CHAPTER 2
Disclaimer: (Since I forgot one on the first chapter) None of these characters belong to me. Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa Solo, and the wonderful Han Solo belong to the beloved god of the Star Wars fans. Mara Jade and Talon Karrde, as well as Ghent, and the Solo terrors belong to the almighty Timothy Zahn. The Jedi/Rogue Corran Horn belongs to Mike A. Stackpole. The others I mention belong to others, but I don't feel like listing them all here.
Blue lightning raced over the cockpit of the X-wing, and Luke was forcibly shoved back into the pilot's couch as the systems failed and his shields shut down as another red-tinged energy blast sliced through the metal of his starboard S-foil. He struggled at his safety restraints, trying to free himself from his dead ship. He wouldn't be able to get off the planet with this starfighter. He brushed his hair—too long for his taste, but fitting for his identity—away, and tried to push the hatch release, to get out of the X-wing, but it wouldn't budge. He summoned the Force, and the cockpit hatch exploded into the air and crashed to the durasteel hangar floor, as another green energy bolt jostled the ship, and was closely followed by another ion cannon blast. Luke's squadron hadn't even managed to get off the ground, and they were being bombarded by the battle cruisers that had appeared around the planet just minutes before. The largest, a Corellian transport, had begun spewing smaller snubfighters immediately, and they all came in at a dead course for the docking hangar that Luke's squadron inhabited. By the time Luke managed to reach his snubfighter, two of the battered but new X-wings had been reduced to little more than scrap metal.
Luke pulled himself from the ship, and he ducked underneath his ship. He waited for a momentary lapse before running for cover on the other side of the hangar, where he would have access to the rest of the ship dock. He spared a moment to stretch out with the Force, searching for any Force-sensitives, someone he could reach, to find help for him and the other pilots. He touched a few, weaker than he was, and then found a bright spot, partially dimmed, as if the person tried to hide, or shield themselves. He recognized Mara Jade's Force presence immediately.
He didn't manage to break contact with her before the battered ship, that oddly reminded him of a New Republic Y-wing coupled with some flying disaster, flew over again, closer than before. Luke could feel the strong blast of air from the engines as it flew by. Then, a split second later, he saw the blue energy bolt racing through the air towards him and the remainder of his X-wing. He tried to run, momentary panic overriding his common sense, before realizing he'd never make it out of the range of the ion bolt. He concreted his presence with the aid of the Force, and then reached out, pulling in all the energy that spilled over from his dilapidated starfighter. His body screamed in protest, and Luke had a second to wish that he would have instead had one of his students, Corran Horn, his powers, the ability to pull in that much energy, with little damage to himself. Luke knew that he was in trouble: more energy kept coming in after he knew he could hold it. He could feel his body burning, and he collapsed. He knew he hadn't even taken in a quarter of the power, and yet he couldn't move. His flight suit, unadorned with any patches or insignias, was burnt, and in places, completely burned away.
He picked his head up, blood running down into his eyes, giving everywhere around him a red tint. Not thinking he could move his head, he tried to stretch out to the Force, trying to attain a hold on the energy that life itself produced. He let a tendril find his lightsaber, and yanked it free of the pouch he'd hidden it in. Even a cursory glance would tell the viewer that it was indeed the weapon of a Jedi, but Luke knew he'd be able to utilize the Force to alter the memories of the person or people who saw it. Now, he knew it was good that he'd brought it. He could sense the other pilots, his own pilots, crawling or running from their destroyed ships, and he also knew Wedge Antilles, one of his friends, was with them. Even Myn Donos, another member of the Rogues, and a lesser noticeable one at that, was a part of Luke's supposed dead-end squadron. Luke had wished that Corran Horn would have been able to come along, but Corran and the rest of the Rogues were on another mission.
He knew he'd be overlooked, unseen with all the hot metal around him, and so he gripped his saber tightly between both hands. His body barely allowed him that. Luke didn't even want to think how close he was to actually becoming a part of the Force, but he reminded himself, A Jedi does not know pain. He used his mind to flip on his saber, and its green-white blade burned through two layers of metal above him, shorting circuits and wires as it went, and then its eerie green light illuminated the area around Luke. He felt more than saw Wedge turn towards it, and yell to Myn, to get him over and help.
As the two Rogues struggled and pulled the large piece of sheet durasteel, Luke felt something he hadn't realized was in his leg being pulled out, and he dimly saw the blood-stained metal being pulled out, as the world swam around him and faded out…
Mara jolted upright. She was in one of the beds at Karrde's base, but the sheets were all on the floor and even then she was still covered in sweat. Her leg ached, as if…as if a piece of metal had been pulled from it. She shivered in the sudden chill in the room, and pulled her knees up to her chest, wrapping her arms around her legs. She felt like she had been there, right there next to him, the entire time. She felt the ion cannon, everything. She hadn't even known who Myn Donos was until she heard Luke's thoughts, his recognition of the two Rogues coming to help him.
She knew that they would get him to a medcenter, the closest one possible, and get him the best help. His leg would heal quickly, with his Force healing abilities, and the aid of a bacta tank. But the ion blasts screwed up his brain, and…all the damage. It might be too much for even bacta to heal.
