Out of the Shadows 35

Myrkr

The woman sitting in the luxurious lounge was lost in thought, her chin resting on her hand, her green eyes fixed on a spot which didn’t exist on the planet Myrkr. She’d never felt like this before on this world. In fact, she wasn’t sure if she’d ever felt like this anywhere. But what made this planet unique amongst so many amazing worlds in the galaxy was that Myrkr was dark to the Force. Once she’d welcomed the peace it had brought her but now things were different. Before, the lack of the Force had soothed her; now she felt its loss very keenly.

Talon Karrde entered the room, his pet vornskyrs Sturm and Drang following at his heels, and stood for a few moments watching his second-in-command as she sat lost in thought, curled up into a large form-fitting repulsor chair. It was an attractive but uncommon picture. He couldn’t ever recall Mara being so unaware of her surroundings or so still. He hesitated to disturb her; she could be skittish when surprised. That is, if you could describe a woman who could deliberately singe your nostril hair without harming your nose with a shot from her blaster as ‘skittish’. He cleared his throat and took a further step into the room. “What is it, Mara?”

Mara lifted her head and looked at him in surprise. “I didn’t hear you come in,” she confessed, startled and giving the vornskyrs a wary look of dislike.

Karrde pursed his lips in concern. It was very unlike Mara to be taken unawares. She had been like this since she’d returned from her jaunt to collect Luke Skywalker. He hazarded a guess, his lips quirking into a slight smile. “You were on another planet…Coruscant perhaps?”

Mara sat up properly and eyed her boss suspiciously. “Did you want me for anything in particular?” she asked. “I finished the reports you wanted and left them with Aves. Was there something wrong with them?”

Karrde held up his hands. “I got them and they were fine. There’s never anything wrong with your reports and you know that. It was on another matter altogether – a job well done, in fact. I just received a communiqué from Han Solo thanking us for our services and I wanted to pass that along to you.” His compliments were rare which made this one all the more important.

“We didn’t do anything,” Mara muttered.

“On the contrary,” Karrde said. “You found Skywalker’s hideaway and persuaded him to return to his family.”

“No, he didn’t return because of me. Yes, I found where he was but there was very little persuasion needed.” Mara shook her head. “Dagobah held nothing for him anymore. Not long after I arrived on the planet - and I mean minutes - his Jedi Master died.”

“He wasn’t alone?”

“Apparently not. After nine hundred years of life, Jedi Master Yoda faded into thin air in front of my eyes.”

“So it was Yoda,” Karrde said thoughtfully and then frowned. “Faded! What do you mean ‘faded’?”

“He just disappeared,” she explained. “Skywalker told me that Yoda had become one with the Force.”

“Oh.”

Mara gave her boss another searching look. How much did Karrde really know about the Jedi? Information was his passion and he liked to keep informed. He’d once told her that it gave him the edge to survive. “It was Yoda,” she confirmed. “After that, Skywalker was ready to come home – no coercion required. But don’t tell Solo I said that just in case he cuts our fee.”

“Too late – I have his credits.” Karrde’s teeth gleamed as he smiled. The smile faded and he again assessed the woman in front of him. “Are you alright, Mara? You’ve been very quiet since you arrived.”

“I’m never the life and soul of the party, Karrde,” Mara retorted.

“No, because you have not wanted to be. But since your return from Dagobah I’ve noticed a difference in you.”

Mara glared at him but the look seemed to lack the usual fierce intensity. “I’m just as dangerous as I ever was,” she bit out.

“I didn’t mean that, Mara,” he said mildly. Talon wondered if he was wise mentioning this at all because speaking of Dagobah would inevitably bring up the subject of Luke Skywalker. Mara had been extremely reluctant to talk about him but the vicious hatred at hearing the Jedi’s name seemed to have vanished. She’d been away a lot longer than Karrde thought she would have. He had a good idea where the planet now was and knew the time it took to travel to that area of space and back. It did not take months. What had been happening between Skywalker and Jade? But he knew better than to push for an answer. If she wanted to tell him she would. “You and Skywalker…” He stopped, unsure of how to continue.

