Chapter 6
As Sparrow set up for the jump to Yeneshan he tried to plan out their next moves. He needed to contact the head of his clan, Jith Chek, and somehow get her to come to a meeting.
Deux interrupted his thoughts, turning his body away from the ships computer as he finished going through the logs.
“You are REALLY not going to like this.” He said.
“Have I liked much of anything about this adventure so far?”
“Seeing Kitten starkers seemed to be pretty nice for you.”
“Yeah. Won’t get to see that again. She will probably wake up my twin. So what’s the bad news now.”
“These trandoshan’s were quite busy, among other things they sold slaves to the remnant lab. They also traded slaves to a private lab but what they traded for is going to anger you.”
“And what, pray tell, would that be?”
“Mandalorians to hunt.”
“Do you want to run that by me again?”
“You heard me Sparrow, apparently there is a ship out here that is beginning to deal in clone slaves, and two particular product lines that are really going to strip your gears.”
“Which are?”
“Cells 8 and 9.”
Sparrow hopped up and headed for the cells. He was sure he was going to regret this.
Opening cell 8 he found 3 Jango Fett clones and one female clone with a clear family resemblance.
“So now they are making female Fett clones, wonderful.” He subvocalized to Deux. He was about to leave the cell when he realized that none of the clones seemed to have reacted much to him opening the door. They all just sat there. A mystery he would get to the bottom of later.
He closed that cell and opened the other, and damn near fell down in shock. Sitting on the cot facing the door was a young Bo Katan Kryze.
“Oh Dank Ferrick!”
So much for subtlety. Sparrow headed back to the command deck at full speed, Deux yelling at him in his head.
“Sparrow, I don’t understand what you’re doing. Your thoughts are all over the place.”
“Deux, right before I was captured, before Talwin died, we got a message from the clan. Bo Katan Kryze recovered the darksaber, making her the rightful ruler of mandalore. We discussed heading to Mandalore to support her in taking the planet back but we had too many foundlings who hadn’t had their verd’goten yet so it was decided to delay.”
“If someone can churn out copies of the ruler of Mandalore we need to get them stopped, and fast!”
“I was going to try and get a meeting with Jith anyway but this makes it absolutely critical.”
He reached the deck and set up the comms. He sent the comm request and waited.
A Mandalorian in full armor popped up on the screen. Seeing Sparrow’s mask she asked, “How did you get this channel?”
“Jith, this is going to be really hard for you to swallow but I got it from my buir, Talwin.”
“Sparrow?” What happened, why are you wearing that strange helmet?”
“It is a REALLY long story clan leader, but one you need to hear. The short version is that I was experimented on and now have a sort of communicable disease so I wear this so no one else gets infected.”
“And Talwin?” She asked, although he could tell by her tone she expected his answer.
“He fought like a mythosaur to defend us and died trying to keep them from taking me.” His voice clearly breaking. “I bring back his beskar’gem for the foundlings.”
She gathered herself for a second. “This is the way.”
He echoed. “This is the way.”
He pulled himself together. “There is much I must share with you but I fear being within the clan with my condition. If they get infected the results would be awkward, to say the least.”
“The ship I am on is a slave ship we took from Tishk Jorr and his men. It has slaves on board as well as some special cargo that probably should not be made public quite yet. I need a place to set down in safety and I need you to send one of your most trusted that I may fully brief them.”
“I will come myself.”
“Clan leader, I cannot stress enough, if something were to happen and you became infected you would literally lose your mind.”
“My armor has environmental capability. I will trust no one else with this until I have the full picture.”
“Very well.”
“I am sending you coordinates to set down. Is there anything you need me to bring?”
“Hope and sanity.” He said sarcastically.
“Oh! And if you have any of those candies?”
She laughed. “You always had a sweet tooth.”
He was about to close the comm when a thought hit him. “How is the clans supply of medicines?”
“Doing well right now, what do you need?”
