Chapter 17: Fen Kar'fon (CT-0099 'Buzz')
Valor Station, Carida System
Don't tell them anything. Don't give them anything. Eat, drink, sleep, escape, survive.
The mantra Fen had memorised at the Spynet's Survival and Resistance Course kept repeating in his head.
"Look into this light," Nala Se instructed.
In the bright light of the sickbay, the Kaminoan held a metallic device up to Fen's eye, flashing a pulsing orange light. Jazal loomed behind her watchfully.
Fen rolled his eyes and reluctantly looked into it. It's not going to tell you shtak.
"Hmmm…" Nala said, pushing the device a bit closer to Fen's eyes. "His cerebral tissue appears normal."
"That's what the ship's scans all said," Jazal muttered. "Nothing to explain this 'Cloning Madness' as you call it. Do you have brain wave records of CT-0099?"
"We have years of EEG data from all of our Clones," Nala reassured. "I find it most unlikely though that a 'consciousness transfer,' as you call it, has taken place."
Fen tensed up slightly. While he did not understand the science of the mind, he suspected he had a very different pattern from the original CT-0099.
"Is something wrong, Buzz?" Jazal asked. "If that is your real name."
"No General," Fen croaked. "I am understandably upset at all of the brothers I lost."
"I know when you're lying," Jazal hissed. "And we have your helmet camera's footage, Buzz. I know what you did. I know when you did it. I know how you did it. I don't know why you did it."
"Master Jedi," Nala muttered, "you are causing CT-0099's pupils to constrict."
Fen took an inhale of breath, feeling quite uneased.
"Right, sorry," Jazal sighed.
"That doesn't mean that I don't miss them," Fen insisted. "It doesn't—"
Don't tell them anything, Fen reminded himself. Don't give them anything. Eat, drink, sleep, escape, survive.
"This is so kriffed up," Jazal sighed despondently, looking at Fen at a loss for words. "There's not even a word to describe this. The enormity of this."
"Yes there is," Nala said dryly, switching the eye scanner's colour to green. "Unfortunate."
Fen looked into the green light. It seemed so much more peaceful and calming than the orange. I wonder what—
—A familiar voice echoed in Fen's head. "Fen? Erz ko pan Asir. Ag-konek usmu mid korm veshehalum. Podo ko sunoya kornan internalisk yeda-agkazega ta." ["Fen, it's Asir. We have connected with your implant. I can hear your internal monologue."
Internal monologue? Fen thought back. Asir, Jazal is right here. So is a Kaminoan. It's not safe to do this. She can sense something's up!
["Good,"] Vasa Ro'val's voice growled. ["Tell her, in Basic of course—"
—Vasa Ro'val?! Fen thought angrily. What are you doing here? I could hear Asir—
["I am here still,"] Asir interrupted.
Ro'val your whole kriffing plan failed. Tarkin is still alive—
["My whole plan?"] Vasa's voice echoed into Fen's mind haughtily. ["Much of the blame lies on you, but that is not important. What I need you to do is tell Jazal, in Basic, that you are sorry. Make it seem like you have secretly poisoned yourself. Make it believable, then we'll pull you out!"]
You're in the system?
["Yes,"] Asir reassured.
Fen wasted no time. He looked away from the green light.
Nala sighed angrily. "I said—"
"—General, I am sorry," Fen sighed. "For everything. I killed a lot of people who really didn't have to die, hurt people you care about." He grimaced angrily. "There is… Well, if it makes you feel any better, I really only wanted to kill Tarkin. Others stood in my way and, by the time it was all happening, it was the heat of battle and—"
"—I told you to look into the light. If you do not allow me to finish—"
"—Let him talk," Jazal insisted, putting a hand on Nala's shoulder.
"I don't have much time," Fen sighed. "I took a poison—"
"—Doc!" Jazal gasped in alarm, turning from the bed.
"No you didn't," Nala argued. "I have run every scan on your system. If you took a poison I would know."
"Wait!" Fen yelled after Jazal. His eyes teared up slightly. Kriff it. There is no way I can live with myself. With how pointless this was… Without telling someone. Maybe I can't tell her who, but I can tell her what. "There are things you deserve to know, General. You see, my actions were to keep the endgame. We wanted Tarkin dead, Pax too. The thing is—"
o.o.o.o.o
Jazal
Jazal had sensed no deception from Buzz as he confidently told her he was about to die. It was no surprise when Buzz's bandaged head fell backwards into his chair. The heart-rate monitors began blaring all at once. Nurses rushed forward, outpacing the slowly walking medical droid as they surrounded the chair Buzz was siting in.
"I am getting no heart rate!" a Miralian nurse yelled in alarm.
Two human nurses grabbed Buzz, hoisting him into the air then dropping him onto the bed.
Nala Se's already huge eyes widened as she gasped in sheer astonishment. "That's… I don't understand. Our medical instruments—"
"—Damn it!" Jazal shouted in frustration. She could sense no thoughts, no emotions, no sense of anything from Buzz. He was dead. "It's too late."
"I am getting no pulse!" one of the human nurses exclaimed in shock.
