Luke Skywalker's TUGs Adventure

Postby Jason Toddman » Sun Jul 24, 2011 10:45 pm

A FORCE TO BE RECKONED WITH


Part 1.

“I never thought I’d see this place ever again,” Luke Skywalker said quietly aloud as he set the X-wing Star-fighter down on the shimmering hot sands of the plane Tattooine.

R2D2 made a series of electronic squawks that most people would have thought to be either random noise or, at best, totally incomprehensible. When Luke first encountered R2 a year previously, he’d needed C-3PO to interpret the droid’s electronic warbling for him. But, after a year’s association with the feisty droid, Luke had learned to understand what he (he couldn’t think of the droid as an ‘it’ anymore) said to him as if he had spoken the same human language he had known all his life.

And it as just as well not to have the fussy golden droid along on this trip anyway. For some reason C-3PO dreaded being on this world Luke used to call home as much as he’d dread being melted down and sold for scrap. The droid would never say why, but Luke’s intuition told him that C-3PO had some previous experience with Tattooine that he’d never told Luke about. However, as the droid was a notorious fussbudget anyway, Luke had lacked the interest to delve more deeply into the mater.

Of course, had Luke had any inkling that C-3PO had been the home-made creation of his own father, and that Anakin Skywalker was now known as Darth Vader, Luke would have been a whole lot less blasé about C-3PO’s objections to his returning to the planet that, unknown as yet to Luke, they had both originated from.

But Luke did not know this; nor even that Darth Vader and his father were one and the same person. This was a mere year after he had first encountered R2D2 and C-3PO and had the course of his life changed forever, and his revelations at Cloud City floating high in the clouds of the planet Bespin were still two years in the future. And although the spirit of Obiwan Kenobi appeared to him at irregular intervals to continue his training in the use of The Force, even his mentor never mentioned the true connections both he and C-3PO had with the dark, powerful, armored being that had killed Obiwan and nearly ended up killing Luke as well the Battle of Yavin 4.

It was because of the spirit of Obiwan Kenobi that Luke was on Tattooine again now. It was certainly not from any feeling of homesickness on Luke’s part. With the deaths of his aunt and uncle at the hands of Imperial Storm Troopers, there was nothing on this planet he missed or cared about. There was of course their moisture farm which he had essentially inherited, but Luke cared about that no more than he did about his fingernail clipping whenever he had a manicure. If others had taken over the moisture farm in his absence, they were welcome to it free of charge; he had no intention of even looking in on the place to see what had happened to it.

Instead, Luke had landed his small spaceship on a spot fifty kilometers away; at a spot he’d been to only once before in his life: the isolated home of his friend and mentor Obiwan (aka ‘Ben’) Kenobi. Luke had come here when, the last time he had seen his mentor’s spirit, Obiwan had told him that he must come here to retrieve some of his old journals of the Jedi Knights which, the spirit had said, would greatly speed up his progress in the use of the Force.

It was an awkward time to go however. The Forces of the Empire had forced the evacuation of the Rebel Base on the moon of Yavin 4 after the destruction of the Death Star, and had now forced the evacuation of a second base the Rebels had been using for years. Things were now in considerable disarray among the Rebel forces, who were now considering what planet to establish their next base at. It had to be somewhere so remote that no one would ever find them there, and inhospitable enough that no one would come on their own to colonize the place.

Looking around as he dismounted from the control cab of his X-Wing, Luke could scarcely imagine a place that was even more remote and inhospitable than Tattooine; but that was what the Rebels must find if they were ever to have a secure base against the vast forces of the Empire. The suns were still low in the morning sky, but already it was so hot that Luke found his outfit to be uncomfortable. With a few quick motions he doffed his helmet and his black shirt; leaving on only his dark boots (especially designed for rocky terrain such as Tattooine’s) and a set of black, skin-tight leggings that, despite their coloration, kept his legs cool and sweat free.

R2 began warbling at Luke as he walked toward the structure that once served as the home of the former Jedi knight turned hermit. “Stay where you are, R2,” Luke called to his agitated droid companion without bothering to try to translate the droid’s noises into their human equivalent. “I won’t be gone for long. Ben’s old place is very large. It shouldn’t take long to find what we came for.” Especially not, Luke thought to himself, with the Force to guide him.

But R2D2 made even more insistent noises than ever, and Luke suddenly realized that the droid was frantically trying to warn him of danger it had sensed which he had not. Reacting quickly, Luke called upon the Force to sense everything that was around him for as far as h could detect in every direction while at the same time paying careful attention to what R2 was actually saying to him. It took him two seconds for him to simultaneously translate R2’s warnings and for the Force to alert him to the same thing: a dozen Tusken Raiders (aka Sand people) were waiting to ambush him once he approached the house.

Luke was puzzled. He had only just arrived and no one knew of his coming here except for the spirit of Obiwan Kenobi himself. The Sand people were unlikely to take the effort to ambush chance visitors; it was unlikely anyone had been in this remote spot since he and Ben had left here before. They certainly could not have possibly set out ahead of time to waylay him in particular. The only sensible explanation was that they had set up camp here some time ago, saw him land here, and immediately prepared an ambush.

Although Luke had no particular love of the Sand people, he did not wish to engage in a useless battle with them either. Armed as he was with his light-saber as well as a fully charged blaster, Luke might have stood little chance on the ground against a dozen savage Sand people (who had crude laser weapons of their own) but for his already considerable skills in the use of the Force. As things stood now, it would indeed be a slaughter were there to be a fight – but it would be Luke who would be doing all the slaughtering; even without returning to the X-Wing and using its weapons to strafe the Sand people with its formidable blaster cannons. A year ago, he might have found such a thought almost appealing; but now it thoroughly disgusted him. Such pointless slaughter was not the way of a true Jedi. There must be a better way to deal with the Tusken Raiders than a pointless battle.

Concentrating on the Force, Luke rendered himself essentially invisible to the now puzzled Tusken Raiders and walked as silently as a gnat’s whisper right into their encampment. From there, he was able to find the chief of the Raiders and read his thoughts. The Sand people saw all other beings as mere intruders upon their land who wished only to spoil it and slay Sand people indiscriminately. Nor were their beliefs entirely unfounded; after all, they (and their smaller, more intelligent and sociable cousins the Jawas) were the native species of Tattooine; not Luke’s people or the other species (such as the Hutts) who had come to settle here in their various fortified cities. The Sand people had good reason to detest outsider species.

Using his skill in the Force, Luke carefully spoke into the ear of the chief of the Sand People (without that worthy being consciously aware of Luke’s presence) of his peaceful nature and good intentions. He came here only to retrieve something for which the Sand people had no use, and then he would be on his way again. Perhaps Luke would even leave a gift for the Sand people as a token of his respect and good will if greeted in pace rather than attacked outright.

It took a few minutes of careful cajoling, but the Jedi Mind Trick worked. The chief of the Sand People suddenly called out orders in his own harsh, rasping language (which Luke vaguely understood), telling his underlings to let Luke approach in peace rather than shoot at him on sight. Luke patiently waited until he was sure these orders had been heard, understood, and acknowledged before he secretly retreated from the campsite a goodly distance away, shed his telepathic aura of invisibility, and then approached the encampment again openly.