Thinking of the Bo clone he said sadly, “If you have intravenous nutrition for human or near human stock bring what you can spare.”
“Done.” She told him.
“See you soon.” He said, and cut the connection.
What he was contemplating was horrible, and would be a stain on his honor forever, but it would be worth it if he could stop such a threat to his people. He would do his best by her, he swore to himself.
“Its not going to be the crime that you think.” Said Deux.
“What? I’ll be stealing everything from the poor woman!”
“There’s nothing to steal, or so little as not to matter.” Omni chimed in.
“The five clones are shells Sparrow, they have literally been flash grown and taught nothing other than language and to follow basic commands. It’s just like that Doctor.”
“Damn it! Will the horrors of this technology never end!”
“I thought that Kitten’s people were bad but this may actually be worse.” Omni chimed in.
“The thing is, we can’t really give memories, not unless it’s just after the cellular changes. We have tried in the past. The only way we can share any knowledge with her is during the conversion process.”
“One of us can enter during the process and gift her a good background in knowledge and training. We can’t give her a personality, per se, but we have discussed it and we hope that we can allow her the building blocks to make her own.”
“But neither of you are ready to bud yet, right?”
“No, neither of us has anywhere near the mass or the energy to do so nor would it be possible to get it anytime soon. We will have to share the knowledge we want to give into one of us and that one implant it.”
Sparrow put his head in his hands, “this is all getting SO complicated.”
They set the slaver ship down in the canyon that Jith had identified. The Sith ship they left in orbit.
Once on the ground they did make the rounds of the prisoners and reassure them they would soon be free. They did explain that they were keeping them in the cells because there really wasn’t room for them to move around and there were still dangers.
Some of the slaves got belligerent about it but there was really nothing the team could do.
Jith arrived around sunset. She came alone on a speeder, which Sparrow thought was a terrible tactical move and intended to tell her so. Omni and Deux reassured him that the canyon walls had Mando’s watching from concealed positions.
The synths wanted one of them to meet her, just in case, but he wasn’t going to have it so was standing at the main hatch when she pulled up and got off the bike.
“Greetings clansman.” She said in mandalorian as they grasped forearms.
“Greetings clan leader, it is a pleasure to hear the language again.” He returned.
“Will any of the others be joining us?” He asked playfully.
“No, if I can’t trust a fellow Mandalorian who can I trust.” She returned.
“I thought the same thing until I found out at least one of us seems to be selling mandalorians.” He said, much more sharply than he had intended.
“What?” She demanded.
He took a deep breath, then let it out slowly. He felt Deux helping to calm him.
“There is much to discuss. If you have any in your complete confidence bring them in with you.” He finally said.
“I trust all my clan.” She replied, “even you.” And she held out a few pieces of candy.
Despite himself he chuckled at that.
“Thanks, hornless one.” He told her, just as he always had.
She relaxed a bit at that and signaled to the watchers. She reached for her helmet but he quickly blurted out, “please don’t, not until you are aware of the danger.”
She dropped her arms. “Then let’s get started.”
“Since the clan is here, would you like the slaves removed from the ship first? The story I have to share is not going to be a short one and, while none are in immediate danger, they are certainly a bit afraid to be still confined.”
“Your worries of contagion again?”
“Yes, at the present time it is my greatest personal concern.”
“Personal?”
“I have so many issues and concerns to share that I honestly wish I could spare you.” He said forcefully.
“Well, lets go ahead and bring them out.”
He headed up the ramp and started opening cell doors, encouraging all the occupants to head out of the ship. A drop ship landed outside and the clan members began helping the unfortunates board.
Jith followed him and helped guide them in exiting, as did Omni and Deux, who came from the other end of the row of cells. He saw Jith notice when they skipped the two cells but she remained patient until all the others were out and the ship lifted off.
“Okay, do you want to start with who’s in there or is there another good place to begin.”
“Lets have a seat. I have no idea where the best place to start is so I will just treat this like a standard report. Lord knows you struggled hard enough teaching me to give one.”