NOTHING STAYS THE SAME
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Luke!
I'm okay, she heard him say. But my hand's going to need work.
Which one?
My right one. Damn it, I though I was far enough over. He sent her the image he himself was looking at. One of the transparisteel needles had driven itself straight through the flesh of his mechanical hand. Sparks flew from at least one severed wire. A small trickle of blood ran down his hand.
Shit! Is it ruined?
I don't know. I've got to get this needle out first. Hurts like a son-of-a-bitch, though.
Big surprise there, Skywalker. She looked up. The ceiling was barely a meter above the roof of the turbolift car, and that meter was full of long sharp needles. She also noticed that both of her arms were bleeding. She'd been so concerned about Luke that she hadn't realized she'd been hit as well. One razor-sharp spine had just sliced across her right forearm, and she carefully, slowly, pulled the other one from her left arm. It wasn't in deeply. It had entered at her wrist, and she doubted it had hit the bone in her forearm. She knew that it would hurt more if it had. Once again, she knew that from experience. No one said the life of the Emperor's Hand was one without pain.
She made sure her left arm was securely around the cords hanging from the car and grabbed her lightsaber with her right hand, thanking whatever gods there were in the universe that the turbolift's safety system hadn't been tampered with or destroyed. It would have been much worse had the turbolift not stopped short of the ceiling.
Hold on, she told him, and in one easy motion, ignited the lightsaber and drove it into the car wall. A second too late she realized that she was on the side with the controls, and not the harmless empty wall she'd originally thought. Sparks flew from the car, and it dropped several meters. She braced herself just before the sudden stop, but even then nearly fell off. She looked around again. This turbolift car was one of three in the large, echoing shaft.
She pulled herself up and climbed on top of the car. Light from the turbolift shone through the myriad of holes in the supposedly impenetrable car. Weren't these things supposed to be safe? The car moved a little, dropping another half meter. Luke quickly pulled himself up.
Did you hit the controls?
Yeah, she admitted. I think my saber completely fried the circuitry.
We need to get off this, he told her, his comment accentuated by another meter drop. Luke looked around. Pretty lonely up here. I wonder where the other lifts are?
One wasn't here at all. It was at the bottom. The other one will be near the bottom, still. If this car doesn't completely fall to the bottom, maybe we'll get to the right door. She grabbed his hand and wiped some of the blood away. Went through the meat. You'll be fine. Awkwardly, she added, Thanks for the save.
No problem. The cables holding the car groaned, and they dropped over two meters this time. With the sparse light, Mara could see the top of the doors to the highest story. The way that the car was now shaking and swaying was not comforting to the former assassin.
Luke?
Yeah?
I don't think this thing's
going to hold us much longer.
Yeah, I know. Is that the door right there?
Uh, huh.
Okay. He flicked on Corran's lightsaber. The cold silver blade lit up the area, and illuminated the shaft around them. He carefully began to slice around the doorjamb, carefully making sure not to touch the turbolift car they were on.
When it falls again, we should be able to get through the cut.
Yeah, hopefully. It'll be just our luck that the squad of stormtroopers you mentioned were right behind this door.
Don't say that, or you'll jinx this entire mission.
Does it always have to be a mission with you, Skywalker? Why can't you just refer to this as a job? Instead you have to say mission. Like that makes it any more damned important.
Are you going to argue with me on everything, Mara?
Of course, farmboy. That's why you love me, remember?
Yeah. The turbolift cables dropped them another two meters and Luke quickly sliced through the remains of the door. I don't sense anyone behind the door, he told her. And I don't think it's because of ysalimiri.
Whatever. Just get the door open.
He gave the cut door a Force push, shoving it into the hallway. He quickly stepped onto solid ground, and reached around immediately for Mara. She was right behind him, but slipped. She tried to twist to avoid hitting flat out on her right knee, and succeeded in part, She struggled to stand again, her knee smarting and threatening to go out on her. The so-called-"safe" turbolift car was swinging gently, but the next sound Mara heard was anything but safe. A vibroknife blade. And the snapping of cables.
Shit! Leaning halfway out of the door, Luke grabbed her forearms and forcefully pulled her off the car just as it finally relented to gravity and popped the last cable. After a few seconds, Mara couldn't see it anymore in the darkness. She kept her hold on Luke's hands as tight as she could, knowing that his right hand would be hurting even more than before, but also knowing that if she let go, she might not be able to hold onto just one hand. She tried to find something to put her legs on, to help boost her up, but she couldn't find anything.
