#byss au

Star Wars: Looking For Home: My Home Is You

BookWorm's Library | Ao3

The Corellian Engineering Corporation YT-1760 light freighter moved steadily toward the jet-black Super Star Destroyer. Unlike the Executor's arrowhead silhouette, the Eclipse had a wedge-shaped bow perfect for ramming into anything opposing its might. It was also twice the size of Lord Vader's destroyed flagship. The YT-1760—named Jade's Escape according to its transponder code—looked like a grain of sand compared to the Eclipse and didn't fight the locked-on tractor beam.

A battalion of stormtroopers took their positions inside the hangar bay. Two companies lined the walls and the catwalks above, one company took scattered position behind the cover of docked shuttles and other equipment, and the last stood at attention before the platform on which the Jade's Escape would land. The pilot and passengers could not miss the Imperial strength levied against them.

Summary: Mara Jade has gone from wanting to kill Luke Skywalker to accepting his help for her minor problems and reciprocating by saving his life, but where will her loyalties fall when the Emperor Reborn calls her back to his service?

Frangipani (@teagrl) had a Tumblr post that inspired this story. I couldn’t stop thinking about the idea, even though I never read Dark Empire in full and never wanted to because I think that’s where the EU Legends mis-characterization of Luke Skywalker started. That was my main reason for rejecting me writing this plot bunny: I hadn’t read that part of the source material and still don’t want to read it.

Eventually, I will learn not to say publicly that “oh I won’t write that story idea.” Every time I do, I end up writing the story. I made a comment on someone’s else fanfic about hated story lines of the EU referencing this idea and how I didn’t think I could do it justice because I didn’t want any more knowledge of the Byss episode than I had already gleaned from the rest of EU Legends. Besides, I was busy on my Rescue the Farmboy AU. Then came a writing challenge of meeting daily word count goals from a writing encouragement newsletter. The Rescue the Farmboy AU took too much time researching movie scenes at the time, so I decided to outline this Byss AU instead and work on it for two weeks. Then I’ll have something to build off of later.

I’ve been prepping for a second job for most of September, which I did get. WOOT! I’m not anticipating losing my writing time, but I may have to be more radio silent than I usually am.

State of current projects

The rest of the Mission on Mimban posts are going up tonight. Enjoy the rest of that insanity. I really don’t know when I’ll get started on narrative for that project because of item number two.

Rescue the Farmboy AU: Liberation’s edits: I was never happy with the pacing and the plot structure math wasn’t computing right and I turned to a new-to-me editing method to figure out if the story was fundamentally broken or not. One of the steps was to outline the scenes in a timeline so you can see what all the characters are doing at a certain times. I decided to calculate hyperspace travel times for it too, since I do have characters converging from different planets and at different speeds. I could always throw it out, but it turns out I’m not going to. To accommodate the Death Star’s slow ass, I’ve been coming up with new scenes for the first act and I have to write them. That’s ahead of Mission on Mimban.

Star Wars: Unexpected Consequences: I have started the narrative for this novel. But I have only made it to the second scene, so no completion time stamp.

Star Wars: My Home Is You AO3 | FF.net

Four months of cleaning up the mess Darth Sidious made of the New Republic and the Deep Core, Mara and Luke have earned time to rest with their daughter. So of course, they get a surprise before they have finished unpacking.

The comm unit signaled for attention. Luke sighed as he turned from the window to the machine on the wall behind the indoor dining table. He felt Mara’s pique through the bond before he heard it in her voice along with the unspoken accusation that it was his fault. “If that’s Coruscant tracking you down, I’m answering it and defining personal leave and vacation to the idiot on the other end.”

Artoo swiveled his dome, watching Luke’s progress to the comm unit next to his dome, but didn’t detach from the dataport.

Korora let go of Mommy and reached for the mask. Her arm wasn’t long enough to make it. Daddy passed it to her and slipped his arm behind Mommy’s back. Korora grabbed it and held it up.

Mommy’s green eyes widened. “That is… sparkly and big.”

“The rest of it is just as sparkly.” Daddy’s face scrunched up like he was trying not to laugh. He kissed Mommy’s bare shoulder next to him.

“You said you wanted a pretty one. This was the prettiest.” Korora turned the mask carefully in her hands and put it on Mommy’s face. She grinned at how pretty it was as she held it in place.

“Korora, this is Aunt Leia’s first time meeting the Naberries. She should be the sparkly one.” Mommy reached for the mask swirl on her cheek and hit the dangling star bursts made of jewelry instead.

“But you said.” Korora’s lower lip poked out.

“I was talking about your daddy.”

Daddy rest his face on Mommy’s shoulder and snickered.

Since I forgot to post to Tumblr last week, you get two today.

Star Wars: My Home Is You AO3 | FF.net

In Chapter Twenty-One Luke and Mara end up in the 'fresher again, but it starts off a lot less fun this time.

Mara swished the mouthwash around her teeth a final time before spitting it out into the sani and flushing. This was the worse method of killing someone she had ever experienced, taking far too long and too haphazard if it would actually work. But it did twist something that should be miraculous and wonderful into what she couldn’t bear to contemplate. She wasn’t surprised; Vader’s suit barely kept him alive after all, and imposed so much pain on him it always afflicted her.

