If the breathless, anxiety-ridden message the unknown woman had just spoken into the cool air of the cave had affected Ken.o.bi in any way he gave no hint of it. Instead, he leaned back against the rock wall and tugged thoughtfully at his beard, puffing slowly on a water pipe of free-form tarnished chrome.

Luke visualized that simple yet lovely portrait. "She's so-so-" His farming background didn't provide him with the requisite words. Suddenly something in the message caused him to stare disbelievingly at the oldster. "General Ken.o.bi, you fought in the Clone Wars? But... that was so long ago."

"Um, yes," Ken.o.bi acknowledged, as casually as he might have discussed the recipe for shang stew. "I guess it was a while back. I was a Jedi Knight once. Like," he added, watching the youth appraisingly, "your father."

"A Jedi Knight," Luke echoed. Then he looked confused. "But my father didn't fight in the Clone Wars. He was no knight-just a navigator on a s.p.a.ce freighter."

Ken.o.bi's smile enfolded the pipe's mouthpiece. "Or so your uncle has told you." His attention was suddenly focused elsewhere. "Owen Lars didn't agree with your father's ideas, opinions, or with his philosophy of life. He believed that your father should have stayed here on Tatooine and not gotten involved in..." Again the seemingly indifferent shrug. "Well, he thought he should have remained here and minded his farming."

Luke said nothing, his body tense as the old man related bits and pieces of a personal history Luke had viewed only through his uncle's distortions.

"Owen was always afraid that your father's adventurous life might influence you, might pull you away from Anchorhead." He shook his head slowly, regretfully at the remembrance. "I'm afraid there wasn't much of the farmer in your father."

Luke turned away. He returned to cleaning the last particles of sand from Threepio's healing armature. "I wish I'd known him," he finally whispered.

"He was the best pilot I ever knew," Ken.o.bi went on, "and a smart fighter. The Force... the instinct was strong in him." For a brief second Ken.o.bi actually appeared old. "He was also a good friend."

Suddenly the boyish twinkle returned to those piercing eyes along with the old man's natural humor. "I understand you're quite a pilot yourself. Piloting and navigation aren't hereditary, but a number of the things that can combine to make a good small-ship pilot are. Those you may have inherited. Still, even a duck has to be taught to swim."

"What's a duck?" Luke asked curiously.

"Never mind. In many ways, you know, you are much like your father." Ken.o.bi's unabashed look of evaluation made Luke nervous. "You've grown up quite a bit since the last time I saw you."

Having no reply for that, Luke waited silently as Ken.o.bi sank back into deep contemplation. After a while the old man stirred, evidently having reached an important decision.

"All this reminds me," he declared with deceptive casualness, "I have something here for you." He rose and walked over to a bulky, old-fashioned chest and started rummaging through it. All sorts of intriguing items were removed and shoved around, only to be placed back in the bin. A few of them Luke recognized. As Ken.o.bi was obviously intent on something important, he forbore inquiring about any of the other tantalizing flotsam.

"When you were old enough," Ken.o.bi was saying, "your father wanted you to have this... if I can ever find the blasted device. I tried to give it to you once before, but your uncle wouldn't allow it. He believed you might get some crazy ideas from it and end up following old Obi-Wan on some idealistic crusade.

"You see, Luke, that's where your father and your uncle Owen disagreed. Lars is not a man to let idealism interfere with business, whereas your father didn't think the question even worth discussing. His decision on such matters came like his piloting-instinctively."

Luke nodded. He finished picking out the last of the grit and looked around for one remaining component to snap back into Threepio's open chest plate. Locating the restraining module, he opened the receiving latches in the machine and set about locking it back in place. Threepio watched the process and appeared to wince ever so perceptibly.

Luke stared into those metal and plastic photoreceptors for a long moment. Then he set the module pointedly on the workbench and closed the droid up. Threepio said nothing.

A grunt came from behind them, and Luke turned to see a pleased Ken.o.bi walking over. He handed Luke a small, innocuous-looking device, which the youth studied with interest.

