INTERLUDE 1
Callista stared at the image, which had grown rather solemn. “So that was who I was named for,” she said softly.
“Indeed, although you have inherited my red hair.” The image moved, and her robes seemed to flow as if they were alive. “That was the birth of Vaiya Jade Skywalker, who was an honor to the woman who saved her and my life.  Vaiya grew quickly, and it seemed like the eyes of the galaxy were rivited on us. Such attention is not healthy to the life of a Jedi. There were attempts to steal her from us that we had to thwart time and again. Luke and I returned to our ship, the Jaded Sky, and fled Coruscant to return to Yavin IV, where Luke had now changed his Academy into a humble school.  We thought that the presence of many Jedi would be good for Vaiya, as well as offer her sufficient protection. But I was unhappy with settling in one place, for the roots of lust for adventure and excitement were not yet dead in me. Luke, for his part, was disappointed that my idea of our completing the training of Jedi Knights-to-be while we were actively traversing the galaxy had not yet been attempted in fact. We were Jedi Knights, but we were parents first. We should have realized that this was the best path, the safest path.  When one takes on lofty aspirations, one had far to fall when they fail. But no, we thought we were failing the rest of the galaxy. So Luke began to teach again, even though he was limited to the surface of Yavin IV, and I became engrossed in our daughter, for she had powers in her youth that were not safe for her to have. Power such as that is never safe, but in the hands of reckless youth, it is more dangerous still.”
“But...” and Callista looked at Dayved sharply, nearly upset that he had broken the image’s story, “what about the boy? The son of Master Skywalker and Jedi Knight Callista?  Did you ever find him?”
“That was Valery Ben Skywalker, was it not?” Callista asked the image.
“Yes.” The image’s eyes seemed distant. “The boy eluded us. We were unable to find him, and we were burdened with our new responsibilities and the responsibilities we thought we were to have.”
“But two great Jedi Masters such as yourselves,”
Dayved objected, getting more dirty looks from Callista,
“should have been able to---“
“I was not a Jedi Master. Not yet. I had no real wisdom—only space-smarts that I had picked up in my long careers as an assassin and a smuggler. I was no Master of the Force. But I was going to learn.” She paused, as if having memories too painful to tell. “The next tale in our saga shall be told by Valery Ben Skywalker. He will tell you why.” And she vanished to reveal a young man with deep brown hair and somber grey eyes, dressed in a simple blue robe much like the one Mara had worn.
“Greetings, friends,” he said, his voice dignified, like he was addressing a house of important people. The gentleness on his face, however, implied that he truly did think of them as his friends. “I have been called upon to tell the tale of my sister Vaiya and my mother, Mara. The story of their connection is too painful for either one of them to tell, so they have entrusted it to me.”
“Painful?” Callista echoed. “But they are Jedi Masters.
How...?”
“Knowing one’s limitations is vital if one is truly to grow.” The image smiled. “Humility is the greatest and most hard-learned of all lessons. My mother and sister have asked me to tell the story because their certain point of view is colored by their emotions. They know they cannot be secure in relating its wisdom through their emotions, but I can.”
“You keep calling Mara your mother,” Dayved pointed out. “I thought Callista was your mother.”
“Callista gave me life and birth,” Valery Ben said solemnly, “but it was Mara Jade Skywalker who gave me the love of the mother that I never knew. She is my mother, in spirit. So I shall begin this tale where she left it. My parents had returned to Yavin IV to raise Vaiya, but it was not the happy home that they had dreamed of. Other things weighed on them that they did not realize were not their duty. Only when they discovered their enormous responsibility in Vaiya did they gather the courage to return to their old life as wanderers of the galaxy.”

CHAPTER TWO: BANE OF THE PRESENT
1--Yavin IV
The scream came from their main chambers. Luke turned around, the hairs on the back of his neck rising not just with the chilling pitch of it, but with the familiarity of the voice. He’d been dreading when Mara would discover what the young twelve year old pre-Jedi students had accidentally made with their Force tinkering. Perhaps he should have done more to prevent it, but watching out for Vaiya was all her could have handled that day.
Besides, these kids needed a real lesson in invoking the wrath of a Jedi Knight. And Mara needed a lesson in patience, which she still needed, in spite of how she had mellowed in the last years.
Not that Mara Jade would ever mellow. Never completely. There would always be a spark in her, ready to ignite. These poor youngsters had unfortunately found it.
“SKYWALKER!” she raged as she stormed out of the
building, her green robe blowing about her in the late
morning breeze on Yavin IV. Her hair looked like she’d been
catching a quick nap, and as she got nearer Luke could see
the sleep marks on her face, where she’d been leaning
against her hand. Wonderful, he thought. *She’s angry and
tired.*
“You guys had better scram,” he said to the three adolescent boys before him. They nodded, their eyes wide in awe at the caliber of Mara’s scream. The air was still ringing.  Even the trees had shakens lightly with the Force impact. “I’ll handle this.”
They scampered off as Luke turned completely around and caught Mara in his arms.
“Good morning, my love. You look beautiful,” he tried, his smile coy.
“Don’t you dare, Skywalker,” she growled. “Do you know what those three prize students of yours did in our kitchen?”
“Make you breakfast in bed?” he tried, all innocence.
“HA! You should see their idea of cooking. Is that
some stupid Force trick you picked up during your bachelor days that you never told me about? Cooking eggs in mid air? Didn’t you bother to tell them to be careful not to let them explode all over the ceiling? Or what about the flour and milk? If you put them together, you get glue, not pancakes, and it’s glued the cooler door shut! Not to mention the bacon!  Here I thought you couldn’t kill pork twice!”
Luke just continued to smile at her, risking enraging her more, but put as much affection as he could into it in the hopes that it would distract her. “You’re so beautiful when you’re creating a dark side disturbance in the Force, Mara,” he said.
It was like taking a chisel to a diamond in just the right spot. Instantly, she was trying not to laugh. “I’m serious, Luke. I don’t want you bringing them into my kitchen ever again.”
“Yes, mistress,” he said with a flourish.
“That’s more like it,” she said. “Now who is going to
clean it up? Not me.”
“You just said they can’t come into the kitchen anymore. Who does that leave?”
“You.”
“Oh, no. I didn’t do it. I didn’t have anything to do with
it. They were just trying to surprise you and they got carried away.”
“Their hormones got carried away is more like it,” she snapped, angry again. He was going to have to curb this temper of hers or one day it was going to get the better of her. But before he could stop himself, he found himself sighing and saying;
“You’re on your period, aren’t you?”
Instantly, he regretted it. She slapped him across the
chest with the heavy, wide sleeve of her robe and spun away from him. Three-year-old Vaiya, who was sitting on a thick blanket not ten feet away, giggled.
“Daddy whap whap!”
Mara scooped her up into her arms. “Daddy can go
whap himself tonight, he’s not sleeping in my bed,” she muttered as she carried Vaiya back toward the quad building.  “Come on, sweetie, we’re going to practice our levitation skills in the kitchen.”
“I love you!” Luke called lamely.
“Eat my lightsaber!” she snarled back, and then
turned her head again to look at him over her shoulder. Her hair flew about her head like a flame. “At about eleven o’clock tonight.”
“It’s a date,” he said with a smirk as she disappeared through the door.
Ah, Mara, Mara, Mara. Thank the Force she would never really change.
2--Wanderlust
Mara watched at Vaiya made her toys spin in the air around her, like she were a small planet and they were her moons.
“Slower, Vai,” Mara instructed, and observed the reduced speed. Vaiya was learning the most important thing of all rather young—how to listen to instructions. Sometimes Mara asked Vaiya to so something just to make sure the girl was always paying attention. If Vaiya’s attention wandered, it could be dangerous. Like the time she idley picked up the Artoo unit that Luke was so fond of, and even though the droid was quite used to being the subject of Force exercises, she raised him too high and the droid squealed in panic.  Vaiya paniced, too, and wound up tossing the droid so hard it took all of Luke’s strength to catch him before he was dashed to pieces. Thank the Force Luke had been there to do it.
Mara didn’t like to think about how lucky they were that Vaiya didn’t have many temper tantrums. There were a few ysalamari kept in a nearby shelter to put by her bed at night if there were any reason. Like potential nightmares, although Mara monitored her daughter’s thoughts regularly.  She had a good feeling for things like that, although she could never completely predict it. Once Vaiya levitated herself in her sleep, but that was as bad as it had ever been--without ysalamari. All the other times had been safely avoided.
She sighed. Motherhood was more work than two smuggling jobs and being a Jedi Knight. Tiring, too. She stood up and stretched.
“Okay, Vai, it’s time for your after lunch nap.”
“Awww,” Vaiya moaned. “Why when you get sleep
sleep, I gotta nap nap?”
“She’s got you there, Mom,” Luke said as he entered the apartment. Mara shot him a dirty look tinted with the hint of humor and scooped Vaiya up to take her to bed. The little girl yawned.
“See, you are tired,” Mara said, then yawned herself.
“Okay, Mommy.” The little girl curled into her mother’s
embrace. “’Night ‘night.”
“’Night ‘night.” Mara set her down in her crib. In a few weeks, there would be a new baby bed to put together.  Force forbid those boys should try and help again. Although, Yoda love ‘em, they were just trying to help.
Vaiya’s eyes popped open again the second she was prone on the mattress. “Why we say that, Mommy?”
“Say what, sweetie?”
“Say ‘night night’ when it dayshine? What we say
during sleepy in day?”
Mara had never thought about it. “I don’t know. We’ll have to think of something. Although I think you think too much, for a three-year-old.”
Vaiya smiled. “I special for three year old, Mommy.”
She rolled over onto her side. “Day day.”
Mara would have laughed, but Vaiya had instantly fallen asleep. She pulled the cover over her and crept out of the room.
In the kitchen, Luke was cleaning up the last of the mess and fixing them a light lunch. “Did they destroy all the bacon?” he asked.
“Yep. And the butter, too.” She eyed the sandwiches he was stacking. Okay, so maybe lunch wouldn’t be so light.  “Not too much for me, Luke,” she said, patting her stomach.  “I still haven’t shaken those last few pounds from carrying Vaiya around.”
Luke looked at her admonishingly. “I don’t make Skywalker supremes for dieters. Especially for those who don’t need to diet.” He frowned. “But I think something is eating you.”
“When isn’t something eating me?” she laughed wearily as she walked around behind him and put her arms around his shoulders. He’d always been so fine-boned and slim, and with his Jedi exercises he was surprisingly compact in the muscle department. Ever since Vaiya had been born, she’d felt like she was getting old—things sagged that had never sagged before, her hair was just barely sprinkled with some grey, and it seemed that all the lines on her face from her frowning and scowling years had caught up with her to turn her once smooth skin into a zig-zagging maze. She almost wished she had been more vain so that she could have fought this harder. But age caught up with everyone.  Even Mara Jade Skywalker.
Luke reached around to put his arms around her waist, still keeping his back to her. He leaned his head back and it rested on top of hers, which was nestled between his shoulderblades.
“Are you sorry we decided to stay here?” he asked,
“No,” she said, her voice sure. “Vaiya needs planet
life. She can’t live between the stars, like us. She needs sun,
sky, fresh air—“
“She’d have those things in space,” Luke pointed out.
“Not the same.”
“Nothing is. The sun and sky here isn’t the same as it
is on Coruscant, or Tatooine, or Wayland, or Hoth!”
“Hoth?” She gave him an amused look.
“Just making a point, dear. Nothing will ever be
perfect. It doesn’t even matter where you are on the outside.
It’s where you are inside that counts.”
She raised her head and let go of him. He turned to her, looking at her earnestly. It was easy for him to say. He hadn’t aged much. He’d cut his hair so it didn’t billow around his head in those sandy locks he used to have, and he’d changed his style of dress slightly, favoring button-down tunics made of light materials and heavy pants made of thicker but comfortable stuff—all black, but it was a change nonetheless. She had returned to her old flight suits, the black ones with the round collars and no sleeves. She even wore that white scarf-hood sometimes, when she went out in the middle of the day. Sometimes, Yavin IV could get a little bright.
“I know,” she said. “Jedi’s don’t crave adventure and excitement. I know all that. I don’t think I ever did crave adventure and excitement. It’s that...” and she squirmed, instantly turning Luke into the cuddling husband with his hands on her shoulders. “I feel like I’ve been domesticated.”
“And?”
“It bothers me.”
“Why?”
“Because it isn’t me.”
“I agree. So what should you do about it?”
“I don’t know.” She frowned at him. “You’re supposed
to be objecting here, you know.”
“Objecting to what? You being domesticated? I don’t think you are, but you obviously do, and you have to do something about it. The question is, what?”
“I’ve thought about it,” she admitted. “But to be honest, the only thing I can think of is a vacation away from here, away from Vaiya, even. Just you and me, like we used to. Or maybe....”
“Or maybe just you,” Luke finished.
“But I don’t want to leave you, and I certainly don’t
want to leave Vaiya.” She shuddered. “Remember when we left Endor? She wasn’t even three months old, and word was already out.”
“It had to have been out for a while, for them to have planned so well.” Luke smiled at Mara, remembering how ferociously she had defended the safety of her daughter. The Emperor’s Hand may be dead, but she had left behind skills Mara would always find uses for, when the times were right.
“I don’t want to risk that. I’d rather stay.”
