They came out of lightspeed two systems away to check out the cloaking device. It was ready to go. A few tweaks and they fired it up and jumped to light speed again.
"Are we sure this will work?"
"Yes." Anakin nodded. "Now that we've turned off the transponder."
Coming out of hyperspace, Luke sucked in a breath as he saw how close they were to the security picket. Tie fighters roared past within eyesight. After a moment, he let out the breath slowly. "They didn't see us."
"The only danger is that someone is scanning for unusual magnetic signatures. That's the catch. You have to drop cloak to shield or fire. But once they realize there is a cloaked ship in the area, they can scan for the magnetic frequencies and target the torpedoes to them."
"So that's why they fell out of popularity."
"That and the fact that the needed crystals are rare. The supplies were worn out during the war and the prices sky rocketed. Given that a fair number of people know how to counter them, it's not usually worth the extra money."
They headed for the planet's surface. There was no indication that the ships knew they were there. No hailing or flybys. No laser fire.
"So I guess if we have the cloak on, that rules out raiding their computers with those codes directly to find out what they are doing here?"
"''Fraid so."
There was nothing too bad about the approach either. Setting off along the route to where Obi-Wan's ship had crashed, they could sense his presence. They passed over the site and could see the shattered bits of charred metal pieces though the windscreen. The landing however, proved more difficult.
"Think we can drop the cloak yet?" Luke was concerned. With it up, their own search ability was limited.
"Mm." Anakin's eyes were half shut. "We're on the far side from the nearest ship. I don't sense any patrols nearby. What about you?"
Luke closed his eyes and reached out. "I don't either. I think we have to chance it." He deactivated the cloak, holding his breath. No sense or sign of danger. They remained unnoticed. "Safe."
"I wouldn't go that far. Let's not linger."
"Hey, look over there!" Luke pointed.
"Looks like a village."
"Smoldering. That's fairly recent. Looks like they decided to send a patrol down after all."
"So, what should we pick?" Anakin mused, frowning at the landscape below. "Wide open spaces where a flyby can pick us off or hunting for a hole we can sneak through the trees? Or crash through them and hope they don't notice the hole?"
"I'm always game for a challenge."
Anakin smiled as Luke stayed just above treetop level, searching for the elusive opening that would prevent an obvious entry hole.
"There. That one feels right." Luke said.
"I agree." Anakin kept an eye on the external passive sensors. Nothing in sight. "Could that village have been the survivors he's looking for?"
"Maybe. I sure hope they weren't in it."
Luke slid through the hole carefully dipping sideways. He slowed carefully and eased forward, crunching through some underbrush, rotated so the ship was pointing back out.
"Very nice."
"Thanks."
They paused to look out of the forest. Giant blue green flowers twined around tree trunks and joined with the myriad yellow green leaves far over head. Small white flowers circled the floor.
Gathering supplies, they both paused at the bottom of the ramp. Anakin took in a deep breath of flower and plant laden air. He sneezed hard and repeatedly.
"Careful with that immune system." Luke said, suddenly concerned. "Did you take the meds?"
"Yes. Well" Anakin resisted another sneeze. "At least I know I've still got a functional immune system."
Luke grinned. "That's looking on the bright side."
"Amazing how much brighter everything is since the Emperor is dead."
Artoo beeped at them from the top of the ramp. They both hesitated and looked at each other.
"Should we leave him here or take him?" Luke asked.
"I hate to leave him …"
"He could try and bounce a signal around again and pull a download from those destroyers."
"He doesn't need to be here to do that. And they are just as likely to intercept the transmission when he went to call us about it. And there is no telling how far he'd have to go to find us."
"True. I guess it's strap him to a bike."
"Unless he uses his rockets the whole way."
"They aren't strong enough."
"Since when?"
Luke looked blank. Artoo grumbled something.
"Never mind. Now I think about it, someone might notice the jet burn."
They got out the bikes and carefully strapped Artoo on the back.
"Ready?" Luke asked.
"Let's go."
