cargo doors. By the time they closed, Runner had the engines online.
Storage containers lined the vast space of the cargo bay, hundreds of them stacked like children’s blocks.
“I’ll get the manifest and find the meds we need,” he said to Seer. “Have Runner get the ship into the air and get us heading to … wherever we’re going.”
“To Mother,” Seer said.
Hunter stirred in her arms. The meds were working for her, too.
“Yes,” Soldier said. “To Mother.”
After she left him, he found the nearest comp station and called up the ship’s manifest. He felt as if he were engaged in a test of faith. If Seer was right, the meds were aboard. If she wasn’t, then Seer, Runner, Hunter, and Grace would all die. Maybe Soldier would, too, in time, but he’d die alone, the last of them, purposeless.
He felt the ship lift off, felt the vibration as the landing skids retracted into the body of the ship. The engines engaged with a hum and he imagined the ship streaking skyward.
The manifest came online and he scrolled through it. His heart beat faster than it had when he’d faced the Jedi. He licked dry lips as he eyed the data, hopeful but afraid to let himself hope.
And there they were, just as Seer had said they would be: the genetic stabilizer, the antipsychotics, a few other reagents he’d need to mix in, all of them in such quantities that the clones would have enough for years, even with the accelerated pace of the illness.
Seer was right. Again.
The supply ship would not have a lab aboard, but he could make do. He pressed a button near the station to activate the onboard comm and raised the bridge.
“The meds we want are aboard. Lots of them.”
A long pause followed, as if Seer and Runner were digesting his words. Finally Runner said, “We’re away. Scanners show that no one is following us.”
“Good. What about the prisoner?”
“He’s still alive,” Runner answered. “What course should I set?”
Now it was Soldier’s turn for a long pause. After considering, he said, “Ask Seer. She knows where we’re going.”
He imagined her smiling at his response.
Nyss knew the Prime’s name now: Soldier.
He maneuvered in silence through the dimly lit cargo bay, eyeing Soldier while the clone checked the cargo manifest at a comp station. With effort, Nyss kept the suppressive field closely drawn around him. He did not want Soldier to sense it … yet.
Nyss debated incapacitating Soldier then and there, but decided to wait.
If Jaden Korr was still alive, he would come for Khedryn Faal. And, when the time was right, Nyss could use his arrival to take both of them at once.
He moved off deeper into the cargo bay, away from Soldier, and raised Syll on his comlink.
“Have you been able to determine whether Korr is still alive?”
“He is,” Syll said. “Both he and the Cerean are alive. I see them on the roof of the medical facility right now.”
Nyss nodded, pleased. “Good. Don’t let them see you. Lock onto my signal and follow the supply ship.”
“What about Korr?”
“He’ll follow, too. He put a tracking beacon on the supply ship before entering the facility.”
“All right. And then what?”
Nyss was already working out the beginnings of a plan. “Keep your distance until I say otherwise. We’re going to get Korr and the Prime.”
“Should I bring the Iteration out of stasis?”
“Not yet.”
Marr assisted Jaden up the stairs until they reached the roof. The access door had been knocked from its mounting and lay on the landing pad. The supply ship was already one hundred meters off the deck. Police swoops buzzed around it like sand flies, but they could do nothing to slow its ascent.
Burning wreckage lay near a stack of shipping containers, spitting a gout of black smoke into the sky. Pieces of one or more droids lay near where the supply ship had been docked. The rest of the loading droids stood aimlessly near the handful of shipping containers they’d unloaded before the supply ship launched. Junker sat on the pad, her landing ramp open.
Jaden stared up at the rising ship, concentrated, felt the dark-side signatures of the clones aboard.
“The clones are on that ship,” he said.
There was no sign of Khedryn.
Marr nodded, activated his comlink. “Khedryn, do you read? Khedryn?”
No response. A pit formed in Jaden’s stomach.
He and Marr shared a look and ran for Junker, hoping to find Khedryn aboard. Before they reached it, two figures emerged from behind a stack of shipping containers near the