Gone - Chapter One

The Wilde Karrde
Several Months Later

Talon Karrde leant forward across his desk. He was incredulous that an
offhand mention to his second about a recent property venture had
attracted Mara's attention."Lyntrax III. You are serious? Imperial base?"

He threw the datapad down, unbelieving the contents that Mara Jade had
brought to his attention. The organisation had just purchased a
supposedly former storage and mining facility.

"There is no record of this place being used as such. Ghent had run a
thorough search about the place. It is on record as a small private
company: a mining complex with storage units."

"It wouldn't show up." Mara realising that her boss was about to find
out about another snippet of information from her previous Imperial
affiliations. "This place was a top secret, high level security
detention and interrogation centre. Very few people knew of it's true
identity."

Talon surmised that the ex-imperials had practised either some dubious
methods on these prisoners or they had prisoners that they truly
wanted to disappear off any intelligence. Karrde thought things over
as he took this in. His curiosity piqued about how Mara knew about
this but quietly said nothing knowing that Mara may reveal more
without his questioning. "How does this affect us and our purchase?"

"Is there anything on record about the place being decommissioned
after the Peace Treaty?" Mara paused as her green eyes looked very
concerned as she took in Karrde's negative head shake. "But then again
it may not be on record due to it's history - Lyntrax III handled
either very dangerous criminals or political prisoners."

Mara started to tap on her datapad while Talon waited anxiously for
the result. "No. You should get the guys to do a proper search but
there is no mention of it then. What also concerns me if it is not on
record due to it's history. There will be no chance that it
participated in the war prisoner releases after the Treaty. There is a
chance that it continued to operate until fairly recently."

The older trader didn't like where this was going. "And?"

"If there were prisoners there after the Treaty they have either just
vanished or been killed. I am not sure what exactly they did there but
it had a reputation among the few who knew about it." Mara had a very
bad feeling developing in the pit of her stomach. "I have no idea what
we will find. I am just warning you that Lyntrax III is not just the
mining complex you are expecting. We may be lucky that the staff have
covered up their previous operations completely but if they
haven't..." Mara let that sink in. Their organisation could get in to
a difficult situation more than just politically.

Karde digested this information. "Are you saying we could find
prisoners that may have been interrogated, or would I be more accurate
to say tortured, in this complex?"

Mara shrugged. "I don't know but it is possible and we certainly must
be prepared for that eventuality. We could find dead bodies, ill
prisoners or nothing."

"I was told that we would be taking over the place as vacant
possession." Karrde pondered over what to do in case everything would
not as he hoped for rather than Mara's pessimistic opinion. If it
turned out to be a disaster, he would have to deal with that as things
came up. However, the location of the complex was convenient for his
plans on the Rim. It had taken his agents considerable time to find
him this place so he was unwilling to give it up.

"Find out what you can about the base, Mara." Talon came to a
decision. He knew Mara had thrown herself in to her work over the last
few months as an distraction from dealing with Luke's death and was a
bit reluctant to ask this but he knew instinctively that she would be
the best one for this. "I'm going to ask you to take over on this.
Organise the pick-up team with whoever and whatever you think you may
need. Leave their ship in orbit while you scout the place out first.
Don't send the team in unless the place is clear. Come up with a good
reason for you to go on ahead, something which the team won't question."

Mara nodded in agreement. She knew from her own experience that
Karrde looked after his people. He knew she could cope with whatever
was in the complex but some of the others were not as war hardened as
she was. She would need a mixture of skills and started to mentally
think things through but she needed to put Karrde's information
network to work on this.

"I'll hold back the operations crew for the base until I get your
report." Karrde dismissed this topic and moved on.

Karrde's New Mining Complex - Lyntrax III

Mara Jade landed her ship in a near perfect touchdown on the deserted
landing pad. The base was built nestled in to the side of a mountain,
almost inaccessible apart from by air. The local area was certainly
inhospitable. There was no sign of any vegetation or life on the
slopes of the mountain. The mine workings were the only sign that
living beings had once worked and lived here. The large landing pad
had storage bunkers dotted all way round it. So far, it fitted in with
the details of Karrde's mining complex spec rather than the brutal
Imperial complex she knew about for her time as the Emperor's Hand.
Staring out the cockpit window, as flurries of snow drifted over the
screen, Mara got a strange prompting through the Force. There was
definately something about this place. She knew that she would find
something important here.

Shutting down all the Jade Sabre's systems, Mara turned to the
astromech unit which had been accompanying her since Luke had left on
that fateful mission.

"Artoo?" Mara unsnapped her restraints, calling from the cockpit .
"Hey, short stuff?!"

