Star Wars: MedStar 02: Jedi Healer by Michael Reaves; Steve Perry

Author:Michael Reaves; Steve Perry
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Science-Fiction.Star Wars
ISBN: 9780345463111
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2004-09-28T07:00:00+00:00

21

On Kaird’s payroll was the human in charge of the xenobotanists monitoring the bota. Kaird, always thinking ahead, his identity always hidden within his Kubaz disguise, had been paying the man handsomely for information regarding the state of the crop.

Kaird met the man in a refresher, the door blocked against unwanted company. The air scrubbers were, like so much of the Rimsoo’s equipment, only intermittently functional, and so the place smelled very bad.

The news, however, smelled worse.

“It’s not unprecedented,” the xenobotanist said. “Have you ever heard of the ironwithe plants of Bogden?”

“No.”

“Quite fascinating. Nearly as hard as durasteel, and very popular as an export for rooftop gardens on Coruscant and other Core worlds. Its shoots are the major part of the giant renda bear’s diet, and—”

“Fascinating. Is there a point?”

“Sorry. Well, every few decades there’s a planetwide die-off of ironwithe. No one’s sure why. It’s like there’s some sort of plant telepathy that triggers a near-extinction event. The really amazing thing is that it even affects the ironwithe growth parsecs away, on other worlds. The theory is that there’s some kind of quantum entanglement reaction in the DNA that—”

“Just tell me exactly what it means regarding the bota,” Kaird said, resisting the urge to strangle the man.

“The plant life here is constantly mutating, and that includes bota. There is a new mutation, and from all appearances, it’s planetwide. We don’t know why; it could have been triggered by anything. The change seems to be altering the bota’s adaptogenic properties.”

“Which means …?”

“If it continues in this direction—and there seems to be no reason why it won’t—within another generation, bota will be, for all intents and purposes, inert. Useless.”

Silently, inside his mask, Kaird cursed. How was he supposed to explain this to his vigo? It was not his fault, he could hardly control what had happened, but vigos had been known to blast messengers bearing bad news before.

“Who else knows of this?”

“Well, except for you and me, nobody yet. I haven’t made my report to the military. I thought you would want to know first.”

“Good. Can you delay this report?”

“Not for long. Botanical stations around the continent run periodic tests. These reports are funneled through my office, and I might be able to sit on them for a week or two, but no more. A few weak batches are not unusual, but something like this will get out.” The human shrugged. “People talk.”

For a moment, Kaird considered killing the botanist. It seemed the easiest way to keep this under wraps as long as possible. But—no. Killing him would only guarantee that he would be replaced, and the replacement might not be as venal. Better to have the man in charge working for him. Knowledge was, as always, power. Much could be accomplished in a short time with millions, maybe even billions, of credits at stake.

“All right,” Kaird said. “There will be a large bonus for you. Keep this information quiet as long as you can.”

The human fidgeted nervously. “They’ll fire me if they find out.

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