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Misdirection

There was another spy in the Rebellion's ranks, Mara Jade knew. Vader rarely relied on a single source for information, even when the source had been the Emperor's Hand. She had known it, always knew on every mission that the likelihood she was working alongside another Imperial agent - even when she thought she was operating solo - was extraordinarily high. But if Vader had ever sent backup to make sure she succeeded, he had never given any indication to her.

She glanced around the briefing room of Home One. Over a dozen of the highest ranking officers of the Rebel Alliance, many of them part of the Intelligence division, gathered around the central table, analyzing the huge amounts of data Mara had provided about Vader's operations. All of these men and women had proven their devotion to their cause countless times. Most had lost family to the Imperials, and all had lost friends. At first glance, she could think of none that would even consider betraying them to the Empire.

Then again, they had thought the same of her.

Her eyes flickered from face to face. No out-of-place beads of sweat, no quivering lips, no attempts to disprove even the most sensitive information she had offered to the inner circle. Mara's fingers drummed on the hilt of her lightsaber as she thought. Even though the Imperials hadn't made any indication that they knew more about the Rebels than they should, Mara knew Vader. There had to be at least one more source he depended on, and she was positive it was someone who held higher rank than a ship mechanic.

General Airen Cracken asked her a question about the secret research installation hidden in the Maw Cluster. As answer, she brought up one of the files on the installation's scientists on a datapad in front of her, then slid it across the table to the man, who immediately descended into a discussion with Admiral Ackbar and General Carlist Rieekan, who sat next to him.

Two guards stood outside the door. She focused. Could they understand what she and the others were saying behind the plated glass and metal? One of them suddenly tilted his head back and opened his mouth while his companion said something with an exaggerated expression; he was laughing, she realized. Besides, with the way those two were indiscriminately broadcasting their thoughts around without even an apparent attempt at control, they were either extraordinarily highly trained and extremely talented in misdirection, or they were just two ordinary Rebels.

Mara frowned in disappointment, but resolved to check on them nonetheless. She knew how well she had constructed her own cover, so even though it was unlikely, it was still possible. Better to be paranoid and turn out wrong than be lazy and turn out dead, she thought.

"What about these secret shipyards?" Admiral Hiram Drayson asked. "Miss Jade, you mentioned them briefly before."

Mara nodded, looking over at him as her fingers flickered over the controls to the table's holoprojector. She brought up the images of the shipyards sent to Intelligence in one of the reports by the mysterious Beta Source, an apparent double agent within the Empire who had not yet revealed its identity to the Rebellion.

"Vader is building several Star Destroyers, including at least two Executor-class ships, without the knowledge of the rest of the Imperial command," Mara said. "I was never involved with it, but I believe it has to do with whatever he and Thrawn are up to in the Unknown Regions. Neither of them ever told me anything about that, though. I only know about this because I overheard Vader and Thrawn talking about it on Bespin."

Several mouths pursed into frowns, but none drew into relief that she had no more information to offer. She scowled inwardly again, but kept her expression passive, giving no indication of her inner thoughts.

"Of course," she said coyly as she twirled her finger over one of the bolts on the table, "we might be able to ask the Beta Source to give us more information about those."

Amid flickers of surprise from the officers around the table - Mara wasn't supposed to know about Beta Source, she assumed - General Cracken adopted a thoughtful expression. "Do you know who it is? The Beta Source?" he asked.

Mara smirked inwardly, but again kept her face calm. "I have my suspicions."

She knew perfectly well that Beta Source was Malysa Kolos, but had decided not to tell anyone else about Malysa just yet. She had persuaded the others who'd been at Bespin to do the same; the young Jedi's position was already perilous enough, especially considering Mara's suspicions about another spy.

"Don't be ridiculous," said Admiral Drayson, looking over at Cracken. "For all we know, Beta Source is nothing but a hoax orchestrated by Vader himself. We might be walking into a trap."

"It's better than anything else we have," said Lieutenant Page, leader of a squad of Special Forces commandos. "Mara, is there any way we could contact the Beta Source, or at least know who it is so we know who we're dealing with?"

Mara's eyes narrowed. She had had her suspicious about Page before; he was the son of an Imperial senator, and though the possibility of him being a double agent was slight, it was still there. "You would risk breaking the Beta Source's cover?" she asked, and through the Force, sent a subtle compulsion to answer truthfully.

Page shifted his weight and looked down. Mara could sense that her compulsion had made him uncomfortable, which was largely its intended effect. "No," he said awkwardly. "I mean, I don't want to the Source to get caught,"

"We will continue to research these facilities as we are able," Ackbar declared. Mara caught a subtle movement from the admiral, and understood his meaning even without the Force. Not here, not now, he meant. Later.

She scowled and resumed tapping her lightsaber. She hated waiting.

