Revenge of the Jedi (12/17)
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Title: Revenge of the Jedi (12/17)
Fanverse: Revenge of the Jedi
Blurb: Leia reaches Dagobah, and is presented with still more conundrums.
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Chapter Twelve
Leia ordered the ship to remain in orbit, while she, Chewie, and Threepio boarded the shuttle and followed the second set of coordinates Luke had given them. He’d warned them about the swamp, so they were careful to maneuver past it, landing on the closest approximation of solid ground they could find. Chewie lowered the ramp and clattered down, sniffing the air.
Threepio and Leia followed, the droid prattling so rapidly that she’d have needed an interpreter to understand him, if she’d had any interest in listening. Instead, she looked around, trying to calm the anxiety that stabbed at her chest and throat and belly, even as she took in her surroundings. Her shoulder blades itched.
“What do you smell, Chewie?”
The Wookiee pointed ahead, through a tangle of vines.
“H-he says there are humanoids in that direction,” reported Threepio. Leia glanced from the droid to the narrow opening, then took out her vibroblade and sliced through them, leaving the way clear even for him.
They marched through, Leia keeping her blaster close at hand. Her instincts had never led her wrong, and they were screaming that this place was anything but safe. Then, with another chop of vines, Leia caught sight of a hut, so short and rough and sprawling that it seemed like it might have grown out of the swamp.
All three hurried towards the house, stopping only when the door slammed open and a young man ducked out -- a man in grey Rebel fatigues, with shaggy fair hair falling into his eyes.
“Luke!” Leia cried, and his face lit up.
“Hel --”
Chewbacca gave a loud roar and seized him in an enthusiastic hug, Luke’s feet flying off the ground and his hands patting the Wookiee’s massive shoulders.
“Nice to see you too,” he said as Chewie released him, teetering for a moment before he caught his balance. Then he turned back towards the others.
“Leia,” he said, pushing his hair out of his eyes and smiling with his usual tentative affection. They looked at one another for a moment, seized by awkwardness, and then Leia smiled back and ran forward, wrapping her arms around him.
Over the last few months, she’d always been glad to hear from him, even if only in odd fragments passing from his mind to hers. But it wasn’t the same as being right here, so close that his hair brushed her cheek as her chin dug into his shoulder, their hands flat against each other’s backs.
She released him and took a step backwards. She didn’t feel disconcerted or excited, like she had with Han, just safe, comfortable, happy.
Leia scowled at him.
“You haven’t been eating enough,” she said, and poked at his ribs.
Luke laughed. “Neither have you. The Rebellion working you to the bone again?”
“Not exactly,” she said, her frown deepening.
“Hello, Master Luke,” said Threepio. “I’m so relieved to see you’ve survived this terrible place!”
Leia jumped back as a small astrodroid barrelled out the door, past Luke, and rolled to a halt, his beeps and whirrs frenetic.
“Well, it’s very nice to see you too, Artoo -- no, I -- I have been of inestimable service to the princess, I’ll have you know!”
Chewie howled with laughter. Luke and Leia grinned.
“Well, come on in,” he said. “I think the hut is too short for Chewie and Threepio, but Yoda’s waiting to meet you. He probably won’t be able to stay awake very long.”
“I will stay right here, thank you,” said Threepio, and loftily ignored Artoo’s mocking beep. Chewie nodded his agreement, and went back to needling the droids.
Leia followed Luke inside, even her head nearly bumping the ceiling. They half-walked, half-crouched their way to a sort of kitchen, Luke gesturing for Leia to sit at the table. It was only then that she noticed the wrinkled green alien dozing in a chair, his tiny body swathed in blankets.
“Master Yoda,” Luke said loudly, and Leia stifled a burst of astonishment that this small being was a mighty Jedi Master. Then the alien opened enormous, intelligent green eyes, and blinked at her.
“Princess Leia you are,” he croaked, his voice thin and shrill.
“I am.” She gave a respectful nod of her head.
“Heard much of you I have,” said Yoda. “But did not expect to see you with these eyes. Not in life.” Then he looked at Luke and cackled. “Impertinent questions I should ask, yes?”
Luke blushed.
