Disclaimer: I own none of this. This all belongs to the George Lucas and
other folks/companies who are not me.
Chapter Nine
Four days with Callista in hyperspace. They had been the longest four days of Mara's life. Callista had silently insisted on spending almost every waking moment with Mara, watching her every move.
Mara had grown accustomed to being very visible in social and everyday situations after marrying Luke, but after four days, it was getting annoying and tiresome. She had no interest in Callista as a potential friend and she was certain that Callista felt the same way about her and it certainly wasn't making the flight seem any shorter. Neither woman wanted to be there with the other and both allowed it to show on more than one occasion but again both cared about their respective goals more than their mutual dislike. Other than that, the two women really had nothing in common except of course, for Luke and he was not a topic either of them wanted to discuss. So that left them with little but pointed conversation or angry silence.
Mara was grateful that the course change necessary to take them to Shelter had forced them to drop out of hyperspace and was allowing her to speak, however briefly, to her niece. Their return to real space was routine enough with Twin Suns squadron appearing right behind the 'Shadow only moments later.
"Twins Suns Leader to the Jade Shadow. Is everything okay, Mara?" Jaina asked casually.
"Of course," she paused and checked her consoles. "Have you ever done this approach manually, Jaina?"
Silence hung in the air for a moment and then Jaina switched over to a private channel, "Twice," she said shortly, "Why?" Her voice was all business now, her attention fully focused on this small deviation from the original plan. Mara rarely asked questions like that idly, without something particular in mind.
"Something about this doesn't feel right, Jaina. The safe lanes aren't well known, but it is possible that.." Mara trailed off and Jaina reached out through the force to her aunt.
It added another level of communication to their conversation and sometimes provided them with an advantage that they had used many times during Jaina's apprenticeship.
"What about my pilots," Jaina questioned, knowing her aunt well enough to see where Mara was going with this, "With the exception of Kyp none of my pilots have force skills. How do you want to handle that?"
Mara considered that for a moment before she found the solution that they needed. The technique hadn't been widely used in years because most pilots worth their pay despised it, but it would work in this situation.
"One of your pilots can dock in the 'Shadow and we can slave the other ships to ours, one to the 'Shadow, one to your x-wing and one to Kyp's."
Jaina nodded even though no one could see her. "All right," she switched back to the squadron frequency and Mara once again found herself under Callista's intense scrutiny and verbal assault.
"What do you think you're doing, Jade? The chance of getting us all killed is too great. The space in this area is too unpredictable."
"Callista," Mara said not looking up as she busied herself with preparing her ship for what they were about to do, "You're job is to teach the Jedi how to fell the Vong through the force. My job is to get you there." She looked up and met Callista's eyes challengingly, "Don't tell me how to do my job."
"I won't tell you how to do you're job as long as you don't do something stupid and unnecessary because you're afraid that if you take the normal route you might take the chance that the Vong will be there."
Mara looked at her incredulously, "Callista," she said patiently as if talking to a small child, "I'm not going to be goaded into ignoring my instincts or the force just because you feel like calling me a coward." She smirked and looked back down at her console, "Besides with your record, you shouldn't be calling anyone a coward. From what I've heard, running away is what you do best."
Mara didn't need to look up to that, that shot had penetrated Callista's shields and scored a palpable hit.
The older woman opened her mouth to let out a scalding reply.
"Mara," Jaina's voice broke into their increasingly heated conversation and cut Callista off, "Deek will dock with you and Esmen's going to slave her x- wing to the 'Shadow. I'll slave Jag's clawcraft to my x-wing and Kyp will take Tonner."
"Okay," Mara acknowledged the ships positions, but then paused for a moment. A brief frown creased her features, "Are you sure you can handle this, Jaina. I couldn't face your mother," she stumbled over what she was saying, "if something happened to you..."
Jaina laughed, "Mara I'm a Solo and a Jed Knight, my father set the record for the Kessel run and you taught me how to fly, yourself. Of course, I can do this."
"Okay," Mara said with a laugh, "I just wanted to make sure I had asked you. Try and keep up with me, though," she challenged her niece.
Jaina snorted indignantly in response and Mara could practically see her cocky smile, "Don't worry about that, Mara," she started to add a comeback of her own when Kyp's voice broke into their banter.
"If our [i]mission leaders[/i]," he stressed the word "leaders" pointedly, "would deign to continue this very important discussion later, we could actually get to the mission sometime in the next day or so."
"Sarcasm duly noted, Durron," Jaina responded, but both were back to the business at hand.
