Red Harvest (Red Harvest, 1) by Joe Schreiber

Author:Joe Schreiber [Schreiber, Joe]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Star Wars, Science Fiction, Fiction
ISBN: 9780345518590
Publisher: Del Rey
Published: 2012-02-28T08:00:00+00:00

25/Positive ID

“STATEMENT,” THE HK’S VOICE CRACKLED, FROM INSIDE THE COMLINK. “SIR, WE located Hestizo Trace.”

The Sith Lord paused and adjusted the frequency until the connection became clear. He was standing in the bulkhead of the Mirocaw, having just finished a complete inspection of the vessel from top to bottom. Locating the bounty hunter’s ship had not been difficult—the tower’s sensors had found it crash-landed two kilometers outside the academy, tracking it from the heat signature, and Scabrous had approached it with absolute stealth, on the off chance there might be someone aboard. But there was no sign of the Jedi or the Whiphid who had brought her here. The craft had been abandoned.

“Where is she?” he asked.

“Response: Initial perimeter scan reports positive identification on the northeast quadrant. Scanners registered a ninety-eight point three percent positive pheromone match.”

“How long ago?”

“Response: Ten standard minutes, sir. Coordinate vector twenty-seven by eighteen, order of magnitude—”

“Is she dead?”

The slightest of pauses: “Response: Negative, sir, per your orders.”

“Good.”

“Statement: Our midrange scout systems report that she and the Whiphid bounty hunter are traveling together, headed northwest toward the tauntaun paddock in that near vicinity. They are still on foot and in all probability seeking immediate cover from the initial attack.” The HK made a clicking sound, awaiting orders. “Query: Shall I reactivate the perimeter cannons in that quadrant, set for stun?”

Scabrous didn’t answer right away, thinking about the terrain that the droid was describing. The tower itself wasn’t far from there, of course, and—

And the library.

“That won’t be necessary,” Scabrous said. “I’ll handle it personally.”

“Statement …” The droid sounded more tentative now. “There is … something else.”

“What is it?”

“Several local sensors are reporting unverified cluster activity in various quadrants around the academy in general. It’s unclear exactly what the source of the activity is. Biorhythm diagnostics aren’t reporting any verifiable vital signs.”

“Then fix it.”

“Clarification: The electronics themselves are online and functioning normally. It’s the activity—it shows no sign of life, body temperature, respiration, heart or brain activity.”

Scabrous stopped and gazed thoughtfully at the Mirocaw’s dented metal bulkhead in front of him. For a moment the only sounds were the low, steady hum of the hemodialysis machine pumping fresh blood through his body, and the susurrus of fluids whisking through tubes, feeding him the cocktail of antiviral drugs.

“How much activity?” he asked.

“Response: Unclear at present,” the HK’s voice said. “But it seems to be—”

“What?”

“Well, it seems to be spreading, sir.”

“I see.” Scabrous thought of the apprentice, Nickter, or the thing that had once been Nickter, crawling out of its cage despite the fact that all vital signs registered negative. He thought about how the thing had lunged at him and then gone after Jura Ostrogoth; the appetite that the thing had brought to bear. At that moment, Scabrous had assumed that what he’d seen was a kind of exaggerated nervous twitch, a biochemical accident that the drug and the orchid had triggered inside Nickter’s body. But now—

It seems to be spreading, sir, the HK had said.

—he began to reconsider.

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