Part 46 (2/2)
Skirata could always rely on the Nulls. One day they might talk about it, but for the time being he was simply grateful that they volunteered, and wondered if there was now some kind of closure in it for them.
”Are you... donating the entire body to Delta?” Vau asked.
”No,” Skirata said, suddenly getting a whole new idea, and not liking himself for it. Did she have any family? After all the years he spent on Kamino, he still didn't know. ”It wouldn't do Lama Su any harm to think that we got to her in the end. I think I'm going to do the decent thing and send most of her home.”
”They'll appreciate that. . ., ” Vau said.
”Munit tome'tayl, skotah'iisa,” Skirata said. Long memory, short fuse: it was the Mandalorian character, they said. ”I'd hate Kamino to forget us.”
But maybe, one day, they could forget Kamino.
”I'll get Jaing and Ordo.” Mereel took out a vibroblade.
-This is a job a long time in the planning.”
Mereel didn't elaborate, and Skirata didn't ask. He took Vau's elbow and steered him outside.
Ko Sai wasn't the only person Skirata didn't know quite as well as he felt he should.
Besany Wennen's apartment, Coruscant, 547 days after Geonosis Besany always took her blaster with her when she answered the door these days, and she didn't open it until she'd run all the security scans that Ordo and Mereel had installed for her. But today it was just Kal Skirata who showed up, carrying something in his arms.
”Sorry, Kal,” she said. ”I always expect you to show up on the landing pad, like Ordo does.”
”I didn't want to panic you.” He indicated the bundle with a nod. ”Not with this little fella on board.”
”If I didn't know better, I'd say you were carrying a-oh my, you are. It's a baby ...”
Skirata took a deep breath and laid the bundle of blankets- plain pearl gray, very soft-on her sofa, then leaned over it and peeled the layers of fabric away with slow care. ”Isn't he beautiful?” His voice was a whisper. ”I might need you to look after him. Not all the time, but sometimes.”
The baby was a newborn, with a shock of dark silky curls, sound asleep. Besany wasn't sure what to say; she was so fond of Skirata that she'd do pretty well anything for him, but she knew nothing about babies, and she still had a regular job. He took her hand without looking away from the sleep-ing child, and squeezed it gently as if the two of them were sharing a wonderful joke.
”It's Darman and Etain's son,” he said. ”Venku.”
”Oh. Oh.” The information floated on a current of disbelief before sinking in and shocking her. ”Oh my.”
”This is going to be a little awkward for a while. Darman hasn't a clue he's a father. I'm still deciding if he's ready to find out.”
Besany couldn't take her eyes off the baby. He was real, a real live baby, lying on her sofa. She still had trouble taking that in. ”So that's why Etain's been out of touch for a while. I'd never have guessed.”
”She wants to carry on as a general.” Venku woke and started fretting, making little ineffectual kicks. Skirata picked him up again with all the ease of a father who'd done this all before, a long time ago. ”If the Jedi Council finds out she's involved with Dar, then she gets kicked out. So as far as everyone except you, me, Bard'ika, Vau, the Nulls, and a select few on Mandalore is concerned, this is my grandson.”
”Which he is, really.”
”I've got such a tangled domestic past that it won't sur-prise anyone to find my family dumping a kid on me.”
”I suppose having him brought up on Mandalore was out of the question.”
”If his father can't raise him,” Skirata said, ”then the duty falls to me.”
Besany still had a lot to absorb about Mandalorian custom. ”But you're on active service. You live in the barracks, don't you?”
”Exactly. Now, I rented a place for Laseema by the Kragget restaurant, so I'm going to move in there for the time being and see how we cope between us.”
Skirata was a compulsive fixer who could make anything happen through his extensive network of contacts. One day, Besany would ask tactfully about his life before the Grand Army, but she already knew it would give her sleepless nights. ”You rented an apartment for her?”
”You think I'd leave her stuck at Qibbu's? You know how Twi'lek girls get exploited in cantinas like that. She's Atin's lady, and that means she's family. I'm a regular at the Kragget and there are plenty of CSF lads using the place, so it's secure.”
He seemed a little embarra.s.sed. Perhaps he was worried that Besany would feel he'd failed for not settling Laseema in a smart neighborhood like her own.
I'm insane. I really should say no. What do I know about kids? ”Okay, just bear in mind my office hours. Have you asked Jailer, too?”
”I've asked a lot of him lately. I'd rather avoid asking again. But it's the best compromise I could think of that still lets Etain see Venku when she's not deployed.”
”We'll make it work,” she said. It sounded like the most insane promise she'd ever made. But then she'd abducted a comatose commando from the medcenter and done plenty of other ludicrously dangerous things recently; this was just one more act of lunacy on a growing list.
Skirata gave the baby an exaggerated grin and kissed him on the forehead. ”It's normal for Mando boys to accompany their father on the battlefield from about eight years old, but I think Venku is going to be an early starter.”
Besany tried to reconcile Skirata's loathing of the Kaminoans for exposing small boys to live weapons fire with the Mandalorian tradition, but maybe the difference lay in knowing that your father was teaching you to survive, not conditioning you as a product. She wondered if the kids felt the difference. It was a question to ask Ordo.
”So what happens now, Kal?”
”Would you mind if I brought Omega Squad here to ... well, introduce him? I can't take him into the barracks. Zey might sense him. They can feel each other in the Force, Jedi.”
Oh my, yes. His mother s a Jedi. He s... a Force-sensitive. Oh boy. We've collected the full set of problems.
”Of course you can.” Besany had instant thoughts of what buffet food she might put on the table. She was always ready for guests who never came, and aware that she craved be-longing; the pull of Skirata's gang was that she never felt like an outsider there. ”Are they back in town?”
”I try to make sure they get the shorter missions, yes.” He held up his hands defensively. ”I know, I know, I've got the best part of ninety boys from my original batch out in the field, but Omega are special.”
”One day, are you going to level with me about everything ”Even the stuff you're better off not knowing?”
”I've been under surveillance by Republic Intel and I'm digging in files that are awfully close to the Chancellor.” A lifetime of knowing what she didn't need to ask and what was best left deniable went straight out the window. ”I might as well know the worst.”
”Okay.”
Skirata picked up Venku and walked around the apartment with the infant cradled against his shoulder, gently patting his back and making doting-grandfather noises. Now wasn't going to be the time she got the explanations, then. Maybe it needed a whole day's debriefing program to cover a long ca-reer of removing people and things, or dragging them screaming to a client. She had no illusions. She knew the company Skirata kept.
He came from a dirty world, as did Ordo. But she still felt cleaner in their world than she did in the glossy corridors of the Senate, or even on the street surrounded by citizens who were too preoccupied with the latest holovid to ask what was happening to their society lately.
”Here,” she said, holding out her arms to take the baby. ”Show me how to hold him. Introduce him to his aunt Besany.”
Office of General Arligan Zey, Director of Special Forces, SO Brigade HQ, Coruscant, 547 days after Geonosis Etain knew this was going to be bad, despite the informal arrangement of comfortable chairs in the office and the caf on the small table, but she could take it.
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