Disclaimer: If you recognize it, I don't own it. ILM does.
A/n: I'm sorry this has taken so long. Thanks for your patience and to all of you who've reviewed before. This chapter is dedicated to all of you. Tatooine. Night. Dreaming. The feeling of extreme terror everywhere. Inescapable, penetrating cold. Trying to move, failing. Darkness broken only by the occasional blurred shadow. A voice, speaking words unintelligible to the ear. Pain. Anakin Skywalker woke with a start, his sheets twisted around his sweat-soaked form. Not caring to revisit the images that haunted his sleep, he dressed quietly and slipped outside the small, weathered house he'd been living in for the past twenty years. He permitted himself to drift into a light meditative trance and allowed the Force to pervade his every fiber as he expanded his awareness through the cosmos. After gaining a semblance of peace through the Force, he strode over to his workshop and studied all of his next day's work. As he did so, he reflected on his past, a past full of wrongs which he wished to make right. He had worked industriously for the Empire, which had thrown him face to face with Princess Leia, whom he would find to be his daughter. He knew that the day would come when he would eventually face her again, this time to apologize for mentally torturing her while she was held captive on the first Death Star. Several thought that he had died but it had been a rumor. Many days he wished it were true. Anakin Skywalker, unknown savior of the New Republic was alive!He had been plagued by the same nightmare for the last several nights; and, like every time before, he wondered what it all meant. Each night, he'd immerse himself in the Force to quiet the screams of those who were tortured and dispatched before his own eyes. More often than not, his thoughts would return to the Emperor's bleak throne room aboard the second death Star… He permitted himself to relax, only to become aware of the sputtering whine of a Correllian light stock freighter's laboring engines.
/This is going to be an even longer night than I thought/ he sighed as he made a slight adjustment to his loose-fitting robes and strode to meet the captain of the ship as it landed.Han Solo unleashed a highly creative stream of profanity as more alarms blared in his ears. Of all the places he could've landed for repairs on his ship, why in the name of the Force did it have to be Tatooine! He'd gotten new parts for the Falcon, and had spent two whole weeks crawling all over the ship, making certain everything was in proper working order.
/Instead of returning on time to Coruscant, I'll be holed up on this backwater planet where some no-name mechanic will charge a small fortune to do a mediocre repair job/ Han sighed as he set the ship down. A tall man in the traditional loose-fitting Tatooine garb strode towards the Falcon and greeted Han courteously when he debarked. Han studied him carefully as the man introduced himself as Redav Htrad. Htrad was lean and muscular with a broad chest that made him seem larger and intimadating. He also wore a respirator unit that concealed his face. ?What seems to be the trouble? Htrad asked, as he gave the exterior of the Falcon a quick once-over. "Got me," Solo sighed. "I just replaced the power couplings and the fuel lines, and I recalibrated the engines. It started going critical a few kliks out.? Htrad regarded the Falcon again briefly then disappeared into his cluttered workshop. He returned shortly with a large toolbox on repulsors and approached the ship. "Perhaps I can straighten this out for you," he offered in his Core-world accent. "Good luck. Me and two friends of mine tried to make some improvements, but it's always had problems." Htrad nodded as he squeezed his large bulk into the service well of the ship."What news from Coruscant?" Htrad asked as he extracted a hydrospanner from the immense toolbox. He'd heard that rebuilding was ahead of schedule and hoped eventually to relocate there.
Tatooine was one of the last places Anakin Skywalker ever wished to see again, but until he got himself together and the time was right, it had been an ideal place to stay. Here, you could be whoever you wanted and nobody would ask any questions. Too many spacer types were in the same position and wouldn't pry into his affairs. He'd been surprised to see none other than Han Solo, one of many people he owed penance to outside his door.
/H'm, YT1300. Amazing what he's done here/ Anakin thought as he studied all of the jury-rigged components and the tangle of wiring that connected everything. He'd offered to give Han a place to stay, but Solo was reluctant to leave his ship while some doubtless incompitent stranger was fiddling around with it.
"No more incompitent than the ones who did this.? He snorted as he removed three parts that he had no clue of their purpose. He removed them and placed them on the deck before him. Finding several more, he threw these on top of the small pile.
"What is this!" he bellowed after extracting several more irrelevant parts. "I could build new engines with all of these spare parts!"
He succeeded in repairing the engines and installed two new droid brains, and then brought the ship online to check his work.
A/N: Fear not, oh beloved readers. I will explain all. Please hang on.