"Are all the appropriate ships computer's slaved together," Mara asked.
When everyone checked in with affirmative answers, she flipped to a private channel to address Jaina and Kyp. It would be the last time the three Jedi would be able to talk once they entered hyperspace. "Both of you know what to do?"
"Affirmative," Kyp's answer was short and too the point.
"Miss the black holes and get to Shelter first," was Jaina's quick reply.
"Only in you dreams, Goddess," Kyp shot back.
"Children," Mara said coolly, with an air of mock-disapproval. This time she was the one to break up the bickering. "Later," she added firmly. "Enter hyperspace on my mark," she added before they could get off of the subject again. Durron was right the longer they stayed her the longer it would take them to reach Shelter.
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Jaina listened as Mara counted down. "Have you done this before?" Jag's voice in her ear made her jump. She had almost forgotten that he was still on her comm. frequency.
She smiled, "Several times. Do you trust me?"
"I was just curious. Sometimes you're very mysterious about your Jedi skills. I'm not sure what can ask about and what are official Order secrets."
Jaina frowned. Jag had said that didn't care about the fact that she was a Jedi and she didn't think he would lie to her. Not about something like this. "You can always ask me about anything," she said softly ignoring the current situation for a moment. Before Jag could reply though, she heard Mara say, "Mark," and she automatically pushed the levers forward that would take them into hyperspace, falling deeply into the force as she did so.
It was nothing like the piloting that she normally did. She could feel the incredible speeds they were moving at and the convoluted twists and turns that the gravity in the region had been pulled into by the numerous black holes and large stars.
She danced through the tiniest openings, flirted with the gravity of large suns as it tried to suck them in and used it to her own advantage whenever she could. Sweat poured down her face, and she could feel the tension in her muscles building as the time wore on. She smiled though, because this.. Well, this was fun!
Four hours later the most dangerous sections of the region surrounding Shelter was behind them. It had been some of the tightest flying that she had ever done and she didn't even remember half of it. She had been so deeply into the flow of the force, that it reminded her of her flight at Lando Calrissian's asteroid belt.
Still, as they exited hyperspace, she had a job to do. Quickly she undid the controls that slaved Jag's ship to her own as Mara and Kyp did the same aboard their own ships. Now she had on her actual duty here, escorting the Jade Shadow.
"Twin Two," she called out as her half-squadron of pilots checked in, "Take Twin Five and go in ahead of the 'Shadow. Twin Three, take Twin Six and provide some cover from above us. Twin Four, you're with me." She issued her orders with quick efficiency and the squadron easily fell into their positions, leaving Jaina with more time to think before they landed.
Her anger had cooled considerably in the days since they had left Mon Calamari. She was in fact, almost smiling as she thought about Mara's imminent reunion with her son. Even from this distance she could feel her Aunt's impatient joy, that wasn't even dampened by Callista's presence. That scared Jaina at the same time it cheered her up. With her own Jedi trained memory, she remembered when she and Jacen had returned to Coruscant for the first time since their birth. They had only been two or three years old and her mother had been just another stranger to her then. It had been an awkward and almost frightening experience for her back then.
It worried her because she knew how crushed Mara would be if Ben didn't recognize her acted as if he was afraid of her. Her aunt had never told her directly, but she knew it was one of Mara's greatest fears. For such a small child, he already held an incredible power over his mother. For the moment, though, all she could do was hope.
She touched her x-wing down with the ease of routine and popped her cockpit as she stretched and slipped her helmet off. She climbed out slowly and glanced around at her fellow pilots. "Okay, people," she said with a smile as they waited for their new orders, "You're free to go. As of this moment we have no orders. We will, of course, be on stand-by should we be needed, but for the moment just leave your comm. links on. Go get some sleep, rest, eat, whatever seats."
Most of them, tired from the almost constant fighting before this mission were already dispersing while she was talking. Kyp disappeared quickly, too mumbling something about catching up on sleep.
Jag was the only one who lingered with Jaina, Mara and Callista as a group of young Jedi students, led by Kam Solousar and Tionne approached. Jaina stepped up next to her aunt as Tionne, carrying a sleepy Ben Skywalker, stopped in front of Mara.
"Ben," the former assassin who could normally sound terrifying even in the most reached out slowly for her son.
Ben gurgled and waved his hands happily, seeming to suddenly wake up. As Mara raised him to her eye level, Jaina could feel them connect through the force and smiled, her worries relieved as Ben shrieked, "Mama!"
