This is as far as I've gotten.  There is a gratuitious Luke/Boba Fett scene 
that is floating around and isn't willing to be a part of this. 
It's pure, cheap jedi-abuse. 

**** 



The Jedi paused in the forward compartment, waiting for the kaf to brew. 

//Luke.// 

Luke startled awake, his head still pillowed on his lover's 
chest.  //Master?// 

//When Captain Solo goes on duty, I need you for saber drill in 
the forward compartment.// 

//Yes, Master.// 

//Go back to sleep, padawan.  I trust your reunion went well.// 

Luke sent a drowsy chuckle along the bond and snuggled closer.  The ship was 
chilly, but Han put out a lot of warmth.  In more ways than one, he thought 
contentedly, drifting back to sleep. 

Han woke on his side, curled around someone.  He opened one eye and 
smiled to himself.  For the first time in two years, he felt intact. 
The hole that had gaped in his gut, ignored until he had convinced 
himself it was gone, had been wrenched open, cleaned and truly healed. 
Luke was alive, free and in his bed.  What else could he want? 
He tightened his grip on the sleeping man, and toyed with the braid. 
He missed the ponytail, but this was a fair substitute. 

Experimentally, he twitched the end over Luke's cheek, then 
stroked it down his neck to tease one nipple with it.  The boy snorted 
and came awake.  He smiled up at his awakener and kissed him. 

The cabin alarm sounded. 

"My watch.  Chewie'll hand me my left arm if I'm late.  You probably 
need to talk to your teacher." 

"You're right.  I have saber drill." 

Han rolled out of the bunk and began to dress quickly.  "And how do 
you know?" 

"Obi-Wan told me."  A glance at the door told Han it was still locked. 
Luke caught the motion.  "We're Jedi.  He didn't need to come in." 

Luke sat up and stretched.  The dancer was still there, but the Jedi was 
coming more to the fore with each moment.  As he dressed, he seemed to age 
and become more mature.  At last, grave-faced and calm, he waited while Han 
tugged on his boots.  The effect was totally spoiled when he broke into a 
wide grin and kissed his lover. 

Han was late into the cockpit anyway. 

Chewbacca ambled sleepily through the forward compartment, barked something 
that made Obi-Wan smile and went to his own oversized bed.  Luke was busily 
deflecting bolts from a training remote set at high speed. 

"That will save your life, padawan.  It saved mine many times.  But 
seldom do you have just one opponent."  Obi-Wan lofted two more 
remotes into the air. 

By the time Han checked on his passengers, Luke was wearing a helmet 
with the blastshield down, fending off heavy-stun bolts from six remotes set 
at response time nil.  He waited until Obi-wan deactivated the remotes and 
Luke lifted the blast shield before announcing, "You can quit worrying about 
Imperial entanglements.  The route is clear from here to Alderaan.   We'll 
be there in about an hour." 

"Good, we've time to meditate.  Padawan."  Suddenly, the old man crumpled 
like a string-cut puppet into one of the acceleration couches, and Luke 
collapsed to his knees, hands pressed over his ears, cradling his exploding 
head. 

Han drew him back to his feet, and helped him to one of the seats. 
"Luke, are you all right?" 

Luke pressed close, steadying himself with the definite 
Force-presence of his lover, and looked at his master.  "Master Obi-Wan?" 

"I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices cried out 
in terror and were suddenly silenced." 

"Exactly.  Pain.  Incredible, sudden and then gone.  I still hear the 
screaming, Master.  But it is a lone voice, now."  He slowly began to 
untangle himself. 

"Let us meditate and see what the Force tells us." 

Luke rose to spread the meditation mats that he'd brought with them, and 
they sank into the standard kneeling position.  Han busied himself with a 
power converter he was retooling to fit the hyperdrive, and tried not to 
think about the boy, no, man, behind him.  On his knees.  The braid dangling 
invitingly.  His mouth exactly level--he cut the thought off quickly. 

