A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…

The stars shimmered and blinked coldly in their perches, the light barely piercing the infinite darkness of the evening sky that blanketed the desert sands below and slowly chilled the surface of Tatooine after a day of burning heat. In these few hours of twilight, however, the temperature was actually surprisingly mild enough for one to walk around outside comfortably, and Luke was going to take advantage of the time as much as he could. Granted there was not much he could do in the short amount of time given, but after a long day of maintaining the moisture farm and repairing the old vaporators, there was only one thing that he wanted to do. That was to lie back and look up at the stars looking down at him.

It was actually sort of a regular thing for him to do when he wasn't shooting at wamp rats or racing his buddies in the speeder. He imagined that gazing up at the constellations in wonder wasn't something people on other, more populous worlds, would do, assuming that interplanetary travel was a regular thing, and that each star up above was merely another destination for a business trip or a vacation. He envied the people who could do just that. He envied them for not having to wonder all the time what it was like to wander through the forests of Kashyyk, sail through the clouds of Bespin, or even stroll through the city ways of Coruscant. He even dreamed of being able to fight in the civil war that was going on beyond this star system; sure he risked getting himself killed, but at least there was the chance to visit a distant world. He, of course, had to imagine such things; it was one thing to read about such things in holo-recordings and hear about them from visiting customers, what he wouldn't give to actually experience them first hand…

Sitting against the domed wall of his aunt and uncle's dwelling, he breathed in the cool, dry air of the late evening and flexed his spine, his seat enjoying the heat absorbed into the earth. He wondered what he would be lucky enough to see tonight before Aunt Beru called him back inside; every now and then there would be a small light zipping across the sky, indicating the presence of a cruiser, but that in itself wasn't very exciting, just another instance of mere traffic. But still, there was the question of where said cruiser had come from, and that could lead to a wide variety of wild theories. There wasn't very much intrinsic value in them, true, but it was still something for mild entertainment.

Sometimes, when the tiny, constant light of a cruiser did sail its way across the dark blue dome above, he quietly wished that it would change course, touch down in front of the Lars farm, and have its crew invite him aboard to take him somewhere far away, someplace he had never been before (which was pretty much every planet he could name off the top of his head) and then some. Was that too much to ask? What he wouldn't give to have something close to that happen…

Just then, there was activity up above, but of a kind that Luke hadn't seen; there were two lights sailing through the sky, a larger one chasing the smaller other, and there were small sparks popping around them. Grabbing his binoculars and pressing them to his face, Luke zoomed in on the lights as much as he could. From what he could tell, the pursuer was large and triangular in shape…an Imperial Star Destroyer, it had to be. The other one was far smaller, dwarfed by the gigantic battle cruiser trailing it, and from the look of it, Luke surmised the vessel to be a Corellian Corvette. Both were firing lasers at each other, though from what Luke could tell, it looked as though the Corvette was not winning. But would it? Was it possible for the people aboard to pull a trick from their sleeves and leave the Imps in the dust? More importantly, what did the Imperials want with that ship? His curiosity was ignited immediately…

"Luke!" the soft, wavering voice of his aunt came warbling into his ears, "Come on inside, there's food on the table!"

"In a minute!" he shouted back, never taking his eyes off of the action.

"Luke, if you stay out there for much longer, you're going to freeze to death!" Aunt Beru warned.

"Just a few more seconds!" he answered, but there was no way a few seconds could possibly satiate his excitement. He had to know how the answer to which of the two would win, that much he knew.

Firing a few more shots at the Corvette, the Star Destroyer closed in on its prey like a shark…and suddenly, the scene had become dark and blurry. Pulling the binoculars away, Luke discovered to his chagrin a whirlwind, turned frigid by the loss of the sun, blasting its way across the desert, pulling the sand and dust high into the air and becoming a great earthy brown cloud of stinging bits and particles.

Partly out of surprise at its surprise appearance and partly out of annoyance at the fact that it had disrupted the show, Luke wondered, where did this come from?

"Uncle Owen!" he shouted as he ran to the entrance, shielding his eyes against the onslaught of flying sand, "Dust storm!"

"Quick, get back inside!" his uncle's voice shouted back at him.

"What about the vaporators?" Luke shouted while trying to make sure he was heard above the howling desert tempest.

"Don't worry about them," Owen replied, "We'll unclog them in the morning! Now get back in here before you choke to death!"

