Here's a bunny that bit me on Monday, thanks to SHERRY... I do hope you enjoy this half as much as Lori seemed to. ;-)

This is a sequel of sorts to a story I wrote about a year ago, called The Christening, which starred Corran and Mirax. You don't have to read that one to understand this one because this is a Luke and Mara fic, but it will make one scene a lot clearer (and funnier) if you've read The Christening first. That one can be found at http://starwarschicks.com/sithchicks/fiction/christening.htm for those who would like to read it. :-)

And now, on with the smut!

Crysta

Title: In-Flight Maneuvers
Author: Crysta Novelli jedicrysta@yahoo.com
Characters: Luke and Mara Jade Skywalker
Category: Humor, Romance
Rated: NC-17
Archive: If you want it, but please ask first so I can say yes and visit occasionally. :-)
Feedback: Feedback is such a wonderful thing... You ever notice how you can never get too much of it?
Disclaimers: I don't own any of them, although I wouldn't mind having Artoo to help me out at work... Luke belongs to Mara and Mara to Luke. Oh, and I guess they both belong to George Lucas and Tim Zahn... Blame for this fic falls on Sherry, who provided the bunny, and Lori, who fed it.
Summary: Luke and Mara test out a new X-wing prototype. This is a sequel (sort of) to The Christening, which can be found at http://starwarschicks.com/sithchicks/fiction/christening.htm

"Tikiar flight, this is Control. Status?"

Luke Skywalker checked his flight panels over as Chief Engineer Sreikan's voice came over his comm unit. "Tikiar One," he replied. "Everything looks good here."

"Tikiar Two, likewise," a female voice responded next. "I'm good to go."

"You're cleared for flight then, Team. Fly safe, have fun, and may the Force be with you!"

"Acknowledged, Control," Luke responded. "We'll bring you a full report when we return." And with that, he shunted power to his repulsors and lifted the X-wing off the duracrete floor. Angling the ship towards the open hanger doors, he increased power and escaped through them to the atmosphere beyond.

The pilots of Tikiar flight consisted of Luke and his wife, Mara Jade Skywalker. Tikiar was the code name given to a new experimental X-wing, and he and Mara had been assigned to make the first test run of the new fighters. The engineers had developed two prototypes, and when they had them ready for testing, retired X-wing aces Wedge Antilles and Tycho Celchu were away on vacations with their families, while Rogue Squadron was assigned to the Star Destroyer Lusankya and unable to get away for the next several weeks. As a result, and a little bit of being in the right place at the right time, the opportunity to test the new prototypes had fallen into the hands of the Jedi Master and his wife.

Luke had at first been reluctant to test them when he'd discovered they were an enhanced and slightly redesigned version of the T-65d A1 model. The biggest difference between these fighters and the original T-65c A2 model was that the new design featured an enhanced computer navigational system and did not require an astromech unit to pilot them. The T-65d A1 hadn't gone over well with Luke, as all of the original models had been rigged with hidden failsafe bombs designed to destroy the ships and kill their pilots. Luckily for the Jedi, his detonator had malfunctioned, and he'd survived when his exploded. His reluctance to test the new models remained though, and only an intense amount of teasing by his wife had finally convinced him to agree.

So now here they sat, strapped into the cockpits of Tikiar One and Tikiar Two, swooping away from the planet just like the graceful creatures they were named for. Artoo had remained behind, much against his will, but Luke had quite firmly pointed out that while the cockpits in the new prototypes were larger than usual, there still wasn't enough room for Artoo to come. Mara, on the other hand, had been quite happy to leave him behind. He'd been nothing but trouble so far that day, and she'd had enough of listening to his concerned bleeps and whistles over Luke's safety in the Tikiar ships. The little droid certainly gave new meaning to the term "paranoid".

"Ready to see what these things can do?" Luke asked, his ship's communication system picking up the audio feed and sending it directly to Mara's ship. They were far enough above the planet's surface now to begin testing the fighters' performance in atmosphere.

