Chapter 9: Kamino Cloning Facility

Kamino was just as wet and uninviting as it had been the fateful day when Obi-Wan Kenobi first discovered the Clone Army. It was also just as wet and cold as Rex remembered from his far too short childhood. For Mando it was just cold, wet and unpleasant and he sent a grateful thought to the Armorer who had cast and forged his beskar'gam. A conventional steel armour would likely corrode and disintegrate in less than the time he expected to stay here due to the salty and wet climate.

They had set off from Lothal the day after Winter Solstice. With joined efforts the engines of Razor Crest had been cleaned and up and running by the evening. Sabine had proven herself to be an excellent mechanic and her help in rehabilitating the engines had been invaluable. She had invited them to stay until the next day but knowing fully well that the child's pursuers could be hot on their heels Mando had politely declined the invitation. They had already spent too much time on Tatooine, he couldn't allow himself to linger anymore. Besides, if anyone was tracking him he didn't want them to follow him here. Sabine appeared to be well suited to take care of herself, but after all she was just one person.

For the same reasons they decided to leave with both ships. That would make them less vulnerable in case something unpleasant happened. Rex would plot the course and leave in his own ship and Mando and the kid would follow in Razor Crest.

The moment he set Razor Crest down on the landing platform, Mando had felt a chill down his spine, a chill which was not caused by the physical conditions. An eerie silence hung over the place despite the thunder from the waves trying to rip the construction off the bottom of the sea. The feeling was enhanced by the increasing restlessness coming from his little companion.

The moment they had broken through the atmosphere it had perked it ears and tried to get a glance out the window - a task that was doomed to fail as it wasn't by any means tall enough. The little brow wrinkled and it seemed to be listening to something which could not be heard with human ears. A tiny, unhappy, yelp came from it.

Mando had never seen his foundling in such a worried state before.

"What's the matter, little one? This place was abandoned years ago. There's nothing to be afraid of."

The kid looked up at him for a moment, then it began to wiggle its little body down from the seat.

"What are you doing? Stay in the seat until we have landed."

A tiny "uh-oh" came from the being as it shuffled out of the cockpit with an amazing speed.

What was going on? They had been in danger before, and the moment when he'd first handed it over to the client he'd seen a worried expression in its little face, the expression which somehow had hit his consciousness hard and led to the retrieval of 'the small package'. But through all the troubles and dangers they had faced later on, he'd never seen it acting this weird.

As soon as they hit the landing platform and he could get out of the seat himself he went hunting. The little one had done a good job of making itself invisible, but after a few minutes hide and seek Mando found him under his own bunk.

"Come now. This place isn't dangerous."

I hope, he added silently to himself.

"Nnnnoh!"

Was that actually a word? It sounded suspiciously like a "no". A very determined one as such. He knelt down and grabbed for the foundling, trying to pull it carefully out from its newfound hideout. Not a good idea. Now it whimpered. He let go of the little hand and sat down.

"What is it you're so afraid of?"

Silence.

Then he stood up again. Forcing the little one to join when it was obviously scared half to death was not something he would do. After all, this place was supposed to be abandoned and thus safe. It could stay in the cabin. It wasn't like they were going to stay for long anyways.

"You can stay here," he decided. "You will be safe here. I'll lock the hatch when I leave and you'll be fine. Nobody can enter."

He really had to go before Rex was totally soaked out there. Or, with all the water pouring down and sideways, he probably was already. A gush of wind and water hit his face as he opened the hatch and he had to wipe the front of the helmet free of water even before he'd taken one step out of the ship. A step that was considerably hindered by something, or someone, clinging to his boot. He looked down. Two black eyes blinked towards him: "Nnnnnooh?"

He bent down again, carefully releasing the small claws.

"Now what? I thought we'd agreed on this. You can stay here. Stay! Got it?"

The child lifted his small hands, the now well-known signal for 'lift me up'.

"You changed your mind? OK, come on, we have to close this hatch before Razor Crest is all soaked inside. And with the little one safely in the nook of his arm he stepped out into the wind and rain. A small green claw was determinedly fastened to his chest plate.

Rex was soaking wet, and he was also curious: "What happened?"

"I'm not sure. The little one didn't want to go, - he actually hid so I had to search for him. I promised he could stay inside the ship but then he changed his mind."

Rex frowned.

"Weird. The place seems empty enough. As it should be. I just hope that my entrance code is still functional."

It was.

The corridor inside was chilly but dry. What had once been glistering in pristine white panels was now covered by thin layers of dust. Only the sound from ventilations shafts could be heard. The eerie feeling Mando had had outside the complex grew. The child hid its face towards his armour.

"Where to?"

Rex shrugged. "I'm not sure, actually. I think we should start with the labs. Maybe we can find something there. Do you know what we're looking for?"

Mando sighed."No, not really. Some records or samples or something that connects this little guy with the place. When I read Kenobi's books I got the clear understanding that Master Yoda was the same species as the little one, but it also seemed like he was the only one of his kind. I suspect that this one might somehow be cloned from the old Jedi Master. It doesn't per se help me to find his kind, but I if I can find out where he came from, that may be of help."

The two men had begun walking further into the complex. Rex's determined stride showed that he knew where he was going.

Finally he stopped outside a door.

"Here, this was the main lab. We used to get our health checks here. To my understanding this was not the lab where they did the cloning experiments. We were never allowed to go there, but I know it's further down in the buildings."

"Let's go there."

Rex nodded: "Let's hope the turbolift is still functioning."

