Star Wars - The Rise and Fall of Darth Vader Page 3

  Anakin and C-3PO met the Jawas in the shadow of the sandcrawler beside Mochot Steep, a singular rock formation about halfway across the Dune Sea. C-3PO proved to be a capable translator by helping Anakin negotiate with the Jawas, who were sometimes known to barter damaged goods. When the trading was done, Anakin had acquired two mechanic droids, three serviceable multipurpose droids, and a damaged hyperdrive converter that needed only minor repairs.

  Heading back to Mos Espa, Anakin was guiding the droid-loaded speeder through the Xelric Draw, a shallow, widemouthed canyon near the edge of the Dune Sea, when he sighted something. It was a shadowy shape that seemed out of place at the base of the rocky canyon's walls. As Anakin veered toward the area that had attracted his attention, C-3PO became nervous and fixed his one working eye on his maker.

  "Master Anakin, whatever are you doing?" C-3PO said with concern. "Mos Espa is down the canyon draw, not through the side of the - oh, my! Is that what I think it is?" C-3PO had sighted the shape too, and because he'd learned about the more dangerous life-forms on Tatooine, he didn't like what he saw. "Master, there is every reason to turn right around..."

  "I know," Anakin interrupted. "I just want a look."

  Anakin brought the speeder to a stop near the cliff wall. A pile of rocks rested below the wall, and under the rocks lay a motionless, humanoid body, with one leg pinned beneath a large boulder. The body wore a tan robe, leather gloves, and boots. It was sprawled facedown, head turned to one side, allowing Anakin to see the cloth-wrapped head, its face concealed by goggles and a breath mask. A long, dual-handled blaster rifle lay about a meter away from one oustretched arm.

  Anakin had heard enough about Tusken Raiders to know what they looked like. But he'd never seen one up close before.

  From the speeder, Anakin surveyed the cliff wall's gouged, broken surface. He easily imagined that the Tusken had been hiding somewhere above when the rocks that had supported him gave way, sending him crashing to the canyon floor. Anakin climbed out of the speeder for a closer look.

  C-3PO's skeletal form trembled. "Master Anakin, I don't think this is a good idea at all!"

  As Anakin approached, the Tusken stirred, raising his head to look at Anakin, then lowered his head again.

  He's still alive! From everything Anakin had heard about Tuskens, he knew it would be best to leave immediately. If he stuck around, more Tuskens might arrive. If he was late getting back to Mos Espa or failed to return with the droids and speeder, Watto would be furious. As C-3PO protested behind him, Anakin thought of his mother. He knew she'd be worried, but he wondered, Would she tell me to get out of here too? What would she say, if she were here?

  "Threepio," he called to the nervous droid, "bring the other droids over here."

  * * *

  It took the combined strength of the various droids and the weight of the speeder to rig a lever that could tilt the boulder enough so Anakin could pull the now-unconscious Tusken free. Taking supplies from the speeder's medical kit, Anakin applied a quick-seal splint to freeze the Tusken's injured leg, which was broken in several places.

  Tatooine's suns began to set. Anakin knew he'd never reach Mos Espa by nightfall, and he didn't want to risk traveling across the desert in the darkness. After doing his best to conceal the speeder and the newly purchased droids under the lee of a cliff face, Anakin sat beside C-3PO. Illuminated by a small glow unit they'd removed from the speeder, they were watching the Tusken Raider when he awoke. The Tusken lay on the sand, staring at Anakin through the opaque lenses of his goggles, then slowly raised himself to sit upright, taking care not to shift his injured leg.

  "Uh, hello," Anakin said, hoping his voice sounded friendly.

  The Tusken did not respond.

  "Are you thirsty?"

  Again, no response.

  C-3PO leaned his one-eyed head closer to Anakin and said in a low voice, "I don't think he likes us very much."

  The Tusken's head turned slightly. Anakin realized the Tusken had spotted his own blaster rifle, which Anakin had propped against some rocks beyond the Tusken's reach. Then the Tusken returned his gaze to Anakin.

