NOTHING STAYS THE SAME
CHAPTER EIGHT
Corran fumbled for the comlink. He had no idea who it would be, but anyone who called at this gods-forsaken hour of the morning had better have something important to tell him.
"Horn, here," he answered, yawning.
"Corran, this is Karrde."
"Yeah, Talon? What's up? Did she change her mind?" Corran was suddenly awake, and all thoughts of sleeping flew from his mind.
"Someone tried to kill Mara tonight. I don't care what she says, but whatever you have, take it and run with it. We've got to get Mara out of prison as soon as possible. She's not safe there."
"I copy. I'll do it immediately. Talk to you later, Talon." Corran flipped the comlink shut. Whistler, his ever-trusty astromech, rolled into the room and beeped at the pilot. "We've got work to do, buddy."
"There are rumors that there has been an attempted assassination of Mara Jade. As many of you recall, Master Trader Jade is currently held in custody in the New Republic Intelligence Headquarters pending her trial. She is the alleged murderer of Jedi Master Luke Skywalker. The Intelligence Director, Iella Wessiri Antilles, has made no comment on this sequence of events."
Leia was sipping from a mug of caf when the newsbreak came on the HoloNet. She stared at the Devaronian reporter as he recapped the situation.
An unnamed source claimed that an assassin had come for Mara. Why? Was Mara only part of a plot to eliminate her brother? Maybe the former Emperor's Hand was going to reveal everything. That would have been a good reason to try and kill Jade. So that mean that Mara wasn't the only guilty one.
What had Luke done to truly piss off Mara? Leia had been so sure the red-head had come to terms with her past. Luke had assured his sister that Mara was not a danger to the New Republic. Leia had believed him, mostly because Mara had risked her life to save her twins. Didn't that mean anything?
After Mara had saved Leia's family, an Imperial agent implicated her in organizing the attack. It was one of Thrawn's plans to discredit the former Emperor's Hand, so that the New Republic wouldn't trust her. Could this be another such attack?
No. The Empire was dead.
The communication center beeped to get her attention. Leia stood up and walked towards it. It was a secure channel. Slightly puzzled, knowing that it wasn't her secretary, she answered.
"Hello?"
"Madam Organa Solo?" the brown-haired man asked. Leia recognized him. Corran Horn had been a friend of Luke's. Leia remembered talking to the pilot on Yavin 4.
"Corran, hello. How are you?" she asked politely. Why would the pilot use a secure channel?
"Have you seen the news yet?" he asked, ignoring her question.
"Yes. What did you want to talk about?"
"Can we meet somewhere?"
Leia wondered at his abrupt switching of topics. "Uh, well, yes. For you, I can make some time. What is this about?"
"NRI Headquarters, 1100 this morning?"
"Okay. I'll be there. I may be a minute late—"
"That's fine. This is important." The Corellian cut off the channel.
Talon saw the heightened security as he climbed out of the airspeeder. As he walked into the headquarters, he glanced around. Had the Guards changed anything inside? Yes. It might not be overly noticeable, but there were most likely Guards waiting just around the corner and near Mara's cell. The NRI probably sold tickets to Mara's trial, so they couldn't lose the star of the show to poor security.
Mara was sitting on the edge of the bed, her back to the wall. She was alert, more so than during his other trips.
"Have you found anything out yet, Talon?" was the first thing out of her mouth.
"No," Talon regretted to tell her. She was locked up with yet another person gunning for her ass—someone bolder than the Senators, who had the money to send assassins after her.
She scowled. "Yeah, well, whoever this person is, they sent a damned Force-sensitive assassin after me. You know how rare those are?"
Force sensitive? Talon asked himself. It fits, though. Just a harmless mind blank. Skywalker used to do that, didn't he?
"Maybe they think you know something?"
"But what?"
"I don't know." Then the smuggler remembered something. "Mara, you've never dealt in weapons, have you?" That was the mild way of asking whether she ever smuggled weapons.
"No. The pay is good, but not enough for the risks. Why?"
