[Legacy Of The Force] - 04(117)

EN ROUTE TO CORUSCANT

GALACTIC VOYAGER

Luke lay on the small sofa in the cramped quarters he and Mara had been assigned, looking at the ceiling. It was a neutral light blue, featureless but for glow rod banks around the edges, and the peaceful color helped soothe his thoughts.

They needed soothing.

“You’re very quiet,” Mara said. She occupied the chamber’s one chair.

“Still nothing new abut Ben.” Luke offered a slight frown. “And Jacen’s actions worry me.”

“Running out on Han and Leia, you mean?”

He nodded.

“They should. I think he’s getting even worse.” Mara returned her attention to her datapad.

Ben’s continued absence and Jacen’s actions did weigh heavily on Luke, but lying to Mara added to the burden he felt, and he hoped she would not detect those lies through their Force bond. Luke didn’t consider Jacen’s actions to represent cowardice, but Jacen clearly considered the danger his parents experienced to be of less importance than his need to get to the major scene of the GA-Confederation battle. And that was a coldhearted choice for Jacen to have made.

But it was not what weighed on Luke’s mind right now. Luke also had to ponder the meaning of Lumiya’s words to him, the gentleness with which she’d reached out to him. She hadn’t been hostile or vengeful. His instincts about people, his skill with sifting truth from lies through use of the Force told him so.

Then he felt something new. He sat up and Mara gave him a close look. “What?”

He smiled for the first time since they’d left the Gilatter system. “I can feel Ben,” he said.

ANAKIN SOLO

Jacen sat in his private office. The glow rods were dimmed, Mid the only illumination came from the corkscrewing streaks of hyperspace light outside his viewport.

Whisper-quiet, the hidden panel in the corner of his office retracted and opened. Lumiya entered, her face devoid of makeup but wrapped against prying eyes.

“I can feel your anger all the way to my quarters,” she said.

“Are you admonishing or approving?”

“I approve of the anger, of course. It strengthens you, and you need strength. But if I can feel it …”

“There are no other Jedi aboard Anakin Solo.”

“Prove it. And, while you’re at it, prove that there are no nascent Jedi, no Force-sensitives of any sort.”

Jacen sighed. He did not relinquish his anger, but he did concentrate on diminishing his own presence in the Force.

“Good.” Lumiya approached and seated herself opposite him. “Jacen, this was not a disaster.”

“I was made to look like an idiot. I planned the mission. I bought into the trap.”

“As did everyone, including Admiral Niathal, the mission commander. When the full report of the battle reaches the holonews, it will be cast as a dramatic Galactic Alliance success-the forces of good beating back a treacherous ambush, all with negligible losses-and you will probably find your popularity has grown. As for blame behind the closed doors of government-your information was independently verified, wasn’t it?”

“Yes. All right, then, I was made to feel like an idiot.”

“Ah. There I cannot reassure you.” He shot her a glare but said nothing.

“Would you like to avoid this in the future? To be matchless, undefeatable in strategic engagements?”

“No one is undefeatable.”

“Perhaps not … but the commander who knows exactly where all the battlefield’s forces are, who does not need to depend solely on limited sensors and fallible analysts, will be defeated much less often.”

“You’re talking about battle meditation. You’ve mentioned it before.”

“No. Battle meditation is something many very accomplished Force-users, Jedi and Sith, can do. Consider battle meditation to be the learner. The technique I’m talking about is the master. It is the capacity to sense, to coordinate, just by the power of the mind and the will. This is the ability that comes with the assumption of the title of Master of the Sith.”

He continued to stare at her. “You aren’t the Master. So you can’t teach it to me.”

“I’m not, but I can. A blind woman who was once sighted can still experience colors in her memory. I learned everything there was to learn about this power … I can just never wield it.” Lumiya stared down at her limbs. Her expression did not suggest that she felt betrayed by them, by their robotic nature-only that they were a bit disappointing.

Jacen considered it. “Am I ready?”

“In all other ways, yes. But you have to make the sacrifice of love. And then you must take your Sith name, to reforge yourself.”