Chapter 9: Returning
The small ship shot out of hyperspace and entered Coruscanti orbit. It's minuscule pilot was working frantically with buttons and switches. He wasn't too worried about piloting the ship or the approaching landing. No, the real problem was Coruscant Space Control and the steadily increasing traffic. He could fly the supersize can. And he was almost sure he could get it down in one piece too, if just the ships surrounding him could stay away.
"Incoming ship TCL342-684C to Space Control," he sent, "my Master is very ill and I need clear route to the Jedi Temple. Please confirm."
The communication on the ship crackled to life.
"Get off the comm unit, kid. We have work do to and any disturbances may endanger the traffic."
"This is TCL342-684C. I have a very ill person on board. I need free way to the Jedi Temple," Anakin tried again, "there is much traffic in that direction and I'm not used to this ship so I could really need some more space."
"Get away from the comm. This is an official channel for Coruscant Space Control and communication is restricted to messages related to inbound ships only."
"But I am an inbound ship," Anakin muttered, "kriffin' stupid nerfheads."
"What?"
"Requesting free lane for incoming vessel TCL342-684C to the Jedi Temple," he tried for the third time.
"Get away from the comm, boy!" The voice from the control centre was getting increasingly impatient now. So was Anakin.
"Well, if I have to do this the difficult way," he growled, "so be it."
And with that he switched off the entire comm unit. He assumed there would be a lot of noise when he began zigzagging among the other ships in the air above Coruscant and he really didn't want to be disturbed.
"Hang on there, Master, we're going in and I'm gonna get you home alive, but it may be a bit bumpy."
It wouldn't be so bad really. It would be Bontha Eve all over again, but instead of a maneuverable pod he would have a large, well relatively large ship, to manoeuvre and instead of the canyon walls he would have to avoid other ships which also were moving.
Well, the principle was the same. Find the goal and avoid the hindrances. Easy as that. He swallowed hard and focused on the spot where he knew the Jedi Temple would be.
"Use your feelings, Anakin."
He almost jumped in the seat when he heard the deep baritone voice of Qui-Gon Jinn in his ear and for a moment he felt the comfort of having an older, more experienced Jedi by his side, and then he realised that Master Qui-Gon was dead so there was no way he could be in the cockpit and what he'd heard was a memory of the admonishments from Bontha Eve. He dived into the busy traffic lanes above the city planet.
He reached the Temple without any mishaps. It had been a couple of close encounters and very abrupt turns and twists, and he assumed that the droid in charge of the Jedi's maintenance department would be less than happy about the slightly crumbled plates in the stern of the ship. That hulk of a transport ship had too high speed for such low altitudes anyway. But the hull had withstood the pressure and was still intact. Basically.
The ship screeched to a halt at docking pod 39z in hangar 3, and Anakin jumped out, leaving several confused maintenance droids in his wake. He wasn't totally sure of where to go, but while running he decided that the Healer's Wing would be his best bet. Master Obi-Wan needed help now.
Master Healer Shan was on duty when Anakin burst in through the double doors of the Healer's Wing.
"Hello, young one. What's your emergency?" he asked gently.
"My Master…" Anakin panted, "my Master is terribly, terribly ill and I'm afraid he's dying. Help him. Now! Please."
Healer Shan grabbed a commlink and commanded : "Show me."
So they ran. In the opposite direction of the one Anakin had just come from.
"Who is your Master and what has happened?" he asked, while running through the Temple Halls.
"It's Master Obi-Wan. And he's very very sick. I suggested he should see the healers on Lazerian IV before we left 'cause he'd been puking all night, but he wouldn't go and said he was just fine, so I couldn't force him and then he became more and more sick and he fell asleep while we were in hyperspace and I didn't know what to do so I just wanted to go home. So we came right here."
The explanation was given almost without breathing but Shan believed he'd got the essence.
"Obi-Wan as in Obi-Wan Kenobi?" he asked as they were heading up the landing ramp of the ship.
"Yep," Anakin confirmed. "Hurry Master, he's in the bunk bed behind that door."
Obi-Wan was not in the bunkbed. He was beside it. Anakin's evasive manoeuvres on his way through the traffic lanes had thrown him off the bed and down upon the floor. His breathing was weak, almost inaudible, and some droplets of blood had trickled from his right temple. Obviously his meeting with the floor had been unkind.
Shan bent down and checked for breathing and pulse. The pulse was sky high for a human, but yet his skin was terrifyingly pale.
"Send two padawans with a hooverstretch to hangar 3," Shan ordered through his commlink. "I have a very ill patient here."
"Where is the pilot, young one? You must have had company here?"
"I'm the pilot," Anakin stated and for a moment his pride shone through his worries for his Master. "I took her in. Space Control wasn't very helpful so I had to do everything by myself."
Master Shan raised a quizzical eyebrow but in the same moment the two padawans from the Healers Ward entered the hangar.
"Over here. This ship," he shouted.
….
The Healer's Ward was one of the places in the Temple which Obi-Wan really despised. Even as a youngling he had almost panicked whenever the place was even mentioned. Right now he didn't mind. If he had been conscious he most certainly would. Admittedly he was confined to a bed, which was an improvement from the ship's cold and unforgiving floor, but thin tubes were channeling strange liquids to and fro his body. Obi-Wan didn't like to be perforated.
