NOTHING STAYS THE SAME
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
The same second he realized he could touch the Force, her presence overwhelmed his senses. She was hurt, and unconscious. Usually, unconsciousness prevented being able to sense each other, but he and Mara were exceptions.
Using the Force came with an exhilarating rush of power. He pushed aside the pain in his leg with ease and ran to the top of the hill. He felt his stomach plummet when he saw the wreck.
The ship, a circular disk that reminded him oddly of the Falcon, had crashed into what had been an ancient rock monument. The ship looked like the chew toy of a pet nerf. It would never fly again. The cockpit was lifted from the rest of the crater. There were two people in the cockpit that he could sense, as well as an additional presence that flickered in and out. He felt someone familiar in the body of the ship, which had been separated from the cockpit by a huge chunk of stone. And she wasn't in the ship.
Carefully picking his way down the slippery slope, he tried reaching out for her. He felt one of the men in the ship wake up, using the Force as a balance. He instantly knew that Corran Horn was the Jedi in the ship—his distinctive presence gave him away. But he was awake and mainly unhurt, so he turned his attention to finding Mara.
The upper weapon turret had been severed from the rest of the ship. He pulled off the rocks that had fallen onto it from the crash with both his own arms and the Force. He felt someone behind him, felt the shock rolling off him. And then Corran began helping him. The chunk of the ship was quickly uncovered, and with it, Mara Jade.
He picked her body up carefully. Her head lolled back, and he had to fight the panic that ran through his body. She would be fine. If she were so seriously hurt, he'd know. It was that simple.
He turned to the brown-haired Jedi. "Who else was with you?" he asked.
The huge Wookiee disentangled himself from the broken copilot's seat, and started whining and grunting to his closest friend. Han didn't respond.
"Chewbacca, I need your help here," Talon said. His legs were becoming numb, and he knew that if he couldn't get the pilot's seat and nav computer off him, he could lose use of his legs, if not actually losing both legs. He felt a chill, and disregarded it as Caratos' climate. The Wookiee turned sad eyes to him and let out a roar.
"Chewie," the smuggler said, using Solo's nickname for him. "I can help you get him down, but I can't move. I need you to get this stuff off my legs. It's too heavy for me to move myself." The pain he'd felt in his legs and lower back was beginning to recede, which caused his fear to grow. "Chewie, now!"
The cinnamon-furred Wookiee walked over to him. Bracing his legs, he used all his muscles to lift the heavy and bulky chair and navcomp. Using mainly his arms, Karrde scurried out from underneath it. Chewbacca let the objects fall back onto the ground.
"Shit," the smuggler chief muttered. With the weight off his legs, the pricks of needles blossomed into a burning pain in his lower back that ran down to his right leg. He knew that the femur had been broken, with damage done to his lower spine. How badly he was hurt, he wasn't sure. He wasn't a medic, after all. He hoped that he'd only strained his back, and nothing worse.
He tried to climb to his feet, the pain reaching an all-time high. He bit his tongue to keep from screaming. He'd been hurt before, this was nothing that new, but their ship was gone, on a world being watched by an Imperial Star Destroyer. Solo was hurt badly, he could barely walk, and Horn and Mara…oh, gods, he had no idea.
Chewie grabbed him under the arms and set him on his feet. Talon's right leg immediately buckled and he kept himself standing by grabbing onto the crooked doorway to the rest of the ship. The corridor only went a few feet before a huge slab of rock blocked them from the rest of the ship.
The Wookiee unsheathed his climbing claws. Though Karrde knew Wookiees all had those long, extremely sharp claws to grab and climb the trees of Kashyyyk, watching this gentle giant interact with the Solo children made him forget the strength of the Wookiee. Chewbacca was fearsome when he needed to be.
The claws dug into the metal and the Wookiee climbed up to where Solo was pinned to the wall. The Wookiee tried to push the rock off his friend, but it barely moved.
Corran's mind was running at the speed of light. Luke was alive! Who was in the Star Destroyer? Why did the TIEs shoot them down? How did Luke get here? Did he escape? From where? Where exactly was here? Was Mara all right? Where were Talon, and Solo, and Chewbacca? Where they all right? Why was Luke looking so strangely at him?
"I can read your thoughts like a datapad, Corran. Calm down. So Talon, Han, and Chewie came?"
"They're in the cockpit."
