Chapter 15
The young man in the taffeta clothes offered to leave Luke and Max alone to speak, and without waiting for an answer, left the room. Luke watched him carefully as he left, and noticed that the marble door opened for him without his doing anything to move or activate it. He'd have to figure that one out.
He turned back to look at Max, the boy who had one idolized him, loved him even. He seemed healthy. He had color in his complexion and his dark eyes were unchanged. Luke had half expected to find the pupils ringed in gold as the Siths'. Max had a heavier build than he'd had as an adolescent. He looked strong and capable. Most of Luke's fears were put to rest by the fact that his body showed none of the signs of a Force adapt using the dark side.
He was dressed in expensive, simple clothes--a red wool jacket, a black tunic, black pants, high leather boots. They looked like the designer versions of what most people wore, the sort of thing that says, "I'm just like you but better." But Max didn't wear them that way. He looked like they were just his clothes, and he didn't think much of it.
Luke sensed a sort of sadness about him, as if he was missing something. But his demeanor was simply calm and unpretentious.
Luke looked him over only for a few seconds, and then said. "What's going on here, Max? Why did you bring me here?"
Max didn't seem to want to answer, perhaps because something was making him uncomfortable. He sat down and smiled nervously at Luke, avoiding his questions. "I'm taller than you now."
Luke regarded him with a straight face. "Did you bug Hanna's X-wing?"
His eyes darted away. After struggling for words, he said, "Yes."
"Why?"
"To draw you here." He ran a hand through his hair, frustrated. Luke felt his anxiousness. "Damnit, Luke! You're smart--figure it out!"
Luke didn't take his eyes from Max's for a moment--it helped him read people. But Max wouldn't look at him. "You could have killed her. She was once your best friend, and I know that you don't want to kill her--"
"No! You don't get it! The virus was set to kick in at a certain time, and I knew that you wouldn't leave until the day you did. It wasn't supposed to kill her."
"What if we'd left early?"
"I would have made sure somehow that you wouldn't. It was supposed to look like someone was trying to kill Hanna, so that I'd get your attention. I didn't want to kill her."
Luke let the silence linger as he processed what Max said for deception. He found none. Max was being straight with him. "What about the Sith coat of arms?"
Max laughed tensely. "That was to peak your interest. I knew it would. I also just wanted you to know it was me." He looked himself over. "I'm not exactly a Sith."
"I'd say not. I feel no darkness in you. But you're not happy."
Max pursed his lips.
"Why am I here, Max?"
He finally looked Luke in the eye. "It's like he said. He's got a business proposition for you."
Luke stared at him blankly.
"I'll try to explain. You're in one of the hidden headquarters of LUX."
"The crime organization?"
Max's Force sense wavered. "They're not criminals, Luke."
"They're worse than the Hutts, Max. How can you say--"
"No, Luke. They are not worse than the Hutts. All they want is comfort and prosperity. They aren't out for their own personal power--"
"And in some ways, I think killing for money and possessions is worse than killing for power." He regarded Max again, thinking of the stubborn little boy his one-time student had been. "But then, you never cared what I thought."
Max clenched his teeth. "They took me in when I left you, Luke. I had nowhere else to go."
"You didn't have to leave. We could have worked it out, learned from one another."
He shook his head. "No. I was never meant to be a Jedi."
"You are a Jedi, Max. I feel it. You haven't left behind what I taught you. You still use it, don't you?"
He nodded hesitantly. "It's my end of the bargain. I use my abilities to help them get what they want, and they give me anything and everything I want. It's a good life."
Luke didn't think he sounded so sure. "But you're an indentured servant. You can't leave."
Fire leapt into Max's eyes. "I can leave whenever I want! But why should I? I have everything here--good food, nice clothes, a great apartment, girls..." He trailed off in thought. "Luke," he asked at last, "Did it work out with Laureth?"
Luke flinched at the mention of her name. "She...no. No, it didn't." He couldn't being himself to tell the whole story again, as he had to Han around a week ago. It was too draining. He finished his first sentence silently in his head. *She died.*
"And there isn't anyone else?"
Luke frowned, suspicious of what Max might be getting at. "No."
