"Now give them to Ny."

Kad slid off Skirata's lap and delivered the chips. Ny took them with a show of mock formality, suddenly the other Ny again, and gave Kad a cuddle while she counted the credits.

She lowered her voice. "Kal, that's a little excessive for groceries."

"It's for fuel and parts, too." Skirata shrugged. "You can't keep thrashing that old crate around the galaxy on your own budget. And you brought supplies this time."

"It's not necessary. I eat your food, so I pay my way."

"Ny," Skirata said, "let's you and me go for a walk, shall we? There's something you need to know."

He gave Ordo a meaningful look as he ushered her out of the room. So he was going to tell her what she'd walked into, then, as if volunteering for Palpatine's hit list wasn't crazy enough. She was another passerby sucked into the vortex of Kal'buir Kal'buir's grand plan who had to leave her life behind. Nobody escaped unscathed. Even Parja's engineering business was now a sideline. She spent most of her time servicing the vessels and equipment at Kyrimorut.

Uthan turned to Ordo. "Kad's just a baby. Is it right to teach him that the galaxy's full of beings out to get him? He'll grow up paranoid."

"He's the son of a Jedi and a commercially valuable clone, his family are deserters and enemies of the Empire, and there's an occupation force on his homeworld," Ordo said.

"How would you you describe the world to him?" describe the world to him?"

"Do you see the Keldabe garrison as an occupying army?"

"You would, if this was Gibad."

"But your leader let them come here and rent land."

"We're in no shape to fight that big an army. If Shysa had told them to get lost, you know what would have happened next. Better to watch and wait. Build our strength."

"And steal their kit," Gilamar said. "Just a little. Here and there."

Uthan should have known better than anyone what it meant to cross Palpatine. There was no holoreceiver in the karyai karyai, because Skirata felt it stifled conversation-and carousing-but Ordo knew that as soon as breakfast was over, Uthan would retreat to her laboratory and switch on the news to see what was happening to her homeworld. Gibad didn't have a history like the Mandalorians'. They hadn't learned to live with war and fight a hundred different ways.

Gibad was going to be brought into line as an example to anyone else thinking of arguing with the new management. It was only a matter of time, and that time depended on what worked best for Palpatine. The assault wasn't being delayed to allow negotiations to take place.

"You always play the long game, you Mandos," Uthan said.

Gilamar smiled. "It's cheaper in the long run. Your hair looks great, by the way. Very lower-levels street gang."

"Flattery is is effective, Mij." She put a self-conscious hand to her head. "But you'll have to work harder on your analogies." effective, Mij." She put a self-conscious hand to her head. "But you'll have to work harder on your analogies."

Now that Skirata had left the table, everyone else took it as a cue to go as well-except Ruu. Ordo wondered why he couldn't immediately accept her as a sister, another vod vod like his brothers. She was like his brothers. She was Kal'buir Kal'buir's flesh and blood, wasn't she? How could he not not find some kinship with her, then, some common bond? find some kinship with her, then, some common bond?

Besany leaned over him as she cleared the table. "Sweetheart," she whispered, although the clattering plates made it hard to hear her anyway. "I nearly acquired a stepsister once. Hated her guts on sight. It takes effort and time."

Ordo couldn't imagine Besany hating anyone, not until he recalled how fast she bonded with this clan. For an apparently rational woman, her emotional reactions were powerful and instant. " Nearly? Nearly? " "

"Dad didn't marry her mother. Thankfully."

"So you didn't stop hating her guts."

"No, but I only mildly resented them in the end."

"Uplifting thought, cyar'ika cyar'ika."

"Keep on thinking it."

Ordo wondered why nobody wanted to extend that same tolerance to Skirata's sons, the ones who had formally disowned him, but Ruu-Ruu had constructed an entirely different image of her absent father in those years. Ordo could see it on her face. She seemed to be permanently awed by Kal'buir Kal'buir, as if he fully measured up to the hero she'd expected him to be.

Boils were there to be lanced, Mereel always said. Ordo prepared to trade a few painful seconds for long-term comfort.

"So, Ruu, is Kal'buir Kal'buir as you remembered him?" as you remembered him?"

"Pretty well. I thought he was taller, I admit." She gave Ordo a careful smile, as if she were being interviewed for a job and wanted to make a good impression. "But everything else-yes, I remember the gold armor and how he was always going off to war, or coming back from one with all these weird and exciting gifts. A real warrior, like in the holovids. I always thought he wasn't afraid of anything or anybody, and how dashing dashing he was." he was."

Prudii laughed. He was like Mereel and Jaing in many ways, comfortable with everybody and happy to joke and gossip. "Actually, that's a pretty accurate description,"

he said. "Short people can be dashing, too. So no disappointments?"

"I always told myself he'd come back for me," she said. "And he did. How can I be disappointed?"

