Skywalker's Legacy, page 38
Chapter Seven
Brenna left school two hours early and got a ride home from another student who was also cutting. She asked to be dropped off outside the compound. The attendance computers would soon notify her father of her absence, but she was headed for home, anyway.
She had learned a lot more than just the information in the message. Now that she had the name 'Luke Skywalker,' it was a relatively easy matter to search for other information. Luke Skywalker had been the hero of the Battle of Yavin. That was why the name had sounded so familiar. She had once even considered Skywalker as a possible Jedi Knight candidate, but dismissed the notion when she found out he hadn't done anything of note since.
The 'Captain Solo' mentioned in the message had to have been one Han Solo, who had assisted Skywalker on that final run on the Death Star over Yavin and later led the ground assault on Endor that destroyed the protective shield and enabled the Rebellion to destroy the Death Star II. Skywalker was also listed on the Endor team, but for some unknown reason had not taken part in the battle. Brenna had once also considered General Han Solo as a possible candidate for Jedi Knighthood, but dismissed the notion as being too out of character from what she'd been able to learn about the man.
Brenna also had the identity of the woman in the first message, Solo's wife, Senator Leia Organa-Solo. The senator had once been another candidate Brenna had considered as a possible Jedi Knight candidate. That was why the holo-image had looked so familiar to her. Had the image been of the older and more mature Senator Organa-Solo, Brenna would have recognized it right off. Skywalker and Solo had, immediately prior to the Battle of Yavin, rescued the young Senator Leia Organa from the first Death Star. The Senator had later married Solo and had retained a seat in the New Republic Senate ever since it had been formed. But Brenna had also dismissed Leia Organa-Solo as being a good candidate. During all purported activity of the Jedi Knights, she had been ensconced on Coruscant, busy with senatorial duties.
Brenna kicked herself mentally on not pursuing the Solo family and Skywalker in her quest. If she had just stuck with them, she might have resolved her search much earlier.
The 'Jabba' mentioned in the message was probably Jabba the Hutt, a local Tatooine gangster who had mysteriously disappeared sometime before the Empire fell in the Battle of Endor. No one knew exactly why, or what had befallen the crime lord. Brenna suspected that Skywalker her father! had something to do with it.
Now that she had the name 'Skywalker,' she had a whole list of other individuals to round out her list of Jedi Knight candidates. She recalled the names her father had cried out in his attacks, and searched for them in every news article that ever came from Coruscant, every interview that Organa-Solo ever gave, every scrap of information on anyone even associated with Skywalker, until she had last names to go with the ones her father had used in his attacks. Then she did a search on that person's current whereabouts. All of the answers came back "unknown" or "unavailable," but at least she had names now.
She was even able to guess at some of the talents of some of these other individuals, based on the rumors of what the Jedi Knights had done, and who among the list was missing from the rosters of guest-lists at Organa-Solo's parties of state, and other political functions. There was a correlation between the absence of names from any of the official lists, and the rumors of Jedi activity elsewhere. Now that she knew what to look for, it was a relatively easy matter to spot the connection.
There was, however, another mystery still unsolved: when Skywalker attended any of the events, he was usually accompanied on these functions of state by someone listed simply as "and guest." There was no telling if "and guest" was the same person, or a series of different people.
There was something else Brenna realized: if her father was a Jedi Knight at the time Jabba the Hutt disappeared, before the resurgence of the Jedi, then her father had to have been the one responsible for bringing the Jedi back, since there were no rumors of Jedi activity before the Empire fell, only after the Battle of Endor.
The records confirmed it. There were long periods when Skywalker and an individual on her list disappeared for months at a time. This usually occurred for those who had newly arrived to Coruscant. Based on the time-frames of who was absent and when, and the steady increases in purported Jedi Knight activity, Brenna deduced that the only logical explanation was that her father had taken these individuals offworld, trained them, and brought them back.
Just for the hell of it, she correlated the date that her father had purchased their farm---purchased it with cash, as a matter of fact. It was only a couple of weeks after the last "Skywalker Sighting," as she began to call them.
She wondered what had happened to make her father quit his previous occupation, and turn to farming so suddenly.
She had listened to as many of the other messages as she dared before having to leave the room. The rest of them were pretty boring in comparison with the first and especially the second, aside from the fact that they pretty much confirmed what she now knew. Some of them were to Senator Organa-Solo, whom her father addressed as "Leia." Most of them were to some unknown recipient and began with his smiling introduction of "It's me." Those were interesting because of their frequency rather than their content, being mostly statements of when he expected to return home, or invitations to come join him. They always ended with him blowing a kiss to the projector, and then pretending to catch a return kiss blown to him, and placing it over his heart. In the last few she was able to watch, he blew two kisses, one of which was "for you," and the other of which was "for Bren." Brenna guessed that these were messages sent to her mother, whom she had been told had died in a hovercar crash when she was only a few weeks old. If so, it was but another lie her father had perpetrated, but there was really know way to know for sure.
