Legacy Of The Force_ Revelation Part 1

Star Wars.

Legacy of the Force.

Revelation.

by Karen Traviss.

Prologue.

JEDI OUTPOST. ENDOR: TWELVE WEEKS AFTER THE DEATH OF MARA JADE.

SKYWALKER.

My brother died in the Yuuzhan Vong War.

Not Anakin: Jacen.

It's taken me years to work that out, but I should have seen it from the start. Jacen, the brother I loved, my twin, never came home. It just looked as if he did.

I think the core of Jacen probably died in the Embrace of Pain, at the hands of Vergere and the Yuuzhan Vong. Whatever came back was another person; a total stranger.

It's the only explanation for what he's become.

So that's why I've reached the point of doing something utterly unthinkable, because the unthinkable is the last card we have left to play, the only way I can stop Jacen and his war from swallowing the whole galaxy. It was the Mandalorian crushgaunts that made up my mind. As Jag has proven, they certainly work. They're nasty weapons. Mandalorian iron-beskar-is pretty well nearly lightsaber-proof.

I almost expected the things to detonate when Dad opened the package. Since when did Boba Fett ever send my father gifts?

Since his daughter was tortured to death by my brother, actually.

We've been waiting for Fett's revenge ever since, but so far.... nothing.

Just the gift of crushgaunts and armor plate, all made from Mandalorian iron.

So I'm packing for a journey I didn't think I'd ever make. I'll give Jag this much: he never said I told you so. He's the one who said I needed to learn from someone who had a track record in bringing down Jedi.

If anyone can stop Jacen, then, it's me. I'm his equal, and I'm the Sword of the Jedi. But I just don't have his... training. I've no idea what he learned from Lumiya, let alone what he picked up on his travels during those five years. But he'll make a mistake sooner or later. He's way too c.o.c.ky not to overestimate himself.

I just hope it's sooner. And if being a Sith made Jacen invincible, he'd have taken over the galaxy by now.

I have a chance, and Fett's going to help me make the most of it.

It can't be that hard to find him. He's a bounty hunter, so I'll hire him like any other client, except I'm not just any other client-I'm Han Solo's daughter, and I'm a Jedi, and Fett has spent a lifetime hunting us.

And now I'm asking him to train me to hunt and capture my own brother.

For all I know, he'll laugh in my face-if he ever laughs, that is-and tell me to get lost. But I have to ask him. Swal-low pride, eat humble pie, and beg if need be. Dad seems to have thawed a little toward him; I still despise him.

But if he says yes-I swear I'll be the best pupil he's ever had.

Come on, Fett: show me how it's done.

Chapter 1.

When the nation is in its darkest peril, the great warrior-sailor Darakaer shall be summoned from his eternal sleep by a rhythm beaten on his ancient drum. For his final pledge was that he would come to our aid when the drum sounded, and that we should call him when we sailed to meet the foe.

-Irmenu folk legend JEDI OUTPOST, ENDOR: TWELVE WEEKS AFTER THE DEATH OF MARA JADE.

SKYWALKER.

Ben Skywalker had thought it would be a simple matter of thumbing his lightsaber into life-screaming vengeance or choked into silent grief, he didn't care which-and slicing Jacen Solo's head from his body.

He sat flicking the blade on and off, staring down the shaft of blue energy and watching it vanish only to snap back into vivid life over and over again. He saw his mother, who couldn't be summoned back again at the flick of a switch, although he would have given the rest of his life for one more chance to tell her how much he loved her.

But the image that he wanted to erase yet couldn't was Jacen Solo's face. So many people said Jacen was a stranger now, but a stranger was someone you never loved or looked up to, and so their brutality or careless cruelty was just repellent detail, the distant stuff of holonews bulletins. Family, though.... family could hurt you like n.o.body else, and they didn't even have to torture you like Jacen did to leave scars.

