Star Wars Fic Fest, "Memories of a First Meeting", Star Wars OT, Luke Skywalker, Mon Mothma, Rated G
July 22 - OT, Luke/Mon Mothma: it's good to know the Jedi aren't all gone--memories are made of this.
Title: Memories of a First Meeting
Author: gray_paladin
Fandom: Star Wars OT
Characters: Luke Skywalker, Mon Mothma
Rating: Rated G
Word Count: About 2393
Disclaimers: I do not own these characters.
Summary: Luke Skywalker meets Alliance leader Mon Mothma for the first time.
Memories of a First Meeting
Luke Skywalker walked quickly down the long hallway, boots clicking on the polished floor, wondering for at least the tenth time how he had managed to be so late for such an important meeting. He nodded to several guards stationed here and there in the temporary hiding place for a part of the Rebel Alliance. He’d thought the guards would stop him and question his being there but they must have been informed of his meeting.
Stopping outside a nondescript door, he slowly read the small numbers on a plate attached to the wall. At least he was in the right place. He rubbed his palms on his jacket and smoothed his hair once more. He wore plain black trousers, a gray shirt, and a black jacket. His lightsaber was at his right side and a small blaster was attached to the left.
He lifted a finger cautiously and pressed a small button located under the numbers. Immediately the door slid open and he stepped inside. The room was sparse, its furnishings simple. There was no hint of anything personal belonging to its occupant. Luke’s eyes scanned the room quickly before coming to rest on a figure in white standing to the side of the window, the only real color in the room the auburn hair and bright blue eyes that appraised him curiously.
Luke suddenly realized he had no idea how he was supposed to address the woman and chastised himself again for not asking for Leia’s input before his meeting with Mon Mothma, leader of the Alliance to Restore the Republic and former Galactic Senator. However, he had grown tired of constantly asking Leia and Wedge and everyone else for advice so had purposely kept quiet about the meeting Mon Mothma had requested.
“Luke Skywalker…finally we meet.”
Slowly she walked towards him, eyes narrowed and curious. She paused and held her hand out to him. He dropped his eyes in confusion, then felt his face flush as he realized the Alliance leader…his leader…was waiting for his acknowledgement.
“I’m sorry…I…”
Quickly he grabbed her hand and gave it a light squeeze. Then wondering if that was quite enough, he added a quick little bow.
A smile curved the woman’s lips as she carefully disengaged her hand from his.
“Would you like some tea, Luke? Oh…is it alright for me to address you by your first name?”
She looked at him inquiringly…was that laughter in her eyes? Luke frowned and shook his head quickly.
“Yes, Ma’am. Uhh…that’s perfectly fine.”
Luke’s mind floundered around, desperately trying to remember Aunt Beru’s directions for conversing with others, especially important others, but came up with a complete blank.
Slowly she walked to a polished white table and proceeded to pour two cups of a strong dark liquid.
“Please, Luke, sit down.”
One pale hand gestured to the small sofa and Luke hurriedly sat down, clasping his hands together tightly.
After putting a sprinkle of something silvery white in each cup, she brought them around the table, setting one in front of Luke. Gracefully she sat down, near but not exactly touching. She took a quick sip of her tea before setting it down in front of her, and then turned to gaze at Luke.
She was a very striking woman, Luke realized. Very regal in her bearing and having that certain something that sometimes set one being apart from others. There were tiny lines around her eyes, made by worry and years of long hard work keeping the Rebel Alliance together.
“So…Luke Skywalker. Tell me about yourself.”
“About me? Well…well…there’s not that much to say.”
She laughed then and it seemed to make some of the years and worry fall away from her.
“Not much to say! You saved us all Luke. The Death Star could have been unstoppable, our numbers decimated, our dreams shattered.”
“But…I did what I had to do, what I…was meant to do.”
Mon Mothma patted his hand gently.
“Then tell me about yourself…about Luke.”
He shook his head and smiled reluctantly.
“You probably already know everything…”
“I’d much rather hear it from you.”
