Star Wars - Gathering Shadows - The Origin of the Black Curs - Unpublished by Kathy Burdette

Author:Kathy Burdette [Burdette, Kathy]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 1998-02-21T20:05:03+00:00

Before Morgan had died, Jai had experienced several incidents in which she had forgotten who she was.

The most prominent of them had happened about eighteen months ago, when she led a five-man Infiltrator team to Bevell Three on a supposedly well-planned assignment. They were supposed to capture four Imperial agents, but somebody had tipped off the Empire; a squadron of TIE bombers appeared out of nowhere and razed the area. Everybody fell, except for Jai, who walked away without even a bruise. As usual, she got everybody out. But for the first and only time in her SpecForces career, she didn’t get somebody out alive; Leong, the team’s comm specialist, died en route to the medical frigate.

Jai went through the next week completely numb, not responding much to anything or having any sort of recognizable emotion. High Command promoted her to master sergeant and she didn’t object, even though she knew it was a propaganda tool. No Infiltrator assignment should ever have garnered that much attention, but this one had, and on her watch. Still, she accepted the promotion and went on about her routine business.

Then, one day, rummaging through her locker, she found one of Leong’s gloves and her heart shattered into a million pieces.

Now, lying on the floor in the dark, Jai recalled that moment with a great deal of distance. As if it had happened to somebody else. The memory was vivid, and she could access the sounds and smells and visions of the time with clarity. No matter how hard she tried, however, she couldn’t access the emotion.

What would Leong say if he could see that Jai had let the Imperials take her? Surely he’d be disappointed. But after two months of feeling nothing, suddenly there had been an onslaught of pain, rage, fear, shame—every bit of which was preferable to numbness. For a couple of blissful days, her brain had been so ravaged by the interrogation that she had forgotten to be numb. And now she was back in the same old rut, wishing the pain across her back, the dried blood on her face, the memory of the Imperial soldier swinging the butt of his blaster rifle at her face, any of it would jar her back into emotion.

“I’m starting to wonder if we’ve been forgotten. Personally I’m kind of hungry.”

Harkness’ voice, coming out of another world. Jai had to mentally adjust herself. “Huh?”

“I said I’m kind of hungry,” he said.

“Hmm,” she said dully.

“And that maybe they forgot about us.”

That got Jai’s attention. “What—you think they left us to rot?”

Rotting away, that was something that wouldn’t grant any real emotion, either. Her thoughts drifted back to Bevell Three.

Several minutes later, there was a scraping sound next to Jai’s head. Harkness let out a quick, pained gasp.

“What?” asked Jai.

“Sorry. That hurt my eye,” he said.

“I don’t get what you—”

“Didn’t you see the light?”

Jai hadn’t seen anything.

“The hatch by the door. It opened for a second—” said Harkness.

“I’m not facing the door,” Jai told him.

“But you’re near the door?”

“Yeah.

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