Honour Thy Father - Chapter 1
Chapter 1 of Honour Thy Father
[Note: The chapters do get longer than this]
Part 1
Chapter 1
As his son began climbing the boarding ramp, Anakin let out a small chuckle. Luke reminded him of himself - stupidly stubborn - but thankfully there was no darkness within Luke. He had gotten his mother’s pure soul.
A pang of pain struck Anakin’s heart. He had not allowed himself to think of Padmé in years.
His breath hitched, tears fell, and for the first time he truly grieved for his beloved wife.
Luke hurried through the shuttle and set his father on a medi-station bunk. He slipped an oxygen mask over his father’s mouth and quickly kissed him on the forehead. “I’ll get us out of here, just say with me.”
As Luke rushed out, Anakin mumbled, “This is where the fun begins.”
* * *
Luke dashed into the cock-pit, flicked the switch to raise the boarding ramp, and started up the ship.
He managed to glide the shuttle out of the hangar just as it started to collapse. He was only a few hundred metres away from the Death Star when it exploded. The detonation rocked the shuttle and a piece of metal from the damned super weapon took out their thrusters.
Luke checked the diagnostics and let out a string of curses that would have made his Aunt Beru swat him. He changed the friend/foe setting on the transmitting board and hailed Home One.
“Home One, this is Commander Skywalker aboard Imperial Shuttle Magnum. I need immediate assistance. I am carrying severely injured personnel and unable to get to you.” Luke stumbled over the proper comm language.
“Commander Skywalker, we acknowledge your request but are unable to grant it at this time.”
Luke was about to plea with the communication officer when he heard another voice through the comm. “Luke, buddy, need a lift?”
Luke breathed a sigh of relief. “Yes, Lando, please.”
“We’ll be there in five standard minutes.”
Without losing a second, Luke was up and heading to his father. When he got to the medbay, Anakin’s eyes were closed and he was weeping.
“Father? I have to get this suit off you, alright? I have help on its way and I don’t want them knowing who you were just yet.” Luke looked at the last piece of the mask still on his father’s face - the piece that covered his lower jaw and neck. He reached to the back and found a dial. After Luke twisted it, the last piece of the mask fell away, revealing Anakin’s scarred neck.
Luke quickly kissed his father’s cheek before turning to search for something that could cut fabric and armor. He found round cutter and quickly started peeling the suit off his father. He cut away the thick black suit to reveal wires machinery and white flesh.
Once the suit was gone, Luke truly saw his father. Obi-Wan had been right: Anakin was more machine than human. But it was only Anakin’s limbs that were crude, outdated, cybernetic replacements. His core was thin and weak, but still human.
Luke disposed of the cursed suit out an airlock and when he came back, he noticed his father was shivering uncontrollably.
“Oh, Dad,” he sighed, grabbing blankets and covering his father with them.
Anakin let his one hand slide out from the blanket and brushed Luke’s leg. Luke looked down and grabbed his father’s metal left hand.
“How are you feeling?” Luke asked.
“I haven’t felt this good in twenty-three years,” Anakin responded weakly, but with a smile. He then asked, “Do you really feel so comfortable as to call me dad?”
“Dad,” Luke said for emphasis. “That’s who you are to me. Besides, the word ‘father’ kinda reminds me of the whole ‘I am you father’ thing on Bespin.”
Anakin avoided his son’s eyes. “I am sorry for that.”
“It’s all in the past now.”
Then they heard the docking ring engage. Luke squeezed his father’s mechanical excuse for a hand before hurrying off to see Lando coming through the docking ring, behind him was Nien Nunb.
“Get the hovergurney off the Falcon,” Luke ordered, knowing that gurney had an oxygen attachment. “And come meet me in this shuttle’s med-bay.” He then hurried back to his dad.
When he got back, he knew Anakin was slipping away. “Dad? Dad, stay with me,” Luke pleaded as he slipped a sheet under him to make the transfer process easier.
“I’m cold,” Anakin mumbled.
Luke wrapped the blankets around him tighter, tucked a towel under his head and created a hood to keep his father’s head warm. “Do you want me to remind you about Tatooine?”
Anakin chuckled as Luke hovered over his head. “Okay.”
Luke smiled. “Well, did you ever forget your boots out in the sand in the evening?”
“Yeah. In the morning when you go to get them, the sand is so hot; you have to run like a madman so your feet won’t burn. Good to know I wasn’t only idiot who did that once.”
“No, I think you were the only one who did it once. I did it every other week.”
Anakin rolled his eyes. “My son is a moron.”
“Like father, like son,” Luke continued the banter as Lando and Nien Nunb entered.
They picked up the sheet containing Anakin and easily transferred him to the hovergurney.
“Luke? Mind if I ask who this is?” Lando asked as he helped Luke get one oxygen mask off Anakin and put the mask attached to the hovergurney on the elderly man.
“Long story,” Luke said as he directed the hovergurney towards the Falcon. “But, I owe this man my life. We need to get him to Home One.”
Lando nodded. “Will do, Luke,” he said they entered the Falcon. “Nien, you heard the Commander, get us to Home One.”
The Sullustan hurried off while Lando and Luke brought the hovergurney into the Falcon’s medbay.
“Lando, go help Nien,” Luke commanded.
Father and son were alone again.
“Luke, you must tell them who I am. They must know who they are helping. I must pay for my crimes.” Although he was feeble, Anakin was still demanding.
“I will. I will tell them you are Anakin Skywalker - my father. No one knows but my sister that you were Vader and she wouldn’t have told anyone yet.”
Anakin shook his head. “No, Luke, justice is the Jedi way.”
“So is the truth and forgiveness. If you want to tell them who you were, you can, but just let me get you better first, please.”
“Fine, but you too have to get better, too.” When Luke looked at him, confused, Anakin continued. “Force lightning has horrible after-effects. You may not be feeling them now, but you will.”
“Okay, but you are my priority.”
After a moment of silence, Anakin asked, “Your sister. She’s Princess Leia, isn’t she?”
Luke nodded. “Yes, how did you - ?” He realized how silly his question was. Of course it was the Force that told him.
“It wasn’t the Force that told me,” Anakin answered his son’s thoughts. “Not entirely anyway. I don’t know how I didn’t see it before. She looks so much like her mother.”
Luke perked once he heard the last word. “Mother?” He knew very little about his mother. He had no memories of her. He only knew from Leia that she was beautiful, kind, yet sad. His Aunt Beru had once told him she and his mother had been friends, but she hadn’t been from Tatooine.
He then felt the Falcon dock with Home One. He knew medics would be rushing in here in a matter of moments.
“Your mother was an angel,” Anakin started, tears forming once again in his eyes. Before he could regain his posture, Lando entered with medics following him. They rushed Anakin out of the Falcon as Luke hurried behind them.