The New Jedi Order - 15 - Destiny's Way by Star Wars

Author:Star Wars
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Science Fiction
ISBN: 9780099410478
Publisher: Gardners Books
Published: 2009-12-26T04:00:00+00:00

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Chapter 18

Your candidate has been elected," Vergere said over breakfast.

"Yes," Luke answered.

"Congratulations."

Luke looked toward Mara, who was busy with the apartment's comm unit. "It was more Mara's doing than mine. She kept Cal alive long enough to give his acceptance speech."

"Still," Vergere said, "you played a public role in his campaign "

"True."

"You realize that you and the Jedi will have to pay later for this political involvement."

Luke nodded. "I know."

"Just so you are prepared."

Luke tasted his glass of blue milk with a wistful yearning for the fresh, more richly flavored variety he'd enjoyed on his uncle Owen Lars's moisture farm. Mara rose from the comm unit, came to the table, and laid out several holos that had been transmitted from the hidden Jedi installation in the Maw.

"New images of Ben!"

Luke gazed at the holos with his usual mixture of delight and longing. Infants developed so rapidly at Ben's age that Luke could plainly see how the boy had grown and changed in the short time since he'd been sent to safety in the Maw. He was walking now, with greater and greater confidence. He was speaking, too, though at the moment his vocabulary seemed to consist mainly of the word knee.

At such moments Luke's misery at Ben's absence outweighed his thankfulness that Ben was in a place of safety.

Luke and Mara showed the holos to Vergere, who looked at them with quizzical eyes. "A handsome human child," she said. "As best as I understand these things."

"And strong in the Force," Mara said. "That's been clear from the beginning."

Vergere's crest sleeked back. "Perhaps that is misfortune," she said.

Luke stared at her in surprise. "Vergere?" he said.

"You permit Jedi to many," Vergere said. "And permit not only marriage, but children. By your example, Luke Skywalker."

Luke tried to contain his surprise. "In your day," he said, "Jedi were chosen as infants. They were raised knowing they wouldn't marry. But I had to recruit Jedi who were already grown—who had already established relationships."

"It is very dangerous," Vergere said. "What if Jedi were forced to choose between their duty and their family?"

Luke had made that choice more than once and was comfortable with the necessity. "Family makes a Jedi more of a whole person," he said.

"It makes them less than Jedi!" Vergere said. Her head swung toward Mara on the end of its long neck. "And your child is strong in the Force—that is worse!"

Mara's green eyes glittered dangerously. "And how is that, Vergere?" she asked.

"Your Ben is heir to more than your husband's name—he is Darth Vader's grandchild," Vergere said. "Three generations now of Skywalkers, all strong in the Force! This is a Jedi dynasty!"

Vergere's head swung back toward Luke. "Can't you see how governments will view this as a threat? Once it is possible for Jedi to leave their power to their children, the balance that exists between government and Jedi falls."

Luke held up one of the holos of Ben. "This is a threat? In a universe with the Yuuzhan Vong

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