Star Wars - I, Jedi

by Michael A. Stackpole

  She narrowed her brown eyes at me, then nodded. "Not a hint of green."

  "Good." I hung the white towel around my neck, holding on to each end of it. "It's going to take a while to get used to seeing my reflection with my hair this close to white."

  She tucked a lock of golden-brown hair behind her left ear. "It makes you look older. The moustache and goatee change the outline of your chin just enough that I almost didn't recog-nize you when you called earlier."

  "You don't think the green had anything to do with that?" I snorted. "I didn't think dyeing my hair would be that compli-cated."

  "Corran, you're supposed to read the instructions on the box."

  "I did."

  "And then you're supposed to follow them." She gave me a look of mock disgust. "Once you've ingested the metabolizing agent, you have to be very specific about how long you leave the color targeting gel on. If you get the timing wrong, you have problems."

  I plucked at the hair on my chest. "Yeah, but I was trying to do my whole body here. Slathering that stuff on takes time."

  "Which is why you take it in stages, not try to do it all at once." She began to laugh and I blushed. "You went from em-erald to pale green at your toes. Your beard did match your eyes, though."

  "But it would have been unending trouble to accessorize." I gave her a snooty glare, then smiled. "At least I won't need to repeat this ordeal for a year or so."

  "True, that's usually how long it takes for the metabolizer to leave the follicles, but be careful. Weird foods can affect the chemistry there." She stretched. "Speaking of which, where are you going to take me for this lunch you promised?"

  I shrugged. "You pick. Fact is that I've not been thinking much about food over the past couple of weeks."

  Iella frowned at me. "You know, I'm still a bit angry with you. I thought we were friends, but your wife goes missing and vou don't call me or tell me about it?"

  I closed my eyes and nodded. "I know I should have." "You're damned right you should have." Her voice softened and I felt her hand caress my bare arm. "You were there for me when I lost Diric. I don't think I could have gotten through it without you. I owe you a lot and even if I didn't, I'd want to help with this sort of thing."

  I opened my eyes and gave her a brave smile, but swiped at a tear with my towel. "I wanted to talk to you, but you're working for New Republic Intelligence and I didn't want to place you in a position where you'd feel a conflict between your job and our friendship. No, wait. I know you and respect you and your pro-fessionalism. I know you would have and will do what is right and in the best interest for everyone. I also know that isn't exactly what I want. I didn't want you thinking you'd failed me because you couldn't say anything."

  Iella nodded, then gave me that indulgent grin I remembered from our years partnering in CorSec. "Your squadron briefings about the Invids probably have told you just about everything I know of fact about the Invids."

  I arched a newly blond eyebrow. "But there are rumors?"

  "Vague, insubstantial rumors." She pursed her lips for a mo-ment. "On some of the early raids, when Leonia Tavira deigned to travel dirtdown and tour the ruins her people left behind, survivors have reported seeing armored figures accompanying her. Never more than one, and everyone has described them as having a Vaderish air about them; but both male and female figures have been described. With Riizolo's report to add into the mix, we think we have at least four distinct individuals."

  I scratched at the back of my neck. "When you say `Vader-ish,' are we just talking masks, cloaks and heavy breathing, or are they doing the virtual-garrote thing or other Force power displays?"

  "Nothing more solid than image, though Riizolo insists they were special. I don't know to trust his reports, though. I think he's telling us a lot of what we want to hear so we'll find him a hole to hide in." leila shrugged. "From everything we know about Tavira, it would be just like her to cultivate a Vader im-age for her henchmen, making her appear to them as the Em-peror was to Vader. All reports seem to agree that she may be smart, but she's also decidedly vain."

  I nodded. "Interesting information. Thanks. So, where do you want to eat?"

  She slapped a hand playfully against my belly. "We should find a place to fatten you up. You've lost weight."

  `Tve been in training. It's been almost two weeks since I decided to join the Jedi academy and took my leave from the squadron." I tossed my towel on a chair, not really caring that the cleaning droid would notify Whistler and he'd scold me for it. "You remember how the Corellian Security Force academy training went, and I got through that when I was a kid. Physical training at dawn, long runs, classes, more runs, exercises, stand-ing watch. We're going to have all that and more in the Jedi academy."

  Iella smiled. "You will be the elite of the elite. Think you're up to it?"

  "I hope so. I'm Master Skywatker's age and probably in as good physical shape as he is, but I'll bet he's going to be bring-ing in a bunch of kids. I'll really have to push myself. Gotta do it, though, because Mirax is counting on me."

  "You'll do fine, Corran. Or should I call you Keiran?"

  "Corran will do."

  "Okay. How do you feel about eating Ithorian?"

  I wrinkled my nose. "Food's good, but I want something with a bit more animal protein."

  "There's a new Twi'lek place that opened up a couple of sectors down and away from here." "Car'ulorn's Kavsrach ?"

  She nodded. "I think that's the place. I heard they do some-thing special with mynock."

