Chapter 5: A New Hope
But it really wasn't safe at all, he knew, and that was massively physically present as the Orion broke atmosphere and ahead, casting their own shadows on the tops of white clouds, were two squared-off wedge forms of Star Destroyers.
Luke rose from his seat behind Patra's sling for a moment and again he was above Tatooine, far in another past, and Han Solo was assuring Ben Kenobi that they would pass these war machines of the Empire by and go to meet that beautiful princess he had seen in the hologram. But it was not to be. It had been.
The alien inquired as to where Luke wanted to go and he gave him the long-memorized coordinates for Dagobah. Patra punched them in, though with disbelief about the distance to the place and that he had no knowledge of its existence. There was a quick check commmed from the Star Destroyers and Patra gave them a satisfactory code for departure, and the space around the Orion became the raging calm of hyperspace.
As Patra went into the cargo bay Luke again stood up and looked around. There were many diversions for the long soarings through space, games, things on the HoloNet, simple conversation between people who were now captain and passenger. Luke didn't feel like doing any of these things. There was to much on his mind, like a fog, though thinking back through what had really happened was simple, if strange.
So he turned and stood in the hatch to the back and watched Patra move boxes around and peer into a few of them, muttering to himself in a clacking tongue. After a moment he fixed Luke with a sharp eye and rustled the thin skin of his wings, saying nothing but questioning.
"I," Luke looked at the floor for a moment and slapped one hand against the hatch, "if you need any help I'll do something."
No, no I'm fine." His gaze had drifted between Luke and the next stack of crates, now it returned to Luke. "You told me you wouldn't throw up, but you're not one of those types that gets so bored in space flight they gotta bother everybody else, right?"
Luke took this as a light rebuke, laughed slightly and left.
In the cockpit he patched into the HoloNet and looked up history on a public database. The footage there told him all he needed to know; the war had been won--or lost--at the battle of Yavin. That planet had been destroyed by the Imperial Death Star's superlaser before Luke--before I, he had to tell himself--could destroy the battle station. After that; "the remnants of the rebellion were easily disposed of."
Again he sighed, and changed the Holonet screen to one of recent news. All the headlines were mundane if showing the casual cruelty of the Empire; Mon Cal/Quarren Dispute to be settled by Imperial Troops. Looting continues in Coruscant Financial District. Antion Rebuke Trade Agreements. Superstar Dorana Race to wed Nukron Kolak...
When Luke got to that last one he changed the net back to the database and searched information by planet; Coruscant, Tatooine, Corellia, Dagobah. The Dagobah system was not listed. In the Coruscant listing it said the headquarters of the Emperor had changed from Imperial City to a more Coreward world called Had Abbadon, but the information on the new headquarters was sparce, just scientific things; gravity, system type. For a few hours Luke researched. All reports of the Old Republic and most of the Rebellion were conveniently missing. When the net outlived its usefulness he turned to star charts. Yavin 4 and Alderaan were nonexistent.
They spent two and a half days in space, each keeping mostly to himself. Even in this time Luke didn't learn much about Paqs Patra; in the times they spoke, mostly before "night" when Patra checked their coordinates between Corellia and Dagobah, he learned only that Patra worked as a freelance carrier of cargo and occasionally a conveyer of passengers. Patra stayed in the cargo bay and Luke in the cockpit; he even slept there, and in the days between stared into space and the currents of the Force, or worried about the future and what had been done with the past, overshadowed by the present. When he realized he was sinking into regret he would meditate, and make himself think he was home. It reminded him of, on Tattooine, dreaming of space battles to escape the mundanity of reality.
And then Dagobah was before them. Luke knew it before Patra came in and hooked his claws in position to bring the Orion out of hyperspace. The starlines streaked, and the planet was before them, dark clouds swirling across its day-side surface and the presence of a Master of Luke's art resonating like a frequency only he could hear.
Patra blinked, looked down at a readout and back up. "No cities, no spaceport..." He looked
at Luke inquiringly.
"This is where I need to be."
Patra nodded once and took the ship down. He showed previously unseen skills as a pilot
in jockeying through trees and fog below the turbulent atmosphere, and after a few dangerous
minutes the ship settled on swampy ground in the sector Luke indicated, that he remembered from
twice before.
Then everything was still, the lights dimmed and the ship crouching on its landing legs
like an enormous mechanical insect, and Luke unclipped his crash webbing and stood up.
Outside it was raining, fat drops of water coming down on the forwards view screen and
among the tangle of trees and vines and waterways around them.
Patra got up out of his webbing and crossed the room to palm the boarding ramp open. The
sounds of rain and movements of water increased in volume and reality, and Luke drew the smell
and sense of the place in and just remembered for a moment. And there were dark eyes glinting
in the dimness of the storm and a soft probing touch to Luke's mind.
He turned to Patra. "I'm sorry I can't give you anything for your help." he said. "I thank
you."
Patra nodded his long head once and took a step back into his ship. "You get where you're
going." He said then bowed with his wings spread and tilted forward and his arms crossed, top
set over bottom. "Kailrea kronolee," he intoned, and turned away.
Luke walked down the ramp and onto the patch of solid ground they had landed on, thick
forest on one side and a dark leaf-strewn lake on the other, and entered the darkness of the
gnarled trees. The Orion rose on the barely tangible energy of its repulsors, made a half turn
above their heads, and then its engine tubes flared blue and it was gone above the low, grey
cloud line. And Luke turned and spoke to what he knew was in the dim landscape there;
"Master," He called, "I've returned."