Disclaimer: Star Wars not mine, no money have I, but poor student I am.

Author: ihadanepiphany

Have had this written for a while just got time to put it up now. Its only short I know but hopefully its worth a review, even if its only of the "this is rubbish" genre. Flames will keep me warm in Irish winter.

Do try and enjoy wont you?

'What part of no entry don't you understand?' a large Togorian growled, its weapon aimed for the drivers cranium through the window. The hapless Feree started to protest but was firmly rebuffed as the other guards, two Wookies, kept a watchful eye on the rest of the street.

Noctun barely glanced out the speeder window at the scene that was being repeated countless of times over at every spaceport on the planet. The plague that they feared had been carried onto Feree three days previously by a Bith and was passed to a native before she left the complex. After that, it was a matter of maths.

In response, the Galactic Senate had slapped a quarantine on the planet and its moons enforced by dozens of ships and fighters, no-one on or off and had ordered a planet-wide destruction of all grounded ships to ensure that no-one could punch through and spread the virus further. Preventative measures, the message had said, only until a cure was found, druids working on it, only a matter of time. Jedi were being sent to help deal with the problem, to try and ensure at least something of the Feree race and its civilization would survive long enough for the cure, just a couple more days, just a matter of time.

*Time* Noctun reflected as the speeder continued towards his office building *being the one thing we don't have*

The virus is passed through contact, it is absorbed into the skin and travels through the blood system, duplicating countlessly as it goes, and every cell it passes gets a sample. About twelve to fourteen standard hours after infection, the virus begins by attacking the mitochondria, the part that gives the entire cell energy, and the cell begins to die. Minutes after that, the cell membrane is targeted and the cell looses integrity in much the same fashion of a starship with a ruptured hull, only the cell doesn't have repair crews, force-fields or even the most primitive of pressure hatches. After that, it takes less than a standard hour for the victim to die.

But what worried the health officers so much was that the virus could live outside a host for up to a week and from the moment of infection until the corpse was burned to ashes, the infected Feree could pass on the plague, as well as every other non-vulnerable species there was.

Noctun turned from the tinted glass and closed his eyes. That was the fate of his family, almost. The Feree were panicking, clamouring to get off-planet, going hysterical and, as every sentient race does when faced with its own destruction, the hysterics turned to despair and rage, cumulating in burned and destroyed buildings and monuments all over Feree. A mob had passed near his home, someone remembered that he was an Ambassador and they turned to punish his family for it. He had raced home as soon as possible, but he was too late.

The speeder stopped and Noctun looked out to see that they were in the government building that he had worked in most of his adult life. The driver got out and held the door open for him, the same as he had done for years. But Noctun saw in him the undeniable symptoms of the early stages of the plague, as he had seen not too long ago in the mirror.

 'Go home,' Noctun told him gently. 'See your family.' The driver hesitated, then nodded and held out his gloved hand.

 'Force be with you sir,' he said as they shook hands. Noctun nodded sadly and turned away. He had no compunction with regards to shaking his hand, gloved or no, he knew that he only had a few hours left himself.

Soon after that, he stood in his ruined office, barely seeing the damage. Mobs of looters were roaming the city. Feree always had many thousands of inhabitants of species other than the native, and it seemed that they were enjoying the environment of the crippled Security Forces to the full. It was obvious that when the plague ran its course another species would become the holders of Feree. Noctun spent a few idle, depressing minutes wondering who before easing himself into the chair in front of the holo-transmitter and powering it up

It was several minutes and Noctun began to fear the worst before Branthe finally answered the other end.

 'Noctun,' he wheezed. 'Good to see you again. How are you?'

 'As good as could be expected,' Noctun answered, his voice light, not betraying the anguish of seeing his oldest and best friend in the last stage of the plague. 'And you?'

 'Oh you know, nothing the long sleep wont cure.' Noctun kept his eyes open and his face to the holo, the long sleep was an ancient euphemism for death. 'I heard about your home,' Branthe said after a moment. 'I'm sorry.' Noctun shrugged, a hopeless gesture.

 'They were dead before the fire reached them, you know how susceptible we are to smoke, painless.' Noctun stared at his hands, the six fingers on each now wrinkled and bent with the plague and grief, until he was calm again. 'Tronwu's daughter died last night.' Branthe winced and shook his head.

 'How did he take it?'

 'Took a dive off the building.' Branthe sighed and seemed to be reading something in the space between the transmitter and receiver

 'Jueryth got caught by rioters.' Noctun had heard, the mob had converged on her home and carried her out.

 'Sernathi said,' he commented. 'Told me at the house.'

 'Sernathi got caught too.'

 'What?' Noctun had been talking to her barely a standard hour before. 'When?'

 'On the way back to the office, speeders ran into a riot, thermal detonator through the window.'

 'So that's it then,' Noctun said levelly after a few moments. 'We're the only ones left, the last of the old gang.' Branthe laughed, a stressed attempt that degraded into a coughing fit almost before it began.

'We?' he asked when he could breathe again. 'You, Noctun. I'm building my pyre as we speak.' Noctun stared at his friend, caught the flicker of movement behind him, then ran to the window and strained to see a certain building. A new plume of smoke was rising over it ad he knew that it originated in his old friends offices. He rested his head on his arms for a few moments, calming himself before turning and sitting back in front of the transmitter.

 'Branthe'anuil of the House Anuil of the Feree,' he said quietly, the ancient ritual slipping all too easily off his tongue. 'Breathe deep and sleep well.'

 'May the Force be you, Noctun'orias of the House Orias of the Feree,' Branthe whispered and then the signal was lost. He was gone. Noctun sat and stared into the empty space that had contained his best friend.

Many hours later, when the second sun had dipped past the horizon, its light retreating from the incredible destruction that had occurred in three of its cycles, Noctun returned from foraging, bumping into the furniture, stumbling back to the holo-vid recorder and transmitter. He keyed in an address, looking around the rooms that had been so familiar and were now transformed with the darkness and destruction, half-lit with the fires raging outside. The recorder beeped once, it was ready. Noctun hauled himself to his full height, the plague running rampant in his slender frame and spoke, his soft voice racked with pain and grief.

 'For the attention of the Republican Senate, from Ambassador Noctun'orias of the House Orias of the Feree.'