Republic Commando_ True Colors Part 35

"Look, I'm sorry Qiilura went to osik. I'd never have suggested it if I'd thought the vhette were going to put up a fight." He stood up and faced her with the awkward air of someone trying not to notice or comment on her b.u.mp, but it seemed to trigger some anxiety in him. Mereel still looked as if he was meditating. "Jusik's intercepted Delta. He can't steer them away from Tropix, not since our chatty Twi'lek buddy mentioned it to them, but he's giving them a very rambling and unspecific briefing on the geology of the islands." Ordo's comlink chirped, and he walked a few meters aft to sit on the cowling of the port drive to answer it. Mereel got to his feet and went to join him.

Etain had expected Skirata to get as far away from Dorumaa as he could. "Aren't Delta going to be a little conspicuous in their full Katarn rig on a tropical island-in Sep s.p.a.ce?"

"If you've seen some of the fashions we've seen parading by in the last hour, ad'ika, I'd say they might get away with it."

"I don't understand why you're still here."

"You think we'll be any more secure on Coruscant?"

"Maybe..."

"Guess who Ko Sai was running from." It took Etain a few moments before the light went on. "Oh. Our respected leader?"

"Head of the queue. Plus the Kaminoan government, the Seps, and us. Coruscant's the last place I can stash her."

Etain didn't think that would be a problem for Skirata given his business contacts. "Can't your Wookiee a.s.sociate find her a soundproofed apartment where Vau can beat the living daylights out of her without upsetting the neighbors? Like last time?"

"She's scoping out other locations, ad'ika. Besides, Vau won't get a look in. My boys don't have happy memories of Ko Sai."

"I'm missing a few details in this, aren't I?"

"That's why I think we should go down below and have a quiet discussion, all of us."

The hatch set abaft the c.o.c.kpit turned out to have a ramp rather than the ladder Etain was dreading. A pungent scent of strill wafted up from below. She thought Skirata was right behind her, but when she looked, he was still up top, and Walon Vau was waiting for her with Mird, who seemed to re-member her if the excited grumbling and snuffling were any guide. The crew cabin was oddly un-ship-like, with a square of scruffy sofas facing one another around a low table bolted to the deck. She sat down and Mird laid its head in her lap, s...o...b..ring happily.

But there was something else on board. Etain's Force-senses detected what she could only articulate as a cold void: the three-dimensional shape it conjured up somewhere be-hind her eyes was a smooth concave, not the rippling, multi-layered, and colorful impressions she got from most beings. She didn't need to be told who or what was in one of the crew cabins that opened onto the main crew lounge. Ko Sai was in one of the compartments, disdainful and unrepentant as she awaited her captors.

"My father would have called this the mess deck," Vau said. When it suited him, he had an effortless patrician charm that was hard to square with how he disciplined his men. "I admit I still flinch when I hear Kal using terms like backward and on a ship. I also admit that it's confusing to have a vessel that's both a maritime and air a.s.set, though."

"So what do you plan to do with her?"

"Ko Sai or Aay'han?"

"Ko Sai."

"It's rather like watching a kragget rat chase a delivery speeder in the lower levels. If they catch one, they realize they have no idea what to do with it, and just sink their fangs into the fender."

"Oh, I think Kal knows what to do."

"Etain, I'm quite used to judging who'll want to divulge their innermost thoughts to me after a little persuasion, and I don't think her cooperation is likely."

"What's she holding out for?" Etain was now distracted slightly by the delay up top, and the foreboding she'd felt ear-lier was now solid and spreading like an oil slick. "What does the life span of a clone matter to her anyway?"

"Professional ego, my dear. She can create life, or shape it to her design, or snuff it out. That G.o.d-like power warps any-one. She's not bargaining with us."

"You've got everything she ever worked for."

"Yes, it must be sobering for her to realize that we only need a fraction of it and we don't care about the rest." Etain noted the we. "Kal's not going to sell it... is he?"

"Absolutely not. He's pretty cavalier about the property of others, but this has become his life's cause. It's literally do or die for him." Vau frowned slightly and went to the foot of the ramp to peer up into the fading light. "What are they doing ip there? Delta's going to pa.s.s this way and see them, and that'll blow everything." He took a few steps up the ramp and called to them. "Special sea duty men to stations, secure all hatches ..."

