NOTHING STAYS THE SAME

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Corran tried to wait patiently.  He had tried to reach both Mara and Luke several times, but both times he'd been turned away by the mental shields they'd constructed.  Unsure of whether or not he would be able to break through them, he decided not to.  If they were already at that Tawnie person's base, then any distraction could hurt or even kill one or both of them.  So the question was to either risk killing either of them, or letting them know that their enemy was more powerful than they'd originally thought.  Angrily, he sat down on the edge of the chair.  The softly glowing crystal sat alone on top on the three-legged table.

Maybe he was wrong.  It was possible that he'd actually been hurt in the crash, and that was affecting his judgment now.  He could be just imagining the sensations he felt from touching the small red shard.

But maybe he wasn't wrong, and this red glass was exactly what he thought it was.  If so, then someone had actually found the Kaiburr crystal.  He could have sworn that it had been destroyed, that he'd heard it had been crushed long ago, but here was a piece of it, right in front of him.  Maybe that was all it was.  Luke could have stolen this small piece, because it was all that Tawnie had.

Then why did he feel that the rest of the rock was on the planet?  He was so sure that the rest of it was near, and it was his mind that argued with him.

Didn't the Kaiburr crystal have healing properties?  He could have sworn he'd heard that somewhere along the line.  The stories of the crystal's mystical properties were probably inaccurate, anyway.  It probably just glowed and could be felt in the Force.  There was moss and fungus that did the same thing.

He was overreacting, obviously.  It was nothing that important.

He reached out for Luke and Mara, waiting to feel their muted auras.  Instead he felt nothing, a void he'd learned to recognize.  Ysalimiri.  Well, that settled it.  If this shard had been only one small section of the entire Kaiburr crystal, then surely Tawnie wasn't stupid enough to think that it still worked when the Force could not be touched, right?  So this was the only piece.

"Who are you?" Mara demanded.  Luke put a hand on her shoulder, more out of curiosity than anything else.  She knew that he recognized the pressure as well.  She shrugged his hand off.

"My dear, I know that you are aware of who I am."

"I don't give a crap.  Who the hell are you?"

The woman seemed amused.  "Tawnie Calanast.  And you are Mara Jade."  She laughed.  "And of course," her voice grew ice cold, "your companion is the vaunted Jedi Skywalker."

Another woman entered the room, to the right of Tawnie.  Mara was surprised by how much this new woman looked like her.  From Luke's description, she knew that there would be some differences, but they were insignificant next to the likenesses.  The same lips, same high well-bred cheekbones, vivid green eyes, naturally pale skin.  The main noticeable difference was the hair, but this woman could still pass off as Mara's twin.

Then Mara noticed that two other women entered the room, both coming up behind her and Luke.  Instinctively, she turned so that her back was facing the wall.  Luke tried to do the same thing, but the four women made it difficult to do so.  He felt his blood run cold.

Because every single woman looked the same.  Exactly the same. 

Impossible.

"So when did you make the clones?" Mara asked, making a valiant effort and succeeding at getting past the pain building in her temples.  This couldn't be happening.  It took a great deal of effort on her part to push away the pain and retreat to that part of her mind that always let her think, no matter what was happening.  It had never failed her before.

This, this must have been something the Emperor had done.  There had been ample chances during her servitude to that lying son of a bitch for him to take a sample of her blood and put it away, probably in one of his little trophy houses that he loved so much.  But still, someone would have to have found it, which insinuated either luck or knowledge that the Emperor had not even divulged to her, since the only place she knew about had been Wayland, and that mountain had been blown sky-high so long ago.  Could some of the Spaarti cloning cylinders survive the detonation?  Surely not.  And if none of those had made these clones, then the Emperor had to have left other cloning stations.

She couldn't distract her mind enough to keep the revulsion from coloring her thoughts.  Clones?

Mara, calm down.

At first she thought it was her own mental voice, but then she realized that it was Luke, instead.  He'd taken down the shield he'd immediately surrounded his mind with and was helping shield hers.

"You can't hide your thoughts from me, Mara Jade!"  Tawnie screamed, much like a petulant child whose favorite toy had been taken away.  Her jade eyes softened as she changed the subject.  "Now you meet your sisters."

Corran closed his eyes, attempting to reach the cool refreshing center he always retained in his soul.  He'd never been much of a healer, but he knew that if Mara and Luke's mission went wrong, it would be necessary to immediately exit Caratos.  Han wasn't as close to dying as he'd been before, but he still wasn't in the best health.  He'd been awake for a few minutes about half an hour ago, but neither Corran nor Talon believed that he was aware of his surroundings.

