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Din was lost.
It didn't help that every asteroid in the Kuiper belt looked virtually the same up close. To a trained eye, maybe, they would all have their slightly distinct character, their unique special spin - but Din hadn't been out here long enough to train his eye.
Well. If he didn't find his way back soon, he'd never get around to training anything, anyway. He was running low on oxygen, jetpack fuel, heating energy for his suit - so, on pretty much everything.
His breathing was fogging up the inside of his helmet. As he gripped tighter onto the hook he'd dug into an asteroid's surface, he tried to deepen his breaths, slow them down, and - most important of all - keep from screaming. He'd been in worse situations. He'd almost lost pressure in his diving suit on Europa, miles beneath the surface of the moon’s subterranean ocean. He'd crashed that trawler a while back, wrecking it and a docking bay because the forward thrusters had been malfunctioning, and he'd come out of it alive. In comparison, this was nothing.
Except that before, there had always been people around him. People to request oxygen from, people to cut him out of the wreck. Here, now, he was alone. Not a human soul for thousands of miles. He'd lost comms contact with the other miners a quarter of an hour ago, when he'd seen that explosion in the distance, right where their base of operations had been docked.
The only sign of human civilisation he could spot now were the lights on the night face of Europa as it entered the towering shadow of Jupiter. From here, the outpost on the watery moon seemed close, a mere stone's throw away. Like you could fire your jetpack once and be there.
Of course, Din knew that that was far from the truth.
The asteroid was rotating slowly. Now, the side Din was clinging to slid into shadow. The sun, hardly bigger than a football at this distance, dipped behind the asteroid's horizon.
Din slid up his helmet's sun visor. Before, when there had still been people around, taking samples of asteroids alongside him, he'd kept it down even when they'd entered the shadows. There was no need to now, and he could see better without it, anyway. Maybe he could get back to the site of the explosion. Maybe some modules from the mining station were still intact. Maybe he could salvage an escape pod, get in contact with Europa, request a rescue.
He tried not to think about what would happen if he didn't manage any of those things. He tried not to let his gaze slide down to the photograph that he kept in a see-through plastic envelope on his left wrist.
His son was safe on Europa, in the crèche. He was waiting for his daddy to come home after a long Earth week's work. Din would see to it that that happened.
He started by rerouting his space suit's power supply. The emergency power saving mode had kicked in already, but Din knew from previous jobs that it was patchy as best. As the small main computer worked to grant him maybe a few more minutes of breathing without being slowly poisoned by his own exhalations, he began edging his way along the asteroid's surface.
He couldn't let go, not yet. He had to minimise the distance to the next asteroid as much as possible so he could accurately calculate his jumps, save jetpack fuel. If he slipped, let go, drifted off too far, he'd never be able to get back again.
He worked. The computer worked. Drops of sweat started to bead together on Din's brow, and once they were big enough, they detached in the zero gravity and flew around as shiny little orbs in Din's helmet before they were reabsorbed by the suit's cleaning systems.
Maybe it was one of those drops that caught Din's gaze out of the corner of his eyes. It flickered, and his head whipped around on reflex. It was reflex, too, when he asked the void, "Hello? Is anyone there?"
Immediately after he'd done it, he felt extremely stupid. Even if there was anyone out there, they wouldn't be able to hear him - not if they weren't patched into his comms, anyway.
Slowly, the asteroid's face spun back into the light.
Din stared out into the black of space. There was nothing out there. Only more stars, one of them particularly bright, the others mere pinpricks of light. And invisible to Din's naked eye, more planets, more space dust, more asteroids waiting for the ever-expanding wave of colonial humanity to sweep over them. Scientists had long ago determined that nothing else lived out there.
Still, Din felt his shoulders refusing to relax as he went back to work. The oxygen gauge wasn't reading so low yet, but maybe the saving mode was starting to take effect, and these were the first signs of carbon dioxide poisoning… Din didn't know. He didn't care. All he wanted was to get back.
His own breathing rushed in his ears as he perched, ready for his first jump back towards the mining station. The asteroid he was clinging to was starting to align itself optimally with the one next to it. All he had to do was wait.
Wait.
Not yet.
Wait again.
"Wait," he muttered to no one in particular.
Now, a voice inside his head answered.
Din pushed off and fired his jetpack for a fraction of a second, enough to give him the needed speed to bridge the chasm of empty space. He soared across it, gaze intent on his target - the pock-marked face of the neighbouring asteroid.
