Chapter Two
On board the BlueSaber, Luke tried to let the soothing hum of the sonic shower wash away his frustrations along with the grime of Druckenwell. Even after his father had guided the President safely out of the ruins of the Capitol, Zev Kiran had still been completely astonished when they boarded a New Republic shuttle and flew into the belly of a New Republic frigate. Maybe if the President's reaction had been unique, he could have seen the humor in it. Instead it was annoyingly similar to the response they received wherever the Republic sent them.
Not that Kiran was totally at fault. Darth Vader's role in initiating a coalition government between the Empire and the Alliance had been big news. Two years ago. Since then, though, anyone reading the Holonet would have thought that the New Republic had sprung fully formed after the events at Endor. Though the Senate was quite willing to hand the team of Skywalker and Skywalker the high risk assignments, official reports usually only made reference to the use of "special forces."
And while they weren't in it for the glory, he still wished they'd give his father a little more credit. The black armor was too iconic, too hard for people to forget. As disloyal as it made him feel, Luke had to admit that until he had seen the mask come off, a part of him had held back, too. Anymore, though, his mind saw eyes of blue behind the dark lenses, and his ears heard the natural voice underneath the effects of the voice modulator. Now if only the rest of the Galaxy would see his father that way.
When he finally felt clean, he shut off the shower and exited the 'fresher. Walking through his cabin, he flipped on the desk comm and contacted the bridge. After confirming that everything was quiet, he finished pulling on a fresh uniform and stepped into his boots. With the BlueSaber settled into orbit around Druckenwell in a display of Republic strength, the next few days would likely be uneventful. He thought about catching up on his Holonet correspondence, then decided he wasn't in the mood.
Instead he walked the familiar route from his cabin to his father's, pausing before the door to ask permission to enter, and motioning the door open when it was granted. Behind the transparisteel wall that pressurized the rear of the cabin, his father was dressed in loose clothing, cleaning grit from the life support suit. Perfect. With the suit disassembled, his father had no choice but to stay put and listen.
Luke took a seat at the end of the cabin's black leather couch, resting his arm on the back so that he could look easily into the pressurized chamber. "Would the Jedi have been sent on that the kind of mission in the old days?"
His father looked up from his armor. "Yes. Though we never commanded troops until the Clone Wars."
Somehow, he had never quite realized that. "Then who acted as their support?"
"The reputation of the Order was such that the mere presence of a Master and a Padawan was often enough to settle a dispute."
"That's some reputation."
"A display of Force skills can be quite intimidating," his father said. "Creating a fear of what might happen is the most powerful weapon you hold."
"Well, you've certainly mastered that," he said.
"It's a useful technique," his father said. "One perhaps you should develop."
Luke shook his head. "Not my style. In fact, I was thinking we should work on your reputation."
------
The New Republic Senate had been in session all afternoon and Leia was ready for it to be over. Everything had been quiet in the Cerean pod, but she couldn't shake the feeling of dread that had been with her since morning, and her internal tension was giving her a headache.
Maybe Mon was right; she was just being paranoid. This session had been such a non-event that she might have dozed off if it hadn't been for the zing of triple caf running through her system. There had been the usual requests for reductions in tariffs along the major hyperspace lanes, the suggestion that spice be more heavily regulated, and even a proposal for the Republic to take control of Thyferra to ensure the equitable distribution of bacta among Republic citizens. The representative from the Combined Forces had outlined a series of successes in suppressing insurgent activity along the periphery of the Republic. About the only item of note was the report of unusual ship movements outside the black hole cluster near Kessel. Otherwise, the Galaxy seemed to be running quite smoothly.
She glanced in Mon's direction, but with the senators seated by system, the Chandrilian pod was halfway across the Hall from New Alderaan. She could barely make out the glint of Mon's hair, let alone pick up anything through the Force. Leia sighed. After everything they had gone through together in the Alliance, it did seem ridiculous to suspect Mon of lying.
------
"My reputation is flawless," his father said.
"Yeah, if this was still the Empire," Luke said. "But it gets in the way when we're dealing with civilians. Like Kiran. He was so afraid of you he passed out."
"Kiran is an idiot. It's a wonder he can run a planet," his father said, and then resumed cleaning his helmet. "The safest place he could have been is with me. You should know that."
"I do know that," he said with a gesture. "The troops know that. The trouble is, no one else knows that."
His father shot him a sharp glance."Since Palpatine's death I have done nothing but support the Republic."
"I'm not trying to make you mad." he said. "I'm just saying it's hard for people to see past the suit."
