Chapter 8
"Slow down, kid," Rex chuckled, preparing a napkin for her.
Penny looked down at herself. She was so relieved to have food again that she almost hadn't realized that she had shoved an entire scrap of meat in her mouth at once. She took a large portion out her mouth and fed a scrap to Bolt, begging below the table. She blushed as Rex cleaned some of the meat's juices off her face, then looking around to see if none of the other clones in the Resolute's cafeteria were watching. Great, I must look like such a pig to them. "Sorry," she said, wiping the rest excess meat off her face. "I just haven't eaten in a while."
"Don't be sorry, just take smaller bites," Rex responded. "Besides, you're not the only one."
Rex shot quick glances at all his men, who in return gave him innocent looks. Penny snickered under her breath as she dropped another meat scrap under the table to Bolt. "So..." she continued, her mouth full. "What are you guys anyway? Brothers?"
"Um, sort of," Rex replied, taking a bite of his own food. "We're clones, , made for the Grand Army of the Republic. Of one man, but the right man for the job"
"How many are there?" Penny inquired, taking a sip of her water.
"About three million," he said flatly.
Penny spit out part of the water in her mouth halfway across the table, then swallowed the rest. "What?" she said, coughing.
"You heard me correctly, kid. Three million of us, made to go out fighting for the Republic. Of course, over ten years that is."
Penny was more confused than ever, "Wait, two questions. One, if you were made ten years ago, then how do you all look so old already?"
"Well," Coric answered. "You see when we were made, of course, we started out as infants. But we were enhanced to be stronger and have more energy than the average human being, and we have accelerated growth. Otherwise we would take a lifetime to grow."
"Alright, so, this isn't really a question, but...you guys were made just to fight in a war? And, yes it's for this Republic, but they send millions of you out there...where you can die?"
Rex sighed, "I know it's hard to believe kid. But we're meant to be expendable."
She pondered it for a moment, then smiled, "Well, not to me," she said.
Rex smiled as well, "Thanks kid. Oh and before I call you kid one more time, what's your name?"
"Oh, right. I guess we haven't established that yet. I'm Penny Hudington, and, of course, this is my dog, Bolt."
She pointed down at the American white shepherd still begging at her side. "Bolt, huh?" Jek, the clone next to her said. "I could've guessed, considering the mark on his side. What is that anyway?"
It was the first time some of the clones had even taken note of it. They all looked at Bolt and saw the thick black mark on his side. "Kid...I mean, Penny, what exactly is that? On his side?" Coric asked.
"Uh..." she stuttered. Great. What am I going to tell them? My dog has superpowers? I'm going to look like a total idiot! "Well...you see, uh. A friend of my dad's thought that it would be...a funny little joke if he put a little temporary tattoo on him, because it fits his name, Bolt."
The clones around her nodded, "Really?" Jek said, running his hand over the mark. "It feels more like a birthmark to me."
Bolt was losing patience with everyone looking at him and touching him as if he was some sort of display. He looked up at Penny who returned a look saying "just go with it". The two could often communicate simply on expressions. Then she turned back to the clones, "Uh, well, you see..."
"Enjoying your stay?" Anakin's voice came from behind.
Penny turned around to see the Jedi approaching. Saved by...whoever he is. "Oh, hi. Yes, I uh...am," she stumbled with the words. "Thanks, for the save by the way. And sorry if I got in the way at all.
Yeah, you did. You have no idea how sorry you should be. "It's alright, you didn't," Anakin responded, doing his best to smile. "And you're welcome, we're just performing our duty. I imagine Rex here has been telling you some things about it."
"Yes...oh, so that's your name, Rex. I like it," she said, once again unsure of what else she could say.
Rex smiled and nodded in response, then turned to Skywalker, "What are our orders now sir?" he asked.
"Well," he answered, double taking at Bolt who was staring suspiciously back at him. "Uh, well. Of course, we're going to get her home, but first we have to stop at Raxus Prime, there's a variety of metals there that could be useful to us. We won't start right away, but we can confirm the location."
Rex nodded again, took one more bite of his food, placed his helmet back on his head, and went out. Then Anakin turned back to Penny, "I'm sorry you got mixed up in this, kid. Don't worry, we'll have you back home in no time. However, we're going to make a small stop on the way, if you don't mind."
If I don't mind? I have a say in the matter? "No," she hastily responded. "I don't want to interfere with any of your...operations."