Quickly Han shot a glance over his shoulder to see if Luke was having the 
same sort of thoughts, meditation or no.  The young man was facing his 
teacher and they breathed in synchronous rhythm.  But while the older man's 
face was blankly serene, a line of anguish still crossed Luke's face. 

Unable to stand the gap between erotic fantasy and pained reality, he 
gave up and went to the cockpit to wait for the transition to normal 
space.  Chewbacca joined him, still groggy, but competent. 

*Young one, are you sure closing the Alderaan office is the best?* 

"The system's been interdicted for two months.  Not like we're making 
any profit." 

*There are more important things than profit, Hahnko, and you know it. 
The Alderaan office has never turned a profit.  All you get from it is 
rebel information.  Just as it is all you sell there.* 

Han didn't answer.  The Jedi had come forward to watch the arrival.  Luke 
was containing his excitement, but his eyes still glowed at the idea of 
seeing a new world. 

"Coming up on Alderaan.  Transit to normalspace commencing on five, four, 
three, and mark." 

The starfield returned.  Alderaan should have hung against it, turning 
lazily in the light of its primary, shining blue and white and green. 
Something thudded against the rear deflector. 

"What the--We've come out in some sort of meteor shower. It's not on any of 
the charts." 

"What's going on?" Luke asked. 

"Our position's correct but no Alderaan."  Han made a hasty scan of the 
equipment and banked to avoid another asteroid. 

"What?  Where is it?"  A horrible suspicion was filling Luke's mind 
and the screams that only he could hear had diminished to broken sobs, but 
the cries were becoming louder. 

"That's what I'm trying to tell you, kid: it ain't there. 
It's been totally blown away." 

"Destroyed, by the Empire," Obi-Wan added, completely self assured. 

"The entire starfleet couldn't destroy the planet.  It'd take a 
thousand ships and more fire power--" 

"There's another ship coming in," Luke interrupted.  "Maybe they know what 
happened." 

Han checked the scope.  "It's an Imperial fighter." 

"It followed us!" Luke said.  "I thought you said they gave you an 
all-clear." 

"If they hadn't, we wouldn't have lifted," Han snapped backed. 

"It's a short range fighter," Obi-wan announced, looking at the scope. 

"There aren't any bases around here, where'd it come from?" Han wanted 
to know. 

"It sure is leaving in a big hurry.  If they identify us, we're in big 
trouble."  Luke flinched as his master chided him along the bond for 
stating the obvious. 

"Let it go, it's too far out of range," Obi-wan suggested. 

"Not for long."  Han's face was grim as he accelerated. 

"A fighter that size couldn't have gotten this deep into space on 
it's own."  Obi-Wan was still pondering the craft.  Something, just 
out of his grasp, troubled him about it. 

"Maybe it got lost, part of a convoy or something." 

"It's not going to be around long enough to tell anyone about us," Han 
reassured his passengers. 

"It's headed to that small moon," Luke pointed out. 

"Alderaan doesn't have any moons," Han said, double checking both the 
astrogation logs and his memories. 

The satellite came closer, its canyons and mountains forming too perfect a 
surface to be natural.  "That's no moon, that's a space station." 

"I think you're right, old man. Chewie, full reverse. Get us out of here." 

The instruments complained, and the old freighter shuddered. 

"Why are we still moving towards it?" Luke wanted to know. 

"Tractor beam."  Panicked scenarios ran through Han's mind, and he tried to 
decipher the best of a dozen bad options. 

"No one knows we are aboard, and you have clearance to be in this sector, am 
I right?" Obi-Wan asked.  "There are alternatives to fighting or running." 

The Falcon landed gently, and Han and Chewbacca came to the bottom of the 
ramp with their hands high, and weapons tied down.  An officious Imperial 
captain met them. 

"Your ship has entered an interdicted area, in violation of general order 
19.  You will be detained until we can ascertain the facts of the matter. 
Take them to my office." 

