Out
of the Shadows 24
Dagobah
By
now, Luke was used to the whimsical vagaries of the universe but this situation
seemed even more strange and magical to him. He sat on a rebel-issue cot on an
almost unknown world with a star-shaped holocron in the palm of his hand. Beside
him was the most beautiful woman he had ever known who once was an enemy and
could, he hoped, become a friend and ally, although that state of affairs was
further away than he would have liked. He didn’t sense any desire for his
friendship within her. However, the ways of the Force were strange. “Now,”
he mused. “How do I activate this?” He tilted his head to one side and
focused his intent gaze on the holocron letting the Force flow through him.
The
precious object balanced in his hand began to glow and then, with a soft whoosh,
an image shimmered into life after many years of inactivity. “Greetings fellow
Jedi. I am Jedi Master Vihbi Fozs, gatekeeper to the secrets and treasures of
this holocron.” The speaker was a stately looking Falleen, his green face
impassive, black hair appearing from a point on the top of his otherwise bald
head.
Luke
bowed his head politely in a show of deference. “I am Jedi Knight Luke
Skywalker and this is Mara Jade.” He couldn’t think of the appropriate
terminology to describe Mara. She was Force-strong but wasn’t a Jedi
apprentice or even a friend…not yet. One day she would be. He had introduced
her to the gatekeeper – it was a start.
The
Falleen’s voice was deep and smooth and seemed to resonate through them.
“The Force is strong with you and your companion, young Jedi. What do you seek
to learn?”
Luke
glanced at Mara. “I don’t think he can help us but then again, you never
know.”
“Help
us do what?” Unsure and surprised at being included amongst the Jedi, Mara
glared at the patiently waiting Jedi Master.
“Find
the lost Jedi,” Luke said quietly.
“Lost
Jedi!” Mara repeated, momentarily surprised. “How do you know that there are
any to find?”
Luke
gave the tiny characteristic shrug of his shoulder which Mara had noted him
doing when he was sure of his subject but unsure of how much to reveal to
another. “I know because I am one of them, as is Leia and of
course…yourself.”
Mara
scowled. She had not even considered herself to be ‘Jedi potential’ and here
Skywalker was already including her in the mix. She found within her a strange
mixture of revulsion and pride at the thought of it.
Luke
held out his hand in appeal. “Surely we cannot be all that is left? The Jedi
once numbered in the tens of thousands spread throughout the galaxy. Some of
them, or their descendents, have to have survived – it is a logical
conclusion. Can’t you hear them calling out for you as you sleep? I can. I
hear them in my dreams - asleep and awake.”
“How
can he,” she jerked her head in the direction of the green-skinned Falleen,
“help us to find the whereabouts of the lost Jedi? He’s been ‘one with the
Force’ for even longer than Qui-Gon Jinn.” She shuddered. “He reminds me
of Xizor. The cold-blooded Falleen have the reputation of being totally
self-serving and highly calculating and I can tell you that their reputation is
well deserved. Not the best race to become Jedi.”
Luke
grimaced. “So you’ve met the dark prince as well, huh?”
“How
could you meet Xisor?”
Luke
lifted a shoulder carelessly. “I came across him a few years back and that was
not by choice.”
“What
happened?” Mara asked before she could stop herself. It wasn’t that she was
curious about Skywalker’s exploits…she just was. The man held a fascination
for her.
“Unsurprisingly,
he wanted me dead.” He gave a wry grin. “Shall we say in our sole encounter
didn’t quite go according to his plan and his palace was never quite the same
after we left.”
“That
was because of you?” Her voice rose in a fashion she didn’t like. She
cleared her throat and willed her voice back to normal. “It couldn’t have
been.”
A
muscle in Luke’s cheek twitched and he nodded. “Actually, destroying the
castle was Lando’s idea – he had a spare thermal detonator – one of those
really big ones. I must give credit where it is due.”
“You
have a shaky grasp on reality.“ Mara took a deep breath and tried to control
her wayward emotions. She remembered the chaos of Xizor’s castle collapsing
and his subsequent disappearance. He’d never been seen or heard of again. To
her knowledge, the Emperor had assumed that Vader was behind the whole affair,
the Dark Lord of the Sith having made no secret of his antagonism and disdain
for the head of the Black Sun Crime Syndicate. Instead it had been Skywalker who
had been behind it all along. She could sense that the Jedi was telling the
truth but also suspected that he was leaving out more than he was telling. “You
were on Coruscant?”
“My
one and only visit to the jewel of the galactic empire,” Luke said with a
chuckle. “I had no time to see any of the sights and I’d read about them so
much. I suspect that Vader had something to do with Xizor’s eventual
disappearance. I believe that Vader and the Prince did not have a good working
relationship. Vader disliked Xizor more than he wanted to capture me. He
didn’t want Xizor to win. I have a sneaking suspicion that there was more at
stake than one insignificant rebel.”
