Chapter 20
The plan was simple enough. Yates would fly Kyn's YT-1200 ship in proximity of the Jedi Temple. Not too close of course, they didn't want to draw attention. He would wait for the signal and he would land in the hangar that Tyon usually worked in, knowing that it would be empty that day. If everything went right, they would be able to load Zafii on board of the ship the instant Yates landed it and they would be off to Bakura where Kyn had already arranged for her to receive long-term medical care.
Kyn had used all of his savings on the used YT-1200 and prepaying the facility on Bakura a full year in advance on Zafii's medical bills. He didn't know what he would do to continue to pay them after one year but he would figure something out, he always did.
Selma would accompany Kyn as they infiltrated the Jedi Temple. They would be dressed in Jedi robes and Barran used his sources to get the proper clearance codes to get through all of the doors they would need.
"Are you sure of the layout, Barran?" Kyn had asked, as they planned aboard the parked ship.
"Of course, I have the technical readouts of the entire Jedi Temple on my terminal. I'll be on the ship with Yates and I'll be in direct contact with you through your comlink. If you get lost I can track you and Selma inside the temple and lead you in the right direction." Barran reassured him.
"And you're sure your father won't be working on a ship in his hangar bay today? If you are headed to that platform and I have to land somewhere else, it could get messy." Yates spoke up.
Kyn nodded, his father was currently helping out another mechanic with a ship and the last he had checked, his father's work platform was clear.
"We still haven't discussed what we are going to do if we get caught." Selma said. "We will be unarmed."
"You might be…" Yates laughed.
"You'll have the safety of the ship," Selma reminded him. "If Barran tells you we have been caught, you two can hightail it off world."
"It's a risk," Kyn admitted. "If we get caught we will be imprisoned and Zafii will die. We have to succeed, that's all there is to it."
The plan was on then. They decided to do it in the middle of the day when there would be the most activity. If they were to try it too early or too late, they were afraid someone might become suspicious of their movements. With more people they could blend in easier.
Midday came and Selma and Kyn were both cloaked and hooded as they walked up the steps of the Jedi Temple. Kyn couldn't believe how hot he was underneath the tunic and cloak as the sun beamed down on them.
They reached the large front doors of the temple where those knowing the code could tap it in or guests could be let in by the guards, if they were authorized to do so. They did not look at the two men guarding the doors but instead went right to the keypad on the right side. Kyn typed in a passcode with confidence.
It didn't work.
"They are looking at us." Selma whispered.
"I missed a number."
"Well… don't."
Kyn retyped the number that was written on his hand. He had several passcodes written in the palm of his hand and because of that, they were small and hard to read. The second attempt was correct and they were able to proceed.
"That was easy," Kyn whispered.
Selma's eyes were wide, her nerves obviously were running wild. They walked through the crowded corridors, their heads held low so that Jedi passing by would not recognize them as intruders. A buzzing noise was in Kyn's ear and then he heard Barran's voice.
"I see that you're in. You need to walk straight for a while and then turn to your left. I'll tell you when."
Kyn listened but did not respond. He led the way and Selma followed. Soon they came to a staircase and they stopped at the foot of it.
"Yes, keep going straight. Go up the stairs." Barran reassured him.
If anyone had been watching them, it would have looked rather odd: Two people stopping at a staircase as if they weren't sure how to scale it and then proceeding up them.
"Okay stop." Barran said a few seconds later. "This is your left… your other left."
"You're going to get us caught," Selma whispered.
Kyn did not respond and the two of them continued to walk. This corridor was empty; no one could be watching them now.
"Wait," Barran said. "I need to disable the security feeds. They'll know you're not supposed to be going into this next door."
After a few seconds, Barran gave them the okay after he had rerouted the feeds to loop.
Kyn typed in the passcode more slowly this time as no one was watching them. He wanted to make sure he got it right. A wrong code might signal a warning. Again, Barran's codes seemed to be legit as the blast door opened for them.
"Alright, I'm returning the feed to that hallway."
Several more corridors and doors later and everything seemed to be going smoothly. They were at the entrance of the medical ward and now they were again surrounded by people. Healers and padawans were shuffling around, taking no notice to the two newcomers.
Kyn walked towards Zafii's private room. He knew for a fact that it didn't have a passcode on it so he had told Barran to not even worry about finding one.
"Okay, Kyn listen." Selma began before they opened up the door. "We have to be extremely careful when transporting her. I don't even know how that will be possible, we are going to get questioned when we transport her out of the room."
Kyn pushed a button on the keypad for the door to open but it didn't budge. Kyn pushed it again and noticed a small red light flickering. He then read the text that was flashing above it: Enter Passcode.
"I thought you said!" Selma said irritably. "We have to go before we are discovered. Barran will have to acquire the passcode and we will come back."
"No…" Kyn said. "Who knows when they will let her go? There is no time!"