“We reached a truce. End of story,” Mara muttered. “We’re not likely to turn into bosom buddies.”

Karrde reached into his pocket and drew out his cheroot case, his elegant fingers extracting one of the thin cigars. But he did not place it between his lips, continuing to hold it lightly between his fingers. Somehow he didn’t think that it was the end of the story. Rather, he was convinced that it could be a new beginning. Skywalker might want to train Mara to become a Jedi one day…if she decided that she wanted it.

“Will he help you?”

“I don’t need his help,” she denied automatically. “I don’t need anyone’s help; I can manage on my own.”

“That’s not what I asked,” Karrde said gently. “I know you are self-sufficient but you told me yourself that you thought your ability in the Force had vanished until you met Skywalker on Druckenwell. I would have expected you to want to regain what you had lost.”

She stiffened, the tension becoming visible in the set of her shoulders. “I can never have back what I lost,” she snapped bitterly. “Emperor Palpatine put this natural neural inhibitor in my mind. Did you know that? He was restraining my Force ability – refusing to let it develop naturally.” Her eyes widened as she realised what she had said. Luke had already told her this but she hadn’t believed him until now. Almost as if giving voice to the issue had validated it in her mind. Her Master had really thought that one day she would be a threat to him and had sought to limit her gift. He had no right to do such a thing. She would never have betrayed him – she would have died first. Her hands curled into fists, the nails pressing into her soft palms as her anger spiked. She took a deep breath and relaxed her fingers, letting her feelings of betrayal seep into the back of her mind. “Whatever it was in my head, Skywalker removed it.” And even as she mentioned Skywalker’s name she knew that he would never betray her ever.

“So you can sense the Force far more strongly now.”

Mara’s lip curled. “Oh yes. But not here. There’s something on Myrkr that blocks the Force…”

Talon looked baffled. He’d read that the Force was everywhere. He hadn’t heard of it being blocked or suppressed. She’d never mentioned it before but then, she kept many things close to her chest. He was surprised that she’d told him as much as she had. Now, he did know that the trees on Myrkr contained a high metal content which made it almost impossible to scan the world from space. It was one of the reasons he’d built his main base in the middle of the forest. “Blocks it – like the trees fool the orbital scanners?”

As if she was reciting from an information data chip, Mara intoned, “the Ysalamiri block the Force. There’s not much that can disrupt the Force but, when they breed in sufficient numbers, these little creatures can.”

“Oh, said Karrde thoughtfully. You couldn’t live on Myrkr in the middle of a forest without coming across the small tree dwelling animals but he hadn’t thought that they did anything other than sleep and eat. “But if you cannot feel the Force on Myrkr, how can you tell that your ability has grown so much?”

“That’s easy,” Mara murmured. “Watch.” She uncurled her legs from beneath her, slipped gracefully from the chair and walked towards Karrde. All at once the two vornskyrs began to bare their teeth at her, their fur standing on end.

“Sturm…Drang!” Karrde said sharply. He couldn’t recall this happening before but then, Mara had avoided the animals since her arrival on Myrkr.

She shrugged casually. “If this was a normal planet and the Force was able to flow freely they would have attacked me by now. They use the Force to hunt for their prey.”

Karrde was speechless.

“That’s what tells me my Force ability is returning stronger than it ever was before. They’re reacting to my presence.”

“And this is since you met with Skywalker for the first time?”

“Yes, I’m quite certain of it. When I met him on Druckenwell, the effect was like having a glow rod in my hand after being in dim lighting for years. I’d started having disturbing nightmares not long after Endor and as my Force ability diminished the dreams grew worse. It was as if my subconscious was torturing me because I’d failed.

After Druckenwell I don’t think I had a proper night’s rest until I reached Dagobah. The dreams were worse than anything I had ever experienced. On that strange world I had some peace.”

