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“What did it mean?”

“I'm not certain, but I suspect it means that, somewhere, I now have the argument that will convince you to drop the case. Whether that's true or not, I have to be here. It might actually mean that I need to be in your presence when someone makes an attack on you.”

“Perhaps the Force was telling you that you need to be here to suddenly discover that I'm just an imposter with Daala's face, and that you need to cut me down.”

“No.”

“Well, then, let's wait and find out.”

“Yes.”

“You will let me know if you change your mind about caf.”

“Yes.”

“Or sweetcakes.”

Luke sighed. The impulse that had brought him here seemed no closer to revealing itself, and Daala clearly thought he was wasting her time.

“While we're waiting for the Force to announce its presence,” she said, “I did want to say something. I want you to understand, this suit is not personal. Even when we were on opposite sides, representing enemy forces, I had every respect for you. In reviewing your records, it became clear to me that you have had a significant and beneficial effect on the galaxy.”

Luke raised an eyebrow. “But you still need so very much to make the Jedi a mindlessly obedient branch of the government that you're pursuing the trial.”

“It's not about obedience.”

“Oh, that's right. It's about not detecting a Jedi turning to evil. Which we should be able to do far more easily than, say, noticing an Imperial leader growing so callous that he'd obliterate an entire innocent world to convince other worlds to obey.”

Daala became very still. Her face gave away no emotion, but Luke could feel, just for a moment, the pain she had experienced long ago as her love, respect, and even understanding for Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin withered and faded in the wake of the atrocities he had committed in the Emperor's name.

Luke was sorry to make her relive that. But she clearly wanted to exchange blows, and Luke was not unarmed in this match.

She regained her composure a moment later. “It's not about that, either. You're as guilty of not detecting Jacen Solo's turn to evil as others were of not checking the excesses of Imperial officers. But that's not why you're being tried. It's just the argument that will allow us to convict you.”

“Why am I being tried, then? Give me the next layer of truth. Or the next layer below that.”

“It has to do with fairness, and responsibility, and the rule of law.”

“Things the Jedi have always supported.”

“Things the Jedi have always subverted, at least under your leadership.”

Luke couldn't keep his astonishment from his face or voice. “That's ridiculous.”

“Let me give you a hypothetical example. A Coruscant bar in seedy sublevels. Two patrons decide they don't like the looks of a third. They assault him. A Jedi intervenes, out come blaster pistols and a lightsaber, whoosh, whoosh, severed arms litter the barroom floor. Law enforcement officers are called, the Jedi gives them a terse statement and then flits off to his next adventure.”

Luke nodded. “That's a simplistic and overly colorful way of putting it, but, yes, it happens.” It had, in fact, happened almost exactly that way to him, with Luke in the role of the patron about to be assaulted, back before he was a Jedi himself, many years before.

“Do you not see anything wrong with the way the situation was resolved?”

“Not really.”

“First, there's the maiming of the suspects. Would it have been possible for the Jedi to have defeated them without cutting off their arms?”

Luke nodded. “Possibly. Probably. But once the blasters came out of their holsters, the situation became a lot more dangerous for everybody, patrons and Jedi included.”

“Could the Jedi have disarmed them with some use of the Force?”

“That does happen. But we know the Jedi in your example made the correct choice.”

“How so?”

“He was not just reacting to what he saw with his eyes and knew from his experience. He was in tune with the Force. The Force alerted him to the true level of danger and he responded appropriately.”

“Sad that the Force can never be sworn in to testify about