Star Farmers - Chapter 2
...
Disclaimer: I do not own any franchises mentioned in this story. This is fan-based work of fiction.
Beta: Gerald_of_Revea
-Line break-
It was his duty to follow the Will of the Force, be it in life or even in death. It was not a forceful guide; one could defy it, but he chose not to. The Force had led him to many he would consider a friend.
It was usually a gentle guide, slowly pushing him towards where he needed to be. However, something had happened. Something unforeseen, and the Force reacted to it.
And so, he followed the Will of the Force, eventually arriving at a planet he knew all too well, Dagobah.
He appeared unseen, pausing in his step at the anomaly.
It was a human male. Short black hair, attire unsuited to the wilderness of his surroundings; despite the power he held, the boy neither looked like Jedi or Sith.
With a shovel in hand, the boy dug into the ground, creating a small hole. He continued to make more holes in a small area, creating a small plot. Once he was done, he reached into his pocket and tossed a vegetable into each of the holes, ones he couldn’t recognize. Once done, he covered the vegetables with more soil, the boy wiping the sweat off his forehead as he looked at his work with pride.
“Found your way here, hm?” A familiar voice asked, making him smile. “Brought you here, the boy has.”
“Not through any choice of his own, I believe,” he replied, watching with fascination as the boy sat on the ground and crossed his legs, getting into a meditating pose.
And then he felt it.
It was unlike anything he had ever felt. Not even Anakin was like this. Not stronger, different. It almost made him try to steady himself, even though he shouldn’t have been affected in the first place.
Slowly, he felt the pressure start to subside, the boy reigning in his power, encompassing a smaller area and putting his hands on the ground.
Around him, the vegetables started to grow. When he first saw them, they were small and could easily fit into the palm of his hand. Now, most of them were much bigger, with a raggle of smaller versions growing through the dirt around each of them.
A small frown appeared on Master Yoda’s face. It was clear he didn’t approve of the boy's…abilities, or rather that the boy was using them. His power was like a beacon. Clear and visible. The wildness of Dagobah shielded the boy from the worst actors, but if any Force-sensitive were to come to Dagobah, they would be drawn to him like a moth to a flame.
“Where did you find him?” he couldn’t help but ask, making Master Yoda smile mischievously.
“Find me, he did. Brought him here, the Will of the Force did.”
“As it did me,” he answered, making Master Yoda smile at him.
“Good to see you, it is, Qui-Gon Jinn.”
“As it is you,” he returned the smile, closely examining the former Grandmaster. It had been many years since he had last seen him. Many years since he had been to this planet. He knew memory faded with age, but he didn’t think he was wrong in his next assumption.
“You look different since I last saw you,” he said, making Yoda hum.
“Younger, I have become,” he admitted, making his eyebrows shoot up in surprise. “Fifty, forty years, much more lively I feel.”
Anyone could undoubtedly recognize the old master; he still had wrinkled skin, grey hair, and walked with a cane. But the thin threads of grey hair looked like they had a small bit more life in them than before.
“Notice it; I did not. Inviting, it is…yet uncertain, I feel.” Yoda admitted, a small frown on his face. “Dangerous, it is.”
Especially if his power came into the wrong hands.
The Emperor is alive, but he is aging. The constant use of the Dark Side of the Force has caused him to age much more quickly than a human should. If the boy's abilities fell into Darth Sidious’s hands, it would be detrimental to everyone. “Are you training him?” he asked, making the old master hesitate.
“A Jedi, he wants to be. Admit it, he does not. Unsuitable, he believes he would be,” Yoda’s mouth twitched into a smile.
“Correct, he is.”
“So he learnt to harness the Force on his own?” he clarified, making Yoda chuckle slightly.
“Showed him the trail, I did. The journey was his own.” Yoda answered, making him go deep in thought.
The boy needed guidance; that much was clear, but experimentation without knowing even the basics could lead to disaster.
He watched with amusement as the boy started to swing the shovel around as if he was fighting off an imaginary opponent. However, the amusement quickly died, his thoughts going to a certain Skywalker.
Luke had been left with an impossible burden. The essential catalyst through which the Force would restore balance. He would never be ready to confront his father, but no man would be. But as he continued to watch over the boy on Tatooine, he came to hold one firm belief. Luke will make the choice the Force requires.
‘But that doesn’t mean he would have to work alone,’ he thought, letting out a small chuckle as he watched the boy trip over himself, landing on the ground in a heap.
One day, but not today.
-Line break-
A proud smile comes onto my face at my small potato farm. Mark Watney ain’t got shit on me; sure, he may have colonized Mars, but I colonized Dagobah. However, I really don’t want to be eating just potatoes for the rest of my time here. Or root-leaf soup.
I spun the shovel in my hand, the tool feeling more comfortable than I ever thought possible.
I started swinging it around, following a four-step repeating pattern that led into one combination for an attack. Defend, twist, hit with the butt of the shovel, before finishing the job with a downward strike.
I was slow at first, struggling to find the correct pattern, but the more I started to do it, the more I fell into a comfortable rhythm.
