MARA JADE - JEDI MASTER
Since the end of the Galactic Civil War between
the New Republic and Empire, there have been
five years of peace.
Now, though, a new enemy begins to appear
from the depths of the Unknown Regions.
In the ensuing conflict, Lady Lumiya emerges
once again to challenge Luke Skywalker, who
must confront her in the grim knowledge that
it may cost him all that he holds dear...
It was perhaps the mightiest fleet in the history of the galaxy.
Thousands of ships from every system in the New Republic and Empire had assembled above the planet Coruscant. Hapan Battle Dragons, Mon Calamari Star Cruisers, Imperial Star Destroyers, and hundreds of other classes of ships hung in space. In the middle of the fleet lay two Super Star Destroyers of the Imperial Fleet, their size dominating every ship present, except for one. The SSDs flanked the flagship of the New Republic fleet, the immense Republic-class starship Galactic Defender. Roughly three times as large as the Super Star Destroyers, it carried over three quarters of a million crew and troops, an entire four wings of starfighters, and had been designed to be capable of taking on and defeating an entire battle fleet without any support.
Many in the New Republic, led by the Jedi Master Luke Skywalker, had argued strongly against the idea of such a formidable starship, viewing it as coming dangerously close to the concept of superweapons like the Death Star. Super Star Destroyers themselves were deadly enough, let alone a ship of such augmented size and power. In the end though, the construction of Galactic Defender had been approved, in view of the new threat from the Unknown Regions, the employment it would bring for shipyards and crewing, and to act as a symbol of the New Republic, although those opposed to its construction had eventually won the concession that no other Republic-class battleships would be built.
Now it lay quietly in the centre of the fleet massed over Coruscant, in readiness for a journey of exploration, and war if necessary, into the Unknown Regions. The New Republic and the Empire had joined forces to do so, with the Imperial forces commanded by Vice-Admiral Ardiff of the Imperial fleet from the Super Star Destroyer Renown. Both the SSDs had been built since the end of the war between the New Republic and Empire five years ago, on the orders of Supreme Admiral Pellaeon.
On the bridge of the Galactic Defender, Princess Leia Organa Solo stared out over the massive fleet. The bridge itself was so enormous that a Corellian Corvette could almost fit inside it. The fleet had been ready to depart for a few days now. They merely waited for one more arrival before they could leave.
A familiar voice spoke behind her, disturbing her from her reverie. "Quite a sight, isn't it?"
Leia turned, smiling. "Wedge!" She hugged him warmly. "I should have known Rogue Squadron would have been roped in on this event."
Wedge laughed. "Another chance for us to add to our everlasting fame as heroes of the New Republic. Still, it's a change from hunting down pirates and smugglers, or teaching starstruck fighter cadets who can't believe that they're being taught by General Wedge Antilles himself. Peace is all very well, but it can become monotonous. Anyway, you didn't come here to listen to my complaints. Isn't Han with you?"
"Oh, he's here all right," Leia said. "He never changes. No prizes for guessing that whatever he's doing involves the Falcon, Chewie, and a starship maintenance kit."
"Well, that's Corellians for you," Wedge commented. "I ran a check on New Republic ship classes the other day. You can count the YT-1300 freighters still in active service on one hand. How are Luke and Mara these days, by the way?"
Leia shrugged. "I don't really know. We speak to them over the Holonet occasionally, and I know they sometimes visit the Academy, but they spend most of their time travelling around the galaxy with some of the advanced students on the Chu'unthor II. They told me Kyp had asked them to pay a quick visit to Yavin 4 before coming here, I don't know why. Actually, they should be arriving-" she closed her eyes and reached out with the Force, "-now."
From the outskirts of the fleet, there was an abrupt flicker of pseudomotion and a strange looking starship appeared.
"Looks like that's them," Wedge commented. "Give the Skywalker Spirit clearance for docking bay 34," he instructed an aide as a sleek and well armed ship emerged from the Chu'unthor II's hangar. "Do you mind if I come with you?" he asked Leia.
"Not at all. I'm sure Luke will be pleased to see you." She looked around the bridge.
"We are ready, Lady Vader," came a mewing voice as Cakhmaim appeared seemingly from nowhere.
The Skywalker Spirit touched down gently on the deck of the docking bay. Leia, Han, and Wedge, together with the children, Chewbacca and Threepio, and Leia's Noghri bodyguards, watched as the ramp slowly lowered. Even before it had finished lowering, Luke Skywalker sprinted down the ramp to seize Leia and lift her clear off the deck in an exuberant embrace. "Easy, Luke," she gasped as he swung her round and set her down.
Stepping back, she looked at him. He looked content, and his blue eyes were still those of the farm boy who had rescued her from the Death Star so long ago, but the once blond hair had faded appreciably since she had last seen him, and to her shock, she realised that he had more than a few grey hairs, which were compounded by the lines in the corners of his eyes.
"That's what comes of being married to Mara," Luke commented, knowing what she was thinking, "not that I regret it, of course. Are you still tinkering with that piece of junk you call a ship, Han?"
"Watch it, Luke," Han growled, although the expression on his face belied the tone of his voice, as they gave each other a fierce bear hug. The children rushed forwards to greet Luke as soon as he and Han let go, nearly knocking him off his feet in the rush.
"I thought even Jedi children were meant to have control of their emotions," a voice said dryly from behind them.
Leia turned to see Mara coming down the ramp, leading what looked like a four year old clone of herself. Han had taken great pleasure in describing to Mara what she had to look forward to once Alina Skywalker reached her teens. She already showed signs of having inherited virtually all of Mara's personality, with only a thin slice of Luke's patience mixed into it. She came forwards and crouched down to hug her niece. She had seen very little of Alina in the last eighteen months, and it was clear that she hardly recognised Leia. She certainly didn't recognise the Noghri, shrinking back in fear as they approached.
Luke, who had managed to free himself from the clutches of the children and was speaking to Chewbacca and Wedge, turned away and came over. "It's all right," he said, crouching down besides her reassuringly. "They're not dangerous."
"We would never harm an heir of the Lord Vader," Cakhmaim agreed. Even now, some of the Noghri found it hard to free themselves of their reverence for Darth Vader, despite his cold blooded exploitation of them. Luke nodded. He took Alina's hand and gently held it out to Cakhmaim, who bent forwards and sniffed it. She giggled involuntarily as the Noghri's nostrils tickled her skin.
Mara watched for a second before turning away. "Come on," she said to Jaina. "I'll show you the new modifications we've installed in the Spirit." Jaina, always fascinated by starships, eagerly followed Mara up the ramp into the ship. Anakin, who had almost as great an interest in them as Jaina, trailed closely behind her. Jacen hesitated for a moment. He did not share his sibling's interest in starships, but then turned and followed them up the ramp.
Luke watched them go into the Spirit before straightening up. "I'll have to return to the Chu'unthor II in an hour or so," he said. "Some of the Padawans are ready to be declared full Jedi Knights."
"You're not coming?" Leia said in surprise and some disappointment. She hadn't seen Luke for several months and had been looking forward to some time with him. "I thought..."
Luke shook his head. "I'm afraid not. Someone has to stay and teach the remaining Padawans on the Chu'unthor II. Besides, I don't think Alina should be in a position of danger."
Leia saw Mara glare at him. Both of them had differing ideas on how to bring their daughter up, ie they both thought she should be brought up the same way each of them had been. Luke was adamant that she would not be involved in such risk while she was so young, while Mara maintained that experiencing dangerous situations and looking after herself would be good practice for adult life. She had seen the two of them argue bitterly over this several times before, and it looked like this might be the latest example.
"Surely a Jedi Master should come on the journey, though?" she asked, attempting to defuse an argument before it began. "Since we only have two Masters, that means you or Kyp. I know he has his hands full at Yavin, and aren't the Padawans on the Chu'unthor II advanced enough to take care of themselves for a while?"
"Kyp and I really can't spare the time," Luke said. "A Master will be going with you, though. We have three Masters now, not two. Why do you think Kyp asked us to come to Yavin?"
A slow smile spread across Leia's face as Luke's words sank in. "Congratulations, Mara," she said.
"I felt Mara was ready to be declared a Master for some time now," Luke said. "I didn't feel that I could do it myself, for obvious reasons. I've been dropping hints to Kyp about it for a while. He finally put it before the others and they agreed."
Leia nodded. Three years ago, when Luke had decided that Kyp was ready to be declared a Master, he had asked the opinions of Streen, Tionne, Kam Solusar, and several other prominent members of the academy, as he had not felt it should be his decision alone. Kyp had clearly done the same in considering whether Mara should be declared a Master.
Luke met her eyes. "I'm sorry. I'll try and sort something out with Kyp about temporarily overseeing our students as soon as this Unknown Regions crisis is resolved, so the three of us can come to see you."
At that moment, Wedge's comlink beeped, and he took it from his belt to answer the incoming transmission. "Sorry, I've got to get back to the bridge," he announced when he had received the message. "We're getting the final pre-lightspeed jump confirmations from the fleet." He looked at Luke. "Good luck. May the Force be with you."
Luke nodded. "You too," he answered before Wedge turned away towards the turbolifts at the back of the hangar.
Han threw a look at the Skywalker Spirit. "Couldn't Mara wait to get Jaina and Anakin on board that thing you call a ship for some free maintenance work?" he asked tauntingly, never able to let a slur on the Falcon pass.
An hour later, Luke, Mara and Alina waited in the hangar bay as a transport being piloted by one of the students from the Chu'unthor II set down in the hangar. "Go and wait in the transport, Ali," Mara said to her daughter as the boarding ramp lowered.
"Won't!" Alina instantly retorted with her typical determination. Mara frowned at her, and Alina scowled back with an expression frighteningly reminiscent of Mara herself.
Luke was unable to suppress a smile as he watched the two of them glare at each other. He crouched down in front of Alina, putting his hands on her shoulders. "Do as your mother says, Ali," he said firmly. "We have things to discuss on our own."
Alina nodded. "I will wait in the ship," she agreed and trotted towards the transport.
Mara watched Alina go up the ramp into the transport in amazement. She had seen Alina do what Luke asked, but not her, more times than she could count. She glowered at Luke. "Why does she always do that for you and not me?" she demanded. Her eyes narrowed abruptly. "If you're using mind tricks on my daughter..."
Luke grinned. Mara, although she maintained a casual attitude to Alina around people like Han and Lando for the sake of her reputation, was fiercely protective towards her daughter, treating her with the same obsessive pride that she had once shown towards the Jade's Fire. He shook his head. "Nothing so devious. It's just something that happens. Jacen and Anakin acted the same way towards Han when they were her age, and so did Jaina towards Leia."
He changed the subject. "Anyway, enough of that. I'm going to miss you," he said, pulling her into an embrace.
"Same here," Mara said, although the effect was offset fractionally by the hint of a grimace that passed across her face. She would never completely free herself from the last lingering shades of the Emperor's Hand, who had considered emotions a weakness. "Take care of Ali for me."
Luke nodded. "I will. Look after yourself as well." He ignored her inevitable scowl. "I mean that," he said firmly. "Whatever's been making these raids into the Outer Rim is clearly highly dangerous." He turned and went up the ramp into the transport, pausing briefly at the top to turn and give her a last smile. The ramp hissed shut and with a hum of repulsorlifts, it rose from the deck.
Mara watched the transport pass through the magnetic seal and turn towards the Chu'unthor II. Using Jedi sensory enhancement, she was able to follow it until it entered the ship's hangar bay. The Chu'unthor II abruptly began moving towards the fringes of the fleet, its engines glowing in the distance. As it reached the perimeter of the fleet, she saw it begin to move forwards impossibly quickly as it ran up to lightspeed velocity. A few seconds later, it vanished into hyperspace.
The other ships in the fleet were also beginning to move into position for their own hyperspace jump. The previously chaotic formation was beginning to assume an orderly appearance as the starships moved to their assigned coordinates, and turned to face the same direction.
Flickers of pseudomotion in the distance caught her eye. In the vanguard of the fleet, some of the heavier ships, such as Battle Dragons, Star Destroyers, and Star Cruisers, were jumping to lightspeed. As soon as the ships behind had a clear run ahead of them, they began following the first wave into hyperspace, and so on until it was the turn of Galactic Defender and the two Super Star Destroyers, Renown and Pre-Eminence. Stars outside the hangar rotated madly, became lines, and merged into a flickering tunnel effect.
She took a breath as the glowing walls of hyperspace raced past beyond the hangar's magnetic seal. At last they were on their way, to find out what was attacking the New Republic from the depths of the Unknown Regions.
* * * * * *
It had begun fourteen months ago. Vague, intermittent reports of strange ships being sighted had started filtering in from systems along the Outer Rim. At first these were dismissed as simply exaggerated stories of odd or unusual ships. The reports rapidly increased both in numbers and details, though, and it soon became clear, from the quantity of similar descriptions, that there was indeed a type of previously unknown alien starship being sighted.
Then the real trouble had started. Reports of small colonies and outposts being utterly wiped out began to appear along with the sightings. These incidents increased at an alarming ratio, along with stories of horrific massacres from the very few survivors, and soon the whole Outer Rim was in a state of near-panic. Seeking to resolve the crisis, New Republic Fleet ships were sent to try and deter whoever was responsible. They merely met the same fate as the colonies. In addition, their presence merely seemed to provoke the attackers. The attacks steadily increased in intensity and daring, as though the unknown aggressors had been probing the New Republic's defences and found them unable to withstand the onslaught.
Before long, a state of emergency was declared in the Outer Rim. Large numbers of warships were deployed in the sectors where activity was most widely concentrated. It soon became clear, as even this measure failed to deter the attacks, that drastic measures were needed. An unprecedented buildup of ships from every system in the New Republic began. For once, the entire Republic Senate acted in concert on this matter. The danger facing them was too great for even the most intense rivalries to take priority. The construction of Galactic Defender was given absolute priority, for it to be ready to lead the gathering fleet. Even the Empire contributed twenty Star Destroyers and two of it's three Super Star Destroyers. A score of the Jedi Knights were chosen to go with the fleet, as well as those noted for their diplomatic skill, such as Councillor Organa Solo and many of the Caamasi Remnant, in the hope that they might be able to negotiate with the invaders. It was decided that the fleet should take up positions in the sectors that had been most severely hit, and release scout ships and PRB-81 probe droids in an attempt to track down the alien ships. If no traces were found, then the fleet would proceed into the Unknown Regions. That at least was the plan drawn up by some of the top military commanders from both the New Republic and Empire, among them Admiral Ackbar, General Rieekan, and Vice-Admiral Ardiff.
Needlessly to say, though, what appeared simple on a datapad would prove considerably more complicated in practice.
After a hyperspace jump, the fleet arrived in the devastated areas of the Outer Rim. There it split into three battlegroups, which were led by Galactic Defender, Renown, and Pre-Eminence, to cover a total of thirty sectors that had been victims of alien attack. As per the mission parameters, all three groups began releasing their probe droids and remote controlled scout ships in each of their allotted sectors.
Yet this initiative did not get very far. Without exception, both the probe droids or scout ships only got past visual scanning range of their control ships before they were destroyed, without any transmissions being sent. Finally, no more were launched, since it was clearly an exercise in futility. Instead, the fleet ships pushed their sensor ranges out to their fullest, and began searching that way. Even that was anticipated, though. Readings of starfighter sized ships were detected on the edges of sensor range with depressing regularity, since the alien invaders were clearly toying with the fleet, and seemed to know the limits of their sensor technology inside out.
Nearly a month passed in this way, with morale gradually sinking under the combined weight of boredom, operational fatigue, and humiliation at the news of fresh raids that arrived, which the fleet's presence seemed to have done nothing to deter.
Finally, with the fleet making no progress in tracking down the invaders, it's commanders made a decision. The three battlegroups would rendezvous at the point where the reports of attacks had first begun to appear, attacks which had spread out from that point in a cone shape, the Atris system. It was a nearly uninhabited sector, with only a few colonies and smuggler nests scattered around it, but there was one fact about it that had made Mara in particular feel uneasy when the reports of attack began coming in. It was the last system between the Nirauan sector and the Unknown Regions...
* * * * * *
Flanked by Rogue Squadron, the Skywalker Spirit soared out of it's docking bay and descended towards the planet Nirauan lying below Galactic Voyager. The Rogues had been chafing at the past month's lack of activity, having being largely confined on board ship, and Wedge had his own particular reasons for wanting to visit Nirauan. Well, she thought, they were about to have a chance to let off some steam. The sublight drives of the Spirit had recently been upgraded, and she had been waiting for a good time to test them out. This seemed like the perfect moment, with Rogue Squadron flying escort for her. Shoving the throttle to full power, she grinned as the Spirit shot ahead of Rogue Squadron. A surprised exclamation came over the comm from one of the pilots - Janson, she thought. "What's the matter, Rogues?" she asked sweetly. "Don't tell me you've gotten slow in your old ages. A race to the Hand of Thrawn."
There was no answer, except for the rapidly gaining fighter icons on her displays as Rogue Squadron collectively accepted her challenge. They gained on her quickly, the X-wings being slightly faster than the Spirit. She would need to use her piloting skills to win this race. One by one, five of the snubfighters shot past her cockpit canopy as the ships descended into the atmosphere of Nirauan. Wedge was unsurprisingly the first, followed narrowly by Tycho Celchu and Wes Janson. Gavin Darklighter and Ooryl Qyrgg came close behind them, in hot pursuit.
By then, though, the effects of atmosphere began to tell, negating the X-wings' speed advantage. Corran Horn's X-wing appeared to hang over the Spirit's canopy, although it was unable to gain any further ground. The other Rogues were left trailing in the wake of the Spirit's drive trails. Gradually, the starship began to creep up on Gavin and Ooryl, as it's superior atmospheric aerodynamics began to tell. Abruptly, Corran's fighter sideslipped to port and dropped past the canopy in a near-freefall. Ahead, the other five X-wings tipped forwards and dove towards Nirauan in a similar manoeuvre.
Mara's lip twisted as she watched the X-wings dwindle as they fell towards the planet's surface. Did they really think a cute stunt like that would surprise her..? She threw the Spirit into a steep dive, rapidly gaining on the fighters. Wind screamed past the canopy in the speed of her descent. Gavin and Ooryl's X-wings quickly grew nearer, expanding from small dots to full sized starfighters, and then she was upon them. There was just time for her to give them an ironic salute as she flashed past them to leave them lagging hopelessly behind.
That left Wedge, Tycho, and Janson, as well as Corran, who had managed to overtake Gavin and Ooryl when he initiated his dive. By now, though, the ground was getting dangerously close. Wedge and the others had already pulled up so they were flying level with the surface, using the inherited momentum from their dives to open as large a gap between them and Mara as possible. They were flying in a rough diamond formation, with Wedge in the lead, Tycho and Janson side by side close behind him, and Corran lagging a little way behind them.
The Spirit closed slowly on Corran, but at this rate, she would never get past Tycho and Janson, let alone Wedge, before they got to the Hand of Thrawn. It would require more than straightforward flying over terrain. If they thought they could use a freefall to gain a lead on her, then she could throw that back in their faces. She pulled the Spirit up into a steep but brief climb, and then sharply arrested the climb and turned the starship into a gently arcing curve that brought her significantly closer to Corran's X-wing. Several more identical manoeuvres later, she was so close to the snubfighter that she could clearly see the top of Corran's helmet moving in the cockpit as he concentrated on keeping ahead of her. As she brought the Spirit up into a final climb-and-coast to overtake Corran, he abruptly slashed power to his engines and drifted up into her projected flight path, forcing her to pull aside to avoid a collision. The two ships came so close that she clearly saw the X-wing rock from the backwash of the Spirit as it cut to one side. With an irritated hiss at having been outmanoeuvred, she tried to cut in below the X-wing. Unfazed by the near collision, Corran accelerated to full speed again and managed to get in front of her, and they were back to where they had been a minute ago.
