REWRITTEN CHAPTER
Twelve years after the creation of the Empire, Medical Station in the Outer Rim
"Get into hangar bays," said Jarnis cooly to the commlink and disconnected. The alien spurred into action and started typing furiously on the console. Machines in the room methodically came to life. Strike gulped as she saw just how completely unfazed Jarnis stayed. Now, everything started to very slowly fall into place.
Her brother was an intelligence officer, he had taught her about different tactics and patterns of traps. He had shown her how to read people, and even though she might not have been the best student or exceptionally bright tactician, she wasn't as stupid as some thought her to be.
She recalled the behaviour of Vader's personal medic in the last hours.
How Jarnis instead of Vader's fleet or at least two squadrons of TIEs to guard this experiment of his, selected only a few pilots to escort him to the medical station. How she was sworn to secrecy. How easily he considered killing the Sith. How he warned her about the Kaminoan, manipulated her into thinking that it was the alien whom she couldn't trust.
All the while he himself schemed against the Empire. The trap was so obvious now. She swallowed thickly. Jarnis led them to a quick, quiet death. No one in the fleet knew where they were.
"We have to inform the nearest Imperial forces!" cried out the alien feverishly.
"And risk Rebels eavesdropping our connection? I don't think so. We don't know if there is a spy among us or if the enemy had simply chosen to bring their wounded to the medical facility. They may not even be aware of us. This station has one of the best equippement in the galaxy and is far away from Imperial outposts enough for Rebels to take chances if one of their wounded is an important persona," explained Jarnis. It sounded reasonable. Doubt started to cloud her thoughts. What if she was blaming the wrong man? It was so easy to do in these times. "Besides I'm sure that our forces are too far to come on time."
Or maybe she was right from the beginning.
"So what? You want to wait until they find us?! Help me move him out of that bacta tank!" ordered sharply the Kaminoan.
"Come, Commander." Jarnis nodded at her to stand beside him by the tank as three mechanical arms above it started to pull out a body wrapped in hundreds of cables. She stared in wonder at the figure and followed through the medic's instructions. It was a boy – he had quite long blonde hair and soft, innocent features. Her suspicions of this experiment being Vader himself seemed bizarre now. Appearances could be deceptive, but not to that extent. She blushed when she realised that under all of the cables the child didn't have any clothes. Jarnis chuckled, noticing her discomfort.
"Look while you can, my lady, I bet not many could say they saw the great Darth Vader without his armour. It's really a shame this body hadn't had time to fully grow up, hm?" She was too stunned to notice the innuendo.
"I'm sorry?"
"You heard me, Commander. Lord Vader had taken quite a blow this time, we didn't have parts to repair the damage. So we transferred his mind into his clone." Jarnis spoke as though she was a particularly slow child.
She stood with her mouth parted a moment, but then she was suddenly thrown back and hit the wall hard. Groaning from impact, she sat up shakenly as another explosion shook the medical station.
It seemed that Rebels were impatient to start the game.
She recovered and rushed to help Jarnis who had fortunately managed to catch himself and the stretchers in time to prevent from being smashed into the wall. Together they quickly wrapped the wet boy in blankets and strapped him to stretchers. Adrenaline made her mouth dry.
"They are attacking! They know we're here, you naive fool!" cried out the Kaminoan angrily as a next, this time smaller explosion shook the room. Someone had to have activated the shields. The alien started to frantically look for his comm. "I'm sending the signal for help!"
"No, you're not," said calmly Jarnis and swiftly turned to her, making a move with his hand. She saw her blaster flying to Jarnis' hand and him whirling back to face the alien. Everything happened so fast, she could only act on instinct. She didn't even remember reaching for the carefully hidden by her belt knife. She stabbed Jarnis' back just as he had shot the alien and was turning to shoot her. Two bodies fell to the ground. She stood breathing heavily for a moment.
A Jedi. Personal medic of Lord Vader was a kriffing Jedi. She felt herself falling into hysterics. Unsure if the floor vibrated or if it were her knees shaking, she sank to the floor. She almost jumped out of her skin when the Kaminoan wheezed, spitting.
"I knew it, I knew it! Rebellious Jedi scum!" He tried to sit up and she caught the sight of a blackened mark on his chest. If she hadn't set up her weapon on its lowest level, he would have had no chance. She swallowed as she saw light blue liquid beginning to ooze from the wound. The unnatural – well, different – color of both skin and blood gave her chills. He looked up at her, seeming surprised to see her alive. She recovered first, ducking and taking her blaster from the dead medic's hand.
"Don't try anything or I'll kill you," she threatened, changing the blaster's settings.
"But I'm on your side, Commander!" assured the alien, visibly insulted.
"So did he claim just seconds ago." She nudged the body with her boot for emphasis, trying to conceal just how much this situation overwhelmed her. "Patch yourself up."
With a slight hesitation, he took off his white robe and proceeded to clean the wound with some medical supplies from the counter. Meanwhile she sent a few messages to C23T, but received no answer. Her nervousness skyrocketed. The explosions ceased and it could mean only that the Rebels had boarded the station.
"Are you ready yet?" she asked impatiently the Kaminoan as loud, heavy footsteps resounded in the corridor. She gripped her blaster more tightly.
"Move the stretchers over to me. You're going to open the door and shout out for help," she ordered, standing so that the computer would shield her but she still could see the scientist and the door.
"And what if the Rebels hear?" he asked with incredulity in his voice.
"You're dead-" he opened his mouth but she didn't let him cut her off. "You have fifty-fifty chance in this scenario. But disobey me and I will shoot you in your back and then you will die surely." With a scowl, he limped over to the door, palming them open.
"Rebel scums attacking! Help!" he shouted without enthusiasm but the footsteps did sound as if they came closer.
"Commander Strike!" shouted someone outside and with a sigh of relief she recognized the voice of a clone trooper.
"I'm here." Pushing the stretchers in front of herself, she came to stand beside the alien. Even as six armour clad soldiers saluted, her clouded mind supplied that they also could be enemies in disguise. She ordered them to take off their helmets and felt immediately calmer when she saw their identical faces. Loyalty to the Empire was written into the clones' genes. It would be a surreally bad luck if all of them turned out to be 'damaged'.
"You keep an eye on the doc here, rest shield stretchers. Quickly, we have to get out of here. Where is C23T?"
"Dead. Rebels got the hangar number two, Commander. We're the only survivours. The hangar number five is our best chance," answered the clone with three black stripes on his helmet, already guiding their little group through the station's corridors. She was thankful for that because she felt lost just after a few turns. She was just too shocked to think clearly.
As the power went down, the corridors were lit up with red emergency lights. They got into a small skirmish and lost one of the clones on their way to the hangar, but with a terrifying coldness she couldn't bring herself to even remotely care. She wanted out, out of this kriffing nightmare...
She spotted a perfect ship for them – it seemed to have powerful engines and shields, and there was a good chance it had some medical equipment onboard. She would have to steal it like some dirty Rebel, she realized briefly, pushing the stretchers.
They were halfway to the ship when the first clone fell. She quickly turned and saw two Rodians and a human aiming at them. Before she reached for her blaster, two more of her soldiers were lying dead, and she herself had to jump in order to avoid three other shots. She heard a cry and choking. Risking one look behind her, she saw the alien holding his throat, pale blood flowing through his fingers. This single moment was enough for the Rebels to set their blasters to stun and fire at her and the last wounded clone.
She should have stayed in bed today, she thought hazily before the darkness enveloped her completely.