[Thrawn Trilogy] - 02(22)
“So you think Jorus C’baoth is alive?” Winter asked into his thoughts.
Luke glanced around. They’d reached the Grand Corridor now, which because of its location was usually fairly brimming with beings of all sorts. But today it was nearly empty, with only a few humans and others standing around in little conversation groups of their own, all of them too far away to eavesdrop. “I had a brief mental contact with another Jedi while I was on Nidlon,” he said, lowering his voice. “Afterward, Leia told me that there were rumors C’baoth had been seen on Jomark. I don’t know what other conclusion to come to.”
Winter was silent. “Any comments?” Luke prompted her.
She shrugged. “Anything having to do with Jedi and the Force are out of my personal experience, Commander,” she said. “I really can’t comment one way or another on that. But I’d have to say that the impression I got of C’baoth from Alderaanian history makes me skeptical.”
“Why?”
“It’s just an impression, you understand,” Winter emphasized. “Nothing I would even have mentioned if you hadn’t asked. C’baoth struck me as the sort of person who loved being in the middle of things. The sort who, if he couldn’t lead, control, or help in a particular situation, would still be there just so he’d be visible.”
They were passing by one of the purple-and-green ch’hala trees lining the Grand Corridor now, close enough for Luke to see the subtle moire like turmoil of color taking place beneath the thin transparent outer bark. “I suppose that fits with what I read,” he conceded, reaching out to slide a fingertip across the slender tree trunk as they walked. The subtle turmoil exploded at his touch into a flash of angry red across the quiet purple, the color shooting out around the trunk like ripples in a cylindrical pond, circling it again and again as it flowed up and down the trunk before finally fading to burgundy and then back to purple again. “I don’t know if you knew it, but he apparently promoted himself from Jedi Knight to Jedi Master. Seems like kind of a conceited thing to do.”
“Yes, it does,” Winter agreed. “Though at least by the time he came to Alderaan there didn’t seem to be any dispute about it. My point is that someone who likes the spotlight that much wouldn’t have stayed so completely out of the war against the Empire.”
“And a good point it is, too,” Luke admitted, half trying to watch the last bit of red fade away on the ch’hala tree he’d touched. The Nkllon contact with the mysterious Jedi had been like that: there for a short time, and then gone without a trace. Was C’baoth perhaps no longer fully in control of his powers? “New subject, then. What do you know about this Outbound Flight project the Old Republic put together?”
“Not much,” she said, frowning with concentration. “It was supposedly an attempt to search for life outside the galaxy proper, but the whole thing was so buried in secrecy they never released any details. I’m not even sure whether or not it was ever launched.”
“The records say it was,” Luke said, touching the next ch’hala tree in line as they passed by, eliciting another flash of red. “They also say that C’baoth was attached to the project. Does that mean he would have been aboard?”
“I don’t know,” Winter said. “There were rumors that several Jedi Masters would be going along, but again there was no official confirmation of that.” She looked sideways at him. “Are you thinking that might be why he wasn’t around during the Rebellion?”
“It’s possible,” Luke said. “Of course, that would just raise another whole set of questions. Like what happened to them and how he got back.”
Winter shrugged. “I suppose there’s one way to find out.”
“Yeah.” Luke touched the last tree in line. “Go to Jomark and ask him. I guess I’ll have to.”
Leia’s office was grouped with the other Inner Council suites just off the cross hallway that linked the Grand Corridor with the more intimate Inner Council meeting room. Luke and Winter entered the outer reception area, to find a familiar figure waiting there. “Hello, Threepio,” Luke said.
“Master Luke-how good to see you again,” the gold-skinned droid gushed. “I trust you’re well?”
“I’m fine,” Luke told him. “Artoo said to say hello when I saw you, by the way. They’ve got him over at the spaceport helping with some maintenance on my X-wing, but I’ll be bringing him back later this evening. You can see him then.”