Jaina tuned away as she realized everything was okay on that front and that Mara would undoubtedly not wish not to be disturbed for at least the next few hours. As she turned towards the younger children, she noted that Jag was engaged in a quite conversation with Kam. She gestured at the kids and Valin Horn stepped out of the crowd and walked towards her quickly.
"Jedi Solo," he said formally.
She tried to nod and reply with equal formality, but couldn't pull it off and abandoned the formality. "Hey, Val," she said and ruffled his hair gently, "Relax, it's just me. Our parent have known each other for years and I'm the same student that you [i]accidentally[/i] threw that mud on back at the academy."
He blushed at the memory of that particular prank, but he lost his stiffness, "Sure, Jaina," he responded.
She grinned as she saw Wedge's kid, Myri and Syal, come up behind him. "Just the people I wanted to see," she added as she rummaged through her flight suits many pockets and pulled out several datacards and holocubes. "Your parents asked me to give you these before I left." She had been more than happy to oblige.
As they examined their gifts with excitement, Jaina focused on Valin. "Would you mind doing me a favor, Val?"
He looked up and nodded quickly, "Sure," he said eagerly, "Anything."
She struggled not to laugh at his enthusiasm and gestured to Callista. "Would you mind escorting Callista to her quarters? I have a few things to take care of."
He nodded looking slightly crestfallen that, that was all she wanted, but started quickly nevertheless. Jaina watched slightly bemused as Valin with Syal in tow, led Callista away. She caught a small gesture out of the corner of her eye as they rounded the corner and she raised her eyebrows in surprise.
She turned to Myri, who was still standing beside her and asked curiously, "What was that all about?"
"What," Myri asked, seeming preoccupied and disinterested.
"Valin, Syal, the hand holding.."
To Jaina's surprise, Myri rolled her eyes and snorted with a little sister's disdain. "Oh, that. They're 'dating.'" Clearly disgusted by her older sister's antics, Myri walked away, leaving Jaina feeling happier and more amused than she had been in quite some time. It was very amusing to imagine Wedge's reaction when he found out his daughter was dating Valin Horn, even if they were only twelve and thirteen.
Maybe if she didn't have to be around Callista too much and she could spend some quality time with Jag, Jaina thought, this mission might not be so bad after all.
Chapter Nine
Four days with Callista in hyperspace. They had been the longest four days of Mara's life. Callista had silently insisted on spending almost every waking moment with Mara, watching her every move.
Mara had grown accustomed to being very visible in social and everyday situations after marrying Luke, but after four days, it was getting annoying and tiresome. She had no interest in Callista as a potential friend and she was certain that Callista felt the same way about her and it certainly wasn't making the flight seem any shorter. Neither woman wanted to be there with the other and both allowed it to show on more than one occasion but again both cared about their respective goals more than their mutual dislike. Other than that, the two women really had nothing in common except of course, for Luke and he was not a topic either of them wanted to discuss. So that left them with little but pointed conversation or angry silence.
Mara was grateful that the course change necessary to take them to Shelter had forced them to drop out of hyperspace and was allowing her to speak, however briefly, to her niece. Their return to real space was routine enough with Twin Suns squadron appearing right behind the 'Shadow only moments later.
"Twins Suns Leader to the Jade Shadow. Is everything okay, Mara?" Jaina asked casually.
"Of course," she paused and checked her consoles. "Have you ever done this approach manually, Jaina?"
Silence hung in the air for a moment and then Jaina switched over to a private channel, "Twice," she said shortly, "Why?" Her voice was all business now, her attention fully focused on this small deviation from the original plan. Mara rarely asked questions like that idly, without something particular in mind.
"Something about this doesn't feel right, Jaina. The safe lanes aren't well known, but it is possible that.." Mara trailed off and Jaina reached out through the force to her aunt.
It added another level of communication to their conversation and sometimes provided them with an advantage that they had used many times during Jaina's apprenticeship.
"What about my pilots," Jaina questioned, knowing her aunt well enough to see where Mara was going with this, "With the exception of Kyp none of my pilots have force skills. How do you want to handle that?"
Mara considered that for a moment before she found the solution that they needed. The technique hadn't been widely used in years because most pilots worth their pay despised it, but it would work in this situation.
"One of your pilots can dock in the 'Shadow and we can slave the other ships to ours, one to the 'Shadow, one to your x-wing and one to Kyp's."
