Author's Responses at the end:

Chapter Thirty-Six: Journey to the Core

"We want to go," Karia said. Anakin nodded.

"And why would I let you two go?" Mara asked.

"Because we're really cute?" Anakin said. He batted his eye lashes.

Mara did not even smile.

"Wow, you're good. That even works on Mom."

"You're holding my daughter's hand," Mara pointed out. "She's cuter."

"Can't argue with that," Anakin conceded. "How about this, then. Karia is nearly as strong as you are. With Master Cairnwick being sick, Master Katarn has assumed my apprenticeship, and he's going. Because I haven't been able to contribute as much as I should during this whole bloody war, and finally…"

"He's a genius with machines," Karia finished.

"Yeah, what she said," Anakin said.

"Really?"

"Don't you remember Centerpoint Station?" Karia asked.

"I remember Anakin being banned from going there again," Mara said.

"It's a Force talent," Anakin said with not a trace of modesty. "I can usually control machines or at least figure them out very well. If this ghost is in the computer core of the ship, you're going to need that. You and Master Katarn can fight the ghost, but I can fight the machines it may control."

"And how does this talent explain why Karia should go?"

"Because he's my boyfriend and I have to protect him," Karia explained with a smug smile.

"You know what your father would say," Mara said.

"So don't tell him."

"Or your mother." Mara turned to Anakin.

"Actually, I asked Dad," Anakin said. The two women looked at him, and he shrugged. "Hey, I'm not stupid. We always knew that if we really wanted to get something, to ask Dad first. Mother was less likely to say no if Dad already said yes, and he usually does say yes. Dad's good like that. And he said as long as I didn't start comparing chest sizes or anything, I could go if you'd have me."

Mara shook her head. "You know, I believe he would actually say that."

"Not that there's any comparison," Anakin said.

"Stop while you're behind, Anakin," Mara growled.

"Yes, ma'am."

The three of them were in the main staging bay near the Bothan shuttles that would be taking them to the Ralroost. "Do you have your things gathered?"

"Yes," the two teens chirped.

"I'll tell you right now that if I catch you playing around you will be in serious trouble."

"We'll be good," Anakin said.

Karia blinked. "We will?"

"Karia!" Mara barked.

"Oh, all right!"

"And remember, dear, I have far-hearing and X-ray vision now too."

"I know. It's not fair."

"Now, what's not fair is that Anakin had better never see those pieces of scrap cloth you're wearing as undergarments."

Anakin's eyes bulged almost out of his head.

"Mother!" Karia stamped her foot. "That was just mean!" She grabbed Anakin's hand and started leading him toward the shuttles. "Just for that I'm going to make sure he gets a look!"

Poor Anakin looked as if he were about to have a heart attack, although Mara couldn't say it if was because of the impending view of her daughter's skimpy black undergarments, or because of the threat of impending death that such a sight might entail.

She suspected he would be very good.

Moments later, the rest of the command staff of the Eclipse appeared. Thrawn as always wore his bright white Imperial Grand Admiral's uniform. Mara did not recognize most of his attendants, save for Colonel Kir Kanos. The former Imperial Guard now wore a plain gray Imperial uniform, since the new Alliance uniforms were still in the design phase. After Kanos came Kyle Katarn.

"Mara," Kyle said with a nod. The Jedi Master did not look very happy to be leaving his still recuperating wife behind. "So, Anakin hit you up yet?"

"Does he really always go to his dad for permission first?" Mara asked.

Kyle grinned. "Hell, I go to his dad first for permission. I think Leia was pre-programmed to always say no."

"I have noticed this about Secretary Solo as well," Thrawn said with an oddly formal tone. "So, Masters Jedi, I take it from the context that young Master Solo will be joining us? His profile suggests an unusual talent for technology."

"So I've been told," Mara said. "Kyle has assumed the role of his master. Kara is also coming, since the two of them have become inseparable."

"Ah, young love," Kyle said with an exaggerated sigh. "Thank the Force I was never that young. Come on, folks, let's get this show on the road."

Mara watched as Kyle led the Imperials onto the ship. She didn't know why she lingered—just a feeling. A few moments later that feeling was rewarded when she saw another Solo trailing unobtrusively a few meters behind the young, obviously infatuated couple.

