Chapter 10
For the remainder of the afternoon, Luke stayed by Jadie and the twins' bedside. Dr. Bentu, an experienced father, having three boys and a daughter, patiently showed Luke how to properly hold a baby and all the tricks of changing diapers fast and efficiently.
Luke, to his chagrin, had yet to perfect his diaper changing technique. Twice he had to change his shirt due to Owen's inexplicable need or desire to relieve himself right at the exact moment that Luke opened up his diaper for changing. This always prompted laughter from his wife.
Of course, Jadie wasn't laughing for long as she discovered that breastfeeding wasn't quite the inborn female instinct she once thought. To her horror, the elderly doctor had to spend twenty minutes instructing her on positioning the baby properly and the appropriate latch and detach technique used during feedings.
The Jedi also proudly showed off his children to the dozens of EOH soldiers and staff members who heard of the news and dropped by to congratulate the happy couple.
By the end of the day, both Luke and Jadie were exhausted. Finally they were able to get both babies to sleep at the same time and Jadie wasted no time in joining them in slumber in her medical bed. Luke decided to go back to their quarters to get some shuteye as well but Dr. Bentu accosted him in the hallway as he was about to leave.
"Where do you think you are going?" he asked sharply.
Luke gave the man confused look as to why he would even ask that question, "Home, to sleep."
"Oh no you don't," Dr. Bentu said as he wrapped a powerful arm around Luke's shoulder and steered him down the hall in the opposite direction of his suite. "You have been here long enough to know the New Father tradition," the old man stated with a chuckle. "Once informed of the birth of a child, the new father is required to put one weeks pay on the bar in the Officer's Club so we can all properly congratulate him."
"Dr. Bentu, if everybody is there to congratulate me, why do I have to pay for the celebration?" Luke asked.
"Listen, I don't make the rules, I just enforce them, and call me Jase tonight. No titles."
"Okay, Jase," Luke complied to the old man's wishes.
Dr. Bentu guided Luke to the Officer Club and as they entered a loud hurrah sounded from the dozens of men milling about the bar.
"See," Dr. Bentu said, "everybody is here to celebrate the arrival of the newest father on Nirauan."
'More likely they are celebrating the arrival of their free drink ticket', Luke thought dryly.
Jase and Luke made their way to the bar where Luke authorized the spending of one weeks pay in free drinks, which considering his standing, was quite a few. After procuring a couple alcoholic beverages for themselves they made their away to a quiet corner booth so they hear themselves talk over the din of the club, not that they were able to have an uninterrupted conversation for the first hour or so. Luke was constantly deluged with well-wishers and questions about the new babies, not that he really minded.
People were also steadily bringing fresh drinks for the new father. Never having been a heavy drinker, Luke was carefully nursing his second drink, but Jase was not so restrained and had drained about four of the beverages intended for Luke. The Jedi had to shake his head and laugh. Dr. Bentu was gregarious enough when sober, but after a few drinks you couldn't shut him up.
"I'll tell ya," Jase had an almost imperceptible slur, "In those last years with the Emperor… he was a insufferable jerk. I can't believe he shot me with Force lightning. That was completely uncalled for," he said as he shook his head heavily. "Really, it wasn't my fault that the Palpatine clones were less than perfect. I can only work with what I am given with. Do you have any idea what ionizing radiation does to the human body?"
The doctor didn't wait for Luke's answer, "It causes genetic mutations! But what does the Emperor have in his Death Star throne room? A reactor core exhaust shaft! What fragging genius thought of that? Palpatine was exposed to so much radiation that he was lucky he didn't end up with clones with three heads!" the doctor exclaimed while waving a hand in front of him for emphasis.
"Okay, so one of the Palpatine clones that he transferred into had some minor… ahh… bodily control problems? They have undergarments for that. I mean it wasn't like he wore tight pants that people would have known. He wore those gaudy black robes all the time… even in the summer!" Dr. Bentu's said with a smirk, but then yawned widely as he leaned back into his bench seat. It appeared he had more to say on the matter, but slowly the doctor's eyes closed and he fell silent.
