Chapter 4
Their footsteps echoed down the vacant hallway as Maul led
Thyma down a series of hallways and corridors. Eventually they came to
an elevator, which automatically shut down in the emergency. Quickly,
Maul activated his lightsaber, sliced through the locked door, and
hurled it down the elevator shaft. The elevator itself was not there.
Maul glanced up the shaft and saw the lift’s underside a level up.
Hooking his lightsaber to his belt, Maul pulled out a liquid
grappling hook dispenser and aimed it at the far side of the shaft.
Firing its mechanism, a gelatin string shot across the chasm and the
metal hook at its end lodged into the tunnel wall. Silently, Maul pulled
Thyma close and felt her wrap her arms securely around his waist just
before he jumped into the shaft. Using the Force, he guided his leap,
his feet pressing against the tunnel. His hatred bubbled deep within
him, fueling his body and affording him the strength required to hold
himself and Thyma. The dark side focused his mind and gave him the
precision to repel at a careful but expeditious pace down the shaft.
After passing half a dozen levels, they finally arrived at
the starport basement - but had he not memorized the building schematic
beforehand, Maul would have been unable to tell. It was completely dark,
with no light fixtures recognizable along its walls. Maul grasped his
lightsaber and activated a single blade, holding it up to cast a deep
rufescent hue within a ten-meter radius. The room seemed very common for
a basement: a bare gray cement floor, stained with paint reminiscent of
its construction; a ceiling crossed with metal bars and stuffed with
turquoise insulation padding; and a plethora of boxes, crates, droid
parts and tools scattered across the room.
Maul knew something few others in the galaxy did, however,
and as he took a few steps forward, what he saw validated his knowledge.
Appearing out of place, as if belonging more to a high-tech science lab
on Coruscant than an ordinary basement on a Mid Rim world, at the back
of the room an incubator-like tube was pressed between the floor and
ceiling. Wan fumes poured out of exhaust pipes at its top and bottom,
and a computer screen and keyboard extended at waist-level.
A pale blue ray shield that shimmered with violet tones
against Maul’s crimson lightsaber luminescence encased its central
chamber. Deactivating the blade, he moved closer to the tube, staring
quizzically into it as if looking for something in its emptiness. A dry
chill coursed through him, gripping his bones. Maul closed his eyes and
breathed softly, almost inaudibly, and then slowly turned to gaze at
Thyma. His yellow eyes blazed with fury as he saw the Rejino woman
standing with a blaster pistol aimed at his chest.
“I should’ve known you were looking for the Rejin Jewel too,”
she said, a level of purpose and intensity to her voice not evident
before. “You know of its powers, and you want to use it? Is that why
you’re here? Who are you, Zabrak?”
Maul licked his lips, his hands curled into fists at his
sides. “I am Darth Maul, a Dark Lord of the Sith. My Master, Darth
Sidious, learned of this jewel, its immeasurable value, and its capacity
to enhance one’s connection to the dark side of the Force by triple its
natural attunement.”
Thyma looked away for a second before nodding and returning
her focus to him, her finger tight against the trigger of her pistol.
“But why would you tell me that? I kind of have the advantage here, if
you hadn‘t noticed. I could kill you, and go tell everyone about your
so-called ‘Master‘.”
Maul ignored her question. “What do you plan to do with your prize, Thyma?”
She sighed and grasped the bag hanging at her side, which
Maul had failed to notice until her betrayal. “Something like this… This
jewel is evil. It can only cause death and destruction. I work for a
select group of private agents who search the galaxy for items like
these… so that we can take them somewhere safe, where people like you
will never use them. No one knows we exist: in our missions, we are very
careful to use disguises and fake identities, and to cover our tracks
well.”
As Thyma raised her pistol and gripped the trigger, readying
to pull it, time seemed to slow in Maul’s mind as he gave himself to the
Force. He telekinetically propelled her blaster across the room and
allowed her time only to gasp and widen her eyes before he equipped his
lightsaber and activated a single blade. Traversing the dozen meters
between them in a step, she tried to recoil but fell onto her back. Maul
brought his blade down and amputated her right arm. She screamed in
pain as her bare joint smoked from Maul’s cauterizing blade.
Extending his free hand, Maul raised Thyma into the air with
the Force and hurled her against a near wall, jarring her injured
shoulder and sprained ankle. She cried out and moved her back towards
the wall. Looking up just in time to see Maul stepping towards her and
bringing his blade up for a final deathblow, she reached into a pocket
of her mangy, stained vest and removed a small remote with a single
button on it. She closed her eyes and pressed it.
In a split-second of anticipation, Maul barely managed to
push himself away from Thyma as a plasma grenade in her pouch -
containing the Rejin Jewel - erupted in a blaze of fire, emanating out
as a shockwave throughout the room. The explosive plasma, his cloak
singed and burned, scorched Maul’s uncovered face. As the aftershock and
smoke slowly cleared, he looked at Thyma’s cremated corpse, and saw a
small pile of dust where her bag had been.
The Rejin Jewel was gone. He had failed his mission.
Chapter 5
Maul struggled against the anger he felt at his failure and
the suicide of Thyma that caused it. He attempted to use his passion to
focus his mind, but the shame was too great, penetrating through his
efforts and leaving him raw and burnt, both in body and mind.
The elevator quickly descending its shaft caught his focus.
By now, he expected the Rejino security had discovered the Jedi corpse
and noticed the recent basement-level explosion, and were on their way
to investigate. He had to act swiftly. Pulling himself to his feet, his
body felt weighted, burdened by fatigue and the dozens of cuts and burns
he had sustained from the plasma grenade and the shrapnel it had
created. Placing his faith in himself and the power of the dark side, he
called the Force to him, basking in its protective, energizing warmth.
