Chapter Five

The one saving grace of this planet was the clearing of the fog during the darkest cycles of night. A brief moment of clarity, and a reminder to breathe.

The wilderness stretched the deepest it had since we landed, unbound by the curtain that draped most hours—Roots, vines, and branches weaving forever in every direction.

The supply crate seeped a dull coldness into my legs as I sat cross-legged on the plasteel lid, chin-in-palm, letting the wilds draw my gaze wherever it would as the luminators of Amali's lab dimly cast my shadow across the moss in front of me.

623 still hunched under the flickering light, helmet discarded on a nearby crate. His brow furrowed as he tapped diligently at his scanner, looking for whatever it was he thought he could find. A few times, he coughed, and I wanted to tell him to put his helmet back on against the chill in the air. But the words wouldn't come.

Instead, I returned to the wilds, and kept looking in the distance for ideas that wouldn't come either. An ultimatum from my own captain. An innocent boy depending on an answer I couldn't give. What was right? What was possible?

The droids would attack again as soon as I left. They were watching. They would move on Amali's lab. And then what? Just keep running back to fight them off until Sumi ran out of time anyway? Or ignore the sound of my men getting hit, and press on to the droid camp?

If the North was even the right direction in the first place.

I rubbed my forearms, and closed my eyes.

623 spoke from his place under the luminators. "You should get something to eat, Ma'am. You haven't had anything since the Valiance."

Food wasn't the issue. "You should put your helmet on. The droids could ambush again at any moment."

"I've never seen a helmet stop a blaster round, Ma'am."

Thanks for the uplifting conversation, trooper. I opened my eyes. And before I could speak, a flicker of indigo fainted in the corner of my vision, framed between two curving tree trunks arching in the distance.

And in the darkened clarity of the wilderness, a pale figure of shuddering light stood silent and still, watching me.

My stomach turned over. "623."

"Yeah?"

Dim veins ran across its body like broken fingers, reaching. And the cold from the crate beneath me reached up and gripped.

A Tactician Droid. Or a hologram of one. The hidden puppet-masters that always pulled the strings of commando droids from behind a veil. Always standing quietly beyond a hill of the dead.

I curled my fingers around my saber hilt and slid off the crate, heart beating as I strained my senses as far as they would reach. But something stopped me from alerting the camp or 623. A strange hesitation that wasn't my own.

Listen, the feeling said.

No movement encroached within the wilderness. No danger whispered its warning. The Tac-Droid made no show of hostility.

What in the worlds?

A moment passed. Two. And then the droid slowly lifted its arm, and pointed a bent finger deeper into the wilds behind it. To the North. Slightly off-path from where we had headed the first time.

Its eyes never left mine.

I gripped my hilt and traced the invisible path of its finger to the edge of what the darkness allowed me to see, and then back to the infecting light of its eyes.

It slowly dissolved away, and empty shadows loomed where it had stood.

"Ma'am?" 623 said. "Do you need me for something?"

I have no idea what I need.

He still held his scanner, and I nodded toward the empty space between the two trees. "Can you scan that direction for me?"

Confusion wrinkled his brow, but he pointed the scanner without hesitation. "Strange signal, fading fast. Kinda like an echo." He looked at me. "Ma'am, what is it?"

Something niggled in my memory, a comment Amali had made, and I turned and began heading for the door of her lab. "Keep working on the readings you took of those hologram signals. And keep an eye out for anything moving in the treeline."

My pace drew a few looks from the men, including Raile, and the newfound tension of the camp passed as I stepped through the moss.

I kept my gaze forward. "I need to talk to Amali about a ghost."

OOO

Amali's presence filled the lab, a quiet desperation mixed with fatigued resignation, but Amali herself was nowhere to be seen. Then a quiet sniff leaked out from behind the tarp of Sumi's room.

It's where I would be too.

As carefully and respectfully as I could, I slid the tarp aside.

She sat beside him, hand on his pale arm, watching his monitors. They were calm for now.

I still hated that I had to do this, and I spoke as softly as I could, "Doctor Amali?"

She turned, and her eyes were steadier than mine would have been. "Yes, Miss Tano?"

Just be as straightforward as possible. "When we spoke before, you mentioned a 'damn ghost'. Can you tell me more about it?"

She blinked, and looked slightly uncomfortable. "I didn't think you would have heard that."

I gave a half-hearted smile and tapped one of my montrals. "Togruta hearing. Gift and a curse."

She looked back at Sumi, and then stood, gesturing for us to leave the room.

I ducked my head as I backed out. Partially out of respect, but mostly because I didn't want her to feel like this was an interrogation. I couldn't afford to make another enemy right now.

The tarp slid back into place behind us, and she wiped her eyes as she walked past the remains of shattered vials still catching bits of light on the floor, throwing warped patterns against the patchwork wall. A nearby luminator flickered.

"What is it you want to know, Miss Tano?" She folded her arms and leaned back against the holo-table in the center of the lab.

