Clone Wars: Underground - Chapter 14

 

Commander Wolffe jerked awake again. He saw in his mind his general again. He dreamed of Jedi General Plo Koon being blown to space dust above Cato Neimoidia. In his dreams he was always trying to save him somehow. Sometimes he would call out to warn him of the blaster fire coming from behind. Other times he was in a space fighter himself, staving off the attackers. He never saw who was attacking his general, but he knew who they were. When he woke, he came to his senses. General Plo Koon was a traitor to the Empire and had been eliminated for conspiracy against the Emperor. He had been marked for termination and that sentence had been carried out. Wolffe reminded himself of this fact every morning despite how uneasy it made him feel. Still, he found himself reading the reports of the Jedi Master’s eradication at Cato Neimoidia every so often. He hadn’t been there himself, but his mind always painted the horrific scene to play out in his thoughts at night. 

    His comm beeped. He punched it. 

    “Commander, we have an incoming vessel. It’s Commander Mardin, sir.” 

    “Understood. Prepare the troops for inspection, I’ll be down momentarily.” Wolffe turned his comm off and dressed. He was out the door within ten minutes. The shuttle with the visiting commander would be in the main hangar bay. He would be there, early as always, with his escort at the ready to receive them. 

    The shuttle set down and Commander Mardin strode down the ramp with his stormtrooper guard. Wolffe had worked with Mardin during the Clone Wars. He was a straightforward man who valued hard work and dedication. They had gotten along very well.  

    “We are prepared for your inspection Commander.” 

    “Prepared? For a random inspection?” 

     Wolffe smiled. Mardin returned the expression and offered a hand. 

    “It’s been a while, Commander Wolffe.” 

    “It has. You have your own contingent now?” 

    “The Arbiter is my flagship.” 

    “And you came all this way to check on me?” There was obvious doubt in Wolffe’s voice. 

    “We received intel that some traitorous clones have fled here.” 

    “I have been tracking down a Clone Commando that fled Coruscant about a month ago.” 

    “This is more recent, and they have others with them.” 

    “Jedi?”

    “Unkown.”

    Wolffe’s expression hardened. The Jedi were to blame. His brain not only told him so, but he had seen the aftermath of a jedi battlefield. He had received the order to terminate the traitors while working temporarily with another jedi general. When he descended the turbolift to the platform to execute his order from the Supreme Chancellor, he found the general and his padawan commander gone. The landing platform was riddled with clone bodies. They were his men, his brothers, good soldiers carrying out their orders. They were all dead from lightsaber wounds. As long as he lived, Wolffe would never forgive the Jedi. 

    “How can I help?” 

    “I think if we root out this commando of yours, we’ll have our traitors as well.” Mardin answered.  

 

The two Imperial Commanders stood around a holomap of Obroa-skai.  

“I’ll have my men do recon here and here.” Wolffe illuminated to sections of the map. “These are places I’ve traced the commando. I believe that if there are more clones, they would seek him out.”  

“If they have Jedi with them, then they’ll have no problem finding our missing commando.” Mardin added. 

    “There’s a spaceport here.” Wolffe pointed to another location. “We will cut off their route, but should they get to their ship, we’ll need air support.” 

    “Good. You’ll have it.” 

    “Jedi targets will be eliminated on sight.” 

    “If they are not Jedi. I want them alive.” Mardin added quickly. “Don’t mistake non-clone rebels for Jedi.” 

    “Understood.” Wolffe could see something in Mardin’s expression that teetered on anxiety. 

    “Don’t worry, Commander. I know a Jedi when I see one. If they are civvies, we’ll take them into custody unharmed.” 

    Mardin nodded and turned off the holo-emitter.  

 

    The Ladalum’s crew area was roomy to say the least. Although the freighter was classified in the lighter class for its line of freighters, the crew compartments for the medium freighter build plans were used for the lighter class ships as well, giving a freighter that usually staffed between four to six crew members room enough for up to ten. Brenni kept it spotless and every passenger knew the rules. Even Kisha never left things lying around. Brenni was heating up a cup of caf. She and the others stayed on the ship at night, preferring it to imposing on Gregor and his wife. Rex, Fives, and Gregor were at the table discussing plans for drawing out Wolffe and trapping him. Officially, Wolffe and those under his command were stationed at Obroa-Skai as an informal presence. Gregor, however, was sure they were looking for him. They finished their details and Gregor left.  

     “Got it figured out?” Brenni asked, taking Gregor’s seat. 

     “Yes. It’s a good plan.” Rex replied.  

     “And Kisha?” Fives knew the question was coming. 

