[Legacy Of The Force] - 01(13)
“Ben,” Mara said, “is more open. More trusting.” Her words, directed at Jacen, were as much question as statement.
Jacen nodded, thoughtful, and took a sip from his wineglass. “I think he is. He’s coming to understand the Force … and people. The fact that he’s inherently a bit suspicious of both of them is working in his favor. He’s progressing slowly and cautiously. He’s not as likely to give in to temptations of the dark side of the Force …..even to teenage hormone rushes.”
As a small child during the tragic Yuuzhan Vong war, Ben had become fearful and suspicious of the Force, retreating from it despite his own inherited facility with it. Only as Jacen’s unofficial apprentice had he begun to overcome the emotional damage of that time.
Mara shuddered. “Don’t bring up the specter of teenage hormone rushes.”
Leia snorted. “Not ready to become a grandmother yet?”
“I think I’d throw myself on my lightsaber first.”
Leia smiled. “I think I’m ready. I plan to be the sort of feisty, bad-example grandmother who teaches her grandchildren deplorable habits.” She turned her attention to Jacen. “How long should I expect to wait?”
He gave her an admonishing look. “If you’re trying to embarrass me, you’re talking into a dead comlink.”
“Not embarrass. I’m just trying to get a timetable.”
“Ask Jaina.”
Leia’s expression soured comically. “She said to ask you.”
“Then ask Zekk. I’m sure he has things planned out. He probably just hasn’t Informed Jaina yet.”
Leia shook her head over her own wineglass. “I have to find some sort of appropriate punishment for Han. For giving our children smart mouths and unhelpful manners.”
“All joking aside,” Mara said, “Jacen, thank you. Ben is doing so much better. I spent years being afraid that he’d never be at home with himself, with his Jedi legacy, with things he could never escape. You’ve given me reason to think I can stop worrying.”
“You’re welcome. Though, as Mom put it, I have to find some sort of appropriate punishment for you.”
Mara looked surprised. “What do you mean?”
“Well, if, as Mom asserts, the smart mouths and unhelpful manners of the Solo children come only from Dad, it means they come not at all from the Skywalker family. Right? So Ben’s smart mouth and unhelpful manners have to come from you. I’m going to have to figure out some sort of appropriate revenge, someday.”
Mara grinned, her good humor restored. She tapped the lightsaber hanging at her belt. “Do you have a favorite prosthetics manufacturer? I can preorder you one.”
“Jacen.” Luke stepped into the main living area from the hallway leading to the communications chamber. “Care to take a walk with me?”
“Of course.” Jacen rose. All of them knew that as simple a request as Care to take a walk with me? under these circumstances probably meant, Time to talk Jedi business.
They left through the door that not so long ago Han and Leia had spoken of defending with blasterfire. A dim side corridor led them away from the main access corridor toward an oversized door that occasionally vibrated; beyond it, though muted, was the hum and roar of Coruscant nighttime traffic. The door lifted out of the way as they approached, revealing a swirl of colors outside-the running lights of flying vehicles, from two-person speeders to small lumbering freighters, hurtling by outside, a high aerial traffic lane that passed mere meters from the pedestrian balcony outside the door.
As the door slid shut behind them, they paused for a moment at the balcony railing, looking down two hundred stories toward Coruscant’s ground level. At night, despite the fact that windows on every floor between their position and the ground were illuminated, that advertising signs and banners glowed and gleamed brilliantly, ground level was too dark and distant to be glimpsed.
As a child, Jacen had once become lost at Coruscant’s bedrock level along with Jaina. The depths held no terror for him; even now, more than twenty years later, they seemed to be a place of mystery and exploration.
But it wasn’t really the same Coruscant as the one of his childhood. The Vongforming had reshaped much of the world into the Yuuzhan Vong image. Now, years later, huge tracts of what had once been continuous pole-to-pole cityscape still remained black at night, overgrown with fauna, and places like the bedrock levels of the planet and the infrastructure beneath were still home to the crawling and slithering life-forms the Yuuzhan Vong had introduced, some of them deadly.
Still, that reminder of the beating Coruscant and the old New Republic had suffered was not visible from this viewpoint. Here, it looked like the Coruscant of old, with swirling streams of air traffic, with high-rise dwellings outlined and illuminated by millions of viewports.