“Who are you?” The more senior woman of the two looked shocked and surprised. “Are you Cinzia?”
“I’m her clone,” she said. There was nothing to be gained by hiding the truth, and there was no harm in just talking. “My mother took a tissue sample from me before I was taken away. She made me all over again. The same daughter, but better, purer.”
“That explains why you look younger,” the woman said. She glanced at her companion, who seemed incapable of speech. “My name is Satele Shan. What do you mean—purer?”
“The fluid I’m breathing suppresses my Force abilities. There’s something in it—a metal, I think, or an extract from something that feeds on metal. It keeps me safe.”
“Safe?” Now the other Cinzia spoke. “Dead, more like it.”
The sneer on her own face—beautiful, she was pleased to see, with the addition of a couple more years—was simply horrid to behold.
“See?” her mother whispered. “She thinks you a monster. Call the droids, now. She must be stopped!”
“No,” Cinzia said. “Let me talk to her first. I want to know what happened to her. I want to know why she’s here.”
“She’s come to destroy everything. That’s what they do. They take and they destroy. They will show you no kindness, just as they showed none to her.”
“I told you to be quiet, Mother. Besides, I don’t trust the droids anymore. You know why.”
That did the trick. The eddying swirls of the fluid around her grew quieter.
“Have you lived here all your life?” the woman called Satele Shan asked.
“Yes. I can access all the complex’s cams. Much of it’s automated, you know. The droids are my eyes and ears.”
“You control them?”
“If I want to,” she said, although she was less sure of that now than she had been.
“So you’re responsible for what’s happening out there?” asked the other Cinzia.
“To be honest,” she said, “I don’t know what’s going on out there. They do seem rather busy, though. They’re designed to protect me, and the definition of protect is a bit vague. I guess at the moment that means not telling me stuff. Whatever they’re up to, I’m sure they mean well.”
“You should take a look, Cinzia,” said Satele Shan. “The hexes are killing people.”
“Are you sure?”
“Positive.”
“They would only do that if they were attacked. Why did you attack them?”
“They are a threat to the entire galaxy.”
“I don’t believe you,” she said. The thought was entirely too preposterous. “You’re just trying to distract me. This is a momentous day. The two Cinzias finally meet! I’ve been waiting for this, well, ever since I was born. At last we are together! I want to hear everything about your life. I want to know if we like the same things, think the same thoughts—”
“I’m not you,” said the older version of herself. “My name is Eldon Ax.”
“Don’t say that.”
“I’ll say whatever I like. You’re a freak, a mistake. I should kill you now, just for existing.”
The other Cinzia produced a glowing red sword and held it up between them.
“See?” hissed her mother. “She will do you great harm if you let her, perhaps even kill you!”
“Don’t be cruel,” said Cinzia to both her mother and her twin. “It doesn’t have to be this way.”
“She’s right,” said Satele Shan, putting a hand on the other Cinzia’s arm. “Don’t act rashly.”
“Yes.” The red blade came down. “We need what she knows—about the hexes, about Lema Xandret.”
“How did your mother die?” asked Satele Shan.
“The droids killed her,” Cinzia said, “and the others as well, but she’s not really dead.”
“Don’t tell them,” whispered the voice in her ear. “Don’t tell them!”
“Why did the hexes kill her?”
“They didn’t want to sign a treaty with anyone. When the ship left—”
“The ship named after you?”
“Yes—Mother built that before she made me, and she never came up with another name. The droids didn’t want people coming here, ever. It wasn’t safe for me.” She almost shied away from the thought of what had happened next, but she forced herself not to. The disclosure was important, if she and herself were ever to become one. “The droids killed my mother to stop her sending any more ships. The others tried to stop them, so the droids killed them, too. It was all very stupid, really. Mother should have known how the droids would feel.”
Satele Shan nodded slowly. “So she wasn’t on the ship?”
“No, that was Kenev and Marg Sar.”
“Why didn’t she go with them, if she was their leader?”
“They had no leaders. They didn’t want to live like they had before. They wanted a change.”
“All right, but Kenev and Marg Sar never came back, did they? They killed themselves when the ship was intercepted by a privateer. They blew up the ship.”
That was a shock. The fluid rippled all over her skin, and she hugged herself tightly. “They would’ve wanted to keep the cargo a secret,” she said, thinking it through.
“The droid factory?”
“The plant. That’s what we call them.”
“Something interfered with the explosion,” said Satele Shan. “The plant wasn’t destroyed.”
“It must’ve been one of the droids. They wouldn’t want to die, even though they had to.”
“That’s what led us here, Cinzia. We came to find your mother, to ask her what she wanted to tell the outside world. That’s all.”
Cinzia waited for her mother to say something. For once, though, she was quiet.
“I don’t think she wants to talk to you,” Cinzia said.
“You said she was dead.”
“She is, mostly. The droids took her body away, probably for recycling. But she’s still here, talking to me.”
“Don’t tell them!”
“She doesn’t want me to talk to you, either.”
