Chapter 25
…
Echo was sleeping when the order went through. Diode woke him through the network, and the first thing he saw—although it wasn't really a visual—was the shift in the records. ARC-0408 was moved in the citywide records from Experimental - Repairing status to Termination.
Calmly, quickly, he rose, straightened his fatigues and walked toward the door, tracking the movement of Ilu Bai via the identity scanners in the lifts. It would take a few minutes for him to arrive. In those few minutes, he and Diode left their quarters and went into Sa Eno's lab, where she was sitting with her head in her hands. It was an uncomfortable-looking posture for a Kaminoan.
"You've already seen the order, Doctor?" Echo asked.
Sa Eno jerked and straightened, blinking at him—her pupils contracted unevenly as he watched. It made him wonder if she'd been sleeping, or had a headache. "Unit Zero… what time is it?" She checked her workstation's chrono. "You aren't usually awake at this hour…."
"Ilu Bai is on his way to inform you that I am to be terminated."
"What?" Sa Eno stood immediately and checked the files. "But we demonstrated that you were no longer a threat, or a weakness to the squad. Ti Me approved you for continued use!"
"The demonstration of my new failsafes was not enough to convince Ilu Bai," said Echo. "If I am to be terminated, you must make certain that the information about the chip is kept safe."
"I will think of something," Sa Eno said, her normally smooth tone turning wavering. She moved restlessly in place, long hands raised at waist height, curling and uncurling the ends of her fingers as if not sure what to reach for, what commands to give the computers. "I will think of something."
"He will be here in less than one minute. Should I return to my quarters?"
"No…" Sa Eno sat back down at her computer and quickly closed certain files while opening others. "I will simply tell him that we have been doing further tests."
In silence Echo went to sit on the table, pushing down the unease that came at him from every unit in the squad. His own body was still not fully awake and he took a moment to carefully stretch his torso and shoulders. With all the implants under his skin to keep him alive, it was a slow process, loosening the muscles locked around them. Sa Eno stared at him, or through him.
The door opened. Ilu Bai took one step inside and stopped, squinting at Echo and the four commandos lined up behind the table where he sat.
"I did not expect you to be working at this hour," said Ilu Bai. "Your quarters were vacant, so I came here. I suppose you should be commended for your diligence."
Sa Eno gave him a slight frown. "You came in person. I assume there is some important purpose for your visit?"
"I'm afraid I'm here to collect your defective ARC trooper. After some deliberation, it has been decided that your modifications, while likely adequate—" Ilu Bai's face shifted toward subtle skepticism "—would be better applied to another, uncorrupted clone. You may continue your research if you wish, but this unit must be terminated."
Sa Eno's cold anger was hardly an act. She stood and turned off her terminal with a sour look. "It is naïve of you to think that this will accomplish anything but waste time and materials."
"Such is the command," Ilu Bai said with a small smile and bow of his spotted, large-finned head. "I am only delivering the message." He turned to look at Echo for a moment before straightening fully. It was a mystery to Echo why Ilu Bai seemed to take such pleasure in this. Ilu Bai was not bothering to speak in Kaminoan, knowing that he and the squad could hear every word.
None of them moved, their eyes simply following his movements, despite the fear that was rising from Diode.
"I will need to extract the equipment," said Sa Eno, her voice hushed and restrained. "It would be even more wasteful to discard such expensive technology. That will take some time, and I will need to select a replacement to transfer the implants to."
"I would be happy to bring you a replacement from the medical center," Ilu Bai offered.
"No." Sa Eno's mouth flattened for a moment, her eyes fastening on Ilu Bai. "I must select for specific physical criteria, to make the transplant most effective. It will be easier if I simply look at the records and have the droids retrieve them for me. Thank you for your offer, Ilu Bai."
"As you wish. Will a standard hour be sufficient?"
"I believe it will." Sa Eno's voice was getting lower and quieter with each word.
"I will return then." Ilu Bai turned and left, slowly, gracefully. Deliberately so.
Sa Eno looked straight at Echo as soon as the door was closed.
"The room is secure," Echo confirmed.
"We don't have much time." She began accessing the files of defective clones. "Check the medical database. We will need two clones—one to stand in for you when Ilu Bai witnesses your termination, and one to officially be your replacement. I need the stand in to be as physically identical to you as possible. The official replacement can be any clone who is scheduled to be terminated today, as long as he is intact and his defect leaves him coherent."
"This is risky, Doctor," Echo said, but obeyed, four-fifths of his mind already scanning the hundreds of files of clones who were slated for termination that day. He focused his full attention on it and weeded out large chunks by category: too young, too distinctive with scars and tattoos, the physical handicap did not match—
"Found one. The marks from blast damage are similar to mine. Same vat month. No tattoos or other markings. CT-Twenty-Seven-dash-Twenty-Five-Zero-One. However, he is fairly incoherent."
Sa Eno pulled up his file on her computer. Her eyes scanned the text and images. "This one will work. You are also fairly incoherent without your implants to help regulate you. All I need to do is some superficial surgery to imitate what it would look like if I took out your implants."
"Is there sufficient time for that, Doctor?"
"Can you make the records show that he has already been terminated, but bring him here immediately instead? Can you erase the memory of that from the droids who bring him?" Sa Eno put on gloves, took up her scalpel in one hand, and grabbed his wrist with her other.
