"Three starships?" I groaned.
Master Anakin, Tahiri and I had just entered the docking bay. I knew we'd be flying there, but I had no idea we'd each be doing it alone.
"What's wrong?" Tahiri asked.
"I forgot. She doesn't know how to fly a ship." Master Anakin told her.
"Don't make it seem like it's a bad thing," I said between gritted teeth.
Master Anakin and Tahiri exchanged knowing glances. I hate it when they do that. I chose to ignore this. "Well?"
R2-D2 beeped beside me. "Looks like you'll be riding with Artoo," Tahiri said.
"I knew that. But I still can't do it. And I don't think X-wings have autopilot." This day wasn't turning out too well.
"They do, but it's better if you're on manual. You actually learn the controls." Master Anakin said.
"Master…" I didn't know if he was being stupid on purpose because Tahiri was here or because he really forgot. "I can't fly because…"
"Because?" He looked confused, then he brightened up. "Oh! Oh…"
"What?" Tahiri looked at Master Anakin, then at me.
"She hates flying."
"I did after I accidentally pressed the eject button the first time I rode a ship," I added.
"Oh. Well…what now, Anakin?"
"I don't know. Threepio said that these were the only ships available, since Jaina used the others for some sort of emergency." Jaina Solo was Anakin's older sister and a member of the Rogue Squadron, an elite group of starship pilots.
"Are you going to leave me here?" I asked dubiously.
"Of course not," Tahiri replied.
Master Anakin was deep in thought. "I don't know if it's going to work, but I've been practicing on this for a while," he finally said.
"What?" Tahiri and I said.
Master Anakin went over to me and placed two fingers on each of my temples. "Close your eyes." he commanded.
I don't know what he did to me, but I suddenly remembered all my training in piloting a few years back, lost after my traumatic encounter. "What did you do?" I asked when he removed his hands from my head.
"I just used the Force to help me find the piloting skills you learned and lost in your memories."
"Brilliant, Anakin," Tahiri said appraisingly.
"But I'll still need you, Artoo," I told the droid. Artoo whistled a reply, and started off toward one of the three ships. He suddenly began beeping frantically.
"What's wrong?" I asked the droid.
Artoo twittered worriedly.
"I don't see anything wrong with the ship," I told him as he was socketed up behind the cockpit.
We clambered into our ships and shot off into space, away from the lights of Coruscant.
"Lunaris, are you alright in there?" I heard Tahiri's voice next to my ear.
"Yeah, I am."
"We should be traveling in hyperspace in approximately 20 seconds," Master Anakin's voice joined in. "Activate your jumps to the Tatooine system."
"Artoo, which button should I press?" I asked worriedly.
YOU DON'T HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT IT, Artoo assured me.
"If you say so," I murmured.
"I just want to remind you, 'Ris." 'Ris? When was the last time he ever called me that? "I've done your clearance for you and Tahiri, so we're cleared to be able to get into hyperspace and all. And if ever we get separated on Korriban, use your wrist comm to communicate to either one of us or to Artoo, okay?"
"Yes, Master."
"We'll be in hyperspace for about less than a day," Tahiri reminded me. "So if you get bored, you should've brought something to do."
"Thanks for the concern," I said sarcastically. If Tahiri noted the sarcasm, she didn't have a chance to say so, as Anakin had already started the countdown.
"Reaching hyperspace in five."
I gripped the side of my chair. "I hope you're sure about this, Artoo," I said quietly. I still had my doubts, even if Master Anakin made me remember what I'd learned in piloting.
"Four."
POSITIVE, LUNARIS, the display blinked.
"Three."
"Did you calculate the jumps in the series to get me to Tatooine?"
"Two."
AFFIRMATIVE. STOP WORRYING.
"One."
I opened my eyes in time to watch the stars flash past me outside the glass.
Anakin sat back in his chair to think.
Tahiri had arrived just a few days ago, and she'd changed a lot. Gone was her noisy chatter and talkative babbling. Gone was the unruly hair, the green eyes that sparkled too brightly, the shoeless feet, the childlike way of thinking. Gone was the little girl Anakin knew. Instead, there was a woman.