Suddenly an astromech came flying around the corner. Its base black with green siding. It was squealing and bobbing about in front of them.
"It's alerting the Jedi!" Selma exclaimed.
"Wait… No it's not. That's Zafii's droid I think. R7 is that you?"
R7 pushed passed both of them and plugged in to the wall. Once where the text had read 'Enter Passcode' it was now scrolling something else.
The Jedi have pulled the plug. Zafii is dying and they've locked the door.
"R7, we are here to save her!" Kyn blurted, much too loudly. "We want to take her to Bakura so they can keep her alive until she wakes up. Can you help us?"
R7 jiggled his entire body happily and the blaster door shot open. Kyn and Selma ran in the room and to Zafii's side.
"Her heart rate is really low, Kyn." Selma said. "They've left here to starve to death."
"How could they do this?" Kyn said, his voice cracking.
"Sometimes this is what happens when a family decides to pull the plug. She only needed sustenance to stay alive. Her heart beats and her lungs breathe on their own." Selma explained.
"We're her family!" Kyn shot back, speaking of the Fuller's.
"She only has a little time left. We have to get her hooked back up."
"But they've taken everything away. We'll have to rush her to the ship and use what we have there." Kyn said.
"She's dehydrated, she'll need water now." Selma said.
With that, Kyn ran out into the hallway to a fresher and got a small cup of water and darted back into the room. Selma was holding Zafii up and they carefully put the water in her mouth and worked it down her throat, making her swallow it.
"That's going to draw A LOT of attention." Selma said, referring to Kyn's rush through the corridor's.
"Let's go," Kyn said.
With that they began to push the wheeled bed towards the doorway. It was so much heavier than Kyn had imagined. They got the bed into the corridor and were amazed no one had seen them yet.
R7 knew what they were thinking and he released his fire extinguisher from his body. The smoke like substance filled the corridor.
"We need another way out, Barran." Kyn said into his comlink. "That way we came is… blocked."
R7 then ran to a computer terminal and set off a series of alarms. Water started gushing from the high ceilings of the temple. The three of them raced with Zafii on her bed through the corridor. Selma was holding Zafii's mouth open, letting droplets of water fall into her mouth.
"Make a left here; it will lead you to the hangar bay. You'll be on the opposite end but you should have access to your father's landing platform. We are landing there now!" Barran announced.
They did as Barran said and the bed nearly toppled over in their rush. Kyn pushed the bed to a halt when he saw a tall, dark figure standing in front of them.
"So, I was right." Mace Windu said. "You came for her. I told Master Yoda and the rest of the council you would but they didn't believe me."
"Please, Master Windu." Kyn said heaving, his lungs out of breath. "I'm going to take care of her."
"That's not your decision." Windu retorted.
They were several feet from each other; Mace was standing in front of the door they needed to go through to get to the hangar.
"I have the intruders," Mace said into his comlink. "We are at position…"
He was interrupted as R7 had turned on his jets and flew at him. Windu reached for his lightsaber but amazingly, R7 had hit him in the shoulder causing him the drop the Jedi weapon. Selma and Kyn grabbed the bed by its head and pushed it as hard and as fast as they could, running into Windu and knocking him up against a wall. R7 opened the door for them and they were now at the opposite end of the hangar bay they needed to be at.
There were mechanics everywhere and they had caused quite a scene. Everyone was looking at them but luckily it seemed no Jedi were near.
"Let's just go!" Kyn yelled.
They pushed the bed as hard as they could and zoomed down the hangar.
"Come here!" Mace said, reaching out for R7.
The Jedi Master had pulled the droid out of his plug-in and the blaster door shot closed, leaving R7 in the hands of a rather irritated Jedi.
"Damn it!" Kyn said, as they ran through the hangar. "Thank you R7!"
No one was impeding their progress. For all the mechanics knew these two people pushing the bed, were indeed Jedi Knights. They had received no alarms in the hangar bay. R7 was smart, he had done this on purpose knowing that an alarm in this area would close off the hangar from any ships entering or leaving.
"Smart droid!" Selma smiled.
"Definitely takes after her." Kyn said, as they continued running. "There it is, I can't believe we did it."
Barran was outside the ship now. He ran towards them and helped by pulling the foot of the bed. They neared the ramp of the YT-1200 and began to roll the bed up it with some difficulty.
"What's going on?" A young padawan asked.
No one answered the padawan as he watched suspiciously.
"Yates! Take off now!" Kyn yelled into the comlink.
The ship lifted off the landing platform, the ramp still down and they had not even secured Zafii yet.
"Get us the hell off world!" Selma yelled through the ship's corridors to the cockpit.
As Selma secured Zafii's bed and began to use the outdated machines to hook her back to life support, Kyn got a glimpse of something near the Jedi Temple.
"Get near the temple!" Kyn yelled to Yates.
"Are you mad?" Yates asked.
"Just do it!" Kyn shot back.
