WITHIN THESE WALLS


Genna paced, wringing her hands and babbling. "I should have known they could be useful. I just threw them in a kriffing drawer. All this time you could have been trying to find Meg, and she's been in the hands of that shabuir for months, and he's been doing Manda knows what..."

"Would someone please shut her up so I can concentrate on this?" Echo growled from the worktable.

Hunter mumbled, "I think I liked it better when she was confined to the chair. It's the pacing that's driving me crazy."

Wrecker on the other hand went to Genna and gave her a hug. "You didn't know. But now you do and Echo'll figure it out. Just you wait and see."

She gave in to the comfort he offered her and remembered how she had thought of him as a gentle giant the first time she'd seen him back in Malgan Market carrying Omega on his shoulders, and how it had reminded her of the way her own brothers had cared for her. Fate or Manda or the Universe or the Force or whatever it was had given her this new family and she would do anything for them.

Suddenly whatever Echo had been fiddling with seemed to click into place and an image projected from the goggles for all of them to see.

Hunter squinted at the image. "Is that a mountain?"

"I'm searching the image now," Echo made a few quick entries on his datapad. "It's Mount Tantiss, in the northern hemisphere of Weyland. And for a remote location, there's a decent amount of traffic going to and from."

"Mount Tantiss?" Dalla repeated. The fence and her handlers had been all but forgotten in the madness. "Don't we have a defector from there?"

Hunter didn't seem convinced. "Anything going on at a place like this would be top secret. A defector would have a heck of a time getting a transmission out."

"Defectors always have a heck of a time contacting us, but it doesn't stop them," Dalla quipped, scrolling through her datapad. "There! Dr. Emerie Karr, Mount Tantiss. Phee, you're listed as the handler."

"Are you sure?" Phee asked. "I'm not vetting any doctors, or any Emeries."

"It doesn't look like you did much vetting. You took her basic details, and then forwarded her to the clone network. What was that about?"

"Oh, her. I sent her to them because she's a clone."

"She's a what?" Hunter choked.

Phee was unbothered. "Don't act like you've never heard of a female clone."

"Omega is the only one," Echo replied.

"Don't be so sure of that. She checked out with us and the clone network. You got yourselves another female clone."

"Who's your best chance at rescuing Omega and Crosshair," Dalla interrupted. "We're pulling this defector out now, and we're taking the prisoners with her."

"How do you plan to do that?" Hunter asked.

"I'm going to give you a bunch of codes and you're going to break into the facility and grab them."

"Where are you going to get the codes?"

"From the defector. Where else?"

Of course, she wasn't going to get everything from the defector. Dalla muscled her way out of the salon proper in search of absolute privacy. And on Pabu, the only place she would find it was on her ship.

She was huffing and puffing by the time she reached the landing pad. How come no one had told her that pregnancy made you so kriffing tired? Her size-of-a-shurra baby felt like he was zapping all her energy. But it was worth it, if it meant he got to grow to the size of a shurra. Soon he would be a jogan, and then a meiloorun, and then Dalla would have him. It was nothing short of a miracle. And it was all because of the man she was about to contact.

She sealed the boarding ramp of the Bad Decisions and only then did she reach for her comlink.

Her contact answered after a respectable pause, as he always did. Colonel Wullf Yularen had his shades drawn and his office door was undoubtedly locked.

"Good morning, young lady," he said and made a quick adjustment to his rank badge.

"Good morning, colonel. Is now a good time?"

"If it's not, I doubt you would call back." He looked her up and down. "Are you alright? The baby?"

"He's just fine." She smoothed her shirt so he could get a better look at her baby bump. "Thanks to you."

"It's not thanks to me when you made the decision." Still, he smiled fondly. "And you're well?"

"Very. I had a work question, actually. What do you know about Mount Tantiss?"

"Mount Tantiss?" Yularen tilted his head with interest as a smile spread past his mustache. "That, young lady, is a bad apple I would very much like to see you remove from my basket."

