Hapes Cluster

Mara's ship was currently moored at a civilian docking port orbiting the planet Ut in the Hapes Cluster. She initially followed Jacen to the planet Lavisar, but he was on and off the planet before she could even arrange to land. Currently he was docked on the Hapan Battle Dragon, the Dragon Queen, which was in a holding position near the planet Harterra.

Her subspace transceiver buzzed pulling her attention away from a holozine article she was reading. She put down the datapad and reached forward from where she was sitting in the Captain's chair and flipped it on. She smiled when her husband's handsome face appeared on the screen. Judging from the background, he appeared to be transmitting from one of the Temple's shuttles. "I got your message," Luke said. "Where are you now?"

"I followed Jacen to Lavisar and then Hapes. He's on the Dragon Queen now. I don't know what he was doing in Imperial space, but other than that I don't see anything suspicious."

"Who's with you?"

Mara gave a sheepish smile. "Nobody."

An exaggerated look of reproach crossed Luke's face. "Mara! I know I said to follow him, but I didn't mean alone. Why didn't you bring Ben or Mark as back up?"

She shrugged looking slightly embarrassed. "To be honest, all your talk about Lumiya wanting to turn Ben made me nervous. I wanted to keep him as far away from her as possible."

"Then why didn't you bring Mark with you!" His voice had risen, but she could tell it was out of worry and not anger.

She raised an eyebrow and smirked. "Oh, you mean the man you thought was going to turn Sith and kill me?"

Luke groaned in exasperation. "You said yourself that it was just a dream."

"It was a dream. Mark would never harm me. But if I was going to leave Ben behind I want somebody watching him. I know Mark will keep Ben safe. Besides, I thought you didn't want them to know we suspected that Jacen was with Lumiya." Her features softened as she made a placating gesture. "Farmboy, this is surveillance. I've done it a million times while working as a Hand and even more as a Jedi." She gave him a warm smile. "Don't worry. Anyway, I may be coming home. It looks like his rendezvous isn't with a Sith but a possible suitor."

Luke raised an eyebrow. "Jacen and Tenel Ka?"

Mara chuckled. "Why not? Solo men seem to have a soft spot for Royal women."

Luke flashed an amused grin. "That they do."

"How's your search going?"

Luke shook his head in frustration. "It was a bust. I'm on my way back to Coruscant. Jag has yet to capture the Tof that actually made contact with Lumiya and I couldn't sense her anywhere in the area. If that was Lumiya in the Temple, then she knows Force stealth. I could look for her forever and never find her."

"That's why it's important to follow Jacen. Even if there is only a one percent possibility that he's involved with her…it's all we've got.

Luke regarded her with conflicted, unsure eyes. "Do you think we should have pulled him into my office when we first suspected? He could be in danger now." He ran his hands through his hair in frustration. "If he's with her, she must be tricking him. If I couldn't sense her in the Force then Jacen probably couldn't either. I can't think of any reason for him to want to dabble in the darkside. My father did it to protect his family, Palpatine did it for power…Jacen seems the least likely person to be seduced to the darkside."

Mara sighed heavily. "Luke we discussed this before. Yes, we couldn't think of a reason for Jacen to be with Lumiya, but one fact remained—if that was Lumiya in the Temple doing Force cloaking, it's too much of a coincidence that Jacen learned the same skill shortly before she showed up." She leaned forward in her seat and stared at her husband's image intently. "Luke, we can second-guess our decisions all day. If it wasn't Lumiya then there's no reason to worry. If it was and he knew about her…then confronting him could result in him fleeing. With his ability to Force cloak we would never find him and we could lose him forever to the Sith. We need to get her out of the picture before we confront him …that is if she is actually in the picture."

He considered this for a moment and then gave a stiff nod. "You're probably right."

"It's going to be alright," Mara reassured him. "We'll make things right."

His troubled features softened as he gazed at her through the holocam. "I can't wait to be with you again. Hurry back to Coruscant."

Mara gave him a sly grin. "I wish you were with me now. You always found a way to make surveillance so much more interesting for me."

Luke blushed and looked over his shoulder to see if anybody was listening. When he turned back to the screen he spoke in a hushed tone. "That's probably not the best idea. If I remember correctly, the last time we pulled surveillance together the suspect eluded us…and wasn't that when Hanna was conceived?"

She gave a deep sensual laugh. "I think you're right. You are such a distraction while on stakeouts."

"Only with you, love." He said tenderly. "Come back soon. I love you."

"I love you too, Farmboy."

"Bye." Luke said before his image disappeared.

Mara switched off the transceiver with a wide smile on her face. She wasn't sure what she did to deserve such a wonderful husband, but she was so glad her life turned out the way it did.

Now that their twin boys, Jak and Owen, and daughter Hanna were in college, her and Luke had a lot more time together as a couple…which was wonderful. Now all they had to do was get Ben married and out of the house...then they wouldn't have to worry about their children catching them doing any extracurricular activities. She chuckled as she recalled the almost comical look on Ben's face when he found her and Luke necking on the couch. It was the horrified expression of a son who just realized his sixty-something parents were, in all probability, still sexually active.

"I may be old, but I'm not dead," she chuckled to herself as she readied to leave docking orbit.

She transferred the docking fee and guided the Jade Shadow away from the orbital-dock. As she was typing in the hyperspace coordinates for Coruscant she noticed that Jacen's StealthX was on the move again.

"That was a short visit, Jacen," she thought to herself out loud. "I guess my surveillance isn't over."