Leia thought she could feel her own cheeks warming, but she said steadily, “I’m happy to answer any question you have -- um, sir.”
Yoda chuckled again. “Questions later! Important matters, you have to discuss. Important nap, I have to finish. Run along for now.”
He closed his eyes, and promptly began to breathe loudly and noisily, then cracked open one eyelid.
“Still here you are.”
“Sorry,” Luke said, and led Leia past the strange old Jedi, through another door, and out into the dim green sunlight. The shadows of the overhanging trees and vines seemed a little less oppressive here, and she could see three or four clear, well-trodden paths. So this was where Luke walked. Leia smiled a little. Jedi or not, she knew him too well to think he wouldn’t have a place to waste hours pacing.
“Yoda’s very eccentric,” said Luke, “and very old.”
“I like him,” Leia said, rather amused. She jumped at a distant roar from Chewbacca, followed by an indistinct, but clearly shrill and petulant, monologue from Threepio, and pointed at the nearest path. “Is that safe?”
“More or less.” He glanced at her blaster. “It’s not dangerous for us, anyway.”
He set out immediately, and Leia ran to catch up, just as he shortened his stride. Glancing sideways at him, she had the uncomfortable feeling that he wasn’t as much -- himself -- as he seemed. At least, not the same person who’d stood beside her on the Redemption, watching a distant galaxy.
Chewie’s and Threepio’s voices faded into silence, and Luke glanced over at her. Leia dug her hands into the pockets of her jacket.
“So,” she said. “Important matters.”
He hesitated, then said, “Have you decided what to do about Carathis?”
“I’m going to hold a vote,” said Leia, and explained everything, from her forced uselessness, to Chewbacca’s revelation of the Wookiee colony and the clone planet, to their discovery of Imperial ships. She half-expected Luke to interrupt with indignant reassurances, as he would have once done, but instead he just listened quietly, nodding here and there.
“I’m leaving the choice up to all the Alderaanians -- all the ones I know of, I mean,” she said. “If they want to risk it, then I’m gladly lead them there. I’m not afraid for myself. But otherwise, I can’t endanger them like that, not if I can’t protect them. And I know I can’t. I’m not an army like Vader.” She looked at Luke, once more struck by the feeling that there was something new and different just under his skin, something that reminded her more of Vader, and now perhaps Yoda, than the Luke she remembered. “Like you.”
He stopped. “Well, um --”
Leia folded her arms, her brows drawing together. “You don’t have to be modest, Luke. I can tell that you have a power I -- I don’t understand, and could never have.”
“You’re wrong,” he said flatly.
“What?”
He winced, but forged ahead. “You have that power too, Leia. In time, you can learn to use it as I have.”
“But I -- ” Leia gave a small, incredulous laugh. “That’s impossible! What are you talking about?”
“The Force runs in families,” said Luke. “My grandmother had it, my parents had it, I have it. It’s the same with you.”
“But my parents weren’t Jedi! My father was viceroy of Alderaan, and my mother -- ”
“ -- was an Imperial Senator. I know. She didn’t realize she was Force-sensitive, of course, but -- well -- she was. That’s why her aim was so good,” he said, then looked thoughtful. “Probably her reflexes too, if I’m remembering right.”
“You can’t be remembering right,” Leia said desperately. “I hardly remember her myself. She died when I was very young.”
“I know,” he said again. “I saw her in a vision. Of my parents. It turns out they knew each other. Anyway, you inherited it from her. If you want to become a -- an army, there’s nothing stopping you.”
Leia wished she were sitting down. Instead, she stalked a few steps forward, then turned around, her fingers digging into her palm. “That’s why I could hear you? In my mind?”
“No, it’s -- ” Then he scowled. “Actually, yes, it probably does have something to do with that.”
“It’s . . . I don’t . . . Luke, I don’t know much about Jedi, but I know it’s not something you just try on for a few weeks to see if it fits. This is a commitment that would change my entire life.”
“Yes,” Luke agreed.
“And there’s so much I already need to do. Still, if I could become powerful enough to protect everyone -- but it’s not supposed to be about power, is it? I’m not exactly the spiritual type, Luke.”
