Star Wars - Lost Tribe of the Sith 06 - Sentinel

nodded. Computerized monitors might fail, but the Force sense of a trained Jedi would not, at least not under these conditions.
    Tekli glanced back at Cilghal and gave a brisk nod. All was well.
    The pulse under Cilghal’s hand began to strengthen and quicken. Also good, also normal.
    Cilghal moved around the head of the gurney and stood on the far side of the apparatus, a step back from Valin. When he awoke, his vision would be clouded, and perhaps his judgment as well. It would not do for him to wake with a large form standing over him, gripping his throat. Violence might result.
    She caught the attention of Corran and Mirax, parents of the two patients. “That was merely an electronicglitch.” Cilghal tried to make her tones reassuring, knowing her effort was not likely to succeed—Mon Calamari voices, suited to their larger-than-human frames, were resonant and even gravelly, an evolutionary adaptation that allowed them to be heard at greater distances in their native underwater environments. Unfortunately, they tended to sound harsh and even menacing to human ears. But she had to try. “They are fine.”
    Corran, wearing green Jedi robes that matched the color of his eyes, heaved a sigh of relief. His wife, Mirax, dressed in a stylish jumpsuit in blacks and blues, smiled uncertainly as she asked, “What caused it?”
    Cilghal offered a humanlike shrug. “I’ll put the monitors in for evaluation once your children are checked out as stable. I suspect these monitors haven’t been tested or serviced since Valin and Jysella were frozen.” There, that was a well-delivered lie, dismissing the monitor’s odd behavior as irrelevant.
    Valin stirred. Cilghal glanced down at him. The Knight’s eyes fluttered open and tried to fix on her, but seemed to have difficulty focusing.
    Cilghal looked down at him. “Valin? Can you hear me?”
    “I … I …” Valin’s voice was weak, watery.
    “Don’t speak. Just nod.”
    He did.
    “You’ve been—”
    She was interrupted by a stage-whispered notification from Tekli: “Jysella is awake.”
    Cilghal adjusted her angle so she could address both siblings. “You’ve been in carbonite suspension for some time. You will feel cold, shaky, and disoriented. This is all normal. You are among friends. Do you understand me?”
    Valin nodded again. Jysella’s “yes” was faint, butstronger and more controlled than Cilghal had expected.
    “Your parents are here. I’ll allow them to speak to you in a moment. The Solos are here, as well.”
And little Amelia and her pet Anji, both of whom smell like they’ve been rolling in seafood shells left rotting for a week
. Cilghal had to blink over that fact. The child should have received a thorough disinfecting before being allowed in this chamber. Come to think of it, Barv also reeked. Where could a youngling and even a Jedi Knight go in the clean, austere Temple and end up smelling like that?
    She set the question aside. “Bazel Warv is here, and Yaqeel Saav’etu, your friends. They can answer many questions about an ailment that afflicted the two of you just prior to your freezing.”
    Jysella looked around, barely raising her head, her attention sliding across the faces of friends and loved ones, and then she looked at Valin. He must have felt her attention; he looked back. A thought, the sort of instant communication that only siblings can understand, passed between then. Then the two of them relaxed.
    Jysella looked again at her parents. “Mom?”
    At Cilghal’s nod, Mirax and Corran came forward, crowding into the gap between the gurneys. Tekli moved out of their way, circling around the head of Valin’s bed to rejoin Cilghal. She craned her neck to look up at the Mon Cal. “All signs good.”
    Cilghal nodded. She turned to the others in the room. “All but the immediate family, please withdraw to the waiting area.”
    And they did, exiting with words of encouragement and welcome.
    In moments only the Horns and the medics remained with Valin and Jysella. Cilghal took a few steps to the nurse’s station and its bank of monitoring screens, givingits more elaborate readouts a look … or pretending to. Tekli found a mist dispenser and sprayed its clean-smelling contents around the chamber, driving away reminders of Amelia’s, Anji’s, and Barv’s recent presence. Then she rejoined her superior.
    If Cilghal’s predictions were correct, Valin and Jysella would be reaching full cognizance right about now, if they