Path To Truth

A story beginning, at last. Most of my stories were written some time ago, before the prequels, and so I've seen a real need to update them before posting them here. Facts revealed in the movies have contradicted some of the things I wrote about, the things Iguessed about while writing them. I'll be puitting them up one, two, or more chapters at a time, as I finish what rewrites I feel are necessary. I wrote Paths soon after reading Vision of the Future. In making changes, I'm only making them to accomodate what we're learning from the prequels. As far as I'm concerned the New Jedi Order series of books are a possible future for the Star Wars Universe, and not the only one.

Disclaimer: The characters and worlds used in this story do not belong to me, but is the property of Lucasfilm, Ltd. The story was written for entertainment purposes only and has never been used for profit in any way, shape or form.

PATH TO TRUTH

C. R. SALWAY

Chapter 1

"IN OTHER WORDS DON'T TRUST HIM any farther then you can throw him," Mara told H'sishi, and tapped her finger on the compad the Togorian female was holding. "Get it all in writing before you open the cargo holds. He tried to use ysalamiri to get around me once, so watch out for tricks – he'll try to convince you your own mother called and wanted you to be the patient and fair with him. Anything to gain an advantage over you. Luckily for me, the hole in the force made by the ysals is easily recognizable. Not that he would have succeeded if it hadn't been."
It all the years the two females had known one another, H'sishi had never seen anyone pull a hood over Mara's eyes. She hoped others would be able to say the same thing about her one day
. "I guess," Mara was continuing, "everyone in the galaxy knows by now that I'm leaving the organization. Expect a lot of tricks, and hold your ground. You have a pretty good danger and treachery sense – use it."
"Yes, Mara Jade. I will not fail you."
"I know you won't. You won't fail anyone. That's why I chose you to take over this arm of the trade routes."
The console beeped in she nodded toward it. "There he is. Listen to his voice and remember the changes. He thinks he's pretty smooth and never tries to alter it. As time goes on you'll be able to tell his frame of mind just by the way he greets you."
Mara left the bridge to allow her successor to deal with the planet's trade governor, but paused briefly to listen to the humanoid's voice herself. Typical. As she'd predicted, he was overly confident he could twist Karrde's new trade emissary around his finger. H'sishi would handle him.
Mara ducked into the crew's lounge for a mug of bitter caf from the dispenser, and then headed to a quiet corner. She settled back into a soft chair to meditate.
The trip to the outlying regions of the Elrood Sector, so far, was a mix of boredom and activity, but it hadn't been nearly as boring as she thought it would be. Restlessness really only set in when she had the time to miss the company of Luke Skywalker – and each time that happened she ended up laughing herself out of it.
Imagine it. Mara Jade, the loner, actually missing the company of anyone – and Luke Skywalker at that. The thought was not a new one but it never lost its irony no matter how often it came to mind.
Anyway, it wasn't so bad. She'd been amusing herself by testing her link to him through the force, to find out how far apart was too far for her to reach him. Her bond to the emperor had been so strong she could hear his call to her anywhere in the galaxy as if he calling her from the next room. She was trying to find out if she could build as strong a bond with Luke. So far so good, but the trip had not been to the farthest reaches of Talon Karrde's organization, only along the well traveled routes where they did frequent business as cargo haulers.
The other information gathering runs were more or less Karrde's personal concern now, as he and Shada Du'Kal began the task of putting together a new, more respectable business venture. Karrde knew the good feelings and openness between him and the New Republic and the Empire would be fleeting things, and that as soon as credits began to change hands the euphoria of peace would begin to dwindle away on all sides. When that happened he would become just another cog in the machinery they had to deal with from time to time. Karrde was wise to take advantage of the lull before life got back to normal again. Whatever footholds he established now would have to last for the life of his new venture. She wished him well.
She wished herself the same.
The one-eighty turn her own life was taking would be all she could handle when her departure from Karrde's business was complete. The current lull was greatly to her own advantage, as well. Mara finished the last of the bitter caf and put the mug aside, savoring the last taste of the brew on her tongue. Odd, how she suddenly redeveloped a taste for the stuff during this run. It was once her favorite drink, but she hadn't had it in years until now, and she'd never realized she'd missed it.
She closed her eyes and let the force gather around her. Closing and opening, opening and closing. She been doing a lot of that lately. Closing her eyes and opening her senses to the force, closing this door, opening that one, closing her old life, getting ready to open a new one. . .
Mara found Luke quickly. It was getting easier with each try to home in on his powerful presence in the force. There were others out there, too, of course, all shining just as brightly as he did, but only his presence shone with rich reserves of strength and power. Their bond was nowhere nearly as strong as what she'd shared with the emperor, but with work in might be just as effective. It passed the time anyway.

