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Officers’ Mess, GAR Base, Coruscant
Senna figured she ranked third on the unspoken list of clone trustworthiness. Their own brothers came first, although that was contrary to the Kaminoans’ design. If asked, they would say that they trusted their Jedi generals implicitly. After all, they had been created to fight in the Jedi’s war, to die at the Jedi’s command.
After their brothers and generals came Senna, at least by her calculation. They’d either known her their entire lives or at least known of her. They’d walked past her in the white halls of Tipoca City, a strange, singular non combatant amongst the population of clones and bounty hunter training sergeants. She was no Jedi, but she was part of the army's hierarchy, a vice-admiral now that she'd transitioned to the GAR, although that commission still felt surreal. That alone earned her the trust of the men beneath her, so strong was their conditioning to obey and respect rank.
Below her were the more likable of the trainers. The cruel ones, which were most, and the longnecks, were only to be feared.
The doctor had been able to develop stronger relationships with the earliest generation of clones, possibly because she’d been slightly less overwhelmed at the time of their decanting. There was, of course, very little space between generations, and the nurseries had quickly been flooded with tiny Fett replicas. The sheer number of adult troopers present by the time the war broke out had seemed incredible to Senna. She hadn’t been prepared for the relative emptiness of the halls after Geonosis.
Today was a very special day. Senna was on Coruscant this week, and, it just so happened, so were most of the first generation clone commanders that she rarely got to see anymore. Bly was already waiting when she entered the officers' mess, a smile breaking across his handsome face, pulling at his golden tattoos when he saw her.
“Senna! Right on time.” He stepped around the circular table to give her a hug as the doctor laughed.
“It’s good to see you, dear. I’m glad I got that hug before Bacara gets here.”
Bly pulled a face as he sat back down. “I wouldn’t dream of hugging you or anyone in front of him. He’d probably crack right in half.” Senna laughed again, turning in her chair when Bly’s eyes lit up. “Cody!”
The orange-armored commander clasped hands with Bly, letting his brother pull him in for a smack on the back. “Good to see you, Bly.” He sat down next to Senna, leaning over to accept her hug too. “I hope I didn’t leave you alone with him too long.”
Bly’s noise of outrage was lost as the next commander walked in. Gree removed his mottled bucket and smiled at Senna as he clasped first Cody’s, then Bly’s hands. “Good to see you, Doc. General Unduli sends her greetings.”
Senna beamed at him. “Please tell Luminara that I said hello. How have you been, dear?”
They were interrupted by the entrance of the commander of the 21st Nova Corps. The room fell into awkward silence as the maroon-clad trooper stalked into the room, looking at the gathered for a long moment before he pulled off his helmet and set it on the table next to Gree with a thud.
“Great,” Bly said under his breath, “Now we can really get the party started.” Bacara swung his head to pin his brother with a deathly stare, but Bly just rolled his eyes.
“Sit the kriff down, Bacara,” Cody ordered and, to Senna’s surprise, the other commander only narrowed his eyes before he pulled out the chair and sat. He looked around the table and offered her a nod.
“Doctor Divehdi.”
“It’s good to see you again, Bacara.” Senna smiled at him as Bly sighed deeply.
“She’s contractually obligated to say that, Bac. It’s really not.” He leaned over to smack the other man on the shoulder. Senna thought she saw Bacara’s eye twitch slightly and smothered a laugh. “Too bad Neyo couldn’t make it,” Bly continued to push his luck, “then the sunshine twins could finally be reunited.”
Bacara did growl at that and Senna found herself sharing a nervous smile with Gree. She loved Neyo, like she loved them all, but the man was frankly unpleasant and only slightly better around her than he was the others. She didn’t think she could deal with him and Bacara at the same time.
Cody, Bly, and Gree started catching up with each other as Senna listened, occasionally answering their questions or offering some small commentary. A serving droid brought them caf and she sipped quietly while she enjoyed their company. Well, most of their company. She occasionally caught Bacara looking at her and flagged slightly under his impassive gaze.
The table turned in surprise when an unexpected party approached. Fox held his bucket under one arm, agitatedly pushing his hair into place as Bly pulled out the last chair. “Sorry I’m late,” he growled in irritation, thunking his helmet down and making the caf in their cups shiver. “There was a breakout at the prison.” He looked around the table at their blank faces. “Bly didn’t tell you I was coming, did he?”
“Why would he?” Cody smiled sardonically as Fox turned to glare at Bly who was looking very pleased with himself. Bly shrugged.
“I figured, since Wolffe couldn’t make it.”
Cody sighed and turned back to Fox. “Everything secure at the prison?”
