Star Wars - Episode I Journal - Anakin Skywalker by Todd Strasser Read Free Book Online Page A

were very, very bad.
    I ran the sequence over and over again, trying to get a look at this Sith thing and figure out what could possibly be so terrible about it.
    While the screams of terror chilled me, I was a little bit fascinated and curious. But then the holoprojector stopped working.
    I couldn’t get those vague sounds and images out of my mind. On my way home that day I passed some of the cantinas that lined the marketplace. Sitting outside was a deep-space pilot I sometimes saw around. According to my friends, he’d landed on Tatooine with no fuel or money and seemed content to spend the rest of his days sitting in the shade out of the twin suns, telling anyone who would listen stories about his life and travels. He was the one who’d first told me about the angels on the moons of Iego.
    The old spacer waved at me, and I went over to chat. I knew he was the real thing because of the Old Republic fighter corps insignia on his tunic. After a few moments I asked him if he’d ever heard of a Sith. To be honest, I expected him to chuckle and shake his head.
    Instead, the old spacer turned pale. His eyes widened and his jaw dropped. He began looking around with a panicked expression. Where had I heard of them? he wanted to know. Were they back? Were they here on Tatooine?
    It took a couple of minutes to explain that I’d simply seen an old holograph. A couple of minutes more passed before he calmed down enough to tell me the story.
    He said the Sith had come into being thousands of years ago. They were founded by a rogue Jedi Knight who believed that the real Force lay not in the light, but in the dark. He recruited others and trained them in the art of battle. For a time the Sith Lords had been the most fearsome warriors in the galaxy. Fiercer even than the Jedi. Because unlike the Jedi, the Sith were evil and loved war, not peace.
    The good news was that their evil eventually turned inward and they began to battle each other. Soon all but a few had been destroyed, and the Jedi were able to get rid of the rest.
    Or so it was said. Some people thought that one Sith Lord had survived in secret. Now and then someone would report seeing him, but none of the rumors had ever been proven.
    Until now, here in the Jedi Council chamber. I heard the word Sith spoken again. And learned that this was what Qui-Gon thought the dark warrior was.
    If Queen Amidala was being stalked by a Sith Lord, I knew she was really in danger! I was so preoccupied with the thought that I barely heard Yoda tell the Jedi Council that my fate as a Jedi would be decided at another time.
    Qui-Gon said I would have to stay with him, since I had nowhere else to go. Yoda and the others agreed, but they warned Qui-Gon that while I was to accompany him, I was not to be trained.
    When I left the Jedi Council my head was spinning. So much had happened and so many different things had been discussed! I didn’t know what to think. There was the doubt over my future as a Jedi. And Obi-Wan’s obvious displeasure with me. But also the threat to the Queen and the danger Padmé must be facing…
    And now I was to go with Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan to the planet of Naboo, where they would attempt to protect the Queen against the mysterious and evil Sith Lord. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t frightened. But I was also excited to go.
    To me, Coruscant had become a place where everyone treated me like a kid. I felt helpless there. I could only hope that it would be different on Naboo.

    Coruscant at night is as amazing as it is by day. The whole planet is lit by the lights of its single, sprawling city. I stood on the windy landing platform with Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan, and Artoo-Deetoo. Ever since the Council meeting, the two Jedi had been edgy and uncomfortable with each other. Now, on the platform, their feelings finally came out. I could see the strained looks on their faces as they spoke, but their words were whisked away with the wind.
    I wished I could hear what they were