The Awakening

Author's Note: This is a Star Wars story I've wanted to write for a long time. It's based on a real Star Wars character, Carithlee. The manner in which I use this person, however, is entirely my invention. Basically, this story will take place during the original trilogy. There will be some similarities between her and Luke Skywalker, but this is essentially Carithlee's story told through her own words. Enjoy and please review!

Disclaimer: I don't own anything in the Star Wars universe.

Chapter One: Desert and Reward

Desert and reward seldom keep company

- English proverb

"Carithlee! Carithlee!"

Sighing wearily, I abandoned my unfruitful struggle with the vaporator. Like the rest of the temperamental devices my family owned, it would develop refractory problems that could, coupled with the hostile environment we lived in, drive a being to distraction.

Still, my family and I were out under the glare of the two suns nearly every day, engaged in the endless task of keeping these machines merely serviceable. We had no other choice if we were to extract the vapor necessary for our survival in the arid climate of Tatooine. Moisture farming was all my indigent family knew.

Besides, no one else was going to watch after our interests when we inhabited a planet on the Outer Rim. Since Tatooine was so far away from Coruscant, the capital of the Empire, and too inhospitable for the average organism, we were basically ignored. My stepfather and mother, fond of seclusion, postulated that if Tatooine ever had an advantage, this was it. I, on the other hand, found the isolation to be a frightful bore. Nothing exciting ever happened to break the tedium of my daily routine.

Or so I was convinced until my best friend Luke Skywalker arrived in his landspeeder on that fateful day, calling my name. Only later did I realize that the news Luke brought would propel me on a far different course than I'd expected. At that moment, though, I was just glad someone other than my stepfather was coming across the dunes to visit me. He wasn't going to be particularly pleased when he discovered that the vaporator was pretty much useless.

"Carithlee, do you have your macrobinoculars with you?" Luke demanded as he pulled to a stop in front of me. "There's something you've got to see!"

His urgency made me study him for a second before executing the order. The luminous cerulean eyes, even more radiant than usual, were his single distinction on an otherwise nondescript face. Even his sandy hair and clothes matched the tan background of the desert.

"What should I look for?" I asked, slipping my macrobinoculars out of their place on my utility belt.

"It's two ships in orbit! They're fighting each other!" my friend blurted out excitedly.

Luke leaped out of his landspeeder, landing neatly at my side. He immediately pointed to a part of the sky where, sure enough, were flashes of light.

My curiosity piqued, I focused the lenses on the spot. For a few minutes, I observed the exchange of ray blasts. Luke was silent the whole time, breathlessly waiting for my reaction.

I lowered the macrobinoculars. "Well, it seems to me some smugglers got caught with their wares, and the Empire is collecting their just due," I replied dryly.

What I uttered was true enough. The scum of the galaxy liked to use Tatooine as one of their many bases for their racketeering games. An especially notorious crime lord named Jabba the Hutt lived in Mos Eisely, the nearest major settlement to us.

Shrugging, Luke conceded, "It's possible."

"If it is, at least I'll sleep better at night, knowing the Empire is protecting the decent, honest subjects like us," I quipped.

We laughed at the irony of my joke. Like everything else around here, one had to invent one's own amusement. For better or for worse, we were alone on Tatooine. All we had to do was examine our current situation to be reminded of that.

"Carithlee, will you come with me to Anchorhead? I want to tell the rest of the gang about the space battle." He was back in the landspeeder, extending his hand out invitingly to my own landspeeder.

I paused, recalling the rest of the duties I had to complete. "I can't. I have chores to do."

My friend smiled sympathetically. "I understand. I'll see you later." He drove away, leaving me alone on the desolate Dune Sea with the worthless vaporator.

& & &

The initial regret I felt for refusing Luke's offer soon passed. However little fun I could've obtained in dead-end Anchorhead wouldn't have gotten my work on the farm done. That argument kept me busy for the remainder of the day on my vaporator rounds around the perimeter of my family's land.

As I returned home in my landspeeder, Luke accelerated up next to me. He appeared dejected for some reason. When he beckoned me to halt, I promptly obeyed, concerned about his abrupt change in mood.

"What's up, Luke?" I yelled cordially. I hopped out and joined him in front of our landspeeders. "What did the others think of the two ships dueling it out?"

"That's just it," he grumbled. "By the time I persuaded them to check it out, the ships were still there, but they were no longer firing at each other. Then everyone accused me of making the whole thing up, that the ships were probably refueling or switching cargoes, since Tatooine doesn't have an orbital station."

"Didn't you tell them I also saw it?"

"Sure, and Camie commented you have just as much of an imagination as me, which Deak, Fixer, and Windy readily agreed with."

I instantly became hurt and angry at Camie's cheap shot. A moment later, however, I mentally berated myself. The predicament wasn't new by any means. If anything, my empathy for Luke's restlessness and discontent with Tatooine was common knowledge to all who were acquainted with us. Unfortunately, we were the only ones in our circle of friends with that view. Consequently, we were teased relentlessly about our desire to enlist in the Imperial Space Academy.

That doesn't mean I intend to knock my cronies' whole way of life. Certainly it's a hard, tiring existence, devoid of most creativity. Nevertheless, they had consigned themselves to this fate. Such is the outcome of free will. Conversely, Luke and I hadn't actualized our own goals yet, and until we did, we would keep striving for it, no matter how elusive.

"Even Biggs didn't believe me," Luke muttered absently.

"Biggs?" I blurted.

My heart began to beat faster at the mention at that name. Besides Luke, Biggs Darklighter was my other best friend. Ironically, Biggs was from a wealthy, affluent background, completely the opposite of most of the scrounging moisture farmers. Needless to say, this difference didn't exactly endure him to his peers. Luke and I managed to peer through the veneer to the real Biggs lurking inside. The three of us would spend our spare time playing computer-assisted pool at Tosche station in Anchorhead, racing our T-16 skyhoppers through Beggar's Canyon, or visiting each other at our respective homes.

This was the case until about a year ago. Biggs was served with a notice to appear at the Academy, courtesy of his father's high connections. Firmly under his father's control, he was in no position to refuse. Luke and I weren't able to submit our own applications, for our families couldn't afford to lose us in the middle of the harvest season. That was the familiar excuse which had held us chained to Tatooine while Biggs was off on the other side of the galaxy.

Now he was back after being gone for all this time. His departure was particularly bittersweet for me, because we'd begun dating shortly before he left. I was excited and scared all at once at the prospect of seeing him again.

Luke eyed me knowingly. "Yes, he's here for a quick stopover." My friend shoved me lightly toward my landspeeder. "Go to him. He'll be leaving tomorrow."

"Biggs graduated, didn't he?" I guessed, still confused by his sudden appearance.

"With honors, Carithlee," Luke confirmed as a smirk spread across his face, "and a great commission." Abruptly he grew somber. "Biggs will explain everything."

In hindsight, I comprehend the subtle pinpointing that last sentence did of what was underlying Luke's troubled soul. However, as I rushed to my landspeeder, I was too euphoric to notice at that moment.