Luke waited for a moment, "Dr. Bentu, are you all right?"
The doctor's eye's snapped open as he sat up straight, "You know what I should have done?" he continued as though there was no lull in the conversation. "I should have manipulated Palpatine's DNA samples so his clones were afflicted by impotentia coeundi," the doctor only slightly stumbled over the medical term.
"His concubines hated him anyway," the doctor muttered and then shuddered at the thought.
"And if he had a problem with that I would have said, 'ohhh…omnipotent'," he stressed the word, "'my mistake, I thought you said you wanted to be impotent'." The doctor laughed at his own joke and took another swig from his glass.
"Doctor… Jase," Luke corrected himself while laughing, "maybe we should get you back home."
"No, no," the doctor waved him off, "I'm not drunk. Well, I may be a little tipsy, but I am mainly tired. Jadie came in to the clinic right as I was coming off my shift, but I want to celebrate. This is a very special day for me also," he said enthusiastically. "You stay here, I just need to hit the 'fresher."
With that Jase got up and shuffled to the back of the club. Shortly afterwards a young man wearing freshly starched civilian clothing slid into the booth seat that the doctor had vacated.
"Hi, I am Ensign Tamas Bayard, I work with base security. I just wanted to congratulate you on the birth of your children, Commander," the man said while extending his hand to Luke. The Jedi grasped the offered hand and smiled, but he couldn't shake the nagging suspicion that he had met this man before.
Luke closely examined the stranger's face. He had coarse, ruddy hair, light skin, piercing hazel eyes, with a small hairline scar running down his left cheek. Overall, he was a typical EOH soldier as far as Luke could tell, but he somehow seemed familiar.
"Thank you, Ensign." Luke said cordially, trying to pinpoint the cause of his unease.
"Ah, I see you have met Ensign Bayard," Dr Bentu boomed as he slid into the booth seat next to the man while reaching over giving him a one armed hug. The doctor then brought his other hand up and grabbed the man's jaw. "Isn't he one handsome lad?" he asked as he not so gently turned the man's head from side to side so Luke could get a good look at his face.
Luke raised his eyebrows and contemplated dragging the apparently intoxicated Dr. Bentu back to his quarters forcibly before he assaulted anyone else.
"He's my grandson," the doctor informed proudly, "my daughter's boy."
"Oh," Luke said, now realizing why the man probably seemed familiar and explaining Bentu's behavior, "it is a pleasure to meet you Tamas,"
"The pleasure is all mine, Sir. You know, I really envy you, Commander," Tamas said, "you are so lucky to have your wife here. Me, I probably will never find a girlfriend until I am finished with my tour on this dirt ball planet. The quarterly R&R leave we are given just isn't long enough for me to find a woman to start a lasting relationship with." The man turned to his grandfather and gave him a wryly grin, "What I need is for my grandfather to make me a clone just like yours."
Luke felt the wave of revulsion rolling off of Dr. Bentu even before he saw all the color drain from the old man's face. Jase Bentu slammed his drink down on the table and faced his grandson, "That is never going to happen, so don't you ever ask me that again!"
The young man scooted away from his grandfather in shock. "I was just joking granddad." He then turned to Luke nervously, "I apologize, I didn't mean to offend you sir."
"No offense taken," Luke said quietly as he observed Dr. Bentu. He had realized it was just a simple joke, not to be taken seriously, but Bentu didn't seem to think so which was curious.
The doctor seemed to realize he had brought the attention to himself, "It was rude, boy." He quickly glanced to Luke and then back to Tamas, "Don't you have some security matters to attend to?" The doctor asked as he stood up to make room for his grandson to leave.
"Uhh, yeah…" Tamas said apprehensively as he moved out of the booth. "Congratulations again," he said to Luke as he quickly left the premises with a confused backward glance.