The Sand people stood by and let Luke approach with neither signs of hostility nor friendliness.

But though the Sand people were now placid, Luke sensed that there was something seriously wrong. Immediate danger still threatened him… but from where? None of the Sand people were harboring any immediate intentions of attacking, but there was no one else around for miles in any direction… except…

Alarmed, Luke suddenly looked straight up!

A spaceship was hovering directly over the encampment about two miles up; so high and so quietly that only his Force-enhanced senses enabled him to detect it at all before he had seen it with his eyes. Even now, he could not hear even a whisper of engine noise coming from the spacecraft; it was rigged for silent running and had undoubtedly come into the area invisibly with a cloaking device; he had detected it only when the cloaking device was shut off and the ship had become visible to ordinary (or extraordinary) senses.

Even as he looked, eight armed and armored figures wearing rocket belts flew out of the spaceship like bees from a hive and dived straight for the encampment. They were not Imperial Storm troopers or members of the Rebel forces, but wore uniforms that Luke was entirely unfamiliar with. Luke’s instincts warned him that these new intruders were not at all concerned about the Sand people; whoever they were, it was Luke himself that they were coming after.

The Sand people were also suddenly aware of this intrusion and began to prepare to fight them off with their own weapons. But Luke knew that the Sand people had no chance whatsoever against these newcomers; they would be slaughtered as easily as they’d originally thought they would slaughter Luke himself, without inflicting a single casualty among their enemies in turn.

Feeling a concern for their welfare he’d have imagined impossible during his previous life on Tattooine, Luke exerted his power of the Force to convince the chief of the Sand people of the hopelessness of the situation. He then told him to do the one thing a Tusken Raider hated to do most of all: retreat without a fight. The chief mentally fought this revolting suggestion at first (Sand people were not cowards!), but, being a rational being for its kind, quickly saw the sense in it and ordered his band to evacuate at once without a fight. The other Tusken Raiders were also repelled by this suggestion at first but complied when Luke sent a suggestion that it would be foolish to fight and die defending an outsider like Luke himself. With this Force-impelled rationale to spur them on, the Tusken Raiders retreated quickly but in an orderly fashion.

Luke had almost expected the intruders to dive right in and start attacking the Sand People anyway, but – somehow not quite to Luke’s surprise – they did not. They simply hovered a thousand feet overhead and circled overhead like carrion birds while the Sand People left Luke to his own devices; something the newcomers were apparently as desirous of as Luke himself.

The Tusken Raiders were scarcely out of sight when several of the newcomers landed. Luke now realized that these were members of a mercenary band of some kind; but what did they want with him? Even if he knew he was a member of the Rebel Alliance (which was very likely as the nearby presence of his X-Wing was pretty much a dead giveaway), Luke could see no reason why they should bother to capture him alive rather than simply shoot him down and take away his X-Wing (and R2D2 along with it) as booty.

Luke tried to divine some answers from the minds of the mercenaries. But, strangely, where he should have been able to pick up some surface thoughts about their intentions, Luke could not read them at all. He could not even sense their presence using the Force alone. Were it not for the evidence given by his eyes and ears, it was as if the mercenaries were not there at all.

The mercenaries were completely invisible to the Force!

“Neat trick you have there, lad,” one of the mercenaries said to Luke as he landed about thirty feet in front of him while the other seven landed at roughly the same distance all around him in a circle. “It’s not everyone who can use the Force to pacify Tusken Raiders. But you’ll find that your Jedi mind tricks will have no effect on us. Now please come along with us peacefully.”

None of the mercenaries had made any attempt to draw their firearms but faced Luke empty handed. Luke therefore made no attempt to draw his own weapons… yet. Instead, he tried a more peaceful approach. “Where do you wish to take me to?” he asked as mildly as if they were simply discussing the weather.

“Up to the ship of course,” the apparent leader of this group replied with a simple gesture upward and a quick glance in the same direction.

“And where to from there?” Luke asked without a trace of emotion. “I trust you’re not simply inviting me over for a spot of tea and some crumpets.”

“No indeed,” the mercenary relied with a slight smile. “There’s a man who has paid us good money to find you and take you back to him. Alive… and unharmed… if possible.” The tone of voice implied that if Luke did not come along peacefully, the mercenaries would immediately dispense with that last portion and bring Luke back anyway – even if it meant a reduced reward.

“Who paid you?” Luke asked without any sign he cared one way or the other.

“You don’t need to know that,” the mercenary replied with a slight edge in his voice.

“I insist,” Luke replied with a slight smile.

“His name is Darth Vader,” the mercenary replied while he casually drew his blaster from its holster and began to aim it at Luke – a move smoothly imitated by all seven of his companions.
“An now you will…”

The mercenary did not get to finish either his sentence nor the act of aiming his weapon at Luke. While he and the others were still pulling their blasters out of their holsters, Luke moved with blinding speed. He drew out his light saber with a celerity than made the mercenaries – skilled gunmen though they were – seem like they were moving in extreme slow motion while he simultaneously charged at the mercenary ahead of him.

Halfway between where he’d stood and where his target stood lifting his weapon, Luke launched himself and gave the mercenary leader a flying kick that sent him sprawling unconscious on the ground behind him before he had managed to lift his blaster high enough to point away from the ground beside his foot. At the same time, he snatched the weapon out of the now limp hand of its owner and caused it to fly into his own free hand.

At this point the other mercenaries had still not managed to get their weapons pointed level; let alone aimed them in even remotely the right direction. While they were still orienting on him, Luke turned to the nearest mercenary on his left and fired his blaster. The shot blew the blaster out of the man’s hand and turned it into melted slag, while the man himself sustained no injuries worse than a scalded hand and a few broken fingers. He was still yelling in pain and starting to clutch at his hand when Luke turned on his heel and snapped off another blaster shot with the nearest mercenary on the other side. The result was identical to the first; another blasted blaster and a mercenary with a broken hand and a resulting loss of interest in further conflict.

The remaining five mercenaries had now had time to aim and fire their weapons however, and fire them they did and damn the reward for taking Luke in alive!

Five blasters fired their lethal bolts of energy at Luke.

All five shots were expertly deflected harmlessly away from Luke with blindingly fast moves of his light saber. One bolt even ricocheted back to its source, and missed striking the head of the mercenary who had sent it by less than an inch.

Undaunted but dismayed, the mercenaries closed in and fired their blasters again; this time multiple times as rapidly as they could pull the triggers of their weapons.

Luke did not stand and deflect these shots. Instead, he made what to anyone else would be an impossible leap thirty feet into the air. Before the astonished mercenaries could react, he landed feet first upon one of them and knocked him unconscious. And then there were four.

The mercenaries fired again, and again Luke leapt into the air – but this time in a somersault which ended with a landing upon one of the remaining mercenaries. This onewas also sent sprawling unconscious ion the ground. And then there were three.

The mercenaries closed in, firing. But now they were so close that, with a few deft movements, Luke slashed at each of their blasters in turn with his hitherto unused light saber – shattering them like so many cheap toys. The three remaining mercenaries stared at Luke in impotent fury.

