At first thinking he was hearing a joke, Ori began scoffing but as he watched Aresu's expression of horror and surprise he revised his reaction. Had they been talking to a droid all along? What kind of programming would make a highly believable artificial intelligence? Who was twisted enough to create such a thing if not with the intention to spy or to harm someone?
Disgusted, Aresu got up from her seat and across the room.
"Why didn't you tell us sooner?"
"People find the news rather... upsetting. I decided to keep to myself about my nature unless I'm given no other choice. It's a matter of self-preservation."
"So," Ori scratched his scalp in thought, "in all this time, the Death Watch never found out?"
Ithan turned his gentle face to him again, this time he seemed more robotic now that Ori was aware of it, his facial expressions were a definite giveaway. He – it – could only display a certain range of emotions at one given time.
"When my creator designed me it was with the clear intent to simulate a functioning human body. I can breathe, eat, drink, evacuate waste and even bleed in small amounts. There are no others like me since I was made after the deceased son of the first people who owned me."
"What happened then?"
"When they both died of illness I ran off." Ithan frowned slightly, reminiscing what seemed to be a painful time. "I was being tracked down by people who'd have heard of my creator's work in Human Replica technologies."
"Who here knows about you?" asked Aresu who was more relaxed now.
"Tenja, of course. And her children. They explicitly requested that I never raise questions about my humanity for the sake of the clan."
"Yet, they let you get captured by the Death Watch." She gave Ori a short glance. "Did the Redds make a deal with Joral Tirron? Peace in exchange for you?"
The Human Replica in front of them seemed to take a grave moment to think. Normally, a computerized intelligence would need virtually no reflexion time before coming up with a precise and accurate answer. Ori imagined that Ithan's neural links were using different mathematics, maybe was his electronic brain playing around with emotional factors and behavioral processes before speaking out.
"If that were the case," he finally answered, "we would all be in danger of retaliation. I would have to return to the factory and resume my work as if nothing had happened."
"Are you prepared for that?" Ori asked him.
"As much as I can be, though I wish it wasn't the only course of action."
Aresu was sitting down again, and crossed her legs to regain composure. She looked very much an adult to Ori right that instant.
"What is it that you wish, Ithan?"
"Is the question about my hopes or about what I want to be given in the more practical sense?"
"It can be both."
He blinked, and smiled sadly.
"Before today I wanted to be home with my family. Now I hope that we can successfully free my friends who are still trapped. The wife of my cell mate, Morga'tal, is expecting. The Death Watch will take the newborn from her."
"That's the last thing we want," commented Ori. "Feeding into their ranks."
By the time he realized he'd not been using the empirical we but instead including himself with the mando's, Aresu was already giving him a surprised look.
"Pardon my bluntness," replied Ithan, "but what sort of commitments do you have with Mandalorian clans? You seem close to the Skiratas, and my mother apparently accepted you in our house. I just want to know whom you speak for when you express an opinion."
"I'm entitled to my own opinion." He repressed a smug smile, feeling condescending towards a Human replica. "Outside of my Imperial law enforcing work I try my best to support those who aren't treated fairly on their own world. The Skiratas have given me the chance to use my skills for good."
"We could definitely come up with a simple plan to solve our current problems. With your incentives and my blacksmithing abilities we could break a deal with Tirron to have our people freed."
"What if he refuses?"
"We would have to get through his defenses, isolate him from his men and offer him an escape route. It would take a lot of persuasion. An assassination would declare a war that we can't afford."
"You had time to think this over, didn't you?"
"Many have tried to kill Death Watch members without preparation or outside help. We have men inside who are ready to fight would an opportunity present itself... All we have to do is to prevent Tirron or anyone else from calling for back-up."
The plan took a vague form in Ori's head, a dozen of Mandalorians running a sneak attack on the building, getting to its power supply and giving weapons to the slaves, turning them into outraged fighting machines. He could imagine Tirron's unimpressed face turning to horror as he would subdue him into exile. Such an operation would allow for Ori to arrest a few Death Watch men under the false grounds of sabotaging their own base and selling intel to the insurgents.
While he was day-dreaming, Aresu had gotten up and picked his datachip from the desk.
"Mind if I have a quick read myself when you're done with it?" she said, her eyes smiling at the prospect of seeing action.