Ahead, the terrain began growing rugged and desolate, a mix of cliffs and deep gorges and ravines. She knew that she had to get ahead of Corran before they got there, or she would have no chance, and from the speed they were going at, it wouldn't be long before they got there. She began drifting the Spirit from side to side, forcing Corran to match her tactics in order to block her. A deep gorge, flanked on either side by steep cliffs, was looming ahead of her, and she slipped the Spirit hard to starboard. Corran immediately moved to obstruct her, and she stayed behind him as the gorge approached. As he reached the gorge, Corran turned to port, momentarily losing sight of the Spirit in the process, as Mara had intended, and entered the opening in the cliffs. Only then did he glance behind him, and tensed as he found that the Spirit was no longer behind him. A second later, a shadow fell across his canopy as it fell like a stone from the rim of the gorge. Repulsorlifts cut in, arresting its descent, and the main engines flared triumphantly as the Spirit shot down the gorge in pursuit of Tycho and Janson.
Mara spared a glance at the displays to see Corran's X-wing climbing out of the gorge to join the rest of Rogue Squadron. Corran's voice crackled from the comm. "Nice flying, Mara. We'll have to have a rematch some time."
"Any time," Mara answered before switching her entire attention to how she was going to get past Tycho and Janson. It wouldn't be easy. They were the two best pilots in the squadron after Wedge, with distinguished service records going back to the Battle of Hoth and beyond. As if reading her thoughts, they moved into a blocking formation, with Janson climbing towards the top of the gorge, while Tycho dropped a few metres, although they stayed close enough to each other to stop any attempt that she might make to fly through the gap between them. All three of them jockeyed for position as they flew down the gorge, with Tycho and Janson easily anticipating and countering every manoeuvre possible in the confined area of the gorge. Sunlight suddenly flared around them as they soared out of the trench, and Mara tensed. She now had a much better chance to get past Tycho and Janson, but ahead of her she could see the ravine that led directly to the Hand of Thrawn. The race was nearly over, and she still had Wedge to contend with even if she managed to get past these two.
She brought the Spirit down until it was flying barely two metres over the ground. Janson immediately brought his X-wing down directly over the Spirit to stop Mara from suddenly climbing, while Tycho began weaving from side to side in front of her to prevent her from getting past him. It was an effective stunt from keeping another pilot from overtaking, but it had it's flaws.
Mara smiled as she saw her opportunity to demonstrate those flaws to Tycho and Janson. A low line of cliffs lay ahead of her, perfectly suited for her plans. She waited until she was flying parallel with the cliffs, and then made her move, twisting the Spirit around its axis until it was flying on its side, and simultaneously sliding sideways to avoid crashing into Janson's X-wing. She shunted the ship towards the starfighter, and grinned as she saw him sharply sideslip and reduce power to evade her. She didn't give Tycho any time to think, cutting in towards the cliffs to get past him. Despite being caught unawares, though, Tycho proceeded to demonstrate all the coolness and quick thinking that he was renowned for in combat. He forced her in towards the cliffs so closely that any normal pilot would have had no option but to either throttle back or risk colliding with the cliff faces. He had made one small mistake, however, namely the fact that she had a third option. Reaching out with the Force, she saw the cliffs, the Spirit, and the X-wing in her mind. Gritting her teeth, she pushed the ship forwards through the slim gap between Tycho's fighter and the cliff face, a gap so narrow that even with the Force as her ally, she could not avoid hitting the cliff. An ear-piercing scream of metal scraping along rock at ultra high speeds ripped though the hull, accompanied by showers of sparks that she could see from the cockpit.
"Warning!" the ship's voice announced calmly. "You are in danger of causing a catastrophic loss of hull integrity. You are recommended to take evasive action immediately."
Mara swiped at a switch to cut the warning off. By now she had pulled ahead of Tycho, and was able to put some space between the Spirit and the cliffs. On the displays she saw Tycho and Janson reduce speed to allow the other Rogues to catch up with them.
Now only Wedge was the only one left in contention. Mara took a deep breath. Corran had been difficult, and overtaking Tycho had involved near-suicidal recklessness. She wasn't sure she wanted to think about what getting past Wedge would entail. She pushed the thought away, and was right behind Wedge as he entered the final ravine, the quad engines of the X-wing glowing just ahead and to starboard of the cockpit. Mara gritted her teeth as the Spirit shot down the canyon. Wedge was good, all right. The fighter moved to block every attempt she made to take pole position. Against Janson and Tycho, the Spirit's greater size had been an asset. Here it became a liability, as Wedge deftly turned it to his own advantage. The fighter constantly checked, accelerated, and drifted from side to side, capitalising on the Spirit's greater inertia by forcing Mara to keep at a safe distance behind to avoid the risk of crashing into the sides of the ravine or Wedge himself. She swore vehemently as she checked her displays and realised that they were already halfway through the ravine. She saw Wedge twist in his seat to check her position and then throttle back sharply to force her to slow down.
Mara had already decided that she wasn't going to play into his hands, though. By channelling all available power from the shields and lasers and into the engines, she managed to gain a slight increase in speed. The Spirit leapt forwards until it was flying just over the X-wing, parallel with the trailing edges of the S-foils, before Wedge could react. Expecting her to throttle down to avoid a collision, he was taken aback when the Spirit instead came forwards, hanging barely half a meter over the aft of his fighter. An alarmed series of trills and whistles filled the cockpit as Gate began pointing out to him exactly how close the Spirit was, and that he had almost lost the pole position. The two ships shot down the ravine together, neither pilot deviating from their course by as much as a micrometre. The thrum of the Spirit's heavy drive engines pulsed rhythmically through the hull as it hurtled down the ravine, the cliff walls going past at a terrifying speed. Bit by bit, the Spirit gradually began inching forwards over Wedge's X-wing. Ahead, the ravine suddenly narrowed drastically, and Wedge was forced to swerve to avoid crashing into the cliff walls. He recovered quickly, but by that time, the Spirit had drawn level with him, and as the ravine widened again, it pulled to one side so that Mara and Wedge were flying side by side.
The two ships shot out of the ravine neck and neck. Gradually they slowed to a halt, hovering on repulsorlifts, with the end of the race. "Very good flying," Wedge complimented. "I'll have to put you down on a list of possible candidates for the Rogues."
"I think I'll pass," Mara said lightly. "Rogue Squadron isn't large enough for two planet sized egos like Corran and me."
Wedge's laughter filled the cockpit. "Anyway, we'd better check out the Hand of Thrawn," he observed. "Time for business. Rogues, form up on the Spirit and lock S-foils in attack position."
The X-wings moved into formation around the Spirit, four each front and behind, and two flanking it on either side. No trouble was expected - they certainly wouldn't have gone careening through the canyons and ravines if there was a possibility of real danger, and sensor scans had indicated that they should have nothing to worry about. Nevertheless, they hadn't lasted this long by being rash, and they weren't about to start now.
A few minutes flight brought them to the bluff where the Hand of Thrawn stood. Mara felt her throat tighten as she circled the site in the Spirit. Close up, it was even worse than the sensor scans from Galactic Defender had indicated. The devastation was amazing. Chunks of shattered and melted stone lay everywhere. Hardly anything had been left standing above head height. The ground was blackened and scorched, and the bluff and cliffs around bore evidence of intense heat and laser fire. Clearly the garrison of the fortress had been utterly wiped out in the attack that had destroyed it. She grimaced at the thought of the power needed to blow apart the nearly impregnable fortress with such violence.
"Doesn't look like we're going to find anything here, Rogue Leader," Hobbie observed to Wedge.
"Copy that," Wedge acknowledged grimly. "Mara, you got any ideas?"
"Actually, yes," Mara replied. "Just because you can't ask the garrison doesn't mean there aren't other ways to find out what happened here."
"Can we have that again, in Basic this time?" came the request.
"Follow me in," Mara ordered. "Just trust me." She engaged the Spirit's repulsorlifts and brought the starship down on the bluff. Rogue Squadron followed her down, settling all around her.
The Rogues were already out of their fighters by the time she came down the Spirit's ramp. "Okay, Mara, what's your idea..." Tycho began, but got no further as she waved him to silence.
She opened her mind and reached out with the Force. It did not take long before she felt several presences nearby, one of them very close. She turned in it's direction, and saw, as she had expected, one of the Qom Qae sitting on a nearby stunted bush at the edge of the bluff, watching her and the Rogues. "I wish to speak to the one called Friend of Jedi," she said, addressing it.
The creatures gave an involuntary screech - of surprise, she thought - and almost fell off the bush. A second later, it took off, gliding down over the edge of the bluff.
"Well, that was a great help," Hobbie noted dryly. "We really learned something from that."
Mara and Corran glanced at each other, sharing a quick thought: A Jedi must have patience. "Just wait," Mara told Hobbie.
A few minutes passed, and then Mara sensed the approach of several more Qom Qae, all of them adults. One in particular looked very familiar, although now considerably larger, with adult characteristics.
"Welcome, Friend of Jedi," Mara said in greeting.
Friend of Jedi, or Child of Winds as she still thought of him, had lost none of his youthful brashness. "It is Mara Jade," he exclaimed exuberantly. "The beloved of Master Skywalker."
Mara flushed slightly, grateful that none of the Rogues could understand Qom Qae, at least until she saw the amused glint in Corran's eye, and cursed herself for forgetting that he would be able to understand them as well. "Can you translate what they're saying for the others?" she asked Corran. "Not the first bit," she warned, giving him a frown.
Corran nodded in confirmation and she began. "What happened here?" she asked.
Friend of Jedi hunched his wings tightly over his back in a gesture of fear or anxiety. "Two seasons ago, strange flying machines appeared here. They were not the same as the ones the Threateners used. A giant flying machine came with them, and the land all around burnt for many days. We do not know what happened to the Threateners. We hid in caves, as did the Qom Jha, while the battle took place. When it finished, we found the High Tower destroyed."
Mara nodded. "Thank you. We have been attacked ourselves by the enemies of the Threateners."
"It is the least we can do for Master Skywalker's beloved," the Qom Qae answered, which Corran was alert enough not to translate. "We regret we cannot be of more assistance."
"You've already done enough," Mara said. "We know what happened here now, thanks to you."
Friend of Jedi lifted his winds slightly, in what seemed to be a Qom Qae nod. "We are pleased you have formed a nesting between you and Master Skywalker. The Qom Jha learned of it from listening to the Threateners, and in turn told us. The Qom Qae hope that you will be successful in your battle against your enemies. Farewell, Mara Jade." Spreading his wings, he took off from the bush he had been perched on and glided down over the rim of the bluff, followed by his companions.
Mara watched them go and then turned back to look at the ruins of the Hand of Thrawn. So that was that. Parck, Fel, and the New Republic's hopes of finding weapons to use against the invaders - all gone. She threw a glance at Wedge, sensing his disappointment. Fel had been captured by Ysanne Isard years before, after defecting to the New Republic, and had been presumed summarily executed - until Han and Leia came across the clones of him on Pakrik Minor, and Luke and Mara had met the real Fel in the Chiss fortress. None of the Rogues knew that Wedge and Fel were brothers-in-law, even after all this time. It was Wedge's one secret, in the same way that Corran kept his Jedi abilities secret. He hid the disappointment well, though. "Okay, Rogues, back to Galactic Defender," he ordered evenly.
He started to turn towards his fighter, but stopped as Mara grabbed his arm. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry you weren't able to find anything out about your sister," she said after making sure the other Rogues were out of earshot.
Wedge shrugged. "Probably just as well. I'd have likely done something very unpleasant to Fel if he'd been here. I've gone twenty years without knowing what happened to Syal after she disappeared. It wouldn't have taken Fel much to at least send a message." He gave her a nod. "Thanks for keeping it a secret."
"Any time," Mara said, letting go of his arm and turning towards the Skywalker Spirit. "Come on, General, let's go home."
* * * * * *
"Through the Force, things you will see. Other places. The future . . . the past. Old friends long gone."
Yoda's words to Luke echoed in Mara's head, even although she was asleep in her quarters on Galactic Defender. What she was experiencing was not strictly a dream, since she knew she was asleep. Such events had happened to her before, and they invariably presaged a Jedi vision. The Force was about to show her something, and Yoda's words had been intended to prepare her for that. Sure enough, the vision arrived instantly. As so often with Jedi visions, what it showed her was unsettling. Like Luke's own vision on Dagobah of Han and Leia being tortured, it was a profoundly disturbing one. This time, though, it was not a vision of the future, but of the past - her past.
After Luke had unlocked her true memories of childhood, she had examined them carefully for further information about her life before Palpatine, but to no avail. They were merely clouded memories of trivial events in her childhood. A few snippets of early Jedi training that her parents had given her, and some recollections of typical significant events in her early life. Only the memory of her parents's deaths stood out clearly. She didn't even know what their names were or her home planet.
Therefore, the clarity of the vision nearly overwhelmed her. In it, she saw her surviving memories suddenly lose their haziness and become razor sharp. Countless more that she had lost forever came back to her. Scenes of her youth flicked before her at a staggering speed, but she was somehow able to understand exactly what was happening in each one, and even to relate it to events in the galaxy. They formed a montage of images of her as a young girl. Much of it was irrelevant, but some parts stood out. She saw her parents - whose names she knew for the first time: Qun-Voi and Allya Jade - explaining to her how she had special powers that set her apart from most other, and how to begin to use them for simple control of the Force, although she was too young to see it as more than an interesting game. As time wore on and she became older, they began teaching her that such powers were not to be taken lightly. They demanded a special discipline and morality if they were to be used properly. She went cold as she saw what came next: their teaching her a skill that she was naturally gifted in, and which would have profound and terrible consequences for her future: the Jedi power of receptive telepathy.
As her vision progressed, she began to sense a grave fear and concern from her parents over the events shaking the galaxy: the Jedi purges, the civil war between the Rebellion and the Empire, and the increasing Imperial repression, and the possibility of Palpatine, Vader, or their Jedi hunters sensing her growing strength in the Force while she could not understand what a dangerous time it was for the Jedi and mask her powers accordingly.
Yet she also knew that there was another, far more immediate cause for their consternation. As the Jedi were gradually hunted down, many fled into hiding, among them her parents, seeking to avoid Vader and the Jedi hunters. Some even began joining Palpatine and Vader to escape their own deaths, ruthlessly hunting down their former friends and associates. It did them little good in the long run though. Palpatine despised opportunistic traitors and as the Jedi purges came to an end, he had them destroyed one by one. Mara's parents were too strong in the light side to even contemplate such a course, however. The real danger was of being betrayed, and sure enough, they lifted her from her bed one night and fled for their lives.
She knew what happened next, having relived it a thousand times. The pursuit did not last long. The betrayal and trap had been intricately planned, and a few hours later her parents had been destroyed, her father struck down by Vader, and her mother killed by Palpatine.
She expected the vision to end there, but instead it continued. What came next was new. She saw Palpatine implanting the memory lock in her mind once he had killed her mother and taken her aboard his ship, and testing it, gauging the effectiveness of her false memories, to see if she would make a reliable and dedicated servant, before the vision faded into darkness.
With a start, Mara snapped awake, breathing hard and sweating. It took her a few moments to collect her thoughts. She knew that such a vision was meant to tell her something, clearly about her family. Someone close to them had betrayed them, selling them to Vader and the Emperor. Her parents had told none of the other Jedi where they were hiding, yet someone had known. She remembered their words, that one of them had been lost to the Empire. That seemed to indicate a family member had betrayed them, very likely with Jedi powers, since the ability to use the Force ran in families. She knew from the vision that the Jedi traitors had been executed, yet some instinct told her that whoever had betrayed her parents was still alive.
A sudden terrible thought came to her, as she realised that Roganda Ismaren fitted the profile nicely. Another of the Emperor's Hand's, with Force powers...
She swung her legs out of bed. The thought that she could be related to that piece of Sith-spawned slime had really unsettled her. She would have to find out the truth of the matter ASAP, for her own peace of mind. Crossing to the comm board in her quarters, she keyed for a transmission to Coruscant. It took a couple of minutes for the recipient to appear in the hologram projection field.
"Oh hi, Mara," Ghent said, blinking at her, his hair tousled. He had plainly been asleep when the transmission came through.
"Sorry, Ghent, I just need some information quickly," Mara said. She knew what time it was on Coruscant but she didn't want to wait till morning there to speak to Ghent.
Ghent rubbed his eyes and shook his head clear, as another figure appeared in the transmission beside him. Lachaa, a woman roughly the same age as him, who had an almost equal obsession with computers. Even now, two years after Ghent had found his soulmate, there were still a few isolated jokes and some disbelief that Ghent had left his computer for long enough to notice her.
Mara shook the thought away. "I need you to slice into Palpatine's Special Files section and find information on Qun-Voi and Allya Jade," she said. "Jedi Knights in the Old Republic. In particular, how they were betrayed to Vader and Palpatine, and by whom.
Ghent's face dropped. He had sliced his way into all the Special Files shortly after the resolution of the Caamas Issue. Finding the information Mara wanted would merely be a question of running a database search through the files. He suddenly looked at her sharply. "Your family?" he asked.
Mara nodded. Once upon a time, Ghent wouldn't have given their names a second thought, he was so wrapped up in his computers. "I want the files on me and Roganda Ismaren as well. All the information you can find. Backgrounds, genetic profiles and comparisons, everything. Cross reference your search with the libraries at Obroa-skai and Yaga Minor."
"I'll get right onto it," Ghent promised, taken aback by her vehemence. "I'll send it through to you as soon as I have it. See you around."
Ghent was good as his word. Only four hours later, Mara had all the information he had been able to find. It answered some of her questions, left some unanswered, and posed even more. To her great relief, the genetic analysis proved conclusively that she and Roganda were completely unrelated, and therefore Ismaren would not have betrayed her parents. It only raised the question of who had, though.
In addition, the files on her parents that Ghent had found contained comprehensive biographical information, apparently taken from the records of the old Jedi Council, listing their homeworld as Chandrila. It even contained a short section on Mara herself, noting that she had the potential to become a powerful Jedi. Yet it did not help answer the question of who might have betrayed them. Despite an addendum added by Imperial archivists recording that they had gone into hiding on Chandrila, where they had been tracked down and executed as "traitors to the Empire", albeit by Vader alone and omitting the Emperor's role, it did not say who had sold them to the Empire to begin with. Clearly the Emperor did not put everything he knew into even his Special Files.
Mara scanned through the file one more time, hoping she might somehow have missed something, but in vain. Finally, she put the pad aside and went back to sleep. This time her sleep was undisturbed by any Force visions, although she would have welcomed any this time around if they revealed the identity of her parents' betrayer.
* * * * * *
The firing of Galactic Defender's weapon batteries sent steady vibrations through the hull. At the bridge admiral's station, Admiral Ackbar examined the three-dimensional holographic tactical display hanging in front of him. All the Fleet ships were precisely marked on the hologram, with thin blue lines denoting ion cannon shots saturating the space around Galactic Defender.
Behind him, the bridge doors slid open to reveal Leia. "Admiral, what's going on?" she asked, hurrying over to him.
Ackbar nodded to her gravely. "We have an unexpected guest, Councillor Solo," he explained, gesturing to the hologram. A single small starfighter size ship was darting between the capital ships, showing incredible speed and agility as it evaded the hail of ion beams being fired at it. "Isolate and zoom in on it," he ordered. A second later, a large scale projection of the starfighter appeared in the place of the Fleet ships.
"It's the same class of fighter that's been attacking our Outer Rim territories," Leia noted.
Ackbar agreed. The image showed a sleek, angular ship approximately one and a half times the size of an X-wing. It had a dark grey hull, and carried two pairs of dual laser cannons halfway along the fuselage.