But here Luke made a mistake. Though injured, the two mercenaries who had been injured when their blasters were shot out of their hands were still conscious and were trained to keep fighting as long as they were conscious and capable of moving. Now seeing that Luke’s attention was now diverted away from them, they ignored their own injuries for the moment and attacked from behind. One threw a massive rock that struck the wrist holding the light saber; causing it to tumble out of Luke’s momentarily stunned hand and drop de-activated to the rocky ground.

Before even Luke could react, the other mercenary tackled him and wrestled him for the blaster Luke still held. Each had only one good hand at this point, but then the mercenary who had thrown the rock joined in the struggle as well. Taking advantage of the sudden change on developments, the three remaining mercenaries who were still conscious tackled Luke as well – so that Luke soon found himself at the bottom of a pig-pile with the five mercenaries (all of whom were rather larger than he was) on top of him.

Luke concentrated on the Force and made a gesture with his uninjured hand.

As if an energy grenade had exploded in their midst, the five mercenaries flew away from Luke in different directions – some as far as twenty feet – before landing in unconscious heaps upon the ground.

Rubbing his injured wrist with his other hand, Luke surveyed the fallen mercenaries as he bent down to retrieve his fallen light saber.

Before he could finish the move, his Force-enhanced instincts suddenly alerted him to new danger. But before he could do anything about it, his limbs and torso were suddenly enveloped in several faintly glowing blue bands of energy.

Not just energy… these bands were made out of the Force itself.

Luke suddenly felt all control of his body leave him, although his mind stayed as clear and sharp as ever. But he did not fall over as if stunned, but instead found himself standing erect with his arms at his sides as if he were a soldier standing at attention. Then, incongruously, he began dancing a jig as if doing so of his own free will to the sound of music.

Luke was not paralyzed; he was as agile as ever. But he could not move of his own free will; the movements of his body were now fully controlled by these mysterious bands – controlled by another mind not his own. Luke fought with all his mental and physical strength to regain control of his limbs and body, but it was no use; the bands moved him around as if he were a mere puppet on a set of strings. Luke no longer had control of his own body.

The bands made him stop dancing and stand at attention again. Luke struggled to move again on his own, but it was as if his body was encased inside of invisible durasteel or bound with invisible chains. Despite the evident futility of it, Luke continued to struggle with all his might as a new figure abruptly flew into view from above and landed in front of him.

“Do you wish to surrender now young Skywalker, or is another demonstration of the uses of the Force necessary?” the new arrival asked with a mocking sneer.

TBC (with loads more TUGs) if there is sufficient interest
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Last edited by Jason Toddman on Thu Aug 11, 2011 8:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Dare to be different... and make a difference.
To boldly go where no one in their right mind has gone before...

Re: Luke Skywalker's TUGs Adventure

Postby tyman » Mon Jul 25, 2011 6:42 am

delete
Last edited by tyman on Tue Aug 09, 2011 7:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Re: Luke Skywalker's TUGs Adventure

Postby sarumansauron » Mon Jul 25, 2011 9:35 am

Good story and drawing! Thanks!
I love TUGS and TICKLING Torture!!!!!

Re: Luke Skywalker's TUGs Adventure

Postby Veracity » Sun Aug 07, 2011 9:34 pm

Holy crap! How did I miss this? More please!

Re: Luke Skywalker's TUGs Adventure

Postby Jason Toddman » Thu Aug 11, 2011 8:08 pm

Part 2.

For the first time since landing here, Luke began to feel a shiver of shiver and the beginnings of anger. With some effort he put these emotions aside, as they disrupted his control of the Force and made him feel like another person altogether. With even more effort he concentrated on the force bands around him and attempted to manipulate or disrupt them.

He tried to loosen their hold on him; they yielded slightly, as if made of thick rubber, but they did not do so enough to enable him to loosen their hold upon him. He tried to banish them altogether, but he may as well have wished away the low, rocky mountain upon which they stood for all the effect this had.

Luke was coming to the horrible realization that his adversary’s control of the Force was greater than his own! But this was impossible… wasn’t it? Only Jedi had control of the force… didn’t they?

“Impossible? Of course not!” the newly arrived mercenary said to him in a mocking tone as if reading his thoughts. “You think only the Jedi had control of the Force? What arrogance to think that! The Jedi are – or, rather, were - only one of a great many who have learned how to use the Force. The Jedi are not even the most skilled with it; simply the most publicized! Every member of my species is born with the ability to use it!”

Luke studied the man – apparently the leader of these mercenaries – more closely. All the mercenaries seemed to be members of the same species; basically humanoid but one he was not familiar with. All were deeply tanned, muscular, were quite tall, and had green hair. Their eyes were covered with sunglasses; not surprising considering Tattooine’s intense sunlight but Luke guessed there as more to it than that. The leader was the tallest and most muscular of the group, and Luke sensed (intuitively rather than with the Force) that he was also the canniest and most intelligent as well. Like the others, he was invisible to Luke’s Force-enhanced senses; only his ordinary senses of sight and hearing told Luke that he was actually there.

The mercenary glanced at his fallen comrades one by one. Each one, upon being looked at by his leader, suddenly regained consciousness and was almost instantly of whatever injuries Luke had managed to inflict upon him. In less than half a minute, all of the fallen mercenaries were restored to consciousness and was as fresh and sound of body as they were when they first descended upon Luke. Not so much as a scratch or bruise remained upon any of them. They had been fully healed by this one man’s control of the Force!

This man was indeed a force to be reckoned with.

“So… whatever your name is… now that you have me, what do you intend to do with me?” Luke asked as calmly as if discussing what they were having for lunch.

“My name is Mendar,” Luke’s captor replied. “And I’m going to take to the man who employed me to find you; a person well up in the Empire’s hierarchy I understand. He’s paying us enough for this one job to retire in comfort all the rest of our lives.”

Luke might ordinarily have thought this to be a great exaggeration at best; why would anyone in the empire pay more than a modest bounty for a single low-ranking member of the Rebel Alliance? He was a mere fighter pilot; nothing more! There were thousands of other just like him, and no special efforts had been made to capture any of them; simply to slay them in battle! And Mendar sounded as if uke was a specific target; not just because he was a Rebel.

“Any other questions can wait until we’re aboard the ship,” Mendar told Luke. “For now, let us adjourn to my ship, where we…”

This was about as far as he got when all Hell broke loose.

Before anyone else knew what was happening, laser bolts from several different directions began bombarding the entire area all at once. Two of the mercenaries went down from severe wounds before the remainder managed to surround themselves with invisible shield of force (or, rather, the Force) that dispelled the laser bolts as if they were mere soap bubbles.

“The Tusken Raiders have retuned,” one of the remaining mercenaries declared unnecessarily.

“Fire back,” Mendar replied calmly and – as it turned out – also unnecessarily; the mercenaries still capable of it were already doing so.

The calm was deceptive; he had been momentarily distracted by the sudden onslaught. His healing of his comrades and his creation of the force bands around Luke had taken up all of his concentration; rendering him unable to notice the Tusken Raiders returning. Luke had sensed them coming however, and had been awaiting the moment of their attack to use as a diversion.
The moment the Sand People fired their laser weapons at the mercenaries, Luke summoned up all his powers of the Force to break free of Mendar’s force bands.

Luke almost succeeded.