Vau was almost smiling, clearly in a good mood and playing the sailor, but that smile faded as Ordo came down the ramp with his comlink clutched tight in his fist. Mereel and Skirata followed him, all of them with that same dazed look. Etain could see her bad news coming. I'd know if it was Dar. I really would. It's not Dar. It can't be. She waited, one hand resting on her belly, refusing to even consider it in case thinking it made it happen. "Who is it?" she asked quietly, "Fi," said Ordo. "He's been wounded. He's in a coma." Etain found she had suddenly veered from accepting the reality of warfare to believing it would never happen to the men she knew, and that it wasn't fair when it eventually did. "That was Darman calling. He said they were caught in an explosion during the a.s.sault on Gaftikar, and Fi took a pounding. He's in Leveler's medbay, in low-temperature bacta. Ruptured spleen, too, but it's mainly the head trauma.

He's stable. That's a good sign. Really, it is. It's just a matter of waiting until he regains consciousness."

Ordo was rea.s.suring himself. It didn't seem to have occurred to him to let Darman speak to Etain, but the fact that he'd swept past that told her everything was okay. She felt angry with herself for thinking of Dar first and not concentrating on Fi, Now she was painfully aware of Ordo's dis-tress. Me and Fi were close.

"Better let Bard'ika know," Skirata said. "Leveler will be on station out on the Rim for a few more days yet, so if you give me an order, General Tur-Mukan, I'll recall Corr and he can make up the numbers for Omega until Fi's fit again."

"Of course, whatever you need to do." Skirata usually did as he pleased, but he was in a conciliatory mood today. "Where is he, anyway?"

"Doing some a.s.set denial with Jaing."

"I had to look up the data on Gaftikar when I knew where Dar was deployed," Etain said. "What a marginal thing for us to get involved in. Somehow I always thought the casualties would be in the big battles."

The gathering had taken on a somber tone, and they all sat around trying not to meet one another's eyes. Eventually Ordo broke the silence.

"I'll go visit as soon as he's transferred from Leveler."

"Which facility do troops get taken to?" she asked. "Does Fi end up in a neurological unit?"

"I don't know." The look on Ordo's face said it was more . than just being uncertain which of Coruscant's many hospitals would receive him. "Men normally get treated by mobile units or in theater. They either recover, or die."

"Atin was treated at Ord Mantell base last time," Skirata said. "He's got a chipped bone in his ankle, by the way. Dar's fine. Niner's fine. A'den's fine, too."

"I hadn't forgotten them, Kal." He sounded a little pointed. Etain was still processing the previous sentence, feeling uneasy. "But I don't understand the medical system. Do they have that level of care within the Grand Army? Jedi gossip as much as troops do, and I hear that the mobile units are seriously under-resourced. I'd hate to think of Fi waiting in a long queue to be healed by one exhausted Jedi."

Etain didn't know why she hadn't asked the question be-fore. She'd asked what happened to the bodies of those who died in action, and had no answer; but from that point she'd been working with special forces, and-after the initial disastrous casualty rate when they were deployed badly by novice Jedi generals-they didn't lose many men. The question went away. But now it was back.

Ordo glanced at Skirata as if asking permission to mention something, and got a barely perceptible nod.

"There's a Senator Skeenah who's made a nuisance of himself by demanding answers on what happens to badly injured men, and about long-term provision for troops in general." Ordo's impression in the Force was still tinted with fear, but it was more like anxiety for the welfare of others. Etain knew him well enough to work out who was at the top of that list. "But somehow I don't think his well-meaning campaign to set up charity homes for us when we're basket cases is actually addressing the problem."

"Of course," said Skirata, "we don't know if he's aware that the Republic sends out hit men to execute clones who want to try their luck in Civvy Street, either."

Vau was watching the conversation with an air of boredom, which usually meant quite the opposite. He kept looking across to the one closed cabin, which had to be Ko Sai's holding cell, and exuding impatience. "If you broadcast that on the hour, all day on HNE, n.o.body would care, Kal. I guarantee it."

"They'll care if the Seps start attacking Coruscant and interrupt their holovid viewing, all right."

"But there's not going to be this ma.s.sive wave of protest on behalf of Our Brave Boys. You'll be knocked flat by the wave of apathy. Goodness, our slave army, bred to fight, dis-posed of when it's too much trouble? What a sensible system! Good for the Chancellor! That's what we pay our taxes for!" Vau dropped the bored act and came very close to ex-posing emotion for once. "It saves all those civilians from having to look after their own democracy. The most you'll get is a few creds dropped in a charity box on the anniversary of Geonosis. No Senator is going to change a thing."

Skirata jerked his thumb in the direction of the cabin door. "Time we had another chat with Ko Sai now that we've got our Force-powered lie detector on board."

Etain bristled. "It's good to feel valued, Kal."

"You can do something none of us can, ad'ika. Yes, it's valued."