Karrde remembered how she’d seemed so brittle – almost ready to snap and the beginning of her opening up to him. Being with Skywalker on Dagobah has helped me to control what I’m doing but how long will it be before my dreams and my nightmares return again?”  She walked back to her chair and slumped into it. The chair gave a little quiver and adjusted once more to her body.

Karrde glanced at his two pets, still bristling beside him. He didn’t know what to say.

“It’s a good thing that those two had their tails docked,” she said, pointing at Sturm and Drang.

“I couldn’t have kept them as pets otherwise,” Karrde admitted. “Those tails of theirs make vicious weapons.”

“They used to just ignore me,” Mara said quietly, “but now…”

“I’ll make sure they’re kept at a safe distance from you, Mara.” He opened the door and motioned the animals out of the room.

“It’s not their fault. That’s who they are.”

“And what you are isn’t your fault,” Karrde remonstrated gently quietly noting that Mara would never have made such a statement before she went off to find the Jedi.

A strange smile flitted across her lips. “You’re channelling Skywalker again.”

“Does he say that?” Karrde raised his eyebrows mockingly. “If he does then I’m in good company.”

“You’re talking as if he’s a good friend,” she protested, unsure whether to laugh or be angry. Skywalker was hers. “You haven’t even met him.”

“I like what I hear and he seemed very ‘normal’ when I talked to him. But the reputation he has gained is very impressive. I wouldn’t like him as an enemy.”

“You’d like me as an enemy even less.” Mara snorted and shook her head, shifting restlessly in her chair. “Skywalker…normal! That will be the day. But he gives the impression of the mundane.”

“Could be useful in his situation,” Karrde commented thoughtfully. “What’s really wrong, Mara?”

“You don’t usually want to know our troubles in such detail, Karrde.” Her voice took on a tart tone. Her boss was of the opinion that knowledge was power but he didn’t usually wield that power over his own people.

“You’re distracted and perhaps that will hamper your usual efficiency.”

“And has it?” Mara arched a red-gold eyebrow.

“No, but it could.”

“I don’t believe you. Nothing distracts me from my work,” she bit out resentfully. But it wasn’t true. The galaxy’s sole Jedi Knight was managing to do just that. She looked up at Karrde, her green eyes dark with pain. “I thought being here would clear my head. It always has before.”

“And it hasn’t?”

“No, not this time.”

Karrde moved to a comfortable looking divan opposite her and sat down, the cheroot still between his fingers.

“I could hear Palpatine from anywhere in the galaxy. If he needed me he would call and I would hear him inside my head. When he was killed, the voice died and left me with nothing - just an aching void. I made a new life for myself and then Skywalker grew in power and the voice of my master returned. But he was angry with me – I’d failed him.” She stared down at her hands and took a deep calming breath.

“When you ordered us here to Myrkr, I remembered the name of the planet from research I had done on Coruscant when I was looking to eliminate Skywalker at Jabba’s Palace four years ago. I found a tablet in one of the Emperor’s personal libraries that hinted that the Jedi and the Sith both avoided this place. It intrigued me and I hated the Jedi so I found out as much as I could. When my master was killed I retrieved the information.” She gave a wintry smile. “Knowledge is power after all.”

“So it is,” Karrde returned evenly.

“I had that data and was going to make Skywalker pay. If you wanted us on Myrkr then there was no place that I would rather be. The Ysalamiri cannot exist away from their habitat and I had no way of adapting them for my own purposes, but I came to appreciate the planet for what the Ysalamiri had unknowingly given me. I couldn’t needlessly kill them because for the first time in months I had peace. I hadn’t expected that. I was in a place where I could relax and recharge my power cells. No angry voices, no one telling me I’d failed, no blinding headaches and nightmarish visions where I saw Skywalker and Vader killing the one person in the galaxy that had always been there for me.”

“Mara…”

“No, Karrde,” she insisted firmly. “I have to get this out. Force, I’ll probably have to repeat it to Skywalker at some point in my life. He’s always on about letting your feelings out.”

“If you are sure?” But Karrde was quietly amazed. The Mara he knew before her trip to retrieve Skywalker would never have been open at all.