“And be miserable?” He shook his head. “No, Mara,
you’re right. You need to take that vacation. Just go away for a few days, you don’t have to go long. Go and catch up on what you’ve been missing. We’ll be here when you get back.”
She shifted her feet. “I’ll think about it.”
“You’ll be gone by the day after tomorrow,” he
predicted. “All you have to do is go call Karrde and find out what he’s been up to. Trust me, Mara, I know you.”
She grinned at him. “Have I told you lately that I love you, Skywalker?”
“Not lately, no.”
She kissed him on the nose. “I love you.”
“I love you too, Mrs. Skywalker. Now hurry up and get
out of here so you can come back. I miss you already.”
3--Searching
Of course, Luke did not tell Mara what he really thought. Before Vaiya had been born, she’d had disturbing visions about her daughter’s future, but had decided to put them to rest and let them work themselves out in time.  Besides, it wasn’t like she could do anything about it, and since Vaiya’s birth they only occasionally popped into Mara’s dreams. It wasn’t anything she couldn’t handle.
Callista’s death, however, had been another story. At first, Mara had been content to continue to scour old records for traces of Jabba’s Fist, trying to figure out where here child might have been sold. After a year of searching, she had to conceed that an organization like Jabba’s Fist wasn’t going to leave any evidence of their activities behind them, and the law hadn’t been solid enough to keep any real records on them to give Mara any trail to follow and find those who might have had some association with the old slavers group. There was simply no scent to pick up, and she’d had to put it aside.
Luke had done his part. Every night, he searched for his son through the Force. He reached out to places he had never thought he could reach. During the year Mara was tracking records, they had moved a lot, before they had settled on Yavin IV permanently. Luke was able to use the different distances to reach out to new places every time, but he never touched anything. Then she’d given it up, feeling that she’d exhausted every port and now had to rely purely on destiny and Karrde (a frightening combination, Luke thought, but said nothing) who still had his ax to the smuggler’s grindstone and promised he’d let her know if he caught a whiff of a clue. She trusted him. Besides, if it had to do with smuggling, Karrde would eventually stumble across it. They stayed mobile for a while longer, several months, actually, but they had to consider Vaiya. She needed planet life. Growing up between the stars with no native planet just didn’t sound healthy for her. She needed people other than her parents, other children, other Jedi to be around. So Luke had to content himself with learning to stretch out a little farther every time from Yavin IV.
About a month ago he’d given up searching. It was unlike him to be that way, and he knew it should bother him but it didn’t. Something just told him to sit tight and wait, that something would come. Just like Mara had said about her visions of Vaiya, that she just had to be patient and it would all reveal itself. He hoped it would work for him.
As Mara put in a call to Karrde to let him know she was coming to pay a visit, Luke joined her, his senses tingling in an odd way.
“Your timing is perfect,” Karrde told them after they had finally reached him. The man made it impossible to reach him by comlink, but Mara knew how to do it. “I just stumbled across an old trader friend of mine who worked with me back when Jabba was alive. He worked with Jabba’s Fist for a little while after Leia strangled the old slug, around the time they disbanded. The leader, some guy named Karander, kept a disc of his credit report on him at all times, but the son of a jawa wound up getting shot in the back by his second, who didn’t care for the way he was running things. What really frosted it was the fact that Karander had a lot of deep loyalties from his thugs, and they turned on the second. Of course, with Karander dead, there was no reason to let those beautiful credits go to waste, so my friend, Rand, swiped it. He and Karander went pretty far back, too.”
“He took the credits, of course,” Mara said dryly.
“Like any good smuggler,” Karrde replied smoothly.
“He kept the disc as a momento. Supposedly he kept some other information on it, too, but it was coded. Ghents cracking it. He should be done by the time you get here.”
“Sounds good,” Mara said, biting her thumb. “I’ll call you again when I take off and let you know when I’ll arrive.”
“Fine.” And he disappeared off the holovid.
Mara turned to look at Luke. “Sounds like destiny to
me.”
Luke frowned. “All this destiny makes me uneasy. Are you sure you don’t want me to come along?”
“I’d love it, but I don’t want to drag Vaiya on this. And we can’t leave her here alone.”
“We could leave her with Leia and Han.”
“And how many times were their kids stolen?” Mara
countered.
“Point. OK, you go. Hurry back with whatever you find.”
“I will.” She kissed him. “I’ll be ready to go by mid-afternoon. The Jaded Sky’s been being prepped since this morning.”
“Anxious to leave me?” Luke asked, cocking an eyebrow.
She cocked her head to one side. “You know, don’t you?”
“I know you, Mara.” He grew solemn. “We’ve both done our best. He’s my son, wherever he is. But if he was sold...I doubt it was to be a slave. He probably has a home, parents who love him, friends. He has to be nearly eleven now. I just wonder...if we’re doing the right thing.”
“We never said we were going to take him,” Mara said softly. “We just said we were going to find him. If he’s happy, then.....you decide. I’ll stand by you, no matter what.”
He smiled at her. “When did you get so wise?”
She shrugged. “Don’t know. Kinda just happened, I
guess. Whatever else that happens, Luke, we can at least find him. We owe ourselves---and Callista---that much.”
He nodded. “May the Force be with you.”
“And with you, my love.”
She left to finish getting ready. Luke stared at the
empty glowing holovid, where Karrde’s image had been, and sat down where Mara had left the nearby stool. He shut his eyes and concentrated. He hated that Mara was leaving. He had to admit it. He didn’t want her to go, he wanted her to stay. Because just as she had always feared that he would leave her for Callista, even though she knew he loved her and only her, he had always feared that she would grow restless being a good Jedi wife and eventually leave him for her old life among the stars.
Then he reminded himself that she had trusted him to let him go and meet Callista when Callista had returned. He owed her the same thing. He had to give her this chance. He loved her too much to keep her against her will. And he knew she would return.
The question was—with what?
He thought about the statis block. A few weeks after
Mara was safe and stable, he had had Leia order a demolition crew out to the mine to block it up. It was Callista’s grave and therefore off limits, plus Luke didn’t want anyone getting hurt there any more. But before they blocked it up, a crew went in and recovered the stasis block for further study.
Luke briefly remembered getting word about it around a year ago. The technology was questionable and therefore banned until it could be studied further. But the most important thing about it was that whatever was inside a stasis block was temporarily put on hold from life. And if that was true, then the Force, which was generated from all life, would react to it like the ysalamari. It would bubble around it because no Force came from the creature inside it. Yet, it had done more than that. It hadn’t just blocked the Force. It had distorted it and hypnotized Luke.
That made it dangerous to a Jedi. And if his son was still trapped inside it, that would explain why Luke could not even feel his existence, why he seemed to have no feelings about his son at all.
Sitting down at the console, Luke began to record his thoughts, and planned to give them to Mara before she left.  Maybe she could make some sense of it. After all, she was the one going on this mission, not him. Even though it was his son, it had been her promise.
He sighed. He hoped she hurried back. Living without her would be like living without the sun. And worse than that...he had a feeling that dark times were ahead.
4--All Business
“All right, Karrde,” Mara said, tossing back the white hood as she stepped into his new office, “where is the disc?”
“Hello, Mara, it’s lovely to see you in the flesh again,” Karrde said, a half-grin on his bearded face.
She smirked at him, and it turned into a grimace.  “When are you going to just break down and shave that thing off?” she asked.
“When I feel like it. Shada doesn’t mind it.”
“Where is she, anyway?” Mara asked casually.
Karrde waved his hand dismissively, but Mara knew
him well enough to know that the absence of his new wife bothered him. “Off doing something important, I’m sure. Is this wives-going-away-without-their-husbands thing a sickness that’s going around? I hope she misses me half as much as you miss Skywalker.”
Mara’s eyebrows furrowed down sharply. “Excuse me?”
It was Karrde’s turn to smirk. “Please. You didn’t even say hello to me. To me, your former boss, your one-time savior, your friend. Come on, Mara. You only left him a few days ago.”
“Three,” she breathed. “I thought this was going to be a good idea, but about a day ago I started to get all...I don’t know. Antzy.”
“An antzy Jedi is something I rarely get to see.” He grew thoughtful. “Any particular reason?”
“No. I just know I have to get back home as quick as I can.” She let out an exasperated sigh. “You know, I’m getting really tired of this.”
“Of what?”
She plopped down on a nearby sofa and shut her
eyes. In spite of her itchiness to get home, she was actually glad to be in close company with someone who wasn’t a Jedi. “All this back and forth nonsense. When Vaiya was born, I kept having this terrible feelings that I was mediating on and meditating on until I thought it would drive me nuts.  About Palpatine and why he took me from my parents, and how Luke and I were destiny—“ she gave a slightly mocking snort in order to take the corny edge of the phrase—“and all that. But the worst of it was, there was something about Vaiya and Luke and Callista’s son that were so significant, but for the life of me I couldn’t figure them out.”
“They’re the children of the Jedi,” Karrde said with uncharacterisitic poetic license. “What else is there?”
“Something more.” She remembered that day before Callista had returned. “There was something on Endor when Vaiya was born. When Callista died, it seemed to retreat a bit. I know Endor is where Palpatine died, but it wasn’t him. It was bigger than him, like a manifestation of the dark side, a—
-“
“Demon?”
Mara looked at him sharply. “Yes.”
Karrde nodded. “They’re not unheard of. Perhaps
Palpatine invested in darker forces than you realized.”
“I never thought about it.”
“I can see why.” He leaned forward and put his elbows
on his knees, tapping the tips of his fingers together. “It isn’t something you would want to think about, that’s for sure.”
“I guess this demon had an interest in Vaiya.”
“Could be...or Callista. You said she’d lost her Jedi
powers and could only touch them through the dark side.  Maybe it was closing in, since she was on the way to her death. It happens.”
Mara cocked an eyebrow at him. “When did you get religious?”
Karrde laughed. “I’m not. But any good trader knows who believes in what. It can keep you from getting shot at, and can also make you better bargains.” He returned to thoughtful mode. “It makes sense, Mara. Vaiya may well be destined for great things. You said she’s very Force sensitive, she was lifting things while still in the womb. You and she obviously have a deep connection, beyond the regular mother-daughter thing. All of this is perfectly natural.”
“I know. But I’m worrying myself to death and I can’t take it. If it’s not one thing, it’s another. After I got the bug about Callista and Vaiya’s birth out of my system, it’s now become finding Luke and Callista’s son. It’s eating at me like a cancer.”
“Perhaps you should trust more.”
“Trust who? What?”
Karrde shrugged. “You’re the Jedi. You tell me. The
Force. A god. Pick something, Mara, there’s plenty to pick from.”
“I’ve never been that religious. Besides, the Force embraces all religions. If we picked a religion, we might cause more problems than we solve.”
Karrde smiled at her, a touch of old-age in his rugged face. “If you’ve got a demon on your tail, I’d find a good place to hide, and soon.” Then he added, “people are so quick to believe in the bad things. You would think they’d be even more inclined to accept the good as well.”
“Well, my point,” Mara said, not liking where the conversation was going, “was that I keep getting these urges to get up and go, then come right back again. I wanted to go to Endor, then I wanted to leave. I wanted to settle on Yavin IV, then I wanted to leave. I wanted to take a vacation away from Luke and Vaiya, and now I want to go running right back again. I can’t seem to make up my mind and it’s driving me nuts.”
“Wait. You’re still young.” Karrde stood up and walked over to his desk. He opened up a drawer and pulled out a silver disc with an irridescent gleam on its underside. “Here’s the disc,” he said, holding it out to her. “Maybe it will help put some of that wanderlust to rest.”
Mara stood up and took it, grabbing it with the Force purely by habit. “Thanks, Karrde,” she said, turning the disc over and over in her hands. “At the very least, it will tie up a loose end.”
5--Duran
At first, as Mara scanned the disc in the Jaded Sky that evening, she was inclined to think she’d just gone on a wild goose chase. But at the very end, the disc started to go on about a planet named Duran, which was on the very edge of the galaxy, one of the few rim worlds that had a flourishing civilization. The problem was, it was rather primitive, considering it had nearly blown itself up a couple of hundred years ago. Mara had heard stories about Duran during her first few years as the Emperor’s Hand, but the Emperor had never seemed to care enough to bother with it.  As long as it didn’t interfere with his plans, he was content to leave it alone. Besides, it was a desolate place in those days, still trying to recover from its own crises. Duran was considered by many historians to be a working model of the past, and how many planets had survived the age of spacecraft technology and all the wonderful advancements science had made in the quest for sentient-life dominence of the galaxy.
According to the disc, Duran had recovered, but closed itself off to outsiders for the last hundred years. He had been smuggling stuff to certain parties, but always at heavy costs for damage done to his craft. They did just dislike visitors—they were absolutely hostile toward them.
But he had made one last shipment to them before Jabba’s Fist when the way of its namesake, and it was dated about ten years ago—right around the time Callista would have had her child.
Mara looked toward the casement that held Anakin Skywalker’s lightsaber. Beside it, they had placed Callista’s lightsaber, determined to give it to the boy when they found him. Luke had suggested—oh so tactfully—that because they seemed unable to find the boy, and even if they did they might not be able to actually contact him, they should give the lightsaber to Vaiya when she was old enough, to use it at least to learn with until she made her own.
