Chapter 2
"Here I thought Jedi Knights could control their excitement." Jacen said to his sister, releasing Nelani from his embrace, lightsaber still humming. "Or did you not get my last life day present?"
"If I knew you were a Sith, I wouldn't have kept it." Jaina shot back. To her continued surprise, Jacen and Nelani broke out laughing.
"Jacen's not a Sith." Nelani giggled with an arm still around Jacen. "He just plays one on the Holonet. And does it well, I must add." Admiration glowed in her eyes as she looked up at him, but Jacen did not notice.
"So why's the lightsaber on, Not-Darth Jacen?" Jaina inquired sarcastically.
"Oh." Jacen said, slightly embarrassed. "Sorry about that. I can't turn it off. It's been stuck on for the last half-hour since it fell off my belt during re-entry. Almost took out the entire navicomputer. And the blade was green yesterday, too."
He held the offending violet lightsaber towards his sister, leaving Nelani behind. "Think you can fix it for me? Eriana and Womprat couldn't figure out what's wrong with it. I'll warn you, the design is quite unique."
Sighing, Jaina returned her lightsaber to her belt, and took Jacen's. She reached out with her mind to examine the structure of the weapon, and found she could not recognise any of the major components. The crystal alone was familiar to her. "This might take a while. But, in the mean time." She tossed the lightsaber to Nelani, and came forward to hug her last remaining brother, squeezing him tight for a minute and enjoying the fact that he was back. A moment later, she stepped back and elbowed him hard in the ribs.
He barely flinched. "What was that for?"
"Playing Sith." Jaina said putting her arm around her brother, and leading him back to the Academy. Her students had already gone, not wanting to hang around in the rain, and the apprentices hung back to give the siblings some privacy.
"By the way, it's 'Master' to you now, Jedi Solo." Jaina said, playing up the friendly sibling rivalry.
"On whose authority?" Jacen asked, more amused than jealous.
"The Jedi Council." Jaina replied, oblivious to his amusement. While they shared a strong bond for most of their life and were unable to hide anything from each other, Jacen had since developed an ability to hide himself in their bond. She was trying to find his emotions in the bond, but failed to notice his grin.
"Ah." Jacen replied, looking down at his shorter sister. "Well, Master Solo, could your little brother buy you a congratulatory lunch?"
Jaina rolled her eyes. Food was prepared for all Jedi on Ossus for no individual cost. "No, but you can carry my tray."
"You drive a hard bargain, Master Solo."
-! #$%^&*()
The Jade Shadow sliced into the Pararian asteroid field without hesitation, a task most sentients would label as incredibly brave or incredibly stupid. The asteroid field was unique among its kind as virtually everyone avoided it, even pirates and smugglers. Within the centre of the field was a bright violet and blue nebula that blocked all forms of sensors due to extremely high concentrations of magnesium and chromium. Most sentients agreed that the combination of asteroids and blinded sensors made navigating the nebula foolish at best. Given that it could be reached by a short half-hour jump in hyperspace from Ossus and that everyone avoided it, the Jedi, fools in their own right, decided that such a location was perfect for pilot training.
Or for Jedi moms to try forcing their kid to use the Force.
Ben Skywalker, the red-headed result of Luke and Mara Jade Skywalker's marriage, sat in the navigator seat of the Jade Shadow beside his mom with a scowl on his face. As Force sensitive as anyone living at the Jedi Academy, Ben was unique among his peers in that he outright refused to use the Force. During the Yuuzhan Vong war Ben had been exposed to several situations that shook most Jedi Masters, and had instinctively learned to draw himself away from the Force as a natural defence. At eight years old, that defence had developed into instinct and he had learned to hide himself as effectively as the best Jedi Masters, if not more so – a fact that made Mara both envious and proud.
"We're not going in the nebula." Mara said, reading Ben's scowl correctly.
"Then why are we out here?" Ben pouted.
"Just because you're being stubborn about the Force, it doesn't mean you can't learn something useful." Mara explained patiently. "Now be a good little Skywalker and make some asteroids smaller."
A happy chirping sound came from Artoo-Detoo behind Ben, urging him to use the upgraded sensor suite he developed.
"Not so fast, you two." Mara protested, switching off the master power to the targeting computer. "You get to use your eyes for this one."