Anakin didn't like him to be either.
Master didn't look like…well…Master.
He should be calm and reserved and dignified, and yet have a twinkle in his eyes and be strong and sometimes sarcastic and sometimes just a friend.
There were nothing dignified by the tubes. Nor were there any twinkling eyes. Master was eerily pale and still, as he had been ever since they were in hyperspace.
"Padawan Skywalker," a voice sounded behind him, "you should go home and get some rest."
"I'm resting, Master Windu."
"But you would rest better in your own bed." The Korun Master's voice was friendlier than Anakin had ever heard it.
"No. Home is not home without Master," Anakin explained. "I'd rather stay here."
Mace Windu sighed: "Stubborn Padawan, just as your Master and his Master before him. You all run like rabbits when it comes to getting away from this place, but when the other is here not even a herd of banthas would be able to drag you out."
Anakin sighed: "I want Master Obi-Wan to get well."
"We all do," Mace assured him. "What happened?"
"We were on this mission and Master was totally fine until after the dinner. They served us …weird food. I couldn't eat it, but they gave me something else since I was so young. But Master Obi-Wan ate, and then he had to spend the night in the 'fresher, but he wouldn't see a healer."
Mace Windu nodded. That was the true Kenobi spirit all right.
"And then, when we were in hyperspace, I asked him to rest a bit, and he fell asleep and I couldn't wake him up. I wasn't sure if I could find my way back to Lazerian IV so I decided to take us home. The autopilot did most of it, I just had to land," Anakin explained.
"You know you're not old enough to pilot a ship?" Master Windu tried.
Anakin was close to rolling his eyes: "Well, it wasn't like there was anyone there to take over. Master wasn't conscious so I just had to get us down so I could get help for my Master."
With a sigh he looked up at the Master of the Order: "He will be fine again, won't he? Master Shan and Bant can fix him?"
"I hope so, Anakin. I will stay here with you. If you want to you can lay down here and I will wake you if there are any news. I promise."
Anakin looked up at him. Kriff, he was really tired.
"'kay Master Windu," he said and laid down on the bench. A few minutes later he was sound asleep.
…
Silence. The soft humming of the spaceship's engines had stopped and Obi-Wan's eyes shot open in a minor panic attack. He regretted his action immediately and closed them again. Everything was so blasted white. Their spaceships hadn't been white. Not the least. It had been a grey, dull hull also on the inside.
It took him a moment to gather his wits, then he opened one eye slowly.
Definitely white.
And not only white. It was kriffing healerward'ishly white. He'd seen those walls and that ceiling far too often for his own likings. The question which really mattered was 'Which healing ward'? Somehow his brain felt a bit blurred but he was almost certain that he'd been on a mission with Anakin when…what…had happened. Thus he should not be home. But these walls seemed eerily familiar. And if this was home, how in all the nine sith hells had he arrived there. From the looks of all the tubes attached to his arm he'd not been in a very good condition and if he'd flown the ship home in a state like that he must have been the most irresponsible pilot ever. And if someone had had to extract him and his Padawan from Lazerian IV on their first mission ever he probably was the most imbecile Master in history too.
Either choice did not make him feel any better.
The mystery was solved a few minutes later, when Master Healer Shan peeped in and immediately registered the change in Obi-Wan's Force signature.
"Ah, so we are finally awake, Master Kenobi?" he asked.
A new groan came from the bed.
"'We' are not only awake, but intending to get out of here as soon as possible," came the grumpy reply. "What am I doing here anyway?"
"You are recovering from a good mixture of food poisoning and Tastiged flu," Shan explained. "And you're going to stay here until you are not contagious anymore. Since I was the healer on duty when you came in I have been confined to this part of the ward for almost two days now. It took us a while to figure out the reason why you were so ill but we managed to find traces of the nasty little bugs."
"Oh…" Somehow Obi-Wan felt like his head was swimming in some of that awful soup he'd been served on Lazerian IV, but there was one more question he had to ask before passing out again.
"How's Anakin?" he asked weakly. "And where in the blazes did I get this flu?"
"Your Padawan is fine. He seems to be resistant to the virus. Probably his immune defence is strong after being raised on Tatooine. He's been pestering us almost since you came in. This morning Master Windu finally overpowered him with a sleep suggestion and brought him to his own quarters so the boy could get some decent sleep. When it comes to how you were contaminated with the flu, my best bet is the ship itself. It had been to a mission to Tastige right before you borrowed it. Most likely the virus was present in the ventilation system. The Tastiged flu is highly contagious, and the virus tends to survive for days. By the way, we had to confine Master Windu to his quarters as well since he'd been spending some time with your Padawan in the waiting area. "
By the end of the explanation he realised he was talking to deaf ears. Obi-Wan had retreated into a deep slumber again.
"Oh, well. At least you won't attempt to escape yet so we may still have a chance to keep the flu from reaching the rest of the Temple," he sighed. "Thank the stars for small blessings."