According To Plan

Part II

Luke couldn't help acknowledging the skill of his sister to know exactly what would ease his mind at any given moment. Whether it was part of the Force training he had given her over the years or merely the instinct embedded into her personality, it didn't matter. He was impressed in both cases. Leia knew that for him to see his beautiful fiancé would bring joy back into his consciousness.

Luke left the temporary command center and entered the chaos that was Ltkim. As he passed through the rescue workers, busy with figuring out how to pry survivors out of mud and rock, Luke felt ashamed that he even thought about being happy. It was his evidence that he needed to get away from the disaster at some point. He had to make himself think about something else. The best way to do that was to speak to the woman he was going to marry.

Mara Jade. My fiancé.

He could barely believe that they were finally admitting to themselves that they belonged together. In the past few months since he and Mara made their engagement public, they were treated to the same type of responses.

Finally!

It's about time!

What took you two so long?

Neither Luke nor Mara gave replies to those comments. They both knew why it took them so long. Both were too stubborn to admit their feelings toward each other. Luke only wished that he had asked for her hand in marriage under more traditional circumstances than facing their deaths. Luke mentioned this to Mara a few days after they returned from Niruan. She said there would be no reason to ask her again because he already had her answer.

"The element of surprise is gone," she had said.

Always the practical one, Luke thought.

Yet, one night when they were out to dinner with his family, he suddenly got on his knees and opened up a small case that contained a newly purchased diamond ring. The look on her face proved her statement false. Everybody went crazy with utter joy. He placed the ring on her finger and whispered into her ear, "Surprise."

"I'm going to kill you, Skywalker," she whispered back.

"I've heard that before," he bemused.

He smiled at the memory as he passed by the triage where Leia said Mara was working. He stopped himself just on the edge of the security tent and caught sight of her immediately. His joy returned despite seeing her in a casual white shirt splattered with brown mud. She was helping to shovel some of the rock away. She had her red-gold hair tied up behind her head in a single ponytail. Perspiration coated her fair skin. He had to admit that her current appearance was rather sexy.

It was that thought from him which surrendered his presence to her. She looked up at him as she continued to shovel. "You look too bored, Skywalker. Why don't you make yourself busy?"

"I'm having much more fun watching you."

"I wasn't joking. Seriously, now that you're here, there's something you can do with me."

He approached her as she stopped shoveling and leaned on the tool. When he got closer, he uttered just loud enough so only she could hear, "There's a whole list of things I'd like to do with you."

She sighed in frustration. "Get your head out of the gutter, Skywalker. Are you going to help or act like a sex-deprived teenager?"

"Sorry. What do you need?"

"There's a huge slab of permacrete over here that we can't move. It's too large for me to lift it in the Force and I don't want to hear about how size doesn't matter right now. I thought maybe we both can cut our way through it with our lightsabers."

She walked him over to the enormous piece of permacrete that was once part of a wall. As soon as he approached it, he could sense the presence of several minds in the Force underneath. "You sure we're not going to hit any survivors?"

"The rock is too thick. Once we cut it down thin enough we can break through manually. They feel too faint to be directly under the slab. They may be trapped."

Luke looked impressed. "Yeah. Good call. I don't feel that they're in pain. They're just anxious to get out."

She gave her shovel to a Bothan rescue worker and she reached for her lightsaber and ignited it. "You ready?"

He reached for his own lightsaber to ignite it and nodded that he was ready. They started cutting though the permacrete like butter but the slab was very thick. It took them over an hour to cut a hole through to the other side. Once they reached a point where it was thin enough, they took a shovel and crashed through to make a hole. The cries of joy were no longer just in the Force. They could hear a crowd of voices underneath. Sure enough, there were hundreds of survivors. Mostly Bothan, but some were human and other various species. They had been trapped inside the basement of a large building. All were dehydrated and hungry. Not all of the survivors could escape through the hole that Mara and Luke made on foot. Some had to be taken out on stretchers. The survivors were immediately taken to the triage where they were to be treated.

Luke didn't have time to feel the thrill of finding survivors alive. He was looking for Mara. He could feel her strong will to keep going. He found her in what was left of the basement where the survivors were trapped. Searchlights were placed on the ground to illuminate the room. She seemed to be studying the opposite end of the torn basement walls.

"What are you thinking?" Luke asked as he came up beside her.

"Thought you would have known that already."

Quick, defensive answers. Mara's own mental walls were intact. "Not always. Our bond in the Force is still new even to me. I haven't learned all of the features."

"Meaning you haven't learned the kinks in my armor yet."

"That's not what I meant. Come on, it took us more than an hour to get through here. You need to rest."

"Can't. Look past those shattered windows. See the mud on top of it?"

Luke shrugged. "Yes."

"The mud on top isn't as wet as the mud below."

