Chapter 8
“Jith, its been a long time.” Said the most famous, and notorious, bounty hunter in the galaxy.
“It has. I have a proposition for you.”
“Sparrow, show him the full outfit.” Sparrow put on the helmet and stepped into view.
“That is excellent quality, what is the find.”
“An absolute treasure trove. Unfortunately I don’t have the manpower to take advantage fully and may need a partner.”
“I rarely do such work myself anymore, but I am sure I could aid with arrangements, if that is what you are asking.”
“Partially, but I may also be able to sweeten the deal for you.”
“I’m listening.”
“I recently came across 5 new clones, 3 male Fett clones, an unrelated female clone, and a female Fett clone.”
He tried to hide his interest but Sparrow saw his eyes narrow. “Really?”
“Yes, I can bring them to the comm if you would like.”
“I would love to talk to one of them.”
“They can’t do much talking Boba, they weren’t trained.”
His eyebrow went up. “Why would someone go to all the trouble of creating clones and not training them?”
“Apparently so they could be sold as prey animals to Trandoshan hunters.” Sparrow growled.
Fett gave a small smile. “I take it the hunt is off.”
“Yes.”
Fett faced Jith again. “I will come out and we can talk.”
“Are you interested in taking on any of the clones?”
“I could be, why?”
“Because if you aren’t there is an alternative plan for them but you wouldn’t be able to have access to them later. They would be deployed on a job for me long term.”
“Related to the current find I take it?”
“Obliquely, but yes.”
He thought for a few moments. “If you can give them work and a home it’s probably best if you handle them. I am more interested in where the source got the equipment and, more importantly, the samples.”
“That’s my very next stop.” She told him with a small smile.
“I will depart for your location shortly.”
“If we aren’t back when you get here be patient, we will return shortly. Caleb would love to chat with you I am sure.”
“Very well, until then.” He said and cut the connection.
Jith looked at him for a long beat, then said, “All right Sparrow, who else can we copy for your team.”
“My team?” He said in shock. “I thought that was the whole point of making Bo into another you.”
“Oh no! That’s not my purpose in doing that. I am doing that because you will need the help and you will need an armorer.”
“Why do I need an armorer? You are our clan armorer.”
“No, I am MY clan armorer. You have more than earned the right to form your own clan. What did you call yourselves on that planet?”
“Oh! I threw out something about the Legion. It sounds like a mercenary company name.”
“Yes, it does, and that will be the perfect cover for your culvert until the remnant is finally gone.”
“But I have no idea how to run a clan! I am too young for this.”
“Between me and Talwin we have taught you everything you need to know to do this Sparrow. I agree with you that the imperials will be hard after you and you can’t reveal your link to us. Once we get this current situation resolved you can head off to that planet and do your research and find the cure. Hopefully, by that point you will be able to openly return.”
“Well, I guess with you and Caleb along for the ride, sort of at least, we can figure it out as we go.”
“That’s true. Now, what other pieces do you need?”
“Technical and Medical are the two next things I think of. Both will be very important as we go on and currently Omni is sort of filling both jobs.”
“Then I will get my best tech and best Doc and we will see if Omni can add what he knows when he does the transfer. If we use people talented in those areas already it can hopefully work.”
“It will.” Omni spoke in Sparrow’s head, and surprisingly Jith heard it too.
“It looks like our new friend left a little bit behind.” He told her with a smile.
“It will help with secure communication. We can piggy back our link across a regular comm channel. We already tested it.”
“Very clever.” Jith agreed calmly.
“Now, we need to get my daughter cooking, and then the rest, or at least as many as our synths can help us with before we go get that cloner group.”
“We have been discussing it and working on better organizing the data we carry from previous merges. We can do all the transfers that are needed before departure.” Omni commented.
“That’s a pretty big change from before.” Sparrow commented, “why the difference?”
“Deux/Omni has all of our data storage ability but it is essentially empty. After seeing how efficiently she works even without all that extra data we started reviewing and discovered that there are huge amounts of memories that are essentially meaningless that, due to the way I created him, Deux shares.”
“Makes sense. And, by the way, why don’t we just go with “Domi””
So it was that Sparrow found himself in the med bay again a few minutes later, the Bo clone calmly lying on the bed with an IV already feeding nutrients. He pulled his glove off and reached for his knife when he heard Kitten from behind him.
“Just use a damn hypo you Barbarian!”
He turned around and she was sitting up on the bed, staring down the front of her skinsuit.
“I think I gained at least a cup size!” She cheerfully informed him.
He couldn’t help but look, and she sure had, and she saw him look, and then he was blushing madly. He could hear Jith cackling outside the bay. He had refused her being anywhere near the conversion.
Kitten gave a giggle as she hopped off the table. Her fuller chest had quite a bit more bounce, he noted. She said, “I have to go clean up, and learn to do my make up again. I will need all new colors! Don’t worry, Omni filled me in on Chief Jr. there. When she wakes up I will help her settle in.”