She would be turning sixteen any day now. Anakin regretted the fact that he had not spent more time knowing her better, or watching her grow up alongside him. She wore sandals that compromised for the shoes she had to wear on Coruscant. She spoke a lot, but not as often as she did as a child, and not as loud. Her green eyes had turned a deeper shade of jade, and her hair was tied up more often now. She was different. The same Tahiri, yet somehow different.
As children, they'd been best friends. But they weren't children anymore. He couldn't quite distinguish his feelings for her. He never paid much attention to them until she arrived. Now, everytime he was about to see her or talk to her, he made an effort to make sure everything was perfect, from how he looked to what he said. It wasn't the same anymore. He felt awkward and clumsy around her. He decided, after this mission was over, to pull Tahiri aside and sincerely talk to her, to get to know her better.
Lunaris had always been beside him, to learn things from him. He remembered when he chose her as his apprentice at the Temple. She was young then, about eleven, with her black hair cropped short, required of young female Jedi candidates (A/N: I have no idea if this is true.) and the sharp amethyst eyes that caught his when he watched her combat her fellow Jedi candidates. He remembered the joy in those eyes when she was chosen. He remembered everything he taught her so far, and he remembered everything he learned about her.
Fast forward three years later. He taught her a lot, but she still had so much to learn about being a Jedi, and the ways of the Force. He told her things he didn't usually tell others. She was the only one other than Tahiri who knew his deepest fears and secrets. He was comfortable and more like himself whenever he was with her than with anyone else, even Tahiri, but he surprised himself when he realized that he didn't know everything about his apprentice, especially when she told him about her father. He knew he'd have to protect her now, more than ever.
He knew that she loved him, like the older brother she told him she wished she had. And he loved her back, though it never crossed his mind to tell her so.
REACHING REALSPACE IN APPROXIMATELY FORTY-SEVEN STANDARD MINUTES, the astromech droid told him.
Already? "Thanks, Fiver," Anakin said. He turned on the communication holoscreen and looked at Tahiri and Lunaris on two different screens. "Are you ladies alright?" he said, grinning jauntily at them.
"I am, but Lunaris is asleep," Tahiri jerked a thumb over her shoulder.
"Am not," Lunaris protested, yawning widely. "I did have a nice dream, though."
"Good for you." Tahiri said.
"Just a reminder, we'll be reaching realspace in about forty-five minutes," he told them. "Then we'll have to find Korriban on our own from Tatooine. Did you have a hard time?" he asked Lunaris.
"No, Artoo helped me." She smiled.
When the stars rushed back into existence, Anakin opened his holoscreen again. "Welcome to Tatooine," he said. "Prepare to shift to manual piloting. Just flick the red switch up, 'Ris," he told his apprentice when she began to search frantically around the system indicators.
"Thanks," she replied.
They passed the desert planet of Tatooine, Tahiri's homeland. "I'm never going back there," she told them.
They flew on in concentrated silence as they searched for a similar dry planet nearby. Anakin inserted the datacard into a small slot, and a miniature holographic view of the galaxy appeared on one side of his screen. "Don't mistake Ryloth for Korriban. It should be near it, very close to wild space."
"Er…Master?"
Oh, no. "What's wrong this time?"
"I'm getting a series of alarming readouts at one quarter power."
"WHAT? How? Why?"
"I think the cooling system's down. The engine seems to want to overheat."
"Back off to one-eighth power. Divert cooling power from the dead engines." He heard little noises of buttons being pushed and switches being flicked. She's getting better at this.
"No effect, Master. What do I do?"
"Hold on." Anakin heard laughing noises over the comlink. /Stop laughing, Tahiri. It isn't funny, / he admonished her. "How much power have you got left?"
"Very little, Master."
"How much?"
"I was able to get power by switching off all systems except sensors and minimal life support, but it isn't much."
"You've got barely enough to reach Korriban." Anakin said.
"You're in luck, Lunaris," Tahiri said. "A dry, deserted, yellow-colored planet at one o' clock."
Sure enough, Anakin watched as Korriban grew bigger in the viewport. "Adjust your courses," he ordered.
"Master? What do I do?" Lunaris fretted.
"Well…" He hated to break it to her. "With the minimal power you have, you may have to cut off your engine sooner than necessary."
"If I do that, I'd still be in space," she realized, horrified.
"Normal landing procedure is a powered descent, going in with all engines throttled up, decelerating from orbital speed to flying speed, but…"
"But what?"
