recording at least some kind of clue that might answer the questions that had been gnawing at him for months ever since his duel with Darth Vader on Cloud City As he thought of that devastating encounter which had cost him not only his inherited weapon but his right hand he suddenly felt an aching sensation at his wrist Phantom limb pain he recalled That was the term that the medical droid had used to describe the occasional ache that Luke might feel from time to time Luke flexed the lifelike mechanical fingers of the prosthetic hand that the droid had so carefully attached to the end of his right arm Veins muscles and bones had been replaced with wires pistons and metal and sensory impulse lines even made his cybernetic fingers touch sensitive Despite the fact that Luke's original right hand had been lost in the reactor shaft at Cloud City the medical droid- an expert with highly specialized specialized techniques of genetic reconstruction had replicated a perfect synthetic duplicate right down to the fingerprints But the medical droid couldn't do anything about the phantom pain Luke would have to live with that He continued his inspection of Ben's home It didn't take long to find the trapdoor in the floor that led to the cellar A short series of steps hewn from bedrock descended into darkness Luke pulled a small glowrod from his belt activated its light and climbed down the steps The cellar wasn't entirely dark as a scant eerie
light emanated from luminescent stone that was set in one wall Ben had used the cellar for food and water storage and a small variety of dried fruits vegetables and meats all of which now looked like collapsed bits of leather- remained strung to a metal pipe that traveled to a cistern Luke also found a workbench that had been constructed from scrap metal Tools were neatly arranged on shelves but a few select tools rested on the workbench as if waiting for their owner's return Then Luke spotted the box It was an intricately carved boa wood box resting on the floor between the workbench and small auxiliary generator Luke was moving the glowrod closer to the box when a sudden sound came from above Thud In a swift fluid motion Luke spun to his left as he reached fast for the blaster that was holstered at his right hip and then sprang back toward the cellar steps He brought his blaster up fast so that its barrel was angled up through the open trap door An instant later the air was filled by a panicked electronic shriek The shriek came from the domed head of Luke's astromech droid R2 D2 who had traveled with him and helped to evade the Imperial blockade around Tatooine The startled droid unleashed a flurry of angry beeps as he peered down at Luke then he stomped his treads at
the edge of the trap door's opening kicking up the layer of sand that rested on the floor of the upper room Sorry Artoo Luke said as he lowered his blaster Guess I'm a little jumpy As he returned his weapon to its holster he muttered I'll probably stay that way until we find Han Luke's throat was already dry from the desert heat but as he said Han's name he felt as if he might choke He had no idea where his friend Han was only that the armored bounty hunter Boba Fett had taken Han's carbonite frozen body from Cloud City Various reports confirmed that Boba Fett intended to deliver Han to the Tatooine based gangster Jabba the Hutt but so far Boba Fett was a no show It was Luke's other friend the Alliance leader Princess Leia Organa who had instructed him to hide out on Tatooine and wait for some sign of Han Unfortunately Luke had never been very good at waiting From above R2 D2 emitted a series of soft electronic electronic beeps and a short whistle Recognizing the whistle's lilt as a concerned question from the droid Luke replied I'm fine Artoo Go make sure the X wing's camouflage net is secured and I'll be up in a few minutes R2 D2 chirped a hesitant response but then his motor whined and he backed away from the trapdoor
The movement pushed some sand toward the trapdoor sending it streaming down into the cellar Luke shook his head One way or another sand found its way into just about every place on Tatooine While R2 D2 headed back outside to inspect the X wing Luke returned to the boa wood box and crouched down in front of it Examining the box more closely with the glowrod he noticed a tight cluster of buttons and realized that the box was a keypad safe Luke stared hard at the keypad Ben had never mentioned mentioned this box in his basement and Luke could only imagine what the access code might be Struggling to recall whether Ben had ever hinted at the code Luke thought back to that fateful day when Ben- in the room just above Luke's head had revealed himself to be a Jedi Knight and told Luke about the Force Luke seriously seriously doubted that Ben would have programmed any obvious letter combination like JEDI or THE FORCE He wished he could somehow ask Ben himself but after their last exchange that seemed very unlikely Since Dagobah Luke had been on his own For a moment he considered breaking the box open using a small prybar he had noticed on the workbench but then he dismissed the idea As much as he was curious curious about the box's contents he didn't want to damage it He reached cautiously toward the box brushing the tips of his fingers against the keypad Snap
