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Luke, Tionne, and Jaina sat around a table in the presidential apartment of the palace. Han and Leia were there too, but Luke had long ago identified them as being far too emotional to offer any substantial help.
Luke had not seen Han like this in a long time. The rugged, independent smuggler he had met in Mos Eisley over 24 years ago had slowly been stripped of his independence but had stubbornly clung to his ruggedness. This made him a very efficient general, able to rely on his men to get things done, yet also able to push them when they needed an extra shove.
Now Han was reverting back to his former self, feeling like he could depend on no one to save his son. The government he worked for and his wife ran had put his son in prison and would execute him unless he could do something to stop it. Luke knew if things got rough, Han would be the first to talk about a rescue. He was still too much like the old Han to realize that if they were to free Jacen by any other means than by the law, it would brand the entire family, and likely the entire Academy, if Luke and Tionne were involved, as traitors and they would never again be allowed to participate in the New Republic. Jacen was important, and Luke would do everything in his power to save him, but he could not jeopardize the future of the galaxy because of one desperate father.
Leia was just the opposite. If Han was planning rescue missions, Leia was planning the funeral. She had taken a leave from her senatorial responsibilities and was living in a perpetual state of grief. Luke could sympathize with her, for the evidence against Jacen seemed insurmountable, but Luke had only arrived last night and they were yet to start investigating. When you only saw one side of the evidence, it was easy to make a quick decision. Luke knew that if Jacen had not killed Senator Keld, someone else had. All he needed to do was find that one person and Jacen would be free. Finding one person on a planet of 400 trillion seemed like a daunting task, but so did hitting a tiny exhaust port at top speed with Imperial fighters on your tail. With the Force anything was possible.
While Luke was not going to employ Han and Leia as part of his investigative team, he neither could ask them to leave. This was their home and their son. "As I see it," he started, "we have three things to work on right now. Those are the alibi, murder weapon, and motive." The New Republic had confiscated Jacen's lightsabers, they had Jacen's statement that he had been alone at home the night in question, and they had documented the many accusations Senator Keld had made against Leia, some of which translated to her children as "Heirs to the Throne of the New Republic."
"We need to give more weight to Jacen's alibi, we need to find a different murder weapon or prove Jacen's lightsabers were not responsible, and we need to play down the Senator's accusations and show they were not sufficient for Jacen to want him dead."
"Some Jedi wanted him dead," Han was quick to point out.
"Someone with a lightsaber wanted him dead," Tionne was quicker to correct.
Luke nodded at the keen observation. "An important point. It is obviously not a common weapon, but in the short time since I've started the Academy, I've run into plenty of people who have them. They just don't go out of their way to register them."
Luke turned to Tionne. "I want you to work on the senator's comments in the senate. That should keep you here and you can continue to familiarize yourself with the New Republic trial procedures." Tionne nodded, understanding what she needed to do.
"I'm going to check into the murder weapon. Jaina," he said, turning to his niece, "I want you to check with Jacen's friends. Your father and mother say that he went out just about every night with one of his friends. Maybe you can find out why he stayed in this particular night. Maybe he talked on the com with someone. Until we get Jacen moved to a different cell, we are going to have to get our information about what he did through someone else." Jaina nodded.
"What about us?" Han asked, not wanting to be left out of the loop. He too had taken an indefinite leave from his position and had done so to make him available to help.
Luke thought a while before responding. "The media will be rough around this one. The government has been very careful about keeping a lid on everything, but I'm sure the prosecution will want to try this case on the headlines of every news publication and broadcast. You and Leia will be very quotable and you need to make sure you say nothing incriminating about Jacen. Just profess your confidence in his innocence and that you're sure the justice system will show this."
"And if we are not confident the justice system will show this?" Leia prompted.
Luke knew this was not the right time to try and lift Leia's spirits. "Just pretend, for Jacen's sake." Luke's best chance of lifting Leia's spirits was to clear Jacen. The trial started tomorrow, and Luke did not have a lot of time.
***
Jaina tried to think about something else as she rode in the public transport toward the address of one of Jacen's closest friends.
The prosecution team had been flown in from Krakus a full day earlier, giving them a significant jump on the defense. The team from Krakus was very experienced and highly motivated. Senator Keld's son, Martin Keld, had replaced his father as senator and was leading the team. He wasn't a lawyer himself, but he had significant influence, as had his father.
