NOTHING STAYS THE SAME
CHAPTER ELEVEN
I can't believe he told Talon…I told him not to tell anyone! I wonder who else he'd tell. It's my and Luke's business, about what we do, not Corran, not anyone else. Just Luke and me.
Mara turned over in her bed and stared at the duracrete wall. Maybe Talon was the only one. I mean, who else would he tell? Everyone else would just say that I could still kill him. That's their impression of me. But I couldn't kill him. Not now, not ever.
Mara sighed and sat up in the narrow bed. She needed to sleep, but she couldn't. How would people act towards her once they knew? That was something she'd asked Luke about, and he'd responded that if she didn't want anyone to know, then he would do what she wanted. He'd even mentioned getting eloped on some backwater planet to lessen the chance of anyone finding out. He said that he wouldn't tell Leia, even.
What's going to happen? I know something's up. Gods, why did they have to put ysalimiri around me? If only I could reach out and sense him still…it's like a part of me is missing. She shook her head vehemently. I am Mara Jade, and I will not fall apart because of this!
It was morning before Mara had even been asleep for more than an hour. Talon passed through security rather quickly, as the guards already knew him and knew that he was smart enough not to carry weapons on his person into the Headquarters. Now the whole frisking routine was just for appearances.
Mara stood up as Talon walked in. He held six standard sized data disks, and he handed them to her with the small datapad.
"How long do you think this will take?" he asked. He was supposed to meet with Corran immediately after Mara found the location.
"Not long. It's my own code, so it'll be easy." Well, one of my codes. Surely Talon realizes that I don't use the same code for longer than a few weeks for anything important. She slipped the disk into the reader and typed in a string of commands. Finally she added in the decoder, and the disk read in Basic.
BLASTECH RIFLE MODEL T-93
BLASTECH STUN BATON X-75
The list continued on and on, and at the end of the list, Luke had added in QUANTITIES UNKNOWN.
He had written up his own conclusions and research. The smugglers and thieves routinely hit the planetary storage buildings, and seldom the actual factories. The BlasTech Company, the leader of the hand weapons industry, had, on average, a higher security in their factories than the planetary governments spent on their storage facilities.
The intruders were never seen, except for the lucky sludgenews holocam operator who caught the image of the woman who so strongly resembled Mara Jade.
The first time the weapons were all placed together for transportation was on Corellia. From there the materials were separated into different categories and shipped off Corellia. From there it went to Toprawa, then to two other planets before reaching another smuggler-rich world.
Mara hadn't realized how much work Luke had done researching this information. He even kept a schedule of projected export dates and times. There was only one day on which Luke had labeled as removal to final destination.
"What is today?" she asked Talon, who'd been leaning casually against the wall since she began. It was so difficult to keep track of time in a place like this. She had practically nothing to do all day; they wouldn't let her work on her business. She had old holodramas to watch, and then only rarely. She had datadisks to write on, but there wasn't much she could do without the records from her business.
"Nine-Twenty. Fourteenth New Republic year."
I've been in prison since Eight-Thirty. Damn. "A huge shipment leaves Caratos for Bastion in eleven days."
"Caratos?"
"Yeah. Luke says that no shipments have left Caratos yet. They've all gone there, and nothing's left yet. I think that's a pretty good indicator. He has the projected date as the thirty-first of this month."
"Where the hell does he find this information?" Talon asked. His organization was the largest intelligence agency in the galaxy, and they hadn't heard even half of this information, much less but it together so neatly."
"I used some of my contacts on Toprawa for that info, but Luke never told me what it was for. I guess people owed him favors."
"So we go to Caratos."
"That's where you go. I'm still in prison, in case you forgot."
"I haven't, Mara. I have to leave. I need to talk to someone. I'll be back later."
Talon picked up his comlink from the desk outside the room and immediately called Corran.
Leia glanced at the holovid that showed the visitors at her door and sighed out loud. It wasn't even 0800 yet. She had a meeting at 0915 that morning, and she wasn't in the mood for any more surprises. She still had trouble believing what the Jedi had told her only three days ago.
She walked over and tapped the doorpanel to open it.
"Gentlemen," she said, greeting them.
"Good morning, Leia. Did we wake you?"
"No, I was already up. What do you need?"
"We know where the weapons were going," Corran said. "Luke left all the information behind."
"Where?"
"We don't know how many people are going to be there, or in this entire this at all. Luke thought they'd transport everything off planet in just a few days. It'll take about four or five days in hyperspace to reach Caratos. Any strike team would have a few days after that to find these Imperials and take out the group, or at least delay until another team can make it out."
"And you want Mara to come along?" Leia asked, already knowing the answer.
"Her skills are needed. She can do the job of two others, if not more. This is what she does. Did," Corran corrected himself.
Leia was quiet for a minute.
Talon glanced at the chrono on his wrist. Leia noted this nervous gesture.
"Why else would you want Mara to come along?"
"She'd be a valuable asset to any strike team," Talon said, as if the most obvious answer in the galaxy.
Corran glanced at him and decided to push Leia further. "Talon found different little things about the body. They're beginning to doubt it was really Luke, after all."
"Like what?" she asked, her eyes solely on Karrde.
"The eye. That's always bothered me, and I had an expert look at it. Why spend so much money to buy the carythimol, spend enough time beating, yet blast his face so obviously off-center? Anyone who was smart enough to capture a Jedi Master would certainly make sure both eyes were vaped. That suggests it was done on purpose. So why make it seem Skywalker is dead? So no one looks for the living one. That Mara had been on Corellia with Luke just gave the NRI someone to suspect. Other than her, they have no lead."
"What did you 'expert' find out?"
"The eye had scratches, like scars. The scars are consistent with a retina surgery. Someone employed a not-very-good surgeon to work on this guy, to change the retina pattern. He wouldn't have been able to see through the eye at all, it was so sloppily put back together."
"And had that happened before, Luke would have healed himself."
"That's what I guessed. There's reasonable doubt that Luke is not dead."
"I can't sense him. How do you explain that away?" She was perfectly aware that all of the evidence against the former Emperor's Hand was circumstantial.
"You didn't feel his death. If you never felt him die, they could have him near ysalimiri. Since my organization had to abandon Myrkr, we haven't been able to monitor all who export those lizards."
"What am I supposed to do? Her trial begins today."
"Talk to Iella. The least you can do is at least try," Corran answered her.
"And what if Iella refuses to release her?" Leia wanted to know.
Wisely the two men didn't answer. Leia felt she already knew the answer, but surely these boys weren't going to try and break Mara out of prison? She remembered when Luke and Han had done the same thing so many years ago.
"I'll talk to Iella."
Corran turned to leave with Talon, but Leia called the pilot back. "You've told me that because Mara had been in love, she wouldn't kill him. What if she actually had? I mean, she got caught up in one of her nightmares and she accidentally killed him?"
"She wouldn't have been able to. First of all, Luke told me that her nightmares had subsided after they…well, when they finally got together. I think that Luke's strong Light Side presence finally completely banished the Emperor's corruption. Second, I wouldn't be able to live without Mirax. I can't think of a life without her."
"I feel the same way about Han," she said quietly.
"I think it would be more serious with your brother and Mara. I've felt their Force signatures—you can sense Mara through Luke, and vice versa."
"How permanent do you think that is?"
"I wonder whether death will separate them," he added. His voice was very soft, so quiet Leia had to lean in to hear him. He truly believed that, though he'd never said it, or, hell, even thought it until now.
