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Chapter Text

Star Wars: The Bad Batch

In Secret

by Gabrielle Lawson

"You have not taken a step since you were taken by Dr, Hemlock," AZI reminded Tech.

"Since I fell," Tech corrected. AZI seemed to read his emotions better than Omega and his brothers. Probably because AZI didn't have any expression whatsoever. AZI's programming helped him read even minute ones on people. That or Tech had expressed his frustration more openly than he thought.

Things hadn't progressed as fast as Crosshair had suggested. When he returned from Pantora, he was only just beginning to feel anything below his waist. Two weeks later, he could apply some resistance if someone else was, for example, bending his leg at the knee. He mastered standing for about ten seconds at four weeks.

Seven weeks now, and he was trying to balance on one leg while trying to move his other foot forward. He did, sloppily. Hunter and Wrecker were on either side of him, making sure he didn't fall over. Clearly, Crosshair had been overconfident in Tech's mind being able to overcome his body.

It was frustratingly slow. Even still, he was overall happy with the fact that he was improving. As AZI had said, this was his first step since the fall and his capture by Hemlock.

The second step was fifteen percent less sloppy, though his balance had tilted nearly seven degrees. His brothers weren't allowed to hold him up. They were only to prevent a fall. And Tech dared to hope he was done falling.

"The goal for today," AZI stated, "is to walk to the tree."

The point in AZI's earlier statement was that Tech's muscles had weakened without use. Tech could feel that in the instability of his ankles. He righted himself and took another step. They were small steps thus far. Weakness made things feel heavy. Lifting a leg more than a few centimeters off the ground was tiring. At this rate--he took another step--it would take 153 more steps to reach the tree.

Well, one made oneself stronger through resistance. To that end, strength training was after the morning meal. Movement was after the midday break. Evenings were in the bay. There was both less and more resistance in the water. If he moved to fast, the water tried to block the movement. His legs, however, weighed less in the water, so exercise was easier overall.

He was a quarter of the way across the plaza. Omega and Phee were waiting with smiles on their faces. Tech tried a bigger step, putting the forward foot all the way in front of the still foot. He managed to have his heel match the base of the still foot's toes. An improvement, though not to the point of his effort. Still, that had reduced the remaining steps to 124.

"A somewhat wider stance will provide more stability," AZI suggested.

Two directions at once. Tech concentrated, trying to force his conscious mind down below his spinal column and past the device to his legs. He shifted his weight to the forward foot and lifted his back foot, bringing it beside the other. He then moved it outward roughly ten centimeters and settled his weight between both feet. He was steadier already.

Tech decided maybe he needed to stop letting his mind wander and apply physics. In walking, one's weight and balance shift from foot to foot fluidly. One foot must balance all as the other is lifted, but some weight moves forward as the forward foot moves and meets the ground. Then the weight shifts to that foot, moves forward to the other and so on.

He moved one foot, moving his balance forward as he set his foot down. But then, he realized that he hadn't managed to lift his back foot to the point of its launch forward. And that caused him to list fifteen degrees to that side. Righting himself was not easy. He had to push against Wrecker with his arms, but he didn't fall.

"Nice try," Hunter whispered close to his ear, "but I don't think you're quite there yet."

Perhaps continuous stepping was a stretch. Halting, unsteady steps would still cross the distance.

Omega stood and walked up to him--as if it was the easiest thing in the galaxy. "Did you ever watch the toddler clones back on Kamino?"

Wonderful, Tech thought. He had reverted to a toddler. He nodded. "I walked past the créche four times. Their weight was too far forward, for one thing."

"It kept them stepping or they'd fall." She became thoughtful, "Though you were the first of your brothers to figure it out. My point is that toddlers don't wait for perfection. They were just happy to be up and moving."

"I see your point," Tech admitted. Sloppy and halting it was then. He took another step, balanced himself, then took the next.

It took another sixteen minutes to reach the tree, and his legs felt a bit like rubber when Wrecker lowered him to the grass. Phee handed him a glass of water, and he drank it up rather quickly. "Baby steps," she teased, having heard the whole conversation with Omega.

AZI sounded cheerful. "You have made excellent progress today."

Hunter noted the ship just coming through the clouds. He ran to the Marauder to run a scan and smiled when it had finished. He exited and waited to greet Echo as he landed.

The ship sat down and the hatch opened. Hunter waved at Echo who waved back. "You've gone native, I see," Echo teased.

Hunter harrumphed it a playful way. "Most days. But Omega still wants to adventure now and then. I was hoping Crosshair might be with you."

"And I was hoping to see Tech," Echo replied. "How is he doing?"

