"This is the anomaly you discovered?" Cody questioned, staring at a holographic image of the chips. He walked around the image, studying it from every angle.
Echo shook his head. "It's more than that, Commander," he stepped forward, bumping Fives aside with an elbow to his well-armored ribs. His brother grumbled good-naturedly, but it was all for show.
Ever since the whole almost dying on Kaz'haria thing, Fives had a new level of patience with him. It had been a bit unnerving at first, but now Echo liked this change in their relationship. His brother was even requesting he read to him from the reg manuals (although it seemed he only did it when he had trouble sleeping.) Still, he was closer now to Fives than ever and hadn't thought that was possible. He'd come very close to dying in that lab, and Fives seemed almost desperate to make the most of the time they had left. While he hadn't enjoyed the almost-dying part, he did like all the added warmth and attention from Fives. It gave him the confidence he didn't have before, even as an ARC trooper. Fives even accused him of swaggering now when he walked. Maybe he did. But, then again, he was finally feeling like he'd earn his place in the 501st.
Rex looked over at him and gave him a nod of approval and encouragement. His actions at Darkknell had won him unilateral respect. It was the most prized commodity of all amongst troopers. Now that he had it, he was more determined than ever to do all he could to protect his brothers.
Something significant had happened to him in that lab. He'd stumbled into something. It was more than turning off the cryseefa gas that would suffocate all the men in the 501st and 212th. No. That lab was buried in the deepest level of the Kaz'harian fortress. It was a research lab, and he'd seen a glimpse of something before he'd been attacked. Something that tied all of this together.
If only he'd had more time to study that screen before he'd taken a knife to the gut.
No time for 'if only…' he chastised himself. I can figure this out. No, we can figure this out together.
This is personal. I'm in the thick of this thing. Whatever happened to me in that lab is somehow connected to all these pieces we're uncovering now. We just haven't connected it all together… yet.
His hands flew over the controls with the practiced ease of someone who spent too much time on a datapad. He overlaid an image of a clone brain on top of the chip and then expanded both images.
"When we first discovered one of these in my brain, Commander, we thought it was just an anomaly. But, it's more. So much more. We think… eh… we all have them." Cody sucked in such a sharp breath it seemed to take all the air out of the room. Echo quickly continued on, trying to best explain what they'd discovered. "They're chips. Biological chips." He zoomed the image in even further. "They're embedded here- deep in our neural systems. We couldn't detect them using normal scans, so we had to eh-"
Krek, was it OK to tell the highest-ranking clone in the fleet they'd been skirting regs?
"Hack systems," Sly filled in cheerfully.
Damnit Sly! They needed to have a serious talk with the shiny. They would all scrub floors in the mess for the next half-cycle if he didn't keep his mouth shut.
Echo shot an alarmed look at the Captain and Commander. Rex's lips twitched with displeasure. No. Amusement? It was hard to tell with Rex. Commander Cody, though, his face was an unreadable mask.
In an impressive display of dexterity, Fives subtly kicked the shiny in the back of the shins (to tell him to shut it) and kneed Echo in his armored backside (to say to him to get on with it.)
Rex's lips twitched. Again. That could be an amused twitch. Too karkin' hard to tell.
Echo cleared his throat and spoke quickly to make up for lost time. "Ah, yes, we used Level 5 scans at don't have that here, so we had to get creative."
Cody frowned deeply. "So, you did unauthorized scans."
"Yes," Echo confirmed, gulping deeply. He could already feel the callouses on his hands from the floors he would be scrubbing for the rest of his unnaturally short life. He wanted to glance back and get some reading on the Rex lip-twitch scale but didn't dare look away from the Commander. "But, sir, we couldn't have gotten as far as we did without doing the"
"Unauthorized scans," Cody interrupted impatiently with another wave of his hand. He stepped into the holoscan until he was completely enveloped by the brain diagram. He expanded the scan to the highest resolution. "What is the purpose of this chip, and why is it embedded into the cerebral cortex? That is the portion of the brain that controls reasoning, thought, decision-making, emotion and personality."
Echo cast Cody a sympathetic look. He didn't mean to do it, but the Commander had been shot by his second-in-command without warning. He wasn't going to like what he was about to hear.
Knowing he was treading on a delicate subject matter, Echo proceeded as tactfully as possible. "Sir, before I get into the true purpose of the chips, I must emphasize they are intentionally disguised to hide their true nature."
"Disguised," Cody's brow creased as the implication sank in. "Why change something about us and then disguise it? The rest of our DNA modifications seem to be selling points in the eyes of the Kaminoans."