The Farrow Bird was an old cargo hauler loaded with repulsor coils, which were now being unloaded by a crack crew the groundside workers. The captain, leaving the details of overseeing the unloading to his copilot, sat in his chair and fiddled with the instruments. He couldn't seem to relax. The one ship he had come to the system to find was dropping easily out of the sky and making a smooth beeline for a docking bay about a mile away. If he looked up from the instruments he could probably follow its progress with his unaided eyes. He didn't look.
His young copilot tramped noisily onto the bridge and sat down in the empty seat at the nav controls.
"Liftoff at the green light," he announced. "Head for the line out, there's about a half-hour wait." The young man turned his head. "You ready?"
The captain returned his look and grinned. "Yeah, I'm ready. A little nervous, but ready."
"Hope it works."
"It will. I promise. It can't mess."
"Yeah, well. . . okay. I just. . . I don't know."
"I understand, but this is for the best. Once the ball starts rolling, we'll finally be in a position to do something. I promise."

Mara was on the bridge in an empty seat as the crew under the guidance of H'sishi as she prepared to make the jump to hyperspace as soon as the traffic monitor cleared them. Only three ships were in line before them.
At first, the gentle, tentative mental probe she felt was not alarming. Thinking it might be Luke getting her back for her earlier contact with him while he was supervising a lightsaber duel between his students, she opened a small crack in her mental barriers to let him in. A second later she slammed it shut again.
The presence backed away for a second, then nudged against her mind again. This time, Mara was ready and probed back strongly. The mind she touched was that of an untrained male with a strong connection to the force, but not strong enough to avert her presence. For an instant they connected – and both of them felt surprised and shocked, but before either could make sense of their recognition of one another, the male abruptly vanished. At the same instant the ship at the head of the departure line disappeared into hyperspace.
Mara sprang into action.
She recognized the mind on that ship, and he was supposed to be dead.

For reason he couldn't quite explain to himself, Kev Rand wasn't sure he would be able to trust Mara Jade until he saw her face-to-face. In spite of all he'd heard, in spite of all he'd seen, he knew the vast power of the emperor's dark side abilities was formidable, and until he could look her in the eye he was not going to be certain in his own mind she had truly forsaken Palpatine's influence.
There was only one way to find out.
Reaching out with his mind, Rand gave all the ships in the immediate area of his own a quick scan with the force. He touched Mara Jade's presence quickly and at the same time just long enough for her to react to his probing and return it. She was startled by his mind touch, but she was quick to react. He did not have to pretend clumsiness in letting her see into his consciousness, his untrained abilities were no match for her powerful probe. Even as his hand touch the hyperdrive lever in front of him and pushed forward, her force touch was registering shock, surprise, and recognition within the split second it took for his ship to accelerate to light speed and vanish from sight both physically and mentally. He knew his own shock at the intensity of her probe had registered with her as well.
Leaning back in the pilot seat, and turning his ship over to automatics, Rand let out a burst of air in a quiet sigh. Now it was just a matter of leaving a trail of ryshcate crumbs for her to follow to his current phony headquarters.
Lacing his fingers behind his head, he allowed himself to relax. The easy part was over, now came the hard part – revealing himself and his operation to the New Republic. He still had a price on his head in New Republic circles; several, in fact, but the lives of his people were more important than his own capture by the New Republic authorities. The life of one person in particular. He would spend the rest of his life in a New Rep jail if that was the only way he could get the help he needed to find her and bring her home safely.
At his side, Rand's copilot turned the ship's internal power to idle and allowed himself to relax, too. "So, was that it, Dad?"
"Yeah, kid. We just have to wait for them to sniff me out now. I've done everything but put up marker buoys with flashing arrows and pictures of me to mark the trail. If someone doesn't contact me within a week will just have to come back and hand lead them, I guess."
"Someone will try to help, won't they, dad? I mean, Mom was part of the Rebellion once, one of the mechanics for Rogue Squadron and a pilot for the taking of Coruscant twice."
Ran looked over at his son and studied the young man's profile. He was just nineteen and full of fire. If it was up to him he would have gone running after his mother long-ago, and he would've been taken away as surely as she had been to an unknown destination. It was hurting him to rein in his actions and take the slow way Rand was proposing. Even though he understood the need for it, he wanted to be out there looking for his mother now.
At the moment he was troubled and it clearly showed on his face. He had his mother's dusty blond hair, gray eyes and her height, but his narrow face and slim body came from his father. With darker hair and eyes Kel Rand would be a younger version of his father. The nose, the mouth, and the shape of the jaw were identical to both men. Right now the younger version needed reassurance.
"Your mother and I both have friends in positions of power, or who are close to people with the power to make the decisions. When I tell them what I know someone will help us. Remember, all we need is backup. We can do the rest alone if we have to, Kel. I just don't want to go in and disappear, too, without someone with my kind of resources and my kind of need to come after me. Besides the New Republic, only Talon Karrde and Booster Terrick have organizations big enough to mount an expedition inside, and I'm not a the best of terms with either of them. If I disappear, they'll get together and celebrate. They'll try to outdo each other picking up the pieces of my organization. This is the only way I can be certain no one walks away with anything that rightly belongs to you, Kale and Kara."
"Do you really trust the New Republic that much?"
"I don't trust it any farther than I can throw it, son. I'm giving them something bigger to chase after. If your mother and I both disappear no one in the New Republic is going think twice about trying to take over my little empire. You and your brother and sister will be able to go into hiding for a while and come back out when the uproar fades. My organization will be intact. The three of you will be able to do what you want with it. It works out best for you this way. If we do come back, and I'm sure we will, the New Republic will leave me alone, because I'm giving them as payment for helping me something worth more than any publicity my capture can generate for them."
Kel smiled at last and turned his head to look at his father. "Oh, yeah. What could we possibly do with unlimited wealth, anyway?"
"Don't get me wrong, son. I'm not giving them everything – just a big enough chunk to keep them rolling in credits for a good long time. I'll keep the rest to pay off any future indiscretions I may make."
The young man laughed. "No wonder everyone and his uncle wants to get their hands on you, Dad. I wouldn't be surprised if all their pets had a price in your head, too."
Rand smiled back. Good. The tension had passed. Now, his next job was to put into motion the people and resources he needed to find his wife. He hoped it was as easy to accomplish as getting a smile from his son had been.

