~7~

Mission Meeting


Breakfast was an unusually quiet affair, as every person around the table seemed to be occupied with their own private thoughts, although an irresistible air of excitement hung about them. Tara and Anakin, evidently in one of their more passionate moods, kept exchanging bashful glances, as though neither one could believe that they had been so lucky as to find such a worthy/intelligent/attractive/mostly superlative partner, and Lilandra could only assume that what they'd gotten up to after returning to bed the night before had somehow led to their renewed fascination with each other.

Mara gazed solemnly at the table, pushing her porridge around her bowl and succeeding in transmogrifying it into a white, pulpy soup that had a thin film of milk floating on its surface, while Luke appeared lost in concentrated though, a serious expression on his face.

Lilandra knew better than to attempt a conversation, knowing full well that if she did, it would inevitably turn to the map. This was not a bad thing, in her mind, but clearly, the others were having a difficult time believing the previous day's events. It seemed almost as if they'd written the whole experience off to some strange, collective dream that became slightly embarrassing in its irrationality during the daylight hours.

Consequently, she had not been able to bring herself to tell anybody else about the visions that had haunted her in the forest. She feared that the absurdity of her dreams would sufficiently disturb them enough to dispel any adventurous thoughts they might themselves be harboring.

She had also noticed that everyone else had failed to notice Kerryna's absence from the table this morning. It was not unusual for Kerryna to skip meals, of course, but Lilandra's mind flashed back to dinner the night before. Kerryna had been silent throughout the meal, true to form, but Lilandra had noticed that her sister had seemed whiter than usual, more tense as she listened to the excited conversations with avid attention.

Jacen, who was sitting beside Lilandra this morning, noticed the senator gazing absently at the empty chair her sister normally filled, and leaned over.

"Kerryna feeling alright?" he asked.

"She must've had a stale cruller for dessert last night," Lilandra whispered back. "You're slipping, Jace."

He chuckled softly. "I swear there was one that looked exactly like Yoda in last night's batch – ears and everything."

Lilandra giggled, and spooned some more porridge into her mouth.

Jaina, on her other side, tipped her head back and emptied the contents of the bottom of her bowl down her throat, and chased them down with the last gulp of her juice, belching with an air of contentment.

"Darling, that was superb," Dave said admiringly, cuffing her shoulder while Tara looked appalled.

She shrugged demurely, flipping a lock of her brown hair over her shoulder and winking sidelong at Lil.

Dave and Jaina seemed to be the only other Jedi in the room who were just as excited about the map and the prospect of possible adventure as Lilandra was – the trio spent the remainder of the meal exchanging thrilled glances until Luke stood, cleared his throat, and said, "Right … I'd like to have a word with you all in the war room after breakfast, if you could."

He appeared to want to say more, but then lost his nerve for some unknown reason, and strode from the room, his cloak billowing behind him. Everyone turned surreptitiously to look at Mara; she simply watched him go, her face betraying nothing of her thoughts.


The group assembled in the war room shortly afterwards, maps and datapads and styluses in hand, ready to hear what Luke had to say to them.

Lilandra took her seat on a wooden bench near the front of the room, before a lopsided podium and dusty riser, upon which Luke stood, fidgeting nervously. Lil knew he didn't like public speaking, but there was something else plaguing him – perhaps Mara's expressionless face at Lilandra's right hand. She felt a tiny twinge of annoyance towards the woman. If she was planning to dash everyone's unspoken hopes for a bit of summer galactic exploration …

Lilandra forced her fists to unclench, knowing that she was being highly unreasonable, for Luke had conceded nothing in the forest, and busied herself with explaining the map to Jacen, who sat on her left.

One by one, the Jedi filed in – Tara and Ani sat behind Lilandra and Jacen, with Jaina and Dave across the narrow aisle between the two rows of benches. Leia had come out of curiosity, having caught wind of the happenings of yesterday by way of one of her children, most likely. Han Solo hovered in the doorway behind her, looking jovial, as he always did when the Jedi started in with their 'quaint' religious practices. Lilandra heard Jaina hiss something under her breath, and knew that Dave was shooting scathing glances at his noticeably armed father-in-law.

Before the visual tensions between Dave and Han had a chance to come to verbal blows (and not for the first time), Luke straightened up slightly at the podium, and called for attention. Lilandra caught his eye, and gave him an encouraging smile, which he didn't return. The room's occupants lapsed into attentive silence, and Lilandra noticed worriedly that once again, Kerryna had failed to be present. She had no further opportunity to dwell on this, however, because Luke had started speaking.

