Gone
Chapter One

The Wilde Karrde
Several Months Later

Talon Karrde leant forward across his desk. He was incredulous that an offhand mention to his second about a recent property venture had attracted Mara's attention."Lyntrax III. You are serious? Imperial base?"

He threw the datapad down, unbelieving the contents that Mara Jade had brought to his attention. The organisation had just purchased a supposedly former storage and mining facility.

"There is no record of this place being used as such. Ghent had run a thorough search about the place. It is on record as a small private company: a mining complex with storage units."

"It wouldn't show up." Mara realising that her boss was about to find out about another snippet of information from her previous Imperial affiliations. "This place was a top secret, high level security detention and interrogation centre. Very few people knew of it's true identity."

Talon surmised that the ex-imperials had practised either some dubious methods on these prisoners or they had prisoners that they truly wanted to disappear off any intelligence. Karrde thought things over as he took this in. His curiosity piqued about how Mara knew about this but quietly said nothing as he hoped Mara would reveal more. "How does this affect us and our purchase?"

"Is there anything on record about the place being decommissioned after the Peace Treaty?" Mara paused as her green eyes looked very concerned as she took in Karrde's negative head shake. "But then again it may not be on record due to it's history - Lyntrax III handled either very dangerous criminals or political prisoners."

Mara started to tap on her datapad while Talon waited anxiously for the result. "No. You should get the guys to do a proper search but there is no mention of it then. What also concerns me if it is not on record due to it's history. There will be no chance that it participated in the war prisoner releases after the Treaty. There is a chance that it continued to operate until fairly recently."

The older trader didn't like where this was going. "And?"

"If there were prisoners there after the Treaty they have either just vanished or been killed. I am not sure what exactly they did there but it had a reputation among the few who knew about it." Mara continued. She had a very bad feeling developing in the pit of her stomach. "I have no idea what we will find. I am just warning you that Lyntrax III is not just the mining complex you are expecting. We may be lucky that the staff have covered up their previous operations completely but if they haven't...." Mara let that sink in. Their organisation could get in to a difficult situation more than just politically.

Karde digested this information. "Are you saying we could find prisoners that may have been interrogated, or would I be more accurate to say tortured, in this complex?"

Mara shrugged. "I don't know but it is possible and we certainly must be prepared for that eventuality. We could find dead bodies, ill prisoners or nothing."

"I was told that we would be taking over the place as vacant possession." Karrde pondered over what to do in case everything would not as he hoped for rather than Mara's pessimistic opinion. If it turned out to be a disaster, he would have to deal with that as things came up. However, the location of the complex was convenient for his plans on the Rim. It had taken his agents considerable time to find him this place so he was unwilling to give it up.

"Find out what you can about the base, Mara." Talon came to a decision. He knew Mara had thrown herself in to her work over the last few months as an distraction from dealing with Luke's death and was a bit reluctant to ask this but he knew instinctively that she would be the best one for this. "I'm going to ask you to take over on this. Organise the pick-up team with whoever and whatever you think you may need. Leave their ship in orbit while you scout the place out first. Don't send the team in unless the place is clear. Come up with a good reason for you to go on ahead, something which the team won't question."

Mara nodded in agreement. She knew from her own experience that Karrde looked after his people. He knew she could cope with whatever was in the complex but some of the others were not as war hardened as she was. She would need a mixture of skills and started to mentally think things through but she needed to put Karrde's information network to work on this.

"I'll hold back the operations crew for the base until I get your report." Karrde dismissed this topic and moved on.

* * * *

Karrde's New Mining Complex
Lyntrax III

Mara Jade landed her ship in a near perfect touchdown on the deserted landing pad. The base was built nestled in to the side of a mountain, almost inaccessible apart from by air. The local area was certainly inhospitable. There was no sign of any vegetation or life on the slopes of the mountain. The mine workings were the only sign that living beings had once worked and lived here. The large landing pad had storage bunkers dotted all way round it. So far, it fitted in with the details of Karrde's mining complex spec rather than the brutal Imperial complex she knew about for her time as the Emperor's Hand. Staring out the cockpit window, as flurries of snow drifted over the screen, Mara got a strange prompting through the Force. There was definately something about this place. She knew that she would find something important here.

Shutting down all the Jade Sabre's systems, Mara turned to the astromech unit which had been accompanying her since Luke had left on that fateful mission.

"Artoo?" Mara unsnapped her restraints, calling from the cockpit . "Hey, short stuff?!"