She nodded. “Always when I came here before there was peace - just me, alone inside my head. I liked that, Karrde. Then I went to Druckenwell and met Skywalker. When I recognised him, the hate I had felt flooded through me again. But he didn’t kill me – he gave me a gift. The Force returned to me stronger than ever - including the nightmares and the voices. This continued until I went to Dagobah. And I learned…” She stopped. “I learned that he wasn’t who I thought he was and neither was the Emperor. We formed a friendship of sorts after a rocky opening. I began to enjoy having the Force again. It had been so long since I was able to do that. This is the third time I’ve been on Myrkr and I was looking forward to it but this is the first time that I’ve truly appreciated what I’ve lost. I feel deprived of one of my most important senses. I was grudgingly allowed by the Emperor to use my own gift. He had no right.” She looked up at Karrde, her eyes mirroring her confusion. “He had no right,” she repeated in a whisper. “He was wrong to do that and so was I to trust him.”

“Ahh!” Karrde finally understood. She was learning to accept herself in a world she’d felt no part of – that of the Jedi. “I would suspect that your loss of the Force would be like me losing my sight or my hearing. Difficult to comprehend such a thing happening.”

“It’s strange,” Mara admitted.

“Still, the break will have done you good.”

“Of course,” Mara agreed, but Karrde was unconvinced. She’d had enough of Myrkr for the time being.

Karrde rolled his cigar in his fingers once more before stretching to an automatic lighter on an occasional table behind him. The smoke curled lazily upwards. “You are like me – we work too hard.”

“Evil finds work for idle hands,” Mara noted wryly. “I like to keep busy.” She gave the cigar a pointed look. “And that habit will kill you.”

Karrde’s pale blue eyes glanced at the smoking cheroot. “One of my few vices.”

She gave an unwilling chuckle and didn’t tell Karrde that she still had someone inside her head but she’d put him there herself. Was this one of her greatest vices? Was that what Luke Skywalker was to her – a weakness? But she remembered how Luke seemed to gain strength from each of the friends and family he had met upon his return. Maybe she could find the same kind of strength from him as well.

There were some things she couldn’t share with her inquisitive boss. He’d learned too much about her personal business as it was. Luke Skywalker’s handsome face appeared in her mind every time she closed her eyes. Being on Myrkr hadn’t stopped her from dwelling on the time that they’d spent together and hoarding each precious memory as if it were an exotic jewel. There was also the increasing realisation that her once beloved master had used and betrayed her taking her Force gift for his own. She would have given her life for her Emperor but he had not valued her as he should have. Skywalker would not do that to her.

“Aves and Chin are heading into town for some supplies. Do you want to go with them?” Karrde asked.

Mara picked up a data reader lying on one of the occasional tables and slotted in a data card. “Since I’m going on several trips to Force knows where in the next couple of weeks, I might as well take in the local scenery and check out the supplies they have in mind. Not that Hyllard City has the best choice of materials.”

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Mara and two of Karrde’s men, Aves and Chin, left their speeders hidden at the edge of the Southern Forest and headed into Hyllard City on foot. The streets would be far too crowded with citizens to get very far and the vehicle was just a hindrance. They had things they needed to buy and, on occasions, interesting pieces to trade could be found in any location.

Mara glanced at the list of items on her datapad and then looked up at her colleagues in disbelief. “Why do beings want some of these items?”

“Honestly?” Aves asked. “I have no idea.”

“A jawa ionization blaster! Those can be picked up on Tatooine for free.”

“Collectors,” Chin muttered. “If they want something bad enough they will pay for it.”

“No offence, Chin,” she said to the balding middle-aged man at her side. “but it’s unlikely we’ll get some of this stuff here.” He was a native of Myrkr and knew Hyllard City well.

“None taken. I left here willingly, remember? This world limited my true potential.”

Aves snorted dismissively. “You were in trouble with the Commander of the local garrison, Chin, and had to get off-world in a hurry. It had nothing to do with a romantic idea of seeing the stars and setting foot on other worlds.”

