And There Was Another✔️

Chapter 40: Cold Silence

"The scan looks good, but I want to do one more test," Seri said. "Sit up."

"Okay," Seth replied, and sat up. He swung his feet over the side of the examination bed and planted them on the floor.

Seri stepped up to him and held one finger up in front of him. "Follow my finger with your eyes, keep your head still."

He did as she instructed as she slowly moved her finger left, then right.

"Okay, now stare straight ahead, at me."

"Easy enough," he said, and a small smile appeared on her face.

She held her finger up in front of him, then moved it around to the left side of his face, holding it at the edge of his peripheral vision. "Can you see that?"

"Yes."

She looked relived, lowering her hand. "Okay, good. You check out. Your eye is fine."

"Good," he muttered. "I kind of need it."

She laughed. "Yes. That is true." She hesitated. "Are you...doing okay?"

"Yeah. Honestly, I feel a lot better since I actually told people about...you know." He paused. "So, can I go?"

"Yes," she said, stepping back.

He stood up and stretched. "You're very good at your job, Seri. I feel a lot better overall."

"Maya helped a lot," she replied.

"That's true. Okay, come on. We should be having the briefing very soon. We're not too far away from the next target," Seth said.

She nodded and followed him out of the infirmary, and into the main hold, where he discovered the others had already gathered. Maya was studying a datapad, but she set it aside as they came in and sat down. He settled in beside Nova, who took his hand silently.

"This," Maya said as she reached forward and tapped at the control panel that was built into the table they probably shouldn't be using as a dinner table, "is Lotus Prime."

A holographic image of a cool blue-green planet with two moons gently rotating around it appeared. "It was once a peaceful farming world, much like Dantooine, but now it is contested by the Sith. That won't concern us, however. At least, I hope so. A Republic transport carrying a Jedi overflew an island on the way to a battlefield, and he felt a strong presence of the Dark Side. As he has had experience with terentateks before, he recognized it for what it was. The Republic also picked up a strange, low-level power signature, and decided to investigate. Unfortunately, no Jedi was able to be dispatched with them, and...contact has unfortunately been lost in the past day. To make matters worse, it's a very remote location, and the fighting nearest to it has intensified, meaning no backup has been able to get out there."

"It could be bad weather, or malfunctioning equipment," Yex murmured.

"Could be, but I doubt it," Seth replied unhappily.

"Yeah," Nova growled.

"I agree that we should assume the worst. There is bad weather in the region, though. Heavy winds, heavy rain. Right now, all we have to go off of is their last known location. They had managed to establish a very small, simple basecamp on the island. I thought it best to land nearby and start there," Maya said, and looked at Seth.

He nodded. "Agreed. Yex, what's our time to target?"

"Four hours," Yex replied.

"Okay. Seri, get the infirmary ready to receive causalities. Yex, once we begin our descent, I want you scanning for that energy signature and anything else you can think of constantly. Before then, we're all going to study everything we can about this island and what we might encounter on it and any kind of terrain mapping they managed," Seth said.