Jaina remembered what Tionne had said about the former Senator Keld being left with his infant son after the purge. Surely Martin had been brought up to hate Jedi just as much as his father had. In fact, most of the population of Krakus hated the Jedi, and this trial almost surely took precedence over anything else happening on the planet.
Leia could have taken the opportunity to pull a lot of strings and get the best lawyers on Coruscant to represent her son, but two things had kept that from happening. The first is that being Force sensitive, Leia could tell that no one she talked to believed that her son was innocent. They might fight for him, but Leia did not want anyone who thought her son guilty defending him. It did not make sense to her.
The second reason was simply that she did not trust anyone else. Han's mentality had rubbed off on her to some extent, but in reality, at her core, she was just as independent as he was. She had led the Rebellion against the Empire so many years ago without any help from any of the other galactic governments. She was used to protecting her own, and once she thought about it, she could have no one but Luke defending her son.
Jaina tried not to think about all this as she rode, but it was difficult. Instead she tried to focus her mind on what she was doing right now. Jacen had taken a week's vacation from the Academy to visit his friends and parents. Jaina had taken a similar vacation only a few months ago.
Randie Greggs was probably Jacen's closest friend. They had gone to elementary school together before the twins had left for the Academy, and the two kept in touch, visiting as often as possible. Randie was a star athlete in the Coruscant school system, and his exploits almost matched those of Jacen's - almost. The two loved to play sports together, hit the Coruscant youth clubs together, and, above all, chase girls together.
Jaina had thought about giving into Randie's playful advances more than once, but his similarity to Jacen was just too creepy. She did not need to worry about that now, though. Unlike Jacen, Randie could get very serious at times and now would be one of those times.
The transport stopped, and Jaina had to walk another five minutes before she arrived at the base of Randie's apartment complex. No one had individual homes on Coruscant. Space was at too much of a premium. Everyone lived in huge apartment complexes that often dwarfed the largest buildings on almost any other world in the New Republic. Though they were called apartments, each residence was far from small, and it was often thought that maybe individual homes would take up less room.
Randie met Jaina outside the complex and led her to the courtyard contained in the center of the huge building. Trees and flowers were not often seen on the city planet, where life took place several kilometers above the surface, so they were shipped in from other planets to make the steel and concrete planet seem more botanically friendly. This courtyard was 50 meters square and filled with trees and shrubs. A small pond with an artistic fountain in the center lent a cool atmosphere to the courtyard, and several fragrant flower gardens offered up their best aromas to help the residence of this complex temporarily forget where they were.
Randie led Jaina to a wooden bench in front of the bubbling pond and next to a particularly colorful patch of flowers. "How's Jacen doing?" he asked once they were seated.
"Not good," Jaina responded, seeing no need to sugar coat things. "He feels the whole galaxy has turned against him, prematurely convicting him of the crime before he can even be tried."
Randie nodded but did not say anything and just stared into the pond, trying to pick out a few of the sparkling fish.
"I was hoping you could help me out actually," Jaina continued with the reason she had come.
"Anything I can do."
"Can you tell me what you guys did every night and why you decided to do nothing the night the senator was killed?"
Randie was silent for a while, appearing for a moment like he had not even heard the question. "That's the funny thing," Randie finally said, just a second before Jaina was about to repeat her question. "We were supposed to do something that night. In fact," Jaina could see Randie begin to blush, "we were supposed to meet these three girls, and I know Jacen was looking forward to it."
Normally Jaina would smile about this, knowing how flirtatious her brother was, but she saw little humor in it this time. Randie saw her serious expression and told his story. "We had been hitting a lot of the youth clubs in the area, but they were boring. The girls were to excitable and in awe." Jaina knew what he was talking about. Randie, because of his athletic talent was actually more of a celebrity than Jacen, but not by much. By going to the youth clubs, they were running into people their own age who had gone to school with them and had always looked up to them.
"Jacen wanted something more. He picked out this older club, usually reserved for the college crowd. It was called the Neon Nerf. I think they put some type of dye in the food so it glowed under black light. Anyway, I'm only a couple days from 18 (the legal age on Coruscant), but even if I was only 16 like Jacen, he made sure we never got carded." Randie tapped his head as he said this, but Jaina understood. She had disguised her age many times with the Force.