“So I found my chosen career by accident,” Chin retorted, unaffected by his friend’s words.

“Dankin is taking the Starry Ice on a run tomorrow to stock up on the rest of the parts and provisions that Karrde wants,” Mara interrupted swiftly before things got out of hand. “The Imperial garrison…” she began curiously.

“…was taken over by the local militia after they left. Some stayed. They’d integrated, married local folks – you know the drill. But I don’t think they’re after Chin anymore. He’s too small a crook,” Aves finished for her.

“I am an independent operator,” Chin replied loftily, “and not a crook. Karrde doesn’t employ crooks.”

Mara lifted her head and scanned the city skyline and could easily spot the dark grey duracrete of the Imperial construction on the highest point. They never did have any imagination when it came to building things but then it was efficient. Build things to the exact same scale on every world and then it didn’t matter which planet they conquered.

“My cousin, Ragnor, is a captain in the militia,” Chin said. “I was going to try and see him while we were here. He’ll tell my mother that I’m still alive.”

“You won’t go and see your own mother?” Aves asked, his voice rising in surprise.

“Nah, all she needs to know is if I’m alive or not. We were never close.” He gave a toothy grin. “I’ll maybe visit next time.”

“Oh.” Mara couldn’t imagine not being close to your mother if you had one. But she had heard that many beings were not. Didn’t one insectoid species eat their mothers almost immediately after birth? “Do the militia have a lot to do now that the Empire has left?”

“The usual…petty crime and civil disturbances. Rag said that they were trying to clear up the stuff that had been left behind. Probably finished doing that by now.”

Mara tapped her chin thoughtfully. “Would it be possible to have a look around to see if they’ve left anything…useful?”

“It’s been a while since the Empire left but it can take some time to clear out the rubbish when you are trying to reinstate order.” Chin looked at Aves and both men began to grin. “I like the way you’re thinking, Jade. My cousin would be delighted to give us a tour.”

“As we already know…” Mara grinned back at them. “One man’s junk…”

“Is someone else’s treasure,” Aves finished.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Muunilist

Folla Rule adjusted the frequency of her basic holo-receiver a little. The clouds surrounding the planet did not make for good com-signals but she needed to find out what was going on in the galaxy before she returned home. A news net broadcast would do and then she would get her assistant on Coruscant to send her the news feeds once they were closer to home.

The voice speaking in the refined Core-accented Basic suddenly echoed inside her quarters and then vanished again. She altered the frequency once again until she caught the signal and the voice remained steady. “Finally,” she said, smirking in satisfaction but the smile slipped rapidly from her face to be replaced by one of irritation at the first piece of news she had heard in several weeks.

“Princess Leia Organa’s nuptials will take place in the newly refurbished senate hall and will be attended by…”

Folla bit off the expletive that almost emerged from her lips. She’d almost thought that they’d never do it. Leia Organa, last surviving member of the royal house of Alderaan, was lowering herself to marry the smuggler, Solo, after all. Such an alliance would never have been permitted were the Emperor still alive. He was no more a general than Folla considered that she was. But he was shrewd and highly intelligent and was therefore dangerous. She’d got the impression that Solo had not liked her even though she had done her best to be pleasant and helpful.

It was possible that the princess could have been manipulated into seeing things the way that Folla wanted them to be – making her the foremost expert on Jedi artefacts in the galaxy - but after several meetings with Organa and the smuggler she’d found herself to be unsuccessful. The Princess had been making certain that any new pieces of Jedi information were being kept for the absent Luke Skywalker’s eyes only and Folla burned to know what she was missing. She had a rival with whom she could not compete. He might never return and then time would have been wasted. Her attention returned to the pieces of information the holonet transmitter was still spitting out.

“The happy couple posed for the galaxy’s press and were joined by close friend and former Alliance Commander, Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker, who has just returned from a lengthy study tour of Jedi sites in the Outer Rim.”

“What!” Folla exclaimed aloud, reaching out to stab at the volume control with an angry finger. “He’s back?”

