Slowly Luke trudged back home, his small, feathered friend skimming the ground beside him, still not quite comfortable with being able to fly again.
Beep, beep.
The small comlink Luke had with him beeped.
"Yes?" Luke asked, after digging it out of his pack.
"Luke, dear," His aunt's voice responded, "Are you near Anchorhead?"
"Yes, ma'am."
"Good, do you mind running there real quick and picking up a cooling coil? One of the vaporators needs one and we don't have a spare."
"Okay, Aunt Beru, I can get one."
"Thank you, Luke. Don't take to long, okay?"
"Okay."
"Bye."
"Bye, Aunt Beru." Luke said, turning the com off. "Well Cedric, looks like we're headed to Anchorhead."
Cedric flew up and perched on Luke's shoulder and proceeded to glare at his surroundings. Luke shook his head and snickered as he changed directions slightly and headed towards Anchorhead.
A few minutes later…
Luke entered Anchorhead with some trepidation, he was often picked on because of his size, and shook some of the lose dust out of his hair, just to do something. He walked down the more or less empty streets and wove between building before reaching his destination.
People didn't come here often. They thought that Old Man Huxley was a mean, cruel old Twi'lek, but Luke knew better, Mr. Huxley was all bark and no bite. Luke had stumbled upon Old Mr. Huxley once when he'd sprained his ankle. Luke didn't know much about healing, but he knew all about sprains and how to treat them, and he'd taken good care of Mr. Huxley. Now they had a cautious friendship, with Mr. Huxley throwing a few venomless barbs here and there for his reputations sake. Whether he was nice or not was irrelevant at the moment, Mr. Huxley had the best (and the cheapest) junkyard in town and Luke knew that the better the coil, the longer it was before he had to fix the vaporator again.
"'Lo Mr. Huxley." Luke intoned, as he entered the shop. "How are you today?"
"Fine, fine, Luke." Mr. Huxley said, distractedly. It was then Luke noticed the man who was in the shop. He was not old, but not young, just barely past his prime, with weatherworn hands of light tan and light brown hair that had one been a good bit darker.
In that strange way that he knew how to fix unfixable vaporators, or how to pilot a small ship through Beggar's Canyon in near darkness, Luke knew that this man would have a big impact on his future. A tremendous and positive impact that would, in turn, have and impact on hundreds of thousands of people, perhaps more than that even.
Luke walked into the yard and began to look for the coil, all the while pondering the stranger inside. It was rare for Luke to 'see' people so clearly. He had only met a few others. Maia, his confidant; Ben Kenobi, the hermit; Corcoran, the peddler; and Kosey, the nomad. Each one, he saw, had a different effect on his life, but none quite so profound as that of this stranger.
"Have you found what you're looking for, little one?" A kind, masculine voice asked, causing him to whip around. There stood the man from inside and this time, Luke could see his care-lined face. For it was care-lined. Deep set lines wrinkled his forehead and smaller ones gathered at the corners of his eyes, but laugh line at the corners of his mouth showed that he had great joy as well. Amused looking green-gray eyes looked at him, as he craned his neck to see the man's face. "I'm Kareem, little one, and you are?"
"I'm Luke, sir"
"Well, Luke, perhaps you can help me. Mr. Huxley says that you know the content of this yard better than he does. Perhaps you would know if he had any parts for a J-224 Nubian space cruiser?" The man asked, crouching down to Luke's level.
"Yes, sir. J-224, that's a rather outdated model, but I think so." Luke moved to an area some ways from where he'd stood before. "What type of parts do you need?" He asked, rummaging through the old parts that were piled up.
"I need a hyperdrive coolant cable, three lights, and a recommendation for a good replacement ship. I'll have to retire the old girl after this trip."
"Um, okay. The coolant cable might be a bit hard, after the 230 model they switched to a slightly different model that didn't require the cable, and that was replaced in the 350 model with one of the newer hyperdrives that don't require any coolant, though I wouldn't recommend those. Here are the lights, though." Luke handed the man three lights. "Those stayed pretty much the same until the 320 model. Personally, if you have to have a Nubian, a J-237 model would probably be best. It's pre-Clone Wars, but they have a lot to offer as far as speed and maneuverability goes. You'd need an astro-mech droid or two for upkeep and any mechanical problems, but those aren't too expensive. Ah ha! Here's the coolant cable!" Luke held the flexible metal pipe up.
"Thank you, my young friend. Perhaps you could help me with one more thing. After I pay for these, I'll be taking them to the garage to have them fixed, then I need a place to stay, as my ship will be unavailable. Do you think you could point me in the direction of such a place?" Kareem asked as Luke picked up the cooling coil.
Luke's com beeped.
"I might."