"You bet!" she responded brightly. Mara reached out through the Force and smiled when felt Luke's sense meld with hers. Those engineers wanted to see what these things could do? She hoped they had the holocams rolling!

In perfect unison, both Jedi gripped their flight sticks and turned their craft into tight barrel rolls, then swooped down and starboard in a giant arc, continuing the roll. They descended several thousand meters, then straightened out and pulled back on the stick, sending the ships soaring back up towards the greenish sky overhead. They rose five hundred meters, then simultaneously hit their left rudder hard and killed their thrust, causing the ships to make a sharp ninety-degree turn to port. Throttling back up to full speed, they then sped away towards the horizon.

Luke was quite impressed to see that the top speed on the fighters was approaching twelve hundred kilometers an hour. The top speed of his own outdated T-65 was only just under eleven hundred kph. Mara was more impressed with the ease of maneuverability of the stick. She'd spent hundreds of hours in Z-95 Headhunters, and this ship flew like a dream compared to those X-wing predecessors.

They maxed out their speed, then throttled down and pulled back on their sticks, sending the fighters into tandem loops, soaring high into the atmosphere. At ten thousand meters they leveled the fighters off, but remained inverted. Large gray clouds passed beneath their canopies as they headed back towards the development facility. Directly over top of the facility, they again executed duel barrel rolls before reining the ships into tight, sweeping loops, and heading back towards the planet.

The pair executed a few more series of complicated maneuvers, fully getting a feel for the craft they flew and testing out the sensory package the fighters were equipped with. Both pilots had to admit they were impressed with the functionality of the prototypes, while the engineers were blown away by the skill of their test pilots.

Finally, Luke and Mara were ready to test the ships in space. Luke radioed Control and informed them of their destination, then both fighters soared through the atmosphere toward real space. He started to ask Artoo to calculate their short jump out of the system to test the hyperdrive and navigation equipment, then realized his astromech droid was still back at the hanger.

Mara laughed over their open channel. "Don't worry, flyboy, I'll handle it," she ribbed him, already busy making the calculation. The computer was fast, and she'd already located their destination. "How about a short jump to the next system?" she asked. "There's nothing there but an uninhabited planet, but it'll only take about ten minutes to get there once we make the jump, if these hyperdrives are as fast as the engineers were bragging."

"Sounds good to me," he agreed. "Better relay the coordinates to Control in case something happens to these things," he suggested.

"Done," she responded, punching the button and sending the coordinates to both Luke and Control.

"Got it," he replied upon receiving the transmission. "Ready to run?" he questioned.

They'd cleared the gravity well of the planet in record time. Mara noted that the Tikiar ships were almost as fast as her own Jade Sabre. Almost.

"Ready when you are!" she called back. "See you in ten minutes!"

"Looking forward to it!" Luke returned, then simultaneously they pushed the levers forward and disappeared in a flash of vanishing ion trails.

Nine minutes fifty five seconds later, both Skywalkers watched their chronos count down to zero. Pulling their hyperspace levers backwards, the starlines reverted to distinct pinpricks of light framing a large brown spherical mass of what looked like solid rock.

"Hello there, Skywalker," Mara greeted her husband over the comm, flicking it and all her sensors on as she reverted to real space.

Luke did the same, and returned his wife's greeting. "Nice to see you again, Red. I missed you," he joked in response.

"I don't know how you fly in these things all the time," Mara commented. "They are so lonely!"

"Well, I usually have Artoo to keep me company," he pointed out.

"True," she responded. "And knowing that tidbit, I now understand why you're so strange," she quipped.

"Hey!" Luke exclaimed in a hurt tone.

Mara giggled. "Doesn't appear to be much atmosphere down on that rock," she noted then, checking over the scanner readings.

"Nope," Luke replied. "Plenty of junk floating around out here to use for target practice though."

