Chapter 6
Degobah
As soon as Anakin caught up to Danieth's ship the ship shook under being fired. Kerri went to a hatch in the ceiling to go see what was going on. They were being tailed and shot at. "Um I hope this has a shield to protect us from any more firing." Kerri said closing the hatch quickly as another fire was aimed at the ship. It shook so bad that Kerri fell down the ladder. "You all right?" Anakin asked unbuckling his seat belt and running over to her. "I'm fine just fly the ship okay and make sure we have an energy shield or whatever that is up!" Kerri barked helping herself up as Anakin hastily went back to the controls. "Oh my god we're going to crash!" Anakin shouted. Kerri raced over sure enough they were inches from Danieth's ship. "I don't want – "Kerri didn't hear what Anakin had to say she yanked the wheel down and they went down under Danieth's ship instead of in to it. "Pull up!" Anakin shouted. "I'm trying!" Kerri said as soon as they passed under but neither one of them could pull it up again. Kerri held onto Anakin as they splashed into a swamp. They got thrown onto the ground.
"You all right?" Anakin asked. "I'm fine a little shaken but other than that I'm fine." Kerri said. "Right." "Are you okay?" Kerri asked him. "Yeah don't worry about me." Anakin said not wanting to cause her discomfort of any kind. It took them both a second to notice that she had fallen on top of him just like the way they had met. "We should see where we are and what's wrong with the ship." Kerri said softly. Anakin nodded. Neither of them moved for a minute then Kerri got herself up and helped Anakin up. "All right I'm going first. You still have the blaster right?" Anakin asked. "Will we need it?" Kerri asked nervously following Anakin cautiously down the landing ramp. "Yeah we might." Anakin said igniting his Lightsaber. They stepped into cold oozing swamp things squirmed out of their way and over Kerri's bare toes. Kerri shuddered but Anakin laid a hand on her shoulder as he glanced around at the trees. Nothing shot out at him in fact the place had a rather peaceful feeling.
"I think I know where we are!" Anakin said. "Really where?" Kerri asked. "Degobah. Uncle Luke was trained by Yoda here to become a Jedi." Anakin explained. "Cool." "But I'm not certain and I have no idea what's been here since Yoda died." Anakin said. "Well let's raise the landing hatch and go check it out." Kerri suggested. "Well we still have to fix it. I'm just wondering if we shouldn't raise the ship onto this dry ground over there." Anakin said thoughtfully. "Gee this reminds me of like when Master Luke was here." Kerri muttered sarcastically. Anakin didn't try to make sense of this statement. "All right with me. You've done the lifting exercises right?" Anakin asked. "Yep. First thing I learned." "All right we want to move the ship to us. So let's hold hands maybe that'll help. I mean last time Uncle Luke had only himself Yoda made him do it by himself." Anakin said. "Yoda was smart." Kerri said taking Anakin's hand. He snuck a glance at her. Her hand in his felt right to him but who knew what she thought of it? Kerri in fact was trying not to focus on the hand holding bit to much so she didn't loose her concentration on the task at hand and for the most part she did okay with this.
The first try at lifting the ship was interesting. All they got out of the mud was the back end of the ship. "If anything happens to this ship and Dad finds out I'm dead." Anakin said. They tried it again and the Falcon was raised an inch into the air before it dropped down again. "Come on one more try or we'll be spending the night in a swamp bed." Kerri said giving Anakin's hand a squeeze. Anakin nodded this time they moved it a few inches towards them. "Again?" Anakin looked at her. "Absolutely." Kerri said. They raised it onto the dry banks even if the end stuck out over the swamp. "Well Master Luke had a bigger ship and we got very lucky." Kerri pointed out to Anakin when he grumbled about this. He nodded managing to look a little pleased.
