JAINA
She was halfway to the Palace of the Woolamander when her comlink chimed. Skidding to a halt, she fumbled at her belt, tapping the transmit button as she raised the comlink to her mouth. "Solo," she barked, still breathless from the run.
"Jaina," replied the Master at the other end - Master Katarn? Master Hamner? She wasn't certain. "We need you to return to the Great Temple at once. Do whatever you need to do; be ready to leave within the day."
"Leave?" Jaina exclaimed. "Where? Off-world?"
"Master Skywalker will brief you," the Master said. "Be prepared for at least two days' travel. Temple out."
Muttering a curse under her breath, and disappointed that her exercise was so abruptly cut short, she turned back towards home. The Force presence of the Temple was unmistakable; no Jedi could get seriously lost on Yavin 4.
As she drew close enough to the Temple that she could see it without Force-enhanced vision, she caught sight of another figure approaching at speed from a different angle - towards the Temple of the Blueleaf Cluster, she thought. Stretching out with the Force, Jaina realized, to her surprise, that it was Tenel Ka. She supposed it wasn't very unusual for the half-Dathomiri to go for morning runs in the jungle, but she hadn't known that she actually did.
Jaina shouted a greeting, and Tenel Ka reacted instantly, diving to the right and coming back up in a roll, her lightsaber already in her hand but unlit. Belatedly recognizing her friend, she relaxed.
"Jaina," she said briefly, pausing just long enough to let her catch up, then matching her pace the rest of the way to the temple. She wasn't even sweating, Jaina saw, but she knew that the Hapan woman had been running at least as quickly as her. Space it, how did she do that?
"Recalled by the Masters, too?" she asked. Tenel Ka nodded as they ran up the Temple steps. "A mission from Master Skywalker, they told me," she replied.
Slowing to a trot as they entered the Temple proper, Jaina threw a sharp look at her friend. "They told me the same thing," she said. "I'm surprised that Uncle Luke is sending us out on solo missions so soon. After all, we're still apprentices."
"We saw the records in the Holocron," Tenel Ka reminded her. "Apprentices in the old Jedi order were regularly sent on missions."
"Yeah," Jaina retorted, "with their masters! Usually they'd wait until they were full Knights before going off solo, right?"
"Fact," Tenel Ka conceded. "Whatever the case, I have no doubt that Master Skywalker has his reasons. Come, Jaina Solo - I expect that he is awaiting us." She turned into the Grand Audience Chamber, which the two women had just reached. Jaina had almost trotted past the Chamber without noticing it. Blushing at her mistake, she spun, following her friend to where the Order's Master waited.
"Jaina, Tenel Ka," Luke Skywalker said in greeting. "I hope I didn't interrupt your morning." Tenel Ka merely shook her head, but Jaina muttered something about wanting to get a proper run in for a change. Tenel Ka glared at her, and she quieted down. It was occasionally hard to remember that her kindly, gentle uncle was also the greatest Jedi in the galaxy.
"I'm glad you were able to arrive so quickly," he said, "because I want to get you on your way as soon as I can. A message has arrived from a planetary government, requesting Jedi arbitration. There's a dispute there between a megacorporation and the government, as to who controls the mineral rights onworld. I've uploaded the details onto the databanks of the ship you'll be taking."
Jaina shifted a bit. "What ship?" she asked, as Tenel Ka simultaneously asked, "Which world?" Jaina added, "And why us?"
"When I tell you the world, Jaina, you'll understand why," he said. "I'm sending you to Miy'til."
That got a definite reaction. Tenel Ka's head snapped up. "In the Hapes Cluster," she said. "Yes, Master Skywalker, I understand quite well." Turning to Jaina, she added, "Miy'til is one of the Sixty-three Worlds of Hapes. Uniquely among the worlds of the Consortium, it is inhapited solely by women. Men are not permitted onworld."
Jaina's brow furrowed. "I get why not Master Streen or Master Katarn, then. But again... why us?"