     “Don’t worry. She’s got the galaxy’s finest watching her back.” He cracked a smile.             

“She’s your daughter?” Rex examined Brenni trying to piece it together.        

“In a way. She stowed away on my ship after her mother was captured by separatists on Kiros.”  

    Rex’s eyes saddened. “I remember Kiros. We helped restore it, but a lot of people didn’t survive the slave camps.”  

    “I came in after you guys shipped out. I had a supply drop there.” Brenni sighed. “I’m doing my best, but I’m no mother.” 

    “She’s not being truthful, Captain. She’s a great mom. See how clean we have to keep things. Her inspections are worse than yours.” Fives replied as if he were talking about his own mother. Brenni looked distressed at the assessment. 

    “I’d call that a compliment.” Rex reassured her.

 

    Ellia copied her day’s work into a message and prepared to send it to Gresh. It showed the DNA strands she had been working on. Before sending it, she tweeked one of the data points that showed accelerated growth. The explanation stayed the same, and if he followed the formulas, it would still work for the incubation period, but would then slowly increase. She paused, almost curious if Gresh would discover the mistake. She assumed he wouldn’t, he had his name on every project as director, but she had never seen any work that he did himself. She smiled to herself thinking she’d be more impressed than shocked if he figured out her “mistakes”.  

     She sent the report and shut down her terminal. It was the end of her workday and everyone else’s, but the lights in Gresh’s office were on as usual. At first, she had pinned him as a workaholic, but what could he possibly be doing every single evening in his office? She never saw any results of his work, no reports or additions to her own work. Maybe I don’t want to know. She peeked back over to the closed door. Or maybe I do a little.  She walked softly to his door. She rang, but there was no answer. The control panel showed it as unlocked. Should I? She listened but couldn’t hear anything.  

     Ellia raised her hand to the door panel. She knew she would have a lot of explaining to do if she was caught. She tapped the glowing green button on the panel and the door slid open with a quiet swish. The office was empty. She knew there would be recorders, so she didn’t enter. She also knew that he had entered his office half an hour ago and not come out. She would have liked to stay around a bit longer to investigate, but she promised Maaka to help him with his memory loss that evening. Ellia exhaled silently as if any sound would get her caught. She closed to door and left the lab for the evening. The weather was unremarkably clear again. She sighed and began walking. 

     “Hey.” 

    Ellia’s fist swung reflexively up to meet the voice. Despite her training with the clones, it was easily deflected. 

“Take it easy, doctor.” 

Ellia could see now who it was.  

“Maaka?” She breathed. “Sorry.” 

“Not like I was in any real danger.”  He replied. She wrinkled her nose at him.  

  

     Hiso and Cet lived above their café. The common area had one dingy window showing the dark street below. The single light fixture was amplified by various glow lamps placed around the room. The Ho’din’s love for plants was not confined to the greenhouse on the first level. The apartment had leafy plants and vines decorating every possible surface. Ellia and Maaka sat on the sofa in front of a modest but aging table with built-in holo. Cet often watched programs on it while eating his meals, but it was switched off at the moment.  

    “I’m not a psychiatrist.” Ellia reminded Maaka. 

    “I don’t think any such person has dealt with this kind of situation.” Maaka didn’t trust anyone else anyway. He wasn’t entirely sure he trusted the doctor.  

     “I don’t want to push you too hard, some things you might remember could be terrible.” 

     “I know.” His voice was soft but resolved. 

     “Okay, can you start by telling me everything you remember from before the procedure. Tell me all of your dreams and episodes.” 

     Maaka began to recite memories beginning with the most recent one. Ellia listened without interruption. Her eyes focused on his expression as he spoke.          

    “I think they said something like I was malfunctioning.” He finished after recalling the moments before the procedure had taken place. 

     Like a droid. Ellia felt sick. The view the Kaminoans had given her was a very sanitized version of their thoughts and actions towards the clones they made and experimented on.   

     “Well, it’s something to go on.” Her voice was softer than normal. She felt like Maaka was the first living human she had worked with in ages. Gresh was always looking down on her and other than that she spent her time alone in her lab. The patients she did have on occasion were usually in a bacta tank or in cold stasis. Then again, what she was doing now was far beyond anything she had ever trained for. She shifted and the necklace she kept hidden beneath her collar rattled slightly. Maaka turned to the sound. He attended to every detail of his surroundings.  

     “Just a reminder.” She said, pulling the chain from under her collar. On the end was a clone trooper tally and a small chunk of plastoid armor.  The tally was a small plate fastened to each set of clone armor that identified the clone. Maaka knew all too well what it was, but why would Dr. Tian have one? She must have guessed at his question. 