"Yes," Echo said hoarsely. "Of course." He immediately began sending the order. Through the eyes of a medical droid, he saw the scarred clone, incapable of walking, being sedated—Terminated, his file now read—lifted from his holding table, arranged into a body bin and towed away quietly through a maintenance passage.
"Numb the area," she commanded him, and slit open the synthetic skin on his wrist only a second later. The skin was attached to his nerves, but his new self-regulating system made it easy to temporarily disable that. This arm had been burned so badly on that landing pad that it had to be partially reconstructed, his original ID chip destroyed and replaced. She pulled the newer one—a bit larger than a pinhead—carefully from its slot among the false tendons and veins. It went into a small transparent case.
"Well… the synth skin will close itself within an hour." Sa Eno fastened a small sterile strip over the incision and wrapped it. Echo pulled down his sleeve. "Have you found your official replacement?"
Echo glanced over at the computer terminal, and Sa Eno followed his eyes, stepping toward it while she placed the chip and its case into a pocket of her belt.
"Will Eighty-One-Twenty-Thirty's immune deficiency be a problem?" Echo asked. "There are a few other options. Seventy-Fifty-Three's temperament could be corrected by programming similar to mine."
"I do not foresee your replacement actually leaving Kamino," Sa Eno said. She tapped 81-2030's picture to send the official request for him to be brought to her lab. Termination became Experimental on 81-2030's file.
Meanwhile, 27-2501's "remains" were pulled to a halt outside the door to Sa Eno's lab. Echo opened it before the droid could hesitate.
"Here is the body you wanted, Doctor," it chirped as it hovered in, looking uncertainly around at Diode Squad and Echo. "Will that be all?"
"Yes, thank you," said Sa Eno dismissively.
As soon as the droid had lowered the container to the floor and gone, Sa Eno took off the lid. "Put him on the operating table," she ordered; 7723 and 7724 stepped forward to lift the clone out together. "Echo. I trust that you can find a safe place to hide for the time being?"
"Yes," Echo said abruptly, as he reached into the droid's mind and tweaked a few files. "Should I sever the network once I've concealed myself?" A pulse of thought answered before Sa Eno could. "The squad will sever it if necessary."
"Go!" Sa Eno hissed, glancing up from where she was already cutting into the trooper's skin. Blood welled up vividly from the lines of her scalpel. "Be careful to erase any trace of your movements. I will contact you as soon as it is safe for you to return."
Echo could see his own body turn and leave immediately through the eyes of Diode, and he blinded the hallway cameras one by one, pasting the same blank footage into each timestamp before he slipped safely into the darkness of a maintenance hatch.
…
Thirty-two minutes after Unit Zero left the lab, Sa Eno looked grimly over her work. 27-2501 was breathing on the table, but shallowly, lying on his stomach. In a wide band around the back of his head, the skin was now raw with a few puncture wounds that correlated to where the main implant would have connected to the skull on Unit Zero.
On his chest there were incisions, taped shut, where more implants would have been. On his stomach, and throat, the same. The damage to his back and limbs had had to be carefully re-sculpted, to show signs of surgery meant to remove prosthetics that had never in fact been installed. She only had one arm left to alter, and took a moment to clear away the blood from the latest step and think. She had never done so much surgery without a droid nearby to clean up after her.
"The replacement is at the door," said 7723 suddenly.
Sa Eno took a deep breath, unwrapped the arm's dressing and attached the circulatory monitor to the bare, half-healed crook of his elbow before pressing down with the scalpel on the edges of the ragged wound. The blood welled out and into the grooves of the table's attachment beneath it, not nearly as fast as it would have if she hadn't prepared the arm, but still a steady flow. The grooves pulled the blood down into a waste receptacle as she carefully tried to re-create with her tools the image in her mind.
"Let him in," she said, her eyes near slits. Her neck ached from tension, but her thinking was measured.
In the corner of her vision, a clone entered, but with her attention on the texture of flesh and fluid through her gloves, all she immediately noticed was that his hair was mussed. It was odd, some part of her mind commented, that for all her interest in the sterility of robotics, she had become drawn to such messy projects. After so many days and nights spent putting Unit Zero back together, her familiarity with a clone's biology was surely as intense and complete as those of her peers who had chosen to work on the Fett project directly. Certainly better than Ilu Bai's, she thought. His disgust toward the creatures would most likely be an advantage to her.
"CT-Eight-One-Twenty-Thirty reporting as ordered." The clone's voice was soft and a little congested. He ended with a muffled cough, kept in the back of his throat.
Two more seconds and she was done removing the last bits of tissue. She dropped them into the small waste bucket attached to the operating table and looked up.
The commandos stared stoically at the new clone, whose eyes were fixed on the bucket. His face was drawn, and a sickly color, but his half-lidded expression was more distant than repulsed.
"Sit. On table one," she instructed, and turned back to cleaning up. As her mind surfaced from the intense concentration, she became acutely aware of the trooper's unusual gait. He took shorter, more frequent steps than most clones. The soft, damp sound of wiping the last of the blood from underneath the trooper's arm—missing half its flesh—the shallow breathing of the false Echo, and the table was clean, the bleeding under control.
When Sa Eno disposed of her gloves and turned around, CT-81-2030 was staring at her calmly, but his hands gripped the edge of the table. His hair was only a little longer than standard, but it looked as if it hadn't seen a comb in days.
