That was worth everything he was risking.
Jacen took an air taxi back to a plaza a few minutes’ walk from the GAG HQ: just another citizen, no sleek black GA transport, no privilege. Either the driver didn’t recognize the uniform, or he hesitated to say, Here, you’re the chief of the secret police, aren’t you? It was a silent, contemplative journey.
It was time to make sure nothing went wrong, if manifest destiny could go wrong. He opened his comlink and called Lumiya.
“Shira,” he said, aware of the pilot up front. “I need you to do a job for me.”
chapter seven
Goran, in Fett’s absence, I think you really ought to see this. I don’t think it can wait. Sometimes the vongese do you a favor.
Site foreman Herik Vorad, on examination of excavated rock from land north of Enceri, Mandalore
SAFE HOUSE, CORUSCANT
So you’re going to do it before you achieve your full Sith powers,” said Lumiya. She lit the candles and closed the blinds. Jacen needed to shut out the world and feel what was happening; he was running increasingly on a mundane agenda, the agenda of the lesser beings he worked with. “Why?”
“If I do it afterward, when might afterward be?” Jacen watched the flames shimmering and settled down cross-legged on a floor cushion, but his eyes kept wandering away from the focus of concentration, and Lumiya felt obliged to rap him sharply on the top of his head and point at the candle. “Omas is doing a deal with Gejjen. The deal excludes me, and Niathal, possibly in a rather terminal way.”
Working in the world of those who couldn’t use the Force, Jacen was falling into conniving and manipulating just like them, and while Lumiya didn’t think that was a bad thingall tools were valid to achieve the outcomehe was letting himself be bound by their rules. He was talking about timing. He had full mastery of the Force, but he seemed to enjoy using the limited tricks of ordinary people.
The admiral was irrelevant in the long term. He had to be aware of that. “Niathal is afraid of you, Jacen. Or at least wary.”
“Don’t you think I know that? She’d be an idiot if she trusted anyone at this level of government.”
“You waste too much energy playing mundanes’ games instead of using the Force.”
“I’ll use it when I need to. Most of the time now, it’s overkill.”
Jacen always seemed to want to prove how much smarter, how much more skilled he was than his adversaries, how he could beat them on their own terms. Vanity wasn’t always a bad thing in a Sithas long as it didn’t control him. It was just a matter of getting him to pause and refocus.
“Meditate,” said Lumiya.
Jacen stared through her for a moment, and then stared unblinking at the candle until he eventually closed his eyes. He opened one eye slowly, looking as if he might be about to make a joke. Lumiya didn’t feel in a humorous mood.
“Actually, I called you for a reason,” he said.
“I know. But I’d like to approach this like Force-users, not like some tedious little committee in the Senate.” It was time to remind him he still had one more step to take before he could begin to teach her anything. “Calm yourself and put the world to one side.”
Jacen shut his eyes again, andfor onceseemed to relax enough to allow a little of his state of mind to filter through the barrier that he now kept in place most of the time. Lumiya sensed the solid confidence and focus that typified him. But there was still the faintest hint of the old Jacen, wounded by bereavement and pain, scared of doing necessary things. That was the last tinge of doubt and reluctance that
his final step would erase. It would enable him to cross the line into his full Sith legacy.
She didn’t know when afterward might be, either, or even who. She only knew it was soon.
“You don’t need to play their games, Jacen,” she said softly. “Even now your powers put you far beyond their reach. Omas can’t touch you. Neither can Gejjen. When you achieve your destiny, they’ll be less than irrelevant.”
“Powers or not, I can’t control a galaxy on my own. I need to persuade, to carry people with me. The Force can’t affect the minds of millions.”
Ah, you enjoy the power you can wield with simple mind games. Don’t make Palpatine’s mistakes. That’s an indulgence. It’s not worthy of you.
“Jacen,” she said. “I want you to take stock and feel. Stop overanalyzing. It won’t reveal any truths to you. Just facts. Facts only show you what you want to see.”
Jacen opened his eyes again. “But it’s so fleeting. The line between a crazy impulse and guidance from the Force is getting harder to draw.”