Shattered Remembrance

Chapter Twenty-two

Mara met Luke's disconcerted blue gaze with a hard emerald stare of her own. He backed away from Callista, but not nearly quickly enough to suit Mara.

"Mara, I—"

"Your sister's on the comm," Mara said, cutting him off. She wasn't in the mood for flimsy excuses, or declarations of redirected love.

"But you don't—"

"Go talk to Leia," Mara snapped.

Luke's mouth thinned into a straight line before he disappeared through the hatch.

"Leia Organa Solo?" Callista asked, casually retaking her seat in the pilot's couch. "How did she know this ship's comm signal?"

Mara shrugged, forcing herself to be nonchalant. "Probably traced it when we called her." She watched carefully for Callista's reaction. "To ask her to check out your Jedi-idolizing boss."

"I see." Callista nodded. "A sensible precaution." She tilted her head to one side. "Do you not want to hear her results?"

I'd rather stay here and punch your lights out. "Luke can fill me in."

"Very well." Callista took a quick check at the navicomputer. "I told Luke he could input the coordinates for the in-system jump to Bakura." She glanced up to meet Mara's stony glare. "He is doing quite well relearning all aspects of piloting."

All right, so she doesn't act like a person who has something to hide. "He's a quick learner."

"Yes, he is."

Callista's non-existence in the Force had always made her more than a bit spooky. But these last few days, she had felt even more eerie, and more baffling. Mara hated not being able to read her emotions. "What's your game?"

Callista looked at her blankly. "I don't understand."

Why was she even pretending to be this dense? "Don't give me that. You advise me to pursue Luke, then you jump into his arms the very next moment you see him."

"He was thanking me," Callista returned. "He initiated the contact."

I just bet he did. "Thanking you for what?"

"You have a very suspicious nature, Mara Jade."

"And you're just a fountain of innocence," Mara retorted. "Listen to me, Callista." She leaned over, staring icily into the other woman's unblinking eyes. "You stay away from him. He's vulnerable right now, and I'll be kriffed if you're going to seduce him like you did before."

"Perhaps you need to concentrate on your own behavior toward Luke." She tapped a series of buttons on the console. "You are the one who is driving him away with deceit and veiled emotions."

"What goes on between Luke and me is none of your business."

"As you say."

Mara growled in frustration as she looked away. But not even squeezing her eyes shut could erase the painful image of her two shipmates, entwined together in this very spot.

***

By the time Luke appeared on-screen, Han was leaning over Leia's shoulder, grinning like a git-loon. Trying to ignore her husband, Leia smiled warmly. "Luke, it's good to see you."

"Hey, kid," Han added. "So, sequestered on a ship with two beautiful women. How's that goin' for ya?"

"Could be better," he muttered.

"Why? What's happened?" Leia asked. She had breathed a sigh of relief when Luke had first answered, looking whole and healthy. Now she could see the dejection in his downcast expression.

"Oh, it's nothing," he said, shrugging.

"Callista and Mara haven't killed each other, have they?" Han said, laughing.

Luke glanced over his shoulder. "I hope not."

"Ah, woman troubles. The bane of all men's existence."

"Han, leave him alone," Leia chastised. "Luke, is there anything we can do to help?"

"No," he replied, shaking his head. "I'll work it out." He smiled weakly. "Did you find out anything on Ra'uf Buaran?"

"Yes, we did," Leia answered, shunting Luke's despondent mood to the back of her mind temporarily. "I'm transmitting the entire file to you, but in short, he was raised by his single mother in Salis D'aar, the capital of Bakura. She was a dancer who worked in various nightclubs. There was no mention anywhere of a father, but she reportedly had no shortage of men to warm her bed."

Luke grimaced, and Leia hurried on. "Ra'uf Buaran would've been about twelve at the time of the Sri-ruuk invasion. He and his mother both escaped unscathed, though his mother did die five years ago from Dakotin fever. Buaran began working in a repulsor plant when he was a teen, eventually working his way up to sales manager. During a trip to Chandrila, he happened to meet Lady Delia Gresyo, the daughter of a minor aristocrat. They fell in love and married soon after."

Leia thought she heard her brother mumble 'Lucky them,' but when she paused, he simply nodded for her to continue. "Buaran assumed the title of 'Lord,' along with a good portion of her wealth. The couple settled on Bakura, where he bought out his former employer, along with two more plants." Leia glanced down at her notes. "We weren't able to get an up-to-date list of all his employees, but there was nothing to indicate that Callista doesn't work for him. After all, we lost track of her after Nam Chorios."

"If you say so," Luke said with a sigh. "So, I guess her story is probably true, then. She doesn't seem the type to lie outright."

"No, she never struck me as untrustworthy, either," Leia concurred.

"You'd better still be careful, Luke," Han interjected. "Women can be shifty when you least expect it." Leia glared over her shoulder, and he added with a wink, "Present company excluded."

"I think I already learned that lesson," Luke said cryptically. Leia wanted to ask what he meant, but he didn't appear to be in a mood to discuss it.

"Luke, listen..." Leia hesitated a moment. After Luke's last blow-up about running his own life, she and Han had debated about how much to tell him. She glanced at Han with a raised brow, and he nodded. "If you need anything, anything at all, you can comm us. Mara has a comlink, and—"

"So do I," Luke put in. His firm expression kept Leia from asking where he obtained an item that he had every right to have anyway.

