58 hours later, Level 1313, Coruscant
Turning on a corner, Hamar looked behind him to make sure he wasn't being followed. If you wanted to stay alive at Coruscant's underworld, letting your guard down was the last thing you should do. If you were lucky you would only get robbed and maybe end up with a few bruises. If not, well, there are many places in the planet-wide city where you can dispose of a body where no one will ever find it. He turned again on an alley and waited there anxiously for a few minutes for his contact to arrive. He heard a clattering noise and his hands instinctively went to his blasters, drawing them as he turned at the source of the noise, only to find a tooka rummaging through a garbage container. The animal arched its back and hissed at him before picking up a bone with its mouth and running away. Hamar sighed as he holstered his weapons and turned back to look at the alley's entrance, as the man he came to meet appeared in front of him.
"Why did you call me, Fett?" Hamar asked. He knew Jango was not one to make small talk and preferred a more direct approach to business. It was one of the few things that he didn't keep secret about himself.
"Have you reconsidered my offer?"
"Not unless the conditions have changed." Hamar was frustrated at Jango, and he made that clear by his tone. He respected the man, but he had interrupted his time with his son just to ask about an offer he had already rejected.
"You can train him there, but you can't leave. I can't risk you telling anyone else about this," Jango answered. He knew what Hamar was talking about since that was the reason he had rejected his offer in the first place. He couldn't take a risk that big by letting anyone else leave Kamino with the knowledge of a secret clone army. His client had made it clear that this was a top-secret project and any breaches would be dealt with accordingly.
"And who am I going to tell? My family? My son is the only family I have left. Training Karel is more important to me than any amount of credits, and I can't do that being stuck on Kamino. I'll teach him all I can there, but there are things I can't show him there. It's not like you would understand."
Hamar knew he had struck a chord when he noticed Fett's visor lower its gaze ever so slightly. Jango didn't want to accept the risks of this deal, but now that he had Boba he began to understand Hamar's position, and the memories of his childhood as a foundling came flooding back. Jango knew he could trust Hamar, even if his own personal motto was to trust no one. Like himself, he was very inconspicuous with his work, and a man that made good on his word. He wasn't so certain about Karel, but he was his father's son after all. Jango quickly composed himself and spoke with his usual no-nonsense tone.
"You can leave only with my previous authorization and only to train him. I must know where you are at all times and you have to come back when I order you. That is my last offer."
Hamar turned away for a moment as he considered the offer. He noticed Fett getting impatient as he leaned against a wall and kept thinking in silence.
"I'll discuss it with Karel. It's his life too, he deserves to have a say in this."
"Contact me once you have his answer," Jango replied coldly as he turned and left.
Hamar left not long after and made his way to Dex's Diner in CoCo Town, where he had left Karel under the care of the Besalisk owner. Dexter was one of Hamar's few friends and he wasn't worried about leaving his son with him for a few hours while he worked. He was probably more worried about Dex and his restaurant, seeing as Karel had kept his interest in cooking he had acquired from his mother and often asked Dex to let him help in the kitchen. Today was not a very busy day, so when Hamar entered the diner he wasn't surprised to see his son in the kitchen helping Dex make his special nerfsteak seasoning for the day.
"Dad!" Karel yelled as he ran to hug his father. Hamar picked him up and spun him for a moment. He set him back on the ground once Dexter walked over to greet him.
"Thanks for taking care of him, Dex. I hope he didn't give you too much trouble," Hamar said. He turned to his son laughing awkwardly and scratching the back of his neck, while Dex hid his two lower hands behind his back. They were hiding something, probably another incident involving fire and a curious kid.
"Oh, it was nothing! You should leave him with me more, he's a good cook. Maybe I'll pass him this place one day!" Dex exclaimed as he gestured around at his restaurant with his four arms. Karel visibly brightened at the compliment and smiled. Dex winked him an eye, showing he was not angry at him for almost burning down his kitchen... again.