"Remove this," she said, waving two fingers at the top of his fatigues. "I will need to attach some sensors."
CT-81-2030 obeyed with just a small contraction of his eyebrows. The fabric rustled loudly in the silence. He didn't bother to fold it neatly, just draped it over the table, looked at Sa Eno and gave a tentative smile.
"So… I take it I might not be dying today?"
Startled, she stared back at him. She wasn't sure a clone had ever smiled at her before. Perhaps it was deliberate on his part, but no clone over the age of four or five was inexperienced enough to think a Kaminoan could be won over by a smile.
"No," she finally replied, and pressed a sensor node to his chest. "You might not."
He breathed in suddenly through his teeth when the node sent its hair-thin wires into his body, but didn't flinch when she attached the next one to the base of his skull, and another to his right temple.
"You're gonna try to fix me? You must be better than the techs in the med center. I've never been to this section before."
"I cannot promise any improvement to your immune system," Sa Eno said. "Lie down."
"I know. No promises." The clone leaned back on his elbows, lifted his legs up onto the table and lay down with a sigh. "But thanks for giving it a shot."
Sa Eno hesitated, and decided that denying what he said would only bring questions she didn't want to answer so close to Ilu Bai's arrival. So she stayed silent as she studied the data sent back to her terminal. His overall health was better than she had feared. He was underweight, but there was no notable deterioration in the musculoskeletal structure or brain, and his circulation was acceptable—she attached another node to his stomach and saw that his most recent ailments had taken their toll on his digestive tract. She checked the rash on his torso against his medical files. Possible infection, currently being treated with antibiotics.
"Are you putting one of th—ose things on my head?" He covered his mouth against a brief coughing fit, then pointed over at Diode, who were standing in an expressionless row, watching him.
"Possibly," Sa Eno replied. She strapped him down onto the table.
He lifted his head to watch her do it, but didn't struggle. "Oh," he creaked. "This is going to hurt, isn't it? Another one of those hypertests?" He sighed and let his head fall back, screwing up his face. "Alright." He swallowed, his voice weary and resigned. "I'm ready."
A voice came from behind her. "It won't be painful."
Sa Eno looked up from checking the straps. It was one of Diode Squad who had said it.
"You would be anesthetized for the operation," added 7722. "And your medical log shows that your most recent hypertest took place in the last forty-eight hours. There's no need for another one so soon."
"Oh." Another weak smile at Sa Eno. "Well, that's good." His head jerked up suddenly. "Wait. You… you looked at my med logs?"
7722's eyes widened a little; he looked at Sa Eno.
Sa Eno studied 7722, but of course there was little she could glean from his expression or posture. Perhaps he was asking how much he was allowed to reveal.
"Unit Two." She tried to make sure her voice didn't sound condemning, merely curious. "Are you trying to comfort this clone?"
7722 blinked; his eyes moved in thought. "I corrected his false assumption."
"Because you thought he was afraid."
"Unit Zero approved the action," 7722 added quietly.
"Well," said 81-2030, "Pain's fine. But I'm a little confused. Unit Zero? Unit Two?" His eyes flicked between the numbered fatigues Diode wore. "You're not just cadets getting fixed up so you can go back to training? Are they some kind of lab assistants, Doctor?" 81-2030 looked up at her curiously.
"They are a specialized commando unit," she said, again startled by his directness.
"Commandos?" He squinted at them. "They're not even full grown."
She pushed his unruly head gently back down onto the bed just as 7722 said "Ilu Bai is coming."
"I am ready," she replied, activating the sterilization units in the wall. Her skin felt unnaturally tight. 81-2030's forehead had burned with fever under her fingers.
When Ilu Bai came in, he wasn't alone. There was another small medical droid with him. Sa Eno held her body still, kept her face calm, although the sight of it made her deeply uneasy. Did he suspect what she was doing? Ilu Bai walked up to the clone on the table and his face lengthened even further in disdain.
"Not much to look at now, is he?" Ilu Bai said lightly, his mouth curling. "Exceptionally revolting, in fact. I imagine this is much the same as he looked when you first… salvaged him."
"It was a worthwhile effort," she whispered, then raised her voice. "Let us proceed."
Ilu Bai waved the med droid forward, but it didn't take out the lethal hypo. Instead it scanned the clone on the table. Sa Eno knew Ilu Bai was watching her—she kept her eyes fixed on Echo's replacement, focused carefully on how much she despised Ilu Bai rather than the fear of discovery. She was aware of her own rigidity. Let him think it was because her research was about to be crippled.
"You were able to remove all of the equipment?"
"It is being sterilized now." Sa Eno waved a hand at the units on the wall, hoping that if Ilu Bai chose to investigate, he would be satisfied by the sight of the prototypes of Echo's current implants, and would not look too closely. "Anything that can be reused."
"Where is the ARC trooper's identification?" Ilu Bai wrinkled his entire narrow face at the sight of the clone's cut-up arm, and turned away to glare at Sa Eno.
"It was embedded in the prosthetics." Sa Eno let exasperation make her voice a little less smooth, and pulled it from the pocket on her belt. "I did not realize you had any need for these after the clone's termination. His record has been synced with the database."
