Project Boussh: What the Droid Saw by Durandir "I don't sense them," Corran said. Becki glanced quickly at the Jedi pilot behind her. Only his height (being closer to hers than that of any of the others in the team) and the lightsaber clipped at his belt allowed her to distinguish him from the other two men following her, now that all of them save Tede were wearing the white armor recently pilfered from the useful-in- sleep squad of stormies. She was still having some difficulty seeing out of the odd helmet, not to mention that even the shortest of the sleeping squad had still been enough taller than her that his armor made for a terrible, uncomfortable fit. Still, she suspected that she was having an easier time of it than Fir. None of the sleepers had come near the Mendellian's great height, and tight-fitting armor had to be even worse than loose. But at least, with Tede in his officer's getup and the rest of them hidden behind the white anonymity of these helmets, they ought to draw less attention when they reached more populated areas of the ship. "Don't sense them as in they're not here, on this ship?" she asked Corran. "Or don't sense them as in..." "As in, wherever they are, the ysalamiri must be there too," Corran explained. "You can tell where the ysalamiri are?" Tired of trying to turn her head in this getup, she dropped back to walk beside Corran. "Sort of, by the gaps in the Force wherever the ysalamiri are affecting it. Force-free bubbles." "And the people we're supposed to be rescuing are in one of those bubbles." Corran nodded. Becki frowned, trying not to think about needles in bubble-shaped haystacks, wondering what to do. Something didn't seem right, something about... Whatever it was, she couldn't place it. "Well, then," she said, "we'll just have to search the bubbles. At least that narrows down the area we've got to cover. Assuming that these bubbles don't extend throughout the whole ship. They don't, do they? There are gaps?" Corran's expression slackened a moment as he reached out through the Force again. "No, they don't," he answered. "In fact, although they're somewhat spread out over certain regions, it seems that most of the ysalamiri are concentrated in a few areas...mostly aft. Aft of our position, and up." "Up?" She considered that a moment. "The bridge?" "I'd say there'll be plenty of them there," Corran nodded. "For one thing, rumor has it that Thrawn liked to surround himself with them, to maintain a Force-buffer zone wherever he was." "When he was dealing with C'baoth," she nodded. "For security against crazed Jedi Ma--" She broke off, suddenly realizing what hadn't seemed right before. "What?" Corran asked as she fell silent. "Security," she repeated, "against Jedi. Why does he even have the ysalamiri now?" "Why? What do you mean?" "He doesn't have any Jedi aboard, does he? Unless of course," she rolled her eyes, but naturally he couldn't see that behind the helmet, "the Thrawn-clone has another C'baoth-clone with him, heaven forbid. Anyway, the ysalamiri made sense before because he did have a Jedi aboard--Vickie. But she's not aboard now, she escaped, and he has to know that, I mean, he's Thrawn, or something like Thrawn anyway. None of the other prisoners are Force-sensitive, are they?" She glanced over at Corran uncertainly. "I don't think so. At least, I have no reason to suspect that any of them are." "Then why does he still have the ysalamiri in place? It's not for security against you; he'd have to expect you'd be flying, not inside the Addy with us. Vickie's gone, also flying--" "Right," Corran put in. "I can sense *her* now, in fact." His voice sounded a little odd--concerned, confused--but Becki hardly noticed at that moment. "--so who are the ysalamiri for?" "Maybe they just haven't had time to remove them," Tede smiled back at her. "There is a battle going on, you know." "Yes, but..." She shook her head. "I suppose so. But it still just doesn't seem right to me." She had to admit that there were plenty of logical explanations for the ysalamiri's presence. But her intuition, at the moment, was not easily yielding to her logic. There was a noise from beside her then, and she looked down to see Whistler roll past. The little droid darted out in front of her, hooting urgently. Becki stopped just in time to avoid tripping over him. "Whoa," she laughed, more from surprise than amusement. "You're nearly as underfoot as Macavity today, Whistler." Whistler answered with another quick series of beeps, and Becki looked uncertainly to Corran. "What's up with him?" "I'm not sure," said Corran, dropping to one knee to look more closely at the droid. "I think he's trying to tell us something." If he was, and if the general tone and rapidity of the communication were any indication, it seemed likely to be something rather urgent. "Can you tell what he's saying?" Becki asked Corran. "Sometimes, with phrases he uses a lot, but this doesn't sound at all familiar. Whistler--" "Vickie," Tede interrupted. "What?" Becki looked up at their guide in surprise. "Whistler said Vickie's name. I caught that much. I couldn't make out the rest." Fir and Fenya now joined the rest of them in crowding round the animated little astromech. "Vickie?" Fir asked. "The lady of your people who is a Jedi, Becki?" "Um, unless Whistler knows any other Vickies," she shrugged. "Not Vickie," Tede said. "What?" she asked again, confused at this sudden reversal. "Now he says 'Not Vickie'. I'm not sure what