  Several minutes later, the Tusken spoke. Anakin didn't understand the snarled words, so he turned to C-3PO. The droid translated, "He wants to know what you are going to do with him, Master Anakin."

  Confused, Anakin looked back at the Tusken. "Tell him I'm not going to do anything with him. I'm just trying to help him get well."

  The Tusken didn't reply, but Anakin sensed he was afraid. Because nearly everyone believed Tusken Raiders to be fearless, Anakin was surprised. Why's he afraid of me? It not afraid of him. Then Anakin thought with some surprise, I'm not afraid of anything.

  But as Anakin stared at the Tusken's masked face, he saw his own reflection in the lenses of the Tusken's gogeles and shuddered slightly. He had heard that Tuskens never took off their masks or bared their flesh, and the thought of his entire body being so completely enveloped, sealed off so that he'd be unable to feel anything - not even the touch of my mother's hand - made Anakin suddenly realize a painful truth: Although he was never afraid for himself, he was sometimes very afraid for his mother.

  What if I were to lose her? How brave would I be then?

  Anakin continued watching the Tusken until he fell asleep.

  * * *

  Anakin Skywalker had many dreams that night. In one dream, he was no longer nine years old. He was a man. And not just any man, but a Jedi Knight with a lightsaber.

  He ran through the streets of Mos Espa, looking for the few slavers who'd escaped him. His mission was to liberate all the slaves on Tatooine. For too long, slavers in the Outer Rim had believed themselves immune from the laws of the Galactic Republic. Anakin was going to change all that. He called out, "Release the slaves now and no harm will come to you!"

  In the buildings that lined the streets of Mos Espa, some tenants leaned out of their windows and cheered for Anakin. Even though he' d deactivated his lightsaber's blade, most of the slavers were scared by the sight of him and his weapon, and surrendered when they saw him. Anakin gave them some credit for knowing better than to take on a Jedi.

  A shadow snaked across the curved exterior of a nearby building. By the angle of the shadow, Anakin quickly determined that it was cast by a humanoid alien from atop a neighboring building's roof. From above and behind, Anakin heard the click of a blaster's safety mechanism being switched off. He thought, Aha! A slaver who doesn 't know better!

  Anakin's lightsaber ignited with a loud hum as he spun to look up at the roof, just in time to see the alien squeeze his blaster's trigger. Before the fired laserbolt could reach Anakin's chest, he swung hard with his lightsaber and smashed the bolt back at his attacker. The alien clutched at his shoulder and fell from the roof, landing with a loud thud on the sand-covered street. The dust was still settling when Anakin heard a woman's voice calling his name.

  Anakin turned to see the woman. It was his mother, dressed in her rough work clothes. Anakin deactivated his lightsaber and said, "I came back, Mom! Like I promised! You're free!"

  His mother smiled and opened her arms to Anakin. He ran to embrace her, but before he could reach her, she vanished. He was still clutching at the air where she'd been standing when he was suddenly surrounded by Sand People.

  * * *

  Anakin awoke with a start. Just as they had appeared in his dream, a group of Sand People now encircled him, silhouetted against the predawn sky. They carried blaster rifles and long gaffi sticks, double-edged axlike weapons made from metal scavenged from wrecked or abandoned vehicles. Anakin was completely at their mercy.

  As he wondered what the Sand People would do to him, Anakin heard a guttural muttering from nearby. Beyond the group that stood around him, more Sand People were lifting and carrying away the Tusken that he'd rescued. The injured Tusken was the one who'd spoken, and his words caused the other Tuskens to slowly back away from Anakin.

  Within seconds, all the Sand People were gone, l
eaving Anakin unharmed. Maybe they were grateful to me for helping their friend. Maybe the Tuskens aren't so awful after all.

  "Master Anakin, they've gone!" C-3PO cried as he stepped away from his position beside the speeder, where he'd been hiding. "Oh, we're lucky to be alive! Thank goodness they didn't harm you!"

  Anakin stood up and looked around. The speeder and the other droids were where he'd left them, but the injured Tusken's blaster rifle was gone. The only evidence of his encounter with the Sand People was the depleted contents of the speeder's medical kit and their footprints in the sand.

