Don't believe 8

Luke's father was slightly unnerving. He gave her the impression of a calm before a storm. His personality was way different than that of his son's. Han had said he was a nice guy, so Sam believed him. Even if she did have the impression he was taking her apart mentally. Maybe he thought she wasn't good enough for his son?

She wasn't sure, so she opted for politeness. Sugar draws more than salt her granny used to say. The general guided her down another hall and into an office. A maze fanatic, she thought must have designed this place. "Yes it can be quite confusing in the first few days" said Anakin "I didn't say that out loud" said Sam "No child you didn't, but you have a habit of projecting" said Anakin "projecting?" said Sam

"Your force sensitive child weren't you aware of that?" said Anakin "Ah no, I wasn't even aware of the force until I met Luke" said Sam. "I see, I take it you've never heard of the Jedi either?" said Anakin "Ah not until Luke said something about it, why?" said Sam "No reason, I have to ask you what you two have discussed" said Anakin. He touched a button on his desk and the system began recording their conversation.

"First of all, I need the basic stuff since you aren't in our files" said Anakin "Like what?" said Sam. "Your name, planet of origin, system it's in etc." said Anakin "ah ok, that's easy" said Sam "let's see my name is Samantha and I'm from earth, which is in the milky way galaxy, but I couldn't tell you what system that's in" said Sam "okay what's your full name dear for the record" said Anakin .Sam grimaced she hated her full name it sounded way too hippy for her. "Samantha Serenity Valerian" said Sam

Anakin raised an eyebrow at her strange name. "Okay, now on to the important stuff, please tell me exactly what happened to bring you to us" said Anakin "well it all started when I was on a date with Josh" said Sam "Josh?" said Anakin "my boyfriend" said Sam "a native of your world I take it?" said Anakin

"Ah yeah" said Sam. "anyways we were parked out at inspiration point and while we were, you know busy I saw a shooting star" said Sam "busy doing what?" said Anakin "ah my parents aren't going to get a copy of this are they?" said Sam "no, my dear we simply haven't the time to tell on you" said Anakin. He sounded amused by her question.

Sam sighed in relief. "You know necking and stuff we were making out okay," said Sam. She turned bright crimson again. The general was staring at her, and it was making her nervous. "Relax child I do not bite," said Anakin "now go on you were busy and saw a shooting star?" said Anakin

"Anyways when we were done, I wanted to go check it out" said Sam "why?" said Anakin "curiosity I guess, maybe even a souvenir" said Sam "souvenir of what?" said Anakin. Sam turned red "it was my first time with him okay, geez this is so embarrassing" said Sam

He chuckled softly "please do go on" said Anakin "anyways we followed the trail of burning bushes and stuff to a crater and found a strange cylinder" said Sam "which you did what with?" said Anakin "well after I determined that it wasn't too hot to touch I picked it up and took it home" said Sam.

"And home was located at?" said "oh ah 3279 west Highland drive" said Sam. "go on" said Anakin "anyways I took it home and tried to open it with a screwdriver" said Sam. The general looked amused by that information. "It popped open on its own and started wheeling around my room" said Sam

"Then it did what?" asked Anakin "it tried to erase all my computer files so it could fit some huge file into my system" said Sam "and this file what happened to it?" said Anakin "oh that's easy I had it save it to a disk, because the robot was erasing all of my songs" said Sam "say that last part again?" said Anakin

"It was erasing my songs?" said Sam "no the part about saving it" said Anakin "oh that's easy I saved it to a disk" said Sam "where is this disk now?" said Anakin "oh, right here" said Sam. She pulled a small plastic disk from her pocket. It was stuffed inside some sort of protective box.

Anakin stared at the girl in shock his mouth was hanging open. "Ah sir are you all right?" said Sam. He blinked and wiped his hands through his hair. No, it can't be, they couldn't be that fortunate, could they? "You mean to tell me the droid uploaded the entire file to that disk?" said Anakin

"Everything that had to do with that moon shaped building, why?" said Sam. Anakin started laughing almost hysterically. Sam drew back in fear, was Luke's dad losing it? "My dear I could kiss you right now" said Anakin. Sam looked shocked, okay what gives it was only a file. He held his hand out for Sam to hand him the disk. "That's all we need, if that file is indeed on this disk we all owe you a huge debt of gratitude," said Anakin

"Ah okay your welcome I guess," said Sam. She was still taken aback by his reaction. "You may finish your meal; I'll have someone inform you when my son can have visitors besides family" said Anakin. "Ah okay thank you" said Sam She was inching towards the door; General Skywalker was freaking her out big time.

