Chapter 2

The early hours of Calor portrayed a beautiful sunrise as Luke and Nova awoke from underneath the shipwreck. They both climbed out to feel the heat already developing even in the early morning hours.

"Are there any villages nearby? I need to see if I can get some parts to fix my ship so I can go back home," Luke said as he put on a brown leather jacket.

"There is one about four miles away from here," Nova said as she did a little stretch and realized Luke was watching her as she did so. Luke looked around while thinking to himself that he really did get himself into a mess. This planet reminded him so much of Tatooine with its intense heat and mountains of sand. The only difference was in fact that this planet had two suns, making the rays burn the skin right on his back. He turned his attention to Nova who sat of the side of sunken ship fiddling with her boots making sure they were secure on her feet. The girl stood up then and walked over to him and looked him right in eyes before saying, "I have to leave now, keep north and you'll find the village. It should have the parts you're looking for," she quickly turned around and began to walk away.

Luke instantly followed her as he felt shocked by how outright she could be. "Why are you leaving?" He said, feeling a bit hurt by her sudden insistence on leaving him even though the two barely knew each other. He felt she was hiding something from him when she didn't answer his question. Then again the girl barely spoke to him at all.

"Listen I know we don't really know each other, but I feel like there is something bothering you," Luke started moving closer to her and continued, "you can tell me whatever it is, you can trust me Nova." Luke then reached out to put a hand on her shoulder, but Nova ducked and backed away aiming her spear towards him.

"I trust no one," Nova looked at Luke as if he just did the foulest thing, "I've heard of you, Skywalker, the man who saved the galaxy." She began to walk towards him still with her spear in hand as she continued, "At first I wasn't sure who you were but your name sounded very familiar, then I knew it was you when I saw your lightsaber," Nova pointed with her spear at the lightsaber that was strapped to Luke. She then jerked her spear in Luke's face when all of sudden she felt a stabbing pain of electricity run through her leg. She fell to the ground with a little yelp before realizing it was a droid who gave her the shock.

"R2!" Luke exclaimed as he ran over to the droid, "I thought the crash wrecked your internal system buddy, well I'm glad to see you're still working." Luke bent over to see that droid had lots of scratches and dents from being at the bottom of his ship. He was relieved to see that droid came to his rescue after Nova's big lash out. Luke knew R2 was in crash with him, but thought he wouldn't be functioning properly after enduring such an impact.

"You didn't tell me you had a droid," Nova said still in shock.

"You didn't tell me you were going to kill me with your spear."

"I wasn't going to kill you."

"No, well I'm sorry, but a spear in the face isn't exactly a friendly gesture," Luke had started to get aggravated with the girl now. She bit the bottom of her lip and looked at the ground feeling guilty for her overreaction. Luke didn't understand why the girl acted the way she did, he knew they just met, but he never did anything to hurt her. The sun was already beating down his neck with full force making him feel dizzy, he really wished he had some water and food with him. R2 let out a little beep indicating he was ready to go, but look hesitated as he looked to the girl, "Thank you for helping me Nova, I must get going to the village. It was… Nice meeting you." With that said, Luke had begun to walk away with R2 right at his side heading towards the village. Luke felt guilty for just leaving Nova like that, but she didn't leave him much of a choice with her untrusting nature. Luke felt himself debating whether to turn around at look at her one last time, but decided it would probably just make her more uncomfortable. Luke then pulled the hood of his jacket over his head to protect himself from the unforgiving rays of the suns and kept walking.

Nova walked along the sand dunes wiping her forehead with a cloth as she eyed the horizon in hopes of finding water. Once again, Nova didn't see any, but spotted the outline of a tree about a mile away and instantly got excited about the prospect that she might find water nearby. It had been a couple of days since her encounter with Luke and Nova was beginning to feel guilty about the way she treated him. He was a nice guy from what she could tell, but her life motto was to never trust anyone. 'People will just let you down, it's best to just be on your own' she would always say to anyone asking why she was by herself. Nova was like this since the time she was young, never wanting to make friends or be with family. She felt at peace with just herself and could think freely about traveling the galaxy and moving to a planet full of life! Nova longed to live in a place with lots of trees, plants, animals, and plenty of water. She had lived on Calor all her life as her family had for many generations. The thought of family made Nova tense so she immediately let the thought go from her. She reached the medium sized tree where she sat down under its shade to open her container of water. Empty. Nova leaned against the rough bark of the tree and closed her eyes. After a few minutes Nova heard the faint sound of motor behind her and immediately became nervous. Please tell me it's not him! It can't be him, I left without warning.

