Luke closed his eyes for a second, then nodded. "I under-stand what you are telling me. There certainly is room for change. I can look at the CorSec Academy and see if there are things we need to adapt. You can help me do that."
"You can get New Republic Armed Forces drill instructors to do that sort of stuff." I hesitated for a moment, then glanced down at the floor. "The fact is, I can't remain here with Kyp." "He's changed, Keiran, changed a lot."
"I don't doubt it. Murdering billions will do that to a fellow." My eyes narrowed as I looked up. "I know the New Republic turned him over to you for judgment and he passed some sort of test..."
"Yes. I took him to Exar Kun's temple.... "
"You what?" My mouth hung open. "You took him back to that Sith stronghold?"
Luke nodded calmly. "In that domain of evil he was able to come to grips with his dark side. He has been able to lay his past behind him."
"And that's it?!"
"No, he further atoned by helping to destroy the Sun Crusher." Luke's face sharpened. "He almost died doing that."
I pulled a chair out from Luke's desk and dropped myself down in it. "I'm sure it was harrowing for him, but I have a hard time with someone who destroyed star systems being made a Jedi Knight and held up as an example to the people of the New Republic."
Luke stiffened. "Don't you believe he could be redeemed? Don't you believe it is possible for people to learn their lessons and refrain from evil in the future?"
~'Sure. I believed that of many of the criminals I arrested with CorSec, but that doesn't mean I think they should be released from Kessel before their sentences are up." "Compassion is a Jedi's strength."
"And how compassionate is it to the friends and relatives of Kyp's victims to see him free and exalted?"
The Jedi Master regarded me warily. "The blood of millions is on my hands, too. The crew of the Death Star. The people slain while I served the Emperor reborn."
I sat forward, resting my elbows on my knees. "The Death Star was a military installation and self-defense, pure and sim-ple. While you served the Emperor, yes, people did die-but you sabotaged the Imperial effort, saving the lives of many more than you killed. In a time when all choices are evil, choos-ing the least of the evils is a virtue."
I paused for a moment. "Punishment for a crime serves a mul-titude of purposes. It proves there is a consequence for violating the social contract that binds us all. It serves as a deterrent to others who contemplate committing such acts. Lastly, and most important here, is that the infliction of just punishment estab-lishes and sustains the moral authority of a group. In trying to reestablish the Jedi Knights, this is important."
Luke shook his head. "And I think it is just as important to show that evil can be forgiven, amends can be made. I think you also need to remember Kyp was under Exar Kun's control when he committed his crimes."
I shook my head. "I don't believe it. Under his influence, perhaps, but not under his control." "How can you say that?"
"It's simple." I looked at him openly. "If Kyp had been under Exar Kun's control, you'd be dead."
"What?"
"Think about it, Master Skywalker. Kun uses Kyp to force you out of your body, then spends the next ten days trying to get someone else to kill you? He uses ancient monsters and poor old Streen to get the job done, when all he needed to do was have Kyp strap your body to the Sun Crusher and fly on out into space. Or, to make it simpler, though messier, Kyp just parks the Sun Crusher on your unconscious form. Why didn't that happen? Because Kyp didn't want to kill you. You weren't his enemy, only Exar Kun's enemy. Kyp wouldn't have attacked you except that you would have stopped him from taking the Sun Crusher out and killing Imps."
"No, that's not possible." Luke stood and began pacing be-side his bed, then glanced over at me. "I think your time with CorSec has made you too suspicious. You think too much about this stuff."
"Oh?" My head came up and I felt anger beginning to rise in me. "I think, sometimes, you don't think enough, Master Skywalker."
That stopped him. "Really?" His blue eyes became as icy as the tone of his voice. "Would you care to enlighten me?"
I sat back and held my hands up. "You don't want me to do this."
Luke nodded and opened his hands toward me. "No, please."
"You're the Jedi Master. You know better than I what you're doing."
Luke's expression hardened. "Tell me what you think, tell me where you think I am going wrong."
"Okay." Gathering my courage, I kept my face impassive and my voice even. "Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda both knew your father had been Anakin Skywalker, and had become Darth Va-der. You and your sister were separated at birth and hidden away from him to keep you safe, correct?" Luke nodded.
"Then how is it that you were brought to live on Tatooine? Wasn't that Obi-Wan Kenobi's homeworld? You were allowed to live under the name Skywalker. Did they expect Vader's peo-ple would overlook such a reference? And weren't you trying to get into the Imperial Academy at Carida? Wouldn't Vader's people notice that name on your application?"
Luke focused distantly. "Are you trying to say they were us-ing me as bait to lure Vader into a trap where Obi-Wan could confront him?"
"I don't know, but from a certain point of view, that could appear to be the truth, couldn't it? Or it could be something as benign as wanting you to grow up with the Skywalker name to provide you with greater motivation to want to redeem it. And they could have had you on Tatooine so there was a logical reason why traces of Obi-Wan's presence would be detected there-where he once lived-in case your guardian's attempts to keep himself hidden failed somehow." I watched him care-fully. "I do think, however, your education has channeled your thinking into certain pathways, just as you suspect my training has done with mine." ~'Such as?"