And so now Corran kneeled by the cheap bed the other Corellian lay on, hoping that the few lessons Luke had given him would kick in and mix with his grandfather's teachings.  Maybe he really could do this.  He had to try at least, right?

Corran let his thoughts vanish into the mists of unconsciousness as he touched the warmth he learned to associate with the Force, and he tried to bring it over to Solo's still form.  It seemed to slip through his fingers.  He tried again, and on his third try, he managed to create a thin link between them, a brilliantly hued thread of pulsing energy.  He worked to strengthen it, to add thread by thread until he had a unyielding cord between them, so that he could concentrate on healing.

He didn't know what time it was when he woke up, or how long he'd be in the trance.  He blinked a few times, but nothing was different.  Something had stirred him from the trance, though.  He tentatively let his Force presence wander around the small house.  The exhausted Wookiee was asleep down by the door.  Talon was sitting up, cleaning his blaster.  And Han looked the same as he had.

Did his healing trance do any good?  It didn't look like it.  Talon glanced up from his chore.  In the dim light his skin seemed paler than ever.

"How is he?" he asked in a loud whisper.  Ever since the crash landing, it had seemed like they were all afraid to speak loudly.

"I think he's better," Corran answered.

"You think?"

"I'm not very good at these things.  I never completed my full training."

"So you're a half Knight.  Great.  Why don't you finish the Academy?"

"Because I didn't like it there.  It was all so…I just didn't like it."

"Ah," he said, as if he understood.  Corran wondered whether the smuggler chief had ever been through an Academy like that.  Could he have been an Imperial, like Solo here?  Was he in the armed forces, maybe a planetary army?  They really did not know this Talon Karrde, yet they had trusted him with their lives on several occasions.  Why did it seem that pasts were not important?  If one looked into Corran's record, they would find that there was a warrant out for his arrest, should he ever be found on Corellia, for the murder and mutilation of several smugglers.  Even though that warrant was several years old, it still existed.  Luke was the only one without this checked past.  A farmboy turned hero.  Han Solo's history wasn't known very well, at least not the section about him being an Imperial pilot for a time.  Saving a Wookiee and getting kicked out of Imperial service, he soon became a top smuggler, and like the famous fairy tales, met a princess and settled down.  Now he had three children, a Jedi Master brother-in-law, and his Princess wife.  And then there was Mara Jade.  From what he knew, she had been the personal assassin for the late and unlamented Emperor Palpatine.  Other than that, he really didn't know.

He bit his tongue to keep from laughing out loud.  A smuggler chief, an assassin, a former Imperial, a farmboy, a Wookiee, and a Republic X-wing pilot.  What an odd team they made!  And with enough of a past to make any psychologist go crazy trying to figure out how they all could work together, and actually enjoy each other's company.

"Okay.  I'm going to try again."

"Sisters?"  Mara asked.  "You mean clones.  So when were these clones made?  Are they all new?  Or have you kept them hidden away?"

"They are your sisters, Mara," Tawnie said.  "They are not clones."

One of the women walked closer.  "Tawnie, you're confusing her."  She studied Luke and Mara, like they amused her.  "So you are Mara Jade.  So pleased to meet you."  She stayed just out of arm's distance.  She wore what Mara would have worn: a one-piece black suit, made to be as flexible as the wearer.  Her red hair was pulled back in a thick plait, like Mara had braided hers.  At her belt was a weapon Mara recognized immediately—the hilt to Luke's lightsaber.

"Mutual, I'm sure.  I'm sorry, I don't believe I know your name," Mara answered, with mock-politeness.

"Cara."

"And is there a last name to that?"

Cara cocked her head to the side.  "No.  They just call me Cara.  Clones don't have names."

"Cara," Tawnie said angrily, "You will not speak unless I tell you to and I have not told you to speak!"

"Of course, Mistress Calanast."  There was a lack of respect in her tone.  Kyp Durron used the same inflections when he was particularly pissed with Skywalker.  "She has a temper," Cara added, needlessly.  "She would probably need help from a psych-droid, but, well, I don't want to pay for that.  The easiest way to get rid of that necessity would be to kill her, don't you think?"  She said all this quietly, just for Luke and Mara to hear.

"I tried to tell you not to come here," Cara continued.  "But you had your stubborn shields up.  Now that you're here, I'm certain Tawnie won't let you leave.  She's terrible about that."