A/N: Thanks so much to all the readers and reviewers for being so patient with me :) Hope you enjoy!
Chapter Ten – All In
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"Prime Minister. Thank you for taking my call. I've received some unusual data regarding the medical centres at Kaliida Shoals and Ord Cestus. I would very much like to discuss it with you."
"Certainly, Master Jedi. My Administrator, Taun We, is the more familiar with that aspect of our operations than I. She will be arriving on Kaliida Shoals in a few hours. I am certain she will be able to help you. Shall I inform her that you will be joining her?"
"That would be most helpful, Prime Minister. I shall look forward to meeting her."
—Transmission from the Negotiator's bridge to Tipoca City just prior to the order to set course for Kaliida Shoals Medical Centre, six hours away.
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Nala Se and Sek Nor were both on hand to greet the illustrious administrator of the cloning program when she arrived. The door to the docking tube hissed open, revealing the tall and graceful Kaminoan flanked by a small escort of clone troopers.
"Taun We, greetings." Nala Se bowed deeply and Sek Nor followed suit.
Taun We returned the salutation with a simple nod of her head. "Administrator, it has been a long time."
Sek Nor looked appalled that they knew one another and Nala Se smiled inwardly. It seemed that her old pair-bond had forgotten that she and Taun We had worked together as scientists for a time. Back when they were supervising the training and education of some very young experimental units from the study designated 'S'. She hadn't seen Taun We since her meteoric rise to the position of the Prime Minister's Aide. Taun We's grace was still there, but her face was more guarded and distant than it had once been. She had changed. As have we all, Nala Se mused.
"Auditor Nor, I hear that you have created quite the stir on this station," Taun We remarked as they headed away from the docking bay, the clones trailing in their wake.
The prickly Auditor interpreted her mild tone for one of criticism and became defensive. "The Auditor's Office was notified of irregularities aboard this station. I am convinced, Chief Administrator, that Administrator Se has, either deliberately or unthinkingly, been negligent in her duties, and as a result this station has become overrun with defective units."
The graceful Kaminoan didn't rise to the bait, remaining as calm and serene as ever. Nala Se wished she could be as controlled as her old friend.
"It may soon become confusing, Auditor, if you insist on calling us both 'Administrator'," Taun We remarked. "Perhaps it would simpler to use names on this occasion."
"Of course." Sek Nor subsided.
"In any case," Taun We continued, "I shall meet with you individually. I prefer to see all the data before drawing conclusions." She turned to Nala Se. "Auditor, I will speak with you in an hour; Administrator, three hours."
Three hours until the truth came out. Nala Se's anxiety levels spiked again, but not because of Sek Nor this time. She was confident that the data she had gathered about the battlefield performance of 'defective' troopers would vindicate her decision to return her patients to the Grand Army. In any case, she now had security holos of Sek Nor becoming dangerously emotional in the simulator's control room. Sek Nor didn't know it yet, but he'd already lost. Of less certainty was how Taun We would react to Nala Se's tampering with the station's reconditioning statistics. On a planet driven by scientific endeavour, where everything was documented in excruciating detail, falsifying data was an unheard of offence.
Nala Se swallowed her concern and bowed to indicate her assent. Beside her, Sek Nor did the same.
"It has been a long trip," Taun We said. "Is there a place I might refresh myself?"
"Of course, Chief Administrator," Nala Se replied. "We have a number of rooms free for visiting Kaminoans. If you'll follow me…"
One of the unfamiliar clones stepped forward. "Excuse me, ma'am, but I have downloaded a schematic of the station. I can guide the Chief Administrator to her quarters." He held up an arm, showing a miniature hologram of Kaliida Shoals hovering in place above his wrist.
Taun We didn't react to the intrusion of the trooper. "I will see you later, Administrator."
She could say nothing more, not when the other female outranked her by so much. Nala Se left the other Kaminoans, murmuring polite nothings and headed to her room to regroup before her meeting with the Administrator.
Essix's arrival on Kamino was not what he had anticipated. He had expected that a group of armed troopers, or worse, a troupe of Kaminoan scientists armed with all manner of probes, would be waiting to greet them. What happened was quite different.