Her father wasn't in the fields when her ride drove past them, so she went to the housing complex. Compound, was more like it. Her father's preoccupation with security was something of a nuisance, but it didn't take long to punch in the codes. Her father had wanted her to be able to enter in a hurry if there was ever an emergency. The fresh transport marks in the sand outside the gate made her frown, since they rarely got visitors.
The one nice thing was that her father had not programmed the security system to keep track of when she left and when she arrived. His attitude was that if the security system were ever breached, whoever breached it would then have that data. Instead, he insisted that she report to him in person immediately whenever she returned from school or whatever, and thus avoid the risk of providing information to the enemy.
What enemy, he never clarified. She couldn't imagine anyone on Tatooine attacking the compound, except maybe Sandpeople, and they wouldn't be smart enough to breach the security system. They'd never even make it inside.
Once inside the outer walls, however, it wasn't unusual to find the doors to the housing units open, since it was more efficient to take advantage of whatever cooling effect the natural breezes had, and her father was nothing if not efficient. Brenna also knew that the airspace above the compound and for some distance around it was monitored constantly by the security systems, and her father could slam every door shut and seal it at the touch of a button or the utterance of a voice command. She left Artoo to follow at its own pace, and went to her father's study-unit.
As Brenna approached her father's study-unit, she heard a voice, not her father's. The metallic sound of servos moving that accompanied the voice indicated that it belonged to a 'droid.
"Excuse me, Master Luke---" the voice said.
Brenna smiled at the confirmation of what she already knew was true.
Her father interrupted before the 'droid could go any further. "I go by the name 'Ben Owens' these days, Threepio. I'd appreciate it if you would use that name for me from now on."
There were sounds of servos whirring again. "Certainly, Sir, if that is your wish. Master Ben, do you still have the Artoo unit? If so, I would very much like to see Artoo again."
"He's with Brenna right now," her father replied. "You can see him when she gets home from school." One of her father's habits was to refer to the Artoo unit as 'he' and 'him,' even though to Brenna it was an androgynous thing, just a machine like any other 'droid. Then he said, "Did Leia say anything else? Give any indication of what she thought her chances of holding out were?"
"No, Sir," the 'droid replied. "However, she was insistent upon staying on Coruscant."
"She always was stubborn," Brenna heard her father say.
"I quite agree," the 'droid commented. "And General Solo is equally as stubborn. Given his previous examples, I would say that the probability is six thousand seventy two to one that he will also insist on remaining behind. But your friend Corran is seeing to the fortifications "
"Corran was there with them when you left?"
"Yes, sir. Is something the matter?"
At that moment, Artoo finally caught up to Brenna. It's auditory sensors picked up the other 'droid's voice, and it let out a whistle and rolled past her. Brenna cursed herself for not having sent it on some occupying errand in another part of the compound.
Inside the study-unit, the 'droid she hadn't yet seen let out an exclamation. "Sir! Could that be Artoo?"
The Artoo unit rolled into the study.
"It is! It is!" exclaimed the new 'droid. Brenna reminded herself to give the Artoo unit an extra hard kick the next time she was alone with it.
"Artoo Deetoo, it's so good to see that you're still fully functional."
"Where's Brenna?" her father asked the Artoo unit. She could just picture his frown.
Brenna stepped into the doorway. "Right here." She took a long look at the new 'droid. 'New' was a relative term. The unit was polished to a bright shine, but it had a few dents and dings, and although it was mostly gold-plated, one leg had obviously been replaced, since it had a titanium sheen.
"What are you doing here?" her father asked.
"I live here, remember?"
"Don't be smart with me. Why are you home so early?"
Brenna scooped up a couple of nuts from the dish her father kept by his computer and tossed one up in the air as she talked. "I decided " she paused just long enough to catch the nut in her mouth, and talked around it. "---that I could learn more at home than at school. Where'd the new 'droid come from? It's a 3PO unit, isn't it? C-class, if I'm not mistaken."
Threepio turned his attention from R2-D2 to Brenna. "Why, yes, Miss. I am C-3PO, human-cyborg relations."
"You're programmed for protocol?"
"Yes, Miss. I am fluent in over six million forms of communication. I must say, it is rare to find an individual who can identify my make and model so quickly, and with such precision."
"Yeah, yeah," Brenna said, then looked at her father. "What's it doing here?"
Brenna's father sighed. "He brought a message from a friend of mine."
"What sort of message?"
"Nothing to concern you."
"He seems to know the Artoo unit."
"Yes, they worked together some time ago."
"I heard the 'droid talk about your friend Corran as if he were still alive."
"Did he? Perhaps he is, then." Her father ran a hand through his hair. "Listen, Bren. This message is from an old friend who asked me for a favor, to look after her children for a while. Two of them are about your own age, so you should enjoy their company while they're here."
"Why are they coming?"