Max half-smiled and spoke lowly. "How long has it been since you got laid?"
He recoiled from the question as if it was absurd, though sometimes his body trembled with the knowledge of just how long it had been. He ached to be touched, to hold someone at night again. But he would not bear his soul. He pushed it all away and just said, "Why?"
Max leaned in closer and said, "We have all kinds of girls here. They're all young and beautiful. I could have one sent to your room..."
He pulled away, flushed with embarrassment and outrage at the suggestion. He was being baited, and Max knew just where he was vulnerable right now. "No."
"Why the hell not, Luke? You're our guest! Have some fun."
"Max, I'm still not sure exactly why I'm your guest. Besides..."
"Let me guess? You're going to ramble on about how it's impersonal and immoral to have sex without being in love." Max laughed bitterly. "Sith, Luke! You're still a shy purist after all these years?" He stood and walked towards the door. "I'll just send one in. You don't have to use her, but you really look like you could use some release."
Luke jumped to his feet, determined to be heard. He didn't care about any girl, or about any bait Max might give him. He just wanted to know what he was doing here. But Max left the room and that impossible black door shut behind him.
Luke stood for a moment, and suddenly wondered what Max's girl would look like. He tried to push it back into his subconscious again, but it refused. He thought of Laureth's gray eyes and freckles, the soft curves of her body, remembered the feeling of their bodies hugging each other's as they slept. There had been many other women over the long years, but none Luke remembered so well as Laureth. He always would remember her.
Seized with a sudden longing and loneliness, Luke sat on the vast bed and closed his eyes, took deep breaths. He cooled his emotions, his temper, his hormones. He would not lay a hand on the girl. He would simply ask her questions, find out why he was here.
And how he could get himself and Hanna out.
**************
Hana was anxious, bored, and claustrophobic.
She sat on the couch in her blue and gold room, taking deep breaths with her eyes closed. She didn't like being underground. Especially if she couldn't use the door. The room was huge, but she could tell that she had many meters of dirt between herself and open air.
What if the ceiling gave out?
She bit her lip and willed the anxiety away. It was a completely irrational fear. Besides, she wasn't afraid of being in an X-wing in hyperspace. She should be okay with basements.
Hanna looked at the little table next to her. She had already eaten all of the good cheese and the two types of citrus fruit, and that was all she really wanted. Like her mother, she was picky about food. There was a small bottle of burgundy wine older than Hanna sitting on the table among the other small bottles of drinks, a kind that she remembered having once at a party, and she really wanted to have just one glass of it to calm herself down. But Luke had said no. She wasn't in the habit of taking orders from parents, as Luke and Mom had not been in the habit of giving them. But when Luke gave orders, they were from a master to a student. It was very practical advice that she needed to follow to live to become a knight.
She felt Luke become flustered, upset, and sprang to her feet. But it subsided, and she calmed down. The other she had sensed in his room left him. For a moment, she felt him retreat down the hall. Then his aura flickered, and he came back. There was a knock at Hanna's door.
A lump formed in her throat. She dove to retrieve her tunic from the bed so as not to great whomever it might be in a not-so-modest undershirt. When it was on, she stood facing the door, and it opened.
Well, son of a Sith.
"Max?" She asked, not really recognizing him, but knowing it was he just the same. Memories of a sweet, rebellious boy came back to her, the boy who would chase her around the garden in the summer time, the boy who had kissed her on the cheek before he left.
He smiled sheepishly. She smiled back. He came into the room, the door sliding shut behind him. As she looked him over, she forgot the bug in her X-wing and the capture, and whatever might be happening to Luke. She was just happy to see him. He'd been so close to her once.
"Hana..." he murmured, walking around her, sizing her up. He laughed. "I guess I expected you to still look like a kid. Well, I didn't expect you to look nine anymore, but...you're not a kid at all."
She blushed. "Neither are you."
"When did you cut all of your hair off?"
"Two years ago. Mom nearly died--she was so upset."
"That's Leia for you."
"Yeah."
"Looks good short."
She smiled and was too shy to answer.
Max took her hand timidly. "I hope you enjoy your stay here, Hana. I know I will."