Sliding back into the booth, Bentu made a couple furtive glances in Luke's direction, all the while trying to appear nonchalant. The act didn't fool Luke; the good doctor was nervous—but about what?
Luke once again thought back to his initial unease when he saw the young man. He sucked in a breath and sat back in his chair in shock. "Your daughter's son?" he said accusingly.
The doctor rubbed a hand down his face. "I think you are right Luke, I think it is time for me to get home."
He went to stand, but Luke stood and shoved him back into his seat. "I thought he looked familiar. There was something about his looks and his presence in the Force that I recognized. You made a clone for yourself… your daughter."
"Yes and no," the doctor admitted reluctantly.
"What do you mean?" Luke demanded.
The old man sighed heavily, his shoulders slumped. "I didn't make her for me. I wanted to test my theory on the source of Force sensitivity," he said and then glanced up to Luke. "You know the one where I thought it was caused by a virus."
Luke nodded quietly.
"About a year after I made Mara, Palpatine approved the creation of a new clone, but this time I introduced anti-viral drugs into a DNA tissue sample from the original before continuing with the cloning process. The result was astonishing. A perfectly formed little girl, that had absolutely no Force sensitivity." The doctor paused to call over a waiter and order a cup of caf.
"It looked like I might have been right," he continued, "the cause of the mutations might be viral, of course I couldn't be certain without further study. It could have just been a random event. As I have said before, it was not unusual for Force sensitivity to fluctuate greatly from one clone to another. I talked to Palpatine about this and told him that, if I was correct, I thought it was possible to increase Force sensitivity exponentially in the next clone by simply muting its immune system temporarily while in the cloning chamber. I hypothesized that this would allow the infection to run unabated and create a clone with a midichlorian count that hasn't been seen since…" the doctor stopped in thought, "well, since your father."
"What did Palpatine have you do?" Luke asked.
"He didn't want me to proceed until I was sure it would result in a Pathfinder." He stopped and gazed at Luke, while chewing his lower lip, "I think I scared him. I was proposing to make a clone whose power could possibly equal or exceed his own. Soon after this, Palpatine cancelled the Pathfinder program altogether but he wanted me to test my theories on another subject… him. He authorized me to take DNA samples from him and begin to make multiple clones in preparation for any unfortunate accident that might befall him." The doctor's caf arrived. He thanked the waiter and then quietly sipped the hot liquid.
"So, now you were making Palpatine clones instead of Pathfinders. In the meantime, you were able to keep the forceless clone," Luke said softly.
The doctor nodded, "I asked Palpatine if I could raise her as my own and he agreed since he had no use for her as a Hand, but he didn't want to destroy her… something I don't really understand considering his nature, but for which I am eternally grateful." The doctor said as his eyes glazed over with tears.
Luke was confused, "How come Tamas didn't recognize Jadie as looking just like his mother?"
"As I told you before, I have been making subtle changes in the DNA codes to alter the appearance of the clones, enough that the various clones could interact with each other in public without calling undue attention to themselves."
"What about Mara and Jadie?" he asked.
"I guess I should have done the same for Jadie, it probably could have made life a little easier for you, but I honestly thought she would always remain in Chiss space, so why bother?" he gave a shrug and then looked up to Luke with a concerned face. "Please, don't tell my grandson," Dr. Bentu pleaded with the Jedi, "even his mother doesn't know and there is no point in her knowing, she has no Force sensitivity at all."
Luke's head was spinning and it wasn't from the alcohol. "I won't tell him," he assured the doctor, "but I really have to know, are there any more surprises that I should know about?"
The doctor tensed visibly as he shifted in his chair.
"Umm… well, there is one more thing," the doctor said flustered.
"What!" Luke asked, astonished that there could be more, and bracing himself for the answer.
"When I made Jadie, I finished my experiment I started 40 years earlier. I muted her immune system during the gestational phase," he hesitated and then continued, "I don't know if you noticed, but her midichlorian count is so high it is off the charts."