Only For A Season: Chapter 16: Seeds of Rebellion

Only For A Season

Chapter 16

Seeds of Rebellion

     Nearly a year passed before Luke came to grips with his loss and his life as it was now. He had managed to rebuild his skyhopper within a matter of months, compulsively overhauling the whole thing, working mostly at night, tweaking it to make it go as fast as it could go. That was surprisingly easy to do once he had removed most of the build in safety precautions; Luke no longer cared about safety, only the pursuit of speed, providing freedom from his own mind and the weight of his pain.
    Naturally Owen hadn’t liked the new change in Luke’s priorities, but Luke didn’t care. The break between him and Owen remained an open and deepening wound. Luke no longer wanted anything of this place or this way of life, but he recognized that he was trapped here. There was no way out that Luke could see. His only escape was flying the Skyhopper full throttle, which Luke did with complete abandon.
    He learned to trust absolutely in his most reckless instincts as a pilot, and as a result he did the impossible on a routine basis. He was also, reluctantly, drawn back into teenage life as it revolved around racing and Tosche Station, but there was always a part of him that felt restless and unfulfilled.

    A year to the day after their deaths Luke laid flowers at the spot where Breanna and Anna rested. The flowers were the same blend of purple, red, and white that Annalis had procured for the wedding; she had made sure to find Luke on the streets of Anchorhead several days beforehand so she could give them to him.
    Her smile then had been more kindly than Luke had ever remembered.
    “I know it was the happiest day of her life,” she had whispered to him. “That’s how she should be remembered.”
    Luke had nodded and thanked her, genuinely touched.
    “They’re beautiful,” he had whispered, trying very hard to keep his feelings in check.
    It was hard for him to remember that day; they had both been so happy. But when he caught the scent of the apple blossoms he had failed miserably at keeping control over his emotions.
    Annalis had been kind, hugging him tight while Luke stood silently for a handful of heartbeats, just long enough to regain his composure, then letting him step back.
    “Thank you, Annalis,” he had whispered, his head bowed. She had nodded and wiped her eyes, understanding. Luke had loved Breanna deeply, and his emotions were still very close to the surface.
    Annalis had given his forearm a reassuring squeeze, then left him to rejoin Cairina; judging by the swell of her belly Cairina and Britt were soon expecting a second child.... Luke had smiled, for no other reason than he suspected that Brea would have found that news pleasing and hopeful, and he watched the two women walk away arm in arm as they gave one another comfort.
    A couple of days after that exchange, on the anniversary of their deaths, Luke spent most of the afternoon sitting silently at the site where a year earlier he had planned to build a home. The desert had erased most signs of his preparations, the supplies he had gathered had since been used for other purposes or bartered away, but Luke could still see it the way it had been a year ago, like a ghost rising from the afternoon shadows.
    He had not been the only visitor here today, so the sound of an approaching speeder hardly drew Luke’s interest or curiosity until the heavy footsteps came to a halt just behind him, and Luke heard a voice he hadn’t heard in three years.
    “I’m sorry, Luke,” Biggs offered, casting a long shadow over Luke and the grave.
    Luke stood and embraced his friend without hesitation... his best and only friend. Luke loved Biggs like a brother, but Luke had a hard time looking him in the eye when they stood back from one another. He remembered the last thing Biggs had said to Luke before he had left: “take good care of her.”
    “I failed them, Biggs,” Luke whispered. He hadn’t said those words to anyone else over the past year, but Luke knew they were true. He had failed in his responsibility to keep them safe, and now they were dead.
    Biggs said nothing for a long moment. Luke could see from the troubled expression on his friend’s face that something was very wrong.
    “Luke, I–” Biggs stammered with an uncertainty that Luke had never before heard in his confident voice, “I think I might be responsible for this.”
    “What?” Luke breathed.
