Omega had messed up. She had wanted to be a good little sister to the others, but she had made a horrible mistake.
When they had arrived on Saleucami, it had been the most amazing thing ever. It was so bright here. Brighter than it ever was on Kamino. At first, Omega even hesitated to leave the ship. But when she did, she was so glad. There was dirt on this planet and it was amazing. It ran through her fingers. She probably could build things with it. Maybe something like it was even fun to play with.
Things soon got even better. She met two other kids. They were really nice and she learned how to play catch. It was just like the stories that she had always been taught. And it was so much fun. It was much better than sneaking around Kamino, even if that had been fun too, until Nala Se would lecture her about how she shouldn't do that.
Nala Se… Omega couldn't help but miss her.
But when she was playing, she made a horrible mistake. She tossed the ball out of the fence. Shaeeah and Jek were fine with it and said they could get it later, but Omega didn't want to wait until later. She wanted to get the ball. Even if they were done playing, at least they would have their toy back.
But it all went wrong. She had been attacked by a creature, a nexu. And for a moment when it came toward her, she couldn't do anything. She just knew that she was going to die. She would never get to see all the planets she had dreamed of. She wouldn't even get to know the others in the Bad Batch as much as she wanted to.
It would all be over. Her dreams cut short.
But then she was saved. She instantly felt relief, but then Hunter yelled at her. She couldn't believe it. But she probably had deserved it. She had been stupid so stupid. She deserved to get yelled at.
And then Hunter tried to get her to leave and go with Cut and Suu. She had snuck back to help Clone Force 99, and Hunter said she could stay now but still she was worried. So worried. She had to do something to convince him that she should get to stay.
But what?
They were back in space now. Omega didn't know what they would do next, but she needed to do something. She had to prove that she was worth keeping around. If only she could be good at fighting like all of them were, but she wasn't. Not yet. Even the reg clones her age had been better than her.
Nala Se and the rest of the Kaminoans had a different path for her.
But now she had to be useful.
She decided it was a good idea to find someone who could give her ideas. And who better than Tech? He was super smart and he would be able to help her. He knew almost everything. She found him in one of the living areas working on his datapad.
"Tech?" Omega asked as she went over to him.
"Yes, Omega?" He looked at her. She just knew that he would be able to help her.
"Can I ask you something?"
"Sure, what do you need assistance with?"
Omega was about to spit it right out, but then she stopped. If she told him exactly what she was doing, then it wouldn't be a surprise to him at all. Tech was smart so he would probably guess but he wouldn't know for sure.
"I'm writing a story," Omega said, regretting it right away.
"Really? What are you writing it on? Has Hunter acquired you your own datapad yet?" Tech asked.
Omega thought about lying since she could work on a story on one, but then maybe he would ask Hunter about it and she would be found out early. She didn't want that.
"Not yet," Omega said. She leaned on the back of her feet. "I've been writing a story in my head."
"That… might make it difficult to remember everything," Tech said.
"I have a good memory," Omega said. "But I need your help with an idea."
"I'm afraid that I'm not the most—"
"It's not about the story itself and you're the person who I want to help me the most," Omega said. She could have asked for Wrecker's help, but he was already such a good friend and she wanted to surprise him also.
She liked Tech too but she needed someone's help.
"Okay, I'll try and assist you," Tech said.
"I'm writing a story about… children who are… nine," Omega said picking a good age. "Who are trying to cheer up their… parents." Parents… Omega didn't know much about them, since she didn't have any, but this seemed like a good choice. But just in case it wasn't, she decided that she would say more. "Also their aunts and uncle and cousins and teachers." Teachers was wrong. Those weren't relatives.
"Teachers?" Tech asked.
"They're visiting in the story," Omega said, nodding.
"That sounds like an interesting story," Tech said.
"It will be," Omega said. "It's going to be really good. I'll let you read it. Once it's finished and not just in my head."
It actually sounded like it could be fun to write a story, but Omega didn't know what she would even write about. It felt like she hadn't seen anything compared to even most kids. Most kids probably were used to suns and dirt.
"I mean if you want to," Omega said.
"I'd be honored to read it, Omega," Tech said.
Omega couldn't help but grin.
"And I do have some suggestions," Tech said.
Omega listened closely. Some of them wouldn't work such as collecting flowers. They were in space. There weren't any flowers. But some of the ideas sounded good and that they could work.
"Thank you so much, Tech," Omega said and before he could say anything else, she hurried off.
Most of her plan would be for tomorrow, but she could get to work on part of it. Paper could be rare, but she had gotten a tiny bit recently from Cut and Suu. They had given her something to color with too. She would work on pictures.
But when she thought about what to draw, she couldn't think of anything. She wasn't good at this. She sighed, but she didn't want to give up. Maybe she could draw something in Kamino but Kamino… she doubted they would want anything to do with that so instead she drew pictures of planets she had dreamed of seeing. Well, planets she had dreamed of seeing for most of them, except Wrecker. For Wrecker she tried to draw Lula. Omega wished she had Lula in front of her but she was pretty sure Wrecker had her right now.
He once told her that she could borrow Lula whenever she wanted, but still. One day, Omega wanted to have her own toys.
She finished the pictures soon after they were… Omega was pretty sure bad. She sighed. Maybe she should toss them away. They probably wouldn't like these. But it was a waste of paper. She wasn't even sure where she could hide them though. Omega didn't have her own room, which was fine, but if she did she could have hid them there.
But she didn't. She ended up hiding them under something in the closet which looked like it hadn't been used it forever. Hopefully they wouldn't see it. They would instantly know that she was the one who did it.
Omega had just finished hiding them when Tech came into the room.
"Omega, I found something for you," he said as he handed her a datapad.
"My own datapad?!" Omega asked. This was great. Yes, she had used one on Kamino but it had really been Nala Se's. And there was a lot of things she couldn't do on those since they were for work.
"Yes, you should be able to—"
"Play games on it?" Omega couldn't help but ask. Shaeeah and Jek had datapads with games on them. Now maybe she would too. It would be fun.
"Yes, I suppose, but you could also work on your story."
"My story?" Omega said, forgetting what she had told him for a moment. Then she nodded. "Yes, my story."
"And your studies, of course," Tech said, almost sounding like Nala Se for a moment.
But Omega would do some of her studies, but she wanted to do ones which would help her be the best member of Clone Force 99.
"Thank you," Omega said.
Tech nodded.
The rest of the night Omega planned what she was going to do. She even went on the holonet to see if it had any ideas, but it was just things about the Empire there. Omega didn't want to think about the Empire. The Empire had changed everything.
So she would have to come up with ideas on her own.
What she was going to do was make them breakfast. Soon they would have only boring rations left, but they had a few good fresh ones now. She was going to do her best to make the tastiest breakfast in all the galaxy.
And then they wouldn't notice how horrible the pictures were.
So first thing in… well it wasn't really morning since they were in space, but about an hour before they normally woke up, Omega forced herself to, even though her eyes wanted to stay closed. Space was so dark and it made it easy to sleep for a long time. But she couldn't do that now.
Omega hurried through the ship and slid the pictures under their bedroom door. They would see them when they woke up and hopefully she would be wrong about them not being good. Then she went to the kitchen. She looked at all the food. She had never cooked anything before, but how hard could it really be?
Omega found out when smoke started to fill the room.