Luke watched him go, stared at the closed door for good measure and finally gave up on avoiding eye-contact with the waiting officer. The lieutenant, who had relaxed minutely at Lord Vader's departure, stiffened again. The young Jedi felt his insides go cold.
He expects you to act your father's son, the treacherous voice whispered. With considerable effort, Luke drew the Force around himself and calmed his mind. Then he started walking, in no planned direction, just away; the grey-uniformed man fell into step with him, one step behind and to the side. The subservient position grated against the painstakingly erected serenity.
They were halfway down the corridor, before the Imperial dared to ask, "Where to, first, milord? Your quarters or a tour of the ship, milord?"
The deferential title gave Luke the creeps. He stopped and turned towards the lieutenant.
"I'm no lord!" he insisted with some vehemence. "I'm Luke Skywalker. Commander Skywalker, if you must."
"As you wish, m… sir."
An expectant silence fell.
"Well, what about you?"
"Sir?"
"Where I come from, when someone tells you their name, it's considered polite to tell them yours. So, you are…?"
The young Imperial straightened.
"Lieutenant 2nd class, Zevulon Veers, sir!" he reported formally, complete with clicking heels.
"Oh." That was a heavily loaded name, among Alliance soldiers.
"Any relation to the Hoth Veers?" Luke ventured cautiously.
Against all odds, the lieutenant stiffened further. "My father, sir."
"Oh." For a moment, the young rebel saw a monstrous, clawed, durasteel foot plot out blinding white, before he sternly reminded himself that no one could choose their own relations. "Did he recommend you for this job?"
An odd emotion flitted across the other man's face, too quick to catch it even with the Force. "I strongly doubt that, sir."
Minimal hesitation, then, "My father and I do not often see eye to eye…"
Luke almost laughed aloud. Welcome to the club, he nearly muttered under his breath, before jealousy abruptly reared its ugly head. Whatever petty squabbles they might have, these two were at least on the same side of the kriffing war!
He cut across the Imperial's sentence, sharply. "...but even so, he wouldn't throw you to the wolves like that. Lucky me."
The lieutenant recoiled. "That's not what I meant to imply, sir!"
The young Jedi realized belatedly how potentially deadly an accusation that angry retort must have sounded, from an Imperial point of view, especially from the mouth of Lord Vader's son. The next sentence proved his conclusion wrong, however.
"My father's fiercely loyal to Lord Vader," Veers junior explained, "if he'd received the order to find an escort for his lordship's son, he'd put one of his best men to the job. I'm nowhere even near that list."
There was something deeply tragic about the matter-of-fact way that last sentence was said, Luke thought. "Ouch. I'm sorry."
Lt Veers threw him an odd look.
"Whatever for, sir? My father is a general," he explained slowly, "commanding about 40 000 men, on this ship alone. If he couldn't find someone better than an inexperienced junior lieutenant, that would throw a very poor light both on his men and his abilities as a commander."
That's a remarkably clinical way of viewing things. Or is it? Suddenly aware that he had nothing but childhood fantasies and a handful of brief glimpses of the Darklighter household to compare his relationship with… to compare any real father-and-son interactions with, Luke blurted, "What is he like, your father, I mean?"
Very odd look. "Sir?!"
Oh well, in for a deci, in for a cred. "I never had a father all my life. And suddenly it's Lord-kriffing-Vader, Sithlord and Supreme Commander of the Imperial Forces, second-in-command of the Empire. That's a bit hard to stomach. I'm trying to get used to the concept, step-by-step," he confided.
"Oh." For a moment the young Imperial looked seriously taken aback, but then the tense core of terror at the back of his mind uncoiled and Luke realized that he had finally shed his father's shadow and become an actual human being in the other man's eyes.
Buoyed by that development, the young Jedi managed a crooked smile. "Yeah. Growing up with a father would be the first step, usually, but with your father being who he is, I guess we'll just skip to the second step, that is one in the upper tiers of the Imperial Forces. So, what is he like?"
"Uh,… Strict. Demanding. Pretty much what you'd expect from a man in his position, I guess."
Luke's face fell, despite his best efforts, and the lieutenant frowned.
"He wasn't always like that, you know," he went on, slowly, reminiscent, "I remember when I was a little kid he wasn't around much, but when he came home he spent a lot of time and effort making up for it. I thought he was the coolest dad ever…"
"What happened?"
"My mother died," Veers said bleakly.
"Sorry. I…"
A pair of senior officers pushed past them, throwing them indignant looks, and Luke suddenly realized that they were still standing in the middle of a long grey corridor.
"Look, is there some place… uh, less in the way? Where we can sit down, perhaps, even?"
The young lieutenant nodded, opened his mouth to reply and suddenly grinned widely. He tapped the code cylinder in his breast pocket. "Oh yeah, I know just the place."
