“Doing what?” Mara demanded.
Luke caught Ben’s eye and pointed his chin toward the intercom wall unit.
“Working on my Killik,” Ben said meekly. His expression struck Luke as both guilty and worried. “Nanna said I could.”
“Stay where you are!”
Luke cocked a brow at his son. “It sounds serious.”
Ben nodded. “I guess.”
“Any ideas?”
Ben returned to working on his “Killik” droid. “Maybe.”
Deciding they would both find out what was troubling Mara in a minute, Luke returned to the sequestered sector he had found on one of R2-D2’s deep-reserve memory chips. Judging by the tarnished break in the service circuit, the fault had occurred years-maybe decades-earlier, and had been entirely benevolent until a microscopic sliver of casing bridged the break. Given that R2-D2 had been functioning well with the fault for most of his service life, Luke was wondering how long it had been since anything was written to the sector.
The access hatch iris opened next to Luke, and Mara stepped through with an empty gelmeat container in her hand. Her irritation was obvious in the briskness of her step-and in the turbulent aura she projected in the Force.
“Hold on a second, Artoo,” Luke said, setting the micropoint on the workbench. “This looks important.”
R2-D2 tweedled a worried response.
“Of course you’re important,” Luke said. “But I need a break anyway. I’ll want to be sure my hands are steady.”
R2-D2 whistled his encouragement.
Luke started across the deck toward his wife and son, where Ben was still sitting inside his crate-cover Killik shell, looking up at Mara.
“Did Nanna say you could have a whole can of gelmeat, young man?” Mara asked.
Ben’s eyes grew round. “She said I could have a slice.”
“Does this look like a slice to you?” She held the empty container down for him to see.
Ben shrugged-rather bravely, Luke thought. “I thought she meant one can.”
Luke felt Mara’s patience snap. When she started to wave the container at Ben, he gave her a gentle Force tug and urged her to calm down.
Mara paused, collecting herself while she pretended to examine the container label.
“Nanna is the one who found the container, Ben,” Mara said, handing it to him. “She says we’ve gone through a whole case since we left Jwlio-and I don’t think anyone else eats this.”
“Tesar might.”
“Gelmeat?” Mara asked doubtfully.
“Maybe,” Ben said hopefully. “He eats anything.”
“Anything alive,” Mara corrected. “But we could ask him. Should I have him come down?”
Ben hesitated, then shook his head. “No.”
“I didn’t think so.” Mara’s voice softened. “Ben, I don’t know how you can eat all this without making a mess of my decks, but you have to stop. It’ll make you sick.”
“It’s okay, Mom,” Ben said, sounding relieved. “You don’t have to worry about that. I haven’t been eating it.”
“You haven’t?” Mara asked. “Then what have you been doing with it?”
Ben’s expression grew worried again, and he reluctantly said, “Feeding it to my Killik.”
Mara was silent for a moment, then she asked, “Ben, what did we say about lying?”
Ben’s eyes dropped. “That if I lie, I have to stay with Kam and Tionne the next time you and Dad go on a mission.”
“Right,” Mara said. “Let’s remember that.”
“Okay,” Ben said. “I didn’t forget.”
“Good.” Mara stooped down and took the empty container from him. “And no more gelmeat.”
Ben’s eyes grew wide. “None?”
“Not until we get home.” Luke hoped he sounded stern. “You’ve had enough to last you ten trips.”
As he and Mara returned to the engineering station, he continued to feel a general irritation from her.
“Okay, this wasn’t just about gelmeat,” he said softly. “What’s wrong? Tired of hearing about how much Tahiri and the others miss Jwlio?”
Mara shook her head. “It’s not that.”
“Tired of growling Ewoks?”
“It’s not Tarfang, either,” Mara said. “I’m not sure yet whether the Killiks are enemies or just dangerous friends, but I am certain we need to learn everything we can about them.”
Luke remained silent, sensing more was to follow.
“It’s just this uneasiness I have,” Mara said. “I keep feeling like we’re about to be attacked again.”
Luke paused and consciously opened himself to the Force. “I can sense it, too, but not as strong as you. We could do another stowaway sweep.”