Chapter 11

Intensive Care Unit, Coruscant Standards Hospital, Coruscant

It had been a long night.

Jakari Varnu ran a flustered hand through her long, purple Pantoran hair. She caught a glimpse of herself one of the ICU's windows. Her medical scrubs were wrinkled, her brown eyes were rimmed with dark rings that stood out in stark contrast to the bright yellow marking across the bridge of her nose. She looked exhausted.

Heaving out a sigh she rubbed at her eyes. Remind me why I wanted to be a doctor?

She strode down the hallways like a woman on a mission. Several people called out to her but she ignored them. She had more important things to worry about today than being social. She had some a meeting then she had to get back down to Quarantine. Normally, she worked up here in the ICU but the people down in Quarantine were severally shorthanded so she'd been agreed to help out.

Jakari pushed opened a door to an observation room. Several doctors were standing there watching one of the clone troopers who'd fallen ill last night through the glass. Beyond the glass the clone writhed on the bed, soaked in sweat. One of the ICU doctors, Lisel Myrle, was doing her best to calm him.

Kor Gric, a large Chandrian male who was in charge of the hospital, looked at her as she came in. "Jakari," he greeted.

"You wanted me?" she asked.

Gric frowned then held out a datapad. "This is the information we've collected from the sick clones. It should be programmed into your medscanners and Containment Cubes."

Jakari reached out and took the datapad. "Thank you. Do we know what's wrong yet?"

Gric shook his head. "No. All we've been able to prove is that the assumptions made by the medics on the Resolute are completely wrong. This is no simple case of dehydration, this is some kind of virus. However, we can't figure out how it spreads," he frowned even deeper. "We can't even figure out what the infection is targeting."

Jakari bit her lip; that sounded close to hopeless. "How much of 501st and the rest of the crew do you think is infected?"

Gric shrugged. "Probably, a lot but I couldn't give you a number. Just keep doing what you're doing. Until we have more information, that's all you can do."

Jakari left the ICU and returned to Quarantine. As she entered the cavernous room she passed another sick clone being carted out. She pursed her lips and kept walking.

Her coworker and boyfriend, Aycin Kollarri, was sitting at a monitoring station biting his lip, his brilliant green eyes narrowed under a fringe of golden hair.

"You okay?" she asked leaning against the station.

"Just a little worried," he replied without looking up.

"Worried?" Jakari asked. "You?"

Aycin sat up straighter and frowned at her. "Jakari, I've never seen anything like this in all my twenty-nine years and its making me nervous."

Jakari forced a smile to hide her own worries. "Aycin we've only been alive for twenty-nine years, half of that we never thought about diseases."

"You're missing the point, Jakari," Aycin said. "Everyone's worried."

"I know," Jakari said, "I'm worried too," she held out the datapad. "Gric gave this to me. Its information about the sick clones. He wants it programmed into our machines."

Aycin took the 'pad. "I'll make sure that happens."

Jakari smiled. "Thanks, you're so much better at that computer stuff than I am."

Aycin smiled back. "No problem. Though while I'm doing this, can you look in on someone for me?"

"Sure," Jakari said. "Who?"

"The patient in Quarantine Cube #4,561," Aycin said, starting to look through the information on the 'pad. "Human. Jedi."

"Anakin Skywalker," Jakari breathed.

Aycin nodded without looking up. "That's him."

"You could have just said that," Jakari said. "He's the only Jedi here."

"Not true," Aycin said. "The little Togruta's a Jedi."

"She's a child," Jakari pointed out. "She hardly counts."

Aycin shrugged and looked up. "Let's not talk about this now. I need you to go and check on Anakin Skywalker."

Jakari pursed her lips. Her boyfriend was asking her to talk to the Hero With No Fear. "Is he sick?" she asked.

"Not that the scanners can tell," Aycin answered. "But he's been pacing his Cube all night. I think someone needs to check up on him and make sure everything's okay. Can you do that?"

Jakari nodded. "Sure. I'll go check things out."

It's only talking to the Poster Boy of the entire War effort. She told herself as she walked down the long halls of Containment Cubes heading for Cube #4,561. How hard can it be?

That's the understatement of the millennium.

Anakin Skywalker was pacing his Cube when she arrived. Her first thought was that he didn't look anything like they pictured him on the holonet. He was...younger…than she'd expected, definitely younger than she was. He still had the narrow shoulders of a teenage boy, but his prowling, graceful steps were like no adolescent she'd ever seen.

When she stopped outside the Cube his head snapped around to look at her. She froze. His eyes were a brilliant, icy blue; cold and piercing. She shuddered; those were not a young man's eyes.

Skywalker walked over and they stood on the opposite sides of the traspisteel staring at each other. Fumbling, Jakari turned on the microphone mounted on the Cube's wall which would allow her to talk to Skywalker without breaching the Cube's atmosphere. "Hello, Master Jedi," she said trying to keep from stuttering. This man-boy, really-had an aura of pure power around him, like nothing she'd ever encountered before.

Skywalker nodded, respectfully but distantly. "Doctor."

"The Cubes are soundproof," she said. "How did you know I was here?"