**************
Leia had walked around the near ridge three times and she still found nothing.
Tired, she finally gave up and crawled in her hands and knees under the trees to the Falcon. Han was up somewhere on top, and as a Sender was emanating mild frustration.
"Need help?" called Leia.
Han appeared over the edge a moment later. "No luck?"
She shook her head. "No. All the ridge is a sheer drop. It has to be made of the crystal stuff, like those things out there."
"We could try goin' the other way, back into the forest, and findin' another way down."
She thought about it, then shook her head again. "No...we'd get lost, and there isn't going to be a way down anywhere. It's all going to be the same."
Han nodded thoughtfully. "Well, c'mon up here, then."
Leia went inside and took the tube lift to the top hatch. When she found the little pit where Han was working she crouched down beside him. "How's progress?"
He grunted. "Slow. I ain't ever coming here again. Those clouds up there are a bitch--they crystallized themselves and decided to live in the nooks and crannies of my ship."
Leia winced. "Sorry."
"Yeah, well, the sooner we get her all clean, the sooner we can rescue Luke and...our kid."
He kept working, and Leia sat in thought a moment. That was the first time he'd called Hanna theirs not out of accusation for Leia's attempt at sole possession. Just "ours," as if "ours" wasn't a frightening thing, as if it was something he could get used to. Maybe she could, too.
She lay a hand on his shoulder. He stopped his cleaning abruptly and looked her in the eye, not romantically, just longingly.
Leia hugged him tightly, and he returned it. For a few long minutes, everything was still around them as they held one another. No wind blew, no sound was to be heard. When Han at last drew away, slowly, he whispered, "Can I call a truce?"
Leia smiled. "If you don't, I will. We can't change what happened when I found out about Hanna, but that's no reason we have to fight for the rest of our lives."
Han nodded. "I guess...I was still mad for what you did. But maybe we can get along again, huh?"
Leia ruffled his hair. "We never got along, Han."
He gave her one of those smiles. "No kiddin'. But I'd like to be friends, if you can stand it."
Leia finally, for the first time since she got morning sickness nineteen years ago, felt at peace. "I think I can."
The young man in the taffeta clothes offered to leave Luke and Max alone to speak, and without waiting for an answer, left the room. Luke watched him carefully as he left, and noticed that the marble door opened for him without his doing anything to move or activate it. He'd have to figure that one out.
He turned back to look at Max, the boy who had one idolized him, loved him even. He seemed healthy. He had color in his complexion and his dark eyes were unchanged. Luke had half expected to find the pupils ringed in gold as the Siths'. Max had a heavier build than he'd had as an adolescent. He looked strong and capable. Most of Luke's fears were put to rest by the fact that his body showed none of the signs of a Force adapt using the dark side.
He was dressed in expensive, simple clothes--a red wool jacket, a black tunic, black pants, high leather boots. They looked like the designer versions of what most people wore, the sort of thing that says, "I'm just like you but better." But Max didn't wear them that way. He looked like they were just his clothes, and he didn't think much of it.
Luke sensed a sort of sadness about him, as if he was missing something. But his demeanor was simply calm and unpretentious.
Luke looked him over only for a few seconds, and then said. "What's going on here, Max? Why did you bring me here?"
Max didn't seem to want to answer, perhaps because something was making him uncomfortable. He sat down and smiled nervously at Luke, avoiding his questions. "I'm taller than you now."
Luke regarded him with a straight face. "Did you bug Hanna's X-wing?"
His eyes darted away. After struggling for words, he said, "Yes."
"Why?"
"To draw you here." He ran a hand through his hair, frustrated. Luke felt his anxiousness. "Damnit, Luke! You're smart--figure it out!"
Luke didn't take his eyes from Max's for a moment--it helped him read people. But Max wouldn't look at him. "You could have killed her. She was once your best friend, and I know that you don't want to kill her--"
"No! You don't get it! The virus was set to kick in at a certain time, and I knew that you wouldn't leave until the day you did. It wasn't supposed to kill her."
"What if we'd left early?"
"I would have made sure somehow that you wouldn't. It was supposed to look like someone was trying to kill Hanna, so that I'd get your attention. I didn't want to kill her."
