Sending out Ripples

As Drexl started on his pushups, Alpha looked at the three trainees still standing upright. "When would it be appropriate to send one commando to complete a task?"

"Never?" Crisis ventured.

"Five laps," Alpha instructed. "If you don't know an answer, admit you don't know. Trying to guess is a waste of everyone's time. Commandos work best as a unit, but their survival instincts are strong. Remember, most of them were trained by a bunch of old Mandos. The only time you should send a single commando is if the rest of his squad is dead or captured. Otherwise, split them into two-man teams."

When he finished speaking, Alpha stared expectantly at the ARCs-in-training. They didn't speak. Alpha sighed and made an impatient gesture. "Full-kit sparring for the next hour, then drills until it's time to go. Parjii, you were the least disappointing today. You'll lead the drills."

Parjii nodded and the ARCs-in-training paired off to spar. You followed Alpha out of the immediate training area, where he was making notes on his training datapad.

You waited until he had finished typing before you moved a little closer. "Alpha, is… everything okay?"

He nodded without looking away from the screen. "Yeah, everything is fine."

"Are your cybernetics hurting you?"

Alpha lowered the datapad to peer at you. "No, my cybernetics are fine. Why are you asking about this, neverd'ika?"

You shrugged. "You were, uh… pretty harsh with the trainees back there. I was just thinking there might be another reason for it."

His expression went carefully blank. As far as sabaac faces went, Alpha's was one of the best. Even having known him as long as you had, you weren't sure you would have noticed the change if you hadn't watched it happen.

"I'm working with this group the same way I've worked with all of the others."

His tone made it clear that he wasn't open to more conversation, so you let it go without calling out the obvious lie. With everything he had been through, he deserved some peace to come to terms with things.

Alpha's stint in the medical facilities of Coruscant had stolen a lot of training time. He had missed the second half of his time with the ARCs-in-training he had been working with before he left, then an entire training group while he was having and recovering from cybernetics surgeries. Even this group wouldn't have a full six weeks with Alpha - you had gotten back on-planet halfway through their second week.

Baqin-Khaa, the bounty hunter assigned to take over for Alpha during his absence, had been thrilled to relinquish the responsibility as soon as Alpha was back on Kamino. Come to think of it, you weren't sure how the Codru-Ji bounty hunter had managed to communicate with the troopers he was training. He must have some kind of translation software that could relay his hypersonic communications into something that could be heard by humanoids…

Your comlink rang, pulling you from the mental trail you had been wandering down. You glanced at Alpha questioningly and he signaled for you to accept the call, turning his attention back to the sparring troopers.

"Hello?"

"Are you somewhere private?"

You frowned at the comlink, eyes flying to check the incoming transmission code. It was one of the Nulls, you recognized that much, but you didn't know which one.

"Should I be?" you ventured.

"Probably, privacy pucks or not. The kaminii are always watching."

There hadn't been a scoff, an insult to your intelligence, or a backhanded flirtation attempt, so you could rule out A'den, Ordo, and Mereel. Your caller knew about the privacy pucks, so it wasn't Kom'rk or Prudii. This had to be Jaing, then.

"Give me a moment and I'll get somewhere more private," you offered, starting back toward the ARC training area. The exit closest to the office you shared with Colt was across the large room. Plus, leaving in this direction meant that you could say goodbye to Alpha.

You offered a little wave to him as you passed, gesturing subtly to your comlink and turning your fingers into a zero at your side. Alpha nodded once in silent understanding. He had been paranoid enough about his continued position on Kamino that your return flight from Coruscant had been spent planning for a variety of possible situations.

One of the ARC trainees gave a sharp shout and you all turned to look at him. Stett was standing over Drexl, clearly having just knocked the other trooper to the ground.

"Very good, Stett," Alpha congratulated, voice dripping with sarcasm. "You got a point. No need to get the attention of the entire training room. This isn't a stealth mission, but you should save your air for when Drexl gets back up."

"You're just mad because you can't fight anymore."

You stopped short at that, staring wide-eyed at Alpha, whose expression had turned to durasteel. "One more time, trooper?"

Stett hesitated for a long moment, then seemed to regain his cockiness. "I think you were injured too badly to train us, Captain. I need to know I'll be an ARC who can fight his way out of a situation, not get beaten by the enemy and patched up by a sympathetic senator."