Mara
gave a dry, mocking laugh. “’Insignificant rebel!’ I don’t think
anyone ever thought that of you, Skywalker. Not if you knew the resources the
Empire wasted trying to find you. It’s no surprise to me.
The enmity between Vader and Xizor was well known as Xizor had plans to
replace Vader as the Emperor’s second-in-command of the entire galaxy. Vader
and the Emperor both knew that.”
“Xizor
wasn’t Force-strong,” Luke said, wondering if he should take Mara’s
comments as a sort of underhanded compliment. “Intelligent and devilishly
cunning, yes, but he didn’t have the Force. It would never have happened –
Palpatine’s second had to be a Sith. I would bet my ramshackle X-wing that the
Emperor sat back and watched them try to outdo one another. It would have kept
them from joining together to remove him from power. After the first Death Star
blew, Xizor and Vader both put bounties on my head. One of them wanted me
alive and the other one wanted me dead. It just depended on whoever posted the
greater amount.”
“Let
me guess,” Mara said. “Vader wanted you alive?”
“I
recall that I did say that Xisor wanted me dead. Yes, Vader planned to gift-wrap
me and hand me over to the Emperor.”
“Yet,
he offered you the galactic throne instead. The visit to the Emperor came later
once you had a chance to think about it.”
Luke’s
mouth hardened. “There’s far more to that story than you have been told. I
completely rejected his offer and escaped, minus my right hand, with the help of
my friends. I would never have joined the Empire.”
“I
know you rejected his offer then,” she said bitterly. “But you accepted it
later on.”
“No,
I did not,” Luke denied, his whole body stiffening. Why wouldn’t she believe
him? He let his tension drain away – his anger would do him no good. “I
would never have joined the Empire,” he stated firmly, truth ringing through
his words. “Not willingly. I would rather have died.”
“You
did,” Mara argued coldly. “You and Vader turned on my master and cut him
down. You look very much alive to me, Jedi Skywalker.”
“You’ve
only been here two days and we’re already rehashing old territory,” Luke
said wearily. “That was not how it happened. I’ve told you,” he insisted.
“When I refused to join Palpatine my death was inevitable. He was afraid of my
eventual power. I was the only one who was dying. Vader saved me at the cost of
his own life and he knew that it was the only way.”
“Tell
me the truth,” Mara demanded, her eyes suddenly blazing green in her pale
face. There was much that he wasn’t telling her and whatever the information
was could be vital to her understanding. “What happened? Why would Vader save
you knowing that he would die?”
Luke’s
head dropped and he stared hard at his muddy boots. It hadn’t taken her long
to reach the crux of things. “I can’t…not now.” He glanced up quickly.
“I will tell you one day,” he promised earnestly, “but now is not the
time. You are not ready to believe the truth.”
What
was he hiding, Mara wondered? Because he was definitely hiding something and
that something concerned Vader. Why had Darth Vader saved Luke Skywalker at the
expense of his own life? It did not add up. “Who are you to tell me what I can
believe?” she snapped. She could feel how uneasy he was whenever Vader’s
name was mentioned.
“It’s
obviously not me,” Luke ground out between his teeth, trying to keep calm.
Again he wondered why she wouldn’t believe him? This woman could really try
his dwindling patience and she was no fool. What happened if she guessed his
secret? It wasn’t just his to tell. “Not all the Falleen are like Xizor,”
he declared firmly. “You must be patient and never pre-judge an entire species
on so little information. It’s rather narrow-minded of you and something I had
not expected.”
Mara
stiffened. She wasn’t like that…was she?
“With
an example like Xisor it is not surprising that you feel the way you do.” Luke
casually lifted a hand. “Many have argued that the human species is not suited
to becoming Jedi either, as they are too easily swayed by their emotions. One of
the most difficult things I had to learn was patience and sometimes it still
escapes me but I do my best. There were many human Jedi and all of them had
difficulties to master. The Falleen made good Jedi because of their cold use of
intelligence and logic.”
Mara
had to learn patience and control as he had. It was not an easy lesson to learn
– he could testify to that. She also had to become more tolerant of other
races but then she was a true child of Palpatine’s Empire and his anti-alien
bias was well documented. “We are but one species of many.”
“I…never
considered.” Mara closed her mouth. Did he think she held the same view of
aliens that many in the Empire had? She didn’t. The memory of the kindly bar
owner who had taken her in and given her a job after she’d escaped from Ysanne
Isard following the death of the Emperor crossed her mind. He had treated her
like she thought he would have a daughter. She didn’t want Luke to think that
of her. No, not Luke. He was Skywalker.
Luke’s
voice was careful as he traced the outline of the beautiful, fragile object in
his hand and his eyes met those of the patiently waiting hologram. “It has
been a dark time for the Jedi, Master Fosz,” he admitted. “We are pitifully
few in number.” He didn’t want to admit that he was the sole fully trained
Jedi Knight in the entire galaxy. “I am seeking those that were lost, those
who have hidden themselves away and those with bloodlines in which the Force is
strong. The records were destroyed to keep them safe. How do I find them
again?”
e
then gave a rueful grin
Jedi
Master Vihbi Fosz pursed his lips thoughtfully before answering, his voice low
and cultured. “They will eventually seek you out. But you have to step into
the sunlight. You still linger in hidden places. No one can find you there
amongst the shadows. Be what you were born to be.”