Ruu was in her mid-thirties. Ordo wondered why she hadn't got on with her life and had a family of her own, but he understood that powerful sense of salvation that Skirata could instill in anyone just by showing up. He saved people. He'd certainly saved Ordo and his brothers, and yes-he had had been both dashing and unafraid, holostar-style, when he did it. But Ordo wondered if Ruu realized he been both dashing and unafraid, holostar-style, when he did it. But Ordo wondered if Ruu realized he un un-saved people, too, for bounties, payments in kind, and even revenge. He didn't want to see that adulation in her eyes tarnished by reality. Kal'buir Kal'buir would see it, too, and it would break his heart. would see it, too, and it would break his heart.

Ordo wasn't ashamed of his father's past. Skirata did whatever he had to do to survive without handouts in a hostile galaxy that had never given him a break-or a head start.

" Buir Buir's had to take some tough jobs over the years," Ordo said. "You'll hear some say harsh things about him, but he's a good man. The best. That's why we're very protective protective of him." of him."

"I noticed. But there's nothing anyone can say about my dad that I hadn't heard from my mother."

Mereel looked at Ordo with a smirk that said he doubted that Skirata's late wife knew half of what her old man did for a living, even if she'd accepted his credit transfers over the years.

"Look, it's nothing personal," Ordo said. Yes, it was was. It definitely was. Like all his Null brothers, he found it hard to be neutral about anybody. Everyone had to be assessed-a potential threat to be neutralized if necessary, or someone you would lay down your life for. There was no middle path, much as he struggled to find one. "We just don't know how to deal with you."

"It's okay, Ordo. I don't want Dad's credits, I'm not here to take your place, and I understand why you don't find it easy to trust newcomers. I'm just grateful to have my father back and get to know him again. Does that make you happier?"

The part of Ordo that was common sense and reason told the wary animal within him that it was okay. When he let his intellect run the show, and it stopped his instincts from getting the better of him, he always felt guilty for what he'd said or felt. But instincts were there for a reason.

"Yes," he said. "Much happier."

"That's good. Now, is there any use I can be on this mission?"

"Not unless you can look like a clone."

"I think I fail on all points there."

A'den, the nearest the Nulls had to a diplomat, held up a finger.

Ordo cut him off at the pass. "And you're not coming, ner vod ner vod, because if you have to take your helmet off, they'll see you're a little weather-beaten. I doubt that the ordinary meat-cans are going to look like that."

"I prefer bronzed bronzed," A'den said. "And maybe you should do something about your gray hairs, then. Anyway, I was going to say that Ruu might be able to help Arla, She knows what it's like to have your past crash-land on you. Poor Arl'ika Arl'ika doesn't know what happened to her brother yet." doesn't know what happened to her brother yet."

"Does anyone?" Ruu asked.

"Vau knows more than Kal'buir Kal'buir, I think."

Ruu had a wary look so like her father's-slightly narrowed rabid-schutta eyes, head turned away just a fraction-that nobody was ever going to ask for a paternity test, even if Mandos cared about that sort of thing, which they didn't. "I'll do what I can."

Ruu left, taking her plate with her, and Kom'rk raised an eyebrow at Ordo.

"Don't take this the wrong way, ner vod ner vod, but you lack sensitivity. Poor woman didn't go looking for Kal'buir Kal'buir. We abducted abducted her." her."

"She knows the score."

"So you're happy now."

"Less tense, let's say."

Jaing laid his datapad on the table. "Oh good good," he said. "I thought we were going to have a spat about Number One Son losing his place in the pecking order. Okay, what floor plans do we need?"

It had always been a joke, but Ordo wasn't sure it was so funny now. He'd been the informal alpha male of the brothers since infancy, and Skirata treated him as such. Mereel had always fallen into the sidekick role. In a family of six sons, it was inevitable that there'd be alliances and harmless rivalries. Now Ordo was starting to worry that they really did see him differently. The last thing he wanted was advantages that his brothers didn't have.

"Do you think I'm jealous?" he asked.

"More scared," Jaing said. "She's got to prove prove she's loyal and not a she's loyal and not a chakaar chakaar like her brothers." As he scrolled through schematics on the small screen, Ordo could see the flickering light on his hands. "Now remember that second virus I fed into the Republic mainframe?" like her brothers." As he scrolled through schematics on the small screen, Ordo could see the flickering light on his hands. "Now remember that second virus I fed into the Republic mainframe?"

Mereel got up and stood behind him, hands on his shoulders. "You mean the incredibly risky and cocky demonstration of your programming skills that you performed under the nose of Republic Audit?"

"Yep. That'll be the one."

"I do recall. Has it been busy?"

"Well, now your pet tinnie and his minder have set up a comm portal, I can retrieve the data it's mined. What do you want-building plans, budgets, procurement contracts, Imperial canteen menus?"

Ordo cut in. "Plans and layouts. Keep it simple. We're not going to sabotage the Empire. We're extracting our brothers. Nothing else Nothing else. Understand?"

"Oops," Mereel said. "Old habits..."

