Clone Wars: Underground - Chapter 3

 

"I didn’t ask for this.” Clone Trooper Maaka sat on the long bench across from the med table with a troubling frown on his face. It was the same words Ellia had said after waking Fives and finding out he actually was a fugitive.

            “What do you mean?” Fives questioned. He remembered waking up and realizing he had been dead. Sure, it was an uncomfortable feeling at first, but it was a second chance. 

            “What gives you the right to bring me back anyway?” The man’s ire was directed not at Fives, but Ellia. Something about Ellia seemed to burn within him. The look he gave her echoed steely hatred. 

            “You were delivered to me for my project.” It was a cold explanation, but the only one she had. She didn’t understand the issue. Fives had noticed this about Ellia. It seemed to him that she was detached from the clones she brought back. It was a problem most civvies had. It was a big problem the Kaminoans had. They didn’t view clones as people. Maybe she saw them only as science experiments as well. 

            “The point is that you have another chance.” Fives reasoned. 

            “I didn’t want one.” The clone growled. He locked eyes with Fives. “Everyone I know is dead. I should be too.” He turned his glare to Ellia again, stood up and left the room.

            “I never considered-”

            “People usually don’t when it comes to clones.” Fives cut her off. She looked hurt, but it was the truth. 

Fives wasn’t even sure how he felt about being back. It hurt, but at the same time, something inside of him was glad to have another chance. He looked at the dismay on her face. There were no easy answers. 

            “Sorry.” Ellia admitted. By compartmentalizing clones from natural humans, she had no need to think of the ethics of her work. She’d never even given a thought to how those she brought back might feel about not being given the choice. 

            He shrugged. “Well, it’s not like you can ask a dead man if he wants to come back.” There was the humor again. Ellia didn’t know how Fives could make jokes in the most solemn of situations. It did ease the tension a little. “Besides, it would be worse to just let them sit there in their tanks.” Fives cracked a smile as he gestured to the other four tanks that held clones. 

Ellia nodded. He was right. She wasn’t sure of how they’d respond, but she would wake them all. 

“I’ll help you get the chips out.” Fives offered. 

“Another choice I’m taking away from them.” Ellia stated bitterly. 

“Quick learner.” He smirked and tapped a hand on one of the tanks, studying the man inside.

Ellia shrugged. She was being taught by a man who looked her age, but she knew he was chronologically fifteen years old at most, he was likely younger. 

“Think of it this way, you’re actually giving them freedom to choose, since it’s the chips that take that freedom away.” 

She almost smiled. Fives was a smart one. She was beginning to understand why he’d been promoted to an ARC trooper and maybe why he’d been considered a threat by the Kaminoans and the Emperor. He thought too much for a clone soldier and bent his rationale to serve him. The higher-ups probably didn’t like that. She wondered if it had anything to do with his general. It was said that General Skywalker was quite the creative thinker himself.

            

            The others began waking and Ellia busied herself monitoring their progress. Fives explained to them as a whole what had transpired. Some of the clones had need of replacement limbs. Fives stopped Ellia from attaching them while they were still out.

            “Not everyone will want those.”

            “Why?” Ellia was mystified.

            “We fought clankers every day. Not everyone’s gonna want their limbs replaced with something they were trained to destroy.”

            Ellia realized there was a lot about clones she didn’t know. Fives turned to address the others.

            “Some of you were injured and you have the option of accepting an artificial limb if you want one.”

            “I’m not gonna have no droid arm, forget it.” CT-2209, Brix, replied. “Don’t know how Tip here’s gonna manage.”

            “Yeah, my leg.” CT-1282, Tiptoe, examined his body. He was missing his left leg and hand.

            “You’ll be better off accepting the artificial limbs, trooper.” Fives added.

            “Hey! I know you!” CT-3331, Jace, pointed a finger at Fives. “You’re the one Jesse talked about. You’re the ARC trooper that stole the Umbaran starfighters.”

            Fives closed his eyes at the mention of his old comrade. The mention of Jesse was a reminder of all his brothers that he might never see again. Had they survived? Did they help kill the Jedi? Was General Skywalker alive? Somehow, he couldn’t even imagine Rex doing such a thing. He steeled his emotions and grinned. 