“Do you remember Tiptoe from the first week underground? Before you left?”  He did. He remembered them all. At the time he thought they were all being misled. He was angry and confused. For all he knew, they were all a part of some secret experiment. Doctor Tian had taken away his death, his chance to rest with his brothers. Tiptoe did not see it that way, but he had been thoughtful and always willing to listen to Maaka in those first few days. If she now had his tally, it only meant one thing.  

“How did it happen?” His voice became husky. He felt the emotional pain of losing yet another brother. He had seen hundreds of deaths, but it never got easier, in fact, it seemed to be getting harder to deal with. 

     “Somehow the director of the Imperial Labs where I work found my research. I refused to give him the passcode. After everything Fives told me about the Emperor, I knew that my research should never be used by him. Tip happened to be with me at the time. They took both of us into custody. I thought that they would just continue to torture me until I broke.” Her voice cracked and she could feel hot tears in her eyes.     

“They did break you. They broke you by killing him.” Maaka concluded.  Ellia could only nod. 

    “I-I’m sorry.” Maaka stammered.  

    “It’s not your fault.” 

    Maaka realized all too well that it was his fault. He was the one who gave the data disc to the secretary at the Imperial Labs. He had done it out of vengeance. He had wanted to get back at Dr. Tian for waking him up and for the fuzzy image of her that kept popping up in his mind. He didn’t know then that it was because she was there on Kamino. He didn’t care if she was actually to blame for the experimental memory wipe. As it turned out, she had no part in the experiments they performed on him. Now another clone was dead. He swallowed hard. He thought about telling her the truth about how the Imperial got her data disc, but there were tears in her eyes still. He couldn’t do it. Not yet anyway. 

    “I should go now.” Ellia said, gathering her emotions and pushing them away. She could deal with her pain at home.   

    Maaka stood to walk her home. It was a ritual he was quickly adopting. He couldn’t quite place why he felt responsible for her safety. It could have been that he was the reason for her to be walking home late at night, or because he felt a duty to protect civilians. Nearly the whole planet were civilians, but none of them were her. Maybe it was just because she looked so vulnerable with the tears in her eyes. He no longer felt the anger that used to come when thinking about her. Neon-lit darkness blanketed the city.  They walked in silence.    

“I’ve still managed to keep them from replicating my work.” Ellia said as they ascended a turbolift to the next level. Maybe she felt like she was trying to avenge Tip’s death in some way, or the Jedi, or maybe she just wanted revenge in general. 

“Everyone else has left Coruscant. We were being hunted by Commander Fox. They escaped and I stayed to protect my work.” 

     “What were you working on?”  

     “My original task involved creating projects that would save clone lives on the battlefield or field medic centers. Regrowing organs and such. Most of the projects were practical. The best ones I presented to the Jedi.” She pushed out a short, cold laugh. “But the senate didn’t approve the bill that would let such practices be used.” 

     “Why not?” 

     “Not cost-effective enough. They just wanted to buy more clones.” 

     “And let the injured ones remain broken.” Maaka felt his disdain for their leaders begin to grow into a slow-burning anger. 

     “Men in bacta take time to recover. Time is money.” Ellia’s words were bitter. She knew all of this before but had been so engrossed in project after project that she barely cared if her creations were actually put to practical use. She had just wanted to push the limits of her research regardless of what it was being used for. She had been different back then. Back then? What? A few months ago? She scoffed inwardly at herself. Better now than never, I guess.

     After spending so much time with the clones, she had a whole new perspective. Even now, the way Maaka scanned each new setting, how he evaluated every corner they turned and seemed to map the location of each sentient he saw, made him far different than Tiptoe. It didn’t matter that they were both clones from the same template. They were as different as she was from her own brother back on Chandrila. 

      Ellia’s apartment tower came into view. Maaka felt a dull pain behind his eyes. Was he getting a headache? 

      “Same time tomorrow?” Ellia asked. 

      “Yeah, if you don’t mind.” Maaka replied, making a conscious effort not to rub his temples.

      “I want to help. I owe you that.”  

      Maaka cringed inwardly. He didn't want her to think she owed him anything. He remembered how he treated her at the hideout after coming out of the bacta. Did she feel guilty? He didn’t ask, just thanked her and turned to leave. He stopped. 

     “I should tell you. I don’t regret being brought back. I was in a bad way for a while. I shouldn’t have taken it out on you.” 

     “Thank you.” She nodded and Maaka left. The relief he felt about the apology still didn’t mask the guilt he felt about Tiptoe’s death. He didn’t know how he was going to tell Ellia about that. 

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