21 Hat Trick 2 (1/2)

Republic Assault Ship Dauntless

Hyperspace

After the comm signal cut off I looked at the female Togruta in front of me. She turned around and I could see a frown on her face. For a moment there was a trace of distress in her eyes. If it wasn't for my connection with the Force I would not have noticed it. I guess that she was not looking forward to her next chat with the Jedi Council. Not only she had decided to listen to my suggestion to grab the Dauntless and make a run for Coruscant before someone who will remain unnamed for now, could sent another CIS fleet after us, without consulting with the Order leadership but now I was a Republic general with the same authority as the Jedi. Most of their contingency plans for dealing with me just went down the drain. Its one thing for the Order to arrest (and/or kill) a mercenary who they accuse of being a Sith. Doing so to a GAR general, one who had done more to derail the CIS plans in few short weeks than most of the Jedi combined did since the start of the war was something very different. Not to mention that it was I who led the boarding party who grabbed Grievous and Ventress... Gurney's demise was just the icing on the cake.

”I guess congratulations are in order, general.” she said in an emotionless tone. Her face could have been a marble statue for all the expression it showed.

”Thank you.” I deadpanned. ”I hope that the Council won't be too pissed off with you.”

”Why would they be?” she asked faking confusion.

”We both know that there were a lot of outcomes they hoped for when you were assigned as my babysitter but none of them ended with me becoming a Republic general. I do not need to spell to you what it means for the council.”

She gave me a sharp nod and frowned in a way that reminded me of my late wife.

”I'll go check on Ahsoka and the prisoners. See you around, Master Ti.”

I made a fast exit. Jedi or not, if she her temper was anything like Ashara's, I did not want to be in the vicinity when she was getting angry. I highly doubted that a spirited sparring session in which she tried to take off my head, followed by a make-up sex was in the cards in the foreseeable future.

=RK=

On my way to the medical bay I spoke with a Clone sergeant and made a small detour to requisition a tac-pad, which was the SW universe answer to the tablets of my own world. It was much bigger and heavier from what one would expect but it had incredible processing power and storage capacity as well as build in comm which could interface with nearby hyper com terminals and had a lot of protection against hacking. It could survive many things short of a blaster bolt too. For a piece of military hardware the tradeoffs were generally worth it. It was close to soldier proof.

Which is something that can't be said for most if not all hardware on the Earth I came from.

I uploaded in it some ”light” reading for Ahsoka. For good or bad she was stuck as a commander in the war. I doubted that she would request not to be sent to the front lines and even if she did it was unlikely that such thing would be granted. Considering that the kid was starting to grow on me I decided to do something that could help her remain in one piece.

The med bay was full with wounded clones. I could see long rows of bacta tanks in which people were floating. Each one of those devices had a heavily wounded trooper in it. The beds were full too and there were even makeshift sleeping bags on the floor on which wounded soldiers were laying. I knew that leaving Rodia immediately after we evacuated the CIS Frigate with our prisoners and wounded did not make any services to the harmed Republic troops but I could not risk another ambush. Not with such a prize on board.

As you could guess the medics who were up to their necks in wounded did not approve of my plan. On the bright side, they were able to stabilize most of the clones and the most severe cases were already in the tanks. That left a lot of people to be more conventionally (and slowly) treated. Ahsoka was one of those unfortunate souls. Her leg would have been mended after only couple of hours in bacta but now she was laying over a sleeping back in a corner of the room.

I stopped by the purple haired Cat who was being treated for plasma burns on his chest. The Lieutenant had suffered injury when one of the last Super Battle droids in the Reactor chambers hit a plasma conduit feeding the engines of the enemy Frigate with a missile. The resulting venting of super-hot gases clipped the armor of the man who fortunately enough was far so far away from the breach that he got away with only third degree burns when his chest plate was overheated. If he was closer his armor would have been no protection and the plasma stream would have cut him in half.

”Lt, how are you? Beyond the obvious.” I waved at his wounds which were tended by a young, pink colored nurse from a species I did not recognize.

”I've been better, sir! Congratulations for the promotion, General!” he winced when he tried to give me a proper salute.

”I see that the rumor mill is still working at lightspeed.” I chuckled. ”None of that while you are wounded, Cat. There is place for proper military protocol and it's definitely not while you are being patched up. You did great job leading the 71st.”

”Thank you, sir. I just wish that more of the boys made it. At least we nailed the Chief Clanker!” He exclaimed and then groaned when he strained his burned chest muscles.

I gathered power from the Lights side from the Force over my hands and slowly moved my palms over Cat's burns. He hissed in pain when healthy tissue started growing under his crispy skin. The nurse who was tending him looked from a hand-held scanner to me and back with a stunned look on her face. She was babbling about something but I paid it no attention.

”Now, that's better.” I groaned few minutes later. That stunt I just pulled was a bit too much after all the energy I used during the battles earlier that day.

”It's amazing! You cut weeks from his recovery time!” Exclaimed a doctor who had come to see what the commotion was about. ”Can you do it for the rest of the wounded?” he asked.

”Unfortunately no. That wiped me out.” I sad.

My legs were swaying and I had problems staying on my feet. That confirms it. I did not have the same endurance Vael had. Whether I would be able to match his feats in the future or not remained to be seen.

”I've never been trained as a dedicated medic. The energy I spent hastening Cat's recovery... Let's just say than I could have wiped few enemy platoons without becoming so tired.” I muttered.

The doctor waved a scanner all over me and frowned.

”Indeed. You are showing signs of acute exhaustion. I recommend few days of rest. Preferably in bed. ”

”You'll get no arguments from me doc. Unless the Sep's decide to visit us again.”

The medic grumbled something about gun-ho soldiers that did not know better and loved to create more work for him.

”I'll just visit another patient of yours and make my way to a bed.”

I went to Ahsoka who was looking at me with wide eyes.