As long as the Empire left them alone, they'd give it a wide berth. That was Kal'buir Kal'buir's plan, and Ordo was going to make sure everyone stuck to it.

This was a time to pick their battles carefully. Now they had a choice about who and where they fought-and why.

The aruetiise aruetiise could fight their own wars for a change. It'd do them the power of good. could fight their own wars for a change. It'd do them the power of good.

CHAPTER SEVEN.

We conquered whole star systems. We had an empire. When cities heard our armies were coming, populations fled before a shot was fired. Now we cling to a pathetic sector of coming, populations fled before a shot was fired. Now we cling to a pathetic sector of dirtball planets, we scramble for the crumbs that the cowardly dirtball planets, we scramble for the crumbs that the cowardly aruetiise aruetiise throw when they throw when they want us to fight for them, and they use us as breeding stock for their clone armies. The want us to fight for them, and they use us as breeding stock for their clone armies. The aruetiise aruetiise will always treat us like an animal species to be used for their convenience until will always treat us like an animal species to be used for their convenience until we stand up for ourselves again. we stand up for ourselves again.

Lorka Gedyc, commander of the Mandalorian Death Watch (not disbanded, merely in ba'slan sheu'la ba'slan sheu'la awaiting a convenient time to return) awaiting a convenient time to return) Freighter Cornucopia Cornucopia, Off Ralltiir, Rendezvous point Ny Vollen's freighter dropped out of hyperspace just as she realized there was something in her coveralls that she hadn't put there. Ny Vollen's freighter dropped out of hyperspace just as she realized there was something in her coveralls that she hadn't put there.

Her pant-leg pocket bulged open. She didn't notice it until she reached for the controls and the fabric caught on the armrest of her seat. When she looked at what had snagged it, she found all the cash creds she'd shoved back into Skirata's hand before she left Mandalore, a stack of five-hundred and thousand denomination chips.

I do not need your creds, Shortie. I don't care how much you're worth. Nobody's going to accuse me of sponging off a rich man. going to accuse me of sponging off a rich man. Any Any man, in fact. man, in fact.

"You stubborn old barve," she muttered, staring at the plastoid chips. She hadn't even felt him put them there. The man would have made a superb pickpocket, and probably had been one in his past. "Guess where I'm going to ram these these."

Mereel laughed. "Perfect. When can I start calling you Mama?"

"When the Kaminoans tweaked your genes, they definitely removed the one for subtlety, didn't they?"

Ordo didn't laugh, but Prudii, Jaing, and Mereel did. Four Nulls was about the most Ny could handle at one time. All six of them together-that was a pack pack. Not unruly, not undisciplined, just... primed primed. She felt that raw power and complete focus in them, like hunting animals waiting to be let loose. Even Mird didn't make her feel like that.

"We mean well," Jaing said. "But Buir Buir doesn't meet many folks he likes and trusts, especially doesn't meet many folks he likes and trusts, especially female female ones his own age." ones his own age."

"The diplomacy gene's gone missing, too, I see."

"It's all about time, Ny. We've all got less left than we ought to have."

Jaing had a rare talent for getting to the point, not as bluntly gauche as Ordo but equally capable of saying the things other folks kept to themselves. Yes, they were all on borrowed time, and there was every chance she'd still outlive them. And so might their father.

"Things aren't always that simple," she said.

Mereel put on his I'm-just-an-innocent-kid face, which pressed all Ny's buttons even though she knew perfectly well that he was nothing of the kind.

"We like having you around," he said. "And Buir Buir's been alone for years-long before Kamino. We know he likes you because he says things to you that he'd never normally tell anyone."

"What, like he's got a trillion kriffing creds?"

"He told you he came from Kuat," Jaing said. "And he did did admit he was a trillionaire. admit he was a trillionaire.

The night you first met him. Remember?"

Ny recalled that just fine. Yes, he had. And the Nulls never forgot anything, not with those eidetic memories the Kaminoans gave them. "I thought he was joking."

Ordo, hunched in the copilot's seat, looked up from the navigation display. "Mereel, shut up, will you?"

"Well, Buir Buir doesn't have my natural charm with the ladies, so he's never going to raise the-" doesn't have my natural charm with the ladies, so he's never going to raise the-"

"I said shut up shut up." Ordo turned and reached behind him to put a worryingly firm grip on Mereel's shoulder. "Ny's lost her husband. She might not be ready for all this. She might not like Buir Buir in that way. Just get off her back." in that way. Just get off her back."

Ny had never seen clones lose their tempers with one another. For some reason, she thought they'd be perfectly attuned in some kind of mystic twin-like harmony, but she was wrong. They were like any other family with their spats and fallings-out. She felt awful for being the cause of this one.

"Hey, Ordo, it's all right." His intervention sounded like something Besany had said to him, a lesson he'd absorbed, but maybe he really did think that. "I'm not offended. Mereel's just...oh, c'mon, you two, truce. Okay?"

"Don't make her come back here," Prudii said.