[Legacy Of The Force] - 02(124)
C-3P0 trotted along behind him, all anxiety. “Allow me, Master Jacen.”
Jacen held up his hand to the droid in polite refusal of help. “It’s okay, Threepio. I’ll do it.”
What’s happening to me?
Jacen pondered how he had moved from the kind of Jedi that Luke was proud of to one who could kill prisoners and even other Jedi. Somewhere in that five years of seeking Force knowledge, something had changed him. He wondered at what point he would be able to bring Lumiya into the open.
His parents’ shuttle came alongside the Falcon and docked with her cargo hatch. Leia was first into the bay, and although her first move was to hug him it felt formal, distant, as if she was holding back. His father trailed behind, looking broken. There was no other word for it. He made no attempt to embrace him.
“Hi.” Han glanced past him at C-3PO. He didn’t normally take that much notice of the droid. “Hi, Threepio. Are the Noghri with you?”
Jacen ignored the snub. “Hi, Mom. Hi, Dad.” What did you say at times like this? He plunged in. “Yes, they’re in the cabin. Have you heard from Jaina?”
“No.”
Leia cut in. “You want to tell us something?”
Jaina hadn’t told them about the court-martial, then. “No. She’s fine. Not flying combat missions.” If she wanted to keep the matter to herself, that was fine by him. “I’m sure Zekk’s keeping an eye on her.”
“Is there anything else you want to tell us, Jacen?” Leia was talking to him as if he were a kid who’d done something terrible. “Anything at all?”
“What, exactly?”
Han sighed with that roll of the head that always told Jacen he was in trouble. “Son, we’re collecting a corpse from you. That should give you a clue.”
“She was hired to kill you. She never got the chance.” Jacen opened the conservator hatch, and cold air rolled out. He indicated the large black bag lying flat on the durasteel gurney. “What more is there to say?”
Han now stood between him and his mother. “I need to know what happened. For my own sanity.”
Leia scratched one brow, clearly embarrassed. “I think we both need to know, Jacen.”
“Okay, Dad, I was interrogating her and she died. Do you really want to know the details?”
“It kind of makes a difference, Jacen.”
“I used a mind-invasion technique to make her talk. She must have had some physical weakness. She died of an aneurysm.”
“Can we take a look?” Leia asked. “We have to hand her over to Fett. We don’t want any surprises.”
She’d look anyway. Jacen had to face this sooner or later. He decided sooner was better. He hauled out the gurney, then opened the bag down its gription seam.
“There,” he said.
Leia and Han looked. His mother simply swallowed hard, but his father turned away with his hands on his hips, head bowed. Jacen waited while Leia composed herself, then fastened the seam again.
“Did you put those bruises on her face?”
This is the price you pay. He could almost hear Lumiya reminding him, but it would take a long time for him to forget the look of utter betrayal on his mother’s face at that moment. This felt like his lowest ebb.
“I believe so.”
“You believe so.”
“Yes.”
Leia nodded a few times, silent, staring off to one side. “Okay. Not much more I can say, then.” She took the repulsor gurney’s handle and moved the body back into the conservator. “We’d better be going.”
Jacen waited for his father to say something, but Han wouldn’t even turn around. Jacen went to the hatch to board the vessel they’d flown to the RV point and expected Han to relent and say something, but he didn’t.
I can’t just end it like this. I’ll make him speak to me. I have to. Why can’t he understand?
“Did you really kill Thrackan, Dad?”
Han turned and looked him in the eye, but there was no spark of recognition. “Hey, maybe it runs in the family. If I can kill in cold blood, so can my boy. I’m glad we understand each other.”
Jacen went to take his father’s arm. “Dad, don’t do this-“
Han shook it off. “Get away from me.”
“Dad-“
“I don’t know who you are, but you aren’t my son anymore. My Jacen would never do the kind of stuff you do. Get out. I don’t want to know any more.”
Jacen’s last sight of his parents was his father turning his back and his mother standing by the hatch as the doors closed, staring at him as if she was about to burst into tears.
Dad’s right. What am I?