"I don't like you either!" Evazan said, getting into Luke's face to make his point. "You just watch yourself. We're wanted men! I have the death sentence on twelve systems."

"I'll be careful," Luke promised, as he turned back to his drink.

"You'll be dead!" Evazan replied, grabbing Luke's shoulder to spin him around again.

"This little one's not worth the effort," Obi-Wan chided, with a genial smile. "How about I get you something?"

Evazan made a keening noise of frustrated rage, and this time when he grabbed for Luke's shoulder he yanked the young man bodily backwards. Luke staggered back, then fell, and knocked over a table with a clatter.

Every eye in the cantina turned towards the confrontation, and Wuher dove behind his bar with a panicked shout. "No blasters, no blasters!"

Obi-Wan's lightsaber flashed out as Ponda Baba drew his blaster, and a moment later the aqualish was missing both the blaster and an arm.

For at least five seconds, there was complete stillness in the room.

"...Master Kenobi?" one of the duros asked, in a brittle voice. "You survived?"

He glanced around the bar, nervous. "I thought I was the only one-"

"I thought I was the only one!"

The speaker that time was one of the Modal Nodes, and all six of his bith bandmates looked at him.

"You can't mean you're a Jedi?" Figrin D'an asked.

"You're a Jedi as well?" three of the other Modal Nodes said, before glancing at one another.

Luke raised his arm, hesitantly, then the duros jedi pulled him upright.

"Thanks," he said. "But, I mean… how many people in here are Jedi?"

Forty-six lightsabers came out.

"In the name of the Krayt, why?" Luke asked. "Why are you all in hiding here?"

"I thought it was the most out of the way place in the galaxy," Kardue'sai'Malloc volunteered.

That was hard to argue with, as far as Luke was concerned.

"I came here because I heard a rumour that Darth Vader hated sand," Hem Dazon said.

Fourteen other people said out loud that they'd heard that too, and another ten nodded along with it.

"We're touring?" one of the bith musicians asked. "Shavit, that's a coincidence."

"Who else picked it off a list when they tried to go into hiding?" Momaw Nadon asked, getting several more raised hands or similar manipulators.

"Why are you here, though, Master Kenobi?" Lak Sivrak asked.

"For the same reason as all of you, I think," Obi-Wan answered, deactivating his lightsaber, because Evazan and Ponda had run away while he was distracted. "To hide, from the reaches of the Empire. This is the one place that Darth Vader would never come."

"...who's the kid?" the duros Jedi asked.

"My name's Luke Skywalker," Luke said.

"...was your father Anakin Skywalker?" BoShek asked. "Damn, kid."

He paused. "Wait. How come Master Kenobi needs passage somewhere, anyway? He was almost able to keep up with Anakin, and Anakin was the best pilot the galaxy's ever produced, by my money."

"I dislike flying and I don't currently own a starship," Obi-Wan replied. "I believe you were introducing me to someone who might be able to arrange one?"

He looked around at the bar. "I may need to ask him how many passengers he can handle."

"Well?" Stormtrooper Sergeant RF-345 asked.

"No sign of anything in the south sector," one of his troopers replied. "I'm tagging the doors that don't open for a later check."

"Good," RF-345 assessed. "Second company is moving to secure the docking bays. Watch out for anyone trying to move ahead of the cordon – stay alert for any surprises."

Then a tidal wave of Jedi came pouring out of Chalmun's Cantina, waving lightsabers and stampeding in the direction of Docking Bay Ninety-Four, accompanied by a wookie, a kid and a very surprised scoundrel and pausing long enough to pick up a pair of droids from one of the nearby houses.

RF-345 and his squad kept looking in that direction for at least ten full seconds after the stampede had vanished.

"...like that, sir?" trooper AK-707 asked, in a fragile voice.

"Like that, yes," RF-345 agreed, then blinked a few times. "At least, assuming it was real, and not a hallucination."

"It might have been a hallucination," trooper ED-321 conceded. "We have been out in the sun all day."

AN:

If I was one of those troopers I wouldn't want to get involved either.