The Emperor’s Plague
Kevin J. Anderson and Rebecca Moesta
1
After days of recuperation, Jaina Solo steadied herself on the edge of the bacta tank, dripping. Programmed to be courteous, the Too-Onebee medical droid helped her out. Slippery fluid from the healing tank trickled from Jaina’s hair and bare skin onto the floor, where it gathered in iridescent puddles before flowing into a drain by her feet.
The bacta smelled healthy. Even beneath the brief strips of medical wrap she wore, every square centimeter of her flesh tingled with renewal. Cautious at first, she planted her feet on the floor and tested her strength before letting go of the droid’s green metal arm. Her legs had not supported her full weight for several days now and she wasn’t quite sure they would hold her.
Confident at last, Jaina stretched luxuriously, then looked down at herself. Her skin was pink and new, showing no indication of the burns and injuries she had recently suffered during their escape from the Twi’lek homeworld of Ryloth.
For a moment Jaina wondered if the whole ordeal had merely been a nightmare—the capture of the young Jedi Knights, laboring in the spice mines, the mad flight from Diversity Alliance guards through winding catacombs, the brutal heat of Ryloth’s dayside. But it was all real.
Definitely real.
“Glad to see you’re feeling better,” a warm voice said close behind her.
Jaina whirled.
“Zekk!”
“In the flesh—more or less, that is,” he said. He held out a sheet of white absorbent cloth and helped Jaina drape it around her shoulders. “You looked like a roasted nerf sausage when I picked you up a few days ago,” he said, snugging the soft material around her. “Now I can hardly tell you were burned.”
Jaina smiled at her friend. His long hair, a shade lighter than black, hung at the nape of his neck neatly tied with a thong. His dark clothing was rumpled, as if he had slept in it; the shadowy smudges beneath his emerald-green eyes attested to a lack of sleep.
“I thought you were part of my dream,” Jaina said. “I kept thinking that I was waking up, and I would see your face, kind of distant and blurry … but always there.”
The centaur girl Lusa wrapped a sheet around the dripping form of Raynar at another bacta tank nearby. She remarked, “Zekk hasn’t left the medical center since all of you went into the tanks.”
Jaina smiled at Zekk. He shrugged, as if embarrassed.
“I don’t get out much these days. Training to be a bounty hunter kind of puts a crimp in your social life. Besides,” he added, “old Peckhum’s been off on a supply run, so I didn’t see much point in going home for a visit.”
Raynar toweled off his spiky blond hair and blinked groggily at Lusa.
Zekk continued, “Anyway, I’m not the only one who’s been haunting the medical center. Lusa was here practically around the chrono. Your parents and Master Skywalker came in every couple of hours. And Threepio kept bustling in to check on us and to bring us meals.” He smiled. “I remember when he wanted to fit me with a fancy new suit for that important state dinner your mother hosted.”
“That was a long time ago,” Jaina answered softly, tugging her own clothes on. “That was the same night I was captured by the Shadow Academy,” he added, then paused a moment as a troubled expression crossed his face. The centaur girl Lusa offered Raynar a clean set of garish colorful robes that displayed the scarlet, purple, orange, and gold colors of the noble Thul family from Alderaan. Of late, Raynar had been wearing more drab and serviceable Jedi clothes, but now he accepted the fresh garments gratefully.
“Lowie and your little brother were here, too,” Lusa said.
“Anakin wasn’t a bother, was he?” Jaina asked.
Zekk looked amused.
“Far from it. I learned a thing or two from watching him. With the Force, he looked inside the controls of each of your bacta tanks, then made some suggestions to Lowie on how to improve their performance.” Zekk’s voice sank to a whisper as he glanced over at Lowbacca, who was helping the warrior girl Tenel Ka out of her bacta tank, while the medical droid assisted Jacen. “Lowie and Anakin spent hours optimizing the diagnostics relays on each of the bacta units. They ran a physiology-specific calibration on all the bacta regulators, while Lusa and I overhauled the nutrient monitors.”
“Are you sure all that was really necessary?” Jaina said, shaking her head. Her bacta-wet hair hung close against her face. “I feel fine.”
He gave a wry grimace.
“I think Lowie feels guilty you all got hurt on Ryloth, since he was the reason you went there in the first place.”
“I’m just glad that we’re all back together and safe,” Jaina said. Then she smiled ruefully. “Guess I owe you another one, huh?”
“Maybe you’ll get a chance to even up the score,” Zekk said. “Our battle with the Diversity Alliance isn’t over yet.”
Tenel Ka dried herself with the absorbent cloth Lowie handed her, then let the damp material drop to the floor. By now she had learned how to do just about everything quickly and efficiently, even with only one arm. She felt energized and alert, and she couldn’t wait to get out of the medical center and do some calisthenics or go for a run across the rooftops of Coruscant. Her thick red-gold hair clung in damp clumps around her bare shoulders, but it would not take her long to tame it into her customary warrior braids again. Turning her cool gray gaze to inspect Jacen, she was relieved to see that the frostbite, cuts, and bruises her friend had sustained on Ryloth’s frozen nightside had left no lasting damage. Jacen’s unruly brown curls were plastered flat to his head by bacta fluid, and his brandy-brown eyes told her that he was rested and strong again. He flashed Tenel Ka a lopsided grin that made him look like his father, Han Solo.
“I’m glad to see that we’re all bacta normal again,” he said. He raised his eyebrows at the pun, as if waiting for her response. Tenel Ka kept her face expressionless, though deep inside she was glad that their ordeal had not changed Jacen’s sense of humor.
“This,” she said, “is a fact.”
Later, Zekk tinkered with the Lightning Rod, readying it for his continuing search for Bornan Thul. Running diagnostics gave him something to do while Raynar and his mother Aryn Dro Thul—who had just arrived on Coruscant with the entire Bornaryn fleet—spent some long-overdue time talking in private. Tenet Ka had gone to see her parents Isolder and Teneniel Djo, newly arrived from Hapes. Her wily grandmother Ta’a Chume, who was also on Coruscant, had been using her spies to uncover further disturbing evidence about Diversity Alliance activities. At the same time, Lowie and his sister Sirra had gone to visit with their uncle Chewbacca, while Jacen, Jaina, and Anakin were enjoying a private family meal with their parents. That gave Zekk a few hours to himself.
He could hardly begrudge the families some time alone together. He knew how difficult it was for General Han Solo and Chief of State Leia Organa Solo to find the time to relax with their Jedi-trainee children. Even so, Zekk thought as he cleaned the life-support recirculation modules, he couldn’t help being a little jealous. He was left out of all those warm family gatherings, since he had no relatives of his own. Zekk sighed. Just then a gruff voice drifted up the Lightning Rod’s boarding ramp from outside.
“I hope you’re taking good care of this fine ship, boy. Not giving you any trouble, is she?”
Zekk dropped the replacement intake filter and bounded toward the entry hatch as a grizzled old spacer trudged up the ramp.
“Peckhum!” Zekk exclaimed. The older man returned Zekk’s greeting with a bear hug, and Zekk’s spirits soared. Now he was truly at home; this was his family.
Raynar still couldn’t believe that his mother had risked coming out of hiding. Now both he and Aryn Dro Thul stood on the highest balcony of the Bornaryn headquarters building, overlooking a broad plaza that bustled with people.