None too soon for Mara, Luke, Leia, and the newly commissioned Commander Solo made their way into Admiral Ackbar's office, where he and Mara had been waiting. Luke immediately flashed Mara a smile, and she smiled back, sending him a warm greeting through the Force.

The Calamarian admiral was sitting behind his desk, which was reminiscent of a giant pearl from his homeworld, its lines smooth and rounded. He got to his feet as Luke, Leia and Han entered his office, giving them the Mon Cal equivalent of a smile.

"Your Highness, Commanders," he said in greeting, inclining a flipper-like hand at the chairs in front of his desk.

"There's a spy," Mara said as the trio sat down in the plush seats.

Leia frowned. "A spy? You're sure?"

Mara nodded. "Vader tends to lean toward 'overkill' strategies. He has always relied on multiple sources of information; even I was rarely his only source."

"Have you seen any indication that there's a spy?" Han asked. "Hidden transmissions?"

Mara frowned. "Well, no, but-"

"Then how do you know there is one?" Han interrupted. He wagged a finger at her. "Are you sure you're not just being paranoid, Red?"

"You're taking this too lightly, Commander Solo," Leia emphasized. "If the spy is even half as good as Mara was, I doubt we'd even know they existed." She glanced at Mara. "No offense."

Mara lifted her hands. "The only reason you found out about me was because I let you."

"Do you have any idea who it is, then?" Luke asked.

She smirked. "If I did, do you think we'd still be letting them run around?" She saw the little light click in his mind and smiled at his embarrassed expression.

"In any case, we cannot let this continue, especially considering the delicate information regarding the Beta Source," Admiral Ackbar clarified. "Jedi Kolos is playing a dangerous game, especially now that we know her identity."

"We're still keeping her information limited to those who already know," Mara said. "But if the spy ever found out, they'd be more than happy to report it to Vader. And that would be extremely unpleasant for Malysa."

Han suddenly sat up straighter. "I know how we can see if there are any more spies," he said excitedly.

Ackbar looked over at him curiously. "How?"

Han leaned forward in his chair. "Back in my smuggling days, we thought there was somebody tipping off the Imps about the locations of some of our runs after a few too many Imperial interceptions. So, we doctored up a few phony runs, let the locations slip around the people we thought were the informants, and had somebody wait to see if the Imps showed up."

Leia nodded appreciatively. "You want to do the same thing here."

Han nodded. "Right. We let it get around in the upper echelons that we think we know who Beta Source is, and want to contact them for the possibility of extraction. We circulate a classified list, - obviously not with Malysa's name on it - and if the Empire goes after any of those people, we'll know we still have a spy."

Ackbar gave the Calamarian equivalent of an amused smile. "Perhaps I ought to transfer you to Intelligence, Commander Solo," he said, his gravelly voice tinged with approval.

"So how are we going to make sure the Empire doesn't suspect this is a trick?" Leia asked.

"We treat the list like we think it's real," said Luke. "Like Mara said, only those of us who already know about Malysa will know the truth. The fewer people who know about this, the better."

"Agreed," Ackbar said, standing. "The four of you will compile the list. As it stands right now, only the five of us and Mon Mothma know Beta Source's true identity. We shall keep it that way during this operation." Ackbar placed his hands on his desk, his expression grave. "We all have much work to do," he said. "I recommend we start this operation as soon as possible."

"So, who goes on the list?" Han asked.

Luke leaned back in one of the couches in his quarters aboard Home One and drummed the fingers of his cybernetic hand against the padded arm. "I know of a few officers I'd certainly like to put under suspicion, but it has to be believable."

From her seat next to him, Mara nodded. "All of the people we put on the list have to be strong possibilities for Beta Source, otherwise, we're not going to fool anyone. If we put, say, Thrawn or Darth Nova on here, it's going to be obvious it's a trick."

Next to Han, across from Luke and Mara, Leia slowly tapped the side of her datapad thoughtfully. Finally, she spoke, looking at Mara. "Do you know of any officers Vader already has suspicions about?"

The former Emperor's Hand shrugged. "I've spent a grand total of maybe three hours actually talking to Lord Vader in person in the last four years. I spent too much time in deep-cover assignments to be part of his inner circle. Sorry."

Han frowned, absently toying with the tie-down strap of his blaster. "Who were our possibilities for Beta Source when we didn't actually know who it was?"

Leia smiled wryly. "We didn't have any serious possibilities; that's why Intelligence was going so crazy over its reports."

Han chuckled. "Now I'm starting to regret thinking of this idea."

Mara looked over at Luke as she propped her head on one hand, reaching out with the other to lightly play with the ends of his nearly shoulder-length hair. "I say we try and get at least one Grand Admiral on this list. I wouldn't be at all sorry to see a few of them go. Zaarin is the first one that comes to mind."

Luke leaned back slightly, and Mara could sense he enjoyed the sensation of her fingers on his neck, but wasn't letting it distract him. He scrolled through the list of high-ranking Imperial officers on his datapad, weighing what he knew about each of them.