Ilu Bai took the chip impatiently and held it at shoulder-level for the droid hovering behind him to scan. Echo's file lit up the air, the deployment record split into two sections from before and after his restructuring.
"That guy was an ARC trooper?"
Ilu Bai and Sa Eno both jerked around to stare at 81-2030, who had lifted his head again and was straining to read the file. Ilu Bai's hand snapped down—the hologram died.
"This is your new Unit Zero?" He looked 81-2030 dead in the eye; the clone laid his head back down so fast his jaw clicked shut.
"Yes," Sa Eno said, outwardly calm and surprised at how quickly that calm was straining. "I am evaluating him now so that I can adjust the implants to suit his body."
"What a… pattern, I am observing," Ilu Bai said softly. "You seem to enjoy rescuing creatures that are too broken to be useful." He looked back and forth between Diode and the clone on the table. "I suppose you will argue that this one's particular deficiency presents… a unique opportunity to study how illness breeds insolence. Certainly your last one was not very reliable either."
"There was no deficiency in ARC-Zero-Four-Zero-Eight," said 7723 in a clear, strong voice. "He was more than capable."
A silence stretched on as both Sa Eno and Ilu Bai stared at the young commando. She was so shocked at the statement that she opened her mouth and drew breath to reprimand 7723, but knew that if she did, Ilu Bai would only insult her for having no control over her own creations. Let him think she intended this. What Unit Three said was relatively true.
"As I said," Ilu Bai growled softly, his head lowered, neck curving aggressively. "Insolence. Perhaps your squad should be sent back to my training grounds. They seem to be getting out of hand."
He signaled the droid forward, toward where "Unit Zero" lay on his stomach, barely breathing. Sa Eno watched Ilu Bai's left hand. It was closed around the shock gun at his belt, which was also the side nearest the squad. But they were behind 81-2030's table.
"I suppose it is your right to do this," Ilu Bai said, his tone falsely gentle. His neck and then the rest of his spine straightened out. Slowly, he offered her the lethal hypo he had just taken from the droid.
The revulsion that gripped her was so startling that she didn't move a muscle for three seconds, trying to understand what could possibly cause such a reaction in her. This clone was going to die today whether she administered the euthanasia or not. She had not balked at disfiguring his body, or at the idea of using him as a stand-in in the first place. She had no illusions about how many clones were terminated in this facility on a regular basis—0408 had mentioned the figure offhand once, during one of her first attempts to gauge the range of his networking abilities. Perhaps this revulsion was simply a growing hatred for Ilu Bai and his childish ego, his unprofessional delight. In that case, she could not stoop to his level.
"Thank you," she said, with as much cool sincerity as she could muster, and curled her fingers around the hypo. She turned her back to where 81-2030 watched with wide eyes, the squad impassive behind him. 27-2501 let out a small, vulnerable sound when she took his shoulder and rolled him onto his back, but his eyes did not open, although his body shuddered once.
She injected the hypo into his chest, near his heart. His breathing slowed, he twitched—flinched, more accurately—and went completely limp.
She motioned to the droid. "Take his body to disposal." The container 27-2501 had come in was still sitting on the floor, and 7721 and 7724 stepped forward to pick up the corpse and set it inside so that the droid could tow it away.
When it was done, Ilu Bai walked to the door and paused to look back at Sa Eno. "Good luck, Doctor," he said in Kaminoan. "I wish you success. If you need any help with your clones, you know where to find me."
The way he said it—your clones, in Kaminoan—implied clones of Sa Eno's own genotype. The droid pulled the body bin out into the hall after Ilu Bai, and the door slid shut.
Sa Eno let herself breathe and looked at 81-2030 first. "It was foolish to speak out of turn and draw attention to yourself!"
"I-I, uh…."
"And you," she said to Diode Squad. "What did you hope to accomplish by contradicting Ilu Bai? Why would Unit Zero approve of such a statement?"
"It would have been the expected reaction if Echo really were to be terminated," 7723 said. "He would not be here to restrain our emotional responses in the same way."
"It was all part of the act?" Sa Eno said, not sure whether to be skeptical or impressed.
"Question, Doctor," said 81-2030 meekly.
"Ask it," she sighed, surprised at how shaken she felt. She sat down at her work station, just staring at his medical files.
"Who's Unit Zero?"
She pinched the base of her skull, rubbed her hand up and down the curve of her neck. "You are, now."
"And that guy who was on the other table, he's not really dead?"
"He has been terminated. His body will be incinerated."
"Then Echo is somebody else?"
Sa Eno thought for a long moment. It was difficult. She felt her exhaustion bearing down now, the physical discomfort that had been afflicting her for weeks overcoming her usual sharpness.
"You are unusually direct for an eight year old," she said.
"I got lots of practice talking to doctors and medics," he replied. "I mean no disrespect. I know you're trying to help me. Also I might need to run to the refresher soon. It's been long enough since I last tried to eat, and it'll probably try to come out one end or the other in a minute." He sighed, staring up at the ceiling with a miserable look, and cleared his throat. "That's just the way it goes these days."
"You will refrain from being so friendly with Ilu Bai, if you want to avoid what happened to the first Unit Zero," Sa Eno advised.
81-2030 grimaced and looked over at the empty table with open dread. "He got put down for being too chatty? I thought it was his injuries." He paused. "Oh. You're joking, I get it. Well, Ilu Bai doesn't seem like the type that anyone can be friendly with."
