35 ABY, Jedi Academy campus, Ossus

The routine meeting of the Jedi Council abruptly paused as Master Skywalker was very obviously distracted by a flurry of activity outside the chamber. Everyone present could recognize the Solos, and the air of anticipation around Leia in particular changed the whole atmosphere. Luke immediately mirrored it, and then Mara couldn't help but join him. The anxiety was contagious.

Cilghal glanced around the rest of the assembly with her bulbous eyes, and sharply inclined her head toward the door. "If that will be all, Master Skywalker," she suggested in her soft-spoken way, "we'll leave you to your other business."

"Yes, thank you, Cilghal." Luke's expression was placid, but his heart was thumping so hard that Mara was surprised she couldn't hear it. "We'll reconvene in three days if nothing changes."

The other Masters gathered their effects and cleared the beautifully inlaid council table. The purpose of the Solos' recent run to the archives of Obroa-skai was no secret, but none of them was indiscreet enough to discuss it openly, at least not until the facts were known. Corran offered Luke an encouraging pat on the back as he left, and was acknowledged with a nod. They might finally be close to cracking some long-standing and very sensitive mysteries.

As soon as the Masters had filed out, Han and Leia burst in with a thick folder of flimsiplast printouts. Mara felt Luke's anticipation spike as his sister slapped it down on the table.

"Close the door," Leia barked at Han, not unkindly. She sat down next to Luke and spread the folder open. "Okay," she began, laying out the first few sheets, "here's what we've got. That section of Old Republic government records wasn't complete, nothing like what Coruscant would have had before the Vongforming, but I think we found her."

Luke nodded, and Mara put her hand on his leg under the table. They had all discussed whatever indicative details they could remember from those few snippets of holo they had managed to pry out of Artoo—the affluent surroundings, the presence of Obi-Wan Kenobi, the casual conversation about the doings of the Jedi Council, Anakin Skywalker's apparent proximity to Chancellor Palpatine—and had decided to focus their search on the most prominent circles of Coruscanti society. All they had to guide them was a partial name.

"The only Padmé documented on Coruscant around that time was Senator Padmé Amidala," Leia continued, indicating the name on the first page of the official biodata summary, "representing the planet Naboo. She had served two terms as queen before that, and is still something of a local hero. There was some trouble with the Neimoidians early in her reign, even an invasion and a brief occupation until she led an assault to retake the capital."

Luke was speed reading through the historical highlights and calculating dates. "When she was fourteen?" he asked no one in particular. "Sounds spunky."

"Maybe it runs in the family," Han observed with a cheeky glance at Leia. "But let's not get ahead of ourselves."

"Right," Leia agreed, shooting her husband a sidelong look. "The Imperial purge of certain memory banks left some holes in the official archives before they were copied to Obroa-skai, and the war didn't help matters. There will almost certainly be more information cached on Naboo itself. We did find an official portrait, though." She leafed through the flimsis and handed the holostill to Luke. "I think it looks like her."

"That's her," Luke agreed, apparently with no doubt whatsoever. He kept the print pressed firmly between his hand and the table, perhaps unconsciously, as if to keep it from vanishing into the ether. Those brief glimpses that Artoo had so far been unable or unwilling to replay for them had passed too quickly to be properly appreciated. Finally holding her captured image in hardcopy was twisting Luke up in some very vulnerable ways.

It was a nice face, Mara could admit, with fine features and an undeniable nobility, and she could recognize a certain resemblance to Leia. They had all seen enough of the old Clone Wars propaganda holos to already know that Luke took after his father, at least in his looks. Mara slipped a peek at the lovely senator's recorded height, and realized there might be a reason Luke had not inherited Anakin's heroic stature.

"That's great," Han said, "but we still don't know if she's your mother or just another of Anakin's girlfriends."

Luke spared a sharp glance, already defensive without any solid justification. "Leia is convinced she was pregnant in the holo we saw."

"Definitely," Leia insisted. "Mara?"

"I got that distinct impression," Mara agreed. Maybe it was a mother's intuition.

"Good enough for me," Luke continued. "I find it hard to believe Anakin would have had several clandestine families at once."

"I wouldn't put it past him," Han persisted, maybe recalling those propaganda holos. "Hotshot pilot, darling of the Republic war effort, he could have been spoiled for choice. Not everyone is wired like you, Luke."

Luke glanced up again, and his eyes had gone icy. "He wasn't always a villain, you know."

Han looked stung, and he opened his mouth, perhaps to protest that having a few girlfriends was hardly a war crime, but Leia elbowed him in the ribs.

Mara shared Han's reservations, but she wasn't ready to voice them. Luke was fixated on the portrait with an intensity that had her worried. For all the traditional Jedi abhorrence of attachment, he seemed excessively prone to it.

"Amidala was her regnal name," Leia clarified, returning to the facts at hand. "Deeper in, I noticed that her family name was listed as Naberrie. I served in the Imperial Senate with a Pooja Naberrie from Naboo. We were friendly back then, and it would be wild to find out she's some sort of cousin. I'll see if I can reach her, and maybe we can get some more information, maybe even a genetic comparison if Artoo doesn't cooperate." She pulled a datacard out of a sleeve inside the folder, and handed it to Luke. "Here. It's a copy of everything." Then she frowned and laid a hand on her brother's wrist. "Hey, you going to be okay?"

She was right to be concerned, Mara thought. Luke looked like he was going to be sick.

"It's just . . . it's just a weird feeling," he said, unable to tear his eyes away from the young senator's face. "I want to remember, and I feel like it might be there, just out of reach." He sighed. "Or maybe I'm just imagining it. I can't be sure."

Leia looked sympathetic. "Neither can I," she said, squeezing his arm. "As Han says, let's not get ahead of ourselves. I'll make some calls and let you know what I turn up."

Mara quietly squeezed Luke's thigh, unsettled by how thoroughly the experience had rattled him. Luke laid his hand over hers and squeezed her back, appreciating her support.

The shadows of the past were thick, and they would definitely need more facts before they could see their way through. Still, she had to admit that it wasn't a huge leap to imagine that this trailblazing warrior queen could have birthed Luke and Leia.

What really worried her was Artoo's almost neurotic insistence that the past was better left alone. Obviously the story didn't end happily, whoever their mother had been. Luke was determined to open that wound, to know whatever could be known, to see the tragedy for what it was. It wasn't something Mara would have chosen for herself, and for that reason she had never even tried to trace her roots.

But she had married into this mess of a family. These secrets weighed heavily on her husband and on their son, and for better or worse she would be sharing that tragedy with them.