“Before the Empire,” he said, hesitating so much she knew he was considering each word, “I think you’d have been right. Ideally, a Jedi should be calm, detached and passive, like Yoda and Obi-Wan. Completely dedicated to the Force. But it’s not possible to be like that, any more. I’m not; I mean, I try, but I’m more like you. I have other duties and other loyalties. I think -- ” He chewed on his lip. “I think the Jedi have to change if we’re going to survive at all. Obi-Wan once told me the Jedi were there to fight for truth and justice. That’s what you’d be expected to do.”
“I do that anyway,” said Leia. “What about the rest?”
He shrugged. “I don’t think it’s that important, really, as long as you don’t turn evil. But even if you aren’t willing to commit to the Jedi -- and really, I’ll understand if you’re not -- this power you have . . . it’s part of you. It’s yours. You have a right to do whatever you want with it.”
“I’m guessing that’s not Jedi-approved doctrine,” Leia said, but she was smiling.
Luke laughed. “Probably not. I don’t know -- there’s so much I don’t know, but I’d be the one teaching you, so we’d just have to fumble through.” He looked directly into her eyes. “It’s a gift, Leia, and I don’t think anyone has the right to take away a gift you were born with, or prevent you from learning how to use it, because you don’t live in perfect agreement with their beliefs.”
“You’d teach me to use this -- ” she gestured -- “gift, even if I didn’t agree to become a Jedi?”
Luke took a deep breath. “Yes.”
“But -- ?”
“Nothing.” His mouth twitched, a little wistfully. “I’d just -- rather you did.”
On impulse, she asked, “How do you know it’s real? The Force?”
He gave her a politely incredulous look.
“I mean, not just a tool, or a -- a gift. When I was in the Empire, we all saw what Vader could do, but nobody believed it was some infinite cosmic energy . . . thing. We just called it sorcery. So do you have -- faith, or . . .?”
“Well,” said Luke, “I can see it.”
Leia blinked.
“I can sense it, anyway. You will too, if you get trained.” He brought the sides of his hands together. “It runs between everything in the galaxy, binding each tree and rock and animal and planet and star and -- all of it, to every other one. And there’s so much of it with some of us, that we tap into it a little. If you’re not trained, it’s mostly uncontrolled and accidental, and you can’t really tell what’s happening.”
Her eyes narrowed. “I’m not controlling it now?”
“Well -- ”
She glared.
“No.” Luke dropped his hands. “It won’t harm you like this, you don’t need to worry about that. Just makes you faster, stronger, more accurate. The danger comes with training. I hear.”
“What danger?”
“The Dark Side. It’s a sort of cancer on the Force, and it comes naturally when you’re feeling angry or aggressive -- that’s why the Jedi are taught to stay calm. It’s quicker and easier, but when you use it, you have almost no control over it, or yourself. People who fall to the Dark Side . . . even their own mothers can’t recognize them.”
Leia caught her breath. “That thing about turning evil -- it wasn’t a joke?”
“No.” Almost reluctantly, he added, “That’s what happened to Vader, you know. He was a good person. Before. Even the Emperor might have been, I guess. So you’ll want to be on your guard, whether you become a Jedi or not. If you don’t want to risk it, you’re better off staying the way you are. It’s your choice.”
“I’m not afraid,” she said sharply. “It’s just -- a lot to take in. Let me see if I’ve got this right. You’re telling me that I was born with the potential to alter reality by drawing on an omnipotent energy field that is connected to every single thing in the galaxy. You’d willingly teach me how to use these powers for any purpose I want. I might end up using them to rescue Han and protect the other Alderaanians and maybe even join you. Or I might become a raging monster.”
Luke flinched. “That pretty much covers it.”
Leia studied the ground for several minutes, her eyes unseeing and her thoughts racing. This changed everything. She could be the one catching blaster bolts in her hand, glimpsing danger before it ever happened, moving objects with her mind alone. Well, one of the ones. But she’d have to stop everything to learn. And if she faltered, if she fell -- Leia’s lips thinned. She couldn’t imagine it. She would never be so weak as to give in to a Dark anything.
Leia lifted her gaze back to his. “And I’d learn how to fight with a lightsaber?”
“I’m not sure,” he said slowly. “We don’t have one for you to train with -- I don’t have one. And it’s a Jedi weapon anyway. Even the Emperor doesn’t have a lightsaber.”