Luke
marvelled at the percipience of the hologram. How could he know so much? Luke
knew that he hesitated to take his next step; the shadows he was hiding in were
comforting and safe. His father’s dark legacy weighed on him. He had nearly
turned once, his rage rising at the thought of the Emperor using Leia to keep
his twisted grasp on power and he feared for the galaxy if he did so again. He
had subdued that anger but had to keep the darkness at bay as did all Jedi. It
was part of the whole balance of the Force.
“You
must start anew. The past is behind you. You must step forward. Your master has
told you of fear and what it does?”
Luke
nodded, his face grave. “Yes, many times,” he said, turning his mind away
from the things that he could not change back to the things that he could deal
with. The lost Jedi were the first step in creating something that had vanished
with the darkness. He asked the question that had lingered the most in his
thoughts. “Suppose these beings didn’t survive or have no knowledge of their
destiny, Master Fosz? Are there enough Force-gifted beings left in the
galaxy?”
“Jedi
always seek their own kind whether they realise who and what they are or not.
They will find you. They have little choice. The Force did not abandon the
universe. In dark times when the light is hidden, they seek the shadows and
wait.”
“As
do the Sith.” Luke’s eyes darkened.
“Only
two at a time of the Sith there ever were.”
“And
I saw them both die,” Luke murmured. “I was there. They are gone from this
universe never to return.”
“The
dark side is never gone. Be watchful young Jedi. The Sith have ways of
returning. There are ways beyond death.”
“They
do…they can?” For an instant Luke’s face showed shock before he bowed his
head deferentially, hiding his emotions and acceding to the Jedi Master’s far
greater knowledge in the ways of the Force. The dark side was a foe he would
fight forever. “Of course they do. I thank you for your counsel and your
warning.”
As
if he knew he was no longer required for the moment, Jedi Master Fosz bowed and
faded away. Luke stared at the place the hologram had occupied before placing
the holocron reverently onto his desk.
Mara
frowned. “That made no sense to me.”
“I’m
not sure about some of it either but there was something in what he said – a
clue or a warning. I will meditate on it. We cannot become complacent.”
Mara
gave a hoot of laughter. “Don’t tell me that you actually meditate?”
“Yes,
I do.” Luke tried not to show that her derision had needled him. “I’ve
always been an impatient, restless individual. I find that meditation settles
me, clears my mind and calms my emotions. I see images from the past and
sometimes the future, but the future is always in motion and what you see can be
changed. I submerge myself even deeper within the Force to try and foresee what
will happen. Sometimes everything fits the way it should. More often than not it
does not. Yoda said that I was both blessed and cursed with this ability. It is
one way to seek answers although there are others.”
His
eyes were direct and she could sense no hidden mockery in their vivid blue
depths but it was in her nature to push. “I thought that was a myth and only
monks and old men indulged in such things. Monks do it because it is expected of
them and old men do so because they need to sleep of an afternoon.”
“Do
you consider me old before my time?” Luke asked, taken aback at what she was
saying.
Mara
blinked in surprise. “No. What kind of a stupid question is that? We are
definitely of an age. The Force preserve me from farm boys from tenth rate
planets.” She looked up and down at his hard young body and smiled sensuously,
her green eyes darkening with mischief and a hint of unconscious desire. “I
wouldn’t know if you were a prudish Jedi monk but it’s easy to find out. The
galactic newsnets were not overflowing with tales of your conquests amongst the
female ranks of the rebellion. Are you a monk, Jedi Skywalker?”
Luke
flushed. His aunt had always impressed upon him that a true gentlemen never
discussed such things and even after many years bunking with the rest of Rogue
Squadron, he tried to keep to that rule. “That’s my business,” he said
tersely. “And not the proper thing to do. My aunt taught me good manners.”
He wasn’t a monk but neither was he particularly experienced when it came to
dealing with the opposite sex. Mara Jade was definitely a woman but he thought
it unlikely she would let him touch her again. His mind drifted back to their
first encounter on Druckenwell and how right she’d felt in his arms.
Her
lips quirked into a smile. “So none of your former conquests have had the urge
to kiss and tell? How unusual. The galactic newsnets don’t know what they are
missing.”
Luke’s
lips tightened. It was time to try and change the subject even if she did think
he was a prude. “I know we are of an age. I wanted to ask you - do you think
me old-fashioned?” As the question left him, he realised that he hadn’t
changed the subject after all. There was a glint in Mara’s eyes which made him
feel uneasy.
Mara
tipped her head sideways and assessed the man in front of her trying to cover
his discomfiture. She had never met anyone like him before – ever. “In some
ways…yes.” Her assessment was blatantly predatory.