"This ghost that appeared to you before. When? How many times?" So much for it not sounding like an interrogation.

But she was gracious. "I don't know how many times. Periodically while I was developing the cure for Sumi."

I tapped a finger against my thigh. "Not before?"

She shook her head. "When I would go out into the wilderness to gather ingredients, I would turn around… and there it would be. In the distance, always too far away to see clearly. Just watching me."

Why would it allow her to complete her work? And why would it show itself to me now? The chill of the night crept through the damaged wall left over from the first attack, and I rubbed my arms. "Did it ever… do anything? Anything besides stare at you, I mean?"

"No. Well…" She looked down, toward the shattered vials, and her gaze got lost in the broken glass. "Once. The last time I saw it before it stopped appearing. I had just finalized the formula and began making preparations for the first dose."

Her gaze narrowed, and she pulled at the lapel of her labcoat. "It bowed. Like it was thanking me. Then it just… disappeared. I never saw it again."

And then something occurred to me that I should have asked long before. "Doctor, why did you come to this world in the first place?" There was nothing here but foliage and poison.

She looked surprised. "I received a grant to study the natural toxins produced by the flora, and how they might be repurposed. You'd be surprised how many medicines are derived from deadly sources."

A grant. "From who?"

Her brow furrowed, and she tilted her head. "If the Republic sent you here, shouldn't you already be well aware of my agreement?"

What? And then another comment she had made when we first met whispered in my memory:

'Aren't you developing an antidote to the Separatist's new bio-weapon?' I had said.

'Shouldn't you know?' she had replied.

No, I didn't know. And I was getting tired of feeling like the only one who didn't. "Doctor, what is going on here? How could I possibly know what deals you've made? What agreement are you talking about?"

Her grip on the hem of her labcoat slackened, and the pinch of her brow deepened. "The agreement the Republic made with the lab that sent me here. They said Republic Intelligence had found that a new bio-weapon was being produced within Separatist space, and they wanted to use an independent lab to get ahead of it and develop a counter-agent outside Republic territory so none would be alerted."

The Republic. A sick feeling sprouted in the pit of my stomach. "That's not possible. The Republic had no idea the Separatists were making a new toxin until they unleashed it. I was sent here by the Chancellor himself because we received intelligence that you were here creating a cure for it."

She drew her head back. "What?"

This didn't make any sense. And as much as I couldn't afford another enemy, I also couldn't afford the chance she was lying. That this entire thing had been a trap. "If you're working for the Republic, Doctor, why did you put up such a strong front when we first landed, and ask us to leave?" Quite forcefully, I left unsaid.

"I thought you were going to try to take the cure before I could give it to my son. Was I wrong?"

I glanced toward the doorway leading to the night outside. Toward the invisible presence of Raile prowling the perimeter. And Amali and I both knew the answer.

"I wouldn't have done that," was all I could say.

"I know that now, Miss Tano, and I thank you. But I had no way of knowing it then."

No, she didn't. And no deception tainted the color of her words. "Then help me now. This lab, group, whatever—the people who gave you the grant to come here—what are they called?"

"Mirage Solutions."

Mirage. Holograms. Ghosts. "And you work with this group?"

She shook her head. "I'd never heard of them until they contacted me with an offer for this job. Because of my work in toxicology." She looked away. "And when we arrived here, Sumi…"

Her voice tapered off, and a shadow settled over her countenance. I didn't speak. What could I have said?

She sniffed, and ran a finger over her eyelids. "It's them, isn't it? There was never a job. There was no contract with the Republic. They lured us here to infect us."

I could only dip my head. "I doubt 'Mirage Solutions' even exists." Just another Separatist front.

"Why?" she said. "What would they gain from this? Why would they hire someone to cure their own weapon? And then infect them?"

"I don't know."

"My son is dying because of me."

I rubbed my palms on my pantlegs. There was really no promise that wouldn't sound empty. "I'll do everything I can." I would.

She met my eyes through the darkness, and the wetness of her own gaze. "And your men?"

I met her gaze, and resolved myself to whatever would happen. "I'll do everything I can."

I would.

And then a rapid knocking of knuckles against metal broke from the doorway, and 623 passed under the threshold, gripping his scanner. "Ma'am! I got it."

Amali turned her head away and blinked hard. Until the dampness went away.

I stepped over to him, and spoke softly as I walked slightly past him until he was facing away from her. "Got what?"

"The source of the signal," he said, coughing lightly. "A hologram has to be cast from a fixed location, but they were bouncing the signal around to trick my scanner. That's why the energy reading kept jumping."

That didn't sound right. "Bouncing the signal… how? Where? There's nothing out there."

He grinned. "It's not hard to drop a few handheld signal-boosters here and there across a wilderness. Cover them up, and you've got your own personal relay system no one will ever notice until it activates. And once I figured out what they were doing…"

He held up the scanner. "I was able to isolate where the signal was being bounced from. And I'll bet you a hundred credits that's where their camp is."

