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It was a dark and stormy night.
It was Kamino. The nights were always like that. As were the days for that matter. Nothing out of the ordinary there.
In the barracks of Clone Force 99 however, something was out of the ordinary. Hunter was on edge. That happened frequently enough, but not here in the one place on Kamino he always felt relatively safe. Every nerve in his body insisted that there was a presence in the room that was not supposed to be there. He could feel it. He could hear it. Once, he even persuaded himself that he saw it.
This went on for weeks. Sometimes, he was sure he was being watched as he attempted to sleep. It finally got to the point one evening after training where he felt he had to bring it up to the rest of the squad. “Have any of you heard anything strange in the barracks lately?”
“You mean other than that night when Wrecker tried to set a record of how many ration bars he could eat in five minutes?” Crosshair replied as he wrinkled his nose.
Wrecker laughed. “Yeah, I am NOT doing that again. That hurt later.”
“We all paid for that one later,” Echo clarified. “What are you hearing?”
Hunter sighed. “I’m not sure. It’s probably nothing. I was only bringing it up because I’ve been picking up on something for a few weeks now.”
“You should have said something sooner, Hunter,” Tech reprimanded. “You needn’t suffer in silence when you have all of us here to help you.” Hunter gave him a small smile. “Can you describe what you are hearing?”
That was the hard part. “Sometimes it’s a sound, or more of a vibration. I’m not sure if it’s enough of a vibration for you to hear it, but I can. I feel like there's something else in the barracks with us, and…”
“And?” Echo prodded.
Hunter shifted uncomfortably. “…and I saw something. There was a bluish light—there.” He pointed to the middle of the room. “I only saw it once, and I was half asleep at the time so I’m not even sure that was real, but I am definitely hearing something.”
“Does the sound seem to be coming from anywhere in particular?” Tech inquired as he reached for a scanner.
“I can’t tell, but it’s just here in the barracks. I’m not hearing it anywhere else.”
Tech picked up a scanner and began checking the room for stray vibrations. “I’m not picking up anything that would be causing a new sound. How often are you hearing it?”
“It comes and goes. There doesn’t seem to be any pattern to it.”
Wrecker’s eyes went wide as he put on his most mischievous grin. “Maybe we have a ghost!”
“Don’t joke, Wrecker. Not everyone makes it through their training here, now do they?” Crosshair supplied sinisterly.
Wrecker’s face turned serious, and he lowered his voice to a whisper. “I was just kidding. You don’t think it could really be a ghost, do you? Some dead cadet or something?”
“You’re being crazy,” Echo chided. “Something has changed and Hunter’s senses are getting it. That’s all it is. If there were really a ghost, Wrecker, it would be messing with all of us, not just Hunter.” Wrecker seemed satisfied with his assessment and took a deep breath.
“I will set up sensors around the barracks to search for abnormal vibrations,” Tech informed Hunter with a hand on his shoulder. “We will soon get to the bottom of what is troubling you.”
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A week passed. Hunter heard no more of the disturbance, and Tech’s sensors detected nothing out of the ordinary. Hunter started to feel foolish for bringing it up to his brothers at all. It seemed that the moment he mentioned it, the problem resolved itself.
“What the—KRIFFING HELL!” Crosshair yelled later that very night, rolling from his bed and grabbing a nearby hand blaster simultaneously. The others sprang from their bunks and turned on every light in the barracks. “Damned blue light right there at the end of my bunk! It was moving toward me!”
“There’s nothing there, Cross,” Tech confirmed as he scanned the length of his bunk. “Perhaps you were experiencing a dream suggested by Hunter’s earlier mention of a blue light.”
Crosshair narrowed his eyes and stepped closer to Tech, pointing back to his bunk with a crazed look in his eye. “I was wide awake! It had a face, Tech! What the hell was it?” Tech took a step back. He had never seen Crosshair so unhinged.
“I have no idea. I will continue to run scans.”
