Chapter 9

Battle Room, Jedi Cruiser Resolute, in orbit around Coruscant

"Very interesting, Skywalker," Master Windu said via hologram. "You're certain this illness running through your men is just dehydration?"

"Fairly," Anakin said carefully.

Windu nodded. "If that is true then this should blow over in a couple days."

Anakin's fists clenched, he had to bite his tongue to keep from saying something like, "and you think I'd lie about something like this?"

Still, doubt pulled at the back of his mind. The doubt that came from the fifty-two clones who'd gone down ill during the flight back to Coruscant. Logically, the dehydration theory made sense but his gut instincts whispered that something more sinister was afoot. It didn't help that ever since Zeer had become sick he hadn't been able to shake the danger sense he'd first felt on Tyreea.

He wanted to bring this up to the Council but he wasn't sure if they'd believe him if he did.

Windu changed the subject. "We'll be awaiting your full report, Skywalker. Make sure it's finished promptly."

"It will be," Anakin promised.

Windu nodded. "Good. You and your troops will remain on Coruscant at least until Obi-Wan gets back, after that we have no guaranties as to how long it will be before you're redeployed."

In other words he most likely wouldn't have much time with Padme this time back, Anakin buried his disappointment in the far reaches of his mind. The Council probably couldn't sense his feelings with the distance that separated them but Ahsoka, who was standing next to him, could.

He nodded doing his best to look like an emotionless Jedi not a lonely husband. "Yes, Master Windu."

A chorus of whispers sounded behind him as the blast doors that lead to the bridge opened. Part of Anakin was annoyed that someone was interrupting this meeting with Council and making it look like he couldn't control him men. The other part of him knew that his men knew better than to interrupt meetings with the Council for no reason and wondered what was going on.

Admiral Yularen moved up on his left side. "General," he whispered in Anakin's ear, to quietly for the Council to hear. "Kix is here. He says he needs to talk to you. It's about the sick men."

"Why?" Anakin asked, he knew he confusion showed on his face. "What happened?"

"I don't know," Yularen said. "But Kix evidently thinks this can't wait."

"What's going on, Skywalker?" Windu asked.

Anakin frowned, looking from Yularen to Windu and back again. He weighed the situation. The Council would probably be angry if he went to talk to Kix now but Kix didn't just ask to speak to him urgently for no reason.

He made his decision, he trusted Kix more than he worried about upsetting the Council.

"Can you excuse me?" he asked the Council. "I'll be right back." then he turned and walked towards the bridge without waiting for their answer.

Kix was waiting for him in the Battle Room doorway. "What's going on, Kix?" he asked. "I'm kind of in the middle of something here."

Kix nodded, he looked worried. "I know, sir, but you need to hear this before we leave the ship."

Kix's worry was beginning to rub off on Anakin. "What happened?" he asked.

Kix's voice dropped to a near whisper so no one standing around them could hear. "We have another sick clone, sir. It's Med."

"Med?" Anakin asked. "But be works in the medbay. He wasn't even on Tyreea! How could he get sick?"

Kix winced and Anakin realized his voice had risen to a clearly audible level.

Ahsoka turned to look at them. "Master?" she asked. "What's going on?"

"I don't know," Anakin admitted.

"Tell us, you should, Skywalker," Yoda said, it was the first time any Council member but Windu had spoken.

Anakin looked to Kix. "Maybe you better talk to them."

Kix blinked, a look of panic crossing his face, then he nodded. "Yessir."

Anakin walked across the battle room, back into range of the holoprojector.

"What happened?" Windu demanded.

Anakin motioned Kix forward. The clone stepped into range and snapped to attention.

Windu raised an eyebrow. "Who are you?" he asked.

Anakin gave Kix an encouraging nudge. The clone swallowed heavily. "Medic Kix, General Windu, sir."

The members of the Council looked at each other. "What did you come here to tell your General, Kix?" Shaak Ti said.

