NOTHING STAYS THE SAME

CHAPTER FOUR

                Han sat at the computer interface in his apartment.  The children were with Winter, and Leia was asleep in their room.  She hadn't been getting anywhere near enough sleep since…well, for a while.  Now she was asleep in the middle of the afternoon from sheer exhaustion.  He was sending an inquiry as to the locations of Mara Jade's ship for the past month.  He didn't believe Mara was innocent, but he had a slight doubt.  And that was from his son.

                "Daddy, why is Aunt Mara in trouble?" Anakin had asked earlier that morning.  Han couldn't remember when the children had started calling the Trader "Aunt Mara."  They saw her a few times a year, and Han had noticed that the normally cold woman had warmed to the children.  All three of his kids had items in their room purchased for them by the woman.  Jaina had the wall hanging (on the ceiling, above her bed) of the map of the known galaxy, which occasionally zoomed in to show a specific system.  Jacen had an interactive holo of dozens of animals from many different worlds.  Anakin had several toys like the ones used by Force sensitive children in the Old Republic: globes that when touched by the Force would burst into brilliant hues, and others like that.  Jacen and Jaina still played with those, when Anakin would let them.

                Han frowned.  Who in all the Corellian hells was this woman?  Just when he though he had her figured out, she pulled something crazy.

                Like killing Luke.

                It hurt deeply to think that the kid was gone.  Han tried to be strong, if not for Leia, than for the children.  The young twins were numbed.  Han wasn't sure he'd been the right person to explain why they wouldn't be seeing Uncle Luke anymore.  And then the kids found out Mara was the main suspect.  They were confused.  Why would Aunt Mara do that?  She wouldn't.  And Anakin told everyone who would listen that "They have the wrong girl."

                So Solo was just checking on it.  Mara filed flight plans at the majority of the space ports she'd vacated, and they all came up legit.  And she'd been seen on Corellia the same time Luke was there.  In fact, she'd arrived within two hours of when Luke landed on planet.  It hadn't taken much to learn that Luke had flown off Yavin 4 in his X-wing less than an hour after he told Tionne he needed a vacation.

                His X-wing.  Huh.  Where was Artoo?

                Luke never flew his X-wing without Artoo-Detoo, his trusty astromech droid.  The Corellian authorities had found Luke's X-wing, but no Artoo.  And the droid wasn't on Yavin 4.  Tionne mentioned that Luke had taken Artoo and the X-wing.  Maybe the droid would have proof Mara killed Luke.  Or maybe the droid was in pieces somewhere.  Mara was practical.  She wouldn't leave behind a witness.

                Han forced himself to stare at the interface.  She'd been on Corellia for three days.  All she was supposed to do was pick up some shipment to hurry off somewhere else to pick up the ysalimiri.  She left about midnight the night Luke was killed.

                It was too easy.  She was there.  The proof of that was right in front of him.  She had motive.  Luke turned Vader, and the Sith Lord then killed her Emperor.  She'd sworn to kill Luke, but then seemed to think better of it.  Just an act.  Then six years after they meet, she killed him.  Maybe the Emperor had invaded her dreams again, and she'd given in.  Her lawyer would be smart to plead insanity.

                The tall brown haired man walked into Mara's cell.  He didn't dress much like an attorney, or an interrogator.  He wore black slacks and a dark green shirt, the same shade as his eyes.  He had an oversized long sleeved black shirt over the green one.  He looked casual, but Mara recognized the set of his jaw and the concentration in his eyes.  This was Rendel Alino.

                "Miss Jade," he said, smiling briefly.  "Name's Rendel.  I'm sure Master Trader Karrde told you I'd be coming."

                "Yes, he did," Mara answered.  Confidence, good.  She hoped her lawyer didn't notice the dark circles under her eyes.  She'd had another restless night.  Although maybe weakness was something the lawyer should see?  No.  She showed weakness to no one.  No one.

                "I'm sorry I didn't come sooner.  Talon hired me as soon as the story broke.  I first went to Corellia."

                "To check the story?" Mara asked, even though she knew the answer.

