The Storms of Kamino: Crosshair

Raindrops on Windows

The rain. The rain never stops on Kamino. In all the years I've been here, I don't think I've ever seen more than an inkling of sunlight. Sometimes, I forget the sun exists at all, accept when a few bright beams manage to peek through the clouds during the summer months. When I was a child, I used to stare outside my window, watching the raindrops fall on the glass, trying to guess which one would reach the bottom first. My mistress, Am Chiyo, would scold me for staying up too late and I'd beg her to let me watch the storm for just a few minutes longer. She never listened to me and would rush me back to my bed, the same bed I'm struggling to sleep in now.

"You need rest to focus on your studies, Y/N," she'd say, her long Kaminoan neck craning as she pulled up my blanket to tuck me in. "You can see the sunlight in your dreams." Her voice was always so soft, like a whisper. As soon as she would leave, I'd toss and turn, still staring at the rain outside my window.

Even now, I sat looking out across the ocean, the wind roaring against my walls and the thunder clapping as loud as an Aiwha looking for it's next meal. The same bed, the same room, the same window I've known for much of my life. Mistress Am took me in after my parents where killed during treaty negotiations deep inside wild space. They had been ambassadors for the Kaminoans and she took pity on my situation and raised me as her own. I used to follow her around obsessively as she conducted countless tests on various clone troopers being created to serve the Republic, absorbing as much information as I could. When I got older, she would let me help her with simple tasks, like how to apply bacta spray and running diagnostics on the medical droids. She noticed I had a knack for medicine and I became her personal assistant. Many of the other Kaminoans looked down on us, wondering how one of them could care so much for a human. She shielded me from most of their cruel comments and sly sneers, but I'm not an idiot. I knew there was something about me they would never trust. I was too human to ever be one of them, too... different. The Kaminoans despise anything they do not understand. After Mistress Am died, I thought they'd kick me out, or worse, but she was well respected and made arrangements so I was taken care of and could keep my job. But, they would always keep their distance from me, never getting too close, never holding a conversation, never really listening to what I had to say, despite my expertise.

I sighed, knowing I wasn't going back to sleep and sat up in my bed, still gazing at the downpour. My shift was starting soon and I had a lot to do. The Clone War was dragging on and more and more injured soldiers where coming back for treatment.

One good thing was going to come out of today, though. Clone Force 99 was returning from their most recent assignment on Kaller, and I was excited to see them. I considered all of them friends and I hoped they thought the same about me. I hadn't known Echo that long, but in the few times I'd interacted with him, he was very sweet and polite. Tech was always asking me questions about all the new medical technology that was in development and Hunter sometimes brought me souvenirs from planets all across the galaxy. Wrecker liked to give me big bear hugs and regale me with tales from their travels. And, Crosshair... Crosshair was a bit of an enigma. He was quiet and stern looking, never really letting you know what thoughts were hiding behind his eyes. He would respond to many of my observations with just a nod or a few words and he hated going in for tests. I was the only person, Kaminoan or otherwise, that he would let examine him.

A few months ago, Crosshair came in with a fractured femur that he had gotten after falling from the roof of the Havoc Marauder. He said that Tech made him climb up there to fix the mounted ion cannons and he tripped on a loose electrical wire. Wrecker managed to get him to me so I could help him, but he was in so much pain, I had to put him under for surgery. He would come in and out of consciousness afterwards, and in one of his lucid moments, he told me that he didn't like the way the Kaminoans treated him and his brothers for being different. I had been taken aback at first, him telling me something so personal. Maybe, it was because he knew that was something I could relate to.