Double Double Desire and Trouble
(Thanks again go to Jayde Star for being the beta on this.)
Part Four
At first, it was as if Luke and Mara were drifting through the cold breeze. Mara tried to gulp the thin air losing concentration as she struggled for breath. Luke squeezed her hand painfully, but she could feel his strength waning. Mara recovered her focus as they neared the ground, using the force to lessen the energy of their impact, but still hitting the ground hard.
Her entire body ached. Her arm was twisted behind her, still clutched tightly in Skywalker's grip. Mara lifted her head to peer at the Jedi and scrambled to her feet. Adrenalin erased all her pain. Skywalker's face was immobile, eyes closed. She bent down next to the prone man and pushed him onto his back. He rolled bonelessly over, his head lulling to the side. Mara took a quick intake of breath, her heart hammering loudly in her chest. Luke Skywalker appeared dead. She could not sense him, could not feel his presence.
"Skywalker, look at me!" There was no response.
Mara ran her hands frantically over his face, feeling for breath, brushing the ruddy sand from his mouth, and watching his chest for movement. Nothing. The blood drained from her face and she felt as if her actions became sluggish. It was as if reality itself had slowed down, and this one moment in time seemed to become the point at which the universe stopped.
"Luke. Come on, Luke. Don't do this to me!" Mara could feel her emotions, but at a distance. She felt a surge of fear that Luke was really gone. Anger that he would do this to her combined with a desperate desolation. In that instant, Mara could see the remaining days of her life without this farm boy turned Jedi Master widen out before her.
Empty. Meaningless. Alone.
Mara stretched out with the force, struggling to find the bright spark that was so uniquely Luke. A pain seared through her almost blinding in its intensity as she failed to find it. She closed her eyes and collapsed heavily on to his chest. Mara buried her face in Luke's neck, her hands convulsively grabbing his shirt in a tight fist. She could not sense him; she could not sense anything.
She fought with her feelings, realizing that the dark side was pushing at the edges of her mind. When she calmed her emotions, the force resurged within her.
Luke's presence shined brightly within the tapestry of the force. He coughed and groaned. His arm wrapped around her and she could feel his chest shift with his breathing. Mara pulled her head from his neck to see his blue eyes gazing at her. His forehead was furrowed with pain and concern. He was pale, covered in numerous scratches, and very much alive.
"Hey." He said, his voice dry as if he had not spoken in years.
It was the sound of his voice, the faint touch of humor and concern that pushed her over the edge. Mara wept. She wanted to pound on him with her fists for scaring her. She wanted to kiss him just for opening his eyes again. Instead, Mara just covered her face with her hands and tried to turn away.
Luke sat up and dragged her into his arms. He winced slightly, but he held her up against his chest, and stroked her hair down in a soothing gesture. Once she started, she could not seem to stop. It was as if years of controlling her emotions could not be regained within a few seconds, or even a few minutes. Mara pressed her face into the crook of his shoulder, feeling his strong arms wrap around her, and she released all of her pain. Luke whispered into her hair soothing, meaningless words. She could feel his presence shine and she reached for him through the force. He welcomed her and their combined essence shone bright with power and emotion. Before long, the storm ended and she lay exhausted and quiet against him. She was reluctant to move away, enjoying the contact, and not wanting to face the embarrassment of her emotional outburst.
"Don't you ever do that to me again, Skywalker." Mara said softly into his shirt.
Luke kissed the top of her head and said, "I'll make a note of that." He looked up into the sky. The moon had disappeared and the sun had set long ago. The stars shone with an undiluted brilliance that was usually only visible in space. "I think we better get moving, it's starting to get cold."
Mara nodded and pulled away, withdrawing both physically and through the force. Mara glanced up and noticed night had fallen, and the wind had started to blow. She rubbed her face against a relatively clean part of her sleeve and stood up. She gazed at him through red-rimmed eyes and Luke thought she had never looked more beautiful.
"Are you sure you're alright?" She asked him.
Luke stood up, moving painfully. "I don't think there's a part of me that isn't sore, and those scratches on my chest burn like the sands back home, but I'll live."
