Pilot Dreams (Star Wars)

Part 7 - A Mission, and a Proposition

Okay, my thoughts are pretty random but ANYHOO...felt quite inspired so yeps here's your new chapter!!! :DDD This was fast, whew it's only been half a month...thanks for 60 reads!

The idea came to him in a rush. Holding the bottle tight in his sweaty palms, Luke headed for the study room, where Uncle was.

Luke pushed open the door. "Uncle?"

"Mmhm?" Uncle looked up from his datapad.

"Can I have some water?" Luke held up the tiny plant. "I want to water this plant."

Uncle frowned. "It's quite dry these days, Luke. We can't afford to waste water."

Luke's shoulders slumped in disapppointment. "Oh. Alright." He sighed softly.

As he prepared to leave the room, Uncle stopped him. "Where'd you get that from?"

"Oh...this?" Luke's mind scrambled to think of a reason. "I found it outside my room in the sand."

"And the bottle?"

"Well...it was lying beside it." Luke tried not to look guilty.

Thankfully, Uncle didn't say anything more after that. Luke slipped out of the room. "Maybe I could ask Aunt." Luke thought.

Fifteen minutes. He had fifteen minutes.

~~~~~~~~~~

Luke clutched the bottle and faced Aunt. "Umm...Aunt?"

"Yes, dear?" Aunt smiled gently. "I hope you aren't here to ask me for permission to go out with Biggs."

"...No." Luke replied, and quickly jumped to his point. "Can I have some water to water this plant?"

"Unfortunately no. It's dry season, you know."

"Pretty please?" Luke pleaded. "With a pallie on top?"

"No." Aunt said.

"Fine." said Luke quietly, even though it totally wasn't fine.

FIfteen minutes. Only fifteen minutes.

How could he get water? He couldn't get them from the tubs, he would contaminate the water. Luke racked his brains anxiously for ideas. Anytime now Biggs would return.

He ran out of. the house, his boots crunching against the coarse sand. Placing the mouth of the bottle below one of the vaporators, he cranked hard on the knob, hoping there was still excess water.

Pffff. The vaporator sputtered and spat out a single drop of water. It dropped into the bottle and rolled off the small leaf, plopping onto the sand and disappearing quickly.

Luke moved on to another one. Creak. He cranked hard. A few drops of water dripped out. He moved to the next, and the next after that, and the next after the next after the next, cranking and watching the little droplets fall.

FIfteen minutes. Just fifteen minutes.

He hurried along, collecting what he could of water until the sand started to look slightly damp. He took the bottle and sped back to his room. Biggs hadn't arrived yet, and he sighed in relief, collapsing onto the bed from exhaustion.

Fuzzy images faded in and out of view until the revving of engines woke him up. He sat up quickly, and smiled at the sight of Biggs at the window.

"Here you go." Luke said as he passed over the bottle.

"Thanks!" Biggs looked at the little drips on the sapling with a look of satisfaction. "You look really tired." He pointed out.

"Well.." Luke lay his head back on the bed. "I asked Uncle and Aunt for water and they said no so I went to collect excess drops from the vaporators."

Biggs was a bit stunned for a moment, and he said, "Wow, thanks a lot!"

"What are friends for?" Luke smiled.

They both went silent for a while until Biggs spoke up. "Have you ever seen a podrace?"

"Umm...no." Luke said. "Aren't they...illegal?"

"Who cares." Biggs scoffed. "What with the stupid laws they enforce, podracing is here to stay."

"Well...have you seen a podrace, then?" Luke asked, a little curious.

"No. I watch videos of them on my datapad though, and I've just convinced my parents to let me watch one! A real live one!" Biggs said excitedly. "Hey, I just wanted to ask you if you wanted to come too."

"Uhm." Luke thought for a moment. "I'm not sure if my parents would allow me. When is it?"

"Next month! The tenth."

"I guess I'll try asking them." Luke said.

"Okay." replied Biggs. "Whoops, I'd better be on my way. Tell them it's called the Kyaal Classic and it's at the arena at Mos Espa, hope to see you there." And with that he started up the engine and the skyhopper sped off at breakneck speed, Luke watching the skyhopper go with unspeakable envy.

Flip, he really did want a skyhopper.

But he was only geting a landspeeder this year.

Great.

The Kyaal Classic. He'd never heard of it before, it probably wasn't one of the famous races. But still, he really wanted to go. It sounded exciting. Sometimes he had secretly gotten hold of Uncle's datapad and searched up videos to watch. Inclusive of podraces, funny bantha cartoons and of course, space battles.

Space battles. The most epic thing in the whole galaxy. Actually, basically everything outside of Tatooine was awesome. This dustball.

He got up slowly and contemplated whether he should ask Uncle or Aunt about the podrace. Then he decided he would tell both of them during dinner becuase...well, when he wanted his uncle and aunt to agree to something he really wanted he would ask it at dinner. Also, deciding when munching on something was a better choice.

Not quite knowing what to do he stared out of the little window. A light breeze provided comfort from the unforgiving heat of the suns. Little comfort, however, as sand as blown in along with it and he shut his eyes quickly and turned away from the window. On Tatooine it was, well, impossible to escape completely from sand. The sand, seriously, it got everywhere. It collected in corners, it caught in the wind, it clung to clothes and in hair, it stuck in the vaporators and the joints of the droids. Which, of course, meant he would have to clean them. Sand, sand, sand. Stupid sand. Stupid, stupid sand.

He was bored.

So bored.

But he would come to a time when he would never be bored and wished he could be bored.

He picked up his macro-binoculars and began toying with it. He turned it around and around in his hand and fingered the smooth edges of it, and the not-so-smooth parts of it, and the rough sections of it. He put the binoculars to his eyes and winced when he saw little gritty gains of sand in the grooves of the lenses.

Stupid, stupid sand.

He pinched the end of his thin blanket and wiped the inside. Then he looked back again and out the window. The wind was still strong, but the lens blocked out most of the sand.

He squinted out over the horizon and watched out for any passing ships. Some ships would pass by sometimes, the occasional freighter zipping into space, thanks to the numerous spaceports scattered around Tatooine.

He sat there and continued watching intently. The awesome thing about macro-binoculars was that they could see into space. Into space, would you believe it!... He saw the faint outlines of ships and he relaxed—if he couldn't ever get off Tatooine, at least he could watch space.

Then a call from Aunt for dinner jolted him from his thoughts. When he entered the dining room once again, preparing to ask for permission, he felt a familiar sense of hope yet dread, and prayed that nothing would go wrong.

YAHAHA I feel really satisfied for finishing this chapter within the one month!! XD Hope you liked it!! And again, (how many times must I say this) if you liked it PLEASE PLEASE VOTE!!! :))) Every vote means a lot to me!