The Emerald Price – Part 3

By Ash Darklighter

Disclaimer: - The characters and situations used in this story are the property of George Lucas and Lucasfilm Ltd. I am only using them for some entertainment and will not even make one Republican credit from this endeavour. This is set around eight to ten years after Luke and Mara met each other for the first time. This one is for all the girls on the AA list.

The Millennium Falcon

"Luke… Luke, buddy! Time to wake up."

Luke shifted uncomfortably on a bunk in the Falcon's crew quarters and opened the eyes he'd felt he'd just closed. "I'm awake, Han," he said quietly, resignation in his voice. "I couldn't sleep much anyhow."

"That's not true, Junior." Han looked in concern at the younger man. Luke's face showed his worry and fatigue.

"True enough."

"I would have given you longer if I could but that last jump you co-ordinated got us there in hours rather than days. Leia will kill me when she sees the state you're in, kid. I'm supposed to be keeping an eye on you."

"Han, I'm fine. I got what…?" He peered at his wrist chrono. "Five hours you said? That's a long lie. Come on, how many times did we get much less than that? On Hoth, for instance, we never got enough sleep. They kept wanting us to ride out on those ornery, smelly taun-tauns… remember?"

"True." Han shivered just at the mention of the planet of ice and snow and ignored the mention of the taun-tauns. "Don't you still owe me for that one, kid?"

"I think so. Remember being a wall decoration? I suspect it was an even trade. Hoth Icicle for Hutt wall ornament."

"Yeah, yeah. I remember. I try not to, but I do." Han changed the subject swiftly. "I've made some caf."

"Hope it's strong."

"It's strong. This stuff could fuel the Falcon."

"I'll need a fork then?" Luke gave a tired grin as he pushed his bantha-wool blanket to one side and swung his feet to the deck plates, searching around for his black leather boots.

Han leaned on the bulkhead near the door. "I never thought that you could do it, kid. But you've taken us all the way out here in half the time. Must have been kinda tricky?" He pulled away from the wall and headed along the corridors.

Luke followed Han through to the Falcon's tiny galley. "Wouldn't like to do it too often. I just hoped the Force would take us here by the fastest route possible. It was strange - I could see the entire route mapped out in my head."

"Yeah?" Han poured Luke a mug of thick black caf and pushed a pastry at him. "Thank you, Skywalker, the human star chart." He looked critically at the Jedi, for once not swathed in tunic and Jedi cloak but instead dressed in a pale blue shirt and black pants. It somehow made Luke appear vulnerable. Han hadn't seen the kid like that in a long time. "Here, you need to eat too. Leia thinks you're too thin."

"I'm not too thin – I'm streamlined. You can't have a fat Jedi Master. This sure beats ration bars and it's real food. I never turn down real food. Don't know the next time I'll get it." He took a swig of the strong black brew and gasped as it exploded through his tired body. "That just hits the spot."

"Leia says you're too thin." He patted his own lean stomach. "She never says that about me any more. She's had me on a diet and prescribed extra exercise."

"I'll believe that when I see it."

"Are you calling me lazy?"

Luke snorted.

"Yeah! We've never had time to get lazy, have we?"

Luke shook his head. "No."

"We're not that far from the nearest inhabited star system. I'd like to land, refuel and take on extra provisions. I know you want to find Mara, kid, but…"

"No, it's a good idea – we need to be prepared. If Mara has passed this way I might be able to get an echo of her presence."

"An echo?" Han quirked up one eyebrow.

"Mara has a strong presence in the Force. Stronger than most…"

"Apart from my kids, my wife, Kyp Durron and you. Even I can sense her energy and I'm not Force sensitive."

Luke nodded. "One of Mara's strengths is her ability to communicate through the Force to other users. When the Emperor died this ability was blocked until she and I made contact."

"I understand. The more time she spends around other Jedi the skill improves."

"Yeah! She's learning to open up to the Force." Luke didn't add that he thought she was also opening up to him in ways she wouldn't like. He suspected her link to the Emperor had transferred itself to him when she'd gained her freedom from Palpatine's evil hold. She hadn't quite grasped that little nugget of information but she would and when she did… Luke shook his head. There would be hell to pay. She would not be happy about it and that was an understatement.

"Kid!"

Luke blinked. Han was looking at him strangely.

"You went into this dream world. You sure you got enough sleep?"

"Sorry, Han. Just worrying about her."

"She's strong. Whatever happens, Mara will hold on."

The Jedi Master exhaled the breath he'd been holding. "I hope so."

"You never usually doubt her abilities."

"I know. Things have changed between us and I can't understand why."

Han thought he knew but it wasn't his place to point it out. Then again, maybe it was. It had never stopped him before. Still, he hesitated and the moment was lost. "So, this echo?"