"I can think of a few officers who shouldn't go on the list," Luke said. "General Dodonna served with a few of these men in the Army of the Republic during the Clone Wars. He says he wishes Firmus Piett was on our side; he's a good officer and a good man, even though he's fighting for the Empire."

Mara nodded. "I like Piett. It really is too bad he's on the wrong side."

"How about those Red Guards?" Han asked, tapping at his own datapad. "Intelligence doesn't know their identities, but I figure they're in a position to be believable."

"I can help you there," Mara said. "I knew quite a few of the Royal Guard, and you're right; they're privy to a lot of sensitive information just by being near Lord Vader. Some of them almost function as the same kind of agent I was; I worked with a man named Kanos several times on missions." She frowned. "But we can't use him; there is no way Kir would ever release information to the Rebellion. If anything, he's probably the one Vader will send after the people he suspects."

Han sighed, putting his arm around Leia's shoulders. "Catching spies is hard work. We don't even know for sure there is another spy here; we just have suspicions right now."

"Oh, there's definitely at least one," Mara said firmly. "Vader said something at Bespin."

"What did he say?" Leia asked.

"It was when we were making plans on where to take you after Vader left the city," Mara replied. "Thrawn suggested allowing at least one of your group to escape so that we could track them to the fleet, but Vader said he had a way of finding the fleet anyway, so we didn't have to bother."

Han sat up straighter. "He didn't put another damn homing beacon on my ship, did he?" he said, his body tensing as if he intended to run down to the hangar right now and check.

Mara shook her head. "Not that I know of," she said placatingly. "But," she amended, eyes widening in realization, "I know they did board the Falcon to deactivate the hyperdrive, so it is a possibility."

Han swore as he jumped to his feet, snatching out his comlink. "I can't believe I didn't think of this before!" he snarled as he punched the keys on the small device. "Chewie!" he barked into the comlink. "Get out the scanners; we might have a bug on the Falcon somewhere."

Mara heard the Wookiee's enraged answering bellow through the device, and glanced at Luke as he stood, ready to go down and help. "I'll send Artoo," he said. "If there's a transmitter on your ship, it'll have to be drawing power from the Falcon's systems to work at any kind of long distance. Artoo can interface with the computer and find out if there's anything there that doesn't belong."

Han nodded, but waved Luke back. "You three stay here and keep working," he said. "We gotta get this done as fast as we can. Lando can help me and Chewie; he knows the Falcon almost as well as we do."

With that, the Corellian hurried out of Luke's quarters, headed down to Home One's hangar bay.

Leia sighed, sinking back into the couch. "Back to work, then."

As it turned out, there were no foreign devices on the Millennium Falcon, but Han, Chewbacca and Lando did find several systems that were on the verge of catastrophic failure. Lando, still feeling some measure of possessiveness toward his former ship, demanded that he be allowed to give the Falcon a complete overhaul. Han reluctantly conceded, on the condition that Chewbacca would supervise.

Lando, dressed in a mechanic's coverall instead of his preferred expensive tailored clothing, was crammed into one of the maintenance hatches, muttering irritably to himself about the condition Han and Chewie kept the Falcon in.

"What is this?" he demanded as his fingers moved across the remains of a long-removed system deep inside the hatch. "Did you two actually have fluidic systems in here once?" he said incredulously.

Standing above him, Chewbacca growled that they indeed had, but had gotten rid of them as soon as possible.

"I didn't think anybody actually sold that junk anymore," Lando murmured around the minilamp clenched between his teeth. "I am genuinely sorry I lost you, old girl," he said in apology to the Falcon. "These two have not been treating you right at all."

Chewbacca snarled his objection to this, and Lando quickly muttered a halfhearted apology to sate the Wookiee's anger. Chewie was already peevish just from Lando being here; the gambler suspected the Wookiee still hadn't quite forgiven him for what had happened at Bespin.

With 'Commander Han' off working on whatever his assignment from Ackbar was, Lando knew he would at least be able to get some work done even with Chewbacca breathing down his neck the whole time. He figured he owed it to the Falcon for being stupid enough to put her up as stakes in a sabacc game with Han Solo in the first place.

Over the next few days, as Lando and Chewie worked on the Falcon, Han and his group quietly let the list be known among the higher-level officers of Alliance Intelligence, adding that they thought it might be a good idea to work out a way to contact Beta Source and arrange for their extraction before Vader's counterintelligence people caught on.

From that point, all there was to do was wait.

The waiting turned out to be far shorter than they had anticipated. Three days later to be exact, while Leia was eating a quiet dinner with Han, Luke, and Mara in her quarters aboard the flagship, the door buzzed. She, Luke, and Mara instantly jumped to their feet, sensing through the Force that the visitor had more than just a friendly greeting on her mind. Leia, who was closest to the door, moved to open it.