Too late. "Alright, we'll be underway shortly. In the mean time..." Anakin tried to think of something for her to do. "Well, how about a tour of the ship? See how a real Jedi cruiser operates."
"O-okay," she responded, a small amount of eagerness in her voice.
Anakin smiled, and invited her along with Rex, Plo, and the others, one of which was a girl with red skin growths on her head who couldn't be more than a year older than her. She shyly approached her and walked by her for a couple seconds, until the red girl finally noticed her as they exited the mess hall. "Oh, hi," she said, smiling.
"Hi, I'm...well," Penny responded. "I guess I'm the hostage."
"Yeah, I...I figured. I'm Ahsoka," she said, extending her hand. "Glad to meet you."
Penny smiled and shook her hand. "So...you guys are...Jedi? Correct?"
Ahsoka smiled again, "Yup, guardians of peace and justice in the galaxy."
"So, you're like monks?"
Ahsoka chuckled briefly, remembering her studies of the Bo'amarr monks in the Temple. "Not exactly, we have weapons and fight to restore peace."
"Okay. What exactly disturbed the peace? What are these Separatists?"
Ahsoka sighed, it would take a while.
Ahsoka spent a large part of the tour explaining how the war started and how the clone army was created to help the Galactic Republic. Penny nodded intently when she wasn't staring in fascination at the vastness of the ship. Anakin often added in the details Ahsoka forgot, annoying her. Though she understood he was trying to help, she wished she didn't interrupt her to do it. Eventually, they reached a gunner station, "...And here is one of the lines of defense for this ship," Anakin said, then smiled and received an idea. "Would...you like a shot at it?"
Penny look up surprisingly at him, "Uh...I, well...uh, okay," she stuttered.
She slowly walked up to the heavy guns and took a seat at the station. She experimented with the two handles which moved the gun up, down, left, or right. She giggled like a small child at the display, then nodded to the gunner at the second station who pressed a round button and released a saucer-like module of mechanical skeet into space. She quickly adjusted the guns, took aim, and pressed the firing buttons. She was taken aback by the force of the lasers which narrowly sailed past the saucer of explosives. She sighed as it flew out of sight. "Not bad for a first try," the gunner noted. "But in war, a near miss is still a miss, kid."
"Quite right," Admiral Yularen said as he approached from behind. "We're just about ready general."
"Thank you, Admiral. But hold on," Anakin replied, gesturing to Penny. "She's only had one try."
"Yes, but I doubt, in battle, the Separatists will offer more," he said, almost sounding impatient.
Penny sighed and started to step down when Anakin raised his mechanical hand. "Yes...but we're not the Seppies, are we?" he briefly winked at Penny. "Launch another, sergeant."
The clone gunner nodded and launched another as Yularen turned to Anakin who spoke before he did, "Admiral, remember she's not a soldier. She barely even knows what's going on."
"I know general. That's not what I meant by that," the Admiral chuckled. "Although she's quite ambitious, very brave for a girl of her age."
Anakin smiled back as the bolts of blaster fire from Penny's turrent partially hit the mechanical saucer. "Better," the gunner noted. "You just nicked the side. Let's try one more."
It was true, she hijacked a Separatist shuttle, that's something not many children of her age could do. And she escaped the ship at all. Impressive. But how did she take out those droids? Maybe it wasn't her. He was unsure. There was something about the dog, what was that mark on his side? He also felt the dog was slightly overly protective. Glaring at anyone who got too close. It was like it had a job of protecting her. Though he loosened up to watch Penny as she fired a single shot into space destroying the saucer with it. "Hey, hey! Nice shot kid," the gunner chuckled.
"Nice work," Anakin said, turning to leave. "Now let's get going. The war won't end itself." The group proceeded to the turbolift and Anakin turned back to Penny "Coming, kid?"
Penny gasped sharply, "You-you want me there?" she inquired.
"Only if you want to come," Anakin responded entering the lift.
She giggled again and followed with Bolt close behind as usual, still unsure about her new allies. He wished he could tell Penny what he thought, Penny, how do you know you can trust these people? For all we know they could be working for the green-eyed man. They didn't save us we were perfectly capable of saving our selves! Though his thoughts didn't make a difference, he still trudged along behind her, remembering his sacred duty of protecting her. Though he still sensed something wasn't right, being with these new people. He didn't realize he would soon find out. They all would.
