“Yes.”
“Under which name you tried to kill several members of my family.”
“Decades ago. Yes.” Now she did look abashed, regretful. “Don’t judge me too soon, Jacen. My history is very much like your aunt Mara’s … except she received some lucky breaks I didn’t. I took longer to straighten out my life.”
“Tell me about it.”
“I was raised on Coruscant, tapped for Imperial service, and, when Luke Skywalker became a hero of the Rebels, I joined them.”
“To kill him.”
“No, to do worse-to discredit him. A ruined hero is much more devastating than a dead one.” Her gaze slid off to one side, and Jacen sensed that she was reliving events that had transpired before he was born. “I actually developed quite an attachment for your uncle. Once he was ruined as a Rebel, I planned to draw him over to the Imperial side. But during a starfighter battle, he relied on the Force instead of transponder data to differentiate friend from foe, and shot me down.”
“I’d heard that.”
“I lived, but it cost me. Cost me more than half of my body, in fact. My limbs, some of my organs …” She looked down at herself. “Cybernetic replacements.” When Jacen didn’t answer, she continued, “And that’s when Darth Vader took special interest in me. Perhaps because of our similarities. He could feel the Force potential in me, and it didn’t take a master psychologist to pick up on my desire for revenge.”
“Which you did attempt.”
“Again and again, after my Sith training on Ziost. Yes.”
“You seem singularly unapologetic.”
“I don’t have anything to apologize to you for. Bring me into the presence of Luke Skywalker or Leia Organa, and, well, things will be different. Would you like to see the rest of the house?”
“Is there anything to it but bright cheerful colors, bedrooms, refreshers, and so on?”
“Not anymore. There were lots of artifacts in his library, but I removed them to the library you saw in the habitat. There are all the gaily painted protocol droids.”
Jacen shuddered. “So far, the one irrefutable sign that Vectivus was evil … No, we can do the house tour after your explanation, after I retrieve Ben and Nelani. So-Palpatine and Vader both die, and you have no chance to be educated enough to become the Mistress of the Sith.”
“Oh, there you’re wrong, Jacen.” Lumiya shook her head as if chiding him for his ignorance. “I never had any chance to become Mistress of the Sith. No matter how much I learned.”
Jacen moved to the next bust in line. This was a Bothan face, alert and intelligent. “Why not?”
“The Force is the energy of the living. You interact with it, its eddies and flows, with your own living body. It’s all right to have a mechanical part or two-an implant, a replacement foot. But for true Mastery in the Force, light side or dark side, you have to be mostly organic. I’m not, and so the greatest, the most significant powers, I can never learn.”
Jacen frowned. “Wait. That means that Darth Vader could never have become the Lord of the Sith … a true Master.”
“That’s correct. I’m not sure he ever understood that. He might not have cared. He was numbed by tragedy. The Bothan you’re looking at, by the way, was an old family friend of Darth Vectivus. Taught Vectivus basic principles of negotiation.”
“Are you saying that none of these busts is a Sith?”
“That’s right. This isn’t a museum for Sith matters. It’s a celebration of Vectivus’s youth and life. His life, Jacen. His joys and triumphs.”
Jacen propped his elbow up on the Bothan’s head. “So that’s what the trap is.”
“Eh?” Lumiya looked surprised.
“You didn’t lure me here to kill me. You lured me here to persuade me to take up the path of the Sith.”
“Yes.”
“Because I have all my body parts.”
She grinned at him. “Not exactly. Because it’s you. All the portents, all the convergences flowing into the future say so, particularly since you’ve already received quite a lot of Sith training.”
“Explain that.”
“In a minute. What was I saying? Oh, yes. I’m not trying to turn you into a Palpatine. He was, as you say, a psychopath. Destructive, uncaring, manipulative. He chose the dark side to achieve his ends, but was weak and confused enough to be twisted by the dark side. Unlike your uncle Luke, you haven’t been twisted by the light side, so I’m certain you can resist the temptations of the dark.”
“I’ve heard enough.” The voice was Nelani’s, and there she was, striding in through the front doors, her unlit lightsaber in her hand. “As I’m sure you have, Jacen.”