Infiltrating the Imperials

Zan has taught them quite a bit already, so he brushes up their spying skills before they head out. They'll be posing as a security detail escorting some scientists requested by the base. The scientists are real people; the crew will simply be taking their place. Dalt's red hair gets dyed, Kedrihm'Val's tattoos are disguised, and since Ree is an abysmal liar, she's getting stuffed into stormtrooper armor so people won't see her face betray her. Zan is the head of the group, Z is the troops' lieutenant, and Onna, Oola, and Dalt get to play scientist. The base is run by CompNor, a group that's suspicious by habit, so they'll want to be cautious.

Arrival goes smoothly enough. Kedrihm'Val and Ree are stuffed into the base's stormtrooper barracks. They were supposed to get quarters near the 'scientists' they were meant to guard, but that's not standard procedure and the paperwork is being (spitefully, one suspects) held up in processing. In the barracks, Ree and Kedrihm'Val both find that Primal Justice is a highly popular show among the base's troops.

The scientists are given the introductory tour. Oola quickly spots that the cloning technology is modified from Dalt's procedure. Dalt notes it even before she does. They meet Dr. Wy, a 17-year-old wunderkind who's head of the labs here. Dalt can't resist showing off a bit, though he does it more subtly than usual. While they chat, Wy wonders aloud what might happen if someone were cloned twice. A gem of a young lady, obviously. She laments her inability to test the results as "His Blue Highness" is due here in four days.

Now, that's news. They weren't expecting him. That's a deadline.

The crew meets Col. Gent, who is head of whatever they call the assassination squads around these parts, Lt. Seinar--they note the name, which definitely explains some things--and the other brass. Seinar immediately begins complaining that the troops have been watching contraband holos of Republic shows. A few moments later, Col. Bresen shows up. She's introduced as head of security, from Destabilization, and she has the authority to question anyone at any time over anything. They note she wears a lightsaber. She's a Dark Sider, and a particularly vile one. The Force users can sense that she lives for destruction, pure and simple.

Which fits in with her working for Destabilization. That department is so heinous that even the assassins and interrogators don't like to hang out with them. Sent in on jobs such as wrecking a planet's economy or political system, or destroying a person's life to prevent them from posing a threat to the Empire, Destab's operatives get to practice on perfectly innocent Imperial citizens, tearing their lives apart without ever letting them know there's somebody behind it. It's somehow not comforting to think that Force users are involved.

SARR, playing interrogator droid, eagerly asks if they have anyone he can question. They say no, but their pause indicates that they've got some prisoners.

Ree and Kedrihm are given unusual insignia to wear, which indicates they're not clone troopers. Turns out, this is why the troops' fondness for Primal Justice bothers the brass: the clones are showing unusual personality. Bresen comments on a disturbing trend toward "social equality." But Dr. Wy exasperatedly tells her she can't improve on the design any further. Dalt agrees that the clone technology looks close to perfect. Bresen repeats that Thrawn is coming in four days. Tomorrow they start scanning for Force sensitivity to make sure the clones are safe. Since that essentially consists of Bresen doing her Force-thing, that'll take about two days.

The scientists are to begin work immediately; the troopers are expected to lurk quietly and guard their charges. Everyone is dismissed.

They decide to poke around and get the lay of things, see about spotting Zeth Durron. They plan to meet in commissary for lunch. In the process of poking, Kedrihm and Ree catch an argument between Dr. Wy and Col. Bresen. Bresen doesn't like the clones' cameraderie at all. It's truly unusual levels of general friendliness and teamwork, and she has not overlooked the clones' occasional muttering about 'all being equal' and having some sort of powers. Wy insists that she can't go through 2000 people and adjust them all. She explains, in tones as though she's said this before and she thinks Bresen is an idiot for needing to hear it again, that this is not merely cloning. It's resurrection technology. "Being dead will change a person," she says snarkily, going on to sarcastically bitch about sterilizing people.

Not catching the sarcasm, Bresen declares that's for later consideration. She makes no bones about her distrust of the technology. "It doesn't matter," Wy replies. "What do you think we bought? It's not like he was a reputable fellow." No cookie for guessing who she's talking about there. She mentions something about another purchase, as well, and complains that they have no time to start 'that project.' Oddly, they don't even seem to be sure who exactly was responsible for that purchase. "Do you think it's what it says it is?" Wy asks, uncharacteristically hesitant. Bresen scoffs. "I doubt it could be."

