Remnant: Force Heretic I (48 page)

“If it’s all the same to you, Admiral, I think we should take our leave now,” she said. “I imagine there is still much that needs to be discussed here, and given the general feeling toward us in this room, it might be easier for you to do this without us here.”

The Grand Admiral acknowledged Mara with a curt bow. “Thank you,” he said. Then, with a glance to the other Jedi standing there, added, “for everything.”

One by one the Jedi filed from the room—Luke, Mara, Saba, Tekli, and Jacen—leaving the Grand Admiral alone with the Moffs to go over the details of his plans. As the rest of the party continued to move down the corridor, Jacen paused outside to look back briefly into the room. Already the discussion was becoming heated again, with those gathered around the table gesticulating wildly as they raised their voices to make their opinions heard on the matter of the Empire’s new allies.

The door hissed shut, muting the ongoing debate. Jacen turned to catch up with the others, only to find Mara still standing there waiting for him.

“You look worried,” she said.

He swallowed a sound that might have been a laugh, but could just as easily have been an exclamation of annoyance. “Try as I—or Gilad—might,” he said, “I find it hard to believe that anyone in that room will ever really regard us as allies. Despite everything we did for them, they still hold us in such mistrust.”

“Not all of them.” She shrugged. “We’ve made a lot of progress today—”

“I know, I know, and we’ll probably end up with some kind of shallow alliance in place before long. But …” He gesticulated vaguely in lieu of actually finding words for what he wanted to say. “Is that enough?”

“Maybe,” Mara said. “And maybe you’re right. Maybe it won’t come to anything more than pretty words from an ugly mouth. But when it comes to the fight against the Yuuzhan Vong, I’ll happily take a shallow alliance over none at all.”

“True.” He offered a half smile in the face of his aunt’s optimism.

Mara chuckled at the effort. “That’s just the way things are, Jacen,” she said, putting an arm around his
shoulder and guiding him with her to join the others. He didn’t resist her. “Sometimes it’s harder to make a friend than it is to fight an enemy.”

Two days later, Luke watched from
Jade Shadow
’s cockpit as the Imperial Navy reassembled for its mission Coreward. Advance scouts had found the location of B’shith Vorrik’s rear guard, and Pellaeon was keen to press home their advantage and push the Yuuzhan Vong back even farther.

“You’ll require an escort on your mission into the Unknown Regions,” Pellaeon said from the bridge of
Right to Rule
, his image displayed in miniature by the holo-projector between Luke and Mara.

“We’re quite capable of handling ourselves, Admiral,” Mara said.

“Think of it as a gesture,” Pellaeon replied. “A political act rather than a military one.”

“A gesture of unity?”

Pellaeon nodded. “Something like that.”

Mara grunted unhappily. “What exactly did you have in mind?”

“Captain Yage has volunteered the services of
Widowmaker
, and I have given approval. She’s one of the best officers I have. She’ll give you support if you need it, but she won’t get in your way, I assure you. You can count on her to be discreet.”

Luke knew that Yage was a good choice; she had proved herself to be very pragmatic and open-minded.
“We don’t really know what we’re heading into,” he said, “so we won’t make a point of refusing the offer.”

“You never know,” Pellaeon said, smiling. “You might even be glad you accepted it, one day.”

Luke smiled in return, then asked, “You have the information from Moff Crowal?”

“I have. We’ll download it to your navicomputers in a second. She’s supervised numerous scouting missions into the Unknown Regions, some of which made contact with civilizations there. One of her ethnologists has an interest in comparative religions and has recorded a number of myths and legends prevalent among most cultures. One of the more interesting legends is that of a wandering planet, known to appear in systems briefly and then flee when approached. Does this sound something like what you might be looking for?”

Descriptions of Zonama Sekot were nonexistent beyond what Vergere had told Jacen, but they knew without a doubt that it could move of its own volition, employing massive hyperspace engines mounted deep in its crust and powered by the planet’s core. Luke doubted that there would be two such planets in the galaxy.

“Can you tell us where it was last seen?” he asked.

Pellaeon shook his head. “All we have are the stories, I’m afraid. But I can tell you where these stories hail from. Since it’s not a universal fable, you might at least be able to trace some sort of path.”