“Whatever
you think about me, I will still meditate,” he managed to say. “It focuses
my mind and I see things.”
She
leaned towards him. “I thought you wanted to see what I could do with your old
lightsaber.” Her soft red lips curved with amusement at seeing the calm façade
ruffled as he flushed again, full of embarrassment over her sly innuendos. So
Luke Skywalker wasn’t as emotionless as he made himself out to be and Mara
reckoned that she had just found a chink in his armour. He was still an innocent
in many ways. Oh, she doubted that he was a complete innocent in the ways of the
flesh but he was not an experienced man. Still, it was surprising that none of
his former relationships had given in to the amount of credits offered for an
exposé on the sexual affairs of the galaxy’s sole Jedi Knight. Unless the
monkish part was true - which would be a pity. Mara found to her disquiet that
she didn’t like to think of Luke as having no interest in the opposite sex but
didn’t want to examine her reasons why too closely.
For
the Emperor, she had used her beauty as a weapon on a number of occasions. This
was the first time that she had truly enjoyed the effect.
“My
old lightsaber?” Luke took a steadying breath. He had the feeling she would
try to unsettle him any way that she could. “I do want to see what you can do
with it.”
“Are
you ready?” Mara unhooked the saber Luke had given her from her waist, stalked
out into the area in front of Luke’s shelter and assumed a combat stance.
“I’m
ready for anything,” he answered. “But are you?” Luke reached out
and a training remote floated to his hand. Altering some of the settings, he
grinned at her. “Let me see what you can do with this first.”
“A
training remote!” Mara drew herself up, thoughts of upsetting the
Jedi’s equilibrium gone as other outraged feelings of hurt pride took their
place. She was a fully trained assassin, the Emperor’s Hand. She wanted to
fight Luke Skywalker, not feebly parry a remote like a rank amateur.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Coruscant
At
night she dreamt about the palace on Byss - the place where she had learned so
much of her craft, the secret room deep in the comforting darkness of evil where
the formless, apparently anonymous clone floated gently in its maturation
chamber. She’d never been allowed into the heart of this sacred place but she
knew of its existence and longed to be there.
“Soon
My Lord,” she crooned softly, imagining that she was pressing her hands
against the cool transparisteel container containing the maturing body of what
would once more be her master. But it wasn’t soon enough. She had already
waited four years and would have to wait at least four years more unless there
was another way to speed up the growth process. It was a long and lonely wait
for her, who had waited for him when the others had not. They were alone
together against the galaxy.
The
fear returned as it always did. What if someone should stop her? But there was
no one - only a barely trained boy whose whereabouts seemed to be in doubt. The
Jedi had been vanquished and it was unlikely that they would rise again. Any of
the families which spawned these corrupt fools, she had found and executed. It
had been difficult, as those that had survived had been hidden well, Yet there
seemed to be something in the air – a new awareness in the Force. Jedi
artefacts were surfacing with an uncanny regularity and it was becoming almost
impossible to get to them before others did. Could this be an omen? She had
never been able to read the minute shifts in the patterns and layers of the
Force the way that her master and Lord Vader had been able to but she was
attuned strongly to the Force and she sensed a strengthening. Or she had
been strongly attuned to the Force once upon a time. When her master had died
her skills had waned but recently…
Yes,
there was something alive that hadn’t been there for a very long time.
She
tossed restlessly in her sleep. No one would stop her. Her Master would guide
her as he always had. He had halted the growth of the Jedi at their source but
he had always been there for his own followers – almost as exacting and loving
as a stern parent. It would be good to have him back. She could wait until then.
The Sith had hidden their darkness for many thousands of years before they had
sprung their trap. Therefore she must not ruin His return with her lack
of faith.
Folla
Rule opened her eyes. It was pitch black in her chamber – she preferred it
that way. Outside her window, Coruscant’s nightly laser show would be as
bright as day and she shunned the vulgarity of the coloured lights. Sleep seemed
elusive and with a sigh, she pushed away her covers and reached for the robe
lying at the end of her bed. The remnants of her dream remained with her, the
remembered sensation of something alive in the air – someone vital, lingering
with her. Another Force-strong being had crossed her path recently but when and
who and where?
The
sensation was so rare but she still knew it for what it was – the Force.
She
stood up and paused, her robe ignored in her hand as her clever mind sifted
through information. “Ah!” Folla breathed with satisfaction as the memory
clicked into place. The speeder that had left the
She
fastened her robe around her slender waist with an almost aggressive snap. There
was a major problem brewing. How was she to discover the identity of the pilot?
This was a near-impossible task. She needed to have her special things around
her.
