Chapter 1: The Nobles
The six Ministers of Kamino filed pompously onto the ceremonial stage in an organized line, adorned simply but attractively in their festival clothing, to the sound of a magnificent fanfare. To their viewers in the Grand Hall of Tipoca City, the Nobles, they were the epitome of perfection- pale as a fog, tall, graceful, and good natured, each bearing a nearly identical passive expression. Most of the viewers, that is. To some of the Dukes, or top level Nobles in running for office as a Minister, however, the appearances of charm and good will were stripped away to reveal ulterior motives and schemes. Each filled their terms as Minister with empty deeds and feats to impress their audiences into the voting booth, never suspected of greed and power lust. The one viewed as most perfect and righteous was chosen as Prime Minister. Only these Dukes were permitted to study law, politics, and campaigning structure, chosen from birth to be leaders as the I.Q. printed on their genomes dictated. Each understood the way of manipulation and greed, and the polite dance they performed for one another and for the ignorant masses of society was the price they paid for the chance at ultimate power. This was the way of the Nobles.
The Prime Minister of Kamino, the dictator who governed at a six year period, took his place at the lectern to the sound of thunderous applause. He waved aside the praise of the people with feigned embarassment and began his speech in a velvety voice.
"I, Mahe Su, do acknowledge the coming of this New Year with thanksgiving and blessing, and therefore today commence..."
A dead silence rang in the hall as each Kaminoan held its breath.
"...The Anniversary Ceremony and Festival of New Beginnings!"
The words, old as the Kaminoan society, were still anticipated each year with fervor and acknowledged with great cheering and celebration. However, the crowd of Nobles soon became silent again at the gesture of their leader.
"This year, we truly do have a reason to celebrate... aside from a week vacation from working all year long, that is." He winked at his crowd and lapped up the laughter and shouts of agreement, then continued.
"Our cloning techniques have been improved on year after year with each new advance in science. However, as we all know, accidents do happen..." The murmur of the nobles sounded quietly beneath his voice. The occurence of imperfects was not a topic broached often by figureheads. He rushed on before speculation grew.
"...very rarely. But not any more." He paused dramatically, and the Nobles dropped their mumblings in fascination.
"Statistics from our cloning facilities over the past year have reported a truly phenomenal change in the history of Kamino... a ratio of 100 perfection!"
The crowd burst into applause at this miracle. Mahe Su could not contain a grin of proud accomplishment, as if he personally had brought it about.
"As predicted by many staticians of previous years, our society will now be forever uncorrupted by the mar of broken and incompetent beings. The rulers, the laborers, the scientists, the teachers, the entertainers, all will be bright, productive, and virtuous additions to our world. My fellow Kaminoans... The Utopia of perfection has now dawned upon us. May its golden sun never set."
Not every Kaminoan celebrated during the Festival of New Beginnings. Even though this was the one week all year in which nobody was required to work, few beings continued their labor.
Greater things were afoot.
One such being worked at breakneck, nervous speed in one of the abandoned laboraties, using his contraband Identification pad to gain access to the highest security machines and cloning devices. While he could have been celebrating along with all the other Nobles, this was the one time during the entire year when he had the slightest opportunity to achieve his greatest accomplishment. No security guarding the doors, no questioning eyes, no Kaminoan official flashing his royal mandate in his face, demanding him to go back to his duties as a Noble and leave the science to the Scientists.
Trila Ke was a non-conformist, one of those few dangerous Kaminoans who tried to tip the all-mighty Order which kept the Government and Society of Kamino organized and efficient. Polls revealed that 98 of all Kaminoans accepted and adapted to their given stations in life, whether the small murmurings in the back of their minds spoke of ambitions or not. The Society was a smoothly running machine, and each cog and bolt which held it in place knew that he was perfectly created and raised to fulfill his lot in life, and should he falter, the machine of Society would falter, and therefore throw off the great Order which he was destined to keep, and... etcetera. It went on.
Trila Ke wished Order to take a Running Dive off of a Landing Platform. He wanted to be a Scientist, furthering the advancment of his race, using his given intelligence for something useful. The last thing he wanted was to be a pompous Noble, strutting around at the social gatherings and showing off. His fellow Nobles were a vain and egotistical bunch, contributing nothing to Society but their own baseless pride. Unfortunately, this lot in life was forced upon him. And so his calculations and experiments remained in the back room of his apartment as he attended the social events with a feigned smile, and he worked in the darkness of the midnight hours... and he waited.