“And now, a study on the work of the legendary entertainer from…” The words blasted into the room and she switched it off angrily.

It had been too much to hope that he’d just gone away and died somewhere. “Now I may have to try and finish him off myself,” she muttered, anger clouding her vision. The data cards next to her rattled. “I thought he had gone – the Jedi had gone. He shouldn’t have survived.” But a hint of uncertainty had crept into her mind. Luke Skywalker had been almost a myth for the past few years and she’d known that his training up until his disappearance had been sketchy in comparison to the training she’d received from her master and that of the Jedi Knights of old. Suppose he’d found someone to give him the training he needed. She suspected that she was no match for him if he had beaten both Vader and her Master without proper tutelage. If he had managed to become fully trained...Folla’s fear threatened to rise up and swamp her but she pushed it back down. Her plans would have to be stepped up.  She could not hope to achieve her task alone. “

Luke Skywalker could not survive – the Jedi could not survive. She would not fail her master.

Opening her com she called to one of her new clone assistants. “Prepare my ship. We are leaving for Coruscant immediately.”

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Coruscant

Tionne had managed to get several nights’ work singing at a tapcaf close to the spaceport. Usually the two men accompanied her but on this occasion Tionne firmly told them that she would manage alone. The silvery-haired woman had decided that her new ‘family’ needed some bonding time. This left Kam and Kelt glaring at one another across the small table in the crew quarters. Their relationship had improved but not to the extent that they found it easy to converse. Tionne, the natural mediator, smoothed things over without them realising it.

“Did you see the announcement?” Kelt asked abruptly.

“Which one?” Kam murmured dryly. “There were two big ones this week as I recall.”

Kelt’s face tightened as if Kam was mocking him. “The Princess Leia Organa revealing her marriage plans – that announcement. We’ll never get near her now.”

Kam shrugged dismissively. “I saw it. It made a nice change from the other.”

“From what other…oh!” Comprehension crossed the younger man’s face. “I guess so.”

Kam’s severe face twisted into a cynical sneer which Kelt thought didn’t suit him. “Yes, the holos being full of Luke Skywalker’s miraculous reappearance after three years of completing some Jedi training or inspecting sites of interest in the wilds of the Outer Rim.”

“But that’s probably true,” Kelt said. “He must have had a reason to disappear and those are good ones.”

“I’m quite certain that’s what he’s been doing, but it’s the training with a Jedi Master by the name of Yoda that I’m interested in.”

Kelt’s curiosity rose. This was a name he had heard about. “My grandmother talked about Yoda. I thought he was dead. She talked about him as if he was.”

“So did everyone. If he wasn’t dead, why didn’t he come and help us? We needed him.” There was pain in Kam’s voice.

“Maybe he wasn’t able to help.” Kelt looked at Kam shrewdly. “We now know that not all the Jedi were killed. My grandmother survived as did you.”

“In a manner of speaking I did,” Kam acceded reluctantly. He had not behaved in a way that the Jedi would have approved of. “But most of the Jedi were killed. Someone of Yoda’s power and knowledge could have made a difference.”

“Perhaps he did and sacrificed many to save the few,” Kelt muttered. “If he was training Luke Skywalker then he will have made a difference. Maybe Yoda thought that Luke Skywalker was the only hope for the future of the Jedi. If he had been found perhaps he would also have been killed and then there would have been no one able to help Skywalker. My grandmother wanted me to contact him.”

“Who…Yoda?”

“No, Skywalker - but grandmother just called him ‘the young Jedi’.”

“He’s the only one there is with the proper training so she was right.”

“She only talked about Yoda in the past tense.”

“She probably thought that Yoda was dead like the rest of her kind.” Kam’s lips turned up at the corners as a long forgotten memory slipped into his mind. He could see the diminutive figure in his mind’s eye and hear him speak in his strange mixed syntax. “No one could ever describe Yoda as young. He was nearly nine hundred years old.”