Without
bothering to get dressed or secure her hair into a braid, Folla left her
chambers and made her way to the carefully locked and guarded vaults belonging
to the
The
department of Xenoarchaeology held an inordinate amount of items in trust for
the many worlds of the galaxy. Some, they agreed to loan out for various
exhibitions or displays but there were others too precious or fragile to do so
and, therefore, they remained permanently hidden away. There was another
category of items that Folla decreed too dangerous to be let out of her personal
jurisdiction and only she was aware of their existence. Included in this group
were many of the Jedi and Sith artefacts that she’d ‘rescued’. The rest of
the Academic community had no idea that these items even existed and she
wasn’t planning on telling them.
She
stood for a moment waiting for the bio-scanner to recognise her genetic code
before walking towards the large durasteel door guarding the vault. While
punching in the code that admitted her alone, Folla’s dark eyes gleamed in the
soft lighting of the corridor. With a soft hiss, the door swung open. Her eyes
immediately tracked to the gold statue of the goddess Aleema and the parchments
they’d taken from Kaellin III. It was a notable find but still, her collection
was incomplete. There should have been a box of items from the university
library on Praesitlyn and the saber that had been taken from Kaellin III had
been stolen right in front of her nose. Another Force adept?
She
seethed silently. The feeling of someone else… others there in the shadows,
others she couldn’t quite see, fuelled her ire. And to add to her problems,
Leia Organa wanted to collect Jedi artefacts too. Folla had originally assumed
it was because Luke Skywalker was her Organa’s lover, but the reports had
never shown any romantic entanglements between the missing Jedi and the haughty
Alderaanian Princess. They were very close but nothing more than friendship had
ever been proved between them. Leia Organa was still reputed to be too enamoured
of her Corellian lover to be romantically interested in Skywalker, but
interested she was. So if wasn’t sex…what was it?
Folla
Rule did not understand the rules of friendship and platonic love and never had
– probably never would.
This
could prove to be a problem. If Organa continued to get in her way she would
have to do something about it. The archaeologist did not underestimate the
princess. Anyone who had led the rag-tag rebels to victory had to be dangerous.
She would deal with the princess if she had to - this was a competition she had
to win. No one must stand in the way of her service to her master.
And
then something else struck her. She’d felt the Force most keenly at the Jedi
temple but had assumed apart from the mysterious speeder pilot, that any vibes
came from the site itself. But…suppose it came from somewhere else or someone
else.
Just
before she’d returned to Coruscant to the unearthing of the Jedi temple site,
she’d located a Jedi family in hiding. Strange to think of the frail old lady
as a danger. Folla’s lips twitched into a mocking smile. She’d later
discovered that the old woman’s mind had been gone for many years and there
was no evidence that her doltish son had inherited his mother’s Force
abilities, being content to work in the mine like his father before him. But it
was better to be safe than sorry. It had been messy and time consuming but there
was no other way. The family’s killer would never be traced. She had been
trained well. The identity of the Emperor’s hand had been known only to
Palpatine himself and she continued to serve him even after his death.
Very
few Jedi had survived the purges and, luckily before then, relationships and
therefore procreation had been frowned upon if not exactly forbidden. Otherwise
it would have been far more difficult to rid the galaxy of such vermin.
Generations of ingrained abstinence was difficult to break which meant that the
Jedi who had managed to survive found it difficult to form normal lasting
relationships and go on to bear children. She’d researched many of the
existing Jedi bloodlines trying to discover what brought a Force sentient being
into the world and often it was purely by chance. The fleeing Jedi had gone into
hiding, infiltrating ordinary villages on colony and backwater worlds until they
were discovered. It had been a chance name on a list she’d been perusing that
had brought the end of the little world the family on Osar had created for
themselves.
Kehta
Kun-Marliss had been a low-level med corps worker sent to aid a plague outbreak
on a backwater world and she’d been forgotten about when General Order code 66
had been implemented. Somehow Kun-Marliss had been warned and had gone to
ground. She’d arrived on Osarian not long after, ostensibly seeking work, had
married, borne a child and lived in the same small village since the Clone Wars
had ended. She could have been discovered at any time but had remained safe.
She’d had the reputation of being somewhat fey but none of her fellow
villagers had denounced her to the local garrison commander. If she had managed
to remain alive for so long then surely others had too.
When
it came to the subject of bloodlines, Organa’s friend, Skywalker, was rumoured
to have been fathered by a Jedi. She chuckled darkly. “Naughty.” Someone had
broken the precious Jedi Code and had to have experienced some passion. This
topic bore more research when she had time. But for the next couple of weeks,
she had to stay on Coruscant and see if the excavation on the temple site
brought anything new to light and there was, as yet, no sign of the absent
Skywalker. Perhaps it was time to cultivate Organa and find out exactly why she
was so interested in the Jedi. It couldn’t do any harm. It might even provide
funding for future projects if she was seen to be sympathetic to the interests
of the Alderaanian princess.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Dagobah
“What’s
wrong?” Luke turned to see Mara glaring at the remote hovering in the air
above her head.
“It’s
been three days and I’m still working with the remote,” she complained.
