A loud siss of amusement escaped the pebbled lips of Saba Sebatyne, causing Ben to shrink back through the hatchway - and almost muffling Luke’s exclamation of alarm. “You have?”
Ben nodded, but his wide eyes remained fixed on Saba’s lumpy face. Luke reached around the corner and pulled him onto the flight deck itself.
“Promise me you won’t do that again,” Luke said. Mara could feel how worried he was by Ben’s mischievousness. They had long ago decided against having someone else raise their son while they crisscrossed the galaxy attending to their duties as Jedi Masters, but they both knew their choice would require an extraordinary amount of discipline from their young son. “Nanna can’t protect you if you shut her down.”
“If she’s that stupid, how can she protect me anyway?” Ben countered. “A Defender Droid’s not supposed to be dumber than her kid.”
Rather than explaining the complexities of utter-devotion programming, Mara said, “Ben, answer your father. Or would you rather stay at the academy next time he and I go on a trip?”
Ben pondered his decision for a moment, then blew out a long breath. “Fine.” He turned to Luke. “I promise.”
“Good,” Luke said. “Maybe you should go reactivate her.”
“But we’re there!” Ben pointed out the forward viewport, where the unknown object remained hidden in its darkness. “I want to see Jaina!”
“Jaina isn’t here anymore,” Mara said.
“How do you know?”
“The Force,” Mara explained. “If she were here, your father and I would feel it.”
“Maybe not. You don’t feel everything.”
“We would feel Jaina,” Luke said. “She’s not here.”
“Now do as your father says.” Mara hooked her thumb toward the main cabin. “Go power up Nanna and stay with her until we figure out where Jaina is.”
Ben didn’t argue, but neither did he turn to go.
“If Ben doesn’t wish to go, this one will watch him.” Saba spun her chair around and winked a slit-pupiled eye at him. “He can sit on her lap.”
Eyes widening, Ben spun on his heel and disappeared down the access corridor. Saba sissed in amusement, but softly and slow, and Mara thought maybe the Barabel’s feelings were hurt. Maybe.
“Don’t let it bother you, Saba,” Mara said. “Even we don’t understand what’s happening with him these days.”
Saba blinked at Mara’s reflection-twice. “He is hiding from the Force, ” she said. “This one is surprised you and Master Skywalker have not noticed.”
“We have,” Luke said. “What we don’t understand is why. He started to close himself off after the war.”
“Ben says he wants to be like his uncle Han and do things the hard way,” Mara added. “But I think there’s more to it than that. This has lasted too long to be a phase.”
Mara did not add and he’s gotten too good at it, perhaps because of how much that thought frightened her. She had to concentrate hard and long to find the Force in her son, and sometimes Luke had trouble sensing Ben’s presence at all.
“Interesting.” Saba licked the air with her long tongue, then turned to look down the access corridor. “Perhapz he did not like how the war felt.”
“Perhaps not,” Luke said. “We tried to shield him from it, but it just wasn’t possible.”
“There was too much happening in the galaxy,” Mara said, surprised to find herself feeling almost defensive. “The Force was too filled with anguish.”
“And so were we,” Luke said. “That’s what really worries us, Saba… maybe he’s hiding from us.”
“Then you have nothing to worry about,” Saba said. “Ben will not hide from you forever. Even this one can see how attached he is to his parentz.”
Luke thanked her for the reassurance, then asked R2-D2 to bring up an infrared image of the unknown object. What looked like a collection of palpitating blood cells appeared on Mara’s display screen. Each cell had an irregular white heart surrounded by a pink halo, and they were all connected by a tangled web of flowing red dashes.
“It looks like a network of housing modules,” Mara observed.
“And it feelz like a rangi mountain,” Saba added.
“Now we’re getting somewhere,” Luke said. “By the way, what are rangies?”
“Very tasty-and the feeling is mutual!” Sissing hysterically, Saba rose and turned to leave the flight deck. “This one will take the StealthX and reconnoiter.”