The Rose of Anakin by C T (book club reads TXT) 📕

NOT SO LONG AGO IN A GALAXY CLOSER

THAN YOU MIGHT KNOW

Following the death of Darth Vader and the destruction of the second Death Star, the evil emperor and once supreme chancellor of the galactic senate is missing. Galactic peace is as elusive as the fate of the Empire and the fate of democracy itself. The Alliance has taken the opportunity to strength its power and membership. The Jedi have begun to seek out each other and end the exile which has kept them apart.

 REUNIFICATION

The Falcon flies low over the fields of Amapola. Fields of galactic grain and star poppies lay under a crystal blue sky studded with a purple sun. With the Falcon flies the Kanoa, a ship shaped like a shell. A local buzz craft accompanies them, a beautiful metal lady buzz bug.

Together they fly through a large tunnel in a hill, which is a hanger for harvest craft, and land near Georgina's house. Han and Chewbaca power down the Falcon as Luke steps out into the purple sunlight. A quiet gray poncho with a hood hides his weapons and his heart away he thinks. But Georgina is aware of them both. She waves from near her house. Luke is met by some of Georgina's children who give him flowers. Others of her children with flowers wait outside the Kanoa.

Chewbaca is hungry and complains.

“Chewy, Amapola is a farm planet,” says Han. “Georgina is a Jedi who has been hiding out here for seventy years with the Aaronian Largos. She has six children. There must be something good to eat.”

Chewbaca agrees and reflects.

“Yeah the Largos make great wine from star poppies but Wookies don't drink unless they are in love, right?” asks Han. “No chance of that out here fur ball?”

Chewy laughs.

Following Luke from the Kanoa is a young boy no more than thirteen years old, the son of Han and Leia. Luke calls him Wren but the boy spells his name Ren. Leia and Han call him Ben. Luke sees very little of Obi Wan Kanobi in the boy or not enough to call him Ben. Georgina's children are all younger than Wren and some of them give him flowers.

“Our mom will not speak your language but she can understand it,” says a child to Wren.

“We can talk like you,” says another child. And Wren nods at the obvious.

“We have a Jedi chapel we want you to see,” says the other child.

Wren then actually smiles which is rare for the child. He looks away from the children to Georgina's house where it stands, dirty and small, in the shadow of some harvest silos. He can not see the bridge behind the house which leads over a deep garden to the round chapel.

Behind Wren, two droids leave the Falcon. They are a golden made by Anakin himself and a blue astro. They also receive flowers.

Nearby, Kasper appears from inside the Kanoa. He is a Jedi and veteran of the Clone Wars, same as Georgina. He is about twenty years older than her. They both vanished into exile. Kasper has a crescent head and pale blue skin but is highly humanoid. He is mostly paralyzed from the waist down. After attacking him, the clone soldiers left him for dead on the streets of Coruscant where he was found and hidden by some locals. They were able to obtain medical help for him by claiming he was one of them and a bystander not the target of a clone soldier's blaster. Those same Coruscant locals secretly helped Kasper later obtain, from the estranged brother of an Alliance admiral , the shell ship Kanoa. Kasper and the Kanoa are now well known by the Alliance after showing up unexpectedly on their scanners. Kasper was one of the first Jedi to contact the Alliance looking for Luke Skywalker. He moves himself in a wheelchair and takes the flowers Georgina's children offer.

UNINTENDED GUESTS

Last to arrive at Georgina's house was Titus, another veteran of the Clone Wars but two hundred years older. His fast dark craft, the Maloo, gleams in the purple sunlight as it flies over the fields of Amapola. It is not escorted by a buzz craft to landing and drops a cargo pod into a field not long after entering the atmosphere. Titus has thick scaled skin and bird like feet.

Chewbaca complains.

“Who invited Titus?” asks Han after receiving flowers.

Georgina herself answers in her language.

“She says he invited himself,” translates C3Po.

Chewbaca complains again and Georgina continues to speak.

“She says Titus is a lousy Jedi,” translates C3Po.

Chewbaca agrees.

“Tell her Chewy doesn't like Titus and I think his feet stink,” says Han.

A GEM IN THE CHIN

With Titus is Gaska and an astro hound. Gaska's gray and purple checked cape almost covers her entirely. She bends to receive flowers from Georgina's children who reach up to touch the gem stone in her chin. She is humanoid and not a child nor a very young woman. Strawberry gold hair falls from under her cape hood. Titus receives no flowers. He refuses them. And the astro hound never leaves the door of the Maloo. Luke notices all this as he approaches. But he cannot see the celestial pattern shaved and scarred into Gaska's scalp.

“Skywalker!” says Titus. “How are you? I hear you are more busy than ever.”

Luke nods at the zygodactyl. Then he winks at Gaska which makes her smile. Her uneven teeth contain gem stones to match her chin.

“You have not met Gaska, “ says Titus. “I told her you will be the life of the party or the death of it. She will not be helping you with your Jedi school. I have other things for her to do.”

Luke can not totally hide his disappointment and concern. He knows more will be revealed.