"If Mara has been on the planet I should be able to find out."

Han grinned suddenly. "We can ask the spaceport authorities. It's perhaps not so mystical but it usually works for me."

"Why didn't I think of that?" Luke opened his eyes wide in mock surprise.

"Because I'm the brains of this operation, Junior."

"Then we're doomed."

"Remind me why I keep you around?"

"My good looks and charm," Luke quipped lightly.

Han could tell the humour was false. "I'm sure it wasn't that."

The smile faded from Luke's face and he murmured quietly. "Yeah. I'm glad you've come along. Something's up, Han.  I can feel it in the air around me. I just hope we can get there before it's too late."

Han clapped him on the shoulder. "I need you to be ready to co-pilot or man the guns. This area of space follows its own law."

"What we keeping an eye out for?" Luke queried. "Pirates, smugglers…"

"And slaving syndicates."

"Slavers!" Luke froze as something crawled up his spine. "I thought that had been banned by the New Republic."

"Oh, it has, but the New Republic doesn't reach this far out on the Rim. Slaving was originally banned by the Old Republic and then the Empire legalised again. It was rescuing Chewie that got me thrown out of the Imperial Navy."

"There's always something awful somewhere in the galaxy."

You lived here for nearly twenty years, kid. Remember what the Hutts and the smugglers got up to on Tatooine."

"And the Rebels, Han. Don't forget the Rebellion. It recruited quite successfully from planets in the middle of nowhere."

"Yeah, the Rebellion. Many of those the Rebellion recruited were those on the fringe and on the outside of the law."

Luke held out his hands. "Sorry, I'm not thinking clearly."

"It's okay." Han tipped his head back and swallowed the last of his own caf, smacking his lips together he wiped them with the back of his hand. Did the kid know how transparent he was? This was no mere friendship that Luke held for Mara Jade but he recognised that now was not the time to introduce his brother-in-law to the idea that relationships had to be fought for. "I'd better go and check our position."

"Yeah." Luke turned and nearly tripped over a couple of crates. One of them spilled open revealing various half-wrapped packages revealing tantalising glimpse of many jewel-bright colours. "What on Endor are you carrying? You're not going attempt to do some deal while we're out here?"

Han grimaced. "I forgot about these. It's a good job you fell over these and not my wife." He picked up a package and let Luke see the contents.

Luke's fingers touched rich silk. The crate contained bolts of rare and lustrous fabrics from the Hapes Consortium. "This is beautiful."

"It's nearly her birthday, as you well know, and this is part of her gift. There are things for the kids too. The Falcon is the only place I can hide them. It's not safe to keep them in the apartment."

Luke placed the fabric carefully back in the container. "Why not in the apartment?"

"I learned the hard way not to hide the presents at home. Your sister is as bad as the children when it comes to presents. I was going to move them to the shielded compartments just in case she needed to use the ship but I got sidetracked."

"Ah yes, a brother-in-law wanting to borrow your ship." Luke's smile was rueful.

Han nodded. "Yeah. He's trouble all right. I don't mind though." He closed the container and pushed it against the bulkhead, securing it to the floor just in case it got in the way if they had to do any fancy flying. He straightened up, gazing at Luke. "What's Karrde going to do?"

"He was heading for Malastare. I think he had business to do. I said I would get in touch when we had news."

"Good old Karrde. He never changes."

The look on the Jedi Master's face was considering. "I would disagree. Yes, parts of him will always be the same but deeper down he has changed. He cares more."

"He's always looked after his people."

"I know but he cares more, although he would sell his ship rather than admit it. Mara is not just an employee. She's a friend.

"That's always been your problem too, kid – the caring too much."

Luke shook his head, his bearing seeming to straighten with the inborn surety of his own mind. "Emperor Palpatine made that mistake, Han. He saw my affection for my friends and my comrades as a weakness. I see it as a strength. Mara's my friend and I care for my friends and when they are in trouble I need to be able to help them. It's the way I am."

"Yeah."

Han's voice was dry and Luke stiffened. Something in the Corellian's voice immediately put Luke on the defensive. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Han inwardly groaned. Okay, perhaps now was the time to introduce Luke to the idea that he cared for Mara Jade as much more than a friend. "Ah… kid…"

Luke's eyes narrowed. "Go on."

"It's just… oh, stang! Mara – is she just a friend?"

"Just a friend?"

"Is that all that Mara Jade is to you, Luke – a friend and probable Jedi Knight?"

"Of course she's a friend. What else could she be?" Luke couldn't quite see what his brother-in-law was getting at and then it hit him and he stiffened, his face growing remote.

