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Star Wars : A Life of Their Own
Chapter Eight

* * *

Leia leaned back against the wall of the air duct, waiting for Luke to return. He had gone to scout the ducts ahead, leaving Leia in the widened area of the duct. Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan were stretched out beside her. Qui-Gon was awake and seemed more alert than before but Leia didn't dare speak to him.

They must be fairly close to the corridor because every few minutes she could hear the sounds of guards talking as they made their rounds. Apart from that, there was a silence in which every movement could be heard as loud as an ion cannon.

She wasn't sure how long it had been since she had last eaten. It seemed an age ago to her weary body but there was still a mission of sabotage to complete. It had been a rescue mission, of course, but Leia had already been rescued. Now they needed to disable Natheb's Force machine so the New Republic squadron could attack and disable Natheb’s base on the Ekash homeworld.

Qui-Gon shifted his body slightly, the sudden rustling startling Leia. She crawled towards him concerned but he waved her away. He struggled to sit upright but had to bend over awkwardly because of his height. Leia moved to help him and this time he smiled gratefully. He made as if to say something but she shook her head in warning and laid a finger across her lips.

Almost as if to prove the point, they began to hear the murmur of guards passing beneath them. Qui-Gon's soft eyes flashed with understanding. So they sat opposite each other in silence, waiting for Luke to return.

It was the first time Leia had been alone with the stern old Jedi Master. He was a very large man with long hair that was just beginning to go grey. He returned her regard comfortably, making her wonder what he would think of her. Did he see the battle-hardened rebel who had lost too many friends and relatives or did he see the pampered politician and diplomat who held fast to bureaucracy in a world of uncertainty and violence?

Obi-Wan's eyes fluttered open, catching Qui-Gon's attention. Qui-Gon leant over the groggy Obi-Wan, placing a finger over his lips to indicate silence. Obi-Wan gave a small nod in answer.

Qui-Gon laid a questioning hand on Obi-Wan's shoulder. Obi-Wan nodded as in response to some unknown question. Qui-Gon gently slid his arms around Obi-Wan's shoulders and lifted the younger man into a sitting position.

Obi-Wan smiled and rested bonelessly against the duct wall, his eyes closing and his braid falling across his face. Qui-Gon tenderly tucked the braid back into its place. Leia had to smile at the affection between them.

Qui-Gon was more than an experienced Jedi Master - he was practically a father. Leia knew better than anybody that sometimes a friend could be more of a father to a child than the man who officially bore the title. The role was more voluntary perhaps but once it was assumed, it was never fully surrendered.

Satisfied that his apprentice was well, Qui-Gon sat back against the wall once more. He returned his gaze to Leia, the tenderness hidden once more but now Leia knew what to look for. Now she could look past the seriousness of his expression to see the softness in his eyes. Would time teach him to see more of her? To see the joy of a sister who cherished her brother, the contentment of a mother who adored her children and the passion of a woman who was still very much in love with her roguish husband? Leia hoped he would.

She had to admit that she selfishly wished that the Jedi would be stranded in her time for a bit longer, just so she could get to know them better.

The murmur of guards returned and Qui-Gon straightened slightly, listening intently. Obi-Wan's eyes shot open and he looked to Qui-Gon. Qui-Gon placed his finger across his lips again. Following his Master's lead, Obi-Wan remained perfectly still.

Leia hadn't known that Jedi could be that still and unmoving. She began to worry that maybe the two Jedi had stopped breathing but then the murmur of the guards faded. Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan relaxed again and Leia let out the breath she hadn't realized she was holding.

Qui-Gon smiled reassuringly at Leia. It was the middle of a battle zone and Leia was exchanging smiles with a Jedi Master who had died before she was born. It seemed that when in the presence of Jedi, she overflowed with sentimentality - perhaps there was more of her mother in her than she thought.

There came the echo of someone moving down the air duct towards them. Leia turned to watch the end of the air duct. She noticed Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan's hands instinctively moving towards the lightsabres that had been taken from them. All three of them were unarmed against any enemy who might be coming.