A wave of self-loathing washed over her as Mara realized while she had succumbed to her emotions, Luke had been suffering from untreated wounds.
Luke felt her change in emotions and said, "Don't be so hard on yourself." He gave her a shy smile. "We can't do much at the moment anyway. I'll clean them up when we get back to the ship. How about yourself? Are you hurt?"
"No, I'm fine." Mara realized they were alone. "Where's Artoo?"
"I don't know. I just hope he's alright. He's probably recharging in the Jade's Fire even as we talk."
Mara looked around for their bag of supplies, but remembered that they had left it behind on the cavern floor. "Well, hopefully, we aren't too far from the Fire. We don't have any food or water. At least we still have our weapons." Mara grew thoughtful for a moment and said, "You know farmboy, I'm beginning to think that this is all one big ploy to avoid cooking for me."
Luke laughed and then winced, but the smile stayed firmly fixed on his face as he said, "I've been found out."
They began walking side by side, back toward the ship.
"Yeah well. I can see right through you." Mara said teasingly.
"I'm never going to play Sabacc with you. You'd probably walk away with the deed to the Academy," Luke joked.
"Oh no. You can't pawn that place off on me. If we're going to play for high stakes, it's going to have to be for something good." Mara declared.
"And what exactly would that be?" Luke asked, eyeing her curiously.
Mara glanced at him suggestively and then adopted an air of nonchalance. "Oh I don't know." Her gaze raked him from head to foot. Luke reddened at her bold inspection of him. "I'm starting to like your droid."
"Artoo? You want Artoo?" Luke said incredulously.
"He has his uses. Although, he's no good at maneuvering across uneven terrain. You might have to throw something else in if the stakes are really high. I'll let you know if the pot's right."
Mara stepped forward to take the lead. Luke stopped in his tracks replaying their conversation in his head. Had Mara been flirting with him? He shook his head ruefully, watching Mara's retreating form with amusement and more than a little interest. A broad smile stretch across his face. Even if his life depended on it, he could not stop grinning.
They had crossed half the distance to the ship, when another volley of quakes shuddered the red earth around them. Mara stopped and Luke closed the distance with a few steps. They gazed across the land, watching for cracks in the land and other dangers. It had grown bitterly cold. Luke was finding it more and more difficult to continue walking. It hurt to breath. It felt like acid had been poured onto the skin of his chest. There was no use in alarming Mara. There was nothing they could do until they made it back to the ship.
Just ahead, Luke noticed some black marks in a fairly regular pattern in the ground. He pointed them out to Mara and they veered ever so slightly to investigate.
"This is from a ship. Probably our raspy voiced visitor's." Mara told him.
"There's something that's been bothering me about him." Luke said, kicking the blackened spot absentmindedly.
"You mean aside from the fact that he was a dark lord of the Sith, and that he managed to steal whatever it was that Yoda returned from the dead to command us to retrieve, and then he left without a scratch on him, with a head start to boot."
"Uh . . . yeah. That's pretty bad, huh?"
"Yep, and there's more." Mara agreed.
"Oh. What is it then?" Luke asked.
"I still sometimes hear his voice, not in my head anymore, thanks to your clone, but in my dreams. I was kind of hoping that I was wrong. It sounded exactly like the Emperor, but there are some things that don't make any sense. The Emperor never did his own fighting, didn't even know how to use a lightsaber as far as I could tell, and it didn't feel quite like him."
They began to resume walking back to the Jade's Fire, closer to each other, their pace much slower. They could see the gleaming vehicle in the distance. It seemed to never get any nearer no matter how far they walked. Mara noticed Luke struggling to continue, but said noting to indicate that she was aware of his difficulty. His breathing was increasingly labored, and he stumbled repeatedly. Mara moved closer to the Jedi, and wrapped an arm around his waist to support him.
He looked down at her, seemed about to protest, and then nodded in acceptance.
"And that's another thing." Luke continued, " Why didn't we sense him?" Luke said glancing down at her and then turning his attention to the stars overhead.
"The Emperor had a skill that I think was probably how he managed to overcome the Jedi Council. It was the ability to stifle the force in other users, and to hide his own presence in the force. When I was young, I overheard a conversation that led me to believe that when he was a senator, none of the Jedi were ever aware that he was a force user."