Today, however, his waiting ended.
The papers which he rifled through in search of the correct equation quaked with his excitement and nervousness. He had only a few days to get this right, and then-
"We missed you today."
The languid voice echoing through the cloning facility caused Trila to drop his papers and spin around in surprise. Behind him, standing in the entrance, was a certain higher ranking Noble, Linla Ke. He visibly relaxed at the sight of her.
"Ah, Lin. My favorite pompous brute," he jeered familiarly.
Linla sneered. "They were asking around for you at the Festival today." Her voice took on a joking tone. "I told them you were stuck home sick with the Aphe virus."
Trila nodded absently and bent to pick up his papers, then froze and stood up abruptly, narrowing his eyes. "That is not funny, Lin. You know how paranoid the nobles are," he declared, pointing accusingly at her.
Linla simply gave a light laugh. "You should be grateful, as many times as I am willing to cover your hide. It was difficult enough to get the permit for you, but..." she dropped her eyes to the ground, then looked up at him again darkly. "...there are ways."
"Oh, well, I hope you did not have to kill anybody," Trila muttered in mock astonishment, turning back to his papers. "Besides, you owed me."
Linla flowed to him, chuckling. "Well, look at it this way. At least they will be too frightened of catching Aphe to send someone to check in on your activities."
"Too true," he agreed triumphantly as he found his equation. "Ah, add solution to chromosome 17 at metaphase..." he trailed off into his reading, reaching for the datapad to enter his information, and proceeding to knock one of the vials of cloudy liquid off of the table, spilling it all over the floor. He sighed and rubbed his eyes, dropping the papers on the table. "Why that vial, of all of them...?"
Linla shook her head sadly. Too wrapped up in that head of his, and he rarely ever had a clue what went on outside of it, in her opinion. She touched his arm as he went for a towel, stopping him, and looked him in the eyes warmly. "And you are not going to join us for even moment of celebration? You look like you could use a break."
He wavered, locked in her gaze, as a single moment of tension passed between them. He then shrugged off her touch, grabbing the towel. "Remind me not to ask you for help again. I have work to do."
Linla grew cold. "And so you do. I will be sure not to make the mistake of offering my help again." She turned to leave, then paused, glaring at him icily. "Order knows you certainly do well enough alone."
He dropped his towel and spoke deliberately. "Put it behind you. Now. Do not bring it up again."
Linla stepped into the hall, then leaned back into the room, calling out. "Some of us do not take companionship for granted, and if you had half a mind, you would not have either." She clicked the door shut behind her.
Trila glared after her. "Females."
As the final day of the Festival approached, Trila wondered if he should have taken Lin up on her offer. The endless equations were beginning to grate on him, and if there was anything he needed now, it was a drink.
And time. Time was a commodity he ran short on any way he sliced it. At the beginning of the week, he had stumbled across some minor technical difficulties. He had had to straighten them out before continuing, which put his actual experiment into action a day later than planned. This, in turn, forced him to make the excruciating decision of whether to continue as planned with the chance of his schedule running into the next work day, or wait for next year's Festival to perform the experiment. His teachings of "Better to be safe than sorry" battled internally with his impatience. With a wince and a dark feeling in the pit of his stomach, he had pressed the button marked "Commence".
Well, that decision looked as if it was going to come back and bite him in the neck.
Tomorrow, he needed to have his experiment out of the cloning facility or risk arrest. But his clones seemed very stubborn in their refusal to mature more quickly. They were set at the highest growth acceleration his equations allowed, and yet, that one extra day he had lost would end up costing all of them their lives-almost certainly himself included- if it ended up stretching his experiment past the deadline. He had no choice... he was past the point of no return.
After running a few calculations, he chose a growth speed which would set them at mature enough to remove them from their artificial wombs just an hour before the cloners arrived to start their labor on the first work day of the year. A change in growth acceleration speed at this point in their development could prove to null the effects of his experiment, but again, he simply had no choice.
At this point, there was nothing to do but sit and wait. After finalizing his decision, he locked the doors of the cloning facility tight and went to the Tipoca City Dining Club, where he knew Lin would be, sipping her drink and catching the latest from the city's finest. How she handled high society like that, he never knew, but it was always an amusement to watch her work her charms on the Nobles. She enchanted all of them, and yet they were wary of her, for they all knew that she was a strong advocate of "traditional cloning".