II.

Luke awoke to the sound of a blaring alarm system. He dashed to the cockpit to find his son frantically trying to input something in the navicomp. "What's wrong?"

"It says we're on a collision course with something! I've got to bring us out of hyperspace!" Ben said, pulling back on the hyperdrive lever.

The hypnotic swirling blue of hyperspeed slowed, and the black of realspace overtook them. To the left of center in the viewport shone twin stars, and a yellow planet loomed to their front.

"Where are we?" Ben asked his father. He looked over to the navicomp to tell him, but it read 'Error.'

Luke Skywalker sighed and heaved himself into the co-pilot's chair. He didn't need the navicomp to tell him. "Tatooine. We're looking at Tatooine, Ben." He threw and uncharacteristic growl and glare at his son, "How the kriff did we get here?"

Ben blinked. His father never cursed. And he usually didn't get angry either, especially at him, the beloved son. "Umm, I mean I don't know dad. I plotted our course to take us through the RTR, but somehow we got sidetracked." Ben hit a button on the navicomp, hoping to display a history of their last jumps. It still read 'Error.' "I'm not sure, but I'm guessing instead of riding the Hydian all the way to the Rimma, it spit us out early and put us onto the Corellian Run."

Luke gritted his teeth and slightly raised his voice, "Why didn't you do it the safe way and bring us out of hyperspace before entering a new lane? You know it's not always safe to trust the navicomp to put us directly from one to another. I told you to take the smartest way – this was clearly not it. Plus, didn't I tell you to wake me before making the jump?"

"Well, yeah you did tell me to wake you, but you looked so tired and I just wanted you to rest. I'm sorry, dad. I should have woken you up and I should have plotted the jumps the safe way." Ben bit his lip and looked down. He hated to feel his father's disappointment.

"No," Luke sighed, "I'm sorry, son. I didn't mean to snap at you. And I'm not disappointed in you. You could never disappoint me."

"Really?" Ben looked up.

"Well… only if you turn to the dark side. I guess I'm just irritated at being here. I don't like coming back here." He sighed, "Did I ever tell you how much I hate sand?" Luke looked at his home planet through the viewport. "And now I'm irritated with myself for losing my temper."

"I wondered at that," Ben said, "I couldn't imagine you even having a temper."

"Well you've never really seen it but I have quite the temper believe it or not. It used to get me into quite a bit of trouble when I was young." Luke laughed bitterly. "Some of the things I inherited from my father aren't the best qualities to have. Good thing you inherited your mother's temperament."

"Uh…" Ben looked confused. "Mom wasn't exactly even-tempered."

"Well, Mara was bitter more than angry, but when she did get angry it was….contained, pointed. The Skywalker temper is something else altogether. I usually have it locked down though. You're right that I'm tired."

Ben's throat closed a moment as he heard his father say his mother's name. Luke so seldom talked about her that when he did, it always surprised him. He could hear the pain in his father's voice as he said her name; even two years after her death Ben could see that Luke struggled nearly daily to keep himself from succumbing to grief.

Ben suspected there was more to his father's reaction than being simply tired, but he only gave him a reassuring smile and said "It's okay dad." It felt kind of good to see his father act like a normal human once in a while, instead of the imperturbable Grandmaster Jedi all the time.

"Well son," Luke said, sounding dejected, "I guess you get to finally see where you old man is from. We'll have to land and try to get the parts to fix that navicomp."

"That's right! I've never been here!"

"Don't get your hopes up. There's not much here for teenage boys to do, believe me. It's a boring, blazing, kriffing, forceforsaken rock." Luke grumbled.

Ben raised an eyebrow at hearing his father curse again. Dad's seriously off his game.

"Sorry. Do as I say and not as I do and don't curse. I guess this place just brings out the worst in me." Luke said, casting his eyes to the side and leaning his head against his backrest. He shrugged, "Well, let's get on with it then."