"Because a friend found some information saying you did. Several different sources."
"Me?"
"Yeah."
Mara paused. "You think this has anything to do with Luke and everything?"
"Maybe." Talon found himself wondering briefly just what Corran was going to do.
"Madam Organa Solo," Corran greeted Leia as she walked through the door.
"Call me Leia. Corran, what is all this about?" she asked tiredly. She'd hurried through a meeting with two dignitaries, both of which wanted to talk to her for no particular reason but felt that they should be given all the time in the world.
"I need to talk to you about Mara."
"What about her?"
"She didn't kill Luke."
"The evidence says that she did. Corran, I don't have time for everyone to tell me their opinions on this. If it's something important, you can tell Mara's lawyer." Leia was ready to leave. She knew she'd wasted her time coming all the way to the NRI Headquarters. Why would Corran want to meet here, anyway? Wouldn't he have felt more at home at the Rogue Squadron hangar?
"She didn't kill him, though, Leia. You've got to believe me. The media has taken this rumor and run with it. Mara will never get a fair trial, everyone knows that. All these people, they've decided that Mara is all their troubles in a human being, and they want her dead."
"I'm not going to listen to a lecture." Leia went to walk out the door, but Corran grabbed her arm.
"Listen to me, Leia. You're the Chief of State, the President of the entire New Republic. You can stop this."
"She killed my brother. I would never stop it. She's getting what's coming to her. Now let go of me." Leia was surprised by the heat and vehemence in her own voice.
"Leia, I swear to you, she didn't kill your brother. It took her a while, but it's like Luke said. If Mara was ever going to really kill him, at all, she wouldn't have told you. Why announce her intentions to a person who could stop her? Mara may be a lot of things, but she sure as hell isn't stupid."
Leia hesitated. "How did you know about her telling me that? That was before I even knew you."
"Luke and I were friends, Leia. We were real close. When Mirax was kidnapped, he helped me. Damn, when he finally came out of his cave after Callista deserted him, he came to me to talk!"
"I didn't know that," Leia admitted. She looked up at Corran. He could see in her brown eyes that she wanted something to believe. She didn't really want to think Mara murdered her brother. "What else did he tell you?"
He knew that he had her attention. "Come with me," he said, leading the former Princess out of the room and down the hall. He knew where Iella's office was. He'd checked before he called Leia that morning as to when his friend would be in her office. "Iella, we need to see the items taken from Mara Jade."
"Excuse me?"
"Iella, just do it. All the stuff you confiscated off her person."
Iella looked at her old partner, wondering what he was going to do. Her eyes flicked to Leia's, and the shorter woman nodded. "All right." She leaned over the desk and spoke into the comm system for an assistant to bring the items to her. The few minutes passed in silence before the door slid open and a young woman carried in a box.
"Anything else, Director?" she asked.
"No, thanks, Tarin."
Corran immediately began pulling things out of the box and placing them carefully on Iella's desk.
"Corran, what the hell is this about?" Iella asked. She knew her partner's personality—she'd worked for years with him, and she also knew that he liked to talk things out. They used to walk through the crimes step-by-step, to figure out the why and the how of the murders. But this was different. He knew what he was looking for.
Damn it, where is it? Corran asked himself. I know her too well, she had to have been wearing it. He searched through the flightsuit she'd been wearing, checking the pockets. They'd pulled her small hand blaster off of her, a vibroblade, and her lightsaber, well, Luke's old lightsaber. Comlink, portable datacard reader, datacards, miscellaneous items she'd kept on her utility belt…She'd never been one to wear jewelry, but he knew she'd have it—
"Here," he said, with no small note of triumph. He dropped the necklace into Leia's hands. Leia looked at it. It was a silver chain with a strange looking ring on it. The ring was a plain cut, it was the gem it was made of that was strange. It started a pale yellow and blossomed into a brilliant scarlet. Leia stared at it. Hadn't she seen this before? Yes, Luke had shown it to her once. It looked exactly like the ring his Aunt Beru had given him…
