Disclaimer: Like before, don't own Star Wars, only horsing around with this idea.
/Blah.../ thoughts
Second chappie out, and I wouldn't expect quite this rate of being put up here for all the chapters. I'm normally not this quick. Right now the ideas are flowing, that's all. In this Luke repairs the podracer, gets some information, and finds out a "secret".
And, just ignore the period after the question mark in the last sentence, which happens to be a thought. For FFnet to allow me to have even just that question mark there, I had to have that freaking dot!
Luke looked nervously over his shoulders towards the homestead in case Aunt Beru or Uncle Owen would come out and overhear him. Satisfied for the moment that they wouldn't come charging out, Luke kneeled by the little grave marker, the next to last in the line of four.
"Grandmother..." He could feel excitement bubble up just at the thought of the podracer hidden away in the garage of the Rodian's house. "I found a podracer! Dunno if you know what it is, but it's kind of like a speeder... but with external engines that are connected to the cockpit by cables. But it isn't mine though..." Luke grimaced here, crossing his ankles in front of him and leaning his elbows on his knees.
"Some Rodian that moved here owns it. But he promised me I'll get it if I repair it..." Here he lowered his voice in fear for his Aunt or Uncle overhearing this most important piece of information. "... and if I race him in Beggar's Canyon and win. There's something he isn't telling me though. I don't know what it is, but I need to know. I'm rather sure it's important. What do you think it could be?" It was easy, talking like this. Maybe his Grandmother couldn't answer, but at least he didn't feel any pressure from her, demanding he'd be something he couldn't.
"Luke? I'm shutting the power down now!" Uncle Owen shouted from the lowered courtyard, and the boy turned his head to answer.
"Okay! I'll be there soon!" Uncle Owen didn't like it, but since he'd been doing this at least once a week since they told him that his Grandmother was buried here, and Aunt Beru had convinced Uncle Owen to let him spend these sunset-moments here if he wished (even if she looked sad when he walked out and up to the graves). Uncle Owen thought it was stupid, but he'd never said it right to his face.
But he'd heard his Uncle mutter to Aunt Beru once, when they didn't know he was there, that he thought Luke was stupid to want to talk to a dead woman, however wonderful she had been. 'He didn't even know her!' Luke remembered him exclaim. Aunt Beru had looked towards the door, but hadn't seen him, and shushed Uncle Owen. 'It's his family. She shares his name. Don't be so harsh on him, Owen.' She had said in that soft, gentle voice of hers and Uncle had muttered but hadn't said anything else.
Sighing, Luke put his legs up against his chest and hugged his arms around them as he rested his chin on his knees.
"I dunno, Grandmother... I know that was a stupid thing to do. Agree to race an alien in something I don't even know how it works. But he did say he'd teach me, if only because it wouldn't be any interesting if I crashed at the first turn I tried to do. No sport in it, he said. But I'm not gonna back down! I want that 'racer! It feels as if I should have it. You probably think I'm nuts now. Well, good night Grandmother. Sleep tight." Luke said cheerfully and got up, dusting his legs and butt off before Aunt Beru could come out and tell him it was time to go inside and go to bed.
Had Shmi Lars-Skywalker been able to, she would most certainly have reassured her grandson that she didn't think he was weird or nuts. He was a wonderful boy, a gift of life. But she would also most probably have been turning in her grave out of worry, had it been possible, as the lure of dangerous sports had apparently snared not only her son, but her grandson too.
An irony perhaps, that the same podracer that Anakin Skywalker had once built and raced now would be repaired and raced by his son.
"What was podracing?" The innocent question asked by a sweet voice and sparkling blue eyes were met with adamant swearing from Owen Lars and a sharp reprimand for the man to shut up and not use such language in front of their nephew, by the boy's aunt.
"Why do you want to know, dear?" Aunt Beru asked with a smile, but nervousness peeked from behind her eyes that were shrouded with gentle curiosity. Owen was much more blatant with his misgivings, and stared with narrow eyes suspiciously at Luke. The boy just shrugged and took another bite from the food on his plate.
"I was just curious. Heard it being mentioned in passing somewhere... can't remember where now, though." Luke said, artfully knitting his brows together as if in deep thought. "So, what was it?" He prodded again, not about to give up.
Aunt Beru and Uncle Owen shared a look, and then his Uncle turned to him and grunted. Luke waited patiently, or as patiently as he could, while inside he was twitching with excitement. He had to force himself to sit still.
"Well, Luke, it was a high-speed sport, only maniacs and idiots competed if you ask me," Uncle Owen muttered with a shake of his head before continuing, "only aliens competed in it, with a small cockpit-like coach attached to large engines by cables. Very dangerous, people often died or were severely hurt." Uncle Owen paused, his face looking as if he'd bitten in something rotten or sour, showing exactly what he thought about such an 'idiot sport'.
