[i]Coruscant[/i]

Luke Skywalker had never been to an auction before, nor had he ever wanted to. He neither had much desire for auctioned items nor anything of value worth auctioning, although his unintended fame would probably make his everyday appliances sell for a small fortune. [i]Luke Skywalker's lightsaber! Luke Skywalker's flightsuit![/i] If he ever went bankrupt, auctioning would be enough to make himself a small fortune.

Instead, it had been one of his friends, a rabid and wealthy collector of antiques, who had urged the Jedi Grand Master to attend an auction being held just a few blocks away from Luke's apartment. He insisted that there was an item of considerable interest to Luke on display. Luke agreed, but also brought with him a friend that, Luke knew, was a famous expert with both legal and illegal auctioning.

"Doesn't it make you feel classy, standing with all these rich people?" Luke's friend asked.

"You could be one of them. Jedi don't seek wealth, but you ain't a Jedi. Just get an endorsement deal to some clothing line and you could easily become a billionaire."

"Or a blaster brand."

"Or sell the Falcon. It'll probably go for a good few billion, at least."

Han Solo shook his head. "Nobody is buying my ship from me, not while I'm still alive. Hey, look! It's starting."

Up ahead, a tall, thin looking humanoid with a microphone was greeting the crowd. He introduced the first item of sale; a guitar owned by some sort of famous musician. Luke wasn't interested, so he just waited it out, impressed by the superhumanly fast pace in which the auctioneer talked. It was eventually sold to a famous musician for around a hundred thousand credits. A sortie of other items were presented, none of which piqued Luke's interest. It wasn't until a good few hours in when that item of interest was presented.

A group of men brought forward a square, glass table with a red cover. Like a magician, the auctioneer lifted the sheet, revealing a silver, cylindrical object.

A lightsaber.

But not just any lightsaber. Upon closer inspection, Luke noticed something strangely familiar about the pattern and design of the hilt. It was the same as the lightsaber Ben had used in the short but significant time in which Luke had known him, not including his conversations with his spirit.

"Here we have a relic of the Clone Wars; the lightsaber used by the famous Jedi war hero Obi Wan Kenobi. We can assure you that this lightsaber is no fabrication or duplicate, but the original, untouched blade."

Luke knew the auctioneer was telling the truth. Not only did he sense no deceit in his aura, but there was something about the lightsaber, almost as though the relic was projecting part of his mentor's Force presence. There was Obi Wan's lightsaber, somehow still intact; Luke had assumed that the lightsaber was destroyed along with the Death Star. Maybe Vader had taken it as a trophy. But how did it get into the hands of somebody at an auction in the middle of Coruscant?

"Starting price, ten grand."

"I remember that old hermit," Han said. "A little mysterious if you ask me, but he saved our butts back on the Death Star. You going for it?"

Before Han had finished, Luke had already placed a bid by tapping the superfluously fancy touchpad given to him.

"Ten grand! Fifteen thousand…fifteen thousand? Fifteen thousand…" The auctioneer rambled off, until another bidder took it, and then another. And another. By the time the bidding price had past one hundred thousand, only three bidders still held interest. One of them was Luke. Another was a multi-quadrillionare named Jack Shates whose wealth rivaled Coruscant's annual budget. The third was a mysterious man who called himself Bond.

"How, exactly, do you plan on paying for this?"

"The Jedi Order has money, you know. Funds from the government. They don't have any guidelines as to how we spend it."

"Yeah, but Luke, do you really think this is worth it?" For once, Han's voice was completely serious.

"I don't know…something about it just…" He had to get it. Luke didn't know why, but his guts told him that there was more to it than simply a nostalgic piece of his life. And for a Jedi, his gut feeling was probably right.

"Alright," Han conceded. "You've just never struck me as somebody who's willing to spend this much money on a piece of nostalgia. But hey, trust your instincts. Isn't that what Ben said?"

"No, that's what [i]his[/i] master said."

"Yoda?"

"No, Qui-Gon."

"I could've sworn he said that Yoda had trained him-"

"Yeah, I don't get it either."

The bidding price was past a million credits, and Luke was beginning to doubt his chances of success. Jack Shates' wealth was incomprehensible; Luke could empty out the Temple's treasury and it still wouldn't be enough. And that Bond character. In his long years of dealing with various governments and their cronies, Luke had learned to recognize an agent when he saw one. Luke didn't need the Force to realize that Bond was government employed, but his tight knitted and concealed Force aura confirmed Luke's suspicions. And the Galactic Alliance had even more money than Shates.

Then Shates dropped out at a hundred million, probably, Luke guessed, out of boredom. The auction had been going on for over an hour, and most of the auctioneers left for the lounge to wait for the two stubborn bidders to finish, although a few stayed to watch out of curiosity. That left the Jedi Grand Master and Bond. Although Luke was not fond of using mind tricks for public competitions, he subtlety tried to suppress Bond's interest in the lightsaber. He wasn't surprised when Bond shrugged it off.

He and Bond were staring each other down as the bid neared one billion credits. [i]What interest does the GA have in this?[/i] Luke intended to question this Bond character after the bid had ended. [i]But if Bond is a government agent, he'd know about our money cap. I can't possibly win this.[/i]

"One BI-LLION credits! One billion credits…Luke Skywalker! Ok…uh, One and a half billion credits…one and a half billion credits…one and a half billion credits…going once…going twice…SOLD to Luke Skywalker for one billion credits! Congratulations boys, you've just made tomorrow's headlines."

Luke didn't know why Bond had given up, but he wasn't about to complain. After receiving the saber in a box from a very happy seller, Luke dashed to where Bond had been, hoping to have a word with him. But he was too late, Bond having blended into the endless traffic of Coruscant.

Han was waiting for Luke as he returned.

"He's gone." Luke said.

Han frowned. "Those intelligence dudes have a knack for disappearing on a whim. They're almost impossible to track, even for you."

"Well, boys and girls," The auctioneer said, his voice somewhat strained. "That took a little longer than we expected…uh, but we still have plenty of other items to sell! Next up is a pair of new Delta X manufactured freighter sized repulsorlifts and ion thrusters! One hundred billion pounds thrust…"

Luke yawned, and leaned over to Han Solo, who was clearly interested in the new equipment. "I think I'm going home. If you see anything that I might like, bid for me, ok? I'll pay you back."

"Sure thing. Don't forget your prize."

Luke knew he wouldn't, not for any time soon. He knew that Bond and his colleagues would pay him a visit soon. Luke really did need to sleep. Messing around with the government was fun, but tiring.