[Republic Commando] - 03(106)
“Oh.” There was a slight drop in her tone as if she hadn’t expected to hear that. “Okay.”
“If Darman uses it, it’s not because he regards you as his strill, General…”
She made a little sound as if she was trying to laugh but had forgotten how. “So does everyone else know about the baby except Dar?”
“Just Kal’buir, Sergeant Vau, and my brothers. And Bard’ika, obviously.” Ordo respected Jusik’s ability to sit on the news for as long as he had, but it made him wonder what else the Jedi didn’t tell him. He longed for a day when none of this subterfuge was necessary. “Because we have a duty to look after you.”
“I… I appreciate your concern.”
“No pain?”
“No.”
“Any more bleeding?”
“No … Bardan knew before I told Kal, actually. He sensed it.” She let out a long sigh and clasped her hands on her belly as if it were much larger than it actually was. “Is he still angry with me?”
“You’d know if he was. Kal’buir just tries too hard to put the galaxy right for us, but it can’t b”e done, and it isn’t his job to do it now that we’re grown men.”
“Have you ever told him that?”
“Not in those words, exactly.”
“So you’re scared of him, too.”
“No. I’m scared of not being worthy of him.”
“No pressure, then …”
It was hard when someone devoted their entire life to your welfare, a mounting debt that never got paid. Ordo wanted to see Kal’buir get a decent night’s sleep in a proper bed, and have his ankle fixed. He wanted him to find a nice woman to take care of him; in fact, he wanted all the things for his buir that the man wanted for his sons, more or less. “I’d better warn him we’re coming when we drop out of hyperspace.”
“Why didn’t you call him earlier?”
“Because he would have told me to take you back to Coruscant, and I would never disobey him.”
“Even if he’s wrong?”
Ordo didn’t always agree with Skirata, but that was a long way from his being wrong. “He needs me there.”
“And am I going to be any use like this?”
“You don’t have to be useful.”
“What’s the big deal with Dorumaa anyway? Because I know Kal would never take a leave, let alone in the middle of a war.”
There was no point keeping it from her. She’d find out as soon as they touched down. “Ko Sai.”
“What about her?”
“I think they’ve found her, and that means her research, too.”
Etain was suddenly very quiet. He could hear her breathing but kept his eyes on the streaked starscape in front of him.
“Kal wasn’t just ranting, then.”
“No.” She didn’t understand him at all. “Mereel has been tracking her for months. Unfortunately…” Ordo wondered whether it was wise to tell her that Jusik had tipped off Skirata. It wasn’t. If they wanted to confide in each other as Jedi, that was up to Bard’ika. “Unfortunately, Delta caught up with one of his informants and so they’re heading for Dorumaa, too, on the Chancellor’s personal orders to capture her.”
This time he did glance at Etain, and she looked like a scared child. Her mouth was slightly open and she was an awful color, almost gray; he should never have mentioned it The last thing she needed in her state was another thing to fret about, but if she didn’t worry about it now, she’d have to worry about it when they landed, and he couldn’t possibly have left her on Qiilura any longer to do more worrying with only the shapeshifters for company.
“You really are crazy, aren’t you?” Etain said.
“Me personally?”
“Kal and the Nulls going up against Delta… and defying Palpatine?”
He struggled to reassure her. “We’re not fighting Delta. We’re just getting there first. No harm done.”
“Ordo, this private-army thing has to stop. You can’t do this. You’ll end up being shot for treason.”
That rang all the wrong bells with Ordo. She might have said it as a general warning, but it was a little too close to the hidden reality of Sull and the other ARC troopers who wanted out of the GAR.
“So you know they put us down like animals, do you?”
“I was just…”
He wanted to put it to her straight: did the Jedi know about executions? Did they ever discuss what went on once the battles were over? But he knew Kal’buir would be angry if he raised Etain’s blood pressure and harmed the child, so he bit his lip-literally-and let his anger and mistrust pass.