Playlist:

❶ "The Scavenger" — The Force Awakens OST

❷"Holmes and Elizabeth"—Young Sherlock Holmes OST

❶ Two months after meeting Master Skywalker, Naluma sat on the deck of the main cabin late one evening, the metal cold on her body from the changing of seasons. Since she had finished most of her training modules during the past week, the Padawan turned to focus on constructing her own lightsaber.

Master Skywalker was at another High Command dinner tonight, allowing her time to work on her saber without interruption. Since the episode in the grove a few weeks ago, he had not relapsed.

She closed her eyes and reveled in the feeling of both of their power defeating the darkness within him. It wasn't just the victory—the synergistic teamwork, the knowledge that together they were much stronger than apart. It sent shivers up her spine. I wonder if it will be like that when we fight together, syncing our movements, inside each other's heads. 

She shook her head. Well, it's not going to happen if you don't finish this saber. She turned the amethyst-colored crystal for the optics over in her fingers. How can this tiny gem could do everything the faded schematics says it can? Maybe if it were a Kyber crystal it ... but even Master Skywalker had to create a power source for his saber. That green stone is synthetic, too.

It will work. I know it can. Just need to figure this out again. Wish he'd let me take his apart so I'd have a model to work with. Too bad the Empire harvested all of the Kyber crystals in the galaxy for the Death Stars.

She settled the purple crystal into its bracket and considered its orientation. Hmm? Naluma tinkered with the gem, rotating it until the smoothest side aligned with the activation stud. She smiled and clicked it into place.

A jolt ran from the hilt up her hand, washing through her body. 

She soldered a few more connections before assembling the handle. She elevated the saber, pointing it away from her before pressing the activator. A hiss emanated from the device, but then it burned—too hot to hold. Naluma quickly shut it off and dropped it to the deck to cool off.

While she waited for it to cool, she reclined against the jump seat behind her and studied the diagram yet again. If I can only finish this tonight before he returns. Maybe if I get this right, he'll take me back up in the shuttle again.

It had been a few weeks since her first and last flight training session.

Oh, admit it, Naluma, you'll never be a pilot. You almost killed Master Luke and yourself the last time, crashing into the canyon. If Artoo hadn't intervened, the Jedi Order would be history.

The Padawan pushed flight lessons from her mind and returned to her work. She gingerly touched the saber hilt, judging it cool enough to handle.

Unscrewing the hilt, she set about working on the emitter. The smudged amethyst crystal arced from end to end, glowing near white before flickering out and going dark. These blurred schematics sure aren't making this easy. Where did he get these? Some rubbish pile? She scraped the interior with the tip of her Pilex driver. Maybe there's contamination on the optics, sputtering those sparks, causing an overload.

Naluma removed the crystal and polished it with a soft cloth and some medicinal alcohol. She wiped the cloth over the lens in the housing, too. Using the cloth to hold the crystal, she seated it into the bracket. After double-checking her solder points, she sealed the unit again. It clicked, not just audibly, but also in her soul.

Taking a deep breath, she ignited the saber. A purple beam of energy sprung out as the blade snapped and hissed to life. As the energy blade hummed, Naluma swung it carefully around the cabin, accustoming herself to the different grip.

She lowered the ramp and ran outside to the snow-covered field. She had one little modification to test—a power regulator. She theorized that the regulator would allow the blade to stun but not kill if it were set to the lowest intensity.

The only way she could figure out how to test the power fluctuator was to use it on a living object. She couldn't bear to test it on another creature—not even a tree. The Force connected her to them now. She could feel them, feel their pain. She couldn't bear to inflict more.

She removed her boot and sock, wincing at the touch of the cold snow in the meadow. She then turned the saber regulator to the lowest setting and took a deep breath. This is it.

She quickly swiped the saber at her little toe. She held her breath, expecting to see it fall away. It only tingled. She examined her toe—it was still there.

She tried it again on her foot. "Woo hoo!" Naluma extinguished the saber and quickly put her sock and boot back on. She then ignited the saber and began her advanced saber drills. With only the purple saber illuminating the area, her exercises became a fluid saber dance as she flowed through the Djem So drills in the dark.

Unaccustomed to the grip compared to Master Luke's lightsaber, the handle slipped out of Naluma's fingers more than once. Each time she dropped it, she retrieved it and continued, striving for perfection in the next cycle.