  "If I'm eating mynock, it will have to be very special." I winked at her. "Nawara said the food was good there, so it looks like that's a go. Let me pull on some real clothes and we're out of here."

  While I changed leila consulted the Imperial City directory and discovered the restaurant was actually closer than either one of us thought it was. We decided to walk there and slipped into the easy gait we'd used when walking patrol duty together back on CoreIlia. A lot of years seemed to melt away as she pointed out the things she knew I'd find amusing and I did the same for her.

  I elbowed her gently in the ribs. "You ever figure we'd end up on Coruscant back when we were partners?"

  Her eyes narrowed for a moment, then she shrugged. "Maybe on vacation, though I can think of hundreds of worlds where I'd rather go. Diric always wanted to come here, to see the hub of the galaxy. Back then I thought of it as too urban." "And now?"

  "Once you get here you find out that it's not all one big city, but it has neighborhoods and little city-states. It's not just one big uniform block of grey." She shot me a sly grin. "I'd still like to head out to some place like Alakatha."

  I stopped abruptly as two small RodJan children went racing past me, and leaned heavily on Iella for support. "You might ask General Cracken to send you there to check out how Ri-izolo picked his target."

  "Thought of that, but I'd have to haul that piece of pirate Huttpuss along with me, so I don't think it's an assignment I want."

  I smiled. "Talk to Wedge. He could use a vacation." "There's an idea." Iella slipped ahead of me as the walkway we were on became more crowded. She slipped past a knot of Whiphids, then pointed at a small ball of lurid red light a cou-ple of levels down. "That's the place."

  We hurried on over and down. Car'ulorn's Kavsrach had quite a crowd in it already, and most of them Twi'leks. We took this as a good sign, even though we found it somewhat unset-tling as we were led on a twisting path to a small table back near the kitchen. Because Twi'leks use the twitches and shakes of their braintails-more properly, lekku-the way humans use their hands to emphasize things they say, the whole room was alive with serpentine writhings.

  I looked over at Iella through the holographic projection of the menu. "Remind me, I don't want anything with noodles."

  She laughed and pointed to an item three down from the top. "Mynock Coronet City. A spicy combination of marinated my-nock strips with vweilu nuts and Ithorian chale, in alum sauce."

  "Sounds
good, but the roast gornt sounds better to me." I smiled at her. "Reminds me of a joke I heard from Wedge the other day."

  "Not the Bothan and a gornt in a cantina?"

  "You've heard it? You talked to Wedge?"

  "There are about a billion Bothan and gornt jokes, Corran, and I've probably heard them all. Tend to be rather popular in Intel." Iella glanced down at the table. "But, no, I've not spo-ken to Wedge."

  Our server came and took our order. She told us we'd made good choices, but the quick shiver running down one of her lekku suggested to me she'd rather drink rancor spit than have the roast gornt. I refused to let that intimidate me. "And a little extra of the gravy on that, please."

  As she whirled away, I fixed Iella with a stare. "What's going on between you two? You both seem to like each other and get along well."

  Iella frowned and picked at a thumbnail, which I recognized as a sign of her not being certain how to answer me. "I wish I knew. We definitely hit it off and he was very understanding when Diric returned and very supportive after Diric died. You know what our duties have been like, so there hasn't been that much time to get together. And now he has new responsibilities that take up even more of his time."

  "Yeah, but you could convince him to make time."

  "I'd like to think so. I don't know." She sat back and shrugged. "You remember back when Inspector Sassich made CorSec chief? She was all of forty at the time, a great accom-plishment."

  I thought back. "She ditched her husband, bought that chirq red ZRX-29 airspeeder and started taking personal training lcssons from those twins about half her age. I remember that." "You just wish you were one of the twins."

  "No, at that point I just wished I could borrow the air-speeder." I laughed. "I seem to recall my mother had a few choice things to say about her."

  Iella frowned. "Your mother actually said something critical of someone?"

  "I didn't say that. As I recall my mother commented that the Incom ZX-26 would have been a more practical vehicle." I shrugged. "That's about as critical as she got. She always thought gossip was in such poor taste. However, your point about Wedge is what?"

  "I think he's in that same sort of transitional phase of his life. For better than a decade he's been responsible for the life-and-death decisions that have cost a lot of people their lives. That's not saying someone else wouldn't have caused more people to die by making worse decisions-that's pretty much a given- but he's been going like that since before you joined CorSec. He's, what, two years older than you? That means he's had a lot of pressure since a time when you were still a kid. Given the death of his parents and his trying to make a living ship-ping..."

  "And his time spent with Booster Terrik..."

  "... right, he's never had a chance to cut loose and be himself. I think that's what he's doing and I'm not certain he wants that many reminders of his previous life around right now."

  Her analysis of Wedge's situation seemed to hit pretty well dead on, but she'd always been a good judge of character. "So that means you're just going to back off?"