The face of Jacen that Ben would recall until the day he died was the one he saw on Kavan while he sat with his mother's body, the face that promised Ben they'd get whoever did that to her. And that was why it simply would not go away; there was something wrong about that face.

something missing, or something there that shouldn't have been. Ben picked away at the memory, checking his chrono every few minutes, convinced that he'd been waiting for Aunt Leia for hours.

I had the chance to kill him. Dad stopped me. Maybe... maybe I could have killed Jacen without turning dark. Will I ever get another chance?

Jedi had killed Sith before. They said Ken.o.bi killed a Sith on Naboo, but n.o.body thought it was an instant pa.s.sport to the dark side; some dirty jobs had to be done. Ben had thought his absolute, all-consuming need to destroy Jacen had pa.s.sed; but it hadn't, and neither had his grief. It had simply s.h.i.+fted position. It ebbed and flowed, some days worse than others. He would not get over it. He would learn to live with the loss-somehow-but the galaxy had changed and would never return to normal; it was an alternate universe, nearly familiar enough for him to navigate, but where the most important landmarks were gone forever.

Now he was ready to pour his heart out to Leia. There were some things he wasn't ready to tell his father. Luke Skywalker might have looked as if he was dealing with his grief, but Ben knew better, and if he told him what he really thought.... Dad would kill Jacen, he was sure of it. He'd snap. Ben had to be the responsible one now.

But if I'm wrong... I'll only hurt Dad more.

Nothing added up.

I don't believe Alema killed Mom, Sith sphere or not. I just don't.

How did Jacen know where to find me on Kavan?

How did he know I was there with my mother's body?

Ben had thought it was odd at the time, even when the shock of finding her body had nearly paralyzed him. But even in shock, he'd had the presence of mind to record evidence at the scene, every bit of data he could grab, just as Captain Shevu had taught him. Jacen had mind-rubbed him once: he wasn't going to let him rewrite history again.

And that was my instinctive reaction. Even when I found Mom dead.... something inside me said that was important. I'll trust that.

Jedi would have said it was the certainty of the Force; cops like Captain Shevu would have said that Ben's inves-tigative training had kicked in. Either way, Ben had more questions than he had answers. But he was more sure each pa.s.sing day that Jacen, his own cousin, his own flesh and blood, really had killed his mother.

He waited.

Eventually he heard two sets of footsteps coming down the pa.s.sage, and had a sinking feeling that Luke might have met Leia in pa.s.sing and decided to tag along. But when the doors opened, it was Leia and Jaina.

"Ben?" Leia always had that calming tone that said everything was under control, even when it wasn't.

"What's wrong?"

"I've got some difficult things to say, "he said. "You might not thank me, but I can't sit on it any longer."

The accusation was meant solely for Leia, and for a mo-ment he was reluctant to blurt it out in front of Jaina as well. But she needed to hear it.

"You know you can tell me anything, "Leia said. "Do you want Jaina to leave us alone?"

"No, no. As long as you don't rush off and tell Dad, be-cause he thinks I'm over the Jacen thing now, and I don't want to start him worrying again."

Jaina sat down next to him, leaning forward, as if she was ready to hug him if he burst into tears. "It's okay. I won't say a word, and Mom's the diplomat. What's so bad that you can't tell Uncle Luke?"

Cut to the chase. The longer he built up to it, the worse it would be. Ben concentrated on calm, rational language.

"I don't think Alema Rar killed my mother, "he said.

The words hung in the air as if he could see them. "I still think Jacen did."

Leia just stood there, arms folded, but she didn't react. Jaina s.h.i.+fted a fraction on the seat. If anything, they seemed.... embarra.s.sed.

He waited in the agonizing si-lence.

"What makes you think that?" Leia asked at last.

"I'm not going to rely on what I feel, "Ben said. "Even though I feel it. I'm going by things that don't add up. You know what police look for? Captain Shevu taught me. Mo-tive, means, opportunity. And family doesn't seem to mean much to Jacen. Look at the things he's done to you and Uncle Han." Ben recalled Jaina's sudden exit from the Galactic Alliance military. "And you, Jaina. Look what he tried to do to you."