Chapter 2

Being able to leave the freight run a week early was as much a testament to Mara's confidence in H'sishi's abilities as it was to her own desire to leave this life behind and start afresh in a new direction. As she lifted her Chiss fighter into the air, she looked over the camouflaged setting of Talon Karrde's base of operations and knew she was going to miss this place - despite her solitary lifestyle Mara had made friends here.
It wasn't the base itself that she would miss, because that changed every few months. In spite of his higher profile, Karrde was still a businessman living on the fringe and old habits died hard. It was being a part of the organization itself she'd enjoyed. Being a part of something as vital and unpredictable as this business had kept her mind and body occupied for so long, she wasn't entirely certain she was going to find being a Jedi as exciting.
Good-byes were more difficult than she'd expected.
Even so, her new life called to her with such persistence and clarity she knew she was never going to regret it.
Mara aimed her small craft to the heavens and flew away from the planet without a backward glance. As soon as the ship's computer confirmed she could go to lightspeed, she locked in her course and engaged the hyperdrive. She rose out of the pilot's seat and moved to the co-pilot's chair. She withdrew two data cards from her breast pocket and put one into a slot in the ship's databank access panel.
Five days had passed since the fleeting contact with the surprisingly strong force presence she was certain was her brother, and she was troubled by the trace results Karrde had run for her.
The ship he was aboard was called the Farrow Bird and it was registered to SummaLines, a freight hauling company with a base of operations that moved as often as Karrde's organization did. As near as anyone could learn the SummaLines base was currently within the Corporate Sector. Exactly where in the Sector, no one had been able to find out yet.
The Corporate Sector had been quiet throughout the years when the remnants of the Empire were fighting for supremacy, and the New Republic was planting it's roots. Long time food suppliers of Emperor Palpatine's New Order, the systems within the sector were showing surprisingly little interest in taking sides. This was widely believed to be simply because the non-human species in the systems had been used for slave labor by the Empire. The handful of human worlds had reigned with terror over the others. How those few human worlds fared without the Imperials was a mystery.
Karrde's sources knew little about the politics or beliefs of the systems now. The worlds had slammed their doors shut and refused contact with the rest of the galaxy after the death of Emperor Palpatine.
Never a source of manpower nor ships for the Empire, they were all but forgotten by the Imperials who culled their dwindling armies from other areas. With that loss of Imperial manpower, the worlds of the sector no longer needed to produce gargantuan amounts of food to sustain them.
No longer a vital supply line for the Empire, shipping from the Corporate Sector slowed considerably until the smugglers and fringe dwellers, criminals and Imperial sympathizers lost interest in it. One by one the shady elements left the sector for other parts of the galaxy where supply lines were still plentiful, and stolen cargo could still turn a profit for those who lived outside the law.
Frustrated by the lack of information, Mara Jade was heading back to Coruscant hoping to find a source of information there that she could use to track the Farrow Bird to a specific world within the area.
She read through both datacards again but failed to find even the smallest clue or overlooked fact that could point her in a direction to go once inside the Corporate Sector.
Turning off the card scanner with more force than was necessary, Mara leaned back in the seat and closed her eyes. Letting out a breathe, she crossed her arms over her chest and tried to massage the tension out of her shoulders. She moved her fingertips over the area of her right shoulder where she had been wounded just a few weeks ago, and a memory of the healing trance Luke helped her achieve came to mind.
Turning to her droid behind the seats, she said, "R-six, I'm going to rest for a while. Wake me if anything happens."
The droid made an affirmative noise.
Mara willed her muscles to relax and tried to clear her mind of the frustration she was feeling. She drew in a deep breath and let drop the final mental barriers to hold back the force that had become second nature to her since working for the emperor. Immediately she felt the force begin to flow through her.
The vison that came to her seemed more of a dream than an insight from the force. She saw Karrde and the people he kept closest to him going about their business, a bright aura permeating the scene whenever Shada D'ukal appeared alongside Karrde; and there was Lando Calrissian and Tendra Risant, older and settled together with the bright aura emanating from them. Shadowy forms moved silently in the backgrounds of both visions.
Familiar faces from her life moved before her mind's eye, and when she opened her eyes one image was foremost in her mind. The fifteen planets of the Grilot System resembled a holographic representation: all inner worlds were clearly visible, out of scale to one another, visible from a point just outside an asteroid belt between the eleventh and twelfth planets.
The Farrow Bird would be found in the Grilot System.
As important as this vision was to Mara, it was the shining vision of her former boss, Talon Karrde, and his new second in command, Shada D'ukal, that brought a smile to her face.
She got out of the seat and moved back to the pilot's chair and as she sat down, her smile turned to a light, surprised laughter. For just a moment she forgot the tension she was feeling and her fears about the true fate of her family.