The next two days they were able to focus on repairs. Kerri knew only a little bit about repairs from Jaina but not enough to be of any help. She busied herself by handing Anakin the tools he needed. Han was a smart person and he kept the required tools on deck. "Well I've finally figured out the problem. We'd have to get it fixed on Corescant though." Anakin said. "Can we get to Corescant?" Kerri asked. "Yeah I can fix the problem temporarily though but not permanent and I think there is a tracking device stuck somewhere so we can't get shot down again." Anakin said. "Well why don't I go look for the tracking device? I've seen a fair few of them through the library I decided it would be safe to know what they looked like." Kerri said. "I'll come help you. It's going to take a little while to fix it anyways." Anakin said throwing down the rags. "All right. I may need a boost up onto the roof." Kerri admitted sheepishly. "May need girl you're barely five feet tall." Anakin said. They both tried to squeeze pass the narrow walkway at the same time but only succeeded in bumping into each other.
"Are you all right?" Anakin asked placing his hands on her waist. "Yeah I'm fine. I guess I can move to let you pass first." Kerri said nervously suddenly very aware how brown Anakin's eyes were. Anakin pulled her closer. "Anakin shouldn't we look into that tracking device before they find us?" Kerri asked nervously. Anakin had strong muscles and held her tight. "It isn't easy to have a safe landing on this planet even if it is on purpose." Anakin said. Their eyes met. Anakin leaned down and kissed her. Kerri didn't even struggle she knew it would be useless. Anakin let go of her. "Tracking device?" Kerri suggested and before another word could be said she walked out first with Anakin at her heels.
They found the tracking device before the next sun came up. Totally exhausted they both flopped down onto a bunk. "We're going to have to decide what to do on Corescant. I think there's trouble there." Anakin told her sitting up. "So if it's taken over we're looking for work." "We? Well what are we? Just two traveling companions or brother and sister? I hate to break it to you sweetheart we don't look anything alike." Anakin said. "Well I know THAT." Kerri said. "You could pretend to be my wife and I'm looking for work. We'll just have to get an apartment together I don't think it'd be a good idea for our true identities to be known." Anakin said. "Whoa wife? I don't think so." Kerri said. "It's more believable excuse then the other two. Plus we have my mom's engagement ring she always left it on the Falcon wherever she was traveling." "Anakin this is crazy." "I know but the longer we stay in Corescant the more answers we can get plus money to fix the part and really search for my mom and Dad." "Fine I guess I'll be Mrs. Solo." Kerri said rolling her eyes. "Ah come on I'm not that bad I hope. Actually it won't be Solo. A new name." "Simpka. Part of my old last name from who I thought I was." "You're name could be Sabe." Anakin said grinning devilishly. Kerri hit him. "Sabe Simpka what about you?" Kerri asked him a minute later. "Now Luke would just get us in trouble but how about Tylift Simpka." "Tylift there's a good one!" Kerri teased him. Anakin tickled her. "Yeah well you're Mrs. Simpka." Anakin's face got close to hers again. "Only pretend. Where is "my" ring?" Kerri said. "Right here." Anakin reached under Leia's pillow and pulled out a small box. A small diamond sat upon a silver ring. "It's beautiful! She got lucky." Kerri said winking as Anakin slid it on. "You do know this means we have to share um a room." Anakin said. "Oh God. Okay um well we each have half the bed and can't go on the other person's side. Or you can sleep on the floor." Kerri said. "I'll sleep on the floor." Anakin reassured her. "Good." Kerri said blushing. "Well um. I'm going to go work on the problem." Anakin stood up and headed back to work on the Ship. Kerri watched him go. Why did she get stuck doing things she didn't want to? A few minutes later Kerri began to hand Anakin the tools.
Two days later Anakin got the ship to run. They had to ration their supplies to make them last till at least Corescant. Kerri said she'd fly to the Planet itself to give Anakin a bit of a break. Anakin didn't argue. He didn't get much sleep from too much worry about his parents. Kerri was worried too about everything that had happened and would. She couldn't even how much more of Space she got to see from her view from the ship. Let alone the joy of actually flying the Falcon. Things grew quiet between the two of them as they had too much to worry about or take care of. Kerri was quite frankly glad to leave Degobah when they were able to finally.