[Republic Commando] - 03(146)

If Darman hadn’t been so focused on Fi’s plight, he might have felt sorry for the droid.

“Clones can be very disruptive to the orderly running of this unit,” it said. “I tire of explaining our protocols to you, which is why I usually bar your kind from the treatment areas.” So this wasn’t the first argument the droid had had with a man’s comrades, then. “But I have no authorization to transfer a patient in this state to any facility, so what happens to RC-eight-zero-one-five when we transfer the wounded is outside my authority.”

Niner stood back to let Darman and Atin steer the gurney across to the treatment bays. They now had an audience of droids and walking wounded. “You mean you don’t know what to do with him.”

“That’s what I said, isn’t it?”

The droid let them take Fi. It was a busy droid that didn’t have time to argue with RCs who weren’t going to take no for an answer, and Darman felt brief guilt for tying up resources when there were wounded vode with less clout in dire need. But Fi was his brother, and if Darman didn’t look out for him then the whole fabric of his tight-knit world, the small circle of people who were his life, meant nothing.

Niner pulled the bay shutters across to give Fi some privacy, and the three men crowded in as best they could, shoulder plates scraping one another. They had no idea what to do with Fi, either, except lay him in a coma position, make sure his saline line was clear-Sergeant Gilamar’s combat medic course back in Tipoca was ingrained in them-and get on the comlink to someone who’d be able to sweep aside the bureaucracy and osik back on Coruscant: Kal Skirata.





Chapter 15


The difficulty is knowing not who to trust-nobody, absolutely nobody-but who can be allowed to know how much about a given situation. It s no secret that we hold Dr. Uthan in a Republic jail, and the assumption is that we need her expertise to prevent the Separatists from creating another anti-clone virus like hers, or even force her to create a countermeasure. But I prefer to think of her as my insurance policy. Should I ever need to remove the Grand Army-if the clones are not as loyal as the Kaminoans claim, and we all know the claims merchants make-then I have my means.

-Chancellor Palpatine, private memoirs, on the uses of enemy scientists



Special Operations Brigade HQ, Coruscant, 482 days after Geonosis

So it was a big pile of rock,” said General Zey.

“Yes sir.” Jusik could do calm like nobody else, and it seemed to be getting to his boss. “I estimate a few tons.”

Jusik sat completely composed, fingers meshed as his hands rested on Zey’s lovely blue desk. Sev, in I’ll-wait-to-be-spoken-to mode like the rest of Delta Squad, sat to his right, helmet on lap, staring straight ahead, managing to feel that the conversation didn’t involve him or his brothers at all. It was, Vau said, probably like a Jedi being in a state of meditation: aware, but not distracted. It was handy to be able to do that when your CO was getting a subtle roasting from his boss right in front of you.

“But we don’t have any confirmation that there was a facility under that island,” Zey said, staring out the window with his back to them. “Or that Ko Sai used it. And even if she did, we don’t know if she was at home when Master Disaster came to call, do we?”

“We don’t, sir.”

If Zey leaned on Sev, he wouldn’t be able to tell him anything different from Jusik even if he wanted to. That was exactly how it had happened, a very unsatisfactory outcome, and they were now back to square one and casting around for new leads-if Ko Sai had ever left Dorumaa, that was.

No-they were back to minus one. Before Dorumaa, they’d at least known for sure that the aiwha-bait was still alive.

It was funny how that phrase stuck. Aiwha-bait. All the Mandalorian Cuy’val Dar used it in the end. Even some of the non-Mando training sergeants did. Kaminoans weren’t lovable when you got to know them.

“So if the facility was blown up, to use the technical phrase, did someone else get to her before we did, or did she do it to throw us off her trail?” Zey asked. “Because I’m getting a very hard time from the Chancellor, in that charmingly polite way of his, and if it’s not him on my back then it’s Master Windu, and I don’t know which is giving me more pain.”

“We just don’t know, sir. All we know is that she had one pair of bounty hunters after her, who were almost certainly tasked by the Kaminoan government, and that a lot of equipment that could be used for cloning was shipped to Dorumaa-“

“…or that could have been used to pickle vegetables.”

“…and that we found a body with signs of Mandalorian activity right next to a very recent explosion.”