501st: An Imperial Commando Novel Read Free Page A

teenaged.
    “I influenced the akk to find that bone when it got too excited,” Scout said. “But we’re fine. Aren’t we, Kina?”
    “We are
alive,”
said the Kaminoan. “And that is a bonus. Thank you for risking so much for us.”
    Ny would have taken that thanks in her stride a matter of days ago, but now it triggered a pang of guilt. Neither of the Jedi knew where they were going, and they hadn’t pressed her too hard for an answer. But she hadn’t told them exactly who their hosts would be, either.
    And that was going to be … interesting.
    No matter: like Kina Ha said—they were alive, and that was a bonus.
    Cornucopia
was a typical old CEC
Monarch
-class cargo ship, boxy and basic, with a long bench along the bulkhead behind the pilot’s and copilot’s seats. Kina Ha settled on the bench like a crotchety duchess and fastened her safety restraints. Scout slid into the copilot’s seat next to Ny.
    Ny broke out some ration packs and passed them around. She had no idea what Kaminoans ate—fish and other seafood, she guessed—but Kina Ha wasn’t going to get any yobshrimp here. Skirata had said that Kaminoans hated bright sunlight and were happiest when it was cloudy and bucketing down rain. That was going to be a challenge to achieve on Mandalore, too. But that was going to be the least of Kina Ha’s problems.
    “We’re going to Mandalore,” Ny said at last. Somehow she expected at least a gasp, or even a cry of protest. But the two Jedi were silent. “You heard me, didn’t you? Mandalore?
Manda’yaim
?”
    “Yes, we did hear, thank you,” Kina Ha said. “Suitably remote and forbidding. I commend your ingenuity.”
    “You don’t have a problem with Mandalorians?”
    “Should we?”
    “Well, a lot of them have a problem with you. Jedi, that is.”
    Kina Ha peered into the open pouch of the ration pack as if she was divining the future from its contents. “I have a vague recollection of Mandalorians fighting for the Sith,” she said. “But I’ve kept myself far from the political detail of the galaxy for a long time.”
    Ny wasn’t sure what
a long time
meant, but she imagined centuries. Kina Ha wasn’t just any old Jedi. She was genetically engineered; all Kaminoans were, of course, and Skirata said that was how they survived their global flood and turned into what he described as
loathsome eugenicist scum
. But no Kaminoan had been engineered quite like Kina Ha. She was unique. Her genes had been modified for a very long life span, and that meant she would be useful to Skirata in ways she probably couldn’t begin to imagine.
    That genome was the only thing that was going to save her from Skirata’s wrath. He was banking on finding something in her genes that would stop his clone sons from aging at twice the normal human rate.
    “Is that where you’re from?” Scout tidied her hair with her fingers. It didn’t look much different afterward. “Mandalore?”
    “No,” Ny said. “I’m not Mandalorian. I just help them out when they’re busy.”
    How do I explain Kal to them
?
    “I’m not being ungrateful,” Scout said. Kina Ha selected something from the ration pack and chewed it thoughtfully. “I’m just scared.”
    Oh boy
. “I’m taking you to a safe place,” Ny said. “Quite a few other folks are hiding from the Emperor.”
    “Other Jedi?” Kina Ha asked.
    Ny wasn’t sure how to describe Bardan Jusik. Lapsed Jedi?
Very
lapsed Jedi? Apostate? Born-again Mando? It could wait. Scout would be able to decide for herself soon enough.
    “In a way.” She couldn’t sit on this any longer. “Look, you’re going to stay with a Mandalorian clan of clone troopers who’ve deserted. Some of them don’t have very happy memories of Kamino, Kina Ha. It’s only fair thatI warn you. And the place belongs to Kal Skirata. He’s an old mercenary who trained clones in Tipoca City, and … well, he hates Jedi and Kaminoans for using the clones. So relations might be frosty for