Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 1956337" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 122: The Past, The Present, and a Small Ship TheftEveryone but Akan sat in the small ‘lounge’ room on Hansen’s YT-2400, the Starjumper. Yeah, it wasn’t a very imaginative name, but Hansen hadn’t been the one to think of it. Apparently she had ‘acquired’ the ship under circumstances she didn’t want to talk about over on Nar Shadaa. She had been searching for them. How they trail had led her to Nar Shadaa, none of them had any idea. Only Shadow knew the planet well, and the last time she was there was a good many years ago. The ship wasn’t exactly legally Hansen’s and she wasn’t about to tempt fate by rigging a new transponder signal just yet. According to Hansen, the Hutt she stole the ship from wouldn’t realize it was gone until he tried to use the dummy ship. Hopefully, that would be at least another week.    After that, there was a short period of small talk where they all caught up on what had been going on. Well, except for Hansen. She politely waited for the others to finish(well, the Voorts, Shadow didn’t say anything other than ‘Akan keeps getting sick on me’), and then leaned back in the small chair she sat in. With a thoughtful look across the three of them, Hansen said, “I’ll get right to the point. Sadrak was doing some kind of genetic research. That army we fought on the sand were not some strange alien creature we didn’t know about on Arranis. Those were Narani. Obviously, we had an idea this might be what he was doing when...when...” she trailed off a moment, seeing the look on Shadow’s face. When they found Landau. There was a short, awkward silence as all of them filled that in mentally.    The pause gone, Hansen continued as if she’d not stopped speaking in the first place, “It’s the reason we haven’t actually found anymore Narani. They all...died. Whatever he did to them was somehow linked to his own life, and when he was killed, they simply fell to pieces. I’d wager they were already dead.”    “Hold on a second,” Jen said, waving a hand and giving Hansen that scientist look that could make anyone feel completely stupid, “You’re telling me he killed thousands of Narani, grafted extra limbs onto their bodies, and then gave them life again?!”    Hansen stared blankly. Surprisingly, Titus nodded, “It is not beyond the power of the Dark Side to mimic life. As Sadrak was a devoted study of ancient Sith Lore, I wouldn’t put it past him to have found things even worse than what we saw out there. It may have been his compromise for losing...” carefully, Titus glanced to Shadow, who just stared right back, “For losing the Darks. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’d wanted to use those two as breeding stock to make a completely different type of army.”    The two other humans stared straight at Titus, suddenly worried about the tone his voice was taking on. It was Jen who said, “You’re speculating a little too much.”    “No,” Titus said solemnly, shaking his head and looking down at the durasteel floor plates, “No, I’m not. Its what...I would have done in his position.”    Silence. It was a long silence, and eventually Shadow said in her usual quiet, emotionless voice, “You are correct. But there’s more to it. He...we know he studied my people’s history very well. I don’t know why he gave up on the Darkwings, but he obviously had something else up his sleeve. The Darks were strong, yet weak enough to stay under his control. The offspring would have been completely his, and after that he would have killed the originals. But there was something else...something I think he knew of and was trying to get out of Dar–me,” not waiting for them to question her, Shadow raised her left arm and focused on it. It still felt horribly wrong, but it wasn’t the first time she’d voluntarily done it. A few seconds later, and her entire hand was the shining silver of a strong metal. The metal started to spread up her arm, but seeing that they got the idea, Shadow focused on it again. It was actually hard to stop, but a after a couple of moments the metal stopped spreading down her arm and it returned to normal, “I...I don’t know how it happened, but I do know that like that, I am...the perfect weapon.”    Titus didn’t look surprised, and nodded slowly, “It was an experimental gene placed in some of the clones. I...I didn’t know which ones they were in. I would have told you if I had. But Sadrak would have known...”    “There’s more,” Hansen cut in, stopping the diverging topic at hand and sitting forward, “We found the list of clones. In fact, the entire project’s records were in the computer system. All of them were labeled as ‘in stasis’ except for two.”    Those words hung in the air for a long moment as the three others comprehended what had just been said. Eventually, all eyes fell on Titus. He would be the one of them to know the details among them. Seeing that he was placed on the spot again, he sighed and said, “I don’t know anything about it. Even your escape was after I left, Shadow,” turning, he looked to Hansen again, “What was the other clone’s designation and when did it...she go missing?”    It. That single word shot a painful knife through Shadow’s mind. It brought back memories that had been repressed long ago, not all that unlike Akan had done. But though Akan had done so almost purposely, forcing himself to forget happy times, Shadow had done something different. Her mind simply placed a large gap between her being Marix BlueIce, captured by the Empire and then everything faded out. When it came back, she was with Max, the old human smuggler who’d assisted her for so very long. But at hearing ‘it’, in that certain tone that Titus probably didn’t even realize he’d used, Shadow’s mind suddenly woke up in a few places. Marix had been an ‘it’ once. For a long time, her family never used her name. She was the Tam-Day-U. Unspeakable. Horrible. Evil. Yet, used in the end and treated as objects. The Empress’ daughter was not even above this treatment. ‘She’ had forgotten even having a name until leaving the Hidden Worlds, when her mother had actually used her real name in saying goodbye. But Shadow had not been above this treatment. To whoever had created her, she was simply a tool to be used for the Empire’s power grabbing and assassinations. It. Nothing but a tool. Not alive. Just a thing.    Hansen’s voice spoke, jolting Shadow back into reality but not wiping the hundred different voices calling her ‘it’ away, “The clone was Delta Nine. And she escaped...not long after Shadow did.”    “Nine...” Titus thought on this for a long moment. When his expression sunk, the three females grew worried, “She was an adult clone. I remember always having trouble with her for some reason. The other adults never rebelled like she did...a scouting mission she’d been sent on to Bothawui ended up as a bloodbath. I still don’t know how we managed to cover it up.”    Another short silence. This time, all eyes ended up on Shadow. Her mind raced. She should go to Coruscant, find the real Marix. She had to be alive...somehow, Shadow could feel a faint twitch from somewhere ‘else’ every so often. It could have easily just been Akan’s mind doing odd things to the link. It wouldn’t have been the first time. Yet, somehow Shadow knew it was more than that. Marix was alive. There was something very important about her. No! Not yet. Realizing how long it had actually been, Shadow’s tail swished noticeably before she said almost harshly, “It has to wait. I won’t stop Jen’s training for my own selfish reasons.”    “It could be important,” Jen offered, just as sympathetic to Shadow’s feelings towards the real Marix as the others were.    But again, Shadow shook her head, “It is important, but it can wait. Some things are more important. This will be dangerous enough as it is, and you’ll need every little advantage possible. We all will.”* * * *Akan was awake and actually feeling better. Every other time he’d woken up feeling like a Star Destroyer was resting on his forehead, but for once, his mind wasn’t weighed down so heavily. The headache was gone. Though his tail ached...that was an odd thing to even think about, even after having a tail for so long. The stupid thing was so sensitive and he’d sat on it so many times that it just wasn’t funny anymore. It hurt. A lot. And now it just ached. Akan had once heard people talking about their hair hurting, and he figured this was about the same sensation.    Sitting up took no effort at all, and his head didn’t spin either. He’d never been good at healing through the Force, but what other explanation was there? And right on cue, Shadow revealed she’d been paying attention to his thoughts, ‘saying’. [No, I already told you, if you just sleep, your body will heal itself naturally. Its almost like involuntary morphing. Really, the only times Alraxians actually get sick like that is from lack of sleep.]    Despite her still sitting in Hansen’s ship and him being in that small hut, Akan knew she was glaring at him. He tried to ignore the feeling by going back to those dreams. That dream. It wasn’t multiple. Coruscant. Getting to his feet and ignoring the wobbly stance while his legs got used to holding him up again, Akan replied to Shadow through the link. [I need a ship.]    [You know...] Shadow’s voice allowed a short moment for him to feel like an idiot before continuing. [...your training isn’t done either. Arguably, you’re even more of a danger right now than Jen could ever be.]    Akan knew that. He didn’t need reminding. However, this didn’t change his mind. As a very stubborn person for so long, he’d learned when it was correct to stick to a course and when to flee...or even wait. In this case, neither of the latter two applied. He needed to be on Coruscant. Shadow felt that, and to Akan’s surprised, understood it. Then she said. [You can’t take Loki. He’s too easy to notice.]    Was she actually suggesting he go on his own? Akan thought about that a moment. Yes. She was. Did she feel that pull, too? Well, of course she did, but perhaps it was more because of her need to find Marix than Akan’s need to confront his demons. But there was still more than just a simple confrontation with his past. That was what drove the need. The need to know what was completely unknown yet horribly important. So his mind searched for a way to get there. The second thought after Loki was to take the Alderaan II. No, neither Jen nor Titus would ever allow that. Not that they didn’t trust him, but it was easily traceable. That left only one option, and Akan knew that Hansen wouldn’t let him take her ship. But...    [Is anyone else there other than you?] Akan asked Shadow as he started a slow walk to the forest, following the feeling through the link to find where Hansen had landed the ship. It felt far away...but then again, mentally far was pretty much impossible to compare with physically far, so he just tried walking without thinking about it.    The break in the time between Akan’s question and Shadow’s answer was enough to tell him she looked through the ship to make sure. [They went to show off their new ship to Hansen. You’ll have to hurry here...] another pause, then [This is really asking for it, Akan.]    Realizing that this was actually going to work, Akan made a detour to Loki. The ship seemed to be asleep or at least resting, as Loki didn’t say anything to Akan as he got his small bag of clothes and then left. When Akan was outside again, he was human. Lately, after all the morph training Shadow had been forcing on him(okay, so he didn’t mind that much....it was kind of fun), he finally felt odd in the human form. And it also taught him that tails obviously didn’t something for balance even if he didn’t know how, as his first few steps in his old human body were shaky and he nearly fell over. Passing Alderaan II, Akan heard voices echoing down the single access ramp located off to the ships port side. He quieted his steps, and at the same time sped up his pace. Try not to act like you’re hiding...Voort...Titus would notice that in a second. Even after passing by the small shuttle without being noticed, Akan kept up his careful approach to Hansen’s new ship.    Akan, thankfully, didn’t get lost in finding Shadow. When he got to the YT-2400, she was standing just at the edge of the boarding ramp. Her tail was twitching constantly, and it didn’t take the link to know she didn’t like this. After giving up on just standing there, Akan said quietly, “I have to.”Shadow actually nodded at that, though her tail was still swishing across the grass covered ground. Slowly, she took a step to the left to allow him to pass her by and go into the ship itself. When he got right next to her, though, Shadow grabbed his arm tightly and looked him straight in the eyes, “You’d better come back soon.”    Surprised at the obvious concern Shadow was showing, Akan held the gaze. Eventually, he nodded and said quietly, “I promise.”    Then, he walked up the access ramp and looked to the small control panel to his left. Reaching over, he pressed the switch. Over the loud hiss of the ramp moving up into the ship, he heard Shadow say, “Good luck, Akan-jai. Stay safe.”</blockquote>

Verification