A Brilliance Hidden in the Mind

Disclaimer: Unfortunately, my idea to auction off pieces of the now-Legends EU to various fans has not managed to take off, so everything still belongs to Lucasfilm. I make nothing from this but the pleasure of words and ideas shared with like minds.

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Major Grodin Tierce let a tight smile cross his lips as he strode purposefully through the halls of Bastion. It was easy to walk with a bit of a spring in his step; his plans were finally coming to fruition. Soon the so-called New Republic would begin its final fragmentation, driving sector after sector back into the Empire's arms. And though most would never know it, he was the midwife that was even now bringing about the change that would renew the galaxy and bring it back to how it should be. He was the first of a new breed.

The first, he mused with pleasure, but not the last, not if he knew his progenitor. Which, considering his spiritual father, the great Grand Admiral Thrawn, had passed on to him his knowledge and tactical brilliance, he felt it safe to say he did know the man. Even now, in unknown corners of the galaxy, other agents were no doubt moving toward the same great goal, that of the galaxy's unification under the only power that had a chance of standing against the coming storm.

His only regret was that his efforts would in the end go largely unsung, that others would bask in the light he would bring about. But that was the way it had to be, he reminded himself. If Thrawn had wanted to be the one in the limelight, he would have cloned his own DNA instead of just his mind. Someone was needed to work from behind the scenes, to pull the strings while enjoying the protection of anonymity. Not to mention, he thought, his smile slipping, that if Thrawn had cloned himself, it would be pretty obvious that he was a clone, especially after all this time. At least Tierce didn't have to deal with that stigma, not unless someone discovered his secret. Fortunately, all records of that project should have been destroyed automatically a month after Thrawn failed to enter the code that protected his most secret information.

Really, he couldn't understand why people were so frightened and repulsed by clones. Thrawn had had the right attitude toward them; they were people, the same as anyone else. In fact, they were better. Instead of being born of the chance mashing of two DNA strands together, each clone was created because he was above average, superior to most naturally born beings in any number of ways. As Tierce saw it, he had a mother and a father the same as anyone else; the original Grodin Tierce had given him flesh, and both Tierce and Thrawn had raised him and taught him. Taking into consideration the quick maturation of clones, especially with Thrawn's ingenious method, the only downside to cloning was the cost.

Of course, that couldn't really be universalized, since large amounts of cloning would result in a decrease of genetic diversity, something that could have potentially disastrous consequences. But then, Thrawn had found a way around that issue as well. By taking his mental template and combining it with someone else's DNA, he had eliminated the possibility of all his clones being wiped out by any one disease to which he might happen to be genetically susceptible. Survival favors the fittest, and technology was a means of improving people's ability to survive. As such, anyone with Thrawn's mental template, despite being a clone, had a significant survival advantage in any situation due to the wealth of knowledge and flexibility of thought they had received from Thrawn.

And really, he thought with a flash of annoyance, if identical twins, which occur naturally in all mammalian species and many avian and reptilian ones as well, are technically nothing more than natural clones, he could see no logical reason why artificially created clones should be seen any differently. Clearly it was a combination of illogical thought and the feelings of inadequacy caused by the fear that a created person would be better than them which kept the common rabble in their fear and ignorance. Perhaps someday that would change, maybe even as a direct result of Thrawn's clone agents bringing about a better galaxy. But for now, he thought, coming to a stop outside Moff Disra's door, he would do well to turn his mind to personal manipulation and tactics and leave the social improvements to whomever Thrawn had entrusted them.

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