CHAPTER SIX

Han looked up as Leia entered the apartment. He already knew the answer from the look on her face, but asked anyway, "Well?"

She shook her head, "It wasn't her."

Leia sat heavily in the chair across from Han and rubbed her face with both hands. The past six months had taken their toll on her and it was starting to show. Dark circles had appeared below her eyes and there was a hint of gray in the hair behind her temples. She still looked better than Luke, though.

Luke had long since taken a leave of absence from the Academy and was living on Coruscant when not out traveling from system to system in his search for Mara. At first, they had kept her disappearance quiet, hoping that she would simply arrive with an explanation. But as weeks had turned into months, the pressure from friends to go public with the news had become too great to ignore.

Leia held a press release on the HoloNet and offered a reward, against Luke's better judgment, to anyone who could provide information on Mara's whereabouts. Luke had argued that Mara would hate this kind of publicity, but Leia convinced him that money was the only thing guaranteed to get a response. Han had been forced to agree with her there.

For the first two months, there were so many responses that they had trouble keeping up with all of them. Who knew that there were so many missing red-haired human females in the galaxy? But gradually, the leads had dwindled. There had only been two this month: the one on Dantooine that Mirax had investigated last week and then Leia's recent trip to Sullust, which had also proved futile. Talon Karrde's people were scattered throughout the galaxy and had even agreed to allow some of the recently graduated Jedi students to tag along.

Han returned from the bar with a mixture of Leia's favorite drink, cardat and tanic. She accepted it with a nod and sipped slowly as Han stepped behind her to massage her shoulders. "What am I going to tell Luke?"

"You don't think he already knows? I mean, from you?" Han asked.

She shook her head and appeared to be listening to something, "Hard to tell. He's so distant lately."

"Well, I think he's holding it together pretty well…considering."

"Yes," Leia murmured, "but I don't know for how much longer."


That night, Leia had just drifted off to sleep when she sat bolt upright in bed, as if shocked by an electrical current. "No!"

"What is it?" a groggy but alert Han asked.

"Luke!" she exclaimed, pulling on a robe and sprinting out of the apartment and down the corridor. Han had never seen her move so fast. "Stay here with the kids!" she called back to him.

She arrived at Luke's apartment, keyed the door for entry and gasped in horror at the sight that greeted her. Luke was standing in the middle of the room with the apartment's furnishings swirling around him in a Force-generated wind tunnel.

"Luke!" Leia shouted. "Luke, stop it!" He couldn't hear her.

Leia searched the room as best she could through the darkness and caught a glimpse of Luke's lightsaber wedged in a corner. Reaching out, she called the weapon to her hand and ignited it. Taking a deep breath she stepped into the room and sliced through a table that was spiraling toward her head. Slowly, she moved into the center of the room, dodging, ducking, or destroying obstacles as they came within striking distance. She reached the eye of the storm and shut down the saber as she approached Luke. He stood perfectly still, eyes unfocused and face distorted with rage, or grief.

She reached out to him through the Force and was almost overcome by his despair. Luke, she spoke into his mind. It's Leia. He did not respond. She reached out and grabbed him by the shoulders. "Luke!" she shook him. "Luke, stop this!"

He squinted at her as his eyes began to focus. "Snap out of it, Luke," she lowered her voice. "This won't help her."

The wind began to die down as Luke's face softened. "Leia?" he rasped. Instantly, everything in the room fell to the floor with a crash and he looked around, dazed.

She caught him as he stumbled forward. His torso trembled as a cry escaped his lips and shook as sobs wracked his body.

"It's all right," she soothed. Wrapping her arms around him as he sank to the floor, she spoke softly, "It's all right, Luke." She waited until he was calm to ask, "What happened?"

Luke's tortured blue eyes met hers. "What if we can't find her? What if she needs me and I can't help her? What if-" his voice broke, "What if it's too late? I can't go on without her. I don't want to…"

Leia pulled back and held him squarely by the shoulders. When she spoke, it was with authority, "You listen to me. We will find her. Mara is the strongest woman that I have ever met. She's a survivor. And she would never, ever give up on you. Don't you dare give up on her!"


Mara groaned as she maneuvered her ever-growing belly around the crumpled cockpit of the Sabre. Leaning over the captain's chair, she felt a sharp kick of protest from an also-crowded child. "Yeah, I agree," she muttered. Whoever designed these things had obviously never been pregnant.

This was her fourth attempt in as many weeks to get the communications transmitter working. By her calculations, she had six weeks until the baby was due, and she had no intention of giving birth on this Force-forsaken planet. Miti stood behind her with a handful of parts salvaged from Daven's ship. He had been her constant companion during these treks, bravely insisting that he carry his share over the exhausting hike.

"Okay," she stepped away from the comm station. "Here goes."

Miti stepped forward to stand next to her and watched as the multi-colored lights blinked in sequence across the control panel, and stopped. Mara's heart sank.

And suddenly, the green light on the transmitter began to flash in a steady rhythm. She held her breath as the S.O.S. was broadcast over every known New Republic frequency. "By the Force," she breathed. "It works."

To be continued…