Kix was bouncing slightly up and down on his heels, not enough for the Council to notice but Anakin could see it. "Since we left Tyreea we've had a number of troopers who have fallen ill. They were all on Tyreea but I just received word that one of the medbay clones is sick and its highly unlikely he could have gotten dehydrated because he wasn't even on Tyreea."

The Council members looked at each other. "Know why this clone is sick, do you?" Yoda asked.

Kix shook his head. "Nosir. But the symptoms are the same as the sick clones from Tyreea."

Windu held up a hand and turned to Anakin. "We're going to put you on hold while we discuss this. Freeze your landing preparations, no one leaves that cruiser until you hear from us. Do you understand?"

Anakin nodded. "Yes, Master Windu."

The holoprojector flickered into blackness as someone in the Council chamber put them on hold. Anakin turned to Admiral Yularen. "Stop our landing preparations."

Yularen nodded and hurried to the ship's intercom. A minute later the admiral's voice echoed through the ship saying that all preparations for landing were being suspended indefinitely.

Ahsoka chewed on her lip. "What do you think they're going to decide?"

Anakin looked at Kix who shrugged. "I have no idea," Anakin admitted.

They waited in tense silence for almost an hour then the holoprojector flickered back to life. "Skywalker?" Windu asked.

"I'm here," Anakin said straightening.

"Good," Windu said. "The Council has come to a decision. You won't be landing at the GAR base."

"Then where are we landing?" Anakin asked.

"The coordinates are being beamed to you," Windu replied.

Anakin looked down as the coordinates arrived and displayed themselves on the battle room stat table. "Those are the coordinates for the Coruscant Standards Hospital," he said. "Why are we going there?"

"The Council decided that the chance that your men picked up a contagious bug on Tyreea was too great to be ignored," Windu answered. "The 501st and the entire crew of Jedi Cruiser Resolute are being quarantined until further notice."


Lab Spaces, Dooku's Secret Lair, Serenno

Sheeri flipped through the information on a small datapad. So far the experiments on the virus that hadn't been finished before its release were going perfectly, just as they'd predicted. Zorron hadn't stopped crowing about his brilliance in days and part of Sheeri wanted something to go wrong to prove that he wasn't as smart as he thought he was.

She pushed that thought away. This was a highly infectious virus they were talking about. Everything had to go perfectly.

There was just one experiment that she still had to check the status on. A few days ago she'd infected a lab rat with the virus and put it in a cage with several other rats. The purpose of the experiment was to prove that the virus couldn't be passed from being to being. It was the experiment Sheeri was the most worried about. She hoped it went well.

She moved over to the tank where the rats were being contained, datapad ready to take down information. What she saw shocked her.

Out of the seven rats in the tank four were dead and the other three weren't looking so great.

Her heart stopped. No, no, we can't be wrong. We just can't be. The virus had to preform exactly as planned. If it didn't who knew what problems the sample that had been released on Tyreea would cause.

If it can pass from being to being it would be an epidemic. A plague. Uncontrollable.

She tried to calm down and think rationally. There could be another reason the rats were dying. Maybe their food or water levels were low or someone had accidentally turned off the oxygen refreshers.

But a quick test proved that everything in the rats' tank was normal. Heart pounding, she dressed in a bio-hazard suit and heaved the tank into the small airtight room that was used for instances such as this. Once inside with the room tightly sealed she opened the tank and went about manually testing the rats for the virus.

They all came back positive.

She managed to control her panic until she'd gotten out of the room and stripped off the bio-hazard suit. Then the fear overwhelmed her.

"Zorron!" she shouted at the top of her lungs. "Zorron, you have to see this! Something's gone wrong!"


Well now they know where the virus came from but its not going to do them one bit of good.

I decided to give you this update a day early because I don't know if I'll have time to do it this weekend.

Random note: I will warn you that at first how I'm deciding who does and doesn't get sick isn't going to make since. Eventually, when you figure out how the virus works it will but until then, keep an open mind.

Next Chapter: the 501st is tested at the hospital and Anakin has a close call. (With what? You'll see...heh, heh, heh...)

Emjen