“But if I were a Jedi?” she pressed. “Or in training for it?”
“Well -- once I build mine, I suppose you could borrow it to train with. If you were going to be a Jedi. And eventually you’d make your own. From what Obi-Wan told me, it’s a sort of rite of passage.”
“How long would it take me to learn something useful?”
“I had about two weeks before I targeted the Death Star,” said Luke. “Three or four weeks with Yoda when I had my first vision.”
“Six weeks,” she said to herself. “Well, that’s all the time we’ve got.”
“What do you mean?”
“Lando contacted us yesterday -- he sent us a map of Jabba’s palace, and told us that the best opportunity we’ll have is when they lower the security in six weeks.”
“Six weeks,” Luke repeated, half-unbelieving, and grinned widely. “That’s great. But we’ll need a plan. And you’ll have to make your decision fast. If you’re going to use the Force, you’ll need all the training you can get. If not -- well, anyone would be glad to have you at his back.”
“I know,” she said, and her lips seemed to curve of their own will. “Well, it’ll depend on what’s decided back at base. Really, I should just have everyone vote on this too!”
“Well, you’d be doing it for them.” He shrugged. “Why not?”
“I don’t usually make life decisions by committee.”
Luke, surprisingly -- pilots didn’t wind up in Rogue Squadron because of their obedient and accommodating personalities -- seemed to find this rather odd.
“But you’re right that they should know. I’ll see what everyone thinks, find out exactly what I need to be doing in the next month and a half, and -- I can think at you, can’t I? You’ll hear?”
His expression shifted from bemusement to horrified discomfort is under a second.
“Um,” he said. “Maybe?”
“That’s not very helpful, Luke.”
They started walking again, Leia almost jogging since Luke had forgotten to match his stride to hers, and seemed entirely preoccupied with scratching the palm of his right hand. His prosthetic hand, which she very much doubted had been programmed to itch.
“Luke,” she said, more forcefully.
“Yoda and Obi-Wan haven’t always been perfectly straightforward with me,” he admitted, slowing and lifting a branch. “I don’t think they wanted me to know you were Force-sensitive when they explained it to me, so my information may not be . . . perfect. They said you could hear me because I’m . . . uh . . . that you can only reach people you’re emotionally attached to.” He was bright red. “It doesn’t happen much among Jedi, of course, so I don’t know.”
“You’ve never done it with anyone else?” she asked, and tried to keep her own cheeks from flushing, without noticeable success.
“One person. But it’s -- different with them, and I suspect they’re stronger in the Force than anyone else I know of, so I think Force-sensitivity does have something to do with it. Maybe.”
He looked so anxious that she couldn’t help dropping her hand on his arm, her smile almost as awkward as his habitually was. “You’re my friend, Luke. I don’t think lack of attachment will be an issue, unless there’s a procedure I don’t know, or something. And if there is a problem, just contact me yourself, if you don’t hear from me within a few days.”
“All right,” he said, still nervous, but no longer looking as if he might bolt at a single quick movement. She let her hand drop.
“So,” she said briskly, “speaking of people contacting you, I’ve been thinking about your Imperial contact. Anything about the Sun Crusher, I need to know immediately. We can’t afford to have another Death Star on our hands. The rest -- ” She sighed. “Well, we’re used to sifting through partial data. I’ll need to speak with the generals, the admiralty, and Senator Mothma, but I think they’ll want any information we can get, especially since you can verify it. We’ll take care to consider the source.”
“And until then, what do I do?”
“Luke, you’re not a soldier any more,” said Leia. “I can’t command you. Even they can’t. If there’s anything that feels crucial for us to know, tell me. Otherwise, your decisions are up to you. Nobody can make them for you. You have to do what you think is right -- and answer for it when the time comes.”
“I think -- ” Luke’s brows furrowed, then his entire face smoothed over -- “I think I’ve got to fight the Empire any way I can. I’ll just have to stay on my guard.”
“Be careful, Luke,” she said, then tilted her head to the side, her gaze drifting up to the clumps of moss dangling overhead. “So, if this person contacted you this way, doesn’t that mean . . .?”
“I’m trying not to think too much about it,” said Luke.
