Star Wars.
The New Jedi Order.
Recovery.
by Troy Denning.
Chapter 1
Outside the medcenter viewport, a ragged crescent of white twinkles known as the Drall"s Hat drooped across the violet sky, its lower rip slashing through the Ronto to touch a red star named the Eye of the Pirate. The constellations above Corellia had not changed since Han Solo was a child, when he had spent his nights contemplating the galactic depths and dreaming of life as a starship captain. He had believed then that stars never changed, that they always kept the same company and migrated each year across the same slice of sky Now he knew better. Like everything in the galaxy, stars were born, grew old, and died. They swelled inio red giants or withered into white dwarfs, exploded into novas and supernovas, vanished into black holes.
All too often, they changed hands.
It had been nearly three weeks since the fall of the Duro"s system, and Han still found it hard to believe that the Yuuzhan Vong had a stronghold in the Core. From there, the invaders could strike at Commenor, Balmorra, Kuat, and * first in line * Corellia. Even Coruscant was no longer safe, lying as it did at the opposite end of the Trade Spine.
Harder to accept than Duro"s loss * though easier to believe * was the enthusiasm with which the cowards of the galaxy had embraced the enemy"s offer of peace in exchange for Jedi. Already a lynch mob on Ando had killed Dorsk 82 and on Cujicor the Peace Brigade had captured Swilja Fenn. Han"s own son Jacen was the most hunted Jedi in the galaxy, and Ms wife and other children, Anakin and Jaina, were sought almost as eagerly. If it were up to him, the Jedi would leave the collaborators to their fate and go find a safe refuge somewhere in the Unknown Regions. Rut the decision was not his, and Luke Skywalker was not listening.
A raspy murmur sounded from the lift station, shattering the electronic silence of the monitoring post outside Leia"s door. Han opaqued the transparisteel viewport, then stepped around the bed where his wife lay in a therapeutic coma, her eyelids rimmed by purple circles and her flesh as pallid as wampa fur. Though he had been a.s.sured Leia would survive, his heart still ached whenever he looked at her He had almost lost her during the fall of Duro, and a stubborn series of necrotic infections continued to threaten her mangled legs-Hven more in doubt was their future together She had greeted him warmly enough after they found each other again, but Chewbacca"s death had changed too much for their marriage to continue as before-Han felt brittle now, older and less sure of Ms place in the galaxy. And ill the few hours she had been coherent enough to talk, Leia had seemed hesitant, more tentative and reluc tant to speak her mind around him.
At the door, Han peered out of the darkened room to find four human orderlies outside flanking the MD droid at the monitoring post Though they had a cowered repulsor gurney and fresh white scrubs, they were not wearing the masks and sterile gloves standard lor visitors to the isolation ward.
"...don"t look like orderlies to me, the MD droid was sayig. "Your fingernails are absolute bacterial beds."
"We"ve been cleaning disposal chutes," said the group"s leader, a slash-eyed woman with black hair and the jagged snarl of a hungry rancor. "But don"t worry, we came through decon."
As she spoke, one of the men with her was sliding across the counter behind the droid. Han drew back into the room and retrieved his blaster from a satchel beneath Leia"s bed. Though he had been dreading thils moment for three weeks, now that it had come, he felt almost relieved. The enemy had not arrived when he was sleeping or out of the room, and there were only four.
Han returned to the door to find the MD droid standing with darkened photoreceptors, his vocabulator slumped against his chest. The orderly behind the counter was scowling down at the data display.
"Don"t see her on the register, Roxi," he said to the woman.
"Of course not," Roxi growled "Slug, do you think a Jedi would use her own name? Look for a human female with amphlstaff wounds."
Slug, a moonfaced man with a bald head and a week"s worth of stubble on his face, scrolled down the screen and began to read symptoms off the display "Parictal swelling...thoracic lacerations... double severed sartorius..." He stopped and looked up.
"You understand this stuff?"
Roxi glared at the man as though the question were a challenge, then asked, "What was that second one?"
Slug glanced back at the display, "Thoracic lacerations?"
"That could be it." Roxi glanced at her other companions and, seeing that they had no beiKr Idea what thoratic meant than she did, continued, "Well, lacerations sounds right. What room?"
Slug gave her the number, and the four impostors started down the opposite corridor. Han allowed them a few moments to clear the area, then slipped nito the monitoring post and used the con trols to seal his wife"s room with a quarantine code. The thought of leaving her alone made his stomach queasy, but he had to handle this problem quietly and by himself. Though a Jedi-friendly doctor had admitted Leia under a false name and Han had sent the famous Solo children home with Luke and Mara, the alias would not with stand a CorSec incident investigation. And with a new Yuuzhan Vong base rising at the edge of the sector, no one a.s.sociated with the Jedi would dare trust Corellia"s always erratic government for protection. Had Leia"s condition not forced them to divert soon after escaping Duro, this was the last place Han would have stopped. He peered around the corner of the monitoring post and, in the night-shift twilight, saw the impostors disappearing into a bacta tank parlor about hallway down the corridor, Taking a datapad from the recharger on the counter and a breath mask, hygienic cap, gloves, and lab coat from the supply locker, he did his best to disguise himself as someone official and followed The intruders were gathered around tank number three in the parlor"s far corner, studying a slender human with a trio of freshly st.i.tched lacerations angling down across her chest. Like Leia"s wounds, the cuts were atypically inflamed and almost black at the edges, a sign that some toxin was proving a challenge for the bacta. The only other occupied tank contained a Selonian female whose severed tall stump was covered by a graft of unfurred hide.