            “Yeah, good times.”

            Ellia’s comm buzzed and she jumped. 

            “Elli? Hey. I just wanted to check up on ya.” Brenni’s voice came over worried. 

            “I’m fine, everything is okay, I think.”

            “I hope I didn’t get you into some kind of trouble.”

            “I don’t know where you get your intuition.”

            “So, I was right?” Anxiety was apparent in Brenni’s voice.

            “I’m not sure yet. Maybe you should stop by.”

            “I already tried your apartment.”

            “No. Work. I’m at work. My old office.”

            

            Brenni set down on one of the lower platforms. Ellia was waiting for her. It was odd, Brenni usually just let herself into Ellia’s office. Instead Ellia led her around back. 

            “What’s going on, Elli?"

            “You’re not going to believe me. I should just show you.” Ellia looked around before opening the loading crew entrance. Brenni noticed how jumpy Ellia seemed. They went to the turbolift at the back of the storage area. It was an older one that accessed the lower levels. Newer buildings on Coruscant were usually just built on top of one another. Sometimes easily accessed levels of older buildings were used for storage. Ellia stopped and turned to her long-time friend.

            “Brenni, I have to warn you first. If you come down there with me, there’s no turning back.”

            Brenni peered at her friend in shadows of a single glow light. She looked exhausted. Her features were lined with worry and her eyes frequently darted around at every small sound. Something was very wrong.

            “I just don’t want you to get hurt, I need you to understand how dangerous my situation is.”

            Brenni took her friend by the shoulders. “I won’t leave you. Whatever it is, I’m in.”

            Ellia swallowed hard and exhaled. She led Brenni into the turbolift and together they plunged down into the darkness of the Coruscant underworld.

They exited the lift. Brenni followed Ellia to another lift in the same level, except this one went further down. She guessed they must be skimming the lower levels by now. With each level Brenni grew more and more concerned about Ellia.

            They entered an old lobby with a hallway extending into the darkness. 

            “Do you remember the day there was a fire at the temple? Troopers came to the center.”

            “What’d they want?”

            “The commander recognized the clone you brought me.”

            “Oh, must have been the same commander who was there at the scene. Bet he was surprised.”

            “That’s one way to put it.” Ellia opened the door. The room beyond had been converted into a kind of living area’s common room. Brenni scanned the room and saw what looked like a squad of clones on leave.

            “Are these guys-”

            “Hey, everyone. This is my friend Brenni. She’s the only other person who knew about my research.”

            Collective greetings, all in the same voice, came from around the room.

            When introductions were finished Ellia turned to Brenni. “I brought them down here after I was ordered to destroy them.”

            “By who?”

            “That commander. Commander Fox”

            “Then it was an Imperial Order.”

            “Yes.”

            “That makes you and everyone one of these clones criminals.”

            “And now you.” Ellia added gravely.

            “Well, you did warn me.”

            One of the clones walked up to the two women. “Only if they find out.” He said wagging a finger. Brenni recognized the man immediately as the clone she’d picked up from the warehouse. 

            “How’s that blaster bolt? Any complications?”

            “So far, no.” Fives replied, rubbing his chest. It had become almost subconscious twitch of his.

            “Elli.” Brenni turned back to her friend. “Did you erase all your files on the network?” Ellia nodded. “You’re sure no one saw you bring them down here.” 

            “I’m sure.”

            “Good. I want you to keep your jets on low for a while. Just play it easy. There’s a landing pad a few floors down I can use. I think we can find a way to access it from this floor.”

            “What do you mean?”

            A smile crossed Brenni’s lips. “Oh, you’re not gonna have all the fun.” She winked. “I’m gonna go get my ship.”

            The two said their goodbyes and Brenni left.

 

            

Maaka sat alone in the makeshift barracks. He hadn’t meant to get that drunk that night. He didn’t even know he’d fallen off the ledge. It was only after the ARC trooper explained what happened that he’d realized he had died. Then he’d been brought back. The longing for that death flooded his heart now. Why did he have to live? Why, of all people, had they brought him back? He seemed to have the worst luck.