Title: Revenge of the Jedi (12/17)
Fanverse: Revenge of the Jedi
Blurb: Leia reaches Dagobah, and is presented with still more conundrums.
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Chapter Twelve
Leia ordered the ship to remain in orbit, while she, Chewie, and Threepio boarded the shuttle and followed the second set of coordinates Luke had given them. He’d warned them about the swamp, so they were careful to maneuver past it, landing on the closest approximation of solid ground they could find. Chewie lowered the ramp and clattered down, sniffing the air.
Threepio and Leia followed, the droid prattling so rapidly that she’d have needed an interpreter to understand him, if she’d had any interest in listening. Instead, she looked around, trying to calm the anxiety that stabbed at her chest and throat and belly, even as she took in her surroundings. Her shoulder blades itched.
“What do you smell, Chewie?”
The Wookiee pointed ahead, through a tangle of vines.
“H-he says there are humanoids in that direction,” reported Threepio. Leia glanced from the droid to the narrow opening, then took out her vibroblade and sliced through them, leaving the way clear even for him.
They marched through, Leia keeping her blaster close at hand. Her instincts had never led her wrong, and they were screaming that this place was anything but safe. Then, with another chop of vines, Leia caught sight of a hut, so short and rough and sprawling that it seemed like it might have grown out of the swamp.
All three hurried towards the house, stopping only when the door slammed open and a young man ducked out -- a man in grey Rebel fatigues, with shaggy fair hair falling into his eyes.
“Luke!” Leia cried, and his face lit up.
“Hel --”
Chewbacca gave a loud roar and seized him in an enthusiastic hug, Luke’s feet flying off the ground and his hands patting the Wookiee’s massive shoulders.
“Nice to see you too,” he said as Chewie released him, teetering for a moment before he caught his balance. Then he turned back towards the others.
“Leia,” he said, pushing his hair out of his eyes and smiling with his usual tentative affection. They looked at one another for a moment, seized by awkwardness, and then Leia smiled back and ran forward, wrapping her arms around him.
Over the last few months, she’d always been glad to hear from him, even if only in odd fragments passing from his mind to hers. But it wasn’t the same as being right here, so close that his hair brushed her cheek as her chin dug into his shoulder, their hands flat against each other’s backs.
She released him and took a step backwards. She didn’t feel disconcerted or excited, like she had with Han, just safe, comfortable, happy.
Leia scowled at him.
“You haven’t been eating enough,” she said, and poked at his ribs.
Luke laughed. “Neither have you. The Rebellion working you to the bone again?”
“Not exactly,” she said, her frown deepening.
“Hello, Master Luke,” said Threepio. “I’m so relieved to see you’ve survived this terrible place!”
Leia jumped back as a small astrodroid barrelled out the door, past Luke, and rolled to a halt, his beeps and whirrs frenetic.
“Well, it’s very nice to see you too, Artoo -- no, I -- I have been of inestimable service to the princess, I’ll have you know!”
Chewie howled with laughter. Luke and Leia grinned.
“Well, come on in,” he said. “I think the hut is too short for Chewie and Threepio, but Yoda’s waiting to meet you. He probably won’t be able to stay awake very long.”
“I will stay right here, thank you,” said Threepio, and loftily ignored Artoo’s mocking beep. Chewie nodded his agreement, and went back to needling the droids.
Leia followed Luke inside, even her head nearly bumping the ceiling. They half-walked, half-crouched their way to a sort of kitchen, Luke gesturing for Leia to sit at the table. It was only then that she noticed the wrinkled green alien dozing in a chair, his tiny body swathed in blankets.
“Master Yoda,” Luke said loudly, and Leia stifled a burst of astonishment that this small being was a mighty Jedi Master. Then the alien opened enormous, intelligent green eyes, and blinked at her.
“Princess Leia you are,” he croaked, his voice thin and shrill.
“I am.” She gave a respectful nod of her head.
“Heard much of you I have,” said Yoda. “But did not expect to see you with these eyes. Not in life.” Then he looked at Luke and cackled. “Impertinent questions I should ask, yes?”
Luke blushed.
Leia thought she could feel her own cheeks warming, but she said steadily, “I’m happy to answer any question you have -- um, sir.”