After each failure, Naluma struck a leg with the saber. Her flesh tingled, but it reminded her that a failure in battle would mean a lost limb at the least and a lost life at the worst.

She continued her drills for an hour, accelerating each cycle.

Luke approached in the speeder, the vehicle's lights illuminating her drill from a distance as he slowly brought the flatbed truck into the clearing. He smiled in pride as Naluma moved through the air with her saber.

However, as he pulled the speeder to a stop, she dropped her saber into the snow. She grabbed it and thrashed at her leg.

"No! Naluma, no!" He reached his hand out to grab her saber, but she held it tightly. 

Luke propelled himself to her with the Force. When he landed on top of her, he pushed her to the snow. He grabbed her right arm and wrestled the saber away from her while yelling, "What do you think you're doing?" He sat up as he deactivated her blade, still pinning her legs to the ground.

"Practicing my drills, Master," Naluma answered. "Now get off of me."

"No. Not until I know you aren't going to hurt yourself."

"I wasn't going to hurt myself. I put a power regulator on the saber. It was on stun, Master," Naluma said, still pinned to the snow by Luke's weight.

"Then explain to me why you were hitting yourself with it."

"Motivating myself not to drop my weapon."

Luke scrunched his eyes together and frowned as he climbed off his Padawan. He offered his hand to pull her up, but Naluma was duplicitous.

As she grabbed his arm with her right hand, her left hand concealed a handful of snow. She shoved it down the back of his neck and ran away, retrieving her saber from him as she took cover inside the speeder.

Luke quickly fashioned a few snowballs and aimed them at her with precise accuracy.

She was sure he used the Force to bend them atop the speeder to hit her on the back. 

The woman scrambled over the other side of the speeder and created her own ammunition stockpile. She lobbed a few in the traditional manner, but then she sent a barrage at him with the Force.

You don't stand a chance, Skywalker. Learned my snowball skills from my brothers.

He shot her a wicked glance. Ha! I learned mine on Hoth. Another barrage of snowballs pelted her for a few seconds while he used the Force to dig a trench in the snowdrifts. 

While he was distracted with his construction efforts, she sneaked behind him, jumped on his back, and shoved as much snow as possible down his neck.

With a grunt, he pushed her into a snowdrift. He wiggled and shrieked.

Snow melting, Master Luke? Naluma giggled at him while she sat in the snowdrift. It was not long before the giggle transformed into an all-out laugh. She tossed a loose handful of snow at him.

Luke looked at her, and despite his discomfort, disintegrated into laughter, too.

She reveled in his enjoyment. It had been entirely too long since she had heard him laugh.

"Truce?" he asked while offering his hand to her.

Naluma grabbed it. "Truce." As they stood, she broke out laughing again.

Luke laughed even harder until his teeth started chattering.

"We probably should get you out of those wet clothes, Master."

Luke gawked at her.

Naluma blushed. "I mean, you should get out of those wet clothes, Master."

He wrapped his arm around her shoulder as they scrambled up the ramp. He shivered as they entered the shuttle. "I haven't been this cold since Hoth," he moaned with his teeth chattering in the cold.

"Oh, you can't be that cold," said Naluma with a twinkle in her eye. "Tell you what. Take a hot shower and change into some warm clothes, while I make something to warm us up."

While Luke showered, Naluma changed into some warm PT clothes, including a sweatshirt and warm socks. With ice crystals already forming on the cockpit window, the shuttle's temperature did not encourage lingering in the main cabin. She sighed at the powered-down astromech droid in the corner before flipping on the heaters.

Naluma dug through her gear locker for the one item she treasured from Felucia—lishi. In the galley, she heated milk over the stove, sifted the lishi powder into it, and then grated some pungent tikani into the mixture.

When he came out a few minutes later, she handed him a cup of lishi.

Luke asked as he lifted the mug to his nose, "What is this? It smells enchanting."

"Lishi. It's traditionally served in the winter on Felucia." Naluma sipped from her cup. She tried to pass him in the small galley, but he would not let her pass.

"It is quite delicious. I have the perfect treat to go with it. Join me?"

"Your cabin?"

"Unless you would prefer yours. It's too cold on the main deck."