Bringing the Chiss craft into one of the landing bays leased to the Skywalker/Solo family, Mara was not surprised to look out of the cockpit window to see Luke Skywalker and his astromech droid standing near the entryway. Luke was talking to one of the mechanics, and casually looked up to watch the craft settle to the duracrete surface and returned his attention to what the other man was saying. She powered down the engines and let her droid take over from there. She unbuckled her safety harness and swung out of the pilot's chair.
"Upload your data to my home unit as soon as the mechs start running diagnostic," she instructed it. "Take a rest."
As soon as Artoo saw the exit ramp lowering, he turned quickly and started toward the ship. His scanner arm was extended from the top of his dome.
The R6 beeped a reply. She left the cockpit and went to the top of the ramp.
Artoo was rolling to a stop. His body tilted back and he whistled a greeting.
Mara reached the bottom of the ramp and gave his dome a pat. "If that was a ‘welcome home,' I appreciate it."
He replied a short blurb and wheeled around to follow her toward the entry, his scanner still extended.
The mechanic, a face Mara recognized from a prior meeting but whose name she couldn't recall, nodded to her and discreetly ended his conversation with Luke. He walked away in the direction of the ship.
Only after Mara reached Luke did she understand why he hung back when Artoo rolled out to greet her. Holovid droids, several of them, hovered in the air just outside the short entryway tunnel between the bay and the street. Belatedly, she realized Artoo must be jamming the frequencies of the media intruders.
"Who needs a private landing bay when we have Artoo?" Luke said, stepping forward to meet her. He pointed a thumb over his shoulder. "He's telling them your ship is still in a holding pattern above the shields."
She stopped directly in front of him. "I was hoping the holonet fuss would have died down by the time I got back from this trip."
He shook his head fractionally. "I doubt it will for a long time."
"That's too bad."
"Isn't it?"
He gathered her into his arms and after a quick kiss she rested her head on his shoulder, enjoying the physical connection in addition to the strong force bonding between them. For a few moments there was no outside world.
Artoo, facing the public corridor outside the landing bay, beeped a few disparaging sounds at the holocam droids hovering just out of sight.