“Well, I grew up on Tatooine, on a moisture farm. My uncle and aunt, Owen and Beru Lars, raised me. My parents are dead. I…I had wanted to enlist in the Imperial Academy…my friend Biggs Darklighter had…”
“This is the same Darklighter that was killed during the battle with the Death Star?”
“Yes…yes.”
“But you didn’t enlist with the Imperial Academy, did you?”
“No, I didn’t. My uncle wouldn’t allow it. He wanted me to stay and work on the farm. But I would have eventually…if…if things hadn’t happened the way they did.”
“And what were these things?”
Luke reached for his cup and took a sip of the hot spicy liquid and then set his cup carefully back down.
“It was the droids we had purchased from the Jawas. Leia…Princess Leia had sent them, or sent R2, to find Obi-Wan Kenobi. The droids ran off to find Ben…Obi-Wan…and I followed them. While I was gone, Imperial Stormtroopers…killed Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru. I…I should have been there…to protect them…”
“Then you may have been killed too. And we all would have suffered.”
“That’s what Leia says…”
“And she is correct Luke. There will always be things we think we should have done differently or better. But we all have our paths to follow.”
“Yes.”
Mon Mothma settled herself more comfortably back against the sofa and slowly took Luke’s hand again, intertwining her slender fingers with his. Her skin was very white against his tanned, rough farmer’s hands.
“Tell me about Obi-Wan Kenobi. I knew him from long ago, before the Empire rose.”
“We always called him Ben Kenobi. He was a hermit who lived out on the Dune Sea. I remember that when I was growing up occasionally he would stop by our farm on his way into town. He never stayed very long…Uncle Owen didn’t like him for some reason…he called him a sorcerer and said he was trouble. Aunt Beru was always kind to him though.”
“And you, what did you think of him, Luke?”
Luke shrugged his shoulders. What had he thought of the old man who wandered out of the desert sometimes like a wraith but always with a smile and a twinkle in his eyes for a young farm boy?
“I guess…I guess I thought he was like Uncle Owen said, that he was just a strange old man who’d chosen to live by himself out in the desert. I didn’t understand why anyone would want to do that.”
She nodded and tightened her hand against his briefly.
“The man you describe sounds very different from the Obi-Wan Kenobi that I knew though he lived through some troubled times and that changes a person. It is a miracle that he escaped the Jedi Purge.”
Luke turned and looked at her intently.
“I don’t know much about that, just what they taught us in school which wasn’t much at all about the Jedi. Ben told me a little but there really wasn’t much time to talk about those things before…before he died.”
“You most likely got the watered down version during your schooling, Luke. The Emperor has destroyed so much and that includes our history. Luke…you are certain that Obi-Wan was killed on the Death Star? I am sorry for asking and have read the reports, but I would like to receive confirmation from you.”
“Yes, yes, he is dead. Darth Vader killed him. I saw it happen. They were fighting…dueling with lightsabers…and…and…Ben just stopped and held his up…”
Mon Mothma squeezed his hand tightly and waited silently while Luke composed himself.
“He killed my father too.”
“Who did?”
“Vader. Ben said that he did.”
“I see. That must have happened during the Jedi Purge also.”
“I don’t know. I don’t know much about my father, Uncle Owen said he was a navigator on a freighter during the Wars, but Ben told me he had been a Jedi Knight and Vader had killed him.”
“I see.”
Luke turned to look at her, his pale blue eyes haunted and intense.
“Did you know him? My father? If you knew Ben…Obi-Wan…then perhaps you knew of my father also?”
Mon Mothma paused, seeming to choose her words carefully.
“There was only one Jedi Knight that I knew of who had the name Skywalker. And he had been taught by Master Kenobi. I did meet him, more than once, though I did not know him well.
“Would you tell me about him?”
“I don’t know that much about him personally. He was a very powerful Jedi though still very young. He fought in the Clone Wars alongside Kenobi and many of the other Jedi. He was known as the Hero with No Fear because of his brave actions during the Wars. He disappeared during the fall of the Republic, during the time Palpatine proclaimed himself Emperor. Many believe Jedi Skywalker died defending the Jedi Temple as so many others did. I had not heard that Darth Vader was the one that killed him though that is logical as many Jedi deaths are attributed to the Sith Lord.”