Once they'd touched down, the pilot—whom Essix hadn't seen during the entire trip— came into the cabin and handed Amoki a datapad. Amoki read whatever was on there, grunted, and passed it onto Vogel, who then returned it to the pilot. The two of them clipped on their helmets, undid the restraint that held Essix's cuffs to the base of his seat, and prodded him down the ramp and into the storm.
There were no organic beings on the platform awaiting them. No Kaminoans, no clones. A few droids bustled around the frigate in the rain, refuelling it and conducting post-flight checks. It was a humbling reminder of just how small and insignificant Essix was to the Kaminoans, how impersonal his death would be.
Vogel steered Essix towards a door set in one of the large, horizontal, grey tubes that joined the landing platform to the larger dome of the city. Inside, it was just like Kaliida Shoals; all brightly lit with smooth, white surfaces. A place for healing. A place for science. Essix managed to suppress a shiver, but he couldn't stop his hands from shaking, no matter how tightly he clasped them. The lab would be here. He was certain of it.
They rounded a corner, entered a turbolift, and sped upwards. When the doors opened, it was immediately clear that they were in another section of the city. It looked as though someone had cut a chunk out of a Republic ship and just dropped it in. The shift from science to military disoriented Essix totally. Durasteel and other clones were everywhere, marching in ones and twos or in perfect formations. All of them were dressed in armour or the red fatigues of trainees and cadets. Essix tried not to be hurt by the covert stares as the others noticed his cuffs and guards. No one met his eyes, looking away quickly as though they'd be contaminated just by peeking at him.
Amoki and Vogel took him down one corridor after another. Essix had no idea where they were. He'd never spent that much time in the military sections of Tipoca City. On the other hand, he was very familiar with the testing and evaluation labs that riddled the Military Complex and research areas. No doubt he would be getting even more familiar before long. His guards halted in front of what looked to be a recess in the corridor's wall.
"In."
Amoki gave Essix a push, and he stumbled forward. Amoki pressed something on the corridor's wall and a red wall of light sprang up between Essix and his escorts. A ray shield: he was in a holding cell. At least this time he could get up and walk around the tiny space, unlike all those long hours in the frigate.
The last two familiar faces from Kaliida Shoals walked away. Essix was left alone in his cell, listening to the faint clink of his cuffs as his hands shook, and waiting once more for the scientists and their laser scalpels.
"I didn't authorise this."
"I apologise, Madame Administrator, but the order did come through the proper channels. There's nothing I can do." The holo image looked contrite, but he didn't budge.
"Zimm,"—he looked startled that she was using his name—"I am giving you a direct order. Disregard your previous instructions."
He shook his head, obviously uncomfortable at defying her. "With respect, Madame Administrator, I can't do that. Command of this facility passed to Chief Administrator Taun We upon her arrival: you are no longer in charge."
Nala Se was saved from having to get around the stubborn clone when he was abruptly pushed out of frame, a very different face appearing. She blinked, relieved to see someone familiar. "Topuc Ti," she greeted the other Kaminoan.
The surgeon dipped his head. "Administrator, I am relieved that this has come to your notice. Medic Dale is a valuable member of my team, it would be difficult to replace him."
Nala Se spoke quickly, switching to Kaminoan so that the overzealous Zimm wouldn't understand her and alert Taun We or Sek Nor to fresh subterfuge. "It appears that I have been relieved of my position and cannot issue orders, but you can buy Dale some time if you schedule him in as an aide for your surgery today."
"Will that be enough?"
"I am meeting with the Chief Administrator in less than three hours, I will bring it to her attention then."
"I wish you well, Administrator," Topuc Ti said. "Medic Dale is needed here, alive and at his post, not drifting through space with a hole in his head." He switched back to Basic. "I am sorry, Administrator Se," he said loudly, "there is nothing I can do."
The call cut off. Nala Se felt her eyes crinkling at Topuc Ti's theatrics. With any luck, Zimm had been fooled. For the moment, she still had eleven thousand six hundred and thirty-three clones on her station. She hoped it would stay that way.