As she went out the door he heard, “Ooh! These nails are gorgeous!”
Deux came in at his request and helped him remove the upper half of his armor. He blushed feverishly again as he heard his clan chief whistle at him from the other room.
“You’re right Kitten,” she said, “He IS kind of adorable when he does that.”
Deux drew the needle of blood efficiently and then went over and got ready to inject the clone.
Jith said, “If I had a daughter I was always going to name her Akira.”
“Akira it is,” All three synths said as Deux gave the injection.
As soon as the process started Domi, who had been waiting at the head of the table, slid inside to do the memory transfer.
“Well, that’s done.” Sparrow announced. Judging by Kitten it will be a few hours.
“Probably longer,” said Omni, “Kitten had less changes to be made.”
“So now we do Caleb, if he agrees, and then we find our other two donors?”
“Caleb already agreed.” Said the old echani from outside the med bay.
“Hello Caleb.” Sparrow said with a smile.
“You’re looking good there young one.” Caleb replied.
“I already did the transfer.” Deux volunteered.
Omni brought in the first Fett clone, who compliantly laid down when they asked him. Once again the blood was drawn, this time by Omni, as Deux slid out of the droid and onto the table. As the injection was readied Sparrow asked the old man.
“A name for your new son?”
“Not very imaginative, but I always wanted a Caleb Junior.”
“CJ it is.” They announced as the injection went in.
Once CJ had started his transformation, they left Domi on watch riding Deux’s droid while he was still working on the transfer as Sparrow and the rest of them gathered in the lounge at Omni’s request.
“Regarding the other clones.” He began, “I find myself with something of an ethical dilemma.”
“How so?” Caleb asked.
“While there are no doubt ethical questions surrounding what we have done with those two I am eased by the knowledge that you two agreed to the process beforehand. Therein lies my dilemma.”
Kitten picked up on it immediately. “You have stored minds from the other galaxy.”
“Yes, I, and every bud I made, stored several dozen minds. This is why I began having to bud, because I only had room for one more at most. I never deleted them because something about it seemed wrong. Since we created Domi she, Deux, and I have split the minds among the three of us.”
“And we can bring them back to life.” Said Jith.
“No!” Said Kitten, “Like me you can bring back a copy.”
“Correct. The issue is that these individuals did not agree to be brought back again and I don’t know that I have the right to do so without their permission.”
“My father?” Kitten asked.
“No, I budded and a new synth remained with your father.”
“So we already have personalities and knowledge the question is whether it is wrong to use them.” Caleb restated the issue.
They all pondered this for a few moments before Sparrow realized the answer. “Its just like the little girl.”
“What? Jith asked.
“It was when we busted into the Doctors room at the lab. He had cloned a beautiful young woman, well, apparently he did it to several, but this one he had created much like these clones, no knowledge, no training. He literally created her to be abused.” He was growling by the end of it. He took a deep breath to calm himself.
“Deux talked to her and she decided that she didn’t want to live. We could have forced her, I suppose, or changed her and rewrote her mind, but Deux said at the time, and I agree, that in the end it was her choice to make.”
“So, you are saying we imprint the clone during the change and then allow them to choose whether or not they want to continue living afterwards?”
“In my opinion it is the only ethical and moral thing to do. Each sentient deserves to make their own choice.” Sparrow insisted.
“I agree.” Everyone chorused.
“Now, please tell me you have a better leader for us in there than me?” He ventured.
“No!” The denial was both instant, and unanimous.
“Why do you all want me to do it, I am fumbling around here!”
“You have made the right decision at every point along the way Sparrow. You have got us from deaths door to here. We trust you to do the job to the best of your ability.” Omni said.
“And we all agree.” Jith added.
They then discussed who to bring back. It was immediately agreed not to try changing anyone’s sex, so the woman was an easy choice, and one Kitten actually knew. She was a brilliant doctor and geneticist and had been cloned because she suffered a delibitating disease. Her name had been Mily Phanivong.
The technical side was going to be an engineer, a brilliant ship and weapons designer named Kai Virav.
The final choice took a while to make but eventually they agreed on a man named Toa Leapai. He had been an infiltrator, a spy, an assassin, and a highly successful one at that. They had cloned him because they needed him that badly.
Once the blood had been drawn Sparrow didn’t stick around this time. He was beginning to feel the clock ticking.
He grabbed Jith and Caleb and pulled them aside. “If I’m running this show I guess it’s time to run it. Can you guys get a strike team together? We need to hit the cloners before they sell any more Bo’s.”
“Done.” Caleb said, and headed off to make arrangements.
Jith started to follow but Sparrow caught her arm. “Two things, one, if we bring down the sith ship can your people modernize it and maybe do some alterations?”
“Sure, I’ll trade you for this ship. After some re-fits this will do nicely.”
“No problem. The other thing is that you need to get word to the Mandalore about the cloning. I just don’t feel comfortable not letting her know.”
“I don’t have any direct access to her, but I know someone who should. Lets go to the comm station.”