"Handy skill."
"And deadly."
A whistling sound caused them to stop and they turned to regard R2D2 who was trying vainly to catch up to them. He was coated in red dust, a panel was missing from his dome, but otherwise he appeared to be in good order.
"Artoo!" Luke exclaimed happily.
Mara smiled, amused at the Jedi's attachment to the little droid and her growing fondness for the astromech droid. The little droid caught up to them and followed in their wake as they resumed their journey.
Luke continued with their previous conversation, "How do you think he knew we were going to be here now?"
They walked a few more steps, going slower as Luke relied more heavily on Mara's support. "Did you tell anyone about Yoda's visit?" she asked.
"It seemed too personal, too important to share with any of the Jedi at the Academy. I just told Leia and I doubt she would have shared it with anyone except maybe Han."
"Did you tell her in person?"
Luke was quiet for a moment then said, "No. I sent her a message. You think he was monitoring our communication? I did use our family encrypts."
Mara turned her head to meet Luke's gaze, finding his face disturbingly close she quickly turned away, "Those encrypts are really just intended to maintain your privacy against accidental reception, not against deliberate espionage. If you want to keep Leia informed, I suggest you ask Ghent to provide a personal encrypt code for you."
They walked slowly for a few paces. Luke's breath was rattling in his chest and Mara was breathing heavily from the combined effort of obtaining enough air in the oxygen poor atmosphere and the added burden of assisting Skywalker. She did not want to suggest a rest however, because she feared that once they stopped, the Jedi would be unable to resume their journey to the ship.
"I wonder how long this dark lord has been monitoring our communications?" Luke pushed his free hand into the side of his chest, as if to further support himself.
"You are a high profile target. The Jedi Master and founder of the Jedi Academy. It would be a good idea for you to get a more secure method of communication anyways."
"Another Sith lord." Luke muttered, "I thought I saw the end of them."
"I don't think there will ever be an end to them. That's like trying to abolish evil. It just can't be done. We can only continue to fight it."
Luke squeezed her quickly in a hug and Mara could feel the up swell of emotion her words evoked in him.
She was panting now and she said between labored breaths, "Let's start by getting back to the ship."
They made the rest of the journey in a companionable silence.
Mara dropped into a seat opposite Skywalker the moment they entered the ship. After she regained her breath and felt as if the world had righted itself she retrieved the med kit. Luke painfully began to pull off his shirt. Mara assisted him by slowly pulling the fabric away from the dried blood on his chest. When she saw the ragged wounds she said, "Sith, Luke. They need to invent the portable bacta tank just for you."
She began cleaning his wounds and he hissed at the pain. Luke said, "Bacta. I hate that stuff. It gets in your mouth, your nose, everywhere. You can't taste anything else for a few days later. Nasty stuff."
"Yeah, well, you might want to remember that on a more regular basis." Mara attached a bacta patch to the worst of his wounds, her fingers lingering just a little longer than necessary against the skin of his bare chest. Luke reached to grab her hand and she pulled back and turned away. "I think you'll live. I'll run a toxicology screen through the Fire's computers to make sure that the wounds are free of contamination."
Luke watched her retreat into the cockpit of the ship. His hand moved to his shoulder, where he could still feel the imprint of her touch on his skin.
When she returned she poured some powder into a cup of water and handed it to Skywalker, "Here drink this. It's a broad range detox solution. Just in case."
Luke nodded and drank the stuff. His face twisted at the taste, but he continued to down it until the cup was empty.
"Sorry. I told you, you wouldn't like my cooking. They don't make these for taste."
Luke slumped back against the couch. R2D2 plugged into a droid socket and began to whistle.
Luke sat up abruptly and read the screen. He laughed and then stopped when his chest hurt, "Artoo says that he managed to download some files but they are indecipherable. Either they're encrypted or in some alien language. Artoo thinks that the Sith lord acquired the translation device, but not the actual message."
Mara laughed, "So all we need is to break the code, so to speak and we'll be back on the trail again? I've got to hand it to you Skywalker. Your R2 unit is certainly one of a kind."
