"Now, then," she said to the guard pulling himself off the floor, "put Skywalker into a speeder and head for Mt. Uzbira. Load him onto my personal ship and have it ready for take off by the time I get there."
The guard made no move toward the unconscious Jedi, but instead approached Callista with maliciousness in his eye. She eyed him with surprised and irritation. He was actually attempting to capture her! Then she remembered her guise. Closing her eyes, she summoned on her powers and transformed herself back into the form of Auria. All three guards shrank back in fear mumbling oaths and prayers in their native languages.
"Now, do as I command!" Callista ordered.
"What shall we do with the woman?" one of the other guards asked humbly.
"I don't care," she replied impatiently. "Shoot her, drown her, bash her in the head for all I care. Just make sure she never wakes up."
"Luke will never wake up either, my dear," a soft voice murmured from the doorway. Guru's commanding presence had an instant effect on the guards. They came to attention immediately and awaited their orders.
"We had a deal," she said. "No harm was to come to Luke."
"The deal has changed. Skywalker has become too much of a liability."
"If you kill him, I won't deliver the spice for you," she threatened. "You'll never even get close enough to the Academy to use it. You need me."
"Your usefulness is questionable. If you value your life and Skywalker's, you will complete your part of the agreement. If not, well, then you can watch as I fillet your lover in front of your eyes."
Callista's eyes flashed with a mixture of anger and fear. "You wouldn't dare. We'll just see what the Vice Admiral has to say about that." She moved toward a communications console, but with one look from Guru, the guards snatched her from her path nearly hauling her off the ground. Callista screeched in outrage, and a great invisible hand seized the guards and hurled them several meters across the room. She stood tall, gathering the Force around her. Her fingers sparked, preparing to unleash Force lightening should anyone come near her.
Guru took a few cautious steps backward, but did not look surprised at Callista's sudden use of the Force. He made a few inconspicuous motions with his fingertips that went unnoticed by the enraged dark Jedi in front of him.
Callista's attention had shifted to the guards holding Luke and Mara. "You will take Skywalker to my ship," she commanded, her voice resonating eerily in the grand room. The guards left Mara where she was and carried Luke toward the door. Callista's gaze then bored into Guru's eyes daring him to try to stop her.
"You pathetic little man," she spat. "Did you really think I would let you render me helpless? Pellaeon's faith in your abilities has clearly been misplaced."
"Perhaps," Guru replied smugly.
Callista eyed him suspiciously, but a Force probe of his mind revealed nothing but inexplicable feeling of triumph. She decided it was time to take her leave, and hurried toward the guards who were almost to the door. Suddenly the door burst open and a snarling beast leaped through the entrance, its attention immediately focusing on her. Callista's stomach dropped into her shoes as she recognized the vornskr and the empty void in the Force surrounding it. The vornskr tugged at its leash dragging its handler into the grand reception room.
Callista shoved her fear away and whipped out her lightsabre. It was only one vornskr. She was sure she would be able to kill it fairly easily. But then three more vornskrs burst through the entrance with their handlers in tow. Callista felt like a heavy blanket had been thrown over her as she belatedly realized that the handlers had ysalamiri on their backs. The creatures' anti-Force bubbles reinforced each other and encompassed the entire room. Although, the vornskrs had calmed when the anti-Force bubble surrounded her, they still saw her as prey. She stumbled slightly, but maintained her balance, determined not to go down without a fight. She charged at the closest beast and managed to slice off its head before a stun blast nailed her in the back. She slumped to the floor barely conscious.
Guru stood over her with an arrogant grin. "You see, I'm not as unprepared as you assumed," he boasted. He gazed down at the three bodies unmercifully. "Take them to the laboratory," he ordered his guards, "and bring the other vornskrs and ysalamiri in case they wake up." He would keep Skywalker alive for the moment to use as leverage against Callista should she decide not to cooperate. And if Skywalker should prove difficult to manage, he could use Jade to manipulate him. No one would stand in his way.
The world slowly came back into focus, and to Mara's dismay, she found herself in the orange glow of the underground laboratory with yet another pounding headache and the smell of sulfur assailing her nostrils. Her back rested against the cold metal of one of the laboratory tables. She wasn't sure how long she had been unconscious, but since the mountain wasn't in flames, she guessed for only a few minutes. But that still left her and Luke only a few minutes to devise a plan and execute it before everyone was incinerated.
