A few Days Off 3

The world swam back into place painfully. My eyelids were pried open and a very bright light was shone into my eyes, I tried unsuccessfully to bat the light away. Slowly the blur came into focus. The medical droid ignored my attempts to hinder its examination of me. When I tried to sit up I was firmly pushed back down by someone’s hand.

“Lie still!” Commanded a voice I knew all too well.

I lay back, turned my head and looked up into the red eyes which stared into mine. “Not my fault, I swear.” I mumbled. I knew exactly what he was thinking by the look on his face. He was not happy. He drew a very deep, long breath and turned to the med-droid who had been hovering next to me.

“Well?” He asked.

“She will recover, Admiral. The knife wound was a deep puncture but did not hit anything vital, I cleaned it out thoroughly. The sedative the assailant used should pass through her system in twenty-four hours and the bacta injection should prevent further problems. As far as I can discern it was not life threatening but there may be some undesirable side effects such as vomiting or headaches. She has some severe bruising and is quite dehydrated but she can go home as long as she rests and drinks plenty of fluids.” The medical droid gave me one more cursory exam and then left.

Now that the droid had finished his exam, I decided to try and get up again, this time more slowly. The world was still incredibly unstable but considering the hang over I had had earlier, I thought this was liveable. Thrawn offered his hand which I took gratefully and used his strength to help steady myself. My knees felt like rubber, my shoulder ached dully and the rest of me felt as though it had been run over by a herd of angry banthas.

“Where am I?” I asked, not recognising the room I was in as anything other than a med-lab.

“CoCo district emergency clinic. I thought it best you get treatment quickly.” He said.

“Oh.”

“Can you walk?” he asked.

“I think so.”

“Good. Let’s go.” He said coolly.

“Where is Rukh?” I asked, looking around.

“Hunting.” He said between clenched teeth.

I could only imagine who he was hunting. I stood up and swore as the world swam about me. Whatever Jyrki had shoved into my system was a lot more potent than I had thought. My knees buckled but before I reached the ground Thrawn had scooped me up and carried me out of the clinic to the speeder he had waiting. He didn’t wait to ask if I could stand when we reached home, he just repeated the procedure and carried me into the flat to dump me on the couch.

He sat beside me and said in a voice laced with dura-steel. “So, now I need you to tell me exactly what happened, exactly what you did after you left the flat this afternoon, every single tiny detail.”

The look on his face and the set of his jaw told me he was in no mood for messing around. I told him everything as well as I could remember it with as many details as possible. He listened with a quiet fury I found even more frightening than my encounter with Jyrki and said nothing long after I was done telling him about the attack.

“Did they find the other one?” I asked, breaking the awful silence. “The brute Jyrki called Teldahn?”

He nodded. “He’s been taken for questioning but whatever you did to him was enough to knock him out cold, never mind the jaw and the nose. It will be a while before he’s able to be of any use. Intel has assured me they will take care of the interrogation personally.”

I shuddered at the thought. “They’re planning something.” I said. “Jyrki kept hinting they were going to do something terrible, some sort of attack, maybe. He wanted to get me away. I got the impression that he meant away from the palace, away from Coruscant. He wasn’t very specific but he wasn’t lying either.”

“What about the knife?”

“I have that and will pass it over to the investigation team.” He said. Then he added crossly, “Didn’t you get the feeling someone was following you? Doesn’t this force talent of yours give you some sort of sense of danger?”

“Yes, sometimes but it isn’t my strongest talent and, to be honest, I thought it was Rukh so I didn’t give it much thought. It didn’t occur to me that Jyrki would actually be stupid enough to try a stunt like that in the CoCo district in broad daylight. He must have been following me but how he knew I was back on this planet, and how he knew where I was today…well that’s the real question and it worries the sandjiggers out of me.” I said with a frown.

Thrawn sighed and got up. “I have to return to work. Rukh’s message caught me in the middle of something I very much have to deal with. I don’t know how long it will take. Will you be alright on your own?”

“Yes.” I lied, sounding a whole lot braver than I now felt. I started to shiver as the anger and sedative wore off replaced by shock and a frustration I could not seem to define. I fought back the tears in favour of the anger that still lingered.

“Really?” he asked, concern edging into his voice, replacing the earlier fury.

“Yes, really. I don’t think he’d try twice in one day and I am sure he has no idea about this place. Even if he did….” I said. I was still lying but he didn’t need to know that. He picked up the blanket from the adjacent chair and put it around my shoulders.

“I don’t know what it is about you that attracts all the trouble you do but I want you to promise me you will stay on the flat until I return.” he ordered.

I nodded. Not trusting myself to open my mouth as my stomach rolled, just a little.

“Say it.” He insisted. “If I come home and find you not here, you will have so much more to worry about than Jyrki Andando.”

“I promise I will stay put.” It was an easy promise to keep. I felt like hell, so much for a nice quiet afternoon of shopping.

