A Shadow at Dusk

Chapter 2

Three men were standing at the computer terminal when Shada entered hangar bay 27. They watched her tall, willowy figure makes its way across the spacious floor of the hangar. "Who's that?" the youngest technician exclaimed, his eyes growing wider. "Wow, what a knockout babe!" He was fairly new, barely out of his teens, and receiving some on-the-job training from the senior tech who stood beside him.

The senior tech chuckled, "Down, junior, that there's more woman than you could ever handle!" The older man looked at the security guard standing with them and grinned.

The other man returned his amusement. "Yeah, boy, you had better steer clear of women like that or you'll have more trouble than you could ever dream of." The security guard laughed at his own joke and then bent over the computer terminal, intent on keying in some codes.

"You know who she is?" the boy asked again, not taking his eyes off the slender Shada.

The older tech shrugged. "Not really, but she's probably some friend of Mara Jade Skywalker's."

The boy swallowed abruptly, "Mara Jade Skywalker...THE Mara Jade Skywalker...Luke Skywalker's wife?"

"Yep, that's her ship, the Jade Sabre."

"Wow," the boy breathed, his relative newness to Coruscant showing through. "That ship belongs to the Skywalkers? Do you think they're on it now?"

"Jade is, though I didn't see Skywalker with her when she came in. Must be just her and the other woman going on some kind of trip."

The techs attention was diverted back to the security guard as he gave a satisfied grunt. "Found her!" The other two men joined him at the computer terminal. "I thought that was her," the security guard said as he pointed at the screen. On it was a large photo of Shada and several paragraphs of information.

"Who is she?" the boy asked again.

"Shada D'ukal, ex-Mistryl Shadow Guard. Works for Talon Karrde now, his second-in-command," the security guard told them and then laughed suggestively. "Rumor has it she does more than just work for him, though."

"Talon Karrde?" the kid gasped, his eyes grew even bigger. "The smuggler chieftain? Isn't he some sort of Intelligence liaison now?"

The guard nodded, "That's the one," he told the boy, bluntly. The kid seemed to be replaying the previous comment when he frowned and asked, "What do you mean she does more than just work for him."

The two older men looked at one another and the senior tech rolled his eyes, then explained patiently. "She sleeps with him, junior. You're looking at Talon Karrde's woman, and I suggest you stay far away from her if you're fond of remaining healthy."

The three men turned to watch Shada again as she reached the bottom of the ramp. She dropped the two bags she was carrying on the floor and they heard her call out something. They were too far away to make out what she said, but weren't at all surprised when another lithe, feminine figure appeared at the top of the ramp.

"That's Mara Jade!" burst excitedly out of the young tech. "Man, she's even more gorgeous in person than she is on the holovids!"

The older men laughed, but the security guard was watching the women closely. He pursed his lips speculatively. "I wonder what those two are planning? I'll bet it's real interesting, whatever it is." He glanced down at the young tech beside him, writhing excitedly, and smirked. "Well, junior, you've got an ex-Emperor's Hand and an ex-Shadow Guard over there. Wanna go ask for a date?" he asked teasingly. He burst out laughing when the blood slowly drained from the young technician's face.

"Not me," the boy exclaimed, shaking his head vigorously. "I like living too much!"

He sighed as he looked back at the two women, each grabbing one of the black bags and disappearing up the ramp into the Jade Sabre. "You've got to admit though, Skywalker and Karrde are two lucky guys!"

**********************

Inside the Jade Sabre, Mara dropped the heavy bag she was carrying on the floor of the cabin she had selected for Shada's use. "Sithspit! What do you have in there?"

Shada raised an eyebrow as she threw the other bag on the bunk next to the wall. "My equipment," she explained calmly, watching with a little amusement as Mara rubbed the bicep on the arm with which she had been holding the bag.

"Equipment?" Mara echoed, glancing down at the bag with interest. "May I?"

She waved her hand at the bag and Shada nodded. Mara squatted next to the bag, unzipped its heavy-duty fastener and started going through the contents. There were three BlasTech pistols and two sniper rifles along with one small hold-out blaster; five vibro-blades of assorted sizes; one vibro-sword; a dozen thermal detonators; several glow rods; an assortment of power cells and a dozen packages of zenji needles. There was also some survival equipment: a small tent, two medical kits, several water bottles, and a big box of ration bars.

