MedStar I: Battle Surgeons

MedStar I: Battle Surgeons is the first of two novels in the MedStar Duology, published by Del Rey on June 29, 2004, and written by Michael Reaves and Steve Perry. It takes place in 20 BBY, 2 years after the Battle of Geonosis. The book is part of the Clone Wars multimedia project.

Editions

 * ISBN 0345463102; June 29, 2004, Del Rey, 309-page paperback
 * ISBN 0739303236; June 29, 2004, Random House Audio, Abridged CD
 * ISBN 0345463072; December 6, 2005, Random House, eBook
 * ISBN 8324119574; Amber, 256-page Polish paperback

Official site summary
The Clone Wars that swept across the galaxy in the twilight years of the Republic engulfed more than Jedi Knights, clone troopers and droid soldiers. On the fierce battlefields of Drongar, a tiny med unit tends to those wounded from the ceaseless combat waged on the jungle world for control of a priceless native plant.

In the pages of this forthcoming Clone Wars novel, readers will meet a surgeon that cloaks his despair with sardonic wit; another who weathers the death and misery of Drongar by making beautiful music; a compassionate nurse with her heart in her work and her eye on a doctor; and a Jedi Padawan on a healing mission without her Master.

Publisher's summary
As civil war between the Republic and the Separatists rages across the galaxy, nowhere is the fighting more fierce than on the swamp world of Drongar, where a beleaguered mobile hospital unit wages a never-ending war of its own&hellip;.

A surgeon who covers his despair with wisecracks; another who faces death and misery head-on, venting his emotions through beautiful music &hellip; A nurse with her heart in her work and her eye on a doctor &hellip; A Jedi Padawan on a healing mission without her Master &hellip; These are the core members of a tiny med unit serving the jungle world of Drongar, where battle is waged over the control of a priceless native plant, and an endless line of medlifters brings in the wounded and dying&mdash;mostly clone troopers, but also soldiers of all species.

''While the healers work desperately to save lives, others plot secretly to profit from the war&mdash;either by dealing on the black market or by manipulating the events of the war itself. In the end, though, all will face individual tests, and only those of compassionate hearts and staunch spirits can hope to survive to fight another day.''

Plot summary
Jedi Padawan Barriss Offee is sent by the Republic to the planet Drongar for her Jedi healing techniques in order to assist the medical staff aboard the Rimsoos, the medical facilities tending to wounded clone troopers over the Battle of Drongar. If Barriss is successful in playing a vital part into healing the clone troopers for the Republic to win over the battle, where the purpose is over bota, a special drug available only on the planet that has different effects on different species, Barriss will return to the Republic as a Jedi Knight. She makes friends with Republic surgeons Jos Vondar, Tolk le Trene, Klo Merit and Zan Yant, as well as the protocol droid I-5YQ and Republic news reporter Den Dhur. I-Five's purpose on Drongar is to find a way back to Coruscant to find and look after Jax Pavan, a young Jedi apprentice who was the son of I-Five's late business partner, Lorn Pavan. Lorn died twelve years earlier by the Sith known as Darth Maul for being in possession of a Sith Holocron that would have revealed vital details to the Blockade of Naboo that followed shortly after Lorn's death, and plans for the downfall of the Jedi Order. Den Dhur begins to associate himself with CT-914, a clone trooper whose friend had died during the battle. CT-914 would later be killed by a Separatist ambush. Barriss finds an antagonistic enemy in Phow Ji, a Republic-hired mercenary who kills Separatist sentient beings on Drongar not just for money, but for his own sadistic pleasures. Their polarized ideals clash that results in a rivalry between them. And meanwhile, in orbit around Drongar, corrupt Republic Admiral Tarnese Bleyd makes a shady deal with Filba the Hutt so that Bleyd can return to his home planet and can result in the Republic's loss over Drongar. Amid all of this, a spy lurks in the corners, sabotaging the Republic's operations on the planet. Bleyd's deal with Filba is ruined when the Hutt is poisoned and dies. Later, Bleyd is confronted by Kaird the Nedij, a member of the Black Sun crime organization which Bleyd is associated to. Kaird confirms to Bleyd that Black Sun is aware of the Admiral's interests, and Kaird kills Bleyd. Phow Ji sacrifices himself by using a bomb to wipe out an entire platoon of Separatist sentient beings, and he has already recorded this to have sent to Den Dhur as an impressive news report to the Republic. Eventually, the spy, who goes by the alias Column under the leadership of the Separatists and the alias Lens under Black Sun, sabotages the Rimsoo that Barriss and her friends reside in. Though they successfully evacuate to another Rimsoo, Zan Yant is killed, throwing Jos Vondar, Dr. Yant's friend, into a deep grief, even despite finding the comfort of a new girlfriend from Tolk le Trene.

Behind the scenes

 * There are several connections to the popular M*A*S*H TV series.
 * On page 53, the Great Hyperspace War is mistakenly referred to as the Stark Hyperspace Conflict.

Cover gallery
This is a gallery of the different cover variations of Medstar I: Battle Surgeons.