Star Wars_ Legacy of the Force 01_ Betrayal - Aaron Allston [19]
Luke’s tone was impassive, artificially so. “That is a matter for you, as his teacher, to decide.”
Even on dangerous missions, Jedi Masters often took their apprentices—it was how those apprentices learned. Sometimes the apprentices died with their teachers. And Luke had considered the question of whether Jacen should take Luke’s own son and put the decision entirely on Jacen’s shoulders.
Luke had responded as a Jedi Master should, not letting his relationship with the apprentice in question cloud his judgment. Jacen would have to do the same.
Ben was bright, inventive, and largely obedient. At the flip of a switch he could act like any precocious thirteen-year-old, as un-Jedi-like as it was possible to be. He’d be an asset on a mission like this. “He’ll come with me.”
Luke nodded, apparently serene in his acceptance of Jacen’s decision.
“It’s going to get ugly when this happens,” Jacen continued. “The Corellians—this is going to infuriate them.”
“Yes. But the other part of the operation, which is in part distraction for your mission, is a show of force. All of a sudden, an entire GA fleet will materialize within Corellian space. Between that and the loss of Centerpoint, Military Intelligence thinks the Corellians will realize that they can’t continue to adopt a we-do-whatever-we-like stance.”
Jacen shook his head. “Whose brilliant idea is that?”
“I don’t know. It was presented to me by Cal Omas and by Admiral Niathal, one of Pellaeon’s advisers.”
“She’s Mon Cal, not Corellian.”
“Well, she indicated that the psychological warfare experts had evaluated the Corellian planetary mind-set and were certain that this operation would have the desired effect—assuming the destruction of Centerpoint Station was effective.”
Jacen snorted. “What do you want to bet that they based their evaluations on old data? Pre-Vong-war data? Maybe even diktat-era. I don’t think they’ve factored in what surviving the war did to the Corellians. It stiffened their pride.”
“I’m sure they’re using up-to-date information. Regardless, that part of the operation is one I don’t have any influence on. It’s going ahead regardless of the opinion of the Jedi order.” Luke’s expression was still serene, but Jacen detected a flicker of regret. “Let’s get back.”
“I think I’ll walk awhile longer. Settle my thoughts. Figure out what I’m going to say to my father when the time comes.”
“Don’t overplan.” Luke clapped Jacen on the shoulder and turned back toward Han and Leia’s building. “The future is to be lived, not prearranged.”
As he reached the door providing access into the Solos’ building, Luke felt a little tickle of awareness, as though someone had materialized just behind him and brushed him with a feather. He turned to look.
No one actually stood behind him. But across the avenue, perhaps thirty meters away, standing on a pedestrian thoroughfare at about the same altitude, someone was watching him.
His watcher stood a few meters away from the nearest light source, wrapped up in a traveler’s cloak not dissimilar to the outer garments he and the other Jedi wore. Its hood was up, and the garment masked the wearer’s build. Luke could tell little more than that the wearer was of average height or taller and looked lean.
But something in this being’s posture reminded Luke of the image from his dream, and caused him to wonder if the watcher had features similar to long-dead Anakin Skywalker, with eyes turned a liquid yellow by anger and Sith techniques.
As Luke watched, the watcher turned, walked the few steps to the nearest doorway into its own building, and entered, vanishing into darkness.
Luke shook his head. He could go over there, of course. But it would take time, and he’d find nothing. Either the watcher was unrelated to Luke’s dream,