LL3 14 Luke's Toughest Test

Luke was still buttoning up his shirt when he stepped onto the cockpit. He looked at the streaks of stars through the window, doing his own navicomp calculations in his head about their course, drastically off the beaten path of hyperspace routes, before glancing at Kess.

"How was your shower?" She asked without taking her eyes off the datapad.

Luke's eyes narrowed on her for a second and then he leaned to the environmental controls to turn up the heat a little. "It was fine," he said carefully, knowing she was about to pop out something new at him.

Her voice brightened. "You know, I was thinking while you were in there."

Luke dropped into the pilot's chair. "Yes," he smirked, "I kept sensing deceit from this part of the ship."

She ignored his comment and cocked her head. "I was thinking about this haphazard curriculum of yours." She tossed the reading aside and swiveled her chair around to him. "And I was thinking about your terribly long story of your own years of training. And all the little details you had to overcome because your Jedi Masters kept dying on you."

Luke patiently folded his hands together on his lap, grinning as he waited for the other shoe to fall. "Okay...?"

She grinned, "And, well, since your final test was facing your father, my final test should be the same, wouldn't you think? So what's to say I'm not finished?"

Luke's eyes darted to the open hatch and, incidentally, to the bunk in the other room. He tried not to let the twinkle of humanity color his attempt Master's wisdom. He lowered his eyes. "The physical act of facing down your father, or me facing mine, had little to do with it."

Kess' childish coaxing melted a little. The argument was worth a try, but she knew all along that literally going up against her father was not the point of the exercise. It was about facing her dark emotions. She wondered what was left that she had left to face. She couldn't really sense any other skeletons in her soul to have to deal with, well, except for her feelings for Luke, but he wasn't going to make her 'face' that one more than they already had... would he?

Then she realized facing off the emotions of their relationship were just as new to him as it was for her. She stared out at the stars and the vast sea of space to think on it. Somehow, space didn't seem as big as that ocean of sand outside that little town. Her voice was as far away as her thoughts. "May I ask you a personal question?"

Luke's eyes shifted, this time with concern of his own self-confidence. Rarely did she ask permission to ask a personal question, and the question was never personal when she did, but her questions always seemed to prod at his heartbeat. Soon, his heartbeat would no longer be his own to control. He mumbled and leaned back in the chair. "Sure."

She didn't continue immediately and, for the moment she was silent, he daydreamed about what the question would be. He caught his thoughts wandering and reeled them in again, the mental action becoming more tedious by the day. Luke whispered, in his mind, his answer to the question he'd imagined. Yes, I do.

"When you were training, what was the hardest thing for you to overcome?"

Luke's dismissed his previous thought and yanked his mind back to the present, just so he could send it into the past. His whole training rolled itself into a split second, all the quiet notes of confidence and correction from Obi-Wan and Yoda rattled off in one long sentence and wrapped themselves into a single word. The answer was indisputable. And, in the present situation, he wondered if he would ever get it right. He tapped his thumbnail on his lower lip twice, half-hiding and half-admitting his own grin. "Patience."

Kess gave him that look again, curious, surprised, disbelieving. "Patience?" she echoed like the idea was preposterous. "You?"

Luke let his full smile shine at her as he leaned forward in the chair, resting his elbows onto his knees with a guilty sigh.

Brown eyes twinkled and she leaned forward on her own knees. Her husky voice hinted a playful insinuation that Luke was growing to crave, "How did you conquer it?"

Luke didn't back away this time. He stared into her eyes. "I'm not sure I have," he admitted coolly. "The training may end, but the trials never do."

"Really." She folded her arms across her knees. She eyed him curiously, but didn't try too hard to fake a professional conversation. "Has your patience been tested recently then?"

Luke cocked his head, rubbed his lips together, and grinned his affirmative. "You have no idea."

She smiled at that and stayed intent on his eyes despite the humor in her whisper. "Since you're the one in complete control of all this, it'll be interesting to see how long your patience holds out." Kess raised an eyebrow en guarde.

The heat in his eyes made her start to wonder how close he was to running out of patience. He trapped her in a stare that made her feel like a teenager all over again. He reached forward and his mouth parted with a slow, clean inhale. His nose brushed against hers.

And he stopped.

Luke's eyes shifted briskly away in thought, "Mm, no." He said as easily as if he'd just decided to skip dessert and backed away, the joke dancing across his voice. "I have a little more patience left in me."