The hologram switched back to an overview of the fleet, where the fighter was still eluding the laser fire being directed at it. It made several passes along the entire length of Galactic Defender's hull, seeming to mock the ability of the fleet gunners to hit it by cutting in close to the hull and skimming by the ion batteries. It completed one last run along the hull, and then vanished into hyperspace, leaving the ion cannons firing vainly at where it had been for a minute before falling silent.
Ackbar had crossed to the bridge viewports during the last run it had made, and he now turned away from contemplating the place where it had vanished. "A pity the Hand of Thrawn had been destroyed," he observed calmly. "We could have used their knowledge in fighting such enemies. Still, we have some experience of what we are fighting now." He turned to a staff officer. "See if you can calculate their vector from their trajectory. I assume you were able to track them for a few microseconds after they jumped to hyperspace."
He nodded to a Calamarian colonel standing near him. "Congratulations on your insight, Colonel Avola. You were correct to surmise that if we headed for the Nirauan system in an attempt to join the Chiss, it would draw our enemies out. Plainly they fear an alliance between our two groups."
Colonel Avola inclined his head. He was one of the most promising of the new breed of tacticians and commanders emerging in the New Republic fleet hierarchy, and it had been a considerable boost to his already impressive reputation that Ackbar had personally selected him with a view towards him becoming the Fleet admiral in Ackbar's own place once he retired, which would not be long now.
Sweat glistened on Mara's forehead. "No, not that one," she said between gritted teeth. "Try the next one down. Blast it, Solo, can't you do any better than that?" There was a brief pause and then a vehement oath. "Oh, for Sith's sake, I'll do it."
Leia, standing just inside the Falcon's hatch, listened to Mara's comments for a couple of seconds. She had found Chewbacca working outside on the aft inertial dampers, annoyed that Han had not appeared to help as he had promised. She had soon found out why he had not emerged to help Chewie.
Stepping to the edge of the Falcon's maintenance pit, she looked down at Han and Mara. Both of them glanced up at her in surprise, and then Han proceeded to scramble out of the maintenance pit. "Just upgrading the hyperdrive, sweetheart," he explained.
"So I gathered," Leia said dryly. "If anyone heard you two, they might get the wrong idea." She turned her attention to Mara. "Having some difficulty with the Falcon?"
Mara gave Han a disgusted look. "That's the understatement of the year. How Solo keeps this thing running, I don't know. He doesn't even know that a broad phase ion convertor cannot be connected to a hyperdrive motivator unless you want it blowing up in your face." She gestured to some of the systems. "I mean, look at those Mapra-30 switchback loops. They're museum pieces. Even a blind Jawa wouldn't bother stealing them."
Leia filtered the rest of Mara's diatribe out. By now, she knew Mara well enough to know that her frequent sniping at Han and the Falcon was merely a front. In reality, the two of them had grown to like each other. Mara had once admitted to Leia, in a moment of weakness, that Han was the only man she knew apart from Karrde and Luke who wasn't completely intimidated by her. She supposed that it would be difficult for Han and Mara to completely dislike each other, since they both had an obsessive pride in their personal ships. Both of them had spent a good deal of time working together on the Falcon and Spirit since they arrived on Galactic Defender, exchanging a stream of barbed remarks about each other and their ships in the process, although anyone who listened to them arguing for more than a few minutes would have realised that it was an utter charade.
The wailing of the alert snapped her out of her thoughts. "What's happening?" she demanded into her comlink as soon as she could get it activated.
"We have some more of those alien fighters making a fly past, Councillor Solo," one of the bridge crew explained quickly. "It looks like they're here to fight this time. We're launching our own fighters now."
Wedge was impressed by the quick reactions of Rogue Squadron. Despite the fact that they hadn't been involved in any real crisis or combat situations for the last year, they hadn't allowed it to slow their performance. Three minutes after the alert sounded, they were out of their hangar, with S-foils in attack position, heading for the alien fighters. An increasing amount of chatter was beginning to build up on the comm frequencies as other fighter squadrons began launching, and talking between themselves and back and forth to Starfighter Command. He grimaced as he saw that Y-wings and B-wings were launching. Judging from the review holos he had seen detailing the speed of the previous alien fighter, the Y-wings and B-wings would never get near it.
He switched the comm to the squadron's private frequency, cutting off the comm chatter. "Stay sharp, Rogues. We aren't chasing down pirates or smugglers this time." Ahead of him, he saw a group of A-wings launching. That was better. "Green Squadron, this is Rogue Leader," he said, switching the comm back to the standard Fleet frequency. "See if you can get in front of the enemy fighters. We'll try to catch them between us."
He toggled the comm back to the Rogue Squadron frequency. "Okay, we're making an attack now. Let's see if we can trap them between us and Green Squadron." Kicking the X-wing's drive to full power, he set off towards the alien fighters in the distance, closely followed by the other Rogues.
Ackbar hurried onto the bridge of Galactic Defender and automatically sank into his command chair. He had retired for the night, only to be summoned back by the alert alarm. He took in the situation on the tactical displays in a few seconds, and opened his mouth to issue orders...and then checked as he caught sight of Colonel Avola standing to one side. The situation was not a critical one, and it would be useful for the young Calamarian to experience real battle conditions. There was certainly little enough opportunity for that, with the peace between the New Republic and Empire.
He beckoned Avola over. "Colonel, you are in command on the bridge as of now."
Avola hesitated, then nodded. "Thank you, Admiral."
"Cut left, Two. There's one on you," Wedge instructed Tycho, watching as the fighter spat an incessant stream of yellow laser fire at Tycho's X-wing. "Six, pull in now."
"Copy, Rogue Leader. I'm on my way," Gavin Darklighter answered. A second later, an X-wing shot past Wedge's fighter, all four laser cannons blazing. The shots drilled through the fuselage of the enemy fighter. A secondary explosion flared inside the hull, and the starfighter blew apart into a shower of debris.
"This is too easy, Lead," Gavin observed as he turned away, seeking another target. "It's like shooting womprats in a barrel."
Wedge thought so too, but before he could say as much, Admiral Ackbar cut in on an emergency frequency. "All ships, Colonel Avola is in command on Galactic Defender," he announced tersely.
Janson whistled. "Be interesting to see if he's good as Ackbar," he mused. Ackbar had been in command of the New Republic Fleet for so long now that it was hard to imagine anyone else in his place.
"Cut the chatter," Wedge ordered. Rogue and Green Squadrons seemed to have the alien starfighters well in hand, but they could not afford to become complacent. He glanced around, and was impressed by what he saw. Colonel Avola seemed to be handling the battle well. Two Corellian Gunships had appeared to further contain the enemy fighters. Galactic Defender and Renown were closing in on both sides, to offset the traditional difficulty of capital ship turbolasers being unable to adequately track enemy starfighters. In the shrinking space, the Y-wings and B-wings were able to cut a swathe through the alien fighters without their lack of speed being a disadvantage.
"Rogue and Green Squadrons, this is Galactic Defender," a Quarren voice announced. "Take up stations behind the Gunships and intercept escaping enemy fighters."
"Copy, Galactic Defender," Wedge confirmed. "Rogues, set course for the port Gunship." The A-wings had already taken up position behind the other Gunship, he noted as the Rogues headed for their Gunship, and the B-wings and Y-wings had already pulled out of the battle zone, clearing the way for the Gunships, Galactic Defender, and Renown to open fire without fear of hitting their own fighters. A few minutes later, they had made a fast, thorough sweep of the remaining enemy fighters.
Ackbar sat in his command chair on the bridge of Galactic Defender, watching and listening as Colonel Avola coordinated the capital ship attack. So far he seemed to be managing competently. He had picked up on what Rogue and Green Squadrons were doing, and had ordered a pair of Corellian Gunships to backstop them. The enemy fighters were surrounded, although even a cadet could have seen that they had let themselves be deliberately trapped. Galactic Defender and Renown were filling the target zone with a storm of turbolaser fire, while Rogue and Green Squadrons intercepted and destroyed any that tried to escape.
The battle only lasted a few minutes longer before only glowing shards of what had a short time ago been two squadrons of alien fighters were left drifting in the battlefield. It had been a suicide attack, he reflected. Judging from the way the earlier fighter had so easily evaded their ion fire, they should have had no trouble escaping this time, even though they had let themselves be surrounded. If Colonel Avola had made a mistake, it had been to use turbolasers rather than ion cannons. If they could have captured one of the fighters and it's pilot intact, it could have been a valuable source of information.
Ackbar beckoned Colonel Avola over. "My compliments on your success, Colonel."
Avola nodded. "Thank you. I understand why you wished for me to take command. No simulation can compare to a real battle."
"No, they do not," Ackbar agreed. "I think it is time we carried the battle to the invaders." He turned to a Twi'lek aide. "Do we have a calculation for the hyperspace vector of the first alien fighter?"
"Yes, Admiral," the aide answered, passing him a datapad. "An unknown system just within the Unknown Regions. It may of course be that they made several small jumps to throw any pursuit off."
"Perhaps," Ackbar agreed. "We will not find out until we arrive. Colonel Avola, set course for this system." He rose from his command chair. "I shall be in my quarters."
* * * * * *
A day later, the fleet came out of hyperspace in the system that they had tracked the alien fighter to. Starfighters were immediately launched to fend off any potential ambush, while a comprehensive sensor sweep was made of the system. At length, though, the sensor probes turned up no signs of life in the system and an impromptu conference developed between Admiral Ackbar, Colonel Avola, Ackbar's entire staff, several of the senior captains in the fleet via hologram, and Wedge, who had been making his report to Ackbar on the previous day's battle when the sensor sweep reports arrived. As the discussion progressed on how best to proceed with tracking down the aliens, Wedge found his attention wandering.
At that moment, he caught sight of one of the sensor operators out of the corner of his eye. The man was frowning at his displays. "Something wrong?" he asked as he walked over to the aide. "Have you got a reading on one of those alien ships?"
The man hesitated. "No, sir. A Lambda-class shuttle has just dropped out of hyperspace. They aren't transmitting any codes and refuse to answer our hailing signals."
"Give me a visual," Wedge ordered. A few seconds later, an image of a black hulled Lambda shuttle appeared on the display. He frowned. Most such shuttles had a standard Imperial Grey livery. It was unusual to see a customised one. On the displays, the shuttle kept approaching Galactic Defender. "Target and shoot with ion cannons only," he ordered, watching the display.
No lines denoting ion beams appeared on the display, however. "Why aren't they firing?" he asked.
"Hold on," the aide said, swivelling to his comm board and switching frequencies. "Ion battery crew GU-169, come in. Why aren't you firing?"
There was only silence. Wedge followed the shuttle's projected course on the display, and frowned. "They're coming into docking bay 22. I want two squads there on the double. Move!"
Lady Lumiya of the Sith watched as her shuttle dropped out of hyperspace on the fringes of a vast fleet. In the centre of the armada, a massive starship lay almost dead ahead of them, dwarfing the two Super Star Destroyers on either side of it. "Set a course for one of the docking bays on that ship," she ordered.
The pilot obeyed silently, a gleam of anticipation appearing in his eyes as he watched the giant ship approaching. Like Lumiya, he was a Sith, and her most powerful student. Since her defeat five years ago, Lumiya had not been idle. She had planned her attack on Skywalker carefully, and had trained a group of Sith Adepts. "Soon I will confront the Jedi," he said exultantly.
"Be patient, Kariss," Lumiya warned. "Do not let your impatience bring your destruction. Mara Skywalker is a dangerous foe."
Kariss did not reply, merely letting out a breath in disdain of her caution. He despised the placid weakness of the Jedi. They were too obsessed with preaching restraint and compassion to call on the immense power of the dark side. Once he had felt the dark side coursing through him for the first time under Lumiya's instruction, he knew that his destiny lay before him in the ways of the Sith. None of the other Sith students were his equal, either in lightsabre combat or the use of the Force. Only Lumiya could best him, and then only with difficulty. "They're hailing us," he reported.
"Ignore them," Lumiya instructed. She stretched out with the Force, taking control of the minds of the gunners along their entry vector to Galactic Defender to prevent them firing on the shuttle. As she had expected, they were weak minded fools, exactly the sort the New Republic would use.
The shuttle proceeded in towards Galactic Defender and entered the docking bay, a slight vibration rippling through the hull as it passed through the magnetic seal, and settled to the deck, it's wings folding up like a giant avian's.
"They've sent us a welcoming committee," Kariss observed mockingly, staring at the guards in the hangar.
Lumiya took her lightwhip from her waist, retracting it to reveal the coiled metal strands. "We should not disappoint them then, should we?"
The shuttle's ramp began to lower, and the squad commander signalled his men to set their weapons on stun. They levelled their blasters in readiness, only to stop in amazement as Kariss strode down the ramp, clad in a black cloak, his face hidden in the shadows of the hood. Except for the palpable menace hanging around him, he could easily have been mistaken for Luke Skywalker. They were even more astounded by Lumiya as she followed Kariss down the ramp. A midnight blue cloak revealed part of a steel grey cyborg frame. An inverted triangular mask concealed her entire face except for her eyes. Kariss strode calmly towards the hangar doors, utterly ignoring the weapons pointing at him and Lumiya. The squad commander recovered from his amazement at the sight of Lumiya and Kariss, and stepped forwards. "Stop where you are," he ordered.
Kariss ignored him, continuing towards the hangar doors. The commander hesitated for a moment in disbelief. He had never met anyone who would ignore an order when a score of blasters were trained on them. He signalled to the guards to fire, but almost before he had done so, Kariss spun, snatching a lightsabre from his belt and igniting it. In less than a second, the blade sliced cleanly through three blasters in a sweeping arc. Bolts ricocheted around the hangar as the red blade moved to deflect each laser blast.
Behind Kariss, Lumiya activated her light whip and swept it at the guards. Seeing the glowing strands coming towards them, they reflexively opened fire, but the bolts merely scattered off the energy lashes in all directions. The whip strands came down, cutting at the guards. Two strokes of the lightwhip proved enough. The guards broke and fled, bleeding from various wounds, as Lumiya raised the lightwhip for a third stroke. She watched them flee in panic, then turned to Kariss, who was not so refined in attack, as the four injured guards on the floor around him vividly demonstrated. Kariss regarded them scornfully. They hadn't even been worth the effort of killing.
The commander was still standing, but began to back away as they turned towards him, then turned to run. Kariss tensed and leapt into the air in a twisting somersault that brought him down facing the commander. With one hand, he lifted the man off the ground by his throat, slowly crushing his neck, and watching the expression of fear as he fought for air.
"Enough of this, Kariss!" Lumiya snapped. What happened to the commander was utterly inconsequential to her, but they had a mission to carry out. The more time they wasted, the more likely they were to fail.
Kariss nodded and threw the commander aside, where he lay gasping for air. He felt the ripple in the Force as Lumiya reached out, searching for Mara Skywalker's presence, before she strode from the hangar.
Leia spun round, snatching the lightsabre from her belt as she felt the disturbance in the Force. A cold glare of dark side power swept through her mind, searching. It settled briefly on her, then passed on. Han was already drawing his blaster as he saw her reaction. "There's a Sith here," Leia said, activating the lightsabre. She made a quick probe of her own. "Make that two. They're near the hangar bays. Tell Wedge or Ackbar to get everyone out of there immediately."
Han was speaking into his comlink even before she had finished. Her mind raced. The way the probe had settled on her indicated that they were seeking Jedi, and the only other Jedi on board was Mara, who was clearly their target. She hesitated, realising that she would have to try and stop them alone. The twenty Jedi that had come on the mission were scattered around the fleet and they would take too long to get here. She stopped abruptly, cursing herself, and snatched the comlink from a surprised Han. "Get Corran down here now," she snapped, and got a confirmation from Wedge. Two seconds later, she was out of the door, running towards Mara's quarters.
Kariss strode through the corridors, closing in steadily on Mara Skywalker. She was staying in one position, waiting for them to arrive. His Force senses alerted him to two other Jedi racing to intercept them, but they were too far away to be any threat yet. Lumiya followed silently close behind him. This time, she vowed, she would capture Mara Skywalker and take her revenge on Luke Skywalker for inflicting this pretence of an existence upon her.
Mara felt the Force probe at the same moment that Leia did. It cut through her mind, then abruptly vanished as Lumiya found her prey. She wondered whether to retreat, but then rejected it. Here at least, it would only be the three of them, with no else getting in the way, and it would give Leia and Corran more time to arrive. She drew her lightsabres and waited. That was something even Lumiya might not be expecting. Five years of using the two blades had made her one of the most formidable Jedi in lightsabre combat. Besides, retreating wasn't her style. She always liked her enemies to come in a group.
She didn't have to wait long. They arrived a few minutes later. Kariss didn't bother with niceties like actually opening the door. It began to buckle inwards from top to bottom as he brought the Force to bear on it. Finally it gave way under the pressure, breaking in two with a scream of abused plasteel, both pieces falling into the room.
"Impressive trick," Mara said dryly as Kariss entered the room. "I'd ask for a refund for not being taught how to use doorpads as well, though."
Kariss's answer was to push back the hood of his cloak, revealing his face for the first time. He was an unremarkable human male, except for two things. The first was the twin black lines which began at the corners of his eyes and ran down his face to the corners of his mouth, accompanied by a thick black band running across his forehead from left to right, both ends terminating in a pair of clawlike arcs. The second was the shiny silvery pupils in his eyes. Mara wondered briefly if they were implants or his natural eye colour. Certainly standard humans did not have such eyes.
Giving her an icy stare, which was helped in no small part by the silvery pupils, Kariss ignited his lightsabre. Mara did likewise, lifting her lightsabres to a defensive position. Against a Jedi with two lightsabres, Kariss would be at an disadvantage. Kariss seemed unconcerned by that, though, as he commenced hostilities, lunging forward. Mara brought her blue lightsabre up to meet it and stabbed with the purple one. Kariss sidestepped with casual ease as the blade came at him. Taking one hand off his lightsabre, he slammed his palm hard into her stomach, sending her reeling back two steps with a gasp. He then proceeded to demonstrate why he was not concerned about Mara's use of two lightsabres. Spinning his lightsabre to a horizontal position, he brought his left hand down to the base of the weapon, which Mara noticed with a twinge of unease, had a strangely long hilt. The feeling of unease grew stronger as Kariss activated a second blade.
"Ah," she said, understanding. Kariss took a firm grip on the hilt, holding the lightsabre like a staff, and attacked. His speed nearly caught Mara by surprise. Feinting with one blade, he brought the other forwards, cutting at her legs, and passing her guard with uncanny ease. Only her Jedi honed reflexes saved her as she twisted quickly away.
And the duel began in earnest.
Mara stepped back, taking a few seconds to quickly appraise Kariss. Time spent evaluating an opponent was a good way of guaranteeing victory, something she had learned from both Palpatine's training, her Jedi knowledge, and years of combat experience. Kariss's speed was formidable, but it could be turned to her advantage. She began running through ways of how best to achieve that.
Before she could decide on a strategy, though, Kariss attacked again. He struck, checked as though he was feinting, and then continued the blow. This time, however, she was prepared. The two lightsabres met each blade of Kariss's double ended lightsabre with a savage crackling and stench of ozone. Mara and Kariss stood rigidly, both trying to keep the other at bay. Kariss had the advantage, though, being able to hold his lightsabre with both hands while Mara could only use one hand for each of hers. Seeing her straining, Kariss jerked his head forward in an attempt to headbutt her. Mara didn't bother trying to avoid it and so break her concentration. Gritting her teeth, she matched his move. Their skulls met with a resounding crack, and they both staggered back, momentarily dazed.
At that moment, Lumiya entered the room, having been briefly delayed by half a dozen guards who had tried to stop her. Mara shook her head clear and glanced at Lumiya. "Come back later," she said sardonically. "I'm in a lightsabre duel right now."
Kariss shifted his lightsabre to a diagonal position, and she ducked to avoid the ensuing head height stroke, and then leapt over the other blade as it again cut at her legs. She vaulted clear over Kariss, who swung around just in time to block her attack, and the contest intensified, both of them fighting with every ounce of skill they possessed.