Winter stood outside, and she quickly moved in as soon as Leia stepped aside. "Someone just tried to use the long-range comm unit," she announced to the group. "It was subtle, and we almost didn't catch it, but we did manage to block the transmission before it went out. The access was unauthorized; if we hadn't been watching closely, we might not have detected it at all." She glanced over at Mara. "As you recommended, we did let the transmission last long enough to trace its destination, then cut it off. It was headed for the next sector, where the long-range sensors picked up an Imperial battle group on patrol."

"You catch who was trying to do it?" Han said as he got up.

Winter shook her head. "We did manage to trace the terminal, but the security cameras in that section suffered a 'mysterious malfunction' five minutes before the transmission went out."

Leia looked over at her brother, who nodded slightly before looking over at Mara. "What would be the best thing to do now?" Luke asked her.

"Well, if it was me," Mara said, tapping her fingers on her lightsaber at her side, "and the computer locked me out while I was trying to send a transmission, I'd know someone was onto me right about now. I'd be expecting the whole ship to go into lockdown, so I'd be looking for the quickest way out of here before the fleet jumps to hyperspace."

Han was on his feet and moving for the door. "Tell Ackbar to seal off the fighter bays," he said to Winter. "The last thing we need is to have to chase the spy around out there."

Luke pulled his outer robe straighter as he got up. "We'd better lock down the other hangars, too," he said, absently reaching down to adjust his belt. Leia noticed the almost imperceptible frown when his hand brushed the place where his lightsaber usually hung and found it missing.

"Ackbar has already sent additional guards to all the essential systems in case of sabotage," Winter said, opening the door. She tapped at the keys on her comlink as the group moved out into the hall.

Mara suddenly stopped, and Leia turned to look at her. "What is it?" she said.

The former Imperial agent's face was thoughtful. "Where was the terminal the spy used?" she asked.

"Level 5, section E," Winter replied immediately.

Mara suddenly grinned, and there was something disturbingly predatory about that smile. "You go on and help the others with the lockdown. I think I know where the spy is going."

"You need any help?" Luke asked.

Mara's grin became scarier. "No, I can handle it."

With that, she turned and jogged off through the hall.

"That woman is profoundly unnerving sometimes," Han said, watching her leave. "I'm sure glad she ain't on the other team anymore."

"You and me both," Luke said, also looking after her. He turned and clapped Han on the shoulder. "Come on, we've got work to do."

Moving quickly but quietly, the Imperial agent slipped into one of the hangar bays of Home One, carrying several datachips filled with information on the Beta Source operation and more about the Alliance itself.

The agent crept through the hangar, looking for a ship to steal. It was risky, but it had to be done; this information had to get to Lord Vader as soon as possible, before the Rebels could flee this hiding place. At top speed, the Imperial battle group to which she had attempted to send her transmission could be here in minutes, well before the Rebels could get their fleet organized enough to jump into hyperspace.

All of the X-wings and other fighters aboard the flagship were securely locked down, the agent discovered. If she wanted to send the message, she would have to do it with the comm array on one of the larger ships docked here, like a shuttle or one of the freighters.

Fortunately for the agent, it appeared that Lando Calrissian was working on Han Solo's ship late tonight, as he had been for the last several days; the exterior lights were on, and movement could be heard inside. Beyond the elongated shape of the modified freighter, the hangar doors were wide open, with only a forcefield between her and open space.

The agent hadn't heard any alarms yet, but she knew the Rebels were onto her; they were probably trying to be quiet so as not to let her know that she'd been found out. She scoffed inwardly; as if being locked out of the computer in the first stage of access to the long-range antenna hadn't been enough evidence. Only a rookie would be stupid enough to believe that the long-range comm antenna was under maintenance and couldn't send transmissions right now. 'Sorry for the inconvenience', indeed. Somebody was being cute with that one.

Quickly and quietly, the agent moved to the ramp of the Millennium Falcon, blaster in hand. Stealing this ship was risky, but she was out of time, and there was no other alternative.

The agent moved up the ramp, blaster at the ready. The interior hold was dim, the lights off, but she could sense that there was someone else inside. Attempting to track the faint sounds of breathing, the agent raised her blaster, finger on the trigger.

"The ownership of this vessel has been in dispute at times," a darkly amused woman's voice said, freezing the agent in place, "but I'm quite sure it doesn't belong to you."

The lights suddenly flared on, and the agent saw Mara Jade sitting behind the gameboard in the center of the hold, her boots propped up on the table and a blaster in her hand, pointed right between the agent's eyes.

"Shira Brie," Mara said, all amusement vanishing from her tone. "A Rogue Squadron pilot, even. I have to say, even I hadn't expected this. We were just hoping to confirm that there was a spy; the fact that you were stupid enough to get caught this quickly is just priceless." She mockingly pretended to think this over for a moment. "Makes me wonder how you managed to avoid getting caught for this long, pulling an amateur stunt like this."

