Read Online Star Wars Journal - The Fight for Justice by Luke Skywalker by John Peel - Free Book Online Page A

there, all I wanted to do was to attack Vader and kill him. I just wanted to rush over there and take Vader apart, piece by piece. Despite the troopers that had appeared and were shooting at us. They somehow seemed unimportant to me. It never occurred to me that they might actually be able to kill me.
    Only two things stopped me from getting myself killed. First of all, the Falcon was ready to lift off, and Han and Leia were ready to go with it. They weren’t going to let me stay behind and die. I fought to get free of them, to go and avenge Ben, but I was still sane enough not to want to hurt them.
    And then it happened.
    I heard Ben’s voice, quietly, in my ear, as definitely as I’ve ever heard anyone’s voice in my life.
    “Run, Luke, run!” he ordered.
    I didn’t even think about it then. If Ben wanted me to go, I’d do it. I turned and dashed into the ship. Han had her up and heading for the doors before I could even sit down. Luckily, the doors were on a proximity alert and opened as the Falcon approached them. Ben had indeed fixed the tractor beam, and we were off and away.
    We had a new passenger now—Princess Leia Organa. But we’d left one behind in payment.
    Why?
    Why, when he could have won, did he let Vader kill him? I couldn’t understand it. It made absolutely no sense to me at all. If he’d done it to stop Vader from reaching us, maybe I could have accepted that. Ben giving his life to let us get away—yes, that would have been heroic. But that wasn’t it at all. He could have killed Vader, I’m sure of it. But he didn’t . Why?
    Ben had to have almost as much reason to hate Vader as I did. Vader killed my father, his best friend. Vader betrayed the Jedi and led them to their deaths. Vader works for the Emperor, an evil man who victimizes the weak and helpless. And Vader, I learned from Leia, was the one in charge of the Tatooine troopers who killed my uncle and aunt.
    It all comes back to Vader.
    So why didn’t Ben kill him?
    Leia says that the Jedi work in mysterious ways. But I don’t understand. It’s bad enough that Ben’s dead, but I don’t know why he’s dead, and that makes it worse.
    Only… is he dead, exactly? I’m certain I heard his voice there in the hangar. I know he spoke to me after he’d been killed. And that doesn’t make sense, either.
    Oh, I’ve heard stories and legends about spirits, people coming back after they’re dead. But Ben certainly hadn’t seen the spirits of the billions of people who died on Alderaan. He felt their deaths as a great disturbance in the Force.
    I felt nothing when Ben died. Nothing physical, that is. It stabbed me to the heart. But if I’m as strong in the Force as Ben claims, shouldn’t I have felt it when he died?
    Ben, why did you do it?
    How can I go forward without you?

TWELFTH ENTRY
    Things are moving so fast!
    I don’t have time to think everything through, but my life has changed so drastically over the past few days that I’m definitely not the same person I was. I’m having to adapt so quickly, to change my beliefs and aims and to continually fight just to stay alive.
    One thing of which there’s no doubt: I’m a part of the Rebellion now. I guess I knew I was when I saw my aunt and uncle dead on Tatooine. I had to fight against anyone who could do that kind of thing. But now I’m an official Rebel, because we’ve caught up with the Rebel Alliance, here on the fourth moon of Yavin.
    It’s hard to picture a world less like Tatooine. There, everywhere you look is desert, with maybe a small town here or there. It’s a continuous fight to suck the water we need from the almost-dry air. This moon, however, is a forest, vast and luxurious. Instead of bleak browns and scorched whites, the planet is a riot of green and life. I’ve heard of such worlds before, but to actually stand on one of them…
    This is my first alien planet! Okay, technically, it’s a moon of the big gas giant Yavin. But it’s so much more