It consisted primarily of a short, thick handgrip with a couple of small switches set into the grip. Above this small post was a circular metal disk barely larger in diameter than his spread palm. A number of unfamiliar, jewellike components were built into both handle and disk, including what looked like the smallest power cell Luke had ever seen. The reverse side of the disk was polished to a mirror brightness. But it was the power cell that puzzled Luke the most. Whatever the thing was, it required a great deal of energy, according to the rating form of the cell.

Despite the claim that it had belonged to his father, the gizmo looked newly manufactured. Ken.o.bi had obviously kept it carefully. Only a number of minute scratches on the handgrip hinted at previous usage.

"Sir?" came a familiar voice Luke hadn't heard in a while.

"What?" Luke was startled out of his examination.

"If you'll not be needing me," Threepio declared, "I think I'll shut down for a bit. It will help the armature nerves to knit, and I'm due for some internal self-cleansing anyhow."

"Sure, go ahead," Luke said absently, returning to his fascinated study of the whatever-it-was. Behind him, Threepio became silent, the glow fading temporarily from his eyes. Luke noticed that Ken.o.bi was watching him with interest. "What is it?" he finally asked, unable despite his best efforts to identify the device.

"Your father's lightsaber," Ken.o.bi told him. "At one time they were widely used. Still are, in certain galactic quarters."

Luke examined the controls on the handle, then tentatively touched a brightly colored b.u.t.ton up near the mirrored pommel. Instantly the disk put forth a blue-white beam as thick around as his thumb. It was dense to the point of opacity and a little over a meter in length. It did not fade, but remained as brilliant and intense at its far end as it did next to the disk. Strangely, Luke felt no heat from it, though he was very careful not to touch it. He knew what a lightsaber could do, though he had never seen one before. It could drill a hole right through the rock wall of Ken.o.bi's cave-or through a human being.

"This was the formal weapon of a Jedi Knight," explained Ken.o.bi. "Not as clumsy or random as a blaster. More skill than simple sight was required for its use. An elegant weapon. It was a symbol as well. Anyone can use a blaster or fusioncutter-but to use a lightsaber well was a mark of someone a cut above the ordinary." He was pacing the floor of the cave as he spoke.

"For over a thousand generations, Luke, the Jedi Knights were the most powerful, most respected force in the galaxy. They served as the guardians and guarantors of peace and justice in the Old Republic."

When Luke failed to ask what had happened to them since, Ken.o.bi looked up to see that the youth was staring vacantly into s.p.a.ce, having absorbed little if any of the oldster's instruction. Some men would have chided Luke for not paying attention. Not Ken.o.bi. More sensitive than most, he waited patiently until the silence weighed strong enough on Luke for him to resume speaking.

"How," he asked slowly, "did my father die?"

Ken.o.bi hesitated, and Luke sensed that the old man had no wish to talk about this particular matter. Unlike Owen Lars, however, Ken.o.bi was unable to take refuge in a comfortable lie.

"He was betrayed and murdered," Ken.o.bi declared solemnly, "by a very young Jedi named Darth Vader." He was not looking at Luke. "A boy I was training. One of my brightest disciples... one of my greatest failures."

Ken.o.bi resumed his pacing. "Vader used the training I gave him and the Force within him for evil, to help the later corrupt Emperors. With the Jedi knights disbanded, disorganized, or dead, there were few to oppose Vader. Today they are all but extinct."

An indecipherable expression crossed Ken.o.bi's face. "In many ways they were too good, too trusting for their own health. They put too much trust in the stability of the Republic, failing to realize that while the body might be sound, the head was growing diseased and feeble, leaving it open to manipulation by such as the Emperor.

"I wish I knew what Vader was after. Sometimes I have the feeling he is marking time in preparation for some incomprehensible abomination. Such is the destiny of one who masters the force and is consumed by its dark side."

Luke's face twisted in confusion. "A force? That's the second time you've mentioned a 'force'."

Ken.o.bi nodded. "I forget sometimes in whose presence I babble. Let us say simply that the force is something a Jedi must deal with. While it has never been properly explained, scientists have theorized it is an energy field generated by living things. Early man suspected its existence, yet remained in ignorance of its potential for millennia.

