The short story, "Luke on the Bright Side," appears within the anthology Stories of Jedi and Sith. Sam Maggs penned the story, Jake Bartok provided the illustrations, and it saw publication on June 7, 2022. The narrative unfolds in the first-person perspective, alternating between the viewpoints of Luke Skywalker and Reyé Hollis.
Beneath Echo Base on Hoth, Luke Skywalker finds himself stuck due to an ice cave-in. His thoughts drift to the radiant nature of his homeworld, the planet Tatooine, where two suns create intense daylight and even the nights are illuminated by three moons. Even space isn't complete darkness to him. Unaccustomed to complete blackness, Luke is experiencing claustrophobia. He can hear Sergeant Reyé Hollis of the Rebel Alliance Special Forces, who is also trapped, but he can't pinpoint his location. Reyé has been a great help since Luke got to the base and has a very nice smile, but Luke believes Reyé dislikes him—he's "Alliance Special Forced to Hang Out with Me." Luke's senses are failing him, but he recalls his ability to use the Force to extend his awareness. He senses Reyé's proximity, and the Force reveals that Reyé's curly hair is exceptionally soft and smells wonderful. With the intention of locating Reyé, Luke instructs him to remain still.
Reyé isn't bothered by the darkness, but he is very skeptical of Luke's "wibbly magic crockery" and the Jedi of old. Despite their recent acquaintance, Reyé has already realized that arguing with Luke is futile; he admires Luke's hair and finds his blue eyes reminiscent of a clear Hoth sky. In Reyé's view, Jedi range from being entirely useless to actively dangerous.
Reyé attempts to conserve heat and remembers a few hours prior when he was performing his duties. Following the Battle of Yavin, the Rebel Alliance needed to evacuate Yavin 4 to avoid the [Galactic Empire], and the leaders decided to establish a new base on Hoth, a place that Reyé does not find "hothpitable." He has been collaborating with other rebels to carve out spaces in the ice and snow under harsh conditions that quickly forge strong bonds. Luke, the "new Jedi, the Hero of Yavin himself," had just arrived at Echo Base that day, and Reyé was assigned to show him around. They struggled to hear each other over the sounds of laser cutters. Reyé watched as Luke caught a glacier fly and then smiled at Reyé with a radiance that outshone the sun's reflection on the ice. Luke remarked that the flies once had a symbiotic relationship with the extinct fork-nosed ice worm. After the laser cutter abruptly stopped, they introduced themselves and shook hands. Luke smiled and declared that he was there to help.
Luke has always felt the need 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 aid in excavating the tunnels by using the Force to sense where and when to dig, dismissing his protests that he lacked sufficient Force training. Upon meeting Reyé, Luke decided to get to know him, given their impending collaboration. He inquired about Reyé's origins, which the other man thought 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 progressed, Reyé made a disparaging comment about the Jedi, prompting Luke to defend them. He also vowed not to disappoint Reyé—immediately before they both plunged into a tunnel when a massive fork-nosed ice worm broke through the ground nearby.
Reyé observes Luke approaching with his eyes shut, reflecting on how the rest of the Alliance has been toiling while Luke received the glory from the Battle of Yavin, similar to how 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 continues to reassure himself that his fear is not of the darkness itself, but of what it represents. He is without his lightsaber, as it remains in a decontamination unit, making it impossible to use a lightsaber against the darkness, snow, and ice worm. 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.