The planet itself was entirely unremarkable. A solid core of carbon, nitrogen, silicon, and various metallic elements, it boasted a very light atmosphere of oxygen and nitrogen, very little vegetation, and even fewer life forms. It had no moons, and they couldn't see any other planets in the system from where they'd entered. The most remarkable feature of the system before them was that the planet had a ton of space junk floating in orbit around it. Some sort of huge battle must have had taken place here sometime in the past, the combatants leaving the rotted out hulks of destroyed ships behind to float in endless rings around the desolate orb.

Each pilot powered up their weapons systems and shields to full, then flicked the switch to split their S-foils. Kicking full power to their ion engines, they both charged in towards the planet. They headed off in opposite directions, taking strafing shots at the ring of floating debris. Crimson bursts of energy vaped small pieces of scrap metal into oblivion and sent larger pieces tumbling out of their forlorn orbits. Some pieces drifted in closer to the planet where they would eventually pick up speed and crash down to the surface, while others wafted further out into the void of space.

Mara located a large, hollowed out bulk with her sensors that appeared to have been a rather impressive freighter in another life and decided to test out the two proton torpedoes the engineers had equipped her with. Because the freighter had no active heat source, the targeting system didn't get an automatic lock, but the engineers had improved on the basic Fabritech targeting computer and she was able to pick it out of the debris field from a safe distance away. The lights on her HUD went from green to red and she hit the trigger, sending a deadly cylinder rocketing away from her fighter. It hit the lifeless shell and exploded into a brilliant display of light and heat.

Enjoying this test flight thoroughly, Mara let out a cheer as she stomped down on her starboard rudder pedal and swung the ship around. She heard a similar exclamation from Luke as he tested one of his torps and checked her HUD. The computer pinpointed his location as almost twenty clicks away.

"Coming at you, Luke," Mara called, checking her shields over. "Let's see what these shields are made of, shall we?"

"You got it," he replied, checking his own systems over and altering the fighter's course so he was on a direct head-to-head course with Mara. The turbo lasers on the Tikiar prototypes were top of the line. Now they'd see how well the shields held up against them, trusting in the Force to control their shots and warn them before anything dangerous happened.

Half a minute later they were finally within firing distance of each other. The crosshairs on Luke's HUD centered on Mara's speeding craft. His targeting lights flashed green, indicating a lock, but a moment later she began firing, her lasers cycling singly to do the least amount of damage. The collision course they were on caused each other's laser fire to interfere with the targeting computers, preventing a direct firing lock on the other craft. Luke gently nudged his stick to the right, because he only wanted to execute glancing blows. A full on blast from the lasers could punch right through these shields, and right thought Mara's cockpit if that happened.

The shots from Mara's fighter danced off his canopy as he sped towards her. Luke kept his finger on the trigger, his lasers cycling rounds of single shots ahead of him. Glancing at his display, he was surprised to find his shields still at ninety seven percent efficiency, despite the barrage of fire directed at them.

Suddenly Luke's finger dropped off his trigger as he felt a huge tremor in the Force. The light show aimed at him ceased as well, followed by a loud curse.

"Son of a SITH!!" Mara exclaimed, grabbing her flight stick with both hands and jerking her fighter out of the path of Luke's oncoming fire. The red bolts stopped as soon as she pulled away, but it was too late.

"Mara?" Luke's concerned voice filled her cockpit. "What happened? Are you okay?"

"The kriffing shields failed on me," she cursed angrily, punching up diagnostics as she spoke. "One of your last shots made it through and scorched part of my ship. I don't know what it vaped yet, but judging by the flare in my danger sense, it wasn't something minor."

"Mine failed too," he responded tersely. "They were at ninety seven percent, and then nothing. I don't think I sustained any serious damage though... except my subspace radio seems to have shorted out..."

"Okay, damage reports rolling in," Mara replied, and groaned at what she saw. "Luke, this isn't good... Whatever you hit had to have caused a chain reaction of some sort, because this is ridiculous. My shields are only coming back up to one quarter power, I've lost the port dorsal engine completely, my sensor package is giving me impossible readings, and my nav computer isn't functioning at all."

"How's your hyperdrive?" he questioned.

