NOTHING STAYS THE SAME

CHAPTER TWENTY

Cara flipped through a pile of datacards on her transparisteel desk.  The other two women, Carima and Arienne, had been researching Mara Jade since the old woman mentioned the Trader's name to her.  Of course, neither woman was intelligent enough to check their orders through their old woman.  Cara slid the disk into the datareader, and typed in the short passcode.

NAME: JADE, MARA

BIRTHYEAR: 1 PRE-EMPIRE

HOMEPLANET: WAYLAND

She knew that the two other women had gotten into Imperial records.  Not even Mara Jade knew her real birth year, or home.  She'd been raised on Imperial Center (or so she thought), by the Emperor's aides and other chosen ones.  Cara laughed.  Mara Jade really had no idea who the hell she was!  That woman was in for a shocking day.  Unless…

Mara felt a presence flit across her mind when she and Luke took a short break behind what had once been a store.  Reflexively, she threw her mental barriers out as strong as she could.  She hadn't recognized the presence, so it hadn't been Corran.  It must have been Tawnie.

"Keep your mind shielded, Luke.  That Tawnie person just tried to reach me."

"I've had mine shielded."

"So did I, but…I don't know.  I was probably just not paying enough attention."

"Huh."  She knew what he was thinking.  She always had her shields up, tight and strong.  The only times she had to consciously alter them was to take them down.  And she hadn't quite completely accomplished that yet.

Luke absentmindedly fingered the lightsaber at his belt.  He recognized it immediately as the hilt to a speeder bike.  Oh, well.  Corran was probably just using whatever he could find.  The lightsaber wasn't his, but it was nicely built.  He found himself mildly surprised by that.

"How much longer until we reach Tawnie?" Mara asked him, glancing sideways at the Jedi Master.

"I'm not really sure," Luke answered after a moment's pause.  "It seemed like it took forever to reach you all, but I wasn't moving very far during the day, because I wasn't sure where to go."

"So then how do you know we're going in the right direction?"

"Because whenever I reach out with the Force, I still feel a blank spot to the west.  That's where I was."  He stared at a crumbling wall.  "They've been moving the ysalimiri around.  I was stuck in the Force void for so long, and I only came out of it when I reached your ship.  I'm pretty sure that Tawnie will be under ysalimiri."

"Then how did she contact me during the crash?  She grabbed my mind and dragged it so far below it took me a long time to find my way back."  She didn't add on the last part, the only other person who could do that was the Emperor.

"Someone else, then?"

"I don't know."  She brought her knees close and rested her chin on them.  Something was right.  The ysalimiri bubbles were moving?  "Guards.  The ysalimiri are on guards."

"That could explain it."  His face paled slightly.  "Shit.  If that's true, then those guards were right by me the whole time."

"Well, wait.  Ysalimiri in groups expand the bubbles.  If a squad of guards—"

"Stormtroopers.  They were stormtroopers."

"Okay.  If a squad of stormtroopers equipped with nutrient cages were walking around, they could have been a few dozen meters from you at all times.  You stayed in the same area, mostly?"

"Yeah.  I had no idea where to go."

"Then you must have been near a camping place they chose, or even a barracks," she said, matter-of-factly.  "You are so damn lucky they never found you."

"You think I haven't realized that yet, Mara?" he asked, sharply.  He immediately apologized.  "I'm sorry, MJ, it's just…well, damn.  I didn't realize how close I'd come to getting caught."

"I know how you feel.  I've had too many of those close calls, as well."

Corran was tempted to throw the still wet clothes across the room.  Anger was of the Dark Side, yeah, yeah.  He really didn't care.  How could they leave him behind?

He could have helped.  That was why he'd come.  To get rid of this weapons ring.  The Empire was so close to extinction, and during one of the final battles, he was stuck babysitting.  Talon had awake, and watched Corran fidget so that he wouldn't pace.  Finally Corran walked over to where the clothing was draped over a broken chair.  They had just been dumped here, and he knew that they'd never dry that way.  Sighing inwardly, he smoothed Mara's flightsuit over the chair, and grabbed Luke's clothing to place somewhere else.  He felt that, unlike Mara's clothes, Luke's was warm.  Confused, the former CorSec officer began to rummage through the pockets.  He found nothing until the last pocket.  His hand closed around the source of the warmth, and he pulled it out.

He stared at the crimson glowing crystal in his palm.  What did Luke find?  Then he felt the blood rush from his face.  Impossible.  That was destroyed years ago.  Even my grandfather said that.

Nejaa Halcyon had mentioned this crystal in the notes he left behind for his son and grandson.  But it was history, because it had been destroyed by the Jedi Masters of old, who believed it to be dangerous. 

