"You mean 'if' we get hold of him," CX-2 said grimly. "Trihexalon gas is one of the most volatile substances in the galaxy. If it is ignited, it will immediately explode, vaporizing all of us."
"Great," Dahl muttered.
Kirgard motioned for them to huddle up. "Options?"
"We can't vent the room," Ferrus said. "Not with the door locked."
"Can you hotwire the door?" Kirgard asked CX-2.
"Not without blowing us up with the spark."
"Is this gas toxic?"
"Not in the way you mean. Inhalation poses no immediate threat to us. However, if it displaces enough oxygen, we will eventually suffocate."
"How long will that take?"
"At the rate it is pouring in, perhaps an hour. But with how much is already in the room, even the heat from the console or a stray spark from the speeder's power source may be enough to ignite it."
Kirgard swore. "Ferrus, CX-2, finish up with the console. Dahl, let's see if you can get that door open the old-fashioned way."
"Sir," CX-2 said, "perhaps I should work on bypassing the code for the door."
"No. I order you to get as much off that console as you can. The mission comes first. Understood?"
At the captain's words, that kriffing switch flipped in CX-2's brain. "Sir, yes sir!"
CX-2 immediately moved to the console and began working. Ferrus gave the clone an odd look, then shook her helmeted head.
The captain glanced up at the ceiling. "I'm gonna see if I can't find a faster way out."
Outside, the twisted creature wrung its hands. It had trapped the stormtroopers, yes, and filled the command center with that explosive gas. But the gas hadn't been triggered as he'd hoped. He could hear them talking on the other side of the door. They must know not to ignite the gas.
The creature swallowed hard. If they got out, he didn't have any other tricks up his threadbare sleeve. And they'd be angry.
The creature crouched down, hugging its knobby knees to its chest and rocking back and forth. Angry, yes, and he knew what an angry stormtrooper could do.
It whimpered, then reflexively bit its lip until it bled to stop the noise.
They needed to die. But how?
Ahead, the door creaked as a crowbar was jammed between the two halves.
Despite itself, the quaking creature squeaked and scrambled backwards in terror. As he did so, he tripped and fell.
On the verge of tears, the creature looked down to see what it had tripped over. To its surprise, it saw a flashlight.
A power source, and a source of sparks. Eagerly, it reached down and twisted the device open, then began to yank and pry apart the wiring.
CX-2's fingers trembled slightly from the stress as he worked, shoving a data spike into a port and downloading everything he could, prioritizing intact and only partially damaged files.
Beside him, Kirgard was perched on top of the edge of the console, reaching up to the ceiling. He jabbed the butt of his rifle up into the stone, making a few pebbles fall. The captain flinched.
"Try the vent, sir," CX-2 said, not taking his eyes off the console.
"The gas is coming from there," Kirgard said.
"Yes, but it is likely that the gas line is quite close to the vent. I suspect it is part of a failsafe system designed to destroy all the sensitive data should the command center become compromised."
Kirgard shifted his boots slightly and jammed his blaster into the metal vent. It bent, then clattered to the floor.
"Hm. You're right. Can we plug the line?"
"It would not be effective with how much is already in the room."
"Looks like we can get out here. Come on. Dahl! Leave the door."
Kirgard hoisted himself up, followed by Dahl. Ferrus hesitated beside CX-2.
"Come on, Reboot. The gas could ignite any minute."
"I will be there in a minute. You go." He could feel Kirgard's order pressing on his mind, making his heart rate shoot up. Nothing was more important than getting this data.
Ferrus climbed up on the console and reached up. Kirgard and Dahl grabbed her forearms and hoisted her up.
The creature flicked the switch of the mutilated flashlight. Delicate blue lightning flickered between the wires that he had bent close to each other. He waited a second, watching to make sure the spark continued.
Satisfied, the creature crept to the door and the thin crack Dahl had opened in it. He shoved the mangled flashlight through the door, then scampered as fast as he could down the hall.
A clatter behind him made CX-2's head turn. There, by the door, was some sort of device. And flickering at its heart was a blue electrical spark.
The clone's heart leapt into his throat. With an inhuman speed born of terror, CX-2 flicked a switch, yanked the dataspike out, jumped up onto the console, and leapt up into the vent just as the command center erupted in green fire.
After the heat and pressure died down, the four stormtroopers were left huddled together in the cramped confines of the ventilation shaft. It was barely big enough for CX-2 on his hands and knees.
"You alright?" Kirgard asked in the light of Ferrus's flashlight.
CX-2 winced. "I believe so. Some minor burns. Nothing more."
"That was stupid," Dahl muttered ahead of them. "You could have been killed."
"The mission comes first," CX-2 quoted, looking at Kirgard. He presented the captain with the data spike. As he did so, he felt his mind relax, as though released from a vice.
Kirgard accepted the spike and put it in his pack, though with some difficulty. "How do we get out of here?"