Mara hit some buttons and swore again. "Not responding. And neither is my subspace radio," she sighed. "Looks like I'm stuck here, since neither of us can call for help," she fumed. "I guess I'll just sit back here and relax while you go for help."

"Excuse me?" Luke asked, switching into over-protective husband mode. "You don't seriously think I'm going to leave you alone in an empty system in a half dead ship, do you?"

"Well somebody has to go for help," she retorted, "and it sure doesn't look like I'm going anywhere fast. Besides," she added, "I do believe it's your turn to come to the rescue." She was of course referring to the first time they'd met, when she and the Wild Karrde had found Luke stuck in almost the same predicament - floating in the middle of nowhere with a dead ship and fried radio antenna.

Luke sighed and racked his brain. He knew there had to be another solution, one that didn't involve him leaving Mara here alone in that ship. Hard telling what else would go wrong with it while he was away. No, he had to get Mara out of that ship as soon as possible. Especially if her life support decided to fail.

"Hey, hon..." he started as an idea occurred to him that just might work. "Do you think you can make it down to the planet's surface?"

He waited as she ran through a mental checklist of her still functional systems. "Yeah," she replied slowly, "I should be able to, but it'll be a little bumpy and I'll have to use the Force to compensate for my instrument failures. Why?" she asked.

"If you can land that thing, we can leave it there and both make the trip home in mine," he explained. "It'll be a little crowded, but there's definitely enough room for you on my lap, and it's just a short jump."

"I don't know if I can handle being stuck on your lap that long, Skywalker," she retorted.

Luke grinned. "You've done it before, Jade, for a lot longer than ten minutes."

Mara's growl came through the comm channel and Luke chuckled. Finally she sighed. "I guess that is the only way. You're sure your ship is functional?"

He double-checked his HUD. "Yes, aside from the radio. Shields are back up to full, navicomputer is functional, hyperdrive seems to be fine, and all my engines are go."

"Lucky," he heard her mutter under her breath. "Well, let's get these death traps landed then, and head home so I can fillet myself a couple of engineers," she all but growled.

continued in part 2...
part 2...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It took a healthy dose of skilled piloting to get Mara's ship on the ground. The lack of shields on the ship meant she had to take her descent slow. Luckily there wasn't much atmosphere, so the weak shielding didn't have to work too hard to cool the ship down during its entry. She relied greatly on the Force to let her know how fast she was going, how her ship was holding up, and to find a good place to settle down.

Luke set his X-wing down gently next to his wife's, secured his filter mask over his face, then popped his canopy. Mara did likewise, grabbed her life support gear, and jumped out of the worthless hunk of scrap the engineers had dared call a magnificent vehicle. She closed the transparisteel canopy, glared at the ship, then headed over to Luke's craft. Using the Force, she leapt up and landed gracefully between his legs.

Reaching out to grasp her waist, he helped her settle down on the pilot's couch in front of him. The cockpits of the new fighters were larger than normal, due to the lack of an astromech slot, and the two found they had plenty of room. Mara was extremely thankful for the lack of a center control console between her legs, and Luke lowered the canopy as she tossed her life support equipment on the floor with his.

Luke could feel the irritation flowing off his wife in waves. Removing his breath mask, he wrapped both arms around Mara's waist and gently drew her against him. "Don't you ever tell me to leave you behind again," he scolded her. "Although if you ever try to talk me into testing a prototype X-wing again, I just might," he continued wryly.

"I'm sorry, Luke," she returned, forcing herself to relax against him. "But don't worry - by the time I get done skinning those engineers alive, there won't be anyone left to design any new prototypes," she scowled.

Chucking despite himself, Luke pressed a kiss to her cheek. "What do you say we get this crate out of here?" he asked.

"You don't have to ask me twice," she replied, firing up the engines and pulling back on the stick. The X-wing lifted off the barren landscape and accelerated quickly. Mara trusted her husband's analysis of his equipment, but she wanted to see for herself just how functional this prototype still was. She punched up a readout on the HUD, scanning the numbers scrolling across the screen.

