Luke and his Father: The Story Continues
Chapter One
The Dauntless was a magnificent ship, it wasn't too large nor to small, it was just the right size. Only a truly great pilot should be allowed to fly The Dauntless—and Luke Skywalker's Father had given it to him to fly.
Luke finished of polishing it and sighed in satisfaction: The Dauntless was his ship and no one else's.
"Are you ready to give it a test-flight?" his Father called. Luke glanced over and nodded. He was a little miffed that he couldn't fly it himself—after all, it was his ship. 'You're only 11', his Father had said. Luke rolled his eyes and got in, touching all the soft leather.
"I thought you would be used to the interior by now." Vader commented. Luke stuck out an arm, blocking his path to the driver's chair.
"Can I at least fly us out of the Hangar Bay?" Luke asked.
"I thought we had already discussed this?" Vader and Luke had had a little 'argument' over who got to fly the ship.
"But it's mine! I want to be the first one to try it!" Luke complained.
"No." Vader said firmly, trying to squeeze past, but Luke had stood up and blocked his way.
"Please Father, just out of the Hangar Bay, and then you can take over?" Luke pouted a bit, and after having an internal debate, Vader finally relented.
"Do not damage any of the ships in here." Vader warned, settling down in the co-pilots seat.
"Of course I won't." Luke replied indignantly. He started the engine, and pressed down on the peddle. The Dauntless juddered backwards and jerked to a stop.
"Whoops," Luke mumbled blushing, "it was in reverse." He pushed the lever down and inched the ship slowly forwards.
"Be careful!" Vader watched sceptically as they crawled towards the exit. "Surely you can go a bit faster than that?" Luke grunted back at him and accelerated a bit. "Now easy does it…" Luke felt a rush as The Dauntless finally made it out of the Hangar Bay and into the air.
"That was awesome!" Luke took his hands of the wheel to dance in his seat.
"NEVER take your hand of the wheel!" Vader rushed to stop the ship from smashing down into the ground below.
"Sorry!" Luke breathed.
"I do believe we need to switch places now." Luke sighed and stood up, switching places with Vader.
"Can we go look at the Sun?" Luke asked, strapping himself in.
"At a sensible distance—yes." Vader accelerated, and dived towards the ground. Luke gave a whoop of excitement as Vader pulled up sharply at the last moment. After doing a few dizzying loops, Vader decided that it was time to go into space.
"That was awesome! Let's do that again!" Luke hollered, jumping around in his seat.
"I thought you wanted to go into space?" Vader enquired, activating the reflector shields as they breached the atmosphere.
After a few seconds of the ship vibrating, they finally reached space. It was just as Luke imagined it would be; a large inky blackness, with a few pinpricks of light. The other planets reflected the suns light as they slowly revolved on their axis.
Pressing his face against the glass, he stared wide-eyed at the sun.
"It's so bright." Luke whispered, captivated by the large ball of gas that was just there, floating in space.
"What do you want to do now? Would you like to return home?" Vader asked a few minutes later. Luke reluctantly pulled away from the glass and scratched his chin.
"I'm not sure. Let's go look at another planet!" Vader raised a non-existent eyebrow from under his mask.
"That would be rather unsuitable for now. Perhaps another time."
"Oh." Luke whined.
"Luke, you know I do not like it when you whine." Vader reprimanded.
"Yeah, yeah…I know." For a minute Luke's spirit was dampened, but then he was bouncing around again. "Let's go back so I can buy some stuff!" Luke jiggled around. It would be the second time that he would be allowed to go to the Imperial Shopping Centre.
"I do not want a repeat of what happened last time." Vader said sternly, pointing a finger in Luke's direction. Luke's memory drifted back to when he had recently turned 10. He had gone shopping on his own and the results had been disastrous: a knocked down shelf, a knocked down display, buying a death-stick (he hadn't known it was illegal), and getting arrested.
"I can assure you Father, nothing bad will happen this time." Luke sent Vader a reassuring smile.
"I hope so, Young One." Vader smiled as Luke glared at him in annoyance.
"You know I hate it when you call me that, Dad." Vader suddenly dipped the ship, and Luke yelled out in shock, but he was soon laughing as Vader went through elaborate twirls.
Luke was feeling slightly sick when they finally landed in the Hangar Bay.
"That was fun!" Luke gasped out, his head spinning. "We should hang out more often." Vader steadied Luke as they walked towards the lift.
