I'll Come With You

Chapter 4

"Good morning!"

"Good morning!"

Mara didn't have time to react before the Solo twins set their trays down at her table.

"Hello," she greeted them.

"Did you try the fruit? It's really good today," Jacen suggested.

Jaina, however, got right to the point, "How long are you staying? Are you going to become a Jedi too?"

Jacen shot his sister a look, but he couldn't hide his own curiosity.

"I'm visiting, that's all," Mara replied.

That wasn't much of an answer but thankfully they didn't press any further, surely a sign of Organa Solo's diplomatic influence. As they ate breakfast the twins filled Mara in on all the latest news at the Academy.

As they were taking their trays up to the window for the students on dishwashing duty, Jaina asked, "Are you coming on the morning run? We're going on the jungle path today."

"Yes, come with us!" Jacen added.

They both looked at her so expectantly and she really didn't have anything better to do, so she agreed.

It was nice to run for sheer pleasure of it for a change. She didn't remember the last time she'd run this hard for a reason other than imminent threat of death. Her heart pounded in her ears and her legs burned and the Force seemed to hum, urging her along. She felt like she was flying.

Until she looked ahead and realized how far she had fallen behind the teenagers. Mara slowed and rested her hands on her legs, taking deep breaths. Apparently it had been much longer than she thought since she'd trained like this. She took another deep breath and pushed herself onward.

After the run, the students went off to their classes and Mara headed for her ship.

She sat in the pilot's chair and put her feet up on the console with a sigh of relief. At least Skywalker wasn't there to witness that, she thought, taking a gulp of water.

The console showed several more missed messages from Karrde. Mara sighed again. She couldn't put it off forever.

She started the playback for the first received message. It was short, with barely contained temper. From there Karrde's messages progressed through bewildered and impatient to angry again but with a touch of hurt and finally to conciliatory. They could work this out, Karrde assured her with his easy confidence. He would welcome her back, give her more resources, more responsibility, anything she wanted.

As usual, he was acting like a few words could smooth everything over, Mara thought bitterly. She played out an imaginary conversation.

'Mara, thank goodness you finally responded. I was starting to worry. What are you doing?' Karrde would ask.

'Oh, nothing much. I spend my days working on the Fire and my nights getting cozy with Skywalker.'

Nope, that was not happening. Mara flicked the screen away. Karrde could handle waiting a little longer.

Mara downloaded the engine schematics and maintenance checklists to her datapad and got to work. Lost in her task, Mara worked straight through lunch and soon it was late afternoon and the surveillance system was alerting her to a visitor.

Mara set her tools down, wiped her arm across her forehead and, stopping briefly to grab a protein bar from the mess, went to lower the boarding ramp.

"What is it? Did Skywalker send you?" Mara said, slightly suspicious.

"No!" Jain Solo shook her head, "I came to help you with your repairs."

"Is that so? And how did you know I was doing repairs?" Mara asked.

"Uncle Luke told me…" Jaina trailed off, frowning, then almost to herself, "Maybe he did send me!"

Mara hid a smile.

"But it doesn't matter! I still want to help," Jaina said earnestly.

"What makes you think you're qualified?" Mara asked.

"I've been around my Dad and Chewie making repairs on the Falcon pretty much my whole life. I know all the ship's systems! They even let me help with the sensor arrays last time they were here," Jaina said.

Solo was legendarily protective of his ship and if he'd let the girl work on it, then she must have more than naïve enthusiasm going for her.

"Alright, come with me. I have one more test to run on the engines," Mara relented and Jaina beamed.

They had barely settled in to work when Jaina proudly announced, "One day, I'm going to be a starfighter pilot!"

"Is that so?"

"Yep, just like Uncle Luke!"

Mara was decidedly unimpressed, "Eh, don't you want to aim a little higher?"

Jaina was appalled, "How can you say that?! Uncle Luke is the best starfighter pilot in the galaxy! He fired the shot that destroyed the Death Star!"

"That's true," Mara conceded, "But then again, I've seen him crash a perfectly good Skipray blastboat into a forest. Would the galaxy's best pilot do something like that?"

Jaina chewed on that for a moment. "I'm sure he didn't do it on purpose! And besides, my Dad says that if you can walk away from it, it wasn't a crash, just a hard landing."

Mara laughed, "That sounds like him."

"So…" Jaina had switched from defiant to curious, "When did Uncle Luke crash a Skipray? Aren't those usually flown by smugglers and pirates?"

"You'll have to ask your uncle about that one."

….

Preview: Luke and Mara finally have a heart-to-heart.

A/N: I hope you're enjoying this story. Please review!