"The Kaminoans call them 'inhibitor chips," Sly burst in, so excited by the subject material that he couldn't contain himself any longer. "We believe- or, at least, I strongly believe- the chips can force us to exhibit new behavior. But I don't see why the Kaminoans would plant chips in us to inhibit us. Aggressive behavior would be desirable in a soldier."
Cody stared down the new medic. "Sly, right?"
The young medic nodded eagerly, pleased the Commander knew him by name.
"You were one of the medics who saved me at ArmyMed," Cody acknowledged.
Sly's face lit up with pleasure at the slight gesture of praise. He puffed up his chest to explain again but Cody cut him off. "While I appreciate your efforts on ArmyMed, you must learn to follow rank and structure here, trooper. Echo outranks you." Sly's eyes widened at the rebuke. Cody continued on. "To answer your question, the counterpoint to aggression is the need to follow orders. A command structure is based upon the basic tenant orders must be followed."
"Yes, Commander," Sly muttered, head down, but the young medic refused to be contained. "Sir, please, if I could add something."
"Go ahead." Cody leaned back on the balls of his feet and crossed his arms, waiting not quite patiently.
Sly took a deep breath and launched in. "You're correct, Commander; as you know, we are carefully bred to be more obedient than Jango."
"This is done through DNA selection," Cody's thoughtful tone suggested he already knew where this was going.
Sly nodded. "We are an idealized version of a soldier, carefully crafted for the needs of a mass military. All of our behavior is further reinforced through a decade of rigorous training that begins before we even leave our tubes."
Cody tilted slightly to the side as he thought through the implications. "You're saying we have no need for inhibitor chips." He plunged his hand into the diagram and wrapped it around the chip as if angry at its existence. "We don't need this chip. So, WHY is it there?"
"That's what we've been trying to figure out," Fives took a half-step forward so he was crowded shoulder-to-shoulder beside Echo and Sly. "If the Kaminoans already crafted the 'perfect' soldiers, what IS this thing?"
Cody continued to stare at the holo diagram of the chip glowing blue in his hand. "Sly… you said this chip could force a clone to exhibit new behavior. Something they wouldn't normally do?"
Iron opened his mouth to object, but Cody put up his index finger to silence him. He nodded to Sly to go.
"Under the right circumstances, this chip could subjugate a clone's free will." Iron opened his mouth to object again, but Sly stared him down. He was holding fast to his opinion. "I'm sure of it, sir; based upon the location of this chip, it could have no other function.
"Subjugate a clone's will," Cody's tone held no emotion as he stared at the chip, his body language held rigid, "fully take over their thoughts and actions?"
"The motivation behind the actions will appear to be their own. Several experiments have been done in cerebral cortex control, which is most unethical. Some of them, unfortunately, were on humans cloned for test-"
"Right, clone rights, hoo-hah," Iron made a dismissive wave as if their lot in life would never improve. He jammed a thumb in Sly's direction. "The shiny is right, though. As disturbing as that research is, it proves the cerebral cortex can be controlled."
Cody looked up from the diagram. "How many of these did you discover?"
"We all have them," Fives said without preamble.
Kix subconsciously put a hand to his head to hide the bacta batch where they'd conducted unauthorized surgeries on each other. Rex's head turned sharply in his direction.
"You're telling me it's the whole fekkin' clone army," Cody growled. His hand automatically went to his chest, rubbing at the burn mark where he'd been shot by his Captain.
"Who controls this chip?" Rex's voice expressed the tension and frustration they were all feeling.
"We were discussing trying to trigger one," Fives' voice expressed his eagerness for the topic. "If we can figure out how to activate one, then maybe we'll know what they do-"
"No." Kix's tone left no room for argument. "There could be a kill switch - the Kaminoans may have wanted a way to de-activate all of us- like the droid army was shut down on Naboo-"
Cody put up a hand and stopped Kix mid-sentence. "While I don't put it past the Kaminoans to put kill switches in us, there's more going on with these chips." He rubbed a thumb against his chest plate again. "These chips are meant to change our behavior." He stared at the hologram of the chip like it had personally offended him. "It's not a kill switch. It's a failsafe."
Rex startled. "A failsafe." Sly was about to jump in again, but Rex stopped him. "Let Cody finish. He's surprisingly good when it comes to science."
Cody huffed lightly with amusement at Rex's bragging about his abilities. He manipulated the holo model, his voice turning serious again. "I just told Sly the counterpoint to aggression is the need to follow orders. A command structure is based upon the basic tenant orders that must be followed. But, what if we were given an order so heinous everything in our frontal cortex would scream 'no' and try to override the order?"
Sly gasped in horror. "What kind of order could that be?"
Rex grasped Cody's meaning right away. "He means an order to turn upon each other." He pointed to Cody's armor. "And he's saying it's already happened."