With all that in mind, Kedrihm'Val starts paying more attention to the clones. They are all Force-sensitive. Every one of them. And though he doesn't catch a look at the man's face, he spots one whose potential is so powerful that it's only comparable to Luke's or Kyp's. And he also senses something down in the labs, shielded too strongly to be easily defined.

They share all this over lunch. Oola and Dalt say they'll look into the thing in the labs. As they get up, Ree sees one of the female troopers pause for a moment, staring at their table (notably, at Z and Kedrihm'Val), before she shakes her head and moves on.

Back in the lab, the scientist half of the crew meet Dr. Zel, the biologist, who turns out to be grizzled. "Yes, a genius built it," he says in response to Dalt's awed appreciation of his own work. "From what I understand, he was pretty much a raving, flaming, gay psychopath."

Dalt: "...What?"

Zel tells them that a resurrection device is stupid and dangerous. "It's like vanity on steroids. So here's what the device does: it breaks the laws of the universe. So if you're ever confused, it breaks the laws of the universe." By the time Zel has finished giving them his preliminary opinions, Dalt's looking rather shell-shocked. Dr. Orin apologizes for him while Zel leaves to get a drink.

Moving on from that little scene, Dalt concentrates briefly, then points Oola toward Dr. Wy's office. In there is the whatever-the-hell that Kedrihm'Val sensed, but Wy's working in there with the door open, and they can't see a likely candidate anywhere. It must be hidden.

Oola pays closer attention to the lab, discovering that Wy set everything up to take control from her office in the event of tampering. And she's siphoning off power. A lot of power. A whole generator is dedicated to whatever it is she's doing. Oola's job as a robotics expert includes performing maintenance on the droids; she uses the opportunity to make sure the droids will obey her when it becomes necessary. "Oh, that's beautiful," SARR snipes. "How would you like a mental domination curcuit shoved into your spine?" He starts singing 'Swing low, sweet chariot,' then continues complaining. "I'm not saying it's bad, it's just bad it's being done by another species. I should be the king of all my kind."

Ree spots the girl from lunch going through the stuff under her bunk. She has Primal Justice stuff strewn everywhere; big fan apparently. When she nervously asks whether Ree will turn her in, Ree stops to talk to her, and it turns out the girl is such a fan, she's even hunted down images of what they really look like! She's looking for those images now, in fact. Can't seem to find them, but no matter; she has film of the parade coming in in about half an hour with the mail shipment.

Ree and Zan head to the hangar bay where the mail shipment is coming in, and Z pulls a sneak to grab the package with the footage in it. Lt. Seinar shows up a few minutes later with people to sort through the mail for contraband, so that was particularly well-timed. Then Col. Gent comes down to meet another shuttle, from which debarks a hooded figure--a woman's size--with a box containing something that kicks off tremendous impressions in the Force. Turns out the hooded person is staying on-base for the night. Great. And then the Dark Sider Zeltron male who works for Drath arrives with a delivery: a vial he's selling for a great deal of money. He's staying too. All sorts of interesting things are turning up.

By now, they've narrowed down the guy who's almost certainly Zeth Durron. He keeps looking toward where the hooded person and her box went. "Odd feeling?" Ree asks him. He brushes it off, trying to deny it's anything at all. It rather obviously was an odd feeling.

Back in the lab, Oola and Dalt discover that Dr. Wy likes to experiment with cloned abominations. She's been trying to extract some sort of energy from them, but keeps failing. Dalt thinks she's trying to extract the Force, but as she's not Force sensitive, she really doesn't know what she's doing. "She's viewing it as an energy..." he begins, then pauses as though he's thinking about that. "We have to get into her office. "Already working on it," Oola tells him. "What were you planning to do?" he asks her. "I was going to seduce her so you could sneak in."

Oola stares at him.

Dalt gasps. "You don't believe what the old man said, do you?!" Instead of that, um, interesting idea, Oola sends in a droid to record what it sees: two cloning vats, both strongly shielded. "We need to get in," Dalt repeats, looking smarmy, then his face falls. "You want Z to do it, don't you?"

