[Republic Commando] - 03(103)

“Well, maybe she didn’t-not for long, anyway.” Vau listened carefully and caught a faint beeping. “Is that the cockpit alarm?”

Skirata paused and straightened up, frowning. His hearing had taken a pounding from standing too close to artillery over the years, even though he managed to hide the fact.

“Unless you know it isn’t, why are you standing around asking the question?”

They made for the cockpit, but Mereel was already leaning across the pilot’s seat, talking to a familiar voice on the other end of the open comm. Vau caught the word Delta just as he squeezed into the compartment.

“It’s General Jusik,” Mereel said. “Delta are on their way here. Want to talk to him, Kal’buir?”

“Osik.” Skirata raked his fingers through his hair. “What happened, Bard’ika?”

“They caught up with the Twi’lek pilot. Not much I could do, but at least I stopped him from giving them too much detail.”

“What did you do, shoot him before he could talk?”

“Bit of the old Jedi magic. He got as far as saying he’d told some Mandalorians about Dorumaa, so I suggested they’d been wearing green armor. If he’d said gold, and black, and… well, Delta know your armor, Kal.”

Skirata closed his eyes. “Thanks.”

“And I made sure he didn’t get as far as giving them coordinates for the drop. But they know it’s Dorumaa, and they’ve had to divert to pick up some scuba armor. I estimate you’ve got ten to twelve hours, but I’m going to be there in six.”

Vau cut in. “To do what, exactly? Not that we don’t appreciate your assistance, but-“

“You haven’t found Ko Sai yet, have you?”

“We’re close,” Skirata said.

“Well, if you haven’t found her in six hours, I’ll help you.”

Vau nudged Skirata in the ribs. “And if we haven’t found her by the time Delta get here, you keep them busy. How are they planning to insert, anyway?”

“Land during the night and just pose as sport divers if they have to.”

“Thanks, Bard’ika.”

They couldn’t have expected Delta to be far behind. The Problem with hunting for someone was that the hunt itself tended to bring debris to the surface, and even if Delta didn’t quite have the Nulls’ remarkable access to information, they’d been trained in the same techniques. Vau felt a little flush of pride that his squad hadn’t done so badly compared with Skirata’s precious boys and all their genetic enhancements, but he decided not to rub it in.

“Come on,” Skirata said wearily. “More caves to ping.” He settled down in the copilot’s seat.

Whatever differences Vau had with him, the man had an extraordinary tenacity; the size of the task ahead was so huge, the chances so flimsy, that any sane individual would never have bothered to start. It wasn’t just a matter of finding one Kaminoan who didn’t want to be found. Vau wondered if she was even capable of doing what Skirata wanted.

If this is all a wasted effort … how’s the little chakaar going to take it?

The quest-oh yes, it was a quest, a sacred calling for Skirata now-seemed to sustain him. It was as powerful as religion. He was so fixed on his boys’ welfare that he seemed to have no plans for himself, and his definition of who qualified as his boys was now so all-encompassing that it seemed in danger of sucking him dry. It was more than the Nulls, who had been his sons in fact if not in name from the day he met them. His obsession had then spread to the commandos, and now to any stray trooper who came into his orbit, like Corr. It was as if Skirata was desperate to avoid any thought of himself, to erase himself in every waking moment.

Maybe his memories were unhappier than Vau knew; he seemed to be reinventing himself a day at a time, and he rarely talked about his past now, not even his father.

He never talks about his mother. And apart from the knife-does he recall anything of his birth parents?

Toxic things though they were, Vau still found families interesting. The best thing he’d ever done was to run away from his own. As if on cue, Mird appeared at his side and clambered onto his lap, the only family he had, and maybe the best kind.

“Did you ever think of asking Arkanian Micro to take a look at some clone tissue?” Vau asked. “Just in case.”

“I did.” Skirata was staring straight ahead at the shifting three-dimensional display of the sonar mapping scanner, reflected onto the transparisteel viewport. “But it’ll be my very last resort. Once they have a genome to play with… well, I don’t want to see any more lads bred to die.”