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Emerie glided silently through the deserted streets of Pabu. She was having a hard time sleeping. Whenever that had happened on Tantis, or any of Hemlock’s other labs, she’s always had her work to go to. There were always tests to run, or results to collate. Here on Pabu, she had . . . nothing.
Well, not ‘nothing’. She had a whole slew of brothers, and a sister, now. She was making new friends in the town.
But Hunter had caught her categorizing types of moon-yos the others day. And Wrecker had commented on her making notes on her datapad about the types of fish she’d seen when she went fishing with him. Even Omega had encouraged her to leave her datapad in the house when they’d planned a swimming trip.
Emerie sighed and kept walking, her footsteps leading her down toward the beaches that surrounded the city of Pabu.
She liked the ocean. Emerie hadn’t spent much time on Kamino. She’d nearly been decommissioned after Nala Se had tested her blood and found it incompatible with the experiment she was running. If it hadn’t been for Hemlock showing up for a new batch of clones to test, she might not be alive. Hemlock had given her a purpose. He had given her work, which had given her life meaning. But in the end, Emerie had chosen the other clones, her brothers, over Hemlock.
There were days she regretted the decision.
Not because Hemlock had any huge emotional meaning in her life. But because of nights like these. There was no more structure. No more lab. And she struggled to cope.
“Your situational awareness is osik,” a voice rumbled out of the star-lit darkness.
Emerie gasped and spun around.
A hand caught her arm and she found herself looking up at Echo.
“Sorry,” he said sheepishly. “Didn’t mean to scare you. You’re here. You’re safe.”
Emerie reached for her goggles in an automatic motion, used to help cover her emotions, and stopped when she remembered the goggles were no longer there. She folded her arms across her chest instead.
Echo gave her a brief smile. “Can’t sleep?”
Emerie shook her head.
Echo took a seat on a nearby rock and patted a spot next to him. An invitation.
“Osik. That’s Mando’a, correct?” Emerie asked after she was seated. “It means excrement.”
“Close enough,” Echo said.
Emerie cocked her head to one side. “How are you comparing my situational awareness to excrement? The two don’t even correlate.”
Echo chuckled. “It’s called an idiom. Basically, you’re not aware enough of your surroundings, and I snuck up on you. That can get a soldier killed.”
“But, you’re no longer a soldier. And I never have been.”
“I’m not a soldier of the Republic,” Echo acknowledged. “But Rex and I, and the others, are still fighting a war. We’re fighting for our brothers to have their own lives, outside service to the Empire.”
Emerie shifted, trying to find a more comfortable seat on the uncomfortable rock. “And this gives your life meaning?”
Echo looked over at her. “Direct, aren’t you?”
“I’m simply trying to understand.” Emerie felt her cheeks get hot. She liked Echo. He was the brother she felt closest to, and she didn’t want to alienate him. “Cataloguing fish and the local fauna aren’t giving me the same meaning as when I was working in the lab. And Omega and the others keep telling me to relax. But I feel most relaxed when I have something to occupy my mind. Swimming and fishing and doing manual labor, these things don’t relax me. My mind is so busy, I can’t sleep at the end of the day.”
Echo nodded and the expression on his face said he knew what she was going through, despite their vastly different life experiences.
“You don’t have to stay here,” Echo said. “Just because the Batch is retiring here, doesn’t mean you have to. And you don’t have to join Rex and myself in freeing our brothers. If the lab is where you feel most at ease, we can find someplace that makes you happy.”
“I’m not unhappy,” Emerie hedged.
She must sound so ungrateful. And she was surprised at how ready Echo seemed to help her get back to a lab. Didn’t he have any reservations about what research she might do?
Echo stood and stretched, and Emerie could hear his back and joints pop. Perhaps she could use her vast knowledge of the Fett clone genome and physiology to slow, or maybe even reverse, the accelerated aging process. She and her brothers deserved to have as normal a life span as possible.
She stood, feeling a little mischievous. “I could show you some gentle exercises that would help improve mobility in your joints.”
“I got some pretty good physio from the medics in the GAR,” Echo said with a gentle smile. “I keep up a routine.”
“Yes,” Emerie agreed. “But you’re getting older. A man of your advanced age should be more careful with himself.”
Echo stared at her, his mouth working like he was trying to figure out how to reply.
Emerie couldn’t hide her smile long. “Gotcha,” she said, using a phrase she’d heard Wrecker use when teasing his brothers.
That startled a laugh out of Echo. “Well played, vod’ika.”
“You know I’m older than you, right?” she asked as they started walking back toward the city.
She didn’t know why it was important, but her brothers always seemed to need to determine who was older. She was learning to join in on that playful hierarchy. Much like she was learning how to tease.
“You’re older than the Batch, I’ll give you that,” Echo said. “But I doubt you’re older than me.”
“No, I was one of the first batches decanted after the Alphas,” Emerie said. “I’m probably older than your Captain Rex.”
Echo gave her an incredulous look. “No one’s older than Rex.”
He grinned at her, and they both broke into laughter as they headed back home.