Star Wars_ The New Jedi Order_ Dark Tide 01_ Onslaught - Michael A. Stackpole [59]
“That’s okay. Being cooped up with her for the trip out here was enough for now. I don’t need to be there while she’s being ‘Princess Leia.’ ”
Danni blinked with surprise. “But, your mother, she . . .”
Jaina nodded and led the way down the landing ramp. “I know, she defeated the Empire and kept the New Republic safe. Oh, don’t look at me that way. I know what she did, and I love her dearly.”
“Sounds as if there is a but coming in there somewhere.”
Jaina sighed as they stepped past the guards on the causeway and cut toward a set of stairs that would take them lower in the city. “Didn’t you want to move out of your mother’s shadow?”
“My mother cast a very small shadow, I guess.” The woman’s green eyes sparkled. “She is an astrophysicist who got me to be looking out toward the stars. She kept a low profile, trying to pass beneath the sensors of the local government or the Empire or whichever warlord claimed our world in any given week. From her I learned to marvel at distant worlds and systems. That’s a big chunk of the reason I joined the ExGal Society.”
“Your mother must be proud.”
“She is. I think she’s pleased I chose to follow in her footsteps.”
“Taking after your father didn’t interest you?”
“They split up when I was young. He was a bureaucrat, very much into rules and regulations that seemed pointless.” Danni shrugged. “At least, with science, the rules you have to follow have reason behind them and produce results. I don’t much care for bureaucracy, which was part of the fun of being with ExGal: the edge of the galaxy was about twenty times closer than the nearest bureaucrat.”
Jaina exited the stairs and stepped over a small pile of debris that had spilled into the street from a nearby building. She could have shifted it out of the way with the Force, but she didn’t. In fact, she found herself pulling the Force back in because the pure misery of the people of Dubrillion clawed at her spirit. She understood their fear and pain, but the sharpness of it threatened to rend her.
“At least you had some sort of choice, Danni. With my parents I could be a smuggler who saved the galaxy or a diplomat who saved the galaxy.”
“And you chose to become a Jedi.”
Jaina shifted her shoulders uneasily. “That choice was pretty much made for me. My brothers and I are very strong in the Force.”
Danni arched an eyebrow as she pulled abreast of Jaina. “You regret being a Jedi?”
“No, not at all.” Jaina hesitated, then sighed. “It’s something neither of my parents became, so it let me have something to myself. That’s part of being a twin too, I guess; everyone expects we’ll be alike even though we’re fraternal, not identical.”
“I think I begin to see what you’re saying.” Danni offered her hand. “Pleased to meet you, Jaina Solo. So, tell me, just who are you?”
Laughter erupted from Jaina. “I don’t know who I am. I’m only sixteen. I know parts of it. I know I’m a really good pilot, and I’m not bad as a Jedi. I know I’m getting tired of being my mother’s daughter and my father’s daughter; and part of me even knows that it will take time for me to emerge from their shadows. I also know that there are folks out there who think I’m going to be the salvation of the galaxy because I’m a Jedi, and others who think I’m doom on two feet for the same reason.”
The older woman hooked an arm through Jaina’s right elbow. “I remember when I was sixteen. I was all elbows and knees and pretty sure I knew all there was to know about anything worth knowing.”
“Uh-huh. And now, at the ripe old age of, what, twenty-one, you know how foolish you were back then?”
“Twenty-one, yes. And, yes, I do think I was not as wise then as I am now. Jaina, I remember not wanting advice.”
The younger woman smiled. “So you’ll give it to me anyway.”
“My point is, Jaina, that people have a choice when they start to look at who they are. Some people decide they want to be like others. They use them as examples, try