Luke pulled away from Mon Mothma, reaching again for his cup of tea. She was silent as he composed himself, waiting until he leaned back once again.
“And what of your mother, Luke? You said she was dead also?”
“Yes, she must have died when I was very small. I don’t remember her at all though Aunt Beru said she was very beautiful and from off-world, from a place that was green and had beautiful blue lakes. She wouldn’t tell me her name though and I never got around to asking Ben about her. He must have known her if he and my father were friends.”
“Hmmm. Are you aware, Luke, that the Jedi usually did not marry and have families?”
“Yes, Leia told me.”
“Of course, the Jedi were, and still are, an enigma to us, Luke.”
Reluctantly Mon Mothma rose to her feet and Luke followed her. She looked at him and then reached out to brush her fingers along the side of his face. Unable to stop himself, Luke moved closer to her, mesmerized by the woman’s presence.
“There is something pleasing about you Luke Skywalker. I feel…so many different things when I look at you.”
She took both his hands in hers and smiled up at him.
“Are you going to stay with us, Luke? We could use someone like you in the Alliance. And it’s good to know the Jedi aren’t all gone in these desperate times.”
“Yes, I want to stay with the Alliance. I feel…the Force tells me that it is the right thing to do.”
She walked him over to the door but instead of opening it immediately she reached up to cup his face between her hands. She pressed a gentle kiss to his lips.
“I am glad that you are with us, Luke Skywalker, and I look forward to knowing you better.”
* * * * * * * * * *
After Luke left, Mon Mothma stood for a long time staring out of the window, thinking of her conversation with him. The young man had touched a place in her heart and she wondered if she had done right in not revealing some things she suspected.
The Jedi…Skywalker. What she had told Luke about his father was true. And she had no doubt that what Kenobi told the boy was true. It would have taken someone as powerful as Vader to have taken the life of Anakin Skywalker.
But what of Padme?
Her memories of Padme were dear to her. The young woman had been her friend as well as an ally. But friends don’t always confide in each other. And Mon Mothma had known, as had others in their circle, that Padme had strong ties to the Jedi. To one Jedi in particular.
And what of the unspoken secret of Padme’s pregnancy? It had been assumed that the child had died with her. It was what Padme’s family had led everyone to believe. But now here was a young man, of the right age, and claiming to be the son of a Jedi named Skywalker. Raised on the planet Tatooine. The planet Mon Mothma knew Padme had visited, and more than once, in the company of Anakin Skywalker.
"…Aunt Beru said she was very beautiful and from off-world, from a place that was green and had beautiful blue lakes."
* * * * * * * * * *
Luke walked quickly down the narrow hallways. He was scheduled to leave shortly, the Rebels had to keep on the move, and his squadron was to accompany a scouting team. He hoped Mon Mothma and the other leaders would be safe here in the meantime. Now that he had met her, he could not bear the thought of the spirited woman being harmed.
He smiled suddenly, thinking of something Aunt Beru had once told him when he had complained of all the difficult things he’d had to do on the farm and how he wished to be away from it all, being a pilot and doing what he was meant to do.
"Memories are made of this, Luke. Of all the tedious, everyday things that we take for granted. The people we meet, the things we must do to make of our lives what we can. This is what you’ll remember one day, Luke. Not the big flashy things, but the little things. These are what will be stored deep in your memories."
And she had been right. He remembered Uncle Owen’s gruff voice, and the kindness that would show in his blue eyes at unexpected moments. He remembered Aunt Beru, showing him how to help her with her chores. He remembered Biggs’ laugh and he remembered Obi-Wan’s voice, excitement clearly showing through, when he described the different techniques involved in fighting with a lightsaber. He remembered his first look at Leia, looking so out of place in her small cell. Now he carefully added Mon Mothma to his memories, her voice, her beautiful, intelligent eyes, her gentle hands, and her courage that he saw through the Force as a soft glow emanating from her.
