Seras little snippet thread

My name is Luke Skywalker, and today was going to be a great day.

I settled into the cockpit, flipping the controls. All green. It was ready. I had spent almost a year refitting, modifying, and repairing. Spending all my free time working on this broken old thing.

Before I started I could have assured you I would have had no idea how to fix a fucking T-16 Skyhopper. But I had just sat down with the tools and it wasn't a matter of knowing or not knowing.

Do or do not. So I did.

And so the Airspeeder had slowly come together. Slowly gathering parts from all over the desert, guided by instinct and dreams. Of course Uncle Owen constantly blew a gasket about me wasting time on it, but Aunt Beru was always there to calm him down, and so it had been allowed as long as it didn't impact my chores.

Honestly it wasn't that bad. For a normal kid the chores probably seemed pretty arduous, but for me, they were tiring but not too bad. It helped that I didn't have a lot of media, or entertainment out in the desert of Tatooine to distract myself with anyways.

So chores were something to do, and an excuse to close my eyes and feel instead of think. My eyes could deceive me. So I didn't trust them.

I opened my eyes now and I wasn't on the farm elbow deep in a moisture vaporator. I was in the cockpit ready for takeoff.

Of course, I hadn't told Uncle Owen it was ready for a test flight. No way he would have let me, and likely would have gone up himself first, but I felt it.

This was mine. My moment to fly. So I trusted my instincts, trusted the Force.

I flipped the final switch, my hands having moved over the dash choking the engine, starting the compressor, activating the fuel line and it all lit up green and as I pushed down the engine rumbled to life.

Smoother than it ever had before. Smoother than an engine right off the line. I had done miracles with this equipment. Known how to connect power lines, and what to bypass to create a T-16 that would fly better than anyone would expect.

All because I had learned the lesson from my Father.

From the moment I had realized where I was. Who I was. I had picked up every piece of tech I could find and worked on it. Took it apart, put it back together, and even as a toddler tried to let the force guide my hand.

I wasn't a Jedi, but the Force? The force was strong in me, just like it was strong in my father.

I hit the gas even as I felt Uncle Owen running towards the hangar. And the acceleration kicked me into the back of my seat even with the dampeners. Oh yeah. This wasn't just any old T-16, this was a Skywalkers T-16, and it moved like it.

But that was all forgotten as in a single instant I went from controlling a ship to being one with the air and sky.

I shifted, catching a thermal rising off the sand with my left wing, meaning that instead of jolting me and hitting turbulence I jerked up into a spin actually gaining altitude despite the acrobatics, and then I was off. I danced along the dunes, sliding through ancient rock arches, and hit the gas even more.

I was soon redlining the engine, but I felt it. She was good to keep going. Good for more. I danced in the air, testing out my girl's wings, feeling how far she could be pushed, and what she liked and disliked, and all the while she spoke to me. Whispered when to adjust throttle or when to gun it.

It was perfect. A moving meditation that left me out of my body. The metal panels were my skin, the wings my arms, and the engine my legs. There was no Luke, no T-16, just Skywalker.

I felt it. I realized where I had unconsciously taken myself. I dialed in the frequency to the old droid comm center.

There wasn't much entertainment out on Tatooine, but if you get a bunch of teenagers together inevitably they will figure something out. There was a small comm hut at the entrance of Beggars Canyon. Left alone besides one thing. It was keyed in to accept race times from the locals looking to prove their skills.

*This is Skywalker. Beggars Canyon run clearance.* I spoke as I dived down towards the entrance location.

*Confirmed: Course Clear. Run Begins at start location.* The binary that chirped back at me was all I needed.

I pulled out of my dive, already going faster than what was normal for a T-16, and then I was over the comm hut, and the race began.

But I didn't think about time, or speed. I simply moved. Left and right, my body only barely pressured by the G forces thanks to the dampeners working overtime. Even as I ran the course with only centimeters between my wingtip and the edge of the canyon I didn't slow down. I spun entirely to shift another direction, the spin not even causing my hands to shake, so out of touch I was from my body.

And as the suns of Tatooine bore down on me, as I burst from Beggars canyon without a scratch on my flesh… Other than the small scraping against the right wing I had done in turn sixteen, the minor damage was worth not losing speed after all. I felt it.

The suns cheered, the winds whispered my name, and the planet itself rang out in pleasure, a symphony only I could hear.

Skywalker! Skywalker!

—--

"Okay so let's be honest. This is not the worst thing you ever caught me doing." I answered a bit cheekily, as my boots stomped onto the hangar. I shouldn't have said it, but my body was absolutely in a rush, and that always made me cheeky instead of apologetic.

Uncle Owen glared down at me with a look promising months of busy work whenever I so much as looked away from my chores.

"Luke. Go to your room." He growled, and I nodded at his orders. It was worth it, I thought, and my face must have shown it, because his glare went from furious to something else. "You aren't hurt?"

"No Uncle." I confirmed as I skittered past him, doing my best to stay out of reach. Uncle Owen didn't hit me, but I had earned a smarting ass a few times when I did something stupid… Like taking apart the speeder the day before delivery day.

It wasn't my fault! I hadn't known the delivery day was moved up!

"Luke! My, you're alive!" Aunt Beru hit me like a missile and I realized I was in real trouble, because her hug instantly turned into a pinch on my ear. "What were you thinking! Are you out of your mind! You are twelve! Flying out on your own is one thing, doing it on an untested Airspeeder!" She hissed at me, all the scarier than anything Uncle Owen could come up.

Because she was disappointed for all her fury, and I slumped.

The force whispered in my ear that it was needed. That the flight was joyous. That something out there had missed flying together with a Skywalker.

But having an almost religious moment was kind of ruined by my very real Aunt looking half way between yelling and crying over my actions.

This was very 'Sand Fish on the Water Vaporator.' Which sounded way better in Huttese but I kinda liked translating into basic to see the look of disgust on peoples face for butchering the common saying.

—--

"You clean the Vaporator?"

"Spotless Uncle Owen. I'm doing the power cables now. One of them is shorting out, I think the Jawa gave us damaged cable. I'm checking it now." I confirmed as I looked up from doing just that.

Uncle Owen glared at me over his nose as if sniffing out if I was causing trouble. Not seeing any he finally nodded.

"Then you aren't doing anything that can't sit. Go to Anchorhead, and pick up some things for your Aunt." He called out and I perked up as I realized what that meant!

"Really!?"

"Don't make me waste water repeating myself! Go on! Get ready! We'll get some use out of that monster you built if nothing else."

I didn't cheer. I really really didn't cheer, because if I did, then my month grounding wouldn't end. Instead I got up, brushed myself off and headed inside at a reasonable speed that wasn't running so I wouldn't get yelled at for that, and gathered up everything I would need for a trip into Anchorhead.

This was going to be the best adventure ever!