She leaned against the basin cabinet and shifted her legs on the cold ‘fresher floor. Her datapad slipped from her fingers and slid out of reach. It didn’t matter. She nearly had the information on the Citadel’s systems memorized. But there was no way to implement the sabotage. Kam’s clearance did not include ship access. She hadn’t realized how much hope she had pinned on that escape route for Korora until it was obviously not available.

The door slid open behind her. “Korora’s finally asleep,” Luke said. “I brought you some warm milk. It was about the only drink that settled Leia’s stomach.”

She accepted the glass and sipped the contents. “I have been drunk enough for alcohol poisoning and didn’t throw up this much.”

Leia's past few weeks since we didn't get her point of view in the story. Her idiot brother gets hurt poking around one of Vader's fortresses. Then Mara sends a message that no, Luke's been kidnapped by Mara's enemy but not to worry because Mara's going to deal with it. Before Leia can check in with Mara, the Emperor Reborn's coalition attacks Coruscant and she's a little busy seeing that her family, personnel, Noghri, and New Republic officials evacuate. When she has time to catch up with her messages, there's something from Luke that he's fine and he and Mara are on their way back to Coruscant. No answer when she tries to warn them away from Coruscant. While setting up a safe place for Jacen and Jaina, they run into Talon Karrde who shares the intel he has. So then it's strap in to plan a rescue/military attack in the Deep Core. And to keep reaching out to her twin through the Force, no matter how far away he is.

So let's not judge her tone when she finds out he hasn't been poked with an interrogation droid yet in Chapter Twenty-Two.

He tilted his head to kiss her, and Leia’s voice said clearly. “Kest, at least I got to you before you got Mara Jade naked on your lap.”

Mara vanished from his lap far more silently than he knew she would ever do. The veranda on Coruscant was visible again, but the details were hazy. Leia stood on the airspeeder dock beyond the fountain, bright and shining against the indistinct Coruscant night sky. They just got away; why was Leia here? “Leia?”

“Wake up, Luke! It is harder than it normally is to speak to your mind.” Her snap had the old chain of command bidding to it, and Luke found himself blinking bleary-eyed at Mara’s braided red hair. Still on Byss, still in danger, still helpless while the galaxy was under attack. He eased away from Mara’s sleeping form and pushed back his despair. His head throbbed, but ignoring that he felt Leia’s presence brighter than everything else he could sense.

He rolled out of bed, grabbed the datapad with the Citadel’s schematics on it, and settled in the armchair against the outside wall. He drew on the Force and reached out to his twin. Leia?

Star Wars: My Home Is You AO3 | FF.net

Down time, finally, and Mara gets to catch up with her boss.

“Brooding? Luke?” Mara demanded.

“He called it meditation, but it looked like brooding to the rest of us.” Karrde tilted his head. His concern for the situation was as plain as his facial hair. She wondered if Artoo had played her recording to Luke. “Don’t avoid the poor man,” he added.

“I wasn’t planning to avoid him.”

“Good. I’d hate to see all the goodwill you’ve accumulated be wasted.”

Star Wars: My Home Is You AO3 | FF.net

So nothing like being surrounded by fiery death to put things into perspective.

Mara groaned as she woke. That was sloppy but the explosions moving further away from her area covered her noise. The left side of her head throbbed, no, her whole left side hurt. No broken bones though, but her whole body felt hot. Her arm joints were stiff from colliding with a wall but she could move. And the Force gift she called danger sense was yelling at her to flee and was now louder than it ever had been before. She cracked open her eyes as she pushed up.

Flames crackled around her, blocking escape through the corridor in both directions. The turbolift had a piece of shrapnel as large as she was wedged through the doors. The bottom half of the lift had fallen away, leaving an empty shaft to her right. The clone tank room was a mass of fire beyond her legs. Her Force senses confirmed no life existed in that blaze. Death surrounded her, her danger sense confirmed that, but death now awaited Sidious. That was the outcome she wanted. The galaxy would be safe once Luke finished with him. Artoo sprayed a fire suppressant foam on the flames creeping closer to her and moaned.

She coughed, but it wasn’t hard to breath yet. Air at least was coming up the turbolift shaft. “You’re in one functional piece?”

Star Wars: My Home Is You AO3 | FF.net

Peeps, I'm sorry about not posting this on Friday but making my protest sign took longer than I expected, Saturday was the March For Our Lives, and Sunday I played computer games and did laundry and cooked. I have another goody on the way this week too.

How much do I love sassy Luke Skywalker? I can't count the ways.

“Yes,” Luke said as he blinked at the familiar floor. He turned his head and saw the curved bars between him and the two adepts. Great, just what he wanted to see. He sighed and sat back on his heels, facing the two men on the other side of the cage. “Are we there yet?”

“We’ve reached Byss,” the white-haired man answered. Luke considered him; Solusar was the name given to Mara in the hangar bay.

Sedriss glared at them both. “This isn’t a social call, Solusar. Let him save his questions for our master.” He worked a control in his hand and the cage lifted higher off the floor and floated through the door of the cell. The two adepts flanked the spherical cage as they headed down the corridor to the security station between the cells and the turbolift.

“I can walk,” Luke said. Actually it would feel good to work his muscles against gravity again.