Chapter 18

"Mother?"

Leia turns around and sees Jaina standing there, the silence that sometimes seems to follow her remaining child is deafening.

"Yes, Jaina?"

"What are you doing?"

Leia sighs, and steps closer to her daughter. "I'm sorry. I can't do this. I can't put aside my beliefs for the Jedi. I tried, and look at what has happened."

A blast of wind from overhead, heralds the arrival of the Alderaan. Leia turns from Jaina to look at her ship, admiring the smooth, simple lines, the pearlescent white hull. She smiles and deactivates the recall device as the ship settles smoothly to the landing pad.

"So, where has that been hiding all these years?"

Leia laughs slightly. "In deep space. Your father and I put it there on the off chance that one of us needed a quick way off a planet."

"Don't do this mom. The Jedi need you, I need you. Adumar is in flames you know."

A frown crosses Leia's face as she turns back towards her daughter. "What happened?"

"Apparently, they were building weapons capable of destroying a planet. One was set off prematurely on their surface. Omas has requested a Jedi head up the humanitarian mission."

"Requested? Don't you mean ordered?"

"Please don't make this so hard."

Leia steps towards her daughter. "We all must do what we must. For me, that means leaving the Jedi. I cannot stand by and watch as the Order which Luke built up becomes the puppet of Cal Omas. You need to think hard and long about the choices being offered."

Jaina bows her head. "I do mom, believe me I do. Yet I can't see anything anymore. The path to travel used to be so clean and clear, and now its muddy and getting darker every day. What happens when I can no longer find the path in the Force?"

Leia wraps her arms around her daughter, and kisses her forehead. She lets Jaina go and takes a step backwards toward the ship. She glances down for a moment and then once more looks towards Jaina and in her mind's eyes sees her as a little girl, on the eve of leaving for her first school session on Yavin. "You must trust your heart."

Then she turns, and walks up the ramp, hitting the close button as soon as she is inside. She sits down at the pilot's station and looks out the viewport to see Jaina still standing there on the landing pad, her face lined with pain and rejection, nearly breaking Leia's heart.

She places her hand against the viewport, her fingers splayed, outstretched towards Jaina. "I trust you to find the way. I love you."

Jaina nods her head almost as if she had heard, and Leia activates the repulsers. The Alderaan slowly lifts from the pad, and as soon as Leia gets above building height, she punches the sublight engines, and the sleek craft rockets towards space. Sniffling slightly, she enters the coordinates for Corellia and pulls the hyperspace levers.

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The Hand of Thrawn, Niruan

Jagged Fel sits beside his father in the briefing room, watching the holonet monitor as Wedge's speech is repeated. As it ends, he shifts in his seat, allowing his eyes to flicker between the various humans and Chiss seated at the table around him. Finally his gaze falls on his father. Soontir Fel appears to have aged a decade in the past two weeks. A haunted look often appears on his face, and he has taken to sighing at strange times. His father looks up from the monitor, and glances once at Jagged and then at the other officers at the table.

Finally his father stands. "So, is there any doubt in any of our minds that the Federation will attack Corellia?"

Shawnkry looks at the general and responds, "No sir."

"Good, now we have one more speech to watch." Then he turns the monitor back on, this time revealing the Queen Mother of Hapes as she announces the creation of a new Confederation of Independent Systems. As that speech is finished, Soontir once more turns his attention towards the officers.

"We are loosely coupled with the Galactic Federation now. Since we are not an actual member state, we do not fall under the jurisdiction of that inane law. Yet I fear what it means for us in the future. We see that they will move against Corellia, if not now then shortly in the future. How much longer before they do the same to us?"

General Rtyhmthi'man'kryst allows a slight frown to come to his impassive face. "Are you suggesting we attack first General?"

Soontir raises an eyebrow. "Not at all. I am merely suggesting that we become members of the Confederation. What they are basically offering is a mutual aggression treaty, basically if someone attacks them, then it is legally the same thing as them attacking us and vice versa."

Thimank shakes his head. "The Chiss have jealously guarded our sovereignty for centuries. Why should we change this now?"

Jagged speaks up at this point. "Because if we do not do this, sooner or later we become the biggest arms producer that is not the Federation. How long do you think it will be before they decide that we are a threat that must be dealt with?"

Thimank turns his attention onto Jag. "Then why should we not wait until then to fight? Why put ourselves at risk now?"

"Because, now we have potential allies to help us. Remember General, for every ship we have, the Federation has thousands. We cannot hope to fight them alone."

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Coronet City, Corellia

Kyp Durron stands in the shadows of the government building, watching the exit waiting for someone to come out. He sighs slightly, wondering if Han will ever appear.

Getting impatient, he begins rocking on the balls of his feet, and lets out a pent up breath when he sees the door to the building swing open. A man in his mid sixties walks out of the building. Kyp growls slightly as he realizes that it is not Han.

After a moment more, he grins as he realizes that it is the person he really wanted to talk to in the first place. Wedge Antilles.

He pulls the Force to him, and rushes towards Wedge's speeder, jumping into the passenger seat at the same second that Wedge settles himself into the driver's seat.

"Hello Diktat Antilles."

Wedge turns to look at the rogue Jedi Master and a frown flickers onto his face. "What do you want Durron? Don't tell me that the Jedi have resorted to assassination."

Kyp laughs slightly as he shakes his head. "Nothing like that Diktat. In fact I've resigned from the Order. I'm here to offer you my services."

Wedge glances towards Kyp, his frown filtering down into a full scowl. "I'm not sure about that Durron."

Kyp shrugs his shoulders. "I know we've had our issues in the past Diktat, but Cal has taken direct control of the Jedi Council. You know it is only a matter of time before they get integrated in with the military. Use me, I believe in what you're doing here."

Wedge starts up the speeder a sort of angry, disgusted scowl lingering on his face. "Fine. I was going to go see Han anyways."

Kyp grins. "Thank you, Diktat."

Wedge makes a noncommittal noise and pulls on the stick, lifting the speeder up and heading towards the Military Command Complex.

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Tatooine

The Pulsar Skate slowly settles to the hard packed sand in front of the Skywalker Homestead. Ben looks over at the Jade Shadow where she sits a few meters away from the Skate.

He frowns, as he notices the sand piled high against the port side of the starship. Jysella looks at him, and notices the face he is making.

"What's wrong Ben?"

He gestures out toward the Shadow. "Mom's ship. Before Ossus, she'd have never allowed her to get in that sort of shape."

She reaches over and grabs his hand, giving it a quick squeeze before standing. She looks towards the homestead and sees four figures coming out from the underground chambers, three adults and Ben's sister Padmé. "I wonder who the guest is."

Ben looks out the viewport, and one of his brows hitches slightly as he leans forward. "It looks like Tahiri."

Jysella bits her bottom lip for a second, her eyes flickering from Tahiri to Ben and then back. After a second she blows out her breath, an almost sigh. "Well let's go see shall we?"

Ben looks at her, feeling the wall she has in place over her feelings, and he nods his head. "Let's."

He stands and holds out his hand to her. After a second she reaches out and grasps it as they head towards the ramp. The ramp lowers and hand in hand they walk down it, heading towards Ben's family. A blur of a two-year-old appears rushing towards them, screaming.

"Jella!"

Jysella laughs, and drops Ben's hand, reaching down and picking up the happy toddler.

Ben continues down the ramp, heading towards his parents, never seeing the frown which appears on and disappears from Jysella's face. He reaches the bottom and throws his arms around both of his parents, sighing deeply. His parents return the embrace, and a few moments later Ben lets go, and turns towards Jysella, holding out his hand for her again.