So, when he said she could go, she practically bolted from the room. Somehow she remembered how to find the mess hall. Han and chewy were still eating. They must have gone back for seconds or maybe thirds while she was gone. Her food tray was still sitting next to them "hey kiddo how'd it go?" said Han "great I think, Luke's dad is weird" said Sam

Han laughed, "most Jedi are kid, goes with the whole mystic thing" said Han. Chewy growled something and Han nodded in understanding. "Well, I hope you gave him some good news at least" said Han "I don't know but he seemed real excited about something I said" said Sam "well don't tell me, it falls under the whole top secret stuff most debriefs do" said Han "oh that's what that was about?" said Sam "your stuff is probably cold but they put out some more" said Han. "Thanks" said Sam She headed for the line and grabbed a few items she recognized from earlier. Ditching her old tray for some stuff that was hot.

Anakin stared at the door in shock and then looked down at the fragile disk in his hands. They would have to find a way to read the primitive device. If what the girl said was true the girl had just inadvertently saved the entire rebellion. He turned off the recorder and played back the last half. Then sent a copy of the recording to Mon Mothma.

The disk he would deliver in person. He headed for the woman's' office with a bounce in his step. His son hadn't failed after all, just changed how the information reached them. It was definitely the will of the force working through that girl. After she reviewed the recording and Anakin presented her the disk.

She quickly set the engineers to work devising a way to read it. Leia was given the task of supervising the whole thing.

Everyone was in high spirits in the rebellion's high command. Their perceived failure had been turned to success. The empire thought the plans had been destroyed so the element of surprise was also on their side. Anakin left them to their work and went to check on Luke.

He found the boy sitting in a bed. The med droid was taking precise readings for a replacement hand. The prosthetic would be designed to work off his nerve endings and respond like the real thing . "Father!" said Luke "son" said Anakin. He waited to embrace the lad until the droid was finished. "You're in a good mood, what's going on?" said Luke

"Let's just say I've gotten some really good news" said Anakin "what?" said Luke "you remember the girl that flew you home?" said Anakin "yes of course I do, how is she?" said Luke "she's being watched over by Solo and his Wookie" said Anakin. Luke grinned "you trust Han with her?" said Luke

"I trust him with your sister" said Anakin "yeah right, about as far as you can throw him without using the force" said Luke. Anakin laughed, his son knew him too well "he's growing on me, give him time" said Anakin "so where is she?" said Luke "you really like her don't you?" said Anakin "yeah it shows that bad?" said Luke "only cause your also projecting" said Anakin "how long was I out?" said Luke.

"For most of the day and part of the night, you went into shock," said Anakin. He privately sent his worry over their link. "I'm sorry I scared you so bad, Sam tried to keep me awake you know" said Luke "yes I know I heard her call to Solo" said Anakin.

"I'm so sorry I got her involved in all this," said Luke "she was obviously meant to be here," said Anakin. "So, tell me what happened?" said Anakin. Luke sighed, "Is this a debriefing?" said Luke "it can be, I've got a recorder" said Anakin "did you already debrief Sam?' said Luke "yes, she's quite a young lady, I can see your attraction" said Anakin. Luke turned red a little bit. "Well, I pursued the module with the droid in it to a class seven world" said Luke "it was primitive?" said Anakin. "It still had ground vehicles and little or no technology, the only space capability it had was a shuttle" said Luke. Anakin pursed his lips, explained a lot about the girl. "Go on" said Anakin

"Maul was also in pursuit of the droid, he obtained a ground vehicle from two natives he dispatched" said Luke "I landed just after him and borrowed another ground vehicle from two more natives who were, mating" said Luke. A blush accompanied the last word. Anakin grinned but didn't say anything about it. The other passenger in Sam's vehicle must have dropped her and the droid off at her home and headed elsewhere" said Luke.

" Maul followed him" said Luke "that would be a boy named Josh, go on" said Anakin "I picked up the units transponder signal and followed it to its source" said Luke "which turned out to be Sam's house, I decided to try reasoning with her in hopes of obtaining the droid without violence" said Luke

"And?" said Anakin. "She opened her door but would not allow my entrance, so I pushed my way in, she was going to call law enforcement, so I tried a mind trick, it failed" said Luke. He sounded shocked by that statement. "So how did you stop her from calling the authorities?" said Anakin "I physically restrained her and removed the com from her hands" said Luke "she didn't strike you for this?" said Anakin

"No but she wanted to until I used a calming technique on her" said Luke. Anakin nodded for him to continue. "The droid made its presence known at that time, so I went into the upper floor to retrieve it" said Luke. "Maul must have received Sam's location from Josh, and he showed up at Sam's. We dueled in the downstairs area. Sam retrieved the droid and crawled out a window" said Luke "I was losing, Sam screamed, and it distracted Maul enough that the droid arc welded his knee," said Luke. Anakin grimaced and nodded for Luke to continue.

"That is where I lost my hand by the way, I retreated taking advantage of the units distraction." said Luke "and the unit?" said Anakin "Maul sliced it in two for hurting him, I retreated into a room on the ground floor" said Luke "Sam was crouched behind some furniture holding something in her hands" said Luke.

