“We found this in the air lock that Tawaler used when he was going out for fresh air,” Jaina said. “I haven’t had time to scan it for inorganic toxins, but there’s no biological activity going on in it. It just seems to be beadwork.”
“Accidentally dropped, or left for us to find?” Luke asked. “Carried by Tawaler, or someone else?”
Jaina shrugged. “No way to tell.”
“Excuse me.” The words came from overhead and all around-a set of public address speakers. Luke recognized the voice of Lieutenant Yorvin. “I have a priority holocomm contact coming in for Admiral Pellaeon. He’s not in his new quarters. Is there any chance he’s still in the lounge?”
“I’m here,” Pellaeon said. He heaved himself to his feet, and Tycho stood, too. “That’ll be the crack-of-dawn, report-any-changes call, and as soon as I report, this conference is done.” He sighed. “I’ll be back in a few minutes.” He walked stiffly from the room, and the door closed behind him and Tycho.
Wedge consulted his chrono. “The Prime Minister will be receiving one of those, too. And though she wouldn’t be obliged to receive it, I will be. If you’ll excuse me?” He rose and departed, as well.
“Leaving only Jedi,” Zekk said, “and a Jedi-in-law.”
Han scowled at him.
Luke stared at the others over his hands, which he held steepled before him in a meditative pose. “I think we can safely say that our mission at this station has been an utter failure. We’ve been outmaneuvered, and we have at least one enemy we didn’t know about before… and we know very little about now. In a few minutes, the delegations will be recalled. It’ll be time for Jedi investigations to get under way for real.
“Jacen, Ben, please see what you can find out about Captain Tawaler. We need to find out about the Force-user he apparently had contact with. She can’t have left no trace. If you can’t pick up a trail, continue with the shuttle she apparently escaped on.”
Jacen nodded. “Consider it done.”
“Jaina, Zekk, I want you to find out whatever you can about that tassel you found. Try to determine whether it was left accidentally or deliberately, where it came from, what it means. When that’s done, please return to the task force at Corellia and take command of Hardpoint Squadron until Mara and I get back from our groundside mission, which I’ll explain momentarily.
“Leia, Han, I’d like to ask you to continue trying to calm things down between Corellia and the GA. I can’t think of anybody better to run confidential messages between the two governments, even as they become more hostile, or to tell the leaders of two governments when they’re behaving like bantha bulls in roughhousing season.”
Leia exchanged a glance with her husband. “I suspect we can do that.”
“Mara and I will travel on to Corellia to see what we can find out about the possible origins of the assault made against us today.”
“They’re after me, too, aren’t they?” That was Ben, speaking for the first time since the Jedi had reconvened. His expression and voice were somber-not afraid, but far more serious than a thirteen-year-old’s should be, and Luke felt a lump begin to form in his throat.
“Yes,” he said. “If they’re after Jacen because of Centerpoint Station, they’re after you, too. Your youth may not mean anything to them. But understand me. Regardless of who they are, or how highly they’re placed, I’m not going to tolerate the continued-” He checked himself before he said existence. Revenge was not the way of the Jedi, not even when one’s own son had been the subject of a murder attempt. “-the continued freedom of people who target children for assassination.”
“How delicately expressed,” Mara said. “I don’t think there’s any way they’ll refrain from trying to kill us if we confront them, Luke. And when they do …”
“It’s never a good thing to hope for an opportunity to kill, Mara,” Luke said, his voice mild. But he had to admit to himself that the exact emotion was there in his own mind, hovering around his areas of self-control like neks circling a campfire just beyond the reach of its light. “All right. Let’s go. Ben, join me and your mother for a few minutes before it’s time to leave.”
Once the Skywalkers were out the door, Jacen gestured to get his sister’s attention, to keep her from following Zekk and the Jedi exodus. “Can I see that thing again?”
“Sure.” She held the tassel out to him.
Jacen looked it over. Close up, the mystery object proved to be an unusual example of beadcraft. It seemed to be a set of decorative tassels, each shaped and colored in an entirely different pattern, each attached to the longer central strand. At the top of the central strand was a cord, blue-black like the strand itself but unbeaded; it was three or four centimeters long and ended in a break, the cord material frayed. The object could have been caught on a corner, or grasped by the hand of a dying man and yanked free with relatively little effort, its loss unnoticed by its owner. Or, Jacen acknowledged, it could have been left deliberately.