Jaina nodded even though no one could see her. "All right," she switched back to the squadron frequency and Mara once again found herself under Callista's intense scrutiny and verbal assault.
"What do you think you're doing, Jade? The chance of getting us all killed is too great. The space in this area is too unpredictable."
"Callista," Mara said not looking up as she busied herself with preparing her ship for what they were about to do, "You're job is to teach the Jedi how to fell the Vong through the force. My job is to get you there." She looked up and met Callista's eyes challengingly, "Don't tell me how to do my job."
"I won't tell you how to do you're job as long as you don't do something stupid and unnecessary because you're afraid that if you take the normal route you might take the chance that the Vong will be there."
Mara looked at her incredulously, "Callista," she said patiently as if talking to a small child, "I'm not going to be goaded into ignoring my instincts or the force just because you feel like calling me a coward." She smirked and looked back down at her console, "Besides with your record, you shouldn't be calling anyone a coward. From what I've heard, running away is what you do best."
Mara didn't need to look up to that, that shot had penetrated Callista's shields and scored a palpable hit.
The older woman opened her mouth to let out a scalding reply.
"Mara," Jaina's voice broke into their increasingly heated conversation and cut Callista off, "Deek will dock with you and Esmen's going to slave her x- wing to the 'Shadow. I'll slave Jag's clawcraft to my x-wing and Kyp will take Tonner."
"Okay," Mara acknowledged the ships positions, but then paused for a moment. A brief frown creased her features, "Are you sure you can handle this, Jaina. I couldn't face your mother," she stumbled over what she was saying, "if something happened to you..."
Jaina laughed, "Mara I'm a Solo and a Jed Knight, my father set the record for the Kessel run and you taught me how to fly, yourself. Of course, I can do this."
"Okay," Mara said with a laugh, "I just wanted to make sure I had asked you. Try and keep up with me, though," she challenged her niece.
Jaina snorted indignantly in response and Mara could practically see her cocky smile, "Don't worry about that, Mara," she started to add a comeback of her own when Kyp's voice broke into their banter.
"If our [i]mission leaders[/i]," he stressed the word "leaders" pointedly, "would deign to continue this very important discussion later, we could actually get to the mission sometime in the next day or so."
"Sarcasm duly noted, Durron," Jaina responded, but both were back to the business at hand.
"Are all the appropriate ships computer's slaved together," Mara asked.
When everyone checked in with affirmative answers, she flipped to a private channel to address Jaina and Kyp. It would be the last time the three Jedi would be able to talk once they entered hyperspace. "Both of you know what to do?"
"Affirmative," Kyp's answer was short and too the point.
"Miss the black holes and get to Shelter first," was Jaina's quick reply.
"Only in you dreams, Goddess," Kyp shot back.
"Children," Mara said coolly, with an air of mock-disapproval. This time she was the one to break up the bickering. "Later," she added firmly. "Enter hyperspace on my mark," she added before they could get off of the subject again. Durron was right the longer they stayed her the longer it would take them to reach Shelter.
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Jaina listened as Mara counted down. "Have you done this before?" Jag's voice in her ear made her jump. She had almost forgotten that he was still on her comm. frequency.
She smiled, "Several times. Do you trust me?"
"I was just curious. Sometimes you're very mysterious about your Jedi skills. I'm not sure what can ask about and what are official Order secrets."
Jaina frowned. Jag had said that didn't care about the fact that she was a Jedi and she didn't think he would lie to her. Not about something like this. "You can always ask me about anything," she said softly ignoring the current situation for a moment. Before Jag could reply though, she heard Mara say, "Mark," and she automatically pushed the levers forward that would take them into hyperspace, falling deeply into the force as she did so.
It was nothing like the piloting that she normally did. She could feel the incredible speeds they were moving at and the convoluted twists and turns that the gravity in the region had been pulled into by the numerous black holes and large stars.
She danced through the tiniest openings, flirted with the gravity of large suns as it tried to suck them in and used it to her own advantage whenever she could. Sweat poured down her face, and she could feel the tension in her muscles building as the time wore on. She smiled though, because this.. Well, this was fun!
Four hours later the most dangerous sections of the region surrounding Shelter was behind them. It had been some of the tightest flying that she had ever done and she didn't even remember half of it. She had been so deeply into the flow of the force, that it reminded her of her flight at Lando Calrissian's asteroid belt.
Still, as they exited hyperspace, she had a job to do. Quickly she undid the controls that slaved Jag's ship to her own as Mara and Kyp did the same aboard their own ships. Now she had on her actual duty here, escorting the Jade Shadow.
