Ben was still asleep in the suite next door. The boy had done a lot of growing up in the last few weeks, and Jacen saw the man he would become-strong, but measured and able to control his passions-but today’s work was for Jacen alone. He summoned an air taxi and headed for the Senate Building.
The taxi dropped him in the plaza, where a few people were already entering and leaving the huge domed structure. Senate delegates kept odd hours. There was always activity in the building, always a debate or a select committee or some business in progress twenty-four hours a day. The Mon Calamari started their day early, and Jacen wanted to simply run into Niathal without arranging a meeting and so attracting attention.
And he could do that.
He knew where Niathal was. When he had seen her the day before, he had formed a lasting Force impression of her as someone who wanted to talk to him very badly. She wanted Omas’s job, although she was going to have to go through the office of Supreme Commander first. Admiral Pellaeon, new in the post but a veteran in the world of military politics, was not about to cede his office yet. Of course she wanted to talk to Jacen. Word of his willingness to solve problems decisively had obviously reached her.
So he could feel her now. And when he walked into the building and made his way along the marble public corridors and then along the carpeted ones accessible only to those with accredited identicards, he was tracking her.
Am I scheming? Jacen was ambushed by the thought. No. I have to know who I can rely on, if I ever need them.
He didn’t need to influence her to get her to walk his way. He simply found the offices where she and other Mon Calamari had gathered, and found somewhere to sit where she would pass him sooner or later. He settled on a padded bench in the lobby and watched the doors.
A naval officer tied to a desk. No wonder she’s frustrated. Jacen wondered how she would handle high office if she got her wish and took Omas’s job. Politics were the ultimate frustration.
He thought of Lumiya while he waited. And Ben had asked if he was going to tell Luke about Brisha and Nelani. Hello, Uncle, Lumiya’s back. Thought you’d like to know-for old times’ sake. No, it wasn’t news he felt he could break to him.
Jacen felt the ripple of disagreement and counterargument around Niathal and her resistance as she stood firm. Sometimes he could almost see it, like a faint ghost image of color and shape and movement as the emotions ebbed and flowed. Niathal was all certainty. That was something he sought, too.
He heard doors part and the muffled sound of voices. Admiral Niathal appeared in the lobby in a white uniform, very formal, and had no choice but to spot him. He was facing the doors. She had to acknowledge him. Jacen stood.
No use of the Force. Let’s see where this leads.
“Jedi Solo,” she said, giving him that sideways stare. He felt her caution. “Are you here on business?”
“Just passing.”
“I’d like to hear your account of the raid on Centerpoint. It would be very helpful.”
Jacen bowed his head politely. “Would you like to continue the discussion outside this building?”
Niathal began walking toward the exit without answering. That didn’t take any persuasion at all. They didn’t speak until they were outside and crossing the plaza. Niathal was not one for small talk, and Jacen liked her forthright manner.
“How far back have we really set Centerpoint Station?” she asked. They headed for the public landing area and got into one of the waiting air taxis. “Cayan Club, driver.”
That was a very exclusive officers’ club that Jacen had never visited. Useful. He closed the partition that separated the passenger cabin from the cockpit to ensure privacy. “Six months,” he said. “No more.”
“Then,” said Niathal, “that’s how long we have until a full war breaks out.”
She left the stark analysis hanging on the air, as if she was waiting for Jacen to fill the silence.
“I don’t feel the galaxy can take another war so soon after the Yuuzhan Vong invasion,” he said.
“It’ll be the fourth major war in a century, yes. Poor odds.”
“I’d like to be able to look forward to a century without war.”
“And I’d like to be forced to look for another job, Jedi Solo.”
Jacen thought for a moment that she was being brutally open about her political ambitions, but the way she rolled her head slightly and looked at the battle honor ribbons on her uniform made him realize she meant an end to any need for war.
Perhaps the two were the same thing. “My own family is divided over this.”
“Most Jedi never have families,” Niathal said.