Luke was sitting in the pilot's chair in the cockpit, watching the blueness of hyperspace pass them by. Mara had gone back to the rear storage compartment to check through the gear one more time. He wanted to reach out and check on her, but after they'd started answering each other back and forth, decided to let it be and not intrude any more than he already was.

So he sat in the pilot chair, silently marveling at the calming effect that the tunnel of hyperspace produced if one watched long enough. And, for the first time in way too long, he had nothing to do for the time being. No one was around, save the woman currently checking the gear in the rear storage compartment. He was again tempted to check on her, but she seemed to not like that much. So relaxing was the view outside that Luke let himself just sit and watch... and drift.

In his mind's eye, he saw Mara carrying a box into what looked like a room on the Wild Karrde... only one unfamiliar to him. Setting the box down, she looked into it and pulled out a bell. Looking in the direction of a corner where something small, dark-colored, and fuzzy lay, she began to ring it.

She rang the bell and seemed to expect a reaction. Not getting one, she set the bell down and looked in the box again, this time pulling out a sock. Wait... a sock? Luke couldn't blame her for staring at it.

Turning, he found that the... cat? It was a cat? Indeed it was. Small, with golden eyes, and black with a small white patch on it's head.

He watched as Mara held out the sock invitingly and the small animal attacked it with an unexpected vigor.

Mara was still in the rear storage compartment, crouched on her haunches, and checking the equipment one last time when a sense of concentrated calm rolled into her from the bond. She blinked as she set down the piece she'd been holding, and stood up, wondering where that had come from.

Almost without warning, what felt like a memory overtook her.

She was standing at a window, looking out over a city street she'd only ever seen once during a diplomatic trip early in her years of training. Once, but clearly recalled. The city of Theed, on Naboo.

"You're not supposed to be up and about, you know," an unfamiliar woman's voice chided her gently. "You are supposed to be resting."

Mara turned to find an older woman with graying red hair standing in the doorway. "Couldn't stay in bed anymore and I wanted her to look out with me."

The woman smiled and approached, holding out her arms. "You must be tired, though. Can I?"

Mara nodded and handed the small precious bundle she'd been holding over to the other woman. "Not tired so much as..."

"Sore?"

"Yes." Together they looked down at the small babe and smiled.

And then, suddenly, Mara found herself standing in the rear storage compartment again, staring at a bulkhead. She blinked, stunned at what she'd seen. A baby? And who was the woman?

Shaking her head in confusion, Mara looked down at the equipment again. It looked fine to her.

She found Luke sitting in the cockpit... almost asleep he was so relaxed. Sitting down next to him in the copilot's chair, Mara studied him intently. He almost seemed to be meditating, though his eyes were open and he was staring out the front of the cockpit.

Carefully, gently, she reached over and touched his arm. "Hey."

Luke startled and turned to her. "What?"

She smiled, finding his momentary confusion a little funny. And really, there wasn't a need to tell him about that weird moment in the rear storage compartment. A child and a woman she didn't know? Odd. "I wanted you to know that I checked and rechecked the gear... Feel better?"

Luke nodded as she stood up from the copilot chair. "Yes. Mara?"

"Hmm?"

He frowned for a moment, then shrugged it off. "Nothing." As he watched her leave the cockpit, he shook his head. Whatever it was that he had seen, he just couldn't picture her as a cat person. Very strange thing to see, that...

As Mara stood in the small galley, staring aat a pack of dried rations but not really seeing it, she couldn't help but wonder what it was she had seen. The woman had felt familiar, but she had never seen her before.

Shaking her head to clear it, Mara set the ration pack down and closed the cabinet which she'd taken it out of. She turned around to find Luke standing there, watching her silently. "Hi."

"Something wrong with the ration stores?"

"No," Mara said as she picked up the ration pack again and then curtly brushed past him. "I was just thinking about something."

"Mara..."

"What?" she asked as she turned back to look at him, eyebrows raised in an unspoken challenge and wondering what he was going to say.

He paused, suddenly hesitant. Maybe now wasn't the best time... "I, uh... don't like eating alone." Inwardly, Luke winced at how it sounded.

She frowned at him. He was dancing around something, she was certain of it. But... if he wanted to eat with her rather than talk, that was fine with her. "All right. I'll be in the cockpit. Get yourself a ration pack and meet me there."

Luke nodded and watched her leave silently. Then he shrugged it off and turned to get a ration pack for himself. At least he was back in familiar territory with her... somewhat on edge.

She'd just started eating when he quietly joined her, sitting now in the copilot's chair because she'd claimed the pilot's seat for herself. "Might want to eat that quickly. Transition in ten minutes or so."

He chuckled. "So that's why you're sitting in here."

"Partly. View's nice, too." She glanced at him with a raised eyebrow as she took a bite of her ration bar. Swallowing, she urged: "Really, eat."

Luke considered her for a moment more, and then began to eat as well. Whatever it was he'd seen, whether a dream or something else... it could wait.

From the air, the planet hadn't seemed like anything out of the ordinary. No, from the air, it had seemed... harmless. Not the type of place for Imperials to be planning anything other than a picnic. But as they'd both learned over time, appearances were often times deceiving.

Mara studied the exterior of the building through her binoculars. For an Imperial stronghold, it wasn't very impressive in anything but it's size. Also, it was up against a cliff. Why would they have built it like that, knowing they'd have nowhere to go if attacked? Strategically, it made no sense. "I don't like it."

"Which part? The fact that it's up against a cliff, or the part where we have to walk in there like criminals who own the place?"

She rolled her eyes at him rudely and then went back to studying the exterior with a critical eye. "Both... There's that front entryway that we can see, and nothing at the rear but open air, obviously."

Luke snorted. "Just because we can't see it doesn't mean they wouldn't have thought of that, Mara."

She turned and looked at him for a moment. "You think they have some kind of way down the cliff."

"Or a lift or something, sure."

Mara nodded, again studying the building. "Good thought, that."

"You ready to do this?"

She wasn't, but they weren't going to find anything out just sitting in the bushes a mile away, now were they? "As I'll ever be, Farmboy. I will take point."