She sighed. If this trail came up empty, she was going to do just that. After all, they had named Vaiya after Callista.  The old Jedi Knight had told them her father had called her Vaiya when she was a child, a Chad word for “stonelifter.” It had fit. And Callista had died to save Vaiya’s life. In a way, she was her guardian. It would not be an insult to honor the woman’s spirit by giving her lightsaber to the child she had saved.
Until the boy showed himself. Which Mara knew he would. Someday, somehow, in some way, that boy would come into their lives. Mara was sure of it. And the sooner, the better. She didn’t know why she felt that way. She just did.
The planet Duran was a good distance from where Karrde had set up his new HQ, and Mara had to contact Luke and tell him she was going to be a good while longer than she had anticipated. When she explained why, he posed no objection, but he was not happy about it. Mara could feel it, even across the light years.
“How long?” was all Luke said.
“About a week there, then a week and a few days
back.” She grimaced. “I don’t like it either, farmboy, but—“
“But it ain’t like dustin’ crops, I know,” he replied, trying to lighten the mood. “Just hurry, Mara. Vaiya misses you pretty bad. And so do I.”
Mara wished she could kiss the holovid image. He looked so sweet he made her homesick. “Kiss her for me,” Mara whispered. “I’m setting the coordinates for Duran now.” Inwardly, she groaned. It was going to be a long, quiet trip.
She was starting to hate them.
“I’ll be waiting.” And he was gone. Mara waited a few minutes for the ship to prep itself, and then pulled back the lever. The world turned to starlines, and she began steeling herself. A week alone with only her own thoughts to keep her company was not her idea of a vacation anymore.
She passed it—like a piece of an asteroid in her guts, but she passed it. She worked a lot on the memoirs she had begun before Vaiya was born, and even toyed with some old data on holocrons. Not that she would dare attempt it, but the technology was like a puzzle she liked to play with in her spare moments. She hadn’t had too many of them. Maybe this trip had been a blessing in disguise.
There was also lightsaber practice. She hadn’t done any of that in so long, when she began with the remotes she was stunned several times and wound up destroying a few of them in her anger. However, she attoned for it by keeping at it diligently, and by the time she came out of hyperspace, she had managed to surpass even Luke’s top scores.
Duran was a beautiful planet, she realized when the world solidified before her once again. It was all blues and greens and browns, like the old holovids of Alderaan. Leia would have liked it. Of course, Leia would have liked spending seven days in hyperspace, alone, to get to it, too. It would have seemed like a paradise to the overworked Chief-of-State.
Of course, there was one thing that Alderaan had had that Duran didn’t—a peaceful people. The second Mara passed into immediate Duran territory, a laser-cannon shot across her nose. She looked around to find the culprit, amazed that their technology was that advanced, and realized that it was no ship that had attacked her but a guard-probe in orbit around the planet. She looked at her readings and discovered seven more of them. Someone had put them out here to ward off visitors without the inhabitants of the planet even knowing.
Then a light on the sensor board started to flash.
There was another ship, but not a Duran ship.
This was not good.
She debated whether she should investigate the ship
or head toward the planet. The planet obviously didn’t want her around, but if the ship was hostile that wouldn’t be good either. And before she could make a clear decision the ship came into view, obviously having picked up her trail as well.  It was a heavily modified Dreadnaught-like ship, which immediately made Mara think of a smuggler. They liked doing that to their ships. Look at Han’s Millenium Falcon.  That ship was a literal bucket of bolts because of all the things her pilot had done to her.
Mara hung back, playing possum. The ship didn’t seem to be hostile, just curious, but if it didn’t hail her soon, it would—
“Jaded Sky, this is the Cal Iber. Do you copy?”
The voice was male, and young. He sort of reminded
her of what Luke may have sounded like. Trying to be tough but really shaking at the knees. “I copy, Cal Iber,” she replied. “That’s a cute name. I knew a guy named Cal once.”
There was static for a few minutes, and then another voice came on. This was was so familiar it made the skin on her cheeks tingle. “Mara?”
She could hardly swallow. “Cal?”
“I should have recognized the Jade,” he said, his
voice lapsing into that drawl that had once made her all gooey.
“And I the Cal. You always were a showoff.” She smirked, but wasn’t sure if she should be relieved or extremely worried.
6--Cal
Mara entered the grand room and looked around her, trying to hide her appreciation. Cal had always had excellent taste. He had a fondness of fijisi wood that was equal only to her own. She managed to hide her feelings behind a trademark smirk. This was a rather odd thing to be in the middle of an old modified Dreadnaught.
Cal entered from a set of doors made of the deepest wood, carved with characters from a mythology she vaguely recognized. Probably from Cal’s homeworld—wherever that was. He liked to talk about it but had always managed to sidestep the direct question about its location. Sometimes, Mara wondered if it existed.
He looked the same. Eyes blue like force-lightning, hair dark and swirling around his head, perfectly styled. His vanity was etched into his features, a trait she had found herself drawn to in spite of itself. His skin was nearly white from his days between the stars, but that face...it had not changed. If anything, it had improved with age.
His smile was radiant. She found herself returning it.  What was it about him, anyway? How could the Force allow such a broiling pool of ambition and cruel desires to lie behind such unspeakable beauty? She rarely thought of men as beautiful, but Cal was the exception. She had never found another. Not even Luke’s handsome face was comparable with his.
Still, she loved Luke. And the mere thought of him brought her back to her senses.
“Mara,” he said, his voice rolling over the name.
“Back to old tricks, I see,” she said, fighting to keep
her voice from sounding husky.
“As always. And you? I heard you got married.”
“Truth travels fast.”
He gave a slight grumph. “Only if they sound like
outrageous rumors. Skywalker, of all people? The one who wanted so badly to kill?”
She gave him a half shrug. “Some of us grow up past our pettiness, Cal.”
He frowned. “Easy. I thought you came in peace.”
Damn him. The old tricks did work best. “Sorry. I do.”
She took a breath. “I didn’t know you’d be out here by Duran, of all places.”
Cal strode forward, his long black cape flowing out behind him. He was even starting to look like a dark Jedi, although it was obvious to her that he lacked the sheer power behind the appearance. “I take it you weren’t looking for me, then.” He paused, glancing out at the blue-green world right outside the viewport. “I’ve gone back to the old smuggling game. There are certain parties on Duran that are opening themselves up to outside trade, but they have to keep things ultra hush-hush. No one can know we’re here, so we have to be careful before we go in to make a drop.  Nothing can pick us up. They pay very well, though.  Eventually, they’re going to pick up enough Basic that the truth will probably slip out accidentally.” He grinned. “I must confess I wouldn’t like that very much. I’ve done things to...prevent it.”
She folded her arms. “Don’t tell me. My husband is a New Republic figure, and my sister-in-law is the Chief-of-State. Tell me about any illegal activities and I’d have to report you.”
He put up his hands. “If it means I’d get to see you again after you finish your business here, I’m willing to pay the price.”
She grinned at him again, trying to make it mocking.  “You’re laying it on too thick, Cal. Don’t you even want to know what I’m doing here?”
“I admit, I’m idlely curious. I’m even more interested, however, in learning why you left me to begin with.” He grew serious. “Why you didn’t even say goodbye.”
She fought to keep from shuddering. “I had my reasons.”
“I would hope. I would hurt my feelings if I thought you had disappeared on me just because you felt like it.”
Maybe it was the tone of his voice. Maybe it was the earlier thought of Luke. Maybe it was the tremor in the Force she felt at those words. Whatever it was, Mara was sick of him having the upper hand on her. “I do everything because I feel like it, Cal. You know that,” she returned in the same tone.
He advanced on her, but she kept herself from jumping back. Remembering all the things Luke had taught her, she called a peace to herself, and swore she saw Cal’s step falter. “Still the free spirit, in spite of being domesticated,” he tried, his tone arrogant.
“If I were domesticated,” she said slowly, “then I would not be here.”
He went back to the disarming grin. This was more tiring than a lightsaber duel, she thought. “Of course. Tell me what you’re doing out here, Mara.”
“Do you remember Jabba’s Fist?” she asked.
Good, that one surprised him. “A little. I know that I
wasn’t too happy when they wound up falling apart. I did my best to banish the bad memories.”
“Do you know—“ and she hesitated, unsure as to how much she should tell him. “Do you know anything about their last shipment here?”
He frowned at her. “What about it? They were slavers. Are you looking for someone specific?”
She sighed. “A friend of mine died recently. She was pregnant a long time ago and gave birth while she was a temporary captive of Jabba’s Fist. She escaped and wound up spending the rest of her days trying to recover her child, but never succeeded.”
“So this is a deathbed promise thing,” Cal said flippantly. “What makes you think I would help you, Mara?  You and I haven’t even laid eyes on each other in almost fifteen years. You pop up down here out of nowhere and give me your typical hostile attitude, not even a simple explanation as to why you left.” He looked at her, those force-lightning eyes glowing angrily. “Dammit, Mara, I’m human, too. I know you think I’m some sort of monster, but I’m not. You didn’t even say goodbye!”
“There was no reason,” she said softly. “If you knew me at all, you knew why I left. You just won’t admit it.”
He got even angrier. “I’m beginning to realize everything I thought I knew about you was a big lie. You were this tough assassin that had a vendetta against the rebellion, not a desire to marry into it. You were smart, cool, and beautiful. You still are beautiful.” His eyes raked over her face. “But you’ve changed. I don’t even know who you are.  And with all that, you can’t even spare a kind word for my feelings.”
She snorted. “The woman you knew, Cal, didn’t have a kind word for anyone.”
“True.” His eyes glittered, but they were starting to smile. “If that was who I was talking to, I could live with that.”
“If you don’t help me, I’ll just ask the officials on the planet Duran. I’m sure they’ll be thrilled to find out that you’re out here,” she said with a dangerous tone in her voice. “How is that for ‘old times sake?’”
He smiled even wider. “That was the Mara I knew. My old heart feels so glad.”
“You know what’s going to happen to your old heart if you don’t tell me something I want to hear. Now,” she took a breath, “Jabba’s Fist’s last shippment was here, to the planet Duran. Do you know anything about it?”
Cal turned away and walked over to a big desk. He pulled out a small box, and Mara could smell a familiar scent.  Sugar. The guy had an old supply of sugar stashed in this ramshackle ship of his. Force help her if he took a taste of it--she would have to draw her lightsaber and kill him.
He turned back to her quickly, catching her emotion.
“This bother you?” he asked.
“Yes,” she said between gritted teeth.
“Sorry, it helps me think.” But he shut the box and
held up his hands to show they were empty. “Okay...what was that, about ten or so years ago?”
“A few years longer.” She calculated it in her mind.  Callista had come to them three years ago, and it had been nearly eight years since Callista had left Luke. “Eleven, or twelve, I think.”
Cal nodded. “It was the last shippment...I remember there being a pregnant woman on board. A yellow lightsaber, am I right? Funny, she wasn’t Force sensitive. What was she doing with a lightsaber?”
Mara nodded. “That was Callista. It’s a long story.
What was done with the child?”
Cal stared out the viewport for a long minute. “She was pretty upset about the baby being taken from her. She escaped, like you said, but not before doing some heavy damage. She was Force-sensitive, now that I think about it.  But it was the dark side.” He frowned. “I remember Kerander talking about how some of the shields...he couldn’t get them back on line. He didn’t want to miss the shippment, but he didn’t want to be on the ship, either, in case something happened. He was a big coward. That was the biggest reason I left. The last I heard, the ship was headed out here.” He paused. “If you want more than that, you’ll have to let me check some things. I may know where to look. Besides, there were a few men I know who were on that ship when it went to Duran. They are none too fond of the memory of finding out how bad of a shape it was in. They may complain of it quite willingly. Such bad experiences make memories more vivid, don’t they?”
His eyes had turned to hers in the middle of his little speech, and held hers. After a long moment of silence, Mara deftly broke the contact and turned her back to him. “Please call me when you hear anything,” she said softly, and left.
7--Suspicions
Mara sat in the pilot’s seat of the Jaded Sky. Cal’s ship (which she had misheard before, it was actually called the Caliber) had docked her in their cargo hold, and she’d agreed to stay against her better judgement. The more space she could put before her and Cal, the better.
She remembered being with Luke, near the end of her pregnancy, and thoroughly freaking out on him when he’d done to her what Cal’s old trick had always been—biting her right on the back of her neck while holding her down. It was like a trademark, a thing he got off on and always made sure his victim got off on, too. The more she thought about it, the harder she shuddered.
Cal hadn’t changed. Perhaps there was a small amount of comfort she could take in that. After all, the devil you knew was better than the one you didn’t. What was it he had said? “Such bad experiences make memories more vivid...don’t they?” Bad experiences...sure, she could say that now, now that she was on the side of the light. Now that she was with Luke, who was sometimes the only thing that held back the dark forces that she had served for so long without knowing. She had told Luke once that she didn’t think she’d ever served the dark side, only Palpatine. He was a man, while the dark side was the Force. But Palpatine’s entire life and purpose had been for power from the dark side. Perhaps she had served the dark side after all. But that didn’t explain why it hadn’t dominated her destiny the way it had threatened to do to Luke’s.
Or maybe it had...and she’d just never seen it before.  One rarely noticed a smell once they’d been immersed in it for so long. Seeing Cal after how much she had changed and grown...she’d been wrong when she’d said that to Luke. Very wrong. But she had been saved from it, just as Luke had.
Saved by what?