Luke turned off the com unit and crossed the main room of his apartment. Their apartment. Though he and Mara had been sharing it for weeks now, her spartan, former lifestyle had contributed little to the decor. She was on the balcony looking out over the city, the privacy screens shimmering in place and distorting the view minimally.
He stopped beside he, one hand reaching out to rest on the small of her back. "Leia is expecting us as soon as we're ready. The children are visiting Winter for the afternoon."
"I'm ready when you are," Mara told him. "The sooner I have a direction to follow, the better. The more I think about it, the more I remember about what I saw in Rannon's mind."
Luke waited silently. She was building up to something but wasn't yet ready to voice it.
At last she spoke. "I think he's afraid of me. The shock he felt when he recognized it was me probing back . . . He tried to block me out. He was feeling more fear than anything else."
"You think that's why he never contacted you in all these years? Why your family hasn't tried to get in touch with you?"
She sighed. "Why else? In the last ten years, thanks to you, my name has become pretty well known. Of course, ‘former Emperor's Hand' usually preceded it, in most cases. I worked for a known smuggler and wanted man." She shrugged. "A lot of people think that's only a step above Emperor's Hand."
Luke tried to ease her emotional turmoil by embracing her with his force presence. "Maybe we should let the media droids past the barriers once in a while. Get to know us a little better."
"So the general public will learn to trust me?" she asked with a short laugh. "It wouldn't be worth it, and you know it. All the right people know me, the ones whose opinions matter to me. I don't need the general public on my side."
Luke smiled. "Let's go talk with Leia and Han. It just happens to be your future in-laws are close to being experts on the Corporate Sector."
At last she turned to look at him, a hopeful expression on her face. "All I need is a place to start looking. One planet."
"The Grilot System isn't close enough for you?"
"SummaLines will be found there. Rannon is somewhere in the Corporate Sector. Grilot is only the first step."
Luke took her arm and gently pulled her toward the balcony doors. "Let's go. We have a longer than usual flight ahead of us. Han and Leia are at the lodge in the mountains north of here."
Mara stopped short. "Wait a minute. Are we going to be barging in on their family vacation?"
He shook his head. "No. They're having a long weekend getaway. Winter and her family went along." He shrugged. "They're taking advantage of the calm after the signing of the peace accords. Once the euphoria wears off, business, and the Senate, will go back to normal."

Chapter 3

The Memorra Mountains, a small chain of high, snowcapped peaks jutted out of the sprawling city snugged up around them in a defiant show of nature on a planet given over to endless cityscapes. The lower slopes had been covered with construction, but at the higher elevations where the atmosphere was thinner and the weather more unpredictable, few buildings had been built. Whether by decree from long ago, or by an unspoken respect for the last natural landscape of the planet, this lone chain of mountains had never been conquered.
Here and there, the powerful and wealthy had built sprawling compounds as a show of their high status, but with the collapse of the Empire, many of the large showplace homes were abandoned by owners who'd fled Coruscant ahead of the forces of the victorious Rebellion.
One of those enormous estates had been taken over and declared the vacation home of the head of state of the new government.
The place was an enormous walled compound with long, low buildings placed far apart with the open spaces in between covered with gardens, statuary, and other decorations.
The three ring landing bay and vehicle hangar was a long walk from the main house.