"Um, Luke, darling..." she drawled slowly, "you did say the hyperdrive was fine, did you not?"

Luke didn't like the tone of her voice. "Um, yeah..." he answered hesitantly, not liking where this was leading. "It seemed fine when I checked the numbers on it..."

"Well the numbers on it now say it's at thirty percent efficiency," she stated flatly.

"What?!" he exclaimed, sitting up straight and leaning forward to peer over her shoulder. "Please tell me it's stabilized and not getting worse..." he pleaded hopefully.

Mara sighed. "I think it's stabilized..." she confirmed. "It looks like some circuits might have been damaged - probably when you ran your landing cycle or something. When I get my hands on whomever wired these Sith forsaken vehicles..." she muttered, working on the calculation for their return jump.

"Thirty four minutes," she sighed when the navicomputer returned the numbers. "As soon as we clear the gravity well, we can blow this caf stand and get the hell out of here."

"Thirty four minutes, hmm?" Luke repeated thoughtfully. "Think you can stand sitting on my lap that long, Mara?" he teased.

"I guess I'm going to have to, aren't I?" she scowled, so annoyed she missed the teasing completely.

She may have been oblivious to the implications of her sitting between Luke's legs in the tiny cockpit of the supposedly one-man fighter, but Luke wasn't. With their helmets on the floor, the scent of the beautiful red braid that ran the length of Mara's back invaded Luke's nostrils. He leaned his head back against the rear of the ejection seat and closed his eyes, trying to calm his libido as Mara piloted the ship.

Behind his closed eyelids, his mind drifted back in time, to a conversation held around the table at his bachelor party. Like typical men, they'd been discussing the best places to have sex, but since they were all pilots, the conversation had taken a twist - to which ships were the best. Han preferred the cockpit of the Falcon while in hyperspace; Corran had agreed, but named Mirax's Pulsar Skate instead. They both said there was just something almost surreal about the stars shooting by outside as they rocketed to the farthest reaches of the galaxy with their wives.

Wes had then made a comment about how it must be nice to actually have a ship you could make love in, to which everyone laughed.

"Yeah, I can see how it might be a little awkward to invite a lady friend back to the X-wing for a tour," Lando joked.

Wes looked at him forlornly. "It's not funny, is it guys?" he pouted, looking around the table for support from his fellow Rogues.

Tycho nodded sympathetically, and Corran raised his eyebrow in mock confusion. "What, you mean you've never done it in your X-wing?" he asked.

Tycho laughed. "No, Winter's not too keen on tight spaces."

Laughter circled the table, until Wedge caught Corran's eye and sighed dramatically, shaking his head. Everyone looked at him in confusion.

"Is that sigh based on personal experience?" Han questioned the former General curiously.

"Yeah, but not mine," Wedge responded, rolling his eyes at Corran.

Corran grinned. "You'd really be surprised how much room there is in those cockpits," he quipped.

All their eyes shot open. "Don't tell me you and Mirax..." Luke exclaimed.

"Christened my X-wing? Yup." The former Cor Sec agent's grin broadened as he finished Luke's statement.

Silence reigned for several moments, most of them in mild shock. Finally Wes spoke up. "Way to go, Horn!" he cheered. "I knew I should have come to you for pointers years ago," he quipped, sending the table into a fresh round of laughter.

"Hey, flyboy, you going to share those naughty thoughts with your wife?"

Luke's eyes flew open as Mara's hand landed on his knee and her voice filled the cockpit. She'd turned slightly in his lap to look at him expectantly, and he smiled at her sheepishly. He noticed that they'd made the jump to lightspeed, and wondered just how long he'd been daydreaming.

"Come on, spill it," she coaxed. "I want to know why my seat got so uncomfortable so fast." Her hand twirled teasingly on his thigh, and he looked down. No wonder she'd guessed his train of thought. The evidence had obviously been pressing pretty firmly against her back, judging by how much it was straining against the fabric of his flight suit.