"I need my suit," his father said."Do you think I have chosen to live this way?"
"Well, medicine has improved since you were injured," he said. "Have you ever thought of getting different prosthetics, like mine?"
His father gazed at his golden forearm, turning his metal hand back and forth. "Do you remember when you lost your hand?"
"How could I forget?" Luke said.
"I meant the process it took to accustom yourself to the prosthetic," his father said.
"Oh," he said, feeling small. "Yeah, it was months before it felt like it was actually me."
"As it was for me. Both times. And the second time they were so poorly constructed they were more hinderence than help," his father said. "I had to refine them until their function pleased me. It is not a process I wish to go through again."
Luke stood up from the couch. "Well, then maybe there's something that could be done to help your breathing. Maybe you wouldn't have to always wear your mask."
"This mask has kept me alive for twenty five years," his father said."Why are you so concerned? Are you ashamed of it?"
"No...no, of course not," he said. "It just bothers me that everyone else doesn't see you the way I do."
"The mask is not the problem. When I was a young man, the Council did not trust me either, even though I did everything they asked. It is no different now."
Luke sighed to himself. Definitely one of those conversations that had gone way off course. He walked over to the desk to activate the datapad. Maybe there'd be some neutral topic on the Holonet.
------
After all, Mon was not only her friend, she had been her adoptive father's and real mother's friend as well. Even more than friend : a comrade-in-arms and confidante. The first time she had heard Mon talk about the birth of the Rebellion, about how they all used to meet in Padme' Amidala's apartment, the small hairs prickled on the back of her neck. Bail and Mon and Padme', they had trusted each other to keep secrets in a time of exquisite danger. And for twenty five years after, Mon had never swerved from that initial pact. She was the very model of loyalty.
But if Luke were here, he'd say, trust your feelings. He'd already told her that more times than there were buildings on Coruscant. It was the key to using the Force, he said. Stop thinking, and just let it flow.
She took in several deep breaths and tried to empty her mind as much as was possible amid the distractions of the Senate Hall. For a moment, the murmur of voices and the hum of the holocams all faded away. With them gone, the tingling sensation that she'd come to recognize as activity in the Force intensified. Luke had warned her this would be a frustrating point in her training, when she could feel the Force, but not control it, and he was right. Something was about to happen, but she couldn't tell what.
She opened her eyes and the din of the Senate surrounded her once again. On the auditorium's main screen, the senator from Denon was cueing a small datapad and glancing up into the swarm of holocams. Leia refreshed her own datapad to display the upcoming topic. The Galactic Integrity Restoration Act. She pursed her lips and turned to the pod next to her. "Didn't know we were missing our integrity."
------
"Where do you think they'll send us next?" Luke said, as he scrolled through news reports from Coruscant.
"Hard to say," his father said."Wherever the next hot spot breaks out."
"It does seem like each mission is getting shorter," he said.
"The major threats to the Republic have been eliminated. The Galaxy is on the verge of peace."
He looked up from the datapad. "I don't even know what that's like. It feels like the war's been going on my whole life."
"And mine," his father said.
"So once the Republic is settled, what will be our role?" he said. "It sounds like even before the Clone Wars, the Jedi acted as a security force."
"Keepers of the peace," his father said. "That is the term the Council used."
"Still sounds like a security force to me," Luke said. "I always imagined the Order as something more noble."
"What is more noble than ensuring peace and justice in the Galaxy?"
"Well, when you say it like that, nothing. It's just that I never thought being a Jedi would involve so much combat," he said, remembering his first lessons in the swamps of Dagobah.
"You joined the Rebellion easily enough."
"That was different. That was fighting for freedom, battling oppression," he said. "Not mediating a trade dispute."
His father smiled at him."It may disappoint you, son, but running a Galaxy requires that level of control. Without it, chaos emerges."
"I'm not saying it's unnecessary," Luke said. "But most of the time I'm more soldier than Jedi, and I'd rather it was the other way around."
"But I count on your assistance," his father said. "Several missions would have gone poorly if you had not been there."
"And I'd never let you down," he said. "But once the Republic is calm, I think there's something more important for us to do."
"What do you mean?"
He hesitated. While they openly discussed many aspects of his father's life, he knew some topics were off-limits. Obi-Wan was one of them. This was another. "I think it's time we rebuilt the Jedi Order."
His father's head swung up. "You must be joking."
He shook his head, refusing to wilt under the intensity of his father's stare.
After a few moments, his father looked away and resumed polishing the durasteel breastplate. "That would be an impossible task, to recreate what was."
"Maybe, but I still have to try."
