Mako was mixing a new chemical cocktail when it came to her. She gasped and handed the vial she was holding to Aqura with a distracted, "here," before running to the stairs and up to the ship's holoterminal. For what she was doing, she needed the power it provided.

The datapad she carried everywhere smacked down onto the terminal's surface, open to the only file she used it for. With a thought, she dove into the holoterminal's system, scanning over the datapad and searching the holonet at the same time.

It didn't take long to slip back into the SIS databases. For an intelligence service, they were disturbingly lax in some of their security.

The first thing she did was check files she'd already been through. Every back door she'd built for herself, every trick she'd memorized or stored away, they let her open up any file she wanted, look through, then abandon it for the next one.

File after file, through reams of data, and staring at the datapad the entire time.

Mako didn't need to read the datapad. She'd memorized it weeks ago. There was a picture of an eighteen-year-old girl - woman? - with straight, dark hair and an implant at her temple. Just like Mako.

Too much like Mako. Aqura insisted she didn't see it, but Gault agreed that Coral was more than just a sister. Probably a twin.

Probably not a twin. Not with twelve different birth certificates tangential to Project 32 files and all with nearly identical genetic sequences attached.

Those, she checked next.

She should have told Aqura and Gault about those. About her suspicions and all the huge amounts of nothing she'd found looking for information on Coral and Project 32. It was just… how could she? Aqura might insist she would be with Mako through everything, but she handled enough as it was. Mako tried as much as she could to pay her sister back, but…

Her sister. When had she started thinking of Aqura that way, even in her own head?

Mako shut her eyes tight for a second, still sifting through data. She drew in a breath to sigh.

"So is there a reason Mandokarla's standing downstairs holding a vial of orange who-knows-what? She asked me to ask you if it was safe to put down. You're not planning on blowing us up, are you?"

Mako's eyes flew open and she spun to face Gault. Then his words processed.

"Oh, osik," she muttered, then shouted, "Aqura! You can put the vial down! It's just a modified adrenal stim. Sort of. It won't explode or anything."

"Oh, thank goodness," Aqura half-shouted back. There was the faint sound of glass clattering hopefully gently, then the Mandalorian came up the stairs and leaned against the wall beside Gault.

She didn't look good. Well, she looked great, because she always did, with bizarrely perfect hair, eyes that shone blue, and pale skin that managed to look pure instead of pasty. But other than that, she was a wreck. Her hair only hung perfectly because she didn't need to put time into it. There were bags under her eyes and her skin was paler than usual, and her smile had a touch of grimace to it.

"You know, Gault," Aqura said dryly, "you could have just taken the vial off my hands. Hand." She gestured significantly with one arm, relatively uninjured with an elbow brace, to the other, which was in a cast.

Gault shrugged and screwed his face up in a mockery of innocence. "You seemed like you had it."

"Dar'hayc," Aqura growled with a smile, but Mako didn't pay attention to the translation.

She'd just caught something on the holonet. Turning away, Mako focused on the thing she'd found while running nearly on autopilot. And wasn't it worrying that the SIS database was that simple to navigate, once you got in?

It only took a quick double-check to confirm what she'd found. A backdoor, of sorts, but one like threading a spinning needle. The design wasn't familiar, but the technique that had gone into it, the abilities it would take to get through it, were unmistakable.

"Coral." Mako's hand came up to brush her implant. A direct mental link to the holonet itself, and the only thing that could let a sentient interact with programs in real time.

The only type of device that could leave a trace like this, and it had taken her months to think of searching for signs of it. Minutes to find what she was looking for.

If there'd been another Mako in the room, Mako would have kicked her.

"What is it? Did you find her?"

Mako started again, this time at Aqura's voice from right beside her.

Mako opened up her mouth to lie, to tell Aqura not to worry and that she was just starting on a trail. She looked at the huntress's stance, which was careful with ribs that weren't quite whole yet.

Then Gault spoke.