"It's outlawed now, has been since before you were born. But there was a track for it in Mos Espa." Uncle Owen admitted reluctantly and Luke had to keep from whooping in triumph and curious excitement. He couldn't appear more than just slightly interested.
As it was, he couldn't keep the sparkle that unknowingly to him entered his eyes. But that didn't really matter, as he would have been excited about hearing about this kind of sport even if he hadn't had an ulterior motive for it. Then his brain latched onto a particular piece of Uncle Owen's explanation, and Luke frowned.
"Why was it only aliens that raced, Uncle Owen? Weren't humans allowed?"
Uncle Owen shook his head, looking pleased that Luke had asked this. /Probably want to scare me from it, even if it is outlawed and there are no... legal... races anymore./ Storing away that revelation to look at and ponder it later, Luke turned his attention to his Uncle once more.
"No, that wasn't it, Luke. You see, the speeds that the podracers could and would maintain, were so extreme you needed superior reflexes among other things, that humans simply couldn't keep up. Humans didn't race, not because they weren't allowed, but because we don't have the kind of faculties needed to react with the kind of quickness that'd allow us to survive a race of podracing." Uncle Owen nodded at that, deeming the topic closed, and went back to his dinner.
Luke felt faint. There was a silent ringing in his ears and other sounds seemed distant. He'd gone directly to his room after dinner, claming to be tired. But he really just needed to collect his thoughts.
What had he just agreed to?
With a groan, Luke collapsed onto his bed and rolled over on his stomach, burying his face in the pillow.
He was an idiot.
No wonder the conditions had been what they were for him to keep the 'racer. Because there was simply no way of him winning... wait. Why should be believe that? Just because no human had ever participated in a podrace... and why did that somehow ring false? Anyway, did that mean that he couldn't not only survive, but also win?
His thoughts drifted back to the 'racer shimmering in the sunlight from the twin suns, and Luke's resolve hardened. He would repair it, race the Rodian and win. There was no other option! He knew he could do it! He just had, as his father had told him in his daydream, to trust his instincts.
His mechanics skills would be good enough to not only patch the 'racer up, but to make it as good as new again, and his flying skills would be good enough to take him through a race with the Rodian and win. Now that he'd decided that, Luke picked up the little tidbit he'd realized during Uncle Owen's explanation. /There's no real reason for the Rodian to give me the conditions of repairing it and win in a race against him, if podracing is outlawed since he would have no use for it then.../
"But... if there are still illegal races being arranged, then an extra 'racer that could possibly be better than his regular one, would be a real asset. Or, even if he isn't planning to use it, I'm sure it would rake in quite a lot from those prepared to pay for it..." Luke whispered to himself as his thoughts rearranged themselves and he figured it all out.
"I wonder... is there anything special with that podracer? Otherwise there wouldn't really be any reason to keep it after it has fallen in such disrepair..." What was the mystery? He was sure the Rodian wouldn't tell him, because otherwise Luke may be even more interested in keeping it.
Of course, the Rodian didn't think he was going to win so maybe it wouldn't matter for him? It was a possibility... And that one single possibility tickled at Luke's insides, since he had a feeling that there really was something special about just this one podracer. But why?
With a frustrated growl, Luke threw the hydrospanner away, the tool bouncing on the ground and against the torso of a droid (with nothing else attached).
"Can't do it, boy?" The Rodian had come out from his shadowed perch on the chair in the same corner he'd been sitting in the first time Luke tried to sneak in after the Rodian had taken over the junkyard. The scratch-hiss of his voice was taunting, and grated on Luke's nerves, but he just scowled.
"No, I can do it. But there's something missing." He said frustrated, hand gesturing wildly to take in the whole podracer. It had been cleaned of its orange coat of paint, and now the original, tarnished blue and silver theme was glowing dully in the sunlight. It needed a new coat of paint, but that would come last. But Luke was going to keep the colors. He liked them. Maybe just change the style a little? The Rodian snorted and walked up to the engines, kicking the outmost one lightly.
"Of course there's something missing, boy. The energy binder for one thing. It's supposed to keep the engines connected to each other." At least the Rodian wasn't taunting him now, just being strictly factual.
"Thanks for telling me." Luke muttered and brushed sweat-saturated hair out of his eyes thoughtfully. He knew better than to ask for an energy binder. If he couldn't make one himself or find it, he had to make do without, because the Rodian wouldn't give him anything.
And if he had to make do without a thing? 'Too bad, boy, you lose. I'm keeping the podracer. Just go home to mommy.' That would most probably be the answer and he wasn't going to accept that. Luke frowned and scowled determinedly. But hadn't he seen..?