Shira trembled with barely controlled fury, her fingers tightening around her blaster. "Jade, you traitor!" she snarled. "I can't believe you would betray Lord Vader like this!"

"So, you knew who I was," Mara said with a calculating expression, her blaster remaining perfectly still. "I've never seen you before, though. Knowing who you really are, that is. So, who are you? Imperial Intelligence? Did Isard plant you here?"

Shira gave her only a stony glare, and to this Mara smirked.

"You might as well tell me now," she said. Her expression shifted to open threat. "Because you are going to tell me."

"Lord Vader will be very pleased when I bring him your head," said Shira, her voice low and dangerous.

Mara mockingly pretended to ponder this. "Well, there's a problem with that," she said sardonically. "I happen to like my head right where it is."

She exploded into motion, launching herself out of the acceleration couch right at Shira as she fired with her blaster. Her stun blast missed Shira by millimeters, but Shira's bolt nicked Jade's shoulder.

Ignoring the pain, Mara crashed into the Imperial agent, letting go of her blaster as she pounded the other woman with ruthless efficiency. Shira was well-trained, though, and she managed to counter the blows, trying to squirm away. Mara got an elbow in the chin, and as this jolted her back, Shira snapped out her leg and kicked Mara back into the gameboard.

Shira leaped to her feet, calling upon the Force to pull one of the blasters into her hand, but the quick-to-recover Mara lashed out with a sweep kick and knocked Shira off-balance. Mara jumped up and slammed her fist into the agent's jaw, which in turn knocked the back of her head solidly into the wall. Shira dropped heavily to the deck, unconscious.

"Thanks for your help," Mara said sarcastically toward the cockpit passageway, sweeping her hair back out of her face with one hand. Her shoulder stung with the action, but she ignored it.

Lando stepped into the hold, a blaster in his hand and a smile on his face. "You looked like you had everything under control," he said amusedly. He gestured down at the unconscious spy. "Need any help with that?"

Mara smiled mock-cheerfully as she clapped him on the shoulder. "No, you've got it under control," she said, smirking.

Realizing her meaning, Lando sighed as he holstered his blaster and bent to pick up the spy.

When Mara entered the observation room outside the interrogation room, she saw Luke staring at Shira Brie through the one-way mirror. Through the Force, she caught a glimpse of what he was thinking: here was, if possible, a woman he was even less likely to have pegged as an Imperial spy than Mara herself. He'd flown several missions with Shira along with the rest of Rogue Squadron, and never before today had she given the slightest indication she was anything other than a loyal member of the Alliance.

On top of that, Shira was also sensitive to the Force. That made two of them who'd managed to hide their abilities from him for several years. Luke sighed irritably, crossing his arms. Mara knew Luke was discouraged about having failed to recognize not just one but two Force-sensitives in the Alliance, but to herself, she thought that it was hardly his fault; Vader knew far more about the Force than Luke did, and had instructed his students thoroughly, especially in areas of stealth and secrecy. Despite Mara's efforts, she knew, Luke had picked up on her Force sensitivity at least once during the three years she'd been undercover, but had assumed it to be merely latent potential, from his comments at the time.

"Has she said anything?" Mara asked as she walked over to him. She had tied back her hair, and it now hung out of her way down her back. She had also bandaged her shoulder, insisting on doing it herself, much to the Alliance medic's annoyance. It hadn't been out of any particular distrust of the man's abilities, though; she just preferred to treat her own injuries when possible. That, and irritating people was always amusing.

Luke shook his head. "Nothing I'd care to repeat."

He smiled as Mara reached over and flicked a lock of hair at his neck. She held up an elastic tie similar to the one in her hair, her green eyes twinkling mischievously.

"You need to borrow one?" she asked teasingly.

"No, thank you," Luke said amusedly. "Why, you think my hair's too long?"

Mara pretended to study his longish sandy blond hair for a moment. "You are starting to look a bit on the scruffy side," she concluded mock-seriously.

"Who's scruffy-looking?" Luke demanded in his best impression of Han, and Mara laughed.

"Well, if you're not going to cut it," she said, moving a bit closer, "maybe you need some braids or something. I think you could pull off a warrior braid or two."

Luke smiled slightly, leaning in closer to her. "You know, I don't think I'm a warrior braid kind of guy," he said softly.

"I didn't think so," she agreed just as softly, one hand coming up to the back of his neck.

Just then, the door to the observation room opened, and Luke embarrassedly moved back, as did Mara.

Lando shook his head amusedly, grinning as he walked inside, a datapad under his arm. "A time and a place, children," he said mock-reprovingly.

Luke started to blush, and attempted to cover himself by clearing his throat as he moved over to the gambler. "That the list of questions?" he asked, self-consciously smoothing down his clothes.

