Episode I: Part 11

High above the station in orbit around Aldair Four, Imperial Star Destroyer Avenger drifted silently while shuttles moved between star destroyer, Station Epsilon Eleven and the planet itself. On the Avenger's medical deck, Liuetenant Kells stood facing a large observation window in a quiet room off sickbay, watching the activity outside. The room door chimed a moment before it opened.

"Lieutenant."

"Captain Xon." Kells turned, snapping to attention.

"As you were, Lieutenant." Topping out at five foot six, with dark blonde hair, hard greenish-hazel eyes and a naturally stern look, Loren Xon was infamous among the officer corps. She was fair but firm, stern on her troops but highly protective of them as well. She was a no-nonsense commander, and highly protective of her people. To her, every person or clone in her command had a name, even if she named them herself. She crossed the room to stand near Kells at the window.

Kells relaxed. "I'm told I'll be released after a few days observation."

"It's sooner than that. Don't look so sour over the lab rat treatment Dison. You have to admit, your recovery was nothing less than amazing. You were a mess when they brought you aboard."

"So I was told." He glanced out the window at a passing shuttle. "How is the squad?"

"More or less intact, a good five are still enjoying a bacta bath, while the others are up and resting. I've gotten several accounts of what happened on the station and on Aldair."

"I'm not sure how I could add to that. After I was shot, I lost touch with what happened."

"No need, I've a clear enough picture. Once you freed Lieutenants Ilis and Seevo, they took the situation in hand on their own. Fortunately, Ilis left enough of that malfunctioning medical droid for the techs to work on. To their credit, they did find the scientist who started all this. He'd been experimented on. The cloned and cybernetic parts damaged his mind extensively. His mind is ruined, a complete waste. Probably just as well given how deformed the experimentation left him."

"That was the large shape in the room behind the battle droids then."

"From the reports, yes, that's where they found him."

Kells hesitated a moment. "Captain, the droid ..."

Xon gave a knowing smile. "I assume you mean the droid that assisted you?"

"Yes, ma'am. Doc is what they call him."

She nodded. "Curious name given how it all turned out. He's combat programmed but has a strong aversion to using it. According to our records, he's not registered with anyone and isn't official Imperial property. Regs state he should get a memory wipe and be sold at auction or assigned to a unit. Once he's repaired of course."

Outside, an Imperial tug pulled a shuttle-sized cargo container past the window towards the station. Kells thought back to the flight in the jungle and the combat in the converted factory. "I understand." He sighed, "Captain, permission to speak freely?"

"All right."

"He was an asset, Captain. I can think of at least one moment I would've walked into a trap if he had not warned us. It'd be a shame to see his memory core wiped in my opinion, Captain."

"I thought you might say that, which is why I've put the paperwork through for his assignment to me. I need a good staff droid and we've been lacking a medic since that mishap on Rishi station."

"Thank you, Captain."

"No need. I recognize an opportunity when I see one." She pulled a code cylinder from her pocket and dropped it on the nearby bed. "I thought I'd drop off your next assignment since I was on my way here. Feel free to read the details, but effective immediately you're on leave."

Kells looked hesitant, "Captain?"

Xon shook her head. "I don't want to hear it, Dison. You're due for one. Don't worry, you're not alone, per MedCorp orders, Corona Squad is on medical leave for recovery. You've all earned some down time. That addled droid you shut down had some ugly designs on neighboring sectors and their inhabitants. We would've been caught off guard. Besides, this gets you out of sick bay and away from suspicious eyes. We've work to do and I'm of no mind to let those medics take one of my officers apart like a malfunctioning terminal."

"I understand. Thank you, Captain."

"Don't be so quick. This is conditional, Dison. One, you get some real rest. Don't just haunt the barracks. I know you've no family, but find somewhere to go."

He started to reply but bit back his response when he saw the look in her eyes. She would just make it an order if he argued and he knew how to pick his battles. "Yes ma'am."

"Good. Next, part of getting you out from under the MedCorp means you tell me the moment something odd happens. Screw either of these up, and I'll kick your ass from here to Coruscant. Now, I've got a staff meeting in an hour. In another two, I expect to see you packing for some leave. Have a good rest."

Kells drew to attention then relaxed after the Captain left. He looked at the code cylinder on the bed like it was alive and poisonous. Scooping it up, he walked back to the window, replaying the last clear memory in his mind.

He lay upon the deck plating as Deuce opened fire, attacking the onrush of droids. Suddenly, he felt the faint sting of a needle then a cold ache as a fluid coursed through his veins.

Doc leaned close, withdrawing a small cardio-stimulator pad from a medkit. "I'm sorry Lieutenant. I wish now I had told you everything. But now I only ask you to trust me. My research was never meant for this, I only sought to tap into the healing abilities the Jedi had enjoyed. I never meant for my nanite and genetic research to create such chaos." Doc looked over his shoulder briefly. "I cannot undue what's been done, but perhaps I can atone by doing this one small thing. I beg you, let no one know. I just hope some good can come from all the destruction my research has inadvertently caused."

He jerked from the cardio-stimulator's effects once, then twice, before blaster fire incapacitated Doc. The droid collapsed to the catwalk, smoke boiling from two blaster shots in its back. Kells thought the shots came from one of his troops, but aside from Sergeant Deuce, he was alone and Deuce was busy with whatever was on the ramp. He would have mulled over it more but unconsciousness slowly claimed him.

Dison cleared his head of the memory and looked at his reflection in the window. A trio of Imperial Tie fighters slowly cruised past on patrol. Somewhere, buried in Doc's memory core was the details of that serum. What it was and what precisely it could do. At least with Doc assigned to Captain Xon's staff he might yet have his chance to discover it.

He frowned. In his mind, voices whispered in a soft monotone, repeating repair status, what wounds were left to repair, his current blood pressure, toxin levels on so on. He knew the medics were suspicious of something foreign in his system, but he had already overheard they had no idea how to isolate, identify, and remove it. When his thoughts drifted to the code cylinder he carried, another voice spoke gently to him.

"Accessing."

Immediately, data from the cylinder appeared in his mind. Every detail, word and image was as clear as if displayed through a terminal screen. When the data stream finished, he felt the connection to the cylinder shut down, leaving the data recorded in his own mind.

"When something odd happens?" He looked at his hand while a burn scar he had earned nearly five years ago vanished before his eyes as the skin repaired ... was being repaired ... from the inside.

"Captain, what if something already has?"

This Concludes, Star Wars: Special Operations, Trouble At Aldair

Check back for the next Episode:

Star Wars: Special Operations, Passing Through