"I'm not disputing that she's a friend," Han could see that his probing hadn't gone down quite as well as he'd hoped. He shrugged. Might as well get hung for a rancor rather than a pitten. "I just wondered if she was more than a friend - if you felt more for her than you wanted to. You've been more troubled about Mara's disappearance than I would have thought."

"You think I care for Mara like… a lover would?" Luke's voice had grown quiet and his eyes had turned to blue chips of ice. "You think I want her in my bed?"

"Not exactly but…" Han tried hurriedly to explain himself. "You just seem…"

Luke's real hand clenched in a fist. "Then you're wrong. It's not a love affair. I don't have those, remember? Well, not successful ones. So now I don't bother because that kind of love is not for me. I don't think of Mara in that way at all – no, not at all. It's not like that between us. She wouldn't look at me; I do not attract her. Not once in ten years has she ever let on that she thinks of me as something other than a rather annoying individual. Not once. Besides, she's with Lando. I do not muscle in on another man's property."

"I don't think Mara would like to be referred to as someone's 'property'," Han said. He'd let Luke ramble on thinking that the Jedi's words were rather telling. Luke was protesting a little too much in Han's humble opinion. He wasn't just trying to convince Han. Luke was trying to convince himself. Besides, he detected a slight edge to his friend's voice, almost as if Luke was hurt by Mara's lack of interest.

Luke consciously relaxed his hand letting it fall to his side. "Probably not. She would take her saber to anyone who suggested it. Perhaps Lando is her property."

"Can you see that either?"

Luke gave a mirthless chuckle. "Perhaps not."

"I can't see it, you know," Han said thoughtfully. "Lando and Mara as a couple, I mean. Even after all this time that they've been together."

Luke sighed. "No, nor can I." His words were barely audible. "But they're always together."

"That's one of the things I really don't get. Mara could barely tolerate him before and then wham! Suddenly they were this hot item."

"I know. The news reports even reached Yavin." Luke couldn't understand the disappointment he'd felt.

"It's not a relationship I can see working."

"I don't understand relationships." Luke raised an eyebrow.

Han had to agree on that one. "Understanding women, kid, is something you just don't try to do too hard. It could take a whole lifetime and you'd not be any nearer the truth. I just understand that I don't understand them and then I'm not too surprised when weird things happen around them."

Luke gave a soft chuckle. "Have you told that to your wife?"

"Well…"

Luke stared at the Falcon's deckplates. "Han," he suddenly muttered. "There's no one after your blood out here?"

The Corellian tilted his head to one side and thought about it. "Nope, don't think so."

"No one knows me out here…"

"News does get this far out, kid. You can't be so naïve that you think the fact that the Jedi Order is on the rise again and you are the one responsible won't have reached a few ears out here?"

"I'm not that naïve, Han. I don't think there is anywhere in the Galaxy that hasn't seen my face on a wanted poster or a holonet news report." His hand went automatically to the lightsaber attached to his belt. "But no one knows that I am out this far right now. They all think I'm on Yavin with the rest of the Jedi or Coruscant with you and Leia. I think we'd better have disguises and alternative identities if we go planetside but I don't think that's going to be our main problem at this precise moment."

Han suddenly sighed as comprehension began to sink in. "Don't tell me. You've just got a bad feeling."

Luke nodded and began to run. "I'll go and sit in the gun turret?"

"Yeah!" Han was already heading towards the cockpit just as he felt a burst of laser fire whistle past the ship. "You shoot and I'll fly, kid," he shouted as he dived into the pilot's seat.

"I see them," Luke answered pulling on the familiar headset and memories tugged on his emotions and for a moment he was leaving Tatooine for the very first time. Like then, Luke knew deep in his heart, an instinctive Force guided reaction, that things would never be the same.

"Shields up," Han announced, his voice crackling through the com. "Hell's teeth!" he exclaimed as the Falcon's console lit up in alarm. Looking up he confirmed what the sensors already knew.  "Great, a local welcoming committee—"

The two ships approaching the Falcon at speed didn't look as if they were welcoming them to the Elrood Sector. As Han threw the Falcon into a backward loop, Luke finally got a visual on what he could only sense in the Force before. The Jedi Master took notice of a Corellian Corvette which appeared to be much faster than its specs were to be believed. "Pirates, alright," Luke commented into his microphone, as the larger front ship squeezed a round off its laser canon skimming the back end of the Falcon.

"Damn, that's two," Han muttered under his breath, checking his shields. "Wouldn't be anything else, kid, and they don't look friendly."

"I'll try and hit the turbolaser cannons. See if we can disable their teeth." Luke felt his stomach lurch as Han sent the Falcon into a spinning dive, rolling away from the turbolaser fire. "Too bad we aren't back recruiting for the Rebellion." The Falcon twisted over and the excitement of days gone by pulsed through him. He shouldn't still crave the excitement but he did. By the time the ship folded back up with ever-growing velocity to meet the gunners head on, the Force was with him and a stream of laserfire cut a first path through their opponent's offensives.

