B E N E V O L E N C E [Luke Skywalker]

ᵀ ᴿ ᴼ ᴸ ᴸ ᴵ ᴺ ᴳ

There was a single emplacement of some kind at the uppermost curve of the volcanic dome, in the middle of the ring of surface-to-orbit cannons. It appeared to be covered in some kind of heavily armored shell. He turned to one or the stormtroopers who marched at his side and pointed at it. "Tell me what that is."

He felt a pulse from the Force, and he looked over his shoulder in time to see the Moon Hat touch fingertips to her lips, then flatten her hand, palm down. One of the troopers behind him jabbed Luke in the kidney with the muzzle of his carbine. Hard. "You heard her.'

"Did I?"

"No talking. We know what Jedi can do."

Luke shrugged and kept walking, a little stiffly until the knot in his back eased. "Please don't hit me."

This earned him a carbine stock across the back of his head hard enough to buckle his knees. "Didn't you hear me?"

Luke straightened again and shook the stars out of his head. He paused long enough to look over his shoulder. "I heard you. But I don't see any particular reason to obey you."

The Force whispered a warning, and Luke whirled in time to catch the oncoming butt of the blaster carbine in the palm of his flesh hand and hold it fast. "I said please."

The astonished stormtrooper tried to yank his carbine free, but instead Luke tightened his grip and let the Force add strength to his arm; a twist of the wrist shattered the carbine's stock to plastite splinters. The other stormtrooper swore and triggered an autoburst from his carbine. Luke's other hand, the prosthetic hand that had replaced the one his father had taken, came up in an arc that precisely followed the motions of the carbine's muzzle and caught all five bolts squarely in its palm.

"Please don't shoot me, either." He turned the palm upward in a friendly shrug and let the astonished troopers stare at the only effect of the Force-blunted blaster fire: a faint curl of steam that trailed upward from his unmarked palm. "Let's try to end the day with nobody else dying, shall we?"

The stormtroopers sneered, "Tell that to Lord Shadowspawn."

"I plan to," Luke said. "That's why I'm here."