Fox flicked out his kama to sit and the five fell into job talk, the commander of the Guard even managing to draw Bacara into the conversation. Senna was startled when she realized they had all turned to her. “Sen?” Cody prompted and she realized he must have asked her something. “I said, ‘How’s that medic of yours working out?’”
“Oh, Bern?” Cody nodded. “He’s doing well. I’ve never trained someone so devoted, and that’s saying a lot.”
“He’d better be,” Fox growled and Senna winced as Bacara turned his sharp gaze on her.
“What medic?”
Bly was making a face at his caf and Gree shifted uncomfortably next to her as Senna groaned internally. “Bern is one of the medics I’m training at the hospital on Kamino.”
“Why wouldn’t he be working out?” the commander pressed suspiciously.
Fox opened his mouth to respond but Cody cut him off, much to Senna’s relief. “He’s a special case,” the commander of the 212th answered as Bacara’s eyes narrowed. “Senna brought him on as a medic later than most of them train.”
“The army doesn’t do special cases,” Bacara said coldly. “What’s wrong with him?”
Cody glanced at Senna but she was tired of walking on eggshells around his brother. “There’s nothing wrong with him, Bacara. In fact, he’s one of the most talented medics I’ve ever worked with.”
Fox groaned across the table, ignoring Cody’s warning look. “He kriffing hit her in the head with a meal tray, Maker .” Bly smacked him on the back of the head and Fox shoved him back. “No one else was going to say it. It’s not like Bacara’s going to go there and have him removed.”
Bacara was looking at Senna in the closest thing to shock he’d probably ever expressed. “He hit you?”
Gree’s hand came down on his brother’s arm but Bacara shook it off. “Why wasn’t he decommissioned?”
It was Fox again that answered him before Senna could get a word out. “Why do you think? Because she’s a soft touch and she made them let her keep him,” he said exasperatedly, but his words held no venom. Senna might be soft, but Fox wasn’t hard enough to wish death on a brother for an accident. She hoped Bacara wasn’t either.
The marine’s dark eyes narrowed as he turned from Fox to Senna. “Making exceptions for weakness is a dangerous practice. The army can’t function properly if defective clones are permitted to serve.”
Senna looked at him in horror. “Bern is not defective . And if you are ever unfortunate enough to be admitted to my hospital, I’ll make sure he's the one that’s treating you.”
Bly’s dry chuckle broke the silence as Bacara opened his mouth to respond. “She’s got you, brother. This isn’t what we came here to talk about, is it?” He looked pointedly at Fox beside him and the red-clad commander grunted, giving Senna a look that was as close to apologetic as he got. She frowned at him.
Bacara stood abruptly. “I need to get back.” He replaced his helmet and nodded to them, then turned on his heel to exit the mess. The table was quiet for a moment as the brothers looked at each other or the table. Gree was pinching his lips together as he stared down into his empty cup. Bly and Fox were glaring at each other, and Cody was holding the bridge of his nose like he had a migraine coming on.
Senna closed her eyes and set her cup down with a sigh. “I’ll be right back.”
Bacara was disappearing down the hall when the doctor called his name. He paused and, for a moment, Senna thought he was going to ignore her, but the commander turned when she caught up to him. She stood awkwardly in front of him, staring up into the visor of his strange helmet. “I wanted to say goodbye.”
He looked down at her, waiting for her to continue. “Is that all?”
Senna sighed and looked down for a moment at the scrapes on his armor. Kriff it all, Bacara. She had the distinct feeling that, if her presence hadn’t been such an ingrained part of his life, he would have strongly disapproved of her being there. He wasn’t the only trooper like that, devoted only to The Mission. Senna thought it was especially dehumanizing, the conditioning– brainwashing –that gripped some of them harder than others. Clones like that formed no relationships, suffered no distractions, the perfect soldiers in every way.
It was hard for her not to try a little bit harder with men like Bacara. She wondered if he understood that she cared for him, or if that mattered to him at all. Probably not, she thought sadly, as long as she did her job. Just another cog in the great machine of the Republic, like him.
Senna smiled sadly at the cold commander. There was nothing she could do, she knew that. Shake him, shout at him, kriff, an open-mouthed kiss would probably gain her nothing but a shove and his signature angry scowl. She just hoped that, somewhere deep down, he understood. That she would miss him. That he meant something to her.
“That’s all.”
The marine nodded and turned to leave. “Bacara?” He turned again to face her and Senna could almost hear his sigh. “Be careful out there,” she said.
This time he looked at her a little longer, probably wondering why she would say something so stupid, Senna thought. Then he nodded again and Senna let him leave, watching the stalking sway of his kama until he turned the corner and was gone.