"I know." Luke replied, pride evident in his tone.
Artoo twittered happily as he transferred the information into a cube that Luke placed inside a small alcove in the base of his lightsaber. Mara watched this with some interest, admiring the ingenuity of the design.
"I'll send Leia a copy of the files to see if C3P0 recognizes the language or if she can cross reference the information with the Coruscant language database."
"Let Ghent have a crack at deciphering it as well, since he'll have to encode that message anyway." Mara suggested. "I have to return to Janus. I'll drop you off on Yavin so you can get your X-wing. I think Karrde is still on Callipso III if you want to get his people on the decryption process right away."
Luke nodded, "How long do you expect to be on Janus?"
Mara sighed, "Too long. This whole deal was supposed to be at the final stage, just a formality requiring my approval, but it seems to be getting more and more complex. I'll be there awhile."
Luke had started to drift off and Mara said, "Let's get you settled so you can go into a healing trance." Luke was too tired to even reply. Once he was lying in his cot in the back, Mara returned to the cockpit. She did a scan on the Fire's exterior but did not find a tracking device. She knew this meant that there were none of the detectable kinds affixed to the outer hull of the ship. Perhaps their adversary, thinking he had acquired his objective, felt no need to stop them. She shrugged.
Mara piloted the ship off Androden and set a course for Yavin.
With a great effort, Luke entered a deep healing trance. His thoughts were muddled. He needed to clear his head. His dreams were filled with disjoined images of the Emperor bombarding his chest with painful force lightning. He was vaguely aware of thrashing about, getting tangled in a sheet. He felt a cool hand caress his brow and the violence evaporated from his dream, to be replaced by the memory of a red haired woman in his embrace. The fresh scent of her hair filled his nostrils. Peace descended on him and Luke slept.
When Luke Skywalker awoke, he was lying in a private room in the medcenter on Yavin. A single white flower lay on his bedside table. He picked up the flower and examined it. He read the small electronic tag affixed to its stem. It contained Mara's personal frequency code to the Jade's Fire and a copy of her itinerary. He smelled the sweet fragrance of the bloom and smiled.
(Thanks again go to Jayde Star for being the beta on this.)
Part Four
At first, it was as if Luke and Mara were drifting through the cold breeze. Mara tried to gulp the thin air losing concentration as she struggled for breath. Luke squeezed her hand painfully, but she could feel his strength waning. Mara recovered her focus as they neared the ground, using the force to lessen the energy of their impact, but still hitting the ground hard.
Her entire body ached. Her arm was twisted behind her, still clutched tightly in Skywalker's grip. Mara lifted her head to peer at the Jedi and scrambled to her feet. Adrenalin erased all her pain. Skywalker's face was immobile, eyes closed. She bent down next to the prone man and pushed him onto his back. He rolled bonelessly over, his head lulling to the side. Mara took a quick intake of breath, her heart hammering loudly in her chest. Luke Skywalker appeared dead. She could not sense him, could not feel his presence.
"Skywalker, look at me!" There was no response.
Mara ran her hands frantically over his face, feeling for breath, brushing the ruddy sand from his mouth, and watching his chest for movement. Nothing. The blood drained from her face and she felt as if her actions became sluggish. It was as if reality itself had slowed down, and this one moment in time seemed to become the point at which the universe stopped.
"Luke. Come on, Luke. Don't do this to me!" Mara could feel her emotions, but at a distance. She felt a surge of fear that Luke was really gone. Anger that he would do this to her combined with a desperate desolation. In that instant, Mara could see the remaining days of her life without this farm boy turned Jedi Master widen out before her.
Empty. Meaningless. Alone.
Mara stretched out with the force, struggling to find the bright spark that was so uniquely Luke. A pain seared through her almost blinding in its intensity as she failed to find it. She closed her eyes and collapsed heavily on to his chest. Mara buried her face in Luke's neck, her hands convulsively grabbing his shirt in a tight fist. She could not sense him; she could not sense anything.
She fought with her feelings, realizing that the dark side was pushing at the edges of her mind. When she calmed her emotions, the force resurged within her.