The level they reached was even more dusty than the facilities upstairs. It was clear that no-one had been here for a very very long time. Which made them wonder - who had managed to keep the upper levels relatively clean? Wasn't the facility totally empty after all? The kid seemed to have calmed down a bit. It wasn't frantically clinging to Mando's armour anymore and every now and then it dared to give the surroundings a quick peek before it hid its face again. Possibly a good sign that no imminent danger was lurking in the shadows.

"Further down," Rex decided.

And the kid began whimpering. It was squirming in Mando's arms, apparently trying to escape his grip.

"Stop that," he whispered, "Don't! I'm not letting anyone harm you, little one, but I cannot let you down on the floor. If you get lost down here I'm not sure I can find you again."

This is so not good. If he does the 'magical hand thing' now and try to strangle me or throw me away or whatever he's capable to, I don't stand a chance. There's no way I can defend myself against that. And I cannot let him go either. If he's lost down here I will need the next umpteenth rotations finding him again.

"I bet we're on the right level," Rex stated calmly. "Whatever happened to him, I guess it happened here."

And then the squirming and whimpering stopped, just as quickly as it had begun and the child became limp in Mando's arms. Only the slow blinking revealed that it was still conscious. It seemed to have resigned to its fate, whatever that might be. Or maybe it actually trusted him to keep it safe. It felt kind of….heartwarming.

"I promise I'll keep you safe," he added.

"Let's get in while the litte guy is still calm," Rex said. "Only trouble is that I don't have the code for this lab."

"That is the least of our problems," Mando stated. "Stay away."

And with that he removed the blaster from his hip and with a well placed shot the lock was demolished. The door swung out on hinges which had not seen any lubrication lately. The creaking made them all startle. A faint summing came from all directions. It was hard to say whether it was the ventilation or something else. The walls were covered with something that seemed like small closets, doors or drawers being about one square meter.

No traces in the dust layer on the floor. Good. No living things seemed to visit this place, at least not for several years. The mid section of the floor was covered with working benches, glass tubes and various electronic equipment which all seemed to be switched off.

The kid whimpered again by the sight of the bench.

"What is this place?" Mando whispered.

There really wasn't any need for whispering but something about the environment made him feel like it was the right thing to do. This place gave him the creeps.

"I believe," Rex sighed, "that this is one of the early cloning labs. They might have been doing experiments before we were created. It is obviously not one of the larger scale production units where my younger brothers were made."

The phrasing almost made Mando shudder. It was something about the clone's straightforwardness that made his statement even more scary than it could have been. It was like he considered himself and his brothers assets instead of human beings. Technically he was right, but… it felt wrong.

He'd never thought much of his own moral standards. It came with the occupation. He knew his work sometimes brought him into the shadowlands of 'merely acceptable' and he had long ago accepted this as his path in life. More than once he'd had to cut someone's life short before its natural time to pass had come. Sometimes he felt a pang of remorse, but more often than not he just let it go. His normal bounties wandered the same shadowlands as he did himself so they were, after all, aware of the dangers. But creating human beings as if they were disposable, right from the beginning? That was a completely different matter.

Philoshophical thoughts aside, the lab appeared to be free from any useful information that might once have existed.

"What's next?" he asked, hoping that Rex could come up with a new idea.

The old clone shrugged.

"I don't know. It will take forever to search the entire complex, and as we don't know what we're looking for…."

His voice trailed off. Then he straightened his back even more than what was its normal posture.

"I'll just have a look in one of those drawers, boxes…whatever it is. It seems to be some kind of an archive."

The kid whimpered and hid his face against the beskar again.

"Careful," Mando whispered, "I think he's nervous."

"Yeah. I will."

And he grabbed one of the lower drawers and pulled. Hard. It slid forward on well lubricated rails, so he almost fell to the floor. Almost. And seconds later he wished he had. He quickly pushed the drawer back into the rack.

"Did you see that?" he asked, feeling sick to his stomach.

"No, I didn't. Not really. I saw a glass container of some sorts and there was something dark inside it, like a body floating in liquid…"

"It was," Rex confirmed, "but it wasn't…well, I can tell you that wasn't a regular clone. This was something else. But it seemed to be dead and just encapsulated for preservation."

He swore he would never tell anyone of the monstrosity that was kept inside the container. It could have been a human life form, but something had altered it to something unrecognisable. There had been too many limbs for a normal human being and the skin colour had been a murky green/greyish colour and he wouldn't even think about its facial features which could be all too clearly seen through the transparent cylinder. It was something that nightmares were made of.

The kid whimpered again.

"Yes, you're right kid, let's get out of here. Coming here was not the best idea in the galaxy."

That's when they heard the slow steps and a slim figure entered the room. For a moment Rex and the newcomer glared at each other.

"Taun We?!" he exclaimed.

"CT-7567", the newcomer said in its low, singing voice. "It had to be you coming back after all these years. And who are you?"

The last sentence came as she turned towards Mando, and a small gasp came from her throat.

"The Replica," she said, "you have the Replica."

"Say again?" Mando and Rex said in unison.

The kid had now turned completely silent, and seemed like it was trying to disappear into Mando's chest plates.

The Kaminoan didn't answer. Likely she realised that she'd said too much already.

"Taun We," Rex said in his most autorative voice, every bit the Captain he once was, "we're not here to harm you in any way, actually we were under the impression that the facilities had been closed down and that there would be no-one here. But we do need to know as much as possible about the little one here, the one you called 'replica'. There are people searching for him and it seems that he is in danger."

"Very well," Taun We agreed, "I will tell you what little I know, but at that time I was only a junior researcher and I do not know the background for what happened."