  It's almost like the whole thing never happened, As the twin suns began to rise and the stars faded from the brightening sky, Anakin decided it was time to head home.

  * * *

  His return to Mos Espa went as Anakin expected. After he'd snuck C-3PO back to Slave Quarters Row, his worried mother had nearly smothered him in hugs. When he delivered the droids to Watto, the angry Toydarian nearly lost his voice after bellowing reprimands for several minutes. Watto calmed down a bit after seeing the quality of the droids that Anakin had obtained from the Jawas, but by the end of the day, nothing had really changed. Tatooine was still a harsh, lawless world, and Anakin was still a slave.

  The following day, however, something remarkable happened. That was the day a Naboo starship landed on Tatooine, and Anakin's life was forever changed.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  It was midday in Mos Espa, and Anakin was cleaning fan switches in Watto's junkyard when his master loudly summoned him into the junk shop to watch the store. Inside, Watto was talking with a tall, bearded man who was dressed like a farmer; the man was accompanied by a rubbery-jointed humanoid alien with mottled skin and eyes on the top of his head, a girl dressed in rough peasant clothes, and a dome-headed, blue astro-mech droid.

  While the tall man and the astromech followed the hovering Watto to the scrap yard to look at engine parts, Anakin hitched himself up onto the counter that snaked through the shop and studied the girl. She had delicate features, her skin too perfect for a peasant. She appeared to be a few years older than him, and Anakin found himself unable to take his eyes off her.

  "Are you an angel?" he blurted out.

  She smiled - his heart soared - and said, "What?"

  "An angel," he responded as she stepped closer to him. "I've heard the deep space pilots talk about them. They are the most beautiful creatures in the universe. They live on the Moons of lego, I think."

  "You're a funny little boy," she said sweetly. "How do you know so much?"

  "I listen to all the traders and starpilots who come through here. I'm a pilot, you know, and someday, I'm going to fly away from this place."

  "You're a pilot?" she said, as if she found it hard to believe.

  "Mm-hmm. All my life."

  "How long have you been here?"

  "Since I was very little, three, I think. My mom and I were sold to Gardulla the Hutt, but she lost us, betting on the Podraces."

  Sounding surprised and alarmed, the girl said, "You're a slave?"

  Even though the girl had assumed correctly, Anakin didn't like being called a slave, and he felt stung by her question. "I'm a person" he said, glaring at her, "and my name is Anakin!"

  "I'm sorry. I don't fully understand," the girl replied, and Anakin sensed she meant it. Unable to hold his gaze, she glanced around the shop's interior, as if seeking answers from the assorted scrap that lined the walls. "This is a strange place to me."

  Anakin remembered his own arrival to Tatooine, and had to admit that he'd found it strange too. He tried to ignore the clumsy, mottled-skinned alien while he continued talking with the girl for a few more minutes, until the tall man and the astromech returned with Watto. The man announced that his group was leaving, and Anakin felt heartsick as the girl walked out the door.

  After Watto gave Anakin permission to leave the shop, the boy caught up with the three outlanders and the astromech. When they learned a sandstorm was approaching, Anakin persuaded them to take temporary refuge in his home, where he introduced them to his mother and C-3PO. He discovered that the man was a Jedi Knight named Qui-Gon Jinn, the girl was fourteen-year-old Padmé Naberrie, the clumsy alien was a Gungan named Jar Jar Binks, and the astromech was R2-D2. When R2-D2 observed that the protocol droid, devoid of exterior plating, appeared to be naked, C-3PO became quite embarrassed.

  Anakin had suspected that Qui-Gon Jinn was a Jedi even before the man admitted it in so many words. He had spotted Qui-Gon's lightsaber dangling from his belt on their way to Anakin's home, and he couldn't help wondering if Qui-Gon had come to Tatooine to free the slaves. Although Qui-Gon revealed few details about himself, Anakin could tell that he was a good and honorable man, the kind that had always been in short supply in Anakin's upbringing. Anakin admired the way Qui-Gon held himself with quiet confidence. When Jar Jar Binks made the mistake of using his own long tongue to snatch up a piece of food from the dining table, Anakin was both amused and amazed to see Qui-Gon's hand flash out with lightning speed to seize the Gungan's darting tongue with his thumb and forefinger.

