"Control. Surveillance. Checks. Every movement and comm message logged. All for your own good, all to protect you. And you all fell for it." Ruu pulled the power clip out of her blaster with a loud snap and swapped it for another. "The only thing Republic citizens ever really needed protecting from was their own government. And now they've got what they deserve."

She was Kal Skirata's daughter, all right. Jusik marveled at the similarities in outlook, even though Kal'buir Kal'buir hadn't been around to influence her view of the world. But Corellia and Mandalore had one big cultural thing in common: they didn't take kindly to being herded. hadn't been around to influence her view of the world. But Corellia and Mandalore had one big cultural thing in common: they didn't take kindly to being herded.

Jusik secured the freighter and they walked through the loading yard toward the gates, dodging loader droids ferrying pallets to the ships. "You including me in that?"

"No," she said. "You were institutionalized, and you still managed to tell them to shove it."

Institutionalized. Brutal, but true. "All families are institutions. As far as I was concerned, the Order was my family." Brutal, but true. "All families are institutions. As far as I was concerned, the Order was my family."

"Liar. You must have known there was something missing, or you wouldn't have latched on to Dad, and you certainly wouldn't have hung up your lightsaber." Ruu, ambling casually as if she did the Fradian ore run every day, glanced at his belt. "Where is it, by the way?"

"Somewhere I can't draw it without thinking."

"Smart."

"I'm getting used to thinking blaster first blaster first. Verpine pistol, actually."

"Yeah, I noticed Dad loves his Verps."

The security guard at the gates was reading a holozine, arms folded on the countertop in his booth. He looked up as Jusik and Ruu inserted their identichips in the scanner, squinted at the readout, and waved them past with a grunt. For a moment, Jusik completely forgot which bogus identity he was traveling with today.

Something odd was distracting him, and he wasn't sure yet what it was. It was like his Force sense of danger in some ways, an urge to look over his shoulder, or a compulsion to pay attention to a specific place; but he didn't feel under threat. He just felt that there was something he'd missed.

This was all down to Ruu going on about surveillance and Jackboots, nothing more.

She'd made him jumpy.

"Better check your buddy's there," she said.

Jusik opened his comlink. "Maze? How you doing?"

Maze took a couple of moments to answer. He sounded tense. "Welcome to Tin Town. Picturesque, isn't it?"

The terminal looked like it had been designed by an architect who hated his job and wanted to get fired. Some industrial landscapes held their own stark, utilitarian beauty for Jusik, but Fradian was just plain ugly.

"I must must buy a holocard to send to the folks," Jusik said. "Okay, shall we meet up at the tapcaf with the least food hygiene violations?" buy a holocard to send to the folks," Jusik said. "Okay, shall we meet up at the tapcaf with the least food hygiene violations?"

"I've borrowed a speeder. Let's not."

"The lawful owner's unaware, of course." Jusik felt reassured that he could still tell when someone was under stress. Poor old Maze. He'd been tied to HQ as Zey's aide and rarely got out to do all the stabbing, stealing, and sabotaging that the other ARC troopers did. He wasn't used to taking vehicles. "Okay-"

"What transport have you got?"

"Freighter."

"Can it take a small speeder? Two-seater?"

Cornucopia's cargo doors were full-width. "Sure. But you don't need to hang on to it.

We'll kit you out with everything you need."

"I'm in the speeder now, and getting out will be...awkward." Maze didn't elaborate.

"Can you get to the waste processing area and park up ready to open the hatch for a quick exfil?"

Jusik consulted his datapad. "Give me ten minutes to walk back to the ship. I'll land on the junction with the service road."

"Good plan, sir."

Maze still thought of him as General Jusik, then. "I'm just Bardan Bardan now, now, ner vod ner vod."

"So you are," said Maze.

Jusik closed the comlink and caught Ruu's arm to turn her around back to the ship.

"That explains my weird feeling," he said. "Maze got himself in a spot. He's a bit out of practice."

" Now Now you tell me about the feeling. Force stuff, I assume." you tell me about the feeling. Force stuff, I assume."

"Yeah."

Ruu strode at an impressive pace. "And he wants to bring his speeder on board."

"Yeah."

"I think that's that's weird." weird."

Jusik recalled all the abandoned vehicles that Skirata's illicit activity on Coruscant had left in its wake. It had been a full-time job for Enacca the Wookiee to make sure they were all recovered, disposed of, or put back in the transport pool with new ID and livery.

Abandoned vehicles made cops suspicious and left trails of evidence.

"It's only in holovids where nobody worries about basic logistics," Jusik said. "And Maze is is pretty weird." pretty weird."

" Bard'ika Bard'ika, I don't like this."

"Look, you got caught." He hated himself for saying that the moment he said it.

"Nobody's ever caught me me. Relax."

As they walked back through the gates, the security guard looked up from his holozine and frowned.

"ID," he said, looking Jusik over. "Left something behind?"

"Change of itinerary. I need to move the ship."

"You're booked in for three hours."

So he wasn't that unobservant after all. Jusik drew his ID chip. "I'm an annoying pilot who's going to mess up your day with extra admin work. You decide to turn a blind eye because it's not worth the trouble I'm going to turn into: You'll forget us the minute we take off."

Jusik handed the guard both chips, his and Ruu's. The guard sighed and handed them back.

"You're just going to mess up my day with extra admin work," he said. "Beat it. And no refunds for unspent time."

Jusik just smiled and walked on. He hated using Jedi mind influence, but he'd made a deal with himself to do it only when his family or another clone was in trouble. This was justified justified mind messing. He wouldn't make a habit of it. mind messing. He wouldn't make a habit of it. Honest. Honest. But sometimes it really was the kindest thing to do. But sometimes it really was the kindest thing to do.

