"Luke!" Beru's voice at the door woke Luke. He lay in bed, looking at the door tiredly. He knew he should jump up to let her in, but the urgency in her voice had grown familiar, and he could only assume that this alarm would be every bit as false as every one before it.

"Let me in," she said, knocking again.

Luke sighed, and stood up, opening the door, "Yeah?"

She glanced in, taking in his untidy room, "Gather your things," she said quickly.

"Why?" Luke asked, rubbing his eyes.

"The imperials have arrived in Anchorhead," his aunt answered, "Your uncle is getting the land landspeeder ready to go to Mos Eisley."

Suddenly more alert, Luke dumped his school bag onto his bed, hastily beginning to refill it with clothes, "Why?"

"Your uncle has a bag of clothing for you in the speeder already," his aunt said, "You only need to pack your personal belongings."

Luke blinked at her in surprise, "Why do you have a bag of my things ready? Why do I have to run off to Mos Eisley? What does the Empire being here have to do with anything?"

"Vader's heard of a Skywalker in the area," Beru answered, "Your father would have been a threat to him, so he's likely to think you would be too."

Luke quickly stuffed his bedding into the bag instead, wrapping in it a few belongings, a picture of his aunt and uncle, his computer, and a couple of tapes. He moved to loop his mother's necklace over his head, but his aunt stopped him. He carefully put it in a front pocket.

"Are you coming too?" he asked, confused at her lack of personal rush.

Beru shook her head, "Your uncle and I are staying here. It would be far too suspicious for the farm to be found abandoned. I'm sorry," she continued, "I know I promised never to leave you."

He shrugged, "Why are we going to Mos Eisley?"

"Your uncle will employ someone to get you away from here," Beru answered as Luke swung his pack over his shoulder.

"Away? How far away?"

She shook her head, "As far away as possible."

"How far away? Would the Alliance work?"

"Luke," she scolded gently.

"Biggs is jumping ship to join the Alliance," Luke supplied, "I could go with him. They'd never think to check an imperial ship. And you know it's the place I'd be least likely to be discovered by the Empire."

Beru paused, studying her nephew's eager face before sighing, "I suppose you'd be happy there."

Luke nodded enthusiastically.

"Speak to your uncle. And make sure to get word to us somehow."

Luke nodded again, already hurrying out of his room and down the hall towards the garage. The ride was made in stony silence, and Luke's enthusiasm began to cool slightly. When they reached his friend's farm, he climbed out, looking awkwardly at his uncle until the older man tossed his pack of clothing to him, and motioned him into the dome, driving away as soon as Luke was inside.

Never one to say goodbye, Luke thought, carrying his things inside.

"Biggs?" he called into the silence, and his friend bounded up the steps to meet him.

"Luke! What are you doing here, I'm leaving today," Biggs said before noticing his bags, "Where're you going?"

"With you, hopefully," Luke dropped the bags and grinned hopefully at his friend.

Biggs looked doubtful, "Do your aunt and uncle know you're doing this?"

"They sent me."

"I'm sure the guys'll love to have you," Biggs answered, scooping up one of the bags, "C'mon, I'll grab my bag and show you where the shuttle's going to pick us up."

Luke took the bag back, and followed his friend further into the homestead to his bedroom, where he grabbed his own bag, and led Luke out to a patch of desert free of vaporators, sitting down at the edge.

"So, why are the helicopter guardians outa Hell finally letting you go?" he asked.

Luke shrugged, "Apparently the Empire has come to Anchorhead looking for a Skywalker, and they're afraid they might want to hurt me because of my father."

"Your father?" Biggs asked, confused, "Why would they care about some navigator?"

"I don't know," Luke admitted, "But Aunt Beru was in such a hurry I didn't get the chance to ask. Besides, this seemed too good to pass up."

Biggs nodded, glancing up as an Imperial shuttle landed in the desert, coughing up sand from both sides, "Let's get off this rock."

Luke wrapped his hands tightly around the straps of the bags he was carrying, and followed Biggs aboard. A number of other young imperials sat around, still in their shore leave clothes, chatting.

Biggs led Luke to the back of the shuttle, towards a group of friends, "Hey folks, this is Luke, he'll be coming with us."

"Are these the guys who're?" Luke started, but Biggs kicked him in the shin to shut him up, and he assumed that they were. Blinking away a tear of pain, he nodded, "Nice to meet you."

One of the others stood up and shook his hand formally, and Luke awkwardly returned the gesture, glancing at Biggs in confusion.

"Don't mind Tom," one of the other boys said, "He's always like that."

Tom turned pink around the ears and released Luke's hand, returning to his place. The other boy grinned at Luke, "I'm Percy, and these are Sam," he pointed to a young woman, already in her uniform, "And Shell," a nervous looking boy who kept glancing around the compartment, obviously terrified that they would be discovered at any moment.

"Hi," Luke said, sitting next to Biggs as his friend took his place, "What's the schedule?"

"We arrive at the Academy at eight hundred tomorrow," the woman answered, "Orientation with our ships at nine, and by ten we should be shipping out."

Luke nodded, "So tonight'll be spent flying?"

Percy yawned, "Yeah, they say it's good practice for when we've got late night missions. You'll have to excuse me if I fall asleep on you."

Biggs, Tom and Sam all laughed, and even Shell gave a nervous giggle. Luke felt immediately sorry for the boy, and hoped he would feel more at home once they reached the Alliance. Percy threw an arm around him, though, and as he smiled up at his friend, Luke couldn't help smiling too.

"So," Tom said, "Luke's the flier we've heard so much about?"

Biggs nodded, "Never challenge him to a race, I'm telling you."