Lando grinned obnoxiously at him before holding up the datapad. "Yes," he said, his smile fading into a businesslike expression. "They want Han and Mara to interrogate her while we get Madine over here."

"My pleasure," said Mara, smiling unpleasantly. "I haven't done a good interrogation in a long time."

Mara slammed open the door to the interrogation room and barged in, glaring belligerently at the woman seated behind the plain metal table.

"All right, start talking," she said impatiently, advancing on Shira as Han closed the door behind him. She gestured to her bandaged shoulder. "You've already put me in a bad mood today, and trust me, you don't want it to get any worse."

Shira Brie only sneered in reaction. "Cheap theatrics, Jade? And I was told you were good at this."

Mara shrugged, then reached over, grabbed a fistful of Shira's hair, and smacked her face into the metal table. "Better?" she said with sarcastic sweetness.

Shira leaned back in her chair, nodding slightly as she gingerly touched her nose. A bit of blood had begun leaking from her nostrils, and she glanced at the residue on her fingertips before looking back up at Mara. "More what I'd expect from an Emperor's Hand," she said darkly.

"An Emperor's Hand?" Mara demanded, keeping up the façade of anger as she puzzled over this.

Shira sneered again. "What, you thought you were the only one?" She chuckled derisively. "You thought you were Vader's prize student, privy to all his little interesting secrets?" She scoffed. "You don't know half as much as you think you do."

"Why don't you enlighten us, then?" said Han, sitting down in the other chair. He folded his arms across his chest and leaned back in deceptive laziness, lifting his brows as further prompt.

"Right," Shira snapped, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "I'm just going to go right ahead and tell you everything you want to know. Where shall I start?"

Mara reached out and slapped the back of Shira's head, provoking an angry glare. "I think you need to speak to us with a little more respect, Brie," she said condescendingly. As Shira seethed, she reached out and did it again.

Shira started to come out of her chair, but Mara grabbed her shoulder and none-too-gently shoved her back down. "None of that now," she said in the same condescending tone. "You really ought to be able to control yourself better."

All this was precisely calculated; if there was one thing guaranteed to make a Sith angry enough to start making mistakes, it was treating them as an inferior. Mara suspected Shira was, in fact, a Sith - possibly even another Emperor's Hand, despite the implications this rose in her mind.

"You're not going anywhere," said Han. "This entire warship knows you're a spy. This entire fleet knows you're a spy. If you tried to escape, you'd have to get through me, her, Luke Skywalker, and a whole lot of Alliance soldiers." He leaned across the table, his voice going low and deadly serious. "And silence just makes the both of us mad."

Shira sneered again, but said nothing.

"Make things a little easier for yourself," Han said. "Start talking. You tell us what we want to know, and maybe I'll tell Mara here to stay away from you. Keep up the silent treatment, and I'll let her loose."

Mara smirked; Han made an excellent interrogation partner.

Shira glared across the table at him. "No," she said, fixing a venomous look on Mara. "I'm not a traitor like you."

"Oh," Mara said mock-woundedly, injecting a heavy dose of sarcasm into her voice, "I'm hurt, I really am." She stopped and placed both hands on the table, leaning uncomfortably close to the Imperial agent. "Where are the bugs you've planted?"

Shira said nothing, silently glaring back at her with her arms crossed over her chest.

"Are there any more of Vader's agents hidden here?" Mara demanded, sending out a powerful compulsion to obey through the Force.

The Imperial agent's mental shields held, though Mara could tell a great deal of effort went into maintaining them. She sensed Shira gathering the Force to herself in retaliation, so she reached out and flicked the agent's ear with a fingernail, as if reproving a disobedient animal. "Cut that out," she said admonishingly.

Shira's nostrils flared with anger, so Mara did it again. The agent was nearly there now, and much too quickly; she must not have paid enough attention during training.

Despite Shira's increasing rage, Mara knew, just asking questions wasn't going to get them anywhere. Mara scowled, rapidly losing patience with Shira's lack of cooperation. This wasn't getting them anywhere, she thought. Time for a different approach.

Mara delivered another calculated strike. "You know, you're not much of an agent. Lord Vader must have had to relax his standards to let you in. I wasn't even breathing hard after I took you out."

"You're the weak one," Shira sneered, gesturing at the bandage visible beneath Mara's sleeve. "You let these Rebels soften you until you're just as disgustingly cowardly as they are." She leaned forward, glaring right back at Mara. "I am a better Emperor's Hand than you ever were!"

Trying to ignore the flare of anger this provoked in her despite her attempt at control, Mara shook her head in mock disappointment. "I'm afraid not," she said derisively. "See, I never got caught." As she said the last word, she slapped the back of Shira's head again.

Shira's eyes blazed with fury, and in that moment Mara knew she was ready. There was only one way to get the information she wanted out of the Imperial agent, and it most definitely wasn't by asking.

