We should both know better. “Han, how long have we known each other?”
“Long enough for you to know that the way the Alliance is behaving should give you that proverbial bad feeling. The kind I get.”
“Han … ,” Leia said. It was a quiet warning. “Knock it off.”
“No, let him have his say.” Luke was suddenly conscious of Ben watching him, and this wasn’t the way he wanted his son to see him-starting a verbal brawl with his best friend when all everyone needed right then was to he glad they were still alive. “I happen to think you’re playing Thrackan Sal-Solo’s game with this Corellian knee-jerk response to any suggestion of being team players.”
“Whoa there, kid-whose team? Yours?”
“You can take this independence thing too far.”
“Yeah, and you were quick enough to use my sense of rugged individuality when it suited you in the past, pal. But I can’t pick it up and put it down that easy. It’s who I am.”
“Let’s not argue over this,” said Luke.
“We just did.” Han shook his head. He stood staring at Luke for a few moments, looking more bewildered than angry. “They use you every time. Show me a government that hasn’t used Jedi to legitimize its actions. You’re like some galactic rubber stamp. Why are you backing Omas? You of all people. Does the name Palpatine ring a bell?”
“That was different. He was Sith.”
“And Omas is a jerk, or at least a puppet for a whole mess of other jerks. Well, count me out. You’ve got my kids working for you, and that’ll have to be enough.”
“Oh, boy,” said Mara. But Luke could sense her embarrassment and fear. “I love to see the grown-ups in action. Jacen? Let’s make some caf for Leia while these two spray testosterone around the room. Come on, Ben. You, too.”
“Yeah, I’ve had enough of this, as well,” said Leia. She got up and stood between the two men, all weary annoyance. “Cut it out, Han. And you, Luke. We’ve got enough problems without having a civil war inside this family.”
Luke felt an uneasy dragging sensation in his gut that he hadn’t experienced for many, many years. It was self-doubt. Maybe Han had a point. Jedi had fallen into expedience before, and it had brought them down. The Force had ways of ringing that alarm bell. And Han was right: this was who he was-stubbornly independent, the one heading the opposite way when the crowds were streaming past him in the other direction, not because it paid him best-however polished his veneer of smart-mouthed, callous fortune hunter-but because he thought it was right.
And he would die rather than concede that independence. Han was Corellian. No, he was Corellia. Luke avoided generalizations, but Corellians were all like that, including those living here. It didn’t fill him with confidence.
He sighed and held out his hand, genuinely wishing he hadn’t said a word.
Han didn’t take it. “I’m going to go see a man about a ship,” he said, and stalked out.
Jacen walked up behind Luke and patted his shoulder. “I’m sorry, Uncle Luke. If I’d known you were here, I’d have called ahead to say they were coming. Dad’s pretty strung out right now, and it’s not just the politics. It’s Jaina and Thrackan and now the Falcon.”
It crossed Luke’s mind that Jacen should have been able to detect his and Mara’s presence in the Force, but it was an unkind thought. Perhaps part of shutting down his own presence was becoming insensitive to others. Luke realized Jacen’s Force skills seemed to be getting stronger and more subtle every day, and he felt uneasy.
“What did Han mean about projecting the Force?”
Jacen shrugged, once again the thoughtful man who felt compassion for every living thing. “Mom was trying to hold the Falcon’s hull together so-I suppose I added my Force-strength to it through her. Almost like we did against the Killiks to deflect their weapons.”
“Almost,” said Luke. No, they hadn’t quite done that: channeling the Force was a new one to him. “You’ve developed some impressive skills lately.”
Jacen was the only other Jedi Luke knew who could defeat Lomi Plo’s illusion of invisibility. The trick was to have no doubts that could be turned against you as a diversion.
I have a lot of doubts. I think I have more doubts than certainties right now.
But as Jacen turned away from him, Luke caught a very faint touch of something familiar in his mind, almost like a trace of a familiar perfume. It was an echo; it felt ancient. Luke almost opened his mouth to inhale it.
Then he realized what it was. He knew who it was.