Survivor's Quest

"Karrde's a little softhearted that way," Luke added.

"Yes, he is," Mara agreed. "I, on the other hand, am not. You'll take it, you'll be happy with it, and you will never even think about making trouble for any of us again. Clear?"

Huxley had the look of a man chewing droid parts, but he nodded. "Clear," he muttered.

"Good." Mara turned to Sinker and held out her hand. "My lightsaber, please?"

Bracing himself, Sinker walked toward her, the lightsaber still humming in his grasp. He offered it to her at arm's length; taking it, she closed down the blade and hung it back on her belt. "Thank you," she said.

Across the room, the door slid open, and a young man darted in. He got two steps before everything seemed to register, and he faltered to a confused halt. "Uh... Chief?" he called, looking at Huxley.

"This better be important, Fisk," Huxley warned.

"Uh..." Fisk looked around uncertainly. "It's—I just got a signal in for someone named Mara. It was from—"

"It was from Talon Karrde," Luke cut in. "He wants Mara to contact him aboard the Errant Venture as soon as possible at—" He narrowed his eyes as he gazed across the room at the boy. "—in the Domgrin system."

Fisk's mouth was hanging slightly open. "Uh... yeah," he breathed. "That's right."

"Yes," Luke said, almost offhandedly. "Oh, and it came in under the Paspro-five encrypt. That's the one that starts out usk-herf-enth—well, you know the rest."

The kid's jaw was hanging even lower now. Blinking once, he nodded.

"We'd better get going then," Mara said. She started to step around the table, then paused. "Oh, and by the way," she added, looking back at Huxley. "It's not Jade anymore. It's Jade Skywalker. This is my husband, Luke Skywalker. The Jedi Master. He's even better at this stuff than I am."

"Yeah," Huxley muttered, eyeing Luke. "Yeah, I got the message."

"Good," Mara said. "Good-bye, Huxley."

She and Luke headed toward the door through a wide path that magically opened up for them through the crowd. A moment later, they were out in the cool evening air.

"Very impressive," she commented as they headed down the street toward the spaceport and the waiting Jade Sabre. "When did you start being able to pull details like that out of other people's minds?"

"It's easy enough when you know how," Luke said with a straight face.

"Uh-huh," Mara said. "Let me guess. Karrde sent you the same message?"

Luke nodded. "I got it in relay from the ship while I was poking around the storage cellar."

"That's what I thought," Mara said. "And so when the opportunity presented itself, you couldn't resist playing the Omniscient Jedi trick."

Luke shrugged. "It never hurts for these fringe types to have a little healthy fear of Jedi."

"I suppose not," Mara agreed hesitantly.

Luke looked sideways at her. "You don't agree?"

"I don't know," she said. "Something about it bothers me. Maybe because Palpatine always ruled through fear."

"I see your point," Luke admitted. "But this isn't quite the same. It's more like putting the fear of justice into them. And of course, I would never pull anything like this with regular people."

"I know," Mara said. "And it should help keep Huxley in line. I suppose that's what counts."

She waved an impatient hand. "Never mind. I'm just feeling the weight of my past, I guess. So what exactly was this message from Karrde?"

"Basically just what I said in there," Luke told her. "We're to meet him and Booster at Domgrin as quickly as we can get there."

"And he sent it to the Sabre and Huxley's people both?"

"Apparently so." Luke shook his head. "He must really be anxious to talk to us if he's doubling up messages this way."

"I was just thinking that," Mara said. "And that's not like him. Unless," she added thoughtfully, "there's some crisis brewing."

"Isn't there always?" Luke asked dryly. "Come on, let's get these funds of yours transferred and get out of here."

CHAPTER 2

The bright red Star Destroyer was waiting silently in the Distance as Luke brought the Jade Sabre out of hyperspace. "There it is," he said, nodding at the curved forward canopy. "What do you think?"

"I'm picking up some mining and transport ships in the area," Mara said, peering at the long-range sca

"You want to take us in, or shall I?"

"I'll do it," Mara said. Taking a quick look at the monitors, she got a grip on the control stick and pushed it forward. Luke leaned back in his seat, hunching his shoulders once to stretch tired muscles, and watched his wife work.

Wife. For a moment he listened to the word as it bounced around his brain, marveling at the sound of it. Even after nearly three years of marriage there was something that felt strange and awesome about the whole concept.

Of course, it had hardly been three years the way normal couples counted time. Even Han and Leia, who'd dealt with crisis after crisis early in their marriage, had at least been fighting those battles at each other's side. In Luke and Mara's case, his responsibilities at the Jedi academy and her need to disengage herself in an orderly fashion from the intricate workings of Talon Karrde's organization had kept them apart almost as much as they'd been before their wedding. Their moments together had been few and precious, and they'd had only a handful of the longer periods of togetherness that Han had once privately referred to as the breaking-in period.

That was in fact one of the reasons Luke had suggested he accompany Mara on this particular trip. She would still be working, of course, meeting with groups of Karrde's current and former associates. But between meetings he'd hoped they would be able to spend some decent stretches of time together.

It had actually worked pretty well. Up until now.

"I trust you've already noticed how strange this is," Mara said into his musings. "Even if we push the Sabre for all she's worth, we're at least a week away from Coruscant. Whatever this new crisis is, we're too far away to be of any use to anyone."

"Especially since I made it clear to Leia at the start that we weren't supposed to be disturbed unless it was a flat-out invasion," Luke agreed. "Of course, if this isn't Leia, it only leaves one possibility."

"Two, actually," Mara corrected. "And I'd certainly hope Karrde knows better by now than to flag us for anything trivial."

"Leia and Karrde make two," Luke said. "Who's this third option?"

She threw him a sideways look. "We're meeting Karrde aboard the Errant Venture, remember?"

Luke made a face. "Booster."

"Right," Mara said. "And Booster might not know better. If he doesn't, shall we make a pact right now to make sure he does before we leave this system?"

"Deal."

She threw him a slightly evil smile and returned to her piloting.

Luke turned back to the canopy, smiling out at the stars. Despite all the time they'd spent apart, he and Mara had a distinct advantage: They were both Jedi. And because of that, they shared a mental and emotional bond that was far deeper than most couples were able to forge in an entire lifetime together. Deeper and stronger even than anything Luke had experienced in his doomed relationships with Gaeriel Captison or the long-departed Callista.

He still remembered vividly the moment that bond had first appeared, hammered into existence as the two of them fought those combat droids deep under the fortress their old adversary Grand Admiral Thrawn had set up on the planet Nirauan. At the time Luke had thought it was nothing more than a temporary melding of their minds created by the heat and pressure of a life-and-death situation. It was only afterward, when the battle was over but the bond remained, that he'd realized it had become a permanent part of their lives.