Driven to action, he hooked his lightsaber to his belt and
made his way to a conduit vent spotted beside a rough-hewn, dark corner
of the room. He quickly pulled the covering away with the Force and
slipped into the tight passage, replacing the grating behind him. Thick,
dank air forced him to breathe through his mouth, but he let the dark
side nourish his strained muscles, pulling him along the shaft with
extraordinary speed.
Despite the darkness, Maul extended his senses to perceive
his surroundings through the Force. He felt the presence of at least
fifty guards just entering the basement, determination and vigilance
radiating from them as they searched for the explosion’s culprit.
Closing his eyes and letting his body act on its own, he focused on the
guards’ minds. Gently, imperceptibly, he offered the proposition that
the instigator of the explosion was Thyma, the burnt corpse they saw on
the basement floor, that the dust by her side was the missing jewel they
sought, and that she had been the murderer of the Jedi Knight they had
discovered. Giving the thought added agreeability and prompting them to
accept it, they did so, and he felt resignation and anger permeate their
psyches. He must avoid implication.
Returning his focus to his immediate surroundings, Darth Maul
entered a dark storage room filled with boxes and crates, red alarm
lights providing the only illumination. Guided by the Force, he weaved
through the obstacle course of storage containers and came to the door
on the opposite end of the room. He walked onto a hallway he felt
through the Force to be empty, and sprinted down it through another
series of doors and corridors until he came to the private
employee-landing platform at the western end of the starport. Unlike the
public platform, it was enclosed by a dome and fully air-conditioned.
Despite himself, Maul grumbled at their deliberate roofing of
only one dock, but ignored his disdain and made his way onto the
platform. It was empty of people, as regulations ordered all employees
to a pre-designated area within the starport interior during an
emergency, while every guard was still on the task of investigating
Maul’s infiltration. Weaving between and around ships of all classes,
customization and quality, he found one with obvious hyperspace
capability and a fast engine. He used the Force to break its entrance
door lock and refastened it behind him. Utilizing his training in
hacking and his mastery of piloting, he hotwired the ship’s controls and
carefully lifted off before firing the engines at full power and
blazing through the atmosphere, managing to escape Rejino sensors.
Extending his senses, he checked for any tracking devices
before entering hyperspace. The dead weight of his failure demolished
even the satisfaction he recalled at killing a Jedi. The loneliness of
space forced him to meditate on his shame in the time before arriving at
his destination, the silent hum of the hyperdrive creating a morose
background to his regret.
Epilogue
Darth Maul knelt before a figure cloaked in black, his face
veiled even to his own apprentice. Cold, artificial air permeated the
room, accentuating the raw throb of the burns across Maul’s face, which
he had intentionally left untreated until he met with his Master, Lord
Sidious.
“You have done well, my apprentice,” the phantom menace said, his voice genteel but piercing as a knife.
Maul craned his neck to peer up at his Master, frowning, his
brow furrowed. “But, Master… I have failed you. My mission was
unsuccessful.”
“You are yet blind to the deeper mysteries of the Force and
the galaxy, Lord Maul,” Sidious whispered. “The threads of lies and
deceit holding societies together are frail but pliable like strings on a
mandoviol. The path of a Sith Lord is learning to play these strings to
one’s advantage, creating a symphony of disorder, confusion and
corruption that opens the way to seizing power.
“The Rejin Jewel is a meaningless trinket. A rare object,
yes. The only one of its kind. However, the special powers attributed to
it are legend. And, who do you think created those myths? I did. Though
the Rejino had always possessed legends of the jewel’s unusual past and
ancient superstitions surrounding it, they knew it was simply a rock. I
used the superstition to create a lie that would make it even more
valuable and intriguing to people.”
“Master… the Rejino woman who killed herself to destroy the
jewel told me she worked for an organization that hunted potentially
destructive artifacts as she believed the Rejin Jewel to be, to destroy
them,” Maul said, his voice low and reserved.
Darth Sidious cackled quietly, his sickly yellow eyes
flashing under his hood like the eyes of a snake hidden in shadow.
“Young fool. The true purpose of your mission was the death of a Jedi. I
anonymously led Thyma to learn of the myths I had spread about the
jewel, knowing she would accomplish her task, but I also knew you would
encounter her. If you were told her true mission, or her true
profession, you would not have brought her with you. She would have died
along with the Jedi. I knew the Jedi would capture her, and that it
would exactly coincide with your arrival and the instigation of your own
mission.
“The Jedi you killed was named Arias Kreen, a Jedi Knight who
was once the apprentice of Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn, his first padawan.
Jinn is a strong and wise Jedi, with insight into the Living Force that
could prove detrimental to my orchestrations to renew the Sith Empire.
Jinn will soon receive word of Arias’ death, and it will wound him
deeply. His second padawan, Xanatos, turned to the dark side, so the
death of his first apprentice will give him an even deeper wound to his
pride and confidence. That will further cloud his vision in the Force.
You did not fail, my young apprentice.
“However, you were not meant to believe you had succeeded.
This is a lesson to you, Lord Maul. I am the Dark Lord of the Sith, your
Master and superior. Despite your power and your intelligence, you are
and will always be inferior to me. While I encourage your desire to
someday replace me - and indeed you may - I will do everything in my
power to prevent it, including killing you if you become too great a
threat. It is my destiny to rule the galaxy. None shall interfere with
my plans to do so - even you. Remember this day, and always remember
your weakness. I am your only opportunity for true power and liberation -
but I will not give it to you freely.”
Without another word, Darth Sidious turned from his
apprentice and departed. For many long minutes, Maul hung his head, his
eyes closed as his mind numbed in silent meditation.
No one is invincible, Darth Maul thought. No one.
No comments:
Post a Comment