A couple hours later Luke woke up, got a shower, changed into some clean clothes, got something to eat, and then he joined his father in the training room where the first order of business was to familiarize himself with the droids.

"It's unbelievable," Luke said as he ran his hands over one of the droids, feeling the textured durasteel that had replicated the build and shape and details of the alien creature exactly. "You had these made?"

"Yes, with specific orders they were to be as true to form as possible, with a few small exceptions."

Luke took a sip from a carbonated antiemetic and turned the droid over to examine the underside.

"So this is what was smothering me," he said in awe.

Luke felt something depress under his finger and he about fell on the floor with a shocked yelp as he saw a long tube come out of the bottom.

Darth Vader took the droid from Luke and explained, "I wanted it as anatomically correct as possible so you would learn how to defend yourself from another attack."

"That thing would actually shove itself down my throat?"

"A few inches, yes," Vader answered, "but it's completely harmless, no different than a medical scope."

Luke clutched his neck and swallowed hard, the breaths he took in were ragged gasps.

"Luke, calm down."

"You didn't tell me that part," Luke said.

"That's why I'm showing them to you now," Vader told him. "I want you to be fully prepared."

"And what happens if this thing actually latches onto me and shoves that thing down my throat?" Luke asked.

"These are purely mechanical, Luke, there are no drugs, no chemicals, no acid, nothing that can actually harm you."

"No, just scare me to death," the boy replied defiantly.

"It won't come to that," his father responded. "If it does attach itself to your face, it can be removed, dismantled, they're not made with the same level of strength the real ones possess."

Luke was still breathing heavily as he processed this and turned the droid over to get another look at what he'd be going up against.

"And..." he ran one hand down the long tail, "this...it...does it work too?"

"It was designed to coil, but it lacks the strength to be lethal," Vader answered.

Luke closed his eyes and raked his hands down the skin of his face before he heaved in an uneasy breath and asked his father, "Why do I get the feeling you want me to actually try one of these things on for size?"

Instead of answering directly, Vader only said, "If you did, you would know exactly what you're dealing with, fear of the unknown can be far more paralyzing than knowledge of the truth."

Those weren't the exact words he was expecting, but Luke was afraid his father would say something to the effect of that.

A strong hand clasped on his shoulder drew him out of his thoughts.

"Luke," Vader said, "I am right here, if anything goes wrong I will remove it myself, you have nothing to worry about."

"Are you sure?" he asked.

"I promise."

Luke knew his father well enough to know he didn't make them lightly. If he said Luke had nothing to worry about...Luke had to believe his father.

"I can't believe I'm agreeing to do this," he squeezed his eyes shut and wished when he opened them all of this would disappear.

Something else occurred to Luke then.

"You said you know these things are harmless?"

"Yes, Luke."

"Because they were tested?"

"Yes, Luke."

"And the techs they were tested on?"

"All alive and unharmed," Vader assured him.

Luke knew that was supposed to make him feel better, and he guessed to some degree it did, but not for the most part. He was still worried something was going to go wrong and it would be just like the real thing.

Still, he pushed himself to swallow the lump in his throat and tell his father, "Okay...alright...let's get this over with."

Luke felt his legs squeeze together as his body attempted to make itself into an even tighter ball on the floor than it already was as he continued to heave and retch.

"I'm sorry," he let out in a wheezing gasp as he felt his whole body wrack again. "I'm sorry..."

He felt a familiar, strong hand rubbing his back and heard his father's modulated voice booming over him, "It's all right, Luke, it's all right, just calm down and slow your breathing."

He tried, it felt like he tried forever to calm down. His whole body simultaneously felt rigid and trembling, hot and freezing cold.

Finally, after he had no idea how long, he felt his breathing slow down, he stopped gasping and heaving for air, and he felt like he could collapse on the floor in a boneless heap.

"I'm sorry," he weakly repeated, eyes burning with hot tears that had been physically, forcibly wrenched loose.

He felt his father's hands on him, grabbing him, pulling him up to sit on the floor.

"It's all right, child," Vader told him as he pulled Luke against him and held his son close, "this was the worst of it. Now you know what to expect."

"And that's supposed to make me feel better?" Luke weakly asked.

"I realize it doesn't feel that way now, but it will make it easier next time."

"Next time?" Luke repeated in disbelief.

"I know it's overwhelming right now, but you have time, Luke, you have plenty of time," his father told him. "You will get this. I know you will."

Just thinking about that was enough to make Luke push away from his father and collapse on his knees as he threw up again.

When it was finally over, Luke rolled onto his back and curled his body in a tight ball, tears wrenched out of him again, his voice weak, "I'm sorry...I'm sorry..."