Luke's presence shined brightly within the tapestry of the force. He coughed and groaned. His arm wrapped around her and she could feel his chest shift with his breathing. Mara pulled her head from his neck to see his blue eyes gazing at her. His forehead was furrowed with pain and concern. He was pale, covered in numerous scratches, and very much alive.
"Hey." He said, his voice dry as if he had not spoken in years.
It was the sound of his voice, the faint touch of humor and concern that pushed her over the edge. Mara wept. She wanted to pound on him with her fists for scaring her. She wanted to kiss him just for opening his eyes again. Instead, Mara just covered her face with her hands and tried to turn away.
Luke sat up and dragged her into his arms. He winced slightly, but he held her up against his chest, and stroked her hair down in a soothing gesture. Once she started, she could not seem to stop. It was as if years of controlling her emotions could not be regained within a few seconds, or even a few minutes. Mara pressed her face into the crook of his shoulder, feeling his strong arms wrap around her, and she released all of her pain. Luke whispered into her hair soothing, meaningless words. She could feel his presence shine and she reached for him through the force. He welcomed her and their combined essence shone bright with power and emotion. Before long, the storm ended and she lay exhausted and quiet against him. She was reluctant to move away, enjoying the contact, and not wanting to face the embarrassment of her emotional outburst.
"Don't you ever do that to me again, Skywalker." Mara said softly into his shirt.
Luke kissed the top of her head and said, "I'll make a note of that." He looked up into the sky. The moon had disappeared and the sun had set long ago. The stars shone with an undiluted brilliance that was usually only visible in space. "I think we better get moving, it's starting to get cold."
Mara nodded and pulled away, withdrawing both physically and through the force. Mara glanced up and noticed night had fallen, and the wind had started to blow. She rubbed her face against a relatively clean part of her sleeve and stood up. She gazed at him through red-rimmed eyes and Luke thought she had never looked more beautiful.
"Are you sure you're alright?" She asked him.
Luke stood up, moving painfully. "I don't think there's a part of me that isn't sore, and those scratches on my chest burn like the sands back home, but I'll live."
A wave of self-loathing washed over her as Mara realized while she had succumbed to her emotions, Luke had been suffering from untreated wounds.
Luke felt her change in emotions and said, "Don't be so hard on yourself." He gave her a shy smile. "We can't do much at the moment anyway. I'll clean them up when we get back to the ship. How about yourself? Are you hurt?"
"No, I'm fine." Mara realized they were alone. "Where's Artoo?"
"I don't know. I just hope he's alright. He's probably recharging in the Jade's Fire even as we talk."
Mara looked around for their bag of supplies, but remembered that they had left it behind on the cavern floor. "Well, hopefully, we aren't too far from the Fire. We don't have any food or water. At least we still have our weapons." Mara grew thoughtful for a moment and said, "You know farmboy, I'm beginning to think that this is all one big ploy to avoid cooking for me."
Luke laughed and then winced, but the smile stayed firmly fixed on his face as he said, "I've been found out."
They began walking side by side, back toward the ship.
"Yeah well. I can see right through you." Mara said teasingly.
"I'm never going to play Sabacc with you. You'd probably walk away with the deed to the Academy," Luke joked.
"Oh no. You can't pawn that place off on me. If we're going to play for high stakes, it's going to have to be for something good." Mara declared.
"And what exactly would that be?" Luke asked, eyeing her curiously.
Mara glanced at him suggestively and then adopted an air of nonchalance. "Oh I don't know." Her gaze raked him from head to foot. Luke reddened at her bold inspection of him. "I'm starting to like your droid."
"Artoo? You want Artoo?" Luke said incredulously.
"He has his uses. Although, he's no good at maneuvering across uneven terrain. You might have to throw something else in if the stakes are really high. I'll let you know if the pot's right."
Mara stepped forward to take the lead. Luke stopped in his tracks replaying their conversation in his head. Had Mara been flirting with him? He shook his head ruefully, watching Mara's retreating form with amusement and more than a little interest. A broad smile stretch across his face. Even if his life depended on it, he could not stop grinning.
