Star Wars_ The New Jedi Order 09_ Edge of Victory 02_ Rebirth - J. Gregory Keyes [64]
“What is that, Master?”
“Form. Have you ever seen a perfect grutchin, Adept?”
“I … do not know, Master.”
“You haven’t! You have not! In the mind of Yun-Yuuzhan is a perfect grutchin. It has never been seen by Yuuzhan Vong except in the protocols—never in living form. You and I, Adept, will incarnate the grutchin in the mind of Yun-Yuuzhan. It shall be perfect in form and proportion, precise in hue. When we are done, Yun-Yuuzhan will know us for true shapers, who create in his image.”
“But the rikyam—”
“The rikyam? How can you even think of such a mundane matter when we are to embark upon this? Once we have created the perfect grutchin, do you really expect Yun-Yuuzhan—or those simpletons Yun-Harla or Yun-Ne’Shel—will deny us anything? Now we must work!”
It was soon after this that Nen Yim began to seriously consider the murder of Master Kae Kwaad.
PART THREE
DESCENT
TWENTY-FOUR
Leia found Jacen where he had been for the last several days—tinkering with one of the captured E-wings. Since they had taken the freighter, he had hardly said a word to anyone, and on their return to the Maw he had thrown himself into the project of fitting the fighter with augmented shields and readying her for extended flight. Han had been almost as sullen. Her husband was tough, but there was only so much loss that even Han Solo could take. It had been good to see something of his old cocky, arrogant self reemerge, though she wasn’t going to admit that to him aloud.
But Han’s good humor had been short-lived. His fight with Jacen and the following silence had managed to leak most of the fuel from his engines.
Jacen glanced down at her from near the astromech housing, but didn’t say anything.
“Jacen,” Leia said, “could I talk to you, please? Or do you intend never to speak to me again?”
Jacen gazed down again. “What’s there to talk about? I think you and Dad have presented your point of view from pretty much every angle there is, and I think you know mine.”
“It must be nice to be so sure about everything,” Leia told him.
Jacen uttered a short, guttural laugh. “Yeah,” he replied, “must be.”
That had a raw sound to it that bothered Leia. How could someone so young sound so cynical? Especially Jacen, whose ideals had always been lofty ones. Of course, she knew better than anyone that most cynics were crash-burned idealists. Was Jacen that hurt?
It made what she had come to say all the harder, but she had to say it.
“Anyway,” she said, taking the plunge, “you’re wrong. There is another angle to look at this from.”
“And what would that be?” Jacen asked. She didn’t know whether he sounded more like Han or herself in that moment of caustic sarcasm, and she wasn’t sure which would make her angrier.
“Jacen, would you knock off the rebellious teen act for just a minute? And maybe consider for just a second that the entire galaxy doesn’t spin around you and your moral decisions?”
Jacen continued to stare stonily at her, but he lifted his shoulders lightly, as if accepting yet another onerous burden. “I can try that,” he said. “What have I missed?”
“You’ve missed that your father needs you, that’s what. That I need you.”
“That’s not fair,” Jacen said. “I don’t want to be a pirate, so you’ll try emotional blackmail?”
“Is that what you call it? Jacen, maybe we weren’t the best of parents. Maybe we weren’t around as much as we could have been, and maybe this is your way of paying us back. But if your only interpretation of ‘your father needs you’ is that I’m trying to manipulate you, then I’ve been a far worse mother than I ever dreamed. If that’s all you see, by all means, go. I wouldn’t want you on those terms.”
“Mom, I—” His voice went strange, and with a sudden start she saw he had tears in his eyes.
“Oh, Jacen—” she began.
“No, Mom, it’s all right.” He clambered down from the craft and wiped at his eyes. “I deserved that.”
“I didn’t come here to hurt you. I’m not