Refugee: Force Heretic II Read Online Free PDF

injured stormtrooper. The man was unconscious. The upper half of his uniform had been removed to enable Stalgis to get at the wound on his shoulder, and there was a sheen to his skin from perspiration. Stalgis was leaning over the stormtrooper, holding a stim-shot, a look of concern on his face. He straightened when he saw Luke.
    “He’s going down fast,” Stalgis said. “I don’t have the facilities here to check for new poisons, so we’re going to need to get him to
Widowmaker
’s medical bay fast.”
    Luke motioned Jacen to come forward. “See if you can hold his vital signs stable. We’re moving as quickly as we can, but it might not be enough.”
    His nephew bent down next to the stricken trooper and placed a hand on his forehead. Luke felt waves of healing energy pour off his nephew and into the stormtrooper. He placed one hand on Jacen’s shoulder to lend him strength.
    “Looks like we might have attracted attention to ourselves,” Luke whispered to him.
    “What sort of attention?” Jacen returned equally as softly.
    “Chiss.”
    The trooper’s condition worsened steadily as the shuttle roared up toward the orbit occupied by the mission’s two central vessels. Luke could feel the man’s immune system failing as the invader spread its chemical and genetic tentacles through his body, beating it into submission. Jacen didn’t suggest using the Force to kill it, and Luke knew he wouldn’t until the choice between it and the trooper became absolutely clear.
    Hegerty watched with an expression of concern mixed with intense curiosity. Luke doubted whether the womancould ever
not
look worried; the lines in her face were permanently etched that way. For the sake of Stalgis, and in case their fear turned out to be unfounded, Luke refrained from asking the doctor if she’d ever seen anything like this before. They’d find out soon enough—or so he hoped, anyway.
    The sensor officer stuck his head out of the cockpit. “Another communication, sir.”
    Luke returned to the cockpit, leaving Stalgis and Jacen to care for the stormtrooper. Yage’s hologram was back.
    “We’ve had a reply,” she said. “Commander Irolia of the Expansionary Defense Fleet wants to speak to the person in charge. I told her you were on your way back from the surface, but she said she wanted to speak to you immediately.”
    “I guess you’d better put me through, then,” he said.
    The copilot made way for him without having to be asked. Luke straightened his robes as he took the empty seat.
    Yage’s face dissolved from the holofield in a flicker of static; it was replaced a few seconds later with the image of the upper body of a blue-skinned woman dressed in a burgundy-and-black uniform. Her eyes were the deep red of her species, and her expression held nothing but blunt authority. Chiss matured quickly, but still Luke was startled by the fact that she looked no older than his niece, Jaina.
    “You are Master Skywalker?” Her voice had all the warmth of a droid.
    Luke nodded curtly and said: “I am leader of a peaceful mission from the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances. We are in the middle of an emergency. I lost two of my crew in a ground fight with the natives of the planet below, and a third is seriously injured. If we don’t get back to orbit in time, he’ll die. Your arrival into this system has put my squadron on full alert, and means ourdocking procedures will be that much more complicated. If I should lose another because of your interference, I will be extremely—”
    “Please do not threaten us, Skywalker,” the Chiss woman responded calmly, staring unblinking from the flickering holofield. “Our intention is not to impede your docking procedures, or any other of your procedures. I require only that you meet with me in person at the earliest possible convenience.”
    “Of course,” Luke said. “We’ll arrange it as soon as I return to the
Widowmaker.”
    “When or how you arrange it is irrelevant.