he's trying to get across. Whistler, you are making no sense. Speak more slowly." Whistler's reply to that seemed, to Becki, to carry a definite note of exasperation. She grinned and asked Tede, "How is it that you can understand him, anyway?" "I'm programmed for it. But only a little. I am not a protocol droid, after all, and my linguistic component is minimal. And then this particular astromech speaks with a most peculiar accent. I cannot make out most of what he says." The humans in the group chuckled as Whistler responded to Tede's assessment of him with a rather rude-sounding blatt. "Never mind, Whistler," Corran said. "Just tell him what's so important to you to say--slowly and clearly, please." For several moments, Whistler did so, chirping and chittering and beeping and whistling while Tede listened, his expression betraying no clue of what message the smaller droid was conveying in that odd accent. At last Tede shook his head. "It makes no sense. He says 'Vickie' and 'Not Vickie' and several other things, but there is no sense in it." Whistler let out a long, perplexed hoot, and then launched once again into his pronouncement. After a moment, Tede held out a hand to stop him. "Wait. Say that again." Whistler did, and though the sounds came more slowly this time, the others found it hard to determine whether he was repeating a series that he'd already used or simply saying something new but slower. But Tede nodded calmly. "I see now. You do use the oddest verbal forms, Whistler." "What did he *say*?" Becki urged. "He says 'Vickie is not Vickie.' He seems to be referring to the individual Corran has sensed flying in the dogfight near the Admonitor. Whistler says this is not Vickie." "What?!" Becki exclaimed yet again. "Not Vickie? But I--" Corran began, then trailed off, frowning as he focused on the Force again. In the meantime, even while the others were speaking, Whistler launched into yet another long speech, more urgent than before. Tede shook his head, trying to keep up, but apparently he had gotten the hang of Whistler's verbal forms by now. After a few seconds he looked up again and said, "It is not entirely clear, but it seems that, before we left Mendellia, Whistler observed something about Vickie to suggest that she is an imposter." "But how could that be?" Becki frowned. She herself had never met the Terran Jedi before that morning, but the others in Terra Group who had--even Wedge himself, who had spent hours as Vickie's fellow captive aboard this very ship--had seemed to have no doubt that Vickie was Vickie. "I can still sense her," Corran said, his voice sounding confused behind his helmet. "I'm sure it's her, and yet--something isn't right. Her sense is familiar, but there's something very wrong about it." "Well, if it's not Vickie flying out there," Becki mused, "then where *is* she, and who is flying? And if it is Vickie flying, then what's wrong about her sense, and what's up with Whistler? And if--Oh, dear." "What?" the rest of them urged in unison. "Well, discounting the possibility that clone-Thrawn has a clone- C'Baoth on the Addy with him, and I'd just as soon we *did* discount that possibility, there's still the puzzle of the ysalamiri--why'd he even bring them to Terra in the first place, for one thing. But if you add to that the puzzle of Eugor Atner's cloning project..." "And add to that," Corran caught on, "Thrawn's technique of using ysalamiri to speed up the cloning process..." "And of course," Becki continued, "if Eugor got his cloning cylinders from Thrawn, as no doubt he did, since he surely didn't get them the same place he got his droids, which is to say, he didn't get them anywhere on Terra..." "Then what are the chances," Corran said, "that Atner's cloning cylinders weren't the only ones Thrawn brought to this system? That there are more of them..." "Right here on this ship," Becki nodded. "Sithspit," Corran grumbled. "Well, that would explain all the ysalamiri on board." "Oh, dear," Becki muttered. "What if it also explains Whistler's theory about Vickie?" This prompted an excited burst of whistles from the little droid. Becki wondered briefly whether he was agreeing with her, or disagreeing, or simply trying to say that it was not a theory but a fact. Tede settled that question for her. "Whistler says--if I am correctly paraphrasing certain rather colorful idioms he uses--that you are on to something." "So the imposter must be--" "A clone," Corran nodded. "I think you're right. That would be why her sense in the Force feels so odd to me." "Land sakes, what next?" Becki sighed. "Why on earth would Thrawn clone Vickie?" "There is another thing," Fir spoke up. "If the Vickie who escaped to us is a clone, mightn't we assume that Vickie herself has not left the ship?" "Oh. You're right. So now we have five people to rescue." "And I still only sense one Vickie," Corran said. "Presumably the clone." "Also," said Tede, "Vickie won't be the only person Thrawn has cloned, I expect. No doubt our enemy has surprises in store for us." Becki nodded. "Of course he does. What fun would it be if he didn't? Well, then, let's see if we can't guess what some of those surprises might be--but while we're moving, please. Aft and up--that's where the Force-bubbles are, so that's our route for now. Tede?" Tede nodded, and they set out again, drawing ever nearer to those Force-free bubbles wherein, if their guesses were correct, would be waiting five allies and any number of surprises.