This would sustain him in the long days to come. He might be the last of the Jedi but he was not alone.
Title: Memories of a First Meeting
Author: gray_paladin
Fandom: Star Wars OT
Characters: Luke Skywalker, Mon Mothma
Rating: Rated G
Word Count: About 2393
Disclaimers: I do not own these characters.
Summary: Luke Skywalker meets Alliance leader Mon Mothma for the first time.
Memories of a First Meeting
Luke Skywalker walked quickly down the long hallway, boots clicking on the polished floor, wondering for at least the tenth time how he had managed to be so late for such an important meeting. He nodded to several guards stationed here and there in the temporary hiding place for a part of the Rebel Alliance. He’d thought the guards would stop him and question his being there but they must have been informed of his meeting.
Stopping outside a nondescript door, he slowly read the small numbers on a plate attached to the wall. At least he was in the right place. He rubbed his palms on his jacket and smoothed his hair once more. He wore plain black trousers, a gray shirt, and a black jacket. His lightsaber was at his right side and a small blaster was attached to the left.
He lifted a finger cautiously and pressed a small button located under the numbers. Immediately the door slid open and he stepped inside. The room was sparse, its furnishings simple. There was no hint of anything personal belonging to its occupant. Luke’s eyes scanned the room quickly before coming to rest on a figure in white standing to the side of the window, the only real color in the room the auburn hair and bright blue eyes that appraised him curiously.
Luke suddenly realized he had no idea how he was supposed to address the woman and chastised himself again for not asking for Leia’s input before his meeting with Mon Mothma, leader of the Alliance to Restore the Republic and former Galactic Senator. However, he had grown tired of constantly asking Leia and Wedge and everyone else for advice so had purposely kept quiet about the meeting Mon Mothma had requested.
“Luke Skywalker…finally we meet.”
Slowly she walked towards him, eyes narrowed and curious. She paused and held her hand out to him. He dropped his eyes in confusion, then felt his face flush as he realized the Alliance leader…his leader…was waiting for his acknowledgement.
“I’m sorry…I…”
Quickly he grabbed her hand and gave it a light squeeze. Then wondering if that was quite enough, he added a quick little bow.
A smile curved the woman’s lips as she carefully disengaged her hand from his.
“Would you like some tea, Luke? Oh…is it alright for me to address you by your first name?”
She looked at him inquiringly…was that laughter in her eyes? Luke frowned and shook his head quickly.
“Yes, Ma’am. Uhh…that’s perfectly fine.”
Luke’s mind floundered around, desperately trying to remember Aunt Beru’s directions for conversing with others, especially important others, but came up with a complete blank.
Slowly she walked to a polished white table and proceeded to pour two cups of a strong dark liquid.
“Please, Luke, sit down.”
One pale hand gestured to the small sofa and Luke hurriedly sat down, clasping his hands together tightly.
After putting a sprinkle of something silvery white in each cup, she brought them around the table, setting one in front of Luke. Gracefully she sat down, near but not exactly touching. She took a quick sip of her tea before setting it down in front of her, and then turned to gaze at Luke.
She was a very striking woman, Luke realized. Very regal in her bearing and having that certain something that sometimes set one being apart from others. There were tiny lines around her eyes, made by worry and years of long hard work keeping the Rebel Alliance together.
“So…Luke Skywalker. Tell me about yourself.”
“About me? Well…well…there’s not that much to say.”
She laughed then and it seemed to make some of the years and worry fall away from her.
“Not much to say! You saved us all Luke. The Death Star could have been unstoppable, our numbers decimated, our dreams shattered.”
“But…I did what I had to do, what I…was meant to do.”
Mon Mothma patted his hand gently.
“Then tell me about yourself…about Luke.”
He shook his head and smiled reluctantly.
“You probably already know everything…”
“I’d much rather hear it from you.”
“Well, I grew up on Tatooine, on a moisture farm. My uncle and aunt, Owen and Beru Lars, raised me. My parents are dead. I…I had wanted to enlist in the Imperial Academy…my friend Biggs Darklighter had…”
“This is the same Darklighter that was killed during the battle with the Death Star?”