  "Don't do that again," Qui-Gon said with some severity before he released his grip and Jar Jar's tongue snapped back into his mouth.

  Anakin thought, Wizard! Suddenly, he found himself wishing that Qui-Gon would teach him how to be a Jedi. But because Anakin had experienced enough disappointments in his life, it was difficult for him to imagine this could ever happen.

  While Anakin and his mother sat with their new friends around the dining table, he told them of his dreams of becoming a Jedi. He learned that Padmé was a handmaiden to Queen Amidala of the planet Naboo, and that Qui-Gon had been escorting the queen and her entourage on an important mission to the planet Coruscant when their starship had been damaged, and they were forced to land on Tatooine without funds for the necessary repairs. Hoping to help, Anakin explained that a big Podrace, the Boonta Eve Classic, was scheduled for the following day. He volunteered to enter the race, which offered prize money that would more than pay for the parts they needed.

  "Anakin!" Shmi protested. "Watto won't let you."

  "Watto doesn't know I've built it." Turning to Qui-Ton he said, "You could make him think it was yours, and get him to let me pilot it for you.

  Although Padmé liked this idea about as much as Shmi did, Anakin was confident his plan - as well as his secret Podracer - would work.

  * * *

  The Boonta Eve Classic was the most dangerous race Anakin had ever flown in. It was a vicious, free-for-all competition, and more than one racer became victim to the high-speed turns, rocky obstacles, and dirty tricks of their dastardly adversaries.

  The race's start had been difficult for Anakin. When he'd gunned his Podracer's engines at the starting signal, his turbines went dead, and he almost felt sick as he peered through his goggles.to see the other pilots blasting off across the Starlite Flats, leaving him gasping in their dust. He'd lost precious seconds as he struggled with his controls, but when he finally managed to make the Radon-Ulzers fire, he threw his vehicle forward and launched out of Mos Espa Arena at top speed.

  Soaring through the twisting chasms and over broad fiats, Anakin managed to catch up with the other Podracers during the first lap. As the towering rock formations that dotted Mushroom Mesa whipped past him, he caught the scent of burning fuel a split second before he saw the scattered, smoking remains of the green-engined Pod that had been piloted by a Gran named Mawhonic. Somehow, he knew in his gut that Sebulba was responsible for the crash, and had no illusions that the Gran had survived.

  Gripping his controls, Anakin gnashed his teeth and thought, I'm not going to die like that!

  Anakin progressed at furious speed, maneuvering past several competitors as he sent his Podracer faster through the Boonta's exotic-named perils of Jag Crag Gorge, Laguna Caves, and Bindy Bend. While other pilots slowed slightly to negotiate the notoriously twisty chasm known as the Corkscrew, Anakin maintained a steady high speed
until he arrived at Devil's Doorknob, a passage so narrow that pilots were required to flip their vehicles on their sides to travel through it. With expert skill beyond his years, he flipped his Pod to launch out of Devil's Doorknob, then accelerated to even greater speed over the broad expanse of the dead-sea bed known as Hutt Flats. Moments later, Mos Espa Arena came into view, and then he hurtled past the crowds who'd watched his delayed departure only minutes earlier.

  There were still two laps to go.

  Anakin knew he was rapidly gaining on the leading racers. As his Pod shot out of Beggar's Canyon, he caught sight of Mars Guo far up ahead, just behind Sebulba. Suddenly, one of Mars Guo's engines exploded, and a moment later, his Pod was flying in all directions. Anakin plunged his own Pod dangerously close to the around in a desperate effort to evade the fiery, airborne debris, but one large chunk of stray metal struck the steelton control cable that linked his Pod to his starboard engine. The control cable broke free, and Anakin's pod now linked only to the port engine - began spinning out of control.