Signs of Life
By JalendaviLady
Chapter 13
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Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars.
If you recognize any characters, locations, or things in the following story, George Lucas owns them.
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Anakin watched as Lando walked over and sat in the seat Leia had recently vacated. "Calrissian, I'm sorry about what happened..."
"Would I have been here yesterday if I wasn't trying to forgive you?"
He was here? Everything about yesterday is a blur now... "I suppose not," Anakin smiled weakly, moving to lie down again. Lando helped him a bit... not much, but then again Anakin never thought of the former Baron as a meddler in the way most of the other members of the Alliance he'd met so far were. I need so much help, but yet only so much help. I can't become dependent on their aid or I'll be nearly as bad off as I was before. I could be medically independent and yet completely dependent on others...
"How are you feeling? The past week must've been tough."
"Things still are," Anakin admitted. "Psychological leftovers from the past two decades, trying to regain whatever physical independence I can... not getting news about much of what's going on in the wider world. I know they have reasons, like not wanting me to worry, but they won't even give me a general idea of Luke's condition other than that he's breathing."
"He's going to be fine, Anakin. But it's going to take time. Apparently they let him wake up for a little while yesterday and he seemed to be mentally intact. Physically is another story, but they think he'll make a 100 percent recovery with therapy."
Anakin closed his eyes. He'll be okay. He wasn't damaged beyond repair. He can still have a normal life.
"Granted, it was only for a few minutes while resting between bacta dunks, but he apparently did know what was going on around him and also remembered what had happened. Word has it he even asked how you were doing."
"He shouldn't worry about me..." Anakin turned his head away in shame.
"Anakin, Luke always worries about other people more than himself, particularly people he's close to. Get used to it; it's part of who your son is."
More silence. Even someone who until bare months ago was a stranger to him knows my son better than I do.
A warm hand on his shoulder. "Eventually you're going to have to stop beating yourself up for everything you did, you know."
A pause. "Just let me be quiet for a while, please, Lando."
"Sure thing, Anakin."
...
It was a few hours later when Mon Mothma poked her head in the door of the small room in the medcenter. She had delayed longer than she would have wished, but the attack and resulting sequence of events had put so much stress on Anakin... she dared not put any more on him by finding out if he knew anything about these strange wanders, these SkyLords.
"Good afternoon, Lady Mothma. Are you taking over Han's shift?" Lando asked politely.
"No, but I need to ask Anakin some questions. Anakin?"
"Hmm?" he mumbled, clearly having been half-way between sleeping and being awake.
"Do you feel well enough to talk for a little while?"
"Yeah." A yawn. Anakin stretched a little in the bed.
"Lando, do you mind stepping out for a few moments?"
"Han's actually supposed to head down here in about half-an-hour. If you don't mind staying here until he arrives..."
"That's fine with me if it's fine with Anakin."
"I don't mind."
"Goodbye, Anakin. I'll probably be here again later on this week." Lando left.
Mon entered and sat down in the vacated chair. "You doing all right today, Anakin? You had quite a shock yesterday."
"I am fine, Lady. Thank you for your concern." Anakin rolled his head over to look towards her. "What was it you wanted to ask me?"
"The Alliance was contacted yesterday by a group of starwanderers who apparently call themselves the SkyLords; that's the best translation we could get. One of their leaders arrives in 13 days' time to provide us with information about a dangerous group, the ShriRuk or somesuch, that was poking around this area of space. I was wondering if you might know some thing about these SkyLords. Anakin, what is it?"
He had somehow, even in his weakened state, rolled onto his side partway as far as the cushions on the edges of the bed would let him. Mon couldn't see his face, but his whole body was shaking.
There was no response.
"Anakin?" She reached over and put a hand on one quaking shoulder.
"Did this leader give his name?" His voice was shaky.
"Alend Clovindi."
If anything, Anakin's reaction increased in intensity.
"Anakin, want is it? Do I need to get the medics?"
"No." His voice was full of ragged emotion. "13 days, you said."
"Anakin, what do you know?"
"The SkyLords are a branch of humans that broke off from the Jedi ages ago because they loved the stars more than they loved the ground. They're pretty much interstellar wanderers, but they do have territories split by generalized family groups. The borders change some from generation to generation, but there are set rendezvous points on mostly barren planets and such. More I do not know. It's been so long..."
"What's been so long?"
"I was adopted – I don't know where or to what people I was originally born – by Shmi Clovindi CiencloSwai and her husband. Mamre – that means 'mother' in SkyLord – were captured by slavers when I was 3. She translated our last name to Skywalker then. Famre – 'father' – was killed in the attack; I can't remember what his name was. Alend is my uncle; I can barely remember him. I don't know anything about his current family." He started to calm a bit.
"He said his granddaughter was going to try to translate. Apparently she's been learning Basic off of the Holonet."
"If the medics will let me out of here for bits of time by then, I'll help. I'm a native speaker of SkyLord and might as well be a native speaker of Basic." He started uncurling and lay back down again.
"Are you okay?"
"I've just had one too many shocks in the past few days. I will be fine."
They were both quiet for a few moments. Mon noted that while most of the shaking had stopped, Anakin was still trembling. For him, a physical emotional reaction like that just doesn't seem right. Crying quietly is one thing, but if he'd had a reaction like that anytime while he was Vader... There must be something else going on.
After a moment he let out a gasp and grimaced in obvious pain. "Lady," he choked out, "I think you'd better get the medics."