Jaina, though fully recuperated from the injuries received when Jacen died, still looked pale and a little drawn. In fact, she looked entirely different, and Mara knew this was due to some surgeries they had to perform. Her eyes were the same, but surgeons had to realign her jaw and a part of her nose, giving her face a slightly different cast. In conjunction with a now military-short haircut, Jaina looked almost like a different person.

Mara's eyes narrowed as she tried and failed to imagine what it must have been like for the attractive young woman to lose her twin. Even as her mind tried to follow the paths of Jaina's emotional hardships, her sharp eyes noted that Jaina was not in Jedi robes.

She was wearing an Imperial uniform. Of a warrant office specializing in engineering.

For a moment Mara considered running after her and demanding to know what was happening, but her own deeply bred special ops training interceded. Jaina would not have attempted to infiltrate the supposedly allied Imperial ranks on her own prerogative. She was here on someone's orders, most likely either Han or Leia.

Kale would never send his young cousin and adopted niece on a potentially dangerous mission, most especially not after the grievous injuries she received at the hands of their son.

So Mara kicked herself into motion and walked casually up the loading ramp with the thousands of other technicians who would be riding in the Ralroost.

Of course, the loading of eighty thousand trained personnel onto two ships took more than a minute to accomplish. In fact, with resources so strapped, it took almost seven hours to get the Ralroost and the accompanying personnel transport fully loaded and stocked for the journey to the Deep Core.

However, a few hours after the sun set on a cold, dreary day, the two ships broke orbit and once cleared of Alderaan's gravitational pull, they disappeared into hyperspace.

* * *

That morning, as the shuttle took Mara, Kyle, Anakin and Karia into orbit, Danni Quee became aware of a blessedly hot body pressed up against hers. She became aware of an arm draped around her waist, and the steady rhythm of breath blowing against her neck.

She became aware of a pounding, alcohol-fueled headache trying with a fair amount of success to push her eyeballs out of their sockets.

"Oh, stars," she whispered, "what did I do?"

Jor's arm lifted from around her waist until a hand pressed gently against her forehead. She could feel a gentle warmth flowing from the touch, and almost immediately the headache abated. "Dad did that for Mom once," the young Kryptonian whispered.

Danni closed her eyes. His breath was faintly acrid after their night together, but still smelled better than morning breath had any right to smell. In fact, the smell of him was intoxicating. His scent was unlike anything she'd ever encountered, and it filled her with a sense of longing and desire. A desire which she strongly clamped down on.

"Jor…" She turned to face him when her foot hit something cold and metallic. She reached down until she pulled up the lightsaber he showed her the previous night. "You should put this away."

"No," Jor said. "It's yours. I meant what I said last night."

"I'd probably cut my own foot off," Danni said.

"Not if you're trained," Jor said. "You have the Force. The Vong knew it. That's why…" Jor stopped and rolled onto his back to stare at the ceiling.

He looked so young, Danni thought. So young, and so beautiful. Even with those scars that hurt him all the time, Jor-El Naberrie was beautiful. But he was also hiding something. She propped herself up on her elbow, at this stage giving up on any notion of modesty. "What?"

He did not look at her at first, and when he did his eyes were red. "When they…when they broke me, Brainiac got into my brain. He saw everything. It was like a…a….it was like he was raping me. I couldn't do anything to stop him. He just ripped out anything he wanted, and pushed me back into a corner. I saw everything that happened, but I couldn't do anything about it. I saw my own fist kill Jacen. I…"

"Jor, it's okay…" Danni started, but stopped when he shook his head almost violently.

"No, it's not. It's because of me that they went after you. He saw…" Jor stopped and wiped his eyes. "They saw that I loved you. Maybe it was just infatuation, but that time we spent on Helska was the closest I've ever been to anyone. I fell in love with you there and then, and Brainiac knew it. After they made me into Qahsel, they wanted to collect my seed to make a new weapon based on Kryptonian genomes. But I hated Yim. Even as a Vong, I hated her, and she couldn't conceive. But then they realized how I was conceived. How Karia was. A Force-strong woman my father loved. And naturally they thought of you."

