Chapter XXVII –
Truthfully speaking… – Part II
Luke, accompanied by Cela, walked into Kuryn Central
Medical Hospital and up to the front desk where a
woman sat shuffling through several datapads.
“Excuse me,” Luke politely said.
The
woman looked up; her rich brown eyes stared at the
young man even as her lips curled upward into a
smile. “Yes, can I help you?”
“I’m
here to see Doctor Jerrid. He’s expecting me.”
“If
you’ll have a seat I’ll let him know you’re here,
Mister…”
“Luke Skywalker.”
The
woman nodded and Luke walked toward the seat next to
the one Cela had taken.
“Very nice,” Luke commented as his eyes roamed the
hospital’s interior.
“Yes, it’s easy to see why so many people visit
here. Everything is beautiful.” Cela glanced at the
young Jedi out of the corner of her eye.
“My
mother would love it here,” Luke added, carefully
avoiding the teenager’s flirtations. “It’s too bad
that my father couldn’t bring her.”
Cela
suddenly flushed. “I-I don’t know my parents. I have
no idea if they’re even alive.”
Luke
turned his head. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know that.”
Cela
shrugged. “It’s been a long time since I’ve even
thought of them.”
“Don’t you wonder who they are?” Luke inquired.
Cela
shrugged. “Sometimes,” she admitted. “I’ve been a
slave so long I guess it’s hardly mattered.”
Luke
turned his body toward her. “It always matters,
Cela. They gave you life.”
Cela
averted his gaze and looked down at the floor.
“Maybe some things are better off buried.”
“Excuse me, Mr. Skywalker?” the woman at the front
desk called out.
Luke
turned his head. “Yes, ma’am?”
“Doctor Jerrid is available now. Take the turbolift
up to the eighth floor, that’s where all the
physicians’ offices are located. Turn left as you
leave the lift and then an immediate right at the
next corridor. His suite is number 80254.”
“Thank you.” Luke stood up and held his hand out to
Cela. With a smile, she accepted the offered hand
and stood up. “Time to find out what happened here.”
__________________________________*****__________________________________
“Come in,” the voice said through the closed door.
Luke
pressed a metallic button on the wall next to the
door and it instantly slid aside.
A
middle-aged man was sitting on the edge of the desk
in his office, staring at a datapad as if lost in
thought. He ran one hand through his dark, thinning
hair and then let his arm fall down to his side.
“Doctor Jerrid?” Cela questioned, casting a sideways
glance at Luke.
The
doctor shook his head and stood up. He walked
forward, extending his hand in greeting. “My
apologies. Come in and sit down. I’m sorry it took
me so long to gather this data. I must say that the
test results are…extraordinary.”
Luke
tilted his head slightly to the side, his curiosity
piqued.
Without hesitation the doctor continued. “I’ve never
seen anything like it. Kuryn is for tourists, beings
who want to escape reality for a while. Crime here
is next to non-existent and fatal diseases are even
rarer. But this…this is incredible. I still haven’t
broken all of it down but my colleagues would be
fascinated by it.”
There was no mistaking the doctor’s fascination with
the test results, but Luke needed something more
substantial. “What did you discover?”
“I
took tissue samples from your Clawdite friend and
ran a variety of tests, which proved to be amazing.
There were traces of several chemical elements, or
to be more precise – neurotoxins, throughout his
body. Some I can identify while others I can’t. But
the mixture was very specific.”
“Could he have lived if he were treated in time?”
Luke wondered.
The
doctor sadly shook his head. “Not with
concentrations such as these. Paraleptin and
titroxinate were only two of the neurotoxins in this
deadly extract and those in and of themselves are
extremely dangerous. Without exact measurements in
which to create an antidote from a multitude of
medicines there was no way I or anyone else could
have saved his life. It would take weeks, months, or
even longer to find the right combination.”
“Or
whoever created it to have an antidote,” Luke mused
aloud.
“Precisely,” Doctor Jerrid agreed.
“And
the guard? I assume his results concurred with this
one?”
The
doctor slowly nodded his head. “You are correct,
young man.”
“Then we are looking for a murderer,” Luke stated.
__________________________________*****__________________________________
“I
need to check on Mara’s ship, would you care to come
along?” Cela asked Luke as they walked out from the
hospital and into the sunlight.
The
Jedi nodded. “Sure, I’d like to see it.”
“Then we’d better hail a carriage unless you feel
like walking a long way,” she quipped.
“I’ll take care of that,” Luke replied and quickened
his stride. As he neared the edge of the cobblestone
road, his eyes caught a glimpse of a carriage slowly
making its way in their general direction.
Cela
came up beside him as the carriage drew nearer.
“Well, that didn’t take long.”
Luke
glanced sideways at her. “I’m a Jedi, remember?” he
said with a lighthearted laugh.
Cela
merely shook her head.
“I
never would have expected to be overrun by Jedi on
this trip,” Cela commented as she lay back against
the seat and made herself comfortable.
“Yes, we do appear randomly, much to others
consternation.”
“Yeah, I bet.” Cela suddenly frowned and Luke
couldn’t imagine what was bothering her.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“Oh,” she replied, sounding discouraged, “I was just
thinking of Talon Karrde. He’s probably wondering
what’s going on. I doubt Mara contacted him before
she went loopy on me.”
Luke
fought to restrain his snicker at Cela’s comment. “I
know of Talon Karrde. What’s Mara’s connection to
him?”