Luke let the silence linger as he processed what Max said for deception. He found none. Max was being straight with him. "What about the Sith coat of arms?"
Max laughed tensely. "That was to peak your interest. I knew it would. I also just wanted you to know it was me." He looked himself over. "I'm not exactly a Sith."
"I'd say not. I feel no darkness in you. But you're not happy."
Max pursed his lips.
"Why am I here, Max?"
He finally looked Luke in the eye. "It's like he said. He's got a business proposition for you."
Luke stared at him blankly.
"I'll try to explain. You're in one of the hidden headquarters of LUX."
"The crime organization?"
Max's Force sense wavered. "They're not criminals, Luke."
"They're worse than the Hutts, Max. How can you say--"
"No, Luke. They are not worse than the Hutts. All they want is comfort and prosperity. They aren't out for their own personal power--"
"And in some ways, I think killing for money and possessions is worse than killing for power." He regarded Max again, thinking of the stubborn little boy his one-time student had been. "But then, you never cared what I thought."
Max clenched his teeth. "They took me in when I left you, Luke. I had nowhere else to go."
"You didn't have to leave. We could have worked it out, learned from one another."
He shook his head. "No. I was never meant to be a Jedi."
"You are a Jedi, Max. I feel it. You haven't left behind what I taught you. You still use it, don't you?"
He nodded hesitantly. "It's my end of the bargain. I use my abilities to help them get what they want, and they give me anything and everything I want. It's a good life."
Luke didn't think he sounded so sure. "But you're an indentured servant. You can't leave."
Fire leapt into Max's eyes. "I can leave whenever I want! But why should I? I have everything here--good food, nice clothes, a great apartment, girls..." He trailed off in thought. "Luke," he asked at last, "Did it work out with Laureth?"
Luke flinched at the mention of her name. "She...no. No, it didn't." He couldn't being himself to tell the whole story again, as he had to Han around a week ago. It was too draining. He finished his first sentence silently in his head. *She died.*
"And there isn't anyone else?"
Luke frowned, suspicious of what Max might be getting at. "No."
Max half-smiled and spoke lowly. "How long has it been since you got laid?"
He recoiled from the question as if it was absurd, though sometimes his body trembled with the knowledge of just how long it had been. He ached to be touched, to hold someone at night again. But he would not bear his soul. He pushed it all away and just said, "Why?"
Max leaned in closer and said, "We have all kinds of girls here. They're all young and beautiful. I could have one sent to your room..."
He pulled away, flushed with embarrassment and outrage at the suggestion. He was being baited, and Max knew just where he was vulnerable right now. "No."
"Why the hell not, Luke? You're our guest! Have some fun."
"Max, I'm still not sure exactly why I'm your guest. Besides..."
"Let me guess? You're going to ramble on about how it's impersonal and immoral to have sex without being in love." Max laughed bitterly. "Sith, Luke! You're still a shy purist after all these years?" He stood and walked towards the door. "I'll just send one in. You don't have to use her, but you really look like you could use some release."
Luke jumped to his feet, determined to be heard. He didn't care about any girl, or about any bait Max might give him. He just wanted to know what he was doing here. But Max left the room and that impossible black door shut behind him.
Luke stood for a moment, and suddenly wondered what Max's girl would look like. He tried to push it back into his subconscious again, but it refused. He thought of Laureth's gray eyes and freckles, the soft curves of her body, remembered the feeling of their bodies hugging each other's as they slept. There had been many other women over the long years, but none Luke remembered so well as Laureth. He always would remember her.
Seized with a sudden longing and loneliness, Luke sat on the vast bed and closed his eyes, took deep breaths. He cooled his emotions, his temper, his hormones. He would not lay a hand on the girl. He would simply ask her questions, find out why he was here.
And how he could get himself and Hanna out.
**************
Hana was anxious, bored, and claustrophobic.
She sat on the couch in her blue and gold room, taking deep breaths with her eyes closed. She didn't like being underground. Especially if she couldn't use the door. The room was huge, but she could tell that she had many meters of dirt between herself and open air.
What if the ceiling gave out?
