Star Wars_ Fate of the Jedi 02_ Omen - Christie Golden [24]
“There is another on the scene, a young Bothan Jedi, who seems to—”
And suddenly the cam was flying at Jysella, who whirled. There was a perfect, beautiful shot of her insane face as she lifted the lightsaber, then the transmission ended.
Luke heaved a heavy sigh and ran his hand through his hair. “While I confess I’m pleased that Yaqeel was able to take out the reporter’s holocam, a lot of damage has been done. I’m certain that last image of Jysella is going to be all over the newsvids.”
“It was good thinking on Jedi Yaqeel’s part, but it did little in the end. It turns out the reporter had a backup cam,” Cilghal continued miserably. “Here’s what else he was able to record.”
The quality of the holovid was greatly reduced in this version, but the words came through loud and clear. There was Chief of State Daala, as usual looking stunning for someone her age, telling everyone in a calm, reassuring voice that Jysella Horn, like her brother, would be “safely imprisoned in carbonite.” That there was “something going wrong with the Jedi,” and that her government would “investigate and explore all possible explanations.”
Tyrr piped up with another leading question similar to the ones he had posed to the civilians earlier. Ben uttered an oath that his mother would have winced to hear—even though she had probably taught it to him unwittingly—and Luke’s lips thinned as insinuations were made that it was the Horn blood that was responsible for the madness.
“Oh, Master Horn’s going to love that,” muttered Ben. “I feel really bad for him, having to listen to garbage like that. It’s like rubbing salt in a wound.”
“I feel bad for whoever he runs into,” Luke said.
Daala responded with the finesse of a natural politician, managing to smear the Jedi and the Horns both without actually saying anything that could be pointed to as inflammatory, even going so far as to chide the reporter for “putting words into my mouth.”
Luke sighed as Daala finished up and returned to her speeder. The reporter went on to try to get quotes from Bazel and Yaqeel, and finally Cilghal herself stepped into the frame.
“The Jedi are obviously very concerned about the current state of events, and have been since the first incident. We are doing everything we can.”
“I apologize, Master Skywalker,” the live Cilghal said, her gravelly voice deep with regret. “I would have preferred not to speak for the Jedi until after we had had the chance to discuss this and present a united front.”
“You were on the spot, don’t worry about it,” Luke assured her. “When are the Masters gathering?”
“Within the hour. The question is, how much of what the reporter said is correct?”
Ben’s auburn brows drew together. “Dad,” he started to protest, but Luke held up a hand to forestall his comments.
“These are two Jedi who are closely related,” Luke said. “That is something that’s going to come up—repeatedly—and we need to have an answer for that. Is it possible that it’s a genetic cause? The Horns won’t like it, but I bet they’ll know we need to check it out.”
“What about Seff Hellin?” Ben pointed out. “He’s not a Horn, and he was the first one to have manifested any of these symptoms.”
Luke smiled at his son. “Good point, and correct.” He turned again to the holographic image of the Mon Calamari. “And you were right, Cilghal. It certainly did look as though Jysella could have experienced flow-walking. She wasn’t concentrating enough to simply be landing good strategic blows.”
Cilghal inclined her head. “I would rather it be the latter, frankly,” she admitted.
“Me too.”
“Three for three,” Ben said.
“Three for three what?”
“Three Jedi displaying the same kind of paranoid behavior and abilities they shouldn’t have.”
“Abilities that Jacen learned, but that they couldn’t possibly have learned themselves,” Cilghal said, nodding.
“Exactly.”