Luke circled in around his answer. “Among the scientists and support crew who have been studying Centerpoint Station for Corellia there are GA spies, of course. They would have a very hard time smuggling in squadrons of elite soldiers to damage or disable the facility. One or two infiltrators they could manage. And packing squadrons’ worth of effectiveness into one or two people …”
“Means Jedi.”
“Yes.”
“What do you want me to do?”
“Travel to Centerpoint Station and disable or destroy it.”
Jacen tapped the hilt of his lightsaber. “Disable or destroy a moon-sized installation with just what I can smuggle in?”
“Others have been destroyed with just a proton torpedo and the right knowledge. We’ll try to get you the right knowledge. And the GA will be initiating an operation elsewhere in the system that should attract the defenders’ attention. Will you do it?”
“Yes, of course. But why me?”
“A few reasons. First, unlike most Jedi, you’ve been there. Second, because of who raised you, you can put on an authentic Corellian accent when you want to-that, and the fact that you’ve inherited a bit of the Corellian look from your father, will make it easier for you to move unobtrusively through the installation. Third, your specialized training in alternative philosophies of the Force makes you more versatile than many other Jedi-than some Jedi Masters, in fact-making it harder to stop you.”
“And what about Ben?”
Luke was silent for a long moment. He and Jacen turned onto a bridge spanning the chasm between two long rows of spacescrapers. It was made of transparisteel embedded with brightly colored sand and gravel, its railing high so that the occasional ferocious gusts of wind that coursed through Coruscant’s duracrete canyons would not toss a pedestrian over the side. Pedestrians could look down through the transparent surface beneath their feet into the two-kilometer depths below them, and they felt the slight sway of the bridge as a gust of wind pushed it. A dozen meters down, a stream of traffic coursed by like a river made of multicolored lights.
Luke’s tone was impassive, artificially so. “That is a matter for you, as his teacher, to decide.”
Even on dangerous missions, Jedi Masters often took their apprentices-it was how those apprentices learned. Sometimes the apprentices died with their teachers. And Luke had considered the question of whether Jacen should take Luke’s own son and put the decision entirely on Jacen’s shoulders.
Luke had responded as a Jedi Master should, not letting his relationship with the apprentice in question cloud his judgment. Jacen would have to do the same.
Ben was bright, inventive, and largely obedient. At the flip of a switch he could act like any precocious thirteen-year-old, as un-Jedi-like as it was possible to be. He’d be an asset on a mission like this. “He’ll come with me.”
Luke nodded, apparently serene in his acceptance of Jacen’s decision.
“It’s going to get ugly when this happens,” Jacen continued. “The Corellians-this is going to infuriate them.”
“Yes. But the other part of the operation, which is in part distraction for your mission, is a show of force. All of a sudden, an entire GA fleet will materialize within Corellian space. Between that and the loss of Centerpoint, Military Intelligence thinks the Corellians will realize that they can’t continue to adopt a we-do-whatever-we-like stance.”
Jacen shook his head. “Whose brilliant idea is that?”
“I don’t know. It was presented to me by Cal Omas and by Admiral Niathal, one of Pellaeon’s advisers.”
“She’s Mon Cal, not Corellian.”
“Well, she indicated that the psychological warfare experts had evaluated the Corellian planetary mind-set and were certain that this operation would have the desired effect-assuming the destruction of Centerpoint Station was effective.”
Jacen snorted. “What do you want to bet that they based their evaluations on old data? Pre-Vong-war data? Maybe even diktat-era. I don’t think they’ve factored in what surviving the war did to the Corellians. It stiffened their pride.”
“I’m sure they’re using up-to-date information. Regardless, that part of the operation is one I don’t have any influence on. It’s going ahead regardless of the opinion of the Jedi order.” Luke’s expression was still serene, but Jacen detected a flicker of regret. “Let’s get back.”
“I think I’ll walk awhile longer. Settle my thoughts. Figure out what I’m going to say to my father when the time comes.”
“Don’t overplan.” Luke clapped Jacen on the shoulder and turned back toward Han and Leia’s building. “The future is to be lived, not prearranged.”