Solar Flare Prototype

“Have you ever heard of the Nharl system?” Merit asked.

“No.”

“There were five planets around the local sun. One of them was my homeworld, Equanus. You know why you don’t see many Equani in the galaxy, Jos? It’s because there are only a handful of us left—a few hundred, maybe a thousand at most—of a species that once numbered almost a billion. And do you know why there are so few of us now? It’s because only those of us who were offworld two years, six months, and three days ago survived.”

Merit had never actually told anybody the story before. He knew he was being foolish, if not downright suicidal. But it was as if a psychic dam had burst. He wasn’t sure he could stop the words now, even if he wanted to do so.

“Two years, six months, and three days ago, a solar flare burst from our sun that was over ten light-minutes long. A huge, unheard-of, massive eruption, far greater than any the star had produced in ten million years. A flare that jetted forth with such power and force that Equanus was cooked. The atmosphere and oceans boiled away in minutes; the land was turned into a burned-out cinder. Our scientists saw it coming, but too late. It arrived before anybody had the slightest hope of escaping it. They knew it was coming, and they knew there was nothing that could be done. Every comm line on the planet was jammed with people trying to say their final good-byes to each other.”

He could sense that Jos was listening; could feel the slightest mitigation of the rage within him, saw that the impact of so many deaths had rocked him. Of course it would—he was a doctor. Merit honestly didn’t care, at that moment, just as he didn’t care if he was killed by friendly fire in the next minute. All that mattered was the telling.

“All of the Equani, nearly a billion people—our art, our civilization, our hopes, dreams, everything—all scorched to ash in a few moments, Jos. Gone. Dead. Forever.”

Jos said slowly, “I’m…sorry. But what has that got to do with this?” He gestured with the blaster, to encompass the situation, and Merit could have killed him easily right then, could have blown open his chest with the hidden hold-out weapon.

He didn’t.

“What has it to do with this? Very simple: that solar flare was not a natural disaster, Doctor. The Republic, the glorious, wonderful, benign Galactic Republic’s military leaders were testing a new weapon. A planet buster, a superweapon for some kind of ultimate battle station being developed. They fired it into our sun, and they miscalculated. They had a base on our moon, the scientists and military who’d created this abomination. The flare got them, too. Small comfort to me and the few Equani who were offworld when our planet was murdered.”

“I—I never heard about this.”

“Of course not. It’s not something the Republic’s anxious for the galaxy to know. They kept it quiet, but I made it my business to find out.

“The Republic killed my species, Jos. Even if all the surviving Equani could be gathered together, there’s not enough of us left to repopulate another world. Yes, you can say that those who pulled the switch died, too, but what about those who sent them there? What about the bureaucrats who were responsible for allowing it? They continue to laugh, and love, and eat, and sleep—and live.

***

Star Wars: MedStar II: Jedi Healer Chapter 40