Republic Commando_ True Colors Part 43

Jusik shrugged. "Oh, medics misdiagnose brain death all the time. I'm just reluctant to give up. Always was a sore loser."

But Ordo knew when Jusik was pleased with himself. It was the same quiet amus.e.m.e.nt as when he made some clever gadget. Jusik was good at fixing things, and it seemed he could fix people, too. He basked in the contentment of successful problem solving.

"This is all guesswork, but for once I'll take the mystic Jedi method over the medcenter," Skirata said. "How long do you think you'll have to keep this up?"

"Days. Maybe weeks."

"Zey's going to notice sooner or later. Delta can't stay on Dorumaa indefinitely."

"It's going to take them a week even to start working their way into Ko Sai's facility, unless we want to risk drilling in there with big conspicuous industrial-sized machinery" Jusik said. "I can take a few days away from Fi then and catch up with them. But I wouldn't rely on Zey turning a blind eye to my bending the rules on Fi, and I'd rather be in trouble for not obeying orders on the Ko Sai search than indicate to Zey that I know where Fi is."

"Sooner or later," Skirata said, "he's going to notice he's getting a lot less out of the Nulls, too. Maybe that'll be the time to tell him that Jaing knows where Grievous is."

"Ah, I thought you might..." Jusik said quietly. "Well, we've all got our little secrets to trade now, haven't we? Yes, Jaing knows, and he thinks it was too easy to be true. Hence my silence on the matter."

"What a dirty galaxy we live in." Ordo did a few rough calculations. "I think we can count on Delta being stuck on Dorumaa for weeks, and not just be-cause of the c.o.c.ktails. They're doing the equivalent of excavating with a spoon."

"They're not a c.o.c.ktail kind of squad," Jusik said, sound-ing almost regretful. "They won't take advantage of it at all For some reason, that depresses me."

It was a waiting game now in both the areas that mattered most to them-Fi's recovery and Ko Sai's gradual revelation of what she could do to regulate the aging genes. While Jusik worked on Fi, Skirata used the time to catch up by comlink with every commando in his former training company and each of the deployed Nulls. He had a sense of urgency about him, as if there were things he didn't want to leave unsaid as he had with Fi.

Ordo took Besany back to her apartment and debated whether this was the right time to do as Sergeant Vau had told him.

But she'd already had quite a week when it came to skat-ing on thin legal ice. Spying on cla.s.sified defense projects and abducting patients at blasterpoint was plenty to be going on with.

He'd wait a few days before he involved her in the murky world of bank raids and stolen shoroni sapphires.

Chapter 17.

Sir, we've managed to get a strip-cam filament into the collapsed chamber using the mechanism from a self-embedding charge. It's going to take weeks to remove enough material to search for organic remains, but one thing the cam has picked up is what looks like a chest plate of Mandalorian armor. I'll leave it up to you to decide if you want to pa.s.s that information on to General Zey.

-Sitrep from RC-1138, Boss, to General Jusik * * *

Kyrimorut, Mandalore, 499 days after Geonosis "You said you wanted a laboratory." Mereel was running out of patience, and he'd managed to show a remarkable amount to Ko Sai given that he wanted to kill her. "This is a laboratory."

The Kaminoan scientist couldn't quite bring herself to step into the structure. Etain tried to encourage her.

"This is as good as you're going to get for the time being," she said. "And it means you don't have to wait for a conventional lab to be built. This is Mandalore, after all."

"It's an agricultural trailer." Ko Sai sounded crushed. Etain was used to all the subtle nuances in her tone now, and the Kaminoan voice wasn't wholly sweetness and serenity any more than their character was. It was just harder for a human being to hear. "This is used for animals."

"Don't tempt me to state the obvious," said Mereel. "It's a mobile genetics unit, and I don't see what difference it makes whether it's racing odupiendos or humans that you're a.s.sessing. Except the dupies are worth a lot more."

