In Shadows and Darkness

Chapter 14

On impulse, given a reckless daring by his sudden closeness and the anonymity of the pitch black within the stilled turbolift, Mara stood on tip-toe, reaching up to touch his face, raising her chin to his, his breath warm against her as she leaned in... and kissed him.

For a second - just a moment - he leaned in toward her and the radiant burst which coursed through her in the darkness was brighter than anything mere light could conjure...

Then he pulled away, hand still to her shoulder though he didn't step back - and his tone when he spoke seemed laced with genuine surprise. "What are you doing?!"

"Couldn't you tell?" Mara teased, still flush with courage by the cloak of absolute dark and by his apparent actions.

There were several long seconds of silence in which Mara could practically hear Skywalker trying to pull words and thoughts together...

"...Now?!..." was all he could finally muster.

She leaned back just slightly, a terrible thought occurring, making her stomach churn; "You didn't turn the lights off and stop the turbolift...?"

Another long silence; "....No."

Mara's lips made an 'ohhh' shape in the dark. In the silence that followed, she realized that they were still stood very close and she was still holding his arm... and he was still holding hers.

"Well then where was your hand?"

"On your arm... where did you think it was?"

"The other one." Mara said flatly, unamused.

There was another short silence in which Mara knew Luke was putting it all together; "I was reaching for your comlink... on your belt."

She shook her head slowly in the darkness - of course! He never carried a comlink; always used someone else's... "Ah."

They remained silent for a few more seconds before something occurred to her; "Why are you still holding my arm then?"

He let go quickly and she heard a rustle of movement as he took a step back.

"Your com's not working." He said, sidestepping the question completely.

Though the very fact that he had it proved he wasn't making all this up, she knew. Small comfort. She felt- sensed- that distant attunement in the back of her mind which she'd come to recognize as his reaching into the Force.

"This is shipwide." There was an edge in his voice now, everything else forgotten, and Mara again glanced pointlessly around in the pitch black.

"Really?" That didn't seem very likely. Why was he so bothered by this? "Are you... claustrophobic?"

There was a long pause, then she heard his voice ask warily, "No... are you?"

Mara rolled her eyes in the darkness, "No- you just seem a little edgy..."

"Well the timing seems a little convenient..."

Mara frowned, well aware of this fact but not willing to actually panic yet, "Give it a minute - the emergency power will..."

The lights in the turbolift flickered on and they both flinched beneath the bright glare, looking down. When she looked up, he was holding out his hand; in it was her comlink. It wasn't particularly in Mara's nature to get embarrassed, but Skywalker seemed to have a special propensity to make her so- though if he knew, he had the good grace never to draw attention to the fact. Mildly discomfited, she quickly took it back and changed the subject, "Weird - why aren't we moving again?"

Luke took a half-step back to look at the panel, " 'System failure- please wait'." He read aloud.

Mara's comlink pipped a tone and he reached out, taking it from her hand, "Yes?"

"...Commander?" The voice sounded both surprised and relieved, "Sir we had a shipwide..."

In the next instant, everything was black again, the comlink falling to instantaneous silence, not even a static hiss escaping it.

"Great." Luke said into the darkness.

"I think that was emergency power that just blew." Mara said, the first inklings of alarm casting tension into her own voice now.

She heard him move again; the slightest sound of hard metal, "My lightsaber's out."

Now that was odd; she fumbled for her blaster and pulled it free, pointing it at the floor; 'click'. "So's my blaster."

She was pulling the power pack with the blind familiarity of a professional soldier when he spoke again.

"Don't jump." He said cryptically, and she was just lifting her head to the sound of his voice when there was an almighty, rending 'WHUMP!' from the ceiling above her, making her crouch down with a yelp, arms above her head.

In the long, dust-choked silence that followed, Mara's pounding heart slowly leveled off.

"I said don't jump." Luke's amused voice came from the darkness.