Crosshair spent the rest of the night in full armor sitting against the wall in the corner between Tech’s bunk and Echo’s hammock, rifle in hand as he attempted to rest. He would have left the barracks and slept on the Marauder were it not for the fact that his brothers were still there. He was not about to leave them with whatever that was.
None of them slept after that. Seeing Crosshair display that level of fear had them all on edge. Crosshair’s eyesight was Grand Master Jedi level. He saw something, and that was reason enough to be worried. It got worse when Hunter said he was hearing a low hum again. Echo was feeling it, too—something to do with his cybernetics. Tech walked all around the room scanning every surface, but could not determine where the disturbance was coming from.
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The next three evenings were silent. There were no mystery noises from the barracks, and very few noises from the men. Hunter had said the disturbances were an on and off occurrence, and they were all listening for it to happen again. A false sense of security began to settle over them and they slept longer as each night progressed. Three nights stretched to four. Four stretched to five. They were all sleeping soundly by the sixth night.
BANG!!
Wrecker scrambled awake so quickly, his head broke the lighting panel overhead before he tumbled to the floor. “Aaaggghh! What the heck was that?”
“Karking hell!” Echo fared just as badly with the sudden noise, getting his scomp arm badly tangled in his hammock. “Oh, great. A little help here?” Tech made it out of his bunk without breaking or becoming entangled in anything, which was surprising given that the area around his bed was more wire-littered than usual, and made his way over to untangle him.
“Look!” Echo screamed out suddenly. They all turned to the spot by the window where his free hand was pointing. There it was, as clear as it could be—a face. The image lasted for only a couple of seconds, but this time they all saw it.
“That does it. I’d rather sleep with the regs than stay here and be haunted,” Wrecker announced, grabbing his pillow and blanket.
Tech stared at the space where the blue face had appeared. Echo gave him a sour look as he continued to detangle himself solo. “What is going on here? Did some kind of creature hitch a ride on one of the shuttles? Something bioluminescent?”
“There are no life forms present other than the five of us.” Tech insisted. He turned as he heard the door open and saw Wrecker retreating into the hall with his bedding. “Four of us,” he clarified with a shake of his head. “I do not know what is happening.”
Hunter and Crosshair exchanged a look. They had both seen the face very clearly.
It was a clone.
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Wrecker only reluctantly returned to the barracks the next night because the others had come up with a plan in his absence. They were now effectively on a mission. They agreed to alternate keeping watch in two-hour shifts while the others slept. Whoever was on guard would be in full kit with HUD recorders set to record with every sensor they had available. Somehow, they were going to figure this out.
Hunter took the first watch. Tech took the second. Wrecker, the third. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. No noises, no faces, no anything. Three more nights went by. While they were certain they would catch the strange occurrence eventually, one thing they were not catching was enough sleep. Crosshair, in particular, was testier than usual. He did not do well with a lack of sleep, and the face he had seen kept invading his dreams.
Finally, on the fourth night of keeping watch, Echo saw some action. The bluish light returned. There was no face in it, but he saw it all the same, along with the strange vibratory sound. Both the light and the sound seemed to be coming from the center of the room. He didn’t move. He would have liked to have said he was remaining still to get the best possible recording for Tech to analyze later. The truth was not something he wanted to admit as a hardened soldier. He couldn’t move. He watched as the light fizzled out and shortly thereafter so did the low vibratory sound. When he once again had his wits about him, he walked over to the center table near where he had seen the light. He grabbed Tech’s scanner from where he had left it on table, then climbed up onto it.
“Whatcha got, Echo?” Wrecker wondered as he groggily joined him at the table.
Echo pointed the scanner at the ceiling. “I’m not sure, but I think I know why Tech wasn’t finding anything on his scans. He never scanned up.” He continued scanning the ceiling as the others slowly awoke and made their way over. “There is something up there. I’m reading a slight vibration from right there in the ventilation return. It’s fading out. Huh. It’s gone now. Hey, Wrecker, mind giving me a boost?”
