Star Wars_ I, Jedi - Michael A. Stackpole [41]
I nodded. “I work better with duracrete than I do vapor.”
“Good.” Luke’s blue eyes narrowed until they became chips of ice in shadowed wells. “You all know of Darth Vader as the most vile creature that ever lived. He became a symbol of the Emperor’s evil. He personified evil in the minds of many, including all of you.”
Luke’s voice dropped to a harsh whisper, forcing us to strain to hear him. “But I tell you this, he was good.”
My jaw dropped open in complete disbelief. “That’s some point of view.”
The Jedi Master nodded. “Please understand this: there was, inside Darth Vader, the core of the man he had once been. Though wrapped in layers of evil, this man still existed. In Vader’s final moments, he won out. He rejected the evil that had become his life. He rejected his master, the Emperor, and killed him.”
Brakiss’ head came up. “I thought you killed the Emperor?”
Luke shook his head. “I caused the Emperor to be destroyed by reaching out to the good in Darth Vader and making him change his heart. I was just the instrument of change that allowed Darth Vader to redeem himself.”
I dimly recalled Luke having said that he had been turned back from the dark side by the love of his sister and friends. “You must have made a powerful appeal to him.”
“I did. Love is a powerful tool to employ against the dark side. My sister’s love saved me.” Luke hesitated for a moment. “And the love of a son for his father is what saved Darth Vader.”
I would like to claim that I instantly tracked the full import of what Luke said because I had been trained as a detective to analyze confessions and figure out what people were truly saying. The fact is, however, that with his words came beams of pride and compassion and just a hint of fear that played over me like an ion blast. My flesh puckered and I suppressed a shudder when the realization that Luke Skywalker was Darth Vader’s son finally exploded in my brain.
I nodded again. “Quite a perspective there.” Knowing how much I revered my father and his memory, I could have nothing but sympathy for Luke. I had been lucky enough to know my father, to have him guide me. Even as we worked our way through these simple exercises, I recall watching my father do some of them when I was a child. As any child will, I imitated him, and he instructed me, telling me it was our private game, and that I should reveal it to no one. He taught me nothing that, in a display of youthful enthusiasm, could have revealed my Jedi proclivities to any of the Emperor’s Jedi-hunters. Even so, they formed a foundation for my current training without which I would have been utterly useless.
I had a million questions I wanted to ask him about when and where he learned about his father. I wanted to know everything to fill in the background of the familiar “orphaned hero from a desert world” biography we’d all heard countless times about him. The Vader revelation suddenly added depth to what we had been told. At the moment of his greatest victory, he lost the goal he sought. He redeemed his father and lost him at the same time. At least in my case, though I lost my father, I had all the good things about him to remember and cherish.
Luke looked down at the ground, almost penitent. “I have told you this to provide Keiran his example, and to lower a barrier between us. I want you to know that no decision is final. If you are to avoid the lures of the dark side, you must be constantly vigilant. If you fall to the dark side, you can be brought back. I have been redeemed. I have been a redeemer. Now I wish to guide you so that you will never have to fall. You have the last of my secrets now. I trust you with it and look forward to when you will trust me with whatever secrets trouble you.”
His head came up and his face brightened, shattering the dull mood that had settled over us. “Brooding over this will waste the day, so I want to return to the exercise. You will