The 'droid warbled at her. Ignoring what was probably a rude response,
Mara continued. "Scan the area as we go. Let me know if you get any
life or energy readings."

Mara shook her head thinking back to when she had teased Luke about
his relationship with Artoo but she had to admit that the 'droid was
unique. When Luke had been killed, Leia had gifted the 'droid to her
as she said it was what Luke would have wanted. Only the Solos had
known that Luke had asked her to marry him before his death. Mara
suspected that Artoo Detoo just brought back too many memories for the
princess. It was rare that you saw Luke without his faithful 'droid
companion.

Her wonderful ship was also a connection to Luke. He had designed the
ship for her but unfortunately had never seen it. After his death was
publicised, she had received notification that Luke had ordered the
ship for her after Nirauan. It was with a heavy heart that she oversaw
the completion of the Jade Sabre and accepted his last gift to her. It
was the only thing that made her feel alive again, when she flew the
craft.

Mara had felt that her life had stopped when their bond had ceased.
The frantic hours which had turned into fretful days until they knew
for certain. She had been saved the harrowing footage that had been
delivered to the NRI but apparently there had been no doubt according
to its validity. The NRI had kept it quiet but Mara had heard through
other sources that there had been physical evidence that Luke had been
severely tortured before his execution.

Mara knew she had gone through the motions of pretending everything
was normal to Karrde, to the Solos and to herself. In reality, she had
retreated into herself. It was easier to cope when she pretended that
she was the hardened Emperor's Hand once more or even Karrde's tough
business aide. It was only when she was alone when she could no longer
keep up the pretense with herself that her veneer cracked. It was then
she cried her heart and soul out where no-one could see or find out.
In the first weeks, she had forced herself to eat and forcing herself
to live but for what point Mara did not know. In her heart, Mara
wished she was also dead and then the hurting would stop. The
connection and the sense of completeness that Luke had given her had
vanished and it was so hard to go on without him to make her whole.

She had gone through all the stages of denial, anger and finally
acceptance of the situation. However, she still could not get over
blaming herself for not being with Luke when it had mattered most.
Mara wished that she had gone along with her fiancee on that fateful
mission. She had gone over and over that territory it but she knew
where that path led and it didn't change anything. She had told Luke
that her gut feeling was that he was walking in to a trap but Leia had
asked Luke to do this for her. Mara felt that Leia's emotional
involvement had interferred with her judgement and that the planning
for his undercover operation had been rushed. Mara had tried to make
him see sense but Luke knew what this meant to his sister. He said
that he had to do this for Leia despite Mara's and his own misgivings.
Mara had asked him to wait for her to join him to be his back-up but
he said he couldn't with the timings involved. Despite her heroic
effort, Luke had already gone when she arrived on Coruscant and NRI
would not even acknowledge her calls. In an attempt to get more
information, Mara had then stormed round to Solo's residence and took
Leia apart about the mission.

From what she learned Mara had managed to follow Luke's trail until
she found his hidden X-wing fighter and 'droid. The base where Luke
was infiltrating was empty. It's hollow corridors shedding no
information to Mara. Reluctantly, Mara had to return and wait for
further developments as Karrde's information sources were working
overtime to try and find out even the smallest lead for her. They had
quickly confirmed that the initial information fed through to the NRI
and Leia was false and indeed an elaborate trap for Luke. Mara knew
Luke was in seriously trouble but this time she was unable to help him
as she couldn't locate him. No-one knew what had happened to the Jedi
Master.

Mara's heart had turned to ice when she heard from Leia. She would
never forget hearing those life changing words about Luke being dead.
Mara's first reaction was denial but after NRI received confirmation
of his execution, she couldn't escape the issue. They refused to show
her the footage but in retrospect she was grateful for that small
mercy. At first, Mara got angry at Leia, at the Force and at the
galaxy! It was so unfair! The anger had dissapated with time, and now
she was at the bitter, resigned but near acceptance stage. She had
stopped taking Leia or Han's coms. She still held Leia responsible
for her twin's death. Luke would disprove of her behaviour but to Mara
in her emotional state, it made perfect sense. It had also made her
feel better when she had someone to blame and Leia was not avoiding
the accusation.

Mara pulled her thoughts to the here and now. Dwelling on things would
not get the job done. Clipping her lightsabre to her belt, she pulled
a cloak over her shoulders against the weather outside. Mara signalled
to Artoo and they left the ship.

The Force swirled round her, echoing the movements of flakes of snow
drifting in the air. The Force was definately at work here. She just
knew she would find something or, Mara paused, someone.

End of post ch1

Many thanks for reading!