Ben was still sitting in quiet contemplation and grief in the passenger cabin of Captain Ford's ship before it finally emerged from hyperspace. Ford himself entered the cabin and proclaimed, as if to a large audience, "All passengers, this is your captain speaking. We have finally arrived to our destination. Please buckle up and prepare for descent for the moon of Sojourn." When the captain noticed that Ben didn't respond, and noted from the data that was being implanted into his complex droid brain that the young Jedi was in a state of misery, he asked in a more personal tone, "What's wrong, Ben?"
"My aunt... my uncle... my cousin..." Ben trailed off for a few seconds before continuing with a choked sob. "They're all dead." Fresh tears began stinging his eyes.
"You have felt their deaths through the Force?" Ford asked.
Ben looked up to the droid captain and nodded. "Uh-huh."
"I see," Ford responded. "How long ago was this?"
"About half an hour ago, or an eternity, I think," Ben said. "I don't know. It feels that way anyway."
Normally, an organic sentient captain would be more understanding and compassionate over one's loss of friends and/or relatives. But if Ford was such a being, he would have simply rolled his eyes in annoyance of how beings such as humans could wallow in their sadness so much and let it cloud their judgment like this. Even his old Muun master, who was almost seventy-seven years dead by now, was a lot more practical and pragmatic in dealing with his emotions, especially when his sanctuary on Sojourn was destroyed by a nuclear blast thanks to the final king of Naboo, Ars Veruna.
Still, Ford had to admire that Ben had been so cooperative; normally, when it comes to humans, they wouldn't even be so responsive when they were mourning the loss of loved ones. Perhaps it had been Ben's time as a soldier during the Second Galactic Civil War and the recent crisis with the Lost Tribe of the Sith that had hardened him to the point of making him more tolerable for Ford to handle.
In all of his years as a free droid-ever since the fall of the Empire at the Battle of Endor, decades before the Klatooine slave riots allowed for droids such as Five-U to even masturbate-emotions still tended to elude him, and spending time with Five-U and their other associate, who was still on Sojourn, didn't help matters at all. Ford always liked to think of himself as a droid who was more Muunoid than humanoid, like his master, Magister Hego Damask, the only master he could ever claim to have even an iota of care for. He never did like that psychopathic, emotionally-driven Sith apprentice of his.
Hence, that was why Ford's next question for the grief-stricken Ben was, "Where is Five-U?"
"In the refresher," Ben answered.
"Let me guess," Ford said, still holding no sympathy for the young Jedi's current plight. "Before or since you felt your relatives' deaths in the Force?"
"He left me alone after I told him," Ben answered. "Haven't seen him since."
"Of course," Ford replied in a tone that could be called irritated as he walked to the back of the passenger cabin, where the refresher was located. He then knocked on the door. "We're here, and I don't care if you're done yet, I need you at the cockpit right now. And don't make any jokes about the word 'cockpit' in your current circumstance, okay?"
A human-like sigh was heard from the other end of the door. "Yes, captain. I'll meet you at the bridge soon."
"Oh, no, I'm staying out here until you come out, you got it?" Ford said.
This time, an irritated groan sounded from Five-U. "All right." Then the door opened and Five-U came out, closing the door behind him and walking alongside Ford as they approached the ship's cockpit. "I hope you don't mind the pornozines in the refresher, Ben," he said to the human as he walked past.
Ben still didn't respond as he hung his head in his continued misery.
Several minutes later, the ship landed and Ford and Five-U shut off the engines. They then walked back to the passenger cabin for Ben. "So, are you coming with us, Ben, or do you need further time to grieve?" Ford asked in a more understanding tone; he comprehended that even someone as emotionally hardened as Ben could prove as an liability untoward them if he weren't given time to himself.
Ben looked up to the droids. "No, I'll come."
"Good," Ford said as he and Five-U walked past the Jedi, who stood up and joined them to exit the ship.
A minute later, after Ben stepped off the landing ramp, he stopped and looked out upon a desolate landscape before him, as if the barren environment that his eyes showed him reflected the grief that he felt for Han, Leia, and Jaina.
"Well, come on, what are you standing there for?" Ford asked after he and Five-U stopped in their tracks and turned to him.
"What is this place?" Ben asked as he obeyed Ford and joined him and Five-U.
"As I said, this is the moon of Sojourn," Ford explained without turning back to Ben. "Obviously, though, you maybe wondering why it's so desolate, and why I'd bring you here. Well, it's because the entire moon suffered an orbital nuclear attack barely eighty years ago."
"Nuclear?" Ben asked. "Didn't think anyone would be so old-fashioned to use that even in such ancient times." His tone was wry and devoid of the grief that Ford knew he still felt.
"Feeling fine already?" Five-U asked Ben, as if in response to Ford's thoughts.
"It's my way of dealing with grief," Ben said, his tone more solemn. "I learned to get used to it after I lost several of my friends, and my mother."
Ford's opinion of his master's descendent was just slightly higher now.
"So where are we going?" Ben asked.
"Here," Ford pointed out as they began to approach a decrepit-looking building.
"You gonna tell me what it is, Captain Ford?" Ben asked, still approaching the building.
"A refuge for my master and your ancestor, Ben," Ford answered. "That was before it was nuked from orbit."
"Who'd wanna nuke a refuge for an ancestor of mine, and why?" Ben asked.
"Someone who was a political and financial rival of his and his apprentice," Ford said. "All your questions will be answered once we enter your ancestor's library."