Part 6 (1/2)
Obi-Wan sighed ”I'm sorry, Owen But as I told you, I need to make sure that the boy is -”
”Wait,” Owen interrupted ”My wife and I are the ones raising Luke, right? That's e agreed to? ”
Obi-Wan nodded as he wondered where the conver-sation was going
Owen said, ”Well, I didn't agree to you checking on us daily, let alone twice a day I don'tTuskens offhere so often is just a bad idea!”
Keeping his voice calm, Obi-Wan said, ”Owen, I assure you, I don't question your ability to handle the Tuskens But as we've already discussed, it's not the Tuskens I'ht,” Owen said ”It's the E” Oed hard before he continued ”If you're so concerned about the child's well being, why don't you try staying away from us? Didn't you ever think ould happen to Luke if the E in my backyard?”
Owen's words left Obi-Wan moive ht I'll be more careful More discreet”
”That's a start,” Owen said ”Again, I don't mean any disrespect, b u tmy wife and I can't raise Luke in any ordinary way if we know you're always lurking about Understand?”
”Yes,” Obi-Wan said He expected -ht, Owen”
Owen nodded once again, then turned and headed for the entry douided the creature back across the desert
Obi-Wan continued to reater distances and without any obvious routine He had no reason to remain in the hovel near the Lars homestead, so like the transient who had lived there pre-viously, Obi-Wan htly more spacious derelict structure in the Jundland Wastes, a small, doe of the Dune Sea Like so s on Tatooine, it was made of synstone, a mixture of crushed local rock and dissolvants that could be cast into almost any shape The hut was approximately 136 kilometers from the Lars homestead - farther than Obi-Wan would have preferred, but probably still too close to satisfy Owen Lars From what Obi-Wan could see, no one had lived in the hut for a very long time An old moisture vaporator stood beside it Obi-Wan checked to see if the vaporator worked It didn't
To confirm whether the hut was indeed abandoned, Obi-Wan traveled to the property bureau in Tatooine's capital city, Bestine Inside the bureau, on the wall beside the inforraphic map of Tatooine Obi-Wan's eyes happened to fall on a broad, flat-topped mountain that the map identified as Ben's Mesa
That sounds fa who had been on the saht him to the sand planet
An antique, oval-faced droid clerk wobbled up behind the inforh tarnished photoreceptors and said, ”May I help you, Mister - ”
”Ben,” Obi-Wan replied flatly ”I'm interested in a piece of property The location coordinates are Alpha-1733-Mu-9033”
The droid clerk turned his photoreceptors to a data-bank monitor and entered the coordinates A moment later, he replied, ”There are no filed claims or liens for the property at Alpha-1733-Mu-9033, Mr Ben”
Not sure he understood, Obi-Wan said, ”In other words, the place is available?”
”No one lives there,” the droid answered curtly ”No one wants to live in the Jundland Wastes” But then the droid's headsound as it evalu-ated the situation, and added, ”Do you want to file a clai a claiainst it, knowing that he had a better chance ofa secret presence on Tatooine if he stayed off of any official records ”No, thanks,” Obi-Wan said as he moved toward the exit ”I think the property should remain as it is”
”As you wish, sir,” said the droid, not really caring one way or the other
Obi-Wan's next stop was a hardware shop, where he usedcredits to buy all the tools and supplies that he could afford and his eopie could carry
Excluding the hovel he had lived in during his first weeks on Tatooine, Obi-Wan had never inhabited a place by hireat duration Like most Jedi, he had livedin an area on a world where even the most basic supplies were difficult to obtain, he was hardly prepared for the work required to restore the abandoned hut But while he monitored Luke over thethe hut as livable as possible He had no idea how long he ht reside on Tatooine, but he wouldn't be a very useful Jedi if the roof over his head ca a various creatures, includ-ing his own eopie, Obi-Wan learned where to gather berries and vegetables By watching womp rats and other omnivores, he also determined which animals were edible His Jedi reflexes enabled hied rodents called scurriers as eas-ily asfrom its primal root puddle But if he had to choose, he pre-ferred the taste of gorgs