"And?"

"Something is making the dirt there dry. Means there's air coming from somewhere."

"Probably how these survivors were kept alive."

"Right, but I was thinking more on what's behind it. A tunnel? One that was created by the toppling of these buildings." She examined the area around her doing a slow rotation. "Can't fit a loader down here."

"Pel'aya mentioned something about getting a hose to knock away the mud and pump it out."

"That would work. If you have a powerful enough pump. It'll get messy for sure. Hope you're not wearing that outfit to dinner anytime soon. We have to keep going." She arched her head back to glance at him. The limited light created shadows on her face through her hair. He thought she never looked more beautiful. Luke shook off the thought for the moment and agreed with her.

Within a half hour, Pel'aya got the high-powered jet hose and set up the pumps to suck out the loose mud and dirt. Luke and Mara stayed ahead of the hoses in case they ran into any large pieces of rock or permacrete. They reached beyond the basement windows and just as Mara suspected there was a low tunnel created by slabs of former walls of buildings. The problem was that the path wasn't thoroughly hollow. It took them several hours to blast through with water not only to continue further for survivors but also to make a large enough path to get them out. Eventually, they came upon a slab of permacrete that was still upright. Luke and Mara could sense the minds behind the slab. They were faint. And they seemed to be without hope.

That mood changed after Luke and Mara ignited their lightsabers to cut through the slab. Inside there were about a hundred Bothans expressing as much joy as their weak bodies could. Luke cut a larger hole out of the slab and entered into another former basement of a building. Once the lights had been placed, he could see the survivors. And a greater number of dead. When all the survivors were taken out by foot or stretcher, the bodies of the dead were covered and brought out with honor.

Luke watched the last of the bodies being carried out. He was weakened himself by the sight, almost as if the life were draining out of him. He couldn't take much more. He saw Mara on the opposite side of the area. Once again, she was studying. Her mind was focused. Too focused. He came up to her. "What is it?"

She replied in her monotone voice. The one that meant all business. "We have two pinpoints of location. I think I know where we are. That first building had to be the Bank Of Ltkim. We dug through about a few kilometers to the Northeast. If my memory of Ltkim's layout serves, this building was its courthouse."

Luke looked around at the area and could see only mud covered desks and storage units. Nothing to indicate a courthouse. "How can you tell?"

"Did you notice the business attire of some of the survivors? They had the Bothan Judicial insignia on their suits. Only judges wear those."

"Oh. Listen, I think it's time for a break. We've been at this for half a day."

"Can't stop. Have to keep going. There may be more survivors."

"Mara, the deeper we go in the more dead bodies we find."

She abruptly turned to him and snapped, "And what do we tell the ones who aren't dead? 'Sorry, we were too tired to come after you.' We can't stop, Skywalker!"

"Can you just stop for a moment?"

"A moment may be all they have," she shouted at him.

"And when do we stop, Mara? Do we stop when we've collected all the hundreds of thousands dead bodies across Ltkim? We've saved hundreds today, Mara."

"Five hundred. Including this batch. Five hundred...out of a million." Her voice started to crack with emotion. "Do you know how much of a small percentage that is?"

"I do." He could now feel her mental wall start to break down. He could feel the frustration mixed with sadness that she had been holding back since he found her earlier that day.

"Then you know...why we can't stop." Her voice was shaking now. Tinged with pure emotion. "We can't. We can't...stop." She was on the verge of tears now. He closed the gap between them and held her in his arms. She lost all control of her emotions and let go. She sobbed loudly against his shoulder. He held her head in his natural hand and allowed her to cry.

After she calmed down, he whispered to her, "We can't save everyone, Mara."

She chuckled through sniffs, "I'll savor the irony of you telling me that."

"I learned more than you think on Niruan."

"I'd like to wager on that."

He smiled. "That's my Mara." He paused and said, "I know this tragedy has been tough on everyone. Even Fey'lya."

She tilted her head up at his face and cried, "Really?"

He reached to wipe away a tear from her cheek and replied, "Yes. This is his home planet. He had family here and he doesn't know if they're dead or alive. I can understand his pain."

"Guess I can't blame him."

And look, you say we only saved five hundred. Pel'aya told me they are finding survivors all around the city."

"What's left of it."

He grasped her arms gently to hold her at arms length to suggest, "Why don't we go back to the Falcon? It's almost dusk. By the time we clean up and find some food it'll be time for bed."

"You sure we can find something edible in Han's fridge?"

"Don't count on it. We both need to get away from this for a while. We can come back fresh tomorrow."

"A refresher does sound nice."

"Perfect. Besides, I have to tell you about what happened to me with Fey'lya."

"Oh, this I have to hear."

"Then let's get out of this mudhole."

Part 3 coming very soon.