Chapter 37- Repairs, the Message, and Yoda
Lena carefully pulled out some wiring that had been polarized in the fight with the Empire. Lena may not have been the most mechanical person in the galaxy due to her Jedi training, but even she knew how to replace wiring, with the Force telling her were the problem was.
"Oh! Where is Artoo when I need him?" Threepio complained loudly. Being a protocol droid, repairing Han's ship was not what Threepio normally did. He was more inept at it than Lena.
"Don't fret, Threepio. You'll figure it out," Lena said, touching the golden droid's metal shoulder.
"It's not that, Your Highness. The ship is using a language I'm having trouble following," Threepio said, looking almost dejected.
"I see. Well, I would suggest you try your best to follow it," Lena said as she took up the welder in her hand to solder some wires.
"I have gotten some of the gist of it, but only a word or two escapes me," Threepio said.
"Well, tell Han what you do know," Lena said as she turned on the welder and Han crouched in front of a panel.
"Sir, I don't know where your ship learned to communicate, but it has the most peculiar dialect. I believe, Sir, that it says that the power coupling on the negative axis has been polarized. I'm afraid you'll have to replace it," Threepio said. Han came over to Threepio's station and looked at the object Threepio spoke of.
Han turned to him in irritation. "Well, of course I'll have to replace it. Here! And, Chewie, I think we'd better replace the negative power coupling," Lena heard Han say to Chewbacca, who was in a compartment over their heads. Lena snorted with barely controlled laughter as Threepio stared at Han in what amounted to a dumbfounded look over how he had just said that as he left.
Vader stood in front of a hologram, feeling his rage rise with each minute that his girl eluded him and the asteroids hit the Stardestroyers. "And that, Lord Vader, was the last time they appeared in any of our scopes. Considering the amount of damage we sustained, they must have been destroyed," Captain Needa said, finishing up his report.
"No, Captain. They're alive. I want every ship available to sweep the asteroid field until they are found," Vader said and the hologram shut down and Piett raced to him as Vader turned to leave.
"Lord Vader," Admiral Piett said, slightly out of breath.
"Yes, Admiral? What is it?" Vader asked.
"The Emperor commands you to make contact with him," Piett said.
Vader had to think for a moment. Since finding out that Padme had lived long enough to deliver Luke and Lena, Vader had been furious with his master. Padme was dead, yes. But to find out that he hadn't killed her in rage as he had been told was enough to make him thoroughly hate Palpatine. Only when he had Padme's children could he overthrow the despot and the three of them could rule the Empire. If anyone could run the Empire it should be Luke and Lena.
"Move the ship out of the asteroid field, so that we can send a clear transmission," Vader said as he went to his quarters.
"Yes, my lord," Piett said behind him and went to his own console.
Vader entered his quarters and kneeled on the pad that activated the hologram. "What is thy bidding, my master?" Vader asked, using a deference for the old tyrant that he didn't feel.
"There is a great disturbance in the Force," Palpatine said in an almost flat monotone as if Vader's boy and girl were nothing to fret about.
"I have felt it," Vader said. Lying to Palpatine and saying he couldn't feel Luke and Lena was a bad idea. Since he had discovered them three years earlier, feeling them in the Force was all Vader could do to assure his father's heart that they were alive.
"We have two new enemies, the young rebels who destroyed the Death Star. I have no doubt this boy and girl is the offspring of Anakin Skywalker," Palpatine said, reminding Vader that he was no longer Anakin and therefore either Luke or Lena should even matter to him.
"How is that possible?" Vader asked, deciding to feign ignorance that he had known that his children survived.
"Search your feelings, Lord Vader. You will know it to be true. They could destroy us," Palpatine said, the exact words Vader had dreaded ever hearing being applied to Luke and Lena.
"They are just a boy and a girl. Obi-Wan can no longer help them and I can kill Talon Orran," Vader said.
"The Force is strong with them. And the girl is already a Jedi. The son of Skywalker must not become a Jedi like his sister," Palpatine said, issuing a thinly veiled command.
"If they could be turned, they could become powerful allies," Vader said, refusing to believe murdering Padme's children was his only option.
"Yes. They would be great assets. Can it be done?" Palpatine asked as if Vader had had an excellent idea.
"They will join us or die, master," Vader said, feeling ill at those words. He would never actually harm Luke or Lena that way, but Palpatine didn't need to know that. Vader just had to pretend he would hurt his children.
Talon looked up at the roof of the small hovel that Yoda had been living in. He and Luke were too tall to be sitting here and both of them had to hunch to avoid smacking their heads on the low ceiling. Talon helped himself to some stew that Yoda had made as the rain started to fall. Th food was bitter, but it warmed his insides and made Talon thankful for the warm house. Luke apparently had his qualms after seeing a snake on a table.
