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***
“Tech, have you always had your goggles?”
“No, not always, but for the majority of my life– yes.”
“When did you get them?”
***
Tech had known the others of his batch for approximately 320 rotations, nearly a full Kaminoan year, when he began to struggle with some of the reading, hacking, and computer work during his personal training. This was unusual, as he had never struggled before, and while most 4-year-old clones (with 8-year-old bodies) would never be at this advanced level anyway, it irked him quite a bit.
Especially because it wasn’t a lack of understanding, but an inability to see what he was supposed to be doing.
The first time it happened he had assumed it was tiredness from the training he had earlier in the day, but then it continued to be an issue. No matter how much he rested or rubbed his eyes, his vision wouldn’t clear, and it began to scare him. Tialne Ki, his personal trainer, was constantly bothered and annoyed because of his less than satisfactory performance.
“CT-9902, I do not understand why you are suddenly having an issue with these assignments. They are very basic.”
Tech ducked his head, a feeling of shame rising in his chest. It had just taken him ten minutes to hack into a device that, probably only a month ago, would have taken him less than two.
“I’m sorry, Tialne Ki— I’ll try harder.”
He didn’t want to admit that he was having trouble seeing. He was already part of the batch labeled as ‘defective’, where only a few of them had survived their first months of life. What if his vision was going away permanently? What if he went blind? He’d be useless, and the Kaminoans would decommission him without any hesitation.
As he made his way back to the room he shared with his squad that evening, he tried to quell these thoughts, even as he squinted at the doors to make sure he was going to the right room number. He had skipped going to the mess hall for dinner, though he did that frequently so he knew his brothers would grab something for him.
He made it to the room and was relieved to find that none of his brothers were back yet. He went straight to his bed. He wanted to mess around with the datapad the Kaminoans had given him a few weeks ago, but he knew it’d just be a pain because of his eyes, and he already had a headache.
He drifted into a light sleep, startling awake when he heard his brothers come in only a little later.
“You okay, Tech?” Hunter asked him, “Rough training day?”
Tech only nodded, hating that his brother’s faces were becoming more like simple blobs of color every day with his vision. There was a pause at this quiet response, and then Wrecker broke the silence.
“D’you wanna eat? I brought you one of your favorite ration bars!”
Tech’s anxious thoughts didn’t make him very hungry, but he nodded and murmured thanks as Wrecker came over and handed him the bar. He sat up in bed, keeping the blanket over his legs. After taking a couple of bites, he was again surprised when Wrecker clambered over him and onto his bed, between him and the wall.
“Can I stay with ya?”
“Seems like you already decided to,” Tech stated dryly, though inwardly he didn’t mind in the least. He finished the ration bar and reached to put the wrapper in a trashcan by his bed, then sighed and felt sleep calling once more. He shifted further into the bed, closer to Wrecker, and leaned against his large, warm shoulder.
As he relaxed against his brother, he was vaguely aware of Hunter coming onto his other side, closer to the edge of the bed, and making himself comfortable, and then Crosshair clambering over to position himself against Wrecker’s chest, amongst all of their legs.
“How is that comfortable, Cross…” Tech mumbled before he fell asleep.
“Shut up and go to sleep.”
And Tech’s anxious thoughts went away for a little while.
***
The next day, however, he was reminded of his problem once more. And this time, it was affecting his brothers’ performance as well. They were in a battle simulation, and he was supposed to be doing a simple data extraction. The Kaminoans had also set a timer for this one, so he had limited time in addition to his brothers fighting off droids. While they technically weren't of the standard age to be doing battle simulations, the Kaminoans had started them on it much earlier, and so far they had been fairly successful.
But right now, Tech was beginning to panic as he couldn’t make out the markings on the buttons on the small panel he was accessing. He was doing everything he could to make them out, but he couldn’t see.
“ Tech, how much longer is it gonna be ?” Hunter asked over the coms.
“ I bet he’s already done !” Wrecker laughed, “ He always has fun tricks!”
Tech swallowed, finding his mouth dry in his panic. This was his job. Why couldn’t he do it? Why was this happening? What was he supposed to say?
“ Tech?” Hunter asked, confusion and a bit of worry in his tone. “ Crosshair, do you have a visual?”
“I see him. He’s still fine,” Crosshair said, also sounding slightly confused.
“ Tech, please respond,” Hunter repeated.
“I…” he took a shaky breath and squeezed his awful, annoying, horrible eyes shut, “I can’t do it.”
“ What are you talking about?” Hunter asked.
And Tech felt awful. He was supposed to be able to do this. This was a basic exercise— they had done it before, too. His brothers kept asking him questions over the coms— they needed him— but he couldn’t do anything.
The training room suddenly blared with an alarm that indicated the end of the exercise. They were out of time. Tech grimaced and kept his head down, trying to calm his racing heart as he joined them at the platform that took them down to take off their gear. None of them said anything until the platform had arrived in the storage room and they were taking their equipment off.
“Tech, what’s going on?” Hunter asked. His tone, surprisingly, wasn’t angry or judgemental, just confused and worried. Tech couldn’t process this, though, panic overwhelming every part of him for causing this failure.
“I’m sorry,” he choked out, finding his vision was becoming more distorted not from whatever was wrong with him, but tears coming to his eyes. He couldn’t look up at any of them.
“We’re not mad, Tech,” Wrecker said, his voice quieter than usual.
