The Rise And Fall Of Darth Vader (3 page)

Kitster thought hard. “Umm, no.”

“It means I can build my own -

“Boy!” Watto’s voice interrupted, calling from beyond the arched portal that separated the junkyard from his bell-shaped shop. “Boy! Where in this dump are you?!”

“Oh, no!” Anakin said, glancing at Kitster and then back to the archway. “Wait here!” Trying hard to maintain a relaxed expression, he trotted out of the junkyard.

“Ah! There you are!” Watto said when he sighted Anakin. Hovering outside the entrance of his shop, he spoke in Huttese, “For a moment, I suspected you’d run away from Watto.”

“Oh, and give you the pleasure of seeing my transmitter detonate?”

“Pleasure?” Watto said, his trunklike nose turning slightly upward as if recoiling from Anakin’s words. “You think I like cleaning up exploded slaves? Bweh heh heh!” When he was done laughing, he gestured with a three-fingered hand to some more scrap-filled containers that had just been delivered, and said, “Now get back to work! I want this scrap sorted by noon!”

After Anakin had hauled the containers into the junkyard, he returned to where he’d left Kitster with the droid parts.

“You’re not telling Watto about the droid?” Kitster asked.

“I found him. He’s mine,” Anakin said as he began dragging the droid’s body into an area shaded by large metal refuse, where Watto was unlikely to notice it. “Besides, Watto wouldn’t be able to fix him. I’ll smuggle him back home, piece by piece.”

Handing the droid’s head to Anakin, Kitster said, “But even if you get him to work, what’ll you use him for?”

“Lots of things. Running errands. Lifting stuff… Hey, what’s this?” He had found a line of small engraved lettering at the base of the droid’s skull, and he held the head out so Kitster could see it too. “Says here he’s a Cybot Galactica Protocol Droid.”

“Protocol? What’s that good for?”

“I don’t know,” Anakin admitted. “I’ll have to ask my mom. Hey, maybe he’ll even help me and my mom leave Tatooine!” Holding the droid’s head in both hands, Anakin studied its mechanisms more closely. “The balance gyro’s ancient. I’m guessing seventy or eighty years old. I’ll bet he saw a lot of action. Makes you wonder … how did he wind up like this?”

Anakin gazed into the droid’s burnt-out eyes as if he might find more clues to the droid’s history there. But he saw only the droid’ s frozen, startled expression.
Don’t worry,
pal, Anakin thought.
I’ll take good care of you.

It took five days of stealthy maneuvers for Anakin to move the droid’s remains from the junkyard to his hovel. Except for Kitster, he told no one about the droid. But he should have told at least one other person: his mother, who was not happy to enter the hovel and find her son’s latest project laid out in hundreds of dirty pieces on the dining table.

Shmi had bought a small sack of dried vegetables at the market, and she placed them on the kitchen counter. Not wanting to look at the bizarre metal and wire skeleton that lay in a supine position on the table with its dead eyes staring at the ceiling, she averted her gaze from Anakin and the droid. “Let me guess,” she said.

“Yeah, pretty lucky, huh? And… well, I don’t know anyone else in Mos Espa who’d be able to fix him up right. If I hadn’t saved him from the scrap heap, he might have wound up smelted!” When Shmi didn’t respond, Anakin felt compelled to add, “He’s a protocol droid, Mom. Do you know what that is?”

Shmi took a deep breath and turned around to face Anakin. “Protocol droids speak millions of languages. They’re used as translators. By diplomats.”

“Oh,” Anakin said. He could tell by the tone of his mother’s voice that she thought they would have no use for a protocol droid. Hoping to convince her otherwise, he continued, “Oh! That’s… that’s great! He’ll be really useful at the market if we want to trade with a merchant who doesn’t speak Basic. And… and just imagine how impressed visitors will be when he greets them at the door! I’m sure he’ll be good at helping us in lots of other ways too.”

Shmi returned her attention to the vegetables.

“He’ll need new photoreceptors,” Anakin said. “I think I can find some at Watto’s shop.”

“You’re being careless, Ani,” Shmi said with concern. “Watto will be enraged if he learns you’ve taken an entire droid.”

“But I had to do it, Mom! The moment I saw all the parts were there, I just knew I had to put him back together.” Anakin gently gripped the droid’s right forearm and lifted it up from the table, testing the flexibility of the elbow joint. “Looking at him, all torn up and busted… it just made me so sad. If protocol droids are good with languages and translating, I’ll bet he was really smart.” Anakin looked at the droid’s face again. “I’d also bet he didn’t have a friend in the galaxy. Why else would he end up in a scrap heap on Tatooine?”