    “I was running my mouth about you, Hotshot, to some friends of mine. A couple officers who overheard me started acting real strange after they heard the name, Skywalker. Then a few months later, my buddies made a wrong move. They were– captured and interrogated.” Biggs swallowed hard. “But I swear, I don’t know why any of that should have meant anything way out here.”
    “My uncle knows,” Luke spat bitterly, taking a seat on the hard ground. “He won’t tell me.”
    Biggs sat beside him and removed a flask from his inside pocket. Luke waved it away, but Biggs insisted. Luke turned up the flask and let the liquid burn through his insides.
    “Hey, easy!” Biggs said in surprise as he grabbed the flask back and took a smaller drought for himself. “What are you going to do now?”
    Luke shook his head. “What choice do I have? I’ll stay here. I’ll probably live and die here.”
    “There’s always another choice, Luke,” Biggs whispered.
    When Luke looked back to him Biggs had pulled a piece of paper from the same pocket that had held the flask. Luke’s eyes blazed with comprehension as he read the words.
    “It’s the Empire,” he hissed.
    “It’s a way out, Luke. It’s the only way off this dustheap of a planet, and you know it.”
    Luke shook his head. “I can’t. I won’t be a part of it.”
    “Luke,” Biggs took hold of his friend’s arm, “there are other alternatives, but you have to be in a position to see them.”
    Luke flinched. He saw something in Biggs’s face that he had never seen before: a realization of something greater than himself. “The Rebellion.”
    Biggs’s eyes dropped for a split second, giving Luke his answer and confirming the danger in what Luke had just put into words.
    “Those friends I told you about, they convinced me to stay in for another year, long enough to make a few contacts so I can eventually jump ship and join up with the Alliance. They didn’t make it, but I’m still going through with the plan.” Biggs shoved the application into Luke’s hand. “We can’t do anything about the Empire out here. But there are people who can, and they need help. I was talking to some folks in Anchorhead, sympathetic to the Alliance. They desperately need good pilots who are willing to take a risk for something that matters.”
    Luke looked at the paper, then back to the grave site in front of him as he tried to reconcile the two sides. Applying to the Academy would betray them, but it might also bring them justice and give Luke answers.
    After several minutes’ silence Biggs’s hand found his shoulder. “It was too short, but at least you were a husband and a father to them for a season.”
    “Only a season,” Luke whispered numbly.
    “More than a lot of people ever get,” Biggs responded with a pained smile. A few moments later he squeezed Luke’s shoulder in a gesture of comfort and encouragement. Then he stood.
    The two friends hugged again. “I’ll keep looking for you, Hotshot.”
    Luke nodded, his decision made. “I’ll make it, Biggs. You just take care of yourself until then.”
    Biggs gave him a determined nod. “Then the Empire’s days will really be numbered,” he vowed, a sharp, determined glint coming to light in his steely green eyes.
    Biggs returned to his speeder and took off for Anchorhead. Luke stood still until Biggs’s speeder had disappeared into the distance, then he looked down at the application sheet in his hand. He knew he was about to walk into the biggest fight he and Owen had ever or would ever have.... Then he returned to the grave site. As the suns set a year after their deaths, he told Brea about his plans.
    “I know my destiny is no longer here,” he confessed. Maybe it never had been, a little voice in the corner of Luke’s mind admitted. “But I’ll make you proud,” he promised her. Then he smiled, remembering. “I never had to do anything to make you proud. You loved me as I am, and that made me better than I thought I could be. I won’t forget that,” he whispered and stood. But everything else, he would forget; it was the only way for him to move forward, the only way for him to do what he had to do....
    It would be two years before Biggs would defect from the Imperial fleet and join up with the Rebel Alliance, and Luke’s life would change again, forever, with two droids, a hologram image of a beautiful princess who needed his help, and the legacy of his father’s lightsaber. But Luke knew on that day, without any doubt, that he would leave Tatooine. He would go to the Academy, and then he would bide his time until he could find a way to join the Rebellion against the Empire.
    Then he would do everything in his power to help them destroy the Empire.

~ ~

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