“Yes…yes.”
“But you didn’t enlist with the Imperial Academy, did you?”
“No, I didn’t. My uncle wouldn’t allow it. He wanted me to stay and work on the farm. But I would have eventually…if…if things hadn’t happened the way they did.”
“And what were these things?”
Luke reached for his cup and took a sip of the hot spicy liquid and then set his cup carefully back down.
“It was the droids we had purchased from the Jawas. Leia…Princess Leia had sent them, or sent R2, to find Obi-Wan Kenobi. The droids ran off to find Ben…Obi-Wan…and I followed them. While I was gone, Imperial Stormtroopers…killed Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru. I…I should have been there…to protect them…”
“Then you may have been killed too. And we all would have suffered.”
“That’s what Leia says…”
“And she is correct Luke. There will always be things we think we should have done differently or better. But we all have our paths to follow.”
“Yes.”
Mon Mothma settled herself more comfortably back against the sofa and slowly took Luke’s hand again, intertwining her slender fingers with his. Her skin was very white against his tanned, rough farmer’s hands.
“Tell me about Obi-Wan Kenobi. I knew him from long ago, before the Empire rose.”
“We always called him Ben Kenobi. He was a hermit who lived out on the Dune Sea. I remember that when I was growing up occasionally he would stop by our farm on his way into town. He never stayed very long…Uncle Owen didn’t like him for some reason…he called him a sorcerer and said he was trouble. Aunt Beru was always kind to him though.”
“And you, what did you think of him, Luke?”
Luke shrugged his shoulders. What had he thought of the old man who wandered out of the desert sometimes like a wraith but always with a smile and a twinkle in his eyes for a young farm boy?
“I guess…I guess I thought he was like Uncle Owen said, that he was just a strange old man who’d chosen to live by himself out in the desert. I didn’t understand why anyone would want to do that.”
She nodded and tightened her hand against his briefly.
“The man you describe sounds very different from the Obi-Wan Kenobi that I knew though he lived through some troubled times and that changes a person. It is a miracle that he escaped the Jedi Purge.”
Luke turned and looked at her intently.
“I don’t know much about that, just what they taught us in school which wasn’t much at all about the Jedi. Ben told me a little but there really wasn’t much time to talk about those things before…before he died.”
“You most likely got the watered down version during your schooling, Luke. The Emperor has destroyed so much and that includes our history. Luke…you are certain that Obi-Wan was killed on the Death Star? I am sorry for asking and have read the reports, but I would like to receive confirmation from you.”
“Yes, yes, he is dead. Darth Vader killed him. I saw it happen. They were fighting…dueling with lightsabers…and…and…Ben just stopped and held his up…”
Mon Mothma squeezed his hand tightly and waited silently while Luke composed himself.
“He killed my father too.”
“Who did?”
“Vader. Ben said that he did.”
“I see. That must have happened during the Jedi Purge also.”
“I don’t know. I don’t know much about my father, Uncle Owen said he was a navigator on a freighter during the Wars, but Ben told me he had been a Jedi Knight and Vader had killed him.”
“I see.”
Luke turned to look at her, his pale blue eyes haunted and intense.
“Did you know him? My father? If you knew Ben…Obi-Wan…then perhaps you knew of my father also?”
Mon Mothma paused, seeming to choose her words carefully.
“There was only one Jedi Knight that I knew of who had the name Skywalker. And he had been taught by Master Kenobi. I did meet him, more than once, though I did not know him well.
“Would you tell me about him?”
“I don’t know that much about him personally. He was a very powerful Jedi though still very young. He fought in the Clone Wars alongside Kenobi and many of the other Jedi. He was known as the Hero with No Fear because of his brave actions during the Wars. He disappeared during the fall of the Republic, during the time Palpatine proclaimed himself Emperor. Many believe Jedi Skywalker died defending the Jedi Temple as so many others did. I had not heard that Darth Vader was the one that killed him though that is logical as many Jedi deaths are attributed to the Sith Lord.”