But Mendar’s skills was the Force was too great, and his reflexes too quick. While he relied on his men to repel the Sand Peoples attack, he renewed his grip upon Luke and tightened it. All at once, Luke felt as if his entire body was being constricted by a giant (yet invisible) dune-snake.
The pressure upon his entire body mounted second by second, until he felt all the air squeezed right out of his lungs. His ribs felt as if they were about to cave in, and every bone in his body threatened to break apart from the sheer pressure.

Luke uttered one wordless yell of sheer pain and then passed out.

A few seconds later, the laser barrage from the Tusken Raiders ceased.

“The Raiders are in retreat, sir,” one of the mercenaries, apparently a sergeant, reported. “Shall we pursue and destroy?”

“Why bother?” replied Mendar calmly as an unconscious Luke – still enwrapped in the glowing force bands - hovered in mid-air before him. “They were merely being partially controlled by this whelp. Now that he’s asleep, they’re thinking entirely for themselves again and feel no more kindred for him. They’re no more threat to us. Instead, set up a detail to collect this boy’s X-Wing and his droid before…”

And then all Hell broke loose again as Luke’s unpiloted X-wing suddenly came screaming in apparently from nowhere and dived at them. It flew by mere feet overhead, but did not fire at them. Then, with after-burners blazing, it flew rapidly away out of sight.

“The droid escaped,” the sergeant reported; apparently feeling a need to state the obvious.

“Luckily for us astro-mech droids are programmed only to fly their ships in an emergency, but can’t fire the ship’s weapons,” another mercenary spoke up.

“Should we pursue with the ship?” the sergeant asked Mendar.

“No, we’ve got what we came for,” Mendar replied. “The X-wing and the droid would have been mere icing on the cake. That droid can’t do anything about us now. Undoubtedly it’s going for help, but by the time it can find and bring back any, we’ll be long gone.”

Mendar looked over his newly fallen comrades as he was saying this; by the time he was finished, they were once again fully restored to full health by the power of the Force.

As one, the band of mercenaries rose through the air back to their ship. Luke, still unconscious, floated along in formation with them as if held by an invisible tether – which in fact he was.
All nine mercenaries and Luke entered through a large open bay door underneath and along one rim of the roughly saucer shaped spaceship, which closed shut behind the last one to enter a mere second later. Mere seconds after that, the spaceship flew away at tremendous speed in a much different direction from the one taken by R2 and the X-wing it piloted.

After that, the area was as quiet as it was before life ever appeared in the lost-vanished oceans that once covered most of the hot desert sands of the planet Tattooine. It would be many days and nights before the Sand People – or anything else alive lager or smarter than an insect – dared to venture upon that spot again.

*****

After an unknown period of time in which he slept within a dark and silent void, Luke regained full consciousness in an instant. He opened his eyes and looked around, and saw what seemed to be a mouse’s eye view of the interior of a spaceship’s storage bay. His head and body lay upon a metallic-colored yet soft cushion set upon the otherwise empty floor. Other than himself and the cushion, there was no one and nothing inside the chamber but a closed (and presumably locked) sliding metal door.

Luke suddenly felt slightly cold. A moment later he realized that he ached all over his body. He instinctively sought to arise from this strange bed and check himself over, and immediately discovered that he could barely move. Looking down at himself with a growing sense of unease, Luke discovered two things: (1) he was completely naked except for a flesh-colored thong that concealed his modesty (while making him look sexless) but very little else, and (2) he was completely bound hand and hand with some kind of rope made of a material unfamiliar to him.

Luke tentatively reached out with the Force to access the situation, and at that point made a third discovery that was more disturbing than the first two put together: he couldn’t touch the Force anymore! He was unaware of the Force as he had never truly been even before Obiwan Kenobi had told him of its existence. Even when he didn’t know he had it, it was there; undeveloped and untapped, but it had been thee. But now, it was as if the Force had totally ceased to exist for him.

For a moment, Luke felt like a man suddenly stricken blind and began to panic. It was only with the greatest effort that he managed to control himself and calmly access the situation.

The ropes were part of it, he now realized. They were made of some substance not only out of his world, but out of *any* world that he knew of. It as a substance that might even from outside the galaxy itself. Would such a substance even *be* affected by the Force, which only bound together the energies and matter from *this* galaxy?

It certainly didn’t seem that way.

Moreover, Luke now perceived that there was a headband made of the same substance upon his own brow – the only clothing he wore unless the ropes that bound him could also be dignified with that appellation. It was this which was really depriving him of the use of the Force. If he could somehow get it off of him and well away from him, his power over the Force would probably return at once. But as it was, he had no way of removing it; and therefore had no control over the force at all.

No, wait… that wasn’t quite true. There was a trace – faint, but definitely there – of the Force that was still with him. So the Force-draining headband and bonds were not 100 % effective… although it was close enough as to make practically no difference.

Or did it? If Luke still had even the smallest touch of the Force, could he use it… build upon it… enable it to free him from his captivity?

Before Luke could think further on the matter, the door to this cell abruptly opened and Mendar stepped inside. “I trust you are comfortable, Luke,” the mercenary captain told him with a tone that did not imply complete insincerity. “Even at hyperspace velocities, we have a long voyage ahead of us, and want you to still be alive and reasonably healthy when we get there. We have to cross virtually the entire galaxy, so relax and the trip won’t be… *too* unpleasant.”

“That’s okay… take your time,” Luke replied blandly. As far as Luke was concerned, the only thing that could be even worse than the voyage itself would be its ending at Mendar’s intended destination.

“Actually, I am,” Mendar replied as he looked down at Luke with an unreadable expression.” You see, we have much to discuss, you and I. Much to discuss, indeed.”

Luke didn’t need the Force to tell him that such a discussion was going to be a very unpleasant one.

TBC
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Dare to be different... and make a difference.
To boldly go where no one in their right mind has gone before...

Re: Luke Skywalker's TUGs Adventure

Postby sarumansauron » Fri Aug 12, 2011 2:13 pm

Great continuation and pic! Thanks!
I love TUGS and TICKLING Torture!!!!!

Re: Luke Skywalker's TUGs Adventure

Postby Jason Toddman » Mon Aug 29, 2011 1:53 pm

Was kind of hoping for more response to this story than this... but here's the next chapter anyway. It was delayed because I had trouble drawing a reasonable facsimile of a droid.

Part 3.

“So, would you care to tell me why the infamous Lord of the Sith has placed a bounty on you - if brought to him alive and healthy - so high that half the bounty hunters in the galaxy are looking for you?” Mendar asked Luke conversationally.

Luke was surprised into a rather loud exclamation that sounded like “Huh?” This was news to him; either that *anyone* was after him or that the Sith Lord himself had hired them. All Luke knew of Darth Vader was what Obiwan Kenobi had told him before his death… at the hands of that same Sith Lord… and that the Sith Lord had nearly killed Luke himself before the Millennium Falcon’s spectacular last minute intervention.

It didn’t surprise Luke that Darth Vader had survived that attack; nor would it surprised him if Han Solo and Chewbacca were wanted after *that* stunt, but why Luke? How could Darth Vader know Luke in particular was involved? Well, the Force could explain that, Luke knew. But even knowing who Luke was, what could Darth Vader want with Luke other than deal him a grisly demise in revenge for his destroying the Death Star? Yet, Darth Vader reportedly wanted him alive and unhurt! Why? To kill him personally?