The sick feeling had not diminished since it sprouted, and now, somehow, only increased. "Let me guess." I pointed a finger in the same direction the ghost had. "That way?"

His brow wrinkled, and he looked at his scanner. "Uh, yeah. How did you know that?"

I glanced toward Amali, who looked between us with dried eyes, and I swallowed.

"I just sensed it."

OOO

623 followed me out of the lab. Confusion and curiosity radiated off him as he looked, the desire to ask his questions bubbling right there beneath his tongue. But he held a respectful silence and waited, and I silently thanked him for it.

All the intel about this mission, all the anticipation and excitement… Not one of my instincts tagged it as a trap. None of the masters sensed it either. How?

And now the droid leader itself levels an invitation to come… what? Talk? Be killed?

"623, If you were the leader of an army, why would you show yourself to the enemy?"

The twisting of his expression said more than his words. "I… wouldn't." And then, slowly, comprehension dawned. "Ma'am, are you saying… That's how you already knew, isn't it?"

I wish I knew. But instincts failed me again, and nothing but a shallow void lurked where answer should have been.

"I need to find Raile."

His edged presence cut from a nearby stack of crates, and I started walking, drawing the attention of Tuf and Dozer who looked on from their place at the edge of camp.

623 walked with me, but hesitated. "Are you sure it's a good idea to talk to him right now? The camp has kind of… Your orders are holding on by a thread."

It was a thought I had already wrestled, and come to terms with. "He's my captain. He needs to know what's going on."

At least, some of it. Enough to be a benefit and not a hurt.

Raile straightened as I stopped in front of him. The tension between us hadn't diminished, but he straightened. "Sir."

No use tip-toeing. There wasn't any time for it anyway. "I've… got a lead on the droid's camp. Lock down the perimeter tight, and be ready for another attack when I leave."

The attack would come. We both knew it.

He gripped his blaster rifle and rolled his shoulders. "A lead from where?"

Somewhere that would make you abandon me now, if you knew the truth. And then Sumi… and Amali both would die.

And so I made my decision. And I steeled myself and nodded toward 623. "He located a signal source coming from the North. There's nothing else it could be." It was true enough. Please let it be true enough.

623 looked at me.

Raile glanced at 623 for a moment, and then back. "A signal source just appears through the radio blackout? Now? Awfully convenient, isn't it?"

Not compared to the droid leader itself appearing and pointing the way. "It wasn't convenient, it was buried deep. He had to track it down and uncover it."

…And if the droid leader knew we would find it, if he knew it could be found, he wouldn't have appeared to point the way, would he?

What did that mean?

"It's clearly a trap." Raile's voice brought me back.

I had thought it was. But if so, why wouldn't the droid just let us find his camp on our own? I would have been less wary about it then. Fallen into a waiting trap more easily.

"What exactly do you suggest I do, Captain?" It sounded more rhetorical than I meant.

The tension seemed to gather in his shoulders as he settled them back. "You know what I suggest. Are you finally ready to put the lives of your men above one civilian?"

And just like that, the chasm between us was spoken out loud. The horribly simple question. And no matter how it turned in my mind, only bad answers came.

And so there was only to stop running. To stop running, and face it.

And so I breathed out, and faced it, like the black lenses staring down at me. "No matter what you think of me personally, you gave me your word I still had your loyalty for three hours. Are you a liar?"

Blunt, and maybe a mistake. But maybe he would respect that in his own way. After all, he was a blunt man.

He looked down at the rifle in his hands, and finally slid a thumb down the charge indicator on the side of the casing. "Never been a liar in my life. 'Specially not to my generals. Not even rookie ones."

The charge indicator came back green, and he settled the rifle into a comfortable, familiar grip as he looked back up. "I'll secure your perimeter, General. I'll try to keep your men and your civilian boy alive. But whatever it is you plan to do, you'd better do it fast, because you've already spent an hour."

He then saluted with his free hand, which surprised by itself, but even more surprising was that no mockery or condescension lurked in it. "Good luck, Sir."

With that, he moved to begin organizing the men, and I watched him go, and wished our first mission together had gone differently. Wished the first mission with all my men had gone differently.

"Are we moving out then, Ma'am?" 623 quietly asked from behind me.

His presence was calm, and a solid support at my back, like a current in a cold ocean, and I turned to him.

He held up his scanner. "I'm ready to catch some signals whenever you need."

And as I looked at him and slowly nodded, I set aside my reservations of the moment, and let his trust bolster me just a little.

Enough to tamp down the growing weight that had been settling the entire time inside me—like an ember reaching from the shadows of Amali's lab, glowing brighter and brighter, worse and worse. Until the seeping of its light made everything around it darker, heavier.

And then, in that moment, burst its invisible flame through the camp, carrying with it the panic of a mother.

And the terribly rapid ringing of medical alarms.

End Chapter