Chapter 15

There was no one around as Mara approached the Starry Ice. She went to the keypad by the boarding ramp and punched in a twelve-digit code. The ramp lowered.

Thank you, Ghent, Mara thought as she strode up the ramp. Years ago, Mara had told her former slicer to program every ship in the fleet with a backup passcode that only Mara knew. No one else even knew the passcode existed. Even if the ship captains had found out, Ghent assured her that it would be nearly impossible for them to disable or override it. Apparently he was true to his word.

The ship was silent except for the echo of Mara's footsteps as she made her way to the bridge. Faughn's crew must have been smart enough to disappear once they knew they were caught. But Mara knew Faughn, like a true captain, would stay with her ship until the bitter end.

The bridge was dark, but it took Mara less than a second to spot Faughn waiting in the shadows with blaster drawn.

Mara aimed her blaster. "It's over, Faughn."

Mara, stop! The voice sliced through the air. No, actually, it didn't. It never hit the air at all. Luke was screaming directly into Mara's mind. Stay out of my mind, Skywalker! Mara mentally rebuked.

"I'm not leaving," Faughn said simply.

"I wasn't planning on letting you," Mara growled. She adjusted her aim—

And the world went dark.

"Alright, drop it," Odonnl ordered as he set his end of the large packing crate on the ground. "What's wrong?" he asked as he made his way around the crate. "Do you have a broken rib?"

"No, my ribs are fine. Promise. I just can't get a grip today," Dankin replied. He took a step to the side, not liking Odonnl's scrutiny as he looked him over.

"You dropped that crate three times. Something's wrong," Odonnl said.

"What happened to your hand?" Benji asked, looking curiously down from his perch on top of another crate.

Odonnl had noticed Dankin's right hand was wrapped, but since he hadn't said anything Odonnl hadn't thought much about it. But it had been the right side Dankin dropped, all three times. "Okay, let's see it." Odonnl stepped up to Dankin. He gripped his wrist with one hand and unwrapped the cloth from his hand with the other. Odonnl sucked in his breath as he revealed Dankin's palm, bearing a deep cut, bright red and oozing. Dankin winced as the open gash was exposed to the air. "Why didn't you say anything?"

Dankin shrugged. "It's not that bad." He peered down at his hand. "Or at least it wasn't."

"Come on, we're getting this treated," Odonnl replied. "I'm sure Mirax has a medical droid or two."

"But—"

"Mara will work something out when she gets back," Odonnl cut off Dankin's objection. He pulled

Dankin forward. "Come on, Benji."

Benji hopped down and took Dankin's other arm.

Luke charged onto the bridge of the unfamiliar ship, searching for signs of life. He saw no movement and sensed no conscious beings. There were, however, two crumpled forms sprawled on the deck.

Luke knelt by the first form. He shifted her body so she was lying flat on her back, with arms and legs lying straight and natural. He brushed the flame red hair out of her eyes. "Sorry, Mara. I couldn't let you do something I knew you would regret."

Next Luke moved to other unmoving figure. She had a trim but muscular build and at least an inch or two of height on Mara, Luke noticed as he rolled her onto her side, but the Jedi Master rather doubted she'd last more than a few minutes in a fight against her boss. "I'm sorry I had to knock you out, but you have no idea how lucky you are," he muttered to the unconscious woman as he fastened a set of binders to her wrists.

It had been easy enough for Luke. Once he'd made the mental connection to Mara it was no trick at all to find the right part of her mind and send a "lights-out" signal to quickly and painlessly render her unconscious. It had been only marginally more difficult to find the mind of the other woman and do the same. The hardest part had been timing it so they would both fall unconscious at the same time.

He'd put only the gentlest pressure on Mara's mind—he only needed her to be out until he could arrive and sort through things—and already he could sense her starting to stir. He collected both blasters from the deck and positioned himself between Mara and her would-be victim. And he waited for Mara to wake up.