They meet for lunch again. After lunch, the troops are supposed to stay with the scientists. Bresen is nervous about testing the clones; she thinks they're going to get uppity or something, apparently. Possibly she believes they're plotting. The woman is certainly extraordinarily paranoid. Dalt suggests they invite the other scientists to dinner to empty out the labs so that Zan and the others can sneak in and have a look around. They wonder who Wy is cloning. Dalt wonders about what happens if you make a perfect clone of a living person. They consider this 'nefarious cameraderie' among the clones. The Force users in the group suspect that if they came back Force-sensitive, then they probably feel more in harmony with one another. Kedrihm'Val wonders about their pre-death memories, and whether that's what this 're-education' the scientists spoke of earlier might be about. Probably a good idea to find out more about that.

After lunch, Dr. Zel grumbles about Col. Bresen. The fangirl is still hunting for her pictures. She's a bit more standoffish with Ree than previous, but still can't help talking about her favorite heroes. She says she prefers the real Kedrihm'Val to his muscle-bound actor, and when Ree asks about Z, she pauses a second, then says, "The news vids kind of paint him as a hound."

Ree asks her about being a clone. The girl says it's a bit odd: like old memories should be there but aren't. A lot of the clones aren't really all that thrilled about working for the Empire. Quite a lot of them just wanted to travel and see the galaxy. She's annoyed that she can't remember the excitement of the Rebellion. Ree asks her, "If you weren't here, what would yo want to do?" "Hoooo," the girl answers, her eyes lighting. "Go to Coruscant and meet the heroes!" When Ree asks her about the scientists, she says, "Dr. Zel's alright, just pissed off. Dr. Wy's either preoccupied or condescending. Dr. Orin... *shrug*"

The base gets some regular visitors, she tells Ree. Some dark-cloaked people. Two Zeltrons, and a menacing Zabrak who randomly Force-chokes people sometimes and whom she suspects, she whispers, "might be Drath from the movies. How many other evil Zabraks are there, roaming... Well, I mean." She gives Ree a kind of disturbed look. Anyway, she says they'll get the Empire's Most Wanted list the day before Thrawn arrives, and there should be pictures of her heroes on there, too.

Ree makes a note of that.

In the lab, another sneaky investigation reveals not two, but three cloning chambers. Wy is trying to combine the best aspects of two cloned individuals into a single new person. "It's not great," Dalt says, "but it's brilliant." "It's called birth, you mean," Oola replies. "Yes, but this is better!" Dalt tells her. Oola lets that drop. "So who do you think is in there?" she wonders instead. "Oh, go- That's horrible," Dalt says in reply to whatever just crossed his mind. They definitely need to find out more about what Wy wants from this, "or we need to go down there and drive stakes through their hearts," he says. They might find that Zeltron and see if he has records on what material they sold. "It's the male Zeltron, right?" Dalt asks Oola. "You don't want to make a comment now?" She just looks at him. "Oooh; now you-- I don't want to. Because I. Like. Girls."

When they meet again to trade their newest information, Kedrihm wonders if she might be trying to merge Force powers into someone who doesn't have them. He gets the impression that she's envious of people with Force sensitivity. She knows an awful lot about it for someone who can't do it herself. Dalt wonders whether you can choose which qualities to transfer, and what happens if you try to clone someone who's still alive. Maybe she wants a clone of herself with the Force?

"Something's wrong," Zan speaks up, rousing from deep thought. "Ree's dream about Zeth makes no sense. Would Thrawn have untested Force users on his ship?" Which means someone sent that dream. Could it be the clones? Someone directing their minds? Could someone have purposely linked them? Kedrihm'Val doubts that, thinks it's simply a sympathetic link they formed themselves. But they're going to have to deal with the whole base, they realize now. Thrawn will use anything and anyone they leave behind, and they can't abandon all these clones to a life of slavery and corruption. Time to form a plan.

The next morning, SARR sneaks into the lab while Bresen does her Force-testing thing. She promptly freaks out and orders all clones confined to barracks. Wy is thoroughly annoyed, and starts arguing with her. Everyone else clears out of the way from two crazy scary evil women in authority who're yelling at each other. Figuring that'll go on for a while, Zel leads the others back to work.

Kedrihm'Val and Ree are sent to calm the clones in the barracks. The clones are quite understandably ticked off, but they seem rather disinclined from random revolt, which seems to be Bresen's fear.

