DISCLAIMER: Star Wars and all publicly recognisable characters, names and references, etc are the sole property of George Lucas, Lucasfilm Ltd, Lucasarts Inc, 20th Century Fox, Timothy Zahn, Barbara Hambly, YKW and the other writers of the expanded Star Wars Universe. This fan fiction was created solely for entertainment and no money was made from it. Also, no copyright or trademark infringement was intended. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author. Any other characters, the storyline and the actual story are the property of the author.
He followed her back to the core worlds, for a solid week. She found herself pacing with anxiety over what Luke would think when he saw them. But maybe...maybe this might do Cal some good. If he could get a good earful of Luke's "the darkside is bad" speech he would either be so annoyed he would want to leave ASAP, or he might take some of it to heart and shake that creepy aura that was massively wigging her out. Besides, at any rate, she had seven beautiful days to prepare for whatever might happen. At least the comlinks didn't work in hyperspace.
After the first day, she tried to reach out to him with the Force. She could feel him faintly, could feel his emotions, but it was like a blur. She had to be closer. On the second day, it was clearer, and she got the distinct sensation that he was moving closer to her.
Why in the Force would he be doing that?
Mara checked her navcomputer and considered her options. If she were to suddenly drop out of hyperspace, she would give Cal the scare of his life. Sure, she could sent him a signal, but no explanation, and if he dropped out of hyperspace after her, she would have to deal with the annoying situation of talking to him.
Maybe she should wait a few days. So on day four, she tried again to find him distinctly closer to her. A day closer, at least. What was a day closer? Courscant was the only place she would even suspect he'd go to. But why had he gone there? Was there trouble? She simply had to know. So she pulled the Jaded Sky out of hyperdrive, distinctively hearing the burst of static that Cal's ship made in objection before it followed, and settled in to open a comlink to Courscant.
Minutes passed. Cal tried to call her, but she ignored him as the channel cleared. The controller told her that Master Skywalker hadn't landed yet, but was still an hour away from the planet. Mara cursed herself for not trying that first, and struggled to think of the ship that Luke might possibly be in. *Come on, Emperor's Hand,* she demanded, *THINK!*
Luke had said something about Han coming to visit. Han...the Millenium Falcon. It was worth a try. So she opened the comlink and prayed to hear a familiar voice.
"They're still on us!" Han Solo shouted as he manuvered the Falcon through some space debris. "What the hell did you do to piss these guys off?"
"I've never seen them before," Luke growled from the copilot's seat. They were outside the orbit of Yavin IV, having escaped narrowly from the makeshift deathsquad that had assembled over the Jedi Academy. Luckily, they weren't after the Jedi--they were just after Luke.
His mind went to Mara. She was coming, he could feel it. But she would be coming to Yavin IV, possibly walking into a trap. So as hard as he could, he sent her the message---* Coruscant, Courscant, Coruscant!* and hoped that she was as smart as he believed her to be.
"I'm going to make the jump to hyperspace. If they want to follow us, they'll have to take on Coruscant's guardships." Han punched in the coordinates into the Falcon's navcomputer and waited for it to kick in. Within seconds, the small raging ships that had landed on Yavin IV and then chased the Falcon back into the stars again disappeared behind them.
"They're probably going to follow us," Luke said in a slightly dreamy voice.
Han threw a glance at him. "Wonderful. But first let's take care of business. Why don't you make sure my niece isn't plastered to the Falcon's ceiling?" Then he shook his head. "To who am I glad I brought Artoo along for a visit."
They were an hour away from Coruscant when the comlink started to blink. Han snapped it open.
"Solo here," he said warily.
"It's me," came the familiar voice. "Mara. Are Luke and Vaiya with you?"
"Sure thing. Hold on just a second and I'll transfer you back to him on visual, okay?"
Mara grunted her consent, but she was probably pretty distracted, Han thought as he made the connection. Then with a sweet voice he called, "Hey, farmboy! There's a girl on the line for you!"
Luke watched as Mara appeared before him, a holographic image. He shook his head at her in frustration.
"Why did you drop out of hyperspace? How far away are you, anyway?"
"About two days or so," she said, sounding slightly sheepish. "I had a bad feeling I had to check out."
Luke sighed and sat down, putting his head in his hand. For a minute, he felt completely drained--like he had all that time ago when Ben Kenobi had been murdered before his very eyes. Why was he getting that feeling about Mara? She wasn't going anywhere...unless...
"He followed you, didn't he?"
Mara looked away. "I couldn't stop him."
There was a long silence. "Couldn't stop him, or didn't want to stop him?"
Her eyes were on fire when she turned them back to him. "I'm not even going to dignify that with an objection. If you don't know the answer to that then---"
"All right, all right. I'm sorry." He sighed again. This was getting them nowhere.
"Why are you going to Coruscant?" she asked, her voice low.
"Because some band of unknown terrorists decided to pick me as their target."
Mara straightened. "You're kidding. Why now? Don't you have any idea who they are?"
"I don't know to both questions."
"Is Vaiya safe?"
"Yes, she's sleeping. She loved her first trip through hyperspace. But it ain't like dustin' crops," Luke quote with a quick glance toward the cockpit. "We didn't do this for fun."
