The Rise And Fall Of Darth Vader (4 page)

Anakin turned to see the woman. It was his mother, dressed in her rough work clothes. Anakin deactivated his lightsaber and said, “I came back, Mom! Like I promised! You’re free!”

His mother smiled and opened her arms to Anakin. He ran to embrace her, but before he could reach her, she vanished. He was still clutching at the air where she’d been standing when he was suddenly surrounded by Sand People.

* * *

Anakin awoke with a start. Just as they had appeared in his dream, a group of Sand People now encircled him, silhouetted against the predawn sky. They carried blaster rifles and long gaffi sticks, double-edged axlike weapons made from metal scavenged from wrecked or abandoned vehicles. Anakin was completely at their mercy.

As he wondered what the Sand People would do to him, Anakin heard a guttural muttering from nearby. Beyond the group that stood around him, more Sand People were lifting and carrying away the Tusken that he’d rescued. The injured Tusken was the one who’d spoken, and his words caused the other Tuskens to slowly back away from Anakin.

Within seconds, all the Sand People were gone, leaving Anakin unharmed. Maybe they were grateful to me for helping their friend. Maybe the Tuskens aren’t so awful after all.

“Master Anakin, they’ve gone!” C-3PO cried as he stepped away from his position beside the speeder, where he’d been hiding. “Oh, we’re lucky to be alive! Thank goodness they didn’t harm you!”

Anakin stood up and looked around. The speeder and the other droids were where he’d left them, but the injured Tusken’s blaster rifle was gone. The only evidence of his encounter with the Sand People was the depleted contents of the speeder’s medical kit and their footprints in the sand.

It’s almost like the whole thing never happened,
As the twin suns began to rise and the stars faded from the brightening sky, Anakin decided it was time to head home.

* * *

His return to Mos Espa went as Anakin expected. After he’d snuck C-3PO back to Slave Quarters Row, his worried mother had nearly smothered him in hugs. When he delivered the droids to Watto, the angry Toydarian nearly lost his voice after bellowing reprimands for several minutes. Watto calmed down a bit after seeing the quality of the droids that Anakin had obtained from the Jawas, but by the end of the day, nothing had really changed. Tatooine was still a harsh, lawless world, and Anakin was still a slave.

The following day, however, something remarkable happened. That was the day a Naboo starship landed on Tatooine, and Anakin’s life was forever changed.

It was midday in Mos Espa, and Anakin was cleaning fan switches in Watto’s junkyard when his master loudly summoned him into the junk shop to watch the store. Inside, Watto was talking with a tall, bearded man who was dressed like a farmer; the man was accompanied by a rubbery-jointed humanoid alien with mottled skin and eyes on the top of his head, a girl dressed in rough peasant clothes, and a dome-headed, blue astro-mech droid.

While the tall man and the astromech followed the hovering Watto to the scrap yard to look at engine parts, Anakin hitched himself up onto the counter that snaked through the shop and studied the girl. She had delicate features, her skin too perfect for a peasant. She appeared to be a few years older than him, and Anakin found himself unable to take his eyes off her.

“Are you an angel?” he blurted out.

She smiled - his heart soared - and said, “What?”

“An angel,” he responded as she stepped closer to him. “I’ve heard the deep space pilots talk about them. They are the most beautiful creatures in the universe. They live on the Moons of lego, I think.”

“You’re a funny little boy,” she said sweetly. “How do you know so much?”

“I listen to all the traders and starpilots who come through here. I’m a pilot, you know, and someday, I’m going to fly away from this place.”

“You’re a pilot?” she said, as if she found it hard to believe.

“Mm-hmm. All my life.”

“How long have you been here?”

“Since I was very little, three, I think. My mom and I were sold to Gardulla the Hutt, but she lost us, betting on the Podraces.”

Sounding surprised and alarmed, the girl said, “You’re a slave?”

Even though the girl had assumed correctly, Anakin didn’t like being called a slave, and he felt stung by her question. “I’m a person” he said, glaring at her, “and my name is Anakin!”

“I’m sorry. I don’t fully understand,” the girl replied, and Anakin sensed she meant it. Unable to hold his gaze, she glanced around the shop’s interior, as if seeking answers from the assorted scrap that lined the walls. “This is a strange place to me.”

