A section of the floor sank, revealing a stairway leading down into darkness. Tash took it.
When she’d gone a few steps, the stone slid back into place. For a moment she was blinded by the darkness, but as her eyes adjusted, she realized there was dim light below. Tash crept down the stairs, counting as she went. When she reached the twenty-fifth step, she knew she was at the bottom.
She was in a long, narrow chamber that was almost a tunnel. The chamber walls were lined with vats filled with bubbling green fluid. They reminded her of the bacta tanks doctors used to heal injured people, but something told her these weren’t bacta tanks.
Tash sensed movement.
She crouched, trying to hide in the shadows as something passed nearby. It was a droid of some kind. It had a small triangular head with two lenses for eyes. Its head swiveled on a long, thin neck attached to a squat body that rolled on wheels. The machine had several mechanical arms. She could tell by its rickety movements that it was very old. The droid almost passed her by. Then it stopped, turned, and rolled toward Tash, but it didn’t threaten her. The droid’s eyes lit up in a light blue color as it sent some sort of scanning beam onto Tash’s arm.
“Genetic material analysis,” the droid said to itself. “This sample has already been harvested. Vats two-two six through two-four-one.”
The droid then looked up at Tash, and another blue beam settled onto her forehead. When it did, Tash felt the same electrical sensation she’d felt when she first entered the room above. She was being scanned. “Mind scan in progress. This brain pattern has already been harvested.”
The droid then lost interest and turned away.
Tash followed the droid into the room. What did it mean by harvested?
She looked at the nearest vat. It was number 222. Tash walked down the row until she found number 226. She looked into the tank filled with green, bubbling slime. There was something bobbing inside.
She leaned over to get a closer look, and saw a small figure curled up like a baby, floating in the liquid. Its back was to her so that all she could see were its shoulders and a thick mane of hair. But then the figure bobbed in the bubbling goo and rolled toward her. She saw two familiar-looking eyes, wide open, staring at her through the slime-bath.
Tash had seen those eyes in the mirror every day of her life.
Tash was again staring at herself.
CHAPTER 13
Clones.
Tash was in a room full of cloning tanks. And this tank, and the next, and the one after that, and maybe others, were full of clones of Tash herself
“How can that be?” she whispered to herself. She knew she was right. She’d once learned about cloning from an Ithorian named Fandomar. Cloning technology was possible. Scientists could take DNA from anything-blood or hair or a few flakes of skin-and use the genetic code inside to grow an exact copy of the original person. But it took years to let the clone grow, and Tash had only been on Dantooine for a few weeks!
“Query?”
Tash nearly jumped. The droid had come up behind her. It must have heard her speak.
“Query?” the droid asked again.
“Urn, yes,” she said. “How can these clones be grown so quickly?”
The droid paused. “Information on rapid cloning process is restricted.” The droid turned away.
Rapid cloning. Obviously Vader had developed some sort of quick cloning method that allowed him to grow clones not in years, or even months or days, but hours! But why was Vader here?
Tash had a thousand questions, but she knew she would get no response from the droid. While it obviously wasn’t programmed to guard against intruders, it wasn’t going to be helpful, either.
She looked around for anything that might prove useful. But aside from the cloning tanks and the droid, there wasn’t much else in the room. Just a container full of flight suits. Tash guessed that when the real Rebels had vacated the base, they’d left their laundry behind. Now Vader was using it to clothe his clone army.
She was about to turn away from the container when she had an idea. Quickly, she pulled out a flight suit that would fit her, shucked off her clothes, tossed them aside, and slipped into her new outfit.
Just in time. Stone ground against stone at the top of the stairs. Tash scurried into the shadows beside the staircase and held her breath.
Two Rebels came down. They were identical, clones of the same person. “There’s no way she could have found her way down here,” said the first clone.
“The leader ordered us to check everywhere,” said clone number two.
“Fine. Then ask the droid if it’s seen anything,” said the first clone.
“Why? All that droid’ll do is scan us and say it already has our genetic material.”