Hunter led Echo to a bench so they could sit. "I think he's in water therapy for the moment. He'll be at dinner though. He's finally starting to walk."

Echo leaned back. "Starting, you say? Well, I suppose Gregor wins the bet."

"Bet?" Hunter turned to better look at him.

"Crosshair bet he'd be walking in a week. Rex figured it was more than a cycle. There was a whole pool--everyone who knows Tech or 'the man inside.' Those who knew him like that had a varied view, given Tech's long game on Tantis."

Hunter leaned back and shook his head. "Did they not factor in the cycles he spent recovering before the surgery. His muscles had atrophied. What was your bet?"

"I didn't have one," Echo answered. "If it was only up to Tech's mind, it would be sooner, but it was more up to the device in his back and the atrophied muscles. Making it later. He'd walk when he walked."

Hunter nodded. "Wise bet. Crosshair still shooting lieutenants?"

"Lieutenants, sergeants, colonels, whoever he needs to. He's definitely an asset to our cause. However, the more clashes we have, the stronger the response from the Empire. We've lost more than we've rescued. Clones are being forced out of their positions as more humans are being trained to replace them. Always humans. Seems they don't favor diversity."

Hunter shook his head. "I'm not surprised. Our adventures include helping families who've been pushed out their homes on their planets because an Imperial was set to take over. Some are hostile enough to charge their predecessors with crimes and then lock them up. We get them out, Tech forges new identities, and then we take them someplace to start over."

"Risky," Echo commented.

"Yeah, but we've learned to be more covert," Hunter reassured him.

Echo raised an eyebrow in disbelief. "Wrecker, covert?"

Hunter chuckled. "No, he stays around here most of the time. It started with carrying Tech around. Then it was helping to rebuild from sea surge and expanding the island for new residents or facilities. He's the muscle." He grinned. "And the ladies do love to watch."

"Speaking of rebuilding and expanding," Echo said. "I don't think I ever got a full tour of your island when I was here last."

Hunter stood. "Well, you're at the top. We'll work our way down."

AZI had dried him fairly well, but Tech still felt damp. He really wanted to walk and run again, to have the same strength he'd had before the fall, the skills he'd had during the war and right after. Even if he was ready to not be a soldier anymore. Not a soldier but not entirely out of the fight. He knew Hunter and Omega took on rescue missions that Phee identified. And she had her own missions still, finding artifacts for Pabu's residents.

He still wanted to help in other ways, and he had thought about that while he had laid in the shuttle recovering, and in his downtime from physical therapy. Ending the afternoons in the water was relaxing. Once he was out and dry, his time was his own. And that was even more relaxing.

When Phee was away, he was usually alone, tinkering on something he was working on. If he could get a connection to Imperial bases while here on Pabu, he could cause some mischief and possibly help the clones. He'd asked Phee and Hunter to keep a look out for certain scrap components he could work with. He had a prototype transponders very nearly completed. He also spent some time thinking about improvements to the island, calling on his memories of Tapoca City for reference.

When Phee was home, she usually met up with him in the hours before dinner. She'd tell him about her adventures with her usual exaggerated flair. He found it entertaining. It was more exciting the way she told her stories. They'd discuss the different planets they'd visited. They'd talk about other things as well, such as her life before becoming a pirate, and his before they'd met. She was particularly interested in his childhood. While he remembered most of it, Omega filled him in on the earliest bits. They talked about what life might be like after the Empire, if it could ever be defeated.

He knew she loved him, as she'd told him so. He also spent time trying to decide if he loved or could love her back. He did find himself looking forward to their discussions. He enjoyed his time thinking and tinkering, but he did sometimes feel a bit alone. Did that mean he missed her when she was gone? Perhaps.

Sometimes during those alone times, he pondered why exactly she loved him. He often saw some women watching Hunter for his looks. They watched Wrecker for his muscles. No one but Phee had ever looked at him that way. Not being as attractive as Hunter, nor as strong as Wrecker, or having weaker eyesight then Crosshair had ever bothered him. They each had unique advantageous defects that made their squad the best at what they did. He was never concerned with his looks. His mind was his defect.

Was that it? Was she drawn to his mind? He thought differently than everyone else he knew. His mind found connections faster than others. He analyzed different solutions to equations or problems and deduced the right solution while others were still asking the question. That had been very useful as a soldier. It still was as an engineer or architect of the reconstruction and even an inventor. And it definitely was of great use on Mount Tantiss.

