Part 43 (1/2)
Jusik shrugged. ”Oh, medics misdiagnose brain death all the time. I'm just reluctant to give up. Always was a sore loser.”
But Ordo knew when Jusik was pleased with himself. It was the same quiet amus.e.m.e.nt as when he made some clever gadget. Jusik was good at fixing things, and it seemed he could fix people, too. He basked in the contentment of successful problem solving.
”This is all guesswork, but for once I'll take the mystic Jedi method over the medcenter,” Skirata said. ”How long do you think you'll have to keep this up?”
”Days. Maybe weeks.”
”Zey's going to notice sooner or later. Delta can't stay on Dorumaa indefinitely.”
”It's going to take them a week even to start working their way into Ko Sai's facility, unless we want to risk drilling in there with big conspicuous industrial-sized machinery” Jusik said. ”I can take a few days away from Fi then and catch up with them. But I wouldn't rely on Zey turning a blind eye to my bending the rules on Fi, and I'd rather be in trouble for not obeying orders on the Ko Sai search than indicate to Zey that I know where Fi is.”
”Sooner or later,” Skirata said, ”he's going to notice he's getting a lot less out of the Nulls, too. Maybe that'll be the time to tell him that Jaing knows where Grievous is.”
”Ah, I thought you might...” Jusik said quietly. ”Well, we've all got our little secrets to trade now, haven't we? Yes, Jaing knows, and he thinks it was too easy to be true. Hence my silence on the matter.”
”What a dirty galaxy we live in.” Ordo did a few rough calculations. ”I think we can count on Delta being stuck on Dorumaa for weeks, and not just be-cause of the c.o.c.ktails. They're doing the equivalent of excavating with a spoon.”
”They're not a c.o.c.ktail kind of squad,” Jusik said, sound-ing almost regretful. ”They won't take advantage of it at all For some reason, that depresses me.”
It was a waiting game now in both the areas that mattered most to them-Fi's recovery and Ko Sai's gradual revelation of what she could do to regulate the aging genes. While Jusik worked on Fi, Skirata used the time to catch up by comlink with every commando in his former training company and each of the deployed Nulls. He had a sense of urgency about him, as if there were things he didn't want to leave unsaid as he had with Fi.
Ordo took Besany back to her apartment and debated whether this was the right time to do as Sergeant Vau had told him.
But she'd already had quite a week when it came to skat-ing on thin legal ice. Spying on cla.s.sified defense projects and abducting patients at blasterpoint was plenty to be going on with.
He'd wait a few days before he involved her in the murky world of bank raids and stolen shoroni sapphires.
Chapter 17.
Sir, we've managed to get a strip-cam filament into the collapsed chamber using the mechanism from a self-embedding charge. It's going to take weeks to remove enough material to search for organic remains, but one thing the cam has picked up is what looks like a chest plate of Mandalorian armor. I'll leave it up to you to decide if you want to pa.s.s that information on to General Zey.
-Sitrep from RC-1138, Boss, to General Jusik * * *
Kyrimorut, Mandalore, 499 days after Geonosis ”You said you wanted a laboratory.” Mereel was running out of patience, and he'd managed to show a remarkable amount to Ko Sai given that he wanted to kill her. ”This is a laboratory.”
The Kaminoan scientist couldn't quite bring herself to step into the structure. Etain tried to encourage her.
”This is as good as you're going to get for the time being,” she said. ”And it means you don't have to wait for a conventional lab to be built. This is Mandalore, after all.”
”It's an agricultural trailer.” Ko Sai sounded crushed. Etain was used to all the subtle nuances in her tone now, and the Kaminoan voice wasn't wholly sweetness and serenity any more than their character was. It was just harder for a human being to hear. ”This is used for animals.”
”Don't tempt me to state the obvious,” said Mereel. ”It's a mobile genetics unit, and I don't see what difference it makes whether it's racing odupiendos or humans that you're a.s.sessing. Except the dupies are worth a lot more.”
Etain thought. Mereel had done well to get hold of it. But Ko Sai had Tipoca standards. Reminding her that she could extract DNA with the pots, pans, and household chemicals in the kitchen wasn't going to help. She lowered her head and walked back into the house.
Mereel shook his head. ”Etain, this is what they use at the racetracks. Those guys are as tight on genome identification as any Kaminoan, right along with drug testing. This is just a mini version of what a half-decent university would have.”
”I know,” she said. He sounded like a husband who'd bought his wife a totally unsuitable gift and was hurt to find she didn't like it. ”That's the downside of finding the one thing that motivates her and taking away everything else.”
”Okay, we could build a lab like she had on Dorumaa, but that's months away.”
”And we don't really intend for her to do any worthwhile Jedi genome research, do we?”
”No, but we certainly want her to design a delivery system for regulating my genes.”
”I think she's cracking up.”
Mereel held up his hands as if he didn't want to hear. ”Excuse me while I gag.”
”She's no use to us insane.”
”If you've got any ideas for soothing her troubled soul, other than calling Kamino or the Arkanians and negotiating a deal, or even doing the same with the Chancellor, then you're doing better than me.”
Etain was learning more than she ever wanted to about genetics. Many genes, Ko Sai liked to tell her, controlled aging. Etain didn't just see the enormity of the task facing Mereel; she also saw how many things might go wrong for her unborn child. In both, all she could do was take it a day at a time. She went after Ko Sai and tried to inject a little enthusiasm into her.
”You managed with your lab on Dorumaa,” Etain said.
”And that was pretty small, too. You've got all the imaging and a.n.a.lysis stuff. Isn't that a start?”
The Kaminoan sat in the room she had made her sanctuary, a windowless storeroom where she could avoid direct sunlight, and shuffled her datapads into a neat pile. She didn't need locking up any longer. She'd shown no inclination to escape and never left the building unless Mereel made her; it was too bright and dry here for her liking.
”That's the problem, Jedi,” she said. ”It's a start. Not a progression or a continuation. Beginning again is very hard sometimes.”
Etain wondered how much difference it would make if she knew her own research still existed, and then imagined Mereel's reaction if she blew one of his main negotiating points. She almost dropped a hint. Almost.
”There's always a commercial lab like Arkanian Micro...”
”They would never use my methodology. It's too slow for them. They're bulk producers. We all have our niche in the market.”
Etain wondered what hatcheries that could churn out a few million clones counted as if not bulk, then. But Ko Sai was right: ten years was longer than most customers wanted to wait.
”What would you want, ideally?” Etain asked. ”Better imaging equipment, more computing power, and lab droids.”
Etain took a datapad from her robes and slid it in front of the scientist. It was newly published research from an eminent embryologist on expression of some gene whose code number Etain couldn't even memorize, but it was the kind of material that was as exciting to Ko Sai as the latest celebrity gossip holozine would be to most Coruscanti holovid fans. It distracted her. She glanced at the author's name.
”He's mediocre at best,” she said sweetly. ”I shall savor correcting this.”
”Of course-you never published research, did you? Academics didn't even know Kamino was there.”
”There were times when that was ... galling, I admit.”
”I'll talk to Mereel. He's doing his best, believe me.”
”Perhaps he should have considered his best before he and that savage who corrupted him destroyed my life's work.” Ko Sai curled her long claw-like hand gently around Etain's arm. ”You understand, though. You understand what it is to have so much knowledge and yet have so few outlets for its application.”
Etain had that sudden connection with another species, as the had sometimes when looking into Mird's eyes, when she felt she truly knew who was in there. Did she understand? She could guess what motivated Ko Sai, imagine what it was to be her, and even think as she thought up to a point. Per-haps she even pitied her, utterly alone and never able to go home, or even mix with her professional peers.