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The large window that allowed Kamino’s ever-present lightning into the barracks of Experimental Unit 99 was dotted with patches of excited breath. The boy responsible was currently as charged as the atmosphere.
“That one is new!”
Crosshair paused his current fidgeting session with the itchy cadet logo on his tunic and turned his attention toward his brother. “What is?”
Tech’s forehead remained glued to the window as he spoke. “That aiwha calf! It was not there yesterday. The alpha cow in the pod has finally had her baby! I wish I had seen it happen. They give birth right over the surface of the water, then the entire pod calls out to the calf to encourage it to leave the water and fly!”
“That’s great, Tech.” Hunter sent a small smirk to his other two brothers. For months they had listened to their inquisitive brother regurgitate every piece of information ever discovered about Kamino’s native cetaceans, nearly becoming experts themselves in the process.
Crosshair and Wrecker grinned back. This was not the first time Tech had become fixated on a subject and unleashed his exuberance upon them. However, this was the first time one of his interests was something found on their own planet. It had given his brothers an idea.
“Well, I’m on clean-up detail with 99 tonight. I’ll see you guys later.”
Tech rounded on his pewter-topped brother. “Again? What is going on with all of you? I seem to be the only one here who has not had to endure some form of punishment for doing something stupid recently.”
Crosshair smiled back wickedly. “Maybe we just know how to have fun and you don’t.”
Tech’s curious expression morphed into an annoyed scowl. “What was it this time?”
“Like you said. Something stupid.” He turned and waved over his shoulder. “Don’t wait up.”
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The next morning was the start of the worst day Tech had ever had.
As soon as breakfast was over and he and his brothers separated for their individualized lessons to hone their enhanced skills, Tech was cornered by a group of cadets who had overheard his mealtime ramblings. They did not share Tech’s enthusiasm for the giant animals outside and they let him know it in no uncertain terms. By the time the next group of cadets found their way into the corridor where the scuffle was occurring, the strap on the back of his goggles had been snapped in half.
“HEY!”
The deeper voice behind them instantly got the attention of Tech’s tormentors. Tech looked up in surprise as five older boys stalked up to where he had been pinned to the wall. Three of them stood between Tech and the other cadets while the other two moved to stand beside him. “The next time we see any of you near this kid, we’re going to hang you upside-down from one of the training tower cannons! Now get lost!” The younger boys scattered, leaving Tech alone with the five young teens. “You okay?”
“I think so. Thank you for intervening.”
One of the boys picked up Tech’s goggles and turned them over in his hands curiously, then handed them back to Tech without a word and followed his brothers quickly to the class they were now late for. Tech looked down at the broken strap and sighed miserably. His only option for the remainder of the day was to tie the two halves together into a knot that made his goggles so tight that he got a headache within a few minutes of putting them back on.
It only got worse from there.
At the range his practice blaster jammed and overheated, burning his hands and causing him to place last in his group’s skills assessment. The pain from that failure negatively impacted his cognitive speed drills score as well. The sting of his instructor asking him how he could have lost so much intelligence over the course of a single rotation was a dig the boy would not soon forget.
When he joined his brothers in the mess hall that evening, his downturned face all but told his story for him.
Hunter stood slowly as he approached. “What happened?”
“I-I don’t want to talk about it.”
Crosshair narrowed his eyes at the burn blisters on his brother’s palms. “You need to talk about that.”
Tech shrugged. “I lost a fight with a malfunctioning blaster.”
Wrecker stared at the knot on the far-too-tight goggles. “And those?”
“Oh,” he pulled the frame from his face with a groan, revealing deep purple indentations. “I lost a fight with a group of cadets too.”
Hunter crossed his arms. “Why did they come after you this time?” Tech stared at the floor, struggling with how to explain. “Tech?”
With all three of his brothers looking at him, the tears he was holding back started to fall silently down his cheeks. “They heard me at first meal talking about the aiwhas. They said I was pathetic. They said they didn’t know why you all humor me the way you do.”
Hunter frowned. “That’s not true. We aren’t humoring you. We like hearing what you have to say.”
Crosshair stared hard at the forlorn expression on his brother’s face and a flash of resolve settled on his features. “Let’s do it tonight, Hunter. We're ready.”
Tech looked up and swiped at his eyes with the back of his hand. “What are you talking about?”
“We’ve got a surprise for you,” Wrecker enthused. “But eat first. We’ll show you later.”
Tech ate quickly. He was anxious to return to the barracks and get to the bottom of his brothers’ mysterious behavior. When they got there, he watched with wide eyes as Hunter put his ear to the wall, listening as the vibrations of their home spoke to him. “We’re in luck. There are two of them there.”
“Two what? Where?”
“Yeah!” Wrecker yelled with a clap of his hands. “Plan Seven is a go!”
Tech put on his spare set of goggles and gave his brother a quizzical look. “Plan Seven?”
“Plans one through six didn’t get us where we needed to be without being caught,” Hunter explained with a proud smile. “You’ll see.”
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The lights-out tone for all fifth- and sixth-year cadets sounded just as the four boys slunk silently into the empty corridor. Tech’s brothers still would not reveal their destination to him, and he hoped it was worth the trouble they would all be in if caught out of bed.
His fears multiplied when he heard hushed voices coming from the hallway ahead of them.
“We should not be doing this, 5555. According to regulation—”
“Shhh. Nothing is more suspicious than you listing off which rules we’re breaking out loud! Just keep walking like everything is completely normal.”
Tech was surprised to see the five older boys from earlier as they rounded the corner. They recognized him as well, sending a collection of guilty grins and pleading glances to the group of younger cadets as they passed. They looked as nervous as Tech felt. It wasn’t until the other group was out of sight that Tech was able to let out a relieved sigh.
His brothers, on the other hand, were remarkably calm as they clambered into the ventilation grate Crosshair had noted on his datapad. Tech was amazed at the precision of this plan his brothers had come up with. Maps, codes, notes about Kaminoan movements—this plan of theirs, whatever it was, must have taken weeks.
After a few meters of crawling, three more corridors, one lift, and two near misses with wandering droids, the group surfaced from the last vent at their destination. Hunter, Crosshair, and Wrecker turned and watched as Tech emerged and took in his surroundings. The drop of his jaw when he realized where he was made them all smile. Tech momentarily forgot how to breathe as his eyes raked over the enormous aiwha landing bay, settling immediately on the two saddled aiwhas bobbing in the huge pool in front of him.
Hunter’s hand rested softly on Tech’s shoulder. “We’ve been trying to get in here without being caught for a while now. We made plan after plan, but only just found out how to get through the corridors and ductwork yesterday.”
“Wait. This is the reason you’ve all been getting into such trouble? You’ve been sneaking around for me? Creating this ‘Plan Seven’ of yours?”
“Well, yeah. We know how much these big beasties mean to you, so we've been tryin’ to work out a way to get you in here so you could check ‘em out!”
Tears sprung from Tech’s eyes for the second time that evening as he walked up to the tank and began stroking the vast muzzle of the animal in front of him. He couldn’t believe they had gone to all this trouble just for him. “I don’t know what to say, you guys.” He dried his eyes on the sleeve of his tunic and sent them a watery smile. “Thank you.”
The others stepped up to get a better look at the giant creatures as well. Tech pulled his eyes away from the tank and instead stared at their amazed faces, thinking. His mind began to work rapidly through everything he knew about his three kind brothers, and a satisfied smile slowly spread across his face.
“I have an idea for Plan Eight.”