Mara looked up at Shada in astonishment.

Shada shrugged. "I like to come prepared."

Mara gave a short laugh. "It's not that, I like being prepared myself. I'm just amazed you got it all in one bag!"

She motioned for Shada to follow her and the two women left the cabin and ventured down a long hallway until they came to the cargo hold of the Jade Sabre.

Shada stopped in amazement at what she was taking in: one of the biggest four-man landspeeders she had ever seen sat nestled against the wall. It had been modified to a degree that Shada had never seen before. Durasteel armor plating had reinforced the chassis and the windows were extra thick transparisteel. An enhanced power supply with heavy-duty repulsor coils completed a landspeeder that could take on any terrain and just about any enemy. But it was the weapons that caught Shada's attention. Near the front sat a turreted repeating blaster. Shada recognized the manufacture as BlasTech and knew the weapon was used for infantry support. On the back of the speeder was a flechette grenade launcher. Shada whistled softly. Anybody who messed too much with the occupants of that landspeeder was definitely going to regret it.

Shada let her eyes wander across the walls of the hangar and appreciatively took in the racks filled with BlasTech E-11 blaster rifles and DH-17 blaster pistols. There was even two more E-Web repeating blasters nestled against two Stokhli Spray sticks. In cases propped against the cargo walls were thermal detonators and dozens of grenades.

"Well, looks like we're loaded for Bantha," Shada said, sounding pleased.

Mara nodded and the two women looked at each other with perfect understanding.

"Are we ready?" Mara asked.

"Let's haul jets," Shada agreed.

***********************************

It didn't take them long to maneuver into Coruscant's atmosphere. Mara keyed in the navigational codes that had been included in the small message that Karrde had given Luke several weeks before, then looked over at Shada who was strapped in the co-pilot's chair.

"Ready?" she asked and Shada nodded.

Mara pulled back on the hyperdrive lever, felt the Sabre respond, and then watched as the stars turned into brilliant streaks of light as they shot into hyperspace.

Both women sat for a moment, lost in their own individual thoughts.

*Luke?* Mara sent out silently through the Force, not really expecting a reply and therefore not surprised when she didn't get one. On his last call, Luke said that he and Karrde were getting so far out towards the Outer Rim that they may not be able to communicate through their Jedi link anymore. Mara hoped, fervently, that that was all it was. She could not sense him at all, which could mean several things. Either he was too far away, he was unconscious...or he was dead.

She brushed the thought away forcefully, fighting the tears that wanted to rise in her eyes. She glanced over at the ex-Mistryl guard beside her, hoping she hadn't noticed anything. She should have known better.

Shada was watching her closely, her light gray eyes wandering over Mara's face, but she only asked calmly, "How long will it take to get there?" Mara wiped at a trail of wetness on her cheek.

"I'm not sure...maybe six or seven days." Shada lifted an eyebrow. "That long?"

Mara nodded.

Shada unbuckled the safety harness on the co-pilot's chair and stood. "I suppose we had better talk this out. Obviously, you had some sort of coordinates for where we are headed. What exactly do you know?"

Mara switched the controls to autopilot and said, "Let's go back in the lounge. I'll show you what I have."

The two women walked down the corridor, Shada several centimeters taller than the more petite Mara, but both women were exuding a strong sense of strength and will.

Once they reached the lounge, which was marvelously decorated in warm gold and brown tones, Mara activated a holo-map of the galaxy on a large view screen.

Shada looked around the room. "Quite a ship you have here, Mara."

Mara followed her gaze and sighed. "Yes, she's beautiful, isn't she? Luke built her for me." She shrugged. "I suppose he felt sorry for me after I lost the Jade's Fire."

Shada smiled slightly. "I think it was probably more to it than just that."

Mara looked at her questioningly and Shada laughed. "Everybody knows Luke Skywalker is crazy about his wife."

Mara didn't say anything for a moment, then quietly mumbled, "She's pretty crazy about him, too."

She loaded a system holo-map on the big view screen. "This is the Ten Tempests System at the edge of the Outer Rim. The last time we talked, Luke said he believed that it was the system the message was referring to."

Shada walked closer to the screen, peering at the string of planets and moons around a small, but brilliant star. "If I remember right, this is a primitive system. Isn't the planet Vortex the only one that the New Republic has had much contact with?"