Skywalker shrugged. "I have my ways," he said evasively. "To what do I owe the pleasure of your company?"

Jakari had never had a conversation like this before. She'd always thought that to be polite was to be warm but now she could see it wasn't. Skywalker was being polite but his manner was cold as the deepest space, she almost wanted to flee. "I was coming to check up on you," she said sounding like a meek child. "I have some questions for you."

"Wait," Skywalker said. "Let's level the playing field first, shall we? What's your name?"

"My what?" she stammered.

"Your name," Skywalker replied. "You obviously know who I am, but I don't know who you are. You don't have any power over me."

"I'm not trying to control you," she said. Where in the galaxy would he have gotten such an idea?

"Then tell me your name," he said.

"Jakari," she said. "Jakari Varnu."

He nodded, his eyes watchful, like he was memorizing her and maybe he was. "Alright," he said after a time. "What kind of questions?"

What kind of questions? Her head was blank. Skywalker had completely unsettled her. What had she come here to talk to him about?

Aycin. She remembered. Pacing. "Are you tired?" she asked.

"I'm fine," Skywalker said. His voice was still cold but a different kind of cold, a more emotional one. She'd struck a nerve.

But he was tired. He had been pacing a Cube a night, after all. He wore his exhaustion well, but Jakari was a trained doctor and she could see the rings under his eyes and the slight slump of his shoulders. Even his snappish mood was probably caused by tiredness.

That and stress.

"That's no answer," she said. "'Fine' has many alternate meanings, many of which are the opposite of the dictionary definition."

Skywalker sighed. "I can't sleep," he admitted. "I'm not sick, I promise. This is just something that happens to me under heightened levels of stress. I'll just pace and work myself up for a couple nights then when everything's over I'll find a quiet place to crash and sleep it off. It'll be fine. It always is."

Jakari raised an eyebrow. "That sounds like an awfully unhealthy way to deal with stress."

Skywalker laughed. "You and Kix should talk."

"Kix?" she asked, wondering if he was insulting her.

"A medic in the 501st," he said. "A clone trooper. You sound just like him."

"Really," she said, she hadn't realized the clones had personalities much less names. "You really should get some rest. We have no idea how long this virus can remain dormant in a being's body. You might already be infected and if you're exhausted it's only going to get worse."

"I rarely get sick," Skywalker said, he was cautious again.

"That doesn't mean a thing." Jakari replied.

There was a long pause. Skywalker took a deep breath, held it and let it out in a sigh. "How many have gotten sick so far?" he asked.

She blinked. How was this relevant to their prior conversation? "Fifty-three," she said. "Not counting the ones who fell ill before your arrival."

"In one night," Skywalker muttered. "What about Ahsoka Tano? A female Togruta child. About this tall," he held out a hand at a little under shoulder height.

"She's fine," Jakari said. "She shows no signs of infection."

Skywalker sighed and rested his forehead against the transpisteel, he looked like a great weight had been lifted from his shoulders. "What about Rex?" he asked.

"Who?" she blinked.

"A Clone Captain," Skywalker said. "Only one in the legion. His number's CT-7567."

"I don't know," she stuttered. "All the clones look the same to me, but I'll try to figure out."

"When's General Kenobi and the 212th coming in?" Skywalker asked.

"In the next couple hours," Jakari answered. "We're preparing to screen them now."

Skywalker sighed again and stared at her, thinking. "Jakari," he said, his use of her first name surprised her.

"Yes?" she answered.

"Can you keep an eye on Ahsoka and Captain Rex and General Kenobi when he gets here?" he asked. "If anything changes in their health, can you tell me?"

"You're not going to be able to do anything about it," Jakari said.

"I know," Skywalker said. "But I still want to know," he breathed, deeply. "Tell you what; if you do this for me, I promise I'll try to sleep."

Jakari thought about it. "Alright," she said. "But only if you lie down a while now and at least rest your eyes."

Skywalker smiled. "Thanks, Jakari. You've got a deal."

I know I said that Obi-Wan was going to be in this chapter. I just used the preview from the old author's note and never bothered to check if the things I said were going to happen actually did. I'll remember that for the future.

Yes, there are a lot of OCs in this story, and I still have a couple to introduce. I'll reiterate what I said in the Dramatis Personae: if you don't like OCs, don't read this story. Also, you'll want to remember Lisel Myrle (just a little hint).

Aycin's name was originally "Aykin." I changed it because as I realized how much time Aycin and Jakari are going to spend with Anakin in the later parts of this story. "Aykin" sounded too much like Anakin's name, so he's Aycin now (pronounced AY-SIN).

The next chapter is completely in Obi-Wan's POV. (I promise this is right this time, I checked.)

Favorite, follow and review, please!

P.S. I should write more stories talking about how young Anakin really is, I find them interesting. He's the age of a college kid, not many of them are looked on to save the galaxy.

P.P.S. Jakari and Aycin are characters who date back to the original plans for this story from when I was in middle school (both characters harbored an intense hatred of Jedi in that version). Characters like Sarrin and Sheeri and even Zoron are new to this version.