"Well," he said, "I'm assuming you all know why I've assembled you here this morning, so I won't elaborate too much on that, except to remind some of you who were less involved in yesterday afternoon's proceedings of the situation at hand."

At this, Leia leaned forward, looking intrigued.

"As it stands, we appear to have made some sort of contact with the unknown prisoners of an Imperial penal colony, situated roughly between the outer rim of the Kathol Sector and the region known as wild space – or rather, the prisoners have successfully made contact with us. However, we have reason to believe that the message intercepted yesterday was not a recent one. Rather, it appears to have been sent anywhere from eight to ten *years* ago, meaning that it traveled to us by very primitive means unknown.

"Now, based on the information I've been able to collect from various sources – "

Here he paused and glanced at Mara.

" – It seems that the world in question is Terapinn, a top-secret project of the Empire's from about twenty years ago. Only those among Emperor Palpatine's upper echelons were informed of the specifics of the project, which included the capture and transport of prisoners of war to the planet Terapinn on the outskirts of the galaxy, where they were to be left with no technology, no provisions, and no means of returning to the inhabited parts of the galaxy. As we've received what we perceive to be a call for help from these people, it seems that the project was carried out, although not entirely to plan, it appears.

"No one is certain of the reason for the imprisonment of these individuals, nor is there any existing record of their identities that we know of. Whoever they were, the Emperor wanted to be entirely certain that the galaxy would never hear from them again. All we know is that ten years ago, they found a means of contacting someone they believed would come to their aid, be that a representative of the Rebel Alliance, or possibly someone else they thought to be inhabiting this moon at that time."

Luke stopped for a moment, allowing all of this to sink into the heads of the people in front of them. Tentatively, Lilandra raised her hand for an opportunity to speak. Luke shot her a severe glance, which Lilandra returned with a snarl of her own.

"Forgive me," she started firmly, then softened to ask, "but wasn't the war over by then?"

"Yes and no," Luke replied, looking almost relieved. "Some claim that the war ended when Palpatine died, but most readily forget the fifteen years' battle against his many seconds-in-command: Grand Admiral Thrawn, Admiral Daala, and the others who attempted to recreate his dictatorship in his stead. Which leads me to assume that even though the prisoners of Terapinn had no means of knowing what was going on in the outside galaxy, they were smart enough to realize that whoever was attempting to overthrow the Empire at the time they were exiled was probably still trying to do so ten years on."

"They really overestimated the Empire's abilities, then," Han scoffed from the door, drawing a nervous tittering from the crowd.

"That's beside the point," Luke said sternly, attracting focus again. "The point is, we are now faced with a choice, and the path we decide upon depends on two possibilities: firstly, the possibility that there may still be people living on Terapinn, and secondly, the possibility that with our advanced hyperspace technologies, we may be able to reach Terapinn not within ten years, but perhaps a day or two at most."

Lilandra couldn't help but smile; perhaps Luke was not as self-absorbed as he'd presented himself to her that morning. He'd considered the meaning of her visions, the implications that there were forces at work here greater than any they had been able to master, and he was prepared to act on them … if only the others would.

A quick glance around the room told Lilandra that most of them had made up their minds the minute the map had arrived – that if there were indeed survivors of Palpatine's madness still out there somewhere, the only humane course of action that wouldn't leave them with a lingering feeling of guilt would be to go to them. Or, on the other hand, if it turned out that they were all dead – for a lot could happen in ten years, Lilandra knew – it was still reasonable for them to assume the grim task of returning the remains to their rightful homes in the galaxy. Whatever the case, Lilandra knew, as Luke seemed to know, they would be going to Terapinn this summer. It was just a matter of deciding exactly who would go, and how soon.

"I think you all understand the situation at hand," Luke said solemnly, "and the only task that remains is to decide the following: that is, who will stay, and who will go."

He let this extraordinary pronouncement sink into the heads of his comrades for a moment before speaking again.

"Now, Mara and I talked this over briefly before breakfast this morning, and envisioned something of a schematic for the impending journey. Because of its highly advanced hyperdrive and fueling capacity, we feel that the Jadesaber would be the most capable ship for traveling the distance to Terapinn. The Jadesaber has room for a crew of seven: naturally, myself and Mara will be accompanying the remaining five to pilot the ship and act as chaperones, if need be."

"That's rich," Jacen hissed to Lilandra, who glanced sideways at a stiff-faced Mara. "Those two need chaperones more than we do, or they're liable to kill each other on a journey that long."

"Shh!" Lilandra scolded him, giggling quietly. "Let him finish."