From the living room of the spacious lodge Leia's voice was saying "... as an introduction from the five governments of the Grilot System."
Han Solo, arriving back from his daily check on the Falcon, tossed his jacket in a heap on a small table near the door and entered the living area. He seemed to assess the mood of everyone present with a single glance. Nodding a greeting to Leia, he stopped just inside the doorway and put his hands into his pockets. He looked toward the other two people in the room with her, one in particular.
"Hello, Mara. Where you been keeping yourself?"
"Hello, Solo." She knew his question was rhetorical, just a way to join the conversation and find out what was going on.
"Hey, Han," Luke spoke up. "I think you're just the person to help us out. I know it's been a while since your smuggling days, but you've kept up a few friendships and contacts, haven't you?"
Glancing first at Leia and then at Luke, Han shrugged one shoulder. "A couple, sure. Why do you ask?"
"We'll go into detail later. For now the basic story is, Mara has always believed her family was killed in a biological accident on her home world. An accident happened a few years after she was taken from them by the emperor. Then, a few weeks ago, while on a freighter run close to the Tingel Arm she may have found evidence her brother is still alive somewhere out in the Corporate Sector."
"The Corporate Sector!" Han echoed with surprise. "If he is alive out there, the chances are more than likely he is an Imperial holdout, a sympathizer. The humans in the Sector have always been pro Empire in a big way. Anyone who isn't got out a long time ago." He crossed the room as he spoke and sat down next to Leia. "I did smuggling runs out that way when the Empire was just getting established. I'd be surprised to find no Imperial presence there at all today."
Leia laid one of her hands on his arm. "I was just telling Mara the Corporate Sector has been quiet for so long the New Republic might have forgotten it existed."
"Except for the Grilot System . . ." Luke prompted.
"Yes," she went on. "When they sent a representative to the Senate, a trade delegation came with her and offered us a steady supply of tibanna gas in exchange for the opening of trade routes. It's the only system that close to the Tingel Arm to join the New Republic. It's just outside the border regions of the Corporate Sector, and through them we know the rest of the area is staying neutral for unknown reasons. They stayed quiet throughout all of the attempts to reestablish the Empire."
"Grilot is far enough away from Imperial space to be able to act independently and not attract Imperial reprisals," Han said, picking up the thread of her answer. "If any of the worlds inside the Sector did the same the Imperials would crack down on them fast. Even when I was doing business out there, Grilot was pretty well-established as being worthless for anything but acting as a distribution center for the goods coming out of the Sector. I think the Empire's holdout forces are keeping the Sector quiet so the New Republic will have no reason to try to establish a presence on any of their systems. They don't want Coruscant helping the nonhuman worlds take the power away from them. Apparently, Grilot's ruling council is certain the Empire has lost interest in them, at least."
"They also know we're not going to be the instigators of contact in that area," Leia went on. "We know the empire's presence is well-established there."
"Always has been," Han assured them. "It was one of their major sources of consumables. I saw entire planets being used for the growing of one particular item – one whole planetary surface producing one type of grain, another growing one type of fruit tree, another one type of vegetable, and another one type of meat animal – all on a Sector wide basis. As far as I know things are still that way. They just aren't shipping it out."
Mara leaned forward, putting her elbows on her thighs and nervously clasping her hands in front of her. "I've done a little digging around for information. From what Karrde's contacts could learn, there is nothing coming out of the Corporate Sector at all. After the emperor died, they withdrew and shut out the rest of the galaxy. I was hoping the New Republic would know more than I was able to find out through Karrde, but you seem to know basically what everyone knows. If there are trade lines emanating from the Sector I wasn't able to find them. Why Rannon was flying a freighter from there makes no sense. Even if he's working for a legitimate business, where are they getting their shipments? If he's a smuggler, same question."
Luke spread his hands. "That's where we thought you could help us, Han. We were hoping you had a contact who might be able to tell us something about the Corporate Sector that only a smuggler would know."
"Wait a minute, kid. You're not actually thinking of going out there to look for him, are you? Haven't you heard what I've been saying? The Corporate Sector is pro Empire. If there is one place in the galaxy were you're guaranteed to find Imperial troops by the battalion on every street corner on every planet, it's in the Corporate Sector."
"I know, Han, but this is important to Mara. If there is even the smallest chance her family might be alive..." He spread his hands and let the obvious go unsaid.
Han Solo said nothing for a few moments as he looked from Luke to Mara and back again. Slowly he nodded his head and looked at the ceiling with a roll of his eyes. He leaned back against the divan on which he sat. "All right. There is someone I can get in touch with and cash in a chip. What is your brother's name, Mara? I can send out a feeler today."
She straightened up and rubbed her hands over her knees. "My parents called themselves Keberling. I realize now it was because we were in hiding. We had our secret name, Jade, which we were never to tell anyone, and Keberling was our pretend name," she said quietly and spelled it for him. "My parents were biologists, Declan and Ambria, and my brother's name was Rannon. He was three years older than me."
"Keberling," Han repeated. "Rannon Keberling." For some reason, just a thought he couldn't quite grasp, the name sounded familiar.
"What made you think he and your parents had been killed?" Leia asked.
