Star Wars_ Fate of the Jedi 01_ Outcast - Aaron Allston [35]
Luke snorted, amused. “Who were you quoting?”
“Jedi Master Plo Koon.”
Luke considered. Plo Koon had been a Jedi in the last years of the Old Republic—had died, in fact, about the time Luke was being born, one of the many victims of Emperor Palpatine's Order 66. He was a Kel Dor, a member of a species that was not often seen out in the galaxy at large; they were not oxygen breathers and had to wear special breathing masks when visiting most other inhabited worlds. “Why was that quotation so difficult to find?” With anyone else, he'd be worried that his question sounded like a criticism, but Cilghal had no human neuroses that made her prone to interpret offhand remarks as complaint.
“It was not transcribed as searchable data in our archives. It was a recording of an interview between Plo Koon and a Jedi Knight who was assembling a documentary project on the species represented within the Order. He, too, was a victim of the purge, his project unfinished. I have been using automated vocal translation software against holorecorded materials, searching for a list of keywords related to Valin's situation, and this morning's pass flagged the word electro-encephaloscan in this entry.”
“Good work. Was there anything else useful in that interview?”
Cilghal twisted her body from side to side, a Mon Cal simulation of a human shaking of the head. “That appears to have been, for Plo Koon, a humorous aside, and the subject was not further explored.”
“He said, ‘My order knows of a means.’ Who was he referring to? It couldn't have been the Jedi Order, since we've found no other reference to the technique, and since he was talking to another Jedi …”
“He would have said our Order.” Cilghal tilted her head. Familiar with her ways, Luke took it as a gesture of self-appreciation. Some human nuances of speech were still difficult for her, even after all her years among them.
“Yes.” Luke pulled his datapad from his belt pouch and flipped it open. As he used it to access the Temple computer archives, he realized, with a pang, that this might be the last time he would do so—for many years, or perhaps ever.
He scanned Plo Koon's service file. He knew many of its details already. His own studies had made him very familiar with the career of his own first Master, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Obi-Wan's teachers and confidants; Obi-Wan's Master, Qui-Gon Jinn, had been a close friend of Plo Koon. But Plo Koon's record offered few leads. It mentioned no other order to which the long-dead Master might have belonged, though Luke knew there was one prospect more likely than any other.
Luke snapped the datapad shut. “I'm guessing he was referring to the Baran Do Sages. He might have studied with them before joining the Order, which means that's a trail eighty or a hundred years cold. I might as well make the sages the first stop on my grand tour.” He frowned. “There's no record of Jacen visiting them, but his travels are badly documented. I'm going to hope for the best. I just wish I had time to trace all of Valin's movements to see if he's had any contact with the sages.”
“I have time. And I have access to the full Order archives.”
“I couldn't ask you to do that. And as an exile, I'm not supposed to have access to Order resources.”
“You did not ask. I decide for whom I am a resource. And your sentence said you cannot advise, not that you cannot be advised.”
Thrown off for a moment by Cilghal's resolute tone, her unhesitating rejection of Galactic Alliance government wishes, Luke stepped forward and took one of Cilghal's broad