Shattered Remembrance

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Leia remembered Luke describing what he called a 'danger sense' during one of her infrequent training sessions with him long ago. A tingling, he said, a foreboding that something is going to happen. She knew without a doubt that the prickle nudging at her mind was just such a warning.

"Han," Leia said, laying one hand on his arm. "Slow down."

"What? Why?" Han glanced at her, but continued to maintain his breakneck speed.

"Han!"

"All right, all ri—" The rest of Han's reply was drowned out by a combination of Leia's scream and the crashing down of a huge metal grate in their path.

Han attempted to swerve, but there was nowhere to swerve to. The grate extended completely across the tunnel, and the tram car slammed sideways into it, with Han's side receiving the brunt of the collision. The tram flipped over, its repulsors pushing it away from the low ceiling before the engine whined to a halt. Han crawled out from underneath the vehicle, wincing at a stabbing pain in his side.

"Leia!" Ignoring any injury of his own, Han tried lifting the tram off his pinned, and motionless, wife. "Leia, answer me!" Grunting with the effort, Han strained to raise the vehicle enough to pull Leia out.

"I've got it."

The calm voice from over Han's shoulder startled him momentarily, and immediately the tram was tossed aside with an uncanny ease. He gave Guri a cursory glance. "How'd you ...?"

"I leapt clear just before the crash," the droid replied, bending to examine Leia. "I do not ascertain any broken bones or major contusions."

A weak moan came from Leia just then, and Han shouldered Guri aside. "Sweetheart, can you hear me?"

Chocolate-brown eyes fluttered open, and Han had never seen a more welcome sight.

"Leia, are you all right?" Han's gaze swept over his wife, and he was relieved to see Guri's assessment seemed correct. That didn't mean there couldn't be internal injuries, though.

"Yes, I ... I think I just got the wind knocked out of me." Leia started to sit up, and Han immediately cupped one arm behind her back, then regretted the action as another pain jabbed into his left side.

"Han!" Roles were reversed as Leia scrambled to examine Han.

"Broken ribs," Guri pronounced, watching as Leia tenderly ran her fingers over Han's skin.

"I can see that," Leia bit out, a worried frown creasing her brow. "Sit still, hon. You don't want to puncture—"

"Will you quit fussing over me?" Han pulled out of Leia's grasp, turning aside so she wouldn't see his grimace as he struggled to his feet. "I've had worse than this a dozen times over."

Leia's eyes narrowed in frustration, and Han just then noticed a bruise darkening on her cheekbone. But he knew Leia well enough to know she didn't appreciate anyone fussing over her any more than he did.

"We should turn around and go back to the Falcon," Leia said, glancing back the direction they'd come. And get your injuries tended to, her pinched expression added silently.

"We should've taken the Falcon to begin with," Han growled, more to himself than to his companions. He walked over to the upturned tram, where Guri was poking. "Whadda you think are the chances this thing will run again?"

"With the tools available in the storage bin, I estimate there is a twenty-two percent chance of repairing the repulsors," Guri answered.

Leia walked over to study the grate – more slowly than usual, Han noted. "I don't see any controls to lift this thing," she said. "Which means we have no choice but to turn around."

"It's a long hike," Han pointed out. He belatedly realized his objection made it look like he couldn't walk that far. "I can make it, though," he added. "If you're sure that you're okay."

"My internal distance calculator indicates that we are just over a kilometer from where the exit to the Stybridge spaceport should be," Guri interjected, before Leia could reply. "We have already traveled almost twenty-one kilometers."

"I think I liked it better when you were pretending to be Callista," Han said, shaking his head. He waved a hand casually at the obstacle in their path. "Okay, Muscles. Do your stuff."

"I am constructed from synthetic materials," Guri returned. "I do not have muscles."

Han frowned over his shoulder at Leia's delicate snort of amusement. She sobered up quickly, then pulled out her comlink as Guri sized up the grate.

"Mara?" Leia said. "Mara, come in." She shot Han a concerned glance. "Mara, are you there?" A low static was the only answer.

"Maybe she turned it off," Han suggested.

"She wouldn't do that," Leia replied, and despite his comment, Han had to agree. Leia flicked a setting, and spoke into the device once more. "Artoo, relay this message to Luke and Mara. We've had an accident..."

"Accident, my eye," Han mumbled.

"... and will be proceeding on foot. Please advise as to your status." Pocketing the comlink, Leia pursed her lips. "I don't like this, Han. It's too coincidental." She closed her eyes, concentrating on what could only be her brother's presence. "Luke's okay. I felt his return touch," she soon said, sighing in relief.

"So there's some kind of interference all of a sudden." Han grimaced with frustration. "Buaran's wife must not have been as trustworthy as we thought."

"We don't know that she had anything to do with this," Leia countered, though her tone was less than convincing.

