Star Wars Journal - The Fight for Justice by Luke Skywalker

…So don’t just dream about applying for the Academy, make it come true! You can find a career in space: Exploration, Starfleet, or Merchant Service. If you have the right stuff to take on the universe, dispatch your application and join the ranks of the proud!

I’ll admit it. I keep playing the Space Academy Recruitment tape. I have it memorized, but I still like to listen to it. Windy just caught me in the tech-dome playing it again—but so what? So what if I have dreams of joining the Imperial forces? Windy, Fixer, and Deak can laugh about it because they’re happy as farmers, living day in and day out with nothing happening. But why should I be embarrassed for wanting more? For having dreams beyond moisture farming?

Windy says I should grow up. That I’m a farm boy, just like him. But I’m not. I don’t have a farming bone in my body. I was made for action, for radical maneuvering in my T-16, for bold adventures and risk-taking.

That’s why I took Windy with me through the eye of the Stone Needle today. I guess I needed to show him I’m not just a farm boy like him. And maybe it worked. He was scared. Squealing the whole way, like a baby Jawa. And me? I was loving every minute of it. What a thrill to steer that fast, that close to death. I could hear the buzz of metal as my speeder eased through that needle of stone. And to know I was going to beat Fixer through the bottleneck! Yes. The only thing missing was my best friend Biggs.

Biggs is the only one who understands. And now that he’s at the Academy, there is really no one I can talk to about all this. I’m sick of my friends telling me the Academy is for suckers. That it’s all about taking orders, wearing a fancy uniform, losing your identity—and probably your life.

I’m ready for the Academy and I’m as trained as I can be. I’ve had my T-16 for several years now, and I can fly it better than almost anyone around here. Of course, there’s not much competition, especially since hotshot Biggs left for training. Tatooine is a pretty small place. Small and boring—no sane pilot would hang around here for long. So the Academy is really the only place for me. Maybe before I go, I can visit the spaceport at Mos Eisley. I’d love to check out some of those ships! I can just imagine all the planets they might be going to: Alderaan! Coruscant! Endor! But they’re just names to me from a vid-encyclopedia. If I could just
see
them…

Tonight I saw a space battle. At least I think it was a space battle. I saw flashes of light out of the corner of my eye. And when I looked through my electrobinoculars, I saw two ships firing at each other.

I dropped everything and hopped on my landspeeder. Forget chores! I had to find my friends—Fixer and Windy had to see this. A real battle in our system! Why couldn’t I be up there fighting for justice with the Imperials?

When I found my friends, I was in for another surprise. Biggs was with them! Back from the Academy. I was so happy to see him, I forgot about the battle. And by the time I remembered and convinced everyone to take a look, the action was over. Nothing to see. Here I was making a big stink about two ships firing at each other, and the ships were just sitting there in orbit, hanging out like a couple of fat banthas. Nobody believed me. Windy, Fixer, Cammie, and Deak all thought I made it up. Like I’m so overeager to join the Space Academy, I’m starting to see stars—and battles! Well, they’ve got zip imagination. And that’s fine for them. You don’t need much imagination to farm. But they don’t need to laugh at my expense.

And to be honest, I was a little hurt that Biggs didn’t believe me, either. Biggs and I have been through a lot together. And just because he’s at the Academy and I’m not doesn’t mean I’m imagining stuff like a little kid. Those ships were not refueling or switching cargoes. And it wasn’t the suns reflecting on metal. Those ray blasts were unmistakable.
Something
was going on in orbit tonight. I don’t know what. And I’ll probably never find out. But after seeing that action, I wish more than ever that I could find a way off Tatooine… for good.

I thought today would be the best day of my life. The beginning of something new. Something worthwhile. And definitely something other than moisture farming!

I don’t want to live my life on a constant quest for water. All we do here is fight against the hot, dry conditions of Tatooine. It takes all our efforts, running the vaporators full-time to produce enough water for survival.

Oh, Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru do okay. With my help, of course. But today I’m old enough to leave. And Uncle Owen
promised
.

Only he’s gone back on that promise.

He says I have to work here for another year, and then he’ll be able to spare me. I’ve worked here all my life. I thought I was getting the chance to stop wasting my time on this farm—and do something.

I know I shouldn’t sound so harsh. I mean, Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru took me in when I was a baby, and they’ve raised me as if I were their own child. They never had any children themselves, and they’ve always been good to me. I don’t have any complaints there, although I would have liked to have known my parents.

And this farm is Uncle Owen’s life. He’s a good man, I know that. But his horizons stretch only as far as the farm does. He rarely goes to town anymore, preferring to send me on errands for him. He stays out here, working and sweating all day to produce a little moisture. And he’s happy with that. It’s a tiring life, but the one he chooses.

The problem is that I can’t make him see it’s not the life
I
choose. The thought of spending my life here, rejigging failing vaporators and programming farm droids, makes me want to scream. I want to experience life out in the galaxy—where things really happen! Sometimes, I just sit out at night, looking up at the stars, and imagine what it would be like to be out there.

Of course, Biggs doesn’t have to imagine anymore. He’s graduated from the Academy already, and has earned his wings. I’m really glad for him, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t jealous, too. He’s going to be out there in space, flying and visiting all the places we’ve talked about a hundred times.

It was so great to see Biggs. But it made me realize how much I miss him. And that I’ll have another full year without a best friend to fly T-16s with. He’s already way ahead of me, but he didn’t rub it in, and told me kind of casually, like it wasn’t any big deal. But I could see the pride in his eyes, and hear the hunger in his voice.

Thankfully, I can encode these entries so nobody else can play them back. Otherwise, I’d never be revealing what Biggs told me. He isn’t planning to stick with his job on a freighter. He’s going to jump ship at the first port of call, and join the Rebellion!

I told him he was crazy to think he could actually find the Rebels. I mean, if the Empire can’t find them, what are
his
chances? And even if he does find them, I’m not so sure that’s such a great thing. I mean, we all know that the current government isn’t the greatest in the galaxy. They take their cut of everything, and they supposedly enforce the peace. But, on the whole, they pretty much leave Tatooine alone.

Not that there’s anything here to interest them anyway.

Sure I’ve heard about some terrible things the Emperor’s troops have done. But they’re just stories. I’ve never met anyone who could actually back up the stories with facts. It might be nothing more than discontented grumblings. Then again, maybe the stories are all true, and the Emperor’s the tyrant they claim, and he deserves to be overthrown. I don’t know. It’s just politics as usual. It has nothing to do with me.

Of course, if I were out there among the stars, maybe I’d know more. Then I could make a decision—even the same one Biggs has made. He definitely believes he’s doing the right thing. And knowing Biggs, he probably is.

I guess Biggs worries about me as much as I worry about him. He tried to talk me into leaving the farm. He said I needed to think about what’s important in life. Get my priorities straight. He knows why I’ve worked so hard at becoming the hottest, fastest, most daring pilot in town. But going off and doing what he did… it’s just not that easy.

Uncle Owen won’t let me leave, and I owe him and Aunt Beru too much just to walk out on them. At first, I thought Uncle Owen didn’t want to let me go because I’m cheap help around the farm. But it’s more than that. He seems
afraid
. Like he knows that if I had the chance, I’d kick the dust of this planet off my feet and never come back. And he’s afraid of what might happen to me if I do that.