"My contact says Mount Tantiss is the Empire's new headquarters for cloning research. Wouldn't be a problem, except the chief scientist is Dr. Royce Hemlock. Actually, maybe not doctor, because he was stripped of his medical license after being kicked out of the Republic science corps. A license which was recently reinstated prior to his appointment to the very secretive, and very unethical, Advanced Sciences Division."

"How did you get information like that?" Riyo gaped.

"Let's just say the contact would rather not have Hemlock in charge, and was willing to help us take him down."

"I'll say," Echo muttered, scrolling through the datapad. "We have codes, schedules, even personal dirt on Hemlock. Tell your contact thank you for me."

"Thank him by busting Hemlock down a few pegs. We'll take the defectors when they're out, but we need you to do the actual exfiltration. Can you do it?"

"We'll do what it takes to get our family back." Hunter sheathed a knife.

Emerie ran her identification card over the laboratory entrance sensor. It beeped and the door hissed open.

Her card gave her access to nearly every area inside of the facility. It was the getting out of the facility that would require the help of her handler from defections. And she didn't care if it was the clone or natborn division as long as they could provide enough of a distraction to get Omega and Crosshair out as well.

So why was it with all of her unlimited admittance within Mount Tantiss that she felt like such an interloper as she crossed this threshold? Perhaps it was the purpose of her current mission.

Her heels seemed to click more loudly on the plasticrete tiles and the seal on the refrigeration unit squealed.

She examined the tubes and vials and specimen dishes, searching for the proper identification number and then lifted out one small innocuous looking container.

"Come to say goodbye?"

The smooth, high pitched voice almost made Emerie drop the very thing she had come to collect. She fumbled and then clutched the thing to her chest as she turned to face the Kaminoan scientist.

She supposed it wouldn't have mattered so much if it had shattered since the primary reason she had come was to destroy it. And then she realized what Nala Se had asked her.

"Say goodbye?" She repeated.

"To your progeny."

"No, no, it's not that," Emerie protested, but is that in a sense what she was doing?

The hypothesis behind the experiment was rather simple. The Kaminoans had become experts at accelerating the growth of their clones. So much so that Emerie's own generation had been matured in only four standard cycles as opposed to the previous ten.

Now those who were left, like Nala Se, were being asked to reverse the process. The Emperor was primarily focused on the idea of lengthening an individual's lifespan, namely his own.

A subject was needed who carried the modifications for accelerated aging to have their genetic material combined with that of a naturally developing individual.

Emerie had never divulged the information that Crosshair had inadvertently spewed in his tortured ravings that one of his squadmates may have fathered a child who would have fit that description. And she hadn't the need when Royce Hemlock, with his inflated ego and desire to leave his mark on scientific history, decided to donate his own genetic material as the naturally aging subject.

It hadn't exactly been up to Emerie that her own DNA would play the corresponding role. At least she hadn't been forced to endure the natural means of producing the desired offspring. She had simply submitted to the order to have her ova harvested.

The result of the laboratory fertilization was what she now held in her hand. She had no special connection to the contents. Or did she?

"I know what it is like not to be able to see a project through to its conclusion."

Nala Se had come up behind her while she considered her position.

"It is Dr Hemlock's project, not mine," Emerie bit off the words with more venom than she intended but quickly added, "and why shouldn't I see the conclusion of the experiment? It's not like I'm going anywhere."

The Kaminoan lowered her voice. "Oh but I think you are and that you plan to make possible the departure of a couple of our friends as well."

"That's ridiculous." Her hand clenched tighter around the vial.

"Don't worry."

A slender fingered hand was placed on her shoulder with practiced delicacy.

"I want to help."

Emerie's thoughts scrambled for a solution to this unforeseen development.

Nala Se craned her long neck to look furtively towards the laboratory door. "I believe I may be able to assist you in the rescue of an additional life."

"Your own?" The words left Emerie's mouth before she could stop them.

"No." The scientist shook her head. "I shall remain, if only to facilitate your escape with Omega and Crosshair. The life to which I was referring is the one you hold in your hand."

