Luke nodded. And as a result, for the past twelve years the medics in charge here had made it a rigid policy to conserve every single drop of bacta, even to the point of siphoning it out of patients’ ears when necessary. “I can’t say this last part was very pleasant,” he said. “On the other hand, I’d hate to have arrived and found out you didn’t have enough bacta to treat me.”
“Perhaps it is simply the path of old habit,” the droid said. “Still, I am told it is wise to remember the past.”
“It is indeed,” Luke agreed soberly, nodding to the bacta reclamation container. “And even wiser to learn from it.”
Artoo was waiting in their assigned room, plugged into the desk and warbling softly to himself as he conversed with the medical facility’s main computer. His dome swiveled as Luke came in, the warbling changing to an excited whistling. “Hi, Artoo,” Luke said. “Keeping busy?”
The little droid made an affirmative-sounding twitter, which changed to something questioning. “Oh, I’m fine,” Luke assured him, patting his side. “Some of the shrapnel was in pretty deep, but they got it all out. A little dip in a bacta tank, and I’m good as new. The medic said I shouldn’t fly for another hour or so, but it’ll probably take that long to get the ship rolled out and prepped anyway.”
Artoo whistled again, rotating his dome around in a complete circle. “Yes, I see they did a good job with you, too,” Luke agreed. “Did you ask them to take a look at the X-wing?”
Another affirmative twitter. “Good,” Luke said. “Then I guess the only question left is where we should go next.”
Artoo’s dome swiveled back again to face him, a distinctly suspicious note to his next warble. “We’re not out here on vacation, Artoo,” Luke reminded him, pulling up a chair beside the droid where he could keep an eye on the desk’s computer display for more complicated translations. “We’re here to track down those clones and find out where they’re coming from. We’re not going to accomplish that by going home to Yavin or Coruscant.”
He looked out the window at the hills rising steeply behind his room, their carpet of gold-colored grasses gleaming in the afternoon sunlight. Yes, the mission statement itself was perfectly straightforward. Unfortunately, the necessary procedure for completing it was anything but. He’d tried the surreptitious approach to that Cavrilhu base; all he’d gotten for his trouble had been yet another swim in a bacta tank. And, of course, the chance to see Mara again.
He grimaced. Mara. He’d been expecting to run into her again ever since that pirate raid he and Han had thwarted off Iphigin-in fact, he wouldn’t put it past Han to have had something to do with Mara showing up at the Kauron asteroid field that way. He’d expected to run into her, and had secretly dreaded the prospect.
And yet, looking back on it, the encounter hadn’t been nearly as tense as he’d feared it would be. She’d been cooperative and polite, or at least as polite as Mara ever got. More significantly, the quiet but strong animosity he’d sensed radiating toward him at their last couple of brief encounters hadn’t been present.
Or maybe it had been there and he just hadn’t noticed. Maybe his deliberately diminished use of the Force these days had simply prevented him from sensing that deeply into her mind without a deliberate probe.
He scowled out at the hills. There was definitely some kind of cause and effect at work here-that much he was sure of. The question was, which was the cause and which the effect?
Artoo warbled questioningly. “I’m trying to figure it out,” Luke told him, glancing at the translation. “Just relax, okay?”
The droid warbled again and fell into an expectant silence. Luke sighed and settled back into his seat, gazing out at the hills. Mara was a puzzle, but she was a puzzle that would have to wait. At the moment, his immediate future was focused on this cloning question.
His future…
He glanced back at Artoo, the memory of their time with Yoda drifting to mind. Luke’s Jedi training, and that first time he’d gotten a glimpse into the future.
A glimpse that had nearly resulted in disaster. He’d rushed off madly to Cloud City to try to save Han and Leia, and had instead nearly gotten all of them killed.
But he’d learned so much about the Force since then. And he had been able to draw other visions of the future without doing anything rash. Lately his efforts in that direction had been strangely unrewarding; but as long as he was supposed to take it easy for an hour or so anyway, it wouldn’t hurt to give it a try.