"Yep, that's a clue, alright." Then he frowned at his datapad. "Almost too good a clue. Does your-"

He caught Mako's glare.

"-sister," he drew out the word, "know you're looking for her?"

He was doing this on purpose. Gault suspected exactly what Mako did, and he wasn't subtle about it.

Aqura didn't react. She was too distracted, probably by the pain from the injuries she wouldn't take painkillers for.

"I've been careful," Mako lied, skipping over the fact that Gault was looking at the database of a national spy agency. "I just need some time."

Gault and Aqura both nodded, but even though Gault put down the datapad and wandered off and Mako turned back to the terminal to keep working, Aqura didn't leave. She made her way over to a crate by the wall and sat down on it. It took her a while, gingerly getting down without hurting her ribs or using her arms, but she managed to sit down and lean back against the wall over the course of a minute.

Mako tried to get back to work. She really did. With the coding as similar to her own as it was, it was easy to pick apart and look for clues, it was just…

"Mandokarla."

Aqura winced, unsure of what she'd done wrong. "Yeah, Sparks?" she asked hesitantly.

"Go to sleep."

The huntress frowned, glanced away, then hesitantly met Mako's eyes. "I'm… not tired."

"Yes, you are," Mako said. "You're exhausted."

"I want to be here when you call her."

Mako shut her eyes and let out a long, slow breath. "Mandokarla," she repeated, "it's going to take hours,maybe even a day or two, before I find something. After that, maybe I'll be able to call her."

Mako stopped and almost choked, eyes widening at what she'd just said.

Call Coral? She hadn't even been considering it, and now she'd all but promised Aqura she'd do it. She opened her mouth to take it back, but wasn't sure how, wasn't sure how to tell Miss "Family Before Everything" Aqura that she didn't know how to feel about contacting… whatever Coral was to her.

Aqura just nodded. "Alright," she said. "I'll go to sleep. Don't work yourself too hard. You'll wake me up before you go see her, won't you?"

Mako nodded absently, getting back to work, then, blinked as Aqura moved off and the words sunk in.

Go see Coral?

It was like Aqura had forgotten the look on that SIS agent's face when he saw them and thought Mako was Coral. This woman could be dangerous, and they didn't know anything about her except that she looked just like Mako herself, down to the implant in her temple.

The door to Aqura's room closed and Mako put her partner out of her mind at the same time.

Work. That was what Mako needed. She'd find Coral, then she'd decide the rest.

First, she put portions of the code she'd found into the algorithm she'd used to find the first one. Then, by all appearances, she waited. For hours, she scanned through SIS databases, then Imperial Intelligence databases, then Hutt Cartel financials. All the most dangerous places she could find, places that would need back doors as refined as the one she'd found. On each one, she placed a tracker, a program to ping her if it was accessed.

It was a long process and involved a lot of adapting on the fly. Coral's back doors were signature, sure, but they were never exactly the same. That would make it too easy for anybody to do exactly what Mako was doing. A virus was purged using the exact same protocol, after all.

About the time when Mako's eyes were starting to drift closed, she heard the sound of a throat clearing and felt something pushed into her hands.

She looked down to see a cup of caf, then looked up to see Gault holding another.

Mako smiled. "Thanks, Uncle Gault."

Gault shrugged and looked like he was trying to decide whether to smile or scowl. "The droid made the caf. I just brought it up."

It was great caf. Mako and Gault had put their heads together, researching and budgeting and reaching out to old contacts to get the perfect stuff. This particular blend was from a little-known but well-regarded farm on Dantooine.

It was a good example of what being with Gault and Aqura was like.

Staring at her cup, Mako murmured, "Aqura wants me to call Coral when I find her."

Gault nodded, tilted his broken horn to Aqura's room, then led the way to the cockpit, as far from where their injured friend was resting as possible. Over the catwalk by the engines, through a room that probably shouldn't be storing as much stuff as it was, considering it was their only entrance to the ship's turrets, and then into the cockpit.

