Star Wars_ Rebel Force 2_ Hostage - Alex Wheeler [16]
Luke stayed in the speeder, determined to protect Leia at all costs. The man advanced with his arms out, no weapon drawn. Luke tensed. The man could be offering himself up in peace…or it could be a trap.
Leia groaned and reached for the door. Luke grabbed her wrist. "You promised you'd stay in the speeder until we figured out what was going on."
She shrugged him off. "I know what's going on." She pushed past him and climbed out of the speeder. Luke activated his lightsaber and rushed after her. "What are you doing, Fess?" she shouted. "You could have gotten us all killed."
"I need to talk to you," Fess said, approaching. "This seemed the best way."
Luke stepped in front of Leia and activated his lightsaber. "Next time, try a comlink."
The man froze, all color draining from his face.
"It's fine, Luke," Leia said from behind him. "It's just Fess. He's harmless."
"Interesting weapon you have there," Fess said, in a choked voice. " Luke, did you say?"
Luke glanced at Leia, ready to take her lead. She sighed, and her shoulders slumped.
"He's a friend, Luke," Han said. Leia glared at him. "Well, not a friend, exactly," Han added hastily. "But he's no danger to us."
"You want to talk, Fess?" Leia snarled. "Talk."
But Fess wasn't looking at her. His eyes were locked on Luke. He extended a hand and—not knowing what else to do, Luke shook it. A strange current passed between them. Luke jerked his hand away.
He reminds me of Ben, Luke thought. But that didn't make any sense. The two men had nothing in common. Obi-Wan Kenobi had been tall and gaunt, dressed in a ragged cloak, his frown hidden by a dense beard, his eyes piercing. Fess was nearly twenty years younger, his soft features rounded by a life of ease and plentiful food, clothed in fine robes, his face frozen in a false smile.
There had been no falseness in Ben. And yet ...
What is it? Luke thought, frustrated. He didn't know, if he was asking himself—or Ben. What is it about this man. This…
"Ferus?" The word popped out of his mouth before he realized what he was saying, as if someone else had spoken it.
Fess took an abrupt step backward, growing even paler.
"Ferus," Luke said again, filled with an inexplicable certainty. The word drifted through his mind like a whisper. He didn't know what it meant, but he somehow knew he was speaking truth.
" No," Fess said, with quiet intensity. "Not anymore."
CHAPTER NINE
Ferus Olin.
Not his name. Not anymore, not for a long time.
He'd left it behind, the day he arrived in Alderaan's seemingly infinite sea of grass.
Created a new life for himself. Not that it was much of a life, tending to the nerfs, wandering the grasslands, trying not to think about everything he'd lost. Trying not to imagine the accusing faces of the dead.
Ry-Gaul. Solace. Garen Muln.
And Roan. It was Roan Lands's face that he saw when he woke, Roan's voice he heard when he drifted off to sleep.
Not that he slept much.
He was hiding, he knew that. He'd tried fighting the Empire, tried fighting Darth Vader—and one bad decision after another had led here. To a life of isolation, a life that wasn't a life, but a mission.
Protect Leia.
Living like a hermit may have worked for Obi-Wan, stranded on a dusty desert planet in the middle of nowhere. But Alderaan was a world of life and crowds, swirling with social networks. A world of meaningful connections. Which might have appealed to him once, back when he was Ferus Olin—former Jedi, former Bellassan security expert, former resistance fighter, former enemy of the Empire.
Now he was just former. He had made himself invisible, and invisible men can form no connection.
Invisible men can, however, blend in. Gradually, Ferus gave up his life in the grasslands for a new life in the city. Took on a new identity. Fess, a repugnant name for a repugnant man. It was the only way to stay close to Leia. Disappearing in plain sight meant becoming what he hated most.