“Maybe it talked too much,” Shmi said.

“Aw, Mom. You’ll hurt his feelings.”

“The droid is a machine, Ani. It doesn’t have feelings.”

“How do you know?” Anakin said, unable to keep the hurt from his voice. “Maybe his owners were mean to him and didn’t care what happened to him. Maybe he tried to escape. Maybe… he was just like us.”

Shmi felt Anakin’s sorrow, and thought of the slave that had died while trying to escape five days earlier. She turned to her son, put her hands on his shoulders, and said, “Promise me, Ani. When you …find a new pair of photoreceptors for our new friend… you won’t get caught.”

“You mean, I can keep him?”

Shmi nodded as she surveyed the droid. “It’s clear to me now. You were meant to help this droid. You’re his second chance.”

“Thanks, Mom!” Anakin said as he hugged his mother. “When I get him to talk, I’ll tell him to thank you too!”

“No, Ani. After all, you ‘II be his maker. Just remember, the droid is your responsibility. And unless you’re prepared to care for something, you don’t deserve to have it.”

“I won’t forget,” Anakin said.

“And one more thing,” Shmi added in a severe tone.

“Yes, Mom?”

“I want the droid off our dining table right now.”

The next race did not go well for Anakin. Flying a Podracer owned by Watto, he was neck-and-neck with Sebulba - when the cheating Dug flashed his Pod’s thrusters at Anakin’s cockpit, nearly smashing him into the area of the racecourse known as Metta Drop. Anakin survived, but he crashed Watto’s Pod, damaging both engines. Watto was furious, and Shmi made it clear to Anakin that she didn’t want him to race anymore, even if Watto decided he wanted Anakin to compete again.

A little more than a week after the crash, Anakin had his protocol droid1 s intelligence and communications processors up and running. Although the droid had no memory of how he arrived on Tatooine, he counted Jawa and Tusken among the six million languages he spoke. The droid uttered clipped sentences in a well-mannered voice, but for some reason didn’t always know when to stop talking. He also worried a lot. Anakin named the droid C-3PO, choosing the number three because he considered the droid the third member of his family after his mother and himself. C-3PO was still without metal coverings and had only a single working eye, but when Watto instructed Anakin to take a speeder loaded with scrap metal and other goods to the Dune Sea to do some trading with the Jawas, Anakin decided to secretly bring the droid along for the four-standard-hours round-trip.

Anakin and C-3PO met the Jawas in the shadow of the sandcrawler beside Mochot Steep, a singular rock formation about halfway across the Dune Sea. C-3PO proved to be a capable translator by helping Anakin negotiate with the Jawas, who were sometimes known to barter damaged goods. When the trading was done, Anakin had acquired two mechanic droids, three serviceable multipurpose droids, and a damaged hyperdrive converter that needed only minor repairs.

Heading back to Mos Espa, Anakin was guiding the droid-loaded speeder through the Xelric Draw, a shallow, widemouthed canyon near the edge of the Dune Sea, when he sighted something. It was a shadowy shape that seemed out of place at the base of the rocky canyon’s walls. As Anakin veered toward the area that had attracted his attention, C-3PO became nervous and fixed his one working eye on his maker.

“Master Anakin, whatever are you doing?” C-3PO said with concern. “Mos Espa is down the canyon draw, not through the side of the - oh, my! Is that what I think it is?” C-3PO had sighted the shape too, and because he’d learned about the more dangerous life-forms on Tatooine, he didn’t like what he saw. “Master, there is every reason to turn right around…”

“I know,” Anakin interrupted. “I just want a look.”

Anakin brought the speeder to a stop near the cliff wall. A pile of rocks rested below the wall, and under the rocks lay a motionless, humanoid body, with one leg pinned beneath a large boulder. The body wore a tan robe, leather gloves, and boots. It was sprawled facedown, head turned to one side, allowing Anakin to see the cloth-wrapped head, its face concealed by goggles and a breath mask. A long, dual-handled blaster rifle lay about a meter away from one oustretched arm.

Anakin had heard enough about Tusken Raiders to know what they looked like. But he’d never seen one up close before.

From the speeder, Anakin surveyed the cliff wall’s gouged, broken surface. He easily imagined that the Tusken had been hiding somewhere above when the rocks that had supported him gave way, sending him crashing to the canyon floor. Anakin climbed out of the speeder for a closer look.

C-3PO’s skeletal form trembled. “Master Anakin, I don’t think this is a good idea at all!”

