Hearts Are Meant To: Chapter 27
By KnightMara
A/N: I know I'm evil for leaving you all hanging with that last chapter. But wait, there's more!
Blaster shots!
There was no mistaking the sound that made its way toward Wedge's hiding place in the nearby kitchen. He bolted to his feet and moved to the door, drawing his own blaster as he thumbed his comlink. "Commander?"
There was a slight pause before the reply. "Narra here. What is it, Antilles?"
"Blaster shots in the officer's lounge," he answered. "I'm going to check it out."
"I'll call security," Narra replied. "Be careful."
"I will." Wedge thumbed off his comlink and stepped into the corridor. This section of the transport was completely deserted at this hour, and the emptiness gave Wedge a strange sense of unease. He moved silently toward the door to the lounge and pressed himself close to the wall, waiting to hear any sound from inside. There was nothing.
He waited a few moments more, but still there was no sound to be heard from the room. It was as though nothing at all existed on the other side of the door. Keeping himself pressed against the wall, he drew a deep breath and opened the door, training his blaster on the interior. Still he heard nothing, not even a slight rustle of movement. Not even the sound of a person breathing. Overwhelmed by a sudden feeling of dread, Wedge paused a moment before peering inside.
When he finally did, the sight that greeted him was straight out of a nightmare. Panic rose in his throat and he hastily called into his comlink, "Security and Medical! This is Wedge Antilles. I have three people down in 94, Officers Lounge! I repeat, three people down in 94! Copy?"
Several interminable seconds passed before he got a response. "I copy," a voice crackled back. "Medical and Security teams on their way."
"Wedge, who's down?" Narra's panicked voice demanded.
Wedge stepped into the room, trembling with each step. "Luke, Cage, and Laire," he answered shakily, struggling to keep his emotions under control. He moved swiftly to where Luke and Genna lay side by side. Luke was pale and still, but appeared otherwise unharmed. Cage, however, had a blaster burn that spread from her right shoulder to her right breast, and her face was ashen. He crouched down and reached a shaky hand to each neck, checking for a pulse, not sure what he would find. To his surprise and relief, Cage's was faint and thready, but she was alive. Luke's pulse was strong, though strangely erratic. "Luke and Cage are both alive, but Cage is in bad shape and her pulse is weak," he called into the comlink.
"What about Laire?"
Wedge looked up away from his fellow rogues toward the sprawled form of Laire. The man had a blaster wound to the heart and stared unseeing at the ceiling. Wedge couldn't help but feel a tinge of satisfaction that the man was dead. "No, sir," he replied.
A moment later a medical team rushed in. Wedge rose to his feet.
"Move back, please, sir," one of the medics said as he rushed toward Skywalker and Cage.
Wedge nodded and stepped aside, keeping an eye on his friends as he pointed toward Laire's body. "Laire, over there, is dead. But these two need help." He watched as one medic looked over toward the medic who had approached Laire in order to confirm what Wedge had said. The second medic nodded grimly.
Then the room became a flurry of motion as medical and security officers rushed to their various tasks. Wedge felt himself being led over to the couch, though his eyes never left Luke and Genna. Consumed with worry, he only half listened to the questions being asked by the security officer, and answered as briefly as possible.
"Do you know what was going on in here?"
Wedge responded tonelessly, "Genna and Luke were trying to gather evidence that Laire was an Imperial spy."
"Why was he suspect?"
"He approached Genna Cage to gather information for him because she was a former Imperial."
"Do you think she was still loyal to the Empire?"
"Not at all, which was why she was trying to trap Laire."
"Why was Skywalker involved?"
At that moment, Wedge was distracted by a shout by one of the medics. "Have you ever seen anything like this?" A couple of medics moved over the body of Cage. "Damn thing is probably the reason she's not dead right now, though it's burned right into her chest. We need to get her into a bacta tank right away to stabilize her until we reach Ithull." Wedge quickly realized they were talking about the recorder that Genna had strapped to her chest. Apparently, it had caught the full force of the blaster shot, which was why Genna wasn't in the same condition as Laire. Of course, whatever information she'd managed to record had been destroyed--not that it mattered anymore.
He called out to the medics, "She'd been trying to record her conversation with Laire."
"Don't think the recorder survived," one of the medics responded.
"Why was Skywalker involved?"
Wedge turned back to the security officer who had been questioning him. "Oh, sorry," he apologized. "He was trying to help her. Luke's that kind of guy, you know?" As soon as he answered, his eyes shifted to Cage. They were moving her from the room on a hoverstretcher, her body connected to various tubes and wires. As she was pushed through the door, Narra entered.
He paused in the doorway, watching Cage pass with a look of concern. Then he spotted Wedge and crossed the room to him. "Antilles, what happened?"
The security officer answered first. "We're trying to piece that together, sir."
"Genna was trying to record a meeting with Laire in order to trap him, while Luke waited outside for a chance to disarm him and call for help," Wedge explained. "Obviously, something went wrong."
"You knew about all of this?" Narra asked sternly.
"I did, sir," Wedge answered straightforwardly. "I was waiting down the hall in case they needed any help. That's when I heard the shots." He indicated the door. "They're taking Genna to the infirmary. She took a blaster bolt in the chest, though the recording device took the brunt of the shot."
"And Skywalker?"
Wedge shook his head. "Don't know, sir. Possibly stunned." He looked to Luke, then back to Narra. "I think one of us should follow Cage."
Narra nodded. "I'll go. Stay here with the others and keep me posted." He turned and hurried out, leaving Wedge alone to face the officer who had been questioning him.
Wedge looked over to where Laire had fallen, and saw that the man had been covered and was already being moved from the room. His glance then went back to Luke who was still being examined by two puzzled medics.
"Found it!" one of them finally exclaimed. "Burn mark, base of the skull."
"What caused it?" Wedge asked.
"High-powered stun, pressed right against the skin," the medic replied. "That's why his vitals keep fluctuating. Had me stumped for a minute there—these aren't your typical stun symptoms."
The officer who had been questioning Wedge turned to the medic. "So we can bring him out of it and find out what happened?"
The medic shook his head. "Nope, he'll have to come out of this on his own, and that may take a while. The stun beam originated at the base of his skull, it didn't just hit him there. If we try to bring him out of it before the effect wears off, well, he may be conscious, but I doubt he'll be coherent." The medic looked at Wedge and grinned wryly, shrugging his shoulders.
"Do it anyway," the officer ordered.
Wedge looked at the officer in alarm and then turned to the medic. The medic seemed to be giving the officer the same look, but then he shrugged his shoulders again and began to administer a hypospray stimulant. As he waited for it to take effect, Wedge only hoped Luke had seen enough to have something worthwhile to say.