilarated him. While he had wanted nothing more than to lie down on his bed just moments before, now he wanted nothing more than to fly, even if it was just in a simulator.
The Wookie rather gently deposited Luke inside the cockpit and closed the canopy onto him.
"Put on the helmet," said Han from outside the cockpit. Luke promptly did so, his grin so wide that he was surprised that it wasn't permanently etched on his face. It was a bit too big for him, but he adjusted the straps so that it fit snugly.
After that, Luke went through the preflight checklist, guided by Han's voice and Chewbacca's interjected growling and huffs. "Now you're in an Incom Corporation simulator, and I'm in a Sienar simulator. Normally none of these things can really talk to each other; they're only meant to hook up to other simulators from the same company. Luckily, despite their winning personalities, Aphra and, uh, Bria are both pretty good slicers, so all of our simulators can work together. Aphra even tells me that we could even program one company's simulator to use another company's software, but that's not important right now.
"What you're going to be flying right now is an Incom Z-95 Headhunter, the same model that we have out in the hangar. Chewie's going to be checking your progress. Your job is to not die, look out for your wingmen, and accomplish the mission objective. Your opponents are going to be a squadron of TIE Fighters, and I'm gonna be one of them. Just to see how you're doing first hand. You got it, kid?"
"I got it." Luke didn't bother to hide the excitement in his voice.
"Good. I'm throwing you into the Battle of Coruscant. That was the last major space engagement between the Confederacy and the Republic. Your mission is to serve as a fighter screen against all incoming enemy ships, which is going to be the squadron of TIE Fighters that I'm a part of."
Luke slowly turned his starfighter on its repulsors, the simulator making it feel just like his T-16. He waited for the simulation to give him clearance for takeoff, and once he got it Luke punched his thrusters. The simulator somehow tricked gravity so that he could feel the initial pressure on his chest, just like the thrust of the engines would have done before the starfighter's own acceleration compensators kicked in. As he cleared the hangar bay of the simulated battleship, Luke wanted to cry in triumph.
He died about a second after.
"Pay attention, kid!" admonished Han. "I didn't even need to do anything, and you already got blown up."
"What happened?" asked Luke, bewildered.
"Proton torpedo impact against the deflectors, caught you in the explosion. In a battle, in the real thick of it, anything that can kill you will."
The next time, Luke lasted for a couple minutes before a TIE fighter shot him from underneath. "Try to not be in a straight line as much as possible, don't give the enemy a predictable path."
The third time, Luke crashed into his own battleship, trying to juke and dodge enemy fire. "That's the first time I've ever seen that. Um, don't do that? This is pretty basic stuff, kid."
It took another four tries before Han Solo even deigned to dogfight against him, having let the computer's simulated TIE Fighters kill Luke before. Once Han got in there, however, Luke went back to lasting about a couple seconds.
They practiced in the simulators for a couple of hours, at the end of which Luke wanted to punch Han Solo in his smug, condescending, berating face. However, he did have to admit that he had learned how to fly in space, if the simulator was at all accurate. The longest amount of time he may have lasted was about ten minutes, but in those ten minutes he had shot down two TIE Fighters himself before being killed.
"Well, kid," said Han as he lifted Luke out of the simulator and helped him take his helmet off, "you're not the worst I've ever seen. Hell, I wouldn't have been surprised if you gave up after the first hour."
"I'll never give up," said Luke, staring at Han. "If this is how you're going to teach me to fly, then I'll stick through it."
Han chuckled, and was joined by Chewbacca who softly roared something to his friend. "Yeah, he's got that look, alright."
"What look?"
"The one that says that your feet'll never stay on solid land for longer than it has to. You got the stars in your eyes and hyperspace in your heart, kid. You're a spacer whether you know it or not." His eyes briefly turned sad. "Whether you like it or not, either."
"What does that mean?" asked Luke, baffled.
"It means … ah, hell, forget it," said Han, suddenly impatient. "It means it's time for dinner."
Chewbacca and Han left the simulator bay, the lights still on. Luke almost went to follow them, before putting his helmet back on and getting inside the simulator again. Closing the canopy, Luke started the simulator again and ran through the preflight checklist one more time. He lifted his Z-95 Headhunter onto its repulsors, eased the thrusters forward, and took off.
Before he went to bed, Luke died another ten times. He lasted a good twenty minutes in combat.
Author's Note: This was a really tough chapter for me; the Writer's Block Devils were strong. I'm hoping that I got some of Han Solo right. He seems like the kind of guy who would take a great deal of pleasure in beating a twelve-year old boy in what is essentially a video game, but will also recognize the necessity in teaching that same boy how to save his life. Hopefully I also showed that Han did pick some stuff up during his time at the Imperial Flight Academy. As much as he might not like it, in my interpretation at least, Han does sort of default to a "tough love" type of training, even if he doesn't go nearly as far as the Empire.
The fun part of this chapter, of course, was in the "From a Certain Point of View" conversation between Ben and Luke. I like to think that, with the benefit of the Prequels having been made, that Ben spoke not a single false word there.
Sorry I didn't get to do any Aphra this chapter. I just didn't have anything for her to do this time.
Oh, by the way, the song that is playing during Luke's training with Obi-Wan is
Bill Conti's Gonna Fly Now (Theme from "Rocky"). Because of course it is.