Sa Eno frowned at him. "No."
"How long until Unit Zero is able to return, Doctor?" 7723 asked quietly.
"I thought Unit Zero was dead," 81-2030 said. "Or I'm Unit Zero, right?"
"Hush."
"How long until Echo is able to return?" 7723 corrected.
"I need to think." Sa Eno put both hands to her head and walked to the furthest corner of the room.
Thankfully, the clones stayed silent for several minutes while she calmed herself. After a while she was able to refocus.
"Where is Ilu Bai?" She took her hands off her head, still staring at a large tissue analysis unit on the wall.
"He is returning to his area of the facility," said 7723. "He has already entered the main lift and shows no sign of deviating from this course."
"If Echo can return to the lab safely, he has my permission." She turned and walked back to 81-2030. "I am going to run a few tests. Do you need to use the refresher now?"
"Well, no… but that could change in two seconds." Again, that weak smile, almost a grin this time.
The tension in her stomach had nothing to do with 81-2030's illness. It wouldn't be the first time she'd had to order in droids to clean up a clone's vomit.
"Echo should return to quarters, rather than the lab," Sa Eno said. "Call a medical droid here as soon as he has safely returned."
Diode was silent. 81-2030 sighed and laid his head back. "So what kind of tests, if it's not hypertests?"
"I will be exposing your body to various frequencies, and you will tell me if you feel any different."
"Oh. That's new." 81-2030's weary face looked hopeful. He sighed softly—with some difficulty—through his nose and shifted a little under the restraints, settling in. His eyes closed.
Sa Eno tried to focus over her growing discomfort. "Diode, I will need your holotransmitter."
"Unit Zero has it," said 7723.
"I do?" 81-2030 opened his eyes but again looked at Sa Eno rather than at Diode. "Oh, they mean Echo. Wouldn't it make more sense to go by nicknames, if there's more than one Unit Zero? The other rookies I was deployed with called me Green, if that helps."
"We have no nicknames, Green," 7723 said simply.
"Well, you're young, right?" Green said gallantly. "I only just got settled on this one. Even something like Green is better than going by a number all the time, at least that's what the guys in my squad told me."
"Echo," Sa Eno said, looking at 7723. "Please bring your holotransmitter to the lab before you go to quarters."
"Yes, Doctor," 7723 said, his voice just a touch quieter than before. Maybe she imagined it.
"In the meantime, I suppose… I could…." Sa Eno trailed off and sank down at her terminal to look at the data from Green's body. She flicked through five graphs without really seeing any of them. What was her mind doing? She tried to focus but found herself listening for Green or the commandos to speak unexpectedly again. Her dislike for Ilu Bai was uncomfortably strong, but there was something more to it, an inner pressure that increased every time one of the clones spoke out of turn.
At last the door opened, and Echo entered. He walked up to her and offered the holotransmitter without saying a word. She took it and immediately turned it on.
"If the signal that activated Echo's chip was sent through a holotransmitter like this, that means the activating frequency must be one which it is capable of producing," she said half to herself. "Tell me if you feel any changes," she added, louder so Green could hear.
"Right." He closed his eyes again. He'd been staring at Echo, probably comparing him to the hologram his chip had produced.
Sa Eno fiddled with the settings for a moment, then stood, placed the device in Green's hand and began painstakingly cycling through frequencies, shifting very carefully between each one for about thirty seconds. She shifted her gaze to her computer, where his brain waves were being monitored.
"I think the pain in my abdomen is going away," Green said. "No, wait… there it is again. But maybe my fever's breaking… you know, I was feeling really good around graduation, about forty one days ago, I thought Liha Ge finally fixed whatever's wrong, because she was giving me these long bacta treatments and tried monitoring my nutrition and it looked like it was really helping, but—"
"Quiet, please," Sa Eno said. A sense of futility was overtaking her. This would never work.
"Right." Green cleared his throat.
"Doctor." That was Echo's soft croak behind her. "It will take at least seventy hours to test all the main frequencies that transmitter is capable of relaying. Your quarters have not been accessed by you in nearly forty. If you intend to continue with this method, you must rest and eat."
"I have been eating." She gestured to her pockets, which held only empty nutrient containers now.
"I can wait," Green said. "Just show me where the 'freshers are and I'll stay out of everyone's way."
"I will investigate other options while you rest, Doctor," said Echo.
The offer stung. She knew this was unlikely to yield any results, but no other options came to her muddled mind. The dimensions of her lab were suddenly too confining. She rose.
"Alright," she said in defeat. "I will rest. I trust you will watch for any problems…."
"I am monitoring everything," Echo said simply.
She rose and looked around the room, taking in all six of them. Green lifted a hand, despite being strapped onto the table. He almost looked as if he were reaching for her.
"I'll be here when you get back," he said, almost cheerfully.
Sa Eno turned and walked out, still unsure why the sight of them all staring at her unsettled her so. She was used to Echo and Diode watching her. Adding one more clone to that mix should not affect her at all. But something in her thinking had shifted. She was too tired to decide on what it was.
…
After Sa Eno left, 7721 went up to Green and took over the job of adjusting the transmitter's frequency. Green stared at him for a minute before closing his bloodshot eyes and turning his head slightly in the other direction.
