Part 4 (2/2)

”So you are not needed there.

”Not full-time, no. To be there too much at this stage would be to distract from the process of learning.”

”So it goes deeper than your not being needed. You choose to stay away so you will not interfere.”

It was not the most diplomatic way of expressing the thought, but it was true enough. ”That is one way to put it, yes.”

”So what are you doing with yourself?”

Luke s.h.i.+fted in his seat, and found that it now seemed far less comfortable than it had before. He had not expected this sort of interrogation. But even if the questions were awkward, a Jedi spoke the truth. And even if the questions were a bit more intrusive than was polite, even a non-Jedi would find it hard to lie or even shade the truth-when looking Mon Mothma straight in the eye. ”I find that I have not been doing a great deal,” Luke said.

”No grand crusades? No desperate battles or heroic missions?”

”No, nothing like that,” Luke said, starting to feel a bit annoyed.

Revered figure or not, she had no right to be so rude to him.

”Of course not,” she said. ”We're at peace.” She smiled and laughed in a tired sort of way. ”That's the problem with peace,” she said. ”No crisis. No trouble. No adventure. Which means there's not much need for people who are good at dealing with crisis and trouble.

There's just no call for adventurers these days. Or for revolutionaries either. Do you know, Jedi Master, that I haven't been doing a great deal myself in recent days?”

There really didn't seem much Luke could say in reply to that, and Mon Mothma didn't seem to be expecting an answer anyway. He kept silent.

”You are wise to say nothing, Jedi Master,” Mon Mothma said. ”You have no idea why I have called you here, or what the point of all this uncalled-for rudeness could be. Well, I shall tell you.” She stood up and crossed the room to the opacified window. She touched the controls and the window turned transparent.

Coruscant's sun was setting in a glory of reds and yellows that lit up the sky. A s.p.a.cecraft heading for orbit streaked up through the blaze of light, and reached for the night.

”Perhaps I had them put my quarters on the wrong side of the building,” she said. ”Every day I see the sunset, but never the sunrise.

The symbolism is a bit too much for me at times. Every day I look out this window and am reminded that my day is over. I know that I have done good, that I have left my mark on the galaxy. I know that it is even possible that I will be of service someday in the future. Yet I cannot imagine that the future will offer up any challenges like the ones I confronted in the past. Praise be for that, but it leaves me at loose ends. It is-unsettling-to have my life's work ended before my life is.

Do you ever feel that way?”

Luke could think of nothing to say. Mon Mothiria turned away from the window and looked toward him. ”If you do feel that way, it must be harder for you than for me. My day is past,” she said again, ”but I am an old woman. At my time of life, I find that, at least at times, I welcome the prospect of peace, of quiet, of leisure and privacy. The restlessness, the urgency of youth have burned themselves away, and I can enjoy my life as it is.”

Mon Mothma looked directly into his eyes. ”But what of you?” she asked. ”What of the Jedi Master? I fear I know the answer.”

”And what is the answer?” Luke asked.

”That your life's work is indeed done as well,” Mon Mothma said.

”You have fought your wars. You have saved countless lives, liberated any number of worlds, fought great battles. You have restored the Jedi Knights. Now all that work is done and yet you are a young man still.

”You grew up in wartime, and the wars are over. History tells us that peacetime is often not very easy for warriors.

They don't fit in. In plain words, Luke Skywalker, what will you do now?”

”I don't know,” Luke said. ”There are things I could do, but-well, maybe the reason I've been at loose ends for a while is just that I've been trying to find things to keep busy. Things I could do. Not things that I wanted to do, or things that needed to be done.” His protest sounded hollow.

Mon Mothma nodded thoughtfully. ”That all sounds very familiar,”

she said. ”But that is the problem. What could compare with what we have done in the past, you and I?”

”I don't know,” Luke said. ”It sounds like you might have some ideas, though.”

”Well, it does strike me that another member of your family has faced the same problem,” said Mon Mothma.

”That person seems to have dealt with it.”

”I'd say that Han is more at loose ends than I am”' Luke said. ”I don't think I want to look to him for an example.”

”It was not Han that I was thinking of. But just in pa.s.sing, I wouldn't worry about him. He might be having a quiet spell for the moment, but somehow I don't think the universe is likely to leave him alone for long.”

”That's true enough, I suppose.”

”I was thinking of another member of your family who also faced the same situation, the same transition from war to peace. She did rather well for herself.” Luke frowned thoughtfully. ”Leia? I hadn't even thought of her.”

”My point exactly,” Mon Mothma said.

”But it's different for Leia,” Luke said. ”She was doing the same sort of diplomatic and political work she's doing now even before the war. And after the war, she just kept going on with it until-” Mon Mothma smiled. ”Until she got my job. I was glad to let the work go, of course, but there are times I miss it.

And I might add that it's a job that suits Leia.”

”I don't know that it's the sort of job that would suit me, if that's what you're getting at. I'm just not good at that sort of thing.

I don't think I'd like it.”

”Leia shows few signs of enjoying her work-but she is good at it.

I'probably better than I was. But tell me-what sort of a Jedi is Leia?”

Mon Mothma asked, changing the subject again with startling abruptness.

Lnke looked up in surprise. Once again, Mon Mothma surely knew the answer as well as he did. But he could tell she was not looking for a pat answer. She wanted Luke to hear himself answer. ”She has the innate skills, the inborn talent,” he said carefully. ”That much is obvious.

But there has always been some other demand on her time, that prevented her from pursuing a course of dedicated instruction.

That has cost her part of her potential. Even so, if she applied herself, starting now, and studied full-time, she could, in time, have very close to my degree of ability.”

”But at present she has nowhere near your level of skill in the ways of the Force,” Mon Mothma said. ”She has not made the most of her gifts.”

”She has not yet made the most of them. She still could,” Luke said, with a bit more pa.s.sion than he had intended.

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