Eager to get out of the sand storm, Luke staggered his way over to the main entrance—but then something caught his attention. In the furthest corner of his peripheral vision, he noticed a brief flash of light, even in the dense cloud of dust. Was it some sort of electrical malfunction, or was some scavenger bold enough—or stupid enough-to raid one of the evaporators in this weather? No, the light had emanated for far too long…

At that point, the wind decided to change direction, blasting Luke in the face and forcing him to turn the other way. And that was when he saw the vague silhouette of a person staggering around in the storm before collapsing to the ground.

"What in the world…?" he muttered. Who could that person possibly be, and why were they all the way out here? Regardless, he felt compelled to go and help the poor soul, and against his better judgment charged forward. He could faintly hear the cries of Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru calling out after him, but precisely what it was they said was lost to him, both because of the storm and because he had other priorities at hand.

He reached the person just in time; lacking the time to fully investigate, he instead grabbed the fallen one's unconscious body by the waist, lifted it up, and hauled it back to the entrance—but this time he was upwind, impeding his progress a great deal. Pulling up the hem of his own shirt over his mouth and nose to keep out the debris, Luke trudged on with closed eyes, keeping in mind to walk straight forward and nothing else. At last, he felt his uncle's tough hands pull him back inside, and shut the door behind him, banishing the furious gale outside. Grateful to be back in, Luke pulled down his shirt hem and took in a deep breath, then shook his head furiously, casting out the sand and dust from his hair. He looked up into the eyes of his guardians, where both concern and appalling mixed and mingled.

"Luke Skywalker," Uncle Owen started off, noticeably irritated, "Were you trying to get yourself killed out—who's this?"

Luke only remembered then that he had brought a visitor with him. He looked down at the person in his arms; the stranger was a woman with long brown hair pulled back into a ponytail that sagged down to the floor, covering her ground-facing face and wearing a very strange blue and white dress, the style of which Luke had never seen before, coated in thick dust and sand.

"I don't know," he explained, "I saw her outside; I don't know where she came from."

"Well, don't just stand there," Aunt Beru said, "Get this poor woman onto the couch!"

Obeying her word, Luke pulled the unconscious woman through the narrow, brightly lit halls of their home and onto a sofa. Turning her over right-side up, he finally got a good look at her…a very long, nigh hypnotized one. Even with her face coated in dust, the young woman was probably the most beautiful human being he had ever seen in his life up until then, with full lips and rose cheeks on a cherubic face.

Coming up from behind, Beru handed Luke a wet rag, and he set to work wiping away the dirt. However, as soon as the water made contact with her skin, the woman groaned and stirred. She blinked open wide, hazel-colored eyes, and looked at him and Beru in utter confusion.

"It's alright dear, you're safe," Beru said.

"…Excusez-moi, mais parlez-vous français?" the woman asked—or at least, Luke supposed that she asked. He didn't understand a word she said, but he could tell that it definitely wasn't Basic.

"I'm sorry dear," Beru replied, clearly just as perplexed as he was but trying to keep up a calming facade, "but I don't speak…Twi'leki."

"Oh, I apologize," the younger woman replied, "I failed to acknowledge the possibility that my hosts spoke English."

English…was that supposed to be another word for Basic? Already this woman was starting to get confusing. Were they all like this?

"Well, you just stay right there, and I'll grab you something to eat," Aunt Beru promised, and she left the room, shouting out, "Owen, next time the Jawas show up, could you get a protocol droid?"

Luke, meanwhile, turned his attention back to the brunette woman before him. "I'm Luke Skywalker," he said, "What's your name?"

"I'm Belle," she said, "Where are we?"

"We're at my Uncle's homestead," he answered.

"Where's that?" she asked.

"Just a few miles south of Anchorhead," he replied.

"…Where's that?" she asked again, looking more confused.

"Out on the Great Chott Salt Flat," he said, growing somewhat more concerned.

"…Where's that?" she repeated.

"Tatooine," Luke said, after a moment of hesitation.

There was a moment of silence between the two of them before Belle spoke again. At first, Luke thought she had finally gotten a grip of where she was…but then came her next words.

"Where's that?" she asked at last, very clearly becoming scared.

"…The Outer Rim," he answered again, then added, "of the Galaxy."

She stared at him disbelievingly, and then turned away, breathing deeply and holding her head in her hands.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

"No, no I'm not," she whispered, "First a castle full of singing and dancing furniture, and now this."