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

taught me is that if one man suffers, all men suffer. If evil is not stopped, it will rule over all men one day—whether they’ve opposed it or ignored it. And so, with Ben’s teachings under my belt, I mark my next challenge: to fight for justice against evil and tyranny.

    I’ve always been afraid that I’d be stuck on a farm my whole life. But that’s no longer the case. For one thing, the farm’s gone. For another, I can feel a difference inside me. Maybe it’s the Force. Maybe it’s just everything I’ve been through. But I’m not the same Luke Skywalker I was just a few days ago.

TENTH ENTRY
    It’s so bizarre. Not much has happened in my life that’s worth remembering. And yet, in just two days, everything’s completely changed. I found a living link to my father, and lost him. And I even managed to rescue a princess on the way.
    I’d better do this the way I’ve been doing everything, and that’s to try to tell it in order, and make some sense out of what happened. So here goes…
    On the way to Alderaan, I kept busy with my exercises—especially deflecting the laserbolts from the seeker. I was excited to learn and was moving at an exhausting rate. But I couldn’t stop thinking about my aunt and uncle. What happened to them was so sick. So painful. At the time I didn’t realize how much my anger was building. Or that I should watch out for something like that. Most people would have told me I deserved to be upset, and that it was perfectly normal to feel this way.
    But Ben warned me how easy and natural it could be to turn to anger, fear, and aggression—the dark side of the Force. He could see the anger in me, and the revenge I wanted on the Empire and Darth Vader for what they’d done to my family. Ben told me that such emotions are very strong, but that they tap into the dark side of the Force. And by entering the dark side, you strengthen its hold on the evil in yourself. “If you give in to those feelings,” he promised me, “then you give in to the dark side. You will become like Darth Vader.”
    That’s the scary thought; I wouldn’t want to end up like that. But, at the same time, I don’t know how I’ll ever be able to give up my anger and desire for revenge. Vader and the others must pay for what they’ve done. I don’t know if Ben really understood what he was asking of me. He said that he did, that he had to give up his own quest for vengeance, too. I guess he meant when Vader killed my father. I know that upset Ben a lot.
    So what do I do? I don’t want to end up seduced by the dark side. But I want to see Vader pay for his crimes. If the Force is with me, Ben said the correct path will become clear. I really hope so, because I could use a little clarity right now.

    As I was thinking about this, Ben gave a cry and almost collapsed.
    He assured me he was all right, but that he’d felt a great disturbance in the Force. Like a billion voices all crying out at once. He said he’d never felt anything like it before, and I could see that it bothered him. He didn’t know what had caused it.
    I was afraid that the strain of everything was getting to be too much for him. I didn’t know how old Ben was, but he certainly wasn’t used to all of this activity anymore.
    I should have known better by then—that Ben was stronger than he looked—but I didn’t completely trust Ben’s feeling for the Force.
    Then Han said we were ready to come out of lightspeed near Alderaan. That was really exciting news, because I was picturing us landing at the royal palace, being greeted as honored guests… maybe even dining with royalty, that sort of thing.
    But the Millennium Falcon didn’t come out into normal space next to Alderaan as planned. We came out of lightspeed in an asteroid belt, rocks of all shapes and sizes whizzing all around us. Han had to do some tricky flying to avoid getting us smashed to bits.
    My first thought, of course, was that he’d messed up his navigation. But the