Mereel stood up to open the cabin, and Mird padded across the deck to intercept. Etain noticed the electroprod hanging from the Null's belt. I'm not even appalled. I know I ought to be, but if he handed me that thing and said a little encouragement would make Ko Sai hand over information that would give Dar and all the others a normal life span - I know I'd use it. That was where attachment led, then. She couldn't muster up much guilt.

But she'd also done unthinkable things to total strangers, like the Nikto terrorist, and the slippery path to that had begun when she was trained as a Jedi to use tricks like mind influence and memory-rubbing.

As he slid the magnetic bolt, Mereel was forming a little black vortex in the Force, not unlike the impression Etain first had of Kal. Ordo appeared to forget Fi for a moment as (he door opened and the tall, thin, gray-skinned figure in a monochrome uniform with black cuffs stepped into the center of the crew compartment.

"The longer you hold me here," Ko Sai said, "the greater the risk you take that someone else will find me."

This was the first Kaminoan that Etain had seen in the flesh. It was hard to believe that this graceful, soft-spoken species could be so monstrous. But she only had to look at Mereel and Ordo, radiating hatred, and the matched con-tempt of Skirata and Vau to see the scars Ko Sai had left in others' lives.

"Sit down, Ko Sai," said Skirata. "Let's pick up where we left off. Can you, or can you not, switch off the genes that cause accelerated aging?"

Ko Sai folded her long, two-fingered hands in her lap as if she was meditating. "It's possible."

"But can you do it?"

"Sergeant, you know perfectly well that I identified the relevant genes for each characteristic we wanted to introduce into the basic Fett genome, so you know I can switch genes on where there are genes that need activation. You also know that I have unique expertise that no other Kaminoan has-or you wouldn't be one of a number pursuing me."

It wasn't an answer. She was going to make Skirata-or Mereel, more likely-plow through petabytes, of data to find the relevant gene cl.u.s.ters. Etain focused on Ko Sai and let the Force impression wash over her. The Kaminoan's sense of being right was immense, but it didn't overwhelm a detachment so total that if Etain hadn't seen people around Ko Sai, she might have thought the scientist was talking to her-self. Skirata, Vau, and definitely Ordo and Mereel-they didn't register as living beings with the Kaminoan. They were objects, no different from Mird or the table. There were always connections in the Force between beings, the element that Etain's brain interpreted as threads and cables, and it was the complete absence of them around Ko Sai that made Etain take notice. It was like seeing jagged holes cut in a fine painting. What was not there was more striking than what was.

That scared Etain more than any signs of violence lurking in Skirata. It was the void she'd sensed, and it explained everything. No wonder the Kaminoans showed no hint of brutality or anger: they just didn't see other species as any-thing more than a fascinating living puzzle whose pieces could be taken apart and rea.s.sembled closer to their idea of perfection.

Skirata wasn't going to get anywhere, Etain knew it. It was possible to beat basic information out of people if they had it, but any complex answer-or trying to force them to do complex work-needed a bit of cooperation.

"Ko Sai, what other cloning projects have your people worked on?" Etain asked, "A number of armies, as well as civilian workforces-miners for Subterrel, agricultural laborers for Folende, even hazmat workers. Our specialty is high-specification, large-volume production for labor-intensive industries where droids are inappropriate, and a product that's tailored exactly to the client's needs."

"Is all that sales-babble in your brochure?" Mereel asked. "Because I think I'm going to puke. Perhaps you'd like me to leverage your synergy with my vibroblade."

Ordo put a restraining hand on his brother's arm and said nothing. Etain caught Skirata's eye; he shrugged and let her continue. Ko Sai would never see living beings in her hatcheries, only product, and so she could never feel pressured by guilt or shame.

She was, however, indecently proud of her reputation as the finest geneticist in the galaxy. That was a great height from which to climb down.

"So what would your personal reputation gain, or lose, if you just told us how the aging process could be normalized?" said Etain. "Or is this about protecting a secret industrial process?"

"Every cloning facility knows how to mature clones rapidly," Ko Sai said. "But there's no advantage in adding a feature that the client doesn't ask to have incorporated."

Etain's temper had never been brought fully under control by Jedi discipline, and hormonal upheaval in the last few months didn't help. "Isn't it your role to advise them on the options?"

"Life expectancy in a war is compromised for everyone."

"If you want to create an ideal army, though, I can under-stand rapid maturation-but it seems odd to allow that deterioration to continue once the product is at its peak." Etain threw Ko Sai's detached business-speak back at her. "Wouldn't you want the product to maintain optimum efficiency for as long as possible? Preserve them at their best? I think you didn't halt the process because you have no idea how. And in that case, we have no use for you."