"Jor, what are you saying?"

"I think it was Tsavong Lah who ordered all forces to search for you. They sent out pictures of you to every ship. I learned about this after, of course. They didn't tell me anything at the time. But that's how Yim found you in that bubble. Somehow, you'd survived, and she wasn't going to risk you again. So she healed you and presented you to me."

Jor squeezed his eyes shut, and Danni placed a hand on his broad chest as he sobbed once. "And I was so happy. So deliriously, stupidly happy. The Qahsel was disgusted by you—you weren't Vong—but I was so happy I must have bled into his psyche. So we didn't hurt you. Not like Yim. I let myself happily make love to you, all the while giving the Vong exactly what they wanted. I raped you, and gave them a new weapon."

"It wasn't you," Danni whispered.

"But I wanted you so bad," he sobbed. "I wanted you. I didn't try to fight at all. They hurt me so bad, and I knew they were going to try and kill everyone else I loved, but when they brought you through that door I didn't care. All I ever wanted was to be with you."

Great sobs racked his chest as he turned away from her. Not sure what to say, Danni rested her head against his shoulder and simply snuggled close to him. Finally, when the sobbing fit passed, she whispered, "They hurt you as bad as you hurt me," she said. "Except that I'm a human being. I was made to endure and survive pain. But you…you've never felt pain like that, have you?"

"Never," Jor admitted. "Under that red sun, they ripped me open. They took out everything that made me who I was, shoved the rest in a corner, and made me a monster. I still dream about it—about turning back into Qahsel. That's why I want you to keep that lightsaber."

His arm came around her shoulder and pressed her closer against his side. Finally he turned and looked at her. So close, she noticed for the first time how perfect his eyes were. The irises had no striations or brown. They were a perfect, uniform color of green so brilliant they took her breath away. Even moistened as they were with tears, Jor was a beautiful young man.

"I love you, Danni," he whispered to her. "I know I have no right to. I know you can't possibly feel the same way, but I love you, and I never want to hurt you again."

He was going to say something else, but she stilled him with a finger to his lips. This god, this being who could crush worlds, was stilled with the gentlest of touches. She leaned down and kissed that broad, perfect chest of his. Gradually she climbed on top of him and looked down on him with a realization that she had been fighting since Helska.

"I love you too, Jor," she finally admitted.

* * *

Standing alone on a terrace overlooking the Aldera mountains stood a lone figure, his feet shoulder-length apart, his hands clasped behind his back. He looked up at the cold, starry sky. He knew that the Ralroost and its personnel transport had finally broken orbit.

Kale was not used to feeling tired, not in the current sense. Under a red sun, he felt weakened, although with time even those effects were not as strong as they once were. But what he felt now was simply a weariness of the mind and soul. A longing for Mara to be there.

He knew his marriage was not perfect. Reflecting back on the choices he made, he realized how hard it was for Mara. He never faulted her for going back to Coruscant for additional Jedi training, or even for taking missions, as long as she came back. When he was younger, he even told himself it was nice to have a break from her. Mara's was a strong personality and she did not give an inch to anyone, even those she loved.

How terrible it must have been for her to watch Kale live in self-imposed exile while the galaxy continued to burn in civil war. Yet, she never said anything to him. Never judged him for the decisions he made that affected them both.

Now, knowing his wife was going on a mission with his daughter to face the spirit of the last, greatest Sith Lord, he could honestly say that he missed her more than anything. That he was lying to himself all those times she went away to live a life he was frankly too afraid to live. Oh, he couched his fears in terms of self-important decisions. What if he went dark? What if he became a two-sided sword that cut those he loved as well as those he fought?

What if he stood on the sideline and watched his friends die?

Since being forcibly dragged into the events of the greater galaxy, Kale found himself in a position he never imagined—one of political power. Never in his life had he truly commanded—and yet by some strange twist of fate he found himself the leader of the galaxy. How did that happen? Better yet, why did it happen?

Perhaps, he thought wryly, it was the Force's way of punishing him for staying on Naboo for all those years.