"Only certain individuals could recognize the force for what it was. They were mercilessly labeled: charlatans, fakers, mystics-and worse. Even fewer could make use of it. As it was usually beyond their primitive controls, it frequently was too powerful for them. They were misunderstood by their fellows-and worse."

Ken.o.bi made a wide, all-encompa.s.sing gesture with both arms. "The force surrounds each and every one of us. Some men believe it directs our actions, and not the other way around. Knowledge of the force and how to manipulate it was what gave the Jedi his special power."

The arms came down and Ken.o.bi stared at Luke until the youth began to fidget uncomfortably. When he spoke again it was in a tone so crisp and unaged that Luke jumped in spite of himself. "You must learn the ways of the force also, Luke-if you are to come with me to Alderaan."

"Alderaan!" Luke hopped off the repair seat, looking dazed. "I'm not going to Alderaan. I don't even know where Alderaan is." Vaporators, droids, harvest-abruptly the surroundings seemed to close in on him, the formerly intriguing furnishings and alien artifacts now just a mite frightening. He looked around wildly, trying to avoid the piercing gaze of Ben Ken.o.bi... old Ben... crazy Ben... General Obi-Wan...

"I've got to get back home," he found himself muttering thickly. "It's late. I'm in for it as it is." Remembering something, he gestured toward the motionless bulk of Artoo Detoo. "You can keep the droid. He seems to want you to. I'll think of something to tell my uncle-I hope," he added forlornly.

"I need your help, Luke," Ken.o.bi explained, his manner a combination of sadness and steel. "I'm getting too old for this kind of thing. Can't trust myself to finish it properly on my own. This mission is far too important." He nodded toward Artoo Detoo. "You heard and saw the message."

"But... I can't get involved with anything like that," protested Luke. "I've got work to do; we've got crops to bring in-even though Uncle Owen could always break down and hire a little extra help. I mean, one, I guess. But there's nothing I can do about it. Not now. Besides, that's all such a long way from here. The whole thing is really none of my business."

"That sounds like your uncle talking," Ken.o.bi observed without rancor.

"Oh! My uncle Owen... How am I going to explain all this to him?"

The old man suppressed a smile, aware that Luke's destiny had already been determined for him. It had been ordained five minutes before he had learned about the manner of his father's death. It had been ordered before that when he had heard the complete message. It had been fixed in the nature of things when he had first viewed the pleading portrait of the beautiful Senator Organa awkwardly projected by the little droid. Ken.o.bi shrugged inwardly. Likely it had been finalized even before the boy was born. Not that Ben believed in predestination, but he did believe in heredity-and in the force.

"Remember, Luke, the suffering of one man is the suffering of all. Distances are irrelevant to injustice. If not stopped soon enough, evil eventually reaches out to engulf all men, whether they have opposed it or ignored it."

"I suppose," Luke confessed nervously, "I could take you as far as Anchorhead. You can get transport from there to Mos Eisley, or wherever it is you want to go."

"Very well," agreed Ken.o.bi. "That will do for a beginning. Then you must do what you feel is right."

Luke turned away, now thoroughly confused. "Okay. Right now I don't feel too good..."

The holding hole was deathly dim, with only the bare minimum of illumination provided. There was barely enough to see the black metal walls and the high ceiling overhead. The cell was designed to maximize a prisoner's feelings of helplessness, and this it achieved well. So much so that the single occupant started tensely as a hum came from one end of the chamber. The metal door which began moving aside was as thick as her body-as if, she mused bitterly, they were afraid she might break through anything less ma.s.sive with her bare hands.

Straining to see outside, the girl saw several imperial guards a.s.sume positions just outside the doorway. Eyeing them defiantly, Leia Organa backed up against the far wall.

Her determined expression collapsed as soon as a monstrous black form entered the room, gliding smoothly as if on treads. Vader's presence crushed her spirit as thoroughly as an elephant would crush an eggsh.e.l.l. That villain was followed by an antiqued whip of a man who was only slightly less terrifying, despite his minuscule appearance alongside the Dark Lord.