It was silent for nearly an hour, while Echo thought and kept an eye on the corridors and lifts near the lab. Sa Eno had clearly intended Green to be a test subject for any method she could think of to study the chip. There was only so much they could do without a living, implanted clone to work with. He wondered whether she truly planned to join 81-2030 to the network for more precise observation.
There was a change in Green's breathing.
"Wake up." 7721 pushed on his shoulder.
Green jerked and blinked blearily. "O…oh. Sorry… do I have to be awake for this?"
"Sa Eno asked you to report any changes."
Green moved his arm and seemed startled to remember he was strapped down. "Right… maybe that frequency put me to sleep."
"Unlikely."
"You know… I've had doctors and medics try a lot of different things to fix me. But this has got to be the weirdest one." Green made a face. "Eh… I think I better head to the refresher now."
They hesitated for only a moment before 7721 and 7722 unstrapped Green from the table and led him toward the unit between the lab and their quarters.
"So what's the story with you?" Green asked as they left the lab, he with his tight shuffling steps. "Are you as young as you look?"
Another small query from the squad—Echo approved. It felt more like having an impulse and deciding only a moment later to act on it.
"Diode Squad is physically the youngest active squad of commandos," explained 7722 for all of them. "Unit… Echo is nearly twelve. The four of us were evaluated for experimental status in our fourth year and underwent the surgery when we reached five years."
"Surgery? For this thing?" Green moved to touch 7721's cranial implant, but stopped short when 7721 stepped abruptly away. "Oh. Sorry. I thought it was just some kind of device for medical diagnosis…."
Diode said nothing, and Green grimaced—"Sorry"—and hurried shakily into the refresher.
Echo reached to make sure Sa Eno was actually in her own quarters. She seemed to be. Beyond that he couldn't be certain that she was resting. Ilu Bai had gone back to training potential ARCs and commando squads.
He reviewed the data from the nodes Green was still wearing. Judging from the chemical balance of his brain, the trooper was experiencing several emotions simultaneously. Echo could only guess how much of that was due to the myriad illnesses his body was fighting. He was certainly in pain.
At long last Green came out of the refresher. His complexion, if possible, looked even more grey than before. "Well, I don't know if any of what I ate actually got digested. It was all reddish and hot, I hope I'm not bleeding…."
"Your digestion is suffering from constant antibiotic use," 7722 said.
"Oh… I'll just have to live with it, then," Green creaked and leaned against the wall for a moment, hands pressed into his abdomen. His shaking breaths were easy to hear, and when he raised his head there were tears coming from his eyes. He wiped them on his sleeve and cleared his throat noisily. "Can I just… sit down here for a second?"
"No. We can carry you back to the lab." 7721 crouched by Green's legs while 7722 put his arms around his chest in preparation to lift him.
"Wait, no." Green pulled halfheartedly at 7722's hands. "No, that's—that's okay, you're just cadets. Sorry, not cadets, but… you're younger than me."
"We can support you while you walk, if you prefer." 7722 pulled Green's arm around his shoulders instead. 7721 went to his other side.
"No, I'm—sorry, I'm fine." Green sniffed loudly and stepped forward, but 7722 and 7721 held onto his arms. "Sorry for crying in front of you. I know most troopers—it's… uncomfortable." He gave a noisy grunt, half clearing his throat. "I'll never have as much control as everyone else but I'll try not to complain so much. Honestly, I'm lucky to be alive, I know I am." His voice broke and he struggled to get it under control. "They could have given up on me a long time ago but they didn't."
Impassively, 7721 and 7722 pulled Green forward, back into the lab. Echo and the other two Diodes were standing exactly as they'd left them. Once Green was sitting on the table, 7722 fetched him some of the same type of disposable towels that Sa Eno had used to mop up the blood from her operation, and Green cleared the various fluids from his face while they scanned his abdomen.
"The medical database suggests consuming probiotics," said Echo quietly.
Green curled up on his side on the medical table before he turned onto his stomach with his knees tucked under him, then onto his back, clutching his belly. He didn't say anything, just breathed very carefully, eyes nearly closed.
"I will see if I can order a nutritional packet," Echo added. "Rest is advised. Unit One and Two will take you to quarters."
Again, nothing but sick, shallow breathing. His eyes were screwed shut now. Echo saw a new adrenaline response, through the nodes. Perhaps Green was afraid. Of what remained unclear—the most present threat to his life had passed. He seemed to be nauseous.
As 7721 and 7722 helped him sit up, Echo noted that Green's breath smelled like bile. Green reached unsteadily for the top of his fatigues, still draped on the table; his other hand touched the node on his chest, and he looked 7722 in the eyes.
Green's voice vibrated slightly with the rest of him. He didn't try to smile, as he had for Sa Eno. His expression was one of sheer exhaustion. "Can you take these off?"
"It will be better to leave them on so we can monitor you. If there is any sudden change we will be able to call a medical droid more quickly. Or the doctor, if necessary."
Green pulled the top over to himself but didn't put it on, just holding it to his chest, draped over one of his arms as he hunched over. Slowly, he slid off the table and the two commandos helped him walk out of the room. Echo stayed in the lab with 7723 and 7724, still reaching for options while monitoring the facility, and watching Green through the eyes of the other two.
