Alternate telling of how Mara Jade met Karrde, written before I read Zahn's version of the story. Oops!

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The day Mara Jade became a smuggler didn't seem to be anything out of the ordinary when she woke up. Just another job, another smuggler, another way to pay the rent...

As usual, she woke up at six in the morning with a memory lingering in her mind – a memory of a scream. A memory of a last command. And as always, she went running to burn off the excess energy. There was something soothing about the pattern of running. If she concentrated on running, she couldn't think of how she had failed her Master. She couldn't think how things would have played out if she had been with her Master on the Death Star instead of that traitor – or better yet, if she had simply killed Skywalker when she had the chance on Tatooine.

After her run, she would take a shower and get dressed. She'd braid her unruly hair tightly and pin it up, pull on her stained and patched jumpsuit, and grab some toast on the way to work. Eating heavy breakfasts always made her nauseous, anyway.

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Work was normal. It was average. It was demeaning.

"Hey, Mara! Have you finally decided to come in?"

Mara rolled her eyes. "Oh, shut up, Jern. I come in at half past seven every morning. That's more than you can say for the rest of the lazy slugs who work here."

Jern sighed sadly. "If it weren't for the fact that you were my best mechanic, Mara, I'd have tossed you out long ago for your lip…"

The woman snorted. "Yeah, yeah, heard it all before. You just can't take honesty."

Jern started laughing uproariously. "Sure, Freckles, you keep telling yourself that."

Mara glared at him. "You want to say something about my skin, old man?"

"Nothing, nothing…"

"That's what I thought."

Jern scowled blackly. "There's a ship coming in soon called The Angry Prince. They're a new customer, but if we impress them, we might get a lot of business from them in the future. Don't screw this up."

She laughs mockingly, and swings her bag of tricks over her shoulder.

"Oh, c'mon, Jern. When have you ever known me to screw up?"

"There's a first time for everything," he calls after her.

"Not for me there isn't!"

The Angry Prince was a nice ship. It was a smuggler's ship, obviously, but the smuggler – a man who didn't give out his name – didn't give her any lip and didn't stare at her, so she didn't mind him. The ship was a beaut – all gentle curves and hidden power.

"How long will it take?"

Mara looks up into the man's cold blue eyes. "With minimum repairs, three hours. With maximum repairs, a day. Want the cost, too?"

The man smiled and waved his hand dismissively. "No, it's alright. Give me the maximum repairs – there's no need to leave soon."

Mara frowns. Something about that was niggling her at the back of her head… "I think you'd better go with the minimum. Things would be better that way."

The man raises an eyebrow. "Why?"

Mara looks up at him and thinks sincere. Thank god for Intelligence training, that's all she could say. "Well, I don't think we have the tools to do all the more advanced repairs – a bigger repair shop could do a better job."

The man smiled mildly. "Oh, I'm sure you'll do fine, Miss…"

"Jade. Mara Jade."

"Yes, well, you come highly recommended, Miss Jade. I'm sure you'll do well."

Mara just shakes her head and bends over and looks at the sensor array. Your funeral, buddy.

The next three hours went by in complete silence.

Mara was right. Mara was always right. Mara just wished she wasn't sometimes.

"You want to say something about the angry-looking men shooting at us?" she yelled to the smuggler over the blaster shots.

"I'm afraid they weren't very happy with the deal I gave them. Still, I had hoped…"

Well, you hoped wrong!" she snapped at him. Time to finish this. Rummaging around in her bag of tricks, she found exactly what she was looking for and tossed at the shooters. "Cover your ears!"

She ducked and grabbed her hold-out blaster and waited. five, four, three, two one… The unpleasant sound of a sonic grenade went off, and Mara sprung out onto the shocked shooters. It was a massacre.

In the end, Mara stood among six bodies glaring at the smuggler who'd brought this down on her.

"Your ship is airworthy. Give me the money and get out."

Jern was dead. His body was slumped over the cash register; apparently, he thought the shooters were robbers. Mara didn't see any of the other mechanics. That was good. Hopefully they'd gotten out. Her mouth twisted. She hadn't liked any of them, but she didn't wish any harm to befall them. They were familiar.

"Miss Jade."

"I thought I told you to get out," she said, not even bothering to look at him.

"Miss Jade, I want to give you a job."

"Excuse me?" she yelps, looking quite murderous. "I had a job; that is, I had a job before my boss got caught up in some gang war. Who are you with? Black Sun, the Hutts, the Rodian slavers? Who?"

The man raises an eyebrow. "My name is Talon Karrde, Miss Jade. I am not affiliated with the Hutts, Black Sun, or the Rodians. I am an independent operator, I suppose."

Talon Karrde? Wasn't he some smuggler and information broker? He didn't work in Imperial Space – it was always on the edges.

"So what do you do, Mr. Karrde?"

The man actually had the nerve to laugh at her! Her, Mara Jade, the Emperor's Hand!

"Miss Jade, you know perfectly well what I do."

She shrugs, neither confirming nor denying it.

"Why are you offering me a job?"

The man – Karrde – laughs again. "I'm always on the lookout for talent. A woman who can take out six armed men with a sonic grenade and a hold-out blaster is definitely talented."

Mara looked at Jern one more time. What could she do? Her boss was dead, his shop would probably be auctioned off to pay for his debts. She had no job. She couldn't go back to the Empire – none of them were fit to follow.

Mara took a cloth and wiped the grease and blaster residue from her hands. She held her right hand out to Karrde.

"It's a deal, boss."