A detatchment of stormtroopers escorted the partners away from their ship. 
No one noticed a pair of figures slipping out of a hidden hatch in the hull. 
Quickly and quietly, the Jedi made their way to an empty comm room. 

Obi-wan sat at the console and typed faster than Luke's eye could follow. 
Information ran over the screen so fast, only a droid could make sense of 
it.  Obi-Wan seemed to follow it all.  "Padawan.  We must split up.  You 
have a mission.  The princess is here.  She's being held here."  He slowed 
the information to a pace Luke could follow.  The younger man memorized the 
maps quickly.  "I must go and see to the tractor beam.  Your lover should be 
able to talk his way out of the situation by the time we return." 

"I will not fail you, Master." 

"Then go.  And may the Force be with you." 

"And with you, Master."  Luke ducked out the door, hugging the wall, 
and clouding the minds of those he passed.  If they saw him at all, 
he registered as another technician.  He made his uneventful way to the 
Detention Block. 

Once there, he paused, halting the lift between floors, to puzzle out the 
next phase of his plan.  He had mastered being dim, but he couldn't fool 
security cameras.  It dawned on him how to do it properly.  He stepped out 
of the lift and melted back into the shadows. 

"Did you hear something?"  The duty officer looked up from a screen of 
numbers that had stopped making sense ten minutes before. 

"No sir."  Even in the detention area the troopers were alert. 

"I'm going to check it out.  Stay here." 

"Sir, regulations forbid--" 

"Trooper, if I don't stand up, I'll become part of this chair.  Now 
I'm going.  You come and cover me." 

"Yessir." 

The two men made their way to the shadowy corner by the lift.  They never 
knew what hit them.  Luke put them down into deep unconsciousness, and 
waited.  He sent a Force suggestion into the mind of the other trooper on 
duty, and tripped the monitoring switches.  As the stormtrooper absorbed 
himself in fixing the wiring under a panel, Luke made his way past the 
darkened eyes of the cameras to cell 1138. 

The door cycled open and the princess sat up, staring in disbelief 
at the Jedi in her doorway.  He drew back the hood, showing her his face, 
and beckoned her.  She came to him without a word.  He laid one finger 
across her lips, cautioning her to silence. 

"I'm Luke Skyalker, I'm here to rescue you.  Master Obi-Wan is with me. 
Come quickly and silently," he whispered drawing the hood back up. 

Unfortunately, the trooper had looked up from his work and saw them. 
"Where are you going?" 

Luke made his voice as menacing as he could.  "I am taking the princess to 
Lord Vader, at his order.  Do you wish to delay the Dark Lord?"  It was a 
calculated gamble that Vader would be on the station, a reaction to the 
faint aftertaste in the Force that he kept feeling. 

"Who are you, what's your ID?" 

Luke opened himself to the Force.  "I am the shadow of the Dark Lord. 
You don't need to see my identification." 

The trooper busied himself with the controls for the lift.  "I don't 
need to see your identification.  Move along.  Don't keep 
Lord Vader waiting." 

Luke hustled Leia into the lift and dropped to the hanger level. 
Once inside, she looked at him, pulling the hood back and brushing 
his lips with her own. 

"Thank you.  I don't know who you are, but thank you." 

"I am Luke Skywalker, padawan learner to Obi-Wan Kenobi.  We have your 
droid.  We chartered a ship to Alderaan, but when we got there, it 
was gone."  He recognized her voice.  "You've stopped screaming, Princess." 

"What?" 

"When Alderaan was destroyed, you screamed as if you would never stop. 
I heard you all the way here.  I am pleased you are recovering from the 
ordeal."  The lift stopped.  "Do not be surprised at the ship, 
your Highness." 

She took one look into the hanger bay and looked back at Luke. 
"You use the Force to hold that thing together, don't you?" 

Remembering his own reaction, he smiled at her.  "And a lot of 
twine.  She's fast though."  Obi-Wan glided up behind them. 

"Padawan, what would your lover say to that remark?" 