Mara frowned. There was that feeling again. That feeling just under her stomach, the feeling that had haunted her while she carried Vaiya in her womb. She shut her eyes, determined not to let it have any power over her. It hadn’t been this strong since she’d given birth, but maybe if she meditated on it right away there might be an answer.
A vision flas hed before her. She wasn’t sure if it were terrible or beautiful. They were on Endor, and it was the night that the Rebellion celebrated the death of the Emperor. She hadn’t been there in real life, but in this vision she was with Luke. He looked so young, so victorious as he strode toward her. He had gained his victory over the dark side, and was now a Jedi Knight. He held out his arms to embrace her, and then he changed. His hair, sandy and fair, turned long and golden, flowing over his shoulders like honey. His crystal blue eyes turned to the blue-green hue of her lightsaber, and his face changed shape.
It was Vaiya. But she was not smiling in radiant victory. Luke had been a boy in many ways, exhuberant to return to his family. He had always been solemn, and would be solemn again, but there was still a restlessness to him that gave him an extra spark.
Vaiya did not have this spark. There was a sense of enormous loss about her. She grasped her mother’s hands and looked into her eyes, and Mara saw herself and her own fear. A future gaped before them, and she felt the Presence she hadn’t felt since she had nearly died, and given Vaiya her entire self as a memory. It was beyond light, beyond the Force, beyond time and the universe. And it radiated behind Vaiya’s solemn eyes that had a peace beyond anything even Luke Skywalker, hero and master of the Force that he was, had ever known. The loss, even though it left lingering pain, meant nothing. Hope was stronger. Mara could feel it in Vaiya’s grip. And as they stared at each other, Vaiya spoke, although there was no voice coming from her lips.
“Your courage will sustain you, Mother, but trust will be your salvation.”
Mara’s eyes snapped open to see Luke staring at her from the holovid.
“Mara!” he shouted. “Wake up!”
She ran a hand over her eyes and found herself
sweating profusely. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.”
“Well, you did!” He looked nearly angry with concern.  “I tried to reach you through the Force, but something was blocking me. Luckily Ghent called about Jabba’s Fist and I asked him if he could splice be a better line to contact you.  Seems the space you’re in is only open by old Imperial lines.”
She scooted closer to the console. “I had...another vision.”
His face softened. “About what?”
“The past, the future...I wonder if there is a difference
anymore.” She paused. “How is Vaiya?”
“She misses you.”
“I miss her. Kiss her for me.”
“If I can find her. Han came by to visit the twins, drop
them off some things from Leia. Vaiya has grafted herself to his leg.”
The vision those words conjured up made Mara smile.
“And how does Han like that?”
“He’s absolutely enchanted. You know he didn’t get to spend too much time with Jania when she was little, so he’s thrilled about Vaiya’s attentions.” Luke gave a little snort.  “She keeps wanting to call him Daddy Two.”
That made her smile wider. “Give him a break, Luke.  He’s married to the Chief-of-State. His kids spent their earliest years on another planet, being protected. You and I, however, are free to protect ourselves.” She paused, wondering how to tell him, but she didn’t have to.
“What is it?” he asked, frowning at her.
She shook her head. *Talk to me like this. We can’t
risk anyone hearing.*
Who did you meet?
An old boyfriend. That one I told you about, Cal?
Instantly, Luke darkened. Mara couldn’t help but enjoy
the jealousy a little bit. “What?” she asked innocently.
“That isn’t funny,” Luke said softly.
“I know,” she sighed. “But he was involved with the
Fist. He might be able to help us.”
“How long are you going to stay here?”
“Until tomorrow night. Then I’m out of here. If Cal
doesn’t have anything by then, he won’t have it at all.”
“Maybe he’ll stall...try and keep you there.”
She shook her head. “Don’t you trust me, Skywalker?”
she said teasingly.
“I trust you. I don’t trust him.”
“You haven’t even met him!”
“Mara,” he gave a nearly whithering look, “I trust you,
and I can feel your emotions. You don’t trust him, I don’t trust him.”
She sighed. “Tomorrow night, I promise. I have a feeling, though, that it won’t even take that long.” She yawned. “Luke, I hate to do this, but I’m exhausted.”
He nodded. “I understand. Use a trance. It may keep you from having any more visions.”
“I will. And Luke?”
“Yeah?”
“I love you.”
“I love you too. Goodnight.” And he was gone.
8--History
So Mara Jade was back. What a wonderful little coincidence, Cal thought as he scanned over his old files. He kept a minimal amount of records strictly for business reasons, and all of them were carefully encrypted to keep unwanted eyes from seeing them. She was back, and she was searching for the child of a dead friend. That was even more precious. And the fact that he was possibly one of her last leads---too perfect! He could sense her frustration. He’d gotten better at that over the years, and the price he had paid was starting to be worth it.
All he had to do now was make it worth her while to stick around a little bit. Surely this thing with Skywalker had to be nonsense. The woman he had known all those years ago would never have even thought of Skywalker in that way. After the nightmares and the visions, surely this couldn’t be real. Maybe she was with him, even married to him, even given the Jedi-wannabe a child—for Mara Jade, that was nothing. With her, loyalty had been everything. Loyalty to Palpatine, loyalty to her cause.
Of course, Cal had never kidded himself that she was every loyal to him. Mara made herself clear about what she thought of him. He was fun—no more, no less. He knew he would have to prove his worth to her if he wanted her loyalty.  Then she’d gone and left him before he could get the chance. He really couldn’t be too angry at her for that. That was just how she was. Restless, forever searching to fulfil her last command.
Perhaps...perhaps this was all a scam. Perhaps her revenge on Skywalker was worse than a simple death. By murdering the Emperor, he had murdered Mara’s life. Cal remembered how she had softened to him, telling him these things about herself. He knew he’d taken advantage of a lonliness inside of her, but it had been worth it—to him. She’d shared her pain, her sorrow, and her plans for revenge. Now, as Skywalker had taken everything from her, perhaps she was now preparing to take everything from him, just when he least expected it.
How beautifully wicked, Cal thought with a grin. And so like her. She was a prize, all right. How could he have just let her go? Now it was just a matter of getting her to trust him. Surely she had to keep her cover story intact, even make an old lover like him believe it. Skywalker couldn’t know, couldn’t come anywhere near the truth. But out here, on the rim, so far away from all of that...it was just a matter of time before she started to remember, and he started to win her over. All he had to do was keep smiling and wait.
He chuckled to himself as he strode down the hall back to his quarters. He would send her a line, inviting her to join him for a meal. Perhaps that would help relax her a bit.  And maybe he could find out why she was really here before she arrived. It might give him some useful leverage. He knew what persuaded Mara Jade the most. He would be sure to find it.
Back on Yavin IV, Han Solo was busy tossing his niece, Vaiya, high into the air and catching her. Vaiya was loving every second of it, although Luke was nervous enough in his observational post to stick close by in case Han should slip in his grip. Vaiya, however, knew what her father was up to, and Luke could feel her protesting him in her little-girl way.
*No, Daddy, no Force! Fly free! Uncle Han can make me fly free!* And she let out a delighted squeal as she floated a bit higher.
Finally, she alighted on the ground like a graceful bird.  Her long, sharp green tunic was twisted every which way, and Luke took a step forward to fix it.
“I don’t remember seeing you toss your own kids around like that, Han,” Luke said in his chastising Jedi-voice.
Han shrugged. “I know I did, but they were always surrounded by the Force so I never felt like I really tossed them. No danger, no fun, right?”
“I’m sure Leia just agrees with you a hundred percent,” Luke drolled sarcastically.
“She hovered around me just like you did with Vaiya.  But the kids were always so heavy with the Force they never needed her. I guess Force sensitives don’t like being without it. Vai seemed to thrive without it.”
Vaiya giggled. “Daddy’s head too full.”
“That’s what I’ve been telling him!” Han said, taking
Vaiya’s hand. “He won’t listen to me...maybe he’ll listen to you.”
“All right, you two, that’s enough.” Luke ruffled Vaiya’s soft hair. “Go on inside and get something to eat.”
“You guys keep any Dewback around here?” Han asked.
“Dooback?” Vaiya chirped.
Luke smirked. “What kind of desert farmboy do you
think I am?”
“Now you’re starting to sound like Mara.”
“As much as you sound like Leia.”
“Oh, eat my lightsaber, Jedi,” Han snorted.
Luke laughed. “Now you’re starting to sound like
Mara.”
“If only I were as smart. She was apparently smart enough to take a vacation from you.”
They headed into the kitchen, Vaiya dragging Han behind her, and Luke bringing up the rear.
“The more you insult me, Han, the more I know you love me.”
Han just grunted and shoved a piece of cold dewback in his mouth.
“Pumperbread, pumperbread!” Vaiya said, jumping up a down. Han frowned at Luke, but the Jedi/dad just walked over to a air-tight box and opened it up to pull out two thick loaves of dark brown bread. Vaiya snatched them up and flattened them out on the counter.
“She does really well for a three-year-old,” Han murmured as he munched another piece of dewback and watched Vaiya put some meat on the bread. When she had arranged the pieces how she wanted them, she looked up and her father expectantly. Luke stepped forward and spread a thick layer of some sticky substance on one piece that smelled like peanut butter, but was a little too moist to be peanut butter. “Come to think of it,” Han added, “you do well for a forty-four year old. Most new dads freak out when their kids eat freaky combinations like that.”
“She eats like a Hutt,” Luke said dryly as he folded the two pieces of bread together and cut them into quarters for Vaiya to eat more neatly. “You get used to it. Nothing comes as a surprised. Last month, she was eating Mon Calamari seastew and chomping those sugarbars in the same mouthful. Mara had a hard time with that one.” He let out a little sigh. “I hope she gets back soon.”
Han looked sympathetic. “I know how you feel, Kid.  But trust me, Mara is loyal to the core. She won’t do anything to make you sorry.”
“I know that,” Luke said, the tired tone was still there.  “It’s that Cal I don’t trust. From what Mara’s told me...he’s been dabbling in the dark side. I would just hate to have her find out the hard way he’s picked up some manipulative powers.”
Han clucked his tongue. “Come on, Luke, not every corrupt Jedi is Palpatine! You still haven’t learned to let go yet, have you? To just not worry and trust? If anyone in the world can resist temptation, it’s Mara. She wanted to kill you, didn’t she? Not only did she not kill you, but she married you!”
“Yeah, but not until after I spent ten years....never mind, forget it.” Vaiya was almost done with her third piece, and she was watching her father with big, thoughtful eyes.  Luke wanted to blush when he realized that she might, on some basic, emotional level, know what he was talking about.
“Gen gonna call,” was all she said.
Luke frowned, and a full minute later, the comlink
buzzed. Luke opened the line.
“It’s Ghent,” the blue-haired man said, his voice traced with a heavy line of dread. Luke felt his throat close a little.
“It’s Luke,” he answered. “You don’t sound too happy, Ghent. What is it?”
“Get to a holovid. There’s something I have to tell you.”
Luke nodded and started out of the room, toward the bedroom. But not before giving his daughter a quick meaningful glance.
9--Booby-Trap
“Destroyed?” The word was like a lump in his throat.
“The ship itself was blown up by some Duran booby
trap,” Ghent clarified. “The wreckage was never recovered. It sort of floated out of the Rim territory and was never seen again.”
“How did you find this out?”
“Funny you should ask me that,” Ghent said, his
normally serious face now amused. “I was slicing into some really old records and I just sorta...bumped into an old friend.  Frade, or something like that. When I first joined up with Karrde, he was already here, and we were sort of friends. He was hacking into the same thing and we kind of tripped over each other. He left just after Mara joined up, so he knew I had worked with her, and asked me who had sent me to find this stuff out about her. I didn’t take too well to that, mind you, so I demanded to know who had sent him. And this is the funny part.”
“What?” Luke said with mild impatience. He brushed it off.
“Frade now works for this guy named Cal Saphringer.
Mara used to sort of be an item with him.”
“I know. Mara ran into him while she was looking around Duran.”
“Duran is isolated. If Cal is out there, you can be sure his activities aren’t legal.”
“Some things are more important, Ghent,” Luke said softly.
“Well, Luke, I don’t know how much Mara told you, but...well, Cal was kind of attached to her, from what I understood. I met the guy a little while after she hooked up with us. He was looking for her, but she wouldn’t see him. In fact, she denied even knowing him. Cal told me about her being the Emperor’s Hand, but I kept my mouth shut, thinking it was a big lie to try and strongarm her into seeing him. Later on, when I found out, it was too late to say anything.”
Luke paled a little bit. “I thought Mara had to keep her idenity as the Emperor’s Hand a secret for the sake of protecting her own life. Why would she tell Cal?”
“I don’t know. But if he knows that, then who knows what else he knows?”
Like Mara wanting to kill me.
Luke had a sudden feeling of dread. “Slice me a channel to her,” he said. “I want her to come home now.”
When Mara woke up—very late—the next morning, her danger sense was tingling. She looked around her, but there was nothing. She scrambled to the cockpit of the Jaded Sky and found all the readings were normal. She even stepped out of the ship and scanned the cargo hold, but it all looked calm.
There had to be something wrong.
She scrambled back up into the cockpit and sealed
the hatch. She had to stay in here. It was safe in here. She was all fueled up and ready to go, all she had to do was take off.
Of course, that would be slightly rude to her host, she thought with a wry smile. She really didn’t want to do that.  Was it necessary? Sure, Cal was a little on the...unstable side. She slapped open a comlink to Cal’s quarters. In a few moments, Cal appeared.
