The Nut Gatherers

Camie grabbed the binoculars away from Biggs, banging them slightly against asupport pillar in the process. Luke took them away from her quickly, inspecting thecasing for damage. "Take it easy with those." "Don't worry so much, Wormie." She sneered. Luke took a step toward her,then halted as the huskier mechanic easily interposed himself between them andfavored Luke with a warning smile. Luke considered, shrugged the incident away. "I keep telling you, Luke," the mechanic said, with the air of a man tired ofrepeating the same story to no avail, "the rebellion is a long way from here. I doubtif the Empire would fight to keep this system. Believe me, Tatooine is a big hunk ofnothing." His audience began to fade back into the station before Luke could mutter a reply.Fixer had his arm around Camie, and the two of them were chuckling over Luke'sineptitude. Even Deak and Windy were murmuring among themselves—about him,Luke was certain. He followed them, but not without a last glance back and up to the distant specks.One thing he was sure of were the flashes of light he had seen between the two ships.They hadn't been caused by the suns of Tatooine reflecting off metal.