Nova began to panic as the ship got closer. Feeling like she had no other choice, she decided to reveal herself from behind the tree. Two storm troopers approached Nova with their laser guns pointed straight at her. "Drop your weapon," one of the storm troopers said as Nova reluctantly obeyed. She had never seen a storm trooper before in her life and was wondering why they came all the way to Calor. This planet barely had any people or resources for there to be storm troopers on it. Nova was surprisingly thankful that it wasn't Dagger Mond, the man whom she stole from back in the village that Luke was headed to. She felt bad for having to steal from the man, but she didn't have any money for food and was starving after two days without anything to eat. That was Nova's life, trying to find resources to keep herself alive in this harsh planet. Nova never set out to be rude person, but people had destroyed her ability to trust after her family abandoned her at the age of nine.

The second storm trooper grabbed Nova's spear from the ground. "Have you seen a man around here?" one of the said.

"I see two right now," Nova said with a straight face.

One of the storm troopers grabbed Nova by the neck and forced her to kneel while continuing to squeeze the back of her neck. She let out a cry as the storm trooper broke skin trying to put her on her knees. He bent down to her face, "I didn't ask about us, Have you seen a man around here?" He was more aggressive this time.

"Not recently."

"When?"

"Long ago, I can't remember. No one travels here unless they want to starve to death." Nova didn't want to reveal that she saw Luke Skywalker a couple of days ago, fearing that they might take her in for questioning.

The storm troopers began to walk away, "Let's go check that village, maybe one of them has seen that Jedi scum." With that they climbed onto the small ship that hovered about two feet off the ground.

It is Luke they're after. I have to warn him! Nova knew that she wouldn't beat the storm troopers to the village, so instead said the first thing that came to mind.

"Don't check that village, the man you're looking for wouldn't go there. It is nothing but a couple of stands of desert fruits and scavengers. He probably went south to the old settlement where they have a bar, food, and ship parts," Nova said knowing the last part would get their attention.

The two storm troopers looked at each other, then at Nova before turning their ship around and headed south. Once they were gone Nova let out a huge breath of relief as she thought they would've believed her. She picked up her spear and started running towards the village in hopes of finding Luke Skywalker, the man whom she thought she would never see again.

Luke had fixed most his ship into working order and was able to fly it into the village to do some last minute touches before leaving. He had been grateful for the owner of the store, Dagger, who lent him in a hand in fixing the radio. He was able to tell Leia that he crashed onto Calor and was heading home as soon as he got the ship flying. Luke was inside messing with the controls when he heard Dagger yelling at someone, which he couldn't even make out what he was saying. Luke climbed out and saw Nova on her knees trying to catch her breath as Dagger continued to yell something like, "You got some nerve deciding to come back here thief," while shaking his head at the sight of her. Luke ran over to her and helped her up from the ground feeling a bit shocked that she let him do so. Luke had his arm wrapped around Nova's small waist to keep her from falling to the ground. He told Dagger to hand him his container of water and offered it to Nova. She took it without hesitation and drank all of the water with some pouring down from the sides of her mouth.

"They're looking for you," she said still breathing heavily with each word, "storm troopers are looking for you."

Luke had a confused look on his face, "what do you mean storm troopers are looking for me?"

"I don't know, I was just in the middle of the desert and heard a ship heading towards me. Then two storm troopers came out asking if I saw a man around here."

"Did you tell them I was here?"

"No."

"Did they hurt you?" Luke asked with concern written all over his face. He realized his hand was still around her waist and let go seeing she able to stand by herself. Nova looked to the ground before saying, "No they didn't, I told them to look in another village south from here."

"There is no village south from here," Dagger said still upset with the girl.

