A Soldier's Secret

Part 14

Light has never hurt so much. I groaned, then remembered the bugs. I sat up, and the world spun. I was in a med bay, not the bug-infested ship. The door opened, and Furn walked in

"Hey. What are you doing?" He saw me try to get out of bed and shoved me back onto it like I was a pebble, not a soldier.

"I hate being still" I growled. He looked at me like I was a misbehaving child

"Your blood was nearly sixty per cent poison by the time we found you, Cedar. You were bitten a total of sixty-nine times" He said "I'm confused about the fact that you're even conscious"

"I'm a freak of nature" I snapped "And I'm getting out of here" This place reeked of fear and chemicals

"Nope," He walked to the door and locked it behind him before I got to it.

"Jerk" I grumbled. He was talking to someone over his comm on the other side, and I felt my leg tremble beneath prolonged weight. It was then I saw that Ahsoka was here, and Rex was asleep by someone who looked to be unconscious. My leg bent and nearly gave out, prompting me to limp back to the bed and sit down. Furn came back and saw me trying to figure out who the new guy was

"He's Commander Woods," Furn said

"Am I supposed to know him?" I asked, raising an eyebrow

"I suppose not. But you've met him briefly" Furn walked over to Rex and shook his shoulder. Rex opened an eye, mumbled something, and closed it again. The Commander Woods guy started mumbling something too, and I ignored him, turning toward the door. They started talking about something, and I ignored that too. I didn't know how much Furn knew about me, or Rex either. My head spun, and I lay back and closed my eyes, falling asleep.

By the time I woke up again, Furn was gone, and Skywalker was talking to Ahsoka, who had a weak smile on her face. I kept my eyes closed and mimicked sleep

"Of all the ships you could've taken, you picked the broken, bug-infested one" He laughed

"I didn't know, Master," She said

"I'm glad you're safe, Snips. How was the meeting?" he added

Her eyes briefly flicked to me "We made an impression. Cedar took out three potential assassins during the meeting, and I did exactly what you told me" She grinned "When the bugs swarmed us, Cedar kept me from getting bitten even more as he tried to get the comms online" Ahsoka lied to Skywalker about me. She knew why I had kept hidden and was helping me maintain the lie. 

Then an image of the bugs flooded my eyes, and I jerked violently. Something beside me beeped, and then, as my eyes filled with darkness, voices echoed through with unintelligible words.

"You really need to stop having medical crises," Furn said

"You're a jerk" I mumbled, and as my senses returned, I felt the thick bandage that ran over my neck, down my collarbone and went around my back "That wasn't there before" I mused

"Yeah, well, the poison decided it was time for round two," He said, and kept a firm hand on my shoulder, keeping me from getting up

"This sucks. I wish I was in a tree" I grumbled "What does this stupid poison want with me anyway?" I tried to get up again

Furn looked at me like I was crazy "Cedar, we thought you were clear. Then the poison reactivated and nearly stopped your heart. You have to, and I mean it, stay here until we can be sure that you're clear this time"

A new medic came in "Furn, Room 7 needs you. I think Error and Wolffe got in a fight" He huffed out a sigh and left. "So, you're Cedar. Everyone's buzzing about you" They said

"Not sure why" I scowled

"Because you saved a Jedi, Cedar. Normally, they save us" They added

"So what? I still want to be in a tree" I mumbled, and then a violent spasm came over me, making me shake. I hoped they didn't see. But they saw, and before I knew it, they were beside me, looking over my shoulder at the wall

"That's strange..." They mumbled, then left the room and returned with a tiny tree. The flowers on it smelled nice and reminded me of how Benny always found me a rare flower on new planets "Please work" They mumbled some more and started pacing, so I tuned them out focusing on the flowers. The scent was similar to the flowers on Genirgen, and then another spasm hit me. 

This one shook me for a solid minute as the medic rushed away to help someone else. I continued focusing on the tree, watching the light swirl on the petals, counting the tiny lines on the branches...The smell of burning flesh...

Benny was below me, my hand shaking from the effort of keeping him up...

More spasms overtook me as Benny's last minute of life vanished from my eyes. My ears ached with a new bombardment of sounds, my nose stung, full of sharp pain. My vision was foggy, then became clear in the fading light. I let out a soft groan, then covered my ears as an onslaught of beeping sounds filled them. Then, all the sounds stopped as something dark settled over me. My hands stopped trembling, but my eyes and nose stung with invisible pain. Even though everything in me ached, I still succumbed to the sweetness of sleep.