After about half an hour of silence Anakin rose and went back to the cockpit, presumably to check the solar flare reports to see when they could leave. After a few minutes he came back into the cabin and motioned for Rex to join him. Rex threw a sidelong glance toward Boba before he joined Anakin in the cockpit. "What is it, sir?"

"I thought it might be better to talk in here."

Rex took the co-pilot's chair, removing his helmet, as Anakin took the pilot's seat. Anakin picked a gadget up from the console and began unscrewing the back panel. Rex tried to sound reassuring. "I don't think the kid is gonna come to any harm, sir, if that's what you're worried about."

Removing the back panel, Anakin began pulling out wires. "I don't know what I'm worried about. I just don't like this. We shouldn't be chasing little boys across the galaxy for their DNA. It's just... I don't know."

Rex felt uneasy. "I can't say it's something I like doing, sir, but I don't see a way around it. The war effort needs more clones, and clones need source material. Everyone is counting on that ki- on Boba."

Anakin scowled, still focused on his work. "I know, but it's still not the Jedi way. The Jedi way isn't about doing something awful just because it seems like the best of two options. The Jedi way is to create a third option. To make a better way if one isn't available. The Jedi way is better than this." Anakin viciously jabbed at the gadget with his screwdriver, pausing, he looked at Rex for a moment. "Do you think this is right?"

Rex considered the question seriously. By all rights Boba ought to be brought in and put back in jail. There wasn't anything wrong with that. But this business with taking the gene samples? Rex wasn't sure he was high enough ranking to have an opinion on that. Rex thought back to clones like 99. Beside 99, a lot of clones had little defects because the Kaminoans were stretching the source material. Running his hand over his close-cropped blond hair he finally said, "Sir, if we don't get more clones we're gonna take more and more casualties in every skirmish. I don't think it's right for more men to die because they didn't have adequate support."

Anakin felt caught. He agreed with Rex wholeheartedly. While the 501st had fairly low casualty rates compared to the average, they still took big hits from time to time. Regardless of the size of the skirmish, there was always at least one soldier who didn't walk away from it. The more he thought about it, the more impossible the entire situation seemed. He ran through a half a dozen ill conceived solutions in his head before he came back to where they were. It angered him that he, the most powerful Jedi in the galaxy, couldn't figure out a better way. Was this the best the Republic could do?

Tossing the gadget back onto the console, Anakin crossed his arms unhappily as he stared out the cockpit. There was nothing to see there except the fleeting nighttime shadows, but he looked anyway, hoping that a solution to this dilemma might magically appear. He hoped against hope that maybe a ghost would appear and whisk Boba away while he and Rex were talking. The Force remained damnably silent on the whole issue, refusing to give Anakin a hint about what would be the wisest course of action.

Rex could tell Anakin was still angry. "So, what do we do?"

Anakin leaned back in the pilot's seat. "I don't know."

As soon as Rex had joined Anakin in the cockpit, Boba began to struggle and contort himself in an attempt to get his hands in front of his body. In this one instance it was actually more useful to not be an adult. With a child's nimbleness, Boba got his hands in front of him, hoping against hope that he'd done so quietly enough that his captors wouldn't hear. Extending his leg, he used it to shimmy Rex's toolbox over to him. Managing to open the box without alerting his captors he found a tool that quite handily doubled as a lock pick. It took a few seconds of patience and a little skill to lift the tool from the box into his hands, but he managed it. For several terrifying and frantic seconds he attempted to pick the lock on his cuffs, but to no avail. With his small hands it was almost impossible to get the angle he needed to pick the locks.

Boba heard the sound of soft footsteps and looked up, heart racing. Instead of his captors, however, he saw, Bo-Katan stealthily entering the ship. She raised a finger to her lips to keep him quiet and gave him a wink. He held up his cuffed hands for her to see. She nodded and quietly came to his side, kneeling down and picking the cuffs with the tool Boba had been struggling with. For her it was a piece of cake. The cuffs off, Bo-Katan handed Boba a pistol and pointed towards the ramp. Boba needed no second bidding. Hastily, and using all the stealth his small frame possessed, he fled the ship.