Somehow, Luke doubted it. Even more, he doubted he really wanted to know!

Because Luke could use the Force? Also unlikely; there were many people other than the Jedi Knights who could use the Force as effectively as Luke or even more so; Mendar had just proved that already! Then what?

Luke didn’t have the slightest idea.

“You don’t know either, do you?” Mendar asked in some disappointment as he immediately intuited the answer. “Hmmm… I suppose I should have guessed as much sooner. Well, that seems to be that concerning one topic of conversation, at least. As for why the Sith Lord wants you, either you hacked him off somehow – doubtful, or he’d simply put out a bounty for you dead rather than stipulating you be alive AND well – or he wants something from you. Humph. The Force alone knows what. You certainly can’t be any *threat* to him… an unprepossessing slip of a lad like you. You’re no threat to anything that isn’t set before you on the dinner table.”

Up to then Mendar had been pretty much echoing Luke’s own secret train of thought… but that last – and the mocking laughter which followed - rankled Luke something fierce.

“Take these bonds off me and face me like a man... and I’ll show you what I’m made of,” Luke snarled; showing a slip of control over his churning emotions for the first time.

“Ohhh, so now the little house kitten thinks he’s a mighty tharban, does he?” Mendar asked with another mocking laugh; referring to a feline carnivore from the planet Amtor that was much like a tiger but much larger, stronger, faster, and more vicious. A tharban could disembowel a full grown elephant with one swipe of its huge six-inch-talon-studded paws.

“I’m man enough to face you on equal terms!” Luke retorted unflinchingly.

“Really? Well, I’ve always enjoyed a challenge,” Mendar replied. “Let’s see if you can back those words up with some action, boy!”

Mendar squatted behind where Luke lay bound, and made a few deft movements with his hands that Luke could not see. Suddenly, Luke felt his bonds go slack.

Mendar walked over to a panel set flush inside the wall and pressed on it. A drawer popped out. Mendar reached in, pulled out Luke’s dark black pants and boots, and casually, almost contemptuously tossed them to their owner as he shakily began to rise to his feet. “There, put these on! Nobody fights at their best when they’re naked; or next to it… and I want you feeling confident and at your best sonny boy, so that when I beat you *this* time you won’t be able to say it wasn’t done fair and square!”

Feeling that his control of the Force was stull next to non-existent, Luke surmised that something about the headband that had been placed on him was the cause, and he reached up to pull it off. However, much to his chagrin, the headband would not come off at all; it was not particularly tight and not at all uncomfortable – but it was as firmly affixed to his head as his own scalp. Tugging on it achieved only the same uncomfortable sensation yanking on his own hair would.

“Fair fight, huh?” Luke snapped as he abandoned the effort to remove the headband and put on his familiar (and freshly laundered) clothing to cover up his near nakedness. “You’ve deprived me the use of the Force and any weapons. You call that a fair fight?”

“If you can’t use the Force, then use your eyes at least!” Mendar snapped contemptuously.

Luke looked, and realized that Mendar referred to at once. The man carried no weapons on him, but was as unarmed as Luke was. Moreover, Luke noticed for the first time that Mendar was now wearing a headband identical to the one he was wearing.

“For right now, I cannot use the Force either,” Mendar told him the moment it was evident Luke had gathered his meaning. “I’m not a cowardly Jawa, to only fight something much weaker than myself. I fight fair when I can; underhanded only when I must to get the job done or when my foe is the one with all the advantages. But here and now we’re even. I have some advantage in size and strength and, probably, combat experience though, don’t I? I haven’t just spent the last few hours tied up and unconscious either. That’s no fair. So here…”

Mendar reached into the drawer again, pulled Luke’s light saber out, and tossed it to him as casually as he would a canteen full of water. Luke caught it in his hand and thumbed its ignition control; almost starting in surprise when the device activated normally.

“Now you are armed with a weapon perfectly familiar to you, while I am unarmed,” Mendar told Luke. “I can’t make it any fairer than that unless you want to demand I be tied up in the bargain. I trust you have more flair than *that*, at least. Now come and face me. If you can beat me, I turn over myself, y men, and this ship over to you to go and do with as you will. If I win, you will obey all my orders and make no attempts to resist me or escape – even if I leave you free to move otherwise rather than keep you bound - until such time as we reach our destination. Agreed?”

Luke nodded silent agreement. How could this man be so confident of victory after putting himself at such a severe disadvantage? A now ordinary man against another man armed with a light saber? It was pure madness!

For a moment Luke considered simply tossing away the light saber and fighting Mendar one on arm unarmed. He quickly dismissed such a foolish thought at once however. Such a gesture might be noble, but it would also be extremely stupid! Mendar was correct in his assessment of their relative abilities and advantages in unarmed combat. Against an experienced fighter such as Mendar, Luke wouldn’t last a minute and he knew it. Also, the stakes were much too high for Luke to give way to archaic notions of chivalry. He needed to get out of this situation!

However, although Luke adopted a defensive fighting stance, he waited for Mendar to make the first move.

Seeing Luke was waiting for him, Mendar rolled his eyes and sighed impatiently. “Don’t want to attack an unarmed man first, huh? Very well! Have at you then!”

This whole time, Mendar was speaking in a normal tone of voice at a normal conversational speed; never once raising his voice or talking faster or slower. Even so, the moment he began saying ‘have’, Mendar suddenly began circling around Luke at blinding speed. By the time he reached ‘at’, he was completely behind Luke, who was taken by utter surprise and began to whirl around to keep his foe in sight. By the time he reached ‘you’, he was completely behind the much slower Luke, and moved in on him in a blur of motion. Upon speaking the word ‘then’, he closed in on Luke and karate chopped his right wrist, forearm, bicep, and shoulder in four blindly fast moves.

“Aaaarrrgghhh!” Luke yelled as his light-saber fell from his suddenly lifeless arm. The weapon deactivated itself the instant it was no longer held by its owner, and clattered uselessly onto the deck. A moment later, an agonized Luke feel to his knees right beside it, but all his attention was focused on using his left arm to clutch at his useless right arm and trying to rub some life back into it. But even the slightest pressure caused him intense pain; it felt like every bone in his arm had been shattered.

Mendar casually kicked the light saber away from Luke with his booted foot. Then, as casually as if Luke were unconscious, he took the ropes that Luke had been bound with and bound him again. This time however, Luke’s arms were bound tightly to his sides rather than behind him and forced into a hogtie. He also still wore the clothing that had been restored to him. Luke did not resist; all the fight had been slammed right out of him.

Once Mendar was finished, he removed his headband (for some reason it was not affixed to his scalp like Luke’s was) and with a contemptuous gesture gagged Luke with it.

“I trust that settled that?” Mendar asked mildly as he grasped Luke’s injured arm and rubbed it. Within moments, Luke’s arm was completely restored and pain free. Luke would have flexed it to text that all the pain was gone were it not tied tightly to his side.

Despite Mendar’s act in healing his arm, Luke glared at him with extreme anger and hatred.

“Still defiant are we?” Mendar asked as if talking with a child. “Perhaps you need another lesson in humility.”

