Chapter 8
Jacen left his befuddled uncle behind in the garden and returned to the Solo Quest. On his way several Jedi gave him odd looks and refused to speak to him. Others who knew Jacen and had worked with him in the past, like Corran Horn, greeted him warmly and welcomed him back to the Order. When he reached his ship he found Jaina and Eriana talking to each other in the main sitting area. An odd silence and the two women's intent stares at the active Holonet screen displaying weather reports on Naboo gave him an idea of what their topic of conversation had been.
He held up his hands to Jaina, palms out, and said "I don't want to hear it."
"I wasn't going to say it!" Jaina returned.
"Good." Jacen plopped onto a comfortable acceleration couch so he could watch the weather report. "Uncle Luke loved what I had to say."
"What did you say to him?" Jaina asked. "He wasn't…himself, when he got back. It's like you destroyed his faith in the Jedi. I thought he was going to tell you off!"
"I thought you weren't going to say it," Jacen mumbled miserably with a sigh. "He tried to tell me off, but I think my arguments made more sense to him than his own did."
"What did you say to him?" Eriana asked, intrigued by the meeting she was not invited to. Jacen and her were their own council the last five years and she was used to being part of the decision making. She started flipping through channels on the Holonet until she found an old Clone Wars holo.
Jacen shook his head and groaned. "No offence, Jaina, but I basically told him his choice in Jedi Masters had much to be desired and his way of running things was ludicrous. I think he agreed."
"I don't suppose you told him about Yoda making you a Master, did you?"
Jaina looked from Eriana to Jacen with a look of complete confusion. Jacen glared at Eriana, who did not notice as she was now fully absorbed in the Holonet display, and said "Thank you, Eriana. At least I didn't break my word."
"What?" Eriana asked, and then realized Jaina was still there. "Oh, Sithspawn! Jacen, I'm sorry! We've always been so open with our discussions…"
"Forget it," Jacen said, waving a hand. He sat back and looked at his sister. "Well, now you know. I'm the first Jedi Master of the Old Order since before Uncle Luke was born."
"What?" Jaina said. "That's not possible. Yoda and Obi-Wan are gone. Obi-Wan told Luke that himself."
"Mmmmm, gone am I? Gone where, I ask?" Yoda's voice sounded from behind Jaina, causing her to spin around in her chair. The shock on her face made the floating blue Jedi Master laugh his best crackling laugh.
"Ok, good one Jace," Jaina said unconvincingly with a slight quiver in her voice. "This is some sort of trick you learned while you were travelling, isn't it?"
Jacen didn't say anything.
"Not quite, Young Master Solo," Obi-Wan's voice and smiling image appeared beside Yoda's. "We are quite real. Well, as real as we can be, that is."
"Yo, Benny," Eriana waved without looking away from the Holonet screen, and then pointed at the screen. "Can you believe this guy they got to play you in this holomovie?"
"I don't know where they found him," Obi-Wan sighed, scratching his chin. "My beard never looked like that."
"Jaina," Jacen moved to sit beside his baffled sister and took her hand in his. "You can't tell anyone about this. Yoda, Obi-wan, my rank…none of that changes who I am, but it could cause tensions within the Order."
"Tensions? Jacen, this could help the Order in ways neither of us could dream of!" Jaina exclaimed looking frantically between Yoda, Ben, and Jacen. "If the great Jedi Masters Yoda and Obi-Wan Kenobi came and taught the Jedi –"
"Taught them what? That Master Skywalker botched up the entire Order? That his teachings aren't good enough?" Jacen gestured to his Masters, "They would undermine every authority Uncle Luke has over the Jedi, and right now he seems to be one of very few people keeping a respectable face on the Order to the rest of the galaxy, not to mention keeping everything in check. That aside, how do you think the people of the galaxy would react to the knowledge that ghosts are running the Jedi Order? Jaina, it can not be let out that long-dead Jedi Masters can and have come back to teach people higher ways of the Force."
"Jaina, if it is any consolation to you," Obi-Wan said, "we could easily erase your memories of this event from your mind. It is a show of trust in you that Yoda and I appeared to show you our good faith."
Jaina nodded. "Ok, but I want to know everything. What you learned, who else you met up with and…Master Kenobi?"
"Please, Jaina, call me Ben."
"Ok, Master Obi-Ben," Jaina was still slightly bewildered. "Are there others? Others, like you, I mean."
"Some," Yoda replied, growing fainter. "But not a concern for the living, that is. Go we must, Young Solo. Mind what we have said, and to your little brother, you listen." By the time Yoda and Obi-Wan faded completely, all that could be heard was Yoda's crackling laugh as it, too, faded away.
"Well," Jacen started, but something on his sister's belt caught his eye, "Hey, is that my lightsaber?"
"Oh, yeah." Jaina unclipped the forgotten hilt and handed it to him. "That's why I came by, actually."
"Ah," Jacen clipped his lightsaber to his belt and continued. "Well, I can't tell you everything I learned as some can't even be explained, but I will tell you what happened. Five years ago, soon after I left the Jedi Order, I came across a cryogenic prison ship carrying Clone War enemies of the Old Republic…"
-! #$%^&*()
"Has he lost his mind?" Mara exclaimed even before the door to the apartment closed behind her. "Criticizing everyone and ordering you around? Who does he think he is?"
"He thinks we've grown complacent and need to be sparked into action," Luke said absently from in front of the glass door by the balcony without breaking his stare over the fields that extended to the horizon.
"Action? Jacen? Since when?"
"He's changed," Luke responded. "He's not a kid confused about the Force anymore."
"Yeah, but…" Mara stopped. "You agree with him."