But relationships and feelings were not as objective as facts and figures and situations. They weren't logical. They were subjective and difficult to compute. Starting with the relationships he'd had all his life, he knew he loved his brothers. He would, and nearly did, die for them. He'd grown to accept Echo as a brother, even if they annoyed each other often. Omega was an oddity at first, a child with wide-open feelings. But he'd grown to feel a need to protect her, to teach her. The fact that he loved her hadn't so much registered with him until Nala Se told him that jumping after her without hesitation was an act of love. He did love her. She was his sister, and oddly older than him at her young age.

He remembered when Omega asked him why he didn't care about Echo being gone. In hindsight, he could admit it had been asked in an accusatory tone. But he had taken it as a valid question and given her an honest answer. And that one statement had changed her mood. Their relationship grew stronger.

Did Phee feel that way? Did she like that he was nearly always honest? He didn't exaggerate or tell his stories with her flair. She was caring and brash and flirtatious and made even the mundane seem exciting. He was logical and didn't emote openly. Her flirts had missed him completely at first. But he recognized them now. She didn't flirt with the others. She never had. So perhaps her first attraction was that he didn't know she was flirting. They were opposites. That seemed to be what worked for her. Perhaps someone with the same exaggerated flair would have felt like competition.

Now that he did recognize when she was flirting, he found he enjoyed it. Maybe because she only did it with him.

Omega hugged Echo as soon as she saw him. She and Lyana had been out on her boat that afternoon. Shep welcomed them all to dinner. Omega sat next to Echo and asked about how the clone rebellion was doing. He told her it wasn't the best discussion for dinner and he'd catch her up later.

Hunter was already seated, and Wrecker wasn't far behind. Phee was away on one her missions, so the only one missing was Tech. Shep had just finished setting all the food out when Tech arrived. He had a spot near the end of the table for his chair.

"It's good to see you again, Echo," Tech said. "Are you here long?"

"I can stay a few days," Echo told him.

The conversation picked up and Wrecker joined in boisterously, but Omega was only halfway listening. Tech seemed distracted, pensive even. And he wasn't holding his tablet. He stayed quiet and out of the conversation as he ate. Omega hoped he wasn't depressed again. He'd made so much progress already, and Echo was back. These were good things. She left her seat to sit by him. "Lost in thought?" she whispered.

"In thought, yes," he whispered back, "but not lost in it."

"Without your tablet?"

Tech turned to face her. "Not that kind of thought." His eyes softened. "Do not be concerned. I'm merely reflecting on certain past experiences."

"Then you're alright?" she pressed.

"I assure you I am fine."

She squeezed his hand and he squeezed back. Then she went back her seat beside Echo and tried to catch up on the conversation.

"I didn't just come to visit," Echo was saying. "We've managed to acquire a good amount of scrap tech from our raids. I thought Tech might like to see what he could make with it."

Omega watched Tech as he popped out of that reflection. "What kind of scrap tech?" he asked.

"All kinds," Echo told him. "Communications, propulsion, a full computer comparable to the one in the Marauder. Needs repair though. "We can go through it after dinner."

Tech pulled out his tablet and plugged it into his port. Omega chuckled. Now it was that kind of thinking, and that could only be good.

Echo didn't have everything on his ship. The computer was there, as were several containers of smaller components. Tech was excited. He told Echo about his prototype transponder and what he wanted to do with it.

"You'd need someone to slip your transponders into Imperial computers," Echo told him. "I suppose we'd have to add that sort of mission. What do you think you could do from there?"

"Supplies," Tech replied. "I still haven't worked out all the logistics. But I hacked nearly every requisition that went out of Mount Tantiss since he hooked me up. I could add things here and there. I haven't yet worked out how we get those supplies to Rex or here to Pabu. We'd need a neutral depot but a valid one to the Empire. Then we could just go in and get our supplies from there. Barton IV would work, except that it's been decommissioned. Unless those supplies come in unmanned transports, someone would have to be there to accept the supplies from the transport's crew. Someone official."

"We might be able to manage that," Echo offered. "Crosshair said there was a crate of stormtrooper armor out in the snowfields. It was lost in an avalanche. If we could find it, we could get a couple clones to man the base. Could you make it look recommissioned?"

"I'll give it some thought."

"Crosshair also mentioned it was incredibly cold on Barton IV."

"Insulated undergarments then," Tech replied, adding it to his tablet.

Echo brought up another issue. "The natives there might not like seeing an Imperial presence again. They attacked the base quite often when it was up and running."

"We could get them supplies, too," Tech suggested. "Starting with food. Perhaps that would open a dialogue so we could better know their needs."

"This is sounding promising" Echo commented. "I'll get Wrecker to carry everything. Here's a list of the bigger scrap." He handed Tech another tablet. "Let us know if it's anything you can use and we'll get it here."

Tech looked over the list and his thoughts started racing. He was still tapped into his tablet, and he starting listing possible projects.