One of the tassels continued to draw his eye, the tan one with the jagged black markings. Tiny black threads escaped through its surface, poking out from between the close-set beads. Viewed from the distance of a meter, they made the tassel look as though it needed a shave, but on closer inspection they resembled tiny claws.
The design of this tassel itself-Jacen could almost read the artist’s intent. The smooth tan represents peace, he told himself. The jagged black lines, strife. The curled threads are hooks, or claws. The moral: even a peaceful life will know strife, and strife presents hooks to drag you farther into the strife, a trap for the unwary. There was more to it than that, he knew-or at least felt. There was some sort of story involved in the message, but he couldn’t puzzle it out.
Abruptly he felt foolish. He was a Jedi Knight, not an art critic. It was not for him to try to wrest meaning out of patterns found on some bauble that probably cost less than a credit on a backwater planet’s street market. But the thing still drew him.
He became aware that Jaina was still speaking, her words lost in his distraction. He smiled at her and shook his head. “Sorry. I was daydreaming.”
“That’s not like you.”
“More like Anakin. Listen, would you like to trade?”
Jaina frowned. “Trade what?”
“Assignments. I’m feeling something from these tassels-can you?”
“No, not really.” She stooped to look them over more closely, then shook her head.
“So I should be the one to investigate them. You look into Tawaler, then go and take command of Uncle Luke’s squadron.”
Jaina briefly considered. “Let’s clear it with Uncle Luke first.”
“Let’s not. He’s been second-guessing a lot of my instincts lately… even though he keeps telling me to trust them. Well, I trust this one-I need to be the one to investigate the tassel.”
She gave him a long-suffering look. “And when he asks about it-“
“It’ll be all my fault.”
She nodded. “He’ll believe that. You are male, after all.”
Luke, Mara, and Ben walked along Varganner Way, one level up from and running precisely parallel to Kallebarth Way. This passageway had been locked down for the brief duration of the GA/Corellia diplomatic mission; now Luke had it opened, temporarily, so he and his family could take a private walk.
They paused at a recess dominated by an outer-hull wall made up entirely of crystal-clear transparisteel. It showed the same view as the viewport in the Solo suite, but even less bounded, and at this moment the Skywalkers could gaze upon a majestic field of stars and the distant sun of Kuat.
Finally Luke said, “Ben, your thoughts are very close to the surface.”
“We should all go there together,” the boy said. “To Corellia. Us and Jacen and Jaina. And we should hammer on Thrackan Sal-Solo until he admits what he did, and lock him away so he doesn’t do it anymore.”
“All together as a family, yes?” Luke asked.
Ben nodded, but didn’t look at his father. He stubbornly kept his attention on a diamond-shaped nebula far away.
“We’re all mad because they attacked,” Mara said. “But we can’t use our Jedi abilities just because we’re mad. We can’t attack Thrackan under the assumption that he’s responsible; we have to have more evidence.”
“I know.” Ben sounded resigned. “If you’re mad, you can’t let your instincts guide your actions, ‘cause it may not be the Force, it’s probably your anger. But we could do it when we’re cold inside. Jacen’s cold inside a lot.”
His parents exchanged a quick look. Luke said, “I think what you’re feeling as coldness is really submergence into the Force. His own emotions will go away for a while. That can seem cold.”
“Whatever.” Ben shrugged. “But we could still do it. We could grab Sal-Solo. And we could stop the Corellians from starting a war.”
“That’s another issue. What if the Force tells you not to beat them? Or doesn’t tell you anything at all about whether they should win?”
Finally Ben did look up at him. “Huh?”
“Ben, can you honestly tell me that the Corellians shouldn’t have freedom from the Galactic Alliance if they want it? Think about the Corellians you know-Uncle Han and Wedge Antilles, for instance. If most of the people in their system want to be independent, why shouldn’t they be?”
Ben frowned. “That doesn’t make any sense. They’re part of the Galactic Alliance. They can’t just leave.”
“Why not?” Mara asked.
“It’ll cause unrest. That’s what Jacen says.”