Etain thought. Mereel had done well to get hold of it. But Ko Sai had Tipoca standards. Reminding her that she could extract DNA with the pots, pans, and household chemicals in the kitchen wasn't going to help. She lowered her head and walked back into the house.

Mereel shook his head. "Etain, this is what they use at the racetracks. Those guys are as tight on genome identification as any Kaminoan, right along with drug testing. This is just a mini version of what a half-decent university would have."

"I know," she said. He sounded like a husband who'd bought his wife a totally unsuitable gift and was hurt to find she didn't like it. "That's the downside of finding the one thing that motivates her and taking away everything else."

"Okay, we could build a lab like she had on Dorumaa, but that's months away."

"And we don't really intend for her to do any worthwhile Jedi genome research, do we?"

"No, but we certainly want her to design a delivery system for regulating my genes."

"I think she's cracking up."

Mereel held up his hands as if he didn't want to hear. "Excuse me while I gag."

"She's no use to us insane."

"If you've got any ideas for soothing her troubled soul, other than calling Kamino or the Arkanians and negotiating a deal, or even doing the same with the Chancellor, then you're doing better than me."

Etain was learning more than she ever wanted to about genetics. Many genes, Ko Sai liked to tell her, controlled aging. Etain didn't just see the enormity of the task facing Mereel; she also saw how many things might go wrong for her unborn child. In both, all she could do was take it a day at a time. She went after Ko Sai and tried to inject a little enthusiasm into her.

"You managed with your lab on Dorumaa," Etain said.

"And that was pretty small, too. You've got all the imaging and a.n.a.lysis stuff. Isn't that a start?"

The Kaminoan sat in the room she had made her sanctuary, a windowless storeroom where she could avoid direct sunlight, and shuffled her datapads into a neat pile. She didn't need locking up any longer. She'd shown no inclination to escape and never left the building unless Mereel made her; it was too bright and dry here for her liking.

"That's the problem, Jedi," she said. "It's a start. Not a progression or a continuation. Beginning again is very hard sometimes."

Etain wondered how much difference it would make if she knew her own research still existed, and then imagined Mereel's reaction if she blew one of his main negotiating points. She almost dropped a hint. Almost.

"There's always a commercial lab like Arkanian Micro..."

"They would never use my methodology. It's too slow for them. They're bulk producers. We all have our niche in the market."

Etain wondered what hatcheries that could churn out a few million clones counted as if not bulk, then. But Ko Sai was right: ten years was longer than most customers wanted to wait.

"What would you want, ideally?" Etain asked. "Better imaging equipment, more computing power, and lab droids."

Etain took a datapad from her robes and slid it in front of the scientist. It was newly published research from an eminent embryologist on expression of some gene whose code number Etain couldn't even memorize, but it was the kind of material that was as exciting to Ko Sai as the latest celebrity gossip holozine would be to most Coruscanti holovid fans. It distracted her. She glanced at the author's name.

"He's mediocre at best," she said sweetly. "I shall savor correcting this."

"Of course-you never published research, did you? Academics didn't even know Kamino was there."

"There were times when that was ... galling, I admit."

"I'll talk to Mereel. He's doing his best, believe me."

"Perhaps he should have considered his best before he and that savage who corrupted him destroyed my life's work." Ko Sai curled her long claw-like hand gently around Etain's arm. "You understand, though. You understand what it is to have so much knowledge and yet have so few outlets for its application."

Etain had that sudden connection with another species, as the had sometimes when looking into Mird's eyes, when she felt she truly knew who was in there. Did she understand? She could guess what motivated Ko Sai, imagine what it was to be her, and even think as she thought up to a point. Per-haps she even pitied her, utterly alone and never able to go home, or even mix with her professional peers.

Hang on, this is someone who builds children to design specs, and kills them if they don't meet quality control standards.

It was an ugly thought for any expectant mother. Etain shook off the pity and reminded herself that monsters weren't a separate species, or even wholly different from the rest of their own, and that was what made them monstrous.