Kelt blinked. “That’s more than old,” he muttered. “No, my grandmother definitely said ‘the young Jedi’. We’re putting an awful lot of faith in one man,” he said, his brow furrowing. “And he’ll be just as impossible to contact as Princess Leia is proving to be. How can people like us contact them? It just can’t be done. All we have in our favour is that we have the Force.”

“That’s pretty good odds,” murmured Kam and, as if he sensed Kelt’s surprise, he continued, “I met the odd gambler around and about. How could I forget what I was taught? You’ve just reminded me of a very basic Jedi fact - we have the Force.”

“It’s not going to get us into the exclusive company of the New Republic elite,” Kelt declared mulishly.

“Normally I would agree with you but Skywalker is a trained Jedi and if he senses other Force users are near…” Kam said, a thoughtful expression replacing his cynical one. “Mind you, there is always a risk of drawing the wrong people…”

“The wrong people!” Kelt exclaimed.

“Your family unknowingly drew the wrong people,” Kam said by way of explanation. “You and your grandmother together proved to be too strong in the Force to hide forever. That’s the only reason I can think of for why you were attacked.”

“Oh…but...”

“We want Skywalker’s attention.”

“Yes.”

“Then we must draw him to us. There are three of us – my power is trained; Tionne’s, though weak, is constant and you are strong even if you are untrained.” He tapped his fingers on the table as he considered his words. “Skywalker will want to gather potential Jedi to him – he has to. We will offer ourselves as…bait.”

Kelt’s grey eyes brightened. Finally they were going to do something constructive. He was bored with all this sitting around. Granted, he had learned quite a bit from Kam but his grandmother had wanted him to meet Skywalker. She had wanted him to become a Jedi. “So what do we have to do?”

“First, we go and collect Tionne from where she’s working tonight.” He frowned. “I should have stayed with her but she insisted I stay with you.” He sighed wryly. “She wanted us to talk.”

“She was unwise to go to the bar alone.” Kelt scowled at a pile of data chips on the table in front of him. “She just had to meddle.”

“We did talk,” Kam said.”

“Yes, but I wasn’t going to do anything apart from catch up with my homework. How much reading do I have to do?”

“A lot.” Kam hid his grin. “It’s necessary. There’s more to being a Jedi than you think there is.”

“She’s alright?”

“The bar is in a busy area and is well lit.” Kam gazed into space for a moment and then nodded. “She’s fine.”

Kelt’s mouth dropped open. “You actually know that she’s fine?”

“I have spent enough time with her that I can pick up on her presence and her emotions.”

“But…”

“She is close.”

“I still think that one of us should have stayed with her.”

Kam shrugged. “She keeps reminding me that she’s flown from one end of the galaxy to the other on her own before she met me and I am not her keeper.”

Kelt chuckled. “But you’d like to be.”

Kam flushed. “Tionne is a good friend.”

“Of course she is but you’d like it to be more.” He met Kam’s disbelieving stare with ease. “How old do you think I am? I finished school years ago. I held a responsible job on Osarian and I’ve been in relationships. My last one could have become serious if I’d stayed and I didn’t look at Seyla the way you stare at Tionne.”

Kam paused before speaking. “I was a dark Jedi. I have nothing to offer her.”

“I think Tionne is a good judge of character – she’s not the type of person to want fame or riches - and I have seen how she looks at you, too. I think she might disagree on what you have to offer.”

“Nonsense,” Kam dismissed.

Kelt shrugged. “Suit yourself but I think she likes you and if you do nothing it will be your loss.” The older man’s face looked as if it had been carved from stone. A return to the task in hand was required. “So, what are we going to do to draw Jedi Skywalker to us? We have been together in this ship since we arrived and that hasn’t worked.”

Kam exhaled slowly. He had been avoiding this moment but couldn’t hide from his past any longer. “Tomorrow, we are going to visit the most potent source of the Force on Coruscant.”

“The Jedi Temple site,” Kelt said, understanding. “Is it still so strong?”

“Yes,” Kam stated tersely.