"You see everything in black and white-cleanly defined ab-solutes. I think, whatever they had intended at first, Obi-Wan and Yoda decided they needed to shape you into a weapon they could use against Vader and the Emperor. Why didn't they tell you Vader was your father? They knew, as an orphan, you wanted to know who your father was. They didn't let you see him that way so you would not be vulnerable. When he told you who he was, he blunted their strategy, but he didn't count on your strength. You saw his admission to you as a covert cry for help, a bid for salvation. From what you've said, your mentors doubted it, as did the Emperor. You fooled them all and suc-ceeded. Now you've turned that success into a validation of everything you were taught, even though what you were taught doesn't support the results you got."
Luke stared hard at me. "You do not think there is only light and dark? If you leave here with that thought in your mind, you will be vulnerable to the dark side. You will be seduced by it."
I shook my head slowly. "I've nothing to fear from the dark side."
Luke's voice became cold. "You're as good as lost to it, then. You know nothing of its power, its draw. You know nothing of its temptations."
I stood abruptly, tipping my chair over backward and I poked a finger toward his chest. "No, Master Skywalker, you know nothing of what I have been through in my life. I've been eye-ball to eyeball with the dark side more than you will ever know. You stand back and see good and evil on grand and cosmic scale, but I've been right down there, right at the point where light meets dark. I know that border intimately and while I've toed the terminator line, I've not strayed as much as a micron over it."
I tried to tamp down my anger, but I found it very difficult to do. "I've been called out to a domestic disturbance and walked into an apartment where the woman of the house is lying there on the floor, in a pool of blood and vomit. Her nose has been pulverized. Her eyes have been blacked and are swollen shut. Her throat has bruises that show a hand and fingers, and fading bruises cover the rest of her body. Standing over her are two teary-eyed toddlers the age of your niece and nephew. And lying there, on the couch a room away, is her glitbiting husband, his fists still raw and bloody from the beating, his clothes spat-tered wi
th her blood. His snores are enough to cover her sobs. I've seen that and had every fiber of my being wanting me to give that animal the rudest wake-up he's ever had. I've wanted to beat him so badly he'd look like a rancor's chew-toy, but I didn't. I pulled back.
"I've walked into a warehouse and arrested a spicelord in his office. He opened a case and it had over a million credits in it. A million-more money than I'll ever see in my lifetime. It was mine, he said, if I'd just take it and walk away. No one would ever know." I narrowed my eyes. "But I'd know, and I didn't do it."
He started to say something, but I cut him off with a wave of my hand. "My father died in my arms, his life leaking out of him. I had no good-bye. I had no chance to tell him I loved him. I had to hold him, feeling his life fade, hoping for a response, anything to let me know I'd not failed him, and I didn't get it.
"I went out and I found the bounty hunter scum that killed my father, and I arrested him. There wasn't a person in CorSec that would have whispered in protest if I'd shot him `resisting arrest.' I could have marched Bossk into One CorSec Plaza, right there in the lobby, and blown his head off in front of hundreds of witnesses, and they'd have all said the prisoner was escaping and a threat to others. I could have killed him, I could have avenged my father, and I didn't. And when our Imp liai-son officer let Bossk go, I didn't hunt either one down."
I tapped myself on the breastbone again. "I don't know if you think that makes me weak or just stupid. Maybe by not taking revenge I can't be the kind of Jedi you want, maybe by not having wallowed in the dark side and returning you can't be certain of me. I don't know, but don't tell me I don't know the dark side, that I don't know its temptations. I've been there, and I've walked away."
Luke looked ashen-faced, then glanced away from me. "I don't think you are weak or stupid. I think you will make a fine Jedi Knight." He hesitated for a moment, then plunged on. "I am concerned, though, that you think I'm an incompetent idiot. You don't like how I run the academy, my choices concerning other students and my view of the way the universe works."
I shook my head slowly. "No, I just don't think those things work for me. Couple of points here. You were trained to be a Jedi Knight, and you have become a Jedi Master. I accept that and respect you for all you've been through and learned. What you've done I never could do." I softened my tone as I realized I was jumping all over him while he was at a low point. Though I had problems with the academy, he didn't deserve to be beaten up.
"Despite all that, there's no guarantee you're going to be an ace at teaching, especially the first time out. That said, you've done a fine job with the majority of the students. Even tossing Gantoris, me, Mara, Cilghal and Kyp into the mix, your first class only has three failures out of fifteen. That's only a twenty percent failure rate, and I don't think Mara was really a failure. Me, neither.
"As for what I said, that's just one opinion. As we used to say in CorSec, if one guy calls you a Hutt, ignore him. If a second calls you a Hutt, begin to wonder. If a third calls you a Hurt, buy a drool bucket and start stockpiling spice."