“I was wondering when you were going to get up,” he said, caught slightly off guard. He was half-dressed, with his shirt hanging open and his dark hair wet and tossled from a shower. Apparently he also still liked to sleep late. Mara resisted the urge to take a second look.
“Did you make any progress on your contact last night?” she asked.
He gave a cockeyed smile. “I only called him last night. He hasn’t gotten back to me yet. What’s the hurry?”
Mara squirmed. “What do you think the hurry is, Cal?
I’ve got a little girl to get back to, not to mention a husband.  I’ve been wandering around the galaxy for over two  weeks and I want to go home. Let me know the second you find something.” And she cut off the communication.
With a sigh, she settled back into the pilot’s seat. Her anxiety was riding up on her again, and she had to calm it down. She took a deep breath and slipped into a mild trance, working her mind into a calming pattern.
As she sat, the minutes ticked by. She was aware of how secure she was on the ship. Nothing could reach her, she was safe. She moved deeper into the trance, calling on her most calming memories. As she regressed farther and farther back into her mind, she became aware of a memory.
She had lain at death’s door, in the realm between this life and the next. Callista had been there with her, passing on, bidding her goodbye. Although they had never been friends, Mara treasured that memory. It felt good to know Callista had found peace in spite of all the things that had gone wrong with her life, her very existence. She had lost her son and his father, but she was past all that.
Mara watched her go into a great Light that seemed to have a sentience beyond anything Mara had ever known. It was so beautiful, she felt the urge to follow. She had reached for it, just wanting to experience a brief moment, and had felt a Presence beyond any aspect of the Force she had ever known existed. It was beyond beautiful.
Although it was not the luminous brightness she had experienced all that time ago, Mara felt the edges of it now, just touching her mind. Like a scattered sunbeam, it shone into her soul with its flittering Light, faint but there beyond a doubt. And she heard words, as if the Light were not just Light but Sound as well. And the Sound said, “Trust Me.”
Her eyes snapped open. The comlink was flashing. It was Luke. So soon? she wondered, but received it away.
“Mara, you have to come home now,” Luke was saying. “I don’t want you anywhere near this Cal Saphringer any more. Has he told you anything about the Jabba’s Fist ship that made a trip to Duran?”
“He said he’d placed a call to his friend, and that his friend was going to get back to him sometime today,” Mara said, her voice sounding distant to her own ears.
“Mara...that ship was destroyed. They think the Durans destroyed it, part of their hostility toward offworlders.” His voice was pale as he spoke the words, but Mara felt sudden anger at him anyway.
“Luke...how can you just be so willing to give up!” she snapped, forgetting her earlier resolution to give up herself if this lead didn’t pan out. “Don’t you even care? This boy is your son!”
Luke just stared at her for a long minute. Mara could practically hear the wheels in his head turning. It wasn’t that she had been so cruel with her words—although they had been cruel nonetheless—but that her tone had been so angry. Distance did not mellow the vibrations through the Force. It was like she’d taken a set of steel claws and raked them over his heart, bringing up all the debris that clouded his mind. Luke felt his own regret at Mara doing all this and not himself, his internal anger over his failures in what he was trying to do, and his guilt over the belief that he just wasn’t trying hard enough because it was Callista’s son, and not Mara’s. As if that made the child mean any less to him.
Something had gone very wrong with Luke Skywalker.  He’d gone from being a control freak to being a wimpy neruotic.
“No, Luke, that isn’t true,” she started softly, feeling her healing calm from before return to her and sending it out to him. “I didn’t mean it that way. I know you tried. You did what you could. I did what I could. I’m the one who gets information. You’re the one who searches the Force. And even though we’re quite capable of doing each other’s jobs, we agreed that this is what we were best at. I know that you care, Luke. I care too. And not just because I promised Callista. This child is your son, and I want to find him.”
Luke shook his head. “You won’t find him out here.  The ship he was on was supposedly destroyed. It was never heard from again.”
“But it could still be out there! Isn’t it worth it to keep looking?”
“Yes, we’ll keep looking..but not from out there.”
There was jealousy in his voice as he spoke his next words.  “And we won’t be using Cal Saphringer’s help. I want you to head home now.”
Mara frowned. Maybe this was the reason her danger sense was going off—Luke’s bad feelings mixed with her own. “Aside from the obvious...any particular reason?”
“I just don’t like what I’ve heard. Ghent told me a little about him. He knows all about you, doesn’t he, Mara?”
“He did. He doesn’t any more,” she said pointedly.
Luke shrugged. “Nevertheless,” he began calmly, “it’s
no good. He may not be...stable.”
“I already suspect that.”
“All the more reason. Come home now. We’ll talk
more when you’re here.”
“All right. I’ll leave right now. I’ve been staying in Cal’s docking bay, but I’m still prepped for takeoff.”
“Good. I’ll see you in a week...keep your mind open to me so I can make sure you’re okay.”
“Sure thing, Master Worryrat,” she added with a good-natured smile. “I love you.”
“And I love you, Jedi Troublemaker.” The connection closed, and Mara started the pre-takeoff proceedures before calling on Cal again. He was dressed this time, his hair drying nicely.
“Mara, I’m starting to get the feeling that you want to see me,” he said with a charming smile.
“Only to say goodbye,” she said flatly. “I got some news from my husband, and he discovered that the ship I’m looking for was supposedly destroyed by the Durans. We could spend the rest of our lives searching for it.”
“I thought it was important to you,” he said, his cool exterior flailing a bit.
“It is, but going home to my family is more important.” She gave him a smile that surprised even her with is compassion. “I’m not the girl you knew, Cal,” she said gently.  “I’m going home.”
His eyes darkened. “Fine. Go on home.” Then, just as quickly, they brightened again. “You know, you could at least let us give you an escourt.”
“An escourt?” she said absently, checking some
readings. “No, it’s way too far for a small ship to follow me
home---“
“We’ve been out here so long, Mara,” Cal said with a wave of his hand, “that we could use a trip back to the core worlds.”
“I’m not going to the core words. I’m headed for Yavin IV. That’s where...” She stopped herself.
“Oh, that’s home?” he raised his eyebrows in surprise.
“I didn’t think you were a jungle girl.”
“I told you I’d changed.” Okay, she really wanted to end this conversation and was starting to not care if it was done gracefully or not. “I’m heading out, Cal. If you hear anything, send it to Karrde. His operation is hard to miss.”
“Oh, Mara, you’re being rude again.” He grinned at her. “As much as I enjoy it, I can’t accept it. We’re going to head back with you.” He rested his head on his chin. “Didn’t I hear that Skywalker had a Jedi Academy on Yavin IV?”
“Yes,” she said tightly.
“I’d love to visit it. You know I’ve never finished my
Jedi training.”
“I’m sure there are good reasons.”
“Now you’re being smart. Are you so sure you’ve
changed, Mara? Come on, what have you got to be afraid of?”
She let out a low, quiet sigh as she let the thought run through her mind. “I’m going on ahead of you,” she said. “If you follow me, I guess I can’t stop you.”
10--Home Sweet Chaos
He followed her back to the core worlds, for a solid week. She found herself pacing with anxiety over what Luke would think when he saw them. But maybe...maybe this might do Cal some good. If he could get a good earful of Luke’s “the darkside is bad” speech he would either be so annoyed he would want to leave ASAP, or he might take some of it to heart and shake that creepy aura that was massively wigging her out. Besides, at any rate, she had seven beautiful days to prepare for whatever might happen.  At least the comlinks didn’t work in hyperspace.
After the first day, she tried to reach out to him with the Force. She could feel him faintly, could feel his emotions, but it was like a blur. She had to be closer. On the second day, it was clearer, and she got the distinct sensation that he was moving closer to her.
Why in the Force would he be doing that?
Mara checked her navcomputer and considered her
options. If she were to suddenly drop out of hyperspace, she would give Cal the scare of his life. Sure, she could sent him a signal, but no explanation, and if he dropped out of hyperspace after her, she would have to deal with the annoying situation of talking to him.
Maybe she should wait a few days. So on day four, she tried again to find him distinctly closer to her. A day closer, at least. What was a day closer? Courscant was the only place she would even suspect he’d go to. But why had he gone there? Was there trouble? She simply had to know.  So she pulled the Jaded Sky out of hyperdrive, distinctively hearing the burst of static that Cal’s ship made in objection before it followed, and settled in to open a comlink to Courscant.
Minutes passed. Cal tried to call her, but she ignored
him as the channel cleared. The controller told her that
Master Skywalker hadn’t landed yet, but was still an hour
away from the planet. Mara cursed herself for not trying that
first, and struggled to think of the ship that Luke might
possibly be in. Come on, Emperor’s Hand, she demanded,
THINK!
Luke had said something about Han coming to visit.  Han...the Millenium Falcon. It was worth a try. So she opened the comlink and prayed to hear a familiar voice.
“They’re still on us!” Han Solo shouted as he manuvered the Falcon through some space debris. “What the hell did you do to piss these guys off?”
“I’ve never seen them before,” Luke growled from the copilot’s seat. They were outside the orbit of Yavin IV, having escaped narrowly from the makeshift deathsquad that had assembled over the Jedi Academy. Luckily, they weren’t after the Jedi—they were just after Luke.
His mind went to Mara. She was coming, he could feel it. But she would be coming to Yavin IV, possibly walking into a trap. So as hard as he could, he sent her the message---* Coruscant, Courscant, Coruscant!* and hoped that she was as smart as he believed her to be.
“I’m going to make the jump to hyperspace. If they want to follow us, they’ll have to take on Coruscant’s guardships.” Han punched in the coordinates into the Falcon’s navcomputer and waited for it to kick in. Within seconds, the small raging ships that had landed on Yavin IV and then chased the Falcon back into the stars again disappeared behind them.
“They’re probably going to follow us,” Luke said in a slightly dreamy voice.
Han threw a glance at him. “Wonderful. But first let’s take care of business. Why don’t you make sure my niece isn’t plastered to the Falcon’s ceiling?” Then he shook his head. “To who am I glad I brought Artoo along for a visit.”
They were an hour away from Coruscant when the comlink started to blink. Han snapped it open.
“Solo here,” he said warily.
“It’s me,” came the familiar voice. “Mara. Are Luke and
Vaiya with you?”
“Sure thing. Hold on just a second and I’ll transfer you back to him on visual, okay?”
Mara grunted her consent, but she was probably pretty distracted, Han thought as he made the connection.  Then with a sweet voice he called, “Hey, farmboy! There’s a girl on the line for you!”
Luke watched as Mara appeared before him, a holographic image. He shook his head at her in frustration.
“Why did you drop out of hyperspace? How far away are you, anyway?”
“About two days or so,” she said, sounding slightly sheepish. “I had a bad feeling I had to check out.”
Luke sighed and sat down, putting his head in his hand. For a minute, he felt completely drained—like he had all that time ago when Ben Kenobi had been murdered before his very eyes. Why was he getting that feeling about Mara?  She wasn’t going anywhere...unless...
“He followed you, didn’t he?”
Mara looked away. “I couldn’t stop him.”
There was a long silence. “Couldn’t stop him, or didn’t
want to stop him?”
Her eyes were on fire when she turned them back to
him. “I’m not even going to dignify that with an objection. If
you don’t know the answer to that then---“
“All right, all right. I’m sorry.” He sighed again. This was getting them nowhere.
“Why are you going to Coruscant?” she asked, her voice low.
“Because some band of unknown terrorists decided to pick me as their target.”
Mara straightened. “You’re kidding. Why now? Don’t you have any idea who they are?”
“I don’t know to both questions.”
“Is Vaiya safe?”
“Yes, she’s sleeping. She loved her first trip through
hyperspace. But it ain’t like dustin’ crops,” Luke quote with a quick glance toward the cockpit. “We didn’t do this for fun.”
“Then we’ll rendevous at Coruscant,” Mara said, “and I’ll give these guys a taste of what the Jaded Sky can do.  Maybe even Cal will help.”
Luke stayed silent.
“Well, kiss Vaiya for me.”
“What about me?”
“I’ll kiss you when I get home...with my fist,” she
added with a mock scowl.
“Provided you get here in time.  Put some speed into it, Mara. You’re two days too far away.”
“I’m going, I’m going. See you in two, Skywalker.”
Okay, that was wierd. Mara sat back in her chair and did some calculations. A few days ago, she had tried to reach Luke and figured out that he was moving. That must have been when the attack came. Now he was nearly at Coruscant. Was that deathsquad tracking him? It was entirely possible. Maybe they thought Coruscant’s guardships would help. It was a good plan, but Mara knew she couldn’t be a part of it so either way all she felt was frustration and helplessness. She could up her speed, but not without risking killing herself, and that certainly wouldn’t make her family or friends very happy.
So now she came to the feelings she’d been having about Cal. About how something was very off about him.  About how he’d reacted to the news that Skywalker was now her husband rather than her target. She could almost hear the thoughts brewing in his head, even in hyperspace. Then a thought suddenly occured to her. Cal was insistent on the fact that she hadn’t changed. If that was he was assuming, then everything she did would look to him like one of her old tricks. Like the times she pretended to be someone else in order to carry out a mission for whatever reason.