"Indeed." Vader said. "Here, 200 credits. Spend it wisely. I shall have my P.A drop you off. Call him and he shall collect you." Luke giddily accepted the 200 credits. He wasn't exactly looking forward to spending time with Ian though.
"Would you like to take The Dauntless?" Vader asked, pulling out his com-link.
"No! Ian would crash it or steal or do something awful!" how could his Father even think such a thing? The only people he trusted to take care of The Dauntless were Vader and himself.
"Ian?" Vader paused and glanced over at Luke.
"You're P.A." Luke explained, grinning.
"That new ship Lord Vader has is quite impressive." Ian commented, motioning towards The Dauntless.
"That's my ship." Luke said, suddenly feeling the need to show-off. "Father got it for me. It's my birthday." Ian raised an eyebrow.
"Well aren't you lucky?" he asked sourly. Luke hid his grin and strapped himself in.
"And now I get to spend 200 credits on whatever I want! And you have to pick me up!" Luke couldn't help but add the last bit. Ian and Luke and a mutual dislike for each-other. Sure, when in each-others presence, they would put on a fake display of some sort of friendship…but they certainly weren't fooling each-other.
"Oh the joy. I get to pick Luke Skywalker up. Hey kid, who do you look like more? Your mum or dad?" Luke was thrown off by that question.
"Huh? Why'd you wanna know?"
"Because I've always wondered what Lord Vader looked like under that mask. Everyone does." For one they were having a civil conversation that didn't involve insults.
"Father and I looked almost exactly the same. He had blond hair and blue eyes as well."
Ian spluttered slightly as he landed the ship. "Blond!" he couldn't contain his laughter and broke down in a fit of giggles.
"Ian? What's so funny!" Luke demanded, feeling offended.
"Lord Vader's blond! Oh, I would never have thought it." Ian continued to laugh, and Luke yanked open the door.
"See you later Ian." He snapped, slamming it shut behind him.
Luke wandered aimlessly around, revelling in his short freedom. The blackness of the Imperial Palace could make one quite claustrophobic. Once, Luke had visited the lower and levels, and was horrified to find out that people were actually being tortured underneath them for information.
He couldn't sleep for days knowing that people could be dying underneath him.
Deciding to focus on the task at hand, Luke went into a new shop that hadn't been there before. It was titled A Collectors Shop. Luke fancied himself a collector, though he doubted that collecting different types of leaves and putting them in a glass cabinet could really count as collecting. The leaves crumbled anyway, what was the point in that?
The shop had a dark, musty type of feel to it. The air seemed to be thickened with dust, and it made Luke sneeze. The lights were dimmed as well, so he had to squint to see things in the darker corners of the shop.
"What are yeh looking for boy?" a wrinkled hand suddenly appeared on his shoulder, and Luke squeaked and jumped around. An old man was stood there, peering down at Luke with interest.
He doesn't look threatening… Luke reasoned with himself.
"Uh, I'm just looking around." He turned his back on the man and continued looking at the small figurines that lined the shelves. Many were of T.V characters.
"I have a special selection of Empire Figurines if you're interested." The man gestured to a particularly shaded part of the shop.
Oh stars I hope he's not a rapist! Luke thought, keeping a wary eye on the man. He was soon distracted by the plethora of figures that surrounded him. There many of the Emperor, of his Father Darth Vader, Storm Troopers, official Imperial ships…
"Wow." Luke gasped; they only cost 5 credits each.
After thumbing through his options, he decided to buy: Darth Vader, The Emperor, a dozen Storm Troopers and different ships that took his fancy. He recognized most of them, since his Father had the majority in his Hangar Bay.
"Thanks!" Luke said, coughing from breathing in a large amount of dust.
"You're welcome back anytime." The old man said. Luke departed from the shop with a rather heavy bag. He also so bought some sweets and chocolate, some magazines of his favourite comic characters, a new pair of black trainers and a few new video-games.
This time, nothing bad happened! Luke sighed in relief as he saw Ian land.
After strapping himself in, he saw Ian eyeing his many bags with interest.
"You certainly bought a lot of stuff didn't you?" he asked, prodding the bag with his foot.
"Yeah." Luke grinned and relaxed, intent on ordering some Bantha steak. But there was one more thing he wanted to do…and he wasn't sure if he would be allowed.