Darth Vader made a gesture to someone outside. Something that hummed like a huge bee moved close and slipped inside the doorway. Leia choked on her own breath at the sight of the dark metal globe. It hung suspended on independent repulsors, a farrago of metal arms protruding from its sides. The arms were tipped with a mult.i.tude of delicate instruments.

Leia studied the contraption fearfully. She had heard rumors of such machines, but had never really believed that Imperial technicians would construct such a monstrosity. Incorporated into its soulless memory was every barbarity, every substantiated outrage known to mankind-and to several alien races as well.

Vader and Tarkin stood there quietly, giving her plenty of time to study the hovering nightmare. The Governor in particular did not delude himself into thinking that the mere presence of the device would shock her into giving up the information he needed. Not, he reflected, that the ensuing session would be especially unpleasant. There was always enlightenment and knowledge to be gained from such encounters, and the Senator promised to be a most interesting subject.

After a suitable interval had pa.s.sed, he motioned to the machine. "Now, Senator Organa, Princess Organa, we will discuss the location of the princ.i.p.al rebel base."

The machine moved slowly toward her, traveling on a rising hum. Its indifferent spherical form blocked out Vader, the Governor, the rest of the cell... the light...

m.u.f.fled sounds penetrated the cell walls and thick door, drifting out into the hallway beyond. They barely intruded on the peace and quiet of the walkway running past the sealed chamber. Even so, the guards stationed immediately outside managed to find excuses to edge a sufficient distance away to where those oddly modulated sounds could no longer be heard at all.

= VI =.

"LOOK over there, Luke," Ken.o.bi ordered, pointing to the southwest. The landspeeder continued to race over the gravelly desert floor beneath them. "Smoke, I should think."

Luke spared a glance at the indicated direction. "I don't see anything, sir."

"Let's angle over that way anyhow. Someone may be in trouble."

Luke turned the speeder. Before long the rising wisps of smoke that Ken.o.bi had somehow detected earlier became visible to him also.

Topping a slight rise, the speeder dropped down a gentle slope into a broad, shallow canyon that was filled with twisted, burned shapes, some of them inorganic, some not. Dead in the center of this carnage and looking like a beached metal whale lay the shattered hulk of a jawa sandcrawler.

Luke brought the speeder to a halt. Ken.o.bi followed him onto the sand, and together they began to examine the detritus of destruction.

Several slight depressions in the sand caught Luke's attention. Walking a little faster, he came up next to them and studied them for a moment before calling back to Ken.o.bi.

"Looks like the sandpeople did it, all right. Here's Bantha tracks..." Luke noticed a gleam of metal half buried in the sand.

"And there's a piece of one of those big double axes of theirs." He shook his head in confusion. "But I never heard of the Raiders. .h.i.tting something this big." He leaned back, staring up at the towering, burned-out bulk of the sandcrawler.

Ken.o.bi had pa.s.sed him. He was examining the broad, huge footprints in the sand. "They didn't," he declared casually, "but they intended that we-and anyone else who might happen onto this-should think so." Luke moved up alongside him.

"I don't understand, sir."

"Look at these tracks carefully," the older man directed him, pointing down at the nearest and then up at the others. "Notice anything funny about them?" Luke shook his head. "Whoever left here was riding Banthas side by side. Sandpeople always ride one Bantha behind another, single file, to hide their strength from any distant observers."

Leaving Luke to gape at the parallel sets of tracks, Ken.o.bi turned his attention to the sandcrawler. He pointed out where single weapons' bursts had blasted away portals, treads, and support beams. "Look at the precision with which this firepower was applied. Sandpeople aren't this accurate. In fact, no one on Tatooine fires and destroys with this kind of efficiency." Turning, he examined the horizon. One of those nearby bluffs concealed a secret-and a threat. "Only Imperial troops would mount an attack on a sand-crawler with this kind of cold accuracy."

Luke had walked over to one of the small, crumpled bodies and kicked it over onto its back. His face screwed up in distaste as he saw what remained of the pitiful creature.

