A/N: I'm so very, very sorry for the absurdly long delay. Uni started up again and I've been inundated with work (back for three weeks and there's already an assignment!) Also I lost my usual writing time (12-2am) to the prospect of 6:30 starts in the morning.

I hope things get less hectic. If not, then I'm eternally grateful for your patience : )

Chapter Sixty – Disturbance.

Her footfalls were soft as she made her way through the darkened corridor. Her senses were strained to the full. In her left hand she held a small blaster, in her right, a vibroblade.

An assailant appeared out of a nearby doorway, brandishing a heavy-duty blaster. He fired at her repeatedly and she dodged every bolt. One quick shot from her own weapon sent him down.

Another two ventured out from other rooms, wondering what the commotion was. They immediately fired at her. Dropping gracefully to one knee, she used the fallen foe to shield herself from the attacks. As she fired back, they fell to their own knees and she took them out with a spin and a kick.

She continued on down the corridor and entered the room at the end, seeing her goal in front of her. This room was heavily guarded too and she found herself greeted by a maelstrom of blaster bolts. She found shelter behind a nearby pillar and fired at the guards. Several went down. A well-placed shot from another hit her blaster and she dropped it as it short-circuited.

"Shavit."

"You can't win," one of the guards called to her. "We have your colleague and we will kill him if you do not surrender."

She rolled her emerald eyes. So much for highly-trained agents. She risked a look out from behind the pillar and saw that the four guards she had not managed to defeat were standing watching her, a black-clad figure in their midst. It was indeed her colleague.

"This was supposed to be a joint effort, Marsden," she snapped.

"Sorry, Jade," he replied before receiving a silencing blow to the head.

She watched Marsden slump to the ground, unconscious and retreated behind the pillar once more, thinking. She retrieved a second vibroblade from her boot and hid both weapons up her sleeves. Then, holding her hands up in surrender, she stepped out. The guards' blasters turned on her immediately.

"It seems we overestimated you," one of them sneered.

"Did you indeed?"

They spoke again, but she wasn't listening. Instead she focussed on the panel on the wall behind them. She growled back a quick reply to whatever they were talking about and watched the panel's lights turn from red to green. Silently, it slid aside. The guards noticed nothing. Inside the panel was the holodisk she was here to collect.

She lowered her hands from her sign of surrender, letting her arms hang by her sides. The guards eyed her warily, but she did not move. When they had once again built up their confidence that she was harmless, she shot into action. Unclenching her fists, she let the vibroblades slide down her sleeves, into her palms. Holding them both in her right hand she offered a smile to the guards. "Thought me unarmed, did you?" she asked.

"Is that the best you can do?" the Captain smirked. "We have blasters, we could shoot you before you even got near enough to scratch us."

"Who says I have to be near you?" With that, she tossed the knives forward, at the same time calling the holodisk into her left hand with the Force. The blades embedded themselves in the throats of the two guards either side of the Captain. They fell backward with a muffled gurgle.

Tucking the disk into the breast pocket of her jacket, she ran forward and kicked the Captain's blaster out of his hands. It flew up in the air and she used the Force to pull it back to her. In a few brief seconds the battle was over and the Captain and the last remaining guard lay on the floor with the others.

Stepping over the bodies, Mara Jade dusted her hands and approached her unconscious colleague. The leather of her jumpsuit creaked as she knelt down. She slapped his cheek a couple of times to wake him and eventually he opened his eyes with a groan.

"Did we get it?" he asked groggily.

"I got it. You'll probably get a demotion. Come on, let's get out of here before more guards decide to turn up." She hauled him to his feet and the two of them ran for the exit.

The two spirits that had watched the occurrences followed. Sabé's mind was in a whirl as she observed her daughter's actions. Qui-Gon was understanding and had remained a silent presence by her side. Now he saw fit to break it. "All's not lost for her, Sabé."

Sabé forced some words out of her mouth. "I can't believe he's made her into this. She's eighteen years old! I know I was fully trained as a handmaiden at sixteen, but this is different. I was a bodyguard, not an assassin." She sighed and took in Qui-Gon's encouraging look. "I know what she's doing is terrible, but I can't help feeling some admiration at her achievements. Is that wrong?"

Qui-Gon shook his head and watched Mara and her companion vault neatly over a fence. "No, it's only natural. Her abilities are to be admired. No-one can fault that."

Sabé nodded. "She's so beautiful. I know I'm biased, but she is. If only…" She trailed off. She had been about to say 'If only Obi-Wan could see her'.

"She's not Sith," Qui-Gon told her. "She is what Palpatine is calling an experiment. He knows she is neither purely dark nor light and he has made no move to change that. His reasons on that matter are his own."

