[Legacy Of The Force] - 03(116)

“Thank you.” Jacen extended his hand. “But leave the datapad.”

Orlopp wrinkled his snout in concern, but passed over the datapad and departed. Jacen checked the display to make certain his daughter was indeed okay, as Orlopp had reported, then set the unit on a table and blanked the screen. His conversation with Lumiya was going to be difficult enough without having to explain his obsession with safeguarding Allana.

A moment later, a slender woman in a black flight suit appeared in the doorway, her face concealed behind a closed helmet visor. Jacen immediately had the sense that something was wrong-not dangerous, but not what he had expected, either. For a moment he thought the cause might be his own feelings. Perhaps he was merely nervous about meeting Lumiya after he had tried to set her up at Roqoo Depot. Or perhaps his real fear was that she had prevailed after all-that Luke and Mara were dead.

Then Jacen noticed how much taller and more slender this pilot was than Lumiya, how bulky her helmet was in back, how one shoulder sagged. He let his hand drop to his lightsaber.

“That’s far enough until I see your face.”

The pilot stopped, and a dark flutter of amusement rippled unevenly through the Force. Leaving one hand to hang useless at her side, she reached up with the other and released the neck ring.

“You mustn’t kill us.” Even modulated through a helmet speaker, her voice sounded silky and half familiar-and it definitely did not belong to Lumiya. “We have news of your Master.”

“My Master?”

“Your Sith Master… Lumiya.” The helmet rose, revealing a once-beguiling face that had gone hard and sharp. “Surely, you’re curious about what became of her at Roqoo Depot?”

A pillar of fire rose inside Jacen. Alema Rar had been a Gorog Joiner, a member of the Killik nest that had tried to kill his daughter as a newborn-and now here she was aboard the same ship as Allana. Before he knew it, Jacen had ignited his lightsaber and grabbed her in the Force.

Alema allowed him to draw her closer, her eyes gleaming with unbalanced delight. “You would do it,” she snickered, “You would kill us without a thought!” Startled by the truth in her words, Jacen released her. “Without hesitation,” he corrected. How many times had Lumiya told him he could not be a servant to his emotions? If he wanted to restore order, his emotions had to serve him. “But I have been thinking about it, I’ve thought about it a lot.”

“That is nice to know, Jacen.” Alema’s lip curled into an odd sneer, what she probably intended to be a coy smile that her haggard face could no longer muster. “We have been thinking about you, too.”

“And that still sends a creep down my back,” Jacen replied. “Now, since I really doubt you came here to fulfill a death wish, why don’t you tell me about Lumiya?”

Alema raised one thin eyebrow. “You don’t deny that she is your Master?”

Jacen shrugged. “I doubt there would be much use in it.” He glanced at the holodisplay, where his pursuit detail was just crashing into the screen of Galney ships, then added, “And I’m kind of in the middle of something, as you can see.”

Alema’s gaze went from the holodisplay to his lightsaber, and she retreated a step.

“Go ahead and kill us, then. You should.” Despite the Twi’lek’s words, she seemed clearly less confident about her chances of leaving the salon alive than she had been a few minutes earlier. “We are the only ones who know AI-lana’s heritage-aside from you and Tenel Ka, of course.” Jacen’s hatred welled up inside him again-or perhaps this time it was alarm. He had always worried that the

Gorog had been told the secret of his daughter’s heritage when they were engaged to assassinate her. Now Alema had confirmed his fears, and he ached to do exactly as she suggested and snuff the life from her twisted body.

But it had to be a trap-the Twi’Iek would never have tempted him if protecting his secret were as simple as killing her.

“I’ve never liked threats,” Jacen warned. “These days, I don’t tolerate them at all.”

“Then it is a good thing we were not making a threat,” Alema replied coolly. “We were making a suggestion. Gorog tried to kill your daughter. We are all that remains of Gorog. You should kill us.”

“And have gossipvids claiming that I’m Ailana’s father start popping up all over the Consortium?”

“Did we say that would happen?” Alema asked innocently. “We are concerned with higher purposes, Jacen. We serve the Balance.”

Jacen knew better than to believe her. Alema Rar would never have come within a light-year of him without some means of assuring her safety, and the most likely form of that assurance was the very threat she had so skillfully avoided making directly. Were Alema to fail to leave the Anakin alive, he had no doubt that the secret of his daughter’s heritage would quickly become public knowledge.