"What?" Ben complained. "You're just trying to get me to use the Force again!"
Mara glared at him for a moment, slightly annoyed that he saw through her plan, and transferred weapon controls to her stick. She quickly shot five asteroids, spitting metal in every direction, and guided the ship deftly around the shards.
"Did you sense me using the Force?" Mara asked, knowing full well he could sense disturbances around him.
"No." Ben said quietly.
"It doesn't take the Force to do everything, Ben." Mara explained patiently. "What if your targeting computer gets damaged? You have to learn how to use your eyes as much as anything else."
Unable to argue with her logic, Ben reluctantly took over the firing controls and started picking targets. At first he missed his targets wildly as he got used to the controls, but soon was aiming well enough to take sizable chunks out of the larger asteroids. And to Mara's chagrin, he never touched the Force.
"Twin Suns One to Jade Shadow, please respond." A youthful voice came across the comm. as Mara guided the Shadow through another lazy turn around a larger asteroid. Mara recognized the voice as the leader of Jaina's hand-picked team of pilots from her advanced starfighter tactics class, Jorvan Chetlog. Her squadron from the war was recommissioned as an elite starfighter training group that would train students to become part of the Jedi starfighter corps.
"Oh, no." Ben moaned. "Not them."
"What is it?" Mara asked.
"They don't like me." Ben pouted again.
Mara opened a comm channel. "Twin Suns One, this is Jade Shadow, what can I do for you Jorvan?"
"Master Skywalker," Jorvan responded. "We would like to join the training zone and head directly into the nebula."
"Acknowledged, proceed." Mara responded. "No others are in the training field."
"Thank you, Shadow." After a few incidents in the asteroid field, protocol was established dictating that anyone inside the training field had the right to use the field, and dictate protocol to anyone wishing to enter. The longest in the field had superiority over all others.
"Ok, Ben, take over." Mara transferred the controls to Ben, and slipped out of the pilot's seat. "Make sure he doesn't hit anything, Artoo."
Mara left the cockpit to get a cup of caf, and Ben found himself piloting his mom's ship for the first time. After the initial shock wore off and Ben realized he really was in control of the ship, he started to experiment. Theoretically, he knew how the controls operated and how they, in turn, controlled the ship.
Theory, as Ben was soon to discover, is far from reality.
He pulled the control stick to starboard, and felt his stomach lurch as the ship threw itself into a tight corkscrewing spin. He pulled back to the left, overcompensating his first turn and launched the ship in the same spin to port. Thanks to Artoo, he was finally able to even the ship out, and slowly started gaining the feel for the sensitive controls of the Jade Shadow. By the time Mara returned with her caf, Ben was flying the ship as smoothly as a leaf in a gentle breeze.
At five percent throttle.
"Good to see you're getting the hang of it." Mara noted as she took her chair. The asteroids were going by so slowly that Mara was able to reach out with the Force and drag one along just outside the port viewport. Quickly bored of that, she pushed the rock away, and shoved the throttle up to twenty percent.
"Skim the side of that larger asteroid," Mara pointed. "And when you're closest to the surface, hit the repulsors at full."
Ben guided the ship along the course she suggested, quickly adapting to the higher speed, and followed her directions exactly. The resulting burst sent the Shadow fifty metres off course in a second.
"Whoa!" Ben shouted. "That was great!"
"Works wonders in a starfight." Mara could not help but smile. "Ok, try some target practice, now that you're flying."
Mara sat back and watched her son quickly master the controls of the ship, easily guiding it around larger asteroids and attacking smaller asteroids at half of the Shadow's top speed.
I'll be damned. Mara thought to herself. There is some Skywalker in him.
Over the next hour, Mara taught him various manoeuvres and tactics in space combat, which he quickly absorbed and mastered faster than any student Mara had ever taught.
"Well done!" Mara exclaimed as Ben performed a Crazy Ivan.
Artoo twiddled his excitement, and called Mara's attention to the comm panel. She flicked the appropriate switch.
"Jade Shadow, Twin Suns One." Mara could hear a smile in Jorvan's voice. "We'd like to request a challenge. The Shadow against the Suns."
"What do you think, Ben?" Mara asked.
"You fly," Ben said, excited from his initial successes. "I'll shoot."
"You're on." Mara relayed, and took control over the ship. "Artoo, link with their astromechs and activate the training programs."