"Then we'll rendevous at Coruscant," Mara said, "and I'll give these guys a taste of what the Jaded Sky can do. Maybe even Cal will help."
Luke stayed silent.
"Well, kiss Vaiya for me."
"What about me?"
"I'll kiss you when I get home...with my fist," she added with a mock scowl.
"Provided you get here in time. Put some speed into it, Mara. You're two days too far away."
"I'm going, I'm going. See you in two, Skywalker."
Okay, that was wierd. Mara sat back in her chair and did some calculations. A few days ago, she had tried to reach Luke and figured out that he was moving. That must have been when the attack came. Now he was nearly at Coruscant. Was that deathsquad tracking him? It was entirely possible. Maybe they thought Coruscant's guardships would help. It was a good plan, but Mara knew she couldn't be a part of it so either way all she felt was frustration and helplessness. She could up her speed, but not without risking killing herself, and that certainly wouldn't make her family or friends very happy.
So now she came to the feelings she'd been having about Cal. About how something was very off about him. About how he'd reacted to the news that Skywalker was now her husband rather than her target. She could almost hear the thoughts brewing in his head, even in hyperspace. Then a thought suddenly occured to her. Cal was insistent on the fact that she hadn't changed. If that was he was assuming, then everything she did would look to him like one of her old tricks. Like the times she pretended to be someone else in order to carry out a mission for whatever reason.
Perhaps he thought she was pretending to be Luke's wife, just to get close enough to hurt him. Not kill him, that would be too easy. No, she'd have to make him suffer before she took his life away. That was the woman she had been, a long time ago. The woman Cal thought she was now.
Perhaps--and it felt more certain the longer she touched Cal's buzzing mind--Cal was trying to help her out, or prove something to her. Maybe he'd sent that squad to Yavin IV. Although it was nearly impossible. He'd been out on Duran, and Yavin IV was a good seven days away. Well, maybe it wasn't impossible, but it was stretching the possible just a little it.
She set her speed for as fast as the ship would go without flying apart. She only knew she wanted to get home to her husband and daughter as fast as she could.
Coruscant--it was a beautiful planet from the air. It was practically covered with cities, with certain parts of the land protected to preserve its wildlife and plantlife. But like most places, it was a nice place to visit, but Mara had no desire to live there. As soon as she dropped out of hyperspace, she felt the urge to land, yank Luke and Vaiya into the Jaded Sky, and take off with no certain destination.
She opened a comlink to the Coruscant station. Luke was waiting for her, but there was a bit of confusion about Mara's landing clearance. Apparently, the fact that she was a Jedi Knight had very little influence over the director. They were expecting a ship of refugees from Tatooine, who were being forced off the planet one by one as the sandpeople took over more and more territory. It was a bit comforting to know it was from Tatooine. At least she was being thrown over for something worthy. So she waited.
And then they attacked. Mara sensed them a full minute before the alarms on the Jaded Sky went off. She swung around and readied herself for the initial blows, watching the guardships of Courscant move into defense position. The enemy ships veered off, then regrouped for a second run.
She chose that moment to turn a good defense into a good offense. She charged forward toward the closest ship and opened fire. The Jaded Sky didn't have any really heavy power on it, but Mara had insisted that its lazers be top quality. The pale blue bolts shredded one of the angular wings of the enemy fighter, sending it spinning into one of its companions.
That was when the Caliber showed up.
It appeared like a raging beast, and all the enemy fighters turned into frightened mice when they saw it. They barely kept themselves from colliding into him by pulling up and over hard to scatter around him. Cal let out some shots, crippled some ships, and sent the rest running. Except one.
Mara wondered if it might be the leader, but realized the ship was too much of a runt to be holding someone of such obvious importance. It swung around and made a suicide dive toward Mara, who barely dodged aside in time, feeling the crazy urge to hyperventilate. She did the only thing she could think to do and not get herself killed--she ran.
One of the guardships got on the tail of her pursuer and managed to get off a few shots, but the little ship was not going to give up until it was a part of the entropy of space. Mara fought a rising urge to panic. Sure, it had been a long time. She'd never really participated in any space battles, but shaking insane enemies went basically by the same rules whether by land or in space. The last space battle she could think of, really, was when she'd knocked herself out and Luke had rescued her.
Her eyes focused hard ahead of her. The Caliber loomed before her, and she had an idea. She opened a comlink and said in her most no-nonsense voice, "Cal, get everyone out of your cargo bay, and focus your shields there at maximum."
A few seconds passed as Mara closed the distance. "Done," came Cal's voice, as if he'd already done it before she'd even asked. "What are you going to do?"
"Cause a whole bunch of damage to your ship that I'm going to have to pay for, and destroy an annoying little gnat on my tail." And with that, she made a screaming turn away from Cal's ship, and the smaller ship behind her, in spite of its better manuvering capabilities, crashed into the hull as she expected.
Mara leveled out the Jaded Sky and opened a comlink to the director.
"Can I land now?" she asked in a flat voice.
"Clearance at docking bay 27 for both you and your helper," the director said, his voice wryly admiring. "Master Skywalker is already headed there to meet you."
"Thank you," Mara said. She couldn't wait to get on solid ground again."