  She nodded, then smiled at our server as the Twi'lek female placed our meals in front of us. "That smells wonderful. Thank you."

  I glanced down at a bowl filled with gravy. A lump floated to the surface and a couple of bubbles thinned from brown to khaki, then burst. "And the thing is, I'm pretty sure this will be lots better than the academy food."

  The server gave me an "I told you so" twitch of a lek and wandered off.

  Iella popped a forkful of her mynock into her mouth, closed her eyes and sighed. "This is really very good."

  The aroma of her meal wafted over my way, starting my mouth watering. To curb that behavior, I poked my fork at a lump of what I hoped was gornt, but it just sank away out of sight. "I'm so happy for you, Iella." A growl from my stomach underscored my sarcastic remark.

  She leaned forward and whispered conspiratorially to me.

  "It's your own fault. Twi'leks consider gornt to be tourist food.

  You might as well walk into a cantina and order nerfmilk."

  "Hey, I'd order it straight up."

  She laughed and I realized I was going to miss that sound. "If I didn't feel I had to go to the academy, if I didn't feel my father wanted me to go, I don't think I would."

  "Yes, you would, Corran." She shook her head at me. "Once you heard about the academy you would have been going- even if Mirax wasn't missing."

  "What do you mean?" I manfully speared a chunk of gornt and tucked it into my cheek. "How can you say that?"

  "I was your partner, remember? You're very competitive, which can be cute and endearing at times, as long as someone stays out of your way. You want to know why you were the first person ever to escape from Isard's Lusankya prison? Because there was no way you were going to let her beat you." "What's that got to do with the academy'?"

  "You've always wanted to be the best, and becoming a Jedi Knight will be that for you. Look at yourself. You're already beginning training before you begin training. You've figured out that Master Skywalker will be bringing in folks who are younger than you are, and you're already figuring out how to be better than they are."

  I chewed on the gornt and thought. And chewed some more. Actually I was finding acknowledging the truth in Iella's words about as tough as the gornt I was chewing, and swallowing either would hurt. Despite the impending discomfort, I knew she was right. I swallowed the gornt, then coughed lightly and nodded to her.

  She reached out and tapped a finger against my forehead. "The one thing you haven't figured out yet is that the person you're really in competition with is yourself. Luke Skywalker will be a tough taskmaster. Of that I have no doubt. And I know Wedge was, but they weren't as hard on you as you'll be on yourself. I know you well enough to know you won't back off, so I just hope you remember that when you feel all that pressure on you, the majority is coming from right inside your thinkbox."

  I thumped a fist against my breastbone to help the gornt go down. "You know, you could have told me this a long time ago."

  "I did. Several times. You weren't much into listening back then."

  I glanced down. "Back when my father died."

  "Right." Her voice softened. "You can learn a lot from Luke Skywalker. It may be part of being a Jedi, but he seems to work a lot from his heart, following his feelings. You work primarily in your brain. Thinking all the time is definitely you, Corran, and was very useful back in CorSec, but ! think you'll need to open up more with this training."

  I nodded slowly. "You're probably right. I guess we'll see how long it takes for old habits to die."

  Iella rolled her eyes. "That means you'll be a Jedi, what, about the time the sun goes nova?" "I get your point."

  "Good." She gave me a wink. "Want to try some of this mynock?"

  I looked back up and shook my head. "Nope. I laid in my course, now I'll fly it. This gornt isn't bad once you get past the tasting, chewing and choking part."

  "Yeah, tell me that in half an hour."

  That prospect began to sour my stomach. I sighed. "Look, Iella, I appreciate what you've just said, and just knowing you were here and would have helped me out with Mirax's disap-pearance, that was enough to help me keep going. I want you to know that."

  Her brown eyes studied my face for a moment. "I believe you."

  "And I want you to know I really do value your help. With the dye and with those rumors." I forced my fork into a smaller piece of gornt. "I have a question that you can probably answer more easily than anyone else." "Go ahead."

  "I've talked to everyone about my decision except for my grandfather. What are the chances, do you think, of my being able to slip onto CoreIlia, seeing him, and getting back out?"

  She thought for a moment, then set her fork down. "I don't think anyone in the Diktat's regime is watching Rostek, so see-ing him wouldn't be a problem. You still do have the murder warrants out for your arrest, however. Kirtan Loor's legacy could still cause you trouble if y
ou were to be identified and apprehended. As for getting in and out, the current govern-ment really isn't much better than any other Corellian regime at keeping smugglers out. With what you know about the sys-tem, you could manage to get in. The real problem is that with the relationship between the Corellian government and the New Republic being something less than a happy one, I wouldn't want to get caught on CoreIlia if I were you."

  "I see. I get the impression that the last hologram I sent my grandfather was chopped to bits before he got it. Even reading between the lines of what little of his return message got back to me, I know he didn't track a lot of what I said to him." The new piece of gornt I started working on kind of forestailed further speech, so I just shrugged.