"Thank you," Luke said absently, glancing down.
"Try to keep your hand open tonight so the scars don't split open in the morning. And keep it dry," Nathan said, packing up. "It's a pity it wasn't your prosthetic hand, really--it would have been a far simpler job."
"But it would probably have been left 'till morning," his charge replied, as if this were some validation.
"Quite." Nathan frowned, uncertain what to make of that, instead studying the reader in his hand, a sample of his patient's blood in the small receptor. "Your adrenalin's very high." He frowned again, taking a scan. "And your heart rate's way up. How do you feel?"
"Fine. Thank you, Hallin." Skywalker stood in polite dismissal, so Nathan backed away, packing instruments into his pockets and case.
"If you need something to sleep..."
"No. Thank you."
Nathan shrugged and walked to the door, waiting long seconds for it to slowly cycle open.
Two Red Guard stepped in and to either side as it did so, to let him through.
"Ah!"
Hearing his shout, Nathan turned back to see his patient holding his injured hand awkwardly.
"It's split...the sutures..." Skywalker stepped forward to Nathan, hand out before him, so he took a half-step back into the room towards him as Skywalker reached the door, hand out...and Nathan frowned; all the sutures were intact...
It happened in a blur, Nathan barely registering the actions before they were done.
Skywalker twisted his injured hand to the side and the long pike in the grip of the nearest guard wrenched free to leap the short distance to his own--
Even as it happened he was still stepping forward, snatching the pike from midair and twisting it quickly round to land a solid blow to the guard's chest, the activated pike releasing a blinding charge of power which dropped the guard without a sound--
Without pausing to make sure he fell, Skywalker immediately back-swung the pike into the second guard, using the opposite end for speed, so that both were on the floor before Nathan even realized what was happening--
The two guards who stood inside the dining room started forward, reaching for concealed blasters as Skywalker flung the pike from his left hand to his right and stretched his left hand out before him, palm out, fingers open--
And somehow the guards were launched back, feet leaving the ground, arms flailing as they hit the far wall with a brutal smack which could have been bone or armor or both--
"S-Stop!" Completely ignored by Skywalker, Nathan backed up a step, fumbling at the medical scalpel in his pocket, finally pulling it free to turn on the tiny blade and brandish it before him.
Skywalker barely glanced at him. "Really?" he asked, pike still in hand.
Now, suddenly, with this mercurial change--in his stance and his intent and his casually threatening manner--he seemed very much like his father.
Nathan glanced at the pike and at the four guards, brought down without the slightest hesitation, then looked into the man's eyes...
He backed up, dropping the scalpel as Skywalker grabbed at the scruff of the nearest guard, hauling him with him as he walked quickly to the huge windows in the dining room, counting down out loud--
The doors to the dining hall were cycling open now, more guards undoubtedly waiting to get in--
"Fifteen... fourteen..."
Nathan turned to Skywalker as he stopped, unruffled, before the windows; paused as if gathering his thoughts...then he threw his open hand out before him--
Something... something wrenched at the air about Nathan with enough power to make his eardrums pop, and in that same instant the heavy reinforced windows exploded outwards in a shower of fine, fragmented pieces, the screeching wrench of shearing cables and stressed steel competing against the deafening alarm which burst forth that same instant--
Nathan could see Skywalker's lips moving, counting down as he stepped through the still-falling debris onto the darkness of the balcony beyond, the unconscious guard in tow--
The medic stood frozen for several long seconds before the outer door finally cycled open, realizing as it did so that this was what Luke had been counting down.
Guards flooded into the room in a flurry of red robes, force pikes activated. Nathan gestured pointlessly to the huge, gaping hole in the wall, where massive chunks of reinforced lintel still swung wildly, held in place by a few intact cables still threaded through the transparisteel slab--
He stepped back further as still more guards poured through the narrow doors, the room a sea of scarlet now. Momentarily, he spotted the dark fitted jumpsuit and flash of red hair which was Commander Jade as she pushed forward, then she was lost again in the massed troops.
Bizarrely, in that moment, surrounded by this wild chaos of noise and people, his heart beating staccato against his chest, the only thing which was going through Nathan 's shocked mind in the face of this incredible revelation of Skywalker's true abilities was, 'That's why they wanted to take my scalpel!'
.
.
.
Mara stood on the balcony gazing out over the carved stone balustrade, trying to spot Skywalker in the dense black of night, the huge beams of light which illuminated the Tower walls to make them visible for miles around, now blinding her completely.
She turned quickly, blinking away the bright spots, having the forethought to check above as well as below and to the side of her, but he was nowhere to be seen. She knew a Jedi could jump extreme distances without injury, but the balcony was twenty-four stories above the monolithic Main Palace...could he jump that far?
She turned back, pushing through the throngs of Red Guards, struggling against the crowd to get back into the main corridor beyond the Dining Hall and head at full tilt for the Ops room, cursing all the way.
.
.
"Status," Mara ordered as she arrived, struggling for breath.
The four ops officers shook their heads, expressions grave--everyone knew their heads were on the block tonight. "Nothing yet. All security images clean; no sightings. He's going to have to get back into the main Crossway in the Tower base if he wants to get down any further into the Palace though. The Towers are sealed already. Enclision grids are active, blast shields are in place. We're locked down--there's no way he can get through to the Main Palace."
Mara considered... "Open the first few blast doors on the East Tower--the ones you can see from the Crossways. Let's see if he'll bite. Get extra troops down there, out of sight. And start repositioning stormtroopers around the stairwell in the Main Palace."
The Ops Duty Officer nodded, speaking quickly into his comlink as Mara forced herself calm, eyes skipping from display to display...nothing.
She shook her head, frustrated. "He'll not try to get back in yet. He'll stay outside as long as he can to avoid being spotted; try to climb down to the Palace roof somehow. But it'll slow him down and he knows it--and whatever he does, he'll eventually have to get back in--he can't bypass the Main Palace entry, he has to go through it."
But he didn't know that. He may well try to stay outside and look for some way down the smooth, shielded bulk of the Main Palace walls--in his situation, she would have... Which meant he'd probably get as close to the main Crossway at the Tower bases as possible outside, then try to get back in--probably not back into the South Tower. Which would put him on the Main Palace roof in the next few minutes... and within striking distance of the landing pads there, she realized. "Lock down everything on the roof pad. How many transports are there?"
The duty officer frowned. "Just two. Both shuttles."
"Do you know the Deck Officer to look at?"
The Ops D.O. nodded.
"Tell him he's to go out to them right now with a blaster and shoot out the flight consoles--tell him it's my order. I want them unflyable inside one minute."
The man nodded, understanding--two shuttles were a small price to pay.