"I was four years old when the emperor's people took me away from home, so I don't remember too much. We lived on Obrara Seven, a research outpost. I know they worked in the botanical wing of the facility because they took us to work with them as often as they could. We used to play in the flower gardens and tall grasses they grew in the greenhouses. Now, I'm wondering if that wasn't just an excuse to keep us close to them in case we were found. We were force sensitive children. They must have known we were in danger from Palpatine and Vader."
Mara rubbed her face with her hands, a nervous gesture, as she let her long ignored memories come to the fore. "There are a lot of things I remember that I didn't when we talked before," Mara said, looking at Leia. "I was in the play area of the classrooms when one of the scientists who worked with my parents came to get me. He said my mother was waiting for me and he was going to take me to her. We went to a large ship. He said to wait inside, and he would go to get my parents, tell them where I was. They never came and the man never returned either. I fell asleep. I don't remember the ship lifting off. The next thing I knew I was being carried off the ship and put inside an air taxi and I was taken to the place that would be my home for the next ten years. There were people there who took care of me. I remember being told over and over it was a great honor to be chosen to serve the emperor, but I missed my mother and I wanted to go home. After a time, I don't know how long, one of the nurses told me everyone at home had died. She said it was an accident, that the man who put me in the ship saved my life. I didn't believe her. I had no reason to doubt her, she was very kind to me, but still I thought she was lying, and I refused to cooperate for a long time. I rebelled against everything, especially the lessons with Palpatine. I knew my parents had never wanted me or Rannon to found by the emperor."
She got up from her seat and began to pace. "When I was seven I tried to run away. I got lost wandering through Imperial City, but I found a data center, and I tried to contact my parents. They had taught me how to do it. The central computer must have alerted the emperor's people to where I was, but they didn't reach me until after the data center displayed a transmission block to my homeworld. I knew what that was but I didn't understand the reason until later. According to the block a hive virus created in one of the laboratories had been accidentally released and it swept the planet." She stopped pacing and turned back to look at the others. " It was a research outpost with only a few hundred thousand people, mostly the family members of the scientists assigned to work there. It said everyone died and the planet was under quarantine because the virus was still active in the atmosphere. Needless to say, I gave in and went back to the training center. Everyone was very sympathetic and caring. They won me over."
Mara stopped talking for a moment and took a deep breath. "When I felt the presence that I think is my brother I began to suspect I had been deceived after all. Today, as I waited for an opening in the shields, I tapped into one of the data centers on the port skyhook. I looked through the data banks again. This time I discovered the research facility on Obrara Seven had been closed for lack of funding the year after I was taken away, and the scientists were assigned to other outposts. Of course, there were no records of where anyone was sent."
"I've heard of Obrara Seven," Leia said, concentrating. "It was where numerous strains of food plants and fruit bearing trees were developed to be grown in varying climates and atmospheres. I don't know why funding would have been cut off for their research. They probably developed the products Han saw growing on a planet wide scale in the Sector. I had no idea the facility had been abandoned."
Han was still preoccupied, but he followed the conversation. "I remember hearing about it, but it was already years after it happened. In fact, I remember. . ."
He stopped talking and abruptly got to his feet and walked around furniture grouping where they sat and headed for the apartment's comboard. "Hold on a minute. I want to check something out."
He activated the unit and keyed in several codes in rapid succession. A large bank of screens lit up, flickered and went dark red in color. Using a secured, private line he sent his transmission.
He turned to look at the others and spoke in a louder voice. "Lando needed quick cash, so he came out to the Sector and joined Chewie and me on a few runs. He was thinking about putting his time, luck, and money into a stable venture, but I still wanted the smuggler's life. Anyway, we had a run carrying repulsor components to one of the little backwater planets the Sector police were using for forced labor volunteers. The Espos spotted us on our way out and after a close fire fight we lost our deep space sensors and had to find our way to a smuggler tech base. They were set up all over the Sector back then because of the business Ploovo Two-Four-One was generating with his raids on Imperial farm worlds. While the Falcon was in dry dock we had time to get caught up on the latest news."
A steady beep from the com board interrupted him and he turned back to accept the incoming call. The familiar face of Lando Calrissian appeared on all the screens and then became one large image as the monitors linked together.
Lando's somewhat wary expression relaxed and brightened with a smile when he saw Han's image at his end of the connection. "Hey, old buddy, where you doing hiding behind a military security channel?"
"Yeah, happy to see you, too. Still laying low around Drayson, huh?"
The other man shrugged, his smile never faltering. "You know those career military types. They have long memories."
"Actually, I was calling to see how long your memory is. Remember the Pro-Tech organization out of the Corporate Sector?"
Calrissian shrugged. "Sure. They were the main thorn in the side of old Ploovo Two-Four-One. They were probably the best outlaw tech unit going in their day. What about them?"
"The last time we paid them a courtesy call they had an Imperial Academy professor hiding out with them. He did something, said something, I don't remember which, that got the emperor angry and put the professor on the run. I think he was the brother of one of the organization's techs."
Lando was nodding slowly. "Yeah. Yeah, I remember. Tosh the mechanic's brother. He tried to stand up to the emperor about closing down the facilities in the Obrara Sector."
"He had some kids with him, a boy maybe ten or so, another one a little younger. Do you remember the older one?"
