Star Wars - Gathering Shadows - The Origin of the Black Curs - Unpublished by Kathy Burdette Read Free Book Online Page A

crowd.
    “What about the major?” the lieutenant asked Jai.
    “I think she’ll be coming back to my base with me. I also think she’ll be loaning us her shuttle to get out of the valley. You don’t object, do you, Lieutenant? Unless you’d like to come along?”
    “It doesn’t appear as though your troops would be interested in stopping us,” Tru’eb said.
    The boy licked his lips and mumbled something about Docking Bay One, and clearance; then he turned and walked away.
    Harkness untangled himself from Tru’eb’s shoulder, leaned against the wall, and took a few excruciating steps toward Jai, who was visibly struggling to keep her adrenaline going in order to hang on to the major. Aside from Jai’s injuries, nothing about her appearance surprised Harkness at all. She matched her voice exactly. And she did look like her sister, a taller, blonde version, with the same ice-blue eyes. The only difference was what seemed to be behind the eyes; Morgan’s were clear and knowledgeable, a window to the brilliance beyond the absentmindedness. Jai’s were bright and painful and hard to look into. Across her left cheek was a long, pink scar, testimony to a wound that had never seen a bacta tank; but in a strange way, it didn’t seem ugly or out of place.
    Something inside of him felt oddly settled, seeing her for real.
    And in those troubled eyes, he saw a glint of recognition as she finally took a second to focus on his face.
    “Harkness.”
    “Sarge.”
    “You’re… just as I pictured you.”
    “You mean happy and handsome?”
    “Here, I’ll take Major Psycho,” Platt said. “You guys lean on Tru’eb. Just concentrate on staying conscious until we get inside the shuttle.”
    Jai seemed to noticed Platt and Tru’eb for the first time. “Who are you people?”
    “Your ticket off the planet,” Platt said, taking Jai’s hand and shaking it.

    At first, Harkness had resisted the idea of being injected with a heavy sedative. He needed to remind himself that he was on board Platt’s ship, the Last Chance , already light years away from the garrison; and that the major was imprisoned in the hold. At least that was what Platt had told him. He didn’t remember anything beyond hobbling into the major’s Lambda -class shuttle and sinking down into a shiny black passenger seat.
    Beyond the concept of taking the sedative, however, he just didn’t want to sleep. In his experience, sleeping drugs tended to pull you down into heavy fever dreams you had a hard time waking up from. And he knew what kind of dreams he was going to have.
    “Sorry I don’t have a bacta tank on board,” Platt said, rummaging through the cabinet next to Harkness’ medical bunk. “But it’s only a couple days to Wroona from here. Jai, I’ve got a couple of Rebel friends out there. They can help you contact your base.”
    “Thanks,” Jai said. She was lying in the bunk across the room, on her stomach.
    Tru’eb came in. “No medpacs in the forward berthing compartment,” he said.
    “You’re kidding, I thought we just stocked up on… oh, here we go.” Platt tossed one to Tru’eb.
    “I don’t want to sleep,” Jai said.
    “This really isn’t a strong mixture,” Tru’eb told her, sitting on the edge of her bunk. “It’s actually designed to kill the pain while improving the quality of your sleep. That way your injuries don’t interfere with your normal sleep pattern. Which means you are less likely to have vivid dreams.”
    “Oh. Okay.””
    “And listen,” Platt said, “it’s not a big ship. If you need anything at all, press the green button on the side of the bed. Yeah, that one.
    “Okay, Tru’eb and I are going to get a little shut-eye—is there anything else you two need?”
    “Leave the lights on,” Jai said.
    After Tru’eb and Platt had gone, Harkness said. “What will you do when you get back?”
    “Are you kidding? I just inducted an entire planet into the New Republic. I’ve got lots of desk-work