"Corran?" Talon asked.  He'd seen his friend pale, and wondered what had caused this reaction.  Corran showed him the crystal.  Talon fingered it, but he couldn't feel the Force running through it like the Corellian Jedi could.  "What is it?"

                "Oh, dear gods," Corran whispered.  "If Luke had gotten this on Caratos, then Tawnie might have the rest of it!"

Luke felt something at the edge of his perception, like someone was trying to reach him through the Force.  But Mara was right next to him, and she would speak out loud to him if needed.  It was probably that Tawnie woman.  Luke shook his head in disgust.  Whoever that witch was, she wouldn't be alive for much longer. 

Mara saw the large building about a third of a kilometer away.  They hadn't run across any guards at all, but they had found several nutrient cages, most with the ysalimiri still inside, charred as though they'd been shot at close range with a high-set stun bolt.  She was unsure as to why the mass killings of these lizard-like creatures, but these thoughts were gone as she studied the target.  She and Luke would have to go in there tonight.  Mara had checked the date, and the shipment was to go out tomorrow morning.  They couldn't wait any longer.

"How did you get out?" she asked.

"I don't remember much."  He looked up at the building, but besides recognition, he couldn't remember.  He didn't even know where he'd been kept in that place.

Mara glanced away.  Usually she'd had at least a little more information going into an assignment.  But she'd been on blind missions before, and she'd done just fine on them.  Right?  So a couple of them ended in bacta tanks.  She couldn't be perfect all the time.

"Do we just go through the front?" Luke asked.  "It's not like they don't know we're coming."

"Oh, right.  Let's go through the front.  I'm sure they'll keep all the guards in the back, right?" she answered.  Luke could hear the sarcasm in her voice.

"Hey, Han taught me that sometimes the most suicidal plan works the best."

"Or it could end in suicide," she pointed out.

"Well, the longer we stay out here and argue, the better plan they can come up with."

"So you want to just waltz through the front door?"

"Yeah."

"Oh, gods, I am stuck with an amateur," she muttered.  "You don't know anything about this place?"

"I was here for a little while, drugged and whipped, and beaten.  Other than that, I don't know shit."

Approximately half a standard hour later, Mara could not believe it.  She and Luke were actually walking through the broken glass doors into the lobby.  And no one had attacked them yet.  Knowing that their shields hadn't completely masked their presences, they both stretched out with the Force to find Tawnie.  The building was nearly empty; the only place they found that was occupied was a Force void on the top floor.  Mara found a computer terminal and brought up the blue prints for the building.  It had originally been an apartment complex, fairly profitable, considering everything that had been added to it and the gilded cracking columns in the lobby.  There was a turbolift to the left of the lobby desk, but Mara didn't want to get caught there.  There was an old fashioned staircase just pat the turbolift, but she knew from experience that a staircase was ideal to place an ambush.  And surely Tawnie wasn't stupid enough to let two Jedi to come near her without a fight.  So, groaning inwardly, she led him to the turbolift.

Once the doors shut, and the small room began to speed for the top floor, Mara pulled out her lightsaber and sliced a hole in the ceiling.  At Luke's curious look, she answered defensively, "Hey, they already know we're here, so why bother trying to conceal it?"  He seemed to be strangling a laugh, and barely succeeded.

"Here, farmboy, give me a hand up."  He used the Force to push the freshly cut section of durasteel from the turbolift and lifted her easily on top.  She braced herself, the wind in the shaft tearing her hair from its braid, and helped pull him on top as well.

"So your plan is to ambush the ambushers?" he asked, double-checking the setting on his blaster.  For once he didn't feel the urge to keep it on stun.  "Set blasters to barbeque."

Mara rolled her eyes.  "So you aren't going to pull all that Jedi Master crap on me?  No 'We preserve life, because all life is the Force?'" she asked, mimicking him.  They both stayed close to the turbolift, on their stomachs.  The air whistled by them.  Shouldn't they be at the top by now?

"Uh, Mara?  Move!"  He gave her a push hard enough to nearly knock her off the top of the turbolift car.

"Luke, what the hell do you—" Her reply was cut off when she glanced up and saw the ceiling descending rapidly towards them with long transparisteel needles.  Shit!  Cursing to herself, she gripped the side of the car, holding on as hard as she could.

Luke? she asked.  What if he hadn't moved as quickly?

I'm here, Mara.  She heard his voice clearly.  The turbolift car came to a sudden, jarring stop.  Mara nearly lost her grip, and hung only by her hands for a few precious seconds until her feet found purchase on the smooth side.  She heard Luke's cry of pain.

Luke!