Did he need to be punished for that? He tried to recreate the thoughts and decision-making process that led him to resign from the Alliance. Though he couldn't remember everything, at the time he was so certain it was the right decision.

Now, he was thinking he deserved to be punished for it.

It came as a genuine shock to find he was not alone. He must have heard Han join him, but it never registered, he was so deep in his own thoughts. "They've broken orbit and are on their way," Han said.

Kale nodded to himself then turned and looked carefully at his friend. Han Solo was fifty-eight years old. He wore his years on his face in the form of scars and wrinkles. Laugh lines and frown furrows. What had been a keen intelligence when young had mellowed into a keener wisdom.

"You remember when Mara infiltrated the base on Yavin?" Kale asked.

Han chuckled. "Yeah, you were about to swat her with a caf machine. You go on and on about how you Force-bonded with her on Naboo, and there you were about to squash her like a bug."

"You stopped me."

"I just didn't want you to break the only caf dispenser on the base," Han chuckled.

Kale shrugged. "I remember thinking that I had to kill her. That I had to avenge my family. I think if I had done that, Obi-Wan's spirit would have kicked my ass. I didn't want to—even standing there on the verge of committing cold-blooded murder, I loved her. Or…I was fifteen, what did I know? Maybe it was just pre-pubescent lust. Maybe she was the first person I ever let myself get attached to. I think if I had killed her, something would have broken in me. I would have become exactly what I feared when I went back to Naboo."

"But you didn't."

"Because of you." Kale looked down at his feet. "Was it a mistake going back to Naboo?"

Han shrugged. "Guess it depends on who you ask. Hell, you were fifteen when you got yanked into the fight. You were nineteen when you killed the Emperor and met Mara. You were super-strong, but you were still just an idiot kid. How the stars were you supposed to know how to make a good decision? Sure, you had all that Force mumbo-jumbo, but if the Jedi were all that smart they wouldn't have had their butts handed to them on the platter the first time around, would they? You were a kid, you needed to do some growing up, and so you went home."

"But was it the right thing to do?"

"For the galaxy?" Han thought a moment. "No, it wasn't. As a soldier you betrayed the Alliance by not fighting for our goals to the best of your ability. For Mara? No, I could tell the peace on Naboo was driving her insane. She was and always will be a woman of action. But ultimately was it the right decision for you? You've grown up now. What do you think?"

"I was selfish."

"Yep," Han said without a moment's hesitation. "But maybe, just maybe, you had to be."

"Am I more important than all the rest of the people in the galaxy?"

"Course not, I am," Han said with a grin. "You're more important to yourself than the rest of the galaxy is to you. That doesn't make you evil, that makes you human. Well, mostly. You know."

"Yeah, I know. And when I left everyone behind to save Mara, even though it meant my son being warped into a monster and your son dying?"

"Kale, what is it with you? Do you want me to flog you or something? It's not like I have anything on me that would hurt you."

"Sorry," Kale said with a sheepish expression. "Guess I'm just missing Mara. Wondering how in the stars I became President. How I'm going to save everybody when I have trouble just saving those I love."

Han shrugged. "Maybe you're more human than you realize. Come on, I have some Corellian whiskey that's just calling our name."

Kale nodded. "Sounds good."

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Author's Responses:

Thanks to wawaboy2; Roosterman71; dajohu; Exodus5; prudiisten; Manus Dei; The-Knight2000. I appreciate your input and suggestions.

Q and A

Q: If this new government is going to start treating its citizens differently based on politics there doesn't seem much hope for it being any different then previous governments. If Jor-El had an inquest then so should everyone else who committed crimes while shaped. Otherwise it wouldn't be fair or impartial which is what they are supposed to be.

A: I'll have to respectfully disagree with you. And it is with respect--I know what you're saying, and in theory I agree. All citizens should be treated equally. But as with everything else in this story, I wanted there to be consequence, and in any real political environment if the son of the head of state were personally responsible for millions of deaths, there would have to be a consequence either to the son or the Father. The inquest was to determine what if any those consequences would be. The inquest was a political means for Kale diffusing the issue entirely. It's not perfect, but then if I tried to paint the Alliance as perfect, that just wouldn't ring true in my mind either.