[Republic Commando] - 03(112)

Slowly, slowly …

Vau’s voice was a whisper in the helmet comlinks. “All clear this end. Ordo’s ETA is fifty minutes, Jusik’s two hours.”

“What’s Delta’s?”

“Five, maybe six.”

On a mission like this, with so many unknowns, that lead might evaporate.

“Might lose our signal, Walon. The abort point is…”

“I don’t do aborts, Kal. I’ll wait here until the oxygen runs out. That’s two months … at least.”

“I hope you brought a holozine to read, then….”

“Oh, I won’t be bored. I’ll be counting your proceeds from the robbery.”

Vau always knew how to wind him up, but making it obvious was as close as the man could ever come to being friendly. Skirata could feel the sweat beading on his upper lip, the sort that cooling inside the shabla bucket could never prevent. He thought the water was getting lighter. But it was his imagination.

If there were any alarms they’d tripped without knowing it…

No, the water was getting lighter. He could see a definite green glow to it now. “Mer’ika, what’s that?”

“If it’s a sump,” Mereel said, “there’ll be a vertical shaft leading up into a dry zone.”

“You’re a smart lad.”

“I know how kaminiise think. Remember the older section of Tipoca? How they first built the stilt-cities when the planet flooded?”

“I didn’t explore as widely as you kids did. In fact, I still don’t know all the places you managed to access.”

The Kaminoans loathed the Nulls. Uncommandable, Orun Wa said. Deviant. Disturbed. Ko Sai even sent Jango Fett an apology for how inadequate her product had turned out, promising to put it right in the Alpha batch after they’d “re-conditioned” the failures.

It would be good to see her again, and show her just how her “product” had grown up.

Now the vessel was in hazy water, meters from what looked like a break in the ceiling of the tunnel, and finally they edged forward into a pool of light. Mereel craned his neck.

“There you go, Kal’buir.”

Above the transparisteel cockpit canopy was a water-filled shaft, and it was clear enough to make out the surface. It didn’t look like fifty meters, though. Thirty, maybe. A dark shape sat motionless at the top: a hull.

“So that’s going to eat some pumping power,” Skirata said.

“Yeah, I think that’s below sea level. Might be limited by the geology, which I doubt, given the terraforming. Might be designed to flood the inner chamber in an emergency.”

“Let’s just crack it,” Skirata said.

“This is where it gets interesting, then.”

Skirata checked his blaster and blade again and felt his stomach churn then settle, the way it always did when he was ready to fight. “Take us up, Mer’ika”

It was hard to tell if anyone was up there waiting for them, or if there were any traps. But there was no dianoga, just brilliant pink-orange growths on the stone, and when Gi’ka broke the surface and the water ran off the canopy in rivulets, Skirata could see that they were in an empty chamber like a swimming pool with tiled edges and a bank of lighting in the ceiling. A dull gray ship a little bigger than the Wavechaser sat in the water, secured by a line and bobbing slightly as Gi’ka made waves.

Mereel took out his blaster, Kal prepared to jump out be-hind him, and the canopy popped open.

Gi’ka wasn’t stable on the surface. She threatened to roll like a canoe until Mereel hit something on the console and she stabilized. He brought her alongside the jetty and looped his fibercord line around a large cleat set on the permacrete rim. If they’d needed to make a fast exit from the craft, they’d have been out of luck. Skirata extracted himself from the hull and fell onto the jetty. There were times when the age difference weighed heavily.

“I think we go in here…” Mereel indicated a single large bulkhead hatch set in one wall, and looked around for controls, which turned out to be set behind a watertight plate. He pried it open while Skirata stood ready to take on whatever might lie on the other side.

“Ready?”

“Ready, son.”

“Knock, knock …”

Mereel pushed a circuit disruptor into the control panel. The hatch opened, lifting from the lower edge and receding into a recess at the top. Skirata, one weapon in each hand, cycled through the range of visor options from infrared to EM and found he was staring straight ahead into another tunnel, but one whose walls were lined with pipes; at the end, it looked like a T-junction, with a passage off to either side. He moved along it with Mereel, each covering the other as they reached the end and checked either side.