NOTHING STAYS THE SAME

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Chewbacca was unsure of how long the standard day on this planet was, but his internal clock told him it couldn't last much longer.  He'd been on guard duty outside since before the dim sun rose in the grey sky, with only one break when Corran had come out to relieve him for a few hours.  The large Wookiee had surveyed the vicinity, and to his mild surprise, had found no other beings.  Although it appeared that the location had been evacuated, he doubted that every being would have abandoned their possessions.  There was no one out there.  He remembered when he and Han used to smuggle items to and from Caratos, and it had never been like this.  He had hoped to run across at least one native, or hell, anyone, who knew what was going on.  Mara and the kid had left early in the morning, and it bothered him that he didn't know where exactly they were going.  He doubted they knew, either.

Surely the great Talon Karrde would have known if a major evacuation would have occurred on this planet, but Karrde had confessed to a lack of knowledge on that subject.  The chestnut Wookiee ducked through the door to the house where Han and the others were.  He despised leaving the injured Corellian behind, but he knew Corran was a Jedi, and that his own skills lay in surveillance and guarding.  If anything went wrong, the Rogue would inform him.  It took him only a few seconds to adjust to the lighting, and he was surprised at what he saw.  Han looked better.  Chewbacca's hunter eyes picked up on the strong pulse beating, and his best friend was no longer as sickly pale.

But instead, the X-wing jock he'd just been thinking about was sprawled on the floor.  Chewbacca growled concernedly at Talon Karrde, who was awake and checking Corran's vital signs.  The Wookiee knew that it must have pained the Trader to move around like that with the broken bone.

"I don't know, Chewbacca," Talon said in response to the growls.  "He just slumped in the chair and fell to the ground.  He's still breathing, and his pulse is strong, though.  That's a good sign."  He shrugged.  "I guess we wait until he wakes up.  I wonder what the hell did that."  The Wookiee also noted that the man had his blaster out and the safety off.  Just in case.

[Maybe a Jedi thing?] Chewbacca asked, before realizing that, amid all of the Master Trader's abilities, understanding the Wookiee language was not among them.  Damn him.  Once again Chewbacca hated not having the ability to speak the human's tongue, Basic.  Not that many believed Wookiees to be intelligent so that they never bothered to learn that language.  So that left Chewbacca in need of a translator.  He had briefly toyed with the idea of getting a droid like his nephew's translator, but decided against it.  The prissy voice reminded him too much of See-Threepio.  He'd have to constantly rebuild the droid when he let his anger vent.

Thankfully, the human stirred.

"What the hell happened?" Talon demanded.  Humans were so diplomatic.

"We've got to get out of here."  He tried to stand up.

"Yeah, I know that.  As soon as Luke and Mara get back."

Corran grabbed onto Talon's forearm.  "No, now.  Tawnie knows where we are.  She's sending a crew from the Retaliator down to find us."

"Shit!  How does she know?"

"That doesn't matter.  She found me, and she's sending a group out.  We need to move Han."

Chewbacca had grown accustomed to reading human faces and he thought Corran was hiding something.  But whatever that was, now wasn't the time to find out.

Mara nearly collapsed with Corran's quick withdrawal from her mind.  She was bone-weary from the fights.  Arienne had been good, but Cara was much better.  Mara noticed that Luke walked up behind her.

"Head all clear?" he asked quietly.

The intense pounding in her head was dulled.  "Yeah, just about.  How are you doing?"

"My hand hurts, and I've realized I'm out of shape."  He was still breathing hard.

"No, you just rely on the Force too much for endurance."  She stood up straight, controlling her breathing carefully until it was normal again.

"I really don't want to go in there," he said.  He'd seen the same thing she had.

"I know, but, hey, I'm the one facing the clones, okay?  You only had one.  I supposedly had eight.  What a load of bantha shit.  Come on, Luke.  We can't let the bad girl win."

"Uh, Mara?" Luke asked.  He had a bad feeling that he had found out what he couldn't remember earlier.

"Yeah?"

"You know what that red stone is, don't you?"

"No.  What's so important about it?"