You physically took a step forward. Since Stett was barely shorter than Alpha and broad enough to need custom armor, you weren't sure what you were going to do. All you knew was that you were going to make him pay for saying that.

Alpha's voice came low and dangerous. "New plan, men. First, Stett and I are going to spar. Then we'll do a series of to-failure exercises. I'll participate alongside you. If anyone has doubts about my qualifications after that, we'll have a conversation."

"Alpha," you murmured, too softly to be heard by the room at large.

He heard you anyway, turning to send a tight smile your way. "You can keep your appointment, Liaison. This won't take long."

You straightened, playing the role of both the prior Republic administrator and Sentient Rights liaison in hopes that it would disguise your outright fury as a concerned partner.

In your most official-sounding voice, you glanced from him to the ARCs-in-training. Your narrowed eyes ended up firmly focused on Stett. "I'm sure, Captain, but I must express my disappointment in your trainees. Questioning your qualifications means they're doubting the GAR for appointing you as the only ARC trainer for the entire army. And expressing those doubts as a frankly insubordinate challenge to their training officer forces me to wonder if these men are legitimate candidates to become ARC troopers."

The others frowned or protested under their breath, but Stett only grinned wider. "Well, as far as I understand, ma'am… you don't work for the GAR anymore. You don't work for the Republic at all. Your opinion doesn't mean much."

Alpha's expression darkened as he turned back to face Stett. You stepped around Alpha so you could see the smug trooper. With a sweet smile, you said, "True, but I made many friends during my years of service in the Republic's government and in the GAR. I hope you have friends in equally high places, Stett. Something tells me you'll need them."

Stett opened his mouth, but Alpha interrupted before he could even start to speak. "Enough. We have a schedule to keep."

You gave them both a hard look, but eventually nodded. As you turned away, you said, "I'll leave you to it, Captain."

And then you walked away, certain that - if you stayed - you would start a fight with Stett yourself. But Alpha would be able to handle him. He had put so many cocky trainees in their place, there really was no need for concern. Even so, you weren't able to push the worry away entirely.

Alpha's cybernetic implants had finished healing about halfway through your trip back Kamino. You hadn't believed Alpha when he claimed that he was fully healed, but he met every marker Ransom had told you to watch for.

Since then, Alpha had been going without his cane for ever-increasing distances. He hadn't used the crutches since you both boarded the transport (Alpha complaining all the while about a droid carrying your luggage). Other than occasional twinges when a major lightning storm was about to hit the planet, he hadn't experienced any problems.

You still didn't love it that he was physically challenging ARCs-in-training. Stett didn't seem like the type to pull punches if beating Alpha meant he could save face. Admittedly, you didn't know the ARC trainee very well, but you didn't like him. Not when he had gone out of his way to be cruel.

Abruptly, you remembered the call you were on. "Jaing, are you still there?"

"Yes," he confirmed. "What was all of that about?"

You blew out a sigh. "I'm not sure. This group of ARC trainees is giving him more trouble than the others. I don't know if it's the injury and the cybernetics, but it's never been this bad before."

"Alpha sounds like he's being more of a shabuir than usual," Jaing reasoned.

"Yeah, he's being extra tough on this group." You nodded politely to a group of cadets you passed in the hall before replying, "I'm not sure if the cybernetics are bothering him or if it's something else, but he can't back down now."

"No, he needs to teach Stett to watch himself." Jaing was quiet for a moment. "Do you really think Alpha would have challenged Stett to a competition if the cybernetics were bothering him?"

"Alpha's a stubborn man."

Jaing snorted. "Understatement, verging on a lie."

"You asked the question, I just answered it," you defended. "Speaking of questions, why did you comm me?"

"Have you gotten somewhere private?"

"Almost, hang on." You punched in the code to you and Colt's shared office, relieved that he wasn't inside. He hadn't lied to you all those weeks ago - he really wasn't in the office often. This just happened to be an incredibly convenient time for him to be gone. "Okay, now I'm somewhere no one will overhear us."

"I've been working through Ko Sai's notes and I've hit a snag."

"A snag?" you repeated. "I thought you already figured out her code. That's how we got the instructions to find the notes, isn't it?"

