Chapter Three: The Infection.
Carth and Canderous returned to the ship with an unconscious Conner, Carth called to the ship to say that Conner had fainted. When they got closer to the ship, Jolee and Zaalbar helped them to take Conner to the medbay…
"Be careful with his legs Zaalbar." Jolee said to the wookie who was carrying Conner.
Zaalbar nodded and laid Conner on the bed of the medbay.
"Careful with his head." Jolee said. Once Conner was on the bed, Jolee turned on the systems to check Conner's vital sings.
"What happened?" Mission asked.
"We don't know, one minute Conner was right and the other he just fainted." Carth answered looking at his friend.
"He has an infection cause by the bite of the Terentatek." Jolee said. "I took a sample of his blood early to analyze it. I got the results a few minutes ago."
"But he cleaned up the wound and applied kolto on it." Carth answered.
"Yes, he did. But he didn't apply antidote in his body. The Terentateks are known by their poisonous claws and tusks. If you don't have the antidote, the venom would spread in all your body leaving you at the edge of life and death." Jolee explained.
Bastila, who was on her bed meditating, felt Conner's presence weaker than ever, she stood up and went to the main hold, there she found all the crew gathered in the medbay, she rushed to the bed and saw an unconscious Conner laying there.
"What happened?" She asked looking at Conner.
"He has been infected by the venom of the Terentatek, kid. I'm trying to know how advance is the infection." Jolee answered.
"What do you mean?" She asked fighting back tears. Bastila didn't like seeing Conner like that, injured, vulnerable. She remembered when she met him like Darth Revan, when she confronted him aboard his ship, and how she managed to save him after Malak betrayed Revan.
"What teach you at the academy these days about infections and illnesses? Bah, forget it. The only thing I can tell you is that the infection has three stages. The first stage is in the first 72 hours after the bite, the second is the first three days where the venom is stronger, the victim, like the kid, experiments high fever and his heartbeats are faster than ever. The third stage is the last three days of the infection, the fever descends but the body temperature is below the 36 degrees, and the heartbeats go lower, if we don't prepare a serum that counterattacks the venom, the kid will die after the sixth day of the infection." Jolee said.
Everyone shocked after hearing Jolee's words. But who was more shocked that anyone was Bastila, she could not afford losing Conner.
Jolee turned his attention to the monitor were Conner's temperature were displayed. He saw that Conner's temperature above 40 degrees. He said to the others "We need to lower his temperature." He drew his attention to Bastila, who was staring at Conner with a worried look.
"Don't worry, I will save him." He said. She looked at the old man face and nodded, she knew that he was right. A few hours later, Conner regained consciousness, the first thing he saw was Bastila sitting next to his bed reading a book.
"Hey princess." He said and gave her a weak smile.
"Hey, you are finally awake." Bastila said with a smile on her face lowering her book. "How are you feeling?" She asked.
"Weak." He answered, took a deep breath. "I must look like a ghost right now."
"Yes, but if it's worth, you're the most handsome ghost I have ever seen." She said. Conner took a deep breath and asked "Where's everyone?"
"Out having dinner, I offered to take care of you in case you woke up." She answered and sat next to him on the bed. Conner chuckled.
"Where are the droids?" He asked.
"That bloody droid of yours is outside; guarding the entrance of the ship and T3 is repairing some controls of the ship." She answered. "You had me worried." She said and brushed Conner's bangs away from his face.
He took another deep breath and said "Sorry for that." Conner closed his eyes and tried to sleep.
"Try to rest; I'll be here with you." Bastila said taking a damp cloth to lower the fever. He smiled and fell asleep.
The next day, the fever attacked harder, Conner was trembling and sweating by the fever, the temperature was above 41 degrees, and Jolee asked Carth for help, they needed to take off some of Conner's clothes to lower his temperature. He only stayed in a blue short he used above his underwear. Jolee took a light blanket and covered him with it. Bastila was very worried.
"Please Conner, don't die, please don't give up." She told him through the bond, although she didn't have an answer.
The third day of the second stage of the infection, Conner slept most of the day, his body temperature had descended from 40 degrees to 38 degrees. With that, Bastila took the opportunity to eat and sleep. Later, at night, Bastila woke up because she heard some noises in the training room, she took her double-blade lightsaber and went to the training room to see what or who made the noises.
When she stood up in the door, she saw a shadow near the workbench, when she entered in the room she saw Conner working in his lightsaber.
"Conner! What the hell are you doing?!" She asked very worried.
"Working in my lightsaber, I need to improve this thing." He answered.
"But you are sick; you must be resting, in bed." She answered rushing to his side.
"Don't worry, okay? I'm fine." He said and gave her a smile.
She placed her hand on his cheek and looked into his eyes. "No you're not. Conner you have an infection, if you don't rest you will die, and I don't want that." She said sadly.
"I'm fine, trust me, if a start to feel bad again, I will tell you okay?" He said taking her hand and smiled.
Bastila nodded and left the training room, when Bastila left, Conner sighed and returned to the workbench, but he started to feel dizzy, he grabbed the table for support, but that didn't help him much and fainted again and fell on the ground.
Bastila heard the noise of several tools falling in the ground, she ran to the training room only to found Conner lying unconscious on the ground.
"Conner! Wake up! Conner!" She said kneeling at his side and shaking his body. When she realized he wouldn't woke up in the next hours, she managed to lift him off the ground and put an arm around his waist and took one of Conner's arm and put his arm around her shoulders, with a little effort, Bastila managed to take Conner back to the medbay and laid him on the bed.