Getting up and starting to look through the junkyard, Luke thought back on the past three weeks. He hadn't been able to get away as often, or early from the homestead as he'd like, but he had to do and finish his chores if he didn't want Uncle Owen breathing down his neck. At least he had an excuse for going into Anchorhead so often; the cover story was that the Rodian had given him a job. He even got money for it. But really, that was only fair, he thought. He wasn't getting any help at all, except theoretical with repairing the racer so some money was welcome.
But at least he knew the podracer intimately now, how it worked, what made it, or rather, would make it, tick and so on. He was learning it as he repaired it, and as far as he could understand it, and feel it too for that matter, the green-skinned alien hadn't lied to him yet.
Of course, theoretical knowledge was nothing. His first taste of podracing would not be a training race or run, but a real race against the Rodian which would decide if he'd get to keep the podracer or not. So he'd be at a severe disadvantage against the Rodian, who, Luke was now sure, was one of those illegal, and thus professional, podracers.
Oh, joy.
Searching in the junkyard for bits and pieces to use had taken the most of the time of these past three weeks, but Luke knew he was coming to the end. The 'racer was coming along nicely, but the only way of knowing if it would work and not blow up around him would be when they were going to race.
Lifting several pieces from a dismantled vaporator that had been too damaged to use somewhere else and had thus ended up here, Luke crowed triumphantly when he found what he was looking for.
An energy binder.
Of course, it wasn't whole, and he'd have to repair it, and how it had ended up here he couldn't even begin to figure out. But the important thing was, it was here, and he could repair it and use it in the 'racer.
"Say, can I ask you something, if it's not too much trouble?" Luke asked where he sat cross-legged beside the podracer, repairing the energy binder. The Rodian, standing in the doorway to the room where he normally sat hidden away, shrugged. Taking that as encouragement, or at least permission to ask, Luke ploughed on.
"Who has this 'racer belonged to? And why have you carted it around when it was almost a scrap heap?" He hadn't had any chance to ask this in all three weeks, no opportunity had appeared, so now he just took the chance and asked. The Rodian was quiet for a while, staring up at the intensely blue sky above them.
He looked down after several minutes, looking as if he was going to answer but suddenly stopped, the opaque black eyes staring at Luke as if seeing him for the first time in these past three weeks.
"What's your name, boy?" There was something suspicious in the alien's voice, and Luke almost asked 'what does it matter?' but kept it inside. There must be a reason for the Rodian to ask. Especially since he hadn't cared enough to ask earlier...
"Luke... Lars. Why?" He paused just momentarily before giving his Aunt and Uncle's last name instead of his own. Why, he wasn't really sure, but there had been his gut feeling again, telling him in no uncertain terms that if he wanted to know the secrets of this podracer, he'd better not tell the Rodian his real name.
"Nothing. Just a thought... Anyway, I'll tell you before the race, okay, boy?" The Rodian didn't wait for an answer, just turned around and walked into the room again. Staring after the alien, Luke frowned and muttered, very quietly, a few choice words in Huttese after the man. He wasn't supposed to know those words.
Turning around for what seemed like the umpteenth time that night, Luke shifted under his blanket, still not being able to sleep. He knew he needed to sleep, but it was simply not coming to him.
He was nervous. And anxious, and... well. He was a lot of things that could be used as synonyms with "nervous". But he thought he had all the right to be.
Tomorrow, or rather today since it was after midnight now, he'd race the Rodian. In Beggar's Canyon. With a groan, Luke thumped the pillow beneath him several times with his head.
He was such an idiot.
Did that mean he was going to do the sensible thing and back out, leaving the Rodian with a fully (as far as he knew) functional podracer, and not even get to know what was the deal with it? No. Absolutely not! The Rodian may own it, but the moment he'd laid his awestruck eyes on it, it had been his, and he couldn't allow the Rodian to prance away with his podracer!
Snapping open his eyes which he'd closed earlier, Luke stared horrified at the ceiling. What if the Rodian sneaked off tonight or later this morning, when Luke was doing his chores, with the podracer? Shaking his head, Luke forcibly relaxed himself. He had to trust the Rodian to keep to the deal.
He'd said he'd move Luke's 'racer to where they would start, and they'd go there when Luke came in this afternoon. Thing was, Luke Skywalker wasn't stupid. Impulsive and reckless maybe, prone to sometimes (temporarily) miss what was in front of his eyes, yes. But stupid? No.
Why had the Rodian agreed?
Or rather, why set the conditions to being a race? There was a, Luke had to admit, possibility that he'd crash, and then the 'racer would be back where it started, as junk. Why risk that, when Luke now actually had gotten it to work? It seemed stupid.