She spied a guard a few feet away and remained completely still in hopes he wouldn't realize she had regained consciousness. Instead she glanced around her field of vision to gain her bearings. Her hands and feet had been bound tightly with rope and then she had been dumped on her side with a clear view of the center control station suspended over the burning chasm of the volcano. Guru stood on the center platform with a data pad ordering his men to load crates onto transport speeders. From the amount of crates being moved, Mara estimated that half the merchandise had already been moved to the docking bay on Mt. Uzbira.
Callista stood a few feet away from Guru looking sullen and nervous. She appeared to be unarmed and warily watched Guru like a caged animal. Something had transpired between them. What, Mara had no clue, but whatever it was, it wasn't good. She logged that piece of information away in her mind. It could be useful in the near future.
Slightly to her left and twenty meters away, she saw Luke lying in a similar heap. She caught a slight movement in his head and realized he had regained consciousness. That was good news at least.
Mara dared to discreetly move her hands. As she suspected, Guru's men had removed any possible weapons from her body. Or so they thought. She suppressed a grin and reached into the waist band of her pants. Hidden in the material was a collapsible knife. It wasn't much, but it was a start. She made short work of the ropes binding her hands and feet, silently sawing them into shreds. Once or twice she had to fake unconsciousness when her guard turned to peer a little too closely at her for comfort.
Once free, she glanced over at Luke and realized he was staring back at her. She lifted one of her hands to show him she was loose. He did the same, and Mara felt a rush of admiration and curiosity for how quickly he had accomplished it. Now if they could just work out some kind of coordinated attack. If only they could use the Force. Surprise was their only weapon now, and they would only have one chance to use it, so they had better make it count.
Luke made a movement with his head toward his guard followed by a couple of concealed hand signals. Mara understood. He had a plan. First, they would have to neutralize their guards without alerting Guru or the rest of the workers. They would probably only have a minute or so before Guru realized his captives had broken free.
Luke signaled her with a series of new hand signals followed by an interrogative gesture. They needed a diversion. Mara glanced furtively at her surroundings for anything that would attract attention. A few feet above her, she found it. On the laboratory table sat several large vials of clear liquid marked highly flammable. Making sure the coast was clear, Mara shot out her arm, snatched one of the vials, hid it behind her back and sank back to the ground in seeming-unconsciousness. Through a veil of lashes, she saw the guard glance at her, but make no move toward her. As soon as the guard turned away, she gave Luke the thumbs up signal.
Mara's muscles coiled, ready to spring at any moment. It would be up to her to set events in motion. She twisted the cap so a small but steady stream poured from the vial, and then set it rolling between her and Luke. Her guard's head jerked at the sound, just the distraction she was looking for. She leaped to her feet, clamped one hand over the man's mouth and ran her knife across his larynx. He slumped to the floor with only a soft thump. Mara pushed any feelings of remorse from her consciousness. There was no time for that.
She looked over at Luke in time to see him break the neck of his guard. As she had hoped, her attack had distracted the other guard long enough for Luke to make his move. They exchanged a quick grim but determined look, before proceeding. Mara stooped over her guard and stole his blaster. Luke had confiscated a blaster as well and nodded his readiness for part two of their plan. They ran for the spot Luke had pointed out that would provide good cover as well as a favorable place to fire upon the enemy from. After taking only a few steps, Mara turned and fired at the trail of flammable liquid her rolling vial had left. Guru looked up in time to see a band of fire race along the durasteel floor and explode as it reached the vial.
By that time, Luke and Mara had made it to the relative safety behind a stack of crates. Callista had used their distraction to her advantage and slipped away unnoticed. Guru dashed behind the console on the center platform just narrowly missing getting hit by blaster fire. The workers scurried like a disturbed nest of plasmabugs in search of cover. But Guru and his guards were quicker to recover, and they were soon delivering return fire at his former prisoners.
"We've got less than eight minutes before this place blows," Luke yelled in Mara's ear over the deafening blasts of their blasters.
"Well, then let's get out of here then," Mara replied through gritted teeth.
"Where's Callista? We have to get her out too."
"Callista's the whole reason we're in the mess in the first place!" Mara exclaimed. "She's the enemy, Luke!"
"I can help her," he insisted. "I can turn her back to the light."
"And then live happily ever after with her too, right?" she spat. She didn't even bother to conceal any of the hurt or betrayal she felt. She squeezed off a few more rounds and planted the shots in the chests of two guards.