“Sure thing.” He hopped onto the table and hoisted Echo onto his shoulders. Tech passed up a torch. Echo pried off the vent cover and tossed it down to Hunter. He slowly lifted the torch to the empty space, and when he saw nothing he lifted his cybernetic arm. With a deep exhale and a quick look down at his squad, he lifted his torch and his head to whatever was dwelling in their ceiling.
“What the—there’s a droid up here!” He reached into the vent shaft and hooked his hand and the end of his scomp arm under the droid’s arms and pulled. With a tremendous grunt, he pulled the droid down and lowered it to Wrecker’s waiting hands. Wrecker dropped it down to Tech and Hunter, who set it onto the table. Crosshair passed the vent cover back up to Echo, and then they all got down to gather around their silent guest.
“This is an AZ-series surgical assistant droid,” Tech offered.
Crosshair rolled his eyes. “We know that, Tech. We’ve all been around these things more times than we can count. Why was it in the ceiling?”
“We can ask that after its power cells have been recharged. This droid’s charge is at 1%. That is not enough to access its data.” He pulled a long cable from near his bunk and plugged it into the back of the droid. “It has also had its photoreceptors disabled for some reason, but I can easily start them up again.”
“Is 1% enough to activate its holoprojector?” Hunter wondered. “That could explain why I was seeing a blue light here in the middle of the barracks.”
Tech nodded. “AZ droids are able to deplete their power cells all the way down to zero so that they may continue to help their patients for as long as possible. This one may have been receiving a slight charge from the power conduits that run along the ventilation shaft. Once the droid reached any amount of charge at all, it automatically attempted to power up and its holoprojector came on, hence the blue light shining through the vent and the faint sound of its repulsors momentarily powering on.”
“Ha! I can’t believe our ‘ghost’ was a droid!”
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A short time later, the droid’s pale-yellow photoreceptors flickered back to life, and it began to hover over the table. “I-I-I am charged! I am charged!” the robotic female voice exclaimed. “This is wonderful!” She headed for the door, but Hunter blocked her path.
“Not so fast. You owe us some answers.”
“I am needed in the medbay. I have been gone for far too long. The doctors will be requiring my assistance,” she explained.
“You can go after you tell us what you were doing above our barracks.”
“Some cadets took me from the medbay and attempted to reprogram me. They wanted me to give them the tattoos their trainers said they were too young to have. I do not think the reprogramming was successful. I remember being unable to move or see, and when they were afraid of being caught they placed me into the ventilation shaft. I lost all power for a time. I was able to regain power in small increments and slowly made my way here. How long have I been out of service?”
“You got caught on some cabling up there," Echo informed her. "We’ve been hearing you for weeks. Who knows how long you were traveling through the ventilation system before that.”
“Oh, my. I have been gone for so long. Thank you for charging me. I will be leaving now.” She hovered swiftly to the door and headed back in the direction of the medbay.
Crosshair threw himself back onto his bunk and slung an arm over his eyes. “Four hours until we prep for Felucia. I will stun anyone who wakes me in that time.” The rest chuckled and settled back into their bunks as well. As the excitement slowly wore off, they drifted one by one into the soundest sleep they had found in weeks.
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The soft hum of the Marauder’s hyperdrive soothed the tired men of the Bad Batch after the grueling mission. Three days of nearly nonstop fighting on Felucia had taken its toll, and they were exhausted. Tech volunteered for first watch in the cockpit. He was tired as well, but he was also eager to further examine some fungi and a couple of flowers he had pocketed while they were there.
A soft banging sound interrupted his thoughts. At first, he thought he imagined it. When he heard it again, he turned his chair expecting to see some part of Wrecker hitting the wall in his sleep. What met his eye instead was a blue light hovering close to his chair—a light with the unmistakable face of a clone.
“Um, guys?”