Legacy Of The Force_ Revelation Part 3

She summoned her chauffeur. On the journey through the unconcerned, orderly skylanes of Coruscant to the Senate, she concentrated on being angry and indignant rather than working out her next covert moves. Jedi could sense these things. She thought of Nevil's dead son, and the outrage came naturally.

Coruscant really was very peaceful. It was hard to square what she saw from the speeder window with what was happening offworld on the battlefield, almost as if there were a portal she had pa.s.sed through and back again into another dimension. But it hadn't been that long since the Yuuzhan Vong invasion; that had made the Galactic capital much more nervous than planets that had suffered far worse and far more frequently over the centuries, and so it was willing to embrace Jacen's extremes.

Coruscant was scared and wanted to be protected. Niathal wondered how Jacen would have fared trying to pull his hard-line savior act on more battle-hardened, less innocent worlds.

He was in his office, watching an intelligence holovid, a recording of a fleet engagement. There were so many brush fires breaking out across the galaxy now that she couldn't say where it was taking place without checking the images carefully to identify s.h.i.+ps and terrain.

Just another theater of war. The only positive thing I can see is that we've been saved from collapsing through over-stretch by systems kind enough to stage their own local wars and excuse our attendance.

"What have I done this time?" Jacen said, not looking away from the screen. "I could feel the little black cloud of reprimand coming..."

Stay angry. Don't let him sense anything beyond that.

Niathal took a deep breath disguised as an exasperated human sigh.

"Jacen, I know you're very new to the military, but here's a tip to help you fit into the culture of the wardroom. We don't kill junior officers on the bridge in front of everyone. It's bad form. At least try to do it somewhere less public in the future."

He looked up that time. She wondered if he was feeling the strain, because he looked more different by the day, a little older and less luminously youthful. It was especially noticeable in his eyes. "Ah. Word gets around."

She didn't sit down. She couldn't stay angry sitting down. "Word gets around the fleet, and fast. You're a fool."

"Really? I thought I was doing quite well."

"Morale, Jacen. It's an a.s.set every bit as much as a Star Destroyer. We ask those we command to be ready to die for us, not because of us, and the moment we lose their confidence, we start to lose the war.

We need them."

"Oh, and they need me." He let out a snort of contempt. "The pact works both ways. Tebut was careless. It's not an exercise, Admiral, it's a real war, and mistakes get you killed. We could have lost the war thanks to Tebut. I think what happened to her brought home to everyone what that means."

"Did you mean to make an example of her, or did you just lose control and it all got out of hand?"

That got a reaction, all right. She watched his eyes flicker, but not a muscle on his face moved for a second or two. "I think we'll see an improvement in security procedures after this."

"Good, "she said. Ah, he's either worried he'll burn out. or he's already snapped and he doesn't want me to know he's falling apart. "I'll spend some of my very limited time repairing the damage you've done to morale, then, because if a s.h.i.+p's company is terrified of getting something wrong, pretty soon they stop using their initiative and don't do anything at all. Do I need to explain?"

"You care too much about being popular."

Niathal had to bite back a retort. She knew her reputation on the mess decks as a humorless iceberg. "Yes, I must keep my party-girl image in check."

"Anyway, Fondor. Time to pick them off."

"I would prefer to hit their industrial capacity first. Shut down their s.h.i.+pyards."

"We need those a.s.sets in one piece."

"If we want them as a going concern, then we'll probably have to occupy the planet to enforce that, because the government isn't about to capitulate. And we don't have the resources to do it."

"We might."

"Oh, do share."

"The Imperial Remnant. I'm opening negotiations."

"How good of you to involve me in this..."

"I haven't committed us to anything."

So it's us again. "If you think Pellaeon is going to kiss and make up after I took his job, you're really not paying attention."

"Well, just to give the Moffs an incentive to persuade him to forgive and forget, I was thinking of offering them some extra turf in return for joining us-Borleias and Bilbringi."

It was certainly an incentive, and would have been excessively generous if either world had been the GA's gift to give. Neither was a full member of the Alliance. "So what does the gift amount to? Turning a blind eye to the Moffs invading? Helping them do it? Helping them costs resources, and we'd never have gone to their aid had those planets been attacked anyway. So how do we give?"

"When we defeat the Confederation, we'll shape the galaxy as we see fit for the greatest benefit. They contribute to that, and they get two rich worlds for their trouble."

"Or they still get two worlds that don't want to be under their yoke and fight them for every meter of land."

"Either way, not our problem."

But sooner or later, it would come back to bite him, she was sure.

"This reminds me of one of those Naboo time-share scams, "she said. It was time to let him get bitten, and Pellaeon would never allow it anyway.

"But I leave the high-level politics to you."

"Fondor, then?"

"Shut down their s.h.i.+pyards first, because that disables their war effort. Then we neutralize their armed forces."

"Very well."

"And are you going to talk to Pellaeon direct?"

"I was thinking of sending a more neutral figure. Tahiri."

"Jacen, she's not exactly a diplomat, or even a negotiator."

"All she has to do is get him to accept the principle. I can do the rest."

Niathal got the feeling that Tahiri was being groomed to take Ben's place. She was glad the boy had managed to get out of Jacen's grip; he had the makings of a good officer and was becoming his own man. "Let me know when you do, then." She turned to go to her own office, the one she'd had as Supreme Commander. It felt like a haven at times like this.

