Star Wars isn't mine, big surprise.

Chapter 2. In Which Ben Learns When to Surrender

A month later Obi-Wan, who now went by the name Ben was sitting atop a building in the Blue Sector of Coronet, Capital of Corellia. After abandoning the Monument in its moorings, he had snuck aboard a ship to Corellia, hoping to find a passage out to Tatooine from Corellia at the smaller but no less busy spaceport.

Tatooine, he had not heard of it before his dreams, all he knew was that Anakin was found there, and so with that vague plan he had tried to find a ship that would at least take him to the outer rim. They had all laughed him out the door, even when he had snuck aboard a shuttle up to the massive shipyards floating above the planets surface, trying to find even a bit of work. Which was why he found himself back on the planets surface in the rough Blue Sector, occasionally making his way down to the series of underground tunnels that ran beneath the city. Avoiding both the CorSec police force, and the sector of Corellian Jedi, who in his opinion were just plain weird.

No one paid him much attention, he was just one of many kids and teens to roam the streets in the worse parts of town. Dressed in his civilian clothes, that got dirtier by the minute, and without a braid, he looked no different than any other street kid. Acted no different either. It had taken him a week to get hungry enough to steal, another week after that to use the force to do it. Which lead to the reason he was currently sitting on the edge of a building, legs over the edge, drumming a steady beat on the side of the building. About a floor below him was an open air market, set on one of the many sublevels. It was easy enough to pick a mark, and either levitate the goods up to him, or push them into an ally and then jump down to retrieve them.

Obi-Wan was so concentrated on moving the shopping bag of produce under a cart that he almost didn't see the Corellian Jedi, in his bright colored robes turn away from the crowd and head toward the force movement he sensed. Dropping the bag immediately Ben pulled his legs from where they were dangling, and turned and ran across the roof of the building, flipping through the air down behind it, into the back alleyways.

He could hear shouting behind him as the Jedi had apparently called in CorSec. Changing his course he headed towards the spaceport, and its many hidey holes and large crowds. Although if he had a Jedi on his tail it was doubtful that he would be able to hide at all. After taking a sudden left he was forced to use the force even more, to scramble up the side of a building, as CorSec appeared at the other end of the alleyway.

Now jumping from building to building, using force enhanced speed, Ben could both see and hear the spaceport a couple blocks ahead. Finding an empty alleyway, he spun down, and ran, merging into the crowd, shielding as best he could. He headed into the warren of deeper ports, those for smaller ships, several levels down. Keeping his head lowered he walked with the crowds, until turning a corner, he saw CorSec in their tan uniforms weaving through the crowd quickly behind him and he broke into a sprint. Despite his speed, they were much closer then before, and turning back frantically, Ben noticed the bright tabards of the Corellian Jedi joining them, and not caring any more added the force to his steps. He used it to jump over obstacles, flying over the heads of passersby in tightly controlled spins; he had always been good at acrobatics.

Digging into the force completely he let it guide his steps, leading him deeper into the warren, he didn't even notice when the CorSec officers were left behind, and only the Jedi were gaining on him.

"Obi-Wan! We're not going to hurt you!"

"Initiate Kenobi! Stop!"

The calling of his name only spurned him on further. Of course they knew his name, every Jedi in the galaxy probably knew to watch for him at this point. Of course they weren't going to hurt him, they were Jedi, but that wasn't why he was running. If they caught him, he couldn't protect Anakin. He couldn't be Jedi if he went back to the Jedi. With a sudden jerk the force pulled him to the left through a rapidly closing doorway, and into a spaceport.

Unfortunately the door was closing in preparation for the ship leaving, and so with one last push, Ben threw himself forward across the platform, through the exhaust of thrusters, and onto a closing loading ramp. Sliding under the last foot of the airlock, pulling his bag through just before the final clang of the airlock door.

Panting, Ben slowly pushed himself off the floor. That had hurt, he was going to have bruises for weeks.

"Don't kriffing move, Brat." A gruff voice spoke above him, and Ben felt cold metal press against his neck. He froze, halfway off the ground, bag clutched in one hand the other pressing against his side. The voice called for others and soon Ben felt himself being yanked up, his bag disappearing from his grip and forced forward. He didn't struggle, it seemed like a bad idea with these folk, a quick blaster shot to the back of the head. By the time they made their way up to the rather large cockpit Ben had felt the ship jump into hyperspace, a rather shaky jump at that he noticed with alarm. Despite that it still gave him at least a tiny bit of relief, finally safe from those chasing him, as he was shoved to his knees in front of a gruff looking man who was obviously the captain.

The man was a human of average height, and heavily muscled. His head covered in tattoos instead of hair. He barely glanced up as Ben was dumped at his feet. Speaking as he turned back to the console.

"I got a policy on stowaways, you know that boys, dump him out the airlock." Ben felt himself begin to panic, and he began to struggle, as he was dragged backwards.

"No, Wait! I swear I'm not a stowaway. Please! I was just trying to get away from CorSec." It was futile, the men were too strong.

"Please, I swear I'll find a way to pay for my passage! I'm a mechanic! I can fix anything! I can fix that jolt when you go to hyperspace!" Ben spat out in desperation, recalling the shaky jump. The captain paused at that, holding out a hand, motioning the men to pause.

"You really think you can fix that shake kid?" The captain spoke through a skeptical grin, leaning backwards, as if Ben might provide him with a tiny bit of relief from monotony. The entire bridge was leaning forward as if Ben could provide them with a great deal of relief, some of their grins rather savage.