"The contract said she"d shaved her head," Roxi complained, staring at the long hair of the patient in tank three, "Even in bacta, I don"t think it would grow back this fast."
"Maybe not, but they are amphistaff cuts," Slug said. He was standing next to a deactivated attendant droid, reading from a data display. "And no one"s saying how she got them."
Roxi lifted her brow and thought for a moment, then said, "We"d better bring her along-Start the tank draining-We"ll pick her up after we"ve checked the other rooms."
Han drew back and tucked the blaster under his lab coat, then made sure his breath mask was secure and waited. When he heard the impostors coming, he turned the corner with the datapad before him. He ran headlong into the burliest of the impostors and was nearly knocked off his feet.
"Uh, sorry," Han said, looking up "Entirely my..." He let the sentence dangle off, then gasped, "You"re not wearing a breather!"
The burly impostor frowned-"What breather?"
"Your safety mask." Han tapped the breath mask on his face, then looked from one impostor to the other. "None of you are. Didn"t you cheek the hazard indicator?"
"Hazard indicator?" Roxi asked, pushing her way to the front.
"I didn"t see any indicator."
"In the decontamination lock," Han said. "Red means no ently. Orange means full biosuit. Yellow means breath masks and gloves - The light was yellow. We"ve had leuma outbreak."
"Leuma?" Slug asked.
"You"ll be all right," Han said, sinking just the right note of insincere rea.s.surance. He waved Roxi toward the monitoring post. "But we"ve got to get you some breath masks. Then you"ll need inoculations..."
Roxi made no move to leave the bacta parlor-"I"ve never heard of any disease called leuma."
"Airborne virus Han said. "A new one...or maybe it"s a spore. We really don"t know yet, but there"s talk of it being a Yuuzhan Vong weapon."
That was enough to bring Slug, and the burly impostor out into the corridor.
"Hold up, you two!" Roxi snapped.
The pair stopped, then Slug frowned and said, "But we need those breath masks."
"And soon," Han pressed, turning his attention to Slug "You can still be saved, but the chances are going down with every breath you take."
Three of the impostors...the three men...clamped their mouths shut. Roxi only glared at Han.
"You know this how?" She stepped into the door and stood nose-to-chill with him. "Because you"re a doctor?"
Han"s stomach sank. "That"s right." He had to resist an urge to check his appearance. "Senior xenoepidemiologist, to be exact."
He pretended to scrutinize her white scrubs-"And you are?"
"Wondering why the senior xenoepidemiologist would make his rounds in patient slippers." Roxi glanced at his feet. "Without socks."
She flexed her fingers, and a hold-out blaster dropped out of a sleeve holster. Han cursed and brought the datapad down on her wrist. Her weapon clattered to the floor, and he kicked it away, then retreated, fumbling for his own blaster. Roxi withdrew into the parlor, shrieking orders and pushing her companions at the door. Only Slug went. He ignored Han and ran up the conidor.
"Slug!" Roxi screamed.
"M-masks!" Slug called-"Gotta get..."
Han found his blaster and planted a stun bolt between Slug"s shoulder blades. The impostor thumped to the floor. Weapon flashes sprayed from the bacta parlor. Han dived behind a low half wall in the small waiting area opposite. His attackers continued to fire, and the thin plasteel started to smoke and disintegrate. He thumbed his own power to high, then stuck the blaster through a nell hole and returned fire.
The bolt storm quieted. Han dropped to his belly and peered around the corner. The impostors were nowhere to be seen, but their repulsor gurney remained at the back of the parlor. The woman in tank three had opened her eyes and was looking around. Considering that she was caught in the middle of a tirefight, her expression seemed surprising calm. Maybe she was too sedated to comprehend what was happening. Han hoped so. If she didn"t use the microphone ill her breathing mask to call for help, there was still a charier,a slim chance - that he could take care of this without CorSec connecting the incident to Leia"s room.
The woman"s gaze shifted, then Roxi"s voice cried, "Go!"
Tlie male impostors leaped into view and began to lay suppression fire. Han burned a hole through one man"s chest. Roxi pulled something long from beneath the gurney sheet, and when Han switched targets, she took cover behind tank three. He stopped firing. The woman in the bacia seemed to smile her thanks.
"On two, Dex," Roxi called. "One..."
Roxi stepped into view, and "two" was lost to the shrieking cacophony of the repeating blaster in her hands-Han concentrated fire on her-A faint hiss sounded somewhere deep in the parlor, and Dex"s blaster fell quiet.
