"Luke on the Bright Side" is a short story published in the Stories of Jedi and Sith short-story collection. The story was written by Sam Maggs, illustrated by Jake Bartok, and published on June 7, 2022. The story is told in the first person with two alternating points-of-view, those of Luke Skywalker and Reyé Hollis.
Luke Skywalker is trapped in an ice cave-in beneath Echo Base on Hoth. He reflects on the brightness of his homeworld, the planet Tatooine, which has blinding light from two suns during the day and is still-bright at night due to its three moons. Space is also not completely dark to him. Unused to total darkness, Luke experiences claustrophobia. He can hear but not locate Sergeant Reyé Hollis from Rebel Alliance Special Forces, who is also trapped. Since Luke's arrival on the base, Reyé has been very helpful and has a very nice smile, but Luke suspects Reyé cannot stand him—he's "Alliance Special Forced to Hang Out with Me." Luke's physical senses fail him but he remembers he can use the Force to stretch out. He can detect that Reyé is nearby, and the Force tells him that Reyé's curly hair is very soft and smells very good. Intending to find Reyé, Luke tells him to stay still.
Reyé is not bothered by the darkness, but he is very skeptical of Luke's "wibbly magic crockery" and the Jedi of old. The two men just met, but Reyé has already learned that he cannot argue with Luke, whom he thinks has great hair and blue eyes that he finds comparable to Hoth's sky on a clear day. From what Reyé knows, Jedi are pointless and useless at best, and harmful and dangerous at worst.
As Reyé conserves his heat, he recalls how a few hours ago, he was doing his job. The Rebel Alliance had to evacuate from Yavin 4 after the Battle of Yavin to evade the Galactic Empire, and the leadership had decided to make a new base camp on Hoth, a place that Reyé does not find "hothpitable." He has been working with other rebels to hollow out the ice and snow in harsh conditions in which people quickly bond together. Luke, as the "new Jedi, the Hero of Yavin himself," had just arrived at Echo Base that day and Reyé meant to familiarize him with the location. They had trouble hearing each other over the noise of laser cutters. As Reyé watched, Luke caught a glacier fly and then smiled at Reyé in a way brighter than the sun's reflection off of ice. Luke commented on how the flies once were symbiotic with the extinct fork-nosed ice worm. After the laser cutter suddenly shut down, they introduced themselves and shook hands. Luke smiled and declared that he was there to help.
Luke has always needed to be helpful or "of use," as his Aunt Beru would say; it led him to the Rebels. He stops himself from remembering seeing her bones. Rebel leadership believed Luke could help excavate the tunnels by using the Force to sense where and when to dig, and they would not listen to his protests that he was not trained enough in the Force to know how to do that. When he and Reyé met, Luke decided to get to know him since they would be spending a lot of time together. He asked where Reyé was from and the other man thought it was obvious; Luke mistakenly thought it was an invitation to sense through Reyé's mental images that his homeworld, Naboo, was beautiful. However, Reyé meant that usually people recognized his name was Naboo by the é in it, and Luke blushed and pretended he had heard of Naboo. As the tour continued, Reyé made a derogatory remark about the Jedi and Luke defended them. He also promised not to let Reyé down—and then they fell down into a tunnel when a giant fork-nosed ice worm broke through the ground next to them.
Reyé sees Luke approaching with closed eyes and thinks about how the rest of the Alliance has been working hard while Luke got the glory from the Battle of Yavin, like the Jedi supposedly used to do. Straining his eyes, Reyé sees that all entries and exits to the access tunnel are blocked. Luke shuffles over with his eyes closed and Reyé pokes him in the chest to stop him. When the Jedi opens his eyes, Reyé recognizes that Luke may be claustrophobic from his heavy breathing and darting eyes, or just have poor night vision, or both. Reyé warns the Jedi not to use his "space magic" if they encounter the ice worm, and the pair bicker about whether or not the Force or the giant ice lasers are what woke up the supposedly extinct animal. Reyé takes the lead through the tunnel, with Luke following by holding the hood of Reyé's parka, and they squabble further about having feelings. Reyé notices that Luke's shampoo smells nice before he grabs Luke's flailing hand to guide it to where he can feel air is flowing through a gap in the snow wall; this interrupts Luke's panic. Reyé starts to suggest taking shifts digging but Luke interrupts by grabbing Reyé's hand with both of his own and asking for Reyé to trust him to "embrace the darkness."
Luke is still trying to reassure himself that he is not actually afraid of the dark, just what it represents to him. He does not have his lightsaber with him because it is still in a , so utilizing a lightsaber against the darkness, snow, and ice worm is not an option. Instead, he has Reyé sit down with him and thinks about the light and warmth of his home on Tatooine. Reyé gasps; their clasped hands are now very warm and slightly glowing. Luke can see and sense the thinnest spot in the ice, which they can work together to dig through. They tease each other and Reyé laughs before they start digging to get free.