Star Wars_ The Dark Lord Trilogy - James Luceno [29]
“When the Council sees fit, you mean.”
“No. After the matter has been discussed.”
“But suppose one or two of you should disagree with the majority?”
“Decisions are not always unanimous. When we are truly divided, we defer to Yoda’s counsel.”
“Then the Force can sometimes be felt more strongly by one than by eleven.”
Obi-Wan tried to discern Anakin’s intent. “Even Yoda is not infallible, if that’s what you’re getting at.”
“The Jedi should be.” Anakin glanced furtively at Obi-Wan. “We could be.”
“I’m listening.”
“By going farther with the Force than we allow ourselves. By riding its crest.”
“Master Sora Bulq and many others would agree, Anakin. But few Jedi have the stomach for such a ride. We’re not all as self-composed as Yoda or Master Windu.”
“But maybe we’re wrong to attach ourselves to the Force at the expense of life as most beings know it, which includes lust, love, and a lot of other emotions that are forbidden to us. Devotion to a higher cause is fine and good, Master, but we shouldn’t ignore what’s going on in front of our own eyes. You said yourself that we’re not infallible. Dooku understood that. He looked things squarely in the eye, and decided to do something about it.”
“Dooku is a Sith, Anakin. He may have had his good reasons for leaving the Order, but he is nothing now but a master of deceit. He and Sidious prey on the weak-willed. They deceive themselves into believing that they are infallible.”
“But I’ve seen instances where the Jedi lie to one another. Master Kolar lied about Quinlan Vos going to the dark side. We’re lying now, by not sharing our information about Sidious with Chancellor Palpatine. What would Sidious or Dooku have to say about our lies?”
“Don’t compare us to them,” Obi-Wan said, more harshly than he meant. “The Jedi are not a cult, Anakin. We don’t worship a leadership of elites. We’re encouraged to find our paths; to validate through personal experience the value of what we have been taught. We don’t offer facile justifications for exterminating a perceived enemy. We’re guided by compassion, and the belief that the Force is greater than the sum of those who open themselves to it.”
Anakin grew quiet. “I’m only asking, Master.”
Obi-Wan took a calming breath. Too sure of themselves, the Jedi have become, Yoda had once told him. Even the older, more experienced ones …
How might Anakin have fared under Qui-Gon’s guidance? he wondered. He was merely Anakin’s adoptive mentor, and a flawed mentor in many ways. So eager to live up to the memory of Qui-Gon that he was continually overlooking Anakin’s attempts to live up to him.
“Carries on his shoulders the weight of the galaxy, Obi-Wan does,” Yoda said, approaching with one of the Intelligence analysts. “Ease your concerns, this news might,” he added before Obi-Wan could respond.
The dark-haired, robust-looking analyst Captain Dyne perched himself on the edge of a shipping container. “While we still don’t know whether the mechno-chair was left behind deliberately, as some kind of trap, the image of Sidious is authentic. The transmission appears to have been received two days ago, local, but we’re going to have trouble tracking its source because it was routed through a system of hyperwave transceivers used by the Confederacy as a substitute for the HoloNet, and was encrypted using a code developed by the InterGalactic Banking Clan. We’ve been working on cracking that code for some time now, and when we do, we might be able to use the chair’s hyperwave receiver to eavesdrop on enemy communications.”
“Better you feel already, ummm?” Yoda said to Obi-Wan, motioning with his gimer stick.
“The chair bears the stamps of several of the manufacturers affiliated with Dooku,” Dyne continued. “The hyperwave receiver is equipped with a type-summoning chip and transponding antenna that are similar to ones we discovered in a mine-laying chameleon droid Master Yoda brought back from Ilum.”
“An image of Dooku, the droid contained.”
“For the time being we’re proceeding on the assumption that Dooku—or Sidious, for that matter—might