Star Wars_ MedStar 02_ Jedi Healer - Michael Reaves [47]
This time her luck was better.
A moment later, the field was back in place, and Barriss stood there, staring down at the Rodian. He twitched again, but less than before, and after another two minutes, the spasms stopped.
Can it work that fast? she wondered.
“Whoo,” he said. “Thanks, Healer. I don’t know what you did, but I’ll take a barrel of it.”
She smiled. “I’ll come back and check on you in a little while.”
The Rodian had been in the Green Bed, the last one in this ward. Barriss walked through the sterilizing field and turned into a supply chamber. She sought the Force, intending to turn it inward, to monitor herself. While it was true that bota had not shown any adverse affects on humans, she had just taken a rather whopping dose. She didn’t feel any different, but still—
Sudden sourceless light washed over her.
She blinked. And saw Master Luminara Unduli, standing three meters away against the far wall, watching her and smiling.
“Master? How did you—?”
Master Unduli went translucent, then transparent, and then blinked off like a light going out.
With her next breath, Barriss felt sudden energy flow into her—pure, raw, vast power. In that moment, she felt transcendent, almost omnipotent. She was simultaneously in her body and out of it, able to sense beyond three, even four dimensions. It felt as if she could grasp the fabric of space and time, and turn it, twist it, any way that suited her. For one blinding instant she could feel the Force as she had never done before—in its entirety. There was a kind of… cosmic consciousness, in which she felt connected to all things, everywhere, able to do anything, anything at all—
For that timeless moment, she was the Force.
Suns were born, planets spawned, civilizations rose, fell, the planets grew barren, the suns cold. Time flowed like a blaster bolt, like a ship at hyperspeed, but she was able to track it all. Every detail on every world in all the galaxies to the end of the universe.
It was indescribable. This must be what it felt like to be a god, did such things exist.
How long it lasted, she couldn’t say. A few moments or a few eons, there was no way to time it…
Then it was over. Barriss staggered back against the wall and slid down it until she was sitting on the cold floor, stunned by the experience.
She could barely breathe. The surge passed, but remnants of it continued to swirl in her, potent patterns that eddied and danced throughout her being. She felt exhausted, but… wiser, somehow…
What was this? What had just happened to her?
18
Jos couldn’t recall feeling more excited anytime since he’d been on this planet. The transport carrying Tolk was on the way down. He stood by the pad, peering upward— not that he could see anything for the blasted clouds that still covered the arch of the dome. The snow was chest-deep in places, even with the droids shoveling it away full time. Enough heaters had been rigged so that most of the indoor spaces were bearable, some even toasty, but it was more than a little inconvenient. Even at ground level, there was a condensation that fogged one’s view—they were essentially living in an opaque bubble. There hadn’t been any enemy attacks near the Rimsoo lately, no stray missiles or particle beams striking anywhere close, fortunately. Were it up to Jos, he would shut the force-dome off, let the snow melt—it certainly wouldn’t take long— and do repairs with the system offline. But, of course, had it been up to Jos, they wouldn’t be on this karking planet; there wouldn’t be a need for protective domes because there wouldn’t be a blasted war.
The invisible dome window dilated, allowing the transport in, along with a fast exchange of hot and cold air that swirled fog and clouds into a momentary cyclonic vortex. The small windwhirl spun down and died as the dome closed and the ship settled from the clouds to the cleared landing pad. The snow that