Seeing the increasing battle, Lumiya intervened. Once again, Kariss was losing sight of the overall objective. Taking matters into her own hands, she brought the lightwhip up. It slashed through the air and wrapped around Mara's blue blade. With a quick pull, Lumiya tore it from Mara's grip. Kariss lunged forwards, cutting at the purple blade, then twisted his lightsabre to bring the other blade towards Mara's head in a decapitating stroke. At the last moment, he shut down the blade and slammed the deactivated end into Mara's temple. She collapsed without a sound.
Lumiya met Kariss's eyes. "Learn to control your impetuosity," she said icily, hoisting the unconscious Mara onto her shoulder.
Leia had met Corran halfway to Mara's quarters, and the two of them were racing through the corridors. They turned around the last corner, and stopped dead as Lumiya stepped out from Mara's quarters. She gave them a look of mixed scorn and triumph. With a snap-hiss, Corran and Leia activated their lightsabres. Lumiya did not move, though, and the reason why became clear as Kariss stepped out into the corridor after her. He reignited the deactivated end of his double bladed lightsabre and raised it to an attack position. In response, Leia and Corran raised their own lightsabres to a guard position.
Kariss's mouth curved in what might have been a smirk, and then he lunged forwards with amazing speed, spinning the lightsabre to a horizontal position. He drove one end of the lightsabre against Corran's, and in the same motion, kicked Corran's legs out from under him. A flick of his hand sent the silvery blade spinning down the corridor, leaving Corran temporarily defenceless. The other end of the lightsabre came round, catching Leia's blade. He forced her lightsabre aside and turned his own into a vertical position, sliding it down along the opposing blade and cutting down towards her head with the other end. Leia spun away just in time to avoid the blade, which cut deeply into the wall a bare inch from her head.
Kariss began slowly pacing backwards, though, rather than continue the attack. He had tested their speed and skill, and found it no match for his own. He knew that even Luke Skywalker, who had faced and conquered opponents as dangerous as Darth Vader, would find him a deadly adversary. He was disappointed, having expected more from the Jedi. These two were no competition, and even Mara Skywalker had been less challenging than he had hoped, despite her expert use of two lightsabres against his double-bladed one. In addition, he could sense Lumiya's impatience as he toyed with his two enemies, urging him to cease wasting time before her carefully planned revenge could be ruined.
He backed calmly down the corridor, watching the two Jedi as they followed him. They had seen his fighting ability and were now watching for an opening, however slight, for attack. Corran had regained his feet and called his lightsabre back to his hand, and with a sudden concerted rush, they attacked again. As Leia lunged forwards, Corran ducked under the other blade and tried to trap Kariss. Again, Kariss proved too quick for them. He dropped and rolled past Corran, knowing that he could not allow himself to be caught between the two of them in the narrow corridor and cut off from Lumiya. The lightsabre brushed Corran's leg as he rolled past, and he felt a brief flicker of satisfaction as he caught the gasp of pain.
Regaining his feet, he brought his lightsabre up in time to counter another lunge from Leia, and pushed forwards, the strength of his attack sending her sprawling. Corran immediately moved to cover her while she scrambled up, desperately blocking Kariss' blows. The strokes came blindingly fast from both sides, forcing him back onto his injured leg. Gritting his teeth and using Jedi techniques to suppress the pain, he grimly blocked Kariss's lunges. Leia rejoined the fight, and both of them fought back together. They fought their way through the corridors, the lightsabres humming as they went, and crackling violently when they met each other. Kariss retreated before Corran and Leia, who fought him relentlessly, determined not to let him and Lumiya escape with Mara. Kariss blunted every attack they made, though, striking and parrying with a skill and strength that far outstripped their own. They duelled each other through an incessant series of corridors. Mara's quarters were quite close to the hangar bays, but even so, it took nearly a quarter of an hour for the three of them to cover that distance while fighting, time in which Corran and Leia's stamina gradually dwindled, while Kariss seemed nearly unaffected by the effort. Both of them were keenly aware that had Kariss truly been fighting them, it would not have been much trouble for him to have finished them. They turned into another corridor, and as they did so, Corran and Leia realised that they were staring failure in the face. At the end of the corridor lay the entrance to the hangar bays.
Kariss blocked a lunge from Corran and spun away, taking a quick look behind him to also see the doors to the hangar bay. He gave Corran and Leia a sneer of contempt, and then lowered his lightsabre and turned and sprinted for the hangar. Both of them raced after him, knowing that they had almost failed. Kariss's speed was incredible, and both of them fell behind, unable to keep up. In desperation, Corran found new reserves of energy, and outstripped Leia, despite his injured leg. He was hot on Kariss's heels as the Sith warrior charged up the ramp of the Lambda shuttle, which immediately began lifting on it's repulsorlifts. Kariss stopped and turned at the top of the ramp, attacking Corran with a brute ferocity. The double lightsabre flashed in a series of blows, almost too fast to see. In seconds, Corran's lightsabre was beaten aside, and then the tip of Kariss's weapon stabbed into his arm, to send the lightsabre clattering over the end of the ramp. Kariss pivoted on his right foot and kicked Corran savagely in the stomach, knocking him off the ramp. Without sparing a glance, he vanished into the shuttle, the ramp hissing shut behind him. The shuttle rotated to face the hangar entrance, it's wings unfolding. In seconds it passed through the magnetic seal and was gone.
Leia raced to where Corran lay. They had failed to stop Kariss escaping, but there was no point in worrying about that now. Corran winced as he opened his eyes. "I feel terrible," he said through clenched teeth. He had fallen fifteen feet onto a solid metal deck, not to mention being hit in the arm and leg by Kariss's lightsabre.
Leia gave him a hint of a smile. "You'll be fine," she said, examining the wounds. Neither of them was particularly serious. The leg injury would heal cleanly with a course of bacta treatment, although the arm wound would very likely leave a nasty scar.
At that moment, the doors on the other side of the hangar slammed open to reveal Han, Wedge, and three squads of guards, all with blasters drawn. A pair of medics followed them in, although not before a very worried Mirax Terrik pushed past them.
"You alright, sweetheart?" Han asked Leia quietly, watching as the medics lifted Corran onto a repulsorbed.
"I am," Leia said sombrely. "That's not the problem, though."
Han nodded. Mara had just been captured by a Dark Jedi, for Vader-only-knows what. Even worse than that, they were going to have to tell Luke what had happened. That was not going to be easy. He turned to look at where the shuttle had been, expressing a short and violent Corellian oath. "I'll get the Skywalker Spirit ready for takeoff," he said, knowing her well enough to realise what she was going to do.
"Thanks, Han," Leia said. "I'm going to have to tell Luke personally."
"You don't have to tell me," Han chided gently. He stopped briefly as the medics hurried past, with Mirax walking alongside the repulsorbed holding Corran's hand. "Chewie and I'll look after the kids. Just don't start blaming yourself for what happened. You and Corran did all you could. Now go on. I'll let you know when the Spirit's ready."
Leia gave him a grateful smile, then hurried away. A grim faced Wedge appeared beside Han as he left the hangar on the way to the Spirit's docking bay. "Sith scum," he said softly and bitingly, the tone of his voice displaying his rage far more effectively than any amount of simple anger could have done.
Han nodded in agreement, trying to control his own anger. Despite all the backbiting that he and Mara engaged in, the two of them had grown to genuinely like each other. She counted him, along with Wedge, Leia, Shada, Karrde, and a few others, as a friend, an honour that Mara Jade did not lightly bestow. "It's the same Dark Jedi we fought five years ago," he told Wedge.
Wedge glanced at him. "That explains it," he said. "They took control of our whole starboard gun crews. They're in the medbays right now. That doesn't include the guards I sent to the hangar bay to detain them, or the other guards who tried to stop them outside Mara's quarters. And Corran's going to be out of it for a few hours, of course."
By now they had reached the Spirit's docking bay. "Come on," Wedge said. "I'll give you a hand getting the Spirit ready."
Lumiya's shuttle headed away from Galactic Defender and towards the edges of the fleet. This time, Lumiya was not controlling the minds of the gunners on Galactic Defender. It was scarcely needed this time, since the New Republic ships were hardly likely to fire on them while they had Mara Skywalker captive. As soon as it cleared the fleet, it jumped to lightspeed.
Once the shuttle had escaped to hyperspace, Kariss engaged the autopilot and entered the ship's passenger compartment. Lumiya was making some adjustments to a small band studded with winking red lights on Mara's forehead. Satisfied, she sat back. "That will keep her under control," she noted.
"It is a Sith mind control device," she said by way of explanation to Kariss. "The Jedi Knight you fought-" at this, Kariss gave a derisive snort "-once had his wife held captive by a group of Force users who used one of these on her to break her resistance and place her in a hibernation trance. He in fact resisted me during my prior attack on Skywalker. At the time, I was reckless and impetuous like you. Do not let it become your undoing."
She tapped the device. "These can break even the resistance of a Jedi Master for a short period. I have set it to suppress her strongest resistance, while still leaving her open to my control. It will be amusing to pit her against Skywalker when he arrives."
Kariss frowned. "She is strong in the Force. It is not likely you will be able to turn her to the dark side. And this device will not control her forever. Do not place too much faith in it. Skywalker may well succeed in removing it and if he does, you would then have to fight the two of them together. Perhaps it would be as wise to kill her now. For that matter, I still do not understand why you feel the need to capture Mara Skywalker."
Lumiya swung to face him, her eyes glinting dangerously between her mask. "No," she said icily. "Do not refer to her as Mara Skywalker in my presence."
She took a breath and seemed to calm slightly. "I will be able to control Mara Jade until I have destroyed Skywalker. I will make sure that Skywalker is unable to free her. Even if he removes the device, I will still be able to control Jade through the Force. This makes it easier but I can control her without it if necessary. Jade will still be useful even if she refuses to turn to the dark side. I have made plans for all contingencies. A valuable tool is not destroyed carelessly."
"As for attempting to capture and turn her, I have a personal interest in the matter." Her eyes met Kariss's as she explained why to him, and saw his own eyes widen in shock.
"That cannot be," he said incredulously, his eyes flicking between her and Mara.
"I assure you it is true," Lumiya said. "Now you know why I seek to turn her, and what I have in mind for her if she does refuse to turn."
Kariss nodded. "Will you summon Skywalker immediately?"
Lumiya considered for a minute before shaking her head. "It is tempting, but I have waited long enough for my revenge on Skywalker. It will be piquant to make him suffer in doubt and anxiety before I call him to his fate." A cold grin spread across her face beneath her mask, one which was utterly devoid of warmth or compassion. "They say revenge is a dish best served cold."
* * * * * *
Six days later, the Skywalker Spirit arrived on Yavin. Leia had spent the entire journey wondering how Luke would react when she told him what had happened to Mara. It was not something she was looking forward to. She knew how much Luke cared about Mara, not to mention that she felt responsible for having failed to stop Lumiya, despite knowing how illogical it was. She knew she had done everything possible to thwart her.
Luke was waiting on the landing grid as the Spirit set down. He seemed calm, but even from this distance, she could feel the worry and apprehension that poured off him in waves. She took a deep breath. As much as she wanted to, she couldn't stay here forever. That was not the way of the Jedi. Rising from her seat, she headed aft to the boarding ramp.
Walking down the ramp was not easy, since she had to endure Luke's blue eyes boring into hers every step of the way down it. "It was Lumiya, wasn't it?" he said without any preamble as she reached him. "I know what happened. I could sense it through the bond with Mara." Even on Yavin, he had known via his bond with Mara that Lumiya had reappeared. He had sensed the ensuing battle, then nothing more as the link was cut, first as Mara was stunned, and then as Lumiya used the mind control device to control her.
Leia nodded. "I'm sorry. Corran and I tried to stop her, but she had another Sith Adept with her. He was able to hold us both at bay without any trouble."
Luke shook his head. "Don't be. I'm sure you did all you could." He paused for a second. "I somehow knew I'd have to face Lumiya again one day, but I didn't think she'd attack me in this way." He fell silent and Leia could tell that there was something else troubling him.
"Is there something I should know?" she asked diplomatically.
Luke hesitated for a moment. "After I knew Mara had been captured, I tried meditating to see if the Force would show me anything."
"And did it?" Leia prompted.
Luke's gaze shifted to a point in the distance behind her. "Yes," he said sombrely. "I had a vision. Of myself fighting Mara..." It had been a brief glimpse of him and Mara engaged in lightsabre combat, with an overwhelming sense of hate coming from Mara. He had not seen the outcome in the vision, but even the thought that he might have to fight Mara was more than enough to send an icy dread through him. "What am I meant to do now?" he asked almost inaudibly.
Leia looked at him. He wasn't thinking particularly rationally, which was understandable under the circumstances, but it was something they couldn't afford to indulge in right now. "First of all, we have to try and find Mara," she pointed out. "Worrying about Force visions and the like can wait until later. Can you reach her through your bond at all?"
Her words seemed to snap Luke out of his brooding. "No, I can't. I never realised how much Mara and I shared through our Force bond until it was gone. I feel like I've been torn in half. I can't even sense her in the Force in the normal way. I think Lumiya must be masking her from me."
"Right, so that way of finding her is out," Leia noted. "In that case, we're left with the usual options: hoping Galactic Intelligence can find Mara or Lumiya; or that Lumiya is using her as a pawn to bring you to her, which I have a strong feeling is the case, since she seems determined to have revenge on you for some reason. In either case, we can't do anything but wait. While we twiddle our thumbs, I suggest that you try and help Kyp or any of the others. Sitting and brooding about what's happened to Mara isn't going to help any of us."
Luke nodded. "Thanks for trying to help. I appreciate it."
"You're welcome," Leia answered. "Anyway, right now I'm going to see if Karrde or Ghent can find out anything on Lumiya."
A short time later, Leia entered the communications centre in the Temple. "Put me through to Head of Galactic Intelligence Talon Karrde on board the Wild Karrde," she instructed one of the three Padawans manning the comm boards. The Padawan, barely out of his teens, nodded and proceeded to establish a connection. A few seconds later, an image of Dankin, who took temporary charge of the Action VI freighter when Karrde was absent, appeared on the display.
"Councillor Solo," he said in greeting, inclining his head to her. "Unfortunately Karrde is not on board at present. He can be reached on board the-" here he paused, a smirk appearing, "-Pack of Karrdes."
Leia stared at him in disbelief for a moment, even ignoring the snickers from the other two Padawans. "The Pack of Karrdes?" she said slowly as it began to sink in. Karrde had always chosen offbeat names for his ships, but this time he had surpassed himself.
Dankin nodded, his smirk widening into a fully-fledged grin. "He and Shada brought a small space yacht for their personal use a couple of weeks ago. With them and a pair of two year old children as the crew, it was the obvious name."
Leia nodded. "Thank you," she said and ended the connection. She knew she had been brusque, but she didn't have time for social niceties right now.
Her next call was directly to Karrde. Unsurprisingly, given his sources and status of Head of Galactic Intelligence, he already knew that Mara had been captured, and consequently was not in a good mood. He was distinctly grim, an unusual state for the normally ultra urbane ex-smuggler. His and Mara's relationship was almost that of a father and daughter, something that had intensified since Alina's birth. Mara had observed that he must really have a soft spot for her and Alina, since he regularly brought them gifts when he visited, without even asking for anything in return.
"I'll make sure everyone in my organisation and all my contacts keep their eyes open," he promised Leia. He gave her a penetrating stare, clearly apparent even in the hologram projection. "I'll try to find out information on this Lumiya, although I can't guarantee there'll be anything. If there's one thing I've learnt after five years as Head of Galactic Intelligence, it's that there's precious little information on the Emperor's or Vader's agents. There's only a small amount on Mara in the files. By the way, I don't know if you've spoken to Ghent, but Mara contacted him shortly before she was captured. Apparently from what Ghent said, she seemed to think that her parents had been betrayed to Vader and Palpatine, not to mention wanting genetic comparisons done between her and Roganda Ismaren for some reason." He nodded to her, and the hologram vanished.
Leia stood there for a while, wondering why Mara hadn't told her what she had found out, and if it had any bearing on Lumiya's apparent obsession with Mara. Her last call was to Ghent. She learned little more from him than she had from Karrde, except that Mara had somehow learnt her parent's names. Apparently Mara hadn't told him much.
After that, there was little she could do other than wait for Karrde to contact her. She knew that Han and Wedge had spread the news that Mara had been captured to most of the New Republic's intelligence sources and agents, starting with Karrde's Galactic Intelligence network. She didn't suppose they'd find anything, though. A Sith was hardly likely to advertise their existence on the Holonet, she thought dryly.
The next two weeks dragged by. As Leia had predicted, no trace was found of Mara, Lumiya, or Kariss, and with every day that passed, Luke's concern for Mara increased. The only bright spot was some information Karrde had managed to dig up. Leia remembered how shortly after the Declaration of Peace between the New Republic and Empire, Karrde had described his search for Jorj Car'das. Car'das had been one of the first people he had turned to in the search for information on Lumiya. Amazingly, Car'das actually had some information on her. The file he found and sent to Leia, via Karrde, three days after her request for information was not much, barely a single page, but it was better than nothing. It was a brief report stating that she had been trained by Darth Vader as a Sith Dark Lord. That part made sense, since it suggested a motivation for her hate of Luke in that she probably believed, like most of the galaxy, that Luke had destroyed him. Yet Leia knew it was not the only reason for her hate of Luke. Something more personal was behind it.
She scanned the rest of the document. It said that Lumiya had been nearly killed at some point in her past, although she had guessed as much given that Lumiya was a cyborg. The rest of the file was speculation on Lumiya's background, and how she might have been injured. There were no references to her before the Battle of Yavin, and scarcely anything on her between then and the Battle of Endor. Again, that made sense. Apparently Vader had risked the Emperor's wrath in training Lumiya as a Sith Lord. It stood to reason that he would keep her carefully hidden from his master. After Endor, no records whatsoever of her activities existed until she had briefly reemerged five years ago, and then vanished yet again following her defeat.
As the time passed with no clues as to what might have happened to Mara, Luke's foreboding only increased. He began to understand first hand how Corran and Leia had felt when they had been separated from Mirax and Han respectively, although the break in his and Mara's Force bond seemed to make his own ordeal seem much worse. As Leia had suggested, much of his time was spent finishing the training of some of the advanced Padawans, which helped to at least partly distract him from his anxiety over Mara. He was able to conceal what remained from the other Padawans and Jedi Knights at the academy, except for Kyp and Leia.
In the end, it took three weeks since Mara's capture before Lumiya acted. The message, when it finally arrived, was sent surprisingly prosaically via the Holonet. Luke was demonstrating some points of lightsabre combat to a class with the help of Kam Solusar when one of the Padawans manning the comm centre burst in, breathing hard and plainly agitated.
"Master Skywalker!" he blurted out. "We're receiving a transmission from Lady Lumiya!"
Luke was instantly on his feet and out of the door, hurrying towards the comm centre. Kam Solusar gazed around at the other Padawans for a moment and then shrugged. "Looks like this lesson is concluded for the time being," he observed.
Luke entered the comm centre to find the hologram pod on pause, and the other two Padawans manning the comm centre sitting nervously. One glance was sufficient and they left quickly, leaving Luke alone in the comm centre. Taking a breath and running through his Jedi calming techniques, he pressed the pause button on the hologram pod. The pause symbol vanished to be replaced with a familiar life-sized hologram.
"Jedi Master Skywalker," Lumiya said, managing to make it sound like a curse. "You will come to the planet Kroval III in the Ettrill system, alone, within seven days, or Jade will suffer the consequences."
"Wait!" Luke said urgently as Lumiya began to step backwards out of the transmission field. "Release Mara. She has no part in this. This is a dispute between the two of us only."