The youths jumped, and Leia dropped her deepest curtsey of respect. 
"General Kenobi.  I am deeply honored to meet you." 

"The tractor beam is out, but will not remain so.  We must hurry. 
Get the princess aboard,  and I will get our pilots released." 

Dim again, this time shielding the princess as well, Luke made 
his careful way across the hanger bay and got Leia to the foot 
of the ship's ramp. 

A strong presence in the Force made him spin around. 
"Get aboard, Princess.  Strap in.  The liftoff will be 
quick and rough.  I must go." 

He saw Han and Chewbacca sprinting toward the ship as the 
troopers hastened the other direction.  "Take care of 
the princess and the R2 unit!" he said, dashing in the same 
direction the troopers were headed.  "I have to help my master." 

With a pilot's lightening reflexes, Han caught the braid as Luke 
flew past.  "You can't help him, kid.  He's fighting Darth Vader." 

"Let go of me, Han.  I have to help him."  He saw where the old 
Jedi was duelling the black-armored giant.  His hand was on his own 
saber, and he wrested it from his belt, oblivious to the squadrons of 
stormtroopers between him and his master. 

"You can't help him," Han repeated.  "He said to tell you to get aboard." 

"Noooooooooooooo!" Luke screamed, and Han turned to see the old man's 
cloak falling empty to the floor.  He spun Luke by the shoulders and 
half shoved him up the ramp, taking advantage of the younger man's 
momentary distraction. 

"Lift!  Chewie, lift!" he yelled, slamming his hand over the hatch 
controls and dashing for the cockpit. 

Luke stood where he was, feeling the Falcon begin to shudder, trying 
to calm himself.  His master was one with the Force.  He could feel 
Obi-Wan's presence, no longer fettered by matter, and he was calmed. 

But a second presence announced itself, skittering over him like 
a cold hand.  //Who are you?//  Luke stiffened and shielded his 
thoughts but not quickly enough.  //Padawan Skywalker//  The 
dark sending sounded almost pleased with itself, and quickly broke off. 

Luke, shaken, went to the forward compartment to check 
on the Princess and R2.  They had disassembled the droid 
as part of the ruse, and would put it back together on the way 
to...  It occurred to him he didn't know where they would be going. 

The Princess was well, a bit shaken by the hasty departure, but 
undamaged.  She had unbuckled and he was leading her to the cockpit 
when the pilot barreled down on them. 

"We're coming up on their sentry ships.  Take the belly gun, we're not 
out of this yet."  He scaled the ladder to the top gun, and Luke 
climbed down to his turret.  Leia continued steadfastly to the cockpit and 
sat beside the giant wookiee, too concerned with escape to worry about the 
anthropod. 

Only four TIEs greeted their escape, and those were quickly dispatched.  The 
harrowing excitement of the whole day bubbled over when the two men reached 
the corridor together.  Leia, hearing them on the ladder, went back to greet 
them, only to find them locked in a passionate embrace.  She staggered back 
to the cockpit, remembering Obi-Wan's comment about Luke's lover. 

*The cubs are at it again, small one.* 

She looked up at Chewbacca, not speaking his language, and he 
tapped the translator readout on the console.  She looked 
askance at him, and he explained some of the history of 
her rescuer. 

Finally, Chewbacca went to the back to repair a few things 
that had been rattled loose in the fancy flying of their escape, 
and Han came forward.  He sat in the copilot seat, mildly annoyed 
at Leia being in his chair, and made the transit back to normal 
space. 

They were well away from the battle station, in the midst of 
an empty quadrent.  "Where can we take you, Your Highness? 
DirectShip Incorporated's flagship is at your disposal." 

"Thank you, Captain Solo," she answered matching his formality, 
and disclosing nothing of what his copilot had told her.  "Yavin 
is our destination now." 

"Plotted and set."  He made a speedy transition back to hyperspace. 

"I hope your small detour will throw the Death Star off long enough 
for the techs to get the information from the R2 unit." 

