Chapter 2

"The universe is so expansive, isn't it?"

"It's a little bit big, yeah Luke."

"And yet we met? If for no other reason, I would believe in the Force for that alone. Don't you…?"

I felt the pain in my head like a sudden jolt. As if I had been snatched from the edge of death and reminded just how cruel life could also be.

"Don't you…?" I still heard his voice faintly inside my head.

"Believe in the Force…" I whispered, as my eyes slowly opened.

The world around me came back into clarity with all the grace of our crash landing. The taste of smoke and the surreal feeling of sensation returned to my limbs.

"Mara?! Mara?!"

I put a hand to my throbbing head, feeling the warmth of blood on my fingertips.

"Leia…" I mumbled as I tried to sit up.

Her worried face came into focus over me as she helped me lean against a piece of hull.

"Don't move too quickly, you took a serious blow to the head."

"How serious…?" I whispered.

She pressed her lips into a frown, quietly waving a medical scanner over me. The device blinked indifferently, not caring whether it was about to give a death sentence or not. Finally, I heard a rush of relief slip from her lips with a sigh.

"You'll live, that's the main thing."

"Never expected much more…" I moaned, wishing I were still unconscious.

After about an hour and some first aid, I felt strong enough to ask the obvious question.

"What happened?"

Leia sighed again, leaning against the side of the ship's interior. I hadn't noticed until now that the cockpit was upside down, the chairs dangling from the ceiling. As if I didn't feel dizzy enough…

"To put it simply, the engines blew up without any warning."

"How impolite of them…" I muttered, causing a slight smile to appear on her face.

"I haven't looked much into it, I was too worried about you. If you're okay I'll go take a look."

"We'll go take a look," I insisted as I pushed myself to my feet.

"Easy, you should rest."

I found my footing carefully, testing the strength in my legs. "I'm alright. I've been scraped, burned, shot, and insulted my whole life, this is just more of the same."

She smirked at me, relief still softly glowing behind her eyes. "Mostly, you're stubborn. But I can understand that. So come on, let's see what's left of the ship."

The answer was not much. The explosion from the engines had destroyed most of the ship's rear section. If not for a sealed bulkhead we'd likely have been jettisoned into open space. All things considered, we were lucky to be alive. We spent the next few hours trying to make sense of what had happened, but with so much devastation clues were few and far between. But our theory about a fatal cascade error was put to rest soon enough.

There was no evidence that other systems had failed first and led to the engines blowing. If anything, they almost seemed to have self-destructed. Our suspicions were already running high, but baseless speculation wouldn't do us much good. Outside the carcass of our ship night was falling.

I stepped out into the muggy air and surveyed the planet. We were surrounded by trees, quite a few of them still smoldering from our landing. That filled the air with a smoky haze that made the night all the more foreboding. The air was breathable, but with our sensors down we had no real way to know if it contained a toxin that would kill us later. In the distance, I could hear every matter of trill and shriek from the local wildlife. Our hasty entrance had likely scared off most of the creatures nearby, but I had to wonder for how long. How long until fear turned into curiosity and they paid us a visit? Was there hostile life out there? And more importantly, did some of it walk on two legs and scheme trouble? Were animals the least of our worries?

I reached out with the Force, trying to detect any danger lurking in the undergrowth beyond, but nothing seemed amiss. We felt safe for the time being. Though the ache in my head made me doubt my perceptions.

As the evening wore on and the last light started to fade I put my attention on starting a fire. The air had already dropped several degrees in just the last hour. The task was easy enough and soon I found myself staring thoughtfully into the flames. A thousand thoughts were warring for my attention, and somehow I was able to worry about them all at once. In the distance, I heard the sound of branches popping with footsteps. I snapped back to attention but only saw Leia walking toward the fire, ration packs in hand. Tossing one to me, she sat down on a stump and stared into the fire too. Just as much worry, just as much hidden fear as I had.

It was strange how different it felt now.

I'd faced danger so many times and yet…

I thought of Ben. Of his smile, a smile that really was Luke's alone. Every inch of it.

Now I had so much to lose…

Everything to lose.

Pulling out the protein capsules I popped a few in my mouth. They tasted like some bitter mix of sand and rock. "Here, it'll make it go down a little easier."

To my surprise, she handed me a flask filled with what smelled like Corellian ale. "What's this, from Han's secret stash?"

She smiled. "Yes, more or less. It's his way of telling me to relax. Though I never imagined I'd have time to drink on an official mission for the New Republic and Jedi." She sighed. "Now we have all the time in the world it seems…"

I took a swig before handing it back to her. The fatal tone in her voice wasn't lost on me. "For the moment, but I don't plan on hanging around here too long."

She nodded, the worry clouding her usual determination. But the waver only lasted a few moments before she dismissed the vulnerability. "We'll think of something, Mara, we always do."

A protein capsule felt stuck in my throat but I tried not to focus on it. Or any of the other negatives around us. Instead, I let myself be grateful that we were even alive. It was a feat. Life was always the greatest feat...

I'd thought I'd seen the worst of the crash, but with every passing hour, my body seemed more given to dull aches than before. We were alive, but it had taken its toll all the same.