"I kind of think it's the Kaiburr crystal."  How could she have surpassed his shields enough to suppress his memories?  Were his shields that bad?

"The Kaiburr crystal?  But it was destroyed."  She remembered Darth Vader's report to her former master.  A mob of crazed Mimban natives had attacked the Circarpasian xenoarcheologists and crushed the crystal, and then brought down the Temple of Pomojema, where it had been hidden.  At Luke's odd expression, she added, "But I guess it wasn't.  Why were you on Mimban?  Vader never mentioned running across you."

"I think he was already planning his offer to me," the farmboy muttered to himself.  That was probably why Darth Vader—Anakin Skywalker—whatever—never mentioned the meeting to the Emperor.  "Leia and I were at the Temple because some local woman told us about the crystal.  It's a long story.  I'll tell you later."  If we get out of here.  "Anyhow, it wasn't destroyed.  After I healed Leia and myself, I gave it to Halla."

"Well, if your assumption is right, then Tawnie has it.  How in all the hells of Corellia did she get a hold of it?"

"I don't think we should worry about that now.  We've just got to get it back.  It belongs in a museum or something."

Mara bent down and picked up Cara's cold lightsaber, and clipped it onto her belt.  Her blue bladed sword was still in her hand.  Better to have an extra weapon and not need it, than to not have one and desperately need it.  She also gingerly picked up her Tatooine flame ring and broken chain.  She slipped it into one of the numerous pockets in the drab peasant's clothing she wore.

She walked to the wall Cara had indicated and drew the old faded curtain aside.  Three stairs led down to a large room, and then the throne Cara had shown sat on top of a stage.  Behind the large and ornate chair Mara could see the top of a Spaarti chamber.  Stretching out with her Force senses, she realized that Tawnie was the only one in the room—the clone of Palpatine was still growing inside the tank.

Keep Tawnie occupied.  I'll take Palpatine, she told him quickly.  She knew that they wouldn't be able to mind-speak for long.  The Kaiburr crystal accentuated Tawnie's power, and she would soon probably be able to break into their thoughts.  They had to get rid of her before that.

Tawnie stood in front of her throne, her head down, feet shoulder-distance apart.  She seemed to be shaking from pure anger.  In her hands was the heart-sized crystal.

"You killed my daughters," she said softly.  "You have proven yourself worthy of being called my daughter.  I would let you leave, but you cheated.  Your little Corellian friend cheated."  She looked up and glared at Mara, her jade eyes flashing.  "Now I will have no mercy on you."

Mara flipped her lightsaber on, echoing Luke's weapon just before Tawnie began tearing the items from the floor at the two Jedi.

Luke used the Force to create a shield around himself.  He knew how easy it was to miss one object, and therefore open himself to more hits.  As Mara was slicing and dodging the broken sections of furniture, she slowly moved back and around so that she was to Tawnie's right side, and she walked forward.

Tawnie's hair began blowing around wildly as she started up another Force storm.  These storms were obviously her strong point.  They caused plenty of damage, though not entirely accurate.

Mara jumped up to keep from being hit by a durasteel chunk, but Tawnie had anticipated this move.  A large wooden shard drove itself into the side of Mara's right knee.  When she hit the ground, she rolled and brushed away the temptation to pull the shard out and lose valuable time.

Seeing that Mara was hurt, Tawnie concentrated further on the Jedi Master.  Luke lost himself in the Force.  He held his undamaged left hand before him, and the hurtling objects veered away from him.  He began his own counterattack, throwing large pieces of the wall back at her and striking the vaulted ceiling above her, attempting to bring part of the ceiling down on the woman.

Mara pushed herself off the floor in time to narrowly miss being decked by a cracked glowlamp.  The majority of the items in the room not nailed down (and several that had been) swirled around in a mad whirlwind around the insane Tawnie.  She tried to ignore the pain in her left knee and lunged for the dais as soon as the other woman stepped off.  She rotated her wrist and switched the saber on, and jumped to the cloning vat that was temporarily unguarded.

"Commander?"

"Yes, Lieutenant?"  Konor Yrevied asked, without turning around.

"Sir, the stormtroopers have landed on Caratos and are within minutes of reaching the Rebels."