“B-but I m-messed up,” Tech said, letting out a small sob and stepping back from them.
“We all mess up sometimes,” Hunter said, “It’s no big deal.”
“N-no… not this,” Tech said, tears spilling out as he looked up at their still-blurry faces. Why were they so blurry? Was he this defective?
“What is it, then?” Hunter asked gently.
“I… I can’t see,” he sobbed, “Everything’s so blurry, and I don’t know why,” his breath was coming faster, “I’m so d-d-defective—”
Suddenly someone collided with him, body pressed against his in a hug. He quickly recognized it as Crosshair, who hadn’t spoken yet, but Tech melted into him, sobbing into his brother’s shirt and holding onto him like a lifeline.
“It’ll be okay, Tech,” Wrecker said, joining him on one side.
“Yeah— you’re too good at what you do to let this stop you,” Hunter agreed, joining the hug on the other side.
“If they do anything to you, I’ll kill them,” Crosshair said in a vicious tone.
And Tech, for the first time since this had become an issue, felt safe. Of course his brothers would be there if the Kaminoans tried anything.
“When Nala Se asks for an explanation, what do you want us to tell her?” Hunter asked after they stood for a few minutes, and Tech’s breathing had calmed down.
“C-could y-you tell her what’s g-going on? I can’t…” Tech asked, his voice timid.
“Sure thing,” they broke out of the hug, though Crosshair was still nearly touching Tech with how close he was standing. They left the storage room, and Nala Se was waiting for them. Sure enough, she wasn’t pleased, and Tech wished he could just stand behind his brothers. He knew that would likely just make things worse, though, and took a steadying breath and faced Nala Se like the rest of his squad.
“Do you have any explanation for this failure?” Nala Se asked in an eerily calm tone.
“Um, yes, ma’am,” Hunter said, “Tech here is having some trouble seeing,” he gestured to Tech.
“I see,” Nala Se said slowly, “CT-9902 will come with me, then. You all may proceed to the mess hall for your meal.”
“Now wait a minute,” Hunter interrupted, “What are you going to do to him?”
“Yeah,” Wrecker agreed, and Tech noticed Crosshair stiffen and glare at the Kaminoan as well.
“You need not be concerned, CT-9901,” Nala Se replied, “We will simply run some tests to see what can be done for CT-9902’s eyes.”
“And then he’ll come back to our room?” Crosshair pushed.
Nala Se looked at him, “Yes. He will not be gone long.”
This seemed to satisfy Tech’s brothers, and he had to admit he did feel more at ease. Wrecker clapped him on the back and the others gave him encouraging nods as he followed Nala Se down the hall to be tested. No matter what happened, or how defective he happened to be, he knew his brothers would be waiting for him.
***
“Hey, Tech! They just arrived!”
Tech looked up from where he had been holding his datapad only an inch away from his face, attempting to read this interesting article he had found on the sea life of Kamino. It had been about a week since he had told his brothers, and the Kaminoans, about his vision problem. Nala Se wasn’t pleased by the test results of his vision test, but he had been told a day or two later he would be receiving “corrective lenses” to help him see. Tech wasn’t sure what that meant, but he knew it wasn’t being decommissioned, so he felt somewhat better.
Wrecker was now holding a box that had apparently just been dropped off by some medical droid. Hunter quickly grabbed it from him.
“Be careful with that,” he said, then brought it over to where Tech was sitting at the table with Crosshair. Tech put down the datapad and opened the box, extremely curious.
Of course, when he opened it, he still couldn’t see much about what they looked like, but his brothers— especially Wrecker— seemed to think they looked cool. He reached into the box and found that there were two pairs of… goggles of some kind. They had strong frames and a leather-like strap, probably to be more stable for battle.
“Are you going to try them on?” Hunter asked.
Tech flipped them over, unsure which side was the right side up, and Crosshair huffed.
“Let me do it,” he took the goggles from Tech and got up, moving behind him. Tech closed his eyes as Crosshair put the goggles over his head, gently tightening the strap. Tech blinked and opened his eyes.
And for the first time in so, so long, he could see. And everything was so vibrant and in focus and much better than before.
“Aw, he likes ‘em!” Wrecker said. His face must’ve been fairly priceless, though he didn’t really care about that.
He didn’t reply right away, taking in all the details of the room that he had been unable to make out for so long, and then looking at his brothers, whose faces were clear. He frowned at Hunter, who had a red cloth holding his hair out of his face that he didn’t remember.
“When did you begin wearing that?”
“I could say any number of days and you wouldn’t know if it was true or not,” Hunter said with a smirk.
“It was two days ago,” Crosshair said, deadpan, “It’s not that old.”
“You ruin all my fun,” Hunter glared at him, and Wrecker laughed.
Tech smirked, and then his eyes fell on his datapad. His heart skipped a beat at all the reading he could do now that he could see, and he picked it up and pulled up the article he had been reading before.
“Would any of you like to hear about the natural sea life of Kamino?” he asked, his voice brimming with excitement.
His brothers exchanged glances, but they all seemed more pleased than annoyed. Crosshair even had a soft smile on his face.
“Let’s hear it, Tech,” Hunter said.
And Tech grinned, “Well…”
***
“I’m glad it worked out in the end.”
“Me too, Omega.”
“I can’t picture you without them.”
“Well, technically, neither can I.”