"All right." She smiled. "Mara should have our comm-codes, if you don't already."

Luke frowned. "I didn't think comlinks had that kind of range."

"Uh, no." Leia knew Luke wasn't going to like what she was about to reveal, but he needed to know. "The truth is, Luke, we're almost to Bakura ourselves. I keep having this skeptical feeling about what's going on, and—"

"And you figured you'd have to bail me out." Luke ran one hand through his hair, and Leia could see the weariness in his eyes. "At least someone is telling me the truth."

"Listen, Luke," Han said, his tone turning serious. "You look like a whipped ronto-pup. You gotta take charge. Show 'em who's the Jedi Master on that ship."

Luke glanced Leia's direction, and he looked taken aback when she nodded in agreement. Leia felt more than a little surprised herself. But even though Luke had made substantial progress in his physical recovery, emotional recovery was usually a harder road to travel. He had asserted himself when she had misguidedly taken charge of his every move. Now he needed to assert himself with the other two women in his life.

"We love you, Luke," she said, smiling. She raised a hand in farewell. "May the Force be with you."

"We're lucky, ya know," Han said, curling one arm around Leia's waist after Luke's image vanished.

"And why is that?"

"He was so busy with his girlfriend woes, he forgot to be indignant that we're following him."

Leia couldn't help but agree.

***

With a bravado he was not entirely feeling, Luke rose and headed for the cockpit. Mara was just exiting when Luke approached.

"Callista is waiting for you," Mara said, not looking at him.

Without thinking, Luke reached out and gripped her forearm. "Hold on," he said, injecting a tone of command into his voice. "Leia sent a file on Buaran. And when our visit with him is over, you and I are going to discuss our ... situation. Alone. No distractions. No interruptions. No half-truths or hidden emotions. I don't care if we lock ourselves in a room on Coruscant, or fly off to a deserted planet." He looked her directly in the eye with a steely gaze. "We will settle things between us, Mara Jade."

Mara gaped back at him with an incredulous stare. Luke didn't know if it was one of hope or dismay. She didn't answer, and he turned to escape into the cockpit, wondering what transpired between Mara and Callista while he was absent. He decided that perhaps it was best that he didn't know. Luke allowed himself a mirthless snort. Brooding over how complicated his personal life had suddenly become could not be conducive to his general well-being in any way, shape, or form.

Callista was mercifully quiet during the short hop to Bakura, offering only the occasional guidance on Luke's piloting maneuvers. He didn't need much instruction. The controls felt perfectly natural in his hands. He recalled the brief glimpse of memory he'd had of sitting in a fighter's cockpit. He knew he'd had an X-wing, but had been forced to leave it behind on Nirauan. Perhaps Wedge would let him borrow a ship sometime, to brush up his skills.

Perhaps Mara could take over his piloting instructions.

Perhaps brooding was part of his nature, because he couldn't avoid it, no matter how hard he tried.

***

A datapad lay ignored on Mara's lap, its contents downloaded from the Solos' communication. She had sat down near a small viewport in the lounge during the short hop to Bakura, though she paid no attention to the shifting of the stars. Nothing seemed to matter right now – nothing except Luke.

Mara remembered idly flipping through a holozine years ago while waiting for an appointment. It was one of those women's publications that she normally abhorred, with décor tips and fashion news. But the title of one of the monthly columns stuck in her head – 'Can this Relationship Be Saved?' Mara snorted to herself as she tilted her head against the viewport. The pseudo-psychologist who addressed couples' problems would probably blow a gasket with her and Luke's crazy dilemma.

Despite her regrettable loss of control in the cockpit, a small part of her couldn't help believing Callista's claim that nothing had been going on between her and Luke. Even in Luke's precarious state of mind, he wouldn't jump from passionately embracing her to smooching it up with his old girlfriend within a few minutes time. And Callista had avowed that she was no longer interested in Luke so many times that Mara's mistrust was beginning to slip.

And yet ...

Mara had been relieved when Callista had insisted on taking the late watch on the bridge every night. They had barely crossed paths in their shared cabin. Now the disturbing suspicion teased Mara's thoughts that maybe Callista saw the night shifts as an opportunity to be alone with Luke. But had she visited his room? Had they been having secret rendezvous? And what of Luke's demand for an air-clearing confrontation? His shields were so strong that he was almost as hard to read as Callista.

No, Mara admitted to herself, she had no one to blame but herself for this whole impossible, mind-boggling mess. And that inebriated speeder driver that had potentially ruined two people's lives with a single thoughtless act.

A glitter outside caught Mara's attention, and she realized the ship was descending through the layers of atmosphere, revealing Salis D'aar's stunning gridwork of concentric circular roadways. Nestled between two rivers and sitting atop an outcrop of dazzling white quartz, the city sparkled with an unsurpassed brilliance. Mara's keen eye soon picked out several manmade parks dotting the vista. She had never been to Bakura before, but she had heard of the planet's beauty. Luke had been here more than once, and Mara mused that it was probably for the best that he wouldn't remember the less-than-ideal circumstances that had brought him here previously.

She only hoped this visit proved more satisfying.