She paced around her quarters, relieved that she had a moment of peace and privacy in which to compose herself. Her areas of sanctuary were shrinking rapidly; she could be herself now only within the confines of these four walls. Purely Kaminoan in design, the room was white and seemingly empty of all furnishings apart from a control panel on the wall. She paused mid-step, perhaps Sek Nor had the audacity to put surveillance in her quarters? She blinked rapidly—no, that was just feelings of paranoia. Still, working herself up was probably not a good idea when she was going to need every scrap of emotional control to face Taun We. She needed to find her balance, her calm.
Just then, the control panel chirped, a flashing light showing that someone wished to speak with her. Nala Se crossed over and opened the com line.
"This is Administrator Se."
"Madame Administrator, CT-10-2304 with a progress report on the two patients found in the simulator chamber," said the voice on the line. The speaker sounded very nervous.
The number sounded familiar. This must be the new medic that Essix mentioned.
"Medic Forr, correct?"
"Um, yes, Administrator." The young man sounded even more flustered that she knew his nickname.
"You had a progress report for me, Medic?" Nala Se asked gently.
"Yes Administrator. They are on bed-rest for the next six hours, but both men will make a full recovery. Neither of them has experienced any complications from oxygen deprivation."
"Thank you, Medic." Nala Se closed the line. Yet another worry was assuaged. Now she just needed to compose herself, ready for the inevitable questions.
Nala Se opened the alcove where her clothing hung. On a shelf at the top were the objects that she most treasured. She felt around blindly, searching for one item in particular. She ignoring the small, curved shape of the holo-emitter that stored old security camera images of young cadets—they were only images she had of the clones who had been in her care during her work as a scientist on Kamino. The next object she came across was square, but flat and she ignored it as well. The light displays created by the storms of '54—her old mentor's favourite image—would not calm her today. Finally, she found the box nestled at the very back corner and slid it out.
Inside, swaddled in a bed of white padding, was a small Naboo dragonfly made of green glass. It had been a present from Essix, who hadn't known that the shade of green exactly matched the eyes of her child. She had thanked him and promptly packed the gift away, unable to get rid of it, but unwilling to re-visit that pain on a daily basis.
Nala Se pushed a few buttons on the control panel mounted on the wall. The floor opened up to reveal her sleeping tank. Clasping the delicate thing to her chest, Nala Se sank into the pleasantly cool water, twined herself around the anchor strand that waved gently in the artificial current, and closed her eyes. She needed to think, to calm herself in preparation for the coming battle.
It was going to be her word against Sek Nor's, her evidence against his report, and eleven thousand six hundred and thirty-three lives hung in the balance. Hers least of all.
Sek Nor was furious—a very bad thing to be.
He moved through the station like a deathly wraith, checking every ward and marking any amber-marked patients as red, disregarding any protests from staff. It was soothing to be doing his job, it helped with the burning rage that Nala Se had brought to the surface, and the silence of the clone units around him let him mull things over.
It looked like once more Nala Se was going to escape any repercussions from her indolence and failure to do what needed to be done. Not this time. Sek Nor was determined that she would not just walk away from her mess unscathed. It was his job to make sure of it.
Sek Nor finished one ward, red-marking four units that no doubt Nala Se had used trickery to keep here. The units would join the disobedient one from the sim room on the next transport to Kamino; defectives all. He started on the next ward.
He was an Auditor. The best in the whole department. He knew this was fact, rather than fanciful imaginings on his part, because his supervisor had told him so and the numbers told him so. He had worked hard and struggled to get to where he was now. After he had clambered out of the mire that was his life with Nala Se, renouncing and her subversive ways, he had been shunned by his friends, expelled from his career as a scientist, and ostracised. Only by diligent effort and a stubborn dedication to perfection and professionalism had he rebuilt his life.
Yet here she was again, in a position of power, subverting and twisting it to her own unfathomable ends. The sight had stripped away all his careful emotional control, dragging him back down to the unrestrained, flighty, foolish individual he had been when he was with her. This was his life now. His job. He was not going to allow her to destroy all that he had built up.
Sek Nor stabbed the flimsi chart he was holding with a finger, irritated with its slowness in switching from orange to red.
A clone medic approached him cautiously. "Auditor, respectfully, that patient is almost fully healed. We are just waiting on a few blood tests before he is green-carded."