DROID SPEAK

Before the guests sit down for a meal, C3Po and R2D2 look out over the poppy fields and speak to each other. R2 speaks in whistles, chirps , and beeps. C 3Po says,” I continue to be amazed that you are programmed to ask so many questions.”

R2D2 beeps.

“ No I am not programmed not to answer them! I am not aware of any rule against Jedi having children. I am only aware that most refrain. There is an old warning against overly emotional relations which can cloud the judgment, but that hardly seems the case here,” says C3Po.

R2D2 beeps and whistles again.

“Now you want me to tell you how to know a good Jedi from a bad one? You ask Master Luke that question, if you don't know the answer already. I think you know the answer. Come along now or we will miss something. They are all going inside now,” says C3Po.

DINNER WITH GEORGINA

Soon the droids are witness to all the guests sitting at a wooden table in Georgina's house. The children had helped cook the meal of mushroom pie, bread sticks with poppy honey dip and galactic berry crisp. The table is almost not big enough. Incense smoke hangs in the air and there are more flowers in vases on the table.

Georgina is muscular and tan but also hurt and tired. Her loose tunic dress and apron expose the scars on her chest legs and arms. Her face is also deeply cut and she is less one eye from a teenage encounter with Imperial battle droids. Her hair is gray and mostly hidden by a beret.

Georgina escaped the destruction of the Jedi temple on Coruscant by chance of being in service with her mentor elsewhere in the galaxy. Her mentor was killed by order 66 but she escaped injured. When Obi-Wan put up the 'do not return' signal at the temple, she responded by going permanently into hiding. She stowed away on a galactic grain freighter. When she was discovered by the crew, the captain arranged for her medical care. Later she made a secret home on the planet Amapola. After contacting the Alliance she is mostly being ignored by Alliance leadership as too eccentric to be helpful but Luke knows better than to ignore her. Luke does not want to ignore Georgina.

MANNIX MOONSTONES

Luke also knows that the death of his father is not nearly the end of any galactic struggle, not the end of darkness, just the end of Anakin. He is still in mourning. He is unable to shake the loss from his very being. Now he has the company of other Jedi friends who share his knowledge of inner peace and balance. The galaxy, being a big place, is intimidating but he is determined to do the little he can to help preserve the Jedi tradition . He is sure that Master Yoda wants him to do so and so does his father.

Luke removes his poncho to eat. He sits next to Georgina's children and across from Gaska and Titus. Gaska's cape is now missing and Luke can see she is wearing a beautiful long orange, red and purple silk dress. He now recognizes the gemstones in her wrists, same as in her chin and teeth, as indications of her past and future. They are gems from the moons of the planet Mannix. When he was a teenager he saw and learned about Mannix moonstones in a smugglers marketplace in Mos Eisley spaceport on Tatooine.

ONCE AND FUTURE JEDI

“Luke you have our most serious gratitude for your efforts to start a school for young Jedi,” says Kasper.

“I am happy to do it with your help,” says Luke. “And your help Georgina. I can't do it alone.”

Georgina speaks her own language and one of her eldest sons translates. “My mom says she can foresee the help of many other Jedi if they survived,” says the boy.

“I was going to start a school myself,” says Titus. “But I have other responsibilities.”

Chewbaca complains and pushes his plate away.

“C3Po tell Georgina that Chewy enjoys her company but he is not a vegetarian. He eats birds,” says Han.

Georgina speaks in her own language and her eldest son translates again. “My mom says she will cook Chewbaca a big Kuku bird.”

“Tell her thanks,” says Han.

Georgina then speaks some more and her son translates. “My mom says she does not admire her life in hiding and she wishes she could have completed her service to the Jedi Council.”

“We must value our survival. And honor those who were lost to Order 66 and those lost in battle and lost in the destruction of the temple,” says Kasper.

Luke shuts his eyes for a moment. He is not only in mourning for his father but he also mourns all the wrong his father did. Gaska sees this.

“Captain Solo,” says Titus. “Have you heard that the Empire wishes to clone you?”

“Hadn't heard,” says Han.

“Seems they can't get enough of you on the other side,” says Titus. 

“Well I hope my wife never meets my clone. She tells me one of me is almost too much,” says Han.

Chewbaca laughs.

Wren is not amused. He feels embarrassed by his dad and not for the first time.

“We have heard there are many fake light sabers in the pirate markets. Is that true Captain Solo?” asks one of Georgina's children.

“Yeah,” answers Han. “There were not many counterfeits in the past but there are more now.”

“If the Empire is constructing a new Death Star, this one will probably be larger than the first two,” says Kasper.

Georgina speaks again in her own language and one of her children translates. “My mom says so much power for destruction may create total imbalance. The Empire may fall in on itself ...self destruction may be the unknown Imperial design.”

Luke nods but Wren drops his fork and rolls his eyes. The boy is frustrated with the adults in his life who seem to live only in the storied past and future.

R2D2 beeps and whistles. “R2 says there is no proof yet that the Empire is building a third Death Star,” says