Of Love and War Book 5: The Tragedy of Hope

Chapter 5: Spark of Rebellion

Luke's mind was no longer on Tatooine's surface as he finished his chores on the Lars farm, his thoughts instead up among the stars. For once, it wasn't because he was wanting to break free of the planet and go out into the galaxy, but because of something he'd seen, and a feeling that wouldn't leave him alone. He was counting down the hours—now minutes, ideally—before he could leave the farm and take the landspeeder into town to go find his mother at the cantina. He wanted to tell her about the space battle he'd seen, however brief it had been, even though his friends at Tosche Station—if most of them could even be called friends—didn't believe him. She'd seen plenty of battles, and her cantina was a hub of information, so maybe she'd know more than he did about what had happened.

"Luke? Luke!"

Luke's attention snapped away from his thoughts at his Aunt's call, and he broke away from mechanically following his Uncle to go see what his Aunt wanted. He planted his foot at the edge of the hole looking down into the main courtyard, spotting his aunt in the center below.

"Luke, tell your Uncle if he gets a translator, be sure it speaks Bocce," his aunt called up to him.

"Doesn't look like we have much of a choice, but I'll remind him."

Hurrying off to catch up to his Uncle as Owen perused the droids the Jawas were putting on sale, Luke relayed Aunt Beru's message moments before his Uncle chose a red R2 unit as one of his purchases. As his uncle continued examining the line up, Luke knelt in front of the red droid, checking it over to make sure it was in working order and nothing looked like it was on the verge of breaking down. As he was checking the unit's wheels for wear or jamming, he glanced over at the blue R2 unit sitting next to them, pausing in thought as he gazed at the droid for a reason he...couldn't quite explain.

Though he did know if it was his instincts telling him to look, then it had to be a prompting from the Force.

But why would it have him look at a little droid?

Clearing his throat, Luke went over to his uncle, who was sealing the deal on the red R2 and a golden protocol droid. "Uncle Owen," he interrupted, still a little hesitant about the spontaneousness of what he was asking but deciding to trust whatever it was the Force was trying to tell him. "What about getting that blue one instead?"

"The blue one?" his uncle asked, glancing back at the two R2 units. "I already agreed to get the red one."

The protocol droid leaned in to interject. "Excuse me, sirs, but that R2 unit is in prime condition, a real bargain."

Uncle Owen was looking at Luke suspiciously. "Why the blue one?"

Luke shrugged. "I've got a feeling," he said simply, perfectly aware that Uncle Owen didn't approve of all the Force nonsense his mother put in his head. If it was up to Uncle Owen, Luke wouldn't be learning about any of that, and would be staying on Tatooine instead of being prepped to join the Rebellion. Thankfully, that decision had been up to Luke's mother, and not Uncle Owen.

Again, the protocol droid interjected.

"I'm sure you'll be quite pleased with that one, sir. He really is in first class condition. I've worked with him before."

"Sure," Owen cut off the protocol droid with a scowl, but nodded reluctantly to the Jawa salesman. "We'll take the blue one instead."

The R2 unit rolled over as soon as the restraints on its wheels were removed, the other Jawas starting to pack up the remaining droids and file them away into the sandcrawler while Owen paid the salesman for the two droids.

"Take these two over to the garage, I want them cleaned up before dinner," Owen told Luke, nodding to the two droids as he spoke. Luke felt his ire prick, and he immediately protested.