Star Wars: The Bad Batch

In Secret

by Gabrielle Lawson

Chapter Three

Crosshair was surprised the girl wanted to go with him, and more surprised that Hemlock had let her. He must have felt pretty secure that they wouldn't conspire together. Or that they really could not get out this deathtrap. And they couldn't. Not without Tech. And he wasn't in any shape to go anywhere. He sat in the corner and she tucked in beside him.

"Why are you here?" she whispered.

"I realized the Empire does not value clones, any clones. We're property to them." Then he found he wanted to tell her more. That Mayday deserved it. "My last post was on Barton IV, icy planet, cold wind, lots of snow. Under the command of a very green, very self-important lieutenant. Some insurgents had stolen two crates of cargo, and killed two of the three remaining clones who'd been stationed there. He sent me and the last clone, Commander Mayday, after that cargo. I had managed to injure one of the insurgents. We tracked the blood through some caverns, found the insurgent dead. We moved on and found the insurgents' camp. There was a firefight. One of my shots during the fight triggered an explosion. We prevailed and found the crates. They were full of gear for our replacements. The explosion trigged an avalanche. We tried to outrun it. The snow was waist-deep. I found Mayday. I had to dig him out. He was hurt.

"I couldn't leave him. We were far from the base. Sometimes he'd fall and I'd pull him back up and keep going. It was so cold, I couldn't feel my face, my fingers. Couldn't see anything but white. We made it through the night, somehow. We set out again in the morning, saw ships so I knew we were near the base. We entered the far end of the airfield. Mayday collapsed. I told the lieutenant he needed a medic, but he was only concerned that we didn't have the crates. Helping Mayday would be 'a waste of the Empire's resources.' Mayday died right there. The lieutenant said he was expendable, and so was I. He ordered me to leave him and go back to work. I shot him."

Omega hugged his arm. "I'm sorry about Mayday."

Crosshair sighed. "I woke up here. Hemlock didn't care that I shot the lieutenant. Said he'd let me go if I told him how to find the rest of you."

"You nearly escaped. How?"

"We can't get out that way," he told her. "I didn't get farther than the comm terminal. Hemlock deployed some kind of poison gas. He's immune. Then they tortured me some more. Your turn."

Omega was glad Crosshair had turned on the Empire, that he'd refused to help Hemlock. But she didn't like what Hemlock had done, or what he was doing. Whatever he was going to do to Tech.

"We ended up on Ord Mantel, doing work for Ciddarin Scaleback," she told him. "She sent us on dangerous missions, used us for muscle. But I thought she liked us. Not too long ago, this old contact of hers, threatened her over some debt when she lost a race. Her pilot got taken out, so Tech piloted the race, and he won. He won her freedom. I really didn't think she'd turn on us.

"Anyway," she went on, "Phee Genoa was a friend of hers. A pirate. But she really just takes things for the Archium. I won't say where, just in case they torture you again. But it was nice there. People were refugees, living free. I have a friend there, Lyana. Maybe we could all go back there someday."

"But you didn't stay there," Crosshair pulled her back into focus. "You came to find me."

"Echo had been working with Captain Rex. They attacked a transport of prisoners being taken here. They erased most of the data, but what they had was encrypted. Only Tech could decrypt it. He did and he found your CT number on the list of prisoners transported here. So he checked our old comm channels, heard your Plan 88. Echo and Tech went looking through all the files but couldn't find much. Echo found out Hemlock would be at a summit at Tarkin's compound on Eriadu. So we planned a covert op: Set a beacon on Hemlock's ship then follow him. In and out. Simple."

"Not so simple." Crosshair suggested.

"No. We set the beacon. But Saw Gererra was there. He set bombs. They destroyed the hangar and our beacon, and shorted out the rail line. Tech had to go to the terminal and reboot the system. Then there were ships shooting at us. That's how the car broke in half. The broken half was pulling our half off the track. Tech shot the hinge between the halves. He fell. I don't know how he's alive." But she smiled just then. He was alive. Then she felt sad. Because he was here and he was hurt. Echo never told her exactly what happened at Skako Minor, but she knew had a lot of droid parts and that he had a scomp link. She knew it wasn't something he'd enjoyed. Something bad had happened to turn make him that way, to make him feel uncomfortable alone.

Crosshair put his arm around her. "We won't know until he can tell us. Tomorrow is not going to be a good day. You should try to sleep."

She leaned in to him, happy to have someone she could talk to. "What about you?"

