“Okay, file all that under unexplained. How about motive?”
Jaina seemed to be holding her breath. Leia looked away for a moment as if she was weighing the evidence. It didn’t amount to much—yet.
“How about the fact that Mara was in his way, like any good Jedi?” said Jaina sourly.
“No, let’s hear Ben’s view.”
Ben was theorizing now. “I spent a lot of time telling Mom about all the things Jacen was asking me to do in the Guard, and I could see it made her mad. I’m sure she bawled him out.”
“Okay, so that’s motive, maybe. Now let’s look at means.”
“Only a really skilled Jedi could ever take down Mom. Look at all the stuff Jacen can do.”
“But poison? That’s Alema’s trademark.”
“So it’s obvious to use it to draw suspicion elsewhere, isn’t it?”
“Sweetheart, Alema had the sphere. She was in league with Lumiya. We know that. And I’m sure Captain Shevu would confirm that people stick with one method of killing that they feel confident using. Alema spent the last year trying to kill as many of us as she could.”
Ben was off and running down the behavioral path now. “Okay, Alema was crazy, but she didn’t have a motive for killing Mom. It was always about you and Uncle Han.” He shook his head. “I don’t buy it, because she’d have bragged about it to Jag if she’d done it. She’d have wanted us to know she got in one good shot, to hurt us all, to hurt you. And then there’s opportunity. She was in the area, yes, but we also know for sure that Jacen was in the Hapan system around the time it happened.”
Leia really looked as if she was taking it seriously. She hadn’t rolled her eyes or told him he was being stupid, or even rushed to defend Jacen. That wasn’t a surprise given what Jacen had done to her, his own mother.
“Well, it doesn’t clear him,” she said at last. “But it’s not exactly enough to take to a judge, is it? He could have been in the Hapan system planning to kidnap Allana.”
It was a good alibi. Jacen couldn’t have committed a murder because he was too busy planning an abduction, Your Honor. Ben strove for a rational tone. “Aunt Leia, why do you think Mom hung on in corporeal form for so long? Why do you think her body disappeared just as Jacen showed up at her funeral? Don’t you think the Force might be saying something to us? I can’t stop thinking about it. I’ve turned it over and over in my head for weeks. I daren’t discuss it with Dad. But it’s driving me crazy.”
Leia took a few steps forward and squatted in front of him to put her hands on his knees. “Ben, you said you recorded everything you could at the scene.”
“Yeah, because nobody can mind-rub that or tell me I imagined it…”
“Have you found anything in the recordings?”
Ben stood his ground. He was sure, more sure every day now. “Not yet.”
“Okay.”
“I’m going to find out exactly what happened, Aunt Leia. I have to, and I’m going to do it by the book, because I need to be certain or I won’t be able to live with it.”
“What if you find evidence that it’s not Jacen?” asked Jaina. “Are you going to accept what the provable facts tell you?”
Ben had committed himself to take the rational, legal path rather than that of intuition and Force senses. “I don’t want to get the wrong person. Whatever I feel about Jacen for the other things he did to me, I don’t want to pin it on him if that means Mom’s real killer is still walking around. And if it really was Alema—well, fine. The result’s the same.”
Jaina looked into his face for a few long moments and then smiled sadly. With Leia still squatting in front of him, wearing that same sorrowful expression, Ben felt pinned down by their tolerant doubt. Maybe they were humoring him. Well, it didn’t matter. He’d stated his case, and he was going to prove it, because he couldn’t carry on with his life until he got answers.
And he would carry on with his life. When Jori Lekauf had been killed saving him, and he’d been drowning in guilt, Mara had told him that the best way to honor that sacrifice was to live well, to the maximum, and not waste a gift so dearly bought.
He’d do that for his mother. He’d live for her.
BY AARON ALLSTON
Galatea in 2-D
BARD’S TALE SERIES (WITH HOLLY LISLE)
Thunder of the Captains
Wrath of the Princes
CAR WARRIORS SERIES
Double Jeopardy
DOC SIDHE SERIES
Doc Sidhe
Sidhe-Devil
STAR WARS: X-WING SERIES
Wraith Squadron
Iron Fist
Solo Command
Starfighters of Adumar
STAR WARS: NEW JEDI ORDER SERIES
Rebel Dream
Rebel Stand
STAR WARS: LEGACY OF THE FORCE SERIES
Betrayal
Exile
Fury
TERMINATOR 3 SERIES
Terminator Dreams
Terminator Hunt
Star Wars: Legacy of the Force: Fury is a work of fiction. Names, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
A Del Rey Books Mass Market Original
Copyright © 2007 by Lucasfilm Ltd. & ® or ™ where indicated.
All Rights Reserved. Used under authorization.
Excerpt from Star Wars: Legacy of the Force: Revelation copyright © 2007 by Lucasfilm Ltd. & ® or ™ where indicated. All Rights Reserved. Used under authorization.
Published in the United States by Del Rey Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
DEL REY is a registered trademark and the Del Rey colophon is a trademark of Random House, Inc.
This book contains an excerpt from the forthcoming book Star Wars: Legacy of the Force: Revelation by Karen Traviss. This excerpt has been set for this edition only and may not reflect the final content of the forthcoming edition.
eISBN: 978-0-345-51054-9
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