Despite the claim that it had belonged to his father, the gizmo looked newly manufactured. Kenobi had obviously kept it carefully. Only a number of minute scratches on the handgrip hinted at previous usage.
"Sir?" came a familiar voice Luke hadn’t heard in a while.
"What?" Luke was startled out of his examination.
"If you’ll not be needing me," Threepio declared, "I think I’ll shut down for a bit.
It will help the armature nerves to knit, and I’m due for some internal self-cleansing anyhow." "Sure, go ahead," Luke said absently, returning to his fascinated study of the whatever-it-was. Behind him, Threepio became silent, the glow fading temporarily from his eyes. Luke noticed that Kenobi was watching him with interest. "What is it?" he finally asked, unable despite his best efforts to identify the device.
"Your father’s lightsaber," Kenobi told him. "At one time they were widely used. Still are, in certain galactic quarters." Luke examined the controls on the handle, then tentatively touched a brightly colored button up near the mirrored pommel. Instantly the disk put forth a blue- white beam as thick around as his thumb. It was dense to the point of opacity and a little over a meter in length. It did not fade, but remained as brilliant and intense at its far end as it did next to the disk. Strangely, Luke felt no heat from it, though he was very careful not to touch it. He knew what a lightsaber could do, though he had never seen one before. It could drill a hole right through the rock wall of Kenobi’s cave—or through a human being.
"This was the formal weapon of a Jedi knight," explained Kenobi. "Not as clumsy or random as a blaster. More skill than simple sight was required for its use.
An elegant weapon. It was a symbol as well. Anyone can use a blaster or fusioncutter—but to use a lightsaber well was a mark of someone a cut above the ordinary." He was pacing the floor of the cave as he spoke.
"For over a thousand generations, Luke, the Jedi knights were the most powerful, most respected force in the galaxy. They served as the guardians and guarantors of peace and justice in the Old Republic." When Luke failed to ask what had happened to them since, Kenobi looked up to see that the youth was staring vacantly into space, having absorbed little if any of the oldster’s instruction. Some men would have chided Luke for not paying attention.
Not Kenobi. More sensitive than most, he waited patiently until the silence weighed strong enough on Luke for him to resume speaking.
