Vision of the future

'But that can't all be Imperial territory,' Luke said. 'I mean... it can't.'

'Why not?' Mara countered. 'Oh, I agree there probably aren't more than a few actual colonies out there. But you can bet there are Imperial garrisons scattered all over the place, plus intel centers and listening posts and probably a few full-blown shipyards. And if I know Thrawn, probably a whole network of alliances with the natives, too.'

'But if that's Imperial territory, why hasn't the Empire made any use of it?' Luke argued. 'I've seen the data, Mara—they're down to practically nothing over there.'

'It's obvious, isn't it?' she said quietly. 'They're not using it because they don't know it's there.' For a long minute neither of them spoke. Luke gazed at the holo, listening to the distant hum of the spiral slideway, the terrible implications of those gently glowing lights tumbling over each other in his mind. There had to be the equivalent of two hundred fifty sectors there—nearly thirty times the Empire's current size.

With thirty times the Empire's number of warships, garrisons, and shipyards? Very possibly. If all those resources were suddenly put at Bastion's disposal... 'We need more information,' he said, starting toward the console rings. 'Let's see if there's a computer jack Artoo can plug into.'

'Risky,' Mara warned. 'This is a command center, and command centers always have security flags set up to catch unauthorized access.'

He stopped, grimacing. Unfortunately, she had a point. 'All right, then,' he said, turning again to face her. 'What's your plan?'

'We go directly to the source.' Mara took a deep breath. 'I go downstairs and talk to them.' Luke felt his mouth drop open. 'And you call my plans risky?'

'You have a better suggestion?'

'That's beside the point,' he growled. 'Anyway, if someone's going to go down there, it ought to be me.'

'Not a chance,' Mara said firmly. 'Point one: they shot at you on the way in, but they didn't shoot at me. Point two: you said yourself you had the feeling they wanted to see me. Point three: if the situation degenerates to the point where a rescue is called for, you and your Jedi skills are better against a crowd than mine. And point four—'

With a tight smile, she unhooked her lightsaber and stepped over to him. 'Point four is that they may not know the extent of my Force skills,' she said, handing him the weapon. 'If shove comes to shake, that may give me the edge I'd need.'

Luke fingered her lightsaber, feeling the familiar coolness in his hand. His own first lightsaber, the one Obi-Wan had given him, which he had given her in turn on the palace rooftop on Coruscant. He'd been younger than she was when he'd first taken that lightsaber into danger. Younger, less experienced, and far brasher. But still...

'And the last thing I need right now is for you to start getting all overprotective,' Mara added, just the hint of a warning glare in her eyes. 'I've survived just fine all these years. I can take care of myself.'

Luke locked eyes with her. Odd, he thought, that he'd forgotten just how brilliant a green those eyes were. Though perhaps it was just the lighting. 'No way I can talk you out of it?' he asked, trying one last time.

'Not unless you can come up with a better plan,' she said, pulling out her comlink and sleeve blaster. 'Here— there's no point in my keeping these. They'll just take them away from me anyway. I'll keep my BlasTech; they'd be suspicious if I came in completely unarmed.' Luke took the comlink and sleeve blaster from her, his hand lingering on hers before she withdrew it, oddly unwilling to let it go. 'I wish we hadn't left the other comlink with Artoo,' he said. 'You could have kept this one and I'd have been able to listen in on what was going on.'

'If something goes sour, you might need to whistle up the Qom Jha in a hurry,' she reminded him.

'Anyway, can't you follow me with the Force?'

'I can follow your presence,' Luke said. 'I can get your emotions and probably some images that way. But I can't get much in the way of words.'

'Too bad you're not Palpatine,' Mara commented, busying herself with removing her sleeve holster. 'I could talk to him just fine.'

Luke felt a stab of guilt and shame, her earlier indictment of his dark side dabbling flooding back. She caught the emotion, or else the expression on his face, and smiled tightly. 'Hey, I was kidding,' she assured him, handing him the sleeve holster. 'Look, you just follow what you can. I'll give you a full report on the details when I get back.'

'All right,' Luke said. 'Be careful, okay?'

To his surprise, she reached out and took his hand. 'I'll be fine,' she told him, squeezing his hand briefly before letting go. 'See you.'