As Anakin approached, the Tusken stirred, raising his head to look at Anakin, then lowered his head again. 

He’s still alive!
From everything Anakin had heard about Tuskens, he knew it would be best to leave immediately. If he stuck around, more Tuskens might arrive. If he was late getting back to Mos Espa or failed to return with the droids and speeder, Watto would be furious. As C-3PO protested behind him, Anakin thought of his mother. He knew she’d be worried, but he wondered, Would she tell me to get out of here too? What would she say, if she were here?

“Threepio,” he called to the nervous droid, “bring the other droids over here.”

* * *

It took the combined strength of the various droids and the weight of the speeder to rig a lever that could tilt the boulder enough so Anakin could pull the now-unconscious Tusken free. Taking supplies from the speeder’s medical kit, Anakin applied a quick-seal splint to freeze the Tusken’s injured leg, which was broken in several places.

Tatooine’s suns began to set. Anakin knew he’d never reach Mos Espa by nightfall, and he didn’t want to risk traveling across the desert in the darkness. After doing his best to conceal the speeder and the newly purchased droids under the lee of a cliff face, Anakin sat beside C-3PO. Illuminated by a small glow unit they’d removed from the speeder, they were watching the Tusken Raider when he awoke. The Tusken lay on the sand, staring at Anakin through the opaque lenses of his goggles, then slowly raised himself to sit upright, taking care not to shift his injured leg.

“Uh, hello,” Anakin said, hoping his voice sounded friendly.

The Tusken did not respond.

“Are you thirsty?”

Again, no response.

C-3PO leaned his one-eyed head closer to Anakin and said in a low voice, “I don’t think he likes us very much.”

The Tusken’s head turned slightly. Anakin realized the Tusken had spotted his own blaster rifle, which Anakin had propped against some rocks beyond the Tusken’s reach. Then the Tusken returned his gaze to Anakin.

Several minutes later, the Tusken spoke. Anakin didn’t understand the snarled words, so he turned to C-3PO. The droid translated, “He wants to know what you are going to do with him, Master Anakin.”

Confused, Anakin looked back at the Tusken. “Tell him I’m not going to do anything with him. I’m just trying to help him get well.”

The Tusken didn’t reply, but Anakin sensed he was afraid. Because nearly everyone believed Tusken Raiders to be fearless, Anakin was surprised.
Why’s he afraid of me? It not afraid of him.
Then Anakin thought with some surprise,
I’m not afraid of anything.

But as Anakin stared at the Tusken’s masked face, he saw his own reflection in the lenses of the Tusken’s gogeles and shuddered slightly. He had heard that Tuskens never took off their masks or bared their flesh, and the thought of his entire body being so completely enveloped, sealed off so that he’d be unable to feel anything - not even the touch of my mother’s hand - made Anakin suddenly realize a painful truth: Although he was never afraid for himself, he was sometimes very afraid for his mother.

What if I were to lose her? How brave would I be then?

Anakin continued watching the Tusken until he fell asleep.

* * *

Anakin Skywalker had many dreams that night. In one dream, he was no longer nine years old. He was a man. And not just any man, but a Jedi Knight with a lightsaber.

He ran through the streets of Mos Espa, looking for the few slavers who’d escaped him. His mission was to liberate all the slaves on Tatooine. For too long, slavers in the Outer Rim had believed themselves immune from the laws of the Galactic Republic. Anakin was going to change all that. He called out, “Release the slaves now and no harm will come to you!”

In the buildings that lined the streets of Mos Espa, some tenants leaned out of their windows and cheered for Anakin. Even though he’ d deactivated his lightsaber’s blade, most of the slavers were scared by the sight of him and his weapon, and surrendered when they saw him. Anakin gave them some credit for knowing better than to take on a Jedi.

A shadow snaked across the curved exterior of a nearby building. By the angle of the shadow, Anakin quickly determined that it was cast by a humanoid alien from atop a neighboring building’s roof. From above and behind, Anakin heard the click of a blaster’s safety mechanism being switched off. He thought, Aha! A slaver who doesn ‘t know better!

Anakin’s lightsaber ignited with a loud hum as he spun to look up at the roof, just in time to see the alien squeeze his blaster’s trigger. Before the fired laserbolt could reach Anakin’s chest, he swung hard with his lightsaber and smashed the bolt back at his attacker. The alien clutched at his shoulder and fell from the roof, landing with a loud thud on the sand-covered street. The dust was still settling when Anakin heard a woman’s voice calling his name.