"I know he's fairly cavalier about killing," she said, "but I suspect I was right in assuming this would mark some threshold for you, too."

"It does."

"Depending on how you look at it, then, it could lead to some advantage, and poor Lieutenant Tebut's life won't have been spent in vain -- Jacen may lose the loyalty of his troops. Or it could simply consolidate a reign of fear."

Luke rubbed one hand across his face, brow to chin. "I think I recall how that morale-boosting technique played out in my father's generation."

"Well, I still have a duty to the Alliance and my personnel, and I'm still prepared to pass intelligence to you provided you can use it to remove him. I don't care what you do with him--restraint-jacket therapy at some quiet monastic retreat, or shove him out the nearest air lock -- but I want him gone." That sounded harsh, but Niathal wasn't sure how far humans would go to bring wayward relatives into line. "And out of office. Another coup is impossible at the moment, so the best I can achieve is to help neutralize his impact on the GA and hope I don't lose the lives of too many good beings doing it."

She wouldn't have been the first officer faced with a terrible choice when her leader pursued a course of mutual destruction. Her loyalty was to the common good of the GA, not to Jacen Solo.

Hang on, I'm talking and thinking as if I'm his deputy, not his joint and equal colleague. What am I doing -- absolving myself of responsibility? I helped put him in power.

"I have Jedi working hard to seize him, Admiral," said Luke. "Do you think he's insane?"

"No." Niathal had no hesitation. "I've seen too many perfectly sane beings become utterly corrupted by power. Jacen's not insane. He's just had his own way once too often, and now he can't see the world any other way."

"Do you know what I mean by a Sith?"

"I've heard the term. But I know nothing about them."

"They're Force-users who prefer the dark side. Like Palpatine."

"Oh . . . I see. Fallen Jedi."

Luke pressed his lips into a little humorless smile and looked away for a moment. "Oddly, that's just what the Mandalorians call them. Their word means ex-Jedi, although that's not always the case."

"And does this make any difference to how we approach him? Does he have different powers from regular Jedi?"

Luke looked strangely embarrassed. She wasn't sure why. "Not really. He's just very strong, and he has an ability to use a battle meditation technique that gives him a remarkable awareness of the battlefield."

Ah, I noticed that. "He has a young woman called Tahiri Veila running his errands now."

"Which brings me to Ben." Luke moved closer to Niathal and looked into her face, which required some head tilting on Luke's part because of the set of a Mon Cal's eyes. He clasped her hand again as if he were searching for a pulse. "Apologies, Admiral, we're all scared of our shadows these days. I might be putting a man's life at risk, so I have to be certain. Ben has gone off again, and I believe he's back on Coruscant. He thinks I don't know, but he's probably trying to build a case against Jacen for killing Mara."

Niathal almost sighed with relief. So she wasn't the only one who thought Jacen could kill his own relatives. "If I see him, I'll make sure he gets every assistance to stay out of harm's way. Especially if he goes after Jacen to take revenge."

"He already tried that, after Jacen tortured him."

"Just when I thought the man couldn't get any worse . . ."

"Revenge isn't the Jedi way, and Ben's come to terms with that, but stubborn persistence is Ben's way, and he may come to your attention. He might be with Captain Shevu. They were close."

"You trust Shevu?"

"Yes. There's such a thing as Force certainty, and I have it in that young man."

Niathal revised her view of the GAG captain. His attitude was courageous dissent, then. She'd have to persuade him out of that. "A GAG insider would be helpful to us all."

"We become exploitative for all the right reasons, don't we?"

"We do."

"Until next time, then."

Luke swung back into the StealthX cockpit in a gymnastic move that would have taxed a much younger man, and braced his body using his knees while the seat restraints closed around him. Then the canopy closed, he gave her a thumbs-up gesture as if he were just an ordinary pilot taking a fighter for a test flight, and the safety bulkhead closed to release the vacuum in the docking skirt. He was gone.

Poor Ben, Niathal thought. She wished him luck, and decided she would make some for him if she got the chance.

No, Jacen. You won't get away with this. Not in my navy.