They had crossed half the distance to the ship, when another volley of quakes shuddered the red earth around them. Mara stopped and Luke closed the distance with a few steps. They gazed across the land, watching for cracks in the land and other dangers. It had grown bitterly cold. Luke was finding it more and more difficult to continue walking. It hurt to breath. It felt like acid had been poured onto the skin of his chest. There was no use in alarming Mara. There was nothing they could do until they made it back to the ship.
Just ahead, Luke noticed some black marks in a fairly regular pattern in the ground. He pointed them out to Mara and they veered ever so slightly to investigate.
"This is from a ship. Probably our raspy voiced visitor's." Mara told him.
"There's something that's been bothering me about him." Luke said, kicking the blackened spot absentmindedly.
"You mean aside from the fact that he was a dark lord of the Sith, and that he managed to steal whatever it was that Yoda returned from the dead to command us to retrieve, and then he left without a scratch on him, with a head start to boot."
"Uh . . . yeah. That's pretty bad, huh?"
"Yep, and there's more." Mara agreed.
"Oh. What is it then?" Luke asked.
"I still sometimes hear his voice, not in my head anymore, thanks to your clone, but in my dreams. I was kind of hoping that I was wrong. It sounded exactly like the Emperor, but there are some things that don't make any sense. The Emperor never did his own fighting, didn't even know how to use a lightsaber as far as I could tell, and it didn't feel quite like him."
They began to resume walking back to the Jade's Fire, closer to each other, their pace much slower. They could see the gleaming vehicle in the distance. It seemed to never get any nearer no matter how far they walked. Mara noticed Luke struggling to continue, but said noting to indicate that she was aware of his difficulty. His breathing was increasingly labored, and he stumbled repeatedly. Mara moved closer to the Jedi, and wrapped an arm around his waist to support him.
He looked down at her, seemed about to protest, and then nodded in acceptance.
"And that's another thing." Luke continued, " Why didn't we sense him?" Luke said glancing down at her and then turning his attention to the stars overhead.
"The Emperor had a skill that I think was probably how he managed to overcome the Jedi Council. It was the ability to stifle the force in other users, and to hide his own presence in the force. When I was young, I overheard a conversation that led me to believe that when he was a senator, none of the Jedi were ever aware that he was a force user."
"Handy skill."
"And deadly."
A whistling sound caused them to stop and they turned to regard R2D2 who was trying vainly to catch up to them. He was coated in red dust, a panel was missing from his dome, but otherwise he appeared to be in good order.
"Artoo!" Luke exclaimed happily.
Mara smiled, amused at the Jedi's attachment to the little droid and her growing fondness for the astromech droid. The little droid caught up to them and followed in their wake as they resumed their journey.
Luke continued with their previous conversation, "How do you think he knew we were going to be here now?"
They walked a few more steps, going slower as Luke relied more heavily on Mara's support. "Did you tell anyone about Yoda's visit?" she asked.
"It seemed too personal, too important to share with any of the Jedi at the Academy. I just told Leia and I doubt she would have shared it with anyone except maybe Han."
"Did you tell her in person?"
Luke was quiet for a moment then said, "No. I sent her a message. You think he was monitoring our communication? I did use our family encrypts."
Mara turned her head to meet Luke's gaze, finding his face disturbingly close she quickly turned away, "Those encrypts are really just intended to maintain your privacy against accidental reception, not against deliberate espionage. If you want to keep Leia informed, I suggest you ask Ghent to provide a personal encrypt code for you."
They walked slowly for a few paces. Luke's breath was rattling in his chest and Mara was breathing heavily from the combined effort of obtaining enough air in the oxygen poor atmosphere and the added burden of assisting Skywalker. She did not want to suggest a rest however, because she feared that once they stopped, the Jedi would be unable to resume their journey to the ship.
"I wonder how long this dark lord has been monitoring our communications?" Luke pushed his free hand into the side of his chest, as if to further support himself.
"You are a high profile target. The Jedi Master and founder of the Jedi Academy. It would be a good idea for you to get a more secure method of communication anyways."
"Another Sith lord." Luke muttered, "I thought I saw the end of them."
"I don't think there will ever be an end to them. That's like trying to abolish evil. It just can't be done. We can only continue to fight it."