He nodded, satisfied. “There needs to be an official report made and you’ll have to come in and speak with whatever Intel agent is in charge of this case.” He said thoughtfully. “Vader won’t be pleased to hear this man has not yet been caught.”

“Lord Vader is never pleased.” I answered automatically.

He sighed and gave me a look which said I don’t like leaving you here alone but I don’t know what to do about it.

“I’ll be fine. Stop fussing.” I told him. I gave him a small slight grin, masking how I really felt.

He smiled slightly but it never reached his eyes. “I have told Rukh to return here when he was completed his search but I have no idea when that will be, I am quite certain he will scour the entire planet given half a chance to find this pash’kja’anta. Get some rest.” He told me, planted a kiss on my head and then left.

The flat was quiet and even though I knew he had locked the doors upon leaving I double checked anyway, then went into the kitchen to make tea to try and sooth my queasy stomach. Once I had done that I reached Cati, explained the reason for missing the appointment. She had not seemed too surprised, commenting that I seemed to have a knack for trouble and that she would send over a datachip with the new designs for me to look at.

Then I contacted my uncle. I watched as his holo image appeared. Before he could speak I said.

“Zte’sa, if you don’t do something about Jyrki Andando, I’ll find someone who will.”

There was a second of silence and then he said. “Tell me what happened.”

I took a deep breath mainly to try and quell the ever growing unquiet in my stomach and began to tell him about the attack. When I was done there was another moment of silence.

“You said he used a knife to sedate you?” my uncle asked still trying to put together all the information I had told him in my somewhat jumbled manner.

I nodded. “It had a very long and slender blade with some sort of needle on it.” I said. “I don’t understand why he didn’t use a hypo-spray like everyone else would. Now I have a hole in my shoulder and it hurts like hell!”

The expression on my uncle’s face changed from concerned to dark and angry. “How are you feeling now?” he asked.

“Not so wonderful but the EmDee droid said I should be okay.” I told him. Wondering, as a flush of cold sweat swept down my neck and back, just how true that was.

My uncle looked sceptical but didn’t say anything else.

“I need to know what to do, Zte’sa, I am getting really tired of this stuff.” I said. “How does he always find me?”

My uncle shook his head. “I don’t know.” He sounded incredibly sad.

“I mean we only arrived on planet yesterday, there was a huge reception last night but that’s it. How did he know exactly where I would be today, this afternoon?”

“Who else knew where you were going?”

I shook my head. “No one.” I said and then frowned. “Well, I told Tygs but that was like maybe an hour or two before the attack.

“Who is this Tygs, friend of yours?”

I sighed. “Antygra Zyllendel, he’s one of Shiv’s friends. I bumped him when I was at the palace earlier looking for my friend, Shiv. We chatted and I told him I was heading into CoCo town to go shopping. But he’s the only person I spoke to, well him and Shiv’s secretary droid.” I shrugged. “Maybe the hallway was bugged or something.” I sighed and closed my eyes for a moment as the room decided to spin and my stomach lurched threateningly. I clapped a hand over my mouth and fought the wave of sudden nausea that washed through me.

“Is everything okay, Lei’lei?” my uncle asked.

I shook my head. “Not really, the EmDee droid from the ER said there would be some side effects of the sedative and I guess I’m feeling them now. I think I have to go, Zte’sa, I think I am going to be very sick.”

“Did someone recover the knife?” my uncle asked quickly.

I nodded. “The Admiral has it, I think.” I nodded fighting against the rising swell of nausea. I clapped a hand over my mouth again, this time was for real.

My uncle frowned and started to say something else but I didn’t hear him. Without saying goodbye or disconnecting I ran to the ‘fresher, getting there just in time. For the second time in what seemed as many hours I found myself head over the toilet emptying my stomach violently. This was not a good thing. Many hours later it was still not a good thing only I was too sick and too out of it to care. I sat in a small pathetic huddle on the ‘fresher floor, shivering so much my teeth chattered. I was freezing, my head was pounding and my stomach, despite the fact there was absolutely nothing left in it, refused to stop trying to empty itself further. Every time I had tried to stand up waves of dizziness and nausea had swept through me, spots danced in front of my eyes and I relived that awful sensation of losing consciousness. The floor was the best place to be, next to the toilet was even better. I lost track of time because I kept slipping in and out of a feverish doze. On top of it all the stab wound had begun to burn and itch. If I hadn’t been so out of it I might have worried more about that. Instead I just stayed put and concentrated on not retching every time I moved my head.

What seemed to be hours later, I heard Thrawn come home and walk through the flat calling my name. It was dark and I hadn’t turned any lights on before my mad dash to the ‘fresher because it had still been daytime. I could hear the anger and annoyance, mixed with a hint of fear, rising in his voice with each room he explored and didn’t find me in. I knew he’d eventually come into the main bathroom off the bedroom because he always showered after work. My voice was too hoarse from all the vomiting to shout for him and I felt too awful to care. The bathroom light flicked on and it hurt to open my eyes. Finally he had found me, stopping mid yell, and was at my side in a flash. His hands felt like ice against my skin and I know he was asking me questions but I couldn’t follow them.

