[Republic Commando] - 03(148)

Jusik seemed agitated, turning his comlink over and over in his hands. “Excellent.” He paused. “By mentioning that he might bring in Skirata and Vau, has General Zey given me a nod and a wink to do that in a deniable manner?”

“Not a question we’re qualified to answer, General,” Boss said. “Although if anyone can find out what a bunch of Mandalorians are doing, it’d be them. Or the Nulls.”

“You talk as if Mandalorians are foreign to you, Boss.”

“Well, they are. Some of them, anyway.”

“Sorry, I didn’t put that very well. I meant-do you think of yourself as Mandalorian in any way?” ‘

“Probably as much as you think of yourself as a Jedi, sir. Raised that way, more or less, but the enthusiasm depends on whether your own kind are putting you in the line of fire or not.”

Ouch. Sev winced, waiting for the reaction. None came. Jusik nodded as if that meant something, and shot off at a run toward the administration area.

Jusik was taking this whole Mando thing too far; the kid had no sense of danger. He’d dress up in that beskar’gam and end up with his throat cut, Jedi or not, because even if Skirata liked him and treated him like one of the family, the average Mando would take him for the Jedi spy he would certainly be.

“What’s got into him?” Fixer asked as they made the final checks on the TIV.

“Hard to tell with a Jedi,” Scorch said. “I get the feeling there’s something going on, and Zey knows Jusik isn’t leveling with him, but it’s all happening on some higher plane while grunts like us just watch the outward show of business-as-usual. You can never tell what they’re picking up in the Force while they’re smiling politely.”

That was it. Never knowing what Jedi could see and you couldn’t really got to Sev, and it went beyond the different skill set, as Jusik insisted on calling it. The word powers annoyed the general, but powers they were. The squad carried on the conversation in hushed tones, as if Jusik might have some Force method for eavesdropping on them.

Scorch just confirmed Sev’s bad feeling. “He’s going to get himself killed. Skirata and Vau can play these games, but they’ve been around a long, long time.”

“We’re all going to get ourselves killed.” Sev knew what he meant, though. “It’s in the job description. The line that says don’t take out any long-term loans.”

“You think he’d rather be Bard’ika or General Jusik?” Scorch asked.

“Are you asking if I think he’s loyal?”

“I suppose so.”

Sev didn’t enjoy the thought. “He’s loyal to us.”

“They’re great to have on your side, Jedi.”

Fixer heaved a crate of supplies into the TIV’s cramped cargo area. “I liked it better when we just blew stuff up and splattered Geonosians. All this thinking is bound to end in tears.”

“Yeah, but not yours,” Scorch said, taking out his datapad. “I’m going to work out how much thermal plastoid it’d take to launch Action World into orbit.”

“Or excavate a hole.”

“You enjoy your hobby, Fixer, and let me enjoy mine.”

Sev sat down on one of the crates and calibrated his Deece again, something that he’d begun to see as a nervous habit. Zey, he thought, was being way too hard on Jusik. He couldn’t give a brand-new officer that kind of latitude without support and still expect him not to screw up. Okay, everyone was thinly stretched lately, and every time Sev looked at the deployment chart and worked out where all the Jedi were in theater, they really were getting more and more scattered, more physically separated from one another. But that was no excuse for not picking up a comlink and giving Jusik a how-are-you chat. Skirata called all his squads, all ninety men or however many it was right now, at least once a month just to see what they needed. He knew what they were doing operationally anyway. He said it wasn’t enough to have an open door: if he checked on them regularly, they didn’t have to worry if he’d think they were weak or whiny for raising a concern. And sometimes they just needed to know that someone still cared if they lived or died.

That was probably why Jusik gravitated to Skirata. Zey only had himself to blame if the kid liked playing Mando now. That subtle difference in handling soldiers was why Mandalorians made better armies.

Jusik s going to get in over his head one day, and if Zey hasn’t got the time to keep an eye on him when Skirata s not around, then we’ll have to do it. And if he does something dumb-well, Zey let him go off and do it.

Yes, it would be down to Zey. Before you handed someone power, you had to ask yourself if you’d be happy with the worst possible thing they could ever do with it.