They started very slow, flying over, around and through the high tight knit foliage of the woods through rust colored grass. They kept to the cover of the overhanging canopy as much as possible. Birds fluttered away as they approached. Insects chittered. A small mammal leaped, spread four paws to reveal colorful webbing and soared between the trees. Luke glanced at his father and noticed the smile flickering, the way he kept turning every direction every so often. Partly he was watching for Imperial patrols, Luke could sense that automatic alertness of a warrior. But partly he was just enjoying the place, and for that Luke was very glad. "It's just as well it's shady." Luke observed. The air was warm and moist, but not too hot. It felt like the aftermath of a spring rain.
"Yeah." Anakin pulled the cap he'd borrowed further down on his brow. The cloak was too warm for now. "It's a good thing he didn't crash on Tatooine. I'd get one horrific sunburn."
Luke smiled at this. "You ever been anywhere like this?"
"Bit like Naboo. Bit like Kashyyyk. Bit like Alderaan…" His voice faded a little. So many of his memories were stained by Vader.
Luke hesitatingly ventured "I get the feeling I'd deal better than Leia. I mean, I don't miss much about Tatooine."
Anakin gave a snort of not quite amused laughter. "Instead of an asteroid belt you'd get an enormous sandstorm. There are people there that deserve better though." His voice faded, thinking of his mother's grave. He felt ill at the idea of it being destroyed like that. For the first time it hit him that the stormtroopers had really slain his family. His step family, true, but still, they'd cared for and raised his son. They'd taken in his mother. In a very real sense, the troops had desecrated his mother's grave. His muscles tightened in distress. His fault.
"Are you all right?"
"I just … I'm sorry about Owen and Beru. How … how did it happen? I know what the report said but I'm not fool enough to trust it. They always pad those to make themselves look better."
Luke looked uncertainly at him. "We bought the droids with the Death Star plans from the jawas." Luke flushed suddenly in embarrassment. Anakin noticed and his brow rose slightly. "Artoo lured me into taking off the restraining bolt with a hologram of Leia. All I could get out of him was that it was a private message for Obi-Wan Kenobi and he belonged to him. He only showed a bit of the message, enough that I knew she was in trouble. He said the restraining bolt was blocking his ability to play the full message. Then when I took it off he said "What message?"
Anakin burst into laughter at that. "Sneaky isn't he?"
Luke smiled a little, embarrassed but pleased to see him happy. "Anyway, I got called to dinner and when I came back...no Artoo. I raced out the next morning to try and track him down before Uncle Owen knew he was gone. That's when I ran into the sand people. Ben...Obi-Wan ran them off. I was taking him and the droids to Anchorhead," his voice shook. "We came on the sandcrawler and I just knew. I got back and it was all burned. They were burned."
Anakin cringed. "I am so sorry." He said, meaning it with all his heart.
"Did you know him? I know he was your step brother but that's it. They wouldn't talk about you much and then they lied and said you were just a navigator on a space freighter."
"Not quite a lie. I have navigated plenty of space freighters. I only met them once." Anakin's voice was very flat. He hesitated. "When Mom was taken by the sandpeople." He sighed. "I'd had nightmares for weeks, but didn't know they were visions. It can be hard to tell, sometimes. By the time I decided I was going, no matter what the Jedi Council thought or said …"
Luke just looked at him waiting.
"I found her just in time for her to die in my arms. I hadn't seen her in ten years."
Luke winced. "I'm sorry. That's awful. No wonder Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru were so determined to pound into my head a fear of sandpeople."
"They had to pound it, huh?"
Luke shrugged. "I wanted adventure."
"I'll bet. Moisture farm in the middle of nowhere. Not even a seedy tavern to sneak in and listen to the space pilots."
"Did you do that when you were a kid?"
"All the time."
"Until you joined the Jedi."
Anakin smirked. "Well … I might've snuck out of the temple and into a few places even after. That's probably what started Obi-Wan's gray hair."
"Why do I get the feeling you know a lot of stories that are less then flattering to Obi-Wan?"
"I can flatter Obi-Wan. The fact that he put up with me for all those years means he deserves a medal for patience and determination. Anyone else would've either kicked me out or strangled me." Anakin sniffed. "Of course, it's much more fun to tease him than flatter him."