The two women outside the tank exchanged a concerned glance.
“I’m not mad,” Cinzia said, feeling affronted.
“I don’t see how you could be anything but.”
“We just don’t understand,” said Satele Shan, shushing the other Cinzia.
“No, you don’t. My mother protects me. That’s why the hexes are the way they are. She put herself into them, too.”
“We worked that out. Both her flesh and her philosophy. They are flexible and single-minded at the same time, combining the very best qualities of machines and organics in one creature. Your mother must have been quite brilliant to think of doing that.”
“I still am,” whispered Lema Xandret.
“She says she still is.”
“Don’t you see how the hexes could be a threat?” said Satele Shan, ignoring her comment. “They acknowledge no leader and they want to be left alone. They don’t want to die and they want to protect you. How better to keep you safe than to destroy everyone else, including your mother?”
“It’s logical,” she admitted, remembering how they had disobeyed her, too. Cinzia had begged them to leave the original Lema Xandret alone, but there had been no turning them back, not once their creator had betrayed them. Cinzia’s mother had programmed them too well.
“It’s insane,” muttered the other Cinzia.
“You have to understand them,” she insisted. “If what you say is true, then it does make sense. It’ll be hard to talk them out of attacking your friends.”
“Do you think you could?” asked Satele Shan.
“I could try. But you’d have to promise to leave and never come back.”
“I don’t think that would be possible.”
“Why not?”
“Your world is too valuable. Too many people know it exists now.”
“So? They don’t have to come here. You have the whol
e galaxy. I just want one world. Is that too much to ask?”
“For some it is.”
“Well, then. We’re at an impasse.”
“Yes. I’m afraid so.”
Cinzia didn’t like the way her other self was looking at her. There was such fury and hurt in those familiar features. She could never imagine looking that way, having that amazing hair.
“Why do the hexes protect you,” the other Cinzia asked, “and not me?”
“Because they don’t know you. You don’t look exactly like me, or live like me, in here. You look like one of the people who took you away.”
“I am one of the people who took me away.”
“But you’re me, too, even though you try to deny it. You don’t have to be the way you are now.”
“How else can I be? I don’t remember anything else.”
“Really?”
“Yes, really. And what’s the point of trying? The droids will kill me anyway.”
“Maybe if we gave them a taste of your genetic code. Maybe then they wouldn’t kill you.”
“So it’d just be me and you in a galaxy full of hexes. Is that what you want?”
She shook her head. “I just want everyone to go away. Everyone else, I mean. Not you. We’ve got so much to catch up on.”
“I’ve got nothing to tell you.”
“But you have! Where you live, what you do. I don’t know anything about anywhere. All I know is Sebaddon, where I was cloned. You can tell me about where I was born.”
“I don’t remember any of that,” said the other Cinzia. “All I know is the Empire.”
“The what?”
Satele Shan stared at her in frank surprise. “You’ve never heard of the Empire?”
“No. Should I have?”
“What about the Sith? The Republic? The Mandalorians?”
Cinzia shook her head in irritation. “Stop showing off. You’re making me feel stupid.”
“I’m not showing off. I’m just amazed that you’ve been so isolated here. It doesn’t seem fair to me that your mother did that to you.”
“She’s trying to turn you against me,” whispered the voice. “Be careful of that one.”
“Mother says I should be careful of you. Why is that?”
“Maybe she’s afraid I’ll take you from her. I promise I won’t try to do that, Cinzia.” Satele Shan’s face was as expressionless as someone trying very hard not to have an expression. “Is your mother with you now? In the tank?”
“Yes.”
“Is she another clone?”
“Not exactly.”
The fluid swirled around her, agitated and wild. Cinzia was pulled away from the glass, into the center of the tank.
“I said, don’t talk to them! Why don’t you ever listen to me?”
“I always listen to you, Mother.”
“But you never do as I say. I told you not to tell them about me!”
“They’d guess anyway. Why make it harder for them?”
“They won’t understand, Cinzia. You have to tell the droids to take them away. They’ll obey you this time. You know they will. When there’s a clearly defined threat, they have to act against it.”
“Just like they acted against you.”
“Yes! Even me! The logic was impeccable. I was stupid to try to fight it.”
Cinzia remembered the days leading up to that terrible moment all too well. There was no suppressing them entirely.
“I think you saw it coming, Mother. You were afraid of the droids. You gave me the overrides in the hope that they would listen to me, but I didn’t use them.” She remembered her passivity with painful keenness. Sometimes she felt bad for not intervening. “The droids are my protectors. You are my protector. I still have both. Was it wrong to do nothing?”
“I’m still here, Cinzia. That’s right. We’ll all protect you, together.”
“But what if you were right, Mother? What if the droids have grown too powerful? That means you agree with Satele Shan and shouldn’t argue against her. I should listen to her, too. Maybe I should use the overrides to stop the droids now, before it’s too late.”
“No, Cinzia, you mustn’t!”
The fluid coiled around her tighter than ever. Even though she struggled, she couldn’t get a grip on the glass.
