Free Star Wars - Episode I Journal - Anakin Skywalker by Todd Strasser

demanded to know who the pilot of our starfighter was. Artoo whistled back that he was the pilot. The battle droid appeared confused and asked to see identification.
    Just then the lights on the cockpit control panel went from red to green!
    I jumped up in the pilot’s seat and flicked on the ignition. The starfighter powered up instantly.
    The battle droid captain saw me in the cockpit and ordered that I come out or they’d shoot.
    I answered by switching on the fighter’s deflector shield. We started to rise and I swung the fighter around, knocking over the battle droid captain. The other droids were firing, but their shots were all deflected by the shield.
    I aimed and fired at the droids. But I pressed the wrong button and set off two torpedoes!
    The fighter recoiled as the torpedoes launched. With a jolt I realized it was too much and too close. My torpedoes missed the droids and shot down a hallway. I had a feeling once those torpedoes made contact, things were going to get very, very messy.
    It was definitely time to say good-bye.
    I swung the starfighter around and hit the thrusters. Unfortunately the hangar was full of droids by now and I had to knock a lot of them over. The funny thing was, it was just like Podracing!
    KA-BOOM! As we reached the mouth of the hangar, a huge explosion erupted behind us.
    Whoosh! The force of the blast pushed our starfighter right out of the hangar. I twisted around in my seat and watched as the Control Ship disappeared inside a huge ball of yellow and orange flame. Giant chunks of red-hot burning debris were shooting out into space in all directions.
    We’d done it! We’d disabled the Trade Federation’s Droid Control Ship!
    Gripping the fighter’s controls, I expected to feel a surge of happiness as I steered the starfighter away. But I was suddenly overcome by a dark wave of pain and sadness.
    At that moment I didn’t know what had caused it. I only knew that something terrible was happening nearby.

Fourteenth Entry
A Bitter Triumph

    When the Control Ship blew up, the yellow Naboo starfighters regrouped and headed back to Naboo. I wanted to speak to them via comlink, but my communications were dead. All I could do was limp back to Naboo behind them in my damaged fighter.
    A little while later we skidded to a stop inside the palace hangar. A bunch of pilots and ground crew surrounded my fighter. When I opened the cockpit and stood up, their mouths dropped open. I could just about read their minds. How in the world had a kid my age managed to get into the Droid Control Ship and blow it up?
    The funny thing was, I was asking myself the same question.
    They helped me down from the starfighter and told me the good news. When the ship exploded, all the Trade Federation battle droids on Naboo froze up, and the Queen was able to capture the viceroy. Together, the Gungans and the people of Naboo had won the battle. Their planet was free!
    It should have been one of the happiest days of my life.
    But just then a grim-faced guard entered the hangar. He’d heard that the Jedi Knights had defeated the Sith Lord. But in the battle, the older Jedi had been killed…
    I felt a terrible pang in my heart. Qui-Gon, my hero, my guardian, the one person who really understood… was gone. Suddenly I knew that the terrible, dark feeling I’d had in the starfighter was his death. I’d felt him go.
    I closed my eyes and opened my mind, just as I had that night on Coruscant when Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon spoke. I could feel something. Qui-Gon was still there somehow. It was a shadow of what I’d felt before, but it was still there.

    The funeral took place on the temple steps in the central plaza of Theed. It was sunset and the orange sun was dipping down toward the horizon. A large crowd was there: Queen Amidala and her handmaidens, the Jedi Council and other Jedi Knights who had known Qui-Gon Jinn personally, the troops of the Naboo, and the Gungan forces.
    And, of course, Obi-Wan and