Part 36 (1/2)
”I just need to know why you did that after all the trouble we went to in getting that data.”
Ordo's jaw muscles twitched. He didn't look Skirata in the eye like he usually did. ”This is all about having a choice. That's what matters, isn't it? But even now, we're still under a Kaminoan's control because she's got information she won't give us. Well, I'd rather live fifty years on my own terms than a hundred on hers. And now she'll know it. The information she's withholding is worthless. I've taken her power away for good.”
”But I just wanted to give you a full life. You deserve that.”
”But we're men, Kal'buir, and I know you've given up everything for us, but you can't keep making decisions for us like we're kids.”
That hurt. The physical pain in Skirata's chest, like a heavy stone pressing down inside, got a little worse. ”But what about your brothers, Ord'ika? What about all of the ad'ike who didn't get to choose?”
”There'll be other ways around this.” No point arguing. He'll feel bad enough about it when he comes to his senses. ”Sure. We'll forget it for the while and concentrate on Fi, and Etain's baby, and then we'll have a re-think. Ko Sai isn't the only geneticist in the galaxy. Is she?” But even the Kaminoan ones need to get her back, and they're the best. It s over. I'll keep trying, but unless there's a miracle. . .
The galaxy didn't do miracles. It only gave you what you took from it. Skirata was persistent to the point of wasted ob-session, and maybe even beyond, but even he reached a point where he sank beneath the weight of a task. There'd been just too much bad news today. Perhaps tomorrow would be better. They still had a fortune to fall back on. Ordo turned around, looking like a scared little boy again for the first time in ages. There was nothing Skirata couldn't forgive him.
”I've hurt you, Kal'.buir, and I can't undo that. But I'll make it up to you, I swear.”
”You don't have to, son.” I forgot they hadn't seen Ko Sai up close since she finished testing them and told them they were going to be put down. I stuck abused kids in front of their abuser and expected them to cope. What was I think-ing? ”You don't owe me a thing.”
Down below, Ko Sai was in bad shape. Skirata wasn't shocked to find himself satisfied to see it. She was behaving like a bereaved human, head bowed, making a little cooing sound-whimpering, in fact. If anyone thought aiwha-bait were emotionless, they were wrong. It was just that different things mattered to them. She looked up into his face and he knew that, for once, they understood that they shared the same emotion, if for very different reasons-irreplaceable loss.
Etain and Vau had retreated to the seating on the opposite side of the crew compartment, leaving Mereel to deal with the Kaminoan. He stood in front of her, arms folded.
”Sooner you stop wallowing in self-pity, the sooner you can start rebuilding that work,” he said. ”If you're nice to me, I'll give you a hand.”
She raised her head slowly. ”That was decades of my work, you imbecile. Decades”
”Ori'dush,” Mereel said. ”Too bad. But that's what you get for building us crazy. Sure you don't want to make a start on recording it all again? Might as well do it while your memory is still fresh.”
”I can't even access the material on Kamino.”
”Maybe I should make sure they can't, either, next time I drop in. Tipoca City security's no better than when I was a kid...”
”You're savages. Why should I cooperate with you now if I didn't before?”
”Because you're stuck in a s.h.i.+p with four creatively s.a.d.i.s.tic people who hate your gray guts, and maybe the strill and the Jedi aren't too fond of you, either, and all you've got is the clothes you stand up in. Not even a sc.r.a.p of flimsi to make notes. See how long you last...”
Skirata met Ko Sai's eyes. She looked back and forth from him to Mereel and Ordo a few times as if calculating some-thing-don't even think about it, aiwha-bait-and then settled on Mereel again.
”And you'll starve me into submission, you think.”
”Oh, you'll get well fed,” Mereel said. ”I want you healthy for a long time, so I can watch you suffer. I might not get a long life, but seeing you go crazy is cleaning some osik out of my heart that's been there for far too long.”