Narrowing her eyes in concentration, Mara grabbed Shira's neck just under her chin with one hand and used the Force to push her will inside the Imperial agent's mind, smashing past the faltering shields. She ruthlessly rifled through Shira Brie's memories, extracting what she wanted to know.

Mara heard Luke's voice sharply tell her to stop, but she ignored him, pushing deeper. As if from very far away, she heard Shira screaming in pain at the mental invasion, but she tuned this out, pushing deeper and deeper as she ripped the wanted information out of the agent's mind. There was indeed much Shira knew that Mara had not; for instance, there were at least four others with the title of Emperor's Hand. They were all supposed to be unaware of the others' existence, but Shira had accidentally overheard Grand Admiral Thrawn talking with one of the others, and, curious, had sliced her way into the Sith Temple's computers, intent on finding out more about these potential rivals.

The names remained tantalizingly out of reach, so Mara pushed harder. Shira screamed in agony, but again Mara ignored her, intent on her goal. She pushed harder and deeper, her will like a scalpel that cut away the obstructions in her way.

She was nearly there when she felt Han's hand on her shoulder. "Mara, that's enough!" he said sharply.

"I'm not done!" Mara snarled, shoving him backwards with the Force. She tried to ignore the disruption and push further, but Han grabbed her shoulders with both hands and sharply yanked her away from the Imperial agent.

Furious at the interference, Mara slammed her elbow into Han's face, whirling to strike again.

The sharp crack of bone and Han's startled curse were like a sudden bucket of ice water splashed in her face. Mara froze, staring at the Corellian, who had stumbled against the far wall, one hand pressed to his nose, which was bleeding copiously down the front of his shirt.

Her next blow would have killed him.

Her fist would have next impacted his windpipe with enough force to crush it, then she would have snapped his neck for good measure, next in the sequence of the rapid disable-and-kill maneuver Vader and her other instructors had drilled into her so thoroughly it was almost automatic.

Mara drew in a slow, shuddering breath, realizing just how close she had come to something she would have regretted for the rest of her life - what remained of it, for even the Alliance would surely have executed her for something like this.

The room was quiet. Even Luke's presence, which she had felt through the Force screaming at her to stop, had stilled into shocked silence. She realized her hand was still up, and slowly lowered it. Han stared back at her, his expression a mixture of shock and fury. His other hand, she saw, was on his blaster, frozen in the midst of unsnapping its holster.

Behind her, Shira had slipped into unconsciousness, slumped across the table. Mara stared at her prone form for a moment, then glanced back up at Han.

She opened her mouth for an apology, found she could get no words out, then closed it so quickly her teeth clicked together painfully and dashed from the room.

Luke was waiting with a reproving look on his face, emerging from the traces of the stunned look he'd had just a moment before. "Mara, what did-"

She held up a hand to cut him off. "I know," she said unsteadily. "I… I shouldn't have done that. That was…" Mara sighed, leaning against the wall.

Luke's expression shifted to one of concern. "You still have traces of the Dark Side in you," he said. "It makes it harder to control yourself."

Mara's emotions roiled within her, and she was unable to reply for a moment. "I know, Luke. I…" She trailed off again, and sighed, rubbing her temples with thumb and middle finger. "I did find out that she was the only agent she knew of on board," she said, unable to think of anything else to say. "We have some bugs to find, too."

"All right," Luke said, gently touching her shoulder. "Let's go, then."

Under Mara's direction, a team of Alliance techs spent the rest of the night and the better part of the next day finding and neutralizing all the bugs Shira had planted around Home One. Fortunately, she'd never managed to get one in Admiral Ackbar's office or in the quarters of any of the Alliance leaders, though she had managed to plant not one but three in the briefing room.

General Crix Madine, an Imperial defector, arrived with one of his Special Forces squads and aided in the operation, then took over the interrogation of the prisoner, once she finally regained her wits.

Mara was only too happy to let him; her actions during her own interrogation still troubled her, and she didn't trust herself to be anywhere near the prisoner right now. She had gone to her usual place for quiet introspection and meditation, an observation dome near the rear of Home One.

What was wrong with her? She'd abandoned the Sith and all their teachings when she had joined the Rebellion, or so she thought.

Even after she had sworn to change, the fact that her old habits had come surging back so easily disturbed Mara deeply. That she had even then turned and struck Han, a man she'd nearly gotten herself killed trying to rescue, was even worse. Mara thought she had rejected the Dark Side, but apparently, it hadn't rejected her.

Before he even lifted his hand to knock on the outer door, Mara knew Luke had come to talk to her. Part of it was the fact that she could sense his presence and even feel some of his surface thoughts at times through their increasingly strong bond in the Force, but it was also the kind of thing he would do; Luke Skywalker was not one to leave a problem - especially one concerning her - unresolved for long.