"Yeah, he got it from his mother. I guess we should get going." Hamar turned to leave but Dex put one of his hands on his shoulder.
"Why don't you stay and eat something? Sit down, your kid helped me make a Sic-Six layer cake and it's almost ready." Dex motioned with his two left arms to the booth to his left as he smiled, knowing it was the booth they always got when they ate there. Hamar looked down to see his son beaming at him as he bounced on his toes and grinning at the prospect of cake.
"Please..." Karel begged, staring at him like a hungry tooka kitten asking for food. Hamar laughed at the expression as he relaxed. The talk about Kamino would be easier over cake.
"Alright, I'll have some caf please." Karel shouted in victory and threw his arms in the air. He practically jumped into the booth and his father slid in the seat in front of him. "Kar'ika, there is something I have to talk to you about." A waitress droid arrived and served his caf, before quickly leaving as he took a sip from the hot beverage. "Jango contacted me and he's making me an offer. He wants me to train commandos on some water world. The problem is... this is a confidential project, extreme secrecy and all that osik. We would have anything we need living there, but we can't tell anyone we're there, not even Dex. For the rest of the galaxy it would be as if we were dead."
"And what about my training?"
"I struck a deal with Jango and he agreed to let you and I leave for your training, but our trips would be minimum and we would need his permission so I'll train you mostly there."
"And how long would we be there?"
"A few years at least. Listen, I know this would be a big change, but I wanted to ask you before I gave Jango an answer. The past couple of years we've been living in the ship, and while I can't complain about that, I think this would be a nice change of pace for us."
"Well," Karel answered after thinking about the offer for a moment. "It would be nice to live somewhere that doesn't have an ion engine, but I have one condition." Hamar saw that coming, of course he would ask for something. "I help you train them."
"What?" He was expecting him to ask for something like his own armor, which his father had actually been keeping for his son's next birthday. Asking him to let him train the commandos was probably the last thing he expected. Karel noticed the confusion on his father's face and laughed before he explained his demands.
"I help you train them. If you take this job you are going to spend most of your time training them, which would leave me basically alone most of the day. And while I like the chance of being able to do whatever I want, I know I would get bored pretty soon. Besides, if I help you I can learn more and it would be easier for you to train them and me at the same time."
He truly was a bright kid, and Hamar had to admit he was making some very good points. Training commandos would consume most of his time and who knows how much time they'll have for his training, let alone for leaving Kamino.
"Well, that might work, but we'd have to ask Fett first," Hamar replied. Karel nodded and they shook hands, as Dex arrived with the cake.
27 hours later, Tipoca City, Kamino
As the rain lashed against the canopy of the Gray Hawk, Karel marveled at the sight of the capital city of Kamino. The network of stilt structures somehow reminded him of the wroshyr trees they had stayed in just a few days ago. However, he couldn't deny the whole planet looked cold and dull, nothing at all like the light and warmth of Kashyyyk that he was already missing.
"Hopefully the inside will be better," he thought as they landed and walked down the boarding ramp of their ship. Jango stood at the landing platform, unbothered by the rain. He had reluctantly accepted Karel's single condition, agreeing that it would minimize their trips offworld which would in turn decrease the risk of them telling anyone about the project.
"You're early," Jango said once they reached him. Hamar held out his right hand and Jango shook it in the traditional Mandalorian style by clasping it hand-to-elbow.
"We didn't have a lot of people to say goodbye to," Hamar replied as he released his forearm. Jango turned to look at Karel, who greeted him with a respectful nod. He returned the greeting and signaled for them to follow him. He turned and walked inside, and Hamar and Karel followed him through a hallway until they reached the cloning installations.
"Kandosii..." Karel whispered as he saw the thousands of growth chambers that reached up to the domed ceilings. He narrowed his eyes as he saw the supports and he remembered climbing the trees of Belsak and Kashyyyk. "These are not trees, but they'll do," he thought as he returned his attention to the cloning facilities. He saw a group of young children about 4 or 5 years old. As he studied them, he noticed one particular trait about them and turned to his father. "They all look the same."