Mendar left Luke lying on the floor, walked to a wall control, and thumbed it. “CP-4U, come in here immediately,” he spoke to a small screen that appeared suddenly.

A few moments later, the door abruptly opened and a droid came into the room carrying a small portable chair. The droid looked somewhat like C-3PO but was made painted a gleaming black with red trim rather than with C-3PO’s familiar golden color. It's body structure also had some noticeable differences.

“Give him ten, CP-4U,” Mendar told the droid. “Then keep him in place, and give him an extra swat every time he tries to get up.”

“As you wish, master Mendar,” the droid replied with a voice similar to C-3PO’s but having an odd, husky quality to it that Luke had never heard from a droid before. The droid set the chair down in the middle of the room, walked over to a wide-eyed Luke, bent down, and picked him up in its arms as easily as if Luke was weightless. Luke struggled and tried to yell, but – securely bound as he now was - he was as helpless in the droid’s arms as if he were an infant.

The droid calmly walked back to its chair like a woman holding a small child, turned about, and sat down in it as primly as a human old lady. It then carefully but firmly turned Luke around until he was lying on his stomach across the droid’s metallic legs facing to its left. With its left arm it held Luke gently but securely in place. Its right arm then lifted up and up in a position familiar to naughty children all over the galaxy.

A wide-eyed Luke struggled, cursed incoherently into his gag, and glared at a smirking Mendar with pure loathing. Down calm a metallic palm, and gave Luke a mighty swat on one of his butt cheeks. His muffled cursing gave way to a muffled cry of pain, which he managed to choke off (with some difficulty) after a second or two. But before Luke could fully compose himself, the metallic hand was raised again, and descended with hammering force on the other butt cheek. This time Luke’s outcry of pain was louder and more difficult to get under control.

Even worse than the pain though was the utter humiliation of it all!!! It made Luke… ANGRY!!!

“Enjoy your new babysitter,” Mendar told Luke with a wry grin as he picked up the light saber where it had fallen and took it out of the room with him.

Luke attempted to protest, but this was cut off when a third and fourth spank made him writhe and yell into his gag even louder than before.

“Naughty boy,” CP-4U said to Luke with voice a babysitter might use on a misbehaving little child. “That will be another four spanks after the ten the master already ordered. Now be still if you want this to ever end.”

And again the air was rent with the sound of a metallic hand spanking Luke’s buns with almost inhuman force; eliciting even more outcries of pain and embarrassment.
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Last edited by Jason Toddman on Thu Sep 01, 2011 6:35 am, edited 1 time in total.
Dare to be different... and make a difference.
To boldly go where no one in their right mind has gone before...

Re: Luke Skywalker's TUGs Adventure

Postby sarumansauron » Mon Aug 29, 2011 4:07 pm

Cool continuation! Thanks!
I love TUGS and TICKLING Torture!!!!!

Re: Luke Skywalker's TUGs Adventure

Postby Veracity » Mon Aug 29, 2011 8:25 pm

I'm sorry you haven't gotten more response. I'm enjoying it quite a lot.

Re: Luke Skywalker's TUGs Adventure

Postby bookl0ver » Tue Aug 30, 2011 12:15 am

i like it. relly gud
DIRECTIONER FOR LIFE!
NIALL HORAN'S FUTURE WIFE

Also addicted to slash. ^,^

Re: Luke Skywalker's TUGs Adventure

Postby Cowboy » Wed Sep 14, 2011 10:28 am

More?

Re: Luke Skywalker's TUGs Adventure

Postby Chase Ricks » Thu Sep 15, 2011 11:19 pm

Jason I would have posted here much sooner if only I had known about it beforehand. This is actually a great story and I feel very upset that so few have commented on it so far.
From whence I came and whence I went heaven said I was too evil and sent me to hell. Demons and devils succeeded in breaking my soul.

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Re: Luke Skywalker's TUGs Adventure

Postby bookl0ver » Fri Sep 16, 2011 8:01 am

oi m8 continue it
DIRECTIONER FOR LIFE!
NIALL HORAN'S FUTURE WIFE

Also addicted to slash. ^,^

Re: Luke Skywalker's TUGs Adventure

Postby Jason Toddman » Tue Sep 20, 2011 11:00 am

Feel more encouraged now, so here's the next part. Sorry not much TUGs in it but it's the beginning of the set-up for more TUGs with sci-fi elements to them. And it does have some sensory deprivation for those of you who are into that as well as more CP (Corporal Punishment) for you (4U). :D

Part 4.

CP-4U continued its task with relentless yet leisurely precision, spanking Luke a total of fourteen times… plus a dozen more times as extra punishment for Luke’s continued struggles as he futilely tried to escape. With great difficulty, Luke managed to control his temper and remain still so that the droid would not continue its assigned task any longer than necessary.

Once the black droid had rendered its assigned spankings, it lowered its right arm and – like its left – used it to help keep Luke in place upon its metallic lap. It then became even more unmoving than Luke himself was.

Luke waited to see if the droid would do anything more, but it merely sat there like an inanimate metal statue – which it had in fact become once its task was done.

Luke experimentally tried to squirm free…

“Now, now… enough of that!” the droid declared as it suddenly came back to life, firmed up its hold on Luke with its left arm, and raised its right arm for around round of paddling. “Four more spanks, as the master ordered!”

*Smack!* *Smack!* *Smack!* *Smack!*

Luke barely managed to remain still and take his punishment in silence as the droid carried out its task to the letter like the precision machine it was. Then, its assignment once again completed for now, it lowered its spanking arm down to reinforce its hold upon Luke and once again went perfectly rigid.

Luke remained as perfectly still as humanly possible and tried to think. Being held down on the droid’s hard lap was as uncomfortable as it was boring but there was no way to obtain relief that he could see. The infinitely patient droid was total immune to boredom; it would remain there and hold him in place forever if need be until either Mendar gave it a countermanding order or its power system abruptly failed somehow. However, Luke would likely die of neglect before the droid would need recharging of its power systems unless steps were taken to see to his needs along the way. Chances are though that the droid’s needs would be attended to at the same time.

If he couldn’t outlast the droid, he’d have to either outwit it or overcome it.

If he had full command of the Force, it would be easy to induce a short circuit inside the droid’s system that would paralyze even more surely than a stroke would paralyze a human being. But in addition to the headband draining his hold on the Force to almost nothing, the metal shielding that covered the droid’s belly made mental access of its circuitry out of the question. Luke tried anyway of course, but the droid was more likely to rust to pieces before anything that Luke could do to it had any noticeable effect.

The discomfort of being forced to lie upon CP-4U’s metallic lap was steadily increasing; which undoubtedly had been Mendar’s intent. At that point Luke would have been willing to trade his father’s light-saber for a reasonably well-padded cushion to lie upon right now.

Suddenly, it occurred to him that perhaps something along those lines could be arranged… if CP-4U was programmed to obey any orders that did not interfere with those his master had given him. It wouldn’t let Luke go, as that would violate its orders; but perhaps it could be persuaded to at least cushion its lap with the mat Luke had been lying on before.

The only problem with that idea was that Mendar had gagged him before he left!