Yoda chuckled again. “Questions later! Important matters, you have to discuss. Important nap, I have to finish. Run along for now.”
He closed his eyes, and promptly began to breathe loudly and noisily, then cracked open one eyelid.
“Still here you are.”
“Sorry,” Luke said, and led Leia past the strange old Jedi, through another door, and out into the dim green sunlight. The shadows of the overhanging trees and vines seemed a little less oppressive here, and she could see three or four clear, well-trodden paths. So this was where Luke walked. Leia smiled a little. Jedi or not, she knew him too well to think he wouldn’t have a place to waste hours pacing.
“Yoda’s very eccentric,” said Luke, “and very old.”
“I like him,” Leia said, rather amused. She jumped at a distant roar from Chewbacca, followed by an indistinct, but clearly shrill and petulant, monologue from Threepio, and pointed at the nearest path. “Is that safe?”
“More or less.” He glanced at her blaster. “It’s not dangerous for us, anyway.”
He set out immediately, and Leia ran to catch up, just as he shortened his stride. Glancing sideways at him, she had the uncomfortable feeling that he wasn’t as much -- himself -- as he seemed. At least, not the same person who’d stood beside her on the Redemption, watching a distant galaxy.
Chewie’s and Threepio’s voices faded into silence, and Luke glanced over at her. Leia dug her hands into the pockets of her jacket.
“So,” she said. “Important matters.”
He hesitated, then said, “Have you decided what to do about Carathis?”
“I’m going to hold a vote,” said Leia, and explained everything, from her forced uselessness, to Chewbacca’s revelation of the Wookiee colony and the clone planet, to their discovery of Imperial ships. She half-expected Luke to interrupt with indignant reassurances, as he would have once done, but instead he just listened quietly, nodding here and there.
“I’m leaving the choice up to all the Alderaanians -- all the ones I know of, I mean,” she said. “If they want to risk it, then I’m gladly lead them there. I’m not afraid for myself. But otherwise, I can’t endanger them like that, not if I can’t protect them. And I know I can’t. I’m not an army like Vader.” She looked at Luke, once more struck by the feeling that there was something new and different just under his skin, something that reminded her more of Vader, and now perhaps Yoda, than the Luke she remembered. “Like you.”
He stopped. “Well, um --”
Leia folded her arms, her brows drawing together. “You don’t have to be modest, Luke. I can tell that you have a power I -- I don’t understand, and could never have.”
“You’re wrong,” he said flatly.
“What?”
He winced, but forged ahead. “You have that power too, Leia. In time, you can learn to use it as I have.”
“But I -- ” Leia gave a small, incredulous laugh. “That’s impossible! What are you talking about?”
“The Force runs in families,” said Luke. “My grandmother had it, my parents had it, I have it. It’s the same with you.”
“But my parents weren’t Jedi! My father was viceroy of Alderaan, and my mother -- ”
“ -- was an Imperial Senator. I know. She didn’t realize she was Force-sensitive, of course, but -- well -- she was. That’s why her aim was so good,” he said, then looked thoughtful. “Probably her reflexes too, if I’m remembering right.”
“You can’t be remembering right,” Leia said desperately. “I hardly remember her myself. She died when I was very young.”
“I know,” he said again. “I saw her in a vision. Of my parents. It turns out they knew each other. Anyway, you inherited it from her. If you want to become a -- an army, there’s nothing stopping you.”
Leia wished she were sitting down. Instead, she stalked a few steps forward, then turned around, her fingers digging into her palm. “That’s why I could hear you? In my mind?”
“No, it’s -- ” Then he scowled. “Actually, yes, it probably does have something to do with that.”
“It’s . . . I don’t . . . Luke, I don’t know much about Jedi, but I know it’s not something you just try on for a few weeks to see if it fits. This is a commitment that would change my entire life.”
“Yes,” Luke agreed.
“And there’s so much I already need to do. Still, if I could become powerful enough to protect everyone -- but it’s not supposed to be about power, is it? I’m not exactly the spiritual type, Luke.”