It was out of Etain's mouth before she could stop it. Skirata didn't twitch a muscle, but Ko Sai wasn't looking at him anyway. She was blinking and swaying her head slightly, all ethereal grace, and Etain would never have picked her out in a crowd as a supremacist and a s.a.d.i.s.tic tormentor of children.

"Our client wasn't concerned about their longevity," she said. "Just that they should be ready when he needed them." Etain sensed the Kaminoan's defensiveness and resentment. She pushed carefully, trying to steer that arrogant intellect into thinking and believing what she suggested. Jedi mind influence was a legitimate weapon. "And your product isn't as reliable as you tell your customer, is it? You don't manage to identify all the defective clones for culling. They're not blindly obedient anyway. Some even desert. You oversold the genetic factor and failed to mention that human beings aren't that predictable."

Ko Sai didn't respond. Maybe she was considering the idea that she was less than perfect, which must have stung a bit. But this wasn't about winning a playground argument. Etain had to help Skirata establish whether Ko Sai could undo what she'd done, and then if she could be made to do it. What did Ko Sai really dread? Where could that lever be placed to shift her?

"I think I've had enough," said Ordo. He got up from the sofa and walked around behind it, then leaned over Mereel with his hand held out. "Give me the datachips, ner vod"

Mereel opened the pouch on his belt and handed over a tight-wrapped block of storage media, bundled together in a small colorful brick. Etain watched Ordo cautiously: he walked a fine line between self-control and chaos far more often than anyone seemed to realize, and news of Fi's condition hadn't helped.

"Are you going to collate the files?" Mereel asked. "No." Ordo unwrapped the brick of plastoid cupped in his hand. "Just having a moment of clarity." He looked across to Ko Sai. "Your entire life's work contained in a thousand cubic centimeters of plastoid, Chief Scientist. Not unlike mine, in fact."

Ordo folded the wrapping tight again and walked into the pa.s.sage that separated the c.o.c.kpit from the crew compartment. Etain thought he was heading for the computer terminal in the storage compartment, but she heard the hatch mechanism hiss open and the thud of his boots as he walked up the ramp.

"Ordo?" No answer. "Ordo? "

The realization must have hit Skirata at the same moment it hit her. Everyone bolted for the hatch, cramming into the short pa.s.sageway, even Ko Sai. Looking up through the canopy, Etain watched in horror as Ordo drew his hold-out blaster, threw the package of datachips high into the air, and fired at it like a claydisk shoot.

Fragments of plastoid flared and rained like a pyrotechnic display.

She couldn't see Skirata or Mereel from this angle. But Ko Sai let out a long gasp and slumped against the bulkhead, weaving her elegant head from side to side in shock. Every precious line of research was gone.

''Oh, shab . . . ," said Vau, hands on hips, and hung his head. Etain was too stunned to speak. "Shab."

It wasn't just Ko Sai's entire life and purpose that had just turned into embers. .h.i.tting the water. It was Darman's, too.

Chapter 13.

Of course Ordo 's messed up. They're all messed up. They used live rounds on exercise at five years old, they fought their first war at ten, and the lucky few got their first kiss as grown men aged eleven. Almost all of them-millions-will die without ever having heard someone say, "Welcome home, sweetheart, I missed you." You think you'd be totally sane after all that?

-Kal Skirata to Captain Jailer Obrim, CSF Anti-Terrorist Unit, discussing life in uniform * * *

The Marina, Tropix island, Dorumaa, 478 days after Geonosis "Ord'ika?"

Skirata tried not to show his shock, but it wasn't working. His voice jammed in his throat and struggled to shake loose.

Ordo stood forward of the hatch, looking out to sea in the growing dusk, and folded his arms. "I'm sorry, Kal'buir."

What am I going to do? How the shab can I start over now? We had it, we had it all, we were so close.. .

"Just-just tell me why, son." How could he do this to me? What did I do to tip him over the edge? "I know you're upset. I know you're worried about Fi."

Mereel caught Skirata's arm. "Nothing you can do, Buir. Let's start again and shake everything out of Ko Sai."

Skirata resisted Mereel's pull at his sleeve. "Give me a minute, son. You go warm her up for me. I need to talk to Ordo."

Skirata knew there was no point in being angry with the lad: this was all his fault. It was so easy to see only the clever, courageous, loyal side of Ordo and his brothers, all their wonderful qualities, and forget how badly damaged they all were at their core. No amount of love could erase what had been done to them at a critical time in their development. All he could do was patch them up, and he was willing to do that until the day he died.

He stood beside Ordo and put his arm around him, not sure now if that would result in a flood of tears or a punch.

"Son, you know how much I love you, don't you? Nothing will ever change that."

"Yes, Buir."