Dr Wy comes in cursing to herself. Bresen called Thrawn and asked him to make all speed. He arrives tonight. "That's unforseen," Zan says, sounding uncharacteristically flustered. "This is extremely inconvenient."

Zel snarks. Orin is upset by confrontation. Oola sneaks a little droid into Wy's office to record, while Zel wonders how the clones and the Force-thing work. Dalt grabs a chalkboard and starts lecturing. "Well," says Zel. "We'll hope the Force works that way." "I assure you," says Dalt, "It does. I am a genius." Zel grumbles about bad days, and says this isn't as bad as when the Emperor burned the Jedi temple. He announces that he's sure that whole Jedi being evil thing was a lie, and then proceeds to grizzle out about the Rebellion and the Empire.

Oola's droid returns, showing her that Wy revved up the process. SARR knocked her out from behind, then sent the droid back after telling it, "Tell your mistress it's a Vader-Han."

Kedrihm'Val and Ree return from the barracks to tell them the clones are calm, but Ree secretly thinks she can incite the clones to riot in their favor. The re-education people come in to hold a conference in the lab. Zel grouses, "You've pissed off the genius, alarmed the Grand Admiral, and overturned the base because clones have manifested strange witch-like abilities." One of the Re-education officers asks if there are any guests coming. Bresen snags him, telling him, "Go meet the shuttle." Ree offers to play escort, so he takes her and Kedrihm'Val with him.

The new arrivals are the Chiss Dark Sider and Jek Schild, along with two Dark Troopers. They're here to review security for the Grand Admiral's arrival in a few hours. The Chiss halts as she steps down from the landing ramp. "There's something wrong with this base." She's right, of course; when it comes to the Force, this entire base is in mayhem. 2000 clones, two powerful Dark Siders, a whole batch of infiltrating Jedi-types, mystery-person in a cloak with her crazy Force-box, and the abomination in Wy's basement. As they head back down to the labs, Kedrihm'Val quietly radios a warning about their new arrivals to Z, then Ree and Kedrihm'Val break off to return to the barracks again.

Z leaps on the Chiss as she steps through the door, screaming, "PRIMAL JEEEEUSTICE!" She gets knocked back, and Jek pulls his lightsaber. Kedrihm'Val calls SARR to warn him, too. SARR ignites four--count them, four--lightsabers, and tells him the thing in the vat has "gone insane." "It's aware?" Kedrihm asks him, alarmed. "Well, it's looking at him, which is why I'm running," SARR says.

In the lab, Dr. Zel whips out a lightsaber, putting it through a stormtrooper. Sabers ignite all around; "Oh my god!" Dalt's irritated voice rises above the increasing chaos. Zan hands him an extra. Oola triggers the commands she put into the droids, who grab the Imperials and inject them with knockout drugs, taking out two more. The base's Admiral makes a break for the door; Zan trips him. Z smoke-bombs the Chiss and Jek. Dalt and Lydia run to help him. Onna shoots the Chiss.

Ree's right; it's extremely easy to rouse the troops to riot. All she has to do is strip off her helmet and declare, "I'm Ree Shevan, and I'm here to rescue you!" They break out the arms and move to help. Ree has most of them head to the hangar bay to start prepping for evacuation, or round up the non-clone troopers on the base. She takes a strike force with her to help in the labs.

On the way back to the labs, Kedrihm'Val spots the Zeltron. He Force-shoves the Zeltron into a bulkhead, then closes in with a flying kick. Ree spots the hooded figure at the end of the hallway and settles herself for a fight. The figure walks calmly toward her, tossing the hood back, and...it's Mara Jade! With Luke behind her. Who was in the box. "Congratulations," Ree tells them, then points them toward the lab. After Kedrihm'Val stuns the Zeltron and ties him up, they move.

SARR comes running out like hell is on his heels, and it is, because the Vader-Han sprints out right behind him. Zan breaks off to pursue that thing. Lydia takes on Jek Schild. Dalt does...something, and the Force-lightning accumulators the Dark Troopers carry start going into overload. He clears out of their way. The droids take down another stormtrooper. The station self-destruct announces its activation. Zan closes with the Han-Vader, around whom Oola dodges to get to Wy's office where everything's been wired into a central control system. She just barely manages to roll under the security shield as it descends. SARR ignites two lightsabers and heads for Vader-Han too. "I'm not doing this to be noble, but to be recognized!" Bresen breaks for the door.