"Start CPR—"
"—He's been poisoned," Jazal sighed despondently, collapsing into a chair. "There's nothing we can do. He killed himself."
"The Jedi is quite right," the medical droid uttered in a consoling monotone. "I am calling it. Time of death, 0907 hours, 14:4:30 GrS."
Jazal felt utterly defeated. While she knew there was almost no way Buzz would survive this, the suddenness of his death was quite upsetting. Whoever had control of Buzz's body had descended so far into pointless evil. Buzz had seemingly tried to stop more violence, calling Jazal to tell her that Tarkin was killing civilians—Then, Buzz just killed everyone.
The angry question flooded into her mind again, as she sat in the hospital wing, ignoring the continued commotion around Buzz's bed. It was a question which had been bothering her since the shock of yesterday's events wore off. Why would Buzz tell me about Tarkin, try to do the right thing to stop him from killing civilians, then just shoot everyone? What's the point? Why try to be a hero, then just murder everyone?
She sighed, taking a deep breath. She could sense they were now moving Buzz's body onto a stretcher. Slowly, the cells in Buzz's body degraded, causing his image in her forcesight to become more and more faded.
A new thought, one far more worrying, entered the Miraluka's mind. Buzz managed to kill himself on my watch. The Jedi already don't trust me, and he just dropped dead in front of me. Kriff I wish Kev were here to back me on this.
o.o.o.o.o
Fen Kar'fon
Fen gasped, sniffing the air. He could smell a mix of Bothan and something not quite Bothan. He opened his eyes and could see nothing. "I can't see! I can't—"
An open hand slapped him on the side of his snout. Fen yelped in terror, squirming against hard metal restraints.
["Thayerz-noksklosk ta."] "You keep being unpredictable," sighed the familiar voice of Vasa Ro'val.
"Vasa, something's wrong. I can't see—"
"—What the hell are you playing at?" Vasa snarled from behind him, her hot breath blowing on his fur.
"What do you mean?" Fen asked innocently. "Asir, I can smell you. Where are you?"
"You were going to tell Jazal—"
"—Yes, I am here, Fen," Asir interrupted. "Vasa, he's been through a lot and—"
"—I CAN'T SEE!" Fen yelped, trying to draw attention to the fact. He squirmed at the restraints again, fur falling flat.
"Calm down," Asir said, petting his snout. "It's only temporary."
Fen felt his left arm's restraint undone, then his right. Once his legs were unbuckled, he stepped down knelt on the ground, worriedly slapping the ground with his hand.
"Fen…" Asir said impatiently. "It's hibernation sickness."
"I—What?!" Fen yelped, feeling his face. He ran his fingers over the familiar length of snout, through his silken soft swirling fur. "I am in a Bothan body. What do you mean "hibernate," Asir? That makes no sense."
"Oh for kriff's sake," Vasa snarled. "Your new Bothan body was stored in carbonite."
"Carbonite?! Is that safe? What happened to stasis?"
"The war," Vasa snorted derisively. "Our friend on Leritor decided to replace stasis with—"
"—But our friend on Leritor retired," Fen snarled in an indignant protest, fur bristling. That asshole figured out how to make consciousness transfer even more unpleasant than it already is! "He agreed to step back and leave the Directors in charge."
"He did," Vasa agreed. "But he occasionally still provides us with useful information."
"Fen," Asir growled, embracing him in a hug. "There's a few things that have changed, but you are going to need to answer Vasa's questions, once your eyesight has returned."
Fen cautiously reached forward, gingerly feeling the outline of her snout. He gripped the side of her cheek, running his thumb under her ear. "This is really weird not being able to see."
"I sense your distress," Asir replied, "but it will pass soon."
Fen's ears folded down as he heard Vasa mutter something angry under her breath.
o.o.o.o.o
Fen's eyesight returned slowly. First, the contrast between light and dark returned. An hour after returning, he tried to walk to the cockpit by himself, rubbing his whiskers against the walls. However, he had to yelp for help after he tripped over a pair of salty-smelling boots that did not look like they were for a humanoid.
A Bothan came to his aid, introducing herself as Wapakir Yu'jia. She guided him to the bridge but Fen decided to sit in the lounge instead.
"So Arakh is a near-Bothan... And he got these boots from a princess?" Fen growled incredulously. In the few minutes since he met Wapakir, his sense of colour had improved. Wapakir was clearly red and white, although he could not make out the details of her face.
"Yeah, he's… He's pretty ugly," Wapakir hissed, then yipped excitedly. "Looks deformed, but he can go invisible so that's a plus!"
Fen snorted to himself. "Would be convenient for ugly beings to be able to go invisible."
"Exactly!" Wapakir made a loud slurping noise as she took a sip of caf. "It should be standard-issue for them—A cloaking device. His arms are like THIS LONG!" she gasped.
Fen stared ahead at the blurry red and white shape, nodding in agreement. She's pretty vain, he thought to himself. Typical Bothan like me… Knows she's awesome, and goes with it. Probably not a killer though. Fen sighed to himself, fur twirling unhappily for a moment. I wonder what she does for the Spynet… Maybe an analyst.
"Well, I think I do want to go to the bridge now," Fen muttered, standing up.