"I've done a lot of sleeping lately," he said. "Besides, I've got some thinking to do."

Doctor Hemlock peeled back the skin on CT-9902's scalp. "Monitor it's vitals closely," he ordered Emerie.

"Yes, Doctor. He's stable."

Scalder handed him the saw. While the port was rather small, the connections within CT-9902's brain needed to be more expansive. He had to set six connectors in various areas of his frontal and temporal lobes. The connectors they would activate and spread though the brain like a spider web. The Cybernetics Division had devised a masterpiece of technology. He cut a section of the skull from ear to ear and from crown to eyebrows. Then he carefully lifted it out. It was delicate work setting the connectors, but he'd had the chance to practice on several clones before CT-9902 had woken up. The first had expired as soon as his brain was exposed. Shock. He'd deigned to sedate the second. Still, he'd misplaced one connector, and the spider webbing had entered into the wrong area. That one had had to be eliminated. The third, however, had worked perfectly. Hemlock had only connected it to a datapad. It had sent very rude disrespectful messages to the pad.

As they operated now, a new computer system was being installed in Critical Care. CT-9902's health was still precarious. Hemlock had deicide it could work from there, where its health could be carefully managed. The system would tie into the lab above where he worked on the Emperor's cloning project. He'd only brought Nala Se in once Omega had arrived. He didn't fully trust her. CT-9902 could help verify her work or even suggest new avenues of research.

Internal connections set, he drilled a small hole in the skull fragment as the fibers were spreading throughout the brain. He pushed the inner parts of the port through the hole and then replaced the fragment, sealing it in place. Scalder had been keeping the bleeding at bay as she handed him the next tool he'd need. He lowered the flap of scalp and microsutured it all the way around. There was a lump on its right temple where the port protruded. He cut the skin around it so that it would lay flush with his scalp. Then he cauterized the area to hold the port in place and close the wound. Scalder handed him the plate. He sealed that to the skin around the port then screwed the outer section of the port down onto it. All that was needed now was the cable.

"Done," he announced, setting the last of the tools back on the tray. "Once it's safe to transfer, set it up in Critical Care. We'll test the connection once it's conscious."

"Yes, Doctor."

Emerie waited until Scalder and Hemlock had both left. She took off her glasses and covered her face with her gloved hands. She treated patients. She didn't assist with Hemlock's experiments. She knew that most of her patients disappeared once they were released back to his lab. She knew they died. But she didn't know how. She didn't see it up close, so she could tell herself that she wasn't a part of it. She did what she could for them in her infirmary.

Scalder had told her two inmates had died before Hemlock perfected the connection. He probably killed the third anyway. She wasn't there to see it. Scalder had assisted. But Tech. She was right there in the room. She was making sure he survived while they violated his brain.

It wasn't right, but she felt trapped. She couldn't leave any more than one of the inmates. She had to stay and follow orders. She had to hide her true feelings, her thoughts, her true self.

She looked at the monitors. She could easily make it look like he'd died of shock. He wouldn't have to wake up inside a computer. He wouldn't be in anymore pain. But she was sure they would know it was her. Who else could it be? Tech was stable and she was the only other person in the room.

She sighed then decided on a smaller act of defiance. She quickly maneuvered Tech's left shoulder back into its socket and carefully laid it back down by his side. She put her glasses back on as she heard someone enter the prep room.

"Ready to transport?" Scalder asked.

"Yes, he's holding steady."

The next time Tech awoke, he couldn't see anything. He thought for a moment that he'd gone blind. But he could hear.

"The operation was a success," Hemlock said from his right. "What do you see in your mind's eye?"

Did he really expect an answer? The tables were still there. He still couldn't speak. At least he wasn't in pain like before. Wait. He tried moving one of his fingers on the bed. He didn't think it moved. He tried moving his jaw, fighting the breather. But if Emerie was there, she stayed quiet, and the beeping of his pulse was steady. In and out went the air from his lungs. He was paralyzed. He couldn't move.

"Excellent," Hemlock exclaimed. "We've given you a paralytic. There's no need for you to move. We'll control your autonomic functions."

How had he known? Oh. He remembered their last conversation. You are a sadist.

"I've been called worse." Hemlock moved closer. "You are now connected to a computer system that is tied directly to my lab. At present, it is offline and can only be accessed locally. I want to run some tests. Some simple puzzles. Should be easy for a clone of your intelligence."

"Ow!" Omega. He hurt her.