Suddenly another vision played across his mind, taunting him. It happened more frequently now. He’d have memories that he wasn’t aware of. He saw people dying that he thought he knew but had no actual recollection of. Like another life. Another war. More death. Who were they? Why were these men dying in his mind?

He shook himself back to the present. He did remember one thing. The woman’s face he saw when he woke. That doctor. He’d seen her before, but he couldn’t remember where. It brought back more pain, but then it seemed every memory brought pain. 

 

            “Ugh. I feel like a cocooned burrow moth.” Ellia shook her head.

            “You can get some air. I’ll walk with you.” She saw Tiptoe’s gloved hand out of the corner of her eye. 

            “Thanks, Tip. It’s not the environment. It’s the stress, I guess. I’ve never done anything I shouldn’t.”

            “Sometimes that’s how things get done.” It was Fives this time.

            Ellia raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms. “I have always followed the rules. That’s how I got my position, my projects.”

            “Well, I’m glad you broke the rules this time.” Tiptoe said in a quiet voice. “I mean, I don’t want you to get into trouble, but we wouldn’t be here otherwise.”

            His soft-spoken tone drew Ellia’s attention. She had expected some kind of macho come-back, but his voice had been so sincere. She let her arms fall to her side, the features in her face softened as she looked around the room and for the first time truly saw human beings all looking back at her. Everyone one of them different in so many ways. She had worked with clones for years at the lab and somehow never saw them as anything but soldiers. They were men and they were the ones who had fought and died on the battlefield for the Republic. 

            A republic that was gone and they had been the unwilling arbiters of its demise. For the first time Ellia wondered how they felt about it all. They’d been created to be used. Why was she just now realizing that?

            “Yeah, You’re right, Tip. Sorry.” Everyone knew that she’d been ordered to destroy them; cast their unconscious bodies into the incinerator. The mood in the room grew solemn. 

            “You know how to throw a punch?” Brix asked, breaking the silence. “It really releases the stress, ya know!” His grin was infectious and Ellia couldn’t keep a smile off her own face.

            “I don’t know.” She shied away.

            “Come on, he’s only got one arm.” Burnout shouted from across the room.

Ellia smiled but shook her head.

“It’s out of your comfort zone I think.” Fives noticed. “That means you really should try it. Besides, it may come in handy.”

Unable to think of a comeback She grudgingly followed Fives and Brix into the adjacent room. The former troopers converted that room into a makeshift gym and sparring area. The others piled in after them, not wanting to miss the show. Ellia hoped Brenni would come back soon. 

 

When Brenni commed, Ellia was sweaty and tired from defense practice with the clones. She skipped the jacket and went out to meet Brenni’s ship, the Red Ladalum. The air was cool and refreshing against her hot skin. The ship was docked on the lower platform that Brenni had mentioned earlier. The hatch opened and Kisha, fourteen and confident, strutted down the ramp. Her stumped montrals and head tails, also stunted, framed her face like a head-wrap. She had never been shy about her odd appearance. While her mother had been togruta, her father was human, or so she said, but it was well known that humans and togruta were not able to have children. 

“Hey, Elli. Where’s the soldier boys? You hooked couplings with any-” 

“Kish!” Brenni shouted from the top of the ramp. “Watch your language.”

Ellia imagined a normal fourteen-year-old would roll their eyes, but Kisha brandished a satisfied smile.

“Don’t worry, moooooom. I’ll save some for you. Geesh.” Then she looked to Ellia. Her cheeks were pink and she was still a little out of breath from the self-defense lesson. “Looks like you’ve already been busy.” The grin grew wider.

“I was sparring.” Ellia replied.

“Oh, so that’s what you call it.”

Ellia looked at her confused. Kisha was constantly switching between youth-aimed social hangouts on several levels of the city. Her vocabulary widened to include nearly every Coruscanti slang word that brushed through the neon-lit dance floors of the low-level hangouts. Ellia, Brenni was sure, had never even been to a party in her life, unless it was a company party and attendance was required. 

Brenni joined them and they went below.

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