Chapter 23

Diagnosis

"She's burning up," Jyssa said as she put her hand on Mirian's forehead. "She isn't just tired and malnourished. She's got a krik of a fever."

"I gave her a booster shot and some antibiotics and antivirals. If she's got an infection that should help. But we can't risk bringing her to a hospital. She'll be in their databanks as a Jedi Padawan."

"And look at her hands... the poor girl."

"Yeah, she scraped them up pretty good. I got most of the gravel out. The Force is more accurate than tweezers."

"You should check and see if she's got any other injuries. The fever might be caused by an injury," said Arc, part of his face now covered with a cybernetic replacement for his injured eye and cheekbone. "I'll can leave the room if you need me to."

"No need. I think this medbay has a scanner. Besides, I don't know how much Xho tinkered with your new cybernetics yet. For all I know he gave you X-ray vision." She opened up a cabinet and started rifling through. Eventually she found what she was looking for, a scanner and linked vidscreen. She ran the scanner over Mirian. "Looks like there's definitely a heat source in her shoulder. I think you were right, she's got a bit of shrapnel or something there."

Jyssa pulled Mirian's shirt neck open to expose the shoulder. Sure enough, there was a piece of something shiny sticking through the skin just under her collarbone. Dark veins surrounded the injury. "This doesn't look good. What is it... broken glass maybe?"

"Not sure. I don't like the look of those veins though." She took some higher grade antibiotics and a bacta patch out of the medbay cabinet. She injected the antibiotics into Mirian's deltoid and handed the bacta patch to Jyssa. "I'm going to try to take that shard out. Get ready to staunch the blood and get the patch on there."

Ahsoka reached out in the force, trying to get a feel for the shape of the shard before she pulled it out. The moment she touched it in the Force, she gasped. There was something wrong with the shard. Something dark. Something... familiar. In the shard Ahsoka could feel the same manic dark energy that she had felt emanating from the Nikto, Kan'to Kree.

Ignoring the awful sensation of touching something so infused with the dark side of the Force, she enveloped the shard with her own Force and gently pulled it out. It wasn't in deep, but some blood gushed out of the wound.

"Whatever that is, it looks like it might be toxic. We should let it bleed out a little, then clean the wound before we put the bacta patch on," Jyssa said.

"It's not toxic. At least, not physically," said Ahsoka as she dropped the glittering shard onto a shelf next to the medbay bed. "Just clean it and patch it. Now that it's out of her system she should be okay."

"Not physically. Right. Is this another one of those Jedi things?"

"Yeah. Another one of those Jedi things."

Jyssa applied the bacta patch and it sealed around Mirian's shoulder. Once it was in place, she pulled the neck of Mirian's shirt back into place. "Poor girl."

Ahsoka picked up the glittering shard and held it up to the light. "You have no idea. I have no idea. I don't even know what this thing is." She inspected it closely. "It's not glass. It looks more like a piece of crystal. It almost looks like... hey, watch her while I go check on something."

"I feel like I should be indignant at being ordered around by my mechanic. But this is your ship." Jyssa patted Mirian's uninjured shoulder. "Don't worry, we've got this."

Ahsoka brushed past Arc and headed to the engine room. In the engine room Xho and ZT-47 were watching as Nat and Ylenic sat cross-legged, levitating several small tools and engine parts in a slow motion two person juggling routine.

Ahsoka watched as Ylenic pulled the floating items to himself and gently set them down on the floor. "Ahsoka, I take it Mirian is resting comfortably."

"Much more now that I took this out of her shoulder." Ahsoka leaned against the doorway and levitated the shard over to Ylenic, and the Caamasi gently took it out of the air.

"I've rarely felt this much dark side energy from something that wasn't alive..."

"It was stuck in her shoulder. It looked like it was trying to infect her. And I don't know about you, but to me it feels a lot like Kree did when we were up close. And it looks familiar. I think it might be a piece of a holocron."

"I believe you are right. This does indeed look like a piece of a holocron. A Sith holocron, I suspect." He sighed and levitated the piece back to Ahsoka. "It pains me to see that the Sith presence here on Susevfi is still causing harm, even now. Long ago there was a Sith enclave here. A Jedi by the name of Nikkos Tyris discovered the ruins and deciphered some of their teachings. It drove him, and several Jedi close to him to learn the Sith ways and attempt to become Sith themselves. The council knew of the disappearance of Tyris and several of his friends and allies. When they sensed a coming darkness here on Susevfi, they dispatched several Jedi here to investigate."

"How many Jedi could they spare with the Clone Wars going on?"

"There were three of us here in the capital of Yumfla. Mirian and her Master were in a city twenty kilometers down the coast. I am unsure as to why she is here and Master Shadaarwin is not."

"Did you have Clone Troopers with you? Her Master could be dead."

Ylenic stood up. "No. Since Tyris was once a Jedi, it was considered an internal matter. We chose to keep our investigation quiet. Perhaps that was a mistake. After all, Count Dooku was once a member of the Jedi Order as well. If you feel that Mirian will be safe here, perhaps we should head towards the Sith ruins. If Mirian and Kan'to Kree were being influenced by a Sith artifact, perhaps it will either draw them there, or at the very least we may find information that will help us find them."

"I trust Jyssa and Arc with my life."

"But not with X-ray vision," Arc said from behind her.

Ahsoka grinned over her shoulder at him, "Don't take it personally, Arc. I don't trust boys in general with X-ray vision. And Jyssa is a special case. She may not be a boy, but boy would I never ever trust her with X-ray vision."

"I've gotten to know Jyssa pretty well since you two picked me up. That's probably a good call. I just wanted to let you know that Mirian woke up. She fell back asleep almost right away, but she seemed much more relaxed, and wasn't scared at all. I think it's safe to say that whatever it was in her shoulder was affecting her mental state. Jyssa also wanted to know if you think you might have any clothes that will fit her so we can clean what she's wearing now."

"I only brought a couple changes of clothes with me, everything I have is on the Drexl. We'll have to grab something from there when we get a chance."

Ylenic said, "Thank you, Bryn. Perhaps we shouldn't leave just yet. When she wakes again, she may be able to answer some questions and help us find both the source of the shard that poisoned her, and perhaps where Kan'to Kree is right now."