"But she's an Imperial assassin."

"That is true, but did you notice that she endeavoured to save her colleague, even though he was no longer necessary to the operation? Can you imagine Palpatine or Tarkin doing the same?"

Sabé considered this and slowly shook her head. "You're right. I hadn't thought of that. You said earlier that she would return to the light. When will that be?"

"I can't say."

"Can't or won't?"

He laughed. "Can't."

"Can we follow her?" Sabé asked, peering in the direction her daughter had disappeared.

"No, we must return to Obi-Wan."

That was done in an instant and Sabé found herself in a place that hadn't changed a bit in seventeen years. "Great Gunga, it's Mos Eisley!"

"It is."

"Where are Obi-Wan and Luke?"

"Inside the cantina. Obi-Wan must find a pilot to take them to Alderaan."

Sabé looked surprised. "Luke is coming with him now?"

"Yes." Qui-Gon's expression remained passive. "I'm afraid Owen and Beru have passed over."

"Oh," was all Sabé could think to say. "Wh…"

"Stormtroopers," he finished for her.

"Oh."

Shortly Obi-Wan and Luke emerged. Qui-Gon led Sabé to one of the docking bays where a large, battered freighter was waiting. "Gods, they're not flying in that thing, are they?"

Qui-Gon smiled. "Their pilot is the best on the planet."

"Relation of anyone I know?"

"No."

Eventually they met the pilot. Sabé wasn't surprised to see that he was a smuggler and was even less surprised to see that he was Corellian. She was both relieved and impressed that he managed to get them away from Tatooine unscathed. The state of the ship and the sudden appearance of stormtroopers had not tipped the odds in their favour, but Han Solo had proven himself as the excellent pilot that Qui-Gon had described.

Having made the jump to hyperspace, the group on board the Millennium Falcon found various ways of occupying their time. The droids began a game on the holoboard and were quickly challenged by Han's co-pilot, a Wookiee called Chewbacca. Obi-Wan took the opportunity to teach Luke some lightsabre techniques with a training remote.

It was going interestingly, with Luke taking more of the mild bolts than the sabre blade. Obi-Wan seemed understanding and even a little amused by the farm boy's efforts.

Sabé was watching, happy to see her husband's old teaching techniques coming back into play. She turned to make a remark to Qui-Gon, but the thought died in her throat as she noticed his expression.

"What is it?"

"It's Leia, she's terrified."

Sabé's eyes widened. "Why?"

Then it literally hit her. The scene in the Falcon paled before her eyes as thousands upon thousands of translucent figures rushed towards her. It was an oncoming sea of spirit people, all moving past her and eventually fading. She gasped, reaching out for Qui-Gon's sleeve. The Jedi Master put an arm around her shoulders and they waited, hair and clothes rippling in the breeze caused by the surge of spirits. In the midst of all the chaos, Sabé felt a hand close over hers and she glanced up. A familiar pair of eyes gazed back for a split second before moving on with the others. "Bail!"

But he was gone. When they had all disappeared beyond, Sabé's vision became clear again.

Obi-Wan had sensed it, whatever it had been. He gave a sharp intake of breath and his hand shot up to his chest. Stumbling, he sank into the nearest chair.

Luke deactivated his lightsabre and hurried over. "Are you alright? What's wrong?"

"I felt a great disturbance in the Force," Obi-Wan explained. "As if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened."

"What has happened?" Sabé questioned Qui-Gon. "Bail is dead!"

"Yes. And so is Alderaan, I believe."

Sabé could find no words as the weight of Qui-Gon's suggestion sank in. She couldn't fathom how could he possibly think Palpatine's reign was near its end if the Emperor had found the power to do that.

"You'd better get on with your exercises," Obi-Wan told Luke. His expression was still troubled, but he was keeping whatever theories he had to himself.

The sudden dark mood was interrupted as the pilot entered the room. "Well, you can forget your trouble with those Imperial slugs, I told you I'd outrun them."

Nobody answered him. Luke was concentrating, Obi-Wan was deep in thought and the droids were too preoccupied with their game.

Solo glanced around at their unresponsiveness. "Don't everybody thank me at once. Anyway, we should be at Alderaan at about 0200 hours."

Sabé smiled briefly at his tone, but she could not shake the terrible implications of Qui-Gon's words. She asked him further questions, but he had nothing more to tell her. It disturbed her more than she would admit that the seemingly unflappable Master was as in the dark as she was.

She sighed and turned her attention back to Luke and his training session. Obi-Wan had given him a helmet with a blast shield to heighten his senses. As he concentrated, he deflected three bolts from the remote, earning Obi-Wan's praise. "You see? You can do it."

Solo was decidedly unimpressed. "I call it luck."