"Your fighter's sole remaining engine doesn't have enough power to manage that. You have to do it the old-fashioned way." This involved bashing a way through the atmosphere, using air friction instead of engine power to slow your plane.
He heard a defeated sigh. "If I die, Master Anakin, I want you to have my lightsaber."
Goodness. The countdown timer to engine shutoff went to zero too quickly, and I aimed the ship in the right direction for an aero-breaking re-entry. "Artoo, why did I have to get stuck with an undercharged plane?" I moaned.
The ship bucked and shuddered, and the controls tried to leap out of my hands. I grabbed the flight stick in a vise-like grip and forced the ship back into an even keel. It felt like hitting a brick wall, as I felt the stirrings of Korriban's atmosphere on my hull. There was a tearing noise, metal on metal, and something broke clear from the ship. The ship tried to flip over, and it was all I could do to force it back to a level path. But then, the ship seemed lighter now that the thing that broke clear was gone.
There were so many things I forgot to be thankful for, and they all flashed before me for a brief second, letting me forget about my perilous state for just that moment. There were so many things I forgot to do, and one was to tell Master Anakin how I felt for him.
The ship dropped deeper and deeper into Korriban's atmosphere, rocking and screeching and whacking all the way down. WHAM! Something had just broken loose back in the ship's interior. This was not good.
The ship glided downward into the inky black darkness of Korriban's night sky. I was losing speed and altitude fast. Soon enough, I felt the ship crashing its way through a dense forest, and as soon as it all started, it stopped, making me almost fly out of my char and out my window if I had not been strapped into my chair. I braced myself for any more sudden rippings or explosions, but there was none.
I allowed myself time to resume breathing, and I released my grip on the flight stick. Relieved that I was alive after that, I bit my lip and cried.
Anakin and Tahiri landed a few meters away from the smoking mess that was Lunaris' X-wing. Before the ship had even landed, Anakin jumped out from the pilot's seat and ran towards the damaged ship. He fought his way through thick shrubbery and found the ship.
He darted towards the cockpit and peered in, relieved that his apprentice was alive, though looking worse for wear. She had a huge gash on her forehead, and she had various cuts and bruises all over her body. He released her crash belt and lifted her up from the seat, carrying her back towards his ship. Tahiri hurried towards him and helped him rest her on the ground. "Get Artoo, and whatever supplies we can use from her ship," he told her.
As soon as she ran off towards the ship, Anakin checked for all her vital signs. He could feel her in the Force, but it was ebbing away quite rapidly. She was close to death. Anakin cradled her in his arms and placed her in a healing trance. Her Force presence was there, but it was very weak, so Anakin transferred some of his energy to her. She opened her mauve-tinted eyes and focused them on Anakin's cold blue ones. She reached up to touch his cheek. "Am I in heaven?" she managed to say. (A/N: Very cliché-ish, but I like it.).
Anakin blushed. "No, but you were almost there," he said. He helped her up to a sitting position. "Your ship crashed, remember?"
"Oh, yeah…"she trailed off, clutching her head.
"How do you feel?" Anakin asked, placing a bactaid against the gash on her forehead.
"Woozy? I feel fine."
Anakin stood up. "Looks like this mission will have to wait for a bit. We aren't moving until you feel better than you do now."
Lunaris abruptly stood up. Too soon, Anakin thought, as she swayed unsteadily on her feet. He moved to catch her, but she held up a hand. "No. Master, go on without me if you have to. I won't let this mission be held up just because of me and my luck to have been stuck with an undercharged plane."
"We aren't going anywhere without you, especially now that we're on unfamiliar grounds. Besides, Tahiri and I need the rest, too, and the time to find parts for your ship and repair it."
"Fine, then." She dropped back to the ground.
Tahiri arrived moments later, carrying a box of Lunaris' things with R2-D2 in tow. "I managed to find these parts scattered a few meters away from the ship, as well as her things." She motioned to the box she placed on the ground.
Anakin knelt down. "Are you alright, Artoo?"
Artoo rocked a little on his base and managed a faint, reassuring cheep.
"We won't be going anywhere for a while. Lunaris needs rest, and we have to do whatever we can to fix her ship," Anakin told Tahiri.
"She really needs it," Tahiri said, glancing over Anakin's shoulder at Lunaris' sleeping form.
