"New Discoveries"

By EsmeAmelia

AN: This fic lives! Sorry it took me such an incredibly long time to update - between writer's block and my busy life this fic got swept away, but now it's back. Anyway, thanks to all the readers and reviewers. I'll try to do better with updating.

Chapter 4

Luke swallowed as he stood outside Biggs's office door, inhaling deeply to summon up his courage before hesitantly rapping on the door with his loosely-closed fist.

"Who is it?" Biggs's voice called from behind the door.

Don't think of him as your boss, Luke tried to tell himself. Think of him as your old pal. "Uh...it's Luke. I have a question."

It seemed barely a second after he spoke that the door slid open, bringing Luke face to face with a smiling Biggs, his expression reminiscent of when they were children, racing their speeders through Beggar's Canyon. "Luke! What brings you here?"

His voice seemed to automatically eliminate the irregularities in Luke's stomach, though he still cleared his throat before speaking. "Hey buddy, I was wondering if maybe...I could be let off early today."

Biggs's smile didn't fade or even change its air in the slightest bit. "Sure you can. What kind of employer would I be if I never gave my workers a break?"

Luke felt his lungs relax, unable to believe that the conversation he'd prepared himself for had only lasted five seconds. It seemed anticlimactic, in a way.

"So what's the occasion?" Biggs asked.

Half of Luke's mouth turned upward, his body leaning against the arched doorframe. "You're not gonna believe it."

"Try me."

Luke's nose made a snickering noise. "All right, try the most famous xenoarcheologist in the galaxy inviting me to her dig?"

It was half a second before Biggs burst into laughter. "I've gotta hand it to you Luke, that's a good one."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"So glad you could make it," Leia said as she drove the landspeeder she was using to escort Luke to the dig site. "I hope your employer didn't give you too much trouble."

"No, no trouble at all," Luke shouted over the humming of the speeder's motor. He hoped the archeologist didn't notice that his body was pasted against his seat - he couldn't recall ever having ridden a speeder this fast.

"So why did you decide to take up this line of work anyway?" Luke said awkwardly after a few minutes.

"What?"

Luke ground his teeth to keep them from vibrating with the speeder. "Well...you're the princess of Alderaan, aren't you? This just seems like a pretty strange job for a princess."

Leia snickered slightly, not taking her eyes off the stretches of sand racing past them. "My parents thought that too. They wanted me to go into politics, join the senate or something like that."

"So why didn't you."

The princess shrugged. "I wanted to see more places, learn more things, not just argue with senators all day."

Luke found himself sighing. See more places, learn more things - exactly what he wanted in his life as well. Why didn't he have the same luck as this woman who was the same age as him? His eyes squinted as the two suns glared at him through the windshield. Those wretched suns, baking this planet, making it the most boring, uncomfortable place in the galaxy. Why couldn't he have been born with Leia's freedom?

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"Here," Leia said when they reached the dig site, parked on top of a hill overlooking a canyon. "You're going to want one of these." She pushed a wide-brimmed hat, similar to the one she was wearing, onto Luke's head. "These suns will burn you to a crisp if you're not careful."

Luke was about to remove the hat and tell her that he grew up here and he was used to the suns' heat, but something stopped him. Now he looked a bit more like the xenoarcheologists whose lives were full of adventure. It wouldn't do him any harm to keep the hat on for a while.

Once they were out of the speeder, a large, brown, furry creature began clambering up to them. Luke couldn't stop his eyes from widening - he had heard of these creatures before, but never actually seen one.

A Wookiee.

"Chewie!" Leia exclaimed with a laugh. "What's gotten you so excited?"

The Wookiee responded with a series of fast, excited growls.

"What? Already? Well by all means, let's get over there. But first..." Leia turned back to face Luke. "...you have to meet someone."

The Wookiee that Leia called "Chewie" was already looking at Luke with interested eyes, making him feel slightly uncomfortable.

"Chewie," Leia continued, extending her arm towards Luke, "this is Luke Skywalker. He's the nephew of the people I'm housing with and he wanted to see us in action." She extended her arm to the Wookiee. "Luke, this is Chewbacca, my second-in-command."

The Wookiee's big, hairy hand immediately grabbed Luke's, squeezing it to the point of discomfort and shaking it vigorously. He gave a series of cheery growls that Luke couldn't understand, but he thought (at least hoped) that they were friendly.

"Uh...hi," Luke said. "Nice to meet you, Chewbacca...or do you prefer to be called Chewie?"

Chewie nodded. He looked like he was smiling, though it was hard to tell how his mouth was shaped through all his fur. Luke had heard that Wookiees could be ferocious creatures, but if they granted someone their friendship, they were the most loyal allies. He supposed he should consider himself lucky that Chewie seemed to have already granted Leia his friendship and Leia was introducing Luke as a friend. The Wookiee might not be so nice to him otherwise.

"All right, Chewie then," Luke continued awkwardly.

"Anyway," said Leia, "Chewie was just telling me that while I was picking you up, they already found something interesting."

Luke's eyes widened. "What?"

Chewie roared out a noise that sounded almost like a laugh.

"He says it's a surprise," said Leia, grabbing Luke's wrist and pulling him down the hill. "Come on, let's go join the others and see just what it is."