Red was at the wall speaker with the Duty Officer when Asoka loped back from the side corridor. She lifted an eyebrow in question at Rex who leaned against the wall panel.
Another clone, another of his vode… Rex smiled at her then shrugged as Red spoke.
"Just a false alarm. It glitched badly and we're going to need to open and close the cells individually as well as the main doors to reset it. It might alarm two or three times before we've got it fixed."
Static crackled over the speaker. "What about the prisoners? Do you need backup?"
"No. When the cell doors glitched they released the sleeper gas into the cells. Probably some botched escape attempt. Engineering can check it out on dayshift."
Botched? Ahsoka's mouth silently shaped at Rex. He grinned, actually grinned.
Then Red closed communications. He paused a moment, savoring or fearing the irrevocability of what he'd done.
"Did he alert anyone," Rex asked Ahsoka with a lift of his chin to the corridor she'd come from.
"No. He'll be asleep for a while."
"I'm glad you didn't kill him." Red turned and gave her a nod. "Commander."
"Not anymore." She smiled but there was sadness behind that expression. Rex knew that smile, a silent apology for every clone that had followed her but never returned.
Jester wasn't among the groups of prisoners in cells and Redemption's face twisted as he moved down the aisle to another door, this one a solid metal. Ahsoka led the prisoners out, towards the hole they'd cut in the side of the cell block. Redemption jerked his head to one side, seeing movement beyond them in a smaller ship's interior, then glanced away to avoid being able to identify the man helping the prisoners into the hold.
"Probably separated because he was an Imperial trooper," Rex murmured at his shoulder.
"We can hope that's all it is," replied Redemption in the same low voice. "I don't have the code for this door." Rex caught the tone of his words and winced, knowing Redemption had deeper suspicions.
Rex turned his head towards the small line of prisoners moving into the freighter. "We need the cutter."
One of the freed prisoners shook her head. "Don't bother," she warned. "That one is probably already dead." But she handed back the cutter anyway. Then she glanced at the door, gave a sigh and stepped up between Rex and the sergeant. She drew a fingertip along the back edge of the door. "Heavy duty hinges, but still weaker than the bolts or the protective covering of the electronics or the wall." Her hand reached out and Rex set the cutter back into her calloused fingers with a nod of thanks.
It took time but the woman didn't appear to rush. Her movements were sure and experienced. Redemption had to message the Duty Officer again, warning of more alarms. Then the hinges came apart, the woman side-stepped quickly and Redemption shifted to catch that heavy door against his back with a grunt. Rex helped him set it against the floor. The woman moved off to where Ahsoka was by the entry to the freighter.
As Rex stepped into the cell where a clone curled up in the corner, Redemption grabbed Rex by the arm and pulled him back so violently that, for an instant, Rex tightened and reached for his weapon as though it had been some sort of ruse. Then Redemption waved his hand over the sensor and dimmed the light.
"He's on some new drug." He whispered to Rex. "Some super-sensitizer." He glanced at Jester, curled in a fetal position with his arms around his head. Bleeding skin showed where the shackles had been.
"He hears our voices as yelling, the light as blistering. The beating of his own heart is driving him crazy. His clothing rubs him raw." He swallowed the lump in his throat. "I saw one of the test subjects ram his head into a steel beam. He smiled when he saw the beam and he smiled as he died." Redemption shook his head at the cruelty of it. "They touched another test subject and he died. Simply died from the… I don't know… overload of sensations, maybe."
The ex-commander was back. "I'll take him," she whispered to them both. "I'm the only one who can do this without touching him." She tilted her head as if listening. "He knows you. He knows it's Rex and…" she turned to Redemption with her head tilted in curiosity. "He knows you. He's afraid you're here to execute Rex. That he's just bait for the trap."
Redemption grimaced. "No. No, Jester. I want to go with you. I want to be free as well. Even if I'm not accepted by you and Rex, there's an entire galaxy to explore. I can find someplace. Maybe even a vod who doesn't know me."
Rex sighed as Ahsoka stepped into the cell, waves of Force energy gathering before her.
"They all know you, Sergeant."
They took Redemption on the smaller craft with the others, though for his own safety, Rex brought him into one of the crew rooms instead of the main cargo hold where the prisoners bunked down on thermo-mats.
The main pilot was a dark-haired woman with curiously sympathetic eyes. He didn't see her often over the next two days, but when he did, she was sitting by the cabin door where the former Jedi former commander had taken Jester for detox, tears running silently down her cheeks.
"I'm sorry," he told her the first time he realized that Jester meant something to her. When he knew that Jester was more than a mere clone to her.
"Not your fault."
He paused in the hallway. After swallowing, he bowed his head. "It might be."
Through her tears, she gave a watery laugh. "No." Her mouth remained open for a moment as if to explain more then her chin quivered and she sniffled, "Not your fault."
He sat next to her, sharing her vigil and the nutrient bar from his gear.