At the same time that Leia spotted a figure crawling down the air duct, she heard the murmur of the guards returning. The guards below would easily hear the noise the figure was making, whether it was friend or foe.
"Luke?" whispered Leia.

The figure kept moving as if he hadn't heard. Leia called again, slightly louder. This time the figure paused and waved in greeting. It was Luke but he still didn't know about the guards. He began moving towards her again. Leia crawled towards him, shaking her head and pressing a finger to her lips.

At last Luke seemed to get the message and froze. Turning around, Leia saw that Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan had stilled for the second time. All they could do was hope they had stopped the noise in time.

The murmur of the guards grew louder and then stopped directly beneath them. This time Leia did stop breathing. The murmur began again and the unseen guards continued down the corridor. Leia sighed again and smiled at Luke. Luke shrugged apologetically and crawled to Leia's side.

Leaning towards her ear, he whispered, "I've found a way out of the ducts."
"Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan are awake," Leia whispered back.
"Good. That will make things much easier. Let's go. Quietly."

Leia crawled back to Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan was sitting up without the support of the wall now and Leia hoped he could move on his own. Leia signalled for them to follow. Once she was sure they were moving, she led the way down the duct towards Luke.

Luke's head was tilted to the side as he listened with Force enhanced senses for the return of the guards. Leia reached Luke's side and turned around to wait for the other two.

Qui-Gon was halfway along the duct, with Obi-Wan in tow, when Luke signalled for silence. The murmur of the guards faded in and out like clockwork. At Luke's wave, Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan began moving again. Obi-Wan's braid fell across his face and he stopped for a moment to tuck it back in place.

Then he began moving again to catch up to Qui-Gon. Qui-Gon reached Leia and turned to wait for his Padawan. Obi-Wan was still only halfway across due to the delay. At a frantic signal from Luke, Obi-Wan froze.

The murmur of the guards came down the corridor from the opposite direction. The noise grew louder until they were directly beneath Leia and the Jedi. Then the voices stopped. There was no sound for a minute.

Then the duct floor on which Obi-Wan was crouching was peppered with blaster bolts. They burst through the thin metal, sending shrapnel into the air. Obi-Wan slid backwards down the duct, away from the deadly fire. Leia could feel Qui-Gon tense beside her.

Behind her, she heard Luke shifting. Then there was the hiss of a lightsabre igniting and Luke's lightsabre flashed in the confined space. He cut the duct floor out from under himself and disappeared from sight.

As the blaster fire aimed at Obi-Wan stopped abruptly, Qui-Gon thrust himself down the duct to help his apprentice. Left alone, Leia peered down the hole to see Luke madly swinging his lightsabre into the half-dozen guards in the corridor below. A loose blaster bolt burst through the hole she was looking through. Only Leia's relexes saved her.

Now Leia could only hear the fight and see the bodies of two guards that had already fallen. An abandoned blaster slid across the corridor into Leia's sight. Leia was reminded that she was a soldier and her brother needed her.

Taking a deep breath, she threw herself through the hole. The drop was longer than she had estimated and she landed further from the blaster than she expected.

Fortunately the guards were preoccupied with Luke. Leia rolled, scooping up the blaster and ending in a crouch. Now she could see the fight clearly. Georeb and three guards were firing at Luke. Luke pivoted on his left foot, swinging low with his lightsabre. He deflected two blaster bolts aside and brought his lightsabre up across one of the guard's weapons, sheering off the end.

The unarmed guard turned and fled down the corridor. On Luke's backswing, he swung flatly deflecting three bolts. One of the bolts deflected back into another guard. Now only Georeb and one guard remained.

They split up, coming at Luke from both sides. Luke charged towards the anonymous guard, swinging his lightsabre in a high arch. Leia fired at Georeb as he aimed at Luke's back.