Then, the star-strewn expanse beneath him seemed to change and move.
Din startled. The asteroid was coming up on him fast, he had to brace for impact, fire his forward thrusters - but there was something under him, no matter how relative a preposition such as "under" turned out to be in a zero-grav environment. Above him, then. All around him.
He grunted as he landed none too gently on the asteroid. His helmet was so close to the rock's surface, he thought for a heartbeat he could smell the dust, taste it, even though that was impossible.
A hallucination. That was all it was. Just like what he'd thought he'd seen out there for a fraction of a second while jumping.
"Imagining things," he breathed to himself. "Gonna make a good story for Grogu."
With that last thought in mind, he set about crossing this asteroid's face, too.
He got about half-way around when his suit's warning lights lit up, blinking in a lazy red all around his helmet and on his chest panel as they alerted him to the fact that he was critically low on everything. He cursed. His reroute hadn't bought him nearly as much time as he'd thought it would. He'd have to move his ass, and quickly.
He was about to do just that when something flickered to his left.
Din turned his head - and felt his heart skip a beat.
The stars were most definitely moving now - except that they were much closer, much larger, much brighter than regular stars, and twinkling despite there being nothing to interfere with the path of their light. And as Din watched, they grew again in intensity, forming the outline of a giant body that writhed between the asteroids, encircling them with a tail that seemed to span lightyears. Din felt his throat run dry, his palms beginning to sweat. Two of the brightest stars were hovering directly in front of him, intent like eyes.
Then, they briefly winked out of existence before they returned, even more blinding than before, and Din realised that they were eyes. The creature – or the cosmos, or whatever it was – had just blinked at him.
Slowly, the stars closest to him began to coalesce with each other, arranging themselves into a face.
It was a handsome face. Pretty even. A straight nose, a mouth, those starlight eyes, a dimpled chin, all framed by soft-looking waves of short-cut hair.
It was human. Except for, obviously, the fact that it was made out of stars.
For a split second, Din felt disappointment settle heavily into his belly. It was just another hallucination – only worse than the ones he'd had before. Human. No alien living out in the vacuum of space would look human.
"Hello," Din croaked nonetheless. His covert’s caretakers had raised a polite boy.
Hello, the apparition answered without moving its mouth. You are looking for a mate?
Din didn't stop his jaw as it dropped. What? What was his oxygen-deprived brain trying to tell him with that?
Now, he noticed that the stars that constituted the being's body were pulsing in sync with the warning lights on his suit. Oh, sure. He'd accidentally been sending out mating signals for cosmic entities. Right. Like he’d ever been good at flirting even when he’d gone out planetside.
Granted, he'd rarely been the one doing the flirting. He hadn’t even tried to look approachable. Maybe that was why.
"I…" He tried to scrounge up words to say and came up empty-handed. "Uh. No."
He knew the creature had to be a figment of his imagination for sure when their mouth pulled down into a disappointed pout. Behind them, their long, winding tail shuddered as the stars stopped pulsing and grew dimmer.
"But thank you," Din added hastily.
The lights shimmered and danced like fireflies in the night. You would have been a very good mate, the creature told Din, and suddenly, there was a hand reaching out towards him, one finger pointed at him as though it was tracing the shape of his body. Very beautiful.
"Thank you," Din repeated. His poor brain was really doing its best to grant him a happy death, wasn't it? "What are you?"
I am Jedi, the creature answered, smiling.
Din had never heard that word, and it certainly didn't clear anything up now. "Oh."
You are not looking for a mate, yet you are too weak to be a predator, the starlight being murmured. Then, it looked at Din, smile gone, gaze piercingly serious. Are you in distress?
Din looked down at all the warnings that were flashing over his helmet’s interface. Oxygen almost depleted. The suit about to shut down in a few minutes if it wasn’t hooked up to a power supply. On Din’s wrist, the photograph of Grogu in front of an old Earth forest was being bathed in flashing red and white lights.
"Yes," Din whispered, throat tightening like it was caught in a vice.
I am here to rescue you. A second hand woven from starlight appeared and joined the first. The being cupped them together, carefully moving them towards Din. Let go. I will catch you.
Din looked at the proffered hands. They were large enough to hold him five times over, but see-through where the light of the stars didn't shine. Din would let go, and he would not be caught by this illusion. He'd waste the last of his jetpack fuel trying to get back to the asteroid when he realised that.
Then again, he wouldn't make it back, anyway. Not with what little he had left. Not ever.
