“No problem. We’re not that old.” Mara was bent over nearly double, so Zekk had to be crawling on all fours. “Where are we going?”
“You’ll see,” he said. “We’re almost there.”
The Force ahead grew heavy with pain and fear, and the humid air began to smell of blood, burns, and bacta. A moment later, they emerged into a large oblong chamber lined by hundreds of hexagonal wall bunks. In the open areas of the room, hand-sized Killik healers were swarming over casualties from both sides, spitting antiseptic saliva into their wounds, spinning silk sealant into cracked chitin, slipping tiny pincers into torso punctures to pull shrapnel from internal organs. Low purrs of gratitude reverberated from the chest plates of the insect patients, but the Chiss-those who were still conscious-were staring at the creatures in horror.
As the rest of the group stepped into the chamber behind Mara, a green triage nurse rushed over and brushed its antennae across Jaina’s arm, then looked at Luke and thrummed a question.
“Oh, dear,” C-3PO said. “She doesn’t seem to know what’s wrong with Master Luke!”
“Nothing’s wrong with him, Taat,” Jaina said to the insect. “We’re all fine. We just wanted to see the infirmary.”
The triage nurse stepped closer to Luke and scrutinized him with its bulbous gaze, then clicked its mandibles doubtfully.
“I’m sure.” Jaina glanced at Mara. “Right?”
“Oh, yeah,” Mara said. Even had there been something wrong with him, she would not have trusted the insects to fix it-not after what had become of Raynar.
“I’m just a little burned out,” Luke assured the Killik.
The nurse spread its antennae in doubt, then scurried off to hold down a screaming Chiss. The patient did not seem pleased to have three Killik healers rummaging around inside his torso.
“They are not being cruel,” Tesar said. “But the Taat are very stoic. They don’t use anesthesia themselvez.”
“And when they have it available for other species, they never get the dosage right,” Jaina added. “They’ve decided that it’s just faster and safer to do without.”
“I’ll bet,” Han said, eyeing the carnage. “Because it kind of looks like they’re enjoying it.”
“They’re not,” Zekk assured him. “The Kind are the most gentle and forgiving species I’ve ever met.”
“They have no malice,” Alema added. She pointed to a nearby bunk, where a trio of Killik nurses clung to the wall, hovering over a half-conscious Chiss, holding a casted leg in traction. “Once the fighting’s over, they care for their attackers as their own. They don’t even imprison them.”
“I can’t imagine that works very well with Chiss,” Leia said. “What happens when the prisoners attack?”
“Their escortz bring them here for evaluation,” Tesar rasped. “They think other speciez are aggressive only because they can’t stomach pain. So they look for the source of the pain…”
“Eventually, the Chiss figure it out and stop attacking,” Tahiri said.
“Yeah, well, a little bug-probing would stop me,” Han said. His gaze was fixed on a Killik healer, whose four limbs were straddling a Chiss face as it extracted something from the patient’s red eyeball. “At least until I could escape this creep show.”
“Dad, the Chiss don’t need to escape,” Jaina said. “They’re free to leave whenever they like, if they can find a way.”
Han nodded knowingly. “There’s always a catch.”
“Always,” Alema agreed.
“But it’s not what you think,” Zekk added.
“The Chisz won’t take back their MIAz,” Tesar finished.
“I’m sure,” Mara said. The young Jedi Knights’ habit of talking fast and completing each other’s thoughts was beginning to make her edgy. It was almost as if they were sinking into a permanent battle-meld. “I can’t imagine the Chiss are much for prisoner exchanges.”
“Oh, we’re not talking about exchanges,” Jaina said.
“The Chiss won’t take them back at all,” Tahiri explained.
“Before we got here, they used to steal transports and try to go back on their own,” Alema said. “The Chiss just turned them away.”
“How awful for them,” C-3PO said sympathetically. “What happens to prisoners now?”
“A few hitch rides out, then who knows what happens to them,” Jaina said. “Most end up staying with the nest.”
Alarm bells began to ring inside Mara’s head. She glanced toward the heart of the chamber, where Tekli and several Chiss medics had set up a makeshift surgical theater beneath the jewel-blue glow of a dozen shine-balls, then looked back to Jaina.