Star Wars_ Legacy of the Force 01_ Betrayal - Aaron Allston [17]
“Why did you say the Corellian government or ‘someone inside it’? Do we not know who’s responsible?”
Luke shook his head. “The truth is, this intelligence is based primarily on analyses of procurement patterns, plus a long history of suspicious personnel assignments.”
“Wait. The existence of the fleet is based on the reports of accountants?”
Luke grinned. “What do you have against accountants?”
“Nothing, I guess.”
“The problem with the data we have, though, is that it gives us no idea where they’re building the fleet—only that it’s been under construction for almost a decade, and our logistics people think it’s nearing completion.”
Jacen grew thoughtful for a moment, then asked, “And you want me to find the shipyards and confirm the intelligence?”
Luke shook his head. “I wish it were that easy. Admiral Pellaeon is confident that military intelligence will soon pinpoint the base. We need you to handle a more pressing matter.”
“More pressing than a planetary assault?”
“Yes.” Luke took a deep breath. “The Corellian government is close to making Centerpoint Station operational again.”
That stopped Jacen where he stood. He stared at Luke, his surprise earning him a nod of affirmation from his uncle.
Centerpoint Station was a relic, an artifact of an ancient civilization that had, in a sense, constructed the Corellian star system—by dragging several inhabitable planets to the system and sending them into beneficial orbits. Several hundred kilometers in diameter, bigger even than the Death Stars that the Empire had wielded against rebellious planets decades ago, it had, over the centuries, been the object of internal and external attempts at control by political and military forces that had never quite learned how to utilize it.
At the heart of Centerpoint Station was an apparatus that could focus gravity and move planets or even affect the orbits of stars. It could move them, it could affect them; used more aggressively, it could destroy them. At times, the Corellians and others had been close to being able to utilize this as a reliable, devastating weapon. But it had for years been restricted by biometric data to operation by only one person—Anakin Solo.
The last it had been used was during the Yuuzhan Vong war. After years of being essentially nonfunctional, it had been brought to operability by the simple realization that it had imprinted on Anakin Solo and could be activated only by him. Jacen had argued that it should not be used against the Yuuzhan Vong or anyone—it was too terrible, too unpredictable a weapon. Anakin Solo had argued for it, his reasoning being that its use would prevent the Yuuzhan Vong from destroying millions of lives.
Anakin had activated it. Thracken Sal-Solo had fired it. Its use hadn’t gone well. It had destroyed much of the mighty war fleet of the Hapes Cluster, one of the New Republic’s allies. Later in the war, of course, Anakin had died, apparently eliminating the likelihood of it ever being used again.
Jacen felt a moment of dissonance. His younger self refused to utilize Centerpoint Station. His current self, in the same circumstances, would use it, his qualms having evaporated across the intervening years. The recognition of the changes in himself surprised him. They had crept up on him while he wasn’t paying attention.
The Jacen of more than a decade ago was gone, as dead as the Anakin of the same era was. He took a deep, slow breath and wondered why he no longer mourned either loss. “How have they made it operational again?” he asked.
Luke shrugged. “The information we have suggests that they’ve figured out how to duplicate crucial elements of Anakin’s biometrics—probably handprint, retinal patterns, and brainwaves, in the absence of surviving tissues—to pull it off.”
Jacen felt anger swell within him.