Emerie looked down and swallowed. "But I can't just walk out with it. It's like you said, I'm leaving. I have no idea where I might end up. Surely no place with the equipment necessary to continue the experiment."

"That is true." Nala Se nodded. "But there is another way you could carry the specimen out of this facility."

Surely her emphasis did not imply what she seemed to be suggesting.

Again the Kaminoan looked around as if she expected an interruption at any moment. "The procedure would be no more invasive than when we harvested the ova. It would just be a matter of returning the cells in their current state…"

"You mean to impregnate me with that…"

Emerie's voice rose in volume and the other female reached out a hand once again to calm her.

"You may not at this moment feel the maternal connection but I believe you possess the potential for that sort of emotional attachment. I was, after all, instrumental in your creation."

The sweeper droid didn't really need a sentient operator but it was what the clone was ordered to do as one of his daily tasks up and down the hallways of the Mount Tantiss facility. He stopped by the door of one of the many laboratories and ran a hand over his bald head and chin. Presumably they had shaved him in preparation for when his turn came to submit to the doctor's experiments but he thought the reason was probably more meant to demoralize the prisoners.

Just like outside these walls the clones all over the galaxy who were left were being forced to give up anything that marked them as individuals. He had managed to hold onto only one thing, the shoulder plate bearing the orange stripe that had once identified him as one of Commander Cody's two hundred twelfth. He and his brothers had fought hard for the Republic and this was the thanks they got.

He was about to start up the sweeper again, he had to get this hallway done before he was called to chow time, when he thought he heard voices behind the door of the lab even though nobody was supposed to be in any of these rooms this time of day. They were female voices. There weren't a whole lot of those around so he could probably guess who they belonged to.

One was obviously Kaminoan. No real surprise that she would be working in one of the empty labs but the other one sounded sort of like the little girl who came to visit the clones as often as she could. It wasn't her though. This voice sounded older.

It would be the lady doctor then. She had gained a reputation of kindness even though she was more than likely the one who was strapping the boys down to the table for the mad scientist to chop up. They knew she was following orders just like the rest of them. Might have even been under the knife herself, if you believed the rumors.

Rumors were stock and trade in a place like this but that wasn't why the clone lingered to listen as the voices rose and fell.

Suddenly the door swished open and he stood to attention as Doctor Emerie Karr zipped past him, taking no notice of his presence. He relaxed his posture when she had disappeared around the corner and bent his head again to his duty. That is until someone else addressed him directly.

"Boil, isn't it?" The Kaminoan identified him by name even without any of his former distinguishing features.

The mad scientist also called the clones by their chosen names but it never made any of them feel more comfortable.

"Yes, Ma'am." He straightened once again but didn't turn to look at her.

"Were you by chance listening in on the conversation I was just having with Doctor Karr?"

Boil clamped down on the panic that very nearly seized him in that moment. He could deny it and go on with his job and probably end up as the next experimental subject just to make sure he wasn't lying. Or he could take a chance and he believed that was exactly what the Kaminoan was offering him with her question.

He spun on his heel to face her. "Are you really going to attempt to get the little girl out?"

Nala Se's large eyes widened even more than usual but she did not seem angry. "What concern is it of yours if I were to do such a thing?"

He took a breath. What did it matter now? "I'm just glad, if you are, that is. She's got no business being locked up in here with the rest of us."

"She does not?" The Kaminoan inquired. She was testing him, he could feel it.

"No." And then he completely threw caution out of the air lock. "She reminds me of… well of a kid we met on Ryloth. I told her I'd go back and see her but I never got the chance. I know there's no real hope that I'm ever getting outta here now but if I could help one more kid like Numa that would probably be okay." And then he added as an afterthought with a polite nod, "Ma'am."

Nala Se glanced this way and that down the hallway as if to be sure that they were unobserved, and then she focused once again on the clone with direct purpose. "I believe you may be of help in our endeavor but Omega must not know of our plans as her reactions must be authentic until the very moment of her departure."

"I'll do whatever you want, Mistress Se."