"Very funny." Mara growled, standing, "You're supposed to also say why. You're supposed to say, 'Don't jump; I'm about to make a lot of noise.'"

"I did, but the noise drowned it out." he deadpanned, still amused. If she'd known exactly where he was in the darkness, Mara would have taken a swing for him, Heir or not. "Don't jump... but I'm leaving."

Mara's hair rustled in a flurry of displaced air, a sound from above indicating that he'd jumped and landed. He must have used the Force to peel part of the turbolift roof back to get a clear jump out, she realized.

"Give me your hand." His voice came from above, echoing slightly in the turbolift shaft, and Mara glanced blindly up, flailing in the darkness, "Where are you?"

"Not even close. Stay still."

His hand locked around her wrist and she'd barely gotten a grip and braced herself before he hauled her up, her feet scrabbling at the edge of the remains of the turbolift roof as she leaned forward blindly and grabbed for him in the darkness. He held onto her for a few seconds as she steadied herself.

"Don't step back." He said calmly, arm still about her.

"If this is all some elaborate hoax to get me to cling on to you..." she grinned, unable to resist.

"Yes:" he said, dryly amused, attention clearly elsewhere, "I really do have so few lines that I need to resort to this."

"Just checking." She said with mock-seriousness.

He turned slightly and reached out his arm over her shoulder and she heard him lightly touch the wall behind her, then the reluctant grating of plassteel against plassteel.

"You can back out now. Take a big step back over the shaft and a half-step up."

"You're sure there's a floor there?"

"As tempting as it is to lie, yes, I'm sure there's a floor there."

Mara stepped gingerly back; for a short distance, her foot hung over nothing, presumably the void at the edge of the lift shaft, then her heel hit a hard ledge and she lifted her foot up to feel the non-slip floor beneath her feet, just slightly up from where she'd expected; they must have been very close to a set of doors when power failed. She released him to turn around and take the long step... into absolute darkness.

"Well this is so much better." She stated sardonically, reaching her hands out before her. "I'm assuming this isn't the bridge."

"That's a good few levels up." He announced from close beside her, making her jump. His voice trailed away as he spoke though, and she turned slightly to keep it centered, her only indication of where he was.

The dry, grating, metallic rasp sounded again and a sliver of dusky light cast a hazy glow through the opening doors, outlining Skywalker where he stood, one hand held before them.

Mara had never been so happy to see starlight.

She walked quickly into the room; it was empty, a 'tech station set up for human interface, but all the screens were blank. She pushed a few buttons and toggled some switches pointlessly. "Dead."

Skywalker turned to the wall beside him as he entered and banged his fist into the fire alarm, breaking the transparent cover and hitting the alarm at the same time. Nothing happened.

"Everything's out." He repeated calmly, then paused as a thought occurred, "Wonder if life support's working."

Mara frowned, "Why do we have gravity?"

"Good question." He walked towards the viewport and looked out. They were at the very base of the Command Tower, the turbolift having just left the main body of the Destroyer, the 'tech room affording an impressive view of its massive bulk - or it would have been, had anything been working. There wasn't a single light or visibly active system to be seen across the long, streamlined hull.

Luke was pressing the side of his face to the viewport now, and Mara frowned as she walked towards him, "Are you... listening?"

"Yes." he said dryly, "I'm listening to the viewport."

"Hey, you have set something of a past precedent for wierdness." Mara retorted, belatedly realizing that he was trying to see to the very edges of the viewscreen's field of vision, "What are you looking for?"

She glanced out, eyes drawn to the dead-in-space bulk of the freighters Luke had used in the attack at Bothawuii, drifting dangerously close.

"Well this didn't happen on its own." Luke said distantly, eyes further afield.

