Chapter 11

Hobbie's face was very pale and did not really form a huge contrast to the white pillow his head was lying on. The shadows of the night, the light of the small lamp in the corner and the white covers that had been pulled to his chin did not do much to dispel the impression of him looking like death warmed over either.

Wes' eyes hushed over Hobbie's still form and then over to Wedge who was sitting on the other side of the bed. From time to time, his head would sink forward but he would just as quick catch himself again until he started listing to another side. Wes didn't blame him. It had certainly been a long few days and he rubbed his own eyes, when he felt himself starting to nod off. Across the bed, Wedge had finally lost his battle with sleep and was quietly dozing, his chin on his chest and his arms crossed. Wes looked over to the other occupant of the room. Hobbie's sleep was not as quiet as Wedge's- he would twitch and moan, sometimes whimper in apparent terror which made Wes clench his fists, furious and determined to hunt the people down who had done this to his friend.

His thoughts strayed to the piece of information Hobbie's astromech, Crash IV, had given them when they had located Hobbie's X-wing. It had been a sort of code, Imperial parlance, probably discovered by Hobbie before he had been captured. That Ralltiirian boy, Helvin, had told them that Hobbie had been determined to chase the Moff down after all, so that must have been where he had found that particular piece of information. They had relayed it to the local New Republic Intelligence team who had experience in breaking all sorts of Imperial code and had soon found out that it were coordinates for an address in Cambrielle. They had immediately sent an Intelligence operation team there, for it was their only lead on Moff Tarl Morth's whereabouts then; the house that Helvin had sent Hobbie by way of the Moff's address having long been deserted since then.

At the moment they were waiting for the Intelligence operation team to report back. But…and again Wes's eyes strayed to Hobbie- he just wished that Hobbie would wake up. Everything else was unimportant right now.

T he sudden sound of the door opening made Wedge jerk awake, arms and legs flailing, while Wes started. They both turned quickly to see who had arrived. It was Tycho and he looked grim.

"Intelligence just called," he informed them with a low voice, stealing a concerned look at Hobbie.

"And?" Wes whispered. "What about Morth?"

"He escaped," Tycho informed him at the same volume. Wedge's face grew stormy and Wes clenched his fists. "Kriffin' hell," he hissed quietly.

Tycho nodded. His crystal blue eyes were filled with a deep weariness. "But they did recover twenty genetically altered persons from that address. Apparently Moff Tarl Morth desired to conduct experiments on them. As you know, many of the Empire's cloning facilities have been shut down by the New Republic and it's getting harder for them to gain access to new Stormtroopers. Additionally, little to no birth-born individual voluntarily signs up anymore. So they attempted to find about the characteristics that allow these genetically-altered persons to live for so long and find out which genetic combinations made them so resilient to external influences like various sicknesses so in turn they can tamper with their new clones. Remember that sickness and death wave that swept through the cloned Stormtroops about 1 ABY because their genetic information is so similar?"

As Wedge and Wes nodded, Tycho continued grimly. "As such they apparently wish to prevent that from happening again."
"This is sick," Wes whispered disgustedly. "It's so much like them."

"I am glad we were able to recover them," Wedge commented solemnly. His dark eyes, bloodshot due to his interrupted sleep, focused seriously on the Alderaanian. "Have they found out anything about other locations where others of them might be held?"

"No," Tycho replied shortly, then added: "But I don't doubt that this will continue to be a problem. If Hobbie hadn't brought us that code…" he trailed off.


Their gazed wandered to Hobbie, who was starting to trash on the bed. Sweat was gathering on his forehead and his sandy hair was wet with it, clinging to the pillow. He was mumbling incoherently and the trashing got worse, more violent.

Wes put a hand on his forehead. It was hot to the touch. "He is burning up," he said concernedly.

"I am calling the OneBee," Wedge said and activated the Call-button next to Hobbie's bed.

"No," Hobbie mumbled agitatedly. "No!" He lashed out with his arm, catching Tycho by surprise and knocking him to the ground. Wes tried to calm him and contain his struggles. "Mother," Hobbie whispered, "No, please, don't go."

"It's okay, Hobbs," Wes tried to get through to him, while Wedge and Tycho looked on in helplessness.

Finally, Hobbie calmed in Wes's hold and opened his blue eyes. They were red-rimmed and he looked confused. "Wes," he whispered. "Yes, Hobbs," Wes replied and ran a calming hand down Hobbie's back. "I am here."

"Wes," Hobbie muttered again. Then his head shot abruptly up. "Moff Morth," he choked out. "Genetically altered humans- you have to-"

"We know, "Wes soothed him, "We have already taken care of it."

Hobbie didn't appear to have heard. His eyes gradually closed and he became a deadweight in Wes's arms.

Wes gently put him down on the bed. When he turned to Wedge and Tycho, he had to fight the rising tears that were accumulating in his eyes.

Tycho came forward and put a supporting hand on Wes's shoulder. "He's going to get better soon," he said reassuringly and for once Wes was glad for Tycho's unshakeable calm for when he looked at Hobbie's pale face he felt anything but reassured.

The OneBee finally arrived and they were ushered from the room while the medical staff worked on getting Hobbie's fever to break. By the morning hours, the OneBee wheeled out of the room.

"The fever has broken," she said gravely, "but Major Klivian still needs rest."

"May we stay with him?" Wes put in. The OneBee hesitated.

"Please," Wes added and the OneBee sighed. "Fine. But you are to remain calm and you are not agitate him in any way."

"We can do that Ma'am," Wedge said charmingly. With another heavy sigh the OneBee nodded and wheeled away, showing signs of human behavior as she shook her head while doing so.

She needn't have worried though, for when she wheeled in the Major's room the heroes of the New Republic were all knocked out cold, sprawled deeply asleep over various chairs next to the patient's bed. The OneBee shook her head again, this time in fondness and left the room with something that came very close to something like a human smile.