"Why? You should leave the past alone."
"Because it can't end with you and me," he said. He was on his feet now, energized by thoughts held in too long. "When Yoda died, Ben said that made me the last Jedi, the last hope for the Order. And even though you're here, I still feel the weight of that responsibility. I can't shake the idea that I am supposed to do something about it."
His father's eyes remained focused on his armor. "Then perhaps you should."
"But I can't do it without you," Luke said, moving next to the transparisteel panel.
His father pointed a golden finger at him. "You don't know what you're asking."
"Yes, I do," he said, positioning himself directly across from his father. "If you really think no one in the Republic appreciates what you do, why do you keep doing it? And why did you build a new lightsaber? No one understands the significance of red and blue anymore."
Luke waited for the scathing retort, but none came. Emboldened by the silence, he pushed his point home. "I'll tell you why. Because deep down, you believe in everything the Jedi stood for. You've shown me who Anakin Skywalker is. Now show the rest of the Republic."
His father frowned and turned away.
"Help me restore the Order," Luke said. "Become a teacher."
"Patience was never my strong suit," his father said.
"But think of how much you know. The skills, the history, the philosophy," Luke said. His father's attention was focused on him now, and his last bit of self-restraint gave way. "In fact, you're the only one who knows how the Order was, how everything is supposed to be. And you've said that no matter what you do, you can never bring them back. But in a way, you can."
His father's eyes fixed on him. "How is that possible?"
There was an ominous crackle in the Force that made Luke acutely aware of how sensitive an area he had wandered into, and he softened his voice. "Because they're in your memories. Talk about who they were and what they were like, and you can make them live again. We'll make sure they're never forgotten."
For a long moment his father continued staring at him, but then he turned and sank onto the edge of his bed, and his eyes focused somewhere far away. Luke sank, too, taking a seat on the back of the couch, wondering if he had pushed too hard this time. He'd have to tell Leia he'd left their father speechless twice in a span of five minutes, but he wasn't sure she'd believe him. Either that, or she'd warn him about the dangers of playing with fire.
But for once, the fire seemed to have left his father. As the silence stretched into minutes, Luke decided the conversation was over. He stood and headed for the door. "I'm going to go to the forward hangar. Check on repairs."
He had already waved the door open when his father finally answered. "Luke. Talk to me about this again, after we return to Coruscant."
------
Leia slammed her hand down onto her pod's comment request button, then looked up to the queue to see where she stood. She shook her head. There must be twenty other senators ahead of her. Her reflexes were usually pretty fast; how could that have happened? She looked up at the queue again. The first few system codes she didn't recognize, but CHD was Chandrila and CER had to be Cerea. An uneasy feeling of understanding settled in her stomach. Maybe they had all chimed in ahead of her because they knew what the senator from Denon was going to say before he said it.
She felt like jumping up and shouting from her pod, but all she could do was wait for her turn to speak. Galactic Integrity Restoration Act. That was rich. Try the Loss of Integrity Act. What good was a government if it couldn't be counted on to keep its word? It might as well be the Empire again. She felt herself getting angrier by the moment and realized she needed to get herself under control. She had to appear as the voice of reason in the crowd, not the lunatic that proved the validity of the Act. But listening to the statements roll in only tightened the knot in her gut. It was a slaughter out there.
"The system of Sullust concurs with Denon that the presence of Darth Vader as an officer in the Republic Forces is an embarrassment to the Republic."
"Taanab supports the removal of Darth Vader from the Republic Forces."
"Cerea has always been concerned by the empowerment of Darth Vader and believes the Galactic Integrity Restoration Act is long overdue."
"Chandrila believes the future of the Republic will be compromised by continued association with the former Darth Vader and also supports his removal from official position."
And there it was. At least Mon had the courtesy to acknowledge that the Alliance had negotiated with Anakin Skywalker, not Darth Vader. And Mon had been telling the truth, really. The Cereans were the least of Leia's worries when she was up against the whole rest of the Senate.
The holocam swung in front of her and she gathered her thoughts. "New Alderaan recognizes Admiral Skywalker's contributions to the formation and ongoing security of the Republic. New Alderaan believes the agreement between Admiral Skywalker and the New Republic to be binding and cautions the Senate..."
The projection of her voice cut off abruptly as the holocam buzzed to the next speaker. Damn, she thought she had been talking fast enough to beat the timer. Not that her statement had made any difference. No, she'd need the charms of a Falleen to change some of these minds. With only two weeks until the vote, she'd have to work fast, and the first thing she intended to do was call on a certain Chandrilian senator.