Luke pulled away from Mon Mothma, reaching again for his cup of tea. She was silent as he composed himself, waiting until he leaned back once again.
“And what of your mother, Luke? You said she was dead also?”
“Yes, she must have died when I was very small. I don’t remember her at all though Aunt Beru said she was very beautiful and from off-world, from a place that was green and had beautiful blue lakes. She wouldn’t tell me her name though and I never got around to asking Ben about her. He must have known her if he and my father were friends.”
“Hmmm. Are you aware, Luke, that the Jedi usually did not marry and have families?”
“Yes, Leia told me.”
“Of course, the Jedi were, and still are, an enigma to us, Luke.”
Reluctantly Mon Mothma rose to her feet and Luke followed her. She looked at him and then reached out to brush her fingers along the side of his face. Unable to stop himself, Luke moved closer to her, mesmerized by the woman’s presence.
“There is something pleasing about you Luke Skywalker. I feel…so many different things when I look at you.”
She took both his hands in hers and smiled up at him.
“Are you going to stay with us, Luke? We could use someone like you in the Alliance. And it’s good to know the Jedi aren’t all gone in these desperate times.”
“Yes, I want to stay with the Alliance. I feel…the Force tells me that it is the right thing to do.”
She walked him over to the door but instead of opening it immediately she reached up to cup his face between her hands. She pressed a gentle kiss to his lips.
“I am glad that you are with us, Luke Skywalker, and I look forward to knowing you better.”
* * * * * * * * * *
After Luke left, Mon Mothma stood for a long time staring out of the window, thinking of her conversation with him. The young man had touched a place in her heart and she wondered if she had done right in not revealing some things she suspected.
The Jedi…Skywalker. What she had told Luke about his father was true. And she had no doubt that what Kenobi told the boy was true. It would have taken someone as powerful as Vader to have taken the life of Anakin Skywalker.
But what of Padme?
Her memories of Padme were dear to her. The young woman had been her friend as well as an ally. But friends don’t always confide in each other. And Mon Mothma had known, as had others in their circle, that Padme had strong ties to the Jedi. To one Jedi in particular.
And what of the unspoken secret of Padme’s pregnancy? It had been assumed that the child had died with her. It was what Padme’s family had led everyone to believe. But now here was a young man, of the right age, and claiming to be the son of a Jedi named Skywalker. Raised on the planet Tatooine. The planet Mon Mothma knew Padme had visited, and more than once, in the company of Anakin Skywalker.
"…Aunt Beru said she was very beautiful and from off-world, from a place that was green and had beautiful blue lakes."
* * * * * * * * * *
Luke walked quickly down the narrow hallways. He was scheduled to leave shortly, the Rebels had to keep on the move, and his squadron was to accompany a scouting team. He hoped Mon Mothma and the other leaders would be safe here in the meantime. Now that he had met her, he could not bear the thought of the spirited woman being harmed.
He smiled suddenly, thinking of something Aunt Beru had once told him when he had complained of all the difficult things he’d had to do on the farm and how he wished to be away from it all, being a pilot and doing what he was meant to do.
"Memories are made of this, Luke. Of all the tedious, everyday things that we take for granted. The people we meet, the things we must do to make of our lives what we can. This is what you’ll remember one day, Luke. Not the big flashy things, but the little things. These are what will be stored deep in your memories."
And she had been right. He remembered Uncle Owen’s gruff voice, and the kindness that would show in his blue eyes at unexpected moments. He remembered Aunt Beru, showing him how to help her with her chores. He remembered Biggs’ laugh and he remembered Obi-Wan’s voice, excitement clearly showing through, when he described the different techniques involved in fighting with a lightsaber. He remembered his first look at Leia, looking so out of place in her small cell. Now he carefully added Mon Mothma to his memories, her voice, her beautiful, intelligent eyes, her gentle hands, and her courage that he saw through the Force as a soft glow emanating from her.
This would sustain him in the long days to come. He might be the last of the Jedi but he was not alone.