Star Wars_ The Dark Lord Trilogy - James Luceno [329]
“A victim of attachment.”
She smiled weakly. “You know what? I can live with that.”
Shryne glanced away, catching Starstone’s look before she quickly turned back to the communications console. She was eavesdropping on their conversation, worrying that the efforts she had made to keep Shryne on the proper path were suddenly being undermined. Shryne could feel her wanting to tear herself away from the communications suite before it was too late, and Shryne was lost to the cause.
He looked at Jula once more. “I’ll provide a confession in exchange for yours: I refused an assignment in the Temple’s Acquisition Division. I’m still not sure why, except that I’d persuaded myself on some level that I didn’t like the idea of kids being separated from their families.” He paused briefly. “But that was a long time ago.”
She took his meaning. “Long ago in years, maybe. But I’m guessing you still feel like you missed out.”
“On what?”
“Life, Roan. Desire, romance, love, laughter, fun—all the things you’ve been denied. And children. How about that? A Force-sensitive child you could nurture and learn from.”
He made his eyes dull. “I’m not sure how Force-sensitive a child of mine would be.”
“Why is that?”
He gave his head a sharp shake. “Nothing.”
Jula was willing to let the point drop, but she had more to say.
“Roan, just hear me out. From everything I’ve heard, the Jedi order has been vanquished. Probably ninety-nine percent of the Jedi are dead. So it’s not like you have a choice. Like it or not, you’re in the real world. Which means you could get to meet and know your father, your uncles and aunts. All of them still talk about you. Having a Jedi in the family is a pretty big deal in some places. Or at least it was.” She fell briefly silent. “When I heard what happened, I thought for a moment …” She laughed to push some memory aside. “I don’t want to get into all that. Someday you can tell me the truth about what happened on Coruscant, and why Palpatine betrayed you.”
Shryne narrowed his eyes. “If we ever learn the truth.”
From the comm suite came a cheer of excitement, and a moment later Starstone was hurrying across the cabin toward them.
“Roan, we got a hit! From a group of Jedi on the run.” She turned to Jula. “Captain, with your permission we’d like to arrange a rendezvous with their ship.”
Filli appeared at Starstone’s side to elaborate. “We’d have to divert from our course to Mossak. But the rendezvous wouldn’t take us too far out of the way.”
Shryne felt Jula’s eyes on him. “I won’t try to convince you,” he said. “It’s your ship, and I’m sure you have important business elsewhere.”
Jula took a long moment to respond. “I’ll tell you why I’m going to do it: just to have more time with you. With luck, enough time to persuade you to get to know us, and ultimately to stay with us.” She cut her eyes to Starstone. “There’s room for you, too, Olee.”
Starstone blinked in indignation. “Room for me? I’m not about to abandon my Jedi oath to go gallivanting around the galaxy with a band of smugglers. Especially now that I know that other Jedi survived.” She looked hard at Shryne. “We have contact, Roan. You can’t be taking her offer seriously?”
Shryne laughed out loud. “Normally Padawans don’t talk like this to Masters,” he said to Jula. “You can see how fast things have changed.”
Starstone folded her arms across her chest. “You said I shouldn’t call you ‘Master.’ ”
“That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t respect your elders.”
“I do respect you,” she said. “It’s your decisions I don’t respect.”
“Many Jedi have left the Temple to lead regular lives,” Jula thought to point out. “Some have gotten married and had children.”
“No,” Starstone said, shaking her head back and forth. “Maybe apprentices, but not Jedi Knights.”
“That can’t be true,” Jula said.
“It is true,” Starstone said firmly, before Shryne could say a word. “Only twenty Jedi have ever left the order.”
“Don’t try to argue with her,” Shryne advised Jula. “She spent half her life in the Temple library polishing the busts of those Lost