Crude Matter Rough Draft 01

[klcthebookworm]

My story for the Fic Whining Circle Challenge is not moving along (though I have done more on it than my original fic this month), so I have the bright idea to put the rough draft out for everyone to read. Hopefully knowing that other people are reading will wake the muse up when I get to my writing times today.

Jade’s Fire swooped gently over Anzat’s grasslands and the comm system chimed that Mara’s prey was in voice broadcast range. She toggled it on. “I got your text comm and my ETA is fifteen minutes, Skywalker. Anything I need to be alert for on the ground?”

For a moment, she wondered if he would respond. The way the text comm had been phrased she thought it had been sent through his astromech droid. The landing beacon that she was flying toward was bound to be the droid’s work. The Force wasn’t giving her a warning, but that didn’t mean she’d find a conscious Luke Skywalker.

“Hello, Mara.” His voice had a different pitch, lighter somehow. Definitely breathier.

She frowned at the speaker. Maybe she needed to run a diagnostic.

Skywalker continued unaware of her mechanical distraction. “You can set down next to my X-Wing; there’s plenty of room right outside the temple and the ground is seismically inert. The water source is easily avoidable. Just follow Artoo’s beacon.”

“I am. I just wanted to make sure you were coherent for this extraction that I cleared my schedule for.”

“I don’t need an extraction.” He still sounded off, but the trying-to-not-sulk came over the comm clearly. “The X-Wing is fine and I can fly it.” There was a pause before he hesitantly said, “You didn’t need to come, not if it damages your business. I don’t know if Artoo made it clear this isn’t an emergency.”

Mara smirked. “So I’m not going to make the extraction fee I was going to charge you?” There was a regrouping thoughts sputter on the other end of the comm. “It’s fine, Skywalker. All I have right now is a surprise delivery as a favor, and I still have a week before it’s due. Plenty of time to help you out with whatever Force conundrum you have found now.”

“I’ll be waiting in my camp. Skywalker out.”

Jade signed off as well and gazed out at the new features on the landscape as she approached them. The yellow-green grass parted for a curved blue ribbon of water that she passed over. Blue mountains rose in the distance, but the beacon was leading to what was once a building built of carved stone or pourstone bricks. Walls had crumbled around the perimeter, but a domed tower still stood in the center with a roof that looked like dark gray and green. The creek tumbled down the outcrop the ruin was built on and curved around behind it.

The white cocoon-shaped structure as long and as tall as the X-Wing was staked out between the snub-fighter and the creek where no shadows would fall on the tent’s black solar collection tubes snaking over its surface. The flat plain before the ruin still had plenty of room for her larger ship. She set down with her entry ramp aimed at Skywalker’s camp and her viewport at the ruins. The once graceful arches that had marked the entrance had fallen into a heap of stone leaving a hole into the interior at the top of the pile.

She hoped whatever Luke had found on this trip to need help with did not include rock climbing and exploring in ancient ruins. He probably pulled the artifact out already. From the closer angle, she now saw that the green of the roof were actually massive fronds growing through slits in the roof and spreading out to catch as much sunlight as possible. The much plant life did not bode well for the structural integrity of the ruins; the roots were probably tearing the place apart from the inside. She’d point that out if the Jedi Master wanted to go back inside.

The sun was heading down to the horizon as she stepped out on the grassy turf. The springy stems didn’t impede her progress. Luke’s steady presence in the Force was ahead in the tent. She didn’t have to duck to walk under the X-Wing, so she took the most direct route to the large white temporary structure by going under the starfighter. The door was slid up to remain open, so he had to have heard her land. Why wasn’t he meeting her at the doorway? She swept his camp with her Force senses and only felt the two of them. So he wasn’t busy with someone else, unless it was his droid.

She raised her voice before she reached the tent’s doorway. “Did anyone tell you that Anzat was under Imperial interdiction before you decided to come here?” She strode into the main room of tent. The saved solar energy powered the lights at the apex of the roof illuminating the whole room. So she didn’t miss, couldn’t miss the female human who faced the tiny kitchen against the back wall of the tent.

“So was Dathomir,” she said with Luke’s amused chuckle as she continued chopping something. But the voice was higher and breathier than the one in Mara’s memory despite the similarities.

Mara’s gaze traveled over the person present. The clothes were something Luke would wear on one of his expeditions, stained and mended gray trousers (that Mara half suspected were part of a Rebel Alliance uniform he had never discarded) and a black undertunic. But the seams of the trousers strained at the hips to remain on a much curvier lower half and the undertunic’s armhole was exposing nearly all her ribs under her arms. Luke’s lightsaber hung from the belt cinching the trousers around her waist.

And she radiated Luke’s steady presence in the Force in a way that should not be possible, in a way that was making Mara’s head dizzy.

Something moved to Mara’s left and she jerked to see the blue and white astromech droid. It offered her a low whistle.

“And that turned out all right.” She picked up the cutting board and slid the chopped pieces into a pot on the cook top. “But I don’t think I’ll recommend lifting it for Anzat.” She set the utensils down on the sliver of counter space the camp kitchen provided and turned to face Mara.

The blunt haircut was growing shaggy around a rounder face. The forehead shifted flatter, the cheekbones more prominent, the lips much plumper. But the chin still had a cleft even though it was shortened. And the blue eyes were still the same ones she knew despite how the eyebrows had shifted and arched over them. She’d know those eyes no matter what face they resided in.

Her poise was sucked out the airlock though. In fact, she was fairly certain she was doing a nearly accurate impression of a Mon Calamari. “What the hells, Skywalker? A full body mod?”

She never would have put credits on that idea; he had never emoted unhappiness with his body. And she felt oddly hurt that he had never shared that he had been or that he had made this decision with her. Even though there was no real reason why he should.

Skywalker’s grin and self was full of relief. “You can tell it’s me!”

“You haven’t changed in the Force.” An idea struck her and her temper rose to match it. “Was this some Sithspit test?” A way to mock and goad her for refusing further training, how dare he! Or she!

Skywalker raised her hands in placation. They still sported the same calluses. “Not of you! I still feel like me despite the anatomical changes of the flesh, this crude matter. But I didn’t know if I could trust my perception or if it had been altered too. I didn’t want alarm my students and Leia’s too busy.”

She felt the evasion in that statement. “You didn’t want her yelling at you for doing something stupid.”

“I’d rather her save those for when it is actually a galactic incident.” Skywalker waved a hand at her chest