"What's that droid carrying that's so important?" 

"Technical readouts of that battlestation.  I only hope a weakness 
can be found.  It's not over yet.  They're tracking us, you know." 
She saw him reach for the override.  "No, no, I want them to.  It 
may be our only chance of destroying that monstrosity." 

"I don't want a chance at it, Princess.  All I want is to 
get you, and the blasted droid, off my ship and check 
on my company.  Be damned lucky if my whole operation doesn't get 
seized over this stunt."  Chewbacca returned with a mug of kaf 
and Han stood up.  "I'm gonna check on Luke.  Losing the 
old man like that is going to take it out of him." 

Chewbacca woofed agreement.  The princess followed him silently. 
In the main compartment, Luke knelt on the meditation mat, 
his saber out and ignited. 

As he brought it to his head, Han took a step forward, "Luke, don't." 
But he stopped as the saber went out, and the braid drifted slowly 
to the mat. 

"In the days of the Old Republic," Luke's voice was eerily calm, 
"when a padawan passed his trials, his master would cut his braid 
and remove the ponytail.  He would then be a full-fledged knight. 
My master is one with the Force, so I cut my own braid." 

His hands went around back to untie the ponytail, and he smoothed 
the hair down to lie with the rest of it.  He put a knot in the 
end of the braid, and tucked it into a belt pouch, before standing up 
and rolling up the mat. 

The princess came wordlessly to his side, and he acknowledged her. 
"We shall begin repairs of your droid at once, Princess.  Perhaps, 
you should rest after such a day."  She nodded agreement, and Han 
waved an absent hand toward the crew cabins. 

He sat down at the tech station, and watched Luke begin reassembling the 
droid.  The wordless calm unnerved him, and he had to break the silence. 
"Luke?  Are you OK, kid?" 

The clear grey eyes looked up at him, full of sorrow and anger, overlaid 
with false serenity.  Overwhelmed, Han went to him and pressed his hands to 
the table, forcing him to drop the tools.  Once Luke's hands were empty, Han 
kissed him. 

Luke drew back.  "No." 

"No?" 

"For now, I mourn.  My master is gone, and although I feel his presence, it 
is not enough.  He can't teach me anymore.  He's just part of the Force now, 
another part of it, but not himself anymore."  The formal speech of the Jedi 
was giving way to the raw pain of the boy.  "Vader took him, just as he has 
taken everything else from me.  Vader killed my father, and now he's killed 
my master as well."  Luke's fists were clenched on the table and he 
deliberately stopped himself.  "Hate leads to anger and anger leads to the 
Dark Side."  He breathed carefully, calming himself, relaxing his fists, 
drawing on the feel of the pilot's hands which had not left his arms. 

"I will return to your bed in time, my love.  For now, let me work my grief 
out through my hands."  He leaned over and kissed Han, before picking up the 
hydrospanner. 

"All the time you need, Luke.  But you're gonna tell me how you spent your 
afternoon sometime."  The lightheartedness didn't quite come off, and Han 
went to his own cabin.  He tugged off his boots and threw himself on the 
bunk, almost too keyed to sleep.  A gruelling day.  He hadn't had one like 
that in a few years.  He lay and thought about the endless questions of the 
Imperial commander, and his own perfectly true, totally uninformative 
answers to them.  The excitement of their escape, the adrenaline of which 
was only just starting to leach out of him, and then the sheer naked fear 
he'd felt seeing Luke hold that lightsaber to his head.  For a moment, he 
thought he'd lose the boy.  He wasn't sure he could stand it again.  He 
wished Luke would come to bed.  He found himself wanting to hold and comfort 
the young man, help him grieve for the oldster who had been his teacher, 
liberator and protector.  Going soft, Solo, he snorted at himself.  He 
listened to the faint hum of the hydrospanner and clink  of metal as Luke 
reassembled the droid. 

Somewhere in the listening and the thinking, he fell asleep. 


(TBC, but no time soon)