Right into Luke. Mara shoots her. Luke's a bit distracted by the sparking Dark Troopers, whom he knocks into the hall before they explode. Then he charges the Vader-Han, once again taking off his opponent's head in a single swipe. "He's such a showoff," Mara scoffs.

Tumbling under the security door just as it closes, Oola comes up face to face with Dr. Wy, who's operating the controls. Oola pulls her holdout blaster and shoots the not-so-good doctor. Ree heads for the door, intending to cut it open.

Over by the door, Z gropes the Chiss, distracting her from Kedrihm'Val coming up from behind to stun her. Lydia takes off Jek's arm; he passes out from the shock. Mara shoots Bresen a couple more times just to be sure. Everyone left standing in the room surrenders.

Zan helps Ree with Wy's security door. After they get it cut about halfway through, Kedrihm'Val delivers a savage kick that knocks the weakened metal in. Surrendering to the onslaught of lightsabers of righteous justice, Wy surrenders and deactivates the self-destruct. Oola looks over the controls while Ree ties up Wy.

Now is the time for systematic destruction: destroy the clone-tech and the genetic matierla, evacuate clones and captives in the three hours they've got before Thrawn arrives. Turns out, Luke brought the Jedi library ship for the evac. Kedrihm'Val grabs the Zeltron, who's still out. Z searches to find what the Zeltron brought with him: a Zeltron love potion, a chemical concoction that makes the imbiber temporarily fall in love with the first person they see. He doesn't want to give it up. "They wear off so quickly," Dalt says. "I mean, your mother-" Kedrihm'Val grabs Z's collar in his free hand. Ree snags the potion off him while he's distracted.

With everyone left alive, captive or not, on the ship, they vacate the premises with massive explosions trailing behind them. Oola didn't see fit to work in half-measures. There's nothing but a smoking crater where the base was by the time Thrawn arrives.

Wonder if he'll figure out who it was?

Safely in hyperspace, Kedrihm'Val makes SARR give back Dalt's lightsabers. Again. Luke confirms that what Kedrihm'Val felt before was the Grand Inquisitor searching for them, but they still don't know who sent Ree's vision about Zeth. By process of elimination, it's someone who isn't affiliated with the Imperials, but whom they wouldn't trust if the person simply revealed themselves. It's not Drath; he would've just kidnapped Zeth. Speaking of whom, Ree talks with Luke about Kyp.

SARR wants recognition for droids' part in saving the day. "Some droids like people!" Oola informs him as they argue. "Some gay pansy droids," SARR replies, eliciting a laugh out of Luke. Then he goes on about sentient robotic slaves races again. Z makes some snide comment about what a state they'd be in if droids became sentient. Dalt looks at him in disbelief. "Droids are sentient!"

At last, they get back to Coruscant, where they get to inform Kyp of what he missed. They'll be opening a few floors of the Jedi temple to accomodate all these clones until their new guests can decide what to do with their new lives. Zan reminds Ree that she now has 2000 new potential Jedi who owe her their freedome. "It's a movie waiting to happen," he teases her, then muses on how he's always wanted to write a script.

And they have a heaping helping of new people to add to the prison ship: Jek Schild, the Chiss, the Zeltron; and prisoners for the New Republic: Dr. Wy, Col. Gent, Lt. Seinar, the Admiral, Re-education personnel.

As they settle back in at home, they hear new rumblings from the Senate about acquiring Dalt's cloning technology to, what else, help the Alderaanians. Ree wonders why anybody would want it. "Ask Senator Sent," Onna quips. Kedrihm'Val adds dryly, "All you have to do is tell him they come back Force sensitive." He's concerned about Sent, to be honest. "He seemed nice enough when we met him before, but to be carrying this much anger toward the Jedi..." Ree agrees. She wants to open it back up for debate in Council, because Sent seems to be getting worse.
When Dalt comes back from visiting Kel to remind them of how magnificent his technology is, Kedrihm'Val takes the opportunity to inform him about the Alderaanians. Dalt's exasperated.

Maybe now they can finally get around to that dinner with Amidala.