And Never Return Chapter 2, a star wars fanfic

AND NEVER RETURN

CHAPTER TWO

Luke rolled his shoulders, trying to ease some of the tension from his muscles. He sat in the cockpit of the Lotta Luck, a freighter a little larger than the Jade's Fire. The stars had elongated into streaks and now the farmboy-turned-Jedi-Master was left with a full week in hyperspace before he reached Ryloth. He found himself wishing that he'd been selfish enough to bring Artoo-Detoo with him, but shook his head. He was right to leave the astromech droid behind; Artoo would do more good at the Academy, taking care of things while his owner was absent. But that didn't mean that Luke had to like his decision.

However, just because Artoo wasn't there didn't mean that Luke would be alone on the trip. Talon Karrde had forgotten—or decided to omit—the fact that there was an artificial intelligence unit onboard. Luke had barely walked onto the ship when a woman demanded what he was doing there and locked him out. He had to go find the Rodian pilot to explain to "Cat" what was going on.

Luke was used to talking with droids, especially Artoo-Detoo, but Cat had a personality like he'd never seen before in a computer. It was nearly impossible to get along with her. After a few minutes, he'd come to an agreement with the computer; he would let her do her job, including navigation and piloting, and she'd leave him alone. She hadn't been very happy with her second part of the deal, but she seemed to regard piloting the ship herself to be more important than leaving the new passenger to his self-imposed isolation.

Luke reflected on the two days spent anxiously awaiting the ship that would take him to the other side of the galaxy. Even Tionne, the most mild-mannered woman he had ever met, finally told him to either shield his emotions better or stay away from the students. Luke hadn't even realized he'd been projecting, and with a farmboy blush creeping up his neck, he reinforced the mental shields to prevent that from happening again. His mind was a whirlwind of emotions: Mara was missing and Luke didn't know if she was injured or not, and he had felt and seen the ships surrounding her. Dread was growing inside.

He had reviewed the vision in his mind's eye countless times. He could no longer clearly see the beginning, where she realized she was under attack, but the other visions grew brighter and more detailed. Even with the clearer picture, though, he could not understand what the visions were trying to tell him. Usually the Force chose to show him events that had not happened yet. But Mara's attack had been in the past by almost two days. Why show him something when he had no chance to help her? It didn't make sense.

Luke stared at the stars blazing by the cockpit and subconsciously reached to the Force, stretching out for Mara's presence. He always thought it near impossible to touch any individual presence when at lightspeed, theorizing that life could not follow at that speed outside of a ship.

Then he remembered with vivid clarity when Obi-Wan Kenobi had still been alive, at 0.4 past lightspeed on the Millennium Falcon. Old Ben had still felt Alderaan's death. Luke guessed that with a large death, not even hyperspace was a haven for Force-sensitives, much less trained Jedi Knights.

That brought up an interesting question. Would a Jedi sense if someone close to them died, with at least one of them at lightspeed? Was it just the size of death, or also the closeness of one mind to the other?

What about Mara? Would Luke sense her death if in hyperspace? It was an interesting question, though not one Luke wanted to dwell on, much less test.

He stifled a cough and stood up to walk to the small kitchen. He needed something hot to warm his body and he hoped the Rodian had a taste for hot chocolate.

Of course not, he thought to himself as he searched through the cabinets. He'd just have to make due with caf. He brought the mug with him as he entered the room he'd claimed for himself.

He and Mara had a bond, a special tie within the Force. As soon as he'd met her, as soon as he'd felt her unforgettable Force signature, he knew that she was different from anyone else he'd met or would ever know. As they grew to be friends and as he became her teacher in discovering the light side and refining her considerable Force talents over the few years, he discovered that it was more comforting and enjoyable to be near Mara than even his twin sister. This was strange, yet still made a sort of sense to the Jedi Master. When he was alone, he was able to admit that it was because Mara Jade was his opposite. While she was easily incensed, he remained Jedi calm. She was quick to the offensive, he and his naïve ideals remained defensive. They were like two sides of the same decicred—but both accentuated and complemented the other's personalities.

Luke shook his head, trying to banish his current train of thoughts. He already knew where it was going—he'd been there before. He refused to make anything more of his and Mara's friendship. He put the mug down on a crate and stretched out on the bunk. Finally closing his eyes, he drifted to sleep, knowing full well that his dreams would continue what he refused to consciously contemplate.

Mara woke in stages with a pounding headache. She opened her eyes, blinking in the bright light that her eyes were unaccustomed to. She wanted to move her head to look around the room, but her head felt too heavy to even attempt such a feat. Closing her eyes against the offending light, she concentrated enough to touch the Force inside herself and used it to ease her headache. Pain suppression was not her strongest talent, but she was adept enough to reduce the pounding to a dull throbbing between her temples. More cautiously, she opened her eyes a second time, but nothing had changed.

Mara used what strength she had to push herself into a sitting position. Her entire chest felt as if it had burst into flames and her breath hissed through clenched teeth, but she refused to lie back down. The room she was in was remarkably plain—light blue walls flowing seamlessly into a ceiling of the same color, with glowlamps embedded at intervals to provide the light she'd found so obnoxious. She was lying on the single bed in the room. On a table next to her was a complex-looking machine. After a moment, Mara saw that the machinery routinely scanned her body to record her vitals and check on the healing process. They would already know she was awake.