”Cathartic,” said Ordo. ”It really is.” He turned to the c.o.c.kpit. ”I need to check up on Fi's condition, and then we have to make a move, Kal'buir. Any preferences?”
The one place Skirata could guarantee to find some Sep-proof, Republic-proof, Jedi-proof accommodation was Mandalore. He had business to take care of there as well. He turned to Etain.
”Want to see the home turf, ad'ika? Visit Manda'yaim?
She still looked in shock. There were no fancy Galactic City doctors on Mandalore, but plenty of women who knew how to handle a pregnancy.
”What do I tell Zey?” she asked. ”He was sold on your story that I was staying on after Qiilura was cleared to help the Gurlanins for a few months.”
”I'll think of something. I always do.”
She shrugged. ”Okay. I've never seen Mandalore. What's it like?”
”I'd like to say it's paradise,” Skirata said. ”But it's as rough as a bantha's backside, and half as pretty.”
”I never liked beach vacations anyway.” Vau held his hand out to Ordo. ”Better give me the code key for your shuttle. I'll take it back to Coruscant and meet you all there, as and when.”
Maybe Vau had business to sort out. He had his inheritance, after all, and there were probably items he wanted to fence, because he had his expenses like everyone else. The shuttle needed to go home, too; they couldn't keep abandoning small vessels and charging new ones to the GAR budget. Enacca the Wookiee couldn't retrieve everything they were forced to dump.
”Thanks, Walon,” Skirata said. ”I might take a detour to Aargau, actually...” His bank was on Aargau. Business, then. That was fine. Skirata strapped himself into the third c.o.c.kpit seat so Ordo could take the copilot's position with Mereel at the helm. Ordo was now talking directly to Leveler, whose comm officer seemed to think he was calling from Arca Barracks on Coruscant. A code scrambler was a wonderful thing.
Vau released the mooring lines and gave Skirata a mock salute from the pontoon, and Mereel took Aay'han out past the breakwater, accelerating her gradually toward the speed at which she'd rise on floats and then lift clear of the water. Skirata opened his comlink and keyed in Jusik's code. ”We're out of here, Bard'ika. Thanks.”
”Thank you for keeping me informed,”' Jusik said stiffly. So he had an audience: Delta must have been with him. ”Is everything all right?”
”No. But it will be.”
”Niner informed me about Fi.”
”Ordo's on the case. Don't worry. And you don't have to worry about Ko Sai any longer, either.”
”Okay...”
”Call me when you can talk freely. We're off to Mandalore.”
Jusik was a good lad, Skirata reflected. He'd been good right from the start. They were lucky to find a few aruetiise with that kind of loyalty.
Aay'han took off in a storm of spray, lifting into the night sky. As she pa.s.sed above the island that had once housed Ko Sai's base in its bowels, Skirata checked the sensors and couldn't help but notice that there was now an area of subsidence on the sports field, a shallow bowl about a hundred meters across. He could even see it; the shadow created by the illumigrids made it look like a big black lake.
”P for plenty,” Skirata said. ”I think we brought the ceiling down.”
Mereel checked for himself. ”Oops.”
”You're taking this pretty well.” Skirata now worried what was happening behind Mereel's c.o.c.ky veneer, because he'd badly underestimated what was going on inside Ordo.
”There's always a bright side,” said Mereel. ”One day, we'll look back on all this and laugh.”
Skirata doubted it. But one thing, at least, was settled: he didn't have to hunt for Ko Sai any longer.
He just had to work out what he was going to do with her.
Tropix island, Dorumaa, 479 days after Geonosis ”So this is how the other half live,” Sev said.
Delta Squad, clad in the dull but all-encompa.s.sing cover-alls of a utilities maintenance crew, tried to look routine as they made their way along the sh.o.r.eline collecting garbage. There wasn't a lot, but the management liked the white sand to look pristine before the hotel guests emerged after break-fast. Some poor di'kut was even combing it with a big rake.
”I'm glad I'm in this half, then,” Boss said. ”The novelty of cleaning up after civvies would wear off fast.”