She bit her lip and willed the anxiety away. It was a completely irrational fear. Besides, she wasn't afraid of being in an X-wing in hyperspace. She should be okay with basements.
Hanna looked at the little table next to her. She had already eaten all of the good cheese and the two types of citrus fruit, and that was all she really wanted. Like her mother, she was picky about food. There was a small bottle of burgundy wine older than Hanna sitting on the table among the other small bottles of drinks, a kind that she remembered having once at a party, and she really wanted to have just one glass of it to calm herself down. But Luke had said no. She wasn't in the habit of taking orders from parents, as Luke and Mom had not been in the habit of giving them. But when Luke gave orders, they were from a master to a student. It was very practical advice that she needed to follow to live to become a knight.
She felt Luke become flustered, upset, and sprang to her feet. But it subsided, and she calmed down. The other she had sensed in his room left him. For a moment, she felt him retreat down the hall. Then his aura flickered, and he came back. There was a knock at Hanna's door.
A lump formed in her throat. She dove to retrieve her tunic from the bed so as not to great whomever it might be in a not-so-modest undershirt. When it was on, she stood facing the door, and it opened.
Well, son of a Sith.
"Max?" She asked, not really recognizing him, but knowing it was he just the same. Memories of a sweet, rebellious boy came back to her, the boy who would chase her around the garden in the summer time, the boy who had kissed her on the cheek before he left.
He smiled sheepishly. She smiled back. He came into the room, the door sliding shut behind him. As she looked him over, she forgot the bug in her X-wing and the capture, and whatever might be happening to Luke. She was just happy to see him. He'd been so close to her once.
"Hana..." he murmured, walking around her, sizing her up. He laughed. "I guess I expected you to still look like a kid. Well, I didn't expect you to look nine anymore, but...you're not a kid at all."
She blushed. "Neither are you."
"When did you cut all of your hair off?"
"Two years ago. Mom nearly died--she was so upset."
"That's Leia for you."
"Yeah."
"Looks good short."
She smiled and was too shy to answer.
Max took her hand timidly. "I hope you enjoy your stay here, Hana. I know I will."
**************
Leia had walked around the near ridge three times and she still found nothing.
Tired, she finally gave up and crawled in her hands and knees under the trees to the Falcon. Han was up somewhere on top, and as a Sender was emanating mild frustration.
"Need help?" called Leia.
Han appeared over the edge a moment later. "No luck?"
She shook her head. "No. All the ridge is a sheer drop. It has to be made of the crystal stuff, like those things out there."
"We could try goin' the other way, back into the forest, and findin' another way down."
She thought about it, then shook her head again. "No...we'd get lost, and there isn't going to be a way down anywhere. It's all going to be the same."
Han nodded thoughtfully. "Well, c'mon up here, then."
Leia went inside and took the tube lift to the top hatch. When she found the little pit where Han was working she crouched down beside him. "How's progress?"
He grunted. "Slow. I ain't ever coming here again. Those clouds up there are a bitch--they crystallized themselves and decided to live in the nooks and crannies of my ship."
Leia winced. "Sorry."
"Yeah, well, the sooner we get her all clean, the sooner we can rescue Luke and...our kid."
He kept working, and Leia sat in thought a moment. That was the first time he'd called Hanna theirs not out of accusation for Leia's attempt at sole possession. Just "ours," as if "ours" wasn't a frightening thing, as if it was something he could get used to. Maybe she could, too.
She lay a hand on his shoulder. He stopped his cleaning abruptly and looked her in the eye, not romantically, just longingly.
Leia hugged him tightly, and he returned it. For a few long minutes, everything was still around them as they held one another. No wind blew, no sound was to be heard. When Han at last drew away, slowly, he whispered, "Can I call a truce?"
Leia smiled. "If you don't, I will. We can't change what happened when I found out about Hanna, but that's no reason we have to fight for the rest of our lives."
Han nodded. "I guess...I was still mad for what you did. But maybe we can get along again, huh?"
Leia ruffled his hair. "We never got along, Han."
He gave her one of those smiles. "No kiddin'. But I'd like to be friends, if you can stand it."
Leia finally, for the first time since she got morning sickness nineteen years ago, felt at peace. "I think I can."