With a shout of pain, Georeb fell backwards onto the floor of the corridor. He looked directly at Leia, his gaze accusing. It was Leia's turn to feel remorse. Georeb's eyes rolled up and his head fell back limply. Another good man dying for what he believed was a good cause.

Leia swallowed, disgusted with herself. Her grip tightened around her blaster. Her wedding band dug painfully into her finger. She held her hand out to look at the ring. As she gazed at it, thinking of her husband, Luke appeared at her side.

Luke was watching her with concern. To Luke, Georeb had been nothing more than one of countless minions, someone to be killed.
"Thank you, Leia," said Luke. "I'd forgotten about the guard behind me.”
Leia doubted that he had but she accepted the gratitude anyway.
"You better thank me again," she told him, pushing down depressing thoughts.

Luke frowned then raised his eyebrows questioningly. Leia smiled and pointed at Georeb's body.
"That," she said. "Is the Ekash who escorted me to my cell. He is also the guard who took the lightsabres of Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan."
Luke smiled widely, "We now have three lightsabres?"
"Three Jedi and an experienced rebel," Leia corrected him. "What more do we need?"

* * * * *

Emalda sat at the Fahren's controls, watching the New Republic squadron with wide eyes. She hadn't seen X-wings before. Ben came up to sit beside her. She turned to smile at him, awkwardly. 'Hell-bent-on-revenge' she could do but nice? It seemed a lifetime ago that Emalda had tried to be nice to anybody. It truly was a lifetime ago, Yulana's lifetime. Ben smiled back pleasantly and looked out at the squadron.
"Natheb will be stopped. You do know that, don't you?" he said quietly.
"Natheb's got more tricks up his sleeve than you know," Emalda scowled.

Here Emalda was at least trying to think about the future but people had to keep bringing up the present.
"Why don't you just attack and get it over with?" she asked harshly.
Ben blinked in surprise but then answered as if she hadn't heard her bitter anger.
"Natheb is using a machine to trick the pilots into not seeing their target. Until we disable the illusion, the Fleet can't move," Ben said patiently. "We have to hope that the three Jedi still on the planet can find the machine."

Ashamed of her outburst, Emalda felt compelled to offer advice, "It's not the machine they need to find. They just need to cut off the signal."
"How do they do that?"
"I don't know what they want to do but I would just take out the satellite dish."
"Would you now?"

Emalda wavered under Ben's seeking gaze, "That's what Yulana would have done."
"Yulana?"
"My sister,” said Emalda. “The scientist who built the machine was our mother. She must have realized what Natheb was like because she fled the planet. She tried to convince us to go with her but we refused. Natheb was the only one who would give us work and our people are very afraid of the rest of the galaxy. After she left, Yulana became convinced that our mother was right. She told me she was going to flee too but Natheb must have caught her... she had an accident."
"I'm very sorry."

Emalda felt the tears brimming in her eyes and turned to the starscape outside.
"Yulana loved spacevessels. She built the Fahren herself. She would have loved to see this squadron," Emalda admitted, the words tumbling out. "She would have loved to have met Anakin, too. Piloting was just in her blood. It's what she always wanted to be."
"And what about you?" asked Ben. "What did you want to be?"

At the change of conversation Emalda smirked, "You'd never guess."
"Mechanic?"
"No."
"Mercenary?"
"No."
"Demolition worker?"
"No."
"All right then," said Ben. "I give up. What did you want to be?"

Emalda pursed her lips, wondering if he would laugh at her. His gaze remained steady and pleasant. He wanted to know and for some reason, she wanted to tell.
"I always wanted to be a dancer."
For a moment Ben was speechless in surprise. Emalda couldn't conceal her smile of triumph. She, a mere mortal, had managed to shock her invincible saviour.

Then Ben broke into a smile too and they began to laugh together. Ben was shaking his head in disbelief, his blue eyes shining with mirth.
"By the Force, I would never have guessed that," he admitted.
"You'll have to see me dance some time."
"Very well, then. I will."
"Promise?"
"I promise."