But now was not the time to worry about that. Luke would receive the best care in the entire galaxy, Mara knew. She knew it. Luke would be all right, he'd live to see his Jedi students become Knights, and that he'd go on another foolish and suicidal mission like this one. Comforted by that thought, she laid back down on her bed, and closed her eyes.
Talon Karrde noticed a difference in his employee almost immediately. Her eyes had darker circles around them, and he knew that she'd been losing sleep. He assumed that it was just recurring nightmares of Luke's pain; after all, Mara had said she'd felt his pain, like it had happened to her. Maybe whenever she closed her eyes, all she could see was what she'd felt from him. That was probably it.
Mara always claimed she was not Jedi, but if she wasn't, then why did she feel his pain so acutely? She didn't seem to have an answer for that either. Her guess was that she was searching through the Force, and maybe Luke was projecting, without knowing. He may be the only living Jedi Master, but things like that could happen. Mara said that on several things, she still knew more than he did, and that he was still learning about the Jedi. Anyhow, he decided to try and brush it off, and get his slicers into Coruscant's computer databases, to find where the Jedi Master had been sent this time, or where Wedge Antilles would be, along with at least one other Rogue pilot. Ghent had been saved the job of finding where Luke was now. According to Mara, Luke had been severely damaged by ion bolts, therefore, wherever the Rebellion hero would be sent would have to have an extensive rehabilitation area for victims like him, as well as a renowned neurological center. Basically, somewhere on Coruscant. But there were many medcenters like that on the planet of Coruscant. There were at least seven in the immediate vicinity of the Imperial Palace itself.
And would the New Republic hide their Jedi hero below the surface, on a little-known medcenter catering specifically to diplomats and such, like the sludgenews reporters always claimed they found the location to? Would they place him in one of their famous medcenters immediately near the Palace, so the Chief of State and her husband, as well as their children, wouldn't have to go as far to visit Skywalker? Would he be even on planet? They had medical ships, converted Mon Calamari cruisers, that could probably be a good place to hide him, until he healed. Mara was convinced that he was severely hurt, but she wasn't exactly sure how badly.
So it was up to the young Ghent to find Skywalker, and he was up to the challenge.
The scrawny youth seated himself in front of all his computers that he would use for slicing, and cracked his knuckles before typing in his own passwords. Karrde noticed that the much younger man had at least five passwords to get in, and according to Ghent, no override code. If someone wanted into his database, they had to make it through all his security measures. Of course, there was a back door, but as soon as that hidden way was used, all the vital codes and information would simply disappear, completely deleted.
Karrde watched his employee for a few minutes, but then turned to walk back to his office. He glanced at his wrist chronometer, and had to stifle a yawn as soon as he realized most sentient beings on this planet would have already been asleep for several hours. And Ghent was only getting started. Talon typed in his own code on the keypad and the door slid soundlessly open. He walked in and commanded the lights on to a dim setting. He would only be here for a minute, to completely lock up and then head to his apartment. He grabbed some papers from a drawer in his desk and stuffed them into a briefcase, locked the briefcase, and pocketed the old fashioned key, and then slipped the security lock onto the case. He turned around, suddenly realizing he wasn't the only being in the room.
Mara sat on his couch, trying at a casual posture, but Talon noticed the tension overriding all her muscles. The dim light glinted off the gold in her hair, and darkened the red. She stood up, seemingly without effort, still with her dancer's grace. He could tell her sleeplessness was taking its toll on her body, though. He also noticed that his blaster was out in his hand, tracking for the danger he thought he'd seen. Holstering the BlasTech, he placed his briefcase back on the desk.
"How did you get in?" he asked. The door had been locked automatically when he left earlier.
"This place is a converted Imperial Base," was her answer.
Her eyes seemed to be not so vibrant a green, he noticed. "What is it you need, Mara?" he asked.
"I'm sorry to keep you up, but I know that Skywalker is on Coruscant, in a MedCenter just south of the Palace."
"How do you know? Oh, of course. The Force. Did Skywalker contact you?"
She shook her head. "I had a –a vision."
"A vision? Like the ones Skywalker gets?"
"Yeah, and other Jedi as well. Skywalker's injuries…they're really serious. Burned extensively, they can barely even work on his brain until his body heals somewhat. They keep putting him in bacta, but his heart stops, and they have to take him out. The Force is healing him, slowly but surely."
"That is serious. You mean you don't think he'll make it?" He'd learned long ago, with both Skywalker and Jade to trust Jedi visions. They tended to be correct more often than not.
"Talon, the only thing keeping him alive is a machine. A damned machine!" She took a deep breath. "But I know I can help him. I know it."
"But you can't do that from a distance," he guessed. At her affirmative nod, he added, "So you want me to bring you to Coruscant?"
"Yes. But no one can know I went there."
"You mean you're going to break into whatever MedCenter Skywalker is in, and then get into his room, undetected? They're probably have the place guarded, Mara."
"I know, but I don't want anyone to know I was there."
"I'll see what I can do, but I am coming with you."
"Of course."