Vision of the future

'It took some years,' Mara said. 'Off and on work, of course.' She lifted her eyebrows. 'For whatever it's worth, the romance part of the cover story drove me crazy. But finding Car'das was important to Karrde, so I stuck with it. Like you said, loyalty.'

She hissed gently between her teeth with the memories. 'Though it did prove exceptionally embarrassing at times. There was one particular week on M'haeli where Lando was trying to sugar-talk the Vicebaron Sukarian out of some information we needed. I had to become a giddy, vacant-brained bit of decorative fluff, because Sukarian automatically put that class of woman beneath his contempt and the role gave me the freedom of movement I needed. The worst part was that Solo caught me in the act with a comm relay when I thought it was Sukarian calling. I've never quite had the nerve to ask him what he thought of that.'

'I don't think it would have ruined his opinion of you,' Luke said, his voice an odd mixture of support, gallantry, and lingering embarrassment. 'Though I imagine Sukarian's opinion is probably beyond repair at this point.'

'Oh, I don't think so,' Mara assured him. 'I usually wore one of Lando's shirts during Sukarian's late-night visits and comm calls, and I made sure to leave one of them hanging on the open door of his private office safe. After I'd gutted it.'

Luke smiled. A tentative, still somewhat shamefaced smile, but a genuine smile nevertheless. At this point, that was enough. 'His reaction must have been interesting.' Mara nodded. 'I like to think so.'

'Yes.' Luke took a deep breath, and she could sense him forcing old memories and extraneous thoughts to the back of his mind. 'But as you said, we've got a job to do,' he said briskly, 'and it's going to be a long climb. Let's pack up the gear and get going.'

* * *

It was, as Luke had estimated from the numbers the Qom Jha had gathered for him, indeed a long climb. Nearly as long as it had been from the bottom of the hidden stairway to that first door, in fact. And with Mara's muscles still recovering from five days of idleness, and Luke himself therefore handling Artoo and all the rest of their equipment, it should have been something of a strain. But to his mild astonishment, it wasn't. And it didn't take any deep Jedi insight to understand why. The barrier he had set up between him and Mara was gone.

The odd part was that he hadn't even realized there had been a barrier there. The communication they had together—their ability to sense each other's thoughts and emotions—had been so close that he'd simply assumed that was as strong as it got.

He'd been wrong. He'd been very wrong.

It was an exhilarating experience; and yet, at the same time, a somewhat intimidating one as well. He'd experienced close-mind contact with other people on occasion, but never to the same level as he was experiencing now. Mara's thoughts and emotions seemed to flow over him, their level and intensity now seemingly limited only by her personal barriers, as his own thoughts and emotions flowed the other direction back to her. There was a new rapport between them, a deepening of their old relationship that he only now realized how sorely he'd missed.

Confession, apology, and forgiveness, Aunt Beru had been fond of reminding him, were the tools friends used to break walls down into bridges. Seldom if ever in his life had he had that truth so graphically demonstrated.

With concern for Mara's physical condition and stamina foremost in his mind, he made sure the party took frequent rest breaks as they climbed, a policy that drove Mara just slightly less crazy than it did the Qom Jha. But he insisted, and as a result it took them nearly an hour to reach their target door. But when they did, at least, Mara was fully ready to go.

'All right, here's the plan,' Luke told her, stretching out with the Force. As near as he could tell, the entire area outside the hidden door was clear. 'We'll leave Artoo and the Qom Jha in here and do a little reconnoiter on our own.'

'Sounds good.' Mara pulled out her blaster and checked it, and Luke could sense her working to control her private misgivings about going back in there. Understandable, of course; she was the one who'd gotten shot. Luke had had something of the same trouble the first time he'd gone back to visit Cloud City. 'How about leaving one of our comlinks here with them?'

'Good idea,' Luke agreed, pulling his comlink from his belt and putting it in Artoo's light-duty grasping arm. 'Don't forget and turn it off,' he admonished the droid. Artoo warbled indignantly, the translation scrolling across the datapad. 'Yes, I know,' Luke assured him. 'I was just kidding.'

'What?' Mara asked.

'He said turning off comlinks at critical moments was Threepio's trick,' Luke told her. 'Private joke. You ready?'

He could sense her reaching out to the Force for calm. 'Ready,' she said. 'Let's do it.' The secret door, gratifyingly enough, opened as quietly as the other one had. With Luke in the lead, they stepped out, closing the door behind them.

'Now this,' Mara said quietly in his ear, 'is like the Hijarna fortress.' Luke nodded acknowledgment, looking around. They were in a vast chamber, with short wall segments scattered around apparently at random linking the floor with the relatively low ceiling. The shiny wall coverings, elaborate flooring, and wall sconces they'd seen below were absent, leaving nothing but unadorned and unrelieved black stone.