"We need five other crew members of various capabilities to accompany us on the journey, and luckily, we have a very qualified bunch of students here with us – more than enough to have five make the actual trip to Terapinn, and four to stay back as a safety net. We'll have messaging equipment aboard the Jadesaber that we hope will be at least slightly more immediate than whatever the Terapinn prisoners have available, should we need to relay home in an emergency.

"So, without further ado, I'll inform you of the decisions I have reached concerning the ideal crew for this journey, and some of the people we have in mind. We need: a diplomat and linguist – someone who is good at reasoning with people and who knows a few languages. Both Mara and myself are good with languages, but rubbish at negotiations, and Leia, as the Chief of State, is needed here on Yavin to deal with galactic politics. That leaves you, Lilandra," Luke said, looking at her. "It's only fair that you should come along anyway, being something of a visionary for this entire mission." He gave her a wry wink, as if to say,

"At least with you around, we'll expect disaster – it won't come as such a surprise."

Lilandra grinned, pleased.

"We also need another two pilots. The four of us – Mara, the others, and myself – will take it in six-hour shifts in the cockpit, flying and hyper-navigating, then six hours to rest while the other pair takes over. Jaina, Anakin – you're both checked out with General Antilles at Rogue Squadron as registered pilots and hyperspace navigators. What do you say?"

Jaina and her younger brother exchanged a glance before giving Luke the thumbs-up.

"Excellent. Now, as an aside to that, we need two people on the ground here at Yavin, tracking our motions. We'll outfit the Jadesaber with a homing device – Dave?"

"I'm on it, Luke," Dave nodded.

"Great. The tracking equipment in this room can pick up the device. We need two people who are familiar with it to check it at regular intervals during the day and night."

"I can help there, Uncle Luke," Jacen offered. "Dad and I – we know the stuff inside out and backwards."

Luke gave Jacen a questioning look. "And the flight to Terapinn doesn't interest you?" he asked. "We could have use for your talents aboard the Jadesaber."

"Nah," Jacen said, waving his hand dismissively. "Besides, the people here would go hungry if I left."

Luke grinned. "All right. That means we've got an opening for a technician aboard the ship. We've got Anakin, but we need a co-technician, in case something breaks down while he's in the cockpit. What do you say, Dave?"

"Cool," Dave said, and Jaina looked happy.

Lilandra risked a glance at Han's reaction to this – he also seemed very happy to be rid of his son-in-law for a couple of weeks.

"That leaves one post," Luke said, looking more pleased than he had half an hour before. "And that's a doctor." He looked straight at Tara. "You might find yourself faced with the most unpleasant task of all of us if there prove to be no survivors, or you might have the easiest job of all, that being nothing."

"I think I'm up to the challenge," Tara said, slipping her hand in Anakin's.

"Good," said Luke, and his smile was full of pride. "That settles it, then. We'll depart as soon as everything is in order, which shouldn't take more than a day or two. Meaning that those of you who don't have preparatory tasks to be performing should be packing your things and reading up on your history. These prisoners, when and if we find them, will undoubtedly have many questions. Our most important job is to be as sympathetic and understanding as possible. These will be very scared and vulnerable people – I trust you don't need much more practice with how to deal with such people. You're all highly experienced and qualified in your various professions, but above all, you are representatives of the finest academy in the galaxy. Do live up to that reputation.

"Now, is everyone clear? Seven flight crew, four ground personnel – "

"Four?" Jaina asked. "I only counted three."

"There should be four," Luke frowned. "Who have we forgotten? There's Han, Leia, and Jacen, and …"

"Oh, Kerryna!" Lilandra blurted out, and jumped up from her bench.

There was a long, awkward silence, during which everyone looked nervously at Lilandra, and then at Luke, to see what he would prescribe.

"Well …" he began.

"She wasn't here," Jaina said quickly. "It's her own fault that she missed it. All the positions have been filled. Sorry, Lil." She gave Lilandra a supercilious look, thinly disguised as sympathy.

Lilandra frowned. She understood why none of her friends were very keen to have a former Dark Lord on their mission team, but what would Kerryna think when she found out?

"We'll talk later, Lilandra," Luke said, and raised his arms to dismiss the meeting.

Lilandra was first to hurry from the hall, eager to find her sister and fill her in on the recent happenings. She must know about the map, Lilandra thought, but stopped abruptly as she saw a flash of loose, dark blonde curls and a flat-soled boot disappearing around the corner ahead and up the roof stairs. She felt a flash of guilt as she realized that, of course, Kerryna had been listening at the door the whole time.