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

night I’d managed to convince myself that the message was old and nothing to worry about. But Artoo still insisted it was urgent.
    Despite the fact that Ben doesn’t keep any droids, it was obvious that he was pretty familiar with them. He tinkered with Artoo for a couple of minutes and got the message up and running.
    This time it was the whole message. The same beautiful girl, this time telling Obi-Wan Kenobi that she’d gotten hold of some vital plans from the Empire, and that they were urgently needed on Alderaan, where her father would know what to do with them. She begged for his help, which was the bit of the message I’d caught last night.
    I was wrong about it being ancient history. It seems that the message was recorded only days ago. We got most of the story from Threepio, who was amazed by the message. Apparently he hadn’t seen the girl give the message to Artoo.
    It turns out that the two droids were on one of the two ships I’d seen fighting. The ones my friends thought I had imagined!
    It was some sort of official ship from Alderaan, and it had been attacked by an Imperial Cruiser. Artoo had vanished for a bit during the fighting, which was when he’d been given the message.
    Then he’d taken Threepio into an escape pod and they were ejected. They’d landed on Tatooine and started out for Ben’s place, but had been captured by Jawas and sold to Uncle Owen.
    As soon as the hologram message ended, it was obvious that Ben planned to do something about it. I could see the change come over him. One minute he was cordial and cheerful, talking to me about my father. The next he was grim and intent.
    “Who was that girl?” I asked him. If she was real, and still looked like that, then I really wanted to meet her.
    Ben told me she is Princess Leia Organa of the planet Alderaan, and that she’s an Imperial Senator.
    Ouch! Talk about being out of my league! A princess? Well, that figures. She was so beautiful and so commanding, she’d have to be a princess. And a politician, too. And here I am thinking I might stand a chance with her!
    Maybe it is impossible, but I’d like nothing more than to meet her someday. Especially if I’m going to be a Jedi Knight. Maybe as a Jedi I can dedicate myself to guarding a lady. I can do that for her. Maybe she’d never even notice me, but that doesn’t mean I can’t protect her.
    But I’m getting ahead of myself, talking about being a Jedi. That was the last thing on my mind right then. Well, okay, not the last thing. My father had been a Jedi, and the idea of following in his footsteps was really exciting. Plus, Ben was definitely encouraging the idea! Now that he’d heard the message, he wanted to set off for Alderaan, just like that—and he wanted me to go with him!
    He didn’t know how tempting that was! To be off on a quest, my father’s lightsaber in my hand, some beautiful princess to save… if only I could! But that was a mission for a dreamer, for a poet, for a crazy old man like Ben Kenobi. I wasn’t any of those things. My uncle Owen depended on me to get the crops to grow on his farm. I had to think about my responsibilities.
    And since I’ve promised myself to tell the truth on this record, I’ll admit my fears.
    Maybe my father had been a Jedi, but that didn’t mean I could be. I’m not the most skillful person in the world, though I’m a pretty great pilot. What if I turned out to be a lousy Jedi? Wouldn’t that be worse than never trying?
    Trying and failing… I couldn’t face that.
    At least on Tatooine I could have my dreams. But what if trying to make them come true only showed me my failures? Could I stand that?
    So when Ben told me that he wanted me to go with him, I couldn’t do it. I tried to explain that I couldn’t just up and leave my aunt and uncle like that. That it was the middle of the season, and they needed my help. That I’d been gone long enough as it was to get into trouble with my uncle. Ben looked at me calmly