Tenel Ka opened her mouth to answer, but Luke beat her to it. "I more or less have to send Tenel Ka," he explained mildly. "The Miy'tiline government requested her specifically. But I'd prefer not to send an apprentice on her own, so you'll be joining her, Jaina." Anticipating her protest, he added, "And no, I won't send Master Cilghal, or Jedi Eelysa. A non-apprentice would overshadow Tenel Ka, which in the Consortium would be a serious insult. Besides, Jaina, this is as much about you as it is about Tenel Ka."
"Me?" Jaina asked, confused.
"Yes," Luke said, nodding. "You need more experience as a mediator and negotiator, and it's past time I started sending you and your friends out on missions."
Jaina nodded in return. "We'll do our best, Unc- er, Master Skywalker." She waited a heartbeat, then added, "So what about that ship?"
Luke laughed, and even Tenel Ka almost smiled. "You'll be travelling aboard the Jade Sabre, with Mara."
If Jaina's eyebrows had shot up any faster, they'd have flown off her head. "What?" she said. "We're going on the Sabre? With Aunt Mara? Can I tinker with it? I think I can maybe shave a point or two off the hyperdrive-"
Tenel Ka broke in quickly. "Is Master Skywalker - er, the other Master Skywalker - commanding the mission?" she asked.
Shaking his head, Luke explained that the mission was Tenel Ka's and Jaina's. Mara would be their pilot and act as mission control - and as an emergency backup if things on Miy'til went too far out of hand - but if all went well, she'd never leave orbit.
"Be ready for space in half an hour," he finished. "Mara will meet you in the main Temple hangar." Both women nodded, then, as Luke turned away, striding towards his chambers, they started back to the apprentice quarters: each needed a quick sanisteam, and while as Jedi they kept few possessions, they would still need to pack.
Twenty-nine minutes and forty-two seconds later, Jaina skidded into the hangar, her speed enhanced by the Force. She was completely unsurprised to see her Hapan friend already there, without a single hair out of place; she was talking quietly with Jaina's aunt. Mara Jade Skywalker, leaning against the Jade Sabre, managed to look both casual and like she could spring into a battle stance at any second. Jaina knew that both were true.
As Jaina approached, the two taller women moved apart. "Ready, Jaina?" Mara asked, drawing her niece into a quick hug.
"Always am," she replied, with the Solo cockiness that she so liked to affect. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Tenel Ka roll her eyes, and Mara gave a short laugh.
"Time to go, then," she said briskly, ushering the apprentices onboard. "It's about a three-hour jump from here to Roqoo, then another two hours to Miy'til by way of Terephon." She tapped a couple of control pads, and the bulkhead door hissed shut. "Prepare for space, ladies."
Tenel Ka headed for the lounge, pulling out her datapad, but Jaina followed her aunt to the cockpit. She loved takeoffs, and wouldn't have missed this one for the galaxy.
Mara grinned wryly. "I don't usually have a copilot..." she began. Jaina jumped up guiltily from the seat she'd dropped into. "But hey, why not, this once?" the older woman added. "Engines."
"Two lit," Jaina replied automatically, returning the grin.
"Shields."
"Particle nominal, energy disabled."
"Life support."
And they continued, all the way down the preflight checklist. Normally, Mara would have done this in her head, for she knew the shuttle better than she did any ship apart from her old Jade's Fire - but it was good practice for Jaina, and she knew it would make the girl happy. She didn't spend enough time with her niece as it was.
"Comm signal clear," Jaina reported. "All systems functional and ready."
"Lifting off," Mara responded. Suiting action to words, she gunned the ion engines to full, sending backwash through the hangar and infuriating the techs. Not bothering with repulsorlifts, she blasted out of the hangar at near-X-wing speed. Jaina shrieked with mingled terror and delight as Mara deliberately flew the top of the Sabre just barely under the hangar roof.
She stayed in the copilot's seat until they had entered hyperspace just beyond Yavin's gravity well. Sighing, she got up to go aft and join Tenel Ka in her perusal of the briefing files.