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

sat Cal Omas of Alderaan, a man sympathetic to Luke’s plans, possibly Luke’s strongest ally on the council. After his homeworld had been destroyed by the Empire, Cal Omas had fought with the Rebel Alliance through all the trials, and he knew well the value of the Jedi.
    The Wookiee, Triebakk, another potential ally for Luke, sat between Cal and Borsk, but the squid-headed creature on Borsk’s other side, the Quarren, Pwoe, was perhaps Luke’s greatest enemy of the group. Dour, like most of his water-dwelling brethren of Mon Calamari, Pwoe was the first Quarren ever to serve on the Advisory Council, and certainly an unexpected choice. The planet of Mon Calamari would, of course, always hold a seat, since their star cruisers and their support had proven so valuable in overthrowing the Empire and establishing the New Republic, but always before—and it was commonly assumed that the tradition would continue in perpetuity—it had been a Mon Calamarian, and not a Quarren, to serve on the council. Indeed, Admiral Ackbar had seemed the logical choice to represent Mon Calamari on the Advisory Council, as he had done back when the first Provisional Council was formed, but when the push for Pwoe—a push Luke suspected orchestrated by Borsk—had become serious, Ackbar had waved away all thoughts of rejoining the council and had retired.
    The remaining two members were both human, Fyor Rodan of Commenor and Chelch Dravvad of Corellia. It was Fyor Rodan who had requested Luke at council, Jacen knew,and according to his uncle, Rodan was no friend and not to be trusted.
    With all of that in mind, with all the insights Luke had given him about these councilors, Jacen sat back and observed very carefully.
    After the somewhat hypocritical pleasantries and formalities that seemed to Jacen to go on and on, Borsk Fey’ly a looked Luke right in the eye and asked, in the gravest of tones, “You have heard the initial reports from the
Mediator
?”
    “Leia will be meeting with Nom Anor soon, I am told,” Luke replied, avoiding the obvious.
    “A meeting complicated already,” Borsk said.
    “Would all councilors who are surprised please raise their hands,” Fyor Rodan put in, and even to sixteen-year-old Jacen, his sarcasm seemed rather juvenile, and certainly out of place in the somber hall.
    “I heard of the … intervention,” Luke admitted.
    “The Osarians were wrong to try to intercept a New Republic envoy,” Cal Omas remarked.
    “A convenient excuse for our Jedi hero to rush to the rescue,” Fyor Rodan shot back.
    “Quick to the trigger, they are,” Pwoe said, his accusing stare falling over Luke.
    Jacen could hardly believe the lack of respect, and the obvious thinly masked intentions behind it all. The New Republic was having growing pains, with minor squabbles erupting throughout the galaxy, many of them age-old conflicts that had been buried under the blanket of the Empire for years and years but now, with the new freedoms afforded to individual planets and species, rising up once again. So of course, the New Republic and its councilors and representatives had been taking many verbal hits of late, as had the Jedi Knights, and thus the finger-pointing between the two groups had escalated.
    On it went, one recounting after another of a civil war here, a vendetta there, grievances from one agriculture planet, anda workers’ strike that had spread to several mining planets, with even the Wookiee Triebakk howling out some complaints at Pwoe about a failure in one of the nav systems of the newest Mon Calamari battle cruisers.
    It all seemed like so much nonsense to Jacen, a bunch of talking heads full of complaints and short on solutions, and yet another reminder of his fears concerning his uncle’s schemes for enacting some control over the Jedi. He tuned right out of the meeting for many minutes, falling into some silent meditative techniques he had been trying to perfect, until Borsk again looked Luke in the eye and