"Thanks." Skywalker deadpanned huskily, "I really needed to hear that. It's very helpful."
"If you just..." Mara felt the smile coming to her lips and tried unsuccessfully to silence the laugh, her ribs rocking at the attempt.
"I'm glad one of us finds this amusing." Skywalker rasped, but Mara could hear the humour in his hoarse voice.
"Sorry- it's not funny." she agreed still trying to stifle the laugh, leaning forward to rest her forehead against the back of his shoulder in attempt to stop rocking.
"Ow."
"What!?"
"You're laughing on my broken shoulder." he croaked.
For some reason, that was the final straw and Mara could hold back no longer though she tried valiantly, so that the laugh came out as a breathless snicker, her eyes beginning to water at the effort of keeping it in. Luke chose that moment to try to sit up against her weight, but Mara was laughing too much, all strength gone, and though she tried to push back, she simply toppled backwards beneath his greater weight, pulling Skywalker with her.
He froze a few seconds against the pain then leaned back to rest his head against her ribs for a moment, his gruff voice cracking, his own laughter breaking through, "Well you're useless in a crisis, Red."
"This isn't a crisis, this is a fiasco." she corrected blithely.
Hands still about his chest, she felt it rock in laughter then his muscles tensed, "Don't make me laugh. I hurt enough as it is."
Mara considered a moment as they both paused, breathless, trying to regain the strength to try again, "Is this a bad time to say you probably should have stayed in the medi-bay?"
"If you ever tell Hallin about this..."
The threat was wasted as Hallin came bursting into the room, having answered Mara's emergency comm. He took one shocked look at the two of them on the floor, Mara's arms wrapped around Luke, his head resting against her, the pair of them grinning inanely, and tried to back out, eyes to the floor. "Oh I'm so sorry - please excuse me. I didn't..."
"Hallin!" Skywalker's voice broke as he tried to shout, but it was loud enough, "Get back in here."
His disembodied voice came politely from the other side of the door, "... now?"
.
.
.
"What now?" Luke glanced up from the suspiciously-brief morning's despatches, which he was reading on an automemo whilst walking slowly on a treadmill in the small private gym in his apartments, annoyed more at his own lack of stamina than at the incoming intrusion. Even a few minutes' exercise still triggered near-exhaustion, leaving him feeling incredibly vulnerable here in the Emperor's Palace. Because the truth was that if he couldn't protect himself from Palpatine, then no-one else had the ability to do it for him.
He was already beginning to push himself trying to regain his fitness. The heavy, cumbersome weight of the alloy cage around his arm and across his collarbone had been removed, leaving only single tension bars in their place, set slightly clear of his skin, and light, minimal, polymer forms. Still awkward and troublesome, but nowhere near as uncomfortable as the heavy cage of the external fixator. The moment the bars and casts were removed from his arm he intended to begin lightsaber drills again, but for now even this short walk had left him drained and trembling.
He was restless at being trapped in the Palace- he'd never liked being here, had always seen it as a gilded cage and a dangerous one at that, so close to his Master. And whilst he remained, there was no reliably undetectable way to contact agents he had spent the last year and a half placing in the field for just the kind of information he wanted right now.
He needed to know exactly what had happened in the lead-up and the aftermath of the assassination attempt. He particularly needed to know why Argot, his own spy in the Rebel camp, had been excluded; whether Argot's cover had been compromised. But until he was on his Destroyer and away from the capital he remained isolated from all incoming information save that which his Master chose to pass on. He didn't believe Palpatine would lie to him - he was far too skilful at manipulating the truth to ever need to resort to lies - but Luke knew that the Emperor would certainly be controlling what information was reaching him, and how. Omissions were just as misleading as lies if carefully handled, and this morning's discussion with Hallin had brought home to him one more time not just how far Palpatine was prepared to go in assuring his own goals, but how precarious Luke's position here really was- how expendable.
The medic had been thoughtful since he'd arrived that morning, entering Luke's private quarters with a politely-sketched bow, clearly searching for a way to lead into whatever he wished to say, though it had still taken Luke a surprising amount of coaxing to finally pull the truth out of him.
"I was... uncertain whether you would survive immediately following the explosion." Hallin had allowed at last, alluding to the day of the assassination attempt, "You had extensive internal injuries and we were having difficulties stabilising you. When the Emperor commed, that was his first question- would you live?"
Luke shrugged, unoffended, "If I ever don't I'd advise you not to go back to the Palace- it'd probably be a one-way journey."
Hallin nodded gravely, made to speak, then fell silent. Luke remained quiet, waiting for his friend to find his words, which eventually he did. "If you died then I was ordered by Palpatine to recover certain samples immediately, then place your body in medical stasis."
Luke nodded, unsurprised, "DNA, though I'm sure he already has samples; I need to deal with that at some point."
"I think... he was looking for more. I was ordered to take pure DNA samples yes, but... I think he was looking to gain a new generation rather than an exact copy; what little is still medically available to me regarding cloning Force-sensitive individuals indicates it's highly unpredictable, unstable even. I think he was looking to... create a child rather than a clone."
Luke was silent for a long time, the gravity of this sinking in. Slowly he nodded, rubbing the bridge of his nose, deathly tired of this constant scheming. He glanced up to Nathan, "Did you take the samples?"
"No- it was only in the event of your death."
"Ever?" Luke asked sternly but openly, leaving Nathan uncomfortable beneath that intense stare; was he using his 'Force' to back up his perceptions? If so he had no need; Nathan would never lie to him.
"No, Commander. But that doesn't mean they aren't in existence, taken at other times by other medics - every time you're released from the cells, you're never returned straight to your quarters, and when you are returned, your wounds have already been treated. And remember the Emperor also asked me to gather DNA though we know that such samples already exist, stored at separate locations."
"We have no-one reliable at any of them who could follow this up?"
"No; they're very small facilities with few staff, and those who are there are extremely loyal to the Emperor. We've tried unsuccessfully before to infiltrate them. And those are the ones we know about - they could be stored at any number of locations under any designation."
"I need to know if they have samples because if they do we need to deal with this now." Luke paused, glancing meaningfully back to Hallin, "If you're ever asked again, you're to provide a false sample - and you're to make sure that no-one else can collect a real one." He hesitated, uncertain how to explain the next, but hoping that Hallin was familiar enough with the Force by now, "If I die... Master Yoda taught me a... practice - my body should simply disappear. But if it doesn't... you need to destroy my body, completely. You understand? As soon as possible."
Hallin hesitated a long time, eyes down, and Luke sensed his unease. When he finally looked to Luke and spoke it was doubtfully, "I'm not sure I ..."