741. Night Flight - Raezyr

The young blonde haired boy looked around the corner quietly. He listened carefully to the even breathing coming from within the room, indicating its occupants were fast asleep. The boy breathed a sigh of relief and slipped stealthily toward the garage.

Once securely seated and strapped into the cockpit of the Incom T-16 Skyhopper, the nine year old Luke Skywalker began the preliminary engine run-up. Thankfully, the hangar was sound proofed and he knew he didn't have to worry about waking up his guardians. Luke was sure that Uncle Owen would skin him alive if he knew what Luke was about to do.

Still dark, the boy piloted the air speeder across the desert sands to the outskirts of Tosche Station. Luke cautiously peered out the door and into the darkness. A figure emerged from the shadow of a building.

"So," the person said, "you did have the guts to show up."

"Of course I did, Biggs," Luke replied to the older boy. "Hurry up and get in. Uncle Owen will have a fit if I'm not back before he wakes up."

The dark haired 14 year old climbed up and into the ship and they both sat down in the cockpit. "Let's see what this old hunk of junk can do," Biggs Darklighter said. Despite their difference in age, the two boys had become great friends, fueled by their extreme competitiveness when it came to piloting.

So far in their lives, they had primarily been limited to landspeeders like the beat up old X-34 SoroSuub landspeeder which he often matched against Biggs' XP-38. Tonight was different, however. For the first time they were going to make a few time trial runs in an airspeeder through the easiest part of Beggar's Canyon.

Biggs had goaded the younger boy into "borrowing" his uncle's T-16, rather than run the risk of getting himslef in trouble for borrowing one of his father's. He grinned to himself, wondering just how much trouble Luke was going to get into when he got home.

As the young blond-haired pilot approached Beggar's Canyon, he slowed up and began a high fly-over of the area.

"What's the matter, Luke?" Biggs taunted goodnaturedly. "You getting cold feet?"

"No way," he said. "I'm just makin' sure I get a good look at the first part of the run."

The two boys stared intently at the scanner readouts, depicting the entire canyon. The canyon itself had been formed millennia ago by the junction of three rivers, back when Tatooine had been covered with plenty of water and vegetation. Near the end of the canyon lay a rock formation that was known as the Stone Needle. It was a jagged hole in the rocks at the top of a spire which was just wide enough to allow swoops and speeders to pass. All the older kids talked about threading the needle, but only the craziest and bravest pilots ever attempted it during a race. Every couple of years some hotshot young pilot would get killed trying to pass through it.

Biggs and Luke checked out the deadly formation on the scanner as they passed near. "One day I'll thread the needle," Biggs boasted.

"Can I have your swoop after you try?" Luke ribbed him back.

The dark haired boy ignored the comment. Instead he grinned. "Quit stalling, farm-boy. Time to make your run."

They had agreed on running the first leg, since it was night time and up until the first junction the canyon was a bit wider and the turns not quite as sharp. The one with the fastest time would get bragging rights.

Someday they'd run the whole thing, but not now, not at night.

Luke Skywalker flipped his shaggy blond hair out of his face as he strapped into the pilot's couch. He noticed Biggs do the same, and Luke gripped the controls.

"Here we go... aaaand, START!" Luke yelled and punched throttle the same instant the Darklighter boy started the timer.

He dropped low, mere meters from the bottom of the canyon, as sweat began beading on his forehead. It was nearly all instrument flying as it was a pitch black night and not even the moonlight reached the bottom of the canyon.

Suddenly a small signature appeared on the scopes, clinging to the wall of the canyon. Luke recognized what it was instantly and dropped his cross heirs on the object which was barely 2 meters in size. He squeezed off a shot from the T-16's blaster cannon and the energy bolts struck true, obliterating the womp rat.

"Bullseye!" Biggs yelled from his seat. He looked over to see a grin spread across the face of his younger friend despite being locked in concentration on the manuevers.

The blond boy banked hard around corners, increased his throttle coming out and slowed up just enough to make the next tight corner. Finally as he came up on the junction, he slowed and pulled up out of the canyon. He exhaled long and hard, realizing he must have forgotten to breathe as he manuevered the course.

"Not bad, kid, not bad," Biggs said looking at the timer, "but now it's time for me to show you how it's done."

"Yeah, yeah," Luke replied. "It's all talk until you've made your run." Luke set the air ship to auto pilot and the youths switched seats, with Biggs taking over the controls.

The dark haired youth flew back to the start and gave his friend the signal to start the timer as he began his run.

Immediately Biggs saw another womp rat on his scopes and he tried to replicate Luke's shot but missed wide to the right, but not by much.

"Oh, man," Luke said with sincerity. "Almost."

Biggs said nothing but continued to concentrate on flying the best course he could. Although the two were competitive, they were still friends and enjoyed cheering each other on and seeing each other do well.

Finally, the elder boy came around the final corner and pulled up as he reached the junction. They both looked down at the timer.

"Yeehaw!" Biggs yelled. "Beat you by two and a half seconds!"

Luke crossed his arms across his chest. "It's not fair! You got to see me do it first and learn from my mistakes!"

"Oh, quit whining, Farm-boy," Biggs said haughtily. "I beat you fair and square."

Luke suddenly grinned. "But you missed that womp rat by a mile, while I bullseye'd it!"

Biggs conveniently ignored the comment, but looked at his wrist chrono. "Oh, dang, Luke. We gotta get home!"

Luke looked down at his own chrono. They had been out much later than they had planned. "Boy, am I gonna get it!"

Luke dropped his friend off at Tosche Station, hovering just long enough for Biggs to jump to the sand below and run for his land speeder before taking off for home.

Skywalker set the T-16 down in the small hangar and shut all the systems down. Hopefully his aunt and uncle hadn't awakened and he could slip back into bed. He exited the ship and slipped as quietly as he could back into the house.

As he tip-toed silently through the main living area toward his bedroom, the lights flickered on.

"Do you mind explaining where you've been  for the last 3 hours?" came the stern voice of Luke's uncle, Owen Lars.

Luke's shoulders sagged and he hung his head as he turned to face his uncle, the man who had raised him for as long as he could remember. "I took the air speeder out for a night flight," he admitted, not wanting to lie, yet feeling it was probably better not to reveal the full truth that he had flown Beggar's Canyon.

Luke's aunt, Beru Lars, came into the living room, cinching the tie around her robe. "Luke, we were so worried about you. It's dangerous to fly at night, you know that."

"I know," Luke admitted.

"Then why the hell were you out there, if you knew?" Owen barked.

"I just wanted to have some fun, a little excitement, I didn't think you'd even notice," Luke replied.

"Damn it, Luke," his uncle continued, "you've got your head in the clouds. What if you had wrecked? Even had you survived, how do you think we would have replaced that speeder? It wouldn't fix itself, you know."

"I know," the boy said. "I'm sorry."

"Damn right, you're sorry," the moisture farmer finished. "Now, get cleaned up for breakfast," he added in a lighter tone.

Luke trotted out of the room and down the hall.

Once the boy was out of ear shot, Owen walked over and put his arm around his wife. "I just don't know what we're going to do with that boy."

"Luke's just not a farmer, Owen," the dark haired, middle aged woman said. "He has too much of his father in him."

Owen scratched his thin beard, thinking, then kissed his wife on the top of her head. "That's what I'm worried about."