Chapter 4: Big Sky
"Do you want to know the odds of two Imperial agents stopping an anarchist smuggling ring?" Kay-Too was saying as Cassian climbed aboard their battered shuttle. It was a tight fit, even for three, and he might have found it cozy if Kay-Too hadn't been there. He wondered, briefly, if the droid's presence wouldn't suffocate both of them.
"Make sure you factor all your variables in there, Kay-Too," Mara replied as she adjusted the straps on the netting that held her luggage. "Leave something out, and you might be wrong for once. Or again. I'm not listening anyway, so you'll forgive me if I'm not keeping track."
If droids could glare, Kay-Too would have given her a masterful evil eye. Cassian nodded to Mara as he moved to stow his own belongings, glanced at Kay-Too as he brushed by him.
Despite the unpleasant third wheel, he felt the stifling cabin air and the old, plain clothes he wore like a fresh wind, like freedom. He was now on a triple mission with two agents of the Empire for company, and no back-up, but he felt more at home than he had since coming to Coruscant. It was almost enough to make him smile.
"That one's still probably a spy." Kay-Too hadn't given up yet.
Mara sighed. "No doubt. In fact, at the very least, Organa wants some control over the situation. Not surprising, nor unreasonable under the circumstances." She raised her eyebrows at Cassian. "Am I right?"
He nodded. "The senator has a great deal invested in this, as you well know."
"You see?" Mara turned, facing her droid directly as she would a smart child. "As for your other suspicions, when you have something concrete to support them, feel free to bring it up again. And don't worry, if that day comes, I will shoot him. Now, start the pre-flight. I want to get out of here."
She moved to the back of the ship as Kay-Too huffed – a shocking feet from a construction of angles and metal – his way to the cockpit.
"What does he suspect?" Cassian asked, having the answer, as he handed her a canteen to stow with their other survival supplies.
Mara shrugged. "That you're a rebel spy. That Bail Organa is working with the pirates. That this is all a trap. That we have enemies everywhere."
"Hard to argue with that last," Cassian said.
She looked at him. "I'm used to working alone."
"Trust," he said, placing his hand over hers. "That's where we start." He didn't add, I'm used to working alone too.
She squeezed his hand back. "Well, if we get sick of each other, Kay-Too will provide good company."
He laughed. Then, as she bent to shove a crate against the bulkhead, "Can I ask you something?"
"Ask away."
"Why would someone set a trap for one of the Emperor's dancers?"
She froze, straightened, met his gaze evenly. "Let's get one thing straight from here on out, okay?"
He nodded.
"I don't take you for a fool, and you understand that some things are my business."
There was a long tense moment, during which Cassian had the absurd thought, This is our first fight, but a moment later his brain detached from the role he was playing long enough to understand the position they were actually in, and he took a step towards her, raising a hand to her face.
"I'm sorry," he said. "I don't mean to pry." He gave her a half smile he hoped was roguish and charming. "I find you intriguing. Can you blame me for wanting to know more?"
She slapped his hand away, violently, her eyes hard. "Don't try that on me. I like you because you don't speak falsely. Ever. Until now. Do it again, and I'll be forced to consider Kay-Too may be right about you."
"Once would be enough, I'd think," a synthesized voice called down from the cockpit.
They ignored him. Cassian was trying to bring to mind his initial assessment of this woman, to backtrack into tactics he already knew would work.
Towing the line.
He didn't apologize. "Very well. May I make an honest suggestion then?"
Mara nodded.
"We shouldn't be headed for Alderaan. We should be headed for Tatooine."
She blinked at him. "Why in the name of all that is Sith would we go there?"
He headed for the cockpit , Mara in tow, and settled next to Kay-Too. "Mos Eisley Spaceport is a sort of bottleneck for the criminal underground," he explained as he strapped in. "Sooner or later all the scum in the galaxy passes through there. Whatever's happening on Aldreraan likely started there. Or someone who knows about it did."
Mara settled herself in the seat behind her droid, her eyes thoughtful. "And how would a secretary know this?"
He looked back at her over his shoulder. "Some things are my business."
"If that isn't an admission of guilt, I don't know what it," Kay-Too said helpfully.
**RogueLegends**
Mos Eisley Spaceport was all that was promised. Mara blinked at the variety of life around her, wondering how it managed to be more diverse than Coruscant, the supposed hub of the galaxy. Beside her, Cass walked with a mixture of confidence and wariness that, while further evidence in support of all the questions she wasn't asking, only made her like him more.
She contemplated this as she kept up her own survey of their surroundings. She had known from the start that Cass was not just an administrator. He clearly performed other work for the Organas, or Bail wouldn't have sent him with her. Perhaps this was the sort of thing Cass did all the time. Alderaanian Intelligence, perhaps? But then why had he been at the party? For her?
She dismissed this as soon as she thought of it. She was too closely guarded a secret. Her very existence was the stuff of shadow and myth. For her to show up at an operation likely meant the end of the line for all parties involved. She wasn't responsible for whatever justice followed, of course. She was merely the clean-up crew. But she could see it in the officers' eyes, and if she was standing in the room ready to do their jobs for them, they had utterly and unforgivably failed.