It
was three days since she’d agreed to do a little training. He was surprised
that she’d remained with him willingly for that length of time. Her ship’s
repairs were almost complete and she’d long healed from her slightly
unorthodox arrival on the planet. Luke smiled and nodded. “I know,” he said
mildly. “Be thankful it isn’t longer. But I had to be sure about your
abilities. This has to be frustrating for you as I can see how quickly you
learn.” He didn’t point out to her that there were more than lightsaber
drills to be learned at this point. He was also testing the limits of her
patience. “I couldn’t have you cutting off your own limb or, even worse, one
of mine. I’m already down one.”
“How
can you joke about that?” Mara was amazed at his sang-froid. She knew the
story from what the Emperor had told her and had discovered the rest when
she’d read his medical files. Darth Vader had severed his arm at the wrist
during their fight at Bespin.
“How
can I not? It is part of how I accept what happened to me. It is also what makes
me what I am today. I learned many lessons that day, but only realised the value
of them much later. I could have given up – wallowed in self-pity and darkness
and there were times when I came perilously close. I chose to go on. I had
people who were depending on me and whom I needed to keep me sane in a galaxy
gone mad.”
Mara
jerked to one side, narrowly avoiding a bolt from the hovering remote and turned
back, glaring vibroshivs at Luke. That remote was possessed, in Mara’s
opinion, by a malignant spirit. It had to be. She’d never been caught so many
times by other pieces of equipment. “Yet you chose to leave them.”
“I
had to. It was for my own good. The
“The
“The
Mara
was astounded at his insight. He was probably correct.
“As
Han would say, ‘we’re not always the good guys.’ We do not always look at
a situation from an unbiased viewpoint and deal with it accordingly. None of us
are perfect and we all make mistakes.”
“You?”
“Sure,”
he said with his characteristic self-deprecating shrug. “I’m human.”
“That’s
never been completely verified,” Mara muttered under her breath.
“Was
that a joke, Jade?” Luke’s keen ears picked up on her comment.
“What
do you think?” she challenged.
“I
think there’s a sense of humour in there somewhere. You’re gonna need it.”
“Jedi!”
she said in disgust, turning away from his grinning face. The Jedi were not
supposed to have time to laugh. Yet this young man with his vibrant blue gaze
and occasionally glimpsed infectious smile was ridding her swiftly of her
preconceived ideas.
“Yes,
I am a Jedi,” Luke said gently, his hand touching her arm bringing her back
around to face him. “And it is an honour for me to be able to call myself by
that title. I need to be able to decide who is in the right in any dispute, not
because of political sympathies but because they are right.”
“Oh.”
“I
also need the healing power of laughter.” His eyes scanned her stance.
“You’ve been taught well,” Luke praised her. “But by a master swordsman,
not a Jedi weapons expert. Wielding a saber is far more than learning to fight.
It is a discipline for the mind and the body. Did the Emperor ever…?”
“No,”
she said shortly. Skywalker was correct. She’d trained, not with her saber but
with swords, similar in length but totally different in the way it felt. The
lightsaber felt as if it was alive in her hands. “He arranged for me to be
given a lightsaber but I never saw him use one.”
“You
were his servant but also a potential threat. Always remember that. Your Emperor
did. He would not want your skill to eventually exceed his own. He was the most
powerful Force user I ever came across apart from Master Yoda, of course. My
master, however, only used his power when absolutely necessary. A true expert
with a lightsaber is an awesome and humbling sight. The first time I saw Obi-Wan
use his saber was in the cantina in Mos Eisley. It wasn’t much of a fight but
I’d never seen anyone move so fast. The second time…” He stopped. He’d
seen his father kill his first mentor. It had been hard. “If you’d seen how
Vader…”
“But
I have seen…” Mara hesitated, as a memory surfaced. “I saw…”
“You
saw Vader fight?” Luke’s voice sounded strange even to his own ears.
“Against a live opponent?”
Mara
gave the young Jedi an odd look. “No, against a modified battle-droid tailored
to his exact specifications – one capable of killing virtually every species
in the galaxy.” Her voice was breathless with remembered awe. “He destroyed
it in seconds. It was…”
“Impressive,”
Luke finished her sentence. He couldn’t admit to Mara that he would have liked
to have seen Vader fight when it wasn’t directed against him. He could have
learned so much from his father. Yoda and Obi-Wan had both told of his
father’s prowess with the lightsaber. He held out his hand and the hovering
remote flew into his grasp, whereupon he tucked it safely into his belt.
“Enough for now,” he remarked cheerfully. “Go and see if Artoo has
finished with the repairs on your ship.”
“He’d
better have,” Mara said with a frown but her tone lacked fire. She couldn’t
believe how content she was to stay on Dagobah. It had been all too easy to
become immersed in the nothing that Luke Skywalker called a life, yet he seemed
occupied and fulfilled as he trained and studied amongst the dank swamps and
she’d found herself to be content too. Her burning antagonism had receded and
she’d found his company tolerable, even pleasant at times. Yet, something had
changed since her arrival and the death of his master. Skywalker was gradually
packing up his belongings into crates and boxes and she was certain that she’d
heard him completing a holo-recording to send to his sister and Solo. His little
camp grew barer by the day.
