Sorry about the hiatus! This fic kind of just fell by the wayside and I forgot about it for a while DX. Anyways, I'm trying to get back into the groove of writing this, so please forgive me if this chapter is bit info-dumpy. I might edit it in the future, once I have a better writing flow going.

Anyways, please read and review!

Chapter Six

The wonder is, not that the field of stars is so vast, but that man has measured it. - Anatole France

I woke slowly, to the sound of a distant roar.

I first became aware of the floor. It was cold, hard beneath. My fingers grazed along it. Metal. My back was slumped against the wall, the horizontal edges of a grate digging into my skin. Something small flashed to my upper right - a light of some sort? I couldn't tell. It was so quiet.

All of this was unfamiliar. I had no idea where I was, not that I could find out, because as soon as I opened my eyes, agony pierced through my temples. I winced, groaning weakly. I tried to raise my hand to feel for what hurt, but found my wrists inexplicably bound together. I couldn't see what it was, it still hurt to see. "W-what…?"

Something touched my shoulder. I jumped with a yelp.

"Easy!" Said a familiar voice, as I raised my bound fists to defend myself. The touch retreated, and I squinted through what I realized was not blindness, but rather a very dark room. "Easy, it's just me, Katie. Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you."

"Oh, god, Luke," I gasped, dropping my hands with relief. "I-I didn't — I mean, I don't...what's going on? Everything hurts. M-my head and my - ah!" I sucked in a breath when I raised my shoulders, then clutched my left arm. More pain bloomed in my side and knees. "My shoulder."

"Your arm was dislocated in the crash," Luke explained. I tried to see his face in the darkness, but all I could pick out was the outline of his form, the soft halo around his blond hair. There seemed to be a small window behind him. "I popped it back in. I can't believe it didn't wake you up."

I frowned, looking down at my shoulder. "Me, too. You knew how to do that?"

"Basic medic training. All Jedi go through it."

Jedi. My brain was not in the state to be translating foreign, meaningless words. I closed my eyes again, resting my head back against the wall. I decided to ignore it for now. "...The crash? What happened?"

"I don't remember, not all of it." Luke said, and I felt him shift, sitting down next to me. "I remember seeing the ship, then us flipping...I woke up afterwards, when the Inquisitors were pulling me out. I tried to fight them, but I wasn't strong enough...now we're trapped in a cell, stuck on their ship, with no way to contact help."

"Are you okay?" It occurred to me that he might be hurt, too, but I couldn't tell, and felt bad for not asking sooner.

"Fine, mostly," he shrugged. "Just banged my head. Don't worry about me."

I cast Luke a frown, unsure how to respond. I wasn't worried, necessarily, I didn't really know him that well. At all, really. Luke Skywalker was, for all intents and purposes, a complete stranger to me. Honestly, I should be more worried about myself at this point.

But Luke had stood up for me. He stood up to Obaasan, would've taken the slap had I not stopped her. No one had ever done that for me before.

So, okay, I was a little worried. Luke seemed like a good person; my gut said I could trust him.

I shifted forward, had just opened my mouth to say something, when something caught my eye. The window, the orange light beyond.

No, not a light. A planet.

"Oh my god," I whispered, jaw dropping as I suddenly shot to my feet. Or tried to, only to find my knees to be jelly, and I stumbled over on the way to the window, catching the wall to support myself.

I pressed my face to the glass. "That's Jupiter."

I'd seen pictures, of course. Who hadn't? The biggest planet in our solar system, I recognized it on sight. The Great Red Spot, swirling white and orange and yellow clouds, massive storms on a planet with no solid surface, just a gaseous density so powerful it crushed you with force alone. Smaller orbs hung around it, its moons — I recognized Europa and Callisto, its shiny black surface peppered with white craters, reflecting the Sun's light. From here, it looked like it was lit up by the lights of a thousand cities, even though I knew it was utterly devoid of life.

But no science class could prepare me for the sheer magnitude of Jupiter's size. The fact that I was seeing it, live, in person, was somehow possible.

Jupiter was a big marble across a tapestry of black velvet, dotted with distant stars and galaxies. From where I was, if I held up my hand, Jupiter would be about the size of my palm, drifting slowly across the empty expanse.

From where I was…

"Oh, god," I said again, suddenly feeling very light-headed. "I'm in space. I'm in freaking Space."

That's when my legs collapsed underneath me, and I crashed to the floor. Luke make a sound of alarm, but I didn't hear him. I could only conceive the amount of trouble I was in, trying to understand just how screwed I was. I was in Space. Never in my life did I ever think this was possible. "Mom is going to ground me for life."

It was amazing.

It was also terrifying.

I wanted to go home.

Earth never felt so safe, so small and easily understood before. I wasn't ready to comprehend the sheer size of Space, of our solar system, of everything beyond Glendower, Virginia. To think I was intimidated by the thought of moving to live in a college dorm in a few years. That seemed like a cakewalk now, compared to this.

"Katie, you're shaking." Luke placed a hand on my knee.

"O-oh, am I?" A wheezing laugh fell off my lips, slightly maniacal, and I stared at him, eyes wide in the darkness. My shoulders rose and fell, and I didn't feel entirely in control. "I wonder why, Luke! What could have possibly turned me into this shambling wreck? First I survived a car crash, which is enough to make any kid feel a little upset. But nooo, now I have to be jettisoned into goddamned Space! No idea where I am, who I'm with, or what the hell is going on!"