Luke threw her a surprised glance. "I have no intention of going back to Callista. I thought you knew that. I want to be with you."
"Sure, and that's why you were kissing her in her quarters less than an hour ago."
Mara refused to look at him and missed the guilty expression that passed over his face. "I thought you were dead," he replied weakly. "I had just lost another person I loved while at the same instant someone I had previously thought I had lost came back into my life. And now both of you are back."
Mara didn't say anything for several long seconds. Her emotions warred within her. The scene in Callista's chambers flashed in her memory. A blaster shot rattled the crate next to her head, and she realized this was no time for discussion. "When this is all over, Skywalker, you are going to have to make a choice," she replied and squeezed off a few more rounds.
"I've already made my choice," he said. "I want to be with you. I love you. But I would never forgive myself if I didn't help Callista back to the lightside of the Force." Mara threw him a skeptical look. So he added, "Besides, we don't need anymore dark Jedi trying to hunt us down."
Mara had to agree with that, but she refused to give up the argument entirely. "What if she doesn't want to be saved?" she said coldly. "And if she doesn't, are you going to die trying?"
"There is no try," he replied.
Mara glared at him.
"But you should get to your ship," he urged. "This place is going to blow in a matter of minutes. I don't think I could handle watching you die a second time."
"Forget it, Skywalker. If you are going to die, it will be from me kicking your butt for all the crap you put me through. We're in this together."
"Someone has to stop that transport from leaving Mt. Uzbira. They've already moved half the product. If even one gram of this drug makes it off planet, our enemies could replicate it and deliver it to Yavin IV. It would be disastrous for the Academy."
Before Mara could reply, guttural growls on either side of them cut through the blaster noise. She felt her heart skip a beat. She knew that sound. She stared at the spaces between the towers of crates in the vicinity of the sound's origin. Something prowled behind the boxes, but she only caught brief glimpses of movement. She knew of only one animal that hunted Jedi.
"They have vornskrs," she whispered hoarsely to Luke.
Vornskrs were attracted by Force-strong prey. Guru's drug only made the Force untranslatable for Luke and Mara, it didn't expunge it in any way, which made things just that much more difficult for them. The beasts would be attracted to them, but wouldn't be able to use the Force to defend themselves. Mara gripped her blaster tighter, ready to shoot anything that snarled. The other guards had not let up on the blaster fire, and she was beginning to wonder how much longer the crates would hold up to their attack.
"We have to move," Luke said tensely. "We won't accomplish anything if we stay pinned here."
Mara nodded. "Alright. I'll go to Mt. Uzbira and stop the transport. But you'd better get the hell out of this mountain before it blows."
"I will," he assured her. "I'll cover you until you reach the exit." Mara crouched and readied herself for a mad dash toward the exit, but he grabbed her arm before she could go. "I love you." He kissed her quickly, but passionately. "Be careful."
"You too," she replied. Then she dashed from behind the safety of the crates ducking several blaster shots and dove behind another tower of boxes. She rolled and came up shooting, managing to hit one of the vornskr's in the chest. The beast stumbled, but continued its charge toward its prey. Mara took another shot and nailed it in the head. This time the vornskr fell and did not get up.
Mara weaved between the maze of boxes, always keeping them between her and the deadly fire of the blasters. She duck, dove, rolled and leap-frogged her way to one of the ladders that led up to the next level. She began a quick ascent, but a blaster bolt hit the wall mere centimeters from her shoulder. She fell with a rain of pebbles back to the floor. She had to get to the next level in order to reach the exit, but the ladder left her out in the open. She looked for Luke. He saw her predicament and immediately set about giving her cover. Mara gripped one of the rungs on the ladder and waited for Luke. He popped out from behind the crates and made a mad dash in the opposite direction Mara had taken all the while firing like a madman at Guru's guards. A few of his shots hit the sensitive shield equipment, and alarms began to shriek. Several of the shield panels blocking the heat and noxious fumes failed. Mara took that small distraction and was up the ladder before a single shot was fired at her.
Once on the next level, she hugged the wall and crept toward the exit. From her vantage point, she could see Luke below her exchanging blaster fire with Guru and his men. She longed to join him in the fight, but she knew that their fight would be for nothing if Guru managed to get the spice off-planet. She turned and had almost reached the exit when the door suddenly swung open. Behind it loomed Callista with a vengeful glare.