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Young Jedi Knights

Book 11

The Fall of the Diversity Alliance

The Emperor's Plague

by Kevin J. Anderson & Rebecca Moesta

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AFTER DAYS OF recuperation, Jaina Solo steadied herself on the edge of the bacta tank, dripping. Programmed to be courteous, the Too-Onebee medical droid helped her out. Slippery fluid from the healing tank trickled from Jaina's hair and bare skin onto the floor, where it gathered in iridescent puddles before flowing into a drain by her feet.

The bacta smelled healthy. Even beneath the brief strips of medical wrap she wore, every square centimeter of her flesh tingled with renewal.

Cautious at first, she planted her feet on the floor and tested her strength before letting go of the droid's green metal arm. Her legs had not supported her full weight for several days now and she wasn't quite sure they would hold her.

Confident at last, Jaina stretched luxuriously, then looked down at herself. Her skin was pink and new, showing no indication of the bums and injuries she had recently suffered during their escape from the Twi' lek homeworld of Ryloth.

For a moment Jaina wondered if the whole ordeal had merely been a nightmare-the capture of the young Jedi Knights, laboring in the spice mines, the mad flight from Diversity Alliance guards through winding catacombs, the brutal heat of Ryloth's dayside. But it was all real.

Definitely real.

"Glad to see you're feeling better," a warm voice said close behind her.

Jaina whirled.

"Zekk!"

"In the flesh-more or less, that is," he said. He held out a sheet of white absorbent cloth and helped Jaina drape it around her shoulders.

"You looked like a roasted nerf sausage when I picked you up a few days ago," he said, snugging the soft material around her. "Now I can hardly tell you were burned."

Jaina smiled at her friend. His long hair, a shade lighter than black, hung at the nape of his neck neatly tied with a thong. His dark clothing was rumpled, as if he had slept in it; the shadowy smudges beneath his emerald-green eyes attested to a lack of sleep.

"I thought you were part of my dream," Jaina said. "I kept thinking that I was waking up, and I would see your face, kind of distant and blurry...

but always there."

The centaur girl Lusa wrapped a sheet around the dripping form of Raynar at another bacta tank nearby. She remarked, "Zekk hasn't left the medical center since all of you went into the tanks."

Jaina smiled at Zekk. He shrugged, as if embarrassed.

"I don't get out much these days. Training to be a bounty hunter kind of puts a crimp in your social life. Besides," he added, "old Peckhum's been off on a supply run, so I didn't see much point in going home for a visit."

Raynar toweled off his spiky blond hair and blinked groggily at Lusa.

Zekk continued, "Anyway, I'm not the only one who's been haunting the medical center. Lusa was here practically around the chrono. Your parents and Master Skywalker came in every couple of hours. And Threepio kept bustling in to check on us and to bring us meals." He smiled. "I remember when he wanted to fit me with a fancy new suit for that important state dinner your mother hosted."

"That was a long time ago," Jaina answered softly, tugging her own clothes on. "That was the same night I was captured by the Shadow Academy," he added, then paused a moment as a troubled expression crossed his face. The centaur girl Lusa offered Raynar a clean set of garish colorful robes that displayed the scarlet, purple, orange, and gold colors of the noble Thul family from Alderaan. Of late, Raynar had been wearing more drab and serviceable Jedi clothes, but now he accepted the fresh garments gratefully.

"Lowie and your little brother were here, too," Lusa said.

"Anakin wasn't a bother, was he?" Jaina asked.

Zekk looked amused.

"Far from it. I learned a thing or two from watching him. With the Force, he looked inside the controls of each of your bacta tanks, then made some suggestions to Lowie on how to improve their