Luke squeezed her quickly in a hug and Mara could feel the up swell of emotion her words evoked in him.
She was panting now and she said between labored breaths, "Let's start by getting back to the ship."
They made the rest of the journey in a companionable silence.
Mara dropped into a seat opposite Skywalker the moment they entered the ship. After she regained her breath and felt as if the world had righted itself she retrieved the med kit. Luke painfully began to pull off his shirt. Mara assisted him by slowly pulling the fabric away from the dried blood on his chest. When she saw the ragged wounds she said, "Sith, Luke. They need to invent the portable bacta tank just for you."
She began cleaning his wounds and he hissed at the pain. Luke said, "Bacta. I hate that stuff. It gets in your mouth, your nose, everywhere. You can't taste anything else for a few days later. Nasty stuff."
"Yeah, well, you might want to remember that on a more regular basis." Mara attached a bacta patch to the worst of his wounds, her fingers lingering just a little longer than necessary against the skin of his bare chest. Luke reached to grab her hand and she pulled back and turned away. "I think you'll live. I'll run a toxicology screen through the Fire's computers to make sure that the wounds are free of contamination."
Luke watched her retreat into the cockpit of the ship. His hand moved to his shoulder, where he could still feel the imprint of her touch on his skin.
When she returned she poured some powder into a cup of water and handed it to Skywalker, "Here drink this. It's a broad range detox solution. Just in case."
Luke nodded and drank the stuff. His face twisted at the taste, but he continued to down it until the cup was empty.
"Sorry. I told you, you wouldn't like my cooking. They don't make these for taste."
Luke slumped back against the couch. R2D2 plugged into a droid socket and began to whistle.
Luke sat up abruptly and read the screen. He laughed and then stopped when his chest hurt, "Artoo says that he managed to download some files but they are indecipherable. Either they're encrypted or in some alien language. Artoo thinks that the Sith lord acquired the translation device, but not the actual message."
Mara laughed, "So all we need is to break the code, so to speak and we'll be back on the trail again? I've got to hand it to you Skywalker. Your R2 unit is certainly one of a kind."
"I know." Luke replied, pride evident in his tone.
Artoo twittered happily as he transferred the information into a cube that Luke placed inside a small alcove in the base of his lightsaber. Mara watched this with some interest, admiring the ingenuity of the design.
"I'll send Leia a copy of the files to see if C3P0 recognizes the language or if she can cross reference the information with the Coruscant language database."
"Let Ghent have a crack at deciphering it as well, since he'll have to encode that message anyway." Mara suggested. "I have to return to Janus. I'll drop you off on Yavin so you can get your X-wing. I think Karrde is still on Callipso III if you want to get his people on the decryption process right away."
Luke nodded, "How long do you expect to be on Janus?"
Mara sighed, "Too long. This whole deal was supposed to be at the final stage, just a formality requiring my approval, but it seems to be getting more and more complex. I'll be there awhile."
Luke had started to drift off and Mara said, "Let's get you settled so you can go into a healing trance." Luke was too tired to even reply. Once he was lying in his cot in the back, Mara returned to the cockpit. She did a scan on the Fire's exterior but did not find a tracking device. She knew this meant that there were none of the detectable kinds affixed to the outer hull of the ship. Perhaps their adversary, thinking he had acquired his objective, felt no need to stop them. She shrugged.
Mara piloted the ship off Androden and set a course for Yavin.
With a great effort, Luke entered a deep healing trance. His thoughts were muddled. He needed to clear his head. His dreams were filled with disjoined images of the Emperor bombarding his chest with painful force lightning. He was vaguely aware of thrashing about, getting tangled in a sheet. He felt a cool hand caress his brow and the violence evaporated from his dream, to be replaced by the memory of a red haired woman in his embrace. The fresh scent of her hair filled his nostrils. Peace descended on him and Luke slept.
When Luke Skywalker awoke, he was lying in a private room in the medcenter on Yavin. A single white flower lay on his bedside table. He picked up the flower and examined it. He read the small electronic tag affixed to its stem. It contained Mara's personal frequency code to the Jade's Fire and a copy of her itinerary. He smelled the sweet fragrance of the bloom and smiled.