She tilted her head in question but still followed him in.

After grabbing a small box from his gear locker, Luke sat on his rack, his back to the forward bulkhead and his legs swinging over the edge of his bunk. He patted the space beside him on the bed.

Naluma lowered herself beside him and allowed herself to relax as she sipped her drink.

❷ They took another sip of the hot drink as Luke opened the small rectangular box. He laid the lid aside and took out a small, rectangular cookie. He dipped the buttery bar into his lishi before biting into it. Crumbs scattered everywhere. "Want one?"

She grabbed the discarded box lid and read the label. She giggled when she saw someone had written "Sky" next to "Walker's Kolache." "Really?" she asked with a wry smile as she took a cookie from the box and dipped it into her lishi.

"Wedge just got back from a mission to Pamarthe and brought me these. He thought he was being funny," Luke said with a gregarious grin, which turned into a soft smile.

She returned the warm smile, and then they quickly stared at their drinks.

Naluma broke the awkward silence. "So, you're from Tatooine? What's it like?"

"Boring." Luke wrapped his hands around his mug to warm his fingers. "A desert planet full of sand and rock."

"Anyone still there?"

Luke's face darkened. "I lived with my aunt and uncle. They're dead now."

"What happened to your parents?"

"My father died a few months ago during the Endor campaign. I never knew my mother." The corners of his eyes crinkled.

What? His father was a Jedi, too, wasn't he? Didn't they all die at the end of the Clone War? How could he have only died a few months ago? She scrutinized his face. "I'm sorry," Naluma said, not knowing what else to say. 

When Luke remained silent for a few minutes, she altered the mood. "What was it like growing up there?"

"My Uncle Owen was a moisture farmer. When I wasn't completing lessons, I was working on the moisture vaporators."

"Oh, come on, you must have done something for fun," Naluma teased with the corner of her mouth quirked up.

Luke smiled again. "Anytime I could get away, I'd fly my T-16 Skyhopper in Beggar's Canyon, threading the Needle and shooting womprats. Those were the good days."

"So, are you ever going to take me back up?"

"Maybe ... one day," Luke said with a twinkle in his eye. "When I can trust you to keep your mind on the flight and not on—"

"Hey, it was my first flight! You never had an accident?" 

Luke hemmed and hawed a bit. 

"So you did ..."

Luke laughed a little at the memory. "Got caught in a crosswind the last time I tried to the thread the Needle. Not too much damage, but the power converters took a beating."

He laughed a little more.

There's something about being awake far past your normal bedtime and everything becoming instantly hilarious. Somehow, this makes him more human. It's like he's just a man and not a ... a legend.

He then said in a serious tone, "Hey, I'm proud of you, Naluma."

"What?" Really? 

"Your lightsaber. Excellent work." When he held his hand out, she removed it from her belt, giving it to him. He ignited it and waved it around, trying out the stun feature before changing the setting to full power. "Stun feature will be handy in training, but I want you to keep it at full power the rest of the time." He extinguished the blade and returned it to her.

"Yes, master." Naluma drained her cup and finished her cookie. She yawned. "I should hit the rack."

"What time is it?" Luke asked with a yawn of his own.

"0200." She stood, taking his empty cup from him.

"Tomorrow, we'll start with some live saber practice and maybe some concert fighting."

Naluma smirked at him as headed for the galley. "You mean today."

"Yeah, today. But not before the sun's up," Luke said with a wince. "And maybe this afternoon, if the weather is good, a flight lesson."

Naluma's face brightened. "Good night, Master Luke."

"Good night, Naluma."

She felt his bright blue eyes lingering on her as she left the cabin.

Did you know ...

● The Empire had harvested all of the Kyber crystals for the construction of both Death Stars. Ilum was empty. So were the temples. The crystals they retained for the Sith lightsabers turned red from the use of the dark side.

● Luke constructed his green lightsaber at Obi-Wan's place on Tatooine with traditional tools and a synthetic gem Obi-Wan had secreted away. Because the gem only provided optics, a separate power generator had to be installed. (ROTJ novelization and deleted scenes from ROTJ movie.)

Tell me what you think ...

● What can we tell about what has happened during the last two months of Naluma being Luke's Padawan?

● Why was Naluma shocked that Luke invited her into his cabin?