“You’re
getting ready to move on, aren’t you?” she said suddenly.
Luke
lifted his head and stared at her, surprise on his face. “How did you
guess?”
“It’s
not that difficult to notice unless you’re just having a major clean-up
session around the camp.”
Luke
turned and walked into his shelter. “It’s time for me to leave here. There
is nothing left for me on Dagobah now that my master has gone. I’m ready to go
home…well, I want, no, I need to see Leia. I’ve missed her and Han so
much. She is home for me. I haven’t had what I consider to be a real home
since I left Tatooine…unless I was with her.” He looked at Mara. “Yes,
even before we knew what we were to one another. After Tatooine and Alderaan and
the first Death Star we were both alone. We became a family along with Han and
Chewbacca for necessary comfort.”
“My
home used to be the
“I
can’t imagine that being cosy,” Luke murmured absently, his eyes scanning
over the holodiscs on one of his shelves.
“Cosy!”
Mara rolled her eyes. “I lived in the palace.” Her voice rose. “I
was the Emperor’s Hand, not some mere member of the Imperial navy. I had power
and prestige and…”
“And
when the Emperor died, no one knew who you were. You were imprisoned and hounded
from your home,” he said softly, though the words seemed louder to Mara than
the mightiest shout. “They thought you were a court dancer – a concubine –
a nonentity.” Luke could suddenly see the members of the
“What
do you know about it?” she spat, each word Luke uttered feeling like a
vibroshiv on her heart. It was as if Luke had pulled open her chest and bared
her soul for all to see. He’d stripped away all her defences leaving her raw
and bleeding. It was all true…all of it. She was in turmoil but couldn’t
just accept her defeat. Summoning up her remaining defences, the remnants of her
usual defiance still visible in her eyes, she choked out shakily, “you were a
rebel on the run. You had nothing like I had.”
Luke
moved in towards her, his hands reaching up to lightly grasp her shoulders as he
stared into her mesmerising green eyes. “I had Leia and Han. Home is where
they are, wherever and whatever that is. They’re my family.” He could
feel her shoulder start to tremble. “Long before I knew she was my sister,
Leia was the only family I had in the galaxy. Han too. I would have died on that
first Death Star if Han hadn’t come back for me. We were equals…we were
friends. It didn’t matter if he had everything or nothing – we had each
other.” Luke knew he’d made his point by the suddenly frozen expression on
Mara’s face. Had he finally got through to her?
He
stepped away from her carefully and observed her reactions. The air around them
was pregnant with waiting emotions. He waited, watching the bewildered
expressions crossing, possibly for the first time in her life, Mara’s
vulnerably open face and then something powerful began buffeting his Force
shields.
‘You
will kill Luke Skywalker… You will kill… You…”
“I
won’t,” she shouted desperately, suddenly angry. “I can’t.”
“You
can’t what?” Luke whispered.
“I
just can’t do it.” Mara’s initial rage died away almost as soon as it had
risen, other more complex emotions taking its place. Skywalker was right.
She’d never had power, not in the real sense. She’d never known what it was
like to be part of a family – she’d never been given the chance. The Emperor
had used her as his tool, keeping her isolated to maintain her loyalty. He had
used her allegiance to him as a weapon against others. She swallowed past the
large lump that had formed in her throat, ignoring the unusual prickling in her
eyes. She would not cry – she never cried.
“Oh,
Mara!” The compassion in Luke’s soft voice was her undoing.
She
gave a quiet sniff, tears leaking from the corner of her eyes. No, she would not
cry. She pleaded with herself to remain in control – only fools and weaklings
cried. But her defiance crumbled and ashamed to be seen openly weeping, she
turned her head away only to be engulfed in Luke’s arms.
“No…Don’t
touch me…” Mara’s frame went rigid.
“It’s
okay,” he soothed, ignoring her initial resistance and pulling her close. This
would be cathartic and something she needed to do. If she never did this again
it didn’t matter to him but she needed to let some of her issues go now and
tears were one way of release.
And
Mara, feeling the warmth and comfort embodied in Luke’s embrace, did something
that she swore she would murder the Jedi for immediately if he ever told anyone
that she’d ever done. She pressed her head into his shoulder and cried. Over
twenty lonely years of tears seeped into Luke’s tunic but he didn’t say
another word - just held her close. She would probably kill him later for daring
to put his arms around her. But for now, it felt good to have the contact with
another human soul – even one that she’d once wanted to kill.
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Coruscant
Han
Solo glanced at the paperwork on Leia’s desk with disgust. It didn’t look as
if they were going to have much time together tonight - not unless he kidnapped
her from her office. He knew she wouldn’t complain too much if he did so. Plus
the time he’d hoped they might have together would be spent making sure that
Leia got some badly needed rest. Setting up a stable government was proving to
be a lot more difficult and time consuming than they had originally thought. His
comlink beeped, interrupting him.