Lumiya sneered at him. "No conditions, Skywalker. Do not believe Jade has no part to play in this, either."
Any further discussion was ended as she broke the transmission link.
Kyp and Leia came out onto the observation platform at the summit of the Great Temple to see Luke standing in the middle of the platform with his back to them, gazing out over the jungle. "I'm a Jedi Master, strong in the Force, and yet I don't know what to do," he said quietly as they approached him, without turning around. "If I face Lumiya, I'll have to fight Mara. How can I do that?"
"The path of a Jedi is not an easy one," Kyp said. "Remember, indecision and uncertainty are weapons of the dark side."
"I know that," Luke said sharply. "I've said it to others often enough, but for once it doesn't help me." He sighed. "I'm getting too old for this."
There was a long pause. "Do you want me to go?" Kyp offered.
Luke shook his head. "Lumiya wants to kill me in revenge for something I did to her. I have to go." He fell silent, and Leia met Kyp's gaze. The two of them shared a thought, and Kyp quietly turned away and left the roof.
Leia came to stand next to Luke, putting her arm around his waist. She said nothing, merely trying to give him guidance and strength. It reminded her of the time Luke had given her his support on board the Rebel medical frigate after Han had been frozen in carbonite and taken to Jabba. Now he was the one in need of support.
After a long time, Luke straightened and stepped away. "Thank you, Leia," he said. "I'll be alright now. I just need a bit of time to think."
Leia met his gaze, not at all convinced that he was alright, but she knew that it was no good trying to talk to him if he wanted to be on his own. She silently left the roof.
Luke continued to stare out over the jungle, his thoughts and feelings becoming even more clouded with indecision. Shutting his eyes, he opened his mind to the Force, hoping that this time he would be given some guidance.
It came.
"Luke?" a voice called softly.
He opened his eyes and turned around, expecting to see Ben Kenobi standing there, remembering how his old mentor had appeared at such moments of doubt. It was not Kenobi who stood behind him, though.
"Callista," he said quietly. "I don't know what to do."
The shimmering blue image of Callista gazed at him solemnly. "You know what you must do," she said gently. "Mara needs your help. You love her, yet you are tempted to take the quick and easy path, to abandon her to the dark side. You turned your father, Anakin Skywalker, back from the dark side."
Luke lowered his head. "I know. I'm not sure if I can fight Mara, though. She's my wife and we have a daughter." He looked up to meet her eyes. "Will I have to kill Mara?"
"I cannot reveal the future," Callista said in mild reproof. "As for fighting her, that is something only you can decide on. The time when Yoda told you that you had to face Vader again is long gone. There comes a time when only you can make your choices. You are a Jedi Master now. I cannot tell you what to do, only advise you."
Luke shifted his gaze to look past her. "Why does Lumiya seek to have revenge on me?"
"Use your insight, Luke," Callista advised. "What do you know of her?"
Luke considered. He had read the sketchy information on her that Jorj Car'das had sent. "She was trained in the dark side by my father. Is that why she hates me, because she believes I killed him?"
"Partly," came the answer. "The true reason is something else, though. The answer lies in something you learned about her when you faced her before."
Luke thought back to that time. A sudden thought came to him, something that had puzzled him at the time. "Corran said she projected a vision of Erisi Dlarit into his mind, and showed him an X-wing and TIE interceptor being destroyed and crashing respectively."
Callista said nothing, waiting for him to continue.
"She was shot down in a space battle," he realised suddenly. "She survived, at the price of becoming a cyborg. The TIE interceptor was the result of something Corran did. She was the pilot of the X-wing. That was shot down by another X-wing, piloted by-"
He stopped as he realised that he must have been the pilot, and as something else came to mind. "Erisi had red hair and brown eyes for some reason," he heard Corran saying once more, and the whole thing was abruptly crystal clear.
He met Callista's eyes. "She's Shira Brie, isn't she?" he asked, already knowing the truth. The memories flooded back: the confusion during the brief battle with the Revenge when he had detected her X-wing targeting his, and Ben Kenobi's advice to use the Force to sense her intentions, advice which had prompted him to fire on her X-wing. He could well understand why she hated him so bitterly now.
"Your insight serves you well," Callista said, echoing Kenobi's own words of long ago. "She indeed seeks revenge on you for that."
Luke was silent for a moment. Callista's words had brought him to one decision at least. "Then I have to face her. Perhaps I can help her. I won't kill Mara, though, if I have to face her as well. That's something I can't do."
Callista nodded. "A Jedi will recognise and embrace the moment when it is time for them to become one with the Force. Obi-Wan Kenobi knew his time had arrived when he faced Vader on the Death Star. The same will happen to you, if it is your destiny to be killed by Mara. Remember, whatever happens, the Force will always be with you."
Luke hesitated, then nodded. This time he had nothing more to say.
Kyp and Leia were teaching Alina how to use the Force to lift and move objects in one of the teaching rooms when Luke entered. Both of them looked up as he appeared. Kyp hesitated for a moment. "I can still go instead if you want," he offered.
Luke shook his head. "Thanks, Kyp, but it's my task." He looked at both of them. "I need a few minutes with Alina."
Kyp and Leia nodded and left the room, closing the door behind them. Luke squatted down in front of Alina once the two of them were alone. "Ali, I'm going to find your mother "
She nodded solemnly. "Are you bringing her back? I miss her."
Luke hesitated, unsure what to say. "I know, I miss her too. I don't know if she's coming back, though."
She considered this for a minute. "Are you coming back?"
Luke hesitated again. "I don't know that either. I hope that both of us come back. Remember, even if neither of us return, we will always be with you."
Leia was standing outside the door when the two of them came out. "Aunt Leia will take care of you while I'm gone," Luke told Alina, crouching down briefly in front of her. He straightened up and caught Leia's gaze.
"Look after her if..." he told her silently, leaving the sentence unfinished.
Leia met his gaze squarely. "I will. I promise."
The two of them stared at each other for a moment, and then Leia stepped forwards, pulling Luke into a hug. "May the Force be with you," she whispered.
Luke nodded and stepped back, glancing briefly at Alina, before turning and hurrying down the corridor in the direction of the landing grid.
* * * * * *
The war room on Galactic Defender was large enough to accommodate all the pilots based on board the starship with room to spare. Rising rows of semicircular benches surrounded a centre holographic display. Admiral Ackbar, Vice Admiral Ardiff, Colonel Avola, General Rieekan, and General Bel Iblis stood beside the projector, waiting to begin the briefing.
Wedge gazed around the room. Han and Chewbacca sat alongside him and the other Rogues, and he could see other familiar faces in the crowd, among them Pash Cracken, now a colonel and leader of the A-wing unit Ace Squadron.
Colonel Avola commenced the briefing once all the pilots had arrived. "I assume you have all been briefed on the several recent appearances by alien starfighters," he began. "The purpose of these raids seem designed to lure us into an ambush. They make brief, light attacks on our forces and then withdraw. The principle of these raids seems to be to give us a hyperspace vector back to their system of origin. Given the way that they have consistently stayed on the fringes of our sensor range, demonstrating that they are fully aware of the extents of our technology, it is very probable that they know we can track them for several microseconds after a hyperspace jump and calculate their vector. They have even been 'considerate' enough to jump to lightspeed from several different vectors, allowing us to triangulate precise coordinates to their hyperspace exit point."
"Thank you, Colonel," General Rieekan said, stepping forwards. Despite having been a distinguished member of the High Command of first the Rebel Alliance and then the New Republic since before the Battle of Hoth, the old general still had the energy and drive of someone half his age. "Clearly the alien invaders have no intention of co-existing peacefully with us, as shown by their recent attacks on the fleet. High Command has therefore decided to mount a full scale engagement. Obviously, there are considerable risks in such a venture. If they seek to lure us into a full battle, knowing the strength of our fleet and the extent of our technology, they are plainly certain of the outcome. Their technology is clearly much in advance of our own, from what we have learned from the starfighter raids. We have no alternative but to take the bait, however. If we cannot win with this fleet, the strongest concentration of ships the New Republic and Empire can muster, then it is a moot point whether we fight them at a place of their choosing or anywhere else."
He gazed around the room. "The challenge facing us is deadly, but we have a good chance of winning. All the ships and fighter squadrons in the fleet were picked on merit, both from the Imperial and Republic forces. Our fleet is unrivalled by anything in history, either in numbers or strength, and we fight in defence of our home planets. That gives us an automatic edge over the invaders."
"May the Force be with us," Ackbar said, finishing the briefing.
Han leaned forward to tap Gavin Darklighter on the shoulder, and gave him a wink as he turned round. There was no need for any explanations.
"I've got a bad feeling about this," Gavin said, smirking.
Wedge shook his head and groaned. "If I ever hear that again, I'm going to shoot myself. If there's a worse phrase anywhere, I'd like to hear it."
He immediately realised his mistake, but twisted to glare at Janson too late to prevent the inevitable from happening.
"Yub yub, General."
* * * * * *
The Skywalker Spirit came out of hyperspace over Kroval III. Even from orbit, it looked like a grim and forbidding planet. Kroval itself was a cold red star, clearly giving off too little warmth to warm even the nearest planet to it. Kroval III seemed to be a dead planet. Here and there, Luke could see a few small oceans. The sensors showed no indication of any native plants or animals. Atmospheric readings indicated a low oxygen atmosphere. The ground consisted solely of rocks and dead soil. It was, Luke reflected, exactly the sort of planet that the Sith seemed to prefer.
The silent call had become stronger with proximity, and he brought the Spirit down through the atmosphere, following the call. Ahead of him, a mass of harsh grey/black stone began to take form on the horizon. Grim and jagged lines stood out from the plateau around it. It was a typical Sith castle, he realised as he approached it.
A few minutes later, he set the Spirit down in front of the doors to Lumiya's castle, which were standing open awaiting him. Only an inky blackness could be seen through the doors. He reached out with the Force, but could sense only two presences in the castle, the overwhelming feeling of hate emanating from one telling him that it was Lumiya. As he had when he confronted her on board her Strike Cruiser, he felt something about her that reminded him of Mara. He reached out to Mara, calling her, but although he could sense her, there was no answer. Clearly she was still under the control of the mind-control device.
He attached his lightsabre to his belt, then headed aft to the boarding ramp. An unpleasantly warm rain was falling as he came down the ramp and jogged towards the doors. A few steps into the castle, and even the feeble light from outside was swallowed up in darkness. He didn't need to activate a glowrod or his lightsabre to shed some light, though. Expanding his sensory sphere, he was able to perceive the walls, doors, and obstacles like tables and chairs around him. Lumiya was calling him ever more strongly as he approached. He hurried along corridors and up staircases, going ever higher in the castle. Here and there, he saw ancient Sith inscriptions painted on the walls and statues in wall niches. The entire castle was decorated in sombre colours, and only a tiny amount of light illuminated the corridors, giving it a gloomy and brooding atmosphere, like the Emperor's throne on the Death Star.
Finally, he was drawn to a spiral staircase leading to the top of the highest tower of Lumiya's castle. Once he reached the top, he found himself standing in front of a pair of doors which were engraved with various Sith spells and carvings. Two statues stood on either side of the doors, Sith Gatekeepers. He snatched his lightsabre from his belt as the doors abruptly began to swing open. A reddish light streamed out as the doors opened.
As his eyes adjusted to the different light, he could see Mara standing halfway up a flight of steps leading to a raised dais. Lumiya stood at the top of the steps, facing him. She watched Luke approach, a malevolent joy clearly visible in her eyes.
"Let Mara go," he said quietly, coming to the foot of the stairs and gazing up at Mara.
"How noble," Lumiya mocked scornfully. "I think not. Let us see if you are so noble once you learn that my Sith students are on their way to your vaunted academy. A pity your daughter is there. She will make a fine apprentice for me."
"They will not succeed," Luke said, trying to ignore the thought of Alina at the mercy of a Sith Adept. "Against the entire academy? You've thrown them away in vain."
Lumiya smirked. "There are precious few Jedi at your academy, Skywalker. I know as well as you do how few there are there, with most of them spread throughout the galaxy and with this fleet you have sent into the Unknown Regions. It does not matter if some of my students are destroyed if the others damage your academy and bring your daughter here. Kariss is more than a match for any of your Jedi. He will succeed, I assure you."
She stared down at Luke, and he shivered from the hate he saw in her eyes. Once again, he was inexplicably reminded of Mara. What possible connection could there be between Mara and Shira Brie, he wondered momentarily. "It's not too late to turn from the dark side, Shira," he instead said calmly.
Lumiya went rigid for a moment. "So you at last know the truth," she replied. "Fitting, that you should learn it before you die."
"Come with me," Luke offered. "We can help you."
"Do not seek to avoid your fate by trying to cloud my mind," Lumiya hissed. "The only way you can help me is by dying, preferably slowly and painfully. Why waste time in pointless discussion, though?" She gestured to Mara, her face tightening in concentration.
The lightsabres flashed to life in an instant as Mara attacked. She jumped down the stairs to land in front of Luke, and the twin blades met his lightsabre with a savage impact. They stood there immobile, staring at each other across the lightsabre blades, as Lumiya's laughter filled the room.
The black hulled Lambda shuttle touched down outside the Great Temple. Kariss strode down the ramp, shrouded in his cloak, and with his lightsabre hilt held ready in one hand. Behind him, the rest of the Sith Adepts emerged from the shuttle and formed in a line behind him. A solitary figure stepped from the shadows inside the Temple as they approached. Kyp Durron swept his eyes across them as they stopped.
"We do not wish to fight you," he said calmly. "Leave now and you have my word as a Jedi Master that you will not be attacked."
They were not impressed by his words. In response, lightsabres of all colours and hues ignited, and they resumed their advance on Kyp. Other figures emerged from the Temple to join Kyp. Leia, Kam Solusar, Kirana Ti and several other of the Jedi Knights stepped forwards to meet the advancing enemy. Despite being outnumbered, they stood firm as the Sith Adepts advanced on them. Kyp sensed the fear emanating from the others who stood behind him. Most of them were students, and unarmed. Too many of the full Jedi Knights were out in the Unknown Regions with the New Republic, or acting as Jedi Guardians in their native systems. The Sith Adepts, in contrast, were clearly fully trained and eager to fight. He knew that even if he and the others won, it would cost the academy dearly. "Remember the Jedi Code," he called to the students in an attempt to inspire them. "A Jedi does not know fear."
Kariss quickened his stride and came directly at Kyp, both ends of his double ended lightsabre ignited and glowing. The two blades crackled as he swung at Kyp, whose own blade sprang to life with a snap-hiss. The lightsabres flashed as the two of them tested each other's strength and skill. Kariss's eyes began to gleam exultantly as he realised that at last he had a worthy opponent. Around them, the other Jedi Knights were engaging the Sith. Leia and Kirana Ti were fighting two together, while Kam Solusar was pitted against another.
Kyp spun aside to evade a lunge from Kariss, and saw Tionne and Streen standing on either side of the Jedi students, unsure what to do. "Take them to the old war rooms," he called to them, striking so hard that Kariss was forced back a step. He backed away slowly into a patch of deep shadow, and his lightsabre suddenly deactivated, so that Kyp lost sight of him. He advanced quickly, but it was too late. Kariss had vanished into the gloom of the Temple, and Kyp felt his presence vanish as Kariss shielded himself from the Jedi.
A sudden sense of danger made him turn towards where the students were hurrying out of the hangar, to see that Alina Skywalker had fallen behind in the confusion. Tionne had already spotted her and was hastening towards her. One of the Sith Adepts had spotted her as well, though, and was closing in. Being nearer, he would reach her before Tionne. Kyp reacted instantly, racing to place himself in the other's path. Their lightsabres met with a ferocious impact, a glow marking where they intersected. Kyp spared a glance towards Tionne, to see Alina standing a short distance away from him. Between him and Tionne, a bitter duel was raging between Kam Solusar and his foe, and he dared not let Alina take the risk of trying to get past them. In addition, the way the Sith Adept had gone for Alina showed that she was their target. If so, she would have no protection if she stayed with the unarmed students.
He hesitated, and then made his mind up. "Go!" he shouted to Tionne. He would have to keep Alina safe instead. He vaguely saw Tionne leave as he turned his full attention back to his opponent, a human female with one side of her face marked by an old lightsabre scar that ran from cheek to chin. She was well trained, but not as formidable as Kariss. The blades converged, and then Kyp drove the yellow-orange blade aside, cut up with his lightsabre to cut through his enemy from hip to shoulder, and the Sith Adept vanished in a flash of blue energy.
Kyp threw a glance around. Leia and Kirana Ti were still fighting their rivals, but at that moment, he felt a surge in the Force as one of the Jedi Knights went down. He looked in that direction to see the body collapse to the floor. Alina followed his gaze, and her eyes widened in fright as she saw what happened. Kyp knew that sorrow was a luxury they could not afford right now. "He's one with the Force now," he said gently. "We have to go." It was too dangerous to leave her in the middle of a battle between the Sith and Jedi. He would have to find somewhere safer.
Multiple flickers of pseudomotion marked the reversion from hyperspace of a massive number of capital ships. Star Cruisers, Star Destroyers, Battle Dragons, Ishori War Cruisers, Nebulon-B, Escort, and Assault Class Frigates, Corellian Corvettes, and innumerable other starship classes, emerged from lightspeed along a broad front. A-wings, B-wings, X-wings and Y-wings swarmed around the capital ships, mingling with TIE fighters, Interceptors and Bombers.
"Battle alert!" Admiral Ackbar warned. "Alien ships in sector 12. Starfighter Command, assume a screening position."
"Copy, Admiral," Wedge responded. "All units, this is Rogue Leader. Lock S-foils in attack mode. Engage at will."
As they had expected, the attacks at Nirauan had been feints intended to lure the fleet into a full scale engagement. A distinctive whine marked the opening of his fighter's S-foils, as New Republic fighters raced towards the enemy ships. Dozens of blips began to appear on his displays as scores of alien fighters began launching. Judging by the numbers launching, there were more of them swarming towards them than there had been in the TIE fighter/Interceptor attack at the Battle of Endor, and even without them, they still had to worry about the five starships in the distance, each of them only slightly smaller than a Super Star Destroyer.
Admiral Ackbar and Ardiff were not slow to respond, though. A group of eight Star Cruisers and Star Destroyers each, and several Battle Dragons detached from the main fleet, to escort the Pre-Eminence in an attack against the alien ships. A score of Corellian Corvettes and Gunships gathered around the perimeter of the small force, destroying any fighters that attempted to make strafing runs on the task force.
Meanwhile, an intense battle erupted between the two main fleets. Red, green and yellow laser fire filled space as the New Republic starfighters, with Rogue Squadron in the lead, stabbed through the enemy fighters in the first attack before curving back towards their own fleet. Dazzling salvoes of energy shot back and forth between the two groups of starships which had now closed to firing range. The Star Cruisers and Star Destroyers opened up with tremendous broadsides of turbolaser and ion cannon fire, while the Battle Dragons began launching their silvery pulsemass generating spheres, to ensure that the enemy ships were held in place during the battle.
The volume of fire was breathtaking, but it paled into insignificance next to the firepower the alien capital ships now displayed in answer. Yellow sheets of laser fire pulsed out from turbolaser batteries all along their length, overwhelming the Republic and Imperial ships in a torrent of energy. As formidable a fighting force as they were, they could nevertheless not hope to match the intensity of the attack. Shields collapsed in barely a minute, letting the laser fire tear unchecked into their hulls. Turbolaser shots punched breaches in dozens of places. Two of the Star Cruisers died under the withering assault in four minutes, nearly torn in half from the unremitting bombardment. The Corvettes and Gunships had no chance, being hopelessly overmatched in terms of firepower and shield strength.