Anakin picked up his lightsaber.
"I'll just have a look around." He turned around and left, Artoo at his side.
She climbed into the open hatch and was about to close it when a blaster shot nearly singed the top of her head. She looked to see who held the blaster it came from, and saw a familiar-looking hooded man in a black cloak, a red lightsaber in one hand and a blaster in the other.
She Force-jumped to the ground and drew out her lightsaber. "Who are you, and what do you want from me?"
She couldn't see the man's face, but she felt him sneer at her. "Don't you remember who I am, Lunaris?" he said. "I'm the man who made you fall off the balcony ledge, remember?" He began to circle her, the blaster still outstretched, pointing at her.
"I remember." This was her father. But…wasn't her father a member of the Peace Brigade and a heavy drinker?"
"You think I'm a member of the Peace Brigade and a heavy drinker, don't you?" Lunaris blinked. The man could read minds. "I'm not just that, Lunaris."
She narrowed her eyes. "What do you want from me?"
"I want you to join me. I want you to stay beside me and take the place of your mother as my right hand maiden. I want you to help the Peace Brigade."
"I won't."
"I promise you that you'll have your own squadron, like that Kyp Durron has. I promise I'll never lock you up or beat you again. When you live with me, you'll have your own room and whatever you want. I can easily make you the most powerful Jedi in the galaxy…if you join me. "
"This doesn't convince me at all. I don't easily submit to your empty promises."
"As stubborn as your mother. That's why she got killed, anyway. She was stubborn enough to stay at the Temple, believing she could fight the Brigadiers who wanted to capture the Jedi and present them to the Yuuzhan Vong, until the freighter carrying the occupants of the Temple had long left."
"It's quite a story, but whatever you say, Father, I still won't join you."
"Don't you see, Lunaris?" The man dropped his blaster on the ground and held his lightsaber instead. Lunaris gripped hers tightly. "The Jedi make everything worse. They want to fight against the Yuuzhan Vong and bring chaos to the galaxy, instead of the peace and order they'd been sworn to protect."
"Liar!"
"And now Master Skywalker wants you to destroy the scrolls that could be the very thing that could help both the Republic and the Order get rid of the Yuuzhan Vong!"
"These are lies, Father!"
"Those scrolls can tell you how to raise the spirit of Freedon Nadd, who will help the Jedi destroy the Yuuzhan Vong forces! He will call upon the ancient Sith spirits to combine forces with the Jedi and help bring down the Yuuzhan Vong! And then--"
"—the spirits will then take over the leaders of the Republic, which will then result in another chaotic reign of the Dark Side!"
"Precisely."
"No, Father. I won't let it happen. I went on this mission to destroy the scrolls, and that's what I'm going to do. And I won't join the Peace Brigade, or the Sith Order, or the Dark Side. I know what's in store for me there, and it's a far cry from what you've been promising me. " She pressed the lightsaber off and turned back to the ship, but stopped when she felt a lightsaber being pointed at her.
"I tried reasoning with you nicely," her father said. "But you refuse my offers. There's only one thing left to do." He raised his lightsaber and swung it down on her.
Lunaris swiftly turned to deflect the attack and sidestepped to avoid more blows, but her father was too fast for her. He kicked her in the shins and knocked her down on her back, pointing the tip of his lightsaber at her neck.
"Still play dirty as always, Father," she said, trying to hide the pain she felt.
"Let me let you in on a little secret, my beautiful daughter. I was the one who led your droid through the Force to ride that ship, the ship that had been fueled up but leaked a bit." She sensed him smile leeringly at her.
"You made my ship crash! I almost died!" I struggled beneath his lightsaber, but I couldn't move my body. He must have used the Force to hold me down.
"No, my dear. I made sure to leave just enough fuel to let you make it through hyperspace and past Tatooine. Of course I won't let my only daughter die," he said mockingly.
"Why did you do it?"
"To convince you that the Jedi are dangerous and careless, and so that you'd quit being a Jedi on your own."
"Now that I know that the Jedi aren't behind it, it only managed to convince me all the more to stick with the Order."
He looked angry with himself. "If I haven't convinced you now, and if I can never persuade you, I guess there's only one thing left to do." He raised his lightsaber again over her outstretched body.
Her eyes widened, horrified. She wouldn't be able to avoid this blow. "NO!"