"Cooperate and Omega can return to the infirmary. You should see nine numbered blocks. You can move one block one space at a time. Put them in order, lowest to highest.

And he could see them. But they weren't in front of his eyes.

"Take your time," Hemlock offered. "Just not too much time."

"Stop it!"

One, seven, four on the first row; nine, six, eight in the middle, then three, five, two. He thought to swap the two and eight. They moved. Two and four, then two and seven. There was, perhaps, a faster pattern, but he stuck to working in numerical order. He swapped the three and five horizontally, then the three and six vertically. Eleven more moves and it was done.

"Very good. Let's try another. Put the list in order."

Tech saw a list of forty-seven words. Easy enough. He was finished in eight point two seconds.

"Very impressive. Let her go."

"Tech!" she called out to him once more before he heard the door close. She was gone.

Hemlock gave him another test, to find a certain piece of data in the computer. But Tech decided to do his own tests. He found the data, but he'd also thought of a rather colorful insult in the Batori language he'd heard once.

"Nicely done. You're getting faster. I've created a program of increasingly difficult tests, to allow you to practice. This new for you, after all. Once you're fully up to speed, I'll reintroduce you to Nala Se."

Tech heard the door again. He didn't know if he was alone. He started the program. Hemlock was right about one thing. He needed practice. He remembered Crosshair's words to him. He was going to use the one thing he still had conscious control of: his mind.

Echo set the ship's nav computer back to Coruscant and set the auto-pilot. Rex would need the ship. Hunter and Wrecker needed him. He couldn't do everything Tech had done. Tech's forgeries were flawless, he could break any encryption given enough time, and he could hack just about every network he'd ever come across. Echo had anything available through his scomplink, which was a lot, just not everything.

He watched the ship take off. Then he entered the Marauder. He set the comm system to the encrypted channel he and Rex used and set it to alert him if Rex should call. Then he started for the room he'd left Hunter and Wrecker in two rotations before.

But he was interrupted. "I don't think we've been formally introduced," said a barrel-chested, bald man. "I'm Shep Hazard. I lead this group of refugees."

"Echo," he told him. "I was part of the team before. Now I am again."

"Well, you're welcome here," Shep told him, shaking his natural hand. "Were you injured in the wreck."

"Only minorly," Echo assured him. "I'm more droid than man now. Comes in handy sometimes."

"I'm very sorry about Tech. I didn't know him well, but he was brilliant. Very serious, but brilliant."

Echo just nodded. "How's Phee taking it?"

"Better than Hunter and Wrecker, but still hard. I think she really liked him."

"Yeah," Echo agreed. "I think so, too. They still in there?"

Shep sighed. "Haven't even come out to eat. AZI said they should be back to full strength in two rotations. He's helping out with some of the injuries from the sea surge."

"Sea surge?"

"Your Hunter felt the tremors before they hit and then Tech predicted the surge even before our early warning system."

Of course, they did. Shep patted Echo's shoulder then walked over to another couple.

Echo reached for the door.

"This is a camera, right?" He turned to find Phee holding Tech's googles.

"It was," Echo told her. "It's offline."

"Maybe it recorded something. His last.…" She didn't finish that sentence.

Tech's fall, surely, but after that? It sent recordings to the computer on Tech's forearm. Hemlock undoubtedly had Tech's armor, so he had the computer. "It recorded everything to a computer Tech wore." He tapped his own forearm.

"Maybe it holds some in memory before it transfers there."

Echo sighed. He took her arm. "Let's go to the ship and see if there's anything."

He doubted anything important would come of it, like the destination of Hemlock's transport when he left Eriadu. But he was curious just the same.

Phee sat at the helm and held the goggles while Echo worked on getting the camera working. He noted the dark circles on her eyes and the lines on her cheeks. Before, when they were exploring Skara Nal, Phee had been confident, even cocky.

A red light appeared on the end of the camera. Echo connected it to the ship's computer. An image appeared. It blinked in and out, but Echo recognized it as the deck of the Marauder, where the camera was presently pointed. He scomped in to see if there was anything in memory.

What he got was even more choppy. It was very dark and then the image moved. It showed Hemlock. He reached for the camera and then it was just the sky. Hemlock had removed Tech's goggles.

"Is that him?" There was a hard set to her voice.

"Doctor Hemlock," Echo confirmed. "He's got Omega." And Crosshair. And Tech.

"What did he do with my Brown Eyes."