The Jedi Master smiled for a second. "You really are going to leave?"
"I have to." I closed my eyes for a second, then opened them again. "You told me, Tionne has told me and even the Holocron told me about how the Corellian Jedi tradition was different from other traditions. We have the Jedi credits and tended to keep more to our home system. You invited me here to bring part of that tradition with me, but I'm not truly follow-ing it unless I head out and discover more about it myself."
Luke nodded slowly. "I am still concerned about you and your development. There are things, in the future, challenges you will face.... "
"I know." I shrugged. "I can only face them as I find them."
He sighed. "Well, you have some time to reconsider. It will take a while to get a ship out here to take you away." "I have Mara's Headhunter."
Luke frowned. "I thought the hyperdrive motivator was shot."
"True."
Before I could finish my explanation, Artoo rolled into Luke's room, bleating frantically.
Luke squatted in front of the droid. "What is it, Artoo?
What's the matter?"
The droid's holographic display unit glowed. Hovering in the space between us I saw the image of an Imperial Star Destroyer in orbit over the academy.
The Jedi Master groaned. "What now?"
I patted him on the shoulder. "I wouldn't worry too much, Master Skywalker."
"An Imperial Star Destroyer shows up here and we shouldn't worry?"
"Nope," I said, letting a smile grow on my face, "that's just my ride."
Fore far enough away, the Er-rant Venture looked like an Imperial Star Destroyer. There was no mistaking that daggerish shape or the tall bridge. The ship's stark bone-white color and sheer size invoked memories of the days when the Empire's need for discipline often dispatched such ships to punish worlds that harbored Rebels. It was truly a sight to behold, and one from which I would have flown as fast as possible if I did not know what the E2rant Vetzture really was.
I brought the Headhunter up and around in a loop over midships on the ImpStar. Its normal complement of weapons had been stripped down, leaving it two tractor beams, ten ion cannons and ten heavy turbolaser batteries. That amount of firepower left the ship well defended, though as I did a flyby I noticed a couple of the laser batteries were not tracking that well and at least one froze in the middle as it followed my flight.
Coming over the top, I rolled the Headhunter and chopped the throttle back. I keyed the corem unit. "This is Headhunter 079 requesting permission to board and land."
"079, this is Errant Venture control. Please state the nature of your business."
I rolled my eyes. "You tell Booster Terrik that he lets me park this fighter on his ship, or he's going to be down more than just three turbolaser batteries."
Silence reigned on the corem channel for a moment, then the controller's voice returned with a degree of weariness edging into it. "079, you are clear to land in docking slot 1127. Make sure your weapons are powered down." "What?"
"That is the message, 079."
"I copy." I brought the Headhunter in toward the egress bay and powered up the repulsorlift coils. I throttled back to ten percent of thrust, and slowly worked the fighter into the dock-ing bay. Slot 1127 was back against a bulkhead and would force me to take a long walk around the bay itself to reach Booster's office. If he knew I'd broken my leg, I'd be parking back in the garbage hold and hiking even fitrther.
As I closed in on my parking place, the only unusual thing I noticed was that no other ships were parked near me, and the few people on the ground were scurrying away. I ignored them-no one wanted to be caught in the backwash from en-gine thrust. I concentrated on setting the ship down easily, which I did-giving Booster no reason to complain about my scratching his precious deck. I quickly went through an engine lockdown and provided a security passcode for engine restart. It wouldn't stop anyone from stealing the ship, but it might slow them down.
I smiled and keyed in a message on the ignition screen. "This Headhunter is the property of Mara Jade." Anyone nuts enough to steal it now deselves what he gets.
I popped the cockpit hatch, which is when I noticed some-thing rather out of the ordinary. Booster's security detail wore Imperial style uniforms, but they had light green torsos on the tunics and bright yellow sleeves, bright yellow trousers and green caps with yellow buttons. The effect was a touch unset-tling, especially with such a crowd of them around ship.
Their blasters, which were nowhere near as colorful as their uniforms, all pointed in my direction.
A Weequay whose face looked as if it were made of flaking ceramics motioned for me to come out of the Headhunter. As I stood and my lightsaber came into view, half the guards crouched while the others moved behind convenient cover. I looked around at the dozen of them and shook my head. "No trouble, no trouble."
For the first time I really wished I had sk
ill in the area of Jedi levitation because trying to get out of a fighter that had me a good three meters off the deck while my hands were in the air was not an easy thing to do. I would have just jumped out, but my left leg still wasn't one hundred percent, and I didn't want to be limping around on the Errant Venture. What I ended up doing was sitting on the side of the cockpit and sliding down toward the floor, catching my weight mostly on my right leg.
The Weequay jabbed me in the back with a truncheon which, 1 imagined, could deliver a nasty jolt to me if he only pushed the red button near his thumb. "Boss Booster wants you." "Good, I want to see him, too."
"Surrender lightsaber."
Star Wars - I, Jedi Page 26