"Good.  Keep me updated.  Dismissed."

Konor didn't really care how he knew the location of the Rebel scum.  Tawnie Calanast was capable of using the Force.  She'd given him orders before in his mind.  It was nothing new.  But the latest command, the one she'd given immediately after divulging the Rebel's location was disturbing.  Destory Imperial Center.

"They've reached the house, sir."

Corran watched the house from a safe enough distance away.  Han had woken up when they were moving him, and the Rogue had to gag the other Corellian to keep his cussing inaudible to the Imperial scanners.  He watched the white-armored stormtroopers literally tear apart the house, for any clues as to where they'd gone.  Fingering his blaster, Corran jogged back to the tall Wookiee.

"They'll search there for a while, but they'll probably split up soon to search for us.  We've got to get further away."

Chewbacca grunted his concurrence.  He held his bowcaster in his hands, and glanced back at Han and Talon.  He had taken the gag off of his friend when Solo stopped cursing the ancient gods of Corellia and all the other deities he could think of.  The Wookiee just wasn't sure how much further the injured men could go.  And Corran wasn't looking very good either, though the Rogue pilot just denied it.  Damn Jedi.

"Mara and Luke are busy.  As soon as they finish, they can let me now, and I'll tell them where we are.  Other than that, there's not much we can do about them."

"No!"

Tawnie turned and screamed, a wordless shriek that conveyed all that Mara needed to know.  She plunged the lightsaber into the controls that kept the Palpatine clone's vitals normal.  Sparks flew but Mara didn't waste any time.  With one strong thrust, she impaled the Emperor's clone on the blue and white energy blade.

The clone never woke up.  He just died, silently, allowing the enraged old woman scream for him.

Luke took her momentary hesitation and wrenched the red stone from her hands.  Tawnie grasped at the empty air for the Kaiburr crystal, and then just collapsed onto the floor, sobbing.

Mara yanked the wood out of her leg, although she could feel splinters left inside.  She'd have to get them out later.  She stood up and walked to the woman.

"Mara, Mara, I'm sorry."

"You should be."  Mara hadn't extinguished the glowing saber.

"I never wanted him to steal you.  You—you were my favorite.  The smartest.  The fastest.  You could have followed in my steps.  You would have been the perfect dancer.  That's what I was.  I used to be a Jedi, but I never passed the Trials.  Master Kilani never taught me enough.  I left the Temple, and became a dancer.  And then I met the most charming man.  Senator Palpatine.  He knew who I was, and he helped me.  He gave me the money I needed so I didn't have to work, and he always visited.  He was the dearest man.  And when he began to rise in the Republic, he brought me with him."  Tawnie never looked up during the entire telling.  She took a deep breath to quell her sobs.  "He only asked for one thing—to create clones from me.  I was the perfect woman, he said.  He always wanted me with him.  I don't know what went wrong.  He left me on Wayland, with you and your sisters, and you all began to grow into beautiful young women.  I was proud of you all.  He was making you into his special Hands, his most trusted.  He started to visit me more often, each time taking another of your sisters.

"I never wanted you to be given to that monster.  I loved you.  You were my daughter, not some thing."

Mara remained impassive throughout the woman's entire confession.

"You knew what he was doing, but you didn't care.  You gave us to the monster.  Some mother."

Tawnie's head snapped up.  "You don't understand.  You were just clones.  You weren't really human.  I wanted a daughter, someone who was mine.  And instead he gave me duplicates."  Her tone was disgusted.  Her previous attempt at creating sympathy was destroyed, and she knew it.  "You weren't even faithful to him.  I received that last command, too, Mara Jade.  I saw Skywalker and Vader murder him.  You didn't obey the Emperor.  Killing a clone is not the same thing as killing the real thing.  You destroyed all my plans.  Skywalker was my sacrifice to the reborn Emperor.  If your sisters hadn't been so incompetent, you would have been dead in that prison cell.  I promised him I would see you dead for your betrayal."  Tawnie Force-grabbed the extra lightsaber from Mara's belt and flipped it on, the purple blade lighting up her face.  She knew she wouldn't win, but she also knew she could take one of them down with her.