[Legacy Of The Force] - 02(92)
“It all depends on your definition of good, doesn’t it?”
“I want Ben to go to the academy and get himself straightened out for a while.”
“Normally I’d say that’s your decision to make as his father, but he’s a Jedi, and he has a job to do at which he’s actually very good-identifying threats.”
“He’s thirteen years old, for goodness’ sake.”
“And you thought that was old enough to send him on a commando raid. I hate to question your logic, Uncle, but this isn’t making sense to me.” Go on, say it. Tell me that you think I’m turning to the dark side. That’s what you think, isn’t it? Let’s have it out in the open. Accuse me. “He isn’t using violence. Why is it okay for Jaina, Zekk, and me to fly combat missions that end in the deaths of other pilots, but it’s not all right for Ben to find terrorists and help arrest them?”
Luke pinched the bridge of his nose. Mara’s face was ashen; she looked drawn and strained.
Jacen decided to make his move. He could carry on without Ben as his apprentice, but sooner or later he would need one, and Ben was progressing by leaps and bounds. He liked the boy; he wanted to see him make the most of his potential. “I don’t want to put you on the spot, Mara, but do you agree with this?”
“I think we need to talk this through with Ben,” she said carefully. “He’s settled down well, and I think we need to discuss this when we’re not so tired and irritable.”
“Actually, no,” said Luke. “I think there’s something that needs to be said right now. Jacen, you need to know that Lumiya is on Coruscant. You know who Lumiya is, don’t you?”
It took all of Jacen’s control to maintain his facade of ignorance and use the past tense, relegating her to history. “Yes. She was a Dark Jedi.”
“She’s back. She’s here. I had terrible Force dreams about a hooded figure threatening us all, and then I felt her somewhere near.”
Look patient, as if you’re humoring him. “What’s this got to do with Ben?”
“I don’t know yet. But I feel it has everything to do with Ben. Don’t put it past Lumiya to engineer events to serve her purposes.”
“Okay.” Jacen feigned a half smile as if embarrassed. “I’ll be on my guard.”
Luke appeared slightly deflated, as if he had heard his own words repeated back to him and had second thoughts about them. “When Ben’s finished whatever he’s doing today, ask him to come and see me. He’s not answering his comlink.”
There was no point having a confrontation. Ben wouldn’t listen to Luke, and Jacen could sense that Mara wouldn’t, either. “Whatever Ben wants, I’ll go along with it,” he said.
Jacen left and walked out to the turbolift lobby. He was torn between returning to the blockade and concentrating on his security role, but the latter was clearly more urgent. Outside, the protest had been broken up and CSF assault ships were loading handcuffed men and women who had been arrested. The situation was going to get worse before it got better. It was time to get back to the GAG headquarters and have Shevu brief him on progress with the detainees and especially the bounty hunter they had picked up.
There was one other urgent task, though. He opened his comlink and keyed in the code on his secure link.
“Lumiya,” he said. “I need to talk to you.”
GALACTIC ALLIANCE GUARD HQ, QUADRANT A-89, GALACTIC CITY.
More rioting had broken out in one of the commercial zones, and a couple of the GAG intelligence officers were poring over images being relayed back to them via helmet cams worn by CSF riot squads. Ben watched them for a while, trying to learn how they recognized faces and tracked the movements of what they called “persons of interest” around the city. When a Jedi relied on his Force-senses, he never learned how to do the thinking that regular people had to do to solve problems. Jacen always reminded him about that, telling him not to let his brain rust just because he had Force powers.
“Are we doing riot control now?” asked Ben.
One officer turned to him, but his eyes were still on the screen. “That’s CSF’s problem. What we’re looking for are faces we might know from the last job.” The intel officers were ex-CSF Anti-Terrorist Unit. He pointed to a figure masked by the press of bodies. “I think we’ve got an old buddy here who we could never quite nail on explosives charges.”
They seemed pleased. Ben looked forward to accompanying them when they turned his place over, as they put it. It was interesting to learn how many terrorists had pretty basic criminal backgrounds; Ben’s impression of them as fanatical people with a political cause wasn’t the whole picture. It seemed that a whole range of people ended up getting involved, and for all kinds of reasons. He was learning more every hour.