sticksofthejedi: (Burning brand to your enemies...)
Jaina Solo ([personal profile] sticksofthejedi) wrote2012-09-30 01:10 pm
Entry tags:

Memory 46

Memory: Lashing out at an officer for saying it's inevitable for the grandchild of Darth Vader to become a little tyrant.
Received: Day 181, morning
Form: A scrap of burlap in Iolite's color. Tie it around your wrist to get your memory, infinite uses.
Summary: Jaina's temper gets the better of her when Jacen starts persecuting Corellians on Coruscant, and another officer touches a very sensitive spot in her family history. She and Luke have a talk about how Jacen's obviously going back.

Picks up from the end of this memory.

--

Centax 2 was a sterile moon with the usual sprawl of military facilities arranged like a warehouse floor covered in boxes. The base would win no prizes for architecture. If war broke out for real-and Luke always found the for real proviso painfully ironic-then it would switch overnight from a training squadron to an operational air station. The switch seemed close to being thrown. Luke lifted the canopy of the XJ7 and climbed out of the cockpit to slide down the ladder wheeled into position by ground crew.

I used to do that a lot faster, too.

He waited at the entrance to the mess until Jaina's fighter swept into the hangar on repulsor power and settled in the bay next to his. When she slid out and took off her helmet, her face was taut and anxious.

"You're up to speed," Luke said comfortingly, walking toward the doors to get her to follow him. "Are we allowed to wear flight suits in the mess?"

Jaina managed a smile and indicated her own orange suit. "Don't worry, I'm the colonel. I'll provide top cover."

It was the first chance Luke had grabbed since the Corellian internment row to talk to Jaina alone. She radiated misery. Anxiety about "skills fade" and being "fit for role"-phrases that had peppered her conversation rather too liberally in recent days to convince Luke-was good tech talk for the sake of the squadron, nothing more. She was Jacen's twin. Whatever was happening, it was happening to her more acutely than the rest of the family.

"After you," said Luke.

The mess was a warren of compartments with one large section where food was served and eaten, and a lounge area almost the same size that was scattered with comfortable seating and sparse entertainment, the main focus of which was a huge holoscreen on one wall. It was wide enough to be seen comfortably from the refectory area while pilots and ground personnel waited for meals to be dispensed.

Most of the pilots in the lounge area had their backs to the refectory and were watching the screen. The lunchtime HNE news had started, and that now meant complete silence descended: everyone was waiting and watching for the little twitches from the politicians that would mean that the squadron's warned status would switch immediately to mobilized.

Jaina reached over the counter to scoop some vegetables onto her plate just as the top headline boomed to fill the entire complex. It didn't, of course, but Luke felt that it did. He froze.

"And today's top story-the roundup of Corellian nationals continues as thousands leave Galactic City in a voluntary repatriation program."

The screen was filled with a shot of 967 Commando shock troopers advancing down the walkways at either side of a Coruscant residential skylane, one squad preceded by the now familiar figure of Jacen Solo in a stark black coverall of the kind favored by special forces. That would have been bad enough, but the only other person in any kind of uniform with his face visible was Ben.

It was very, very quiet in the mess now.

My son. How did I ever let Jacen do this to him?

The shock troopers all wore fully enclosed helmets. It was sensible equipment for a soldier to wear, but that didn't make it look any less menacing. Luke could hear not the commentary pounding in his ears but Han's voice saying that the Alliance was rapidly turning into the Empire.

"Colonel Jacen Solo, speaking earlier, said-"

Luke managed to look at Jaina, whose face was stricken. There was no other word for it.

And it was clear that most of those watching the screen had no idea who was standing behind them in the refectory.

"Old family tradition, terrorizing the population," said one captain, feet propped on a low table. "Just like his grandfather all over again. When's he going to go for a nice black cloak and helmet? And lots of troopers in lovely white armor?"

Some of the officers in the mess laughed, but most looked as if they wished they were somewhere else. Luke had grown adept at reading the ebb and flow of trouble waiting to explode, and it surprised him again just how finely balanced it was between tempers fading and sudden explosion.

This time it was Jaina who exploded. Her fists were balled. Luke, caught off-guard by his own shame at Ben's appearance, failed to block Jaina's Force push as the captain hit the wall of the mess, upending his chair. Jaina lunged forward. Luke managed to shove in front of her. Two other pilot officers stepped in, sending chairs tumbling to stop their comrade from doing anything else stupid.

"He didn't mean it," said one. He didn't seem to see Luke. "Sorry, Colonel."

Jaina was flushed, eyes wide. Colonels didn't take swings at other officers, using the Force or not. It was bad discipline. Luke wanted to get her outside, but she needed to let it be known she was back in control. Nobody enjoyed serving under an officer who couldn't control her temper.

The captain was hauled to his feet. He looked more winded than injured. "Go on," said one of the officers, "Apologize to the colonel. You were out of line."

The captain's expression said that he thought he'd got it about right, but his mouth did as it was told. "My apologies, Colonel Solo."

"We're all getting a little tense," said Jaina. "I should have found a less assertive way to ask you to retract what you said about my family."

And now the captain appeared to realize he was also facing Luke Skywalker. "Sorry, sir . . ."

It hurt because everyone's saying it, thought Luke. You're just the messenger.

"Forget it," he said. "Jaina, let's take a walk."

There was no natural vegetation on Centax. They found a spot in the shade of a hangar and sat down on a couple of crates.

"We can fence around this or we can blurt it out," said Luke. "I prefer blurting, personally."

"Saves time."

"I don't know what's happening to Jacen."

"Neither do I, Uncle."

"Try a guess, then."

"I don't know him anymore."

"That's a scary thing for any twin to say."

"There's something dark about him now. He shuts me out. He even manipulated me against the Chiss."

"I know." Yes, he's good at that. "It's . . . worrying."

"I can't trust him now."

Luke didn't want to hear it said aloud, but he knew he had to listen. Mara sensed it, too, but was satisfied that it was the opposing passions of a messy love affair that were creating the darkness. Luke thought of the images he had seen in recent days and knew that the darkness was separate from any problems Jacen had in his love life. It was graphic enough to be captured on holocam.

I want my son to stay away from him.

Luke thought of Lumiya and his dreams of the hooded figure, which was surely her. But those signs of impending disaster were new; Jacen had opened the rift with Jaina by tricking her into attacking the Chiss several years earlier.

Jedi were used to seeing what ordinary people couldn't. Being deceived-something regular folk learned to live with from an early age-was especially threatening for them.

But you're not fooling me, Jacen. You're turning to the dark side.

"Uncle Luke, this is none of my business," said Jaina, "but if I were you, I'd get Ben a new teacher."

Luke knew she was right, and he also knew that Mara would fight that every step of the way.

And so would Ben.

Post a comment in response:

This account has disabled anonymous posting.
If you don't have an account you can create one now.
No Subject Icon Selected
More info about formatting