Perhaps he thought she was pretending to be Luke’s wife, just to get close enough to hurt him. Not kill him, that would be too easy. No, she’d have to make him suffer before she took his life away. That was the woman she had been, a long time ago. The woman Cal thought she was now.
Perhaps—and it felt more certain the longer she touched Cal’s buzzing mind—Cal was trying to help her out, or prove something to her. Maybe he’d sent that squad to Yavin IV. Although it was nearly impossible. He’d been out on Duran, and Yavin IV was a good seven days away. Well, maybe it wasn’t impossible, but it was stretching the possible just a little it.
She set her speed for as fast as the ship would go without flying apart. She only knew she wanted to get home to her husband and daughter as fast as she could.
Coruscant—it was a beautiful planet from the air. It was practically covered with cities, with certain parts of the land protected to preserve its wildlife and plantlife. But like most places, it was a nice place to visit, but Mara had no desire to live there. As soon as she dropped out of hyperspace, she felt the urge to land, yank Luke and Vaiya into the Jaded Sky, and take off with no certain destination.
She opened a comlink to the Coruscant station. Luke was waiting for her, but there was a bit of confusion about Mara’s landing clearance. Apparently, the fact that she was a Jedi Knight had very little influence over the director. They were expecting a ship of refugees from Tatooine, who were being forced off the planet one by one as the sandpeople took over more and more territory. It was a bit comforting to know it was from Tatooine. At least she was being thrown over for something worthy. So she waited.
And then they attacked.
Mara sensed them a full minute before the alarms on
the Jaded Sky went off. She swung around and readied herself for the initial blows, watching the guardships of Courscant move into defense position. The enemy ships veered off, then regrouped for a second run.
She chose that moment to turn a good defense into a good offense. She charged forward toward the closest ship and opened fire. The Jaded Sky didn’t have any really heavy power on it, but Mara had insisted that its lazers be top quality. The pale blue bolts shredded one of the angular wings of the enemy fighter, sending it spinning into one of its companions.
That was when the Caliber showed up.
It appeared like a raging beast, and all the enemy
fighters turned into frightened mice when they saw it. They barely kept themselves from colliding into him by pulling up and over hard to scatter around him. Cal let out some shots, crippled some ships, and  sent the rest running. Except one.
Mara wondered if it might be the leader, but realized the ship was too much of a runt to be holding someone of such obvious importance. It swung around and made a suicide dive toward Mara, who barely dodged aside in time, feeling the crazy urge to hyperventilate. She did the only thing she could think to do and not get herself killed—she ran.
One of the guardships got on the tail of her pursuer and managed to get off a few shots, but the little ship was not going to give up until it was a part of the entropy of space. Mara fought a rising urge to panic. Sure, it had been a long time. She’d never really participated in any space battles, but shaking insane enemies went basically by the same rules whether by land or in space. The last space battle she could think of, really, was when she’d knocked herself out and Luke had rescued her.
Her eyes focused hard ahead of her. The Caliber loomed before her, and she had an idea. She opened a comlink and said in her most no-nonsense voice, “Cal, get everyone out of your cargo bay, and focus your shields there at maximum.”
A few seconds passed as Mara closed the distance.  “Done,” came Cal’s voice, as if he’d already done it before she’d even asked. “What are you going to do?”
“Cause a whole bunch of damage to your ship that I’m going to have to pay for, and destroy an annoying little gnat on my tail.” And with that, she made a screaming turn away from Cal’s ship, and the smaller ship behind her, in spite of its better manuvering capabilities, crashed into the hull as she expected.
Mara leveled out the Jaded Sky and opened a comlink to the director.
“Can I land now?” she asked in a flat voice.
“Clearance at docking bay 27 for both you and your
helper,” the director said, his voice wryly admiring. “Master Skywalker is already headed there to meet you.”
“Thank you,” Mara said. She couldn’t wait to get on solid ground again.”
11--Jedi Knights
She practically ran down the plank where Luke was waiting for her. She hurled herself into his arms and he hugged her close.
“You okay?” he asked, alarmed at how fast her heart was beating.
She nodded. “Adrenaline overload.” She pulled away slightly and gazed up at him. “Besides, can’t I be really glad to see you?”
“Don’t complain, Skywalker,” came a voice from not-so-far-away. “It’s better than her trying to kill you, isn’t it?”
Luke turned to see Cal Saphringer striding toward them, his dark hair tossed carelessly about his head. He could feel Mara rest against him, and he tightened his arm around her waist protectively.
“And you’re Cal, right?” Luke said, forcing his voice to be friendly.
Cal nodded. “I’m quite impressed, Skywalker, really. I
mean, if you knew how different Mara was in her attitude
about you so many years ago---“
“Trust me,” Luke cut him off, casting a wry smile at Mara. “I know.”
Cal let out a little grunt. “I guess Jedi manipulation powers aren’t all on the dark side, are they?”
Luke started to scowl. Mara squeezed his other hand.
“I did some damage to his ship,” Mara said. “We’re
going to have to have it fixed.”
Cal waved his hand. “That’s not necessary, Mara, really. As long as you’re safe.” He gave her one of his breathless smiles, and Luke felt a tremor in the Force. Sting of it was, he couldn’t tell if it was coming from Mara or Cal.
It was at that moment that Han Solo strode into the cargo bay, Vaiya perched on his shoulders. The three-year-old girl squealed at her mother in greeting, and Mara broke away from the two conflicting men in her life to embrace her daughter. As Mara knelt down with the little girl to hear her tell her tale of traveling through hyperspace, Mara began to realize that Cal had significantly eased off whatever he’d been doing. It was like someone taking a rock off her head.  The longer she was with Vaiya, the clearer she got. Finally, Mara turned to them to see Luke watching her lovingly, and Cal just watching.
“She looks like you,” Cal murmured.
“Vaiya has Mara’s smile, and her nose,” Luke said
offhandedly.
“But she’s got your eyes, darling,” Mara said, brushing back a handful of Vaiya’s silky strawberry blond locks. “And your cheekbones.”
“What is she, a little girl or a jigsaw puzzle?” Han interrupted.
Luke jumped. “Right. Look, Cal, thank you for helping out my wife,” and he said the words with a tad too much accent on “my wife,” but he didn’t care, “and any repairs you need done to your ship, we’d be happy to pay for. Just let us know.”
Cal waved his hand again. “I already said thanks but it’s okay, really.” Cal’s dark eyes locked with Luke’s. “Once I say something, I stick to it.”
It was in that moment that Luke realized that this man was causing more than just the slight disturbances in the Force he and Mara had been feeling. This man was a walking, talking premonition of doom.
“So what made you run from the Academy?” Mara asked Luke when they were in private.
Luke was downloading the report the control station had sent to him so that he could try and identify the attackers. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, it isn’t like you to just up and run like that, even under attack.”
“I couldn’t put Vaiya in that kind of danger,” he said as he turned to focus on her. “We had to escape.”
“And protect the Academy?” Mara pressed. “You realize that taking Vaiya up in the Falcon was even more dangerous than just hiding in the Massassi temple. And what makes you so sure that whoever attacked you didn’t destroy the Academy when they figure out you weren’t there?”
“Because,” Luke said patiently, “I checked in with the Academy right after we got here, and my hunch was confirmed—they were after me and Vaiya, not the Academy.”
“You followed a hunch? You have been hanging around Solo too long. I remember when you used to call that Jedi intuition.”
Luke shrugged. “Perhaps they’re the same thing.” He frowned at her. “Are you okay? You still seem rather shaken up.”
“By what? The fact that some crazy unknown enemy is insane enough to attack us in protected space, or that my ex-lover turned Dark Jedi wannabe is staying two doors down from us? Exactly which would shake me up more, do you think?”
Okay, the claws were coming out. Luke gently opened himself up to Mara’s feelings, and saw what she’d been denying for the last few hours—her incredible worry. It had built up on her like a fungus, penetrating every aspect of her life, her fear over never finding Callista’s and his son, that the child was leading a life of slavery somewhere and she couldn’t save him, and the unsettling incident of Cal Saphringer returning to her life and treating her like she was the old Mara Jade and expecting her to ACT like it...it was too much. She’d been holding it in, and now Luke was the lucky winner she was pouring it out upon.
Mara sighed and shook her head. “No, it’s not fair. I shouldn’t do this to you. I’ve just been a bundle of nerves over the last months and I can’t understand it. It’s just so not like me.”
“Then you need to get rid of it,” Luke said. “I know how you can get rid of one of them.”
“How?”
“Tell Cal to leave.”
Mara blinked. “Just tell him? Get out and don’t come
back?”
“Sounds good to me.”
She gave him an amused frown. “Why, Master
Skywalker, you’re jealous. Isn’t jealousy of the dark side?”
Luke looked up into the air as he pretended to try and remember. “Nope, don’t remember Yoda ever mentioning that. Fear, agression, passion, hate, anger...no, no jealousy.”
She punched him in the arm and he grabbed her wrist to pull her closer. “Don’t do it for me,” he said huskily. “Do it for yourself.” He kissed her cheek and turned back to the download he’d gotten from the control tower. She hesitated a few moments, and then disappeared out into the hallway.  She felt this crazy urge to see her daughter before she did anything yet regarding Cal.
About fifteen minutes had passed since Mara had left the room, but Luke found out all he could in half that time— nothing. There was no record of the ships, their destinations and point of orgin had somehow been smeared pretty bad so they couldn’t be traced or tracked. They had shown up, wreaked havoc, and disappeared.
A real professional job, Luke thought as he stared at the scematic for Cal’s ship. The flight records had been updated in their graphics, and Luke could see clearly the markings the man had put on his ship. Old Jedi symbols for power, passion, and vengence. He wondered if Cal even knew what they meant.
As if on cue, the man entered the small holovid lounge, his dark cape removed to reveal a more simple dress. He reminded Luke of Lando a bit, dressed one of those spunsilk shirts and dark trousers with knee-high boots. His shirt hung open a little more than Lando’s usually did, revealing a sprinkling of black chest hair.
No wonder women found him so charming. Even Mara, once. But not anymore.
He clenched his fist. Not anymore.
“Skywalker,” Cal drawled. “I was just coming to see if
you and Mara had come up with any leads as to who your attackers were.” He glanced around the room briefly. “I can see that Mara isn’t here.”
“No, she went to check on our daughter.” Luke forced himself to relax. Maybe if he could convince Cal to leave, it would let Mara off the hook. If he did, Luke was sure that Mara’s unusual levels of anxiety would drop off. This guy reeked of the dark side.
“Ah,” Cal said. “I see. Well, did you come up with anything?”
“There wasn’t anything to come up with,” Luke said.
“They just disappeared.”
“No one just disappears,” Cal admonished with a quick frown. “Just like no one ever changes. Those fighters will be back, with more firepower. They were just playing with you, finding your weak spot, so they could use it to their advantage.”
Luke cocked an eyebrow. “You seem to know a lot about the enemy,” he said softly.
“Well, one of them did crash into me,” Cal said with a wave of his hand. “I guess you could say I got up close and personal.”
Luke took a deep breath and prepared to tell the man that he was grateful for his help but that he wanted him to leave both him and especially Mara alone when Luke heard Mara’s voice through the Force a few seconds before the alarms went off.
LUKE! We’re under attack!
12--Adventure & Excitement
They were sneaky, whoever these guys were, Luke decided as he made his way carefully to his Coruscant apartment. Maybe if he could stay out of view long enough he’d find a place to attack---
Green lazer blasted past him and he dove for cover behind a nearby column that stuck out from the wall. He automatically grabbed his lightsaber and ignited it, sending a burst of green light against the pale walls of the hallway. Just as he was about to attack, he noticed that someone else had a lightsaber, too, and his was bright orange.
Luke turned his head to see Cal cut right into the small band of terrorists, swinging his lightsaber two and fro.  Luke followed, desperate to check on Mara. She was okay, but wouldn’t be for long if the attackers didn’t relent.
Cal reached the door first, slicing one of the intruders in half as he passed by him. Luke shouted out a “HEY!” but Cal was already in the room. Luke heard the loud sound of blaster fire bouncing off a lightsaber blade, and Mara’s startled cry. When Luke finally caught up with them, he saw that Mara and Han had tipped over a very heavy stone table and were hiding behind it with Vaiya clutched between them.  Mara was peeking over the table at Cal.
“You were expecting someone else?” Cal announced loudly.
But the fight wasn’t over yet. The troops had retreated out of the suite and into the hallway, but they were determined to take a body count that day of the opposing side. Cal turned back to focus his attention on deflecting blaster bolts, while Mara lept over the table to Luke’s side.
“Stay with Vaiya,” she ordered.
“Why? Where are you going?”
“To prove a theory!” She pulled her lightsaber off her
belt and ignited it.
“Hell of a time!” he practically shrieked, but she was gone and out the door, every bit the fierce protecter she had always been.
Mara dove for the floor the second she stepped into the hallway, her lightsaber neatly twisting around her so she didn’t cleave herself in two. She rolled between the bright red and green bolts of blaster fire, then landed on her knees and brought her saber up, the pale turquoise of the blade lighting up her green eyes and giving them an errie glow. Mara felt the bloodfrenzy of battle attempt to descend upon her. She’d been in places like this before, and had always defended herself from her anger, using rage to give her strength, even if she wasn’t using the Force.
But anger and rage were the dark side. She had learned something in all these years with Luke. She had to fight from calm. So she stretched out with the Force, and found it waiting for her, her eager defender. She sucked in her breath and let it out again, an easy calming technique, regular and soothing in the midst of the chaos around her.