Her Brown Eyes. She had cared for him. "I don't know," Echo told her truthfully. "But Phee, you can't tell the others."

"Why not?"

"Because Tech's still gone. They don't need to know that Hemlock took him, too."

"What if he's alive?"

He hated to hide his thoughts for her just now. "Chances are he's not. Phee it was three kilometers up. He fell. Hemlock told them all they found was the goggles. He lied. But what good will it do unless we have proof he's alive? And we don't."

"What about further back? Or forward?"

Back would be the fall, but forward? Maybe they'd get lucky. There were no files before, which made sense. Tech's armor would have been close. And forward was in worse shape. It winked in and out, and it was full of static. All he could make out was white-armored legs. Then it cut out completely.

"Nothing else," he said. "It was damaged. And maybe the computer was, too. It couldn't transfer these last images."

"How can I help?" she asked. "If we find Hemlock, we find Omega and maybe Tech."

Echo thought for a movement. They'd met Phee through Cid. "You have contacts? Other pirates, brokers like Cid? If we can find her, we can maybe find out how she contacted the Empire. Most likely, it was through some random Imperial officer, but it's a place to start. We know it was Hemlock and the Advanced Science Division."

"Full name."

"Doctor Royce Hemlock."

She put the googles in his hand then reached for his shoulder. "They're my treasure now. Omega and Brown Eyes. Either way."

He wanted to tell her he believed, but her heart would break a second time if he was wrong. He didn't want to do that to her.

"If you find Cid, you call me. You'll have to act like you don't know she betrayed us."

"I can act when I need to," Phee assured him. "I've got a small ship here. I'll find her."

Echo quickly set up an encrypted channel and copied it to a data rod. "Use this channel, anything you find."

They stood and she hugged him. Then he was alone again. He had to do his own acting. He left the ship and returned to the door.

"Did you find him?" Wrecker asked, sitting up.

It wasn't hard to look sad. Echo shook his head. "How are you feeling?"

"Rex have anything?" Hunter asked. He didn't even sit up.

"No, but now they know who to look for." Echo set the goggles on a table and sat in the chair beside it. "Have you been eating? It's a nice evening, you should come out."

"What's the point?" Wrecker whined. "Still got no clues."

"You said we need to be healthy," Hunter pointed out. "AZI said we should rest. We're resting."

You're wallowing, he thought. But they really didn't have any new leads to go after. That really only left wallowing. "A walk outside is still restful," he tried. "I'm staying. I can't replace him, but I'll do my best."

Hunter finally sat up. "I know you will. I need to find her."

We need to find them, Echo corrected silently. But if Hunter focused on Omega, maybe he'd get off the bed.

Nala Se waited in the lab. There were five naked clones strapped down and a bank of computers. Some of the equipment she recognized from Tipoca City She'd started answering some of Hemlock's questions since Omega was brought in. But not as detailed, perhaps, as Hemlock wanted. She'd allow him to gain her knowledge slowly, just as long as Omega was kept safe.

"Ah, Nala Se! How are we this morning?"

"False pleasantries are not needed," she told him.

"Too true," Hemlock agreed. "We'll have a new player in our little game soon. He is still learning his way around."

Cryptic. She didn't know who this 'player' was. Another Kaminoan? She doubted it. "How is Omega?"

"She's fine. She's even helping out in the infirmary. Had a nice reunion with CT-9904."

"Crosshair is here?" She hadn't known that. She hadn't seen any other prisoners, except the ones in this lab.

"Oh, he's been here a dozen or so rotations," Hemlock informed her. "We'll have to find a way for him to be useful as well."

She would love to give him a rifle and let him go, but she wasn't allowed access to weapons or the inmates' cells. She had her own cell and this lab. And a guard when she traveled between them.

Her Bad Batch would make short work of this base if they could find it, she was sure. She had hoped to meet with Omega, to learn more of her life with them. She had looked well. Other than being here now, it would seem they had taken good care of her.

She had little else to care about since her home and people were destroyed. If she was still here when—if—Hemlock succeeded in Palpatine's project, she would insert a fatal flaw, even if it was the last thing she did in life.

"Let us start with this clone here," Hemlock said as he lay his hands on CT-3496's shoulder. The clone watched anxiously. "You started with the bounty hunter, Jango Fett. Take me through it, step by step, especially the places where you deviated from Fett's genetic profile."

He injected something into the clone, and CT-3496's expression went slack. Except for his eyes. A paralytic. Then Hemlock picked up a scalpel.