With all the powers of concentration that Luke had at his command, Luke strove to manipulate the gag with what small control of the Force he had left – aided and abetted by the facile use of his tongue – while the rest of him remained immobile enough to keep the droid quiescent. It took a lot of effort and patience – almost more than Luke was capable of under such circumstances – but, after an intensive half-hour of effort, Luke managed to undo the gag’s knots (it had not been tied with much care to begin with, fortunately) and spit it out of his mouth.

Luke half expected this action to incite the droid into spanking him again, but as he was making no effort to get out of its (literally) iron grip, it did not react.

“CP-4U?” Luke asked tentatively.

“Yes?” the droid replied mildly, although it made no other sign that it was still functional.

“Can I make a request?” Luke asked it.

“Certainly,” replied the droid tersely; apparently it wasn’t the soul of metallic loquaciousness that the hyper-talkative C-3PO was. Hopefully though CP-4U would be as accommodating to Luke’s immediate wishes as that metallic fuss-budget was.

“Could you place that mat on your lap for me to lie on?” Luke asked. “It’s awful uncomfortable lying here as things are.”

“Oh, I couldn’t possibly do that,” the droid replied in a prim and proper sort of way; reminding Luke of some of the more irritating verbal traits that C-3PO had. “That would violate Master Mendar’s orders to keep you here.”

“But it would only take a moment,” Luke replied, but he already knew that it would be a waste of breath; there was nothing in the galaxy more stubborn than a droid that had made up its mind about something. With the authorization to give the droid orders, Luke might as well be trying to make light itself speed up or slow down.

“But the master told me to keep you in place,” CP-4u replied, just as Luke knew it would. “He made no exceptions. I must not let you move for any reason short of an emergency.”

Before Luke could ask the droid what sort of emergency would qualify, one took place so suddenly that Luke never even thought to appreciate the irony.

With a suddenness that might have induced panic in most people, the entire ship abruptly shuddered as if it had crashed into a solid wall. The cell in which Luke was held went completely dark except for the dull, yellowish glow that emanated from CP-4U’s metallic eyes. At the same time, the cell – and presumably the entire ship – shuddered like an old building caught inside a maximum-strength planet-quake. The shuddering was so powerful that Luke might have been tossed violently into a wall were the droid not holding him firmly down. The droid itself, strong as it was, might itself have been tossed about like a mere rag doll were it not equipped with tiny but powerful electro-magnets on the soles of its feet. Evidently designed for forays outside the ship while it was out in space (perhaps in a maintenance capacity), the droid’s foot-magnets served it as a steady anchor and kept it stable even when its chair tumbled away from underneath it in the chaos. Remaining seated in mid-air, the droid kept Luke firmly settled upon its lap and protected him from certain injury as if that was its purpose all along.

The ship shuddered with extreme violence, and even seemed to roll over end for end when whatever was causing this apparently overwhelmed the ship’s artificial-gravity systems briefly. The shuddering stopped after a few seconds however, and all became as quiet as before. The lights remained out, however. From what seemed like a great distance, Luke could hear men shouting.
Fighting? No, they were trying to figure out what had happened and deal with it. The mercenaries were apparently as puzzled as Luke himself was.

Luke felt strangely light-headed all of a sudden, and everything suddenly seemed to go dark. For a terrifying moment Luke feared that something had happened to the life-support system’s air supply and that he was passing out from asphyxiation. It took him a moment to realize that the air was in fact all right and that the problem had a different cause… or, rather, causes.

The ship’s artificial gravity was off. Luke would be floating like a soap bubble at this very moment except for the droid persistently holding him in place. That explained the light-headed feeling… but why had the small light that he’d seen before gone completely dark?

“CP-4U,” Luke called to the droid. “Do you know what’s going on?”

The droid did not answer.

“CP-4U?” Luke asked more tentatively as he strained to turn his head enough to look up at the droid without causing it to mistake his intentions and start spanking him.

The small yellow light from the droid’s eyes had gone dark; explaining why the room was now in complete darkness. CP-4U was now completely deactivated rather than merely quiescent.

Luke tentatively tried to move; ready to brace himself for another spanking in case he turned out to be wrong. But the droid did not react with either a verbal remonstration or a renewed spanking assault, but simply continued to sit on nothing and hold Luke in its lap. It was no longer pinning him down actively however, but merely frozen in place with its servo-mechanisms keeping it steady despite it being effectively dead… like a droid version of rigor mortis.

At about the same time, Luke noticed that the strange ropes that had pinioned his limbs so firmly before were now flaccid and yielding; whatever strange energy source that made them effective in binding him must have been disrupted along with the ship’s – and the droid’s - power systems.

Interesting. The ship must have encountered some power that completely drained all electronic power systems aboard the ship; even ones not connected to the ship itself. Mist certainly however the hyperspace drive was out; this had probably been what caused the ship to convulse so violently before. Luke idly wondered if his light saber and other weapons aboard ship were also affected this way. At least it did not seem to have an effect on biological energy; Luke felt no ill effects at all.

Wait; there *was* an effect he hadn’t noticed before because of the headband that had drained off his ability to use the Force. Whereas before Luke had still felt at least some small contact with the Force, now he felt none at all!

Cautiously at first but with increasing confidence and determination when the droid continued to not react, Luke began pushing at the metallic arms that held him down. It was slow going at first, as the droid’s inert body resisted outside attempt to maneuver it. However, there was some slack and the droid was not totally rigid. Grateful that he had always kept himself in excellent physical condition, Luke - with considerable muscular strain – slowly but steadily managed to slacken the droid’s grasp upon him and work his body free of it.

Stretching his limbs, Luke inadvertently launched himself into the air; having briefly forgotten that he was now inside a zero gravity environment. Ignoring this disorienting occurrence for the time being, Luke grasped the headband he wore and tugged on it experimentally. Whereas before it was as if welded to his scalp, it now came off as easily as a glove.

However, even with its Force-draining capacities eliminated, Luke still felt no contact with the Force. Something still totally blocked his ability to touch it; something new that had been introduced when the ship – and, for all Luke knew – the Universe, seemed to go haywire. This was, if anything, far worse than the disorientation of zero gravity in total darkness. Without the Force, he was blinded in a way mere darkness alone could not do to him. He was, in a very real sense, being subjected to almost total sensory deprivation. Only the continued dim sounds of men talking loudly to one another in other parts of the ship assured him that he was not in fact now a disembodied spirit floating in some kind of inter-dimensional void.

Luke found it difficult to adapt to the zero gravity, the total loss of the Force and complete darkness all at the same time, but this same lack of light reduced his feeling of zero-g disorientation at least to levels he could cope with. He had experienced sensory deprivation for brief periods before as part of his training, and had almost enjoyed the experience. Floating in a dark and silent void could be quite relaxing… at least, in moderate doses.

Being without the Force at all was harder. Much harder.

But at least he wasn’t hurt. Furthermore, he was unlikely to bang into anything hard enough to hurt him - unless the ship resumed its strange convulsions, which seemed unlikely. The mercenaries were probably too busy trying to deal with what happened to their ship to bother with him for the time being. Luke was therefore safe enough for the moment.