There was something else different about this, she realized as she deflected the bolts off her glowing blade.  Luke had told her that the Force was never to be used on the offensive—only defensive. That was why a Jedi only carried a lightsaber. Mara was deflecting the bolts, but this wasn’t going anywhere. They were going to keep firing until they ran out of ammo, or her arms fell off, whichever came first.
She didn’t care what side of the Force it called upon.  In the days she’d spent as the Emperor’s Hand until her days with the Smuggler’s Alliance, she’d learned one thing. The best defense was a good offense. And these slime sucking son-of-a-hutts were attacking her family. She would defend them until the last of them dropped dead for all she cared.
Mara slashed forward, deflecting the bolts at an angle now, using them as her own weapons as she moved closer to her attackers. She watched their expressions change from the neutral soldiers to the terrified victims as she got closer, but they were backing away, making room for themselves down the hallway. Luckily for her, there was debris.
She reached out with the Force and started to stir up the fallen objects. Pieces of rubble from where the blasters had damanged the walls started to fly in their faces. She slid a few heavy objects—a few colums that had held large vases containing giant plants, a decorative touch Mara had always disliked—behind them, and at least three of the eight would-be assassins fell, shrieking for mercy. As Mara passed one of them, she picked up his blaster before she knocked him out cold with the heel of her lightsaber.
This was more like it. Now she was in business.
“You’re just going to stand there and let Mara go out there and risk her neck?!”
Han Solo stared at Luke, his mouth agape. Beside him, Vaiya peeked over the top of the fallen table. “I don’t believe this, Luke. You let her go chasing around the galaxy for a child of yours that isn’t even hers, and now you let her go fight your battles for you while you hang back and play babysitter! I know Jedi’s are supposed to be into this ‘calm and tranquil’ routine, but there is a time and place for everything, Luke!”
Only a second had passed since she’d disappeared.  He hadn’t had enough time to think it through, and already Han was jumping down his throat.
“I wasn’t planning on it, but what else can I do?
Someone has to stay with Vaiya.”
“I’ll stay with her,” Han said, grasping Vaiya’s hand.  “I’ll get her to our apartment and leave her with the Nighori. If you had accepted their offer as bodyguards before, trust me, you wouldn’t have to deal with this mess right now.”
Luke swallowed over a knot in his throat and nodded.  Okay, he trusted Han with his own life, with the lives of those he loved. He could trust him with Vaiya. He just hoped Mara wouldn’t kill him for it.
“Fine,” he said tightly, “and for the record, I have no idea whose battle this is.    “ He pulled his lightsaber off his belt and charged into the hallway.
Cal had disappeared down one hallway—he could see the spectre of the glowing orange blade reflecting dimly against the white walls of the hallway as Cal drove those attackers back. Closer to the room, Mara had pinned a good handful against an aclove, and she had one of their blasters in one hand, her flashing saber in the other. Using only one hand to grip it instead of two—which seemed to be a growing habit with her—she slashed forward, destroying the blasters of two of the attackers and using the blaster to stun them.
What she didn’t see was that one of the three she’d already felled had a backup weapon stored in the ironically exact place to the hold-out blaster Mara had once favored. It shot into his hand and he aimed---
The loud buzz of Luke’s saber whizzing past something metal and neatly cleaving it in two nearly made Mara lose her concentration—for all of about a half-second.  So he’d decided to leave their daughter with Han and come after her. She didn’t know whether to be touched or to kill him. She managed to spare a second to see Luke behind her, lightsaber back in hand, standing over a man holding part of a hold-out blaster. He was staring up at Luke in utter terror.
Come to help clean up, darling? she managed.
*Actually, I was considering going and finding our new
friend and seeing how many throats he was crushing.* He barely managed to get the answer out because the small band had suddenly decided to focus all their attention on Luke—sharp and fast, the blasters were turned toward him.  Luke slashed toward the band and took out a few, until there was only one left. It was quickly dropped to the floor when Luke and Mara pointed their lightsabers at its possessor’s throat.
Mara shook her head slightly, then brought her lightsaber closer to the man’s throat. “Who sent you?” she demanded.
The man began to babble in a language she could not understand, not in all her years of traversing the galaxy. It didn’t sound like any language she’d ever heard of.
It was at this moment that security decided to show up. Luke glanced at a nearby chronometer—only five minutes had passed since he and Cal had shown up to join the fight.  No wonder they hadn’t come sooner. They did their part, though—they arrested everyone in the hallway, even attempted to arrest Mara and Luke, but the couple’s lightsabers were still glowing and the guards didn’t need much persuading to give it up.
“A man went that way,” Mara told the head guard, guesturing down the other hallway with her now deactivated lightsaber. “He has an orange lightsaber and he’d taken on at least this many men.”
The head guard nodded and barked orders for a small team to follow Cal’s path. They hadn’t gotten twenty feet away when Cal suddenly appeared—clutched between two Nighori. One had his lightsaber, and the other had Cal’s wrists tied together, which Cal seemed to be disliking intensely.
“MARA!” he shouted, “IS THIS HOW YOU REPAY A
FAVOR!”
Mara nearly winced from the dark tremor through the Force his shout caused, but she wasn’t going to show him that much throat. “Let him go, guys,” she said dryly. “He’s one of us...right now.”
The Nighori stopped him in front of the Skywalkers and untied his hands, but gave his weapon to Luke. “Forgive us, Son of Vader,” one said with a respectful bow. “We did not realize he was with you. We feared that he was one of the assailants.”
Luke grasped Cal’s lightsaber. It had an oddly familiar grip to it...certainly nothing he’d ever held, but its design was like to something he couldn’t remember offhand. He shrugged it off as he handed it to Cal, once his wrists were free. Cal practically snatched it from him.
“What the sith are these mutants doing here?” Cal railed on, managing to maintain his dignity while having a nice fit in front of half of the Palace Security. “Don’t tell me that you have them as bodyguards?”
“We serve the Son of Vader and his consort, Mara clan Skywalker, to honor the family of Vader,” the other Nighori hissed, his eyes on Mara. “Han clan Solo has brought us the child of the Son of Vader and she is safe in our midst.”
“Don’t be so rude, Cal,” Mara said, tossing her red-gold hair back over her shoulders. “If I can handle their calling me ‘Mara clan Skywalker’ you can deal with a little bit of manhandling.”
Cal’s eyes focused on Mara, and Luke got the distinct impression that he was Fed-Up with a captial F-U. “So much for my little vacation,” Cal said, his voice softer. “Perhaps I’ll be taking my leave now.”
“Perhaps that would be for the best,” Luke said quickly. “Mara and I are going to make ourselves pretty scarse for a while until we can figure out who wants us dead.”
Mara gave him a small grin. “This time,” she added.
Cal nodded, but his eyes didn’t leave Mara’s. “I hope
you’ll come and see me before I leave,” he said, his voice
softer. He didn’t have to say the next word that was in Luke’s
head so clearly he was sure he hadn’t imagined it. Alone.
13--Run
This time when Mara embraced her daughter, Vaiya was the one gaping at the small abrasions and cuts that Mara’s brief encounter in the hallway had caused along her arms. She hugged her mother more tightly, and even tried to cling to her leg, causing Mara a fresh flood of guilt. What had she thought she was doing, anyway? Running off like that right in front of her daughter. Both she and Luke were very lucky that they hadn’t traumatized her by their actions. They should have just sat and waited for security to show up and clean up the mess.
She snorted. On a cold day on Tatooine, she thought.
Mara picked up the little girl and cradled her in her arms. Vaiya wasn’t very big for her age. She fit into the cook of Mara’s arm rather easily, while her other arm supported Vaiya’s legs. It was times like this that truly tested her muscles, though. The constant weight could get pretty tiresome.  Although Jedi were pretty good at keeping themselves in the best of shape.
“I missed you, Mommy,” Vaiya said, yawning. All the excitement had finally taken its toll.
“I missed you too, Vai. But I’m home now. And the next time we leave, we’ll all go together.”
“When we go?”
“Soon.”
“To the sky?”
“Beyond the sky. We’ll fly in our pretty ship through
the stars.”
“Uncle Han talk about pretty stars. He says they make shapes.”
“They do. Some stars make big shapes across the sky, and some of them are made of swirling gas filled with every color in the rainbow.”
Vaiya’s eyes drooped. “When we go, Mommy?”
“Soon.”
“When soon?”
“As soon as you go to sleep, my love, and you can
dream about them.”
“Don’t wanna dream,” the little girl protested sleepily.
“Wanna go.”
“You can do both. Right now.”
“Kay.” Vaiya let her eyes close, and in a few seconds
Mara knew she was asleep.
Several minutes passed. Mara considered putting Vaiya in bed, but it was so peaceful like this. Plus she knew if she tried to move it would wake her daughter up again, and Mara was just too plain exhausted to use the Force. No, she would just sit here for a little while and enjoy the peace.
After those minutes had passed, Vaiya wasn’t the only one dreaming about flying through the stars.
“Son of Vader,” one of the Nighori guards pleaded in his rough voice, “if you would allow us the honor of protecting you, this sort of thing would not have happened.”
Luke shook his head with a smile. “I appreciate the offer, really, but my wife and I have decided it’s better this way.”
Behind the Nighori guard, Leia rested her chin on her palm. “I can’t change your mind about this, can I?”
Even Han looked a bit shaken. “At least come by to visit, Luke. So we know you’re still alive.”
Luke smiled. “I’ll be fine, trust me. I just don’t want Vaiya exposed to this sort of thing again. And especially if that Cal Saphringer,” he practically spat the words, his smile gone, “is responsible for this like I think he is. He can’t know where we are. Ever.”
Leia nodded. “I can’t give you my blessing on this, Luke, but I do wish you well.”
“I know.” He hugged her. “Tell the kids I love them, okay?”
“Anakin’s going to be crushed,” Han muttered.
Luke slapped him on the arm. “I’ll see him when I
come to visit. You’re just mad because I’m taking Vaiya away.”
Han tried to fight off a smile. “I just don’t want to see her turn into a lunatic Jedi like her father.”
“No, you’d rather see her turn into a cunning smuggler like her mother, right?” Leia teased.
“Speaking of Mara, I’m going to go find her. We’ll say goodbye before we leave, don’t worry.” Luke turned and left Leia and Han’s apartment, heading right down for his own.  There was a Nighori standing guard, and Luke relieved him—
respectfully. Maybe he should rethink his refusal of Nighori aid, he thought as his eyes passed over those needle-like teeth. Creatures like that never had to do anything to intimidate enemies. They just were.
He stepped into the apartment and felt Mara’s warm presence. Very warm, actually. A few steps into the next room showed him why. She was asleep, with Vaiya nestled in her arms. Her head was resting back and tilted a little to the side, exposing her neck, well muscled and yet slender and graceful. Her red hair gathered on top of Vaiya’s own strawberry curls, and their chest rose and fell in the same rhythmic pattern.
He really didn’t want to break this up, as precious as it was. Maybe there was a way he could absorb this picture into his head with the Force. Make it a momento for the rest of his life, a holograph that would never fade. The pure peace of it was like a thick, sweet wine—it lulled him into a quiet, calm place where he could almost see the Force around them.
Stepping forward, he lightly grasped Vaiya with the Force, careful not to move her as long as Mara had her arms adjusted to hold the weight. He bent over and gently kissed Mara’s neck, and Mara’s eyes fluttered open and her head turned to gaze at him. She stirred, and Luke slipped Vaiya from her grip and lifted her with the Force into his own arms.  While Mara came back to the conscious world, Luke put Vaiya in her bed.
You know, Mara sent, *most parents have to take
their chances and move their kids with normal force. You’re
cheating to do it that way.*
Luke tossed her a crooked grin. *If you like, we can go
back and do it again.*
Mara stretched like a cat and stood up to walk over to
him. Nah, you’ve already taken care of it. She gave a little
shrug, and then looked down at Vaiya. *Poor kid. She’s been
through so much.*
*Very little, actually, compared to what you and I faced
when we were young.*
Mara sighed. *That’s part of what worries me, Skywalker. I mean, she’s got both you and me for parents.
Her genetics are all screwed up.*
Luke eyed Mara up and down. *Where she got her genetics from looks fine to me,* he sent.
*You’ve got anger, I’ve got anger, Vader had some
really big anger...Force forbid Palpatine scared me enough to
have it hurt Vaiya too.* Mara touched her daughter
protectively. *Sometimes, I want to have a normal life so
much it hurts. But this is the best thing, I know.*
Luke slid his arms around Mara’s torso and pulled her
close. If we had had normal lives, he sent, *you and I would
never have met, and she would never have been born.*
You know what I mean. She rested her head against
his chest. I’m just..so tired.
But what about the old saying that life begins at 40?
They lied.
Did they? There was a seductive note in his mind,
and Mara looked up to see his eyes gazing down at her,
hazy with desire. You’ve been away too long, Mara.
She wanted to laugh, but didn’t dare. All Luke got was
the mirth in her mind. *I guess you’ll keep me young,
Skywalker. You’ll never grow up, will you?*
Never. And he pulled her down to the floor.
HERE? But what if we wake Vaiya?
Luke pressed himself on top of her, his lips nuzzling her ear. *Then we’ll just have to make sure we stay really quiet. Like this.* And his covered her mouth with his kiss.