Hearing a beep Talon looked over to see Artoo poking his domed head through what looked like a small window. Talon grinned briefly and took a bite, liking this concoction his old master made with each bite.
"Look, I'm sure it's delicious. I just don't understand why we can't see Yoda now," Luke's complaint caused Talon to look behind him. Luke was talking to Yoda, looking like a hunchback as he stood in the too small space.
"Patience! For the Jedi it is time to eat as well," Yoda said cheerily. Talon could see his point as he grinned to himself and Luke made his way to the fire.
"Here's your bowl, nephew," Talon said as Luke picked up the snake and moved it away from him
"Eat. Eat. Hot!" Yoda warned as Luke scooped some out of the pot and took a taste, making a face at it's bitterness. Good food! Mmmm, good, hmmm?" Yoda asked.
"How far away is Yoda? Will it take us long to get there?" Luke asked.
"Not far. Yoda not far. Patience. Soon you and uncle will be with him," Yoda said, making his way to the fire.
You may want to stop pretending you aren't Yoda, my master, Talon thought through the Force at Yoda.
Soon, my old Padawan, Yoda thought. "Root leaf. I cook. Why wish you become Jedi? Hmm? Hmm?" Yoda asked as he went to the pot full of food.
"Mostly because of my father, I guess. And my sister, Lena, says how much she loves being a Jedi," Luke said.
"Ah, father and sister. Powerful Jedi was he and she is. Powerful Jedi. Hee, hee. Powerful Jedi," Yoda said, with some pride in his voice. Talon couldn't argue with that as he had trained Lena since she was a small girl. Talon smiled to himself as he remembered Lena at three years old, learning what he could teach her about the Force. After a long day of learning how to use a lightsaber or how to shield her mind from Vader or any other Force-user she would collapse into his arms in utter exhaustion. She would then give his face sloppy, wet kisses, that only a three-year-old could give.
"Oh, come on. How could you know my father and sister? You don't even know who me and my uncle are. I don't even know what I'm doing here. We're wasting our time!" Luke said in irritation.
Yoda then looked at Talon sadly. "I cannot teach him, my old Padawan. The boy has no patience," Yoda said, in a low, sad, raspy voice.
"He will learn patience, my master," Talon said, deciding that now was the time to admit that he knew all this time that this was Yoda.
"Hmm. Much anger in him, like his father," Yoda said as he turned to face Luke.
"Was I and any of the other Padawans any different when you taught us?" Talon asked dryly. For as long as Yoda has lived he had apparently forgotten how anger touched all the Jedi Padawans at some point or other.
"No," Yoda conceded with a bittersweet smile, probably at the memories of all the Jedi he had trained and that had died by either war or old age. "He is not ready," Talon said, fixing his eyes on Luke.
"Yoda," Luke breathed softly as the look on his face revealed that he realized this was Yoda. Yoda nodded his head slightly at the word. "I am ready. Uncle, I can be a Jedi. Uncle, tell him I'm-" Luke started to protest loudly. He stood, banging his head on the low ceiling.
"Ready, are you? What know you ready? For 800 years have I trained Jedi. My own council will I keep on who is to be trained. A Jedi must have the deepest commitment, hmmm? The most serious mind. This one a long time have I watched. All his life has he looked away, to the future, to the horizon. Never his mind on where he was, hmmm? What he was doing. Hmph! Adventure. Ha! Excitement. Ha! A Jedi craves not these things. You are reckless!" Yoda said sharply as he paced around the hovel and then stopped to look at Luke.
"So was I, if you remember at one time when I was six or seven seasons," Talon said, remembering the time he and Saks and snuck out of the temple and had felt Yoda's gimer stick on his bare legs.
"He is too old. Yes, too old to begin the training," Yoda said a little too quickly. It was a feeble excuse as Anakin had been nine when he had started his training and Talon had known a Mandalorian girl who had started her training when she was a year older than Luke when Talon was 10.
"But I've learned so much," Luke said.
Yoda looked down and gave off a heavy sigh and then looked back at Talon. "Ahh! Will he finish what he begins?" Yoda asked.
"I think only Luke can answer that, my master," Talon said, looking to Luke.
"I won't fail you. I'm not afraid," Luke said with a look that Talon had seen on Anakin's face when he first started his training.
"Oh, you will be. You will be," Yoda said with a small grin and a low cryptic voice. Talon wondered what Yoda meant by that. The old Jedi had the gift of the Force showing him the future. Was it Vader or Sidious he saw? If it was either Sith then Luke did have cause to worry as both could kill him. Although Talon hoped Anakin came back to his senses before doing that.