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!