Sam looked at him appraisingly, "I think I might take that challenge sometime."

Luke turned to her, surprised, "It's just a figure of speech," he said.

Sam frowned in mock disappointment, "Afraid of hurting the fragile woman?"

immediately, the whole group silenced, staring at them as though she'd just armed a bomb. Looking at her again, Luke decided that she probably metaphorically had.

"Absolutely not," Luke said jokingly, "It's just that I have self-esteem to protect."

She laughed, and it was as though the entire room had exhaled all at once. Luke felt himself sigh.

"Well, you handled that better than any of the rest of us," Percy said, "I had bruises for a week, and even Tom had a black eye."

"The only reason he didn't have more than a black eye was because of how quickly he gave up," Sam said unconcernedly, "Biggs got off with a couple of broken knuckles. He's a pretty good fighter."

"Shell?" Luke asked, and Shell turned away.

"I said I couldn't if I wanted to," he said, smiling awkwardly.

"He gets second place," Sam said approvingly, "So, how about that race?"

"Whenever you're ready," Luke said.

The flight dragged on, and by the time they finally arrived, Biggs had used his pack as a pillow and gone to sleep on the floor, Tom had dozed off in the middle of telling Biggs off for having fallen asleep, and Percy and Shell were asleep on each other's shoulders. Only Sam still seemed alert, and Luke was fighting to stay awake as well, sensing a bit of competition in it, but one he was rapidly loosing.

At last, they landed, and the other groups began moving. Luke gently shook Shell's shoulder, and Shell woke Percy, but before Luke could move to wake Biggs, Sam was poking him with a toe, shaking Tom at the same time.

"Very unprofessional to fall asleep on the job," Tom chided, before realizing that some time had passed since he'd started that sentence and blushing delicately again.

A commander pushed into the room and ordered them all out, and each tired person stumbled out. "Just follow me," Biggs hissed to Luke, and Luke did as he was told. He glimpsed some of the Academy's famous teachers, but the overall tide of students buffeted him along, and before he knew it he'd been introduced to the ship Biggs had been assigned to, and was then being dragged away by Sam, who had put on a big deal of fighting him, Biggs running after them as though to calm her. They boarded a smaller cruiser, and had a reunion with each other, as Biggs and Percy took the ship out of the Academy, and the others ran to man weapons, Luke stood in the cockpit, feeling useless.

"Make yourself useful!" Sam shouted over the din of the chaos that reigned, "Go find out what cargo we've stolen for the Alliance!"

Luke immediately hurried to the cargo bays and opened a few crates, speaking through the headset he'd grabbed as he left the cockpit, "Food," he said, walking to another section and wrenching one of those crates open, "And ammo."

"Score!" Percy shouted, and the others all made sounds of agreement.

Sam didn't immediately make another suggestion to keep Luke busy, and the floor had stopped shaking, so he came back into the cockpit to find the streaks of hyperspace dominating the viewport and Tom and Shell settled, Sam holding Luke's things, "I'm going to have to look through this," she said, "Sorry, but we don't know you well enough to trust you yet."

Luke shrugged, and she knelt down on the floor, pulling a magnet out of her pocket and running it over the first bag, the one his aunt and uncle had packed with his clothing. It went off as it skimmed the second bag, and she quickly reviewed the content of that one before tossing it back at him, "You're clean."

"Thanks," Luke said, "How long is it going to take us to get to the Alliance?"

Biggs glanced over at the navicomputer, "Hard to say. They just gave us a series of random jumpoints, which look like they should take a couple days, but they probably don't end at the actual base, so once we've been picked up, it might be a while longer."

"I'm going to get changed," Sam said, pulling at her uniform, "I hate this thing."

"Then why did you wear it?" Luke asked, "No one else on the shuttle was."

"Ah," Percy piped up, "You'll notice no one else on the shuttle was a girl."

"The Empire won't accept women who are anything less than stelar," Tom added, "I'm curious what she's actually like."

Sam hit him over the head with a convenient bag, which happened to be Luke's clothes, and everyone laughed.

"Honestly," Biggs said, "I'm betting she'll just be her, but in normal clothes."

Sam grabbed her own bag, and headed out of the cockpit, "If anyone walks in on me, I'll decorate the bridge of the first Rebel ship we board with your undergarments."

"Yeah," Shell said, "Probably exactly the same."

"But with less obsessive rule-following," Percy said.

"Unfortunately," Tom added, "It took the two of us to keep you three in line, and I haven't figured out where Luke falls yet."

"You'll need to follow him around with a blaster, taking out the trouble he gets himself into," Biggs joked.

Tom sighed, "I'll go make sure none of the trackers can ever be activated again," he said, standing up.

Luke sat down in his seat, "So, I guess we have to put up with each other for a few days, huh?"

Biggs nodded, "Got that right. I'm starved, Shell, do you think you can manage by yourself for a few minutes?"

Shell nodded, and Biggs stood up, stretching, "Does anyone else want anything?"

Percy nodded, "I'd like a sandwich," he said, "And a soda."

"Same for me," Shell added.

"I'm coming with you," Luke said, and followed his friend out of the room. As soon as they were safely out of hearing range, he looked at his friend, "How long have you known these guys?"

"Since starting with the Empire," Biggs answered, "I know they're a bit weird, and it's hard to believe we've stuck together, but Percy was right. You'll get used to us."

Luke nodded, "I'm not too worried about that. It's just… I can't believe Tom would chose to leave the Empire."

Biggs grinned, "Tom may be a stickler for rules and an absolute suck up to authority, but he hates the Empire as much as the rest of us."

Reassured, Luke nodded, "All right."