"You think a woman would be more loyal to a bunch of strangers than to her own husband? I think she was nothing more than a good actress."

"I don't know. Maybe the butler escaped."

"Are you saying the butler did it?" Han retorted. "Hon, you been readin' mystery holonovels behind my back?" With a shake of his head, his smirk morphed into a scowl. "If he did, she must've let him out." Things were a lot simpler when he used to stick with his policy of never trusting anyone he didn't know. And sometimes not even people he did know. This is what comes of hanging around with Jedi.

He and Leia both turned at hearing a loud grinding groan. Guri had managed to raise the grate only a few centimeters. Han noted with interested that where most people's faces would be scrunched up with the effort she was exerting, Guri's expression hadn't changed one iota.

"I do not believe my strength is adequate to lift this gate sufficiently," Guri stated evenly. "I shall attempt an alternate method." Before Han or Leia could ask what she had in mind, the droid drew back one fist, then punched against one strand of the grating. She then continued to punch and tear the heavy wires until an opening was formed just large enough for a human to crawl through.

"Okay, maybe I am glad you're not pretending to be Luke's old girlfriend anymore," Han said, stepping toward the newly created hole. He squeezed through, then helped Leia as she gingerly followed him. It was still disconcerting, he thought, how much Guri looked like Luke's former flame. No wonder Mara was so quick to call dibs on having Artoo accompany them, instead of the constant reminder of Callista.

Not looking forward to a kilometer-long hike with cracked ribs and a stiff and sore wife, Han clasped Leia's hand, gritted his teeth, and started out.

**********

"Luke?"

"Leia was reaching out to me through the Force," Luke said, smiling at his companion. "Checking on us, I assume. She seemed okay."

Mara frowned. "Wonder why she wouldn't use the comlink." She switched her own device on, but got only static. "Can you get through?" she asked, turning to Artoo-Detoo.

The astromech blinked a moment, then issued a negative-sounding trill.

Luke looked at Mara, then said in a low voice, "I'm getting a bad feeling again."

Mara couldn't help letting a small chuckle escape.

"What?"

"It's just that you used to use that phrase a lot," she answered, grinning at him.

Luke grimaced. "Well, I am." He glanced around, then looked up toward the ceiling. "I can sense other people."

Instinctively following his upward gaze, Mara could also feel a multitude of human presences. "We aren't very far underground," she reasoned. "Maybe it's just pedestrians on a walkway, or workers in a building."

"Maybe," Luke admitted. "But the minds feel focused, and disciplined."

"You're getting way too good at this, you know," Mara said.

"What do you mean?"

"It won't be long before you'll be back to teaching me Force skills, instead of the other way around." Mara tilted her head down the tunnel. "Come on, let's get going. I'll be glad when we're out of this place."

**

Despite her teasing of Luke's apprehension, Mara was having a 'bad feeling' herself. She couldn't keep from glancing at the ceiling every few moments, waiting for another barrier to come crashing down.

The Force screamed a warning at the same instant that Mara heard the snap-hiss of Luke's lightsaber blend in with her own. Panels slid open on opposite walls in front of them, and a dozen armed men suddenly filled the tunnel, each with a transparent personal shield. In military precision, half the men knelt down, and the other half lined up their shields right above them. There was a small hole in middle of each shield, just big enough for the barrel of a blaster.

Artoo slowly began rolling backward, when a guard on the end paused long enough to reach around his barrier and shoot a projectile at the astromech. With a dull clunk, a small metal object stuck against Artoo's casing, causing the droid's dome to swivel in shrieking mechanical agitation.

"Artoo!" Luke yelled.

"He's okay," Mara called over the echoing din. "Just ..." She swatted two bolts in rapid succession. "Just a restraining bolt."

In coordinated unison, Mara and Luke began deflecting the incoming bolts. Artoo-Detoo warbled in alarm, and Mara could hear muffled footsteps behind them. Without a word, Luke swiveled around to face the new threat. Barely sparing a quick glance over her shoulder, Mara could see an identical cadre of guards had appeared behind them, lining up with shields and blocking their potential escape route.

There was no time to discuss options. With the two-prong attack, each of them had to defend a different direction. Standing back-to-back, the two Force-users steadily batted away the incoming fire.

Mara was holding her own, deflecting the blaster fire in such a way that nothing would ricochet off the shields and hit them. Yet try as she might, she didn't have enough finesse to direct the bolts back into the barrels of the blasters. But it was Luke she was worried about. Luke, who had no memory of ever being pinned down like this. Whose only recent experience was deflecting blasts from training remotes.

Thankfully he wasn't panicking, though Mara could feel his mind concentrating heavily on every motion he made. He was trying to control the Force, instead of surrendering to it. His naturally quick reflexes were allowing him to stay ahead of the assault, but he couldn't keep this up much longer.