                "Yeah.  They've got circumstantial evidence.  Carythimol is not too hard to find.  The blaster burn could have come from nearly any sidearm.  It's not even certain you were on planet at the time of Master Skywalker's death."

                "I didn't kill him," Mara said, forcefully.

                "I know that.  We've just got to convince the jury of that."  The way he said it sounded like convincing the Inner Council that she hadn't killed their precious hero would be easy.  Rendel pulled off the over shirt.  It was rather warm inside this small cell.  Mara nodded to herself.  So it was hot in here; it wasn't just her.  This morning it had been cold, now it was uncomfortably warm.

                "Great.  Where do we start?" Mara asked, pleasantly.  Yeah, everything's just fine.  I won't be executed like some criminal stupid enough to get caught.  She really wanted to snap at the man, tell him to work harder to get her out of the prison, but what would Rendel do?  She didn't want to risk alienating the lawyer—after all, she needed him to get her off the murder charge.

                "Let's just retrace your steps, okay?  Twenty days ago, what happened that day?"

                Mara thought back.  "Nothing, really.  Some business, that's about it."

                Rendel glanced down at the data reader in his hands.

                "You bought a blaster?  A DL series.  DL-79.  Who'd you buy it from, and where is it now?"

                "I bought it from an acquaintance.   I tried it out, and I wasn't impressed.  Really, BlasTech has had many better models."

                "Where is it now?"

                "I gave it back."

                "Why isn't that seen on your credit record?  Did he refund it?"

                "Next time I go into the shop, I can get anything of equal price for free."

                "Okay.  So you gave it back, because you weren't impressed."

                A true lawyer, Mara thought wryly.  He has to repeat everything I say.  "Yes."

                Corran Horn stood in front of the view port, staring blindly at the transports beyond his room.  He barely saw them.  All he could think of was Master Skywalker.  Luke and the red head.  Luke had helped him so much.  Helped him reclaim his heritage, as a Halcyon Jedi.  Helped him rescue Mirax, his love and wife.  And what did Skywalker get in return?  A blaster in a dark alley.

                Corran knew Mara didn't kill him.  He knew the former Imperial assassin too well.  Jade had lingering effects of the Emperor's influence, but nothing that drastic.  She'd gotten past all that.

                Corran felt light hands on his shoulders, jerking him back to the present.  He turned around.

                Mirax smiled sadly at him.  "Still thinking about Luke and Mara?"

                "Yeah.  I mean, during the war, everything happened so quickly.  When someone died, there was no time to mourn them.  We had to keep going."

                "It was terrible," his wife concluded.  "I know."

                "Mara didn't kill him."  He shook his head and ran his fingers through his short brown hair.  "But how can I prove it?  They'll want proof."

                Mirax kissed him.  "You'll think of something.  I knew I didn't marry a stupid man."

                "Yeah."

                Ghent leaned back and stretched.  Karrde had wanted him to look into Mara's records, searching for anything that could be used against her.  The teenager guessed it was so Talon would have an idea of what the prosecuting attorneys would use.  Other than that, the slicer had no idea.  He'd searched for any proof that Mara had smuggled materials off any world, but that had come up empty.  Trader Jade was extremely clever.  As was everyone else in Karrde's organization.  You had to have brains—and know how to use them—to survive in the best smuggler's organization, or, as it was officially known, Intelligence gathers.  Whatever.

                All this searching shit bored the computer slicer.  He was supposed to slice into systems, create and break encrypts.  He wasn't some low-key flunky who had no special skills.  But Karrde thought this was important, and Karrde was the one who supplied the computers and equipment.

                All sorts of information flashed by on the holoscreen, and Ghent skimmed though it.  Some of the information was through sludge-news tabloids.  One article caught his attention.

                Mara, smuggling weapons?

                She hadn't smuggled weapons for years.  There was too much of a risk, and nowhere near enough money in that business.  And this article spoke of a recent event, where Mara Jade was spotted on Corellia with a group suspected of illegal weapons trafficking.

                But Mara hadn't been on Corellia on that date.

                Hell, she'd been on the other side of the galaxy, then, Ghent confirmed, glancing at her schedule for the past year.  What the…?

                He made a note of it to mention this to Talon.  Hell, maybe this was actually important.