Mara nodded. "Yes, there's an avian race there called the Vors."

Shada agreed. "I remember now. Admiral Ackbar crashed his B-Wing there a few years ago, didn't he? Right into the Cathedral of Winds?" Shada was referring to the beautiful cathedral type building that had been built by the Vors. Made almost entirely of crystal, the building had thousands of holes that caught the planet's gale-force winds during the seasons. The resulting musical experience was different each time. The native Vors called it the Concert of Winds. After Ackbar's accident, the New Republic had helped the Vors rebuild the crystal cathedral.

"That's it," Mara said.

"There's nine other planets in that system, Mara. Karrde and Skywalker could be on any one of them, including any of those moons which could be inhabitable."

"Then we'll just have check out all of them, won't we?" Mara said sharply.

Shada turned to look at Mara's determined face and lifted an eyebrow. "Of course," she offered slowly. "Whatever it takes to find them."

Mara had the grace to look a little ashamed. She took in a deep breath. "I'm sorry, Shada. Diplomacy has never been my strong suit."

Shada waved her off. "No need to apologize. I understand completely. I just meant that it could take some time to cover all that territory."

Mara shook her head. "I'm hoping that as soon as we can get near enough to the system that I can contact Luke. If he isn't...incapacitated in some way, I should be able to reach him through our Jedi link."

"That would certainly save some time," Shada agreed. She sat down in a chair near a round table and motioned Mara to join her. "Let's talk about that message, then. What exactly did it say?"

"Didn't Karrde discuss it with you?" Mara asked, taking the chair opposite Shada.

"He did," Shada agreed. "But perhaps Skywalker had a different take on it. Let's combine what we know and go from there."

Mara nodded. Shada's idea was sound, but she hadn't expected anything less from the ex-Shadow Guard. The Mistryl Shadow Guards were an elite order of warrior women trained as mercenaries. They had left off their home planet in order to earn money to feed and clothe the devastated people of their world. Their planet, Emberlene, had been virtually destroyed by Emperor Palpatine in the early days of the Galactic Civil War, and the Shadow Guards had to use all their cunning, guile, and combat skills just to see to the survival of the Emberlene people. Shada had run afoul of the Shadow Guards when she had aborted one of her sisters assigned assassinations. She had been marked for death herself after that, but Talon Karrde, through a bit of bribery and enticement, was able to have the death warrant lifted from Shada. Shada had been with his smugglers organization ever since.

"There wasn't much to the message," Mara said. "It's clearly a distress code of some kind, and it's in a very primitive Basic. Luke said it was a language that hasn't been spoken for about two hundred standard years. From that, he concluded that it had to be from a planet that had very little contact with the New Republic or the remnants of the old Empire, for that matter."

Mara unfolded a thin durasheet and laid it on the table between them.

Shada leaned closer.

"I transcribed the message on this, just for easier reading. Have you ever seen Basic written out quite like that?" she asked Shada.

Shada shook her head. "No, I haven't. I've seen its style before though, in some old history disks from the libraries dealing with the Old Republic. Have you figured out what it says?"

"Not all of it. Luke took it to a couple of professors at the University of Coruscant, and they gave him a loose translation. The people of the planet are dying at an alarming rate from an unidentifiable disease. They're requesting aid from anyone really...they just sent out that message with hopes that something would pick it up."

"Something did," Shada replied. "The Starry Ice."

"What were Faughn and the others doing out that far anyway?" Mara asked inquisitively. "Have you and Karrde started trading with the Vors?"

Shada laughed. "No, actually they were on their way to Ord Mantell. They picked up the message as they passed the Ten Tempest System." Shada took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Her tone quickly turned serious. "I don't like it, Mara. A disease? Wiping out the population? I told Karrde I thought he shouldn't go."

Mara sighed. "I told Luke the same thing. Look where that got us."

They looked at each other ruefully, a woman's age-old response to the thinking patterns of men written across their faces.

"Luke loaded up Artoo with every bit of medical information he could hold. He told me that since the message was written in such ancient Basic, the people on the planet were probably far behind the rest of the galaxy in medical technology."

"So he's assuming that the disease that's ravaging the populace is something we've already conquered?" Shada asked.

Mara nodded.

"I hope he's right then," Shada mused softly, trying to ignore the bad feeling that was wrapping solidly around her.