Kelt had discussed going to visit the temple site with Tionne because Kam had avoided the subject like the location of the last outbreak of Candorian plague. “Why are you so reluctant to go there? You lived there from childhood and learned there from the greatest Jedi Masters.”

“I saw it at its height and I saw its destruction,” Kam whispered, pain visible on his face. “I lost everything. It was too much.”

“Because you fell…”

“Yes.”

“I want to go because I’m certain that my grandmother was trained there.”

“It’s probable,” agreed Kam.

“Did you know her?”

“Your grandmother?” Kam looked surprised. “No. There were many thousands of Jedi deployed all over the galaxy. And I suspect she would have been much older than I was.”

“Tionne will be pleased,” Kelt noted as Kam grabbed his cloak.

“Pleased about what?” asked Kam, fastening the clasp at his throat.

“She’s wanted to go to the Jedi temple since we arrived on Coruscant but didn’t want to go without you. Nor did she want to mention it because you seemed to be rather sensitive about the subject.”

“What!”

“We discussed going without you. Or rather, I did. But Tionne said you would eventually want to go. She’s very wise. Reminds me of my grandmother at times. But she’s a lot younger…obviously.” Kelt finished his sentence feeling foolish when he realised what he’d said.

Kam’s lip twitched but he managed to maintain his serious expression as he rose to leave. “I think I said this before. Tionne would take that as a compliment.”

Kelt grinned and said bravely. “Don’t hurry back on my account,” and slid a data chip into the reader. “I have my homework to do.”

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Myrkr – former Imperial Garrison building

Mara had covered her bright hair with an ugly hat. It was unlikely that she’d be known by anyone but she wasn’t taking any chances. Some of the imperial personnel had stayed. The building was exactly as she had expected it to be: almost brick for brick the same as every other garrison in the galaxy.

“I’ll leave you to have a look but I doubt there’s anything left that’s worth taking.”  The speaker was a portly man in his fifties with twinkling blue eyes and a thick black beard. “And yes, Chin, I’ll tell your mother that I saw you. She won’t be happy that you didn’t visit.”

“She never is, Rag,” Chin muttered with a grimace. “Why do you think I avoid her?”

“It’s just junk,” Rag said, waving his hand. “You’re lucky that you came today. It’s all heading to the incinerator tomorrow or the day after and then we can finally use that room. It’s the last one.”

But Aves was already heading towards what looked like a stack of discarded firearms. “Can we have these?”

“None of those work,” Rag said. “That’s why they’re in here. They were caught in some sort of explosion and everything just fused together.”

“But Dankin could make them work,” said Mara with a smirk. “He can do quite a lot with bits and pieces like that.” It put her in mind of someone else who could do the same. Why couldn’t she stop thinking of him? The smallest thing reminded her of Skywalker.

They managed to salvage several pieces but Rag had been correct. Most of the remainder was unusable rubbish. Taking a last look around the room, Mara decided there was nothing else worth taking and turned to follow Aves. Suddenly something caught her eye. “Wait!” she called. “I think I’ve found something.” She’d nearly missed it but something drew her to the corner of the storeroom and under a broken chair was a large square wooden box. Crouching down, she peered under the twisted frame of the chair. It was covered in dust but otherwise was untouched and appeared very familiar. It was an exact copy of the box Luke had found on Praesitlyn.

“What have you got there, Jade?” Aves said, climbing over broken pieces of what might have been a security fence.

“It’s a box,” she said softly, easing it forward and clasping it against her chest. “I think it might be important.”

“Why?”

“I’ve seen one like it before.”

“What’s inside it?” Aves was curious at the possessive way Mara was clutching the box to her chest.

“Could be anything,” Mara answered reluctantly. “But I think…” She looked pointedly at where she knew the hidden sensors were located.

“I get your drift,” Aves said in a low voice. “Not here.”

She nodded and, for the benefit of the sensors said, in her normal tone, “It could be useful for storage, or I suspect Karrde knows someone that collects wooden boxes.”

Chin looked at his chrono. “Let’s get back to the base. Karrde will wonder why we’ve been away for so long.”

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