Come on, Mara, she heard in her head. I've got you. Just don't move.
He began pulling her up, his muscles straining, until she grabbed onto the floor with her own hands and pulled herself up.
Cara's head snapped up as soon as she heard the crash. She had allowed herself to doze off sometime during the night. They were already inside?
She slammed her hand down on the computer interface in front of her. "Split screen in five, show all holocamera feeds." She had placed the holocameras where she had expected them to try and enter. It had been an entertaining mental exercise. Mara Jade had been trained by the Emperor's finest. Cara could barely stifle a laugh. If only the Trader knew. Cara herself had not known until Tawnie, that self-serving power-hungry sadistic bitch told her everything.
Cara realized she had let her mind wander. All right. Mara was obviously the most experienced infiltrator out of whatever group the New Republic could throw at them. Imperial training usually denoted going into the objective bluntly ensuring that your group easily outnumbered and outgunned the other group.
However much the Empire trusted brute force, Mara Jade had surely been trained in the subtle arts of a small team, and of the lone assassin. Although Cara had never received the information, she knew some of the basics.
Number One. Mara and her team would enter through the back entrance. Only suicidal amateurs entered hostile territory through the most obvious entrance. Jade was anything but an amateur, and too stubborn to take anyone else's comments seriously. Therefore, Cara had installed the first of her limited number of holocameras at the back entrance.
The ship that Mara and her team had arrived was a small Corellian freighter. The team had to consist of ten or less people. Would she bring them all with her? Figure she'd leave a few behind, as a rear guard of sorts. So eight people tackle her building. Six in the back, two through the front. Maybe all eight or so through the back.
Once she was inside, Mara had two choices: stairs and/or turbolift. Cara was nearly one hundred percent certain that Jade would take the stairs. A turbolift was too easy to be ambushed in. So Cara had placed the sharp spikes from the ceiling, to eliminate anyone else who may come in with her. Of course, this entire time, Cara was assuming Mara would sense the Force void on the top floor, and know that Tawnie was there. So Cara installed holocameras Two and Three in the staircase and turbolift. Number Four was in Tawnie's room, and Five was in the old woman's so-called "Throne Room."
When the holocamera feeds came up, number Three showed only two red words at the bottom—NOT FUNCTIONAL.
So some Republic pansy had found her surprise? Wonderful.
She grabbed the lightsaber off the table and ran for the recently built turbolift. After all, she wasn't stupid enough to sneak up behind a trained assassin.
Luke replaced the lightsaber on his belt. That was a close one, he thought, unintentionally transmitting his thought to Mara.
You're telling me that? I just had a damned near-death experience!
Emperor's Hand—toughest woman alive—dies of a heart attack. For some reason the Tatooine farmboy found this morbid thought hilarious.
Yeah, that'll be the day, Skywalker, she snorted, and elbowed him in the ribs. His urge to laugh only flared.
Mara's blaster was already in her hand as she silently walked down the hall, much like a stalking predator. Her stops didn't falter, even when she reached the void. She motioned Luke forward. He pulled his blaster free of its holster and took a deep breath. He was ready for this. Stepping into Force void was always awkward for him, and his fingers were tight around the blaster's grip. There were three doors—one to each side, and then the open doorway directly forward.
One of the reflective doors was mostly closed, and Luke put his fingers in the crack and pulled the door open. Mara was the first one inside, he blaster out and ready. The room was large, with picture windows that the transparisteel was missing from. Everything had been torn around, as if a wild animal had escaped. Mara's practiced eyes trained on the miniature holocamera placed inconspicuously by the door. It was a small cream blob, and Mara wondered whether she would have seen it if someone hadn't programmed it to follow a target. The almost-silent whirr had caught her attention, and she pulled it off the wall ever so delicately and stepped on it, crushing the circuits into the floor. Normally she would have ensured it was no longer sending off pulses by stunning it, but she had used better surveillance systems before. This was child's play.
She found nothing else of notice in the rest of the room and she walked back out to the hallway. The other door was closed, and she touched the small codepad to see if it would open without having a code punched in. The door slid open, but halfway along its circuit the door got stuck on something in the wall and the motor struggled to get the door past the obstacle, making a loud shrieking noise.
"I am not over there, children."
The voice was not loud, but Luke recognized it almost immediately as his former captor's voice. Mara's blaster was already pointed at the door. She began to cautiously walk to the last of the three rooms.