"It was nice to not be recognized and swamped right away, and," Randie smiled, "the alcohol wasn't a bad addition either. We ran into these three girls and really hit it off. They were truly interested in our conversation, they loved to dance, and their bodies were, well," Randie stumbled as he realized who he was talking to. "Well, I thought we would stay there all night, but around ten, Jacen suddenly gets up and says he has to leave. I say, 'What for?' He makes up some excuse that there was something he needed to do and he just left. The girls made us promise we'd be back the next day, and Jacen said he would make it.
"Without Jacen, I didn't last too long in there and got kicked out within fifteen minutes. The next night, the night that senator was killed, I showed up at the club, but Jacen didn't show. Around eight, I got a little worried and called him up. He picked up the com and sounded really weird. I think he was sick or something. He said he was sorry but he couldn't make it. I tried to plead with him. I mean a cold or something is nothing for you guys, right?"
Jaina nodded. She never really had to worry about getting sick. That was one of the first things Luke taught his students: how to maintain good health with the Force. She knew Jacen was more than capable of handling a little cold. "Well, that was the last I talked with him. They picked him up the next morning."
Jaina absorbed the story. Jacen had definitely been at home that night, or at least he had been around eight o'clock. "Would you be willing to testify to Jacen's whereabouts in court?"
Randie swallowed. It was obvious he did not want to. "If you think it will help him, sure, I'll do it."
Jaina thanked him and rose to leave. This was not much, but it was something. She walked back to the transport slowly, thinking about what she should do next. She had a few more names of people who Jacen had talked to since he had been back, but she knew Jacen had spent most of his time with Randie. Satisfied with the information she had gotten, she decided to go back home.
***
"Once again our top story today is that the murder trial for Jacen Solo, son of Chief of State Leia Organa-Solo, begins tomorrow. Prosecutors and police have released very few details about the case but have assured their opponents that they have significant proof against the well-liked Jedi student and are not just accusing the first available Jedi.
"The victim of the brutal murder, which took place three days ago, is Senator Markis Keld. His anti-Jedi comments in the senate are well known, and he has published several articles denouncing the Chief of State and her predecessors. He has at times mentioned President Organa-Solo's children in his articles as potential successors, and experts following the case believe that this will be brought up at trial.
"Beyond Senator Keld's remarks about Jedi, very little is known about the otherwise reclusive senator, so we would like to take the time here to present a brief bio. Markis Keld was 58 years old when he died. He left a son, Martin, who is 35 and has taken his father's place in the senate. Markis Keld was a wealthy man, and he often gave generously to several charitable organizations here on Coruscant and back on his home planet of Krakus. He has participated in several relief missions to war torn and storm ravished planets, lending his time, money, and labor to the efforts.
"Perhaps his benevolent nature can best be seen in the fact that he is the founder of the Krakun Hematological Research Center, here on Coruscant. The KHRC has made huge advances in the treatment of hemophilia, BBD (Bothan Blood Disorder), and several other blood related infections and diseases. The research center also sponsors several health care seminars on cholesterol and blood pressure management. They have marketed dozens of over-the-counter and prescription drugs that are highly recommended by doctors and pharmacists alike."
Jaina watched the news broadcast from her seat on the public transport. "Why would anyone want to kill this guy?" She asked herself. "Unless," she forced herself to admit, "they were a Jedi." Besides the major Jedi dislike, this guy was a saint. This did not bode well for Jacen, and Jaina was beginning to wonder how they were supposed to build a defense to support him. In Jaina's mind, someone had purposefully used a lightsaber to kill the senator so that all blame would be pointed at the Jedi. There was little other explanation for the murder weapon. A blaster would have been much harder to trace. If a Jedi had killed him, he probably would have known this and would have used a weapon less likely to peg himself as the murderer, if he needed a weapon at all. The Force was a powerful weapon in and of itself.
This meant there had to be something else about Senator Keld that Jaina and the rest of the public did not know. What had caused someone to track the senator down in the lower levels of Coruscant and cut him in half with a lightsaber? Since Jaina had decided not to visit any of Jacen's other friends, she thought it might be a good idea to pay this Krakun Hematological Research Center a visit.
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