"I don't suppose they'll miss us before a few days at least, huh?" I mused, softly.

I watched her from over the flames. "No, I imagine it will take that long. Unless…" she looked back up at me.

I felt my eyebrows knit slowly. "We're pretty far away but…" I looked up toward the starry sky. "The Force always finds a way, doesn't it?"

Her brown eyes softly reflected the firelight. "So does love."

The word felt sharper suddenly as if reminding me of everything I stood to lose. Could he really feel me this far away? I wanted to believe he could, but part of me felt it wasn't realistic. Logic and decades worth of learned cynicism told me so. And yet… I closed my eyes, trying to cling to the shadow of his presence. As if secretly tugging on his sleeve praying he'd turn to notice me.

Now wasn't the first time I'd felt that way…

It was a realization that clung to me like memories that I couldn't fully dispel. I wanted to see them both. I wanted it so acutely that any Jedi of old would have condemned me for it. But instead of the burden and danger, they labeled attachment as I drew strength from the feeling. Letting the whisper of his presence envelope me, taking the chill from my shoulders.

"We'll find a way," I finally said, sure. "We have to…"

"So we will," Leia added with a soft-spoken, but sure determination. She took a sip of Han's ale before setting it aside and taking on a somber aura. "But we have a few problems to sort out first. Most of the cargo hold was destroyed which means nearly all our emergency supplies went with it. With only the rations from the cockpit, we can eat for two days tops."

Her words felt like another blow to my head, but I didn't even flinch. It felt like we both were trying to be strong for the other. A dumb idea, given we were empathic Jedi.

"Our sensors are down," she went on. "But I managed to access the manual database. Approximating our position I'd say the nearest settlement is 200 miles away."

"Two days food and close to a 10-day journey, why don't I like these odds…"

"We might make it in 8 if we're strict, but that would hardly make a difference to our food supply issues," she lamented.

"So we'll have to find some on the way," I added, trying to be positive.

She nodded. "We're Jedi, we stand the best chance of anyone."

I couldn't argue with that logic, but I had to wonder what good it was if we were starting with impossible odds, to begin with. Still, none of that mattered, we had to survive, odds or no odds.

"Well, we could start tonight, why lose time?" I reasoned.

But she shook her head. "It's already dark and you've hardly recovered from your injury, let's rest for tonight."

If I'd felt better I would have argued against it, but as it was my body wanted nothing more than sleep. A sleep that came surprisingly easily given the ground I was laying on. But the open stars and the flicker of fire made the scene a little less dismal. Drawing the Force around me I tried to surrender my worries and fears to the quiet of the present moment. Something about acceptance and all that…

My sleep was dreamless, filled with an almost eerie still. A part of me had wished that the darkness of my mind might have filled with something, anything. But I knew it was foolish to wish for dreams to comfort you. They weren't real and could do nothing to help us here. And yet, secretly, I wanted just a glimpse of his face…

It was near dawn when my eyes finally opened. The color of twilight was fresh between the trees, painting the horizon with a faint purple. The scene would have been peaceful, maybe even beautiful if not for our circumstances. That and the sense of warning ringing like alarms inside my senses.

Bolting up, I reached for my lightsaber, its familiar grip feeling a comfort in my hands. Leia was already on her feet, gazing cautiously into the brush just beyond our clearing. A question was on my lips but never had the time to be spoken. Three creatures leaped from the shadows baring their fangs. Quadrupeds with mindless blood lush in their golden orange eyes. Apparently, some of the local fauna was here to introduce itself.

The three stalked closer to us as Leia and I moved until we were standing back to back; sabers humming softly. Their coats were a tan color with dark stripes running horizontally. All in all, I'd never seen or heard of whatever they were. Which meant, we could expect anything…

The lead animal raised back on his hind legs and left out a roar that vibrated us down to our bones. For a second, I felt paralyzed, but not from fear, no it was like something physical. Behind me, I felt Leia flinch as if fighting to command her limbs to obey. I knew the feeling. That sound had done something meant to render prey an easy meal. But we weren't going to sit like womp rats and wait to be killed.

I felt the Force move between us, growing and intensifying until the paralysis all but fell away. Our two bodies felt as one as we both surged forward. Each of us stuck down a creature, leaving the seeming alpha the only one left. It lunged toward me but Leia's blade was much too quick. The air felt almost cool around us as the stirrings of the Force slowly subsided. Deactivating our sabers we caught our breath.

"Well…" I finally said. "Maybe our odds are a little better than I thought? If we'd been anybody else these things would have torn us limb from limb."

"Yes, I got that distinct feeling too," she said half playfully.

I smiled, the relief of still breathing making me a little giddy. "And we might have solved another problem while we were at it."

She raised a curious eyebrow. "Such as?"

I nudged one of the fallen beasts with the toe of my boot. "These things might be tastier than they look."

Leia sighed playfully. "I'll be sure to tell Han this was a lousy vacation."

"It's the only kind we ever go on," I added as I activated my lightsaber and got to work.

All in all, the meat was tough and tasted like dirt, but it was still on par with the protein capsules. And, most importantly, we had bought ourselves a few more days worth of rations. So taking what supplies we could salvage, we headed out. Out into whatever the jungle-like woods had in store for us next…