"All right. Rogue," Wapakir said, taking his arm. "It's right up the stairs. Asir really doesn't trust me anywhere near any critical systems, so I won't follow you all the way up."
Not a killer. And a klutz, Fen noted to himself, taking the first step. Shtak I hope she doesn't—
"Oh sorry!" Wapakir yelped, tripping on a step.
"Oh, that's all right—"
"Fen!" Asir's voice shouted down the stairs from the cockpit. "Fen?"
"Hey Asir, I—Oh, hello there," Fen growled cautiously, sniffing the air furiously as a firm grip grabbed his hand. Whoever it was, he didn't introduce himself, and he had dark brown to black fur. This is the non-Bothan... Arakh.
When Fen reached the top of the stairs, he looked around at the blurriness, able to see the colourful lights of the consoles, Asir's cream and brown fur. Then he turned to the the black-furred blur.
"Meet Arakh, Arakh, Fen," Asir growled. "Arakh… He's special."
Fen's fur gave one twitch of annoyance as he shook Arakh's hand. "All right, I gotcha." This might be awkward. 'Special' could mean a lot of things. Asir though usually called her casual romantic partners 'Special.'
"Nice to meet you sir," Arakh growled.
Fen squinted into the strange being's face. He could see two red blurs that were probably his eyes. Odd that Wapakir thought Arakh's arms were weird… Look at his eyes.
"Well well," Vasa's voice tsk tsk'd. "You can see well enough to walk all the way to the bridge, yet you failed to report to my office."
"I didn't think it was critical," Fen growled, staring in Vasa's direction down the stairs.
"We have much to discuss," Vasa said tersely. "Follow me."
o.o.o.o.o
Sitting in a chair across from Vasa, with a bright light shining in his face, Fen could hear blasterfire, bloodcurdling screams, and remember those sounds. His fur gave one unhappy twitch, then relaxed.
"What do you have to say for yourself?" Vasa growled angrily.
"Ma'am, I don't know what you are referring to," Fen sighed. "I can't see—"
"—YOU SPARED SEY'LES!" Vasa yelped, pounding the table with two fists. "I don't know what you see in her."
That? You are angry about that… Even for the moral compass of the Spynet, this was surprising to Fen. Sey'les and Itoll were both assets. Unreliable assets, yes. It was certainly within Fen's rules of engagement to kill them for revealing their identities, but in the context of this mission, keeping them alive was useful. At least Sey'les. Fen blinked, staring at Vasa's blurry face. "I don't understand."
"I don't understand how you could possibly feel compassion for Sey'les," Vasa huffed. "I just don't see it. To me, she's an asset. She's just an asset with no sense of loyalty, no real emotions. She's two-dimensional… She doesn't feel like a real Bothan. Like a real person. I could understand you failing to terminate Itoll at the first sign of treachery… But Sey'les?"
Fen's fur bristled. Almost every interaction with Sey'les, her fur was dancing, swirling, twirling, flat, twitching… She smiled, snarled, scowled—She wears her emotions on her sleeve! She's transparent. The kriff are you talking about?
Wait, why am I feeling defensive about Sey'les of all beings?! He scowled, pondering the topic as if he were a droid running self-diagnostic. The memory of Sey'les's anguished sobs, yelping for someone to help her with Wulf. Am I malfunctioning?
No… If the Spynet doesn't think of Sey'les as a 'real Bothan,' just an expendable asset. A grunt. Well, then what the hell do they think of me?
"Is something wrong?" Vasa growled cautiously.
"Why—Why are we having this conversation?" Fen growled back. "You haven't asked me about anything but Sey'les and Team Muun. In case you forgot, Pax is dead. The mission was 50% successful."
Vasa sighed. "Our friend on Leritor is angry. He is angry that the consciousness-casting technology is at risk of being exposed. He is angry at you for failing to stop that from happening."
Fen snorted derisively. "I don't give a shtak what that old man thinks. Since you're the one getting messages from him, I bet he's really blaming you. This whole thing exploded Vasa. Yeah, my cover was blown, but that was because the Confluence fundamentally didn't work. Jazal… She was never going to kill Tarkin. Ever."
An obnoxious screech rang through the air as Vasa pulled her chair up, causing Fen's ear to fold back. "For your information, our friend on Leritor and I get along quite well."
Fen laughed at that, flashing a feral grin at the blurry old Bothan. "Then why am I the one who was just consciousness-transferred into a younger, hunkier Clone body? I can't see myself in a mirror yet but damn! I never expected this. This sure as hell isn't my original."
An angry wordless snarl emanated from Vasa's direction.
Fen locked his jaw, snarling back. For an absurd moment, the two foul-mannered maladjusted canine sentients, separated by gender and decades in age, snarled at each other lividly.
Then Fen yelped, shuddering as Vasa flung the contents of her glass—ice cubes and water—which slammed into the tip of his snout, flooding painfully into his nose with the aftersmell of Vasa's breath.
"ARE YOU KRIFFING INSANE?!"
"Didn't your mother tell you never to comment on a woman's age?" Vasa snarled dramatically, leaving Fen behind in the interview room.