Star Wars: The New Jedi Order: Vector Prime by R. A. Salvatore Page B

asked skeptically. “These are the people you seek to emulate with your own council?”
    “Of course not,” Luke replied, taken aback.
    “But that’s what will happen,” Jacen argued.
    Luke stared at him long and hard, and Jacen more than met that stare. They had been around this route so many times of late, without resolution. The paradoxes within Jacen’s own mind kept him somewhat impotent against his uncle. Jacen had been trained as a Jedi Knight at the academy, yet he had become convinced that the academy was not a good thing, that it was too formal and structured, and that growth within the Force was a much more personal experience. Actually, though the academy remained, Luke had come to somewhat agree with that perspective. He felt that the academy had been a necessary stepping-stone back to the old ways, where Jedi Knights in training worked with Masters one-on-one, as Jaina was with Mara, and Jacen and Anakin were with him. This arrangement would not have been possible before now,for Luke had long been the only Jedi close to attaining the status of Master. Now there were others, and the old ways were being rediscovered, a process that Luke understood would take some time.
    Still, Jacen had begged his uncle to go further and faster, to bring the Jedi back to the one-master-one-student model of old, but to improve even upon that model. Instead of finding Force-strong youngsters to train in the ways of the Jedi, Jacen wanted such promising students to find their way to the Jedi. Luke thought his arguments a play of semantics, but to Jacen they went much deeper—they went to the core of what it was to be a Jedi Knight.
    “I have not even put my ideas on solid footing yet,” Luke said, and Jacen knew that to be as polite a reply, and as much a concession, as he would ever get. He knew what it was that his uncle feared: that Force-strong potential Jedi Knights might be ensnared by the dark side before they ever found their way to the Jedi Masters. But still, to Jacen, this internal strength in the Force remained a personal thing and, ultimately, a personal choice.
    They said no more as they left the senate building, making their way down to the docks where Han, Anakin, and Chewbacca were working on the
Millennium Falcon
.

FOUR
Seeds Planted
     
    “The
Jade Sabre
has made orbit,” Shok Tinoktin informed Nom Anor that night. “Leia Organa Solo is aboard her, along with her daughter and Mara Jade Skywalker.”
    “And a Noghri,” Nom Anor added. “Always at least one Noghri if Leia Solo is about.”
    “The Noghri are worthy adversaries,” Tinoktin agreed. “But I fear the others more. So should you.”
    Nom Anor turned a glare upon the man, reminding him of who was the boss here, and who the mere attendant. And Shok Tinoktin did shrink back, the blood draining from his face. He had been around Nom Anor long enough to fear that glare as much as, perhaps even more than, he feared death itself.
    “They are Jedi,” he stammered, trying to clarify his warning, trying to make certain that Nom Anor did not note any lack of confidence in him. Speaking doubts about Nom Anor had proven a fatal flaw for several previous advisers.
    “Leia is not true Jedi, or at least, she has not embraced her Jedi powers, from what I have been told,” Nom Anor replied with a sly grin, one that allowed Shok to relax a bit. “Nor is her daughter a proven Jedi.”
    “But Mara Jade is counted among the strongest of the Jedi Knights,” Shok Tinoktin pointed out.
    “Mara Jade has her own problems to consider,” Nom Anor reminded.
    Shok Tinoktin didn’t take comfort in that; in fact, the reminder of Mara’s disease only heightened his trepidation about letting her see Nom Anor at this time.
    “She should be long dead,” he dared to say.
    Nom Anor smiled again and scratched his head. He had been wearing his ooglith masquer for a long while and was literally itching to take the thing off. But he hadn’t the time, of course, and in