Roxi"s bolts st.i.tched their way across the floor toward Han"s head. He drew back and popped up in the comer, blaster trained on the parlor entrance-She poured fire into the corridor, but stayed out of sight until she appeared at the door and began to chew through his flimsy cover.
Han fired back, but to little effect.- Their was no sign of Dex, and that worried him, too-Seeing that his angle was hopeless, he stopped firing and looked to the back of the parlor.
"Now!" he yelled.
Nothing happened, except that Roxi glanced away long enough for Han to hurl himself across the waiting room. She adjusted her aim and began to b.u.m more holes through the half wall-Han returned fire. Now that his angle was better, at least he was making her cringe.
Then the repulsor gurney glided into view, moving sidewav no one pushing. Han"s jaw must have dropped, Roxi sneered, shook her head, and, not one to be fooled twice, nearly burned his head off.
The gurney caught her in the hip. Her weapon st.i.tched craters across the ceiling, and she stumbled into the doorway. Han blasted her chest and shoulder, spinning her around so that she fell over the gurney. The repeatig blaster clattered to the floor inside the bacta parlor, where Dex could get at it. Cursing his luck, Han poured fire through the door and charged.
Dex lay dead between tanks one and two, the last wisps of smoke rising from a round hole in his chest. It was too small and perfect to be a blaster wound, at least an ordinary one. Han glanced around the room, searching for the source of his mysterious help.
The woman in tank three was watching him.
"You?" he asked.
The gurney moved again. It might have been settling on its repulsor, but Han didn"t think so.
Out by the monitoring station, the decontamination lock hissed open, and the scound of booted leet began to rumble down the corridor. Han ignored the clamor and gestured at the impostor on the floor.
"Him, too?"
The woman"s eyes fluttered closed, opened again, then fell shut and remained that way.
"Okay...must have been a ricochet." Han was not sure he believed that, but it was what he intended to tell the CorSec investigators "I owe you, whoever you are."
Then the security squad was lushing down the corridor, yelling at Han to drop his weapon and hit the floor. He placed his blaster on the gurney and turned to find a pair of ruddy-cheeked boys poking Imperial-era blaster rifles in his face.
"Hey, take it easy." Han reluctantly raised his hands. "I can explain."
Chapter 2.
Temples aching, world spinning, stomach... churning. Leia returned. Someone yelling. Han, of course.
Head pounding.
Quiet!
Han continued to yell, and someone snapped back. Leia opened her eyes and found herself staring into a sun. Which one, she did not know, but it was blinding and blue, and it moved from one eye to the other.
A gentle voices...a man"s...said she was coming to. To what?
There were silhouettes around her. A man standing at her side, the blue disk of a headlamp affixed to his brow. A woman behind a tray of medical instruments. Han and someone in a bulky jumpsuit still arguing over by the viewport. Another man by the closet in the comer of the room, turned half away, pawing through a shape Leia recognized as her travel satchel.
"Oo thurr..." n Even to Leia, the words were weak and incoherent. "Thopp."
"It"s okay, Leia," said the man with the headlamp "I"m Dr. Nimbi. You"ll feel better soon."
"I thel he." Leia tried to point, but her arm felt as heavy as a durasteel beam "Thopp thath theet."
The headlamp went out, regaling a gray-eyed face with laugh lines and a familiar smile. "Better?"
Leia could see now that the man wore a doctor"s lab coat with JASPER NIMBI embroidered on the lapel. His a.s.sistant, a plump woman old enough to be the doctor"s mother, was dressed in a well-woni nursed uniform The man poking through her satchel had the patches of a Corellian Security agent on his jumpsuit, as did the officer with whom Han was arguing.
"...released him?" Han was demanding "He"s a killer!"
"The only deaths here are the ones you caused, Solo," the officer replied. "And his identification has been confirmed as authentic. If we need to question Gad Sluggins again, we"ll know where to find him."
"So would I," Han retorted "In the nearest Peace Brigade safehouse."
"Political affiliations are no longer a crime on Corellia, Solo."
In the corner the agent at the closet removed a datapad from Leia"s satchel glanced around at the others in the room, then slipped it into his jumpsuit pocket Leia tried again to point. This time, the effort ended in a metallic clatter as her arm, strapped in place and connected to a tangle of intravenous drip lines, rattled the bed"s safety rail-She settled for lifting her head to glare in the thief s direction.
"Shtop." The word was almost recognizable. "Thief!"
Han immediately stopped arguing with the CorSec officer and came to her side. With hollow checks and bags under his eyes, he looked exhausted.
"You"re awake," he said, perhaps overstating the case "How do you feel?"
"Terrible," Leia said. Everything ached, and it felt like she had a hot power-feed around her legs. "That agent is stealing."
She extended a finger toward the culprit, but the man"s officer had stepped to the foot of the bed, and it looked like she was pointing at him Han and the others exchanged glances and ap peared concerned.
"Pharmaceutical illusion," Dr. Nimbi said "Her perceptions will clear within the hour."