501st: An Imperial Commando Novel by Karen Traviss Page A

she’d still be alive after she did it, but there came a point where she couldn’t stall any longer, and she knew she’d reached it. Gilamar had her pegged. The Kaminoan tissue samples removed her last excuses. If she could understand the techniques that the Kaminoans used to engineer extended life, then she’d have most of the missing pieces of the puzzle.
    “Let’s get on with it, then,” she said. “If only I had some control samples of ordinary Kaminoan tissue.”
    Gilamar laughed. “I think we can manage that. Just don’t ask me how.”
    Uthan recalled what Skirata had said about Ko Sai, and thought of Jaing’s elegant gray gloves.
    And Jaing seemed such a charming young man, too. The more she knew of Mandalorians, the less she understood them.

3
    Good news. Niner’s okay, and so is Darman. Well, they’re both in good health, at least. Don’t say we never do you favors, Mereel—it took a lot of maneuvering to get that servicing work for the Imperial Army, and if you give us a little time, and make it worth our while, we can get you a secure link … 
    —Gaib, of Gaib & TK-0 Inc., high-tech bounty hunters—obscure data and hard-to-source hardware procurement a specialty
Landing pad, Imperial special forces HQ, Imperial City
    “S pook,” said Bry. “Definitely a spook.”
    Bry nodded in the vague direction of the Imperial agent walking toward the shuttle. The man’s name—if it was his real one, which Darman doubted—was Sa Cuis, and he didn’t look much like a holovid action hero.
    They never did. That was what made them dangerous.
    Darman watched him carefully, something he could do easily in a helmet with wraparound vision.
    “There’s no reason to brief us on the launch pad,” Ennen said. “We’re not short of time, and we’re definitely not short of troops now. So all this last-minute briefing means they don’t trust us not to leak stuff.”
    “Why, when we’ve been specially selected for this?” Niner stood with one boot on the ramp, looking impatientto leave. “The rest of the old commando brigade is on routine duties.”
    “Maybe,” Bry muttered, “we’ve been picked because Palps thinks we’re soft on Jedi and he wants to weed us out. Or that we know where they are. Because we got on well with some of the Padawans.”
    Darman didn’t want to talk about relationships with Jedi. “Why don’t you zip it and wait for the briefing?” he snapped. “Things leak and we know it. Jedi escaped. They had sympathizers. And anyway, there are guys in the unit who didn’t much like Jedi.”
    The two newcomers—Darman definitely saw them as outsiders coming into
his
squad—went quiet for a moment.
    “Just saying, that’s all.” Ennen sounded peeved. “What’s your problem, pal?”
    “I’m not used to serving with
shabuire.
”
    “Oh, yeah, you’re one of the Mando boys, aren’t you? All mouth. Knuckle-dragging savages.”
    Not all the commandos had been trained by Mandalorians. Jango’s handpicked sergeants included some
aruetiise
. Darman braced his shoulders for a fight, but Niner stepped between them.
    “Udesii
, Dar … take it easy.”
    “Yeah, he was trained by a Corellian. No wonder he sat the war out, painting his nails.”
    “
Whoa
. We never had divisions before, and we’re not going to have them now. Okay? Cool it, both of you—and you, too, Bry, ’cos I can hear you making
dissenting
noises.”
    Very little escaped the scrutiny of the helmet audio systems. Niner had always tried to be Sergeant Kal to his squad, and he slid right into the role now, smacking them back into line for their own good. Darman felt lost. He was torn between needing that solid sense of family and security that he got from being Mandalorian, and trying to forget what else went with it: a dead wife and a son he couldn’t be with.
    But that wasn’t happening to
him
. It had happened tosome other Darman. He hung on to that detachment to get through the day. At night,