“Oh,
she smuggles for him.” Almost instantly, Cela’s eyes
widened and she clamped her hand over her mouth.
This
time Luke didn’t even try to suppress his laughter.
“You’re not very good at keeping secrets, are you?”
he teased.
Cela
gave him an annoyed look. She removed her hand from
her mouth and let it drop into her lap. “What can I
say? You bring out the worst in me!”
Luke
continued his taunts. “Oh, so this is my fault?”
She
turned her head a little to the side, giving him the
impression of being aloof. “Of course,” she loftily
replied.
Luke
burst out laughing and continued to laugh even more
when Cela gave him a glare that suggested she would
like to run him through with his own lightsaber.
After enduring a few more minutes of humiliation,
Cela lost her pout, smiled…and finally laughed.
“Luke Skywalker, you are a rogue!” she playfully
spat.
“You
can stop here, driver,” Cela told the coachman as
they reached a familiar spot in the entertainment
district.
“As
you wish, Miss.” The coachman pulled back on the
reins, signaling the hestans to halt. However,
before the carriage could come to a complete stop,
Cela vaulted over the side and looked at Luke
expectantly.
“I
guess that means I’m paying?”
Grasping her hands together behind her back, Cela
just grinned at the Jedi.
Luke
shook his head, paid the driver and jumped from the
carriage. “Ok, now where?”
Unclasping her hands, Cela grabbed one of his hands
and began leading him down the street.
Luke
hadn’t had the chance to sightsee with the teenager
as his guide. Cela wove through humans and aliens
alike, never pausing in her stride until they
reached the edge of the entertainment district.
“You
in a hurry?” Luke asked as they trudged along.
“No,
why?” Cela answered, glancing up at him.
“You
seem like it.”
“I-I
just want to contact Talon,” she stammered.
“And
check on Mara’s ship?” Luke added.
“Of
course.”
Then why do I have a bad feeling about this?
Luke silently asked himself.
The
sun was reaching its zenith and the aromatic scent
of flowers danced past, carried upon the light
breeze that was blowing. Native trees, reaching
into the azure sky, produced a multiple of
fan-shaped, long, slender leaves that provided shade
intermittently along their path. Large birds with
their breathtaking multicolored hues flew low enough
overhead that Luke could have Force-jumped and
touched them. He was looking up when one of the
birds lost a deep blue feather and Luke grasped it
as it floated within his reach.
“Gorgeous birds. I can understand how this place can
be considered a paradise.”
“Yeah, it’s really pretty here,” Cela agreed.
“Cela!” Luke pulled on her hand and stopped her.
“What’s wrong?”
“N-nothing,” she replied, turning her head away.
“Don’t tell me that. I can sense something is
wrong.”
“Damn Jedi,” she retorted and then added, “Well,
here we are.”
The
relief in her voice didn’t escape Luke’s notice as
he stopped beside her.
Cela
walked up to the ship, deactivated the defensive
system from a hidden panel, and then waited for the
ramp to lower.
“C’mon,” she urged with a wave of her hand.
Lingering for a moment, Luke finally followed after
her.
The
teenager wasted no time once she was inside the ship
to grab what she needed and turn toward the ramp.
“I don’t want to do this, Mara. Please don’t make me
do this,” Cela whispered as tears stung her
eyes. Raising her arm, she held the diminutive
holdout blaster level with her eye. “I don’t want
to kill him! I can’t do it!” she continued to
speak softly.
Luke
began walking up the ramp, his Jedi senses already
alerting him to danger and reached for his
lightsaber. He slowed his pace and ignited the
cerulean blade, the familiar hum pulsing with life.
A
single laser bolt erupted from inside the ship,
which struck the plasma blade and Luke easily
deflected away. He dashed up the ramp, ready to
defend himself again if need be but stopped short as
he came upon Cela curled up on the floor, sobbing.
He disengaged his lightsaber and put it back on his
belt and then knelt down and took the blaster from
her hand. Throwing it aside, he cradled her in his
arms.
“I’m
sorry,” she cried, clutching his forearm.
Luke’s voice was without judgment as he asked, “Why,
Cela?”
The
teenager continued to cry, unable to answer at
first. After a few minutes, she said, “M-Mara. She
did something to…to me…a long ti-time ago. She got
inside…inside my head. S-she gave me the same
command…the Emperor gave her – kill Skywalker.”
Shaking, she burst into a new wave of tears.
“Ssshhh, you’re safe now,” Luke consoled her. “It
sounds like she used a type of voice manipulation,
similar to what the Jedi refer to as a Jedi Mind
Trick.”
“I’m, I’m so sorry,” she exclaimed. “I didn’t want
to do it.”
“Considering you used a single shot, I believe you,”
Luke replied, giving her a whimsical smile.
“What now?” she questioned. “I can’t be trusted
around you.”
“Han
and Chewie will take care of you. I’ll finish the
investigation myself and then we’ll figure out how
to reverse whatever Mara did to you.”
Letting go of Luke’s arm long enough, Cela wiped her
eyes with her hand. “I don’t know what to say,” she
replied, distressed.
“Was
your comment about contacting Talon Karrde a ruse to
get me out here?” he asked.
Luke
could feel her nod her head against his chest.
“Partly. I do need to tell him about Mara.”
“Then let’s get that taken care of and get out of
here,” Luke insisted.
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