The faster I started to swing, the more confident I felt, briefly imagining myself fighting off an imaginary opponent.
Only to slip on the dirt a few moments later.
“You have got to be kidding me,” I muttered, groaning in annoyance, feeling a headache come on.
“Mmm, ready for combat, you are not,” Yoda said in place of a greeting, looking down on me. “Form you have. Balance… missing it is.”
“You don’t have to tell me that, I muttered, getting up off the ground. “Done skirking off to the edges of the Earth?”
“Edges of Dagobah,” he countered, making me roll my eyes. “A farm, you wish to make? Use the Force to help, you plan?”
“I mean, yeah?” I said, seeing the frown on his face. “Don’t tell me you’re going to complain about that. That’s literally what the AgriCorps members did.”
The Force-sensitive children who never became a Padawan were assigned to the Jedi Service Corps, with most of them joining the Agricultural Corps.
Members of the group were assigned to farming in worlds all across the Galaxy, using the Force to make crops grow and rehabilitate damaged grounds.
For a moment, Yoda looked into the distance, as if quietly reflecting on my words.
“Issue with method, I have not. With the execution, I do. Make yourself known, you will,” he said, making me drop my defensive attitude. That’s something neither of us wants. If Vader, Sidious, or hell, even Maul found their way here, I’d be screwed.
I watched Yoda tab one of the potato plants. They weren’t nearly as big as the one directly outside his house, but these potatoes had much less time to grow.
“Hey Yoda, how about I make dinner today?”
-Line break-
I might be a god.
Taking another bite from one of the potatoes, I let out a satisfied groan as the food met my tongue. I liked potatoes as much as the next person, but the ones I cooked?
Divine. Simply divine. It might be even better than pizz–.
I cut that thought off as soon as it came. Sacrilege. I need to get wheat, tomatoes, cheese, pepperoni–wait.
‘I’m not going to be able to get cheese, am I?’ I scowled, annoyed with myself. I harshly took another bite of the potato, and the feeling immediately went away.
“Nice change of pace, this is,” Yoda said, having mixed the potato with the root-leaf to make a type of salad. “Cook well, you do.”
“Ah, it’s nothing much,” I waved him off. “I think it’s the quality of the ingredients themselves more than my cooking. If we had a bit of meat, milk, and internet, I think I’ll be fine living here for the rest of my life. However, I don’t think I’ll find anything like a cow around these parts.”
"Fixated on what is missing, your mind is. 'If we had this, if we had that...' Hmm. The swamp provides. Nourishment it gives. Crave the past, a full belly does not! Enjoy what you have, you must. Fine living it is.”
“I think the two of us have a difference on what fine living is,” I muttered, the two of us falling into a comfortable silence.
I didn’t like being stuck in one place all day. I’m a farm boy through and through; if I’m not on the move, I’m not doing any work. But with my new abilities, it trivializes my workload.
That, and I don’t have any fields to plow.
I looked out through the small hole in the hut. My potato plant had grown even bigger since this morning, the leaves partially covering the window.
“Affect the world around you, you do,” Yoda said, grabbing my attention. “Awake, a problem this is not. Maintain control, you do. Yet asleep… slip, your control does. Growth, your mind caused. Learn to master this, you must.”
“What, like breathing?” I asked, making him smile.
“Know how to breathe, you do. Unconscious, it is,” Yoda chuckled softly. “Learn the same with the Force, you must. Second nature, control must become.”
“I really don’t know how to do that,” I admitted, scratching the back of my head. “How can I learn to do something unconsciously?”
“Wrong question, you ask,” Yoda harrumphed, banging his cane onto the floor. “Sit, you will. Talk less, feel more.”
‘Ah, meditation,’ I realized, dropping into a cross-legged position.
“Learn to breathe, did you? Read a book, did you? No. Breathe, you simply did. First step: awareness is.”
He poked me in the chest with his stick, making me glare at him for a moment.
“Focus, you must. Feel the ground beneath you. Feel the rain in the air. Feel the life growing around you. Part of it, you are. Separate, you are not.”
I let out a small breath, preparing myself for the hours to come.
It wasn’t the first time I tried Meditation. That’s the problem. It’s that I hated it with a passion.
Sitting still for hours on end? There are a thousand other things I’d rather be doing.
-Line break-
I don’t need a big house.
I honestly don’t even need that decent a bed; I’ve slept more times in hay than that I can count. But I know I can’t be spending the rest of my days in Yoda’s hut. It’s way too cramped for someone of my size.
‘If I can make a place with three decently sized rooms, that’ll be more than enough.’ I thought, grabbing the shovel once more. I started making a rough outline for a house, making small indentations in the ground, a small frown coming onto my face.
Three years at least. That’s how long I think I’ll be here if I don’t get myself killed first. When Luke’s done blowing up the Death Star, I’ll hop a ride back to the rebels with him. I’ll probably be sick of this place by then.
