STAR WARS:

THE LOST SON

CHAPTER 1

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away… in the days of the New Republic's youth, many rival factions arose and tried to seize control of the galaxy. The most dangerous of these were the Dark Jedi. Their leader, a man named Lothor, wanted a clone army of his own made from Jedi DNA, but the chain of events that he set in motion would soon culminate in the galaxy's most shocking secret.

Kita of Tattooine walked toward the local medical clinic in the sleepy little settlement of Nekalla which was located on just north of the equator. Kita ran the orphanage and earlier that afternoon she had received a cryptic message from Doctor Lobo asking her to come and see him on a matter of some urgency. She walked into the clinic to find the doctor and the magistrate looking through a window at boy who appeared to be about eight years of age. He was lying in the bed on the other side of the window sound asleep.

"Kita I'm glad you could come," said Dr. Lobo, "This boy is one of the most puzzling cases that I've ever encountered, he appears to have all the faculties of an eight year old boy, yet when we found him he had no memory of his past and he still has no memories beyond our finding him this morning wandering in the desert near the grand chasm."

"Has he told you anything at all?" asked Kita

"Just that he calls himself, Ewan." Replied the Magistrate, "other than that we know nothing more about him, and we were hoping that we could persuade you to take him in at least until his memory comes back if it ever does."

"Of course I'll take him in," replied Kita.

Seven years later…

The lone figure of the now fifteen year old Ewan stood at the relay pump that stood about 200 yards from the front door of the orphanage. Suddenly the silence was broken.

"Ewan," Kita called from the doorway of the large building. Ewan looked up from his task of tightening the valve mechanism and saw Kita motioning him to come. Placing the cover back on the valve and bolting it down, he walked toward the building. The wind whipped the sand up around his face and played with his light brown hair When he entered the building he found Kita and her son Dako waiting for him. Dako's father had been one of the many casualties of the war against the Empire. This left Dako as the man of the house. He and Ewan were the same age and had been fast friends from the day that Kita brought Dako home.

"Ewan," said Kita, "I going into the town to get supplies and I need the two of you to come and help me."

"Alright," said Ewan.

"Now I expect you two to stay out of trouble and to be on your best behavior."

"Don't worry, mom," said Dako patting Ewan on the shoulder, "I'll keep an eye on him."

"Actually," said Kita, "I was hoping he would keep and eye on you." A few minutes later the three of them climbed into the speeder and headed into the settlement. Nekalla was a medium sized town but like most settlements in the out rim there were some pretty rough characters as well.

When they arrived Kita dropped Ewan and on the street corner and set him to see about getting a new motor for the secondary pump on the orphanage's irrigation farm. In the meantime she went to the center market to by a new supply of food. It didn't take the boys long to find what they were looking for and as they were walking out of the shop they were met by there friend Chase who pulled up beside them in his speeder,

"Hey, guys," said Chase, "What's up?"

"Oh, just getting our monthly supplies," replied Ewan, "we're on our way to meet Kita at the food market."

Chase motioned to the speeder,

"Hop in," he said, "I'll give you a lift." Ewan and Dako gladly accepted the ride climbed into the speeder Dako climbed in the back seat and Ewan rode shotgun. As they rounded the corner onto the market street they heard as shout and saw the people scattering in every conceivable direction. A split second later they saw the cause of the disturbance there in the middle of the street perch in assorted speeders were the Dark riders and band of Mercenaries who made a habit of terrorizing out lying planets. There leader a man named Barto was a tall imposing muscle bound Baxen with a steel plate covering the left side of his face with a hole for his eye and nobody dared mess with him because it was said that he was as strong as five human men.

"Man," said Dako, "I wish those guys would leave us alone. They come here and force us to pay them 'protection money' as they call it barely leaving this settlement enough money to survive the season!"

Suddenly what Ewan and Dako feared the most happened. One of Barto's thugs saw Kita and they money she was carrying. Kita knew she had been seen and tried to run for it but as luck would have it she tripped and fell.

"The boss is going to pay me double for this haul!" The thug sneered as he raised his steel rod to strike. Suddenly as he brought his arm down it was caught in mid swing by another hand. It was Ewan. As Dako and Chase gaped open mouthed Ewan had moved at blinding speed and caught the man's arm just in the niche of time.

"Don't spend that bonus yet!" Ewan snarled. Then with another quick twist like and expert fighter he flipped the man end over end to land flat on his back, and with one clean blow knocked the man out cold with his own baton. Kita who had closed her eyes at first know sat there in wide eyed shock as the normally mild- mannered Ewan stood over the unconscious form of her would-be attacker.

Time seemed to stand still in the marketplace and murmurs of I never knew Ewan had that much fight in him.

Meanwhile on the far away planet of Coruscant,

Jedi Master Luke Skywalker who was sitting eating dinner with his family suddenly stopped in mid-sentence and turned toward the window for a moment. Both Leia and Han knew that he must be sensing something through the Force because only that would cause him stop when he was having fun arguing with Han about upgrades for the Millennium Falcon.

"What is it Luke?" asked Leia after a few seconds of silence.

"Well," said Luke, "starting some years ago right after the New Republic was found I began to feel the presence of another Jedi out there somewhere and the presence has grown stronger every year. Now unless I miss my guess this person whoever he or she is rivals my father's power level to say nothing of my own! And just now I sensed a massive surge in his power level as thought he was channeling the power of the Force and didn't even realize what he was doing." Leia looked deadly serious.

"Luke," she said, "if this Jedi is as powerful as you say he is, we have to find him before he falls into the Dark side or it could be Darth Vader all over again!"

Everyone in the marketplace watched in breathless silence as Barto climbed down from his speeder and walked toward the boy who had knocked out one of his best fighters.

"So," he growled, "you want to fight us do you? Alright I propose as challenge you and I fight. If by somemiracleyou should happen to win, we'll leave Tattooine and never come back but if I win your life will be forfeit and I will kill you. What is your answer?"

Everyone waited with baited breath. Kita closed her eyes and murmured,

"Run Ewan, Please just run!" Ewan looked Barto straight in the eyes and with an unflinching stare gave his answer.

"I Accept!"

TBC: PLEASE REVIEW