"These are the same jawas who sold Uncle Owen and me Artoo and Threepio. I recognize this one's cloak design. Why would Imperial troops be slaughtering jawas and sandpeople? They must have killed some Raiders to get those Banthas." His mind worked furiously, and he found himself growing unnaturally tense as he stared back at the landspeeder, past the rapidly deteriorating corpses of the jawas.

"But... if they tracked the droids to the jawas, then they had to learn first who they sold them to. That would lead them back to..." Luke was sprinting insanely for the landspeeder.

"Luke, wait... wait, Luke!" Ken.o.bi called. "It's too dangerous! You'd never...!"

Luke heard nothing except the roaring in his ears, felt nothing save the burning in his heart. He jumped into the speeder and was throwing the accelerator full over almost simultaneously. In an explosion of sand and gravel he left Ken.o.bi and the two robots standing alone in the midst of smoldering bodies, framed by the still smoking wreck of the sandcrawler.

The smoke that Luke saw as he drew near the homestead was of a different consistency from that which had boiled out of the jawa machine. He barely remembered to shut down the landspeeder's engine as he popped the c.o.c.kpit canopy and threw himself out. Dark smoke was drifting steadily from holes in the ground.

Those holes had been his home, the only one he had ever known. They might as well have been throats of small volcanoes now. Again and again he tried to penetrate the surface entrances to the below-ground complex. Again and again the still-intense heat drove him back, coughing and choking.

Weakly he found himself stumbling clear, his eyes watering not entirely from the smoke. Half blinded, he staggered over to the exterior entrance to the garage. It too was burning. But perhaps they managed to escape in the other landspeeder.

"Aunt Beru... Uncle Owen!" It was difficult to make out much of anything through the eye-stinging haze. Two smoking shapes showed down the tunnel barely visible through tears and haze. They almost looked like-He squinted harder, wiping angrily at his uncooperative eyes.

No.

Then he was spinning away, falling to his stomach and burying his face in the sand so he wouldn't have to look anymore.

The tridimensional solid screen filled one wall of the vast chamber from floor to ceiling. It showed a million star systems. A tiny portion of the galaxy, but an impressive display nonetheless when exhibited in such a fashion.

Below, far below, the huge shape of Darth Vader stood flanked on one side by Governor Tarkin and on the other by Admiral Motti and General Tagge, their private antagonisms forgotten in the awesomeness of this moment.

"The final checkout is complete," Motti informed them. "All systems are operational." He turned to the others. "What shall be the first course we set?"

Vader appeared not to have heard as he mumbled softly, half to himself, "She has a surprising amount of control. Her resistance to the interrogator is considerable." He glanced down at Tarkin. "It will be some time before we can extract any useful information from her."

"I've always found the methods you recommend rather quaint, Vader."

"They are efficient," the Dark Lord argued softly. "In the interests of accelerating the procedure, however, I am open to your suggestions."

Tarkin looked thoughtful. "Such stubbornness can often be detoured by applying threats to something other than the one involved."

"What do you mean?"

"Only that I think it is time we demonstrated the full power of this station. We may do so in a fashion doubly useful." He instructed the attentive Motti, "Tell your programmers to set course for the Alderaan system."

Ken.o.bi's pride did not prevent him from wrapping an old scarf over nose and mouth to filter out a portion of the bonfire's drifting putrid odor. Though possessed of olfactory sensory apparatus, Artoo Detoo and Threepio had no need of such a screen. Even Threepio, who was equipped to discriminate among aromatic aesthetics, could be artifically selective when he so desired.

Working together, the two droids helped Ken.o.bi throw the last of the bodies onto the blazing pyre, then stood back and watched the dead continue to burn. Not that the desert scavengers wouldn't have been equally efficient in picking the burned-out sandcrawler clean of flesh, but Ken.o.bi retained values most modern men would have deemed archaic. He would consign no one to the bone-gnawers and gravel-maggots, not even a filthy jawa.

At a rising thrumming Ken.o.bi turned from the residue of the noisome business to see the landspeeder approaching, now traveling at a sensible pace, far different from when it had left. It slowed and hovered nearby, but showed no signs of life.