"Answer it, I will be there shortly," she replied from the fresher.
He answered it,"Oh, hello Jacen, where's Tenel Ka?" Mara's image appeared on the comm.
The younger woman replied for herself, hair in a towel. "I just got out of the shower!"
"Ah, I see. I called to give you a mission update: the light from a twenty-year old supernova will be reaching Ansion shortly. Chances are someone will see it as a 'sign.' One that depending on who is 'divining' what, may either help or hurt you. It will occur at 03:57:44 standard time on the second of next month, along a heading of 029.0 mark 042.2. Need me to repeat any of that."
"No" Jacen replied and Tenel Ka shook her head.
"There has been escalation of the incident resulting in talks of secession, based on a loophole in a fifty-odd year old compromise. They want this resolved in under one standard month or they're leaving. Due to this you have been granted unusual breadth of discretion. You are authorized to take any actions necessary to solve this dispute, as long as it is not blatantly darkside."
"Understood" Jacen and Tenel Ka said in near perfect unison.
"How are matters on your end?" Mara asked with a smirk. It didn't take Jedi powers to know she had something other than her wrist-blaster up her sleeve.
Jacen decided to make his aunt waiting on "Objective B" "We hit a gravfield outbound, about half a million klicks past the last gas giant. It didn't drag us out, we were, however, in the yellow for thirty seconds at .04. I just thought I'd give you a heads up."
"Noted. Tenel Ka, how is Jacen's morale?"
"Much improved. We knocked that objective off our list the day before yesterday."
"How, may I ask, did you pull that off in under a month?" Mara knew full well the answer, but asked to conceal her hand in it.
Tenel Ka blushed, the first time anyone other than her parents had seen her do so. "I simply directed our conversation to the subject of his depression and proposed a viable solution."
"And that being . . . ?" It was now obvious that Mara was leading the conversation.
Neither of the new couple was in a mood to play "hidey-guessey" with the ex-assassin, so Tenel Ka simply kissed Jacen senseless in full view of the holocomm.
"You behaved yourselves, right?" Mara's question brought them back to reality.
Jacen shot back "Who do you think I am, my father?"
"I am just making sure you didn't inherit his tendency to jump the gun."
"I am NOT the loose zipper he was at my age!"
"Once you two lovebirds finalize your wedding plans, transmit them here, so we can have it all ready for you upon your return."
"Just for that remark," Tenel Ka returned "We are going to elope!" She kissed her beloved again for emphasis.
"Either way I am sending a pair of apprentices your way for both support and chaperone purposes. They should be there within twelve hours. Jade-Skywalker out" With that remark Mara cut the comm.
Jacen kissed Tenel Ka again, and asked, "Any way that new prosthetic arm can take new equipment after it's been fitted for three months?"
"Yes, why?" He showed her the sketches he'd created of an engagement ring built directly into the already tricked out mechanical left arm. Seeing this, she whispered, "I counted on you trying that. I arrainged for a slot to be open for such a piece."
"Will you accept?"
"Yes!" She kissed him again, desperately. It was interrupted by the comm crackling to life.
"Ansion traffic control hailing unnamed Corellian YT-2200SC, you are cleared for Cuipernam spaceport, pad thirty-eight." A nondescript masculine voice stated.
"Acknowledged, traffic control, beginning descent now." Tenel Ka was back to business on the comm, but upon flicking it off, she kissed Jacen again, who muttered something about bad timing.
Upon landing, the pair set about subtly gathering information about the local area, its inhabitants, and especially the Alwari sacred site with the massive ore deposits underneath. Kuat Drive Yards wanted to mine the minerals - essential for the construction of starship hyperdrive motivators - and the Alwari would not let them within two klicks of the ancient burial ground. In response, KDY threatened to use military force to access the valuable resource. Which brought the entire population of Ansion to the support of the Alwari, threatening to scecede from the GFFA if KDY security forces landed.
"Why, oh why, does the biggest lode of the strategic resource idu jour/i always ihave/i to be underneath someone's holy ground?" Jacen mused, thinking aloud. They'd been on-planet attempting to devise a plan of action at that point, with little headway.
"Every mineral has the potential to be economically significant, Jacen, and there has to be something under sacred sites." Tenel Ka stated, slightly bemused. "Even something like uranium."
"Uranium!" Jacen gasped, "That kriff is downright dangerous! Who in space uses that?"
"The Ssi-ruuk, among many others use it for nuclear fission, not that we'd reccomend such action."
"FISSION" Jacen was shocked enough to shout, something he seldom did "How do they live, with the risk of meltdowns and . . . and . . . "he sputtered, aghast.
"I do not know" Tenel Ka conceded. "But they do." She was hoping for a way to distract him from the topic she had unwittingly brought up.
It came sooner than expected, Valin Horn and Malinza Thanas walked up, grinning. "Hi guys" Malinza said, Valin echoing her half a second behind her.
I should've known Jacen thought, cooling down Mara sent my sister's apprentices. He greeted them warmly and he and Tenel Ka began to brief them on the rapidly changing situation.
"Leave the meeting with the Unity tomorrow to the experts, boys. Us ladies have everything under control." The young Bakuran woman gave a mischevious grin, fished a datapad out of her purse, "Jaina sent this for you Jacen, eyes only."
The message on the screen simply said "Took you two long enough!"
A/N: I had to include the offspring of two memorable Force-sensitives in this. I assumed Gaeri was Force-sensitive, but her religion prevented her training. Text in Truce At Bakura supports this(Luke's first encounter with the young Senator mentioned her peculiar Force presence).