"I know, I didn't want them coming here looking for you. I thought you would be gone by now anyways, but I wasn't sure. Luckily I went with my gut." Nova had really thought that Luke would be gone by now, but was a little happy when she saw him still here. Luke turned to R2D2 and said, "Ready the ship R2 we have to go."

"Wait Luke before you leave, I just want to apol –"

"Hold it right there!" The two troopers from before were standing behind Nova aiming their lasers behind her head.

"It's me you want, not her," Luke said sharply.

One of the storm troopers walked towards Luke while the other still had his laser pointed at Nova' head. Nova could see Luke still had his lightsaber strapped to his waist as he lifted his hands up in surrender. With her nerves on full panic mode, Nova used her right leg to kick the storm trooper in the shin. At that moment the second storm trooper turned his attention from Luke to Nova. Luke took that opportunity to pull out his lightsaber, a ray of intense blue light, and stuck it through the second storm trooper. Nova then elbowed the other storm trooper in the side of the head as she took his gun from him. She was about shoot when he grabbed the bottom her leg and threw her down on the sand. Nova fell with her head slamming against the ground with a soft thud causing the laser gun to be thrown from her hands. Nova lifted her head from the ground to see the storm trooper walking towards his gun. Nova still on the ground, reached her hand in the direction of the gun, but knew she wouldn't be able to reach it. Still holding out her hand, Nova closed her eyes thinking it was all over when all of sudden she felt the laser in her hand. The storm trooper looked over to her and stood still not believing what he just saw. Nova then stood up with the laser gun aimed at the storm trooper and shot him dead. She then turned around to see Luke watching her in awe. He didn't know what to say to her at that moment and Nova didn't know how to feel. What just happened? Nova thought to herself as she dropped the gun from her hand. She looked at both of her hands confused, yet totally amazed that she just did what she did.

"Are you okay?" Luke asked her feeling a bit overwhelmed by what just happened.

"I think so," Nova said still looking at her hands.

"I can't believe you did that."

"Neither can I," Nova said finally looking Luke in the eyes. Luke looked at her in disbelief just seeing what she did. Dagger gave a scuff before walking away from the two who looked at each other both with shock and amazement.

"I seriously can't believe I did that. I don't know what happened. I…I… just did it."

Luke kept looking at the girl before saying, "You have the force Nova."

"How can I… I don't…Wait what?" Nova didn't want to believe that she possessed this rare ability of being able to use the force.

"You never knew you had it?" Luke asked a bit shocked this girl didn't know her own powers.

"No. I have never been able to do anything like that, this is the… the first time." Nova still couldn't believe what she just did, she thought maybe it was Luke who did it, but judging by his reaction it wasn't him.

"Well then I guess we both discovered your ability today," Luke said walking away. "R2, ready the ship, were going home."

"Luke wait, I've been wanting to apologize for the other day. You know, about the spear thing. Well I didn't mean to be so rude, it's just that I thought you were going to do something. I don't know what, I just jump to conclusions easily, and anyways I'm really sorry." Nova looked at him with guilt before saying, "Well get home safe, nice meeting you Skywalker." Inside, Nova didn't want Luke to leave, but she didn't want to reveal such feelings to him.

"It's alright Nova, I accept your apology." This time Luke was the one who looked to the ground before saying, "Would it be crazy if I asked you to come with me?" Luke said feeling very nervous as he did so. He knew the girl was special, why else would she be able to use the force? He already liked the girl even though she at first wanted to kill him, but now found himself even more fascinated with this strange girl.

"Well that depends," Nova began, "Are you asking me to come with you?" She said questioningly.

"Umm… Yes… Yes I am." Luke felt timid about asking such a thing from her. This was her home, the place she knew best. She wouldn't just leave it so suddenly.

"Well then yes it is crazy," Nova said as Luke looked down, "Yes, Luke, I'll go with you." Luke immediately looked up with complete surprise that she agreed to go with him. Nova walked towards Luke feeling a bit shocked at herself from agreeing to go with him. She felt like she could trust Luke despite not knowing him very well, she felt he was honest with everything that he said and he wouldn't harm her. With that being said, Nova climbed into the passenger seat of the ship as Luke and R2 followed her in suit. The ship took off with a loud roar before entering the galaxy. Wow! Nova thought, I have the force.