"EMP?" Mara said, having come to the same conclusion herself, though she hadn't said it out loud for the simple fact that all Star Destroyers were of course hardened against the overload effects of an electromagnetic pulse. She gazed out over the dead ship, trying to work this through in her mind, then spotted the slightest flicker of starlight on metal near the heat exhaust ports which vented to either side of the Destroyer's apex gunnery platforms. "The fans are still working."

Luke glanced down, following her line of sight and squinting. "They're mechanical - no link to the automated systems."

So it had to be an EMP; "But we're combat-hardened. Nothing can..."

She stopped as it occurred to her in exactly the same moment as Luke-

"The Invincible." she said, as if it were a kick to the gut. The as yet unlaunched Invincible sported the latest advance in dynamic flux compression EMP technology. Supposedly the only system in existence - obviously not.

Luke didn't reply, a more immediately relevant thought occurring, "Shields..."

"They must be down- they're linked into the mainframe." Mara cursed, joining him in leaning her head against the cool transparisteel to widen their field of view.

The Fury's engines must have powered down within a split second of each-other but not quite simultaneously, since as well as gliding slowly forward, she was gradually tilting on her axis - and it was this which brought the small freighter slowly into view.

"There!" Luke was the first to see it, pressing a finger against the viewport, but then he was looking expectantly at exactly that spot. Mara scowled into the darkness, struggling to make out a shadowy shape against the void about it.

"It's dead too."

"They didn't have shielding either. Where the hell did they get that DEMP from?"

"Two." Mara said; "They must have fired one to take out the Fury's systems, then waited for the emergency back-ups to come online and fired a second to be sure they'd overloaded everything."

"Well it worked." Luke said flatly. He took a half-step away from the viewscreen and rested both palms against it, eyes on the distant ship. "What are you doing, Madine?"

This wasn't like him; it wasn't his style to come in with guns blazing. He was confident yes - he was after all an ex-Imperial officer - but he tended towards small gestures which generated large effects, which was why he was so useful to the Rebellion...

"He's not doing anything anymore." Mara said dryly, eyes still on the dead freighter, "He's just as stuck as we are."

"No, he's doing something; this is for something..." Luke stared at the shadowy ship, dead in space, "He wants Mon... and he thinks we have her..."

"Maybe he's slowing us down - maybe he's called for backup?"

"No..." Luke's fingers tapped lightly against the viewport as he considered, "He doesn't have time. When we scanned a few hours ago there were no Rebel ships within three hours of here- that's why we chose these co-ordinates. They know the Fury would be reported as having failed to check in within an hour of missing a broadcast and that the fleet would start the search from our last known location, which gives him two hours at the most..."

Mara glanced out at the ship again, "Well he's too far away to do any damage from..."

"Chell!" Luke whirled away from the viewscreen striding quickly back into the inky shadows of the corridor, Mara rushing behind him as he explained, "Another ship! He has another ship coming in from hyperspace right now!"

Mara shook her head pointlessly in the darkness, "You just said Intel confirmed there were no other ships in the area-"

"The second freighter." Luke reminded, of the unexpected Rebel freighter that had come in from Col Din during Mon's capture. "Remember Madine was on a second Rebel freighter at Bothawuii?! They must have met up just outside the system then jumped to our location a few minutes apart. That freighter out there's dead in space from the DEMP pulse it released, but the second freighter would only need to be a minute or two behind at lightspeed and..."

"It'll be undamaged." Mara finished, realization hitting her. "At lightspeed they'd be outside the pulse range coming in to Madine's co-ordinates!"

They passed into the darkness, Luke pausing at the first intersection to get his bearings, Mara barreling into him from behind with enough force send him staggering forward a few steps.

"Hey!"

"Sorry." She sounded suitably sheepish and just a little too amused." Can you see anything?"

"The Force can enhance sight enough t.... what the hell are you doing now!?"

Mara was fumbling in the darkness for his waistband as he half-turned towards her, "Oops! Sorry. I was... just..." she finally found his belt and wrapped her hand about it, "Tell me if we hit steps."