The starlight being smiled.
Din let go, pushing off the asteroid with his feet for good measure. For a moment, he felt more weightless than ever before, even in the zero grav of the Kuiper belt. In the far distance, Europa shimmered.
Then, the creature caught him, gently cupping him in those half-formed hands, and Din gasped. What he'd thought was empty space between the stars felt very much solid, soft - and warm, even through the thick insulation of his space suit.
I will bring you to the closest outpost inhabited by your people, the creature murmured as it unwound itself from around the asteroids. They will be able to provide you with what you need.
As they picked up speed, Din held on, to what exactly he didn't know. His gloved fingers disappeared into darkness. Stars were all around him, their light almost but not quite blinding - and the creature's face was always hovering above him, eyes on Din and only Din.
The suit chimed. Five minutes of oxygen left.
On impulse, Din asked, "What's your name?"
The creatures tail curled up for a few heartbeats, maybe in delight at being asked. I am called Luke. And you?
"Din," Din croaked. "I'm Din."
Din, Luke repeated, slowly. I will keep you safe, Din. Rest now. Preserve your energy.
The hands closed around him, till there was no universe anymore, no more asteroids, no more Europa or Jupiter. Only stars and the darkness between them.
Din closed his eyes and breathed deeply until the suit's warning trills and even the starglow faded.
"You are one lucky devil, Mando, my friend," Greef Karga's voice sounded over the commlink in Din's hand. "And I'm glad you are. But I still don't understand - how did you get from the mining station to an outpost in time?"
Din set the commlink down on the floor as he tied Grogu's shoelaces. His son was occupied trying to wiggle out of his thick jacket, but Din rebuttoned every button he managed to pop open. "I don't know," he told Greef as he finished lacing Grogu's shoes and got a scarf to wrap around Grogu's neck. "I already told you and everyone else that I don't remember. Maybe it was the explosion."
The commlink crackled as it struggled to pick up on Greef's grumble. "Never heard of anyone being propelled that fast and far by an explosion without losing at least one limb…"
Din sighed. Grogu looked at him, watching him do it, then imitated him soundlessly.
Everyone was acting like Din should be dead – which, from a realist point of view, he should be. But it was starting to tire him out, having to justify his survival over and over to different people.
"Listen," he said, pulling a cap - the green one with the two pompoms that looked like frog eyes – down over Grogu's hair before he picked up the commlink, "I have to go."
"Taking the little one down to see the fishes? Good choice, he's going to love them." Greef's voice changed to a higher pitch as he continued, "Say hi to your friends from me, Grogu."
Grogu revealed the newest gap between his teeth as he grinned and signed.
"He's saying he will," Din spoke into the commlink.
"I'll take you two out for a nice dinner real soon," Greef said. "Goodbye, Mando. Have fun."
"Thank you," Din said, hoping that Greef would know from his tone of voice that he really meant it. Before he could be tempted to pour his soul out, he switched off the commlink and pocketed it. Then, he got out Grogu's gloves and his own to put on.
When they were all bundled up warmly and ready to go, Din took the key to his apartment from its hook by the door. It was a small, ratty home he’d found for Grogu and himself, but nevertheless one he'd been glad to see again.
For a few heartbeats, he just knelt on the floor, breathing. Breathing. Breathing real air, filling his lungs with it, his head clear and awake. Not addled from lack of oxygen and gravity.
Grogu tugging at his sleeve brought Din back to the present.
Are you sad? his son asked, hand signs neat and swift despite the gloves.
Din shook his head. "No. I'm good. Are you sad?"
Grogu shook his head no, too.
Din mustered a smile. "Good. I’m fine, don’t worry. But… can I have a hug?"
Grogu was in his arms before he'd even finished, the momentum almost toppling them both onto the floor. Din laughed as he held his son close, and in his own soundless way, Grogu laughed, too.
Din had chosen the time of day when shifts changed to take Grogu to Europa Water Worlds, which was why the glass tubes running through the moon’s still oceans weren't as crowded as they usually were. It gave Grogu plenty of time to mash his face right up against the transparent panels and stare for minutes without Din ushering him away so other people could have a look.
They'd been observing a bank of jellyfish-like creatures for what seemed like hours when a bigger, fishier native of Europa's seas showed up.
Din chuckled into his mask as Grogu tugged at his coat and stubbed his finger against the glass, beside himself with excitement. "Yes, I see it. It's a sword pike, right?"