There were seven seats in the cockpit, which felt excessive, but at least each of them was there for a reason. Pilot and copilot at the front, navigator in the center, and then the back left pair were for weapons and power while the right were for communications and cyberwarfare.

Mako sat down in her favourite spot and spun to face the middle, the navigator's spot Gault liked, not because he knew where they were going, just because he liked being in the middle.

Considering Aqura's favourite seat was weapons, it was a wonder they ever got anywhere.

Mako closed her eyes and made an effort to focus.

Gault waited until she sat down, then closed the door and sat down.

"You don't want to call Coral, then."

Mako nodded.

"You don't trust her, but you don't think Aqura will listen if you say so."

Nod again.

They sat in silence for several seconds, Mako trying to focus on the problem instead of letting her mind run away and work on any other problem she could think of. Formulae for the adrenal she'd been working on blurred through her mind.

"I think she's right."

That got Mako's attention.

"Now hold on," Gault said, holding up his hands. "No need for that look, I just mean, what else are you going to do? Once you've tracked her down, that seems like the last step to me. You've learned as much as you can without meeting her. So see her, get a measure of her, see what you think."

She gave the devaronian a sharp look. "Is that what you would do?"

He snorted. "Oh, stars, no. A mysterious twin with your smarts and a reputation for killing people connected to a shadowy government conspiracy? I'd change my name again and find a place to lie low until I was sure she'd lost interest."

Mako rolled her eyes. "Just like you're doing now, basically," she said.

"Exactly."

It was something worth considering, even if Mako had to laugh at Gault over it. Only, there was no proof Coral had any interest or grudge against Mako herself. Besides, if Coral was anything like Mako, it was better to go in and find out whatever she could before the whole crew woke up with daggers in their eyes.

"There is a difference, though," Gault interrupted Mako's thoughts.

"Oh, yeah?"

Gault nodded sagely. "You've got a Mandalorian backing you up." Then he cocked his head. "You're a Mandalorian now, actually."

"Not until we get back to Mandalore," Mako corrected him with a smile. Then her smile dropped.

Gault knew exactly what caused the sudden shift. "Just wait until she's all healed up. That can't really be worrying you that much."

"Do you really think she'd wait if I found Coral?" Mako stood up and walked to the front of the cockpit. She looked out at the all the uncountable points of light out there, leaned her head against the cool transparisteel, and started counting in the back of her mind.

"Aqura got those injuries fighting for her clan," Mako said to the stars. "She wouldn't wait a second before doing the same for me. She's got no sense when it comes to family. It's… do you know what a fatal flaw is?"

"You think caring for her family is going to get her killed?" Gault's voice trailed off thoughtfully. "You know, you may have a point... But as long as I'm on that list, I'm not too worried."

Mako turned around with a grin. "You old con-man. You don't really think that."

"Sure, I do. With me around, she's got somebody with enough common sense to keep her out of trouble. You know what your flaw is, kid?"

Worrying too much? Biting off more than she could chew? Bad luck? Asking too much of others?

"You don't like asking for help,"Gault said, catching her eye. "Aqura's there for you through everything. No strings. We're both getting used to that."

Mako froze. He was right, of course. Mako felt like she was spending all her time trying to repay Aqura these days. Even becoming a Mandalorian with her had been more about giving something back than anything else.

"I'm saying you can handle this, kid," Gault continued. "You've got us to back you up, and you're nothing to sneeze at, yourself."

Mako smirked, though her mind was still on what Gault had said. "You've been letting Aqura rub off on you."

Gault shrugged. "Maybe that's not such a bad thing. The kid's nuts, but she's loyal." Then he got a distant look. "Maybe I could have used that example years ago."

Before Mako could ask what that was supposed to mean, the man stood up and started towards the door. Over his shoulder, he said, "if you want to pay her back a little, get this done quick, Sparks. Just don't leave it unfinished."

He left and the door closed behind him, leaving Mako alone with the consoles and the stars.

She walked over to the communications terminal, sat down, and got back to work.