“That might work,” Mara said, glancing over the hologram to Luke. “If we could get enough information like that, then we should be able to work out where it’s been.”

“But what happens when you find it?” the Grand Admiral asked. “If the legends are right, it’s only going to run away again.”

“That’s something we’re just going to have to deal
with when the time comes,” Luke said. “If the time comes, that is.”

“Either way,” Pellaeon said, “it looks like you’re going to have your hands full.”

“No more than you’ll have, convincing Vorrik to stay away from your home,” Luke said.

“That should be easy compared to getting up in front of a certain Princess to tell her that the Empire has changed its mind.”

“You won’t be talking to Leia,” Luke said. “She’s dealing with other things at the moment.” They had received a brief update of his sister’s activities on Galantos when communications had been normalized after the attack. It concerned him, the way the Yuuzhan Vong were beginning to mop up lesser threats around the edges of their territory, regardless of the strength of their grip on the center. Even if the center fell, the peripheries could still suffer major damage before the threat was eradicated.

“One of your Jedi friends, then,” Pellaeon said. “I’m sure they have things nicely in order on Mon Calamari.”

“Not the Jedi, either,” Luke corrected him again. “We’re staying well out of politics this time. I have come to the opinion that the Force is best at guiding an individual, not a nation of any size. The forces that direct a cell to grow aren’t appropriate for the plant as a whole—and are maybe even destructive. The last thing we want is another Palpatine.”

“A wise move, I think,” Pellaeon said. “But whom should I talk to, then?”

“Head of State Cal Omas,” Luke said. “Or Supreme Commander Sien Sovv.”

“The same Sovv who cost you Coruscant?”

“His reputation is undeserved, as he has recently proven,” Luke defended. “And even if it was, we need someone like him to lead us to the right kind of victory:
only someone who has faced losing everything can sympathize with a defeated enemy.”

Pellaeon chuckled this time. “Skywalker, you’re getting more dangerous the older you get. I hope I’m not around to see what you’re going to be like when you get to be my age.”

When
Jade Shadow
had recharged its weapons banks and Captain Yage had moved alongside to coordinate their departure, Luke took a walk to stretch his legs, and to find Jacen. Passing through the passenger bay, he found Tekli and Saba playing a dice game. To human eyes, the faces of the dice looked black-on-black, but they were readable in infrared, and both aliens saw well into that spectrum. There was a heady odor to the bay, reflecting the fact that it had been home to too many people for too many days. With
Widowmaker
along for the ride, Luke hoped there might be more opportunities to stretch their legs in the long journey ahead.

He smiled down at them on his way through, and was about to leave when he was stopped by Saba.

“Master Skywalker?” she said, standing.

“Yes, Saba?”

“This one …” she started, with something approximating embarrassment in the way her spiked heels scratched at
Jade Shadow
’s metallic floor. The vertical slits of her eyes blinked before she spoke again. Then, with quiet sincerity, she said, “This one iz glad that she came on the mission.”

He smiled gently. “This one is glad you came, too, Saba,” he said. “Your stunt with the slaveship has done more for our reputation among the Imperials than anything I ever did.”

“ ‘Crazy,’ Grand Admiral Pellaeon said.”

“That we are.” He touched Saba’s shoulder and felt
her thickly corded muscles tense beneath her scales. “Consider them remembered,” he said softly.

She nodded. “And the hunt continues.”

Tekli indicated for Saba to continue with the game. The Barabel crouched down again, her large clawed hand collecting the black dice and rolling them across the deck. Luke left them to it, glad that the unlikely pair had found friendship with each other.

Once the door had closed on the passenger bay, Luke searched the immediate vicinity of the Force for some indication of where Jacen might be. He sensed his nephew deeper in the ship—in fact, he was about as far away as someone could get from the rest of the crew without actually leaving
Jade Shadow.
Luke imagined that Jacen probably just wanted some privacy, which he would happily give to him once he’d made sure everything was all right with the young man. It was only as he rounded the corner to where the power couplings interfaced with the reactor outlets that he heard voices, and realized that Jacen was not alone. Three paces later he was confronted with a sight that brought him to a halt—more from embarrassment than anything else.