"There must be something else here..." Luke muttered to himself into the velvet darkness of his room and the Tatooinian night. Blue eyes slipped closed though, and soon his body relaxed into sleep, and his breathing evened out. He may have a lot of energy, but it wasn't endless whatever Uncle Owen liked to say, and anxiousness takes a lot out of you.
The suns stood slightly past zenith when Luke finally was finished with his chores. He had worked like someone possessed to get them all done as quickly as possible, and it had paid off. Aunt Beru had looked at him with a fond, if vaguely worried expression when he hugged her to leave for Anchorhead.
She had picked up on his excitement and knew something was up, especially from his spirited work. But she didn't have any reason to make him stay at home, and so could only return the hug, smile goodbye, and wait for the disaster that surely was lurking beyond the bend to strike.
Luke's former nervousness seemed to have fled with the dawn of the twin suns, and now there was only a bursting excitement everywhere, making him impatient with want to get his chores done and over with so he could race.
Bounding down the street, Luke screeched to a stop in front of the junkyard, and walked around the house, shivering as he was drenched in the shadows between the houses. They weren't cold, but definitely cool, and his excitement made the difference between the burning sunlight and the lurking darkness that much more clear. If the Rodian wasn't here...
Luke needn't have worried. Rounding the last bit of the wall belonging to the courtyard where the junk was kept, he immediately spotted the Rodian leaning lazily against the side of a speeder, it's engines humming readily.
"Good, boy. Let us be off then. I was almost worried you had backed out of our deal." The Rodian did his version of a smile, rather slimily too, in Luke's opinion, and the boy shrugged as he jumped into the seat beside the alien, and settled down. /You'd like that, wouldn't you? Forget it./ He wasn't going to say it of course, but no one could stop him from thinking it. Luke couldn't help but feeling irritated at the Rodian's insistence at calling him 'boy' all the time, he did have a name!
As soon as he was sitting down securely, the Rodian pushed the speeder into gear, leaving a cloud of dust behind them as they blasted off towards the Canyon.
Luke was once again struck by his utter stupidity, and unwillingness to back down as they neared their destination, the brown cliffs and red-shaded stone providing a slight difference in view. The Canyon's opening loomed ever closer, sharp shadows making the crack look ominous and rather forbidding.
Luke shook his head, really! He needed to get over himself! It was just a formation of cliffs, not housing the greatest evil in the known universe (wonder what that was anyway? The Emperor, or something else?).
They came to a stop rather suddenly near the base of Beggar's Canyon; the two podracers they'd each use were pushed up against the cliff wall, hidden by some camo-net. It took some work getting them out into the open and along the invisible "starting" line, but finally they were both in place and ready.
Luke took a deep breath and grinned, feeling everything boil down to this point of the universe. There was only this 'racer, gleaming brilliantly with a new coat of blue and silver paint in the harsh sunlight, him, and the Canyon rising sharply above them.
"Hey."
Turning around automatically, Luke fumbled with the goggles the Rodian had thrown his way. Blinking dazedly, Luke looked at the goggles, and then looked up, nodding in thanks.
Securing the protective headgear over his eyes, Luke studied the Rodian's podracer. The cockpit was almost laughably small against the extremely large, circular engines, everything painted in a bright red-blue theme. Of course, his own didn't look like much compared to the Rodian's so he should just be quiet.
Hopping into the cockpit and strapping in, Luke ran his hands almost reverently over the controls, quickly reaffirming to himself their various functions and that everything was working as it should. He had to admit to going over the 'racer after getting it out onto the starting point, he didn't trust the Rodian. The alien hadn't said anything though, so Luke assumed he hadn't been insulted.
He was sure man would have done the same thing himself, had he been in Luke's shoes. Thinking back on these past three weeks and some, Luke smiled. All the work had definitely been worth this, if just to sit here. Then he remembered that conversation, if it could be called as such...
"Hey, mister!" He turned to the Rodian who looked up from his own check of the systems on his podracer. "You said you'd tell me who'd owned m... this 'racer and what the deal with it is!"
The Rodian paused, one hand hovering over the control board. Luke was sure he was scowling.
"Yes, I did. Very well. It belonged to Sebulba the Dug, a great podracer in his time."
Luke was disappointed. That was it? It couldn't be! But before he could open his mouth and complain, the Rodian crossed his arms and leaned back into the seat.
"Before that, it belonged to a Toydarian who lived in Mos Espa. He had a slave to race it for him. The slave supposedly built this podracer himself and flew it in the Boonta Eve Classic some thirty years ago, give or take. What is so special about it, arguably, is that the slave was a human. The only human to ever fly in a podrace and win. He supposedly disappeared right after winning the race though. He was never heard of again in podracing circles anyway. His name was Anakin Skywalker." Abruptly, the Rodian turned back to his control-check, leaving Luke to stare at him, mouth falling open, blue eyes wide.
/A... Anakin Skywalker?./