He felt the softness of the leather glove and the hard metal of his father's prosthetic hand pat his knee and heard his father's modulated voice tell him, "It's all right, Luke, the cleaning droids will take care of it."

He felt the gloved hands grab him around the ribs and felt himself being pulled up into a half-sitting position and felt his body cradled against his father's life support suit. He closed his eyes and rested the side of his face against the armor and waited for his breathing to return to normal.

"No!" Luke screamed at his father, "I'm not doing it! I won't, you can't make me!"

Even as the words left his mouth he knew the truth was his father actually could. He'd seen his father in action many times using an old Jedi trick to make people do exactly what he wanted them to do, not only that, they actually repeated the very words he said to them while they did it. It had never occurred to him that his father could or would be able, let alone capable, of doing the same thing to him, but he supposed his father could, and if he could, he'd have to, because that's the only way Luke was ever going to go along with this plan.

Luke knew his father and his abilities well enough to know it was actually a good thing his father could be calm and enduring, but in this moment the man in black standing a few feet from him, not saying anything, not doing anything, merely waiting for Luke's tirade to end, was unnerving. It wasn't often he wished he had a 'normal' father but right now he'd take one who yelled right back at him and he could see the expression in his father's face, his eyes, so he could at least get a reading on the other man's mind instead of this insane waiting game.

Instead, Vader waited until he was sure Luke was finished, and calmly responded through his vocoder, "I know this isn't what you want, Luke, but you must do it."

"Why?" Luke threw back at his father. "Why do I have to do this? You said you wanted me to be able to protect myself from those things, and I did that. I finished my training, and now you want to make it worse!"

"Luke," through the Force the boy could tell that his father was struggling to maintain his disposition, "these things are capable of inhuman speed and agility-"

"I know that!" Luke screamed at his father. "I already proved I can handle them!"

"I know you did," Vader told him, "and you did very well-"

"NO!" Luke shook his head. "I won't do it!" A noisy exhale left his body and half of his strength seemed to go with it, his legs suddenly felt like boneless jelly and he found himself sinking to the floor as he added shakily, "I won't I won't I won't I can't!" his whole body was starting to shake as he sat down and he begged his father, "Please don't make me do this!"

Vader took two steps over towards his son and knelt down on one prosthetic knee and addressed his son who was about to start hyperventilating, "Luke, look at me, slow your breathing, calm yourself, breathe deep, deep, calm down."

"I can't do this, Father," Luke insisted as he struggled to stretch out his breaths. "Having that thing on my face," he pointed to one of the droids, "was the second worst experience of my life..." second of course only to the real thing, "and now you want me to do it blindfolded? I won't see them coming!"

"That is precisely the point, young one," Vader told him. "You have to learn to feel their presence through the Force."

"I can't!" Luke insisted. "I can't, I can't, I can't..."

"Yes you can," Vader assured him, "should the day ever come you encounter another one of those aliens, you will be able to read their presence in the Force far stronger than a droid, but you must learn how to sense their presence without the benefit of sight."

"WHY!?" Luke screamed in despair. "Why do I have to do this?"

"Luke...whatever those things are, wherever they come from, now that we know they exist, we know there has to be more of them out in the galaxy, and you may very well encounter them again when you return to the academy. I have to know that you are fully prepared to defend yourself should you ever cross paths with them again...even under zero visibility conditions in a distressed ship or at night on a moonless planet."

Luke pursed his lips together as he continued making involuntary sounds of distress, but it quickly gave way to a slow sensation of anger as he looked at his father's tinted lenses and asked in an accusatory tone, "That's it, isn't it? That's the caveat, that I can't go back to the academy until I do this? You're threatening me to do this?"

"I'm not willing to send you out there unprepared," his father explained as gently as he could through his voice modulator. "I've always known the galaxy was a dangerous place, but discovering those creatures...I realize it's even more dangerous than I ever thought it could be. If anything happened to you, Luke..."

The rest didn't have to be said. Luke felt his eyes sting and a flush of heat in his face as a wave of guilt washed over him.

"But what if I can't do it?" he asked. "What if no matter how hard I try, I can't?"

He felt the gloved hands cup the sides of his face and saw those red unblinking lenses staring at him until they could bore a hole in him.

"You are a Skywalker, Luke, you can do anything you put your mind to."

Luke exhaled through his mouth, it was starting to feel hard to breathe already.

"But what if it's not enough? What if I can't get it?"

"You will, I know you can," his father told him.

Luke swallowed hard and closed his eyes like he was bracing himself to jump off a ledge.

"Okay...okay..." he opened his eyes, "I'll try."