Mara stepped up beside him and saw deep shadows of sad regret on his face. "I think we, no, I made a few mistakes in rebuilding the Order. Decisions that may have seemed right at the time, but now look short-sighted and could open holes for us to fall through."
"And you think Jacen knows what the problems are? You think he knows how to fix it?" Mara demanded. The absurdity of this situation seemed to be overwhelming her. "Jacen, who hasn't even called in five years? Jacen, who has been Vader-knows-where around the galaxy except in the Jedi Order? You think he has the answers?"
"You think he doesn't?" Luke asked reasonably. He sighed and shook his head, looking down. "I don't know. All I know is he was right about one thing – there are Jedi that are getting arrogant, lazy, and stuck in their own little worlds. And we're falling apart, too. Maybe an outside perspective is what the Order needs. We've been rebuilding our numbers and our facilities for so long we've forgotten there's a galaxy out there that we should be serving. It's time we started to rebuild what it means to be Jedi."
Mara turned away and ran a hand through her red hair and squeezed it together at the top of her head for a moment as if she could squeeze out some inspiration. She let go after a moment, letting her hand fall away and her hair stayed slightly standing. "So he wants us to attack the Sith?"
"I don't know," Luke answered evasively.
"Does he want to lead the Order?"
"I don't think so."
"Are you going to stop sounding like you've been hit by a snowspeeder and start making some reasonable comments here?"
"What would you like of me, Mara?" Luke asked softly, finally turning to face her. "To blindly dismiss the criticism of one of my best students? To dismiss the thoughts of the person who could arguably be one of the deepest thinkers in the Jedi Order, who probably has the widest range of knowledge about the Force out of anyone in this galaxy? Or should I just follow him blindly on the off chance that he could be right?" He shook his head and turned to stare out of the room again.
"I need time to sort out my thoughts and consider…stuff."
Mara stepped up behind him and slipped her arms around his waist. "I'm sorry, Luke. Call me if you need someone to bounce your thoughts off of."
Luke squeezed her hands and said his thanks. She left the room in search of Ben, glancing back at Luke for just a moment. She could sense the weight of burden on his shoulders, but she also felt her own pride for his decision to face this crisis on his own. How many people would so willingly face their own mistakes, facing something that might destroy their life's work?
-! #$%^&*()
"There," Mara pointed at Ben's hiding spot behind a patch of tall grass.
"You peeked!" Ben exclaimed.
Mara pulled off the blindfold, and glared at her son. She was still frustrated from her argument with her husband, but she controlled her anger for the sake of her son. "Your jumpsuit makes a distinct noise against the grass."
"How did you hear that?" Ben pouted. It was his fifth attempt to sneak up on his mom in her training exercise, and his fifth failure.
So far Ben had stepped on dry branches, crept through a patch of weird pink flowers that made him sneeze uncontrollably, crunched dry gravel, and lost his footing on an incline to tumble a hundred metres down the embankment of the valley his mom was standing in. When she dismissed the minor cut in his leg as trivial and told him to start again, Ben realized she was serious about the exercise.
"You came at me from upwind," Mara explained. "Sounds travel in the wind. Back you go; try it again."
Ben moaned and trudged his way back up the incline to the tree his mom had designated as the starting point. All he had to do was sneak up and touch his mom without her knowing he was there and he would complete the exercise. Considering the training she went through for the same exercise, Ben was getting off light.
"Ready?" Mara called out.
"Yeah," Ben called back without even touching the tree. He crouched down and reconsidered his plan of attack. So far he tried going straight down the first three times, then he had tried going to the right down the beaten pathway. That was when he got spooked by a rodent and lost his footing, tumbling to the bottom of the valley. The second time he went to the right he successfully avoided the rodent, but the tall grass had given him away. Off to the left of the valley were many larger, unstable rocks. He still did not like the idea of going down there, as he was more likely to create loud noises traipsing over the rocks than the rustling grass. Ben wiped his forehead realizing just how hot the Ossusian sun was as it pound down on him from high above.
Suddenly a thought hit him. He took off his jumpsuit and retraced his way along the right path, careful to avoid the rodent nest. He walked carefully along the winding path, avoiding the tall grass, feeling it quietly brush along his bare arms and legs, and felt grateful for the gentle breeze cooling his skin.
Yes! Ben thought as he reached the end of the tall grass where more loose gravel started. His mom was now twenty metres away looking the opposite direction. He silently took his boots off and tentatively placed one foot onto the gravel, slowly shifting his weight evenly onto his front foot. With aching slowness, he brought his other foot forward, gently laying it on the gravel and shifting his weight forward. Five minutes and ten metres later, he reached the hard soil his mom stood on, finally increasing his speed a bit. He carefully placed his foot around a tuft of grass, when his mom suddenly turned and faced him. He froze, eyes wide with shock, but no, she did not hear him! She was looking a metre to his right. Just as suddenly she looked backwards, she looked right, then left, and finally crouched down with her back towards Ben again intently listening for the slightest sound.
She didn't hear you. She was only trying to scare you. Ben told himself. Just a little bit further…you can do this!
He took another careful step, then another, then another…
Almost there…
"Gotcha!" Ben leapt at his mom, landing solidly on her back and tackling her to the ground.
"About time!" Mara exclaimed, rolling away from her son and pulling the blindfold off. Her grin could not have been wider. "I thought for sure you'd try going over the rocks next."
"Nah, it'd make too much noise," Ben said dismissively, recalling one of her first lessons. He got up and retrieved his boots.
"Smart move, losing the layers," Mara commented, unzipping her own jacket a third in response to the heat. "Adapting to the environment is just as important as learning how to hide yourself in the Force."
"Yes, mom," Ben drawled. "You've gone over this."
"I know," Mara said smartly. "Last time. Get back up there and try again, I want you to learn how to walk across those rocks, then I have something else planned for you."