Ackbar watched in consternation as the taskforce was torn to shreds by the incredible firepower of the alien capital ships. Even he had underestimated their capabilities. The taskforce should have been a match for at least two Super Star Destroyers, and perhaps even three, in a fight, but judging from what had just happened, it was more like a contest between a tauntaun and wampa. The Pre-Eminence, leaking air from dozens of hull breaches, began turning away from the battle in a headlong retreat. Not many of the starships that had gone with it were left to fall back. He watched as half a dozen of the Corvettes and Gunships pulled away, with only seven of the sixteen Star Cruisers and Star Destroyers among them, all of them severely damaged. Three Battle Dragons brought up the rear of the formation.
The battle was going equally badly for the New Republic starfighters. They had destroyed many of the alien fighters in the first attack, but now the superior speed and firepower of the alien fighters began to tell. This was no mock battle like the one at Nirauan. This time it was a fight to the death. Even Rogue Squadron found themselves pushed to evade the constant attackers. The B-wings, Y-wings and TIE Bomber squadrons fared worst, their lack of speed making them easy targets.
Wedge's X-wing shot through the thick of the battle, scorched areas of paint and plasteel marking near-misses from laser fire. "There's one on you, Two," he warned.
"I've seen him," Tycho responded calmly. "Six?"
"Coming in now," Gavin Darklighter answered. "He's right in my sights..."
An X-wing shot up from below Tycho, dropping in neatly between him and the pursuing fighter. Two dual laser bursts caught the fighter dead centre, burning into the hull, and it began a twisting dive towards a Battle Dragon. A small explosion on the Hapan ship's hull marked the impact point of the fighter.
Another enemy fighter came in behind Wedge, only to disintegrate as he threw the X-wing into a sharp turn towards an Assault Frigate, and a salvo of turbolaser fire blew the fighter into thousands of glowing shards. His X-wing levelled out and came around in a tight arc, only to see yet another of the alien ships hot on the tail of Green Leader. Yellow laser blasts shot past the A-wing as it tried to evade its attackers.
"Stay there, Green Leader," he ordered. "I'm coming in."
"Negative," came the response. "I just lost my starboard engine."
Wedge glanced up to see a shower of sparks and flame spewing from the fighter's engine. "Eject!" he snapped. "That's an order."
"Copy, Rogue Leader," he heard over the comm. "Ejecting now."
At that moment, laser bolts slammed into the back of the A-wing and the ruined engine simultaneously exploded. Green Leader's A-wing became an expanding ball of yellow-white flame.
A white glow marked the point where the lightsabres crashed together as Luke desperately fought to keep Mara at bay. Only when he fought Darth Vader in Cloud City for the first time had he experienced such a challenge. Mara was as experienced and well trained as he was in lightsabre combat, and her use of two blades in true fighting pushed him to the limits of his ability. He backflipped to avoid her charge as the blue lightsabre cut through his defences, and gained a few moment's breathing space. His mind raced, searching for a way to free Mara from Lumiya's control. He was too occupied defending himself to try and remove the band from Mara's forehead, and he knew that under Lumiya's control, she would kill him or be killed, and killing her was the one thing he would not do, even if it cost him his own life.
He backed towards a wall as Mara attacked again, parrying her relentless attacks. A quick sidestep reversed their positions, leaving Mara with her back to the wall, and he drove her purple lightsabre aside. He ducked as the blue blade flicked towards him, and managed to grab her arm. Charging forwards, he used his body to pin her other arm against the wall, leaving her defenceless.
"I don't want to fight you," he said quietly.
The only response was a glare of hate that stabbed through him more sharply than a vibroblade. "She can't hear you, Skywalker," Lumiya said mockingly, watching the battle. "While she is under my control, she will not stop until you have been destroyed.
A Force generated shockwave slammed into Luke, sending him sprawling backwards. He rolled away and to his feet as Mara attacked with even greater energy than before. Calling on the Force for strength, he matched her attack, although he was beginning to tire under the onslaught. He no longer had the energy of youth, and the strain of fighting his own wife was beginning to take its toll. A Force propelled leap sent him over Mara to land behind her, only to be sent sprawling yet again as she whipped around and kicked him in the stomach.
"You are beaten. It is useless to resist..." Vader's words to Luke during the closing stages of their duel in Cloud City flashed through his mind as he saw the blue lightsabre pointing directly at his throat. He cleared his mind of the thoughts. They were ones of despair, and he would not give into them. In a blur of motion, the green blade swung up to knock the lightsabre aside. The purple blade instantly came around towards him, but in the same motion, he leapt up and away from Mara in a backwards somersault.
Bringing her arm back, Mara cocked and hurled her blue lightsabre towards Luke. The blade cut through the air towards him, whirling end over end. He was able to dodge it, but while he was distracted, Mara charged. Before he knew what was happening, she kicked out to knock him off his feet. The impact with the stone floor stunned him for a second, and he dimly felt his lightsabre being kicked free from his grasp. His vision cleared to show Mara standing over him triumphantly with her purple lightsabre held a bare centimetre from his neck, ready to strike a killing blow.
"Stop!" Lumiya ordered. She watched as Mara held her purple lightsabre pointed at Luke's throat, ready to cut him down. The sight of Mara Jade destroying Skywalker was a alluring one, but as much as it tempted her, she had sworn that she would personally destroy Skywalker. She had dreamed of this moment for twenty years, and she now had it in her grasp. Skywalker would die at her hands. He was already weary from fighting Mara Jade, and he was about to discover how lethal she was with the lightwhip.
Leia's lightsabre cut methodically through the air to block the attacks from her opponent. Opposite her, Kirana Ti was wielding Gantoris's old violet-white lightsabre, the blade contrasting vividly with the black lightsabre of her foe. Like the Empire, the Sith seemed to have a bias against non-humans. None of the Sith Adepts present were anything other than human. Unlike the Jedi, who had no such prejudices, there were no records of the Sith ever having had alien followers that Leia was aware of.
The two Sith were equally skilled in the use of the Force as they were in lightsabre combat, and able to split their concentration between the two. Behind them, outside the Temple, stones burst from the ground and shot towards Kirana and Leia, curving around and over their opponents to fly into their faces. Like the gravel Joruus C'baoth had hurled at Luke and Mara in Mount Tantiss, they were too small and numerous to deflect with lightsabres or the Force. Throwing up an arm to protect their eyes, both of them staggered back, blinded and confused by the hail of stones that battered them. Sensing an easy victory, the two Sith closed in, their lightsabres held ready to deliver killing blows.
At that moment, Leia suddenly dropped her arm, ignoring the stones flying into her face, and charged, seeing through the eyes of one of the Jedi Knights who had defeated his enemy. Caught off guard, one of them failed to check her lunge, and died as the lightsabre swept in an arc to slice him in two at the waist. The other attacked, driving her back due to his greater experience in lightsabre duels. Kirana Ti was still being pelted with stones, and even more began striking Leia from behind, as well as the ones coming from the front. The relentless blows drove her lightsabre aside, and the Sith raised his lightsabre to cut her down. As he brought the blade down, his leg suddenly crumpled underneath him, dropping him to the floor, and the killing stroke bit into the stone slabs. Artoo had used the cover of the duel to approach from behind, and zap him with the arc welder.
Recovering quickly, the Sith rolled away and scrambled to his feet, only to come to a stop as Kirana Ti pressed the dual phase switch on her lightsabre to double its length. The glowing blade stabbed right through his chest, a faint mist of blood spraying out in its wake before the blade cauterised the wound. He gave a strangled gasp and then fell forwards as Kirana deactivated the lightsabre.
Kam Solusar and his Sith adversary fought each other in silence, saving their energy for the duel. They were equally matched. Kam was quicker and more agile, but his rival's greater inherent strength and the fact that he was fighting with another double bladed lightsabre offset this advantage. Whenever the blades crossed, the impact threatened to drive the lightsabre from Kam's grip.
The two fought in a small patch of light from a glowlamp overhead. The Sith Adept attacked relentlessly, constantly feinting and lunging, yet Kam could see that the single minded aggression could be his weakness, as with so many others. Pushing his sphere of responsibility out, he retreated, parrying every stroke, into the shadows. The Sith Adept followed him, seeking to wear him down and gain an easy victory. Feinting to his right, Kam instead sidestepped left. His enemy immediately brought the blade around, cutting through the pillar hidden in the shadows at an upward angle. The top half of the pillar immediately fell towards him, and he instinctively stepped back to avoid it. Kam checked, ducking under the rising blade, and went left around the pillar. The other blade had gone down, and it was an easy task to lunge over it and swing the lightsabre in a wide horizontal arc to decapitate his opponent. The body fell back into the shadows, the lightsabre deactivating and falling from its grip as the deadman's button was released.
Kam stood still for a moment, then stooped and picked up the double lightsabre. He had a good idea what to do with it. Taking a glance around, he realised that the battle was almost over. Most of the Sith Adepts had been defeated, although not without a price: eight or nine Jedi Knights lay dead in the hangar. Only one or two duels were still being fought. "I'm going to the throne room," he shouted to Kirana Ti, and headed for the turbolifts.
Lumiya called Mara back to stand beside the throne, and then rose, taking her lightwhip from her belt. Half of the handle retracted to reveal neatly coiled metal strands. She let the coils unfold and pressed the activation button to send bluish-white energy coursing along the whip strands. The strands crackled as she raised the lightwhip.
"Come, Skywalker, she said coldly, walking towards him. "Meet your ultimate destiny: death." With her other hand, she drew the lightsabre from her belt and ignited it. Although she rarely used the lightsabre, much preferring the lightwhip, she could fight expertly with both weapons at once. "My Sith Adepts will destroy your Jedi Knights, Mara Jade will join me of her own free will, and you will die slowly and painfully."
On the last word, she raised the lightwhip above her head and struck, the glowing strands cutting at Luke eerily like Force lightning. Luke swept his lightsabre up to meet it and caught some of the lashes on the blade. The hybrid metal and energy strands coiled around it, and Lumiya pulled with the lightwhip, forcing the lightsabre away from Luke's body to leave him vulnerable. More lashes sliced at his face, arms and chest, raising red welts where they struck. Two strands carved into his cheek, instantly drawing blood.
Lumiya lowered the lightwhip and stepped back, savouring Skywalker's pain and fear. She could easily have disarmed him in this first attack, but she wanted to let him fight ever more desperately until he could no longer do so.
"Fight, Skywalker," she goaded, beckoning him forwards, but he merely stared back at her, waiting for her to attack first. With a sneer, she extended a hand towards Mara, who instantly gasped for breath and sank to her knees as her throat constricted.
Luke stared at Lumiya for a moment longer, his face hardening in anger and hate, then raised his lightsabre and came forwards. Lumiya again raised the lightwhip up and swept it at him. As she did so, Luke leapt up and forwards, somersaulting over Lumiya. With cyborg speed, she swung around and blocked his lunge with her orange lightsabre. Luke sidestepped and made another lunge with blinding speed, only to duck as the lightwhip cut through the air towards him.
Both of them took a step back, evaluating the other. "Good," Lumiya said, noting the expression of rage on Luke's face. "Learn the power of the dark side before you die in pitiful failure."
Luke smiled coldly, and attacked with savage determination. The green blade clashed against the orange one, drove it aside with skill born of years of practice, and cut towards Lumiya. The cyborg stepped back quickly, disconcerted by the speed and skill of his attack, sweeping the lightwhip in front of her to block any further attack. She studied Luke, momentarily regretting that he was not a dark side adept. He would have been a powerful servant. Still, Alina Skywalker would combine the strength of her parents in the Force. Once Kariss brought her to Lumiya, she would be trained to realise her true potential. It would be a final act of revenge on Skywalker, to twist his daughter to the dark side.
Luke attacked again even as she was thinking, the lightsabre cutting through the air towards her, point first. The lightwhip immediately came around to meet it, and again coiled around the blade. Luke reacted immediately, pulling the lightsabre towards him. Taken by surprise, Lumiya stumbled forwards.
She straightened slowly, a mixture of rage and humiliation burning inside her. Skywalker would regret that. Putting everything out of her mind, she attacked, calling on the dark side to increase the power of her attacks. The lightwhip struck again and again, yet each time Skywalker managed to avoid the blows and counterattack.
All thought of making Skywalker suffer slowly before he died left Lumiya's mind. She resolved to finish him now. She swept the lightwhip up to catch and ensnare the lightsabre, but even as the strands coiled around the weapon, the green blade vanished as Luke deactivated it. Charging at her, he reactivated the blade, forcing her to counter with her own lightsabre. At such close quarters, the lightwhip was as dangerous to her as to Luke. The green blade battered against the orange one in a series of vicious blows, forcing Lumiya back and beating her lightsabre down. Amazed and alarmed by his speed and aggression, she spun and parried his lunge. It only seemed to fuel the intensity of his attack. A rain of savage overarm strokes ensued, breaking down her defences. The orange blade was driven aside, and taking full advantage of the opening, Luke pivoted on one foot and kicked up towards Lumiya's stomach, calling on the Force as he did so to amplify the kick. An almost comical expression of amazement spread across Lumiya's face as she fell backwards.
And as she collapsed, she felt her control on Mara's mind snap.
It was what Luke had been hoping to achieve. Spinning around, he charged towards Mara. Behind him, he sensed Lumiya's rage and fear as she realised how he had tricked her. He felt her scramble up and throw her lightsabre at him in an act of desperation, but the weapon went wide, spinning past him into a wall. A sudden Force blow sent him sprawling, but he still had his lightsabre. Locking the weapon on, he hurled it at Mara, using the Force to guide it to it's target.
He heard a cry of fury from Lumiya as the lightsabre, under painstaking control, slashed through the device on Mara's forehead. A millimetre off, and it would have cut into Mara's skull. The blinking red lights died amid a shower of sparks, and the two useless pieces clattered to the floor.
Lumiya gestured and Luke was hurled against a wall, the impact stunning him. The damage was done, though. Mara blinked and straightened up, taking in her surroundings, then snatched her lightsabres from her belt. Purple and blue blades sprang to life as she ignited them. She gave Lumiya a cold smile. "I'm really starting to dislike you," she said.
Kyp Durron entered the throne room of the Great Temple, followed by Alina Skywalker, and stopped as he saw the figure standing at the top of the ceremonial platform.
With a snap-hiss, Kariss ignited his both blades of his double ended lightsabre. "So, the Jedi Master has come as I have foreseen, to be destroyed." His cloak swirled around him as he started down the steps towards them.
Kyp pushed Alina gently back behind him, then drew and ignited his own lightsabre, a hum filling the air as the violet-white beam appeared, and came forwards to meet him.
The two stopped a few yards from each other, staring at each other. With a slow and deliberate motion, Kariss reached up to push the hood of his cloak back, and then undid the throat clasp, letting the cloak fall to the ground behind him. Raising his lightsabre, he slowly brought one blade towards Kyp, who moved his own lightsabre to meet it. The two blades rested against each other for a moment in an almost ceremonial gesture before Kariss pivoted on one foot in a blinding motion, commencing the duel by bringing the other blade round towards Kyp.
The space battle was fast becoming a disaster, as the alien ships moved forwards to engage the combined New Republic/Imperial fleet. Their advanced weapons tore a hole in the centre of the fleet battle formation. From the bridge of Galactic Defender, Admiral Ackbar stared out at the battle, watching as the line of battle began to crumble under the onslaught. "Do you have any suggestions, Colonel?" he enquired, turning towards Avola.
"Only the obvious one, Admiral," Avola observed grimly. "A full retreat."
Ackbar nodded. It was a conclusion he had already reached. "Bring Galactic Defender around to provide cover for the fleet."
"I recommend that Renown also moves to cover the retreat, Admiral," Colonel Avola advised.
"Signal Renown to move to support us as well," Ackbar ordered an aide.
The manoeuvring of the fleet into a retreat position was clearly visible from the midst of the starfighter battle. Galactic Defender swung around to come broadside to the approaching alien starships, while Renown moved to provide additional firepower. The other ships in the fleet began moving past them in preparation to make a jump to hyperspace, while Galactic Defender and Renown opened fire on the alien ships with massive broadsides. Red and yellow barrages of turbolaser fire slammed into each ship's shields, shrinking the energy spheres and opening gaps in them through which more turbolaser fire punched through to tear breaches in the hull armour and blast away turbolaser, ion cannon, and torpedo clusters.
Starfighters swarmed around Galactic Defender like womprats around a dead dewback. Wedge and Gavin Darklighter pulled in behind an alien fighter which was itself in close pursuit of Ooryl Qrygg's X-wing. "Break now, Ten," Wedge ordered as the fighter spat a continuous stream of laser fire at its prey.
Even as Ooryl's fighter broke to the left, another enemy fighter swept in, laser fire riddling the aft of the X-wing, blowing the S-foils, astromech, and engines into tiny pieces of space dust. A second later, the X-wing's canopy blew off as Ooryl ejected from the dying snubfighter.
Gavin caught one of the fighters with a quad blast from his wing lasers, and a deafening Wookiee battle roar erupted from the comm as the Falcon shot past overhead, quad lasers blazing to rip the second fighter into two parts, both of which went spinning off through space.
Wedge saw Tycho join Gavin in dropping into formation either side of the Falcon and head towards a trio of alien fighters, before a warning whistle from Gate alerted him to an alien fighter which dropped in behind him and opened up with twin streams of yellow laser fire. Wedge immediately snap-rolled his fighter from side to side to avoid the shots, but the fighter anticipated his manoeuvre. The laser blasts burned through his shields and blew away a metre of his starboard S-foil. The small starfighter instantly went into a wild spin. Wedge fought frantically to regain control, ignoring the frantic electronic screaming from Gate. As he began to regain control of the fighter and reduce the spin, another fighter appeared ahead of him, it's laser cannons blazing. Shots flicked by his canopy on both sides, the targeting thrown off by the still gyrating X-wing. The shots began getting closer, though, and Gate's screams suddenly died as he caught a glancing hit from a laser bolt.
Then more laser bolts streamed past the X-wing, this time from behind, and the alien fighter erupted in a brilliant explosion. His concentration on regaining control, Wedge caught a fleeting glimpse of the distinctive hexagonal solar panels of a TIE fighter flash past his canopy.
A few seconds later, he had the X-wing back under control. "Nine, give me cover back to Galactic Defender," he ordered. He couldn't stay in a battle situation with no astromech and half his S-foils blown away.
"Copy, Lead," Corran answered, his fighter appearing off Wedge's portside.
"Thanks, Nine," Wedge said, taking a breath. That had been too close. "By the way, since when did TIE fighters fire blue laser bolts?"
"They don't, Lead," came the answer. "That wasn't a TIE you saw."
Wedge frowned. "Nine, we already have Janson as the resident comedian in the squadron. We don't need another. In my datapad, if it has hexagonal solar panels, it's a TIE fighter."
"Take a look behind you," Corran simply said. "We've got an escort."
Puzzled, Wedge twisted in his cockpit to see the starfighter hanging aft of his starboard side. With a clear view, he recognized it this time. Three times as large as his X-wing, it was a strange looking alien starfighter, with only four TIE fighter solar panels providing a familiar profile. "Sithspit! That's the same class of ship that Luke and Mara came back from Nirauan in!"
"That's not all, Lead," Corran pointed out. "Take a look past those alien ships. Looks like we've got some new allies."
Wedge threw a glance beyond the alien capital ships, and went rigid. There in the distance, six other starships had appeared. If the Chiss starfighters resembled TIE fighters, these had an even more familiar outline. He would have recognised the characteristic wedge shape of Star Destroyers anywhere. Yet they had clearly been significantly remodelled from the standard blocky outline of a Star Destroyer. The hulls looked like they had been cut in two to allow a square central section to be inserted, making them about a third longer than normal ISDs. Strange black bulges and protuberances covered the hulls and command superstructures, giving them an appearance similar to the main portion of a Nebulon-B frigate, and breaking up the monotonous dull grey-white hulls.
