The Returning Knight: A Star Wars Story

Chapter 29: The Clone Child

Ta'a Chume sat on her throne, waiting for the call from her scientists. She wanted results immediately and would be deterred that easily from achieving her goal of obtaining a perfect heir for the Hapan throne. Isolder was certainly the only claimant but with no wife that could succeed his mother, a female child could become first canidate for the position of queen mother.
Her plan for the heir, a near perfect genetic replica of her husband, Sigil. During their time together, she collected as much DNA from him as she could by scratching his neck and scalp when she made a move on him; storing the genes in her nails and from his hair which she handed over to her scientists.
She wanted a female clone of her husband with her own hair color so as to throw him off if he visited while playing her off as a relative. Her scientists did say that Sigil being a force sensitive complicated things greatly, saying it could take them a year to grow the first clone from stolen imperial technology.
The day was now after she gave them the details and expected results. Her communicator beeped and with a nod to a member of her guard, the hologram of a geneticist came to life.
"Your highness." The man offered a bow. "Doctor M'qet, Is it ready?" She asked, skipping over a greeting, she had grown impatient and wanted the clone ready. "Indeed your majesty. It will be delivered to Hapes in three days." M'qet replied. Ta'a Chume acknowledged with a nod, her bodyguard nodded back, turning off the holo projector.
"Your majesty, we still need your approval over the naval overhaul as requested by your husband as he put forwards his own designs for the new main line warship of the royal navy." Captain Astarta leaned forward, whispering in Ta'a Chume's ear. "Indeed Captain." She began. "Bring up the schematics." She gestured to another guard.
The projector beamed to life, this time with blueprints and schematics for the new flagship of the Hapan royal navy. It was a fleet carrier meant to replace the aging and crippled fleet of battle dragons.
Although great in many ways, the battle dragon was lacking severely in many others due to Hapan isolationism. It had limited firepower due to antiqueted turbolaser technology by the galactic standard.
That is why instead of a battleship, he opted for a fleet carrier in line with both technology and purpose of the royal navy. It was a border policing force and acted in a defensive role, protecting the Consortium's borders.
His new ship, dubbed the 'Consolidator' class-heavy cruiser was mightier than the battle dragon, standing at six hundred meters in length, six hundred and thirty in width and fifty meters in height.
It was shaped like a crescent, with a radius of three hundred and fifteen meters. The ship's back housed a cube shaped module connected to the back of the crescent which housed the engines and command decks.
Each Consolidator would be a fearsome foe, having space for three hundred ships total. Its strike wing comprised a hundred and fifty-five fighters, seventy bombers, fifty gunships and twenty five transports. Outclassing any imperial ship short of star dreadnoughts and older Venators; both of whom it outdid in fighter quality by a large margin.
All the ship's strike wing was housed in the crescent. All but its censor, which was connected to the second module in the back, consisted of hangers, if not there were laser cannons, concussion missile launchers or flak cannons in its place.
The ships main armament was a prow mounted super heavy turbolaser to ward off larger capital ships. It was crude and lacked great cooling, but so did every other gun of this size. All overheated after a minute of continuous fire. But no ship can survive one minute of hammering by such a weapon.
Aside from the gun, the ships were to have forty-five quad laser cannons with thirty-five in the front and ten in the back module. Additional anti starfighter defenses included nind flak batteries, all of whom were in the front module and twenty concussion missile launchers, all of them spread evenly across the entire ship.
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The top and bottom of the crescent had a total of twelve heavy turbolaser cannons lining the inner circle. Each of these cannons only had a singular barrel with a heavy armor chamber around them to protect against attacks and house its massive cooling system. To compensate for firing speed, he made each gun heavier than standard.
It's almost offensive measures were ten proton torpedo launchers and six turbolaser batteries in the rear of the ship.
The rear module contained the ship's reactor, deflector shield generator, energy shield generator, three engines, bridge, navigational and communications arrays.
This made for a fearsome opponent with great coverage and area denial capabilities, able to square up to larger ships and over power them but this meant that the ship's main gun was its most vulnerable but it would ve great bait.
Ta'a Chume looked over the drafted plans skeptically and had Astarta voice her opinion as she was a Captain in the navy before heading the royal guard. She seemed impressed by the designs after studying them for a good while.
"Your highness." She began. "Is it any good?" Ta'a asked. "It is impressive actually. Taking our technological stagnation in turbolaser development, he skipped over battleships and optex for carriers which would serve the objectives of the royal navy better." Astarta commented. Hearing Astadta's impressed expression, Ta'a Chume approved for the ship to begin production.
Arriving at the palace three days later, was a girl who looked around twelve with red hair, accompanying her were three Hapan scientists. She was the first success so far. Many descended into madness and were exterminated. Having such powerful force sensitives running around was off limits.