"To do what, exactly?" Ori wasn't confident about her field skills. He'd seen her indoors too often.
"To absorb and study. I'll get better orientation when I know what everything actually looks like. When you're inside I can help you from a safe location, it's called-"
"Remote viewing," finished Ithan.
Ori looked at both of them. Aresu seemed delighted that someone was acknowledging her powers. Ithan smiled back at her, Ori thought it was simply a mimetic.
"But why wouldn't you join the operation, Aresu?" asked Ithan. "A Jedi would be of great help, especially when the moment will come to confront the enemy face-to-face."
He almost smirked at the word Jedi, knowing that Aresu was still a Padawan when she was picked up from Taris three years in the past and had never completed her training since.
"Being a fugitive doesn't help," she softly said, a resigned tone in her bitter voice. "I can get my buir to support you there. He's way more powerful than I am and he'd feel better knowing that I'm not putting myself at risk."
She put the chip back down and stuck her thumbs in her belt.
"I've never seen a Jedi fight, not with my own eyes." Ithan took the chip and put it in his pocket. "If your father can help us then I will have to take your word for it."
"Well, I don't know who else will be there but I hope you can wrangle some good warriors at your side." She looked over at Ori. "What will you do?"
While he didn't appreciate her tone, she did raise a good question.
"An operation like this needs a back-up plan or a distraction. I can use a few favors up the ranks to flag Tirron as an insurgent which would be enough to order a shutdown."
"But then," said Ithan skeptically, "the Imperials would take over and what of our people? They wouldn't be granted their freedom so easily if someone else keeps the business intact."
Ithan spoke true and it was the sad reality that beskar produced in any way was good enough for the Empire. Ori raised his eyebrows and tapped an index finger against his mouth.
"Leave that part to me."
His instinct told him that he was on the right track with this plan. Speaking another word about it felt like compromising it already. It was good that no other person was in the room to give misled input or try to shatter his resolve. Mandalorians were ruthless with non-mando's. Aruetti, as they were called, especially when it came to combat tactics and war strategies. At least, Ori thought, he would have one of them on their side.
Outside in the middle of the night, Ori stood on the deck of the building's backyard. The cool, quiet air helped clear his mind of the incessant worries surrounding the events to come. Even though he wanted out of his armor to lay down in a real bed, having to go back inside that house with people judging him and bothering him with questions was an inconvenience. He thought about returning to base for the night. He could give up on the Mandalorians and resume his active duty with the Empire. He would let down the Redds, the Skiratas, and himself.
He heard the backdoor hissing open and Aresu came into view. She wore her body coveralls without the beskar plates on them, apparently getting ready to sleep.
"What do you make of this Ithan?" he asked her.
She yawned. "Don't you want to go to sleep and continue chatting in the morning? I'm exhausted."
"From doing what?"
"Being up all day, that's what."
Ori internally laughed, arms folded against his chest plate. He had never seen her in action as a Jedi or a combatant, somehow he didn't see her fit the profile. It was the same for her foster mother, as a matter of fact. Runa was far from a warrior, and her calm, carefree attitude could have transferred onto Aresu.
"He's creepy," she answered, eyes lost in the dark. "I can't sense his presence in the Force so my opinion is no better than yours. When I listen to him it's like I don't have any powers, and I don't like that."
"You did well, back there," he said to cheer her up.
"You mean that I didn't embarrass you."
"No, you certainly didn't. Better than that: you managed to impress an android."
"How is that any kind of achievement?"
He shrugged. "Machines don't think, droids probably seem like they do, but Ithan has to be some sort of super machine-man hybrid. Makes you wonder how many others are among us... in the galaxy, passing as ordinary people."
"And why would they pretend to be ordinary? There's nothing normal about Ithan."
"From your Jedi point of view, maybe. But this is Mandalore, and everyone here is a little crazy so I think he fits right in."
Silence settled between them for a moment until Aresu broke it.
"Do you think I would fit in?"
"Sure." He wanted to shrug again when he noted that she wanted a serious answer. "You're crazy enough. But do you really want to?"
He saw her working in the market, fixing things, becoming a pilot for a civilian space liner or getting a position in a government as a political advisor. He hoped she would find something that suited her, not war. She rubbed sleep from her eyelids and responded with a dull voice.
"Nobody really fits in, I guess. That's why they all wear full body armor. It's all in the uniform." She rapped her knuckles on his left forearm. "I'll see you in the morning?"