"You stay with Mara. I'll check on them." Luke took off his cloak and covered Mara with it. He was drenched almost immediately, and it wasn't until then that Corran realized he was just as wet. The rain just hadn't seemed worth noticing until now. Quickly and quietly in the growing darkness the Jedi Master headed up to the cockpit.
He let his mind wonder what made the difference in his thoughts. Before he was lost, but now he knew what to do. He knew what he had to do. It was not only him, but Mara, his brother-in-law, and friends. They simply had to get off planet. That was all there was to it.
He climbed on top of the ship and looked down into the gaping hole that was letting in rain. The first thing he saw was the blood on the ground.
"Corran? Mara? Come down. We need your help!" Talon's voice was followed quickly by a familiar Wookiee's insistent addition. "Now!"
Luke dropped into the cockpit. With the Force, he made sure his injured left leg didn't twist on landing.
"Luke?" Karrde asked in amazement. The smuggler quickly recovered. "Luke, Han's been hurt. We can't get him down."
Luke glanced up when a hot drop of blood fell on his head.
"Han…"
"Can you move the rock, Skywalker? If you can do that, Chewie can get him down." Chewbacca roared in agreement.
Luke reached inside himself for the energy that was always there. He saw the rock in his mind, and with a simple gesture, the rock lifted slowly and then faster. The huge Wookiee immediately grabbed his friend and hugged the unconscious man close as he climbed back to the ground. He laid the man on the floor. Han's skin was a pasty white, no doubt from the loss of blood. His once-white shirt was blood soaked, and Luke couldn't tell just what part was bleeding. The only way he knew his brother-in-law was still alive was he was still breathing.
Talon tried to tell himself the reason he was surprised to see Luke was that he'd expected to have to go rescue the Jedi. But he knew the truth. He didn't really expect to see the Jedi alive again. Despite his arguments, he'd never been truly positive about it.
What kind of a rescue is this? he asked himself. We've just crash-landed on planet, and the rescue-e just rescued the rescuers.
He pressed firmly on Han's wounds. Talon wasn't sure what had caused the numerous cuts across the pilot's chest. The worst of the wounds was a cut that sliced across the Corellian's stomach and curved upwards towards the right side of the torso. Talon knew how lucky they were that Solo was not dead yet. Had he been cut much further, he would have died sooner, even if he'd been immediately dunked in bacta, the galaxy's wonder-healer.
Luke had left Chewie with Talon and Han. It would be extremely tricky to get Talon out, with the broken leg, and damned near impossible to get Han out without further aggravating his already life-threatening injuries.
According to the Jedi, Corran seemed unhurt, and Mara was unconscious, but other than that, unhurt. Of course, they'd know more when she woke up.
The old woman had the look of someone far away. She was staring out over the abandoned city, a vacant tone to her green eyes. Her bodyguard watched her carefully. Surely no one could harm her Mistress through the Force like this? She'd been trained enough to know something dramatic like that was happening. After what seemed forever, the woman blinked and looked at her bodyguard.
"She's coming, and she knows I'm here."
"What did you do?"
"I can feel another Force user with her. He's strong, but not as strong as Skywalker."
As soon as her mistress mentioned the Jedi Master's name, Carima looked down. They hadn't caught the Jedi yet.
"Where is she? I'll send a group of our best—"
"She'll come to us. Do not worry about it. She will come to me."
Mara was still out cold. Corran couldn't tell when she would wake up. His chrono was crushed in the crash, and he realized how close it had come to crushing his wrist and hand with it. Corran had moved the red-haired Trader to underneath a large chunk of jutting stone that when looked at from a distance was the chin of the ancient god of fate and death. The ground was all mud, but at least they weren't directly in the rain.
He saw Luke pull himself back through the top of the cockpit. Corran hadn't remembered seeing a hatch there, and he guessed that there now was. It was still a surprise to see Skywalker alive, but with that came a feeling of elation. All those who believed the Jedi would die so easily were wrong. Skywalker was still alive. Once again the Jedi Master survived an impossible situation.
"Corran?" he called.
"Over here, Luke. I brought Mara out of the rain."
"Great. Here, give me your lightsaber."
Corran obeyed, unclipping his saber from the utility belt around his waist. "Okay." The Corellian wondered briefly where Luke's saber had gone, but if he'd escaped from the smugglers like they believed, then of course the weapon would have been taken from him.