Ruu didn't say a word until Cornucopia Cornucopia's cockpit hatch sealed behind them.

"So what the stang was that that, spoon-bender?"

"A persuasive technique they taught us at the academy." Jusik started up the drives, one eye on the bulkhead chrono. "We weren't the miscreants he was looking for.

Something like that."

"Something like when you knocked me out cold without laying a hand on me?"

"I never left a bruise, did I?"

"Sometimes you creep me out, ner vod ner vod."

"I promise I'll never use Force tricks on you without your consent."

"Make that just never never."

The freighter lifted clear and skimmed low over kilometers of elevated conduits strung between air shafts and processing plants. The waste facility glittered below it like a lake in the barren, dusty landscape, but as Jusik brought the ship in to land, the surface of the water resolved into a sewage treatment reservoir. Nothing could remain a lovely illusion for long here. He could see a speeder parking area with rows of vehicles, and a few plant workers standing around a mobile generator, chatting and drinking from flimsi cups. He commed Maze again.

"Maze, have you got a visual on me?" Jusik said, keeping the repulsor drives running.

" Monarch Monarch-class crate. Flashing my nav lights now now."

"Got you. You're hard to miss. Cargo doors open?"

"Come on in." Jusik could now feel something very odd in the Force, almost as if something had swept in with the grit and hot air when the cargo hatch opened. He tried to concentrate on the task in hand. He still didn't know where Maze was. "Have you nicked one of the waste company's speeders?"

"They'll notice when I start the thing. I've been holed up here since daybreak."

"I still don't see why he can't get off his shebs shebs and and walk walk out to us," Ruu muttered. out to us," Ruu muttered.

"They won't stop him. They probably won't even know what what he is, let alone he is, let alone who who he is." he is."

"I'm moving now now," Maze said, voice tight and strained. "Just hold position until I'm in."

Maze was clearly under a lot of stress; Jusik didn't need to be told that. He couldn't pick out the speeder in the rows of vehicles and waited for movement to catch his eye.

Then one speeder, bright red with white markings, lifted and began moving slowly out of its bay, crawling at regulation safety speed along the row toward Cornucopia Cornucopia's position.

It had to pass a knot of workers.

"Ah, stang..." Ruu said.

"Get a move on, Maze..."

Maze sighed audibly. Jusik still had his eye on the plant workers, and as the speeder slipped past them, one looked around casually as if to check which of his buddies was moving out. Jusik couldn't hear his shout, but he saw the pointed finger, the way the rest of the workers all whipped around, and then the billow of dust as Maze hit the accelerator and sped toward the freighter. The workers started running after the speeder.

"Buckle up, Ruu," Jusik said. "It's going to be a fast exit."

"Hundred meters," Maze said.

Jusik felt sweat prickle on his top lip. He had to sense where Maze was in relation to the ship, and his speed, and build an instant three-dimensional moving picture in his mind.

Every other bad feeling in the Force that was clamoring for attention had to wait. Jusik shut his eyes.

"Remember you've got brakes, Maze..."

"Fifty meters."

"Start braking, ner vod ner vod."

"Whoa..."

"I said brake! brake! " "

Jusik felt the speeder as a disturbance in the Force that was about to crash through the back of his skull. The airframe shook. Ruu swore. Maze's voice said "Clear!" and Jusik hit the hatch control, shutting the cargo doors. He didn't think about anything else until the freighter was hurtling into a sky getting darker by the second. He headed for the jump point as soon as they were past the upper layer of Fradian's atmosphere.

"So what if that isn't isn't Maze?" Ruu said at last. Maze?" Ruu said at last.

Jusik breathed again. "Maze?"

He could feel something very very wrong now. He took out his Verpine. He was sure that it was Maze he could feel in the Force, but there was someone with him. Jusik sensed a Force-user, and a presence he thought he knew but that shifted and wavered like a bad comm signal. wrong now. He took out his Verpine. He was sure that it was Maze he could feel in the Force, but there was someone with him. Jusik sensed a Force-user, and a presence he thought he knew but that shifted and wavered like a bad comm signal.

Maze was an ARC trooper, and he followed his orders like a pro. He had one of Palpatine's Sith agents with him. Jusik knew it.

"Ruu, when the nav computer indicates, hit the jump button," Jusik said.

"We can't dump things out the air lock in hyperspace..."

"Just do it."

Jusik scrambled down the ladder and made his way cautiously down the shoulder-wide passage that connected the forward cargo hold to the cargo bay itself. He reached for his weapons-Verpine in his right hand, lightsaber in his left. The blade sprang to life, green and humming. Ambidexterity was a useful ability.

In the dim deckhead lighting, he could see a dusty speeder vibrating slightly in tune with the ship. One hatch opened, very slowly. He aimed the Verp.

"Maze, get out get out. Hands on your head. Stand clear where I can see you."

The hatch opened far enough for Maze to step out. Yes, it was was Maze. He was wearing a grubby brown tunic and a couple of days' growth of stubble, but it was him all right. Maze. He was wearing a grubby brown tunic and a couple of days' growth of stubble, but it was him all right.

Maze put both hands on his head, fingers locked. "It's not how it looks."

"And your buddy." Jusik looked to the left-hand hatch. If Maze tried anything, he could drop him with the Verp, but the Force-user would need the little extra persuasion of a lightsaber. "Get out on deck. Hands on your head. Just freeze freeze, or you won't have have a head." a head."