It was a sleepless day before she found anything, and that was after searching through Black Sun and Chiss Ascendancy databases, both. What she found, though, was impossible to mistake.

An address, of sorts. It took Mako another hour to backtrack it through proxies, but then she was staring at a line of numbers comprising an address.

Coral. She'd found Coral.

After all this time, it had been as simple as using the only thing that really connected them - their implant.

Maybe not the only thing, Mako admitted to herself. Coral was a slicer, an excellent one, just like her. It wasn't enough to make Mako hope like Aqura hoped, but it was something.

Maybe Project 32 was something that needed to be shut down. If Coral needed help, it wouldn't be Mako's first time making friends by offering to kill somebody.

Even with that thought, Mako put off calling Coral or even telling anyone she'd found her. The first thing she did was go to sleep. Then, she finished up her work on the adrenal she'd been making. After that, she put the adrenal in a dart for Aqura's armour. After that-

"You look a little busy."

Aqura stood by the stairs, arm still in a sling and steadfastly ignoring the droid, 2V, dusting the holding cell right beside her.

"Is everything alright?" Aqura asked.

"Fine." Mako tried to make it sound offhand. "Just finishing up the new… thingy. If it works like the recipe says, it should cause a hyperfocus effect. You'll have to make sure whoever you're pointing it at is looking at you when you hit them with it, but after that you'll have their undivided attention."

Aqura walked over a little more gracefully than she'd done the other day, took a look at the dart, then down at the pink liquid still left over. "So, kind of like an honour duel without the honour."

It was such a perfectly "Aqura" thing to say that Mako had to laugh. "Yeah, something like that. It's yours, obviously. Me and Gault don't like getting shot at as much as you do."

She handed it over to Aqura, who took it in two fingers and looked at it closely, whistling softly. "Kandosii," she declared. "I'll bring it on the next hunt."

Then the Mandalorian refocused. "You're waiting to call Coral?"

Mako didn't say anything. Gault and Aqura were right. She should call. The risk couldn't be more than sneaking around SIS servers. After a second, she pasted a smile on her face and said, "yeah, let's give her a call. What's the worst that could happen?"

The joviality she ended with was so forced it was a miracle Aqura didn't pick up on it.

Aqura just grinned back and said, "that's the spirit. Want me to get in my armour?"

"Yes." Please, she didn't say.

Aqura nodded and darted off to her room. Mako pointed at the droid and ordered it to follow, and they both left her to her thoughts.

There wasn't much left to think about. Coral was her sister, involved in who knew what, and that was as simple as it got. It had taken months to find out as much as she had.

She just wished Aqura weren't injured right now. It'd barely slow the woman down, and she wouldn't even consider making Mako wait on her account, just like Mako wouldn't keep Aqura from what she was doing for her clan.

"I'm not ready," Mako whispered to herself.

A hand caught her shoulder. Gault, this time. He didn't even say anything, just guided her upstairs with that confident smile of his. Together, they waited for Toovee to help Aqura into her armour.

She came out with the same stride she always did, moving more easily than she did outside her armour. Without a word, she touched Mako's shoulder and took up a spot opposite Gault, both of them standing just close enough to brush her shoulders with theirs if they swayed.

Mako leaned into Aqura's armour, just for a second, then stepped forward and entered Coral's holocom frequency.

Nothing to worry about. Just a stupid call.

Mako's look-alike appeared before the terminal could ring once. She looked around, searching in a way nobody using a holocom did.

"Hello?"

Aqura let out a quiet breath, probably finally admitting to herself how similar Mako and Coral looked.

If only Mako could let the others do the talking. There was no chance of that, though. Coral was Mako's family, in whatever way that meant to people who'd never met before.

With a combination of wariness and hope, she spoke up.

"Hi…" she trailed off, then tried again. "Coral? It's Coral, right? I'm Mako."

Coral snapped to look at her, eyes wide. "Mother of- Mako? My little sister, Mako?" The slicer's heart clenched tight. It was so different than when Aqura called her that.