Mara reached out with the Force and detected her opponents lurking just at the edge of the nebula.
"Not exactly playing fair, are they?" Mara asked Ben and pointed to a section of space. "Activate a nav beacon and target these coordinates."
"Why?" Ben asked, utterly confused.
"We're going to overload the beacon." Mara explained. "The power supply is fuelled by liquid oxygen, which will react with the high concentration of magnesium in the nebula. It won't be enough to damage the ships, but it will simulate a torpedo blast for the simulator. The resulting 'damage' should take out half the squadron, and with the interference they won't even see it coming."
"Bombs away." Ben smiled and watched the makeshift torpedo travel towards the nebula. "Would that work with a real torpedo?"
"Only if it was full of liquid oxygen." Mara said with a grin as the beacon exploded. "Baradium doesn't work so well. Oh, look at that, they've decided to join the fight."
Five X-wings exited the nebula as Mara took advantage of their sensor blindness to guide the Shadow behind a larger asteroid. Artoo announced the success of multiple targets being destroyed.
"I thought we were going to fight them." Ben said, as Mara powered down the engines to standby to minimize their sensor shadow.
"We are." Mara said. "We're fighting them with our heads. Anyone can jump in there and fly in circles and try to blow each other up, but the Shadow isn't really designed for that."
Mara and Ben waited in silence as the squadron broke into two flights, and started searching for the Shadow. Finally the flight of two X-wings came into view and Mara used the Force to shove some asteroids into their path.
"Fire!" Mara exclaimed, powering the engines and launching the ship after the X-wings. The asteroids bounced harmlessly off the X-wing shields, but the computer recognized it as a much larger impact and 'collapsed' the shields. Several quick blasts from Ben's laser cannons later and the Twin Suns were down to three ships…which had launched a pair of torpedoes from behind.
"Not bad." Mara commented, sharply pulling the Shadow around an asteroid in an attempt to shake off the pursuit and turned it into a lesson for Ben. "But in using two ships as bait, they've also lost some numbers."
Mara spun around to face the torpedoes as they corrected themselves and honed in on the Shadow, allowing Ben to blast the two torpedoes with ease.
He's unconsciously using the Force! Mara thought, but a squeal from Artoo forced her to dive sharply as one of the Suns made a successful strafing run across the Shadow.
"Shields down to half." Ben reported while firing several shots at the retreating fighter.
"No, no." Mara said. "Focus on the other ones, he's out of range."
Just as she said that, the other two X-wings appeared in front and launched a volley of fire at the Shadow. Mara twisted the controls and slammed the throttle to max as Ben returned fire, trying to keep on target amid his mom's wild manoeuvres as she chased the two X-wings.
"I got one!" Ben shouted when Artoo reported another kill.
"And they got us." Mara said dejectedly. A pair of torpedoes had just impacted the ship from both above and below, creating sufficient damage to take out the Shadow. All the ships quickly reformed outside the asteroid field.
"Not bad, Jorvan." Mara commed. "Where'd the spare come from?"
"Keylay was hiding in the nebula." Jorvan's excitement was evident from his voice. "You only got half of us with that first shot, and I decided to keep one in reserve. Looks like it paid off."
"Well done," Mara complimented. "We're going back to Ossus. Paranian is yours."
"Acknowledged, Shadow, Paranian is ours. Have a safe flight back."
"You let him win." Ben said.
"Yes." Mara admitted, locking the coordinates for Ossus into the navicomputer and launching the ship into hyperspace.
"Why? Now they're going to make fun of me even more."
"Did you really think we could last much longer against them without the Force?" Mara said reasonably, trying to hide her feelings from her face. Petty schoolyard bullying aside, any time she got Ben to use the Force Mara counted as a win. "And we did take out three quarters of them."
"You weren't using the Force?" Ben asked excitedly.
"Nah," Mara smiled. "Except for throwing the asteroids around, I thought I'd give them a chance. They've got some egos to protect, and Jaina might get angry if I roughed them up too much."
Ben stared out at the circles of hyperspace and grinned. "That was fun mom. When can we do it again? Oh! Can I land the Shadow?"
"Soon." Mara said around a bitter-sweet smile as an image of a much older Ben flashed in her mind for a second. "You will soon enough."