"I wouldn't swap lives with you, Chief Scientist," she said. "I just don't understand why you won't concede a small thing to a handful of men who mean nothing to you anyway."

"Skirata would sell that knowledge to the highest bidder. Mandalorians are amoral. Look at our clone donor, Fett."

Ko Sai seemed to have no idea just how much of a crusade this was becoming for Skirata. He'd moved rapidly beyond the focus of just saving his boys: he was now repelled by the whole idea of cloning.

"I don't think he would," Etain said. "He's not a paragon of virtue, but I think he'd use it solely on his troops and then defray it. He'd never sell it."

She hoped that might soften Ko Sai. It happened to be the truth, and sometimes the truth was so unexpected in a dis-honest world that it was a shock weapon. Etain left her to chew that over and went back to the mobile gene-tech unit parked outside. Mereel was wiping down the surfaces with sterilizing fluid like a fussy droid.

"I don't think my hearts-and-minds initiative is working with her, Mer'ika" she said.

"That's because she's missing one of the essential components in that pair. I'll give you a few nanoseconds to work out which one."

"I think she's finally coming to the end of her tether after being away from Kamino and all her comfort zones for a year. I don't think she thought it through when she bolted." Mereel stood back to admire his handiwork, visibly subdued. To Etain's lay eye, the lab looked pretty impressive, but then she had no idea what Tipoca City laid on for its scientists. The whole planet relied wholly on cloning exports.

"Like I didn't think through what might happen if we got the research, grabbed the scientist, and then thought we had all the kit for making a solution to the problem," Mereel said at last. "Even Nulls misjudge situations. That's why we're human, and not droids."

"I think," Etain said, "that you grabbed an opportunity be-cause it was senseless to ignore it, and then started to put too much faith in it. As we all do sometimes."

And no woman who conceived a baby as she had could pa.s.s judgment on any clone for seizing what he could. Sometimes, things worked out.

The Force made her certain that something positive-she didn't yet know what-would come of all this. It had to.

Jailer Obrim's residence, Rampart Town, Coruscant, 499 days after Geonosis "How's Fi today?" Besany asked. "I brought Dar to see him."

Jailer Obrim stood back to let them in. "See for yourself And if you can get Bardan to relax for a while, you'll be doing better than me." He clapped Darman on the shoulder. "Good to see you again. How's Corr settling in?"

"Fine, sir. He blew up a gas storage facility on Liul last week, and he was very pleased with himself. Sort of his qualifier for the squad, if he needed one."

"I'm glad to see you boys know how to have fun." Fi was propped almost upright now, but the tubes were still in place, and the med droid-one that was programmed only to nurse, thankfully-checked the saline drip before leaving them with him. Jusik seemed back to his relaxed self. "I waited for you," Jusik said. "Time for the next stage." Darman perched himself on the edge of Fi's bed and took his hand. Everyone did that automatically now. Jusik opened the holdall he'd brought on the first night and began pulling out a set of Mandalorian armor.

"I raided his locker," he said. "You know how much this meant to him."

The Jedi laid out a gray leather kama like a tablecloth where Fi could stare straight at it, and placed a red-and-gray helmet and armor plates on top of it.

"See that, Fi?" Jusik sat on the other edge of the bed and tilted Fi's head a little so-if he was conscious of anything at all-he could see the thing he prized most: a set of armor he'd pillaged on Qiilura from a mercenary called Hokan. Besany found it odd that they didn't seem to find killing a Mandalorian unsettling. "You keep looking at that, ner vod. Because you're going to be wearing it as soon as you're back on your feet. I promise you. You're a free man now."

Jusik leaned over and looked into Fi's face as if he expected him to answer, but the commando's eye movements seemed random and uncoordinated. Jusik settled at Fi's side again and put one hand on his scalp, pouring every effort into repairing the damaged tissue in his brain.

Besany thought it was time to leave Darman with his brother for a while. Obrim stood at the doorway a long time and eventually surrendered to her tug on his sleeve. She could have sworn there were tears in his eyes; there were certainly tears in hers. They stood in the kitchen and the captain busied himself making caf, missing the cup and scattering grains everywhere.