Still chuckling, they both turned back to the starscape. Emalda felt relieved, as if some of the weight had been lifted from her shoulders. Both Emalda and Yulana's beautiful ship had embarked on their maiden voyages. While the spirit of Yulana would always be with the Fahren, Emalda had a promise. It wasn't much but it was a future and one that Emalda could look forward to.

* * * * *

Obi-Wan landed heavily on the corridor floor. Qui-Gon reached out to steady him. Obi-Wan straightened, wincing in pain. Now that he was standing upright, Leia could see how lucky the young man was to have survived the ambush.

His clothes were singed where blaster bolts had grazed past him. Fast reflexes had ensured he had suffered nothing more than a few minor burns and cuts.
"It's a good thing you Jedi wear so many layers of clothing," Leia told him thoughtfully.
Obi-Wan nodded ruefully in agreement, "It's nothing serious."
"We've got something to cheer you up," said Luke, coming to stand beside Leia.

He held out the two lightsabres that he had recovered. Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan took them gratefully, more at ease now they could defend themselves.
"Now we have a machine to sabotage," said Leia.
The others followed her down the corridor, towards the room in which the machine was kept. They hadn't gone far when Luke's commlink beeped. Leia and the others kept an eye out for guards while he talked, Leia listening in to the conversation.

"Luke here," he answered.
"It's Ben," came the answer. "I've been told that you should try and take out a satellite dish."
"What about the machine?" frowned Luke.

"Worry about it later. The satellite dish is apparently easier to get to and the machine is practically useless without it."
"Where is this satellite dish?"
"It's apparently hidden in the rooftop garden of the building you're in. It's camouflaged and impossible to see from the air. On the ground it should be easy."
"We'll do what we can. Luke out."

Luke turned to the others, "There's been a change of plans."
"Let's discuss this elsewhere," said Qui-Gon tersely. "Guards are coming this way."

Luke and Leia led the way down the corridors, Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan watching behind them for pursuit. The design of the tunnels began to change as they moved through different sections, always just one step ahead of an oblivious patrol.

They were watching for stairs or elevators but as they had moved into the older parts of the building, there were none to be seen. The group moved past the sleeping quarters and then the showers. Just after they passed the kitchens, they came to a bricked dead end.
"That was unsuccessful," grumbled Leia.
"A problem easily fixed," said Qui-Gon. "We'll backtrack a couple of metres and go another way."

They turned about and headed back. As they passed the kitchens, Obi-Wan's stomach growled. Leia smiled as Obi-Wan muttered an apology. Then Obi-Wan froze, his eyes widening.
"Wait a minute. The kitchen..." he said.
He jogged away from the group into the kitchens.
"Obi-Wan," Qui-Gon called but Obi-Wan didn't answer.

The others followed to find Obi-Wan standing triumphantly in the middle of the kitchen. The kitchens were large and sterile. There was a huge table in the centre, utensils hanging from the ceiling and a large stove and chimney in the far wall. Obi-Wan was plainly pleased with himself but trying and failing to remain dignified.

"We don't have time to stop," said Luke cautiously. "We've got to get to that roof."
"The chimney," said Obi-Wan cheerfully.
Leia looked at the large old chimney over the stove that disappeared into the ceiling. More than a metre wide, it was designed to feed an army. Then the answer clicked and she grinned at Obi-Wan.

"Now that's a good idea," said Leia. "If we need to go up, why don't we take the chimney?"
Qui-Gon and Luke looked to the chimney in surprise.
"Good thinking Padawan," nodded Qui-Gon.

Finally, Luke smiled too. This time Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan led the way, finding handholds in the brickwork. The chimney was darker and dirtier than the ducts but there was more room to move and fresh air blowing on their faces. Leia came after them, followed by Luke.

Without the aid of Jedi training, Leia found the climb harder than the others. Where the others wore combat boots, she was wearing sandals. The sandals didn't last long, the straps fraying and snapping.