For all of Obi-Wan's self-sufficient achieves he simply couldn't do on his own He required special tools and materials to fix and clean thearea, and the water cistern in the cellar He was fortunate that a passing clan of Jawa traders took notice of him one day and parked their massive sand-crawler near his hut Evidently, the e man who had moved to the Jundland Wastes, and were i as he had The Jaere happy to share their tools and some spare supplies with Obi-Wan, especially after he offered to share soained favor with this clan after he noticed three young Jawas had taken a liking to his eopie, which he encouraged theift fro at the sandcrawler to convey that he would be happy to give Obi-Wan rides to the cities or settlements, which was exactly what the Jedi had hoped he would do After all, Obi-Wan no longer required an eopie on a daily basis, and sandcrawlers traveled faster
”Thank you, ht take you up on that offer Please, callthe Jawas, Obi-Wan rode with them to Anchorhead, a wind-scoured settlement about twenty kilometers east of the Lars ho post, with about a dozen pourstone stores and two ss was Tosche Station, which supplied energy to most of the area moisture farms Obi-Wan had told the Jawas that he was in search of either parts or a replacement for his hut's et it working properly, but he had another reason forthe Force, he had anticipated that Luke was heading into Anchorhead with his aunt and uncle
Obi-Wan was in one of the cantinas, The Weary Traveler, having a drink of water as he watched Owen, Beru, and Luke They were at the provisions store across the street fro that she wore over her chest Obi-Wan had been careful to position hilad to see they all looked healthy and happy
The cantina had an old hyperwave repeater that was broadcasting intermittent HoloNet displays of recent news reports froht he heard a female HoloNet reporter say the word ”Jedi”
Obi-Wan looked to the cantina's HoloNet display, but a sudden burst of static interrupted the broadcast He turned to hu?”
”Band of Jedi were killed on Kashyyyk,” the ht
The broadcast resu a rebellion Imperial forces not only killed the unidentified Jedi but also thousands of Wookiees Hundreds of thousands more Wookiees had been iht of the slain Jedi What were they thinking? They should have gone into hiding, not drawn attention to themselves! Couldn't they foresee ould happen to the Wookiees?
The HoloNet display squawked and flickered again, then displayed an iure, soh the audio transes conveyed that this ar down and executing the Jedi
Then Obi-Wan heard the reporter say the nalass of water later, Obi-Wan picked up his rucksack and staggered out of the cantina Although he had not forgotten that he had coer focused on staying out of sight frohts were on Vader
He couldn't believe it Somehow, Anakin had sur-vived the duel on Mustafar, and had resumed his Sith title of Darth Vader Obi-Wan had concealed his light-saber beneath his robes, and as he walked along Anchorhead's ers wrapped around the weapon protectively
Did I drive Anakin deeper into the dark side by abandoning hiain?
If I did, could I kill hi Luke as she walked beside Owen,from one store to the next Fortunately, there were a few dozen other people walking about, and Owen and Beru were still unaware of Obi-Wan's presence But as Obi-Wan's eyes locked onto the Lars family, the Jedi felt more uneasy than ever
Should I warn them about Vader? Should I take Luke away from them? Hide him away on an even more remote world?
Obi-Wan had been trained to be fearless But as he thought of Luke's safety, he was almost overwhelmed by the anxiety that swept over him And then, fro not through his ears, but directly into his thoughts - that caused hi the voice immediately, Obi-Wan stopped in his tracks ”Qui-Gon ! Master!”
Obi-Wan was suddenly, acutely aware that anyone on the streetto be branded as a lunatic, he quickly h he had many questions for Qui-Gon, the HoloNet broadcast prompted him to first ask, ”Master, is Darth Vader Anakin?”
”Yes,” Qui-Gon's voice replied ”Although the Anakin you and I knew is imprisoned by the dark side”
Standing in the alley, Obi-Wan scowled ”I rong to leave him on Mustafar I should have made sure he was dead”
”The Force will determine Anakin's future Obi-Wan: Luke must not be told that Vader is his father until the tiht”
”Should I take further steps to hide Luke?”