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dead—it’s my only connection to him.”
    That was true, he thought sourly.
    “What are you then?” Farnay demanded. “You’re paying Dad a crazy amount of credits not to report your ship to the Empire. Are yousome kind of rebel?”
    “Master Korl is a hyperspace scout, as he told your father,” Threepio said. “Don’t you know it’s rude to question your elders, young lady? To say nothing of
pointing weapons at them.”
    Something was whispering in Luke’s brain, offering him reassurance—and telling him what to do.
    “It’s all right, Threepio. Farnay, put the gun down. We both know you’re not goingto shoot me.”
    “I will, too!”
    Luke lowered his hands slowly and looked into Farnay’s eyes.
    “My real name is Luke Skywalker, and I
am
a rebel—I’m fighting to restore freedom to the galaxy.”
    “Oh dear, oh dear,” Threepio said.
    Farnay blinked at him, then lowered her pistol. Her hands were shaking.
    “By getting rid of the Empire? But that would mean chaos…chaos and disorder.”

    “No, it wouldn’t,” Luke said. “It would mean peace and justice for everyone—instead of just a privileged few.”
    “You’re crazy. Overthrowing the Empire is impossible.”
    “It’s
not
impossible,” Luke said, remembering how he’d used the Force to guide his proton torpedo to its target on the Death Star. “Sometimes it feels that
way, I know. But people like me are working together on thousandsof worlds to resist the Empire. And on thousands more worlds, people are realizing that the Empire’s order comes at an
enormous price—planets ruined and lives lost. All to feed the Emperor’s greed.”
    Farnay looked off into the jungle.
    “Before the war with the droids, when my parents were young, people in this town were farmers,” she said. “They followed the old ways, living in harmonywith the forest
elders—that’s what
pikhron
means in our language. Then the Empire came. Their governor wanted to go on a pikhron hunt, but no one would take him. So the Empire told us we
couldn’t send our crops to market—they left them to rot in the fields. It was lead the hunts or starve.”
    Luke nodded. It was a small cruelty compared with the crushing of freedom on so many worlds, notto mention the obliteration of Alderaan. But Luke knew the Empire wasn’t just warships and
stormtroopers. It was a billion small cruelties, grinding up what people cherished and leaving ruin and hopelessness behind.
    “Now most of the villagers don’t care about the old ways, and there aren’t many pikhrons left in the jungle,” Farnay said. “My father makes his living fixing the
outlanders’starships—he won’t serve as a guide.”
    “But you do,” Luke said gently.
    “My mother died last year,” Farnay said, tears starting in her eyes. “I had to do something, or we would have lost our house. Dad was so angry with me, but what choice did I
have? But it doesn’t matter—no one hires me unless there isn’t anybody else left. I’ve never bagged a pikhron.”
    “No skins, huh?”
    “None,”Farnay said, then smiled wanly. “I’m not sad about that part. But things will be different now, here in Tikaroo. That’s why the rebels sent you here,
isn’t it? To help us.”
    “No,” Luke said. “I wasn’t sent here. I was…called. To the temple.”
    Farnay took a step back, looking wary. She slowly began to raise her blaster.
    “Called? Called by what?”
    “I don’t know,” Luke admitted. “It’s…hardto explain. But I’m afraid my mission is there, not here.”
    Farnay turned away, head bowed in disappointment.
    “But if you’re patient, I promise I’ll find a way to help Tikaroo,” he said. “Somehow what I find in the temple will show me how to do that.”
    “I don’t understand,” Farnay said.
    Luke smiled. He could almost feel the Force, humming around them, binding the jungle and its creaturestogether.
    “Neither do I,” Luke said. “Not yet. But I will.”

W HEN