Luke caught one before it fell and tucked it away but the other was missed. Leia watched it as it fell from sight, dimly hearing the noise as it hit the stove far below. It was easier to climb with her toes but the bricks were rough against the skin of her feet.

Above her, Qui-Gon sneezed. It sent down an explosion of ashes and soot on top of the other three. Obi-Wan coughed and spluttered while Leia gagged at the awful taste. Below them, Luke grimaced.
"Sorry," Qui-Gon whispered.
"It's fine," Luke whispered back. "Just keep moving."

They continued, arms and legs aching and burning. Finally, when Leia looked up, Qui-Gon had disappeared. Her first thought was to wonder how Qui-Gon had fallen past without her noticing. Then she saw Qui-Gon's arm reaching out to Obi-Wan.

The top of the chimney ended in a bend and no light could be seen. Obi-Wan took the helping hand and disappeared. Leia moved up next and blindly took Qui-Gon's hand.

Grunting, she pulled herself out of the vent into the fresh air. A beautiful night sky greeted her and the rooftop was cool against her abused feet. Obi-Wan lay on his back, panting. Leia heartily agreed with that sentiment.

From what Leia could see, the rooftop was huge. It was not so much a building as a complex. Most of it was made of synthetic materials but down the far end was a collection of trees. She pointed it out to Luke when he joined her. Qui-Gon pulled Obi-Wan to his feet and they set off again.

* * * * *

Anakin watched his mother laughing. She was dancing with a bearded man on the desert sands of Tatooine. Anakin sat nearby, humming a tune for them to dance to. His mother looked older than Anakin remembered her but then he hadn't seen her for ten years. His mother was gazing deeply into the eyes of the man, her arms around him tightly.

"Shmi?" said the man, his accent stong. "I want you to be my wife."
"Cliegg," gasped Anakin's mother. "I would love to be your wife."
They smiled at each other and continued to dance.

Suddenly she noticed her son's presence, "Anakin, what are you doing here?"
"I've come to see you, Mom. I missed you."
"Honey, I missed you too. You've grown up so handsome. I'm so proud of you."
The man tightened his arms around her, "He is handsome. He'll be a heartbreaker some day."

She smiled warmly at the man and then turned back to Anakin.
"Honey, run along now. You have people to save, adventures to have. You don't have to worry about me; I'll be all right. I'll be here when you get back."
"But Mom..."
"No buts. Off you go. People are waiting for you, can't you hear them?"

In the distance Anakin could indeed hear voices. His mother and the man looked back at each other and they both began to hum and dance. With a last look at his mother, Anakin stood and walked off across the sand dunes.

As he walked further and the sound of their humming faded, the sound of voices became louder. He could hear Qui-Gon's patient voice, his Master's scolding tone and a third, much younger voice. Anakin wasn't quite sure who it was but it was somebody very important to him. It sounded so familiar.

He kept walking, though the sun was getting hot. The voices got louder, calling more insistently.
"I'm coming!" Anakin cried out.
The voices just kept calling and Anakin kept walking, although the sand was everywhere. It was in his hair, in his boots, in his clothes.

Just before Anakin collapsed from exhaustion, he recognised the other voice. It was Apprentice Obi-Wan, calling for Anakin to get a move on.

Anakin woke up to find himself still lying on the floor of the Fahren's cockpit. His Master's robe was tucked beneath his head and he could hear his Master's voice. Anakin lifted his head to see the Ekash woman sitting in the pilot's seat and Master Ben standing beside her. They were looking out at the starscape and the X-wing squadrons.

"Corrusant is where I grew up. Well, I grew up in a very secluded part," Ben was saying. "It was a while ago and many things have changed now."
"At least you've seen it before," sighed the Ekash woman. "I've never been even this far from home before."
"I'm sure you'll get there eventually," said Ben, laying his hand over hers.

She looked into his eyes and he returned the look for a moment before he turned away. Anakin could never remember his Master looking at a woman like that. Deciding he must be still dreaming, Anakin shut his eyes and drifted back to sleep.

THE END OF PART EIGHT

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