Luke quickly assessed the situation. He was alone and unarmed in a ship full of enemies. However, these enemies had just experienced the same jolting convulsions that he had, but without the advantage he’d enjoyed of being strapped into place and protected from the worst of the buffeting. They had likely forgotten about him for the moment. If he could find a way to deal with his captivity while they were distracted, perhaps he could gain the upper hand on the entire situation.

Wishing that Mendar had not taken away his light saber, Luke sought to orient himself. Floating in zero g in complete darkness without the Force to guide him, this was at all easy. However, though the room was dark an almost soundproof, it was not completely silent; Luke could still hear sounds of men talking loudly (but not loudly enough for Luke to understand more than a few of the words) to one another outside his cell. Most of the sounds were coming from one direction; this, Luke decided, must be the direction of the door – which was certain to be less insulated than the hull around it. Reaching it would be his first goal.

This would not be easy either. Adrift in a zero-g environment like a toy balloon, Luke had no good means to propel himself in any direction until he could find a wall (or ceiling or floor); hopefully with a rough enough texture that could provide him with a little traction. Swimming in air was a largely pointless exercise (because the medium provided too little to push against) unless one was well practiced in this art; Luke was not. However, there was one other option… provided one wasn’t in *too* much of a hurry.

Moving carefully now, Luke strove to maneuver himself so that he was facing away from the door. Then, breathing in slowly, he exhaled through his mouth as hard and as fast as he could - as if trying to blow out a hundred candles at once on a birthday cake. Luke did this again… and again… and again…

Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. The force of Luke’s breath pushed his entire body very slightly but (were it not for the darkness) noticeably in the other direction. As he was facing directly away from the door, every hard exhalation accelerated him backward by roughly a half-centimeter per second. By the time he had done this a dozen times, he was moving backward at a pace equivalent to the width of his hand every second. It was at this point that Luke’s back made contact with the door.

At the same time the soles of Luke’s boots touched the floor, and immediately stuck fast in a secure grip. Of course! Luke had forgotten that the soles of his own specially-made boots would automatically magnetize in a micro-gravity environment! At least he had traction! It would still be a bit difficult walking around; unless he skated or shuffled, every step would feel like walking in very sticky tar while wearing boots that felt as heavy as lead. But if he moved like he was on roller skates instead, he would be able to make reasonable progress. He was certainly better off this way than floating aimlessly around in zero-g!!!

If only the mercenaries lacked such magnetized boots themselves, Luke might have a serious advantage over his kidnappers… provided he could get out of this cell.

Getting out proved not to be a particular problem after all, as, a second later, the door was opened from the other side and two mercenaries floated into the room. These men were, unlike Luke, experienced with maneuvering in zero-G environments. However, this gave them no edge against a man who could keep his feet firmly planted on the ground. Before they could do more with express their surprise that Luke was free and waiting for them at the door, Luke sent them literally flying with two well-placed punches to the underside of their jaws.

This did little more than stun them however, as their own lack of weight neutralized much of the power of Luke’s punches. More annoyed than hurt, they pulled out their blasters and – forgetting their instructions in the heat of their anger - pulled the triggers. Luke tensed in spite of himself as he expected to find himself hit with twin plasma charges at any moment. He momentarily wondered if he’d feel much pain before he died.

He didn’t get to find out; the blasters didn’t fire!

Looking astonished as well as annoyed, the two mercenaries fired again. Water pistols or cap guns would have been more effective; the inert blasters didn’t even make a satisfying clicking sound as they vainly pulled on the triggers.

Luke smiled with relief; whatever energy dampening field had affected the ship *had* neutralized the blasters!

Acting quickly, Luke grabbed one of the floating mercenaries by a leg and his belt and, keeping his own feet solidly planted to give him traction, swung him around as hard as he could and slammed his head against a wall. This proved more effective than the previous sock to the jaw, and knocked the mercenary out cold.

The remaining mercenary hollered for help as he began pulling himself along protuberances in the wall (and making fair progress in a short time) to get away from Luke. Luke chased after him, but the man was out of reach while Luke kept is feet upon the floor. However, Luke was not limited to using the floor in zero-g. The walls and ceiling are just as metallic as the floor. Running up the wall like a human fly, Luke overhauled his adversary, grabbed him, and promptly slammed his head against a power conduit near the intersection of upper all and ceiling. He let the unconscious man go to float limply away down the hallway.

Luke looked rapidly around. He was not in total darkness now, as there were dimly glowing phosphorescent panels all along the walls and ceiling; their glow the result of natural chemical reactions rather than supplied by an electrical power source. By this light, Luke could see that he was inside a short curving hallway of some sort; there was no one else in sight at the moment, but the sound of voices could be heard in both directions. From what Luke could hear, the mercenaries were still puzzling over what had happened to their ship and how to deal with it.

Feeling vaguely like a spider-man, Luke cautiously proceeded in the direction the mercenary was taking. He moved with stealth, but not with timidity. Luke knew that the best defense was a good offense, and that his only chance against the remaining mercenaries was to take them by surprise. Two mercenaries were down, but Luke knew that there were about a dozen more to go plus the formidable Mendar himself.

Oh well; nothing worthwhile was ever easy!

TBC
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Dare to be different... and make a difference.
To boldly go where no one in their right mind has gone before...

Re: Luke Skywalker's TUGs Adventure

Postby Chase Ricks » Tue Sep 20, 2011 10:13 pm

Gives new meaning to the phrase literalminded when you talk about CP4U.
From whence I came and whence I went heaven said I was too evil and sent me to hell. Demons and devils succeeded in breaking my soul.

Image

Re: Luke Skywalker's TUGs Adventure

Postby bookl0ver » Tue Sep 20, 2011 11:57 pm

good. very good. ta 4 finally continueing it
DIRECTIONER FOR LIFE!
NIALL HORAN'S FUTURE WIFE

Also addicted to slash. ^,^

Re: Luke Skywalker's TUGs Adventure

Postby lonewolfandfriends » Sun Oct 02, 2011 12:41 pm

Please continue

Re: Luke Skywalker's TUGs Adventure

Postby Cowboy » Wed May 23, 2012 12:00 am

Can you continue????

Re: Luke Skywalker's TUGs Adventure

Postby CowboyTiedUp » Sun Mar 13, 2016 4:21 am

Any continuation here?

Re: Luke Skywalker's TUGs Adventure

Postby Jason Toddman » Sun Mar 13, 2016 8:25 am

I have no plans to continue this; at least not anytime soon. I can't even find the original text on my computer anymore for some damn reason. I haven't had the energy to write or draw much lately, and frankly my enthusiasm for this particular story is long gone.
Perhaps if my financial situation and health finally improve, i'll reconsider and continue this... but for now, no. Sorry.
Dare to be different... and make a difference.
To boldly go where no one in their right mind has gone before...

Re: Luke Skywalker's TUGs Adventure

Postby draculakey » Thu Sep 21, 2017 12:31 pm

Sorry to hear your loss of enthusiasm for this story.

Re: Luke Skywalker's TUGs Adventure

Postby Jason Toddman » Thu Sep 21, 2017 12:34 pm

draculakey wrote:Sorry to hear your loss of enthusiasm for this story.

So Am I , frankly. I thought I was getting better, but a promised cure for one of my more debilitating problems didn't pan out.
Dare to be different... and make a difference.
To boldly go where no one in their right mind has gone before...