The 'droid warbled at her. Ignoring what was probably a rude response, Mara continued. "Scan the area as we go. Let me know if you get any life or energy readings."

Mara shook her head thinking back to when she had teased Luke about his relationship with Artoo but she had to admit that the 'droid was unique. When Luke had been killed, Leia had gifted the 'droid to her as she said it was what Luke would have wanted. Only the Solos had known that Luke had asked her to marry him before his death. Mara suspected that Artoo Detoo just brought back too many memories for the princess. It was rare that you saw Luke without his faithful 'droid companion.

Her wonderful ship was also a connection to Luke. He had designed the ship for her but unfortunately had never seen it. After his death was publicised by those responsible, she had received notification that Luke had ordered the ship for her after events on Nirauan. It was with a heavy heart that she oversaw the completion of the Jade Sabre and accepted his last gift to her. It was the only thing that made her feel alive again, when she flew the craft.

Mara had felt that her life had stopped when their bond had ceased. The frantic hours which had turned into fretful days until they knew for certain. She had not been allowed to watch the harrowing footage that had been delivered to the NRI. It had been kept quiet but Karrde had heard through other sources that there had been physical evidence that Luke had been severely tortured before his execution. Mara had been split in two. She had wanted to see for herself evidence of Luke's death but at the same time, she was grateful she hadn't seen the torturous detail. It was hard enough just knowing that Luke had suffered badly before the end without witnessing it.

Mara knew she had gone through the motions of pretending everything was normal to Karrde, to the Solos and to herself. In reality, she had retreated into herself. It was easier to cope when she pretended that she was the hardened Emperor's Hand once more or even Karrde's tough business aide. It was only when she was alone when she could no longer keep up the pretense with herself that her veneer cracked. It was then she cried her heart and soul out where no-one could see or find out. In the first weeks, she had forced herself to eat and forcing herself to live but for what point Mara did not know. In her heart, Mara wished she was also dead and then the hurting would stop. The connection and the sense of completeness that Luke had given her had vanished and it was so hard to go on without him to make her whole.

She had gone through all the stages of denial, anger and finally acceptance of the situation. However, she still could not get over blaming herself for not being with Luke when it had mattered most. Mara wished that she had gone along with her fiancee on that fateful mission. She had gone over and over that territory it but she knew where that path led and it didn't change anything. She had told Luke that her gut feeling was that he was walking in to a trap but Leia had asked Luke to do this for her. Mara felt that Leia's emotional involvement had interferred with her judgement and that the planning for his undercover operation had been rushed. Mara had tried to make him see sense but Luke knew what this meant to his sister. He said that he had to do this for Leia despite Mara's and his own misgivings. Mara had asked him to wait for her to join him to be his back-up but he said he couldn't with the timings involved. Despite her heroic effort, Luke had already gone when she arrived on Coruscant and NRI would not even acknowledge her calls. In an attempt to get more information, Mara had then stormed round to Solo's residence and took Leia apart about the mission.

From what she learned Mara had managed to follow Luke's trail until she found his hidden X-wing fighter and 'droid. The base where Luke was infiltrating was empty. It's hollow corridors shedding no information to Mara. Reluctantly, Mara had to return and wait for further developments as Karrde's information sources were working overtime to try and find out even the smallest lead for her. They had quickly confirmed that the initial information fed through to the NRI and Leia was false and indeed an elaborate trap for Luke. Mara knew Luke was in seriously trouble but this time she was unable to help him as she couldn't locate him. No-one knew what had happened to the Jedi Master.

Mara's heart had turned to ice when she heard from Leia about Luke being dead. She would never forget hearing those life changing words. Mara's first reaction was denial but after NRI received confirmation of his execution, she couldn't escape the issue. They refused to show her the footage but in retrospect she was grateful for that small mercy. At first, Mara got angry at Leia, at the Force and at the galaxy! It was so unfair! The anger had dissapated with time, and now she was at the bitter, resigned but near acceptance stage. She had stopped taking Leia or Han's coms. She still held Leia responsible for her twin's death. Luke would disprove of her behaviour but to Mara in her emotional state, it made perfect sense. It had also made her feel better when she had someone to blame and Leia was not avoiding the accusation.

Mara pulled her thoughts to the here and now. Dwelling on things would not get the job done. Clipping her lightsabre to her belt, she pulled a cloak over her shoulders against the weather outside. Mara signalled to Artoo and they left the ship. The Force swirled round her, echoing the movements of flakes of snow drifting in the air. The Force was definately at work here. She just knew she would find something.