“Before the Empire,” he said, hesitating so much she knew he was considering each word, “I think you’d have been right. Ideally, a Jedi should be calm, detached and passive, like Yoda and Obi-Wan. Completely dedicated to the Force. But it’s not possible to be like that, any more. I’m not; I mean, I try, but I’m more like you. I have other duties and other loyalties. I think -- ” He chewed on his lip. “I think the Jedi have to change if we’re going to survive at all. Obi-Wan once told me the Jedi were there to fight for truth and justice. That’s what you’d be expected to do.”
“I do that anyway,” said Leia. “What about the rest?”
He shrugged. “I don’t think it’s that important, really, as long as you don’t turn evil. But even if you aren’t willing to commit to the Jedi -- and really, I’ll understand if you’re not -- this power you have . . . it’s part of you. It’s yours. You have a right to do whatever you want with it.”
“I’m guessing that’s not Jedi-approved doctrine,” Leia said, but she was smiling.
Luke laughed. “Probably not. I don’t know -- there’s so much I don’t know, but I’d be the one teaching you, so we’d just have to fumble through.” He looked directly into her eyes. “It’s a gift, Leia, and I don’t think anyone has the right to take away a gift you were born with, or prevent you from learning how to use it, because you don’t live in perfect agreement with their beliefs.”
“You’d teach me to use this -- ” she gestured -- “gift, even if I didn’t agree to become a Jedi?”
Luke took a deep breath. “Yes.”
“But -- ?”
“Nothing.” His mouth twitched, a little wistfully. “I’d just -- rather you did.”
On impulse, she asked, “How do you know it’s real? The Force?”
He gave her a politely incredulous look.
“I mean, not just a tool, or a -- a gift. When I was in the Empire, we all saw what Vader could do, but nobody believed it was some infinite cosmic energy . . . thing. We just called it sorcery. So do you have -- faith, or . . .?”
“Well,” said Luke, “I can see it.”
Leia blinked.
“I can sense it, anyway. You will too, if you get trained.” He brought the sides of his hands together. “It runs between everything in the galaxy, binding each tree and rock and animal and planet and star and -- all of it, to every other one. And there’s so much of it with some of us, that we tap into it a little. If you’re not trained, it’s mostly uncontrolled and accidental, and you can’t really tell what’s happening.”
Her eyes narrowed. “I’m not controlling it now?”
“Well -- ”
She glared.
“No.” Luke dropped his hands. “It won’t harm you like this, you don’t need to worry about that. Just makes you faster, stronger, more accurate. The danger comes with training. I hear.”
“What danger?”
“The Dark Side. It’s a sort of cancer on the Force, and it comes naturally when you’re feeling angry or aggressive -- that’s why the Jedi are taught to stay calm. It’s quicker and easier, but when you use it, you have almost no control over it, or yourself. People who fall to the Dark Side . . . even their own mothers can’t recognize them.”
Leia caught her breath. “That thing about turning evil -- it wasn’t a joke?”
“No.” Almost reluctantly, he added, “That’s what happened to Vader, you know. He was a good person. Before. Even the Emperor might have been, I guess. So you’ll want to be on your guard, whether you become a Jedi or not. If you don’t want to risk it, you’re better off staying the way you are. It’s your choice.”
“I’m not afraid,” she said sharply. “It’s just -- a lot to take in. Let me see if I’ve got this right. You’re telling me that I was born with the potential to alter reality by drawing on an omnipotent energy field that is connected to every single thing in the galaxy. You’d willingly teach me how to use these powers for any purpose I want. I might end up using them to rescue Han and protect the other Alderaanians and maybe even join you. Or I might become a raging monster.”
Luke flinched. “That pretty much covers it.”
Leia studied the ground for several minutes, her eyes unseeing and her thoughts racing. This changed everything. She could be the one catching blaster bolts in her hand, glimpsing danger before it ever happened, moving objects with her mind alone. Well, one of the ones. But she’d have to stop everything to learn. And if she faltered, if she fell -- Leia’s lips thinned. She couldn’t imagine it. She would never be so weak as to give in to a Dark anything.
Leia lifted her gaze back to his. “And I’d learn how to fight with a lightsaber?”
“I’m not sure,” he said slowly. “We don’t have one for you to train with -- I don’t have one. And it’s a Jedi weapon anyway. Even the Emperor doesn’t have a lightsaber.”
