The Rise And Fall Of Darth Vader Read Free Page A

he’d had just before he arrived on Tatooine. According to the attendants, Podracing was the biggest attraction in Mos Espa, and it drew crowds from all over the galaxy. Anakin wondered if he’d ever get to watch a Podrace.
    A few months after his arrival to Mos Espa, Anakin was helping a late-model droid mechanic repair a portable vaporator near the estate’s main entrance when a winged, pudgy-bellied Toydarian with a flexible trunklike nose flew into the courtyard. Seeing the boy, the Toydarian paused, hovering in the air, and examined Anakin’s handiwork. Speaking in Huttese, the Toydarian said in a low, wheezy voice, “You put in that water pump unit the wrong way.”
    Anakin had been told not to talk with strangers, but he cautiously replied, “I rigged it.” Seeing that the Toydarian seemed genuinely interested, he demonstrated the pump mechanism and added, “I made it work better.”
    The Toydarian’s eyes went wide as he watched the pump in fluid operation. “Hmm… who showed you how to rig it?”
    “Nobody,” Anakin said. His mother had told him not to brag, but he could not help feeling proud. “I just… I figured it out. My mom can fix things too.”
    “Is that so?” The Toydarian lowered himself in the air to examine the unit more closely. “You’re not bad with your hands, kid,” he said. “Not bad at all.”
    Anakin bowed his head slightly and said, “Thank you, sir.”
    “I have an appointment with Gardulla,” the Toydarian said. Then he winked and rubbed his clawed fingers together and added, “A matter of money!”
    Anakin didn’t know how to respond to that, but just then, Gardulla herself heaved her bulky body into the entrance and said, “Ready to pay up, Watto?”
    “Maybe, maybe,” the Toydarian said as he hovered toward Gardulla. “But the next race is tomorrow, and I have an idea for another bet…”
    Anakin watched the Toydarian follow Gardulla into the main building, then went back to work on the vaporator.

    * * *

    Gardulla lost her bet with Watto.
    Two days later, Anakin and Shmi had a new owner.
    When Watto wasn’t gambling, he ran one of the most successful parts dealerships in Mos Epsa. He had need for someone with Anakin’s mechanical aptitude, and had plenty of work for Shmi, too. Both mother and son were grateful to Watto for keeping them together, and after sharing a dingy, fetid room with six other slaves at Gardulla’s estate, they were astonished to learn they would have an entire hovel to themselves at Slave Quarters Row, along the outskirts of Mos Espa. Watto believed they should feel grateful, and made it clear that if they didn’t do as he said, he’d fill the hovel to capacity with additional slaves.
    As days turned into weeks and months became years, Anakin made the best of his time, learning all that he could about technology and interstellar travel. He studied the aliens who passed through Mos Espa and got to know the local merchants on a first-name basis. While siting in junked starship cockpits, he learned to recognize the controls for thrusters, stabilizers, and repulsors. From watching other mechanics and pit droids, he became proficient at repairing Podracers at Watto’s shop.
    By age seven, he began to secretly salvage bits and pieces to restore a junked Podracer cockpit and a pair of Radon-Ulzer 620C engines that he hoped to transform into his very own Podracer. He kept this project under the cover of an old tarp in an area of the common refuse dump in back of the slave housing, where Watto never ventured, and deliberately kept the Podracer looking like it would never run. If Watto ever found out about it, he would dismiss it as just some childish project.
    Watto did catch Anakin taking a refurbished Podracer for a test spin around the junkyard, but the Toydarian’s fury died when he realized how well the boy handled the vehicle. Like Gardulla, Watto was addicted to gambling on Podraces, and he could hardly believe his good fortune, to