R7-Z3 had flown through a window, some several stories high and was flying through the air thanks to his jets. The droid landed on the closing ramp and joined everyone else on the ship as they raced to get to hyperspace.
"You're one crazy droid," Kyn said, kneeling down to touch his dome.
R7 made a noise that sounded all too much like a child's laugh. Kyn then turned his attention back to Selma and what she was doing for Zafii.
"Is she going to make it?" Kyn asked the ex-Healer.
"I think so but we really don't need to put her under anymore stress. Once we get her to Bakura she should be okay." Selma nodded.
With that they began to make the long journey to the far reaches of the Outer-Rim.
It had taken days of space travel but Kyn and the rest of the crew landed near the facility on Bakura. Kyn took a heavy breath as the ramp lowered and they prepared to transport Zafii into the facility. Healers were waiting for them and took over for Selma and they immediately began to hook up better equipment to her.
"If you all want to stay here, I'm going to go say goodbye to her." Kyn announced.
His three allies nodded and Kyn and R7 began to follow the facility officials who were tending to Zafii. They entered the facility and Kyn could immediately see that his credits were being well spent. The facility was top notch, so much in fact that he was surprised he wasn't asked to wear a clean suit just to enter.
"You say you don't have her medical records?" The head administrator asked, reintroducing himself to Kyn.
"No…" Kyn muttered.
"That's fine; we will run every test on her to make sure she is not allergic to anything and those kinds of things." The administrator nodded.
"And you are fine with the situation?" Kyn asked.
"As I told you in our first meeting several weeks ago, we do not care about the Republic. You are our customer, Kyn Fuller. You pay us. We do not dislike the Republic per say but we do not hold by their rules, nor do we yield to the Jedi. She will be well taken care of here, as long as your payments are kept up to date."
"I still have a year, right?" Kyn asked.
"Yes, you have prepaid for one standard year."
"I'll be back in half that time with another year." Kyn said confidently.
"Very well," the administrator smiled. "I understand if you are in a hurry to leave, Mr. Fuller. If you wish to say goodbye I can pull my team from the room for a moment. She seems to be in stable condition. The Rattataki did a decent job with her, considering what she had to work with."
Kyn nodded and the administrator showed him to Zafii's new private room. The team of Healer's were still tending to her, hooking her up to more machines than Kyn could imagine.
"Flowers will be changed out daily," the administrator said. "That will leave a nice scent for her to smell."
"Can she still smell? And feel? And think?" Kyn asked.
The administrator smiled kindly, "Oh, I think so. I believe she can still hear you too, Mr. Fuller. If there is anything you would like to say."
The administrator then motioned for his team to leave the room and he followed them out, leaving Kyn and Zafii alone.
"What have I done?" Kyn asked, walking to her side.
He cried as he saw the new feeding tube already inserted down her esophagus. He held her hand, it was more pale and thin than he had ever seen it.
"Kyra hates me and if you weren't a Jedi, you would to." Kyn said, wiping tears away with his free hand. "I deserve it. But you are going to live, Zafii. One day, I know you will wake up. One day."
Kyn pulled a small velvet box out of his pocket.
"I didn't spend all of my savings on that ship and this place," Kyn admitted. "I used a little bit on this."
Kyn opened the box and inside was a small golden ring, with a green stone set in it.
"The guy promised me it was a green crystal, the kind they use in lightsabers. Of course it is much smaller…" Kyn twirled the ring in his hand as he spoke. "I thought you might like that. It matches your eyes and your blade."
Kyn walked over to a small set of drawers that were at her bedside. He opened up the top drawer and set the ring down inside. He then pulled off Zafii's lightsaber hilt from his belt and set it next to the ring.
"Just in case you need to wake up and go save Kyra." Kyn tried to laugh but cried more instead.
R7 had been sitting quietly in the room and Kyn had forgotten he was even there. Somehow the droid looked sad even though there was no way he could feel the emotion.
"Just so you know, Zafii. If it weren't for R7 we would have never been able to save you." Kyn said, walking back to her bed, taking her hand back into his own. "I hope to the Force that this is what you would have wanted me to do. I hope I did a good thing. I promise I will be back to see you."
Kyn thought about kissing her hand but decided he didn't deserve it. He tucked her hand back onto her chest and began to walk towards the door.
"Come on R7," Kyn said.
The droid did not move.
"R7?" Kyn asked. "Do you want to come with me? It's the least I can do. I'll make sure to keep you powered up."
R7 turned his domed head and looked at Kyn through the black marble that was his eye. His little head turned slightly back and forth.
"No?" Kyn asked.
R7 scooted over towards Zafii's bed and took a defensive position.
Kyn smiled, "I wish I could stay too, buddy. I'll see you too then, when I come back."
R7 nodded his entire body to show Kyn that he understood. With that Kyn left Zafii's room on Bakura, promising himself that he would see her again very soon.