He heard Mara groan and glanced down at her. She blinked a few times before trying to sit up. Her head was spinning, but she didn't let that stop her.
"What the hell happened?" she demanded.
"Han crashed the ship," Corran said, matter-of-factly. Actually, it hadn't entirely been Han's fault—Corran wondered whether he'd have been able to do a better job. If he had been in his X-wing, you could bet on it. But a freighter…no. Probably not.
"I meant after that. Who the hell is Tawnie Calanast?"
Corran searched his memory. "Doesn't ring a bell. Where did you get that name?"
"Right before the ship crashed, she grabbed my mind. Damn it, that hurt. It was like someone was trying to rip my brain out, or drive a transparisteel stake through it, you know?"
"Yeah. I've had that happen before. Not literally, but it sure as hell felt like it."
"Luke. Where is he?" She had sensed him shielding himself. "He's here."
"He's getting Han and the others out. They're trapped in the cockpit."
"I can help." She tried to stand, but she could barely stay up. Corran grabbed onto her arm, and helped her back onto the ground. "Corran—" she began to protest.
"I'll go. Just stay here until you're sure you can stand up straight."
Corran stood up and jogged over to the ship. He recalled seeing flames when they first hit, but he could tell from the scorch marks on the hull that the rain had quickly put it out. Pure Corellian luck. If the fire hadn't stopped, they would have had more trouble with the occupants in the cockpit.
He saw the familiar silver blade of his lightsaber as he neared the cockpit. Luke plunged the saber into the hull and began to carve a large hole in the ship.
"Mara's awake!" he told his friend. "She's fine."
The lightsaber momentarily faltered, and Luke muttered, "Thank the gods," under his breath. Corran doubted that Luke meant for anyone to see his reaction.
"Luke, who are those people?"
Luke didn't even look at him. "Later, Corran. I'll tell you later." The Jedi finished the cut and shut down the lightsaber, handing it back to its owner. He closed his eyes, summoning the Force around him, and yanked the plug he'd made from the rest of the ship. Immediately the Wookiee exited, carrying and unconscious and very pale Solo in his arms. Talon was holding onto one of the crooked consoles. Corran walked in, and Karrde put one arm around the uninjured man's shoulder, taking some of the weight off his leg. Luke leaned against the hull of the destroyed ship. Using the Force to move the hull piece meant splitting his concentration, and he'd let the pain suppression he'd been using for his leg weaken. After a few minutes of using the Force and being able to walk normally and without much pain, the shock of it suddenly coming back was staggering. He used the Force to cushion his leg again and began to walk over to where Mara was. Chewbacca growled, and Luke quickly translated the cinnamon-colored Wookiee's concerns.
"Chewie says we need to get away from the crash. I know a place near here we can stay," he added. He turned to Chewbacca. "Do you have any problem with carrying him for a while longer?"
[As long as needed], the Wookiee answered. Luke knew how seriously Chewbacca took his life debt.
"Luke," Mara said. "You take Chewie and Han there. I'm going to help Corran and Talon. We'll catch up with you."
"All right. But don't stay here long. She'll send troops out soon."
Luke pushed open the door to the old house and cautiously walked in. He hadn't been here before, but he'd searched for a house where he could feel the Force. He didn't want to be in the darkness again yet.
Chewbacca set Han down on one of the beds. The entire house smelled like mildew, but at least they were out of the rain. Luke walked to Han and quickly checked his pulse. "We shouldn't have moved him," he muttered. "But we had no choice, I know, Chewie." Chewbacca began searching the cabinets for a medkit of any kind. He found one with basic med supplies and brought that to the Jedi.
Luke closed his eyes and probed his brother-in-law with the Force. Although Han was as Force-blind as Talon Karrde, both men had a bright signature in the Force. "Maybe I can put him in a healing trance," he muttered.
Chewie asked him a question, the worry barely hidden by the query.
"Even if he isn't Jedi, I could probably do it. The only thing is, I'd have to stay the whole time. I'd need to keep him in the trance, and channel the Force for him. I could do it." He studied Han carefully, and then sat next to him. He let his eyes close as he felt the Force come at his bidding and surround him and the pilot.
"Keep an eye out for them, Chewie," he said, before dropping completely into the never-ending river that was the Force.