"No, she used a different code for the notes." Jaing blew out a heavy sigh. "And another one for the raw data set in the notes, apparently. I deciphered some of the main notes, but most of the information about the Fett gene is in another style of code. Ko Sai's a paranoid chakaar."

You mused over that for a moment. "Do you think it's a code inside of a code?"

"I hope not. That would be much harder to crack. It may just be another style of code, one more suited to hiding large sets of raw data. At least, that's what I'm hoping it is." Then it was Jaing's turn to be quiet for a moment. "Was there anything suspicious in Ko Sai's private lab? Anything that stood out as strange?"

Unbidden, memories of the clone troopers of various ages floating in green-lit bacta tanks appeared in your mind. Suppressing a shudder, you said, "There was a lot of strangeness in Ko Sai's lab. Would there be something specific?"

"Something written," Jaing determined, relaxing your frayed nerves. Other than the ages of the experimental clone troopers, there hadn't been anything written out in Basic or Kaminoan in Ko Sai's lab.

"No, nothing that I remember." You went over as many details as you could in your mind's eye, but too much had happened since you stood in that lab. "Want me to go back and get Alpha? He can remember details better than I can."

"No, if he's going to be a shab, I'd rather not ask him for any favors."

You chuckled briefly, but grew serious a moment later. "Alpha hasn't been doing too well after Fives's death. I'm not sure if it's grief or guilt."

"Sorry I missed the aay'han." The apology was more sincere than you would have expected from any other of the Nulls, but Jaing was a little better socialized than his brothers. "I might actually look into Fives and everything that happened before he got to Coruscant. Everything I know about it seems strange. Maybe it'll give me an idea of where to start with deciphering these notes."

"I doubt that incident has anything to do with Ko Sai."

"Worth checking out anyway. I've found leads in stranger places," Jaing reasoned. "I'll let you know what I find out."

"Thank you," you replied reflexively. "Good luck."

"While I've got a good connection, you and Alpha need to be careful." Jaing's voice dropped a little lower - still audible, but barely. It was as if he was worried he would be overheard. "I'm seeing signs of big things moving in the background all through the Republic. There are major forces at play here, and the longer the war goes on, the more it looks like it's someone high up in the Republic power structure."

"A senator?" you asked. "Maybe one that benefits from the war. Kamino definitely does, but there are a dozen planets who have made new and lucrative supply deals with the GAR since the war started."

"Yeah," Jaing agreed absently.

You frowned at the desk in front of you. He sounded like the was doing something, only listening to you absently. If Jaing didn't really want to talk, you could go back to the ARC training area and keep an eye on things.

"You sound busy," you said, trying to keep the hope from being audible in your voice. "Do you need to go?"

"No." As you deflated, Jaing let out a soft snort. "Any reason the kaminii think you're yaihadla?"

You didn't recognize the word, per se, but you knew enough that your face burned with heat. Belly-full. Pregnant. Besides, the tone of Jaing's voice made it clear what he was reading. Somewhere, Tohu must made a note of his suspicions. The Nulls crawled through everyone's personal encrypted data the way you scrolled through a HoloNet article, so you couldn't be surprised that Jaing had found it.

"Baseless speculation, I would guess."

Jaing positively chortled. "You can't tell me you and Seventeen aren't getting the practice in."

You didn't think it was funny in the slightest. Even if you had, the memory of the cold terror you and Nora had shared on the turbolift down from Tohu's office would have made it far more serious. "We both know that evidence of a relationship with a civilian would be a death sentence for Alpha. I would never risk his safety like that - I just got him back. So, yes, I can guarantee that we're not trying for anything like that."

"Make sure you don't," Jaing agreed, all traces of the good humor that had filled his voice now disappeared. "I've been a variable in Kaminoan experiments before and I don't recommend it. An ik'aad would be bad for Alpha, but its life would be worse than the worst death."

"I know." You scrubbed a hand down your face, realizing abruptly how tired you were of all the subterfuge. "Trust me, I know how serious of a mistake that would be."

"As it happens, I've seen worse," Jaing remarked dryly.

You thought about asking, you really did, but eventually you decided that you didn't want to know. That seemed to be the safest option where the Nulls were concerned.