Han skimmed closest to the larger of the attackers, and Luke fired a volley of shots accurately across its hull, and watched the monitors with satisfaction as most of its armoury ended up a blackened warped mess.

"Got him!"

"Good. You've still got it, Junior. Now try and get the other one." Han banked the ship sideways pulling away from the other Corvette in a diagonal twisting movement and into open space. "Stang!" he swore as a shot made contact. Although not a direct hit, it was enough to throw the Falcon's ever-precarious electrical system into a fit. The Falcon bucked wildly for a moment, the lights flickering. "Come on, girl. Hold it together," Han pleaded with his beloved ship. "Luke!" he yelled. "I think they've got the stabiliser. "I can't hold her for much longer. Try and hit the other ship. It's not as fast and I think they've just sent company. Get rid of this one before the others arrive. Two more incoming."

"We are never going to be able to out-run those other ones unless we fix the...." Luke yelled into the com as he used the Force to fire the rear top guns at the ships gaining on them with alarming speed. 'Typical, just typical' he thought. 'Things were almost going well.'

"No time!" Han bit out, his jaw clenched with tension.

"Figures. Same as always." And suddenly that's when Luke could see it all. "Charge them!"  he yelled, as if a glow rod had just clicked on in his brain.

"There's just not enough power…"

"No..." Coming back into the conversation, Luke shouted, "There's enough for this. There has to be." And with the flip of a switch sent a monitor view of the approaching ships to his friend in the cockpit. "Charge them!" 

Han starred out the viewport and for a brief moment shared his wife's concern for the Jedi's state of being. "We're out numbered, have minimal shields and you want me to play chicken with a band of pirates?"

A wry grin tugged at Luke's set mouth, and without even seeing Han's open-mouthed wonder he gripped the gun controls and replied, "Do you want me to give you the odds?"

A spark lit Han's eyes. "Hell, no!" And with that he pulled the throttle all the way back sending the Falcon looping back in a half figure eight and then, like an Ewok's sling shot, hurtling forward and up towards the crippled ship. "We're not telling Leia about this!" he declared dryly, steeling his resolve."

"Not a word." 

"You keep stealing my lines, kid."

"Can you still out fly him for a couple of minutes?"

"'Course I can still out fly him," Han shot back. "I can out fly anything," Han quipped as he diverted the auxiliary shield power. "You just take out those last few cannons!" There was a flash and the ship shuddered. "I would appreciate it, Junior, if you could do it now. I just think the shields just went."

"Will do."

Han began to zigzag in complicated patterns, avoiding the deadly laser fire as Luke picked off the remaining guns on the closest ships like womprats in Beggars Canyon back home. Then, the Jedi sank into the Force, letting its familiar warmth steal over him. He was about to launch a volley of laser fire into the belly of the nearest cruiser when another idea crossed his mind. Luke let a smile drift over his face as his eyes drifted closed, his hands falling from the gun controls.

Han gathered up the remaining power and sent the Falcon spinning in between the enemy vessels when suddenly the hull plating of the Falcon appeared to glow and a strange light seemed to pulsate outward. "What the…?" Han's heart leapt into his throat as he watched events unfold.

"Wah-hoo!"

 When Luke opened his eyes the Falcon had left the entire pirate fleet dead in space.

"I don't know what you did there, kid, but they're not moving any more. Oh, wait… they are but very slowly. Let's get out of here before they get up enough power to follow. What the hell did you do?"

At the sound of his brother-in-laws trade mark victory yell, Luke sighed and pulled off his headset and climbed stiffly out of the gun turret. This had taken more out of him than he'd liked. He needed time to rest and recharge his batteries but he sensed he wasn't going to get that yet. "We're not too badly hit are we?" he asked, as he moved into the cockpit and sank into the co-pilot's seat.

"Nah, well, yes." Han had to be honest. "Bad enough to slow us down. We need some parts and I don't carry the spares that we require. We've almost been forced to land here. Just as well that Elrood is coming up. We'll be there in just under an hour. "Come on, kid," he asked again. "What did you do?"

Luke chuckled. "Enough, I hope. I think I momentarily disabled their power. An ion cannon effect without an ion cannon, if you like."

Han whistled. "Kid, you can travel with me any day. It saved our skins." His face changed to one of concern as he flicked several switches without getting the results he wanted. "The Falcon needs attention for sure. She's definitely sluggish."

"Will Elrood have what we need?"

"Undoubtedly. The Elrood Bazaar is famous for having anything you might desire - especially illegal ship parts."