"Do you hear that?" Dankin asked. Odonnl didn't hear anything other than the whirring of the medical droid as it treated Dankin's hand onboard the Pulsar Skate.

"That voice . . ." Dankin continued.

Odonnl thought he could just barely make out what might have been the sound of voices through the wall, but he certainly couldn't identify them. Dankin, however, had always had superior hearing. "Where are you going?" Odonnl asked as Dankin pulled his arm away from the droid and headed for the door.

"I know that voice." Dankin walked up to the next door down the hall and pushed his ear up against it. The only available medical droid had been in Mirax's personal medical facility. The door Dankin was leaning against belonged to one of Mirax's private offices.

The medical droid had followed Dankin and was trying to grab a hold of his hand as Dankin tried to simultaneously push the droid away and listen at the door. Finally, he gave the droid a big push backward and opened the door.

"You're going to have to hold it together, Zakarisz. There's just no way anyone can get to you—" Mirax stopped, narrowing her eyes as she looked up from the holoscreen on her desk to regard the sudden intruders.

"Ghent," Dankin cried, rushing around Mirax's desk so he could get a better look at the holoscreen. As he stepped up beside Mirax, Dankin immediately recognized the figure on the screen as the best slicer who had ever worked for Karrde.

"Dankin?" came the uncertain reply. Uncertain, but with an edge of desperate hope.

When Mara awoke to find herself on the cold metal deck she was not happy. She stayed down for several seconds after she awakened to gather her bearings. She wasn't certain what had caused her to lose consciousness, but she knew it wasn't Faughn. And since she could sense Luke standing serenely a few meters away, she figured it must have been him. She took another moment to throw up every mental barrier she could muster, and then leapt to her feet.

"You self-righteous, meddlesome, good-for-nothing oaf!" She quickly closed the distance between herself and Luke, sparing a brief glance at Faughn who was just beginning to stir, stretched out on the deck with her hands bound behind her.

"Whoa, Mara. Calm down. I was just trying to help." Luke raised his hands defensively and took a step back. At first Mara was somewhat satisfied to see the Jedi Master backing down from her, but when she realized he had shifted to position himself more fully between her and Faughn her anger peaked again.

"I. Don't. Need. Your. Help," she bit out.

"I saved you from doing something you would regret," Luke answered calmly.

"You 'saved' me?" Mara spat, her tone dripping venom. "Since when are my actions any of your business?"

"Since you've turned into a killer. Since you've fallen back on old habits. You're better than this, Mara."

Faughn was struggling to her feet. Luke moved to help her up.

Mara was at a loss. She wanted to continue screaming at Luke, but she knew it would be futile. Moments ago she'd been furious that he was trying to control her. But now that she could plainly see that he had lost all faith in her, the anger had shriveled into nothing.

Mara started when her comlink chirped. "I'm here," Mara said into the device as she turned away from Luke as he helped to steady Faughn.

"It's Ghent," Dankin's voice crackled over the comlink. "He needs our help." Dankin explained the situation quickly.

"On my way," Mara replied curtly. She had no idea why her former employee thought that he could call on her for help, and she was not at all certain that she was willing to lend him any aid, but she hadn't liked the urgency in her normally laid-back pilot's tone. Not to mention she was eager to have something to think about that didn't involve Faughn or Luke.

"Hey, Skywalker." Faughn rolled her shoulders and shifted her wrists, trying to find a more comfortable position within in the confines of the binders.

Luke was studying Mara as she answered her comlink, but looked away to focus on Faughn.

"Check her blaster," Faughn said.

Keeping one eye on the restrained smuggler, Luke pulled out the blaster he'd found closest to Mara. He turned it over in his hand, seeing nothing out of the ordinary. He'd just opened his mouth to ask Faughn what he was looking for when he noticed the setting: stun.

Faughn gave him a bemused smile. "As much as I appreciate your stepping in to provide an unexpected nap," Faughn repositioned herself to gaze thoughtfully at Mara, "I knew Jade wasn't going to kill me. She just doesn't have it in her. Not anymore."