"I thought it was pretty obvious we were captured by Inquisitors —"

"Inquisitors?" I demanded. "Inquisitors of what? What did you do? And what does any of this have to do with me? Why did they take me? I don't even know you!"

"Because they think you're a Jedi, too."

"What the hell is a Jedi?"

"Will you stop swearing?" Luke snapped back, finally losing his patience. "You don't think I'm freaking out, too? This is the worst thing that could be happening right now. Once the Inquisitors make it out of the Oort belt, it's one quick trip through hyperspace before we're boarded on an Empire ship and being interrogated for information on the Rebels, the last of the Jedi, our secret bases. They'll wring every last bit of information out of us, until there's nothing left. And after that, w-we die."

Luke's voice cracked at the final word. That silenced me pretty quick. A lot of what he said just flew over my head, but I got his meaning well enough. The fear, the encroaching panic, the dreadful thought that there was no way out of this, that there was worse to come.

The air was quiet for a few minutes, only filled with the sound of our breathing and the rumble of the ship around us. I gathered that much by now. We were on a spaceship of some sort, maybe that thing I saw before the car crashed. I never really got a good look at it. Was it the same ship I saw flying over the crater?

"Sorry," I said eventually. "I'm just...new at this whole space thing. I've never been outside of Virginia before."

"What's Virginia?"

"The-the state I lived in. On Earth. I've never been…" I took a deep breath, before my voice could break and bring an onset of tears. No, don't cry, not now. "I've never left home before."

"Oh," Luke replied, his tone also soft. I wished I could see his face, try to guess what he was thinking. "Yeah, I felt the same way, too, when I first left Tatooine." Perhaps sensing the question, he quickly added, "My homeplanet. I lived there my whole life. Finally left a few years ago. You'll get used to it, though. It's actually kind of amazing, how much is out there. How much there is, and how much we haven't seen yet. I honestly couldn't wait to get off Tatooine."

"You're not that old," I said. I was fifteen, which in my opinion was still a little young to be exploring the final frontier, and Luke didn't seem any older than me. I couldn't imagine taking on such a journey at a younger age.

"Not a lot of us are," Luke said. "I'm only sixteen, but I'm actually one of the older students. I haven't trained as long as the others, though. The Jedi are rebuilding in secret, and they're trying to find Force-sensitive kids before the Empire can take them."

"Force-sensitive?" I asked, feeling like an idiot, asking all these questions.

"People who can use the Force. Like you."

"What?" The word was nearly breathless. I didn't even know what that meant, but I knew from the conversation so far that it was serious. "What does that mean? What exactly is the Force?"

"It's, um," Luke paused, searching for the words. "I'm not sure. Obi-Wan is better at explaining it than I am. Essentially, it's this energy field, created by all living things in the galaxy. It surrounds us, it penetrates us. It binds everyone, everything together."

"So...it's gravity."

"No, no," Luke shook his head, chuckling a little. "It's more than that. It's a power, that only some of us can wield. I'd show you, if I could, but there's nothing here. But people who are connected to the Force, they can...sense things, that most other beings can't. The same way the Force binds us, a Jedi can use to affect the world. See things, move things, know things that other people can't know."

"So all Force-sensitives are Jedi?"

"No. You have to train to be a Jedi."

"What happens to those who don't?" I asked, then added as an afterthought. "Or choose not to."

"You turn Sith."

The word sent a chill down my bones. I had a feeling I already knew the answer when I said: "What's a Sith?"

Before Luke could answer, a loud whoom sounded, and a sudden brightness appeared on the opposite wall — a door opening, making me flinch. Obscuring the light was the willowy silhouette of a woman, and even from here I could make out her armor and helmet. It covered her entire face, and a rattling sound came out, a cold voice.

"Good evening, little pretties," she said, words hissing softly. I couldn't tell if that was from the helmet or just her natural speech, but there was something indeterminately inhuman about it. "Good to see you're both still breathing. I was worried there for a moment. Lord Vader appreciates his traitors alive. I suppose he'll have to settle for damaged goods."

Neither of us said anything; I was frozen in fear, overwhelmed by a strange sensation washing over me, the same creeping dread I had felt in the car before it crashed. Only it was stronger now and...was it coming from her?

In the light, I could see Luke's face, drawn into a tight scowl, his jaw set. I liked his tactic better; don't give the woman, whoever she was, the satisfaction of getting any reaction out of us.

"Oh, right," the woman perked, and swept her leg, kicking something inside the room. Two packages, coming to a stop at our feet. "Your rations. Use them wisely, kiddies, my brother and I aren't used to feeding cargo. We might just...forget."

I didn't touch the packets, not entirely sure I could trust them. I already knew I didn't like her.

"And please, try not to do anything stupid while onboard," The woman continued, and flicked her hand. I jumped when a beam of red light erupted from her fist. A low hum carried across the room, making the hair on my arms stand on end.

I could hear the woman smiling. "Or things might get a little messy."

And with that, the door slammed shut again, seamless in the wall.

I didn't realize I was holding my breath until it came out in a whoosh. Beside me, Luke relaxed, just a smidge.

"People who don't become Jedi, turn into her. The Seventh Sister." He looked at me. "That's a Sith."

Note: I understand that the Inquisitors (Seventh Sister + Fifth Brother) aren't necessarily Sith in the same way Vader and Palpaltine are, but for the sake of explaining what Dark Side folks are, they exemplify it pretty well (as well as Luke's black-and-white view of the Force).