"You don't mean Kev, do you? Kev Rand?" Lando said, voicing the name of a well known outlaw.
Han couldn't hide his surprise. "I don't know if I do or not! I'm asking you! Is he the boy who was hiding out with the professor?"
"Yes. Didn't you know?"
Han shook his head and gestured with one hand. "That isn't the name I'm trying to associate with the kid."
"Oh! Well, of course not. He changed his name after he went out on his own. He worked with the techs until he was about eighteen or nineteen, then he sliced himself ownership of a midsize freighter and went his own way. When I was running things on Bespin I did quite a bit of business with him because at that time he was living on Cloud City."
"What was his name before he changed it? Ranner? Rannon something or other?"
"Uh... Kimberly? Keverly? Keberly. That's it, I think. Rannon Keberly. Keberling. Something like that." Lando shook his head and waved the thought away. "He was from one of those agricultural genes splicing labs the Empire had peppered all over the galaxy."
"That's him. Rannon Keberling." Han said and looked over at Mara. Noticing her expression of shock, he gave her an encouraging half smile. He turned his attention back to Lando. "You seen him around lately?"
"Uh, not in the last, oh, five years. Why? What's up, Han? Kev is the best slicer in the galaxy, bar none, but he still works only for himself, same as always. As for hauling freight, legal or otherwise, you'd do better to come out of retirement and do it yourself. He's a hard man to find, and expensive to boot, even if you did find him."
"No, no. It's nothing like that. Let's just say an old friend would like to find him. Have you heard anything about him working the Corporate Sector in recent times?"
Lando's eyebrows went up. "The Corporate Sector?" he echoed and shook his head. "I don't know of anyone still doing business with Sector systems. You can pick up a stray shipment to the border worlds, here and there, if you're lucky, but it's not ripe for picking like it used to be, buddy. After Daala's last attempt to destroy the New Republic failed, the Imperial worlds clamped down out there. It's the only free standing sector of the galaxy the Empire controls that is still completely loyal to the memory of Palpatine. There isn't an ounce of New Republic sympathy among the power structure. It isn't like it was twenty odd years ago. It's gotten worse, if anything."
"We've come across solid information that he's got something going out that way."
"Oh, well, that just makes him either the most stupid smuggler in the galaxy or the most suicidal! When you when I wore out there, Imperial control was pretty lax, you have to admit. We could slip through the cracks and turn a tidy profit. Today... well, there are no cracks. If Ploovo is still operating out there you can bet it's from within the confines of an Imperial prison." He took a deep breath, clearly not liking the conversation at all. "The humans took tighter control over the area, but even so, some of the nonhuman worlds have been banding together and giving them quite a fight for absolute control. There's a mini civil war going on in there. At least that was the last word, we heard before most of the criminal element took off for greener pastures."
Han frowned and rubbed his jaw with one hand. That was something the New republic didn't know. "I get the picture. Uh, one more thing. This is hypothetical, of course, but. . . What are the chances of success for say, a well-known businessperson in the freight carrying trade going out there? You know, just checking out the prospects both for business and for finding out if Rand does have a set-up of some kind going with the Sector worlds?"
Lando closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead with one hand as if he had a headache. "Come on, Han. Be straight with me. Are you planning something as insanely stupid as waltzing into the Corporate Sector to look for someone as elusive as Kev Rand?"
"Hey, I told you! I'm just checking things out for a friend."
"Yeah, right. You know better than to try to make me believe that."
With a quiet laugh, Luke got up and came across the room to stand beside Han in front of the comboard's video pickup. "No kidding, Lando. Han is just checking things out for Mara and me."
"You?" Lando was even more astonished. "You and Mara are planning a trip into the Corporate Sector? The man who killed the emperor? I know, I know! You didn't kill the emperor, but as far as his loyal minions are concerned, you did. Why don't you just jump out of an air lock if you want to commit suicide? It'll be faster and easier than trying to get in and out of what is still virtually the Empire."
Luke crossed his arms and smiled. "Well, we weren't planning to go in with banners flying and advance holonet announcements declaring our arrival. In fact, we haven't even discussed how we're going to do it, so any advice or information you can give us would be helpful."
Lando shook his head slowly. "All right, all right. I probably could have talked Han out of such a crazy idea, but I know I don't stand a chance of that with you or Mara. The best I can do is set you up to meet a couple of contacts I have in the Corobas System. They've been supplying my construction business with the raw materials for transparisteel. Corobas is the closest I've been to the Corporate Sector in almost 15 years, but if anyone knows the present situation beyond the Grilot System it will be my contacts."
"Great! How how soon can you set it up?"
"I'll send a message off immediately, but it will probably take three, maybe four days to get an answer. We got our last shipment just a week ago so my contacts will be working to meet the next deadline, and no doubt, they'll be a little tough to contact."
"We'll be back at my place day after tomorrow, Lando. When you hear from them get in touch with me there. This is very important to Mara."
The other man nodded. "I'll get back to you as soon as everything is arranged."
Luke stepped back out of the view of the com relay. As he walked across the room to rejoin Mara and Leia, Han said his good-byes to Lando and broke the connection.
By the time Han sat down next to Leia and leaned forward with hands clasped and elbows on knees, Luke knew what was coming and he tried to head it off.
"Han, if Lando had the sense to not try to talk me out of it, I would hope you would, too."
"I'm in no mood for a long argument, kid. Let's cut to the quick. What you think you're going to need to to pull off this crazy expedition?"

To be continued . . .