He made a sound somewhere between a snort and a sigh and set off again, jerking Mara's arm as she set forward, one hand holding his belt, one hand out before her in the pitch black.

.

.

"Three steps down." came Luke's voice from the darkness.

Mara slowed slightly and waited until Skywalker stepped down the first, his downward pull where she held onto his belt giving her the location of the stair's edge as she gingerly stepped down. When he leveled out she knew she should too and they both set off again at a slow jog.

They were getting a good routine now. Luke had headed back to the midship turbolift shafts which were wrapped about with the emergency stairwells, Mara assuming he'd head up to the bridge from there, so that there'd been a brief spat when he'd headed down, Mara hauling him to a halt by his belt, Luke telling her in no uncertain terms exactly why she shouldn't do that.

They'd crossed the paths of various officers, troopers and non-comm's, most of whom had been calmly making their way towards the emergency assembly sites. Luke had sent four separate officers to the bridge now, using them to relay orders. Priority was to get long-distance communications working to call in help from the waiting Peerless, then check life-support and carbon monoxide levels.

He'd not taken any troopers with him; he and Mara were moving too quickly and troopers would slow them down, the night-vision capability of their helmets now rendered useless. Most had taken them off, their unfiltered voices sounding uncharacteristically human to Mara's ears.

They'd also come across numerous droids in their travels, collapsed in a heap wherever they happened to be when the DEMP had gone off, Luke using the Force to push their heavy bulk to the sides of corridors so that no-one would stumble over them in the absolute darkness of enclosed internal corridors.

Mara was getting strangely used to the impenetrable pitch now. She'd found it easier for some reason to actually close her eyes, learning to feel for the slightest change in Luke's stance, the break in his even stride, the way his torso moved against her fingers where they touched his back, to listen to the rhythm of his breathing in the complete silence... to just... let him take charge and be led, relying on him not to let her get hurt. It was a strange thing to be suddenly so completely dependent on another person - yet to have absolute faith that they wouldn't fail you; like the longest 'trust exercise' in history.

He slowed to a halt and Mara stopped close behind him, panting from having run so far, her free hand against his back, feeling it rise and fall as he too breathed heavily.

"What?"

"They're here." He stated simply, "Another ship- a hundred or so crew... We need a..." He walked to the side, Mara yanked with him as she held onto his belt, feeling the changing tension in his body and the pull of his shirt as he lifted his arm.

Another door grated reluctantly open, the pale wash of starlight incredibly reassuring to Mara, like being able to take a breath after swimming under water. They walked forward to the small viewport there; they'd been among Petty-Officers' living quarters for the last few floors, the corridors here narrow and twisting, hallways that were so familar in normal light suddenly seeming a near-indecipherable maze. Luke had tried to stay close to outside walls to maintain some sense of bearing, always keeping the dead Rebel freighter to his left, so Mara wasn't surprised that the first outside room they entered afforded a view of it - and its new companion.

"There!" she announced pointlessly; it was the only thing with running lights in the vicinity, a flare of light to Mara's dark-adjusted eyes.

They waited, watching the ship for a while, but it seemed to come no nearer nor make any offensive move, despite the Star Destroyer's obviously crippled state.

"What are they waiting for?" Luke murmured, frowning, reaching out with the Force into the ether, training all his perceptions on the brightly-lit freighter...

And there she was, like a distant figure in a sandstorm, scattered and diffuse but bristling with outrage and brimming with determination.

"Leia." He whispered beneath his breath.

"What?" Mara's asked, aware that some change had come over him.

He turned to her, his pale eyes almost black so wide were the pupils, and he smiled that feral smile... and in that moment, looking up into his face in the dim light of the starry night, Mara knew absolutely why Palpatine called Skywalker his Wolf.

"An old acquaintance." He said at last, an edge to his voice now though he spoke deceptively quietly, turning back to the Rebel ship, "I wonder if she'll come and visit?"