"They're clones," Hamar replied. He didn't turn his gaze from another group of clones being supervised by a tall, slender, pale-skinned being.
"Of who?" Karel asked.
"Of me."
Father and son turned to look at the bounty hunter in front of them. Jango smirked at the confused expressions on their faces, a rare show of emotion from the man. He gave them a basic explanation of how he had been hired as the template for a clone army ordered by the Galactic Republic. After being introduced to some of the Kaminoan cloners responsible for this 'Grand Army of the Republic', Fett took them to meet a few of the other mercenaries that had been hired to train the clones, most of them fellow Mandalorians. One of them approached them and Karel recognized the symbol on his armor. It was the sigil of the Mandalorian Protectors.
"Excuse me," the man said with a heavy Concord Dawn accent. He was young, if his voice was any indication, and he sounded excited too. "Are you Hamar Jansek?"
"Asks who?" Hamar answered calmly as he turned to address him.
"Fenn Rau," the man answered. He took off his helmet and tucked it under his left arm. He was in fact young, around twenty years old. His red hair contrasted with the grey, white and black details of his armor, but matched with the sigil on his helmet's forehead, as did his eyes with the light blue color on most of his armor plates. He seemed to be trying to hold back a smile, as well. "I, uh, I studied your tactics during the war. It's an honor to meet you, sir."
Hamar studied the man intently before taking off his own helmet and shaking his hand. "Pleasure's mine. And just call me Hamar." Karel cleared his throat loudly to get their attention and Hamar rolled his eyes before laughing. "This is my son Karel."
"I've heard about you," Fenn said. He leaned down a little bit to shake the boy's hand. "I thought you would look different though."
"My dad says I look like my mom," Karel answered. While he had light skin and dark brown hair that he took from his mother, his father had tan skin and black hair, like Jango. The two looked so similar that they could even be confused as brothers. Karel looked up to see his father smiling sadly at him. "And that I have her eyes."
"That you do, Kar'ika. That you do..." he trailed off. Karel hugged his father's leg instinctively and he patted the top of his head. Rau kept his head low in respect for their deceased family. He too, like all Mandalorians, knew the feeling of losing those you love.
"My condolences..." he whispered. None of the current members of the Mandalorian Protectors or the Mandalorian Guard had been recruited from Clan Jansek, since their numbers were already incredibly low, so there were no other living members of Clan Jansek besides Hamar and Karel. Desperate for a new topic, Rau said the first thing that came to mind. "Let me show you around, there's not much to see but you can get lost pretty easily here."
**********
As they walked through the various tunnels of the city, they came upon a few other trainers they hadn't met yet. They arrived at a training course and Karel began running around the complex imagining he was in a battlefield. Rau started tapping some buttons on his gauntlet and the floor plates began to go up and down in front of Karel as an improvised obstacle course. Fenn transferred the controls to Hamar, who kept their little game as Karel leapt onto a raised floor plate that suddenly dropped down. Karel rolled as he landed so as not to hurt himself and started laughing as he laid on the cold metal floor facing upwards. The three laughed even more as the floor below him began to move up and down repeatedly, then suddenly stopped.
"What is that kid doing here?" a feminine voice said from behind.
Hamar and Fenn turned. The human woman before them seemed to have appeared out of nowhere. She stood just a couple of inches shorter than Hamar and her blonde hair was kept in a moderately short ponytail.
"Whose child is that?" the woman asked again.
"He's with me," Hamar answered.
"That doesn't answer much..."
"Hamar Jansek. This is Fenn Rau and that is my son Karel. I didn't have anyone else to take care of him so he came with me. And yes, Jango knows about it." The woman shook the men's hands and kept looking at Hamar, who smiled at her and she smiled back. "And you are?"