“It burns.” I croaked, trying to point at my shoulder.

I felt him undo my top and lift off the bandage. I heard him suck in a breath and hiss it back out again as though just looking at the wound somehow hurt him.

“Your shoulder is incredibly inflamed and you are burning up with fever. I need to get you to the Palace medical facility right now.” He said.

I tried to focus on his face but he was all wobbly. “I’m so cold.” I told him. “Every time I move I get sick…” My voice was rough and my throat ached.

He vanished for a moment and returned with the thick Dantassi blanket. He wrapped that around me and then picked me up. I just closed my eyes. Time passed the way the city outside the speeder passed, in a big blur of unrecognizable motion.

Thrawn brought me to the same facility that I had been taken to after the Rite of Tet’ fight. My guess was that he had gotten the doctor, the same one who had treated me before, out of bed because at first the man had not seemed too impressed but when he saw me his annoyance turned to concern.

While his aid got me undressed and into a gown, Thrawn gave the doctor the run down on what had happened. After the doctor had finished with his physical exam of me he looked even more concerned. Blood was taken, my temperature was taken and someone began to poke about in the knife wound which was about as swollen, red and ugly looking as it was possible to get. It was incredibly painful and I yelped when they touched my arm.

“The EmDee from the ER clinic cleared her this afternoon. Claimed the sedative she’d been injected with was harmless.” Thrawn said.

The doctor glanced up at him. “Probably it was and I will read the report filed for further information but this has all the earmarks of a very powerful poison. Do you still have the weapon that did this?”

“Yes, it is currently with security.”

“It would be best if I could study it, there may be a chance to find out what poison, if any was used, without knowing that I can’t administer the right antidote.”

“Just how serious is this?” Thrawn asked quietly.

The doctor took a deep breath. “She needs to go into a bacta tank. From what you have told me the knife wound was cleaned and the bacta injection administered earlier should have prevented any infection but it didn’t. As far as I can tell from the preliminary exam and your information the infection is spreading very rapidly. Her fever is dangerously high and she is very dehydrated. The look of the knife wound reminds me very much of what happens when someone is stung by a venomous insect or creature, but I can’t say for sure until I get the blood analysis back. We have a number of things we can try but without knowing exactly what it is we are dealing with it is difficult to know exactly what to use against it. Sometimes the cures are worse than the actual illness, especially in the case of a poison or venom. The way her fever is spiking right now and from the look of that wound, if the bacta doesn’t slow down what is happening….” He didn’t finish his sentence, he didn’t have to. There was a needle prick and I felt the rush of warmth spider its way up the vein in my arm. I tried to make sense of the jumbled thoughts in my head, reaching out I caught the sleeve of Thrawn’s arm and gripped at it. “He knew where I was going.” I said. The latest drug in my system was beginning to make my head swim even more than it already was.

“Who knew?” Thrawn asked.

“He knew…Uncle Vahlek…” I shook my head trying to organise my words, my thoughts but it just wasn’t going to happen.

“Merlyn, you are not making any sense.” Thrawn said.

The doctor sighed and looked at Thrawn. “She’s delirious. We’ve given her a sedative and something to control the fever to slow things down a bit and buy her some time. You might want to notify Lord Vader and her family that she is here.”

Thrawn stared at me briefly then nodded. “Do what you can for her, doctor.”

The doctor looked at him. “We are Admiral. Get me that weapon or a sample of what was injected into her.”

I knew this was bad and I should have been more worried about it but the part of me that cared was very far away. I watched with an eerie detachment as they began to prepare me for immersion into the bacta tank. Thrawn stood at my side, out of their way. I couldn’t read the expression on his face but I knew from his body’s subtle language that he was worried.

“He knew ….” I said. I wanted to say more but the words wouldn’t cooperate.

He nodded. “I know, we’ll find him.”

I shook my head, he didn’t understand what I was trying to tell him. Someone tried unclasping my pendant but I grabbed it and would not let go. I didn’t want to take that off.

“No jewellery in the tank.” One of the aides told me, struggling with my fingers.

“Let me.” Thrawn told them and gently he pried the necklace from my hand. “I’ll keep it safe until you are well enough to wear it again, I promise.”

I nodded then and let it go feeling as though I were letting go of a whole lot more than just a little pendant.

Thrawn took my face between his hands and made me look at him. He spoke quietly but fiercely in Cheunh. “Fight this thing, fight it and stay alive. That is an order!” He said and then he left.

Voices and faces blurred around me. I felt as though I were freezing to death and burning in hell all at the same time. When I was tank ready someone tried to put a mask on my face so that I could breathe but I fought against them. I did not want to go into the bacta tank. I had bad memories of this procedure. Eventually they won and I lost consciousness, which was probably a good thing.