14--Good Riddence
The next morning, Mara somehow managed to tear herself from Luke’s arms—they’d fallen asleep on the floor of Vaiya’s room, and agreed they should move quickly and quietly before the little girl woke up. She needed to see Cal off. Maybe this would put to rest some of her odd feelings about him, as well as her suspicions.
Cal was overseeing restocking of his ship with all the necessary supplies. Mara approached him from behind, not wanting him to see her, but not willing to wait for the right moment. She was only three feet from him when he turned and smiled at her, as if he’d already known.
“Come to see me away?” he asked. “Do I get a kiss goodbye?”
“You get a thank you,” Mara returned evenly. “For helping out yesterday. Although I admit I’m not sure why you helped.”
“Mara, you wound me. Whatever else that has happened, I still consider you a friend.”
Mara just stared at him. “You don’t have very good taste in friends, Cal,” she said softly.
Cal shrugged and gave a self-depreciating little laugh.  “I guess I don’t. I tell you, Mara, seeing you like this has shaken me up a bit.” Then in a softer voice, he added, “So when are you going to tell him?”
“Tell who what?”
Cal rolled his eyes at her. “Don’t play coy. You may do
it well but I find it so uncharming.”
“If you’re referring to Luke, he already knows. There’s no one else to tell anything. You and I...aren’t anymore. But maybe you can keep an eye open for that missing child for me in your little adventures.”
Cal nodded, and Mara could feel him attempting to probe her mind. She had firm barriers, and he got nowhere.  “What I was referring to,” he said after a few moments, “was this charade you’ve got going here. When are you just going to kill him and get it over with?”
The suddeness of the question make Mara’s brain lock up for a second. That was one of Cal’s tricks—to say the outrageous thing he was thinking of to throw her off. But in that second, it all sort of clicked into place.
“I knew they were your men. That was why they didn’t hit me. Even with my lightsaber, I would have been a perfect target at that range.” She let out a ragged sign, holding back rage. She had to hear his side—she had to give him that.
Cal advanced on her, his eyes not breaking contact with her own. “Come on, Mara. You say you’ve changed, you say you haven’t. Hate like what you had doesn’t just melt into love, like some fairy fable. I hoped this was all a set-up.”
Mara was horrified, but she kept her cool. She wanted to ask him why he thought that, to hear all the reasons again and put them together in one long list so that she might be able to make sense of it. But she already knew.
“You know,” she finally replied, “what the worst of all
this is? You aren’t wrong. People don’t change. But I did
change—or rather, something changed me. I love Luke, I’ve
born his daughter, and---“
Cal waved his hand. “Children...sex...whatever, Mara.  That isn’t proof of love. People couple all the time and make children, whether they’re husbands and wives or not. Do you really love Skywalker? Prove it to me and I will never darken your doorstep again.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. For the first time, anger got the better of her. “Fine. You want to know whose child it is that I’m chasing after? Yes, the son of a former Jedi Knight, Callista. But that’s not the whole story. The boy is Luke’s son, too. Now who do you know other than me that would do this sort of thing for a man she wanted to kill?”
Cal seemed to consider her for a moment.  “Convincing,” he murmured. “But there could be reasons behind that, too. Maybe the same as your reasons for bearing him a child. When the time is right, you plan on worse than just killing him. You want to destroy him utterly.” He grinned at her. “That would be more like you, Mara, and you know it.”
She shook her head. “I followed orders. I was never cruel.”
“Weren’t you? I know things about you, Mara. I chased all over for you when you left me. Talon finally convinced me it was in my better health interests to leave you alone while you were his employee. I learned things about you, though. Jobs you’d done, the things you pulled.  Perhaps all this holier-than-thou Jedi Knight bantha dung has made your memory short. You’re no better than I am. Inside, you know that part is still there, and you don’t know whether to fight it or not. Maybe that urge to kill Skywalker is still there. Tell me, does he trust you completely? In spite of all that’s happened?”
Mara held perfectly still during Cal’s tirade, as if she were afraid to move. When she spoke, only her lips moved.  “He trusted me even when he knew I had every intention of killing him. He always knew me as I really was, Cal. The woman you knew a long time ago has gotten rid of those demons. I suggest you do the same. It isn’t too late for you.”
Cal snorted. “You’re even starting to sound like one of them. What should I do, stay here and learn about the light side of the Force? I’ll bet your hubby would just love that, wouldn’t he?” He paused. “You see, either way it doesn’t work.”
Mara stared at him, the suspicions from earlier coming back to her. Those men she’d fought in the hallway—they hadn’t aimed to well at her. But Skywalker had gotten the full treatment, all blasters aimed right at his face the second he’d appeared. And Cal jumping into battle so quickly—he’d defended them too quickly. It was not like Cal to stick his own neck out. Then he’d come back in the grip of two Nighori, and no other prisoners save himself.
I’m not so sure why you helped, she’d said to him.
Now she was sure.
“You did it, didn’t you?” she whispered.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Mara,” he said
with a smile, and then bent over to kiss her on the cheek.
She was frozen with a mixture of rage and outrage.
“Farewell for now, Mara Jade. You know how to reach me if you want me.”
She glared at him as he walked all the way into his ship. “Don’t hurry back,” she whispered as the ship prepared for takeoff. She turned and left the hangar, not even looking back as the ship rose out of sight.
Luke was sprawled out across the bed, flipping casually through the journal he had started a long time ago.  He had been working on it on and off over the last few years, but lately there just hadn’t been any time.
Mara came in, and Luke instantly sensed something was wrong. He waited silently and patiently as she came over to him and sat down on the edge of the bed beside him.
“He’s gone,” she said, her voice flat.
“I know.”
“I think he’s the one who arranged this attack. He was
trying to kill you.”
Luke gave her a little grin. “Should I take that personal?”
She turned her head to look at him with humorless eyes. “Are you hearing me? He managed to launch an attack at us within hours of our arrival here. He’s always been quick to get things done, but that’s plain scary.”
Luke ran a hand through her hair. “We’re leaving soon. We’ll be safe.”
She shook her head. “He’ll bide his time. That’s what he’s good at.” She let out a ragged sigh, and continued, “I can’t believe he’s doing all this over me.”
“I can.”
She flopped back on to the bed, stretching her arms
over her head. “Then you’re just as nuts as he is.”
“Well, I wouldn’t go that far. But I know about obsession. People get something stuck in their heads and they can’t shake it. You’ll have to face him one day, you know, Mara, and resolve this.” The anxiety that enimated from Mara at that moment was enough to make Luke wobble. “Not anytime soon,” he added.
“Doesn’t matter. He’s got one up on me anyway.”
Luke frowned. “What?”
“He knows about you and Callista, and that I’m looking
for your son.”
He grew very still. “And?”
“I’m just...afraid.”
Luke sat up and pulled Mara up into a sitting position.
Their arms locked together, one’s hands on the others forearms. “What are you doing?” Mara asked.
“Work with me,” he said. “I’m going to see if I can put this anxiety of yours to rest...at least for a while.”
“I’m up for that,” she said wearily.
Luke shut his eyes. Follow me, Mara, he sent
through the Force. Mara shut her eyes and reached out for him.
For a moment, she saw it—the Mosaic of her life as she had seen it when she was standing with him on the observation deck, staring out into the stars. Beautiful and grand, almost infinite. As she stared at it, she could see Vaiya, and the boy Luke and Callista had had--*Valery?* she thought, the name a fragment in her mind. But the pictures weren’t stable. They moved, the contorted, they ran together and spread out.
Destiny, came Luke’s voice from beside her, *has
been the most important driving force in my life. But the
future is always in motion. Destiny is only the beginning of
our path, not the end.*
We choose our destiny, Mara sent back, understanding him.
*We accept or deny it, or we change it. But in the end,
destiny is fulfilled.*
*I don’t understand. How can we be free to choose
and yet always have it end up in the same place? How can
there be a choice when what happens is what is meant to
be?*
She could feel Luke grinning. *That is the mystery of
the Force.*
No, she objected. It is far beyond the Force.
She expected him to correct her, but he remained
silent for several moments. For a Jedi, he finally continued, *peace is the true objective. Peace must be in the heart during any trial. Without peace, the dark side can close in.
Mara, you must find your peace.*
Mara searched, and as she did, she could see Luke with her, as if they were physically present in this dimension of mind. She could see Vaiya, her daughter, embrace her and say that everything would be all right. *Just be patient, Mother,* the young woman said.
Mara took in a deep breath and found the air was warm and sweet around her. The gnawing teeth at her stomach stopped and the ache from her shoulders lifted. She let it all go, let it slide into the fabric of the Force, to be crushed against the blinding light as a moth disintegrates in a flame. When she opened her eyes again, Luke was staring at her, his blue crystal orbs shining with the power of the Force around him. He was a Jedi Master, her Jedi Master, teaching her a lesson she needed badly.
“Feel better?” he whispered.
“Yes. How long will this last?”
“As long as you want it to. Mediate on what you saw
here whenever you feel it come back. It will return you to this peace.”
She nodded. “I will,” she said, and then after a second’s hesitation, she added the honorific, “Master.”
He nodded, and the old Luke returned. “Let’s get geared up, then,” he said. “We’ll leave soon.”
“I hope this is the right choice,” she said, her voice calm.
“It is,” Luke assured her. “We won’t stay away forever.  Vaiya will return to Yavin IV ready to complete her training. I have a feeling she’ll be an early bloomer.”
“She’ll bloom when she’s six at the rate she’s going.”
Luke shrugged. “If she does, she does. But she’s
going to get to see the galaxy first. There are many things she should learn first about this universe we live in if she is going to become a Jedi Knight.”
15--Ten Years
True to their plan, Luke and Mara left Yavin IV by the next day, and did exactly as they intended—they visited the galaxy.
Vaiya absorbed languages. It seemed to be her knack. She could understand Chewbacca perfectly by the age of six, and even imitate some of his noises. By the age of ten, Luke began her lightsaber training, letting her use Callista’s lightsaber, like Mara wanted. But when puberty hit her at 13, she was ready to get off the Jaded Sky and get as far away from her mother and father as she could. She temporarily lost control of her ability to lift objects and there were a few incidents that some spaceports had to record in their logs of unusual phenomenon. Vaiya always apologized, but how could Luke and Mara punish a child who was locked up with them in a ship in the deep of space? What were they going to do—ground her?
Vaiya had charm and grace. She had her father’s innocent looks and her mother’s guile. But if anyone were to ask her parents which one she was most like, the response was always, “Luke.” She had a restlessness about her that sometimes scared the Jedi Master. He didn’t want her running off and trying to blow up and Star Destroyers. But he also knew what it was like to be forced to stay in one place and desperately desire to be in another because of a parental figure who thought they were doing the best thing for the child.
They stopped at Yavin IV and Courscant regularly.  Vaiya usually clung to her Uncle Han. She always said she liked the way Uncle Han’s head didn’t buzz. Han doted on her, realizing that she wasn’t destined to be a nutcake like most of the Jedi’s he’d known. This girl wanted to live a real life in the real world. And she was her mother’s daughter. In spite of the spoted past he and Mara had had, if there was anything Han felt for the ex-assassin, it was respect.
There were reliefs for Vaiya every once in a while, when Luke and Mara would help complete the training of a Jedi Knight—new people which mostly stood in awe of the ability of one so young. It would never last, and they were few and far between in the 11 years they spent on their travels. Mara’s experience as the Emperor’s Hand was sometimes the only thing that kept them interested—often, she would pop out interesting information about this planet here or that moon, and want to see if it was still that way.  Every once in a while, they would land into some trouble, but nothing they couldn’t handle. Mara would always say, “Just because Jedi’s shouldn’t crave adventure doesn’t mean they shouldn’t have any.”
Finally, when Vaiya was 14, they returned to Yavin IV, to stay. She was so happy when she found out that she wound up giving her parents too big of a Force boost of joy and slamming their heads against the hull.
The jungles of Yavin IV had always fascinated her, since the very beginning. All the sounds and the textures, the animals and the colors. If left on her own for too long, she would wander too close into the outskirts. It was usually Mara who discovered her first—her mother always seemed to know where Vaiya was, no matter what.
Then there were the Jedi Knights. There had once been a legion of them, but Mara had gotten her way and the Academy was now more of a Pre-Jedi school. There were twenty or more young men and women, mostly humanoid but sometimes interesting aliens would pop up, and Vaiya was always testing her language skills.
Until, of course, she got her first crush. She was fifteen when he arrived—not exactly attractive by regular standards, but he was charming. He had bright eyes and a wide smile, and he treated Vaiya like she was a princess.  She never escaped his notice, and he never escaped his. He was the same age as the Solo twins---who were well into their twenties, with Anakin only a few years younger—and managed to charm them as well. Once or twice, Mara said something to Luke about curbing the young man’s flirtation skills—half of the female body of Yavin IV were talking about him. Derrin Nighttreader from Tatooine was definitely a hit among the Jedi-Knights-to-be.
Vaiya, however, was beyond serious in her infatuation for Derrin. The fact that he father, also a native from Tatooine, prized Derrin as a great hope for the future of the Jedi Knights, didn’t help the matter. Luke would smile and shake his head at Mara, telling her not to worry—Vaiya would grow out of it.
Mara knew better.
The connection the two women shared Mara credited
to what had happened before Vaiya was born. Terrified that she would die and her daughte