Dahl grunted as he adjusted his position. "I think I see a light up ahead. Probably another vent."
They shuffled forward on all fours for a few minutes. Then,
"Yep. It is. Hang on a minute."
Dahl wrestled the vent loose, then dropped it with a clatter to the floor below. He then swung down out of the air shaft.
The other three followed suit. They were in a room devoid of anything save a desk and a chair. Through the stuck-open door, CX-2 could see the faintly lit hallway.
"We're quite the sight," Ferrus remarked.
Indeed, they were all covered in soot that had turned their once-white armor black. CX-2 cocked his head.
"I rather like this look," he said.
Dahl snorted, then turned to Kirgard. "Please tell me the next part of the mission is catching that putrid little monster and gutting him."
Kirgard nodded. "Absolutely. Since he's determined to kill us, let's set up a trap for him here."
"So long as he doesn't spring a trap on us first," Ferrus said darkly.
It only took a moment to set the trap. CX-2 and Ferrus laid down in the middle of the floor, their limbs at odd angles as though they were severely injured. Then Kirgard and Dahl took up positions on either side of the open doorway.
Ferrus moaned in pain. CX-2 shot her a glance.
"We're supposed to lure it to us, aren't we? Can't do that if it doesn't know we're here."
Reluctantly, CX-2 began groaning and clutching his abdomen.
To the clone's surprise, a moment later they heard shuffling footsteps outside the room.
CX-2 grunted, then hissed, "Shh! It's here! You have to be quiet! It might hear you!"
"But my leg!" Ferrus cried. "I think I'm bleeding out!"
"Hush!"
CX-2 cringed underneath his helmet at the absurdity. But a second later, the creature shuffled in. It crept towards the prone stormtroopers. A shadow fell upon it and CX-2 as the two lurking stormtroopers pounced, flattening their prey.
Dahl wrenched the creature's hands behind its back, causing it to moan in pain. "Ugh. What is it?" he asked.
CX-2 picked himself up off the floor and moved over to the creature. It was hunched over, one shoulder higher than the other, its legs strangely shortened and its head too large for its body.
CX-2 grabbed its chin and tilted it up so that he could see its face.
The skin was mottled and lumpy, the eyes lopsided, the jaw hung slightly ajar.
But the eyes–CX-2 knew those eyes. Why was it always the eyes? Brown clone eyes as familiar as looking into a brother's face.
99…? No, it couldn't be. 99 was dead. CX-2 remembered seeing his number on the death roll of the battle report after the Battle of Kamino. Besides, this creature looked younger, despite the lines on its face. Distracted and fascinated as he was by this horrible, twisted creature, CX-2 didn't recognize the memory for what it was.
"It's a clone," Ferrus said.
CX-2 turned to see that she'd picked up the scanner he'd dropped.
"Just like the specimens we found in the cell. Same genetic profile as every clone trooper, no sign of why he looks like…that."
CX-2 turned back to the creature. "Do you have a name or a number?"
It only glared back at him like some feral beast.
"I don't think it can talk," Dahl said. "Look at it."
CX-2 sat down on his haunches so that he was on the same level as the creature. He reached into his pack and pulled out a ration bar. He ripped off a chunk and held it up in front of the creature's face. Its lopsided gaze locked onto the food.
"Are you alone here?"
Drool dripped out of the corner of its mouth as it nodded, eyes still on the food. CX-2 brought his hand to the creature's mouth. It eagerly slurped up the food. CX-2 broke off another piece of the ration bar.
"Do you have a name?"
The creature shook its head, then gulped down the food CX-2 offered it.
"Can you speak?"
Its eyes went wide, and despite the food laid out on CX-'s gloved palm, it shied away from the clone, bumping into Dahl behind it.
"Fascinating," CX-2 said, standing. "It understands us, but refuses to speak. If it was one of the specimens that Hemlock experimented on, it may have become operantly conditioned to avoid speaking."
"Why would they do that to it?" Ferrus asked. Her blaster was still trained on the twisted creature.
CX-2 shrugged. "Considering its malformed nature, it very well could be in considerable amount of pain. Perhaps the scientists grew tired of the noises it made."
Ferrus shuddered visibly. "That's awful."
Kirgard snorted. "Hard to feel sorry for that monster."
"Sir?" Ferrus asked.
"It dropped a ceiling on me and Dahl and tried to blow us up," the captain said dryly, "so you'll excuse me if I'm a little low on empathy for that little cretin right now. Let's get him out of here and back to the ship. I think we've got everything we're gonna get outta this place."
With the malformed little creature in custody, the walk out of the ruined laboratory was much quicker and safer. They stepped out into the dappled green afternoon sunlight.
"You know," Dahl said as they skirted the corpse of the sarlacc, "I think it might actually smell better out here than in there."
CX-2, behind the heavy, said, "That may simply be residual trihexalon gas in your airways deadening your sense of smell."