The duo was welcomed by Astarta and escorted to Ta'a Chume's personal chambers where the girl, who was allowed by the scientists, was kept outside while Astarta herself entered, leaving only two guards outside.
Ta'a looked over at her "daughter" and smiled. It was finally here. The girl looked up at her curiously.
"Hello sweetie." She begam warmly. "Hello." The girl replied. "What's your name?" The older woman asked. "I don't have a name." She replied. "In this case you are Navarra." Ta'a Chume declared. "Really!? Yes! I finally have a name!" Navarra jumped around the room with excitement.
After she calmed down, she turned to Ta'a Chume once more. "Who are you?" She asked. "To the galaxy I am the queen mother of Hapes but to you, I am your mother." She said and Navarra hugged her tightly, finally feeling at home.
After pulling back, she turned to Astarta and pointed to her "Mother, who is that?" She asked. "That is Captain Astarta. Captain of our family's guard and she is to be your mentor." She replied. Navarra nodded. "You can enjoy your first week here but after that you are to stay with Astarta and learn under her." She elaborated.
Navarra spent her week getting to know her mother as best she could and analyzing her behavior with great dedication. Having a watchful eye was in her genetics after all. But as hard as she tried to, Navarra couldn't break through her mother's facade.
She also spent a healthy amount of time with her brother Isolder. Isolder, wasn't open to his mother's unethical ways but saw that distancing himself from a child that didn't do any wrong and was created, would be cruel and unjust so he warmed up on her second day in Hapes.
"Your highness." She was stirred awake one morning. "Huh, who?" She said groggily. "Your training is supposed to begin today." A voice called. Navarra realized it was Astarta and her one week was up. Immediately she got up on her own two feet. "Get ready quickly. I will be waiting outside." The older woman said.
Navarra took five minutes to get ready and threw on a new outfit and stepped outside. "Am ready." She said. "Follow me." Astarta gestured. In their walk towards Astarta's speeder, she began listing the rules that she had to follow. "I expect you to be up and ready when I arrive tomorrow. The more you whine the harder I will make things. Am I understood princess?" She said. "You are Captain." Navarra replied.
Astarta took them to her speeder and using it, headed towards the Hapan wilderness. Landing it, she began with a warm up followed by her placing weights on Navarra's ankles and giving her a weighted backpack and having her march.
It didn't take Navarra long to get tired but the more frustrated she became, the easier carrying everything became. She noticed that getting angry with the Captain somehow bolstered her resolve and determination along with lessening the physical burden of a five hour forced march through the woods and back to the speeder which left Astarta stunned. Yet she dared not show it on her face or speak of it.
"Was I good, Captain?" Navarra asked at the speeder. "I would be lying if I said you weren't." Astarta replied.
Next order of business was balster training. Astarta took them to the royal guards' barracks for this. In there she had arranged for a table lined up with different blasters of all shapes and sizes but for starters a pistol would do, loaded with non-lethal Tabana gas.
"For starters, you will hold it in both of your hands fully extended. Make sure it is just below eye level. Take aim and shoot." She instructed. Navarra followed through but her hands were wobbly. Astarta movex close, fixed her posture and told her to fire again. This shot landed a bit closer but still missed.
Astarta shook her head in disappointment. "Try it by aiming with one eye." She suggested. Navarra closed her left eye and took aim. This time the bolt slammed into the target. She was made to rerun this until she landed twenty consecutive shots on target before Astarta upgraded the difficulty.
The last of Navarra's physical training sessions was hand to hand and armed combat. Split between four days a week and three days a week respectively.
"First things first, bring your hands up in order to shield your face from incoming strikes like this." She began. Navarra tried her best to imitate but had her posture fixed by the older woman. "Now punch." She said, jabbing the punching bag. Navarra punched extra hard and dropped her guard in the process.
"Go lighter but maintain your guard." Astarta scolded. Navarra nodded and tried again. "Now your are hitting to lightly." The older woman scolded. "Again!" She ordered. The words again and posture were all that left Astarta's mouth for the remainder of the session.
Following this, Navarra was dropped off at her room and was given time to rest and shower before lunch. Launch was a noisy affair where Isolder and Navarra ate while talking to each other while their mother was off for a diplomatic meeting over food elsewhere.
The second half of Navarra's day was centered around academia and education with her having to sit through lectures on math, physics, chemistry, literature, history, science, economics, social studies, art, political science, diplomacy and military strategy by the best tutors Hapes could offer spread throughout the week. Each day she returned to her room exhausted and resting for some time before having dinner and finally working on her assignments.
Ta'a Chume had told her that as queen mother she would have to know these in order to be a respected and revered ruler to the people of Hapes yet she was unconvinced.
She wondered where her father was seeing as nobody spoke a word about him. Little did she know that her mother had forbidden anyone from uttering a word about him to her, at least in reference to her. She still didn't know she was a clone of him.