Shattered Remembrance

Chapter Twenty-eight

Delia Buaran nervously glanced over one shoulder before a muttered curse from her husband redirected her attention back to him. They'd reached the small Stybridge spaceport shortly after she regained consciousness from the stun blast, only to have his private yacht groan to a dead halt before the repulsors could lift it from the ground. Ra'uf had been furious when he discovered the sabotage inflicted upon the power conduits, and his attempt at commandeering another ship had failed. He had immediately called for a mechanic, and had ordered his personal guards to surround the perimeter of the ship.

"Harvis!" Buaran barked into his comlink, his face flushing red with his growing impatience. "Where's that mechanic? Get him in here immediately!"

Delia recognized the name 'Harvis' as belonging to the head of her husband's security team. Or perhaps, former head, if the strange woman that showed up at the mansion could be believed. Ra'uf hadn't mentioned hiring someone new, but he rarely discussed business dealings with her. The woman had been an enigma, certainly. She was strikingly beautiful, and Delia knew that her husband enjoyed surrounding himself with attractive female employees in order to flatter his own ego. But Captain Solo's comment about their having two droids led Delia to study the woman closer, and she could've sworn she'd seen mechanical workings under the torn skin of Guri's hand.

With his intense dislike of any kind of robotic beings, could Ra'uf have actually hired a droid? Or not have known that this Guri was in fact not human? The irony of the thought nearly made Delia chuckle aloud, despite her dire situation.

"Send another phalanx of men into the Lowount tunnel," Ra'uf was continuing. He sent a reassuring glance toward the furry creature on the rack sitting in the corner. "The Jedi are the biggest threat."

"You are mistaken, Lord Buaran," a cool voice echoed in the cockpit. "I am your biggest threat."

Delia pressed back against the bulkhead as the object of her musings materialized from out of nowhere. Ignoring her, Guri moved impossibly fast, pinning Ra'uf against the pilot's seat.

"You can't hurt me," Ra'uf gritted out, struggling against Guri's strong grasp. "Droids have safeguards against harming sentients."

"I am no ordinary droid," Guri said evenly. "My original programming as an assassin may have been deleted, but I am still capable of eliminating a perceived threat." Her hand slithered up around Ra'uf's throat, and Delia feared she was going to snap his neck.

"No!" Without thinking, Delia lunged forward. No matter what he'd done, she couldn't bear to see him killed right in front of her.

Guri effortlessly pushed Delia back. That momentary distraction was all that Ra'uf needed. He managed to free one arm, his sleeve falling back to reveal a hold-out blaster. The single blast he got off hit Guri in the lower face. Her head snapped back, and Ra'uf was able to shoulder his way out of his seat and through the hatchway.

Despite her injury, Guri was already moving to follow. Delia reached out and grabbed her arm.

"Wait," Delia pleaded. "Princess Leia promised me that Ra'uf wouldn't be harmed."

"Your husband attempted to murder Master Skywalker and Mara Jade," Guri said, her husky voice coming from a vocorder deep within her head. With half her chin and the surrounding synthflesh blown away, Guri's once striking face was now grotesquely disfigured. "He used me as a tool to lure them into a trap."

"For which he should be held accountable, I know." Delia locked gazes with the gray-eyed mechanical being. "Please, don't kill him."

Guri flicked a glance toward the hatchway, then looked back at Delia. "Someone once showed mercy to me, despite the heinous actions of which I was guilty. I shall attempt to comply with your wishes." With that, the droid disappeared out of the ship, and Delia hurried to follow.

Dusk was falling, and flashes of blaster fire around the yacht dotted the hazy evening. Peering out from the top of the ramp, Delia could just make out Princess Leia and Captain Solo exchanging shots with Ra'uf's guards.