Come on in, Luke, she sent through the Force, in too much of a somber mood even to use one of her usual teasing nicknames.

As the door opened and Luke walked in, Mara could see that his face was very calm, enviably so, as he walked over to take a seat next to her. Ever since he had come back from training with Master Yoda, he had seemed much more at peace, much more able to keep his own emotions in check. Mara wished she could do that herself; it might have prevented what had happened last night.

"How's Han?" she asked, moving aside on the low couch to make room for him.

"Grumpy," Luke replied with a slight trace of amusement. "You broke his nose, though the surgeon says he can fix it without any permanent damage. I'd stay out of his way for a few weeks, if I were you."

Mara sighed heavily, resting her chin on her knees as she pulled her legs up against her chest. Luke reached over and touched her arm gently.

"Do you want to talk about what happened?" he asked.

Mara sighed again as she leaned back into the couch. "Not really, but I suppose I should." She looked over at him. "I used to do that kind of thing all the time when I worked for Vader. I guess I slipped back into the old habits."

Luke opened his mouth to say something, but Mara held up a hand.

"I know it was wrong," she said. "Invading someone's mind like that is a violent process, most definitely a Dark Side technique." She looked off into space. "I never gave it much thought before, since I had always thought anything I did was justified. Vader's philosophy has always been that the ends justify the means, and that's how I was brought up. Anything that works is the best solution, even if it means doing something like that."

She was silent for a long moment, but to his credit, Luke said nothing, and let her go at her own pace. He simply sat next to her, silently giving off an air of solidarity and reassurance.

"I've…" Mara had to pause again. "I've done that before," she said slowly. "More times than I care to think about." She looked over at Luke again. "And that's hardly the worst thing I've done at Vader's direction. I spent years in service to that man, doing anything he asked of me, but it was like I couldn't see how wrong all the things I was doing were until I met you and Obi-Wan at Alderaan."

Luke was also quiet for a long moment. "Well, the fact that you know that the Dark Side is wrong and are trying to rid yourself of its influence is what makes you different than Vader," he said finally. "You've already taken the first steps on the right path, but it's not going to be easy."

Mara took a breath and slowly let it out, thinking of how easily she had lost control. "No, it's not."

"But," said Luke, "I'm here for you. Anytime you need help or just want someone to talk to, I'm here." He paused for a moment, a thoughtful expression coming over his face as he looked up at the stars.

Finally, he turned to her again. "I think it's time," he said. "I need to go back to Master Yoda, and I'm going to take you and Leia with me. All three of us need to know whatever he can teach us, if we're going to finish this."

"We'll be the only Jedi left," Mara said quietly. "Darth Nova has killed all of the others, I think." She looked up at the star field overhead. "Not many Jedi escaped the original purge by Darth Sidious, but Vader and Nova have hunted down almost all of the ones that did. Vader has over two thousand Sith, Luke. If he decides to throw them all at us…"

"The Jedi have come back from worse," Luke said. "But even if he had two million Sith, I'd still fight. Even if I can't win, it's still the right thing to do."

Mara allowed herself a small smile at the characteristic Skywalker bravado. "I know. I'm just trying to tell you what we're getting into, here."

Luke smiled back. "Well, as Han would say, never tell me the odds."

"Oh, great," Mara said teasingly. "That's all we need; you taking up Corellian philosophy. Next thing I know, you'll be swaggering around here and grinning at anything female that walks past you."

Luke smiled. "I don't think I'm a 'swaggering' kind of guy, either."

"It's a good thing," Mara replied dryly, knowing he was trying to lift her mood - and letting him do it. "You'd probably trip on your robe or something."

Luke laughed out loud. "Oh, is that what you think?" he said as he put his arm around her shoulders.

Grinning, Mara imagined Luke exaggeratedly swaggering down a hallway of the flagship with a big grin on his face, then stepping on the hem of his robe and falling on his face. She projected it to Luke, and he laughed even harder.

In playful retaliation, he projected an image of her doing the exact same thing, and this sent them both into fits of laughter.

As the laughter gradually trickled away, Mara realized that this may have been the first time in her life she had ever laughed this hard; Vader did have a sense of humor, but it tended to be on the sardonic, unpleasant side. Back when he had still been Galen Marek, Vader's apprentice had sometimes been good for a lighthearted exchange, but it seemed that, as with so many other things when he had ascended to Sith Lord, Darth Nova's sense of humor had vanished entirely.

Her life had been all duty before; there was only the mission, or training to get ready for the next one. There was never any time to just be, to relax in the company of good friends or laugh just for the sheer pleasure of it.

Luke was right; she had a long way to go yet, but Mara knew the path she had chosen was the right one. It wouldn't be easy, but hardly anything worth doing was.

Outside, the star-speckled blackness stretched and then blurred into the swirling blue tunnel of hyperspace as the fleet moved on to a new hiding place.

-/\-