Mara reached out with the Force, hoping he could draw power from her, just like he'd shared with her in the depths of the cave on Nirauan. She silently encouraged him to entrust himself to the potent energy he possessed.

He latched onto her mind almost immediately, but she didn't even have time to breath a sigh of relief, so intense was the blaster fire. She could feel his Force awareness growing; their minds became one. Before she knew it, Luke's Force power was overshadowing hers. He was intertwining their thoughts with a ferocity that nearly overwhelmed her.

And with a jolt Mara realized what was happening.

All the memories they'd exchanged in that cave were now surfacing, and Luke was devouring them like a starving man gulps down nourishment. Subconscious images that Mara wasn't even cognizant of were swirling through their minds.

She could sense his thoughts shift, looking for a way out of their predicament. How ironic that the kind of trap that had brought them together would now be their downfall.

Hope, he sent urgently, squashing her pessimistic thoughts. We'll make it.

Luke was so much like his old confident self that the joyful feeling invading Mara's being nearly caused her to miss a volley of blaster fire. She forced herself to bat away the distractions just as she was batting away the bolts.

A sense of movement appeared in Mara's mind. Luke was mentally nudging her over against one wall. She followed his lead, and soon found herself standing between him and Artoo-Detoo as her lightsaber continued to zap back and forth.

Can you defend both directions? Luke sent. For just a few seconds.

Was he speaking aloud, or through the Force? She couldn't tell. Then the impact of what he asked hit her. He was going to try something reckless. Something that would leave him vulnerable. Blast that man!

This time he definitely sent an image to her mind. There was a small gap between the top row of shields and the ceiling. Just wide enough for a lightsaber to slip through.

Before Mara could chastise him for attempting what would be suicide, his saber was flying out of his hands, spinning thru the gap. She had expected Luke to drop down, to allow her to reach over his head for bolts. But he stayed upright, partially shielding her with his own body, staying back just far enough to not interfere with her swings.

Mara had seen Darth Vader deflect bolts once with his hand. But never Luke. Could he? Or was he just that trusting that she wouldn't miss? Before she could begin to contemplate, his lightsaber was spinning thru the ranks of the guards behind the shields. She could feel their terror, and the sudden deaths of several of them. Some of the guards that had been firing on her from the other side paused, awestruck by what was happening to their comrades. Mara wasn't sure how many of Luke's guards had been killed, but the remainder fled back through the panels in the wall. Luke whirled around in her direction, his lightsaber back in his hand. As he raised his arm to repeat his maneuver, her guards must have been smart enough to recognize their coming fate. They broke ranks, hurriedly retreating through the doors from which they'd entered.

It was only then, over the pounding of her own heart, that Mara noticed how hard Luke was breathing. He didn't move, though. It was as if neither wanted to be the first to discuss what had happened.

Luke's memory was restored. Disjointed fragments of his life, released from the depths of Mara's mind where they had been locked since Nirauan, served as the bait to draw out his entire memory. It had been so simple, yet she never would've been able to transfer the memories to him without the heightened Force awareness that the battle had induced.

And now he knew ...

"I hope we don't have to worry about water rushing in to drown us this time," he finally mumbled, staring down the empty corridor.

"Luke, I ..."

He shook his head, then turned and gazed at her with a light shining in his eyes. Mara saw no regrets in their blue depths, no rebuke.

"And here I was agonizing over how to propose to you," he said, a smile slowly forming. He cupped her cheek with one hand. "I love you, Mara Jade," he whispered. "Apparently not even amnesia can ever erase that fact."

He leaned in closer, and Mara could feel his love wash over her in a flood of joy and relief. Their lips had barely met when Artoo let loose an impatient tootle.

"Spoilsport," Mara snickered, trying not to laugh at the glare the poor droid received from his master. She hugged Luke tightly, then reluctantly stepped back. "I guess we should get going, before Buaran can spring any more traps."

They both turned to leave, but Artoo's shriek reminded them of their oversight.

"All right, all right, Artoo," Luke said, finally chuckling at his metal friend. "How about we let Mara do the honors? She's the member of this partnership with the most precision."

Mara laughed, then carefully sliced off the offensive restraining bolt with her lightsaber. Artoo tweedled in gratitude, then took off in a rolling flurry down the tunnel.

"Guess that means he thinks we should continue on the same route, instead of going through one of these panels after the guards," Mara said.

"I don't think he'd fit through any of these openings," Luke returned. "Besides, Buaran's the target, not his lackeys. I have a feeling he's attempting to make his way off-planet."

"Then we'd better make tracks." Mara reached out and clasped his hand. "You realize I won't ever want to let you out of my sight again, and that includes never taking separate airtaxis."

"Never," Luke agreed, taking off in a jog, and Mara couldn't help but return the grin that lit up his face. At that moment in time, following him down the dusty corridor, she didn't think anyone in the galaxy could possibly be happier than she was.