Dazzling salvoes of brilliant blue turbolaser fire erupted as they moved to assist Galactic Defender and Renown. The alien starships, already battered from the exchanges of laser fire, proved unable to match the bombardment from two sides. Galactic Defender and two of the modified Chiss Star Destroyers swamped two of the alien starships with turbolaser fire, while Renown and the other Chiss ships targeted the remaining three.
The newly arrived Chiss starfighters cut a swathe through the alien fighters, and for the first time, it seemed that the New Republic/Imperial fleet might win the battle.
Mara advanced with her lightsabres held ready in an offensive/defensive position, but Lumiya merely held her ground, neither attacking or retreating. "Don't make me fight you," she warned. "Realise your true destiny and return to the dark side."
Mara grimaced."I think you've literally got your circuits crossed, Lumiya. I was never part of the dark side. Anyway, why do you need me? You already said you have plenty of Sith Adepts, or was that just a typical Sith lie? Palpatine certainly lied to me enough."
Lumiya smiled. "We are both opposites, Mara Jade. We were both trained to use the Force, and you turned to the light, I to the dark. Remember, you revelled in your power under Palpatine. I give you the chance to regain that power. Kill Skywalker, who destroyed both our lives, and truly fulfill the Emperor's Last Command. We can rule the galaxy together."
"Is this all you Sith Lords ever think about?" Mara asked wearily. "Ruling the galaxy? I thought you'd have learned better by now. Palpatine tried that, and look what happened to him."
Lumiya regarded her gravely. "You do not understand still, Mara Jade. I give you the chance to join me, and I will show you why. You seek to know who betrayed your parents? I will tell you."
Mara merely raised an eyebrow. "Go on then."
"I betrayed them," Lumiya said triumphantly.
Mara sighed. "I didn't think you'd tell the truth. Is that really your best shot at trying to turn me?"
"No, it is not," Lumiya answered. "You need more? I will give you more." She began taking off her mask, and Mara grimaced as Lumiya's terrible burns were revealed. Lumiya shook her long reddish-brown hair back to fall around her shoulders. "I told Skywalker once that I had a sister, taken by the Empire. I lied about everything else, but not that. Han Solo discovered part of the truth when he stole the file on me from Ord Mantell. Like you, I was trained in the Force, except that I was trained by Darth Vader. We were the personal servants of Vader and Palpatine, selected to carry out their commands. Unlike you, however, I knew the truth about my past. I knew who my parents were, how I came into the Empire's service, and the fate of my sister. I watched as she grew stronger in the Force and the Emperor's estimation."
She extended her hand towards Mara. "You are my sister."
Mara stared at her incredulously for a moment, then threw her head back and laughed. "You're insane."
Lumiya's voice stayed calm. "Search your feelings, Mara. You know it is true. You can see the resemblances between us. Even Skywalker knew there was a link between us, although he was too narrowminded to realise the truth. Before I became Lumiya, I was known as Shira Brie. That was merely a pseudonym for my real name. I was once Shara Jade, your sister. We both have great power in the Force, a legacy of our parents. Do not waste yourself on the light side, or with Skywalker."
"Tell me why I have no recollection of you then, if you are my sister," Mara challenged.
Lumiya smiled. "Very well. I was taken to the Jedi Temple on Coruscant a year after I was born, to be trained as a Jedi, as customary for those strong in the Force. By the time you were born, I was five years old. You would have been sent to be trained as well, except that by that time the Jedi purges had begun. Our parents went into hiding with you, while I was taken into hiding as well by one of the Jedi Knights. Most of the other Padawan students at the Temple were also hidden as well for protection, not that it helped them in the long run. The Jedi who concealed me managed to stay hidden for five years, but in the end Vader found and destroyed him. He was struck by my strength in the Force and spared me in return for giving him our parents. I knew where they were since they and my Jedi protector communicated with each other as often as they felt safe. When Vader and Palpatine destroyed our parents, Vader suggested that we might make useful Force-sensitive agents. Palpatine was interested enough in the idea to agree. He took you as his own agent and gave me to Vader, and we know the rest."
She held out a hand. "Join me, my sister."
Mara turned to look at Luke, and then back to Lumiya. Without her mask, the facial similarities between her and Lumiya were plain enough evidence of the truth, even despite the disfiguring scars that covered her face. She nodded slowly and deactivated her lightsabres, then stepped towards Lumiya.
Lumiya smiled triumphantly. "Good. Accept your true destiny with the dark side, Mara Jade."
Mara looked straight at her. "You don't understand, do you? I'm only going to say this once. I'll never join the dark side. Once I give my loyalty, it's for keeps. I've given my loyalty to my husband, Luke Skywalker, your enemy; the New Republic; and the light side. Unfortunately, you don't inspire much loyalty, sister. You betrayed our parents, killed Callista, tried to kill Luke, and would have taken our daughter. I am a Jedi Master and I will not turn."
She gazed at Lumiya. "You could have been a Master as well. Instead you chose the dark side."
A mixture of expressions flicked across Lumiya's face before it settled into scorn. "You think I had a choice? Even if Vader had not found me, I would not have been trained. The fools on the Jedi Council rejected me for Jedi training." Her face hardened. "The key to the Force, control is," she mimicked, her voice rising in rage. "No control have you. Quick your anger is to flow. Rule you it does. The way to the dark side, it is. Trained you will not be."
"I can see why the Council refused to train you," Mara observed. "You still can't control your anger."
Lumiya ignored her. "All their control couldn't save them from being destroyed," she said contemptuously. "They and the Jedi Order were destroyed. They were failures. Palpatine was stronger than all of them. He was not blinded by weakness or sentiment. After Skywalker destroyed my life, Vader trained me as a full Sith Lord. It gave me the opportunity to take revenge on him. Now I finally have that revenge."
Mara stared at her with loathing, unable to suppress her feelings despite knowing that such emotions led to the dark side. "Is that all this was about?" she demanded. "Petty revenge on Luke? You even sacrificed our parents simply to gain power in the Force. You're lower than the pond life on Nal Hutta. By the way, Yoda and Kenobi survived. Luke's reestablished the Jedi. Palpatine died at the hands of his own apprentice. Is that what you call failure?"
Lumiya shook her head. "An aberration. My Sith Adepts will destroy Skywalker's Jedi." She raised the lightwhip. "You will regret your decision not to join me. Do not delude yourself into believing that I hold any compassion for you."
"No danger of that," Mara shot back. "You certainly didn't have any for our parents."
For a quarter of a second, Lumiya flushed. "They had their chance," she said dismissively. "They chose to throw it away. As you have."
"So you're going to kill me then," Mara said.
Lumiya smiled, an expression which came nowhere near her eyes. "No, I have a better idea. Skywalker condemned me to live as a cyborg, in physical and mental torture. Now I have a chance to break free from this existence."
She met Mara's eyes. "You will make a fine host body."
She smiled again, and the lightwhip seared through the air towards Mara.
A brilliant flash of light and a massive shockwave that rocked even Galactic Defender marked the death of one of its two target alien starships as it exploded under the onslaught. Laser fire continued cutting through the expanding fireball for a few moments before it began to track towards the other starship. Renown and the other Chiss capital ships had also succeeded in destroying one of their opponent ships, and the other two were beginning to retreat. A few moments later, the one still being fired on by Galactic Defender also ceased fire and began to fall back. Throughout the starfighter battle, the alien fighters began to break off as well. One of the capital ships had fallen behind, and the Chiss starships closed in around it, systematically tearing it to pieces until their laser fire was consistently passing through massive breaches in the hull. Weakened by the bombardment, the hulk began to break apart. Small pieces of debris tore away, slowly at first, but quickly increasing in size and rapidity. By now in headlong retreat, the alien starfighters found themselves under intense turbolaser fire from Galactic Defender. A score were blown apart and many others took critical damage before they got clear. The two remaining alien starships, themselves severely damaged, waited only long enough to pick up the surviving fighters before jumping to hyperspace, leaving an exhausted, damaged, but victorious allied fleet behind.
The unmistakable clash and hum of lightsabre combat filled the throne room of the Great Temple as Kyp and Kariss fought each other in a duel to the death. They battled their way down the length of the throne room towards the steps leading up to the raised platform at the far end. A wild joy shone in Kariss's face as he parried and lunged with his lightsabre, both he and Kyp displaying their agility and mastery of the Force in their ducks, rolls, leaps, spins, and somersaults around each other. He had never faced anyone who was a match for him, and he used it to demonstrate his control of the double bladed lightsabre in an almost hypnotic chain of moves. The weapon swung from side to side trying to pass Kyp's guard, switched constantly from horizontal to vertical, revolved in Kariss' grasp, and came at Kyp from all angles. He parried each swing and lunge, yet Kariss began to detect his increasing effort in blocking the two blades, having to constantly evade one while he blocked the other. Taking advantage of a momentary slip of concentration on Kyp's part, Kariss pivoted and kicked out, sending him reeling backwards. Kyp backflipped away and came at Kariss in a fresh attack, striking so precisely and expertly that he forced the Sith Lord back, forcing him towards the steps. Spinning away, Kariss took a few strides forwards and leapt up the steps, landing on the platform. Holding his lightsabre in a horizontal position in front of him with one hand, he beckoned to Kyp with the other.
He did not have long to wait. Kyp somersaulted up to land in front of him, the blades crashing against each other as he struck at Kariss. The lightning-fast answering blow drove his lightsabre aside, and the hilt of the double bladed lightsabre slammed into his face at the same moment that Kariss used a Force push, both of which combined to send him rolling back down the steps, landing at the bottom with a thud. Kariss leapt down the steps to continue the duel, but Kyp had already rolled away and regained his feet, backing away from Kariss and beginning to climb the steps. Kariss followed him up the steps, his eyes boring into Kyp's. Both of them struck at the same moment, the lightsabres buzzing as they pushed against each other. The blades disengaged as Kariss attacked with a sequence of lunges that pushed Kyp back up the steps.
Between the swift onslaught and trying to keep his footing, Kyp was at a disadvantage. A few more blows drove his lightsabre aside, and then knocked it from his grasp. Kariss gestured to send it clattering across the throne room as Kyp ducked to avoid a decapitating blow, and jumped down the stairs. Kariss followed him, the lightsabre swinging from side to side to keep Kyp occupied and thus unable to call his lightsabre back to him.
Kyp dodged all the lunges Kariss made, but he was steadily forced back into a corner of the throne room, where he would be helpless. Kariss shifted his lightsabre to a horizontal position as he advanced, sweeping it in savage side to side arcs, sensing victory and determined not to let the Jedi escape. Finally, Kyp came to a halt as he felt his back touch stone. Kariss smiled, seeing his triumph, and lunged with the lightsabre-
Only to be sent staggering back a dozen paces by a Force wall that slammed into him like a charging bantha. Astounded, both he and Kyp turned to see Alina Skywalker, whom they had forgotten about, standing a short distance away with her hand extended towards Kariss. A chilling look of rage spread over Kariss's face. Using the Force to pin Kyp against the wall, he advanced on Alina. First he would deal with her and then finish the Jedi Master.
At that moment, Kam Solusar charged into the throne room, taking in the situation at a glance. Taken by surprise, Kariss released his Force hold on Kyp. "Here!" Kam shouted, tossing the double bladed lightsabre that he held towards Kyp. The weapon spun through the air, its arc of descent changing as Kyp used the Force to call it to him. In a second, he had both blades ignited and the lightsabre held ready in front of him.
Kariss watched calmly but intently as he saw the twin black blades appear. It would be interesting to see how the Jedi Master handled an unfamiliar weapon. Kyp proceeded to give a few experimental strokes with the lightsabre, gaining a feel for the differences between it and an ordinary lightsabre, and adjusting his grip and fighting style accordingly, and then stepped forwards to meet Kariss. The blades met with a powerful impact, and Kyp brought the lower blade around to counter Kariss's probing strike.
The two of them battled their way back across the throne room towards the platform again, the dual red and black blades crashing into each other. For Kyp, it was a method of combat he had never experienced, being more like fighting with staffs than lightsabres, but he soon gained a feel for how to use the weapon, learning to use both blades to parry Kariss's own lightsabre. He could understand why it was a weapon exclusive to the Sith. It was designed to be used primarily in offense rather than defence.
Kyp and Kariss came to a halt at the foot of the stairs, pivoting and circling around each other as they fought. Neither of them was able to gain an advantage. Kariss countered one of Kyp's lunges and sidestepped so that he was facing the doors into the throne room. A sudden movement caught his eye as Tionne entered the throne room, and a look of anticipation spread over his face. Wheeling away from Kyp, he gestured and Kyp's lightsabre leapt from where it had fallen, turning and arrowing towards her at an amazing speed, the blade igniting on the way.
Tionne was taken by surprise by the sudden attack, but managed to twist out of the way of the lightsabre enough to avoid a killing wound. She was not able to evade the blade entirely, though, and the violet-white blade stabbed right through her shoulder.
"No!" Kyp shouted and struck at Kariss in a series of lightning-fast blows, who retreated before him, unable to match the ferocity of Kyp's attack. The lightsabres flashed as Kyp drove Kariss back with strokes that came too fast for him to attack. Kariss's defences weakened under the onslaught as Kyp came on relentlessly. With one last forceful blow, he drove the lightsabre from Kariss's grip and sent him reeling back a couple of feet.
Kariss sank to his knees. "Go on," he incited, his gaze settling on Tionne. "Kill me. Take your revenge and destroy me."
Kyp stood over him, breathing hard. His fingers flexed on the hilt of his lightsabre, tempted to draw it back and cut Kariss down. Almost of it's own accord, his arm came back, and he tensed to strike.
It was then that he saw Alina Skywalker standing gazing at him. Instantly the anger faded, leaving only a calm tranquillity in its wake. "No," he said. "That is not the way of the Jedi." Stooping, he picked up Kariss's lightsabre and tossed it in front of him.
Kariss stared at the lightsabre for a moment, and then took it. Rising to his feet in one smooth motion, he ignited both blades and charged. Kyp was ready for him. He felt the Force flowing through him as Kariss attacked. His own lightsabre swung, driving aside the blade aimed at his chest. Bringing the other end of his lightsabre forward and up, he sliced cleanly through the hilt of Kariss's lightsabre. The upward stroke continued, stabbing into Kariss's stomach, and slicing up through his torso. Without a sound, Kariss fell backwards, dead before he hit the stone steps behind him.
Kyp stared at the bisected corpse for a moment, and then turned away, tossing the double bladed lightsabre aside. An overwhelming sense of calm descended over him. Kariss was dead and the Sith attack defeated. He hurried over to where Kam Solusar was putting Tionne into a healing trance. "Will she be alright?" he asked anxiously.
Kam glanced up at him briefly and nodded, intent on what he was doing.
Kyp took a step back, watching as Tionne drifted into the healing trance. His thoughts turned to Luke and Mara. He hoped they were managing as well.
Through a thick grey cloud smothering his brain, Luke dimly heard Lumiya reveal that she was Mara's sister, and the fog suddenly seemed to vanish in amazement. He struggled to his feet and stared at Lumiya. As Mara had already noted, the facial similarities between the two of them were enough to dispel any doubt. The expressions appearing on her face were almost identical to Mara's own, and he could now even detect resemblances in their voices. He wondered how he could have missed something that seemed so obvious in retrospect. He grimaced as he realised that he should have paid more attention to his instinct that there was a link between Mara and Lumiya.
The feigned anger he had used to fool Lumiya and break her hold on Mara had certainly worked, although it had disturbed him. While he had been fighting her, the anger, though simulated, had been alarmingly seductive, tempting him to genuinely give into hate. It was a sharp reminder of how easily the dark side could gain control of even a Jedi Master.
He let go of the thought as he saw Lumiya raise the lightwhip and slash it at Mara. Stretching out a hand, he called his lightsabre to him, the green blade activating as it leapt to his hand. Raising the lightsabre, he charged.
Sensing his approach, Lumiya swung around, the lightwhip sweeping away from Mara and towards him. She watched as Luke evaded the energy lashes and Mara took a step back. She hesitated, unsure whether to kill Skywalker first or incapacitate Mara Jade in preparation for carrying out the ritual of Life Transfer, where she would abandon her crippled cyborg body to take Mara Jade's. Such an act was one of gravely dubious morality if it was to something insentient, like a droid or computer. If used to take the body of another, then it went against everything the light side stood for. Almost without exception, it doomed the person transferring their life force to become servants of the dark side, cut off from the light side. Such a fate did not concern Lumiya, who was already a servant of the dark side, but she knew that Skywalker's former love Callista had transferred her life force into the body of Cray Mingla. Since it was an act of love on Callista's part, and a willing one of Cray's, it had not doomed her to the dark side, but it had left her gravely vulnerable to it's temptations.
Lumiya paused, then decided it did not particularly matter whether she killed Skywalker or weakened Jade first. Lunging forward, she brought her orange lightsabre to meet Luke's, while striking at Mara with the lightwhip. The glowing strands hissed and cracked like Kabrikian fire serpents, throwing off sparks of energy as they wrapped around Mara's lightsabres, and slashed bleeding weals and cuts in her face.
Bringing her lightwhip back for another attack, Lumiya stopped as Luke stopped as if listening for a moment. "You've lost, Lumiya," he said quietly. "Your Adepts failed. They're all dead, even Kariss. You can still end this now. Do you truly think taking revenge will change anything?"
Lumiya stared at him for a moment, then narrowed her eyes in concentration as she reached out with the Force. Mara, watching Lumiya warily, saw it all: the expression of shock, which became one of anger, and then finally indifference.
"It makes no difference," Lumiya said coolly. "Kariss was a fool if he fought the Jedi Master rather than fulfill his mission. As for the others, they were expendable. They may have failed, but I have not. You were right, we will end this now, with your death. It does not matter if that changes anything. I have nothing left but revenge. You destroyed my life and everything I had, Skywalker."
"No, you destroyed yourself," Mara said bluntly. "You threw away everything you had - family, friends, loyalty, morality, compassion - just to gain some measure of power and stature from Palpatine. You lived a lie, and I should know. As for Luke, he shot your X-wing down solely in self defence when you intended to betray him to the Imperials."
Lumiya's face twisted in rage, mainly because she could not deny the truth in Mara's words. Pausing only to deactivate her lightsabre and clip it to her belt, she raised the lightwhip again, bringing it back over her head, and slashed it at Mara, cutting her face and arms again.
"Stop!" Luke shouted, stepping between them and using his lightsabre to deflect the whip strands.
Lumiya laughed. Raising a hand, she sent a burst of Force Lightning at Luke and Mara, while simultaneously striking again with the lightwhip. Luke brought his lightsabre up to deflect the Force Lightning, but it was too powerful for him to catch all the bolts. The lightwhip sliced at him, cutting into his chest and forehead. The double attack sent him staggering backwards, vaguely catching sight of Lumiya's smile of triumph.
Drawing upon all her anger and hate for Skywalker, she raised her hand again, preparing an even more powerful blast of Force Lightning. Pointing her hand at Luke like a dagger, she sent a storm of blue-white energy at him. She had forgotten Mara, though. Even as she released the Force Lightning, a large object smashed through the wall beside the doors, hurtling across the room into the path of the dark side energy. Under the impact, the Sith Gatekeeper statue shattered into tiny pieces of stone, but the bolts of energy went wild, radiating in all directions, with some hammering into the ceiling and sending gravel sized bits of stone pouring down between the three of them.
Lumiya backed away a few steps, her eyes flicking between Luke and Mara as she realised that together they were a match for her. The lightwhip came up, striking at Luke. Kariss and her Sith Adepts had been destroyed, and she might be defeated, but she would take Skywalker down if she could. The glowing energy lashes swept down, once more wrapping themselves around the lightsabre blade, and she braced herself for the possibility of Skywalker trying to pull her off balance again. He did neither. He spun the blade in a circle, twisting more of the whip strands around it. In the same moment, Mara threw her blue lightsabre to him and he caught it, using it to catch still more of the lashes on the blade. Then he charged, forcing Lumiya to deactivate the lightwhip to avoid being struck by the strands herself. In the confusion, Mara stepped forwards to hold her purple lightsabre across Lumiya's throat, knowing that even weaponless, Lumiya was still lethal. Taking one hand off her lightsabre, she reached down to take the lightwhip and lightsabre, and tossed them into a corner of the room. Luke stepped back, lowering both of the lightsabres he held.
