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.
Of course, Luke did not tell Mara what he really thought. Before Vaiya had been born, she'd had disturbing visions about her daughter's future, but had decided to put them to rest and let them work themselves out in time. Besides, it wasn't like she could do anything about it, and since Vaiya's birth they only occasionally popped into Mara's dreams. It wasn't anything she couldn't handle.
Callista's death, however, had been another story. At first, Mara had been content to continue to scour old records for traces of Jabba's Fist, trying to figure out where here child might have been sold. After a year of searching, she had to conceed that an organization like Jabba's Fist wasn't going to leave any evidence of their activities behind them, and the law hadn't been solid enough to keep any real records on them to give Mara any trail to follow and find those who might have had some association with the old slavers group. There was simply no scent to pick up, and she'd had to put it aside.
Luke had done his part. Every night, he searched for his son through the Force. He reached out to places he had never thought he could reach. During the year Mara was tracking records, they had moved a lot, before they had settled on Yavin IV permanently. Luke was able to use the different distances to reach out to new places every time, but he never touched anything. Then she'd given it up, feeling that she'd exhausted every port and now had to rely purely on destiny and Karrde (a frightening combination, Luke thought, but said nothing) who still had his ax to the smuggler's grindstone and promised he'd let her know if he caught a whiff of a clue. She trusted him. Besides, if it had to do with smuggling, Karrde would eventually stumble across it. They stayed mobile for a while longer, several months, actually, but they had to consider Vaiya. She needed planet life. Growing up between the stars with no native planet just didn't sound healthy for her. She needed people other than her parents, other children, other Jedi to be around. So Luke had to content himself with learning to stretch out a little farther every time from Yavin IV.
About a month ago he'd given up searching. It was unlike him to be that way, and he knew it should bother him but it didn't. Something just told him to sit tight and wait, that something would come. Just like Mara had said about her visions of Vaiya, that she just had to be patient and it would all reveal itself. He hoped it would work for him.
As Mara put in a call to Karrde to let him know she was coming to pay a visit, Luke joined her, his senses tingling in an odd way.
"Your timing is perfect," Karrde told them after they had finally reached him. The man made it impossible to reach him by comlink, but Mara knew how to do it. "I just stumbled across an old trader friend of mine who worked with me back when Jabba was alive. He worked with Jabba's Fist for a little while after Leia strangled the old slug, around the time they disbanded. The leader, some guy named Karander, kept a disc of his credit report on him at all times, but the son of a jawa wound up getting shot in the back by his second, who didn't care for the way he was running things. What really frosted it was the fact that Karander had a lot of deep loyalties from his thugs, and they turned on the second. Of course, with Karander dead, there was no reason to let those beautiful credits go to waste, so my friend, Rand, swiped it. He and Karander went pretty far back, too."
"He took the credits, of course," Mara said dryly.
"Like any good smuggler," Karrde replied smoothly. "He kept the disc as a momento. Supposedly he kept some other information on it, too, but it was coded. Ghents cracking it. He should be done by the time you get here."
"Sounds good," Mara said, biting her thumb. "I'll call you again when I take off and let you know when I'll arrive."
"Fine." And he disappeared off the holovid.
Mara turned to look at Luke. "Sounds like destiny to me."
Luke frowned. "All this destiny makes me uneasy. Are you sure you don't want me to come along?"
"I'd love it, but I don't want to drag Vaiya on this. And we can't leave her here alone."
"We could leave her with Leia and Han."
"And how many times were their kids stolen?" Mara countered.
"Point. OK, you go. Hurry back with whatever you find."
"I will." She kissed him. "I'll be ready to go by mid- afternoon. The Jaded Sky's been being prepped since this morning."
"Anxious to leave me?" Luke asked, cocking an eyebrow.
She cocked her head to one side. "You know, don't you?"
"I know you, Mara." He grew solemn. "We've both done our best. He's my son, wherever he is. But if he was sold...I doubt it was to be a slave. He probably has a home, parents who love him, friends. He has to be nearly eleven now. I just wonder...if we're doing the right thing."
"We never said we were going to take him," Mara said softly. "We just said we were going to find him. If he's happy, then.....you decide. I'll stand by you, no matter what."
He smiled at her. "When did you get so wise?"
She shrugged. "Don't know. Kinda just happened, I guess. Whatever else that happens, Luke, we can at least find him. We owe ourselves---and Callista---that much."
He nodded. "May the Force be with you."
"And with you, my love."
She left to finish getting ready. Luke stared at the empty glowing holovid, where Karrde's image had been, and sat down where Mara had left the nearby stool. He shut his eyes and concentrated. He hated that Mara was leaving. He had to admit it. He didn't want her to go, he wanted her to stay. Because just as she had always feared that he would leave her for Callista, even though she knew he loved her and only her, he had always feared that she would grow restless being a good Jedi wife and eventually leave him for her old life among the stars.
Then he reminded himself that she had trusted him to let him go and meet Callista when Callista had returned. He owed her the same thing. He had to give her this chance. He loved her too much to keep her against her will. And he knew she would return.
The question was--with what?
He thought about the statis block. A few weeks after Mara was safe and stable, he had had Leia order a demolition crew out to the mine to block it up. It was Callista's grave and therefore off limits, plus Luke didn't want anyone getting hurt there any more. But before they blocked it up, a crew went in and recovered the stasis block for further study.
Luke briefly remembered getting word about it around a year ago. The technology was questionable and therefore banned until it could be studied further. But the most important thing about it was that whatever was inside a stasis block was temporarily put on hold from life. And if that was true, then the Force, which was generated from all life, would react to it like the ysalamari. It would bubble around it because no Force came from the creature inside it. Yet, it had done more than that. It hadn't just blocked the Force. It had distorted it and hypnotized Luke.
That made it dangerous to a Jedi. And if his son was still trapped inside it, that would explain why Luke could not even feel his existence, why he seemed to have no feelings about his son at all.
Sitting down at the console, Luke began to record his thoughts, and planned to give them to Mara before she left. Maybe she could make some sense of it. After all, she was the one going on this mission, not him. Even though it was his son, it had been her promise.
He sighed. He hoped she hurried back. Living without her would be like living without the sun. And worse than that...he had a feeling that dark times were ahead.