Anakin remembered his own arrival to Tatooine, and had to admit that he’d found it strange too. He tried to ignore the clumsy, mottled-skinned alien while he continued talking with the girl for a few more minutes, until the tall man and the astromech returned with Watto. The man announced that his group was leaving, and Anakin felt heartsick as the girl walked out the door.

After Watto gave Anakin permission to leave the shop, the boy caught up with the three outlanders and the astromech. When they learned a sandstorm was approaching, Anakin persuaded them to take temporary refuge in his home, where he introduced them to his mother and C-3PO. He discovered that the man was a Jedi Knight named Qui-Gon Jinn, the girl was fourteen-year-old Padmé Naberrie, the clumsy alien was a Gungan named Jar Jar Binks, and the astromech was R2-D2. When R2-D2 observed that the protocol droid, devoid of exterior plating, appeared to be naked, C-3PO became quite embarrassed.

Anakin had suspected that Qui-Gon Jinn was a Jedi even before the man admitted it in so many words. He had spotted Qui-Gon’s lightsaber dangling from his belt on their way to Anakin’s home, and he couldn’t help wondering if Qui-Gon had come to Tatooine to free the slaves. Although Qui-Gon revealed few details about himself, Anakin could tell that he was a good and honorable man, the kind that had always been in short supply in Anakin’s upbringing. Anakin admired the way Qui-Gon held himself with quiet confidence. When Jar Jar Binks made the mistake of using his own long tongue to snatch up a piece of food from the dining table, Anakin was both amused and amazed to see Qui-Gon’s hand flash out with lightning speed to seize the Gungan’s darting tongue with his thumb and forefinger.

“Don’t do that again,” Qui-Gon said with some severity before he released his grip and Jar Jar’s tongue snapped back into his mouth.

Anakin thought,
Wizard!
Suddenly, he found himself wishing that Qui-Gon would teach him how to be a Jedi. But because Anakin had experienced enough disappointments in his life, it was difficult for him to imagine this could ever happen.

While Anakin and his mother sat with their new friends around the dining table, he told them of his dreams of becoming a Jedi. He learned that Padmé was a handmaiden to Queen Amidala of the planet Naboo, and that Qui-Gon had been escorting the queen and her entourage on an important mission to the planet Coruscant when their starship had been damaged, and they were forced to land on Tatooine without funds for the necessary repairs. Hoping to help, Anakin explained that a big Podrace, the Boonta Eve Classic, was scheduled for the following day. He volunteered to enter the race, which offered prize money that would more than pay for the parts they needed.

“Anakin!” Shmi protested. “Watto won’t let you.” 

“Watto doesn’t know I’ve built it.” Turning to Qui-Ton he said, “You could make him think it was yours, and get him to let me pilot it for you.

Although Padmé liked this idea about as much as Shmi did, Anakin was confident his plan - as well as his secret Podracer - would work.

* * *

The Boonta Eve Classic was the most dangerous race Anakin had ever flown in. It was a vicious, free-for-all competition, and more than one racer became victim to the high-speed turns, rocky obstacles, and dirty tricks of their dastardly adversaries.

The race’s start had been difficult for Anakin. When he’d gunned his Podracer’s engines at the starting signal, his turbines went dead, and he almost felt sick as he peered through his goggles.to see the other pilots blasting off across the Starlite Flats, leaving him gasping in their dust. He’d lost precious seconds as he struggled with his controls, but when he finally managed to make the Radon-Ulzers fire, he threw his vehicle forward and launched out of Mos Espa Arena at top speed.

Soaring through the twisting chasms and over broad fiats, Anakin managed to catch up with the other Podracers during the first lap. As the towering rock formations that dotted Mushroom Mesa whipped past him, he caught the scent of burning fuel a split second before he saw the scattered, smoking remains of the green-engined Pod that had been piloted by a Gran named Mawhonic. Somehow, he knew in his gut that Sebulba was responsible for the crash, and had no illusions that the Gran had survived.

Gripping his controls, Anakin gnashed his teeth and thought,
I’m not going to die like that!

Anakin progressed at furious speed, maneuvering past several competitors as he sent his Podracer faster through the Boonta’s exotic-named perils of Jag Crag Gorge, Laguna Caves, and Bindy Bend. While other pilots slowed slightly to negotiate the notoriously twisty chasm known as the Corkscrew, Anakin maintained a steady high speed until he arrived at Devil’s Doorknob, a passage so narrow that pilots were required to flip their vehicles on their sides to travel through it. With expert skill beyond his years, he flipped his Pod to launch out of Devil’s Doorknob, then accelerated to even greater speed over the broad expanse of the dead-sea bed known as Hutt Flats. Moments later, Mos Espa Arena came into view, and then he hurtled past the crowds who’d watched his delayed departure only minutes earlier.