As he did so, Lumiya saw an opportunity. Unleashing the power of the dark side, she slammed Mara Jade back several steps with a wall of Force energy. Stepping towards Skywalker, she unleashed a fresh burst of Force lightning with one hand and extended the other to call her lightsabre back to her. As she caught it and raised the blade to cut Skywalker down, Mara's purple lightsabre sliced through her arm just below the elbow.
A Force amplified scream tore through the room as Lumiya's forearm fell to the floor, the lightsabre deactivating and rolling away with a clatter. The impact of the shriek sent Luke and Mara reeling backwards, and then silence fell.
Lumiya sank to her knees in shock, agony surging through her from her severed forearm. The sense of failure was even more painful, though. She had even failed to beat Skywalker and was now in too much pain to fight. The lightwhip lay behind Luke and Mara, and there was no way she could call it back to her in time to avoid a killing blow.
Luke grimaced as he watched her, remembering the agony he had felt when Vader had cut off his hand in Cloud City, and how he had later cut Vader's own hand off in retaliation in the Death Star throne room. He stepped forwards, thinking to ease the pain of her wound.
Lumiya smiled disdainfully and an idea came to her as she watched Skywalker approach, lessening her sense of failure somewhat. There was still a chance she could kill him. He good arm shot out, and the orange lightsabre soared across the room into her hand, igniting as she caught it. Luke leaped back out of range, levelling his own lightsabre, but Lumiya was planning something else. She saw Mara come forwards, her lightsabres held in a guard position, and smiled again. Perhaps she could kill both of them. She spun the lightsabre and aimed it -
Luke saw what she was going to do. "No!" he shouted desperately -
And Lumiya drove the orange blade clean through her chest, her eyes fixed on Luke's in one last look of eternal hate as she did so. Then a tremendous ball of blue fire erupted from her. Luke threw himself to the floor even as he saw Lumiya explode in a surge of dark side energy. Mara had been closer, and he exerted all his strength to pull her away, trying to create a shield between them and the explosion. The blue fire washed over them for only a few seconds before fading, but the pain Luke felt made it seem like hours. He lay still for a couple of minutes, only semi-conscious.
Finally, he pulled himself upright, wincing at the effort and pain it caused. His Jedi tunic had been half burned away by the dark side energy, and he had been severely burnt. Still greater damage had been done to the throne room. The walls had been scorched and blackened, and the floor had been blasted away where Lumiya had been. The glowpanels in the room had all been destroyed, and he now knelt in near darkness.
"Mara?" he called, but there was no answer. He squinted round the room, trying to see her, and finally spotted her against one wall, where she had been thrown by the explosion. He staggered to his feet, ignoring the pain of his burns, and hobbled over to her. Dropping to his knees beside her, he lifted her head. Her eyes were closed, and he could see that she was burnt even worse than he had been, as she had been nearer to Lumiya. He shook her, but her eyes remained closed. A second later, he became aware of a sticky wetness on his hands. He looked at one, to find it covered in blood. He lifted Mara's head to see a wound dripping blood on the back of her head. As his eyes slowly adjusted to the gloom, he realised that more blood was dripping down the wall, clearly where her head had struck it.
"No," he whispered. Her face was a pallid white colour in the dimness. To have come this far and then lose her now...
And then her eyes opened slowly. An indescribable sense of relief swept over Luke as he pulled her into his arms. They sat there in the semi-darkness for a few minutes, holding each other. Finally Mara pushed Luke away and slowly got to her feet. She gave Luke a glare of mock-exasperation. "Really, Skywalker, you should know that head wounds always bleed badly," she said, carefully exploring the back of her head with one hand. "Sithspit! My head feels like a herd of rontos are trying to get out."
Luke smiled wearily. "Trust you to make me worry," he said. "I think you're going to have to be very nice to me to make for all this."
The floor came up and hit him painfully hard in the side of the head. A second later, he realised that he had actually hit the floor like a ton of ferrocrete, which he decided upon reflection was directly attributable to the eye watering right hook Mara had just given him. She glared down at him. "That's not funny," she snarled. "You're lucky I wasn't holding one of my lightsabres."
"Well, at least you're back," Luke said, somehow managing to stand up again and slipping his arms around her waist. "I missed you: you know, the abuse, bad temper, and general philosophy of 'make Skywalker suffer'."
"Shut up, farmboy," Mara growled, unable to hide a smile nevertheless. She turned away to look at the blackened area where Lumiya had been.
"Do you think she could have been saved?" Luke asked quietly, sensing an uncharacteristic mood of sombreness descend over her.
Mara shook her head. "No, I don't. I thought I might have been able to at first, though. You managed to save Vader."
"Vader wanted to be saved," Luke pointed out. "He had some motivation to turn away from the dark side. Lumiya had no such reason. She had no feelings for you or her parents. Remember what you told me: you can't protect everyone from themselves."
"I know that," Mara bit out, irritated that Luke should have to remind her to heed her own advice to him. "It's not just that."
Luke nodded, automatically knowing what she was thinking. Despite everything she had done, Lumiya had been an example of how Mara's hate for Luke after Endor and before Wayland could have warped her to the point where only revenge mattered to her. She herself had come close to crossing that line, nearly breaking her loyalty to Karrde in order to sell Luke to the Empire when they had held him captive on Myrkr. Vader had taught Lumiya all too well in the dark side. She had been almost as evil as Palpatine, feeling no loyalty or compassion for anyone, even to her parents or sister.
Mara knew from her vision that her parents had taught her the value of loyalty and morality well enough for her to resist being twisted to the dark side by Palpatine. She wondered briefly why Lumiya, who had presumably been taught those same principles, would so utterly reject them. Perhaps it was just the will of the Force. It was probably the best and only explanation she would have, now that Lumiya was gone.
She gave Luke a sideways look. "Do I owe you an apology for trying to kill you?"
"You've tried to kill me often enough, seriously or otherwise. Why start apologising now?" Luke observed lightly.
Mara raised her eyebrows. "Not a bad answer, but I always think actions speak louder than words."
Luke nodded, catching her drift. Taking her hands, he pulled her towards him and gave her a lingering kiss.
"Does that answer your question?" he asked when they broke apart.
Mara pretended to consider it at length. "It'll do," she said mock grudgingly. "Come on, let's go home."
"That's the best idea I've heard all day," Luke said dryly. "You know, between my father and your sister, we certainly have interesting families."
The two of them limped down the stairs and through the castle, leaning on each other for support. They both had severe lacerations from the lightwhip, as well as serious burns, not to mention Mara thinking that she had concussion from being thrown into the wall when Lumiya exploded. Both of them looked and felt like rancor chewtoys.
"I think we're going to need some serious time in healing trances," Mara observed as they left the castle and crossed to the Skywalker Spirit.
"I'm not going to argue with that," Luke said. "Straight to Yavin, I think. We'll just set the coordinates and send a message to Leia."
He turned to take a last look at Lumiya's castle. "Something bothering you?" Mara queried, sensing his uncertainty.
Luke shrugged. "I'm just thinking she might have pulled the same trick as Exar Kun by anchoring her spirit to the castle. He managed to survive because the Jedi bombarded Yavin from orbit and assumed that it had destroyed him."
Mara hissed between her teeth. "Sloppy. Very sloppy," she said scathingly. "We won't make the same mistake."
Luke nodded. "I think Lumiya's gone, but best to take no chances. Kun managed to hide his presence from me and the others when I set up the academy. She might have been able to do the same."
Mara gazed at the castle. "It's a big place. You sure the Spirit can handle it?"
Luke laughed. "Corran melted Kun's temple down with only an X-wing. I think the Spirit can cope with Lumiya's castle."
A short time later, a few more turbolaser bursts and the Skywalker Spirit's last two proton torpedoes finished the destruction of Lumiya's castle, leaving only scattered glowing fragments of stone behind. Rotating on it's repulsorlifts, the starship ignited it's main engines and climbed for space under the control of the Veeone droid pilot.
* * * * * *
A few nearly intact alien starfighters had been pulled on board Galactic Defender, where Admiral Ackbar, Colonel Avola, Wedge, Han, Corran, several of the Rogues, and dozens of starfighter techs now stood.
Wedge shook his head in disbelief as one of the techs finished his report. "No pilots?" he asked incredulously. "They can't have been remote controlled. It's impossible to fly fighters as accurately as these were if they were being flown via remote control."
The tech shrugged. "I don't know. They certainly weren't remote controlled. They don't have the necessary fittings and attachments for that. Can't be droid fighters, either, for the same reason."
Corran stepped up to place a hand against one of the alien fighters. "Living ships," he said softly, his Jedi skills revealing what they were.
Ackbar's eyes swivelled towards him, as did those of everyone else in the hangar. "Excuse me, Commander Horn?" he asked.
Corran hesitated, realising he had nearly revealed his Jedi skills. "They're sentient, Admiral," he explained, thinking quickly. "The pilot of that Chiss fighter that escorted us back to Galactic Defender told me what they are. Apparently they're controlled by some sort of mind that uses the ships as a kind of surrogate body."
Wedge nodded, coming to Corran's support. "I received the transmission from the Chiss pilot as well, Admiral."
"Interesting," Ackbar mused. "With the defeat they suffered, these invaders may well think twice before attacking again, particularly if they know we have allied with the Chiss to fight them. Study of these ships may well show us how to improve our own defences, and reveal any weaknesses they may have. It seems to me that the Force has been with us in this crisis. If we have to fight these invaders again, we will very likely be better prepared for them the next time."
He nodded to Wedge and then strode towards the hangar exit, followed by Colonel Avola and his command staff.
Corran appeared beside Wedge as the crowd began to disperse. "Thanks for backing me up there," he said. "I didn't like lying to Ackbar, but I didn't want to reveal my skills in front of all the techs." Wedge didn't say anything and he nodded resignedly. "I know, I'll have to tell Ackbar."
"Yes, you will," Wedge agreed. He slapped Corran on the shoulder. "I'm going to see if I can do some repairs on my X-wing. I'll be in the squadron hangar bay."
An hour later, Wedge was busy working on the underside of his X-wing, trying to carry out some maintenance work on the fighter. Tycho had just left to go and find Winter, leaving him alone in the Rogue Squadron hangar. Taking a hydrospanner from the toolkit next to him, he reached up into the underside maintenance hatch in an attempt to remove a damaged power coupling. At that moment he heard the hangar doors slide open again, and footsteps coming towards the X-wing. They stopped to one side of him. From where he lay underneath the X-wing, he could see a pair of boots and nothing else. "Tycho?" he asked, thinking that his second in command had returned.
"Still in command of Rogue Squadron, are you?" a voice said in response.
It took Wedge a few seconds to identify and recognise the voice, and when he did, he came up so quickly that he forgot the X-wing was in the way. A moment later, he pushed himself out from underneath the fighter and stood up, rubbing the spot where he had hit his head on the underside of the fighter. His gaze came slowly up to meet the gaze of Baron Soontir Fel.
"You haven't changed much," Fel observed.
Wedge shook his head. "No, I haven't." Moving faster than a vornskr, he grabbed Fel's flightsuit and spun him around, slamming him against the X-wing with tooth-rattling force. "I'd still love to throw you out of an airlock," he growled, his face an inch from Fel's.
Fel, undaunted by Wedge's fury, reached up and pushed his arms away. "You'd never find out what happened to your sister then, would you?" he pointed out. He ran a hand along the side of the X-wing wistfully. "It's been too long since I flew a fighter." He rubbed his eyepatch. "One of those alien ships took their best shot at me."
"Pity they didn't have any better luck," Wedge said bitingly.
Fel ignored the comment. "Speaking of best shots, how are Luke and Mara? I hear that we helped make possible an interesting personal development for both of them."
Wedge nodded. "They're on their way back to Yavin after a run in with a rather dangerous Sith. We got a transmission from them shortly after the battle." He gave Fel a piercing look. "How did you manage to survive the destruction of the Hand of Thrawn?"
Fel leaned back against the X-wing. "We'd already abandoned it two months before the attack. Three years ago, our enemies seemed to target it as a centre of resistance and made repeated attempts to destroy it. Probably the fact that it was the closest line of defence between them and you had a lot to do with it as well. In the end, we had to leave or be crushed by a process of attrition."
He straightened up. "If there's one thing I regret about going to the Unknown Regions, it's that they have no Corellian brandy anywhere. If you have such a thing as a cantina on board, perhaps we could discuss Syal over some Whyren's Reserve."
"Of course," Wedge said sardonically, gesturing him towards the hangar exit. "I think I may delay throwing you out of the nearest airlock until then."
"How noble."
* * * * * *
Four days later, the Skywalker Spirit touched down outside the Great Temple, the Veeone droid pilot setting it down gently on the landing grid where Kyp, Kirana Ti, and Leia were waiting. Kyp went the ramp as soon as it had lowered, with Leia and Kirana Ti close behind him. They found Luke and Mara in the main cabin, still in Jedi healing trances. Next to them lay a datapad displaying the phrase to bring them out of their trances.
"Shall we wake them up?" Kyp asked Kirana Ti, picking the datapad up.
Kirana Ti hesitated, then shook her head. "No," she said, smiling. "I've got a better idea." She glanced at Leia, who nodded approvingly.
They were waiting at the foot of the ramp when Kam arrived a few minutes later with Alina Skywalker in response to Kirana Ti's instruction. It was a simple matter to explain to her what to do. Once she had gone into the ship, Kyp stretched out with the Force to activate the ramp controls, and they watched as the ship closed up.
"What made you think of sending Alina in to wake Luke and Mara up?" Leia said, falling in beside Kirana Ti as they walked away from the Spirit, with Kam and Kyp walking together ahead of them.
Kirana Ti shrugged. "Promptings of the Force, I suppose," she said lightly. "I assumed they would want some time to themselves as a family."
Kyp stopped and waited for them. "Come on," he said as they reached him. "We need to gather some wood."
Much later, flames rose high into the air in a jungle clearing not far from the Great Temple. Standing around the funeral pyre, Luke and Mara watched as the fallen were given a traditional Jedi funeral. Mara stood with her hands resting lightly on Alina's shoulders, and Leia, Kyp, Streen, and the other Jedi Knights and Padawans were scattered around the clearing. Several more had made a brief visit from their home planets where they acted as Jedi Guardians, among them Cilghal, the Mon Calamari healer. Luke gazed into the heart of the flames, remembering the similar funeral he had given his father after the battle of Endor. He reached out to place one hand over Mara's where it lay on Alina's shoulder and stepped closer to Mara to put his other arm around her waist, and she turned her head to look at him, giving him one of her rare smiles.
The flames gradually increased as the fire burnt down through the stacked logs of wood, burning the bodies of the dead to ashes. The small group watched solemnly as the fire peaked, the flames suddenly surging up to resolve into images of the dead Jedi Knights for a few moments before sinking to their previous height and slowly dwindling. Through the fire, Luke saw Kyp give him a diffident shrug.
As the pyre burnt down to ash and began fading to glowing embers, drops of rain began to fall, marking the end of the funeral ceremony. One by one, the Jedi began leaving the clearing, and heading back towards the Great Temple. They had paid their respects to the fallen, and now it was time to move on. That was the way of things, the way of the Force, as Yoda would have said had he been there, Luke thought.
He exchanged a brief thought with Leia, and she stepped forwards, taking Alina's hand and walking back with her to the Temple. He and Mara waited until all the others had gone before heading back to the Temple themselves. Both of them sensed that there was one final matter that still had to be concluded.
Above them, a gleam of light appeared in the darkening sky of Yavin, growing rapidly as the Millennium Falcon descended into the atmosphere of the jungle moon. Both of them looked up as it came low overhead, the engines glowing white as it headed towards the Temple's landing grid before vanishing over the trees.
* * * * * *
EPILOGUE:
The sun was setting over Yavin 4 in a brilliant glow of fiery orange-red that made the jungle look like it was on fire. Standing on the top of the Great Temple, Luke and Mara watched it sink below the horizon, their faces bathed in a reddish hue in the last rays of light. "It's beautiful," Mara said as they stood with their arms around each other.
"Not as beautiful as you," Luke said softly. Mara rolled her eyes in disgust, but Luke ignored her expression. "I didn't know if I would ever stand up here with you again."
When Mara kissed him, he knew it was to shut him up more than anything else, but he didn't mind.
A second later though, they were unexpectedly disturbed. A sudden ripple in the Force made them break apart. It suddenly became clear what the last matter they had to conclude was. At the edge of the Temple roof, the shimmering blue form of Callista appeared. "Well, Jedi Masters, I see you have faced and won your latest test with the dark side," she said, smiling at them both.
Mara took a step forward, her green Jedi robes flowing around her. "Not the first, and not the last, I assume," she said wryly.
Luke came to stand beside her, his own black cloak billowing around him. "I know a Jedi Master shouldn't have to ask this, but will the dark side ever be defeated?"
Callista shook her head. "Even a Master can never have the answer to every question," she said. "As for the dark side, it will never be defeated. There cannot be one without the other. The two will forever strive for dominance. That is the nature of the Force. You will yet face other attacks of the dark side. The Emperor, Exar Kun, and Lumiya have been defeated, but it is certain that other enemies will appear. Never relax your guard. You must fight the dark side whenever and wherever it appears, and train your daughter to do the same after you. She herself will encounter great dangers. She has already faced and passed the first of these, however, by helping defeat the Sith attack here. If you guide her along her path well, then the future is in good hands."
She began to fade from view. "And now I must depart," she said. "Farewell, Luke and Mara Skywalker."
"Wait," Luke called. "Will we see you again?"
Callista's form brightened again briefly. "You will, when it is your turn to become one with the Force. I cannot see if we will meet again before then. Perhaps we may, if it is the will of the Force." She raised her arms in a Jedi blessing. "Until then, may the Force be with you."
Luke and Mara watched until she had vanished, Luke with a pensive look on his face. Mara looked at him, and then took his hands, pulling him around to face her. "Stop thinking about the next challenge, or training Alina as a Jedi, Skywalker," she said sternly. "We'll cross those skyarches when we come to them. In the meantime, we've got plenty of other things to do. As I recall, you said something about me making up for what's happened by being very nice to you. This seems like a good time for it."
Luke smiled and waved her towards the steps down from the Temple summit. "After you, Mara Skywalker..."
THE END
ENDNOTES:
YES!! It's finished, thank the Maker! An end to sitting staring at my computer wondering how to proceed during the frequent attacks of writers block, general boredom with the whole thing, and doubt about my writing abilities when I read other fanfic stories that were so much better written and plotted than this one. Now I can do the same thing all over again with my next story (what fun!).
A general word of thanks to all those who sent messages of praise, encouragement, etc; all the good profic and fanfic writers for providing motivation and giving me ideas for this story; and even the bad ones for showing how not to do it (the old cry of I can do better than that).
Expressions of gratitude to my Mara Jade action figure for sitting on top of my computer screen while I wrote this, without ever falling off, and giving me the will to go on during the long and (expletive deleted) difficult process of writing this story. Yes, all right, I'm going to give you a purple lightsabre (see Mysteries of the Sith) as a reward. Definitely the most appropriate lightsabre colour for Mara. Much better than that naff blue one of Luke's.
Thanks finally to Red for posting this on the Club Jade website. The Force is strong with him!
BHazard21@aol.com
A Star Wars addicted bloke from the UK who worships Wedge Antilles (Denis Lawson), the coolest X-wing pilot ever.