[Legacy Of The Force] - 08(74)

What did that mean?

“Dad…” Ben had no problem throwing his arms around his father now and crushing him to his chest. He couldn’t remember why he’d felt awkward about it even a year ago. Grown men in the GAG, the toughest guys he knew, hugged and cried and didn’t care what they looked like doing it. “I can’t tell you how glad I am to get back.” “You look whacked.”

“Been busy.” He’d tell me if Mom had appeared to him. Wouldn’t he? Ben prodded Luke’s flight suit, trying to get the banter going. “Been putting in flying hours, then? Worried about skills fade?”

“Going to be putting in more, Ben.”

“What did I miss?”

“Jacen’s lined up to take Fondor, and we’ve put one hydrospanner in his works, and we’re going to add a few more. Oh, and Han and Leia are still scouting for a new base.” Luke started walking to a rank of parked swoop bikes in various stages of decay. None of them gave a hint that the Jedi fighting elite was holed up here. He half turned as he walked, gesturing to his chest. “You taken up smashball? You nearly broke my ribs with whatever’s in your jacket.”

It was as good a time as any. “It’s a CSF remote forensics droid. It’s evidence.”

Luke swung his leg across the saddle of the first bike in the line. Ben climbed up behind him. “My son the soldier, now my son the cop. Did you find anything? Your expression says you did.”

“Yes, I did.” The bike shot off. “Plenty.”

Luke twisted his head to look at Ben. “And?”

“Hey, eyes forward, Dad!” The swoop swerved and straightened again. “Look, I’m not the jury or the judge. Remember that I wanted to kill Jacen on the spot? You stopped me, and I learned a big lesson. I’m just the detective, the prosecution. When I show you what I gathered-and Uncle Han and Aunt Leia, too-then you decide.” The swoop whipped through thin branches, and Ben ducked his head this way and that to avoid a smack in the face. Dad seemed to relive his wild Rebel youth whenever he got on a bike. “So I’ll lay out the case as objectively as I can. I’ve shown you the Force-hiding trick, and you know Jacen couldn’t have found me on Kavan by chance, but that’s not enough on its own. I’m laying out supporting evidence-and anything else I’ve found that’s relevant, whether it supports my theory or not, like Lon Shevu taught me. I want to know the truth, even if it I don’t like it.”

Luke didn’t reply, but his shoulders lifted as if he’d shrugged, and Ben heard him gulp a breath. He didn’t look over his shoulder this time.

“Ben…”

“Yeah?”

“Ben…” Stang, he was crying. “Ben, you make me so proud. You know that? You’re so… decent.”

“Hey, come on… come on…” Ben patted his back. “Doing the right thing isn’t something special. It’s the minimum. It’s where we start each morning, not where we try to end up one day in the future. You taught me that.”

Luke started to say something, but just shook his head and steered straight and more slowly.

“You asked me a question when you first joined the Guard.”

Dad was getting too serious. “How to fasten my boots? Which end of the blaster I had to hold? Hey, I was just a kid then…”

Luke managed a snort of laughter, the kind that could have tipped over too easily into a sob. “A rhetorical question, I think. How many people I killed when I fought the Empire.”

“Oh, that.”

“And I said, ‘But they were all…. and then I had to stop, because I hadn’t thought about it before as much as I should have. I should never have said ‘but.’ “

“Dad, if you slow down any more, we’re going to stall…”

“Okay. Sorry.” Luke landed the swoop and they sat in knee-high spiky grass listening to the ticking of the cooling drive and the chorus of forest noises from animals they couldn’t see. Ben laid his hand on his lightsaber, just in case. He didn’t feel quite as safe in the wilds as he’d thought. “And you were right-most of them were just ordinary troopers, or ship’s crew, who maybe didn’t like the Empire very much but had to earn a living, or couldn’t say no. They weren’t all Imperial fanatics set on galactic oppression. They were just people, and I was nineteen and I probably felt deep down that if they weren’t as ready to re-sist Palpatine as I was, then they had to be cowards, or evil, or something that made them unlike me… made them Worth less than me.” Luke swiveled as far as he could in the saddle to face Ben. “I hadn’t a clue about the politics, Ben. It wasn’t really a cause I thought hard about. I just felt I had to save someone in trouble. So… yes, I killed a lot of people I wish I hadn’t. And their lives weren’t cheap or meaningless. And now… five crews are dead because I let Fondor know too much, and I feel terrible about that, too.”