“And you trust them?”
“Only the ones who don’t laugh,” Tenel Ka admitted. She swung her leg back over the bench and assumed a more regal pose. “All right, Jacen. I confess, I cannot guess. What is it you require of us?”
“A battle fleet,” he said. “For the Colony.”
Tenel Ka’s face did not show the surprise that Jacen sensed from her in the Force. “That is a great deal to ask. The Hapes Consortium is a member of the Galactic Alliance.”
“Does that mean the Galactic Alliance makes your decisions for you?”
Tenel Ka’s gray eyes turned steely. “It means that we try to avoid angering Alliance friends.”
“It’s more important to prevent this war,” Jacen said. “The Chiss are pushing too hard, and the Killiks couldn’t withdraw if they wanted to. It’s going to erupt into full-blown carnage, unless something happens to give the Chiss pause and the Colony a reason to be patient.”
“And why should it matter to the Hapan people if a border conflict on the other side of the galaxy does become war?”
“Because it would end in xenocide, one way or the other,” Jacen answered.
Tenel Ka turned and looked up into the paan trees, and Jacen sensed in the silence her Jedi instincts battling her duties as the Hapan queen.
“The Killiks are tied to the history of the galaxy in a way we don’t understand yet,” Jacen said. “They were living in cities before humans learned to build, and they were a civilization before the Sith were spawned. They were here when Centerpoint and the Maw were constructed-and they were driven from Alderaan by the beings who did it.”
Though Tenel Ka’s gaze remained in the treetops, her eyes widened, and Jacen knew he was reaching her.
“Tenel Ka, the galaxy will turn on what happens next,” Jacen said. “And the Killiks are the pivot point. We need time to figure this out, because it could be total war-or true and lasting peace.”
Tenel Ka finally turned to look at him. “What about the will of the Force, Jacen? Why not trust it?”
The reference to the Jedi’s new understanding of the Force made Jacen think of Vergere-the lost Master who had opened their eyes to so much of that new understanding-and he smiled at the first truth she had taught him: Everything I tell you is a lie.
To Tenel Ka, he said, “Should I trust a river because it wants to run downhill?”
Tenel Ka frowned. “I am the one who asks the questions on Hapes, Jedi Solo.”
Jacen chuckled. “Okay. The Force isn’t a deity, Tenel Ka. It’s not self-conscious, and it isn’t capable of caring what happens to us. It’s a flow. Its only will is to remove that which blocks it. When we facilitate that flow, when we allow it to run through us to others, we’re in harmony. We’re using the light side.”
“And the dark side?”
“Is when we block that flow and turn it to our own ends,” Jacen said. “We keep it from others. And when we release it too quickly, we turn it from a nurturing stream into a destructive flood.”
“Didn’t Vergere teach that our intentions make an act dark or light?” Tenel Ka asked.
“She did,” Jacen admitted. “And she was telling the truth, from a certain point of view. If you have good intentions, you tend to let the Force flow through you. If not, you tend to bottle it up inside, and it starts eating away at your good looks.”
Tenel Ka looked at him from the corner of one eye. “I prefer my truths to remain true from all points of view.”
“Sorry,” Jacen said. “The Force is too big.”
“And this is what you learned in the five years you were gone?”
“The core of it, yes.”
Tenel Ka studied the ground for a moment, then looked back at him. “It took five years to learn that?”
“There was a lot of travel time,” Jacen said.
Tenel Ka smiled and rolled her eyes, then asked, “What about our Killiks? Is the Force flowing through them, or into them?”
“Too early to say,” Jacen said. “Raynar has grown incredibly powerful in a short time.”
“And that doesn’t scare you?”
“Of course it does,” Jacen said. “But right now, he’s trying to avoid a war. I’ll be a lot more frightened when he stops.”
Tenel Ka nodded. “Fact.” She stood and extended her hand. “I think my suitors have had enough time to plot your death.”
“I’m glad I could bring them together.”
“Yes, you have been very useful that way.” They started down the moss path toward the water. “I hope you will stay the night. It would be even more effective.”