Sek Nor glared down at the unit, which shrank back under his gaze and stared at the floor instead. The sight jarred him. He was not supposed to be terrorising units; that required emotional output on his part. Emotions belonged to the old Sek Nor. He was the Auditor—as distant and implacable as the moon. Quiet resolve sank into his bones.
He would be meeting with Taun We soon. Nala Se would meet her later, so Sek Nor had a golden opportunity to expose all of her failings to those illustrious personages, to show the Chief Administrator how badly Nala Se had done here before she muddied things with her lies. He wasn't too concerned though. Even with the failure of the experiment, the truth would out. She would be stripped of her role. This station would be put back on track. Things would be perfect, Kaminoan perfect, once more. He smoothed out his face and spoke to the clone.
"It has healed too slowly. Should it be injured again, no doubt the same thing will happen. That unit has already used up too many resources that might be better spent on other units—unacceptable." He held out the red-lit chart to the clone who, after a pause, took it.
The Auditor was back.
Nala Se was sitting in office, but on the wrong side of the desk. The Chief Administrator had borrowed for the duration of her stay on the station, and was sitting in Nala Se's normal spot. She had spoken to them individually and now Sek Nor and Nala Se were sitting, waiting to hear Taun We's decision.
Taun We's mouth pursed, her lips almost disappearing. "The most troubling thing about this whole affair, Administrator Se, is your deception."
Nala Se wasn't sure whether she should give thanks or panic. If fudged paperwork was the part that Taun We wanted to focus on, surely it mean that she agreed with Nala Se's assessment of the efficiency savings from focusing on rehabilitating, rather than reconditioning, troopers. Sek Nor shifted in the seat beside her, no doubt he was fuming about the turn of events.
The other female seemed to pick on her brief elation, turning a steely gaze on her. "You have nothing to say for yourself?"
"No, Administrator We. As you have stated, I altered the station records so that the data was inaccurate. I did it so—"
Taun We raised a hand to cut her off. "Your motivations are irrelevant. You tampered with official data." It was a statement rather than a question.
Nala Se felt herself pale. "Yes."
"Deliberately?"
"Yes."
Taun We made a neutral noise and made a note on the terminal in front of her.
Nala Se watched, trying to see what was being written, but the angle meant that the screen caught the light and threw it back in her eyes. She needed to know. Before she could think of all the reasons that she should keep quiet, she blurted out, "what about my recommendations for rehabilitation of units? And the insubordinate medic?"
Taun We continued to type, her long fingers flickering across the keypad even as she met Nala Se's gaze. "The evidence that you provided does present a most convincing argument to re-evaluate the current reconditioning process. However, now that your integrity has been called into question—and you have admitted to the deception—the data will need to be verified before I make my decision. The medic will be needed to care for patients, so his execution will be postponed. For now."
She'd won a small victory, but nothing was certain yet. "I understand."
"Administrator We," Sek Nor said. "You can't believe that those units are up to specifications!"
"My decision has been made," Taun We said. "And you have said quite enough, Auditor."
In the little office, the simulated crash of the waves over Tipoca's stilts was interrupted only by the faint sounds of Taun We's typing.
The other Kaminoan finished her report and straightened in her chair. "I am relieving you both from your positions effective immediately. Having reviewed the evidence, I have come to the conclusion that you have acted in an equally unacceptable fashion. Auditor Nor, you have become emotionally unstable. Administrator Se, you have tampered with data and falsified official documents. You will both be recalled to Kamino."
Nala Se tensed. Recalled to Kamino. That meant only one thing. She tried one last time. "I understand that Jedi General Kenobi will be arriving shortly. Should we perhaps discuss the operation of Kaliida Shoals with him?"
Taun We didn't so much as bat an eyelid as Nala Se played her last card. "Kaliida Shoals is a Kaminoan facility and this is an internal matter. Including the Master Jedi would not be appropriate."
"And S 5-6?"
"Property of Tipoca's Research Division." Taun We rose from her seat, indicating that she tolerate no further discussion. "A shuttle will collect you both tomorrow evening. Until then, you will remain in your quarters."
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Next time: Essix begins testing and a certain Jedi enters the picture.