"I know Jacen's doing some terrible things, but let's go through this a step at a time, "Leia said. "You've accused him before, but we're all pretty messed up lately. Why is this still eating at you?"

"The way he found me on Kavan."

"He's good at finding people in the Force, Ben."

"I was hiding. Doing my shutdown act. He's not the only Jedi who can do that-he taught me to do it, and I taught Mom. I've even shown Dad how to do it, and he'll tell you-once you switch out, even Master Amazing Super-Smart Jacen shouldn't have been able to find me. And he still walked straight up to me in a tunnel on a deserted planet that's the back end of beyond. That's not luck, and it's not finding me in the Force. He knew. And then there was the Sith meditation sphere that Lumiya had."

He'd kept it to himself all this time. The longer you kept a secret, the harder it got. If only he'd disobeyed Jacen and told Dad about the thing. If only.... maybe Mom would have still been alive.

Ben would never know.

"What about the sphere?" said Jaina.

"I found it on Ziost. I handed it over to Jacen when I docked it in the Anakin Solo. Next time I see it, Lumiya's driving."

Leia sucked in a little breath. "Lumiya was always adept at taking what she wanted."

"The Anakin Solo might be slack when it comes to stop-ping infiltrators, Aunt Leia, but I can't see Lumiya just wandering in and stealing the sphere without someone knowing about it."

"Okay, file all that under unexplained. How about motive?"

Jaina seemed to be holding her breath. Leia looked away for a moment as if she was weighing the evidence. It didn't amount to much - yet.

"How about the fact that Mara was in his way, like any good Jedi?"

said Jaina sourly.

"No, let's hear Ben's view."

Ben was theorizing now. "I spent a lot of time telling Mom about all the things Jacen was asking me to do in the Guard, and I could see it made her mad. I'm sure she bawled him out."

"Okay, so that's motive, maybe. Now let's look at means."

"Only a really skilled Jedi could ever take down Mom. Look at all the stuff Jacen can do."

"But poison? That's Alema's trademark."

"So it's obvious to use it to draw suspicion elsewhere, isn't it?"

"Sweetheart, Alema had the sphere. She was in league with Lumiya.

We know that. And I'm sure Captain Shevu would confirm that people stick with one method of killing that they feel confident using. Alema spent the last year trying to kill as many of us as she could."

Ben was off and running down the behavioral path now. "Okay, Alema was crazy, but she didn't have a motive for killing Mom. It was always about you and Uncle Han." He shook his head. "I don't buy it, because she'd have bragged about it to Jag if she'd done it. She'd have wanted us to know she got in one good shot, to hurt us all, to hurt you. And then there's opportunity. She was in the area, yes, but we also know for sure that Jacen was in the Hapan system around the time it happened."

Leia really looked as if she was taking it seriously. She hadn't rolled her eyes or told him he was being stupid, or even rushed to defend Jacen. That wasn't a surprise given what Jacen had done to her, his own mother.

"Well, it doesn't clear him, "she said at last. "But it's not exactly enough to take to a judge, is it? He could have been in the Hapan system planning to kidnap Allana."

It was a good alibi. Jacen couldn't have committed a murder because he was too busy planning an abduction, Your Honor. Ben strove for a rational tone. "Aunt Leia, why do you think Mom hung on in corporeal form for so long? Why do you think her body disappeared just as Jacen showed up at her funeral? Don't you think the Force might be saying something to us? I can't stop thinking about it. I've turned it over and over in my head for weeks. I daren't discuss it with Dad. But it's driving me crazy."

Leia took a few steps forward and squatted in front of him to put her hands on his knees. "Ben, you said you recorded everything you could at the scene."

"Yeah, because n.o.body can mind-rub that or tell me I imagined it..."

"Have you found anything in the recordings?"

Ben stood his ground. He was sure, more sure every day now. "Not yet."

"Okay."

"I'm going to find out exactly what happened, Aunt Leia. I have to, and I'm going to do it by the book, because I need to be certain or I won't be able to live with it."