by John Whitman
The Shroud touched down and the hatch opened. "Let's get out of here,"
Tash said.
They hurried on board the ship.
Vader had traveled back and forth from the Rebel base to the Jedi ruins
several times, piecing together the clues to this mystery. It was obvious to
him that the ancient Jedi had done experiments with cloning, and that some of
their machinery had been left behind.
He knew what Zak, Tash, and Hoole could not. He remembered his previous
visit to the ruins, the defensive blasters, and his wounds. Some of his blood
must have spilled in the round chamber. The genetic maintenance droids,
reactivated by the activity in the room, had been attracted by the proximity
of fresh DNA. They'd gathered up a blood sample and used it to create a Vader
clone. This clone had then gone on to create others.
That mystery was easily solved. But the two human children and the
Shi'ido puzzled Vader more. They were unusual, those three. They had a talent
for getting in the way. Vader had met them once before, and they'd slipped
through his fingers. Now they had escaped him a second time. He would make
sure that did not happen again.
Vader stood on the bridge between the base and the ruins, watching his
stormtroopers work. They were gathering up all the clones they could find. The
Rebel clones, with their limited mental abilities, would be nearly useless.
The clones of the children and the Shi'ido would be more interesting. They
would be studied before they were destroyed.
The cloning equipment itself he planned to take aboard his ship. The
mindscanners were obviously flawed, creating imperfect replicas. His own
clone, with its false armor and lightsaber, was proof of that. The mindscanned
clones seemed unable to distinguish between reality and mere image. But
perhaps they could be improved.
He knew the Emperor would find it interesting.