The surface isn’t flat. I’d need to remove some roots, and perhaps level out the land. There was also a tree right in the middle, but it could be used as a divider for the rooms instead of getting rid of it, which would be more work than I’d like to do at the moment.
Palming the shovel in my hand, I hummed, feeling the sudden urge to go through the same katas as I did earlier.
Defend, twist, attack with the pommel, before finishing the job with a downward strike.
For some reason, the flow of attacks was starting to feel second nature to me. Like I’ve been practicing the same combination hours on end, regardless of whether or not they were actually useful.
To an outside observer, I must have looked like a fool, swinging the shovel wildly.
The area was muddy. I had to keep my feet grounded as I went through the attack, but by the time 40 seconds had passed, I had already completed the combination nine times, only to slip once more, a scowl coming onto my face.
 And freezing once I saw a giant spider fly over me.
“Shit!” I yelled, quickly getting to my feet, my heart hammering a mile a minute as I took in its form.
The Knobby White Spider.
It was a giant of a thing. It was a small bit shorter than me; that didn’t stop it from attacking me like it was a headcrab. As the name suggests, it's white. And knobby.
And I wanted to get away from it as quickly as possible.
It raised its leg at me, and I tried batting it away with my shovel, only for it to bounce off the leg.
I stared at the creature in fear, quickly scrambling back as it tried to impale me with one of its legs.
“Yoda, could really use some help here!” I called, my eyes widening as it spurted web in my direction, the silk getting caught up on my makeshift shovel as I continued to back away.
 The spider pressed forward, the creature letting out a sort of gargled hiss. It jumped at me again, one of its legs grazing me as I dodged to the side, making me wince in pain.
The spider was unrelenting, as it continued to come towards me, only for something else to surprise me.
An opening.
I didn’t hesitate. I slid into the first stance: Defense.
It saved my life, sliding back across the ground from the sheer force of the blow. I twisted, following up with a strike using the pommel, striking the creature in the eye.
The spider hissed in pain, bearing its fangs at me, but I wasn’t done. I yelled, adrenaline rushing through my veins as I finished the kata, my shovel hitting the creature in the head.
A crack appeared on its body, a trail of green blood bursting out from the attack, making the spider cry in pain and slowly start to back away.
And that’s when I saw the rest of them.
Crawling out of the woodwork, Knobby White Spiders filled the area, at least a dozen appearing when they heard the cry of their brethren. Crawling in from the ground and the trees, the few there tried to surround me, making me back away even quicker.
“Oh, this does not look good.” My eyes widened, a small chuckle escaping me but doing nothing to hide the fear I was feeling. These weren’t dumb animals; otherwise, they would have attacked from the front and hoped for the best.
I looked down and noticed my hands were shaking; a snarl came onto my face as I glared at the approaching arachnids. 
I gulped, the feeling of fear returning. ‘There’s no way I can fight them with a shovel alone. I need something else, something that can–’
I paused at the thought, looking down and noticing the different shade of green underneath me.
I have the Force.
‘Yoda would understand, wouldn’t he?’ I thought, opening the gate slightly. ‘He would understand. It’s in self-defense.’
One strong push. That’s all I needed to do. Just let myself go for a moment and I’ll–
And then the spiders froze in place.
I didn’t know when he arrived. He moved silently, appearing behind me, cane still in hand.
“Noisy, you are,” Yoda said, walking slowly to my side. “Heard you from afar, I did.” He looked at the gaggle of spiders.
“Stay for tea, perhaps?”
I didn’t know whether they could understand Yoda or not, but it didn’t matter. 
None of them were scared of me, but they all seemed downright terrified of Yoda, scrambling back into the forest as if we planned to chase their whole family down.
“Holy shit,” I breathed, falling back and sliding down a nearby tree. “Yoda, you saved my life. Again. Thanks.”
Yoda simply smiled at that, before it was replaced by a small frown.
“Come back inside, you should. Dangerous these lands are,” he said, and I couldn’t agree more.
The less I see of those fuckers again, the better.
-Line break-
“For eight hundred years have I trained Jedi,” Yoda said, the two of us having returned to his hut. “A Jedi, you are not. But guided you, I have.”
I remained silent as Yoda continued to study me, the old man looking deep in thought.
“Regret it, I do not. Necessary, it is. Help you, I will,” he decided as he reached into his robes, my eyes widening as soon as I saw what he was holding.
“Not ready for this, you are,” he frowned. “Many years, idle it has sat. Yours to wield, it is now. To defend, yes. To attack? Never,” he said, carefully handing me the object.
I recognized it immediately.
It was shorter than average, about six inches in total. Most were usually twice the size, to better use the weapon with two hands. Yoda’s was smaller, given his build.
I felt a burst of excitement build up in my chest as it was placed into my hand.
My first instinct was to turn it on and swing it wildly. Like how I used to when I was just a kid fighting against my brothers. But I stopped myself. Now wasn’t the time for that.
“A Jedi, you are not. A Jedi, you may never be.”
He paused.
“But something new... Ah,” he said, a smile on his face.
“Something new. Perhaps, become that, you can.”