"Mira Faris," she said, introducing herself before her comlink beeped. "Well, gentlemen, I'm afraid I have other matters to attend to. I will see you later."
She smiled once more before turning and leaving. The two men looked at each other and shrugged, not knowing what to make of her. Karel returned to his father's side and looked at the woman walking away.
"Who's that?" he asked.
"Another one of the trainers, I think. Come on, let's go see our quarters."
Fenn guided them to their apartment in another part of the military complex, where the other trainers and a few high-ranking Kaminoans lived as well. Most Kaminoans who worked within the city actually lived in satellite cities situated around Tipoca City, rather than in the city itself. They entered a simple two-bedroom apartment and Karel started walking around the place as Jango appeared at the entrance. Rau took this as his cue to leave, nodding to them before walking out the door. Jango was carrying something in his arms bundled up by blankets. Karel stepped closer to see a baby sleeping, but there was something very particular about this baby.
"He looks like the clones."
Hamar startled at his son's comment and looked at Fett, waiting for his answer and hoping he wasn't offended for some reason. Jango's face was neutral, as usual, and it was very difficult to determine what he was thinking.
"He's my son. His name is Boba."
The baby moved in his sleep and Karel laughed quietly. Hamar put an arm on his shoulder and nodded his head to the apartment.
"Why don't you go check the rest of the place while Jango and I have a talk?"
Karel was puzzled by what his father said but said nothing of it. He quickly shrugged it off and left. Hamar kept looking as his son entered another room before turning back to Fett.
"Your son?"
"There is more than one way to keep your legacy alive," Jango replied plainly.
"I see. In that case I must apologize for what I said before. I was not aware you had a son. N'eparavu takisit. If we must not leave Kamino, so be it."
"No, you were right. This is no place for a child. You can still leave, but all my other conditions stand."
"Very well."
"I should leave you two to unpack, you'll meet your cadets tomorrow."
Jango left without saying anything else, leaving Hamar alone with his thoughts as he watched the waves through the large window of the living room. Karel opened the door to the second bedroom, his bedroom, to find a single bed in the corner of the room, a chest, a closet, and a desk. He stood at the center of the room thinking what he would have to change about it. It wasn't bad, but he would have to make a few adjustments if they were going to stay. He sighed as he sat on the bed and his father stood at the door frame.
"What do you think? he asked.
"Well it's not Mandalore, or Belsak..." The sadness in Karel's voice was clear. Hamar moved to sit next to his son on the bed and wrapped an arm around his shoulders in a tight embrace.
"I know, ad'ika. I miss them too. More than you realize."
Karel hugged him back and the two fell in a comforting silence. Hamar stared at nothing in particular as he remembered his life before the attack on their clan. For a few years he truly had a perfect life. He had a job that he loved, credits were not an issue. He was married to the most amazing woman he would ever meet and had a son with her who was his pride and joy. This little boy next to him, his flesh and blood, was everything he had now. If it wasn't for him he would have given up long ago, but to see the eyes of his late wife in him was the only thing that kept him going. He held his son tighter when he heard him cry into his shoulder. Contrary to what many outsiders may think, Mandalorian culture was very family-oriented, but crying was something often looked down upon as a sign of weakness. Hamar did not agree with that, so he let his son cry all he needed to. Whoever thought a kid that had lost almost his entire family shouldn't be given the chance to mourn them properly could go to hell. It didn't take long for his own resolve resolve to break too, and he himself shed a few tears that he didn't bother to wipe away. They stayed like that for a few minutes and when he looked down, Karel had fallen asleep. Hamar carefully laid him on the bed and took an extra blanket from the closet to cover him. He quietly took off his armor and boots before laying down next to his son. He still needed to fix a few things about them living on Kamino and Karel accompanying him to train the commandos, but that could wait. Right now Karel needed him more, and there was nothing in this universe that meant more to him than his son.