"Sure." He patted her head, perhaps more affectionately than he'd intended. "Good night."
She woke up feeling tired at the sounds of footsteps outside the bedroom door. A look at the chrono on the night table told her it was much later than she'd wanted to wake. At this time, people were usually busy with their day-to-day work. Getting up and dressed as fast as she could, the conversations with Ori and Ithan came back to her, weighed on her mind for a while. Aresu put her belt on with the comlink clipped in the utility pouch. She wasn't going to call her foster parents about the things she discovered. In order to have something to say, she needed something to actually happen first.
The android scared her more than she cared to admit. When his eyes landed on her it was difficult to just brush it off as a machine. He actually knew things about Force-sensitivity and seemed curious about her. Then again, she was used to raising many eyebrows, being the last living Korunnai and a young woman with no apparent husband at her side. Having Bardan protecting her was a nice change from the constant running and fighting against predators of all kinds. But, so far, no one had figured out that she was trained in the Force. Ithan surely had encountered Jedi before, passing as a normal person he'd had to come up with a logical explanation as to why he had no Force imprint. He had no soul.
Aresu saw him when she got to the lounge to find Ori. She shuddered. People were having breakfast in that large room in which she saw a buffet table with all sorts of meals and foods. It was noisy, and people took notice of her as they passed on the word and turned around to look at her. She much preferred to eat alone in her quarters.
There was fresh caf and hot beverages, she grabbed a cup and caught a motion from the corner of her eye. A white-armored shoulder and arm waving at her. Crap, she thought. She took a small plate and added a pastry to her breakfast meal before joining Ori's table. Ithan was sitting a few seats away and he nodded to her with a smile. She pinched her lips, smiling back politely.
"Slept late?" Ori asked her while handing her the sugar and milk.
"I don't like crowds." Might as well get that out of the way.
"Shoulda told me, we could have eaten outside." He gave her a slice of yellow spongy cake. "Stuff your face, it's gonna be a long day."
She saw how he looked at her arms. They were skinny, not as skinny as they used to be when she was last on Taris, but she was still growing into adulthood after all. The cake was compact with sweet crushed nuts and cream and it was delicious.
They later crossed paths with Tenja who took Ori in her office while they discussed operations with her son and daughter. Aresu was asked to sit that one out. Knowing less about the battle plans could save her life if she ever got interrogated.
Wandering the building she crossed paths with Mandalorian men in armor who eyed her cautiously and went on without stopping her or saying a word. What time she spent around the Skirata clan taught her to give herself a purposeful air and no one would dare get in her business. Also, there were so many rescues and young people adopted into the clans that she probably counted as just one of the hopeful strays hanging around the mercs.
She let herself be guided by her instincts – the Force, as it were – following a series of corridors until she found a staircase, then a strange door with no room label. It opened as she approached her hand, canceling out the security systems, one of the first tricks Bardan had taught her. Lights flickered on and her mouth gaped.
The walls were shelved with rows of blasters, rifles, pistols, carbines... And glass-topped tables were filled with what looked like explosives, detonators, traps and mines. It was the most neatly-kept armory she had ever seen. Entering, she inspected the arsenal with a morbid fascination. Scenes of battle between the Republic and Separatist forces came to her mind's eye. She remembered her old master, then Taris...
"Good morning."
She startled, so surprised that her reflex mechanism kicked in. Within a second, her lightsaber was in both her hands, lit up and humming menacingly.
Facing her, hands up and equally surprised was Ithan. He'd sneaked up on her without raising the slightest suspicion on her part.
"How long have you been there?" she said, upset. The tip of her purple light blade was right under his nose.
"I followed you from the lounge area. Please, I'm not here to rat."
Aresu didn't lower her guard. If someone had sent him to watch her movements then she wasn't going to let them have away with it.
"During the war, we destroyed machines all the time. I won't hesitate... Tell me why you're following me."
He took a step backward, hands still up at his sides. Somehow, his calm face looked worried.
"I need your help. Talking to you in front of eavesdroppers wasn't an option, I had to find you in a secluded space."
She tightened her grip around the saber hilt. The term "secluded" didn't appeal to her at all and she wanted to be out of there really fast, and alert Ori. Not having any hints from her Force senses really made her doubt her natural perceptions. Was he telling the truth?