"In my experience there's no such thing as luck."

Sabé softly laughed. "I've heard that before."

"Look, good against remotes is one thing. Good against the living, that's something else." Beeping from a nearby panel saved him from Luke's murderous look. "Looks like we're coming up on Alderaan."

Sabé glanced wide-eyed at Qui-Gon, who nodded her towards the cockpit. She followed Solo and Chewbacca, who were busy bringing the ship out of hyperspace. As soon as the white streaks slowed to become stars, the Falcon hit turbulence.

"What the–"

Chewbacca growled a question.

"We've come out of hyperspace in a meteor shower, some kind of asteroid collision. It's not on any of the charts."

"What's going on?" Luke asked, running up.

"Our position's correct, except no Alderaan."

"What do you mean? Where is it?"

"That's what I'm trying to tell you, kid, it ain't there, it's been totally blown away."

Luke's reply to this voiced what Sabé was dearly wishing she could ask. "What? How?"

"Destroyed by the Empire," Obi-Wan offered.

Han, as usual, was disparaging. "The entire star fleet couldn't destroy the whole planet, it would take a thousand ships with more firepower than I've–" One of the Falcon's control panels began emitting a sharp beeping sound. "There's another ship coming in," Han announced.

"Maybe they know what happened," Luke said.

Obi-Wan was not so optimistic. "It's an Imperial fighter."

"It followed us!"

"No, it's a short-range fighter."

"There aren't any bases around here," Han said with certainty, "where did it come from?"

Qui-Gon was watching the proceedings with a curious eye. Even as a spirit he portrayed a calm demeanour. Sabé, on the other hand, was as worried as the four living beings in the cockpit.

Luke leaned forward to look out of the viewscreen. "It sure is leaving in a big hurry. If they identify us we're in big trouble."

"Not if I can help it," Han grunted. "Chewie, jam its transmissions."

Obi-Wan let out the smallest of small sighs at the smuggler's impulsiveness. "It'd be as well to let it go, it's too far out of range."

"Not for long."

The Falcon shot after the fighter, gaining on it slowly but surely.

"A fighter that size couldn't get this deep into space on its own," Obi-Wan mused.

"It must've gotten lost," Luke theorised, "been part of a convoy or something."

Han's brow wrinkled in concentration as he kept his eyes on the escaping fighter. "Well, he ain't gonna be around long enough to tell anybody about us."

The ship in question, it seemed, had other plans and was heading as fast as it could towards a distant, silver globe. "Look at him," Luke pointed out, "he's heading for that small moon."

"I think I can get him before he gets there. He's almost in range."

It was the silent watchers of the group that first spotted it for what it really was. Qui-Gon's gaze fixed upon it, unwavering, and he frowned. Sabé placed a hand over her mouth and murmured, "Oh gods."

Obi-Wan started at her words and the now-familiar curious look passed over his face. Sabé turned to look at him. He was looking at her, not directly at her, but in her direction.

She swallowed. "That's not a moon," she said.

Obi-Wan focussed his attention on the 'moon' and his eyes widened as he realised that Sabé had given him a warning. "That's no moon," he announced, "it's a space station."

"It's too big to be a space station," Han snapped.

Luke was staring, worried. "I have a very bad feeling about this."

"Turn the ship around," Obi-Wan ordered.

"Yeah," the smuggler said slowly, looking at the steadily-nearing globe. "I think you're right. Full reverse, Chewie, lock in the auxiliary power." The Wookiee did so, but it made no difference. Trying to keep the panic from his voice, Han repeated, "Chewie, lock in the auxiliary power."

"Why are we still moving towards it?" Luke yelled.

"We're caught in a tractor beam, it's pulling us in."

"There's got to be something you can do!"

"Nothing I can do about it, kid, I'm on full power. I'm gonna have to shut down." Han moved quickly, turning off the power. He did not look pleased. "They're not gonna get me without a fight."

"You can't win," Obi-Wan said in a quiet, knowing tone, "but there are alternatives to fighting."

Qui-Gon allowed himself a smile at his former-student's words. "Obi-Wan will always be a contradiction," he muttered aloud.

"Why?"

"He's an incredible warrior but always prefers a peaceful option."

Sabé smiled. "How does he plan to get around this?" She glanced out of the viewscreen at the space station, now impossibly close.

"This is a smuggling ship, isn't it?" Obi-Wan said before Qui-Gon could answer her.

"Yeah." Han frowned, cautious. "You're not gonna give me a lecture, are you? 'Cause this really isn't a good time."

Obi-Wan chuckled briefly. "No. Tell me, Captain Solo, does your ship have secret compartments?"

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A/N: Next chapter: events on the Death Star.