Han Solo shoved the door open to the MedCenter. He and Leia had left the Falcon back in her landing berth as soon as a Guard promised to get them inside. Han recognized the man as one of the guards who'd been attacked by the Cosmic Balance team.
Han made sure he kept his hand away from his blaster. He didn't want anyone to somehow mistake him as a hostile. He'd had enough of the crowd eyeing him like he'd jump out and kill them.
Chances were, that was what most of these people wanted to do to Luke Skywalker.
Once inside the relative safety of the sterilized MedCenter, Han let out a breath he hadn't even known he held. They were inside, and Luke would be fine. As much as Han enjoyed calling his much-younger brother-in-law "Kid," he knew Luke was strong, and he'd be all right. That was just this kid's way. Scare the shit out of everyone, and then heal just fine. Granted, this time was different, and it hadn't seemed that Luke would bounce back, but Leia's sigh of relief as soon as she saw her brother changed his mind.
They reached Luke's room with no further delay, and Leia immediately rushed to her brother's side. Han could not believe that this was the same man who'd been on death's doorstep just hours ago. The Jedi had color back in his face, and he seemed to be breathing much easier. The doctors said they were keeping a close eye on him—they'd rarely even seen such an improvement in less than an hour. Han leaned against the wall beside the door, giving his wife privacy with her brother. The doctors encouraged her and Han to talk with Luke. Just because he was unconscious, they said, didn't mean he couldn't hear them. Han spun at a light tap on his shoulder. A security guard—not the same one from before—stood there.
"General Solo, sir."
"Captain Solo," Han corrected, more out of habit than anything else. He'd resigned his rank several years before.
"Captain, Lieutenant Uroliv wanted me to come and get you. They have four men in custody."
Han nodded, keeping his eyes on his wife and brother-in-law.
"They wanted to see if you recognize any of them."
"In case the Cosmic Balance scenario was a fake?"
"Yes, sir."
"All right." He followed the younger man down a series of turbolifts, and down a hall to an obviously reinforced door. The man pushed it open, and Han walked through.
"Captain Han Solo." The dark haired woman smiled. "It's a pleasure to meet you at last, sir."
"You needed me to see your suspects?" he asked.
She nodded briskly. "Yes sir. Right this way, sir." She waked to the other wall and pressed a button. What Han had thought was durasteel became transparent, although Han guessed those on the other side wouldn't be able to see them.
Four men sat in straight-backed metal chairs, their hands cuffed behind them, probably with stun cuffs. All of them held their heads high, not ashamed at all of trying to kill a defenseless man.
And not one of them was familiar. Han shook his head.
"Never seen any of them before-to my knowledge."
The woman nodded, as if she expected that. "We also have vidcams from a stairwell, levels six, seven, eight, and nine, of two other accomplices. We'll run through them, and you tell us. These two both escaped in a freighter, under the name of Skifter. It's highly likely that that name is fake, of course and we've got techs trying to ID it through other ways." She had an older vidcam, a flatscreen one, and she flipped it on.
Han found himself staring at a man, clothed in oil-spattered mechanics' overalls. He had a salt-and-pepper beard, and he watched the man, whose eyes constantly flitted back and forth, the few times they were visible from under his cap, as he ran up several flights, with no recognition.
And then the woman. Slender, not very tall, and with wavy blonde hair pulled back. She moved her eyes often, much like her partner, and he noticed she wore black gloves and a worn pilot's jacket on top of a nondescript flightsuit.
She reached the ninth floor, and he still had no idea who she was. A security guard opened the door. She ran to the other side, pulling a small hand blaster from what seemed thin air. But the guard shot first hitting her in the leg.
"Stop!" he said, standing up. Rewind it just a sec." The lieutenant obeyed immediately.
"And pause it." She paused the camera footage.
"Son of a bitch," Han muttered. The woman—her face was different at the second the blaster bolt hit her, and he had little trouble recognizing her. He looked closer. Sure enough, her brown eyes had become green in that instant.