"That doesn't concern you."
"Doesn't concern me?" Brenna laughed. "Don't you think I have a right to know who comes into my life? Who my own father is? Who I am?" She looked at Threepio for a moment, then turned to her father. "You know what I think?" she asked.
"Brenna, I really don't---"
"I think," Brenna went on, ignoring the interruption, "that your friend Corran is dead now, but that he was alive when that 'droid was sent with its message. I think he died last night, around the time of your 'attack.'"
Her father locked eyes with her. "You don't need to worry about it, Bren. All you need to worry about is passing the Academy's entrance exam."
Brenna held the lock. "And what name do I put on the application, Dad? Brenna Owens...or Brenna Skywalker?"
Her father didn't move or speak for a long moment. Nor did he break eye contact. There was no reaction whatsoever. Finally, he said, still not breaking eye contact, "I don't know what you're talking about."
Brenna got a funny feeling, like his words were trying to press in on her and make her believe they were true. They didn't penetrate. She was just aware that they were pushing against her, that was all. She pushed back, knowing that she was right. "No? Luke Skywalker was the New Republican hero who destroyed the first Imperial Death Star in the Battle of Yavin. Guess where his homeworld is."
Her father pressed harder. "I've heard of Skywalker. I've also heard that he came from this area. But you're imagining things if you think I'm him."
Brenna laughed, both at her father's words and his attempt to make her believe what he was saying. "Am I? Then I suppose the Force is just a figment of my imagination, too."
"As a matter of fact---"
"And if it's all in my imagination, then it really doesn't matter if I do this."
Brenna closed her eyes. She had never done this before, but she had once read about the Jedi mind-probes. If it could be done, then she was sure she could do it. She sent out a thought-tentacle, to touch a Force-stream and follow it to its source. It was...exhilarating, like guiding a skyhopper at breakneck speed down Beggar's Canyon, like she imagined swimming in white-water to be, yet at the same time, there was something intrusive about it. Intrusive and exciting. She pushed on, into faster-deeper water, but just before the thought-probe penetrated beyond the most superficial of layers of her father's mind, she felt his mind push back on hers.
Brenna, stop!
Her father's unspoken thoughts warned of currents and undertows that could suck her in without warning. Brenna hesitated, then turned back to the more solid footing of her objective senses.
She opened her eyes. "It's true, then."
"Brenna---"
She gave another laugh. "You know, I thought that the stabilizer locked back into place a little too easily, there in Beggar's Canyon. You were the greatest of them all, weren't you? You trained the others. Corran Horn, Nor Heden, Solin Tomm, Marck Decker---all of them! You were the only one who disappeared for months on end, each time one of the others vanished for that same time period. And all this time, I thought you were a non-sensitive!"
"Brenna, listen---"
"Oh, you bet I will. I've got some questions I want to hear the answers to. I want to know who my mother was. I want to know who you are, for that matter, and I don't mean the kind of thing that's printed in the public access files. I want to know who sent the message. I want to know everything there is to know about the Jedi Knights. And I want to know a lot of other things, too. But let's start with the answer to 'Why didn't you tell me?'"
Luke ran his hands through his hair. He had always known there was a possibility that Brenna would find out, and now that she knew, he would have to tell her everything. But now was not the time. "Brenna, I can't... explain everything right now. That message is nearly three days old, which means Lucy and Rupert and Poul could arrive at Mos Eisley at any time. I have to go meet them. You'll be safer staying here, but I want you to promise me that you won't use the Force while I'm gone."
Brenna laughed. "I'll do no such thing!" she said.
"Brenna, listen to me. The woman who sent the message---she's my sister, and your aunt."
"I have an aunt?" Brenna echoed incredulously. "There was no record of Luke Skywalker ever having a sister."
"There never was an official record. Leia and I were separated at birth. She and her three children---"
"---Senator Leia Organa-Solo?" Brenna queried.
"Yes. Your cousins are in danger right now, and she's sent them here for protection. You see, Bren, I will tell you everything, but right now I have to see to their safe arrival. I want you to promise not to toy with the Force while I'm gone. We'll talk when I get back, I promise."
Brenna hesitated, then considered her father's wording carefully. After all, he had just promised to tell her everything. "All right," she said finally. "I promise not to...'toy' with the Force, as you say. I won't go skyhopping down Beggar's Canyon, or otherwise use it unnecessarily. Not until you get back, anyway."
Luke sighed at the underlying meaning. But the promise she had given would have to be enough, at least for the time being, and until he could explain to her the reasons why she dared not use the Force, he supposed it was the best he could hope for.
But there was one more thing. "Brenna...don't leave the compound unless there's an emergency. Not to go to school, not to visit your friends, not for any reason whatsoever. It has the best security system money can buy. The man who killed Corran is an old enemy of mine. If he finds you...I don't want to think about it. He'll hurt me, through you. Do you understand?"
Brenna shrugged. "Sure," she said.