Jacen and Danni Quee were standing close together by an open hatchway. Danni’s hand was lightly touching Jacen’s cheek, and she was saying something to him in a low and intimate voice. Luke couldn’t hear what was being said, thankfully, but just seeing them would have been bad enough as far as Jacen and Danni would have been concerned.

He quickly tried to duck back around the corner before he was noticed, but it was too late.

Jacen looked up, and Danni turned to follow his gaze. She hastily pulled her hand away as they stepped apart. For a few uncomfortable seconds, nobody spoke, and no one’s eyes met.

“I’m sure Mara would have something appropriate to say at a moment like this,” Luke ventured into the awkward silence.

Jacen nodded. “Probably something about not being able to expect privacy on a starship,” he said.

“I’ll leave you—”

“No,” Danni said quickly. “Really. It’s all right.” She brushed back her hair and, indicating the open hatch, smiled. “We can check out that dodgy surge arrestor another time, if you like.”

Jacen nodded once, then Danni stepped past Luke without another word, leaving the two men to talk.

“I’m so sorry,” Luke said when she had gone. “I had no idea that—”

“No, it’s okay,” Jacen cut in. Clearly feeling awkward with the situation, he turned away from Luke, shutting the hatch with a gentle push and then affixing the bolts to hold it closed. For a moment his face stayed averted, but when he did finally turn around, Luke could see that he was smiling. “Actually, you probably did me a favor. I’m not very good at this sort of thing.”

“Really?” Luke said. “You surprise me.”

“In fact, I’m pretty dreadful.”

“Well, I’m afraid you’ve probably inherited that from your mother’s side of the family,” Luke said. “That includes me.”

“You seem to have done all right for yourself, Uncle.”

“Oh, better than all right,” he said. “But it took a lot of trial and error along the way. Getting a relationship to work is almost impossible—even without people like me getting in the way. There’s no right or wrong way to tread; the rules are made up as you go along and can change without warning.” He smiled. “Trust me when I say that it makes being a Jedi look easy.”

“Maybe that’s why the Jedi of old never married and had children,” Jacen said.

“Maybe.” Luke thought of his son, far away and, hopefully, safe. “I hope Ben turns out to be smarter than his father. Or at least more perceptive.”

Hatch sealed, Jacen said, “I’m not sure that would be possible.”

Glad that his nephew held no ill feelings for the intrusion, Luke clapped the young man on the back and led the way back to the cockpit. Danni made a good show of looking nonchalant as they passed, and Jacen managed to only slightly flush.

Mara looked up as they entered. “What kept you?”

“We just got talking, that’s all,” Luke said.

His wife frowned at him, but then her eyes widened in realization.

Mara studied Jacen carefully as the young Jedi dropped into the navigator’s seat behind her. If he noticed her scrutiny, he didn’t acknowledge it. Instead he kept his eyes on the view from the forward sensors, studying the ships arrayed around them.

“An Imperial escort,” he said with a chuckle. “Who would have ever thought it possible?”

“These are indeed strange days,” Luke said, slipping into the copilot’s seat beside him.

Widowmaker
was visible as a solid icon accompanied by several smaller shapes, gradually docking. Pellaeon had been true to his word—and then some. They were getting not only the frigate, but a squadron of TIE fighters as well. He’d heard a rumor that the droid brains of
Braxant Bonecrusher
had also volunteered to serve with Jacen again, but they had been turned down. The battered Dreadnaught needed some time in dry dock before its long-term flight worthiness was assured.

Mara seemed about to say something when a sub-space message came through, flickering to life on the holoprojector.

A staticky image of Han appeared before them, with Leia at his shoulder.

“Hey, kid,” Han said pleasantly, his mouth lifted at one corner in the smile that Luke had come to know all too well over the years.

“Is everything all right?” Mara asked.

“Fine,” Han returned. There was some distortion to the voice, and the image kept losing cohesiveness, but considering how far it had come the quality was excellent. “Just thought we’d drop a line before we head off. After this, who knows when we’ll get the chance to speak again?”