Sa Eno had settled on some kind of communications frequency as the cause of the chip's initial activation. That seemed a reasonable conclusion, considering the Verpine virus as the catalyst to the conflict between Echo's own chip and implant. But the deadlock had not been broken by Rex's communication to Skywalker, only afterward, by a pre-recorded message from the chancellor. A pre-recorded message would not have borne any unique transmission frequency. It must have been something in the message itself that activated it.
There was no way to analyze the digital make up of the message. It had been received on Rex's holoprojector, which had probably been destroyed or wiped and passed on to someone else. All Echo could do was review the memories of what had been said, but there was no special pattern to the chancellor's wording that he could detect. His own renewed alertness had occurred the moment he heard the chancellor's voice.
This was all futile. Analyzing the chip on its own had so far yielded only what they already knew, although in more scientific detail—what it did, but not how it was activated. They could try to re-create what had happened on Anaxes, if they gave Green a similar cranial implant, but most clones did not have cranial implants of that type. Perhaps the path by which Echo's chip had been activated was unusual. No, they needed to find a way to activate it without any sort of technological enhancement to the test subject.
Green was laid on his back on the lower half of Echo's bunk. "You don't have to stay with me," he said dully. "The doctors say no clone with a normal immune system will get really sick from being around me, but nobody wants to stick around to find out. I don't blame them."
7721 and 7722 didn't move. They watched Green until he rolled over and curled up with his back to them.
That lasted nearly eleven minutes before he sniffed, sighed loudly and glanced over his shoulder at them. "If you're commandos, don't you have something better to do?"
They considered, for a moment, how to reply. "You are crucial to our continued operation," said 7722. "We are currently off active duty because of an unexpected malfunction."
"In your…?" Green rolled onto his back and gestured toward their heads.
7722 nodded. "In Unit Zero's interface. We will be doing various tests on your brain to ensure it won't happen again." True enough.
"Well, all the doctors say my brain's just fine, even if I talk too much…." Green frowned and folded his hands on his stomach. "So what are those things for?"
"Networking. Data processing. Everyone in the squad is connected. We can access everything each of us experiences at any time."
Green's eyes widened. "You mean that Echo guy is listening to our conversation?"
"He is directing our conversation."
"But… but you're all still individuals, right?" Green started to sit up but then seemed to think better of it. He looked a little panicked.
Echo hesitated in approving a response, long enough for Green to make a very soft choking noise. Most of Echo's attention was currently turned toward reviewing the few files he'd managed to access about the chip's installation before, hoping that if he cross-referenced enough of his own knowledge and the available files on Kaminoan language, he might find or realize something he had not before.
"She's going to put one of those things in my head?" Green asked. "And make me part of this big droid brain?"
"Possibly."
Green's heart rate had nearly doubled. 7721 crouched by his bedside and pulled at his elbow to try and ease him back down.
"It's not painful," 7722 reminded him.
"I-I guess if… if I'm not curable, you wouldn't want..." Green stopped and opened his mouth, as if he saw something amazing on the underside of the upper bunk. "Wait. I wouldn't be a commando too, would I?"
"If you were cured and completed the proper training, it's possible." They would have to ask Sa Eno explicitly how much of their actual plans they could trust to Green. "We don't know all of Sa Eno's intentions for you."
"A commando. Heh. I can't even imagine it." Green's voice went suddenly quiet, almost timid. He looked straight at 7721. "What's it like, being connected like that?"
"We are capable of accomplishing much more than any of us could individually," said 7721.
"Have you ever even been lonely?" Green looked at the upper bunk again.
There were several Kaminoan words Echo kept encountering that he could not translate at all. Similar sounding word meanings were completely incongruous with the written sentences he found them in. He could not yet find them in any memory of any conversation he'd overheard, but he kept looking.
Green rubbed at his eyes restlessly and sighed.
"You know, when I was younger, the first time I got sick, I was sure I was gonna die. But then they fixed it, and I kept training. And then," he sighed, "it happened again. I thought that was definitely it. I'm not going to be a soldier. But I got better again. I got better fast enough that they said I was still normal. The other cadets, they always… got quiet when it happened, or when I talked about being sick, and I could feel it. Like they all just stopped seeing me." His voice lowered to a mutter. "They thought I might disappear too. They'd heard about other sick cadets disappearing. But the doctors kept trying on me, you know. They believed I could make it more than my own brothers did."
The most frequent word had a root sound that seemed linked with either water or sameness. But that was all Echo could yet discern.
"I actually thought I could make friends with my squad when I graduated." Green huffed weakly and kept rambling, eyes moving along the bottom of the upper bunk aimlessly. "I picked out the guy I thought I would really get along with. The one who'd really watch my back. But by the first night on the field I was puking my guts out. The only person who really talked to me much after that was the medic. He said this happens once in a while but it'd pass in a few hours. I almost died waiting for that to happen, and…."
Green went quiet suddenly and glanced at 7721, still kneeling with a hand on his elbow. He closed his eyes, his forehead creased, although they couldn't tell if it was from the pain in his stomach or something else. Their attention immediately went back to the problem of the chips.
About an hour later, Green finally fell asleep again.
…
Five hours in, Echo was using a rigged interface with his holotransmitter to access data files from the nearest ships and space stations and beyond, adding to a compilation of data on human neurology and cybernetics that he'd begun more than a week ago. It took a great deal of concentration to keep the connection masked and secure.