"Honestly, I'm a little worried that we're on their radar in the first place," you admitted. "Alpha and I have been careful, but if a senator who isn't even on-planet is supicious of us, we aren't being careful enough."

"Maybe, but maybe not." Jaing's explanation was slow in coming, as if he were thinking over the implications himself. "The Kaminoans have a genetically-managed society. They don't necessarily see procreation as something shared between two people for any reason other than passing on beneficial genes."

Sounding far less doom-and-gloom, Jaing continued, "I'd guess that they see you and Alpha together - even innocently - and start thinking about how his genes would combine with yours. His strength and that brain of yours? No wonder they're thinking about it."

"Thanks?" You shook your head, partially in amazement at where the conversation had led, but mostly because you didn't think that was correct. "I'm not so sure, though. If you had seen the way Tohu looked at me when he asked…"

"He asked you directly?" Jaing checked. When you confirmed, he sounded wary again. "That's not a good sign. I'll keep an eye on his personal datapad files. If he records something that's more than speculation or that shows the kaminii are taking an unhealthy interest in you and Alpha's 'friendship', I'll let you know."

"Really? That's-" You paused to collect yourself before you said something that was a little too honest to be considered polite. "Thank you, Jaing. I really appreciate it."

"You're welcome." Before the moment could get too sincere, Jaing snorted. "Not like it's hard to slice into Tohu's files. You'd think the Kaminoans would have learned secure data storage by now."

You laughed, letting him deflect. Jaing was uncomfortable with sincere thanks. You couldn't blame him for it - you had learned horrible things about the way that clone troopers had been raised in the Tipoca City training facility, but everyone had told you that the Nulls had been treated even worse.

To keep Jaing from feeling uncomfortable, you said, "I should go check on Alpha. Do you need anything else from me before I go?"

Despite your best efforts, there was a pause and you heard an odd sound. You waited, worried that you had offended hiim with your abrupt signoff. When he spoke, Jaing's voice held such a strong note of amusement that you knew he must have been trying not to laugh. "Sometimes I forget you're like this. No, I don't need anything else. If you do, you know how to get in contact."

And then he severed the connection before you could ask exactly what you were like sometimes. It was probably for the best - even as one of the more tactful Nulls, Jaing still could be uncomfortably direct.

It didn't take long to get back to the ARC training area, but training had already ended by the time you arrived. The troopers seemed more deferential as they left, each one offering Alpha a salute before they left. You cast a suspicious glance at Stett, but his salute was no less crisp than the other ARCs-in-training. He even gave you a brief smile on his way past. You didn't smile back, but you appreciated the gesture.

Alpha accepted their respect with stoicism, but he relaxed almost immediately when you were the only two left in the ARC area.

You smiled at him. "Looks like you won them over."

"Popularity is my most important goal," Alpha agreed sarcastically, rolling his eyes. "They need to be respectful. Beyond that, I don't care what they think of me."

"Still, they're treating you like a brother, like someone they can learn from," you pointed out. "That has to feel nice. Even if you are tougher on them than you have been on any of the other ARC groups."

Alpha grunted.

"But why?" you pressed. "Did you hear something about these ones from their COs? Are there new requirements? What changed?"

Alpha gave you a look, explaining slowly, "I've lost another ARC. That's two in the past year. I'm not willing to take any chances that this group will end up the same way."

Your stomach lurched at the reminder of everything both of you had lost. With how upset Alpha had been about Echo - lost in a random explosion - you could hardly be surprised that he would take Fives's death just as hard. After all, the two of you had been working with Rex to save Fives. You would never know how close you had come, but the tantalizing possibility of saving him had been real enough to hurt when it didn't happen.

"Oh," you said with a pang in your chest. "I'm sorry, Alpha. I wasn't thinking."

He shook his head, glancing away. "Let's go to the mess."

You slipped your hand into his, giving it a little squeeze as you bumped your shoulder against him. Doing anything more overt would be too risky, especially with the Kaminoans potentially watching you both, but he gave you the shadow of a smile anyway.

You were almost to the mess hall when you finally picked up something strange. Alpha always drew attention from the cadets - he was an experienced soldier who had completed missions with a Jedi. He had faced down one of the major players in the Separatist army multiple times and had just survived an assault from their most famous general. In every sense, he was someone the cadets looked up to.