"Maul entered the room to finish our bout and Sam sprayed him with some sort of flammable liquid, he went up when his saber ignited it" said Luke. "We used the distraction to escape him," said Luke "Sam obtained a second ground vehicle and she drove me to my ship" said Luke

"Why did you choose to bring her with you?" said Anakin "she insisted I was in no condition to fly, and she was right, I taught her the basics enroute" said Luke. Anakin looked incredibly impressed by his story. "I'm sorry I failed to bring back the plans," said Luke. "You didn't fail, the girl had the plans on her" said Anakin. Luke's mouth dropped open. "Say what, why didn't she say so?" said Luke "well I'm assuming because she didn't understand what she had" said Anakin

"Your sister is working on a way to retrieve them from the storage device she used" said Anakin. "Oh, wow and here I thought I really screwed things up," said Luke. "Close but fortunately it was salvageable," said Anakin. Luke sighed. "So, what are we going to do about Sam?" said Luke "you're hoping she stays?" said Anakin. "Yeah she's real sweet," said Luke. "Well, she's definitely an improvement over Callista" said Anakin. Luke winced; Callista was a former girlfriend who had been more interested in having a boyfriend who was a Jedi than Luke himself.

She had hurt the boy's self-esteem deeply and Anakin wasn't too happy with her for it. Luke sighed wistfully; the boy still ached from that woman. "I sure hope so, she seems to really like me but after Callista, I'm not so sure anymore" said Luke. "Use your instincts and the force, if she's genuine it will show" said Anakin. The boy nodded his understanding. "Dad do you think you can get the doc to let Sam visit?" said Luke

"I'll see what I can do," said Anakin. He patted his son's leg as he made his goodbyes. "Oh, and dad can you also arrange to have her tested?" said Luke "was already planning to" said Anakin. Anakin headed back down the hall. He ran into Leia as he passed. "How's it going?" Anakin asked, "the guys just figured out its reading system, would you believe they still use lasers?' said Leia

"Wow, your brother was right they are primitive," said Anakin. "Well then she's a natural pilot because she didn't even scratch Han's paint," said Leia "Really how interesting, have you found her some quarters yet?" said Anakin "no, but I was thinking of putting her in with the trainees" said Leia "well we could always use more pilots, I'm sure Luke would love to teach her" said Anakin

"Yeah I'm sure he would," said Leia. She grinned wickedly. "You're as bad as that girl, behave child" said Anakin "what I think it's cute besides she's way better than Callista" said Leia. Anakin rolled his eyes "no kidding" he said "hey listen I have to go talk to Qui- Gon; can you make sure she gets assigned a room" said Anakin "of course" said Leia.

"You work too hard," said Leia "yes I know I'm a workaholic like you both keep telling me" said Anakin. He walked off towards Master Qui- Gon's cabin leaving one more thing for his daughter to deal with. Leia sighed and started through the young pilots list again.

She couldn't put her in a room with one of the guys and the women's quarters were full. She could put her in one of the old officer's wings temporarily or with the Jedi. She was trying to come to a decision when she ran into Winter. "What are you doing?" said Winter. Leia sighed

"Trying to place a new recruit" said Leia "really who?" said Winter "the girl who brought Luke home" said Leia "you could always put her between the Jedi wing and the pilot's" said Winter. Leia shrugged and checked if anything was available on her screen. Sure, enough there was one room with no one in it so far.

Leia quickly entered Sam's name and got the door code. "Now all I have to do is find her, have you seen Han?" said Leia "yeah he just left the mess hall, said he was showing the kid around" said Winter "oh great they could be anywhere" said Leia "try his favorite hang outs" said Winter "great just what we need Han teaching her to play sabac and getting her shit faced on Corellian whiskey" said Leia "ah he wouldn't do that, would he?" said Winter. Leia shrugged and headed for the pilots lounge first.

She found Sam teaching Han and a few other pilots something called poker. Lando was grumbling because she kept winning. "I told you we should have taught her sabac" said Lando "it wouldn't do her any good she's too young for the casinos" said Leia "hey babe, what are you doing here?" said Han "looking for Sam so I can give her a room for the night" said Leia "she can always bunk with me" said Wedge. Chewbacca growled at him.

"What? She's cute" said Wedge "watch it Wedge Chewie's taken a liking to her you might lose an arm" said Biggs "still would fly better than you" said Wedge. Sam looked up at her "so where's my room?" said Sam "between the pilot's wing and the Jedi's" said Leia

"You put her in Brisha's old room?" said Hobbs "yeah it's the only thing available, at least until we finish fixing that wing" said Leia. "So, you're a pilot now heh kid?" said Hobbs. Sam looked surprised. "I just flew Luke home I've never really flown before" said Sam "and you handled the explorer like you were born at its yoke" said Han "sounds like a natural to me" said Wedge