Her husband and Guri were nowhere to be seen.

~~~

Leia carefully aimed down the sight on her blaster, then squeezed the trigger. She was trying to disable their adversaries, not kill them. She'd seen Luke ricochet blasterbolts directly at a shooter's hand, knocking the weapon away without harm. She hoped, in time, he'd become that skillful again.

Unless she took the time to finish her training, she didn't think she'd ever be.

"Hey, look!"

Hunkered down behind an adjacent shipping crate, Han was waving his blaster toward Buaran's fancy yacht. His free arm was pressed tightly against his side, though he continued to deny any pain from the broken ribs. "Someone just ran out the hatch."

"You think it's him?" Leia squinted, trying to get a look through the gloomy twilight.

"Matches the description Guri gave us." Han paused to let loose a round of fire. "And there goes Guri after him. So yeah, I'd say that's him."

When they'd reached the Stybridge spaceport, they'd found Ra'uf Buaran's ship surrounded by more than two dozen armed guards. Though the pinpoint accuracy in their shooting showed that they were well-trained, from the lack of coordination in their actions Leia had to guess they'd never before had to protect Buaran from any threat worse than an irate fired employee.

A human employee, that is, not a human replica droid. Guri's slim form had barely been a blur as she had zipped straight for the yacht as soon as they'd arrived.

"Can you see where they went?" Leia asked, ducking down just in time to avoid having her ear blown off.

"No," Han grunted, blasting away at the guard who had nearly hit Leia. "Guess we'll have to hope Guri will get him."

"I don't think we have a choice," Leia returned. "For the moment, we're pinned down here." She spared a glance at Han. "And you're in no shape to go chasing after them anyway."

"I've been told I'm in the best shape of my life," Han said, pushing back an approaching guard with a quick popping from his trusty blaster.

"Who told you that?" Leia said with a snort. "That talking mirror at the kids' favorite funhouse?"

"Ha, ha," Han said dryly. "If you want to make a dash for it, I'm ready."

"I'd feel a lot better if we weren't facing more than ten to one odds." Leia bit her lip, gauging the pros and cons of each possible strategy.

"Sweetheart,-"

"I know. Never tell you the odds." Leia suddenly smiled, and Han gave her a curious look. "Actually, I'm feeling better already." She raised one eyebrow, then nodded toward the edge of the tarmac. "The rescue squad has arrived."

Han followed Leia's gaze as two spinning shafts of light broke through the haze – one green, one blue.

Like avenging deities, Luke and Mara mowed through the cadre of guards with unmatched precision. Han and Leia were no slouches with blasters by any means. But they couldn't help but admire Mara as she systematically picked off guards with precise disabling deflections. She was good. Very good.

Luke was better. His lightsaber was a blur, whirling faster than the eye could follow, returning bolts back at the shooters' weapons to his right, to his left, behind his head ...

"You know," Han drawled, blasting at a guard as if to prove he wasn't useless here, "if Mara is that good of a teacher, maybe she should be running the Academy."

"Maybe Luke is just that good of a student," Leia countered, feeling a ridiculous urge to brag on her brother. Of course he was a quick learner, he always had been. But still ... Leia resisted probing his mind with the Force; she didn't want to distract him.

It was only moments before the guards vanished from sight, all losing either their weapons or their nerve, or both. As Luke and Mara approached, Leia rose and automatically reached out to help Han up.

"I'm fine," Han gritted out, awkwardly getting to his feet.

"You don't look fine, Solo," Mara said bluntly. Her shrewd gaze swept over him, then found its way to Leia's bruised cheek. "What happened here?"

"Not here," Luke interjected, also studying his sister and brother-in-law. "Back in the tunnels. I sensed ... something happening."

"Just ran into a slight obstacle," Leia said vaguely. She glanced to the side as Artoo-Detoo rolled into view. "Guri is chasing down Buaran. I think we'd better follow, if there's to be anything left of him."

As they headed toward the yacht, Leia tried to think of a way to diplomatically ask Luke about his astounding prowess with his lightsaber. Han didn't bother with such formalities.

"Hey, Luke. That was some pretty fancy saber work there."

Luke gave him a blank look. "Uh, thanks."

"In fact, I'd say it was too good," Han persisted.

Luke's expression didn't change. Leia thought she heard a snicker coming from Mara's direction, but when she turned around, the redhead was crossing her arms and looking bored.

"How much of a head start do you think we should give Buaran?" Mara asked dryly. "I can see you want to be sporting about it, but, really ..."

Mara was right, of course. Questions could be answered later. They were just passing the ship when a slim figure darted down the ramp.

"I knew it!" Han crowed, bringing his blaster to bear on the newcomer. "I knew you were in this with your husband."

"No, please," Delia Buaran protested, her dark eyes watching Han's weapon warily. "Ra'uf kidnapped me. He was at the mansion the whole time, hiding. I didn't know, I swear."

"Then how come they didn't sense him?" Han countered, nodding his head Luke and Mara's direction.

"He had some kind of creature," Delia said. "He said it blocked the Force."

Leia followed Luke's gaze, which was already fixed on the ship. "There's a ysalamir aboard," he confirmed.

"Ra'uf escaped," Delia continued. "The woman ... the droid ... it followed him." She nervously looked across the tarmac in all directions. "Will it ... she ... kill him?"

Leia didn't blame Lady Buaran for being confused about Guri's proper designation, or for her concern about her husband's fate. Reprogrammed or not, Guri still had the skills to end a life without blinking a mechanical eye.

~~~

It took only moments to catch up to Guri and Buaran. She was herding him back toward the yacht, his arms pinned behind his back with a durasteel grip.

"You'll pay for this, Jedi!" Buaran growled as soon as he caught sight of Luke. "You and all your Rebel scum!" He scanned the tarmac angrily. "Guards!"

"I don't think you pay them enough, Buaran," Han said, though he was keeping an eye out in case any guards were brave enough to show up.

"You'll be brought to justice," Luke said, calmly clipping his lightsaber to his belt as he stepped forward. His eyes flicked momentarily to Guri, half hidden behind her captive, and Leia couldn't help but notice the slight frown that crossed her brother's face.

Buaran twisted in Guri's hold, and Leia gasped when she caught sight of the droid. All that was left of the lower part of her face were bare servomotors, blackened and fused into the surrounding melted synthflesh. Buaran cackled at Leia's dismay. "It got what was coming to it. A droid passing itself off as a human is an abomination."

"A droid that you were more than willing to take advantage of to carry out your murderous scheme," Mara said, fingering her unlit saber. "You should be glad she didn't rip your arms off."

"Like one of those deranged Wookiees?" Buaran shot back. "You traitorous riffraff like to pass yourselves off as royalty," Buaran sneered Leia's direction, "then you buddy up with filthy aliens."

"Hey! You watch your mouth!" Still holding his ribs, Han shouldered his way forward and swung a fist into Buaran's jaw. "No one gets away with insulting my wife and my best friend."

Buaran staggered to the ground, pulling out of Guri's grasp. He raised one hand as if to wipe the blood trickling from the corner of his mouth, and suddenly a small hold-out blaster appeared in his grip. Buaran began firing randomly into his circle of captors. Both Luke and Mara's lightsabers ignited instantly, deflecting his shots harmlessly away.

"Ra'uf, stop!" Delia Buaran pushed past Leia, and from the surprised look on Buaran's face, it was obvious he hadn't seen his wife at the back of the crowd. Han took the momentary distraction to grab for Buaran's blaster, just as Guri tackled the Bakuran from behind. As the trio grappled on the ground, the muffled sound of a shot could be heard.

Han reared back, his face contorted in pain ... and his shirt covered in blood.