Luke blushed, and looked back up into his wife's emerald eyes. "I was just remembering a conversation from my bachelor party," he confessed guiltily.

Mara raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"

He nodded, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. "About ships, wives, and sex."

She laughed. "Oh, that's rich! Let me guess... The best place to do it is in the cockpit of a ship, while you're in hyperspace?"

Luke looked surprised, then hurt. "You disagree?" he pouted.

"No, of course not," she replied, smiling at memories of fun times shared in the cockpit of the Jade Sabre. "However," she continued, "need I really remind you that we're in an X-wing??"

"So?" Luke challenged, raising his own eyebrow in response.

Both of Mara's went up in surprise. "Don't tell me you've done this before, Skywalker..."

"No, no, not me," Luke said hurriedly.

Suddenly it dawned on her. "Corran and Mirax," she said, in more of a statement than a guess.

Luke nodded.

"And you want to try it," she continued.

Luke grinned. "We could actually one-up them, because they didn't do it in hyperspace," he smiled suggestively.

Mara couldn't help but laugh. "You, flyboy, are incorrigible! But I'm always up for outdoing Mirax, so you've got yourself a deal," she grinned back. "Besides, we have to find something to do for the next thirty minutes..." she rolled her eyes, their predicament still first and foremost in her mind.

"Right," he agreed, his grin widening. "When you're stuck in a tight space with the person you love, what else is there to do?" he joked.

Shaking her head in amusement, Mara turned around in his lap and leaned down and unfastened both of their boots. She pulled them off and threw them down on the floor with the rest of their unnecessary gear, then sat up again and resumed her half twisted position, this time balancing on Luke's left knee rather than the seat. Then, pulling her knees up to her chin, she rotated her body clockwise so she was now facing Luke, and dropped her legs to straddle his lap.

"Impressive," he commented on her agility. Mara grinned at her husband, then leaned forward and silenced him with a kiss.

Luke closed his eyes and kissed her fiercely. Mara's hands tangled in Luke's hair as his hands reached up to caress her cheeks. Their tongues met in an impressive duel, and Luke felt his erection strain against the material constraining it. His arousal drifted across the impossibly close bond the couple shared, and Mara moaned against his mouth.

Her hands drifted down around his neck to find the clasp at the top of his flight suit. Nimble fingers worked the garment open easily, then tugged it down his arms. Luke released her face to pull his arms from the sleeves. He let her slip his undershirt over his head next, then wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her tighter against him, reclaiming her lips.

He realized that was a mistake as her pelvis ground against his groin. Releasing her lips to let a deep moan escape, Mara giggled and latched onto his neck. Luke's head leaned back against the rear of the pilot's couch as she kissed and suckled as his neck, her hands splayed across his bare chest. She rained a shower of kisses along his collarbone and down his chest, finally locating a nipple and sucking it between her lips.

Luke inhaled sharply as her tongue traced circles around the nub. Her name slipped from between his lips as he felt as if his arousal would burst right though the seams of his flight suit. In response, Mara slid her hands down his firm stomach, opening his suit as far as it would go. Luke breathed a sigh of relief as she relieved the pressure against his erection, then sucked it in sharply as her hand slipped beneath the fabric of his undergarments to close around him.

She gently rolled his nipple between her teeth before releasing it and sitting up and catching his eyes. Luke stared back at her with hazy blue ones as she stroked him. Licking her lips seductively, she leaned in and pressed her lips to his once more. He kissed her like a starving nerf, bucking his hips sporadically as she teased his shaft. His hands drifted up her body to find the clasp at the top of her flight suit and yanked it open. He was more gentle with the rest, a small portion of logic seeping through his passion filled haze to remind him that Mara needed to put the suit back on when they were done.

Before he could slide it off her shoulders though, Mara broke away from the kiss and slipped off his lap. She knelt on the floor of the cockpit between his legs and released his shaft to reach around behind him and grasp hold of his clothing. Luke picked up on her plan and lifted his hips off the seat so she could pull the fabric off his body. Tugging it down his legs, she let it pool around his ankles and then aimed her attention back to the organ between his legs that was standing at rapt attention.