“But if I were a Jedi?” she pressed. “Or in training for it?”
“Well -- once I build mine, I suppose you could borrow it to train with. If you were going to be a Jedi. And eventually you’d make your own. From what Obi-Wan told me, it’s a sort of rite of passage.”
“How long would it take me to learn something useful?”
“I had about two weeks before I targeted the Death Star,” said Luke. “Three or four weeks with Yoda when I had my first vision.”
“Six weeks,” she said to herself. “Well, that’s all the time we’ve got.”
“What do you mean?”
“Lando contacted us yesterday -- he sent us a map of Jabba’s palace, and told us that the best opportunity we’ll have is when they lower the security in six weeks.”
“Six weeks,” Luke repeated, half-unbelieving, and grinned widely. “That’s great. But we’ll need a plan. And you’ll have to make your decision fast. If you’re going to use the Force, you’ll need all the training you can get. If not -- well, anyone would be glad to have you at his back.”
“I know,” she said, and her lips seemed to curve of their own will. “Well, it’ll depend on what’s decided back at base. Really, I should just have everyone vote on this too!”
“Well, you’d be doing it for them.” He shrugged. “Why not?”
“I don’t usually make life decisions by committee.”
Luke, surprisingly -- pilots didn’t wind up in Rogue Squadron because of their obedient and accommodating personalities -- seemed to find this rather odd.
“But you’re right that they should know. I’ll see what everyone thinks, find out exactly what I need to be doing in the next month and a half, and -- I can think at you, can’t I? You’ll hear?”
His expression shifted from bemusement to horrified discomfort is under a second.
“Um,” he said. “Maybe?”
“That’s not very helpful, Luke.”
They started walking again, Leia almost jogging since Luke had forgotten to match his stride to hers, and seemed entirely preoccupied with scratching the palm of his right hand. His prosthetic hand, which she very much doubted had been programmed to itch.
“Luke,” she said, more forcefully.
“Yoda and Obi-Wan haven’t always been perfectly straightforward with me,” he admitted, slowing and lifting a branch. “I don’t think they wanted me to know you were Force-sensitive when they explained it to me, so my information may not be . . . perfect. They said you could hear me because I’m . . . uh . . . that you can only reach people you’re emotionally attached to.” He was bright red. “It doesn’t happen much among Jedi, of course, so I don’t know.”
“You’ve never done it with anyone else?” she asked, and tried to keep her own cheeks from flushing, without noticeable success.
“One person. But it’s -- different with them, and I suspect they’re stronger in the Force than anyone else I know of, so I think Force-sensitivity does have something to do with it. Maybe.”
He looked so anxious that she couldn’t help dropping her hand on his arm, her smile almost as awkward as his habitually was. “You’re my friend, Luke. I don’t think lack of attachment will be an issue, unless there’s a procedure I don’t know, or something. And if there is a problem, just contact me yourself, if you don’t hear from me within a few days.”
“All right,” he said, still nervous, but no longer looking as if he might bolt at a single quick movement. She let her hand drop.
“So,” she said briskly, “speaking of people contacting you, I’ve been thinking about your Imperial contact. Anything about the Sun Crusher, I need to know immediately. We can’t afford to have another Death Star on our hands. The rest -- ” She sighed. “Well, we’re used to sifting through partial data. I’ll need to speak with the generals, the admiralty, and Senator Mothma, but I think they’ll want any information we can get, especially since you can verify it. We’ll take care to consider the source.”
“And until then, what do I do?”
“Luke, you’re not a soldier any more,” said Leia. “I can’t command you. Even they can’t. If there’s anything that feels crucial for us to know, tell me. Otherwise, your decisions are up to you. Nobody can make them for you. You have to do what you think is right -- and answer for it when the time comes.”
“I think -- ” Luke’s brows furrowed, then his entire face smoothed over -- “I think I’ve got to fight the Empire any way I can. I’ll just have to stay on my guard.”
“Be careful, Luke,” she said, then tilted her head to the side, her gaze drifting up to the clumps of moss dangling overhead. “So, if this person contacted you this way, doesn’t that mean . . .?”
“I’m trying not to think too much about it,” said Luke.