Grogu stopped floundering and shot Din an incredulous look. No, dad, he signed, it’s not. It's a saw pike.
"My bad, kid. It’s a saw pike, you’re right."
Grogu shook his little head at Din’s ignorance before he went back to looking out into the blue darkness which was illuminated by floodlights. Din watched his son's breathing fog up the glass and fidgeted with his hands in his coat pockets.
He knew they hadn't moved in too long when the external floodlights dimmed, then turned off entirely. To spare the local wildlife, they did that when no visitors were around and their motion sensors weren't constantly activated. Now, the only sources of light were the dim illumination modules inside the glass tube and the water-dwelling beings drifting by outside.
Instead of tearing himself away from the glass and running around to reactivate the floodlights, Grogu stayed where he was. The pike had begun stalking the jellyfish, animating the luminescent spots on its body in mesmerising patterns to draw them in as it floated motionlessly in the black water.
A memory flashed through Din's mind, of flickering, moving lights in the black of space. Frowning under his hood, he pushed it back down. There was no use dwelling on it - not when he knew that he wouldn't ever behold the same sight again.
The floodlights slowly turned back on. Grogu looked up at Din, and Din shook his head. He hadn't moved. Someone else had tripped the motion sensors. There were footsteps coming down the gentle slope of the tube.
Din turned when they sounded close enough, with the intention of giving a brief nod, of acknowledging the new visitor's presence - and froze.
Luke was standing there, dressed head to toe in black, blond hair brushed back behind his ears, a smile on his face. Handsome. Pretty, even.
Very much human.
There was not a trace of Luke’s winding tail, of his cosmos-spanning body, of the stars that had made up his flesh, or of the darkness between them - except for his piercing blue eyes, alight from within.
Luke was the first to speak. "Din. It's nice to see you again. I did not realise your eyes were brown."
Din's breath wheezed as he croaked, "What?"
"Jedi see colour differently when we are not like this." Luke gestured at himself, like that explained anything. When he continued, he took a few steps closer to Din and Grogu, slowly. "We see other, different things. Like I saw you when you were in need."
Grogu was tugging at Din's pant leg. When Din looked down at him, he signed, Who is the strange man?
Din balked. "He's…" He paused as his brain scrunched around for fitting words. "Luke helped me a lot a few days ago, when there was that, uh, that accident at work. He… saved me."
"Only because you chose to trust me." Luke winked at Din.
Inexplicably, Din felt his face heat up under his mask - but Luke was already not looking at him anymore. Instead, he knelt in front of Grogu and asked, "And you must be Din's son. What's your name?"
Grogu, Grogu spelt out slowly.
Luke's eyes flickered to follow the movement of Grogu's fingers, and then he smiled. "Grogu. Nice to meet you. I like your hat."
Din had never seen his son warm up so quickly to anyone. Grinning, Grogu signed Thank you! before he showed Luke his gloves - with frog patches stitched to the backs of them - and then started digging through his coat pockets for more frog memorabilia.
"He wants to become a scientist one day and go back to Earth to study amphibia," Din explained as Luke looked up at him. "You just activated his special interest. He won't leave you alone from now on - if you stick around, that is? I didn’t know you could… be here? Like this."
He didn't realise it sounded like a question until Luke's smile vanished.
"This place is very beautiful, even though it is not my usual habitat," he said without taking his eyes off Din. "I will stay for a while and take in the sights - if you will have me."
Din could only nod. His voice was steadfastly refusing to work.
"Thank you." With a movement as swift and graceful as water, Luke stood back up and took Din's hand, squeezing it gently.
Din could feel the starlight warmth of Luke's touch even through the thick padding of his glove. He covered Luke's hand with his own, held on, loath to let go - until he remembered manners, social conventions Luke probably didn’t even know but which Din felt he needed to respect nonetheless, and relaxed his grasp.
Luke did not pull back. Instead, he stayed where he was, a warm presence by Din's side. Maybe it was just Din's imagination, but he thought that Luke's eyes shone even brighter now than before.
Grogu tapped against the glass of the tube, and Din broke eye contact to look out at the water. In the reflection of the glass, he saw himself, Grogu, Luke who was a mere blur of light - and beyond them, the waters of Europa, alight with thousands of shimmering, dancing stars.
Warmth crept up his spine. Din closed his eyes, breathed in, and smiled as he felt Luke’s hand coming to rest on the small of his back.
He wasn’t so lost anymore.