"Help with what?"
"To get off this planet. Once the rescue mission is complete and everyone is safe I will have to leave. This identity has been compromised. Do you know how much a synthetic human unit costs?"
"I don't care and I can't help you. I don't even own a speeder bike."
"But you know someone who has access to ships. And security clearances for Imperial checkpoints."
"What tells me that you're not trying to get away from something and working for the other side?"
"You may be distrusting now but when this is over and when you'll have proof of what I say, can I have your word that you won't tell the clans about my plan?"
Ithan wanted a way out. Somehow she couldn't stop her mind from running other scenarios and included treachery everywhere.
"Please," he said again, "before someone arrives, put away your weapon."
She slowly complied and peered into his eyes. For a moment, she'd sworn there was a slight trembling around them.
"Thank you."
"You can't sneak up on me like you did," she said, berating him as the machine he really was. "Next time you might lose something valuable."
"Let's avoid that."
Aresu raised a hand at him. "Just stay away from me, Ithan."
But he was in the way when she wanted to leave the armory and having him in her trail again was something she couldn't take.
"I won't say anything about this," she added. "Promise."
He smiled, nodded and turned back with one last look at her. Aresu hated him for how frustrated he made her feel, that she couldn't read his feelings or his intentions. His face sent her signals that she couldn't translate.
Back upstairs and next to her room in the hallway she met Ori, apparently still talking to Tenja. Their tones were hushed and their eyes shifted away from each other. They were secretive, and worried. Aresu sensed that Tenja was ashamed of something, but couldn't put her finger on it. Aresu approached them.
"What's the matter?" Ori said.
She probably still looked perplexed by Ithan's confession earlier.
"Don't put Ithan in the rescue team."
"Why?"
Tenja glared at her, Aresu tried to ignore it.
"I heard him talk about leaving Mandalore after the mission. Who knows what else he's preparing."
She went with her gut, placing her trust in those she could figure out instantly and letting them judge the situation.
"Ithan said that?" asked Tenja in disbelief. "To whom?"
"No one in particular..."
"Spit it out, young lady. You don't put words in someone's mouth and expect no consequences."
What would she do to Ithan once she found out the truth? She realized, too late, that she had clammed up and Tenja stormed off, earnestly striding down the hallway. Ori began to follow, but stopped and grabbed her arm.
"Why did you say that?" He was alarmed, she'd never seen him like this before.
"It was important," she said, yanking her arm away. "Touch me again and you'll regret it."
"I doubt that, you're going back to the Skiratas."
Not curious to see if he would make that last statement become fact, Aresu bolted downstairs after Tenja. After looking in the dining area, the lounge, the kitchen, she saw two men and the clan matriarch circle Ithan in the entrance lobby. Words were said that she didn't hear, and they lead him down the corridor and into a room opposite the manager's office. Tenja turned around and faced her.
"Get in. If he gets out of control we might need your help, Jedi."
There was a ruckus of chairs and tools falling to the floor. Aresu rushed in and shockingly watched two armored men trying to pin down an unprotected, unarmed man over a medical table. There were medical wares and knives scattered all around.
"Strap him down," commanded Tenja as she picked up a scalpel. "Aresu, do whatever you do so that he stops moving."
"What are you gonna do to him?" she asked in horror.
Ithan, his face red with an access of fear and rage, looked over his shoulder. His voice was heart-wrecking.
"Please, don't do that. Please!"
But Tenja didn't listen, and almost with no remorse she ripped open the back of his shirt, raised the knife and began to dig in the synthetic skin. Aresu couldn't help herself but to watch with morbid amazement while Ithan let out a cry of pain. Dark, red blood started seeping from the cut as Tenja ran the scalpel down his spine.
"What are you doing!" she heard herself cry, feeling her eyes well up.
"If what you said is true, then we need to deactivate him. We can't run the risk of seeing him fly back to Deathwatch."
She kept cutting, and in what appeared to be an excruciatingly painful expression, Ithan looked at Aresu.
"You promised me," he softly said, cringing his teeth. Tears were flowing down his face.
"I'm sorry," Aresu whispered.
His skin and flesh was lifted up and opened like a curtain to reveal bionic circuitry and two large battery cells. She wanted to throw up. And Ithan had stopped fighting, his eyes were shut tight and he breathed heavily.