Green was still sleeping, sweaty with fever, when Echo became aware that Sa Eno had left her quarters and was heading for the lab.
"Doctor," Echo said, as soon as he'd unlocked and opened the door for her, "did you sleep?"
"I know where to look!" she exclaimed, her fists striking an exuberant gesture Echo had not seen her use since the day he was successfully joined to Diode. He closed and locked the door and she stopped abruptly, staring at the empty table. "Where is the other clone? Green?"
"He is sleeping," Echo murmured.
"Oh." Sa Eno looked troubled for a moment but it quickly passed. "No matter. That form of testing was unlikely to succeed. Best not to waste time. I must make arrangements." She stepped toward her computer.
"What is your plan? I have continued compiling data from other scientists—"
Sa Eno made a sharp, dismissive gesture. "No. That is precisely the issue! I cannot believe I didn't see it before. This chip was designed by Kaminoans, building upon previously existing Kaminoan technology. Other scientists' methods are a distraction. Trying to reinvent it ourselves is a waste of time when we could merely ask for answers."
Echo felt some alarm, quickly dampened. "Doctor, who do you think we can trust with this?"
"I won't reveal all of my reasons for asking, of course," Sa Eno said, accessing communications. Echo watched as she sent a message into what looked to his mind like a void. He could not follow it to its destination, could not detect what network it was accessing. He could only read its contents.
Sa Dio, Sa Eno. I would visit as soon as possible, for scientific collaboration.
"Have you slept?" he repeated.
"What?" Sa Eno looked at him from where she sat, distracted. "Of course. A few hours, perhaps."
"Are you certain it would not be wiser to sleep more before making plans?"
Sa Eno stood, pacing slightly. It looked odd, such an agitated gesture in such fluid motions. "I will have time once the plans are made. I must get a response before my sister sleeps."
"Where is your sister?"
"In Derem City," Sa Eno said. She looked excited, hopeful—Echo could only suppose her few hours of sleep had refreshed her more than he'd thought possible.
"And she studies implants like this?"
"Not exactly, but she knows people who will be familiar with what I need to know," Sa Eno said dismissively. "Hmm. I will have to take Green with me, somehow. That will be the most challenging aspect…."
"Doctor, I was wondering if I might ask for a translation of a Kaminoan word."
"Of course." She barely looked at him, a finger resting against her mouth in thought.
He brought it up on her terminal, not wanting to mistake the pronunciation. She moved over to read it and blinked slowly.
"Oh. That. There is no direct translation…. Where did you find this word?"
"In the Fett project planning files. It was in a sentence describing, I think, the basic concept the chips was built upon. But I can't be certain."
"Really! I would not be surprised, although it would be incredibly crude to refer to your chip's purpose with this word." Sa Eno settled back into the chair, and even in her stillness she looked restless. "It means… well, it refers to a method of communication. And a sense of relation. In its simplest form I suppose it might be translated as a sort of mental reflection."
"Reflection on what?" Echo asked.
"Not on anything. Reflection of thoughts. It… is so difficult to describe in Basic. But it is similar to what occurs between you and the rest of the squad when deciding a course of action. Show me the file."
"I can only safely copy part of what is in the file," Echo said. "Actual transfer may alert someone. Just a moment."
Sa Eno stared at her screen, the long fingers of one hand brushing absentmindedly and rhythmically against the backs of their opposites. Echo finished composing the paragraph and sent it to Sa Eno's computer. She went still, reading.
Base model of secondary inhibitive augmentation: and there was the word. Reflection, Echo decided, for lack of a better translation. Reflection model. Narrow reception, single—and another word Echo wasn't familiar with. Zero receiver control to Reflection once sent.
There was more, detailing the site in the brain where it was to be implanted, and many references to surgical procedure which he could not find actual instructions for anywhere.
"Yes," Sa Eno breathed. "Yes, this… would be the simplest way. We must go to Derem. I don't know why I didn't think of it before." The sudden coldness of her voice made 7721's arms prickle, where he sat watching Green. "I suppose because… I never would have expected Lama Su to give such an important secret to outsiders. For credits."
For a moment she sat there, motionless, staring at her screen. But her eyes were not moving, and Echo suspected she was not really looking at anything at all.
"Doctor… do you know how to stop the chips?"
Sa Eno closed her eyes briefly, and her head swayed the tiniest bit. "No. Not yet. But I am more confident than before that a visit to my sister is the next step. I only hope she accepts my proposal."
"I am not aware of any network you are using to send this message," Echo finally said. "My networking abilities must be malfunctioning again."
Sa Eno smiled at him slowly. "I never promised to give you access to all of Kamino. No one but a Kaminoan can access anything beyond the cloning facilities on the surface."
"But according to records, Derem rests on the surface and houses a small cloning facility."
"Yes. My sister does not live in the cloning facility on Derem."
Echo considered that. After a moment it seemed odd that he had ever assumed Sa Eno would give him unlimited access to Kaminoan networks. Republic, maybe, but not anything truly crucially secret. And he'd noticed small discrepancies in the official records of Kamino before.
"If only Kaminoans can access anything beyond the cloning facilities," he said, "how do you plan to take Green with you?"
Sa Eno finally stood from her seat, apparently resigned to the fact that Sa Dio's reply had not yet materialized. "That is something I will need your help to decide."
…