Bare flesh slapped against the upholstery of the ejection seat as Luke bucked his hips in response to Mara's wet lips closing around his erection. A throaty moan rolled off his lips as she sucked him, twirling her tongue around him expertly. His hips began rocking back and forth in time to her strokes, and Mara reached out with the Force and pinned him in place.

"Mara..." he begged, and a smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. Her fingers kneaded him gently, and she felt the pressure building inside him through the Force. She continued the motion, increasing the suction and drawing him deeper, until he exploded with a shout.

His orgasm washed over them both, but Mara forced herself to concentrate, opening her throat to take all of him. When his body stopped spasming, she released him and climbed back up on his lap, pressing a gentle kiss to his lips.

Luke's eyes were closed, his chest rising and falling rapidly as he tried to replenish his oxygen supply. "Gods, Mara..." he breathed softly after a moment. She straddled him, still fully clothed, gazing at him through hooded eyes. He opened his and stared deep into her bright jade orbs.

His gaze dipped slightly, and his lips crooked in a half grin. "You are wearing far too much clothing, wife," he stated. She grinned at him, and leaned forward to press her lips to his, gently slipping her tongue into his mouth to trace his teeth.

Strong hands reached up to her shoulders to push the cloth of her flight suit down to her waist. She pulled her arms free, then giggled as Luke hit the ticklish spot along her sides as he ran his hands along her skin, grasping the bottom of her undershirt and sliding it over her breasts. Raising her arms over their heads as far as the canopy above them would allow, she let Luke slip the tank off over her head.

Sliding his hands around behind her back, Luke leaned forward and captured one of her breasts in his mouth. Mara arched her back, pressing herself against his hands as he suckled her. She opened her eyes, and a hard case of vertigo washed over her at the bright lines of stars racing by overhead.

"Woah..." she breathed, squeezing her eyes tightly against the surreal sight speeding by above her. It took a moment for her head to stop spinning, although Luke's attention to her breasts didn't help matters much. His hand worked the one his mouth wasn't, and Mara felt the heat growing in her core.

When she'd had enough of the foreplay, Mara slipped backwards off his lap to plant her feet on the cockpit floor between his legs. Luke took the hint, and grasped her suit and tugged. It was little awkward to push it all the way to her feet, as she was bent over forward due to the low ceiling. He managed as best he could, and then she lifted her feet to kick the cloth the rest of the way off. She then climbed back onto his lap, spreading her legs wide.

They held each other's gaze, then simultaneously reached for each other's erogenous zones. Mara's hand wrapped around Luke's stiffening shaft as his fingers slipped between her folds. Their minds twined together, and Luke erection grew as Mara stroked him. She gasped, arching her back as he slipped two fingers inside of her.

As he stroked her, she relinquished her hold on his shaft to wrap her arms around his neck, holding on tight as she neared the brink. Luke pressed his lips to hers before brushing her clitoris with his thumb, muffling her cry as she came. Spasms wracked her body and they both reveled in the intensity of her emotions.

When she returned to the safety of the X-wing, Mara met Luke's brilliant blue eyes and stared through them, directly into his soul. All the passion they had for each other burned like the twin suns of Tatooine, and without a word, Mara slid forward on his lap, lifting her hips, and they melded together in perfect harmony.

The breath caught in both of their throats as Luke slid deeply into Mara's depths. They paused for a moment, then Mara began moving, the strong muscles in her legs contracting as she raised and lowered herself onto his shaft. She rocked back and forth, gradually building up the speed of her movements. Luke shifted his position on the seat, getting a better angle and causing himself to probe even deeper inside of her. As the friction built, so did the heat burning inside of them.

