Star Wars_ The New Jedi Order_ Dark Tide 01_ Onslaught - Michael A. Stackpole [30]
Jaina sighed, clearly irritated. “I’m not a diplomat. I’m a pilot and a Jedi Knight. I don’t mind teaching Danni some things while we fly, but my talents are being wasted here.”
“I see.” Leia smiled at her daughter, and then looked sharply at Jaina. “Jaina, tell me what’s really going on.”
Jaina’s voice sank into a whisper. “Mother, you are good at this sort of thing, but if you’d completed your Jedi training, you’d be more effective.”
“I worked hard at developing my skills.”
“Mother . . .” Jaina faltered for a second. “Mother, you don’t even wear your lightsaber.”
The disappointment in Jaina’s voice drilled through Leia. For years she had wanted to work more at becoming a Jedi. She saw it as a way to get to know her brother, Luke, and to help him with his dream of reversing the evil their father had done by destroying the Jedi. She’d practiced as much as she could, but other demands on her, demands born of her training as a politician and diplomat, always pulled her away.
I told myself I was doing my best by helping to create the government, then to run it. I let Luke train my children so they could reach their full potential, or so I thought. Did I also let them become Jedi to ease my guilt over having failed to realize my potential with the Force?
Jaina reached out with her left hand and settled it on her mother’s shoulder. “I didn’t mean it to sound the way it did. I . . . I know you didn’t get to make some choices . . .”
“The choices I made, Jaina, were choices made to help others. They came first. Your father. You. Your brothers. The New Republic.”
“I know that, and I’m proud of you, Mom, for being who you are.” Jaina shrugged. “It’s just that you’re not a Jedi, not really, and, you know, it’s just, well, weird when you play around with the Force.”
“I see.” Leia caught a flash of horror in her daughter’s eyes, and that gratified her. At least she knows there are boundaries she shouldn’t overstep yet. Then Leia sighed and raised her hand to hug Jaina’s hand to her shoulder.
“You may be right, Jaina, that I never completed Jedi training, but I don’t play with the Force. I use it, perhaps not as well or fully as you do, but I use it to get done the things I need to do.”
“I know. I’m sorry.”
“We’ll discuss this more later, Jaina. Right now I need you with me in this chamber, being silent but strong, projecting confidence and benign power.”
“Being everything that Kyp and the others aren’t.”
“Pretty much.” She gave her daughter a wink, then stepped through the doorway into the Agamarian council chamber.
Though Leia had seen holographs of the chamber, they had failed to convey its breathtaking majesty. Wood had been used to finish the floor, panel the walls, and furnish the room; and incredible craftsmanship had gone into the project. An oceanic motif dominated everything—with the rows at which council delegates sat being arrayed like waves. Their desks flowed up and out of the flooring like cresting swells, in fact. At various points wooden streams of water linked leaping fish to the floor, and birds were bound by wing tip to the ceiling or walls.
At the podium, which appeared to be a stone being washed at the base by clashing waves, a tall, slender woman stood and turned toward Leia and her party. She beckoned Leia forward. “I have briefed the council on those things we have discussed over the past couple of days, so they are prepared for your presentation.”
“Thank you, Madam Speaker.” Leia, herself wearing a dark flowing robe whose only decoration was a wave motif embroidered at hem, collar, and cuffs, approached the podium. She nodded solemnly to the men and women seated before her.
“I thank you all for allowing me to address you. Before I begin, I want to identify those people I’ve brought with me. Elegos A’Kla is a Republic senator conducting a fact-finding mission here in the Outer Rim. Next to him is my daughter, Jaina, who has