Chapter Two

"I called you all here at this hour to place a decision before you," Luke began once all his Jedi trainees has joined him in the War Room—so called by the Rebel Alliance when they had been stationed here before the death of the first Death Star.

Streen, an older man from the Cloud City of Bespin, nodded sagely. He was one of the more sensitive of the Jedi initiates, though he had trouble focusing enough to gain control over his Force powers. "I felt your dream again, Master Skywalker."

Mara Jade, a red-headed, tough-as-nails smuggler who had arrived unannounced three days ago, gazed at him with merciless emerald eyes. "The Force, Skywalker, or something else?"

Murmuring began at her words; evidently most of the trainees had not even thought of his dreams being something more sinister than simple visions. Mara, though, had known Luke a little longer, a little better, than the other trainees and had once been the Emperor's Hand, a specialized personal servant of the Emperor. If anyone could ferret out an underlying motive, she could.

Luke sighed and sat on the edge of a table that had been left behind by the Rebels when they had to evacuate to a safer, unknown location. He could still feel the tense thoughts and fear that lay in the walls of this room from the planning meetings, could still hear his voice say to a very young Wedge Antilles, "I used to bull's-eye womprats in my T-16 back home…"

"I'm not sure," he finally admitted. "The visions, if so they are—and I think they are—,have been increasing in their intensity. Tonight the woman in my visions had a name, Namina, and she also jumped off a cliff to escape whoever is after her. If this has not already happened, I see no other option but for me to go. The Force warned me when Leia and Han were in danger on Bespin—I believe this is the same thing."

Mara raised an eyebrow. "Skywalker, if you recall, the whole Bespin thing was a trap. Or have you forgotten losing a hand so easily?"

Tionne, a silver-haired woman with little talent in the Force but a thirst to collect knowledge of the Jedi, raised a hand tentatively. "Master Skywalker, if Ms. Jade is correct, what if this is a trap? What would become of you, and us, then?"

"What if it isn't?" That was Kyp Durron, a very promising student who had more than a tinge of ambition to his character. "Master Skywalker can't chance it. He has to go."

Mara made a noise in the back of her throat, but refrained from further comment, though her eyes never left Luke's face.

"I know this is a critical time for some of you in your training and I did not want to just leave you without word or warning," Luke explained. "But I feel the Force urging me to save this woman and so I also feel that I must go."

Cilghal, leaning against a cool stone wall, finally interjected a comment into the conversation. "Do you even know where she is, Master Skywalker?"

Luke shook his head. "Though I have seen the planet around her. I was planning on searching through our archives for any matching planets and then departing. Yet what I wish to know is: will all of you be all right in my absence? You can just continue with what you have learned so far, perfect it, and once you have perfection, contact me through Artoo-Detoo and I will immediately come back." He smiled as the trainees laughed. "Any other thoughts?"

No one spoke, though he sensed strongly that Mara had more objections to his leaving.

"All right, try to recover some of your sleep. Mara, a word please."

Luke waited until he and Mara were alone in the War Room and then crossed his arms. "Okay, out with it, Mara."

She gave him a slight smile. "I'm not sure if I like you being able to read me this well, Skywalker."

"It's the Force," Luke joked.

"Sure it is," she responded dryly. "Well, now that you brought it up, Skywalker, I think that you rush into things. Hence Bespin and the fact that you only have one natural hand. Endor wasn't too smart, either, since the Emperor knew you would go to your father. What if this is the same?"

Very seriously he looked at her. "Do you feel that it is? If you do, I will stay here."

Mara took a deep breath and thought how unfair it was of him to do this to her. She didn't have enough control over the Force to make that kind of call, to feel if Luke was walking into yet another trap set up by one of his enemies. "No," she said through gritted teeth, "I don't feel that there is anything wrong or that you are in danger."

Luke's ice-blue eyes sparkled. "Mara Jade, can it be that you are actually concerned about me?"

"No," she snapped back quickly, though the word lacked the venom it could have had. She turned and walked out the door and into the turbolift. As the doors started to close, she couldn't resist saying, "I'd just hate to have to come rescue you again."

The door closed on his startled face.


"Artoo, have you computed the parameters I gave you an hour ago?"

Artoo-Detoo, Luke's little astromech droid, beeped and trilled at him. Luke had been around the little droid for so long now that he could almost communicate with it without a screen to translate. Almost. He glanced at the screen beside all the other equipment in the small, dry room.

"Good. What planets have you narrowed it down to that have that orange color of sky and many cliffs, besides Tatooine?" Luke added.

Artoo whirled for a moment, and then a list of planets popped up in front of Luke. He narrowed his eyes and glanced down the list until he felt the Force prompting him to take a closer look at one.
Antarnae.

"That's it, Artoo," Luke said as he pointed to it. "Chart us a course there as I finish getting my things in the X-wing. We leave as soon as we both are ready."