Looking around nervously, Ben felt a smidgen of regret at his words but plowed on bravely, looking up at the captain. "Yes, sir, if I had to guess, I think the electrons in your hyperdrive, are slightly out of alignment. That could be dangerous sir."

"I've had two other mechanics take a look at that, neither of them found a star's thing wrong with it. They both went out the airlock for their nuisance. Why should I even give you a chance, brat?"

"What have you got to lose?" Ben tried to shrug but found it difficult in the grip of the two crewmen.

The captain shrugged back and ordered the men to take Ben to the engine room. Saying to call him when Ben was finished.

Later surveying the mess of the engine room that he had been shoved in, Ben wasn't surprised in the least bit about why no one had been able to find anything. He wasn't a mechanic exactly but he had always excelled at those classes at the temple, and the force had gotten him this far, he really had nothing left to loose. Touching the model fighter secured in his front pocket, as apparently they weren't going to give him his bag back, he fell into a light meditation before getting to work.

Two hours later, his boots were off so he could climb better, and his hands were covered in burns and makeshift bandages, but he had found the problem. It was just as he had suspected, if the electrons got anymore out of sync the whole system would blow. It was a wonder no one else had seen it, he had only found it with the force, the meters were all connected to the wrong thing entirely, in fact the whole ship was flying death trap. Making sure that the two crewmen guarding the door weren't watching, he reached out slightly with the force and knocked everything back into place.

The effect was immediate, the ship shuddered for a moment, before it almost let out a purr. He emerged from the bowels of the engine a moment later, a rather large grin on his face, only to find two blasters pointed at him, and another man on the comm with the captain.

"Tell the captain I fixed it." Ben replied to the blasters cheerfully, his accomplishment not dimming in the sight of danger. When the men didn't reply, he merely shrugged and settled into the mass of wires crossed legged. The grin still stretching across his face.

It was wiped away a moment later when the captain came storming in, grabbing Ben up by the collar and screaming in his face.

"WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY KRIFED-DING SHIP!" Ben flinched back from the spittle but replied as calmly as he could, managing to suppress the shake in his voice as much as possible.

"I, um, I fixed it. Your energy intake should be much smoother now."

"Show me" the captain replied, with a jerk of his head, dropping Ben to the floor. Ben climbed shakily to his feet and did as bid.

"See here, the sensors weren't actually fixed to anything, so no one found the problem, and it's no wonder this place is a mess." Ben tutted forgetting himself for a moment, crossing his arms in annoyance. "Anyway" he continued at the darkening look of the captain, "I re-routed some things, and measured it by monitoring some other equipment, adjusted those and it fixed the electron alignment. Good thing too, or we'd all have been space dust in a few weeks."

The captain just raised one tattooed eyebrow.

"I suppose yah do have a use after all boy." Then turning to one of the guards, "Take him down to Doc, and get him fixed with a chip." Ben paled.

"A what?"

"That's the last question I'll allow boy. You snuck on to my ship, which makes you my property, and since you got some value, I decided to keep yah. Be grateful I didn't toss yah out with the trash you are." He grabbed the front of Ben's shirt, spittle flying. "You try and leave my ship you'll find yourself blown to pieces. Got it Brat?"

"Yes, Sir!" Ben's voice was almost a squeak.

"Try again slave." The Captain's grip on his collar tightened.

"Yes, um, Master. Yes Master!" Ben nodded as best he could. The Captain gave a sharp nod in return, and handed him off to one of the crewmen.

Several hours later, Ben, still groggy from the operation to put in the chip, was thrown back into the engine room, and the pile of crap it contained, his bag, which he thought he had lost following him. He hadn't even tried fighting, they really would have tossed him out an airlock then, and for some reason the force seemed pleased by this development.

"I wanted a Master, but not this way." Ben muttered, and taking out the model star ship settled down to meditate. He emerged several hours latter, and after confirming that with a bit of work he could turn off the chip buried in his leg, looking around got to work. As much as it irritated him to work for pirates, he also hated a badly kept engine more, besides if he didn't prove himself worthy of the food he ate, he wouldn't even need to worry about food anymore, well he wouldn't really need to worry about anything. Besides it made his job easier if the place was clean. Who knew what useful stuff was buried in here.

And so life went on. It took him three days to even get the stuff off the floor. He built himself a little nest underneath one of the power tubes, it was nice and warm in the chill of space. He was quite glad the force had directed him to pack warm clothes. The engine, under his careful watch, didn't break down much, and so he spent most of his days improving his connection with the force.

No one really bothered him, the cook was nice to him, and so he rarely went hungry. The crew was half and half, some spat at his very presence, and some treated him like any other crewmember, which seeing as how they treated each other wasn't much. Occasionally the Captain needed him for something. That was unpleasant, but he finally learned what the Jedi could not teach him.

He learned to release his anger and he learned patience from the Captain's mercurial temper. Although it came with many bruises, he could stand for hours as people spat both words and spittle at him and not be bothered a bit. It also occasionally irked him that he worked for pirates, but what could he do? Although he could jump ship anytime with just a little force manipulation, the force was telling him to stay on the ship. Besides the pirates had yet to stop anywhere useful on the outer rim. So the slave Ben who had once been named Obi-Wan Kenobi, settled down each night surrounded by the soft bur of a well working engine, and waited.