"You've missed him." Luke observed.
"I wouldn't have hated him so much if I hadn't loved him in the first place. Or been so angry if deep down, I didn't miss him. I was with him more than not for a good ten years of my life."
"Well, now you can be with him again."
"If he'll have me." Anakin replied faintly.
His eyes brightened suddenly. The forest was opening up a bit. Artoo was solid behind him on the speeder bike. He glanced at look with mischief in his gaze. "Ready to pick it up?"
He shot forward, his speeder accelerating too fast for an answer to be heard. Over fallen logs, around rocky outcroppings he flew at reckless pace.
Startled, Luke recognized the half challenge, half sheer joy of his father's impulse and pursued. They chased each other over and through the woods at high speed. Luke couldn't quite catch up, perhaps because he wasn't quite as reckless, until his father suddenly slammed on the brakes and twisted in air, slaloming off a near solid wall where the forest narrowed again. Artoo wailed.
"Whoa!" Luke yelped.
Scowling, Anakin zoomed along the edge. When he finally found an opening he paused, hovering.
"Well?" Luke asked, coming alongside. "That's awfully tight."
"I don't know..." It was rather tight through there. "Let's split up along the edge for a few minutes and see if either of us finds a wider opening."
Luke was frowning too. "Yeah. Okay."
They didn't actually zoom out of sight, and certainly not out of force sense range. Due to the terrain here they didn't have too. Finally they met back where they started.
"Nothing." Luke said. He carefully steered into the maze of trees before them.
Anakin opened his mouth then shut it. They spent several moments slowly going through the maze of forest but they kept having to slow down until finally they both stopped, neither having to say anything.
"Stang." Luke stated calmly.
Anakin stared at the path ahead. Right here it widened enough to come alongside of each other. But after the turn it narrowed, lowered and was too tight for the speeder bikes.
They looked at each other.
"Guess it's the slow way from here." Luke said. He dismounted and removed the pack off the bike, strapping it on. Anakin was busy letting Artoo down, followed by his pack which had his medication in it.
They both paused to look at the speeder bikes. They glanced at each other and then suddenly Luke laughed. "It feels like I'm leaving a friend..."
"That was fun wasn't it?" Anakin smiled ruefully.
They hiked into the narrow path almost side by pushed through the tall grass right behind. For some time the continued through the tight maze of trees.
Their trek suddenly turned uphill, where they paused and circled a large clearing and started down into a valley with a stream. Splashing lightly through it, they both paused as they sensed someone was watching. The only sound they heard was a bird letting out a three note caw. Anakin's eyes slid sideways, meeting Luke's. That was no bird.
Artoo let out a soft, worried trill.
'Not Imperial?' Luke mouthed.
Anakin shook his head. Not likely. An Imperial would've just used the com, not bird calls. They had no reason not to use the comlinks.
Luke considered, shrugged, and they both hitched their backpacks higher. They started forward carefully. A small thrill went through the young jedi as he realized how easily he and his father synced now.
They reached a small hill and from the top, they could see quite a distance through the trees. The smell of smoke lingered and ash still blackened an area up ahead. A piece of smoldering metal suggested some of Obi-Wan's decoy explosion had landed here and set a fire. The smell of smoke lingered and ash still blackened an area up ahead.
"I see something." Luke kneeled, stretched full length, putting his elbows on the ground and pulled out the binocs, focusing on an area ahead. "It's him! It's Obi-Wan!"
"Can I see?"
Luke handed him the binocs and felt him stiffen beside him. His breath became ragged and he yanked out the inhaler and took a few puffs. Finally he demanded "Who did you say they found alive?"
"I didn't. But it was Senator Organa. Turned out he was making a supply run to a secret colony when Alderaan blew up."
"And who else?" Anakin demanded.
"I don't know. A message only recently got through. But it cut off in a hurry. They couldn't stay in touch with the Empire so close. They would've heard the transmission."
"I'm hallucinating. That can't be … it can't be that many people I knew down there. I'm going crazy..." He shivered, rolling over and staring at the overhanging trees.
"Who? What?"
"Never mind. Let's just…go."
to be continued