"Do you know this woman, sir?" the lieutenant asked.
"Sure do."
"Are you going to tell me, sir?"
"Not you, but your superior. Go get him."
The woman looked more than slightly miffed, but she complied. An older gentleman walked in, his movements distinctly military and sharp.
"Captain Solo," he said. "I'm glad to see you are well. I take it you recognize one of these men?"
"None of your prisoners, no. But the two shown here," he said, gesturing towards the vidcam, "They have nothing to do with the attack."
"They ran from guards and the blonde was in possession of a weapon in a MedCenter."
"She wouldn't have used it had your guard not shot her first."
The colonel stared at Han. "You know her, don't you? Who is she?"
"You don't have any clue, do you?" Han worked hard to keep the amusement he felt from reaching his voice.
The colonel sighed. "She and her partner were good. Both wore gloves to mask their fingerprints, and neither kept their eyes still enough for a complete retina scan. Using film like this is not entirely accurate. The slightest difference and we'll nab the wrong people. He had his cap low over his face, and the goatee is probably fake—it'll be difficult if not damn near impossible to ID him. And the woman, barely anyone even saw her. How could she walk by guards like that? And we think she was in Luke Skywalker's room. A guard had been knocked out, but h has no idea what hit him. They were both good."
Han nodded. Definitely Mara Jade and, well… maybe Talon Karrde. The height was right for Talon, as was the build. It wouldn't surprise him if Mara's employer had tagged along.
"Solo, do you know these people?" the colonel asked tiredly.
"They weren't there to harm, Colonel."
"That's for us to decide. Who are they, Solo?"
"That woman may have saved Luke. Have you even thought of that?"
"She could have been there to kill him."
"She wouldn't. Call off the pursuit of their freighter, or I'll talk to your superiors." Han turned on his heel and walked away.
Leia smiled down at her sleeping brother. He had just been brought out of the neurological surgery, and they said there hadn't been much they had to do. He was improving immensely, in just a few days since the Cosmic Balance attack. Those who had been caught were arrested and their trial was set for the next week. Luke was healing quickly, and his skin even seemed to smooth over, from where it had been burnt.
She felt someone walk up behind her, and she knew it was her husband. Reaching for Han's hand, she smiled even more. Everything would be all right.
He pulled on her hand, and she stood up as he led her just outside the room. Leia could still see her brother through the open door.
"I just got some info on the Skifter," he said.
"What is it?" she asked. He'd told her that whoever had been in Luke's room had it seemed, helped Luke, but he hadn't told her that he knew that person was Mara Jade. He'd wanted rock solid proof before that, since he knew Leia would not want to hear that the ex-Emperor's Hand would be that near to her brother.
"I had a friend of mine trace the name. It was traced back to a couple of different names, then to the Katana, then she couldn't find any more."
"Katana? Who owns that ship?"
"Talon Karrde."
"That's one of Talon's ships? That was him?" she asked in disbelief. "Why come in here like that—Who was the woman?" she interrupted herself.
"Mara Jade."
"Impossible."
"Leia, it was her."
"Then why did she come here?"
"Luke is her friend." Han was not very surprised at his wife's reaction. She simply disliked Mara Jade, and refused to trust her with much. Han found that he could trust Mara, especially since the attempted kidnapping of his children years ago. He wasn't quite sure why Leia didn't add that in during her evaluations of the woman. Then again, Leia was overprotective of her brother, and didn't want the brash but beautiful Trader to hurt him.
"She would have killed him."
"She healed him."
"What?" she asked, surprised.
"Think about it, Leia. Luke was in bad shape. The docs didn't have much of a hope in him. She comes, and he's fine afterwards."
Leia looked back towards her brother. "Impossible."
"Possible," Han corrected softly. "And true."
"Do you think he know?"
"I'd bet on it. I don't know much about all this Force stuff, but I'd bet he already knows."