Mara wrapped her arms around Luke's neck, threading her fingers through his hair, while he grasped her breasts. His thumbs circled the pert peaks, and he closed his eyes briefly as Mara continued to move against him. His hips moved in unison to hers, as much as he could manage in the confines of the cockpit. Opening his eyes, Luke looked over Mara's shoulder. The fantastic sight of the starlines rushing past the transparisteel of the canopy caused all the emotions inside him to reach the breaking point, and with a shout he climaxed.

His emotions washed over Mara in a rush, triggering her own release. They continued to rock against one another in that ancient rhythm, reveling in the beautiful symphony reverberating through their souls. Finally, Mara collapsed against Luke, her head falling into the crook of his neck as they both tried to drain the oxygen level in the fighter.

Mara absent-mindedly traced random patterns over Luke's flushed skin with a fingertip, enjoying the feeling of his flesh pressed hotly against hers.

"Thanks for sharing those thoughts with me, Luke," she murmured softly.

"Thanks for rising to the challenge," he responded, kissing her forehead.

Mara giggled. "I'm not the one who did the rising.." she quipped.

Luke laughed. "We should probably figure out how to wriggle back into our clothes before it happens again," he replied, only half kidding.

"Yeah," Mara agreed, "considering we'll probably be reverting any minute now..."

As if on cue, the warning tone of the chrono sounded, indicating reversion to real space in three minutes. Sitting up, the lovers shared another kiss, then Mara twisted around in the seat to untangle their flight suits from the mess of clothing at her feet. She found hers and pulled them over her legs, then Luke helped her balance as she raised her hips off the seat to tug the fabric over her body. Locating her undershirt, she slipped it on next, then threaded her arms through the sleeves of her suit and fastened it closed.

Next she leaned forward and helped Luke slide his legs through his own suit. It took quite a bit of balancing and Force usage to guide his up and over his hips, but they managed it in time for Mara to settle back down on the seat and slide the hyperspace lever forward as the counter reached zero. The ship reverted to real space, and while Luke tugged his undershirt on and his sleeves up his arms, refastening his suit, Mara triggered the comm switch and waited for Control's confused voice.

"Tikiar flight?" the voice came through. "Aren't you short one fighter?" Chief Engineer Sreikan asked worriedly.

"Yes, Sir," Mara replied tersely, "we sure are. You'll find Tikiar Two waiting patiently for your tech boys to pick it up in the next system over."

"Tikiar Two?" he replied, confused. "Wasn't that your ship?" the engineer asked.

"It sure was," Mara replied sardonically. "All I have to say for these prototypes," she said, putting a hard edge on the word, "is that the extra large cockpit sure did come in handy."

Her voice was sarcastic, but Luke had to try hard not to chuckle at the double meaning behind her words. Mara elbowed him in the ribs in response, and he emitted a loud, "Oof!"

Sreikan obviously heard the exclamation. "Are you both in the cockpit of Tikiar One?" he asked, the surprise clear in his voice.

Luke tried not to chuckle as he replied, not wanting to suffer the wrath of his wife if he made light of the situation with the faulty ships. "Yes, Command," he replied, using every ounce of control within him to pull the stern Jedi Master voice to the surface. Luckily, he managed to succeed. "Both ships suffered sudden shield failures, and a strafing shot damaged Tikiar Two, rendering it unable to make the jump back to this system. Mara would have been stranded there had we not landed the ships on the surface and transferred her to my craft."

His report was met by silence. Obviously, the engineers didn't quite know what to say. They'd guaranteed that the prototypes were perfectly safe, only to find out that they'd malfunctioned so much that their test pilots' lives had been seriously endangered.

Mara spoke up first. "For the record," she stated flatly, "the Skywalker family will no longer be testing fighter prototypes." And with that, she killed the communication, and concentrated on bringing them to a safe landing inside the hanger base.

"From now on out, I'm listening to the droid," she muttered under her breath, gripping the stick with both hands. "Paranoid or not, he's apparently more of a good luck charm than I was willing to give him credit for."

Luke chuckled and wrapped his arms around her waist. Kissing her cheek he replied, "Now you know why I never leave home without him."

~ Fin ~

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