Traits Of Descent

Chapter Eight

Jade's Fire cockpit

Defeat was a concept that Luke Skywalker was all too familiar with. From his destruction of his Skyhopper on Tatooine to his failure at confronting Vader for the first time in Cloud City, Luke recognized the taste of defeat. Over the years he had learned to turn his mistakes into opportunities for future victories. His latest challenge was turning his failure to allow a serial killer on board the Errant Venture into a victory.

The message that Soj Nodew found etched on the droid told them a few things. At some point, their killer took the time to reprogram Two-See into an assassination droid. Before that, the killer would have had to supply the droid with the recording of its target, Jarvis Wasine. Add to the fact that the etched message was meant to taunt them. This was proof that who they were dealing with was someone with skill and arrogance. A person like that would have a specific past that would make them like that. If there were two people who knew all about their past forming their future, it would be Luke Skywalker and Mara Jade.

Mara was currently searching on the HoloNet into the past of Skarce Voxan. There wasn't much. She used all of her resources she built over the years as the Emperor's Hand and as Talon Karrde's second-in-command and nothing specific turned up. Her frustration was getting to her and at one point she nearly had the urge to pull the computer out of the wall. Then, Skywalker entered. She never knew a reason why, but it seemed that whenever Luke Skywalker entered a room, hate, anger, and panic vacated the area.

"Anything yet?" he asked, knowing full well the answer. Mara considered that Skywalker sometimes asked questions not to get answers, but a reaction of how the answers were given. It wasn't the first time that Mara thought Luke could have been a decent interrogator.

"A few things I scratched from the surface. Unfortunately, the surface is all you're going to get when researching Skarce Voxan."

"I can't believe a person can just disappear that easily."

"It's not that easy for someone untrained. For assassins, it's second-hand knowledge. I should know. I disappeared from the galaxy for a time."

"Yes, but only a handful of people knew who you were. Voxan's name has been synonymous with the boogeyman for generations."

"You had never heard of him before now," she countered.

"Have you seen the desert I grew up in? Not exactly a wealth of information there."

"I don't know. I would think the smugglers and various scum in Mos Eisley would mention Voxan at some point."

"I didn't exactly hang out in Mos Eisley."

Mara went on. "Well, look at your Ben Kenobi. One of the greatest Jedi to live and all he does to disappear is only change his first name. Always wondered how Vader never found him."

"He wasn't looking. Tatooine would be the last place Vader would want to revisit."

"I got that from him too. Confusing then. Understandable now."

Luke shifted gears. "So, what did you find?"

Mara sighed. "Found some old data on Voxan's last known victims. It matches the data on that old holo of Obi Wan mentioning that family, the Helans. I dug deeper and found an old private holo of the family. The Helans were having a Life day party for one of their sons. Doesn't tell us much, but at least–"

"It gives us a face to the victims."

"Something like that. Here it is. Do you want to see it, or are you going to stare into space?"