“Mother, let me go!”
“No!”
“I can’t stand by and let innocent people be hurt. You wouldn’t have wanted that.”
“I must keep you safe!”
“But I have to—you have to—”
Thick currents closed around her throat and filled her mouth, silencing the words. She choked and coughed, unable to fill her lungs.
“Cinzia!”
The cry came from outside the tank.
Help me, she tried to shout. Save me!
With a shattering of glass and a great rush, the tank exploded. Cinzia was tossed and flung on a wave of writhing liquid. Her mother was screaming. She was screaming, too. Something hard smacked against her flesh all down her back and legs. For the first time in her life, she felt her full weight. She couldn’t move. She couldn’t breathe. The pressure around her throat eased, only to be replaced with another.
“She can’t get enough oxygen,” someone said. The sound was all wrong. So was the light. “She’s not used to breathing air.”
“What do we do?” That was the other Cinzia. “We have to keep her alive.”
Cinzia flapped weakly with one hand.
“Gene … sampler …” She pointed to the machine that would feed the other Cinzia’s genetic pattern into the hexes’ collective memory. “Promise … save …”
“We’re doing everything we can for you,” said Satele.
She shook her head. “Save … Mother …”
“She’s in the blood, right?” said the other Cinzia. “I thought she was killing you. I thought you were drowning.”
“Promise!”
“All right, all right. I promise.”
Cinzia couldn’t lift, but she could still grip. “Her daughter … her daughter …”
The other Cinzia came closer, dragged into focus by the last of her strength.
“Tell me … everything.”
THE BODY OF THE hairless, emaciated girl became still. Master Satele shook her head. Apart from the trickling and dripping of crimson fluid, the laboratory was silent.
Ax fell back onto her haunches and put her hands over her face. What had just happened? Had she been trying to kill the girl or save her? Not just any girl, of course: her own clone. Did that make it murder, suicide, or fratricide?
She suspected she would never know.
“I’m sorry,” said Master Satele, touching her lightly on the shoulder. “The shock killed her. With the right equipment, we might have—”
Ax shrugged her off and stood too quickly. Her head swam. She imagined she heard a voice from the far depths of her memory, weeping and demanding her attention. She ignored it.
The gene sampler was exactly where Cinzia had indicated it would be. Ax crossed to it and stuck her hand into its diagnostic chute. The cold machine pricked her, drank her blood, hummed to itself, and then beeped inquiringly.
Ax felt a brief moment of panic. The machine wanted confirmation of something. A password? A command phrase? A code?
She remembered everything Cinzia had said in her final moments. She’d made Ax promise to save what was left of Lema Xandret. Was there anything else she’d emphasized? Anything at all?
“ ‘Her daughter,’ ” Ax said.
The machine beeped confirmation.
“What does that mean?” she asked the room in general. “Do the hexes now think I’m her? Am I immune to them? Will they obey my orders now?”
Master Satele had no answers, and neither did anyone else. The way the fluid from the tank tugged at her ankles told her nothing she wanted to know. It had nurtured and smothered Cinzia at the same time—just like Darth Chratis had Ax herself. Cinzia had broke
n free the only way open to her. Ax hoped to have more options.
There was just one way to find out how the hexes would react to her.
“Let’s go get one and see what happens.”
LARIN WAS BEYOND surprise. After escaping the rain of artillery from the Paramount and riding the skyhook all the way to the equator, it was with only a mild sense of concern that she felt the structure beneath her begin to drop. What now?
Jopp echoed her confusion. “I thought this thing was taking off, and now it’s coming in to land. I wish the hexes would make up their minds.”
The skyhook lurched beneath them, and they gripped each other for support.
“This doesn’t feel like landing,” she said. “Something else—”
She didn’t finish that thought. Every hex in the structure chose that moment to let go of its neighbor, causing the whole structure to slump and sag downward. She was suddenly riding an accelerating wave of individual hexes, not one solid structure. It was like surfing, but without a board, and a sea of molten lava instead of a beach at the other end.
“Hang on!” she cried as the wave of hexes carried them downward.
Jopp clung to her arm as long as he could, but the tide inevitably swept them apart. Larin crouched down and gripped the leading edge of a single hex with all the strength of her prosthetic left hand, hoping to ride out the wave without tumbling or being crushed. The hex didn’t object. It seemed utterly passive. That surprised her, but she didn’t complain. It was just another surprise on the heels of so many.
The torrent of hexes was sufficient to fill the crater that was all that remained of the former CI site. She flinched as a mass of red fluid rose up to meet her, but it wasn’t lava at all. The bloody fluid came up to her knees, then stopped rising. She let go of the hex and found that she could stand.
Feeling like she was walking in a dream, she stepped from hex to hex toward the nearest crater wall. There was no sign of Jopp, but she did make out a figure watching her progress on the edge of the lake, waving encouragement. As she drew nearer, she recognized the forbidding black shape of Darth Chratis. It wasn’t him waving. That was the tall, slender figure standing next to him.
The Old Republic Series Page 37