There were still two laps to go.

Anakin knew he was rapidly gaining on the leading racers. As his Pod shot out of Beggar’s Canyon, he caught sight of Mars Guo far up ahead, just behind Sebulba. Suddenly, one of Mars Guo’s engines exploded, and a moment later, his Pod was flying in all directions. Anakin plunged his own Pod dangerously close to the around in a desperate effort to evade the fiery, airborne debris, but one large chunk of stray metal struck the steelton control cable that linked his Pod to his starboard engine. The control cable broke free, and Anakin’s pod now linked only to the port engine - began spinning out of control.

Straining against the belts in his cockpit, Anakin tightened his neck muscles and clenched his teeth to prevent his head from snapping back.
Stay focused!
He sensed he was still traveling forward, and knew that the only reason he hadn’t crashed so far was because the energy binder arc between the two engines had not yet failed.

As the surface of Tatooine blurred and spiraled around him, he punched at his cockpit controls until he stabilized the Pod, then reached for an emergency tool: his extendible magnetic retriever. He reached out with the tool, aiming its tip at the metal end of the starboard control cable that whipped and flailed alongside his cockpit. There was a satisfying clank as the magnetic retriever locked onto the cable’s end. Anakin felt his arm strain as he pulled back on the cable, then he thrust the tool directly into the starboard cable socket. An instant later, he’d regained control of his ship.

Anakin didn’t congratulate himself. His momentary bss of control had allowed the Xexto pilot Gasgano and a couple of other pilots to pass him, and Sebulba was still in the lead. Anakin did what he had to do: he kept going, only faster.

He swung around Gasgano, but as he attempted to pass the Veknoid pilot Teemto Pagalies, he felt a sudden bone-jarring jolt as Pagalies swerved to deliberately smack one of his long engines against Anakin’s Pod. Anakin sat tight in his cockpit and stayed in control to lead Pagalies out of the Laguna Caves to emerge at the base of the wide, high-walled stretch called Canyon Dune Turn.

KRAK!

Despite the roar of his engines, Anakin heard the shot from above. A millisecond later, bright sparks flashed in front of him as fired projectiles pinged off his Pod. Sand people! They’re shooting at me! He pushed his throttle levers, which sent him faster across the canyon. Anakin made it. Pagalies wasn’t so fortunate.

Anakin caught up with Sebulba in the Corkscrew, but the cruel Dug flashed his engines directly in front of the young human. Anakin’s Pod fell back, but he was still in second place as he followed Sebulba’s Pod sideways out through Devil’s Doorknob. Less than a minute later, Anakin followed Sebulba again through Mos Espa Arena.

Only one more lap!

Anakin kept on Sebulba’s tail through the course, and was almost directly behind him when they began werving through the narrow confines of Beggar’s Canyon. Sebulba swung hard to the side, forcing Anakin off the course and onto the steep gradient of a service ramp- A moment later, Anakin’s engines were carrying his Pod up and out of the canyon, launching him skyward.

No!
Anakin thought. If he didn’t win the race and the prize money, he wouldn’t be able to help the Jedi buy the starship parts he needed to leave Tatooine. And he wanted very much to help the Jedi and the girl who traveled with him.

I can’t lose!

When his Pod reached its maximum repulsorlift altitude, Anakin stayed calm as the vehicle arched back toward Tatooine’s surface. Far below, he could see Sebulba’s Pod still traveling through the canyon. Keeping his eyes on Sebulba’s position, Anakin steered into a steep dive. He felt the air tear against his cheeks as he plunged back into the canyon, then angled his Pod and accelerated to position himself in front of the enraged Dug.

The thrill of being in the lead didn’t last long. As Anakin and Sebulba headed through Jett’s Chute on their way to the Corkscrew, Anakin’s left engine overheated and began billowing smoke. The boy’s nimble fingers quickly adjusted the controls to correct the malfunction, but as the two Pods blasted out of Devil’s Doorknob and over the final stretch of Hutt Flats, Sebulba began ramming Anakin from the side in a last nasty effort to force him out of the race.