Whoever "they" were, she didn't know. All she could remember were bits and pieces. Making the hyperspace jump to escape the pirates. Having to defend her ship when unknown fighters attacked. Having to defend herself when a boarding party entered her defeated ship. But these memories lacked continuity and she found that above all to be the most annoying aspect. She knew she had taken out at least three humanoids before another had shot her, but she couldn't even remember what the attackers looked like, only that her mind had automatically classified them as "humanoids." The pain that she felt upon waking was only a shadow of the original pain and Mara wondered what she had been shot with. It wasn't anything she was familiar with and that was certainly saying something. Part of her training during the height of the Empire had been someone shooting her with different types of weapons so she would recognize them.

The single door slid soundlessly open and a tall woman walked in. She wore a simple white tunic and a pale grey skirt that brushed the floor. Mara estimated the woman to be a little short of two meters, but was unsure; it was difficult to determine height when she was lying down. The woman appeared perfectly human with few exceptions: mainly, her skin was the shade of amethyst and a cluster of dark purple dots decorated the right side of her face. Her hair was snow white and cut short to barely brush her shoulders. The most vivid feature on her face, though, were her eyes, a brilliant topaz.

"I see you are awake," the woman said, her voice deep but rhythmic. "I wondered when you would regain consciousness. You gave us quite the scare, Miss Jade. You've just been lying there for six days."

"Where am I?" Mara demanded, inwardly proud that she kept her voice even. Her face was expressionless—as she was apparently in hostile territory, she needed to be careful.

"You are in a Medical Center," the humanoid answered, then introduced herself. "I am Treneda Iranil. I have been assigned to your case."

Mara glared at Treneda, trying to keep focused and keep the room from swimming in her vision again. "What case?"

"I am going to help you adjust to your new home."

"I'm not staying here," Mara snapped. There was something strange, an odd feeling at the edge of her mind. It wasn't her danger sense, she realized, then it occurred to her: she had a very strong danger sense, and yet…she hadn't gotten any warning before the starfighters attacked her.

Treneda cocked her head to the side. "Yes, you are staying here. We cannot allow anyone to leave once they've reached our solar system. Oh, believe me, Miss Jade—can I call you Mara?—you will love your new home. From what we understand of your galaxy, with all its wars and such, you will find our way of life a delightful change of pace. Our three inhabited planets are united under a peaceful government—"

"Peaceful? Your people fired on an already damaged freighter—mine!" Mara was pissed. "Where the hell is my ship? I demand to be released."

"We fired only to disarm." The humanoid's thin lips curved into a frown. "Our starships attempted to contact you via comlink first. When you refused to answer, they disarmed your ship." Treneda sat on the end of Mara's bed. "It was nothing personal. No ship is allowed to enter our system and leave. It is our way of protecting ourselves."

"What system is this?"

"Qantul. It's in what your Empire calls, uh, 'Wild Space', I believe."

"The Empire's not in charge anymore," Mara corrected offhandedly.

"It isn't? The Rebellion won?" Treneda asked, surprised."

"About seven years ago."

"So the Rebel Alliance is the major galactic presence?"

"Yes, but they're the New Republic now."

"The New Republic. How odd. I mean, the Rebels were weak and disorganized. The Empire seemed unbeatable." Her wide yellow eyes focused on Mara again. "We gather information and compile the history of the galaxy from our new arrivals. It has been several years, unfortunately, since someone passed our way. We are quite fortunate to have run across you. We managed to download the maps and records from your ship. We have also appropriated your medkit, I hope you don't mind. See, we're trying to replicate your design for the bacta patch. As you can tell, we have a form of bacta, though not as potent as te organic form. Our laboratories are still developing it."

At Treneda's comment, Mara realized she hurt not just from whatever she'd been shot with, but there was also a general ache she associated with mended bones. Her arms had grown tired of propping her body up, so she pushed herself back so the headboard held her upright.

"No one in the Republic has been able to artificially produce bacta," she started slowly. "That kind of technology would be greatly desired in the rest of the galaxy. Any number of people would pay an extraordinary amount of money for that process." It was worth a try, Mara though. Maybe she could convince these people to let her go and even make some money as well. It would take quite a pile of credits to make up for the lost soul gems. And to repair the Fire.

But the humanoid waved her comment away. "Our people are comfortable with our lives now. We remain hidden from the wars, so our people's lives are not useless expended in territory and dominance quarrels."

"So in order to maintain this, this cowardly doctrine, you imprison innocent people?"

"We are not cowards," Treneda replied, miffed. "We are cautious observers. We value life. Our people have always honored life, and so, yes, we do capture intruders. But we do not 'imprison' them. We help them find their niche among our worlds. We help them find homes and work. We regret being forced to keep them away from their old homes, but we have a duty to protect our own people."

Treneda stood up. "I am sure you will learn this in time." She dropped a handful of computer chips on the bedside table and tried to help Mara lie down again, but the angry Trader glared at her and Treneda back off. "Uh, those datacards have our basic history and information. It should answer many of your questions." She walked to the door and turned back. "Oh, and by the way, welcome to Kath'alon. I am quite certain you will enjoy it here."