Kess closed her mouth and blinked.

Luke sat back in his chair and heckled at her.

She tightened her jaw not to smile and narrowed her eyes to keep them from sparkling.

The Force was wide open. He wouldn't say it, but he wasn't hiding it either. And Luke knew damned well she was basking in this strawberry soda too.

Soon, his giggle calmed with a happy, parent-like sigh.

Luke weaved his fingers together in front of him. "When we get back, I'm going to go over all my notes and try to determine exactly what you have left to do," he offered. "You've gotten through what was probably the hardest part. You've been at a new level of since Dagobah. And the emotional symbolism behind facing your father dug out the dark core that was heading your ability to master everything else." His voice gradually drifted back to business as he defended his decision. "I want to see you perfect the other exercises a little more. Now that the dark core is gone, it should be a piece of cake."

Kess leaned back in the swivel chair and studied him seriously. She let her accusation out gently, but still quick enough to catch him off guard. "Why are you so scared to graduate me?"

Luke's smile vanished.

Words of innocence and defense stopped in his throat. He looked away uncomfortably, cursing himself. He should have known from the beginning, should have seen it coming months ago, it would only be a matter of time before she saw through him like a pane of glass.

His façade no longer worked with her. His seriousness, his firmness, his decided logic, and religiously practiced serenity... all crumbled away from the duties of teaching by example because their effectiveness had disintegrated. He wondered why she would ask permission to ask a 'personal question' that wasn't personal, and blurt out anything else that would slap him across the face.

His voice grated through his throat. "I want to be sure I didn't miss something." He licked parched lips and met her eyes timidly. "I'm afraid I made too many mistakes."

"It's too late to regret mistakes, Luke." Her voice was quiet and wise. "This training can't go on forever."

By his own reaction, he recognized that what she said was true. He was scared to cut her loose. Seeing her alone every day for training, having her look up to him the way she did and humbly follow his Jedi direction had all gotten too comfortable. He was too attached to her; too scared to hand over the controls and let her fly solo. He could lose her again if he did it too early.

And based on how she handled the Battle of the Y-wing, he could lose her if he did it too late.

The severity in their locked stare was equal—

Bzzt. Bzzt. Bzzt…

Kess looked to the blinking red light and thumbed the button to shut it up. "That's one hell of a short cut."

Luke shook his head. "We shouldn't be there yet." He flipped on the sensors, flipped off the collision detector, and killed hyperspace. Lines of light slowed to pinpoints and a beautiful night sky filled the window. "Were we flying into someone's path?"

Kess went to the scopes and punched at the IFF buttons. "There's nobody here." She checked the navicomputer. "We're twenty-nine light-years from the nearest system, and that's only Felucia." She looked out at the blackness of space broken only by the stars. "We're in the middle of nowhere. Why would the collision detector go off?"

Luke leaned back in the pilot's seat, staring out the window and chewing on the inside of his cheek. He shook his head with an, 'I don't know', then the Force tingled at them both.

Luke straightened his back, grabbing the throttle. Kess went back to the monitors, raising shields and tapping on the IFF buttons again.

"Oh boy," she sighed.

"Where are they?" His voice was stiff.

"One-two-six by four-four-six."

Luke yanked the stick in that direction as she continued the report. "Distance at two point three six. Seven— no, eight targets... nine." She looked out the window to see them. "They're still coming out of hyperspace."

His mouth tightened as they came into view, and he immediately cut all power to the thrusters and they floated in space like a dead gnat. They were still far enough away to be invisible to the naked eye, and no power meant no sensors would detect their little transport ship.

An entire fleet of Star Destroyers came out of hyperspace and began massing for real space travel. Luke stared at the collection in thought. They were far away from any inhabited systems, far from any public routes, and deep in Alliance territory.

Luke began to regret not calling Leia for the past two weeks.

Kess whispered in the silence. "Aren't you going to ask them what they're doing here?"

Luke turned to her like she was nuts, "In this pea shooter?"

She grinned, "The Big Bad War Hero is going to run from a couple of measly Star Destroyers?"

Luke shot her a glare and leaned over to the navicomputer. "My dear Apprentice, one of the most important things you will ever learn is knowing when not to fight."

She stuck her tongue in her cheek. "So what are we going to do?"

Luke turned back to the console, grabbed the throttle for the light speed engines, and pulled back. He let out a cockeyed grin, "We're gonna run home and tell Mom."