"I can't believe it!" Coral didn't sound happy so much as completely stunned. "I thought… I thought you were dead. How did you find me?"

Hoo boy. How did she explain that?

Without a lot of detail, she decided.

"Wasn't exactly easy," Mako admitted, then added, "ran into an SIS guy looking for you."

"Izak? The SIS agent, was his name Izak?"

Mako grimaced. "No idea. He was big guy," she said, holding her arms out wide, "went by Carteri when we found him, but-"

"Oh no! Mako, you've got to help me, please!"

Mako blurted out the first thing she could think of before Aqura interrupted and volunteered them for something stupid.

"If you're going to tell me SIS is after you," she said as casually as she could, "I already figured that out."

"Carteri's just one of the agents after me," Coral added, hurried and scared. "Izak's the one leading them. If he finds me…"

There. Mako seized on the pause. "What?" she asked. "What does he want you for?"

Did she pry into Project 32? Ask whether Coral was killing SIS people? How much could she ask without spooking Coral even more? Mako shot a look at Gault, but Coral blasted on without even listening.

"I've got to go. I've been on this channel too long already. He's on Dromund Kaas looking for me right now. If there's anything you can do to stop him-"

"Wait, Coral! Just tell me what's going on!"

"They're already tracing me. Help me, Mako! You're my only hope."

The line went dead and, with one last ping of data, left the room suddenly dim without the holoterminal's blue light.

Aqura shot off towards the cockpit before either Gault or Mako could say anything and Mako just watched her go.

"It's a trap," Gault said.

"I don't know." Mako shook her head. "She didn't answer any questions, but she did seem pretty scared. Besides, why would she want to hurt us? We just met."

"Right." Gault agreed, walking to the stairs and down to the lower floor. "Which makes you a lookalike she can send at this Izak fellow without feeling guilty when you fake her death for her, the hard way."

"She sounded just like me when I'm scared," Mako said softly, following Gault until he reached their weapons locker and started filing through it.

Gault looked up from his search and his sharp features softened somewhat. "She did." He sighed. "Maybe I'm just being paranoid. It's not often a total stranger can tug on these ol' heartstrings, and it's worrying me."

He pulled out a rifle and a pistol, handed them both to Mako, and went back to looking for more.

"How are we going to find this girl, anyway? Dromund Kaas is a big planet. Even assuming she's holed up in Kaas City, that's a lot of ground to cover. And what are SIS agents doing on the Imperial capital?"

"All good questions," Mako whispered, holstering the pistol and strapping the rifle to her back.

"What was that?" Gault asked over the clanging of equipment.

"She's my sister. I started this looking for my parents, but I can't just abandon her, even if-" Mako paused as the ship changed course. "Even if it doesn't mean the same thing to me as it does to Aqura.

"And we have her location," she added, tapping her implant. "It was the last thing through the comms."

Gault grunted and pulled out a grenade for each of them, a rifle for himself, and a slicer's spike. "Definitely a trap, then. Too risky to send her location on a monitored line, otherwise." He handed her the spike and said, "get that loaded up with the nastiest stuff you can think of. Whatever you'd use to blast the SIS or Hutts if you needed to cause enough trouble to get out fast."

Mako took the spike with a raised eyebrow.

"Do you want to be an old slicer?" Gault asked.

Mako raised a hand defensively. "I get it. Hand me another one; I'll get one for nasties, one in case we just need to spook people."

The devaronian gave a grin, golden eyes glinting with pride. "It's nice to be the pessimist of the f- crew. Damn, helmet-head's got me doing it, too."

He handed over a second spike, scowling now. Mako gave him a light shove on the shoulder and nodded towards the front of the ship. "Tell Aqura to come back here and get her gauntlets. I'll load that new dart for her, then get to work on these," she held up the spikes and walked past Gault to her makeshift chemistry set/workshop.

"And get Toovee to check on the egg," she called as Gault hurried up the staris. "That egg's going to hatch soon and I don't want it to be while we're out."