“Solo!”
he said briskly, hoping it was the dulcet voice of his fiancée but he was to be
disappointed.
“Han!”
Another
voice with the same well-bred Alderaanian inflections greeted him instead.
“Winter!” he grinned. “How’s it going?”
Leia’s
aide and closest friend sounded uncharacteristically flustered. “Look, I’m
up in the…new appointment room and I found something. I think you need to see
this.”
For
a minute Han couldn’t think what Winter meant and then his mind cleared.
“The new appointment room,” he echoed. “Not more papers the Princess must
see and sign.”
“Yes.
Where is her royalness, by the way?”
“We
sent her home to get some rest before tonight’s meeting.” Winter’s voice
had steadied but Han was concerned.
“Do
you want me to come and look at them now? I take it I’m the secure courier?”
“If
you wouldn’t mind?” Winter’s voice was guarded. “It’s not vital to
galactic security but I would prefer that the fewer people held onto this report
the better.”
“Give
me five minutes,” he said, understanding her caution, the hairs on the back of
his neck standing to attention. Whatever it was, she didn’t want anyone else
to hear or see it. “I’m on my way.”
When
he arrived at the hidden storeroom, he found Lady Winter composed but with a
strange expression in her grey eyes. It was as if she’d experienced a surprise
and not a pleasant one. Winter was rarely surprised by anything and this was
more than enough to make Han uneasy. “Winter…problem?”
“No,”
she said aloud. “No problems.”
Han
recognised the code. “Good. The princess is extremely busy with the finer
points of the latest world petitioning to join the
“It
wasn’t easy but I did hold the best card in the sabacc deck.”
“Tonight’s
meeting.”
“Yes.
This way.” Winter led Han away from where her team were still sorting through
the data cards and other artefacts to the far side of the room. She ran a code
chip over a drawer and took a deep breath. “I don’t think Leia should see
this; in fact, I don’t think anyone should see this but...” She checked her
wrist chrono and raised her voice, infusing it with pleasant overtones. “I
think it is time for a break,” she advised her team with a smile. “You’ve
been working at this for hours. Refreshments have been provided in the small
dining room on level one hundred and three.”
The
staff all looked at their chronos and groaned. With various muttered comments,
they headed out of the room.
Han
raised his hand in a careless salute, saying loudly, “What have you found so
far?”
“There
are the lists of Jedi; many of the names were already known to me. The Viceroy
kept in contact with as many as it was safe until they were...” Her eyes
tracked the last of her team leaving. “Until they were caught and killed,”
she finished.
Leia’s
adoptive father, Han thought. Winter had grown up with Leia and with her perfect
memory had never forgotten anything that had been said. “And the
lightsabers?”
“They
belong to Jedi that the Emperor or Darth Vader personally vanquished. Much of
the rest of the data cards contain codes for Imperial files we’ve already
sliced. There are also financial details with accounts belonging to former high
ranking Imperial officers in various locations. ”
“Good.”
Han waited until the last staff member had cleared the room. “Now what is it
that you don’t want Leia to see?”
“To
be honest, I don’t want you to see it either but…”
Han
stiffened. “What is it?”
“You
are not going to like this.”
“Probably
not. Just tell me, Winter,” he said gently.
Winter
had a pale complexion but it seemed to grow paler. “One of the…specimens
belongs to Commander Skywalker,” she said.
“What!”
Han exclaimed as his stomach had lurched and then dropped as the credit clicked
into place. “Specimen? Hell!” He turned away and then abruptly swivelled
back to face the Alderaanian. “You don’t mean… Are you sure?”
“It’s
quite clearly labelled,” Winter said.
“That
bastard sith kept it?” His hands were shaking and he fought the urge to empty
the contents of his stomach.
“Apparently
so.” Winter looked a little nauseous herself. “I would think it gave
Palpatine great satisfaction to do so. A trophy of sorts.”
“Get
rid of it.” He ground out the words between his clenched teeth. “I’ll tell
Leia but I don’t want her to see it either.”
“What
happens if…?”
“I
don’t think Luke will want his hand back.”
“No,
I don’t think he will. I’ll deal with it personally,” she promised.
“It’s about time I paid a special visit to the incinerator.”
“Thanks.”
Han shuddered. “I would not want this as part of some misguided
“No,
I agree with you totally on that.” Winter placed the jar carefully into a bag.
“This must stay between us for now.” She managed a smile. “I wouldn’t
say anything to Leia until this has been destroyed.”
Han
sighed. “I won’t say anything but I can’t keep it from her for long.”
“Leia
always knows when you’re hiding something, doesn’t she?”
Han
managed a weak grin. “You’ve both got me taped, lady.”
“I
think so.”
“I
know so and Winter…”
“What?”
“I
can easily…destroy that if you don’t want to? It should be me.”
“No.
I’ll do it.” Her voice was firm.
Han
let out a sigh of guilty relief. “Thanks.”
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