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[Republic Commando] - 03(52)

By:Karen Traviss


“I don’t want you running into Delta and having problems, that’s all.”

Vau looked up. “I’d rather like to avoid that, too.”

Ordo seemed to have finished his conversation. He handed back Mereel’s comlink and sat down again with a glazed expression, this time on a separate seat. His thoughts were elsewhere. Skirata wondered whether to bring Jusik up to date with the hunt for Ko Sai but decided to hang on. It really would place a burden on him, and he’d radiate guilt whenever Zey came near him. Better that he didn’t know yet.

“So tell me what the robbery was all about.” Jusik seemed to want to change the subject. “It’s not like either of you to put your men at risk for personal gain.”

“Well, that’s a question for me,” Vau said. “I reclaimed something that was due to me, but the bulk of the haul is for our men when they leave the army. You might have noticed the Republic hasn’t made pension provisions for them.”

“It hasn’t made provision for them to retire, either,” Jusik said. “I think I understand.”

“Vau’s handed the stash over to me, Bard’ika.” Skirata was going to have to tell Vau about the apparent end of the Kamino contract, too. He had commandos in the field who were due their chance at life as much as anyone. The more Skirata’s plan took detailed shape, the more people there’d be who needed to know things, and that always sat uncomfortably with him. “What you don’t know can’t burden you, son. If it all goes shu’shuk, you can at least look Zey in the eye and say you had no idea what I was up to.”

Jusik leaned back in his seat. “Tell me where you’re going to be, and I’ll try to stop Delta from falling over you.”

“I can monitor Delta, Bard’ika,” Skirata said. “If I see them on a collision bearing, I’ll ping you. Okay?”

Jusik looked wounded. The idea that Skirata didn’t trust him after all they’d been through on Coruscant must have hurt. “I was useful once …”

Skirata ruffled his hair again. “You’re one of my boys, Bard’ika. I said you had a father in me if you ever wanted one, and I mean it.”

Jusik stared at him for a while, and Skirata couldn’t work out if he was hurt or just worried. “I think I can guess any-way,” he said. “Etain… you know, if there’s anything you need me to do…”

Ordo stared straight ahead, but Mereel’s stare was searing a hole in the side of his face. Vau looked up, too, and Mird lifted its head in response to its master’s interest.

“What about Etain?” Vau asked.

“I know, Kal,” Jusik said. He looked embarrassed. “I can sense these things. Don’t worry about the Jedi Council. They don’t know.”

“It’s not them I’m worried about,” Skirata said. Shab. Maybe he should have told all the Nulls that Etain was carrying Darman’s baby, not just Ordo. “It’s the Kaminoans.”

“Fascinating.” Vau sighed. “Who doesn’t know what you know, or what Kal knows, and that I don’t know, but the Kaminoans don’t know, either, but if they did know, then Kal knows they’d be a problem?”

“It’s not funny, Walon,” Skirata said. Mereel was going to get huffy when he realized Ordo had kept something of so much importance from him. “We have a personnel issue we have to factor in to all this.”

“I wish I’d never taught you all those big words.”

“Okay-Etain’s pregnant. Short enough for you?”

Vau made a noise in his throat that sounded remarkably like Mird’s gargling objection to being moved from the sofa. “I’ll start knitting,” he said. “Obviously the Force wasn’t with her.”

Nobody asked who the father was. The romance was hardly a secret: even Delta knew.

“She’s on Qiilura until she gives birth,” Skirata said. “And nobody says a word to the boys.”

“Not even us,” Mereel muttered.

“No, Mer’ika, not even you. Because then you can’t accidentally put your great big boot in it, like the general just did.”

“Sorry.” Jusik hung his head. “I thought at least the Nulls would know.”

“Okay, I’ll brief the rest of them,” said Skirata. “But Darman doesn’t know, and it stays that way until he’s in a position to be able to … well, process the news. At the moment, all he’d do is worry instead of keeping his mind on the job.”

“That’s not fair on the man,” Vau said. “Not if you think he is a man, and not some helpless kid. Or a simpleton.”