"Twin Two," she called out as her half-squadron of pilots checked in, "Take Twin Five and go in ahead of the 'Shadow. Twin Three, take Twin Six and provide some cover from above us. Twin Four, you're with me." She issued her orders with quick efficiency and the squadron easily fell into their positions, leaving Jaina with more time to think before they landed.
Her anger had cooled considerably in the days since they had left Mon Calamari. She was in fact, almost smiling as she thought about Mara's imminent reunion with her son. Even from this distance she could feel her Aunt's impatient joy, that wasn't even dampened by Callista's presence. That scared Jaina at the same time it cheered her up. With her own Jedi trained memory, she remembered when she and Jacen had returned to Coruscant for the first time since their birth. They had only been two or three years old and her mother had been just another stranger to her then. It had been an awkward and almost frightening experience for her back then.
It worried her because she knew how crushed Mara would be if Ben didn't recognize her acted as if he was afraid of her. Her aunt had never told her directly, but she knew it was one of Mara's greatest fears. For such a small child, he already held an incredible power over his mother. For the moment, though, all she could do was hope.
She touched her x-wing down with the ease of routine and popped her cockpit as she stretched and slipped her helmet off. She climbed out slowly and glanced around at her fellow pilots. "Okay, people," she said with a smile as they waited for their new orders, "You're free to go. As of this moment we have no orders. We will, of course, be on stand-by should we be needed, but for the moment just leave your comm. links on. Go get some sleep, rest, eat, whatever seats."
Most of them, tired from the almost constant fighting before this mission were already dispersing while she was talking. Kyp disappeared quickly, too mumbling something about catching up on sleep.
Jag was the only one who lingered with Jaina, Mara and Callista as a group of young Jedi students, led by Kam Solousar and Tionne approached. Jaina stepped up next to her aunt as Tionne, carrying a sleepy Ben Skywalker, stopped in front of Mara.
"Ben," the former assassin who could normally sound terrifying even in the most reached out slowly for her son.
Ben gurgled and waved his hands happily, seeming to suddenly wake up. As Mara raised him to her eye level, Jaina could feel them connect through the force and smiled, her worries relieved as Ben shrieked, "Mama!"
Jaina tuned away as she realized everything was okay on that front and that Mara would undoubtedly not wish not to be disturbed for at least the next few hours. As she turned towards the younger children, she noted that Jag was engaged in a quite conversation with Kam. She gestured at the kids and Valin Horn stepped out of the crowd and walked towards her quickly.
"Jedi Solo," he said formally.
She tried to nod and reply with equal formality, but couldn't pull it off and abandoned the formality. "Hey, Val," she said and ruffled his hair gently, "Relax, it's just me. Our parent have known each other for years and I'm the same student that you [i]accidentally[/i] threw that mud on back at the academy."
He blushed at the memory of that particular prank, but he lost his stiffness, "Sure, Jaina," he responded.
She grinned as she saw Wedge's kid, Myri and Syal, come up behind him. "Just the people I wanted to see," she added as she rummaged through her flight suits many pockets and pulled out several datacards and holocubes. "Your parents asked me to give you these before I left." She had been more than happy to oblige.
As they examined their gifts with excitement, Jaina focused on Valin. "Would you mind doing me a favor, Val?"
He looked up and nodded quickly, "Sure," he said eagerly, "Anything."
She struggled not to laugh at his enthusiasm and gestured to Callista. "Would you mind escorting Callista to her quarters? I have a few things to take care of."
He nodded looking slightly crestfallen that, that was all she wanted, but started quickly nevertheless. Jaina watched slightly bemused as Valin with Syal in tow, led Callista away. She caught a small gesture out of the corner of her eye as they rounded the corner and she raised her eyebrows in surprise.
She turned to Myri, who was still standing beside her and asked curiously, "What was that all about?"
"What," Myri asked, seeming preoccupied and disinterested.
"Valin, Syal, the hand holding.."
To Jaina's surprise, Myri rolled her eyes and snorted with a little sister's disdain. "Oh, that. They're 'dating.'" Clearly disgusted by her older sister's antics, Myri walked away, leaving Jaina feeling happier and more amused than she had been in quite some time. It was very amusing to imagine Wedge's reaction when he found out his daughter was dating Valin Horn, even if they were only twelve and thirteen.
Maybe if she didn't have to be around Callista too much and she could spend some quality time with Jag, Jaina thought, this mission might not be so bad after all.