But this was different, somehow. They were pointing and whispering in groups, some of the younger ones staring obviously when he walked past.

You planned to ask him about it when you had sat down with your food, but when you stepped into the mess, a cadet who looked almost fully grown stopped you.

"Captain Alpha-17, sir," he said, snapping immediately into a salute. "I want to congratulate you on the new record. Very impressive, sir."

You gave Alpha a befuddled look, but he simply stared down at the cadet in silence for a moment. "Heard about that already, did you?"

"Yes, sir! We all did." The cadet shook his head admiringly. "We could hardly believe it."

"It's a record, trooper," Alpha reminded him. "It's made to be broken. Your job is to try to be the next one to break it."

The cadet saluted again and walked away, joining a group of awestruck troopers roughly his own age group.

"So," you started, looking over at him, "a new record?"

"After Stett couldn't knock me down in sparring, I joined their to-failure exercises. They got the idea to make it some kind of competition." He gave a little shrug. "I won."

You beamed. "The cybernetics aren't slowing you down, then. Not as much as you thought they would."

Alpha blew out a breath, scrubbing a hand over his hair. "If I'm being honest, I was fading. I've gotten back in shape for the most part, but I still spent months in a medcenter bed. That muscle mass takes a while to get back."

"But you won," you said slowly.

"The cybernetics kicked in," Alpha admitted. "They didn't do all the work, but… it's hard to describe. What Ransom said, though… that's close enough. They work with my muscles, kick in some extra juice when I'm wearing down. I was almost to my failure point, but then it was like starting fresh again. I set a record, but… I'm not sure I should have. It wasn't all me."

You nodded slowly, trying to look past your bias toward Alpha to see both sides. "I understand, but it was you. This is your baseline now. Doesn't it make sense to see what your current to-failure rate is?"

"Of course, but that doesn't mean it should be the new record." Alpha frowned as the droid deposited a pile of nutrient mush onto his tray. "It's not something a standard trooper could achieve."

"You could say the same thing about your build, though," you pointed out. "You were 'engineered' to be bigger, taller, and stronger than the standard trooper. So any records set by the Alpha class aren't ones that a standard trooper can effectively compete with."

Alpha looked unconvinced. As you slid into a seat and he settled beside you, you grinned. "Or you could go tell Stett that your record shouldn't count because your cybernetics helped you."

"Kark that," Alpha said promptly. "I'll keep the record, cybernetics be damned."

When you burst out laughing at his disgusted look, Alpha simply cracked a smile. Still, you caught his hand under the table and his kama, giving it a squeeze.

You were so lucky to have him.

---

Author's Note - The character of Stett is lovingly dedicated to everyone who has ever complained in my asks about how I make all the clone troopers "too nice". You're right - statistically, some of them would be assholes. And not in the funny or commanding way we see canon troopers, like Wolffe, Colt, etc. I just hate writing characters that are truly assholes!

Anyway! This is coming to you with absolute minimal editing because it was supposed to be posted weeks ago and I couldn't get past the proofreading. Rather than make endless adjustments or rethink the plot a thousand (more) times, I'm just going to post it.

Now, probably unwelcome news: I'm not going to make up for the missed posting since there's a spicy chapter coming out immediately after this one. (I'll post it sometime in June 2026). The next SFW chapter will come out in July. I also still have to write the July chapter, which is why I'm not going to push it and try to post three times this month.

Weekly Themes

1. Cadet Week

A week dedicated to clone cadets

2. 212th Week

A week focusing on the whole of the 212th

3. Downtime Week

A week to focus on clones’s downtime

4. Remembrances Week

A week honoring brothers who have been lost

5. 501st Week

A week focusing on the whole of the 501st

6. No Order 66 Week

A week to imagine if Order 66 never happened

7. Deserters Week

A week focusing on the clones that deserted

8. Specialized Clones Week

A week dedicated to specialized clones

9. Bad Batch Week

Week focused on Clone Force 99

10. AU Week

A week to focus on the Alternate Universes in the fandom

11. Underrated Clones Week

A week to honor the clones often forgotten

12. Clones as Dads Week

A week to think about all the clones that took on fatherhood like their greatest mission

13. Squad Week