[Republic Commando] - 03(81)

He had a father, though, and Kal’buir made up for everything.

The buzz of conversation and the occasional raised voice-Etain’s-suddenly stopped. The droid opened the door.

“You can come in now.”

Ordo wasn’t sure what he was going to see, but Etain was just sitting on the edge of the bed rubbing the crook of her arm. “Well?”

“I have problems with the placenta,” she said. “And my stress hormones are sky-high, which isn’t helping.”

“She shouldn’t be fighting a war in her condition, and she shouldn’t accelerate this pregnancy any further,” Too-One said, addressing Ordo as if he was somehow both responsible and her keeper. “I’ve given her medication to stabilize her, but she should let nature take its course and find a less stressful environment for the duration.”

“Understood,” Ordo said. That was clear enough. “Does she require more medication?”

“For the next seventy-two hours, yes.” Too-One produced a pack of single-use sharps from his bag. “Normally I wouldn’t leave an untrained being to administer these, but you’ve had emergency medical training, have you not?”

“Oh yes.” Ordo took his collection of electrical disrupters and data slicing keys from his belt pouch. They dangled from a plastoid cord like an untidy necklace. “Battlefield first aid.”

Too-One wasn’t expecting it and he never saw it coming. Ordo thrust the disrupter into the droid’s dataport and Too-One stopped dead, unable to process any signals or data.

“What are you doing?” Etain looked aghast. “You can’t just deactivate him like that.”

“Uh-huh.” Ordo checked the diagnostics on the slicing key and found the time point in Too-One’s memory where he was first told he was being taken to Qiilura to treat a female Jedi for unspecified gynecological problems. That was all he’d needed to know to download the appropriate data resources. Now he didn’t need to know that at all, and he certainly didn’t need to know he’d been here and treated a pregnant Jedi. “This is not data you want hanging around in the system, General.”

Ordo hit the DELETE & OVERWRITE command with his thumbnail. Too-One had never been here, as far as the droid was concerned.

“He’s a doctor, droid or not. Patient confidentiality is part of his programming.”

“Sadly, it’s not part of anyone else’s, ma’am. Data stored is data that might one day be found. Your child’s existence has to remain a secret. If you need more treatment-we’ll start over.”

“Ordo, he’s self-aware, even if he’s inorganic.” Etain had that expression of professional piety that really annoyed Ordo when it came to most of the Jedi he’d met. Politicians had that same look sometimes. It said that they knew better and that he didn’t understand. “You can’t just remove a chunk of his memory against his will. It’s violating him.”

“No, it’s like not telling him about classified information, only retroactively. Happens to troopers every day.” Ordo checked that the segments of memory were truly erased. “Are you going to mention the irony of clones mistreating droids, ma’am? Because I always find that amusing.”

“It’s tempting.”

“Have you ever memory-rubbed an organic being? I know some Jedi can. Bard’ika told me.”

“Only in training, for practice, and then only with consent, and…”

“Well, then.”

“You’ve never forgiven me for messing around with that stop command, have you?”

“If you mean do I trust you not to misuse it again when it suits you and effectively switch me off like a droid for a fraction of a second, no. If you mean do I harbor a grudge-no, I don’t.”

Ordo now had to move Too-One to a plausible location to reactivate him. That was going to be hard unless the tinnie walked, because he was too heavy to lift.

“I suggest you go and hide in another room while I fire him up again and fill in the gaps.”

“And afterward?”

“I’m removing you from Qiilura for the time being. Get your kit.”

“Can’t I just take it easy here?”

“And what are you going to do when you hear the artillery, and Levet comes back to report to you on the day’s casualties?”

Etain looked over Too-One as if seeking inspiration, then nodded. She got to her feet and disappeared along the landing to another bedroom.

“Okay, Doctor, wakey-wakey time …” Ordo rebooted Too-One and stood back to watch his reaction.

“Did I malfunction?” asked the droid, clearly disoriented. “I have an unreadable sector in my memory.”