Chapter Eleven

The world ship had just came out of hyperspace. It could have waited a little longer, but Jacen had to play this out carefully. Jacen explained his plan to Amigine. "I'll go in alone on a single spacecraft and get them to let me land my ship. They'll have an easier time accepting one coral skipper than a whole world ship."

They won't believe that I'm not a Yuuzhan Vong, so I might as well make them think it and let me land my ship down.

Jacen flew on until the Eclipse was in sight. He flipped on his com-link in the ship. "This is the…Resurrection. I need to land." Jacen needed to come up with a name for the ship, and that sounded about as good as anything else he could come up with.

Through the intercom he could hear someone yelling, "It's a coral skipper! We have an enemy ship in sight."

"I'm only one ship. There's nothing I could do without getting blown into debris. I just want to land."

After about five minutes of sitting out in space, Jacen finally heard a new voice come over the speaker. "Okay, we'll let you land. But be warned, you're landing on a base with many Jedi, you'll be far outnumbered, and we will have guards on you from the minute your ship opens."

"Thank you." I've gotten pretty used to being surrounded by guards…

Chapter Twelve

As Jacen was landing his ship down in the docking bay, he saw through his window at least fifteen Jedi standing there with lightsabers in hand. Not ignited, but ready. Wow, fifteen…I'm honored.

After closer inspection, Jacen saw that among the fifteen were: Jaina, Tahiri, Aunt Mara, and Uncle Luke. Oh, this isn't going to be good…

Jacen landed his ship and pulled the canopy open. Finally, Jacen lifted the helmet off his head and stared at all of the Jedi near him. They all had looks on their faces that they couldn't believe what they were seeing.

Jacen jumped out of his ship and landed onto the floor. Luke was the first to snap out of the shock and ran to Jacen. Luke and Jacen had never had much of an emotional relationship, but they both put their arms around each other. And just held there.

Leia must have felt the warmth between them, because within seconds, Leia was sprinting into the docking bay at full speed and didn't stop until she reached Jacen. Luke instantly let go of Jacen and let Leia hold him.

While holding him, Leia began to cry. "I knew you were alive, Jacen. I felt your pain, but I knew you didn't die."

"I know, Mom. I could tell that you didn't believe it."

Luke finally spoke. "Jacen, we…we all thought you died. We felt you die."

Explaining this would be even harder to explain than he thought it would be. "Actually, you all felt me in pain, right? A sudden terrible pain and then nothing. After the Yuuzhan Vong took me prisoner, I felt Jaina."

Jacen turned around to face his sister, who looked like she had just had a healing wound ripped open again. "I knew she would try to come and get me. Mom and Dad had already lost Anakin. I had thought I would be dead soon. I didn't want Mom and Dad to lose Jaina too. So, I performed a trick that Corran had taught me. How to project images and feelings into others."

Luke nodded and finished for him. "You projected a feeling of yourself dying into all of us. We wouldn't come after you, because we'd think you were already dead."

Jacen nodded and began to walk up to Jaina. She took a step back and held up her hand to keep him away. "Jaina - I'm…I'm sorry that I had to do that to you."

"I'll never forgive you for doing that to me, Jacen! Never!" Jaina turned around and sprinted out of the docking bay.

Jacen didn't go after her. He just stood there and watched her run away. After she was gone, he felt a hand touch his shoulder. He turned his head to see Tahiri standing next to him. "Try to understand, Jacen. For all this time, she thought someone she was so close to was dead. I understand how she feels. You'll have to give her time."

Jacen nodded. "I know." Jacen turned back around to his uncle. "Uncle Luke? I have to talk to you about something that's very important to the Jedi."

Luke smiled at him. "A lot's happened while you were gone, Jacen. It's not just me anymore. We've built a Jedi Council. I'll go summon the Council members."

"Thank you, Uncle Luke. But at the moment, there are a couple of things I need to do first." Jacen looked back to Tahiri. "Uh, Tahiri? We need to talk in private. There's some things that I need to tell you."

Tahiri seemed a little taken back by it, but nodded. "Okay, Jacen…"