"He's never going to be back to normal, is he?" Obrim said, voice cracking. "Even if he makes ninety percent of what he was, it'll still be hard on him."

"The clones have a very high definition of normal, I've found. They're also incredibly resilient."

"That boy in there . . . that boy saved my men from a grenade during a siege, by throwing himself on it. I say that's worth more than a thank-you and a few ales at the CSF Staff Club. He can stay here as long as he needs to. Right?"

Besany had heard that story so many times now from so many CSF officers-most of whom hadn't even been present during the incident-that she was beginning to understand how reputations and legends were made. Obrim was one of life's hard men, and he didn't cry easily. But Fi had somehow become an icon, a symbol to the police, at least, of all those in uniform who did the dirty jobs and got no thanks. He'd be-come a hero. And, as Ordo mentioned every time she used the phrase, Mandalorians had no word for "hero."

"Right," said Besany. "And I'm glad Kal's got a friend he can turn to."

"Someone his own age to play with,, eh?" Obrim rattled cups and said nothing, with the same expression on his face that she'd seen on Skirata's. It was the face of a man working out who he needed to hurt to make things right with the galaxy. "Is this what we elected?"

"What?"

"We both work for government enforcement. We're Coruscant citizens. Is this what we thought we were getting as part of the deal? What's happening to the Republic?"

"I know. I've asked myself the same thing..."

"I did twenty-eight years in the Senate Guard before I transferred to CSF. Did I take my eye off the ball? I wonder if it happened on my watch and I didn't spot it."

"Police can only deal with the law. Not ethics."

"But these decisions are being made by politicians I've known and protected for years. It makes it... personal betrayal, I suppose." Obrim seemed to focus on the caf again. "Technically, in law, we just stole government property. Like taking old office equipment from a department dumpster, not a living, breathing man with rights. How did we ever let that happen?"

"It didn't happen overnight. It crept up on us."

"But who's going to do anything about it? The Senate's smiling and nodding, and even the Jedi Council-okay, I talk to Jusik too much."

"He's going to rebel, isn't he?"

"He's not happy wearing the robes, I can tell you that. Very moral boy. Very moral. None of this seeing stuff from a certain point of view. No ambiguity. He calls it as he sees it."

Besany wondered if Skirata knew, and then thought that he probably spotted Jusik's tendencies right from the start. He was good at that. "Can they leave? Can Jedi resign?"

"No idea. Maybe they get them to turn in their belt and lightsaber or something."

"We'll find out. Ordo says there'll be a showdown with his boss before too long."

Besany left Darman as long as she could, keeping an eye on the chrono because she was now fitting this into her lunch breaks. Jusik was still sitting there with his hand on Fi's head, doing whatever it was that Jedi did when they healed others, and talking very quietly to him. He glanced up at her, distracted for a moment, and she took Fi's free hand. She found herself with a nervous grip on the tips of his fingers, sensing no reaction, and feeling she was somehow intruding by touching him when he wasn't aware of it, or at least un-able to respond to her. With his features slack, eyes half closed and blinking frequently, he looked more of a total stranger now than when he'd been completely unresponsive.

"I'll be back later, Fi," she said. "One of the other Nulls is coming to see you soon. A'den."

Jusik parted her on the hand, not looking up. She had the air taxi drop Darman at the barracks, and then got off a few blocks from her office to take a few minutes to think. Her focus was widening again now, taking in the city around her and the beings streaming past her on foot and in speeders, and she had a moment of frightening clarity.

I pulled a blaster on staff at the medcenter and abducted a patient. Or stole government property. Whatever. I did it. And that's on top of slicing data. They'll fire me, if whoever was watching me doesn't shoot me first.

She was too deeply mired in the situation to lose her nerve now, and d.a.m.ned either way. If she was going to be dis-graced, which she was, then it wouldn't make matters any worse if she pulled out all the stops. I used to be sensible.