Covalent Bonds

Chapter 4

"Padawan, I will be all right. I feel better this very moment than I have any right to. I can't explain it.  I saw a truly beautiful aurora, it pierced me with something that tingled, I don't know what, and I felt like I'd been carried to another plane of being. I blacked out. It might have been the Force, but I remember very little. I woke up here. I feel remarkably good now." Obi-Wan's cot was directly next to Anakin's. They both had various monitors clipped to ears and fingers. Obi-Wan's thighs and knees glowed purple in the steri-lamp and the slick bacta phosphoresced. His torn scalp had been slathered with bacta and his hair flattened in sticky clumps behind his ears. Not even bacta could generate immediate hair replacement.

"He did everything right, Commander," Cody said. He didn't look like Cody to Anakin without his armor. Even his black bodysuit with its gription field had been stripped from his powerful body. The slick bacta for his burns made his densely-furred legs look as if he were wearing high-grade veda cloth dress trousers. Cody would have laughed coarsely at even the thought of wearing such quality material. Anakin liked Cody.

The med-tech removed all stabilization boards except the one from Obi-Wan's right knee. "Yes, he did. Only a few have survived falls from such heights and they all had some things in common. They hadn't any injuries before the fall, they fell on something cushioning and they hit at an angle. You'd have not had as much good fortune hitting Kamino's surface, sir. You'd have hit the water dead on and there would have been nothing we could have done --- "

"Hrrk. Hrrk." Anakin couldn't talk yet. His throat had been again bruised thoroughly and the sticky bacta sliding down his esophagus clogged his vocal cords on the way. He didn't like the train of thought that the med-tech was starting. "Hrrrrrrrrrk." He wanted to sit upright, but his back was tender yet. He settled for practicing his Masterly glare at the med-tech.

Obi-Wan patted Anakin's hand and then squeezed it. "Yes, I know, but I'm all right. Cody, how goes the battle?"

Cody stared at his General's and his Commander's entwined hands before answering. "Well. Commander Olin and General Tachi have taken the field, the droids have massed inside the facility and it's only a matter of time before our turbolasers punch through. Ought to be over with by tonight or at the latest tomorrow. Right on schedule."

"What I don't understand is why there are no organics commanding the droids. No one uses centrally controlled droids anymore, after Naboo. There ought to have been some priority given to defending this droid factory. It's enormous."

"Yeah, it'll take hours for the turbolasers to penetrate it, sir. I just hope our troops have fewer casualties than last time." Last time on Muunilinst gave Cody nightmares, though he didn't tell anyone but his brother clones about that. They had nightmares, they talked it over with their mates. It's what got them through the war. No one much thought about what would happen after the war. It was counterproductive to the current mission. Once, Obi-Wan had been a newly-minted General and had given them a lecture about forming life goals and planning for the future. Profound respect kept them from laughing until the General had vacated the area.

All heads snapped around as the dull booms of artillery fire ceased. Cody smiled, the med-tech smiled and entered the time in his medi-log, but Anakin and Obi-Wan looked troubled. "Hrrrk? Hrr-kaffkaff-feel something --- "

"Don't talk yet, sir. Give the voice a rest, yes? Oh, and General, sir, news on your preliminary bloodwork. You've shown a ri--- "

"Not yet. Tell me later. Get teams ready. Incoming wounded, something unusual, something ... sorry, not more specific. But something different is on its way." I can't get up, I can't help out.

My boys. My brothers. The Jedi. Cody hobbled to the tent flap. Anakin saw his bunched muscles, the cords in his neck enlarge his hospital smock's neckline. The silence stretched until half an hour had passed. Tiny shrieks like nothing they had heard before grew closer. Anakin and Obi-Wan stirred restlessly, still unable to rise from their sickbeds. Anakin clapped his hands over his ears and Obi-Wan did likewise. A few minutes later, lancer speeder bikes thrummed close to the med tent and all the techs straightened their diagnostic tools, turned down blankets on the cots and prepared for they knew not what. Cody raced outside into the cold, nearly nude as he was and Obi-Wan could hear questions fired rapidly and slow, slurred answers. "In ... our armor, in our helmets, in our k-kriffing rank patches ... the Jedi hit, too ... "

More and more 105-Ks screamed near the tent, and Anakin could hear piercing shrieks overlying the bikes' screams that made him cover his head with his pillow. "Obi-Wan, what is it?" he rasped.

"Eh, sonics of some brand, never came across them before, ohhhh it hurts, Anakin ... " For Obi-Wan to say that, the pain must have been excrutiating. Anakin reached out with his mechno-hand because that was the one that wasn't trembling, and formed a round hugging shape connected with his flesh arm, just as the med-tech had instructed him to get up the momentum to sit up and then rise to his feet, given his recuperating back. He sat up slowly on the cot, not daring quick moves.

"I'm here. I'll stop it." He lurched to his feet and walked stiff-legged to the tent flap. Cody and the med-techs were doing something astounding. They were ripping off armor, helmets and black bodystockings, boots and even socks from the troops, placing all accoutrements in a large pile on top of a flatbed transport. One by one, the returning troops jettisoned the gear of war and threw everything that they had painstakingly polished and maintained onto an untidy heap. Their eyes were bloodshot, their hands trembled, sometimes too much for them to undo their armor. Cody and the med-techs flitted from trooper to trooper, yanking and unfastening until at last all troopers stumbled and twitched their way over to the med-tent, forming a ragged line while the med-techs triaged. Then Anakin saw his fellow Jedi.

Siri and Ferus fumbled with each other's cloaks with shaking hands, while troopers used their fading strength to aid their commanders. Anakin staggered to the clones' side and gestured for them to take care of themselves. Anakin did the thing that all others were doing without having a glimmer of the reason. He unzipped Siri's unisuit, undid the catch on her lightsaber ring and slid the sleeves down her pale arms, tugging it past her waist and when he bent stiffly to free her legs, she placed a trembling hand on his shoulder while pointing with the other to her ex-Padawan. "Him, too, him now ... " Anakin had the disconcerting feeling of something crawling over his hands as he steadied her into the med-tent. He returned for Ferus, whose unfocused gaze frightened Anakin. Feeling his own strength slipping away, Anakin Force-peeled Ferus' tunic, trousers and boots off, throwing them unceremoniously onto the pile with the clones' contributions after salvaging Ferus' lightsaber. He looped an arm around Ferus' waist and walked him slower than he wanted to inside the tent. For Jedi to be affected like this, the menace must have been overwhelming. Anakin could only imagine what the clones were going through. There was none of the usual laughing and bucking up each other's courage at sickcall, and that bothered him.

TBC

Next Chapter

Previous Chapter