Even Bail Organa, with all his resources, wouldn't have enough on her to pick her out of a crowd.
What then? Another mission? Or perhaps Organa felt he needed the additional protection; things in the Senate were only growing tenser. Could Cass be his backup? But then, why send him away?
The man was a mystery. She was following a mystery through the dustiest town in the galaxy towards Force knew what sort of trouble, and she found she was enjoying herself.
He could keep his secrets for now. She might figure them out later, but she could live with their respectful understanding in the meantime.
They made their way – without stopping for directions, Mara noted – to a dim and smoke-filled cantina. Mara thought with a certain wryness that the air didn't feel all that different from a Coruscantian ball. Cass seemed to know his way through it though it just fine. In fact, if she'd had to pick a word for the set of his shoulders as they wove through the crowd in front of her, it would have been relaxed.
They bypassed the crowded bar and made for a small corner booth in the back. One of the occupants, a stocky man with a sharp eye containing a glint that warned you not to underestimate him, raised his eyebrows at them as they approached. Cass slowed his pace, just a little, and his elbow quirked just enough to put his hand closer to his blaster.
The man's eyes missed nothing. They took her in, assessed, and filed her away for later. Cass they already knew, but something about him had surprised them, and they weren't quite prepared to say what. The man nodded to his companion, an alien species unfamiliar to Mara, and they took the hint and got up to melt into the crowd. Cass took the vacated spot, and Mara slid in next to him.
"Well, this is a surprise," the man said.
"Jonas Crone, Mara Jade," Cass said by way of introduction.
"And to what do we owe the pleasure?"
The corner of Cass' mouth turned up. "Nothing like that, Jonas. We're just looking for information."
"You're always looking for information, Cassian, though this time I think you've outdone yourself."
Cass, or Cassian, winced, and Mara thought, Spy then, or someone who wants to leave his past behind him. Reformed spy? She nearly laughed aloud at the thought. Intelligence of some kind, definitely.
"Whatever you're thinking, that's still not it," Cassian said, and for a moment Mara though he was speaking to her. "I need to know about a gang of pirates operating out of the Alderaanian system."
Jonas' eyes darkened. "Anarchists. Even you don't want to waste your time digging around that firepit, Cassian."
"We know they're anarchists," Mara said tightly. "But we don't know much more than that. They seem to be making a mess of things, and I don't just mean the raids. There's been-"
"I know what there's been," Jonas said evenly. "The piracy is just how they get their funding. These guys…They don't have a name, they don't have a leader – at least, they don't call him that, but they rally around him if they rally around anything at all. They don't have a plan, as far as I can tell, unless it's to spread whatever chaos they can."
"Are they politically motivated?" Cassian asked.
"Who isn't these days?" said Jonas. "But it's worse than that. It's less politics and more blind anger. From what I hear, as far as these guys are concerned, the Rebellion…even the Separatists and the New Republic, all governments have kept them down. So they want them all gone. The senators, the systems, everything. It's them against the galaxy, and if they have to destroy it to get out from under ruling boots, they'll do it gladly."
"They're terrorists," Mara surmised.
Jonas' eyes on her were like daggers. This would be a very dangerous man in a fight, Mara thought. His tone, however, was to the point. "You clearly don't understand anarchy, dear. It knows no honor code. It knows no cause and no master. There's nothing for it to cling to but blind rage."
"As opposed to what? Smuggling?"
Jonas leaned back with a grin. "I sit on a bedrock of personal profit, love. She's been a kinder and more reliable god than any shaman or politician has ever preached of. And don't think she doesn't have her standards of honor."
Mara snorted. The man could use a few lessons in the bigger picture, but that wasn't her mission. It never was. She had her rallying point. Others must choose theirs.
What was Cassian's?
Mara.
It came as a dull throb, and Mara raised a hand to her temple.
"Mara, are you alright?" Cassian's hand was on her arm, and his eyes were filled with a concern that she was suddenly certain was the only genuine thing in the room.
"Headache," she said softly. "Probably that damn song the band keeps playing. If you gentlemen will excuse me, I'll go and get some fresh air."
He released her, and she nearly stumbled out. It wasn't quite a summons, not yet, but it was a warning. She wondered for the hundredth time how many of her emotions were laid bare through this bond, this tether to the source of all that was stable and reliable in her world.
One thing was clear, he wasn't happy about Cassian.
**RogueLegends**
Cassian watched Mara go, concern worrying at him. For a moment, it had seemed her attention had been called away, as if she were listening to something only she could hear. He wondered again what he'd gotten himself in the middle of. When he turned back to the table, Jonas was watching him ruefully, and he found this even more disconcertingly than Mara's abrupt exit.
"What?" he demanded.
Jonas removed one finger from his glass to cock towards the door. "Do you know who she is?"
Cassian nodded.
Jonas was not convinced. "Do you know what she is?"
Sometimes, he was finding, honesty did the trick just as well. "That's what I'm here to find out. Do you know?"
Jonas shook his head. "Shadows and rumors." He grinned. "Your specialty. But none of the rumors are pleasant. Watch your back, Andor."
Cassian nodded. Why did everyone feel the need to remind him to do that?