"Preferably before you take action..."

"Send Shevu in, will you?" Jacen called after her. "He should be outside by now."

Niathal pa.s.sed the young GAG captain in the corridor, right on time, and gave him a nod toward Jacen's door. He didn't look happy, but he didn't look scared. If Jacen toler-ated someone that visibly unintimidated in his entourage, then Shevu had to be one of his most trusted lackeys. She would keep her distance.

"He's all yours, "said Niathal.

THE MILLENNIUM FALCON, JEDI OUTPOST, ENDOR.

"So, Dad, how do I contact Boba Fett?" Jaina asked. All she could see of Han Solo in his position under the coolant lines of the Millennium falcon were his pilot's boots. "How did you get hold of him?"

"Usual way, kid. I stood around like a jerk, and he ambushed me."

"I'm serious, Dad."

Han hauled himself out from under the Falcon and got to his feet.

"This is Jag's idea, isn't it? I should never have let him have the crushgaunts."

"Hey, I can make my own crazy decisions. And the best person to teach me how to hunt Jedi is Fett. Am I right?"

Han wiped the hydrospanner on a rag, and Jaina could see that a light had gone out of him. Beyond the clearing, the forest was a cacophony of wild noise that somehow managed to coalesce into something tranquil. Here she was, talking in this detached and oblique way about hunting Jedi-her twin brother, her father's only remaining son. There were days when Dad disowned Jacen and never wanted to see him again, and the next day.... the next, Jacen was his boy again, and he wanted to look after him and put things right. But every day, the volume of things that needed putting right got bigger, and harder, and more impossible. Dad hurt. Jaina knew Mom was hurting, too, but she seemed to be handling it better than him.

"So Ben thinks Jacen killed Mara."

Jaina reached out and took the rag and the tool from his hands.

"It's clean now, Dad. Yes, he does."

"What do you think?"

"I don't know. I just don't know."

"You think he's capable of that?"

"I don't even want to think about it yet."

"Jaina, do you think he's capable of it?"

Jacen had tortured Ben: who knew what kind of weird logic he was operating under? If he did something terrible to Mara, would he have had any concept of it being wrong? He hadn't planned to kill Fett's daughter, but she hadn't survived his interrogation. Jaina hated herself for even thinking it. Jacen was Han Solo's son. But every killer, every criminal, was someone's kid.

"No, I don't think he'd murder Mara, "Jaina said. "But Ben seemed pretty rational. There's something that doesn't add up. I just hope he doesn't get too close to Jacen while he's doing this investigation."

"So you do think Jacen would harm his own family."

"Dad, he's already done plenty of harming."

"What are you going to do with him? I mean, you must have something planned or you wouldn't be going to sign up for the Fett master cla.s.s."

"I'll bring him in, "she said.

"Bring him in. Then what? Deprogram him? Lock him in the attic like you're supposed to do with crazy relatives? Rehabilitate him and take him back into the Jedi Order? What happens to ex-Sith Lords?"

"The alternative is leaving him to carry on, Dad."

Han Solo had never scared his kids but he was scaring Jaina now.

She dropped her chin slightly. "We can worry about all that after he's out of harm's way."

"Okay, "said Han. "If I was looking for Fett, I'd go to him, starting at Mandalore. He'll give you a hard time, you know that?"

"Whatever it takes."

"He might show you the door."

"Won't know until I ask."

"You think your temper will hold out?"

"I can do anything when I really want to, "Jaina said. "And I want to bring Jacen in before anyone else gets to him. Maybe before Ben gets too close, too. For everyone's sake."

"Fett doesn't have all the moves, or he'd have killed Jacen by now and wearing some part of his anatomy as a trophy."

"Jacen's not invincible, Dad. n.o.body is. But when I go after him, it'll have to be with skills he doesn't have. Like Fett's."

"If you run into problems, your mom and I are going to be looking for alternative sites for a Jedi base not too far from that part of the galaxy..."

"No, "said Jaina. "I won't need rescuing. I just wanted to know if you thought there was another way to do this."

Han didn't have a better idea or he would have argued. He gave her a long hug instead, silent and helpless, and she knew then that the focus she'd keep in her mind when things got ugly was that she had to do this to stop her fa-ther's suffering. The general good, the trillions of beings whose lives might be at stake, was impossible to use as a powerful motivator. She needed something that would gal-vanize her from the gut, from the soul. And that something was her father's face, drained of the spirit that made him such a hero to her.

"Look after Mom, "she said, and walked away into the trees. "I love you, Dad."

"Hey, don't take the StealthX to Mandalore, "he called after her.

"It'll just tick them off. And I love you too, sweet-heart."

Jaina turned around a few times to check if Han was still watching or back in the refuge of the Falcon, but he waited, arms folded, then waved. It must have com-pounded his pain to know that when things had reached their lowest ebb, his own daughter thought that the only man who could help was Fett.

Fett knew what it was like to lose a kid and see his family torn apart. She hoped, for no logical reason whatsoever, that the man would agree to train her not because he wanted to have his revenge on Jacen, but because he understood her pain.

In the end, though, it didn't matter at all.

Chapter 3.

Boba, how has your illness progressed? Has my data been of use to you? My offer still stands.

-Taun We, former human clone development supervisor on Kamino, now Head of Clone Adjustment at Arkanian Micro GALACTIC CITY s.p.a.cEPORT, CORUSCANT.