the galaxy

(ooc backdating this one day, there's plenty of time there to do the thread before Ben gets pulled home.)

Who: Padme and Mara.
What: Padme gets to meet her grandson and daughter in law.
When: Monday aka yesterday
Where: Naboo
Rating: G probably.

Mara carried Ben close to her in a sling as she approached the place she had been told Padme was staying. Truthfully, she was worried and unhappy. Not with meeting Padme, although she truly wished Luke....her Luke...hadn't vanished before he got the chance to meet his mother. He'd talked about it a lot, wishing he could have met her, and she did feel bad for him. Leia at least had what she called a glimpse, a flash, an image...Luke had nothing.

No, what she was unhappy about was the increasing issues with the First Order. They were moving against more and more Force-sensitives, and it was getting more and more dangerous. She could put up one hell of a fight herself, but she worried constantly for Ben. He had been discovered even before his birth to be a strong Force-sensitive. She wasn't sure how to keep him safe. Leia and Han could be of help, and so could the other Jedi here, but it was still not going to be easy.

For now, she was liking the idea of letting Ben meet the only grandparent he'd probably ever get to, and letting Padme see more of what she'd been so cruelly denied. Ben was mostly quiet for now, though awake, gurgling a little bit. Mara sometimes still felt the shock of it. She never would have seen herself as a mother even just a few years ago. She still hated not having Luke with her, wondering if she was doing right for Ben and if she was doing all right at all of this stuff. But, she was strong and she'd make the most, she'd do what she had to so they'd both survive.

She knocked on the door, waiting for Padme to answer, her senses alert as always to any potential trouble around her.

Who: Issan and Mara
What: The Dark Side comes calling, but way too late 'cause Mara's no longer interested
When: This afternoon
Where: Refugee Village, cantina probably.
Rating: hm...maybe PG. If Mara gets too annoyed decides to let a few swears loose
Status: Narrative/open

( text )

Who: Mara Jade, Luke
What: Mara's arrival on the orbital station, and prompt transfer to the med ward
Where: Orbital station, then by the time Luke answers, the refugee station.
When: This afternoon
Status: In Progress

She made her way out into the station, trying to make sense of how she had come to be here. ‘Here’ being a station orbiting Naboo. She tried to ask a few more questions to the human who’d talked to her and told her what was known at the moment, but he didn’t seem to know very much beyond something about a rift in space and time. She tried her comm, thinking maybe she could contact Luke or someone at the Temple, but couldn't seem to get through to anyone. And the human didn't seem to know anything at all about the Temple or Luke, except for something about him being "missing" for many years, which Mara knew wasn't true.

It could have been the Force that was responsible for bringing her here, or some physical entity. She wasn’t aware of any species with that kind of teleportation technology, but the galaxy was a vast place, and no one knew everything that was out there yet. Part of her wanted to know, but her overriding concern at the moment was her own condition.

She kept her guard up, years of being both the hunter and the hunted at various points conditioning her to be cautious and not to show weakness or fear. It was difficult at the moment, though, because of what was raging inside her body. The thing that was threatening for a second time to claim not only her, but her unborn child as well. There was no way she could hide her condition and how weak she was, even with the Force.

She’d been in remission from the coomb spore illness, helped by the synthetic tears she’d been taking. But, she was heavily pregnant now, and the tears were a danger to the child, a boy. Now that she’d stopped taking them, the disease was surging back. Her Jedi abilities had helped her to fight the disease up to this point, but she couldn’t hold out forever under the strain, and the disease was spreading much faster now. She’d been on the Errant Venture, bedridden, until she’d found herself here.

Med droids came to tend to her, summoned by the ambassador she'd talked to, and although she was torn, she knew that she had little choice but to allow herself to be treated. If she stayed on her feet too long, she'd likely collapse. She hated the unnatural feeling of weakness and helplessness, combined with the uncertainty of not knowing what was going on or why she was here. She let the help her onto a floating stretcher so that they could get her to the med ward, telling them what she could about her condition. She was told that she was being transferred to a ward in the "refugee station", apparently some kind of waiting area for everyone that seemed to be showing up here.

She’d looked around ever since she got here, searching for Luke. She didn’t see Luke anywhere, but she reached out through the Force, keeping her shields up against everyone around her but seeking the one person she needed with her now, the connection that had become so much a part of her own being. She couldn't see him anywhere, but his Force presence was very much there, somewhere that wasn't too distant. She waited, knowing that not many things would keep him from answering the connection and, she hoped and prayed, find her. She felt the unborn son inside of her making his presence known as well, adding to the call to his father, her husband.

< Where are you, farmboy? I don’t know what’s going on, or what I'm doing here, but I don’t like it. > she called. < I know you're here, somewhere... >