[Legacy Of The Force] - 02(59)

“Does that mean Dad will see what’s happening?”

“I believe so,” said Jacen.

“Oh.”

“The only approval you need in your life is your own, Ben. Are you ashamed of anything you’ve done?”

Ben paused, lips parted, eyes slightly defocused. He was thinking about something very hard. “Only of things I haven’t done.”

“Such as?”

“Not telling you about someone who tried to shoot a CSF officer.”

Jacen could tell from Ben’s voice that there was a lot more to it than that. He noted it mentally. “We can talk about that later. Now go find a squad that needs assistance.”

Ben raced off still clutching his lightsaber, the blue blade leaving a ghost image as he moved. Across the chasm of the skylane, Jacen could see the telltale flash of light from holorecorders as the neighbors opposite recorded the raid for posterity, and-he had no doubt-for HNE.

He considered sending every holocam plummeting hundreds of meters to the ground with a multiple Force grab, but then decided he had to accept scrutiny. If you’re not prepared to do something in public, don’t do it at all.

And the raid was as much a statement of intent to others as it was to root out terrorists. It had to be seen to be done.

Jacen made a point of not shutting down his lightsaber. Even under the savage glare of the spotlamps, it was another green beacon, another symbol of Jedi involvement in something most Coruscanti hadn’t seen in two generations. This is what Jedi do, citizens. We act on your behalf. We don’t just sit around and debate in our lovely new Temple that you paid for.

Ben had an earnest and brief conversation with a squad sergeant and then stood back to wrench apart another set of doors using the Force. The light within streamed out dramatically, a hemorrhage of yellow light in a dark space between two pools of blue-white spotlight. Force-breaching caused a lot less damage than a detonite charge. Ben stood back to let the troops enter.

Jacen activated his secure comlink channel. “Shevu, how are we doing?”

“No fatalities so far, sir.” Bangs and crashes of something heavy being handled interrupted the captain. “Still more than fifteen hundred individuals to process, but the resistant targets have been neutralized and the rest appear to be compliant.”

Jacen translated mentally: We kicked down a few doors and the rest have given up. “Well done, Captain.”

The sight of lightsabers being wielded in a roundup of Corellians would not play well to the Jedi council, Jacen suspected.

It was just the beginning. For a tempting moment he wondered how his grandfather had felt in the transition to becoming loathed, but to Force-walk into time to find out would have meant first finding where that had taken place, and he didn’t know.

Jacen also didn’t know if he could face more revelations like the last one yet. But pain always had to be embraced-sooner or later.

FLEET SURPLUS DISPOSAL LOT, GALACTIC CITY, CORUSCANT.

“Captain Solo, are you sure we can’t accompany you back to Corellia?”

C-3P0 seemed reluctant to surrender the case of clothes to Han, as if hanging on to the handle would ensure that Han took him, too.

“Yeah, nobody would ever notice a golden droid. You’d be invisible.” Han didn’t like the smell of the small shuttle he’d bought from the government disposal lot. It was alien: he hadn’t realized how much of that small detail of the Falcon was embedded in his sense of comfort. He flicked through the controls on the console and despaired at the maximum velocity shown on the readout. “Stay here. Besides, you and Artoo can keep an eye on Jaina for us.”

“Han … “Leia’s voice drifted from the small cargo bay.

“Honey, nobody has protocol droids like him any longer. He’d be a-“

“Han, you need to see this.”

Han thought she’d found some mechanical fault he hadn’t spotted when he handed over the credits. He made his way back aft to see her staring transfixed at the holoscreen in one of the coffin-sized cabins.

“Another bomb?” he asked. It was a cramped space; he could hardly see the screen without squeezing past her and pressing his back against the aft bulkhead.

“Try bombshell.”

Han took a few moments to work out what he was looking at. Riot police-no, soldiers in black armor were storming buildings, and the caption said JABI TOWN: DAWN RAID ON CORELLIAN COMMUNITY. It was everything he expected from the Alliance. They were playing the Empire all over again, almost right down to the armor.

“Oh, you reckon this is going to shock me?”

Leia’s mouth was slightly open and her frown made her look as if she was close to tears. She held up her hand for quiet and he saw it was shaking slightly.