"Buir," he said.
Tenja took a moment and replied. "Yes, ad'ika."
"I'm scared... Don't make me die."
She coldly grabbed a wire within his spine and began twisting a junction.
"It's okay."
Aresu wouldn't have screamed for her to stop if Ithan hadn't been given the perfect resemblance of a biological human being. He even bled, a lot, and she felt powerless just as she was unable to sense his presence. When his head hung motionless on the hospital bed, the Mandalorians left the room, taking Aresu outside with them and she fought to get out of their steel grip. Only when they were slammed against the walls did she realize that she'd used the Force to defend herself.
"Don't touch me," she told them.
Tenja had her blaster pistol in hand, holding her at the end of her barrel.
"You're not my kid, and this is my house."
Searching for Ori, Aresu only found a closed door with the two Mandalorians guarding it, also wielding their guns, directed at her face.
"What did you do to him?" she asked Tenja.
"I unplugged him. What you said was evidence that he's been compromised."
"How could you be so sure? Has it happened before?"
Doubt filled the woman's heart as she was mustering a reply. Her eyes danced from Aresu to Ithan's inanimate body. It was grief.
"The moment I found out he was a droid I had to prepare for this. I've erased his memory chip... And he tried to get you on-board with him."
"Because he knew you would react that way." She couldn't control her voice which sounded more dramatic than she liked. "I told you because I believed you were reasonable... Obviously, I was wrong."
"Shut up, you have no idea what you're talking about. You should've followed your parents and never got yourself involved. You can't understand us... You are aruetyc."
The word for infidel or outsider. Aresu would have felt hurt to be called that, but now she was glad not to be part of such a brutal, insensitive bunch. Ithan knew he'd needed a way out eventually. How could anyone such as him be accepted if people knew the truth?
They made sure she wouldn't get out on her own, locked the medical room with her inside and she found herself with the messy corpse of Ithan, over a pool of blood on the floor. Aresu, breathing heavily as her stomach couldn't take the revolting smell of iron, pulled the skin over the bare metallic spine and circuitry that composed Ithan's skeleton and nervous system. He had veins, some were red, others were clear or white. She didn't want to see it anymore. As if it were an actual person, she covered him with a blanket and gently closed the eyelids over his blue eyes. Using her sleeve she tried to clean blood stains off his face, barely containing a sob. How could a machine make her feel this way?
Minutes passed, and maybe an hour went by as she sat on the floor with her knees propped under her chin. She was used to being held in seclusion, but this was different. If word got out that a Jedi was trying to let a human replica escape from Mandalore, she could wave her life goodbye. Strangely enough she cared too much about Bardan and Runa to burden them any further, she would go back to her old lifestyle. If anyone tried to get in her way they would taste of her lightsaber.
The door opened without a warning and people came in. She had expected Tenja or any of the Redd clan members, even Ori for all it mattered, but instead she saw Bardan rushing in, helmet off, blaster carbine armed as he quickly scanned the room. He found her and looked over at the corpse on the table. Runa soon followed, also in her Mandalorian armor.
"What the freck..."
Aresu got up and pulled the blanket from Ithan to show them his wounds, and what the torn up skin was covering instead of flesh.
"It's Ithan," she said with a breathy voice. "He's a human replica droid. Tenja butchered him to get the data from the factory when she thought he was going to use me against her."
Deeply confused and puzzled, Bardan got over the initial shock and looked over Ithan's body.
"Is there anything to do here?" he asked, visibly at a loss.
"I don't know."
He scrambled Runa and Ori and motioned for Aresu to stay where she was.
"Where is your lightsaber?"
Checking the small of her back where she would keep her weapon, Aresu realized with shock that she hadn't drawn her lightsaber to come to Ithan's defense. Or even her own.
"It's safe. No one saw it." And if Ithan's memory was gone, she might as well never had shown it to him either.
Looking at the droid, then at Runa, Bardan was visibly weighing his options. Runa rubbed her chin in thought.
"Go find Tenja," she told Bardan. "Let me clean him up."
She wasn't afraid of blood or getting her hands dirty. Aresu watched Runa use a medical stapling gun to patch up the brutally torn flesh on Ithan's back, leaving room to access the memory slot and power switch.
Aresu watched with tired detachment, trying to believe that this was all a bad dream and it would be over soon.