Dahl shot a glare over his shoulder at the clone. "You made tha–"
The mutated clone took advantage of Dahl's distraction and twisted out of the trooper's hands. He scrambled away towards the swamp.
"Oh, no you don't!" Dahl leapt after the little creature, nearly landing on top of it. He grunted as he wrestled the creature to the ground.
"He's a feisty one," Dahl said.
"We clones were bred for war," CX-2 pointed out. "Our genetic template was a Mandalorian bounty hunter. Even as wretched as this clone is, he is still a fighter at heart."
Just like 99 , CX-2 thought.
He froze so suddenly that Ferrus nearly walked straight into him.
99! CX-2 stared at the misshapen creature, shock nearly knocking him off his feet. He'd remembered 99! Back in the lab, he'd remembered reading a report about a great battle on his homeworld of Kamino. He'd remembered…well, that was all. But he'd remembered something without a flashback!
99 must have been important to me before, CX-2 reasoned. The similar features between the two misshapen clones, combined with the emotion of seeing the dead clone's name on that battle report must have been what had punched through Hemlock's reconditioning.
CX-2 felt a strange ache at the thought of 99. He didn't remember more than the malformed clone's face, but he ached to know more. 99 meant something to CX-2, or Tech, or whoever he'd been before.
Could this strange creature have anything to do with 99?
"Reboot?" It was Ferrus behind him. "Hey, CX-2, you ok?"
He turned to her and nodded slowly. For a second, he considered explaining to her, but then thought better of it. Even though Ferrus seemed to have warmed up to him, CX-2 was still wary of sharing too much with her, particularly about the details of his memories. "I am fine. I…thought I might have left the scanner back in the ruins."
He patted the side pouch at his hip, where the scanner left an angular bulge. "I was wrong. I have it here."
Ferrus grunted an acknowledgement. "Let's keep moving."
CX-2 hurried forward to catch up to Kirgard, who had taken point. "Sir, I would like to be present for the specimen's interrogation."
Kirgard hesitated, looking from CX-2 to the creature. "Why?"
"His report could shed light on the other corpses Ferrus and I found, perhaps giving us a better idea of Hemlock's experiment."
"Permission denied."
CX-2 blinked. "Sir, I–"
"If that thing is a clone, your analysis is compromised and your conclusions invalid. Plus, I don't need you getting in the way."
"I assure you, that will not be a problem–I can remain objective–"
"Still no, CX-2."
"But sir, I have no emotional connection to this creature. I had never even heard of it before today."
Kirgard sighed as he picked his way over the dead gray vines. "I have other reasons, CX-2. Don't question me on this."
CX-2 stalked over to Ferrus.
"He denied your request?" she asked.
CX-2 nodded, his mood black.
"Why?"
"I do not know." CX-2's words were clipped and sharp. "The captain did not elaborate on his asinine decision."
That elicited a muffled chuckle from Ferrus.
"What?" CX-2 spat.
"It's the first time I've ever heard you get irritated," Ferrus said. "It's nice to know you're human somewhere in there under all the armor and technical knowledge."
"Of course I am human," he grumbled. "What else would I be as a clone of Jango Fett?"
"That," Ferrus threw up her hands in exasperation. "That's what makes you seem like such a droid sometimes."
Kirgard had already lowered the gangway, so the two troopers made their way inside. Kirgard was in the cockpit, starting up the engines, and Dahl was taking extra pains to ensure their captive was securely fastened to a seat.
CX-2 and Ferrus took their own seats and clamped their restraints on over their armor.
"Well," Ferrus said, her voice low so that it wouldn't carry, "what if I made sure I was there at the interrogation and made a recording for you?"
CX-2 turned to look at her, but of course Ferrus's face was hidden behind her helmet.
The clone shook his head. "I doubt the captain will allow you to observe."
Ferrus gave a low chuckle. "I'm not so sure. I have my ways."
On the trip back to Executrix , CX-2's thoughts twirled around in his head like rocks caught up in a spinning whirlpool. The malformed 99, this mutated clone, Crosshair, experiments on 99's, Hemlock's reconditioning, tortured clones…all of it was connected; he was sure of that.
If CX-2 figured out how he fit into all this, would it shatter the reconditioning? Would he be able to perform as a soldier once he knew who he'd been?
It didn't matter, the clone realized. CX-2's curiosity was a palpable force in his mind, a hook that was leading him forward just as powerfully as Kirgard's order had been just a short time before. He needed to know how all this connected. He needed to know who he was. He could no more fight this hunger for knowledge and understanding than a starving womprat could resist the smell of food wafting across the Tatooine desert. If this damaged Hemlock's reconditioning and the clone's skills, then so be it. CX-2 would have to deal with that later.
As they stood and prepared to disembark, CX-2 pulled Ferrus back for a second.
"I would appreciate your assistance in viewing the interrogation," he murmured.
Ferrus gave him a short nod. "On it, Reboot."