Star Wars - Darth Maul - Saboteur

by James Luceno

  each of the various beings he passed. He drew on his dark-side instincts to

  guide him to the best means of carrying out his mission.

  * * *

  Maul came to a halt at the entrance to a noisy cantina. It was the sort of place

  where anyone who entered would be appraised by the clientele within, so he moved

  quicklya blur to most; to others, just another laborer hurrying in out of the

  rain. He slid onto a stool at the bar, keeping his hood raised and his face in

  profile when the human female bartender approached.

  What can I get you, stranger?

  Pure water, Maul growled.

  Big spender, huh?

  Maul made a negligent motion with his fingers. Youll bring my drink and leave

  me alone.

  The muscular, tattooed woman blinked twice. Ill bring your drink and leave you

  alone.

  Maul expanded his peripheral vision to take in the two adjoining rooms. He made

  use of the mirror behind the bar to see what his eyes could not, and he drew on

  the dark side to fill in the rest.

  The cantina had an air of benign neglect, a smell of liquid inebriants and

  greasy food. The lighting was deliberately low. Flying insects of various sizes

  circled the illuminators, and children of several species ran in and out. Males

  and females fraternized openly, with a sense of levity or abandon. Music was

  provided by a ragtag band of Bith and fat Ortolans. Along the length of the bar

  Weequays conversed with Ugnaughts, Twileks with Gands. Maul was the only

  Iridonian in the place, but he was not the only sole representative of a

  species.

  If some of the residents he had passed on the street were the hunters, the manka

  cats, here were the nerfs the cats fed onthe ones who gave themselves over to

  intoxicants and games of chance and other vices. It was the sheer absence of

  discipline that sickened him. Discipline was the key to power. Unflinching

  discipline was what had forged him into a sword master and warrior. Discipline

  was what enabled him to defy gravity and slow the inrush of sensory input, so

  that he could move between the moments.

  Maul sharpened his faculties, extending the range of his hearing to monitor

  nearby conversations. Most were as prosaic as he had expected them to be,

  revolving around gossip, flirtation, petty complaints, and future plans that

  would never be realized.

  Then he heard the word sabotage, and his ears pricked up. The customer who had

  uttered it was a stout human, seated off to Mauls right in a booth along the

  cantinas rear wall. Another human sat opposite him, tall and dark complexioned.

  Both men wore the gray lightweight coveralls that were standard issue for

  employees of Lommite Limited, but the lack of lommite dust in their hair or on

  their clothes made it clear that they werent miners.

  A third man, straight-backed and robust-looking, approached while Maul watched

  out of the corner of his eye. Maul took a sip of water and turned slightly in

  the direction of the booth.

  I figured Id find you two here, the new arrival said.

  The stout one smiled and made room on the padded bench seat. Step into our

  office and well buy you a drink.

  The third man sat, but declined the offer with a shake of his head. Maybe

  later.

  The other two traded looks of surprise. Maul read the lip movements of the

  taller one If hes not drinking, then something serious has come up.

  The third man nodded. The chief has called a special meeting. He wants us at

  his place in half an hour.

  Any idea what its about? the stout one asked.

  It has to be the shuttle crash, the man opposite him surmised. Bruit probably

  has a line on the culprits.

  Maul recognized the name. Bruit was Lommite Limiteds chief of field operations.

  The three men were probably security personnel.

  Like there was any question about the culprits, the stout one was saying.

  Its bigger than that, the third man said, lowering his voice almost to the

  point where Maul had to strain to hear him. Word has come down from Arrant on

  how were going to respond.

  The stout man sat away from the table that bisected the booth. Well, its about

  time.

  Id say that calls for another round of drinks, his partner said.

  Maul continued listening, but his eyes were no longer fixed on the men but on

  something he had glimpsed on the wall above the booth. It resembled the

  bioluminescent flitter he had captured earlier on. This one, however, wasnt

  moving from its spot on the wall. The reason became apparent once Maul probed it

  through the Force. Not only was it a fabrication, it was also a listening

  device.

  Maul scanned the room, then turned to face the mirror. The device wasnt very

  sophisticated; its large size was evidence of that. Even so, that didnt mean

  that whoever was eavesdropping on the security men had to be inside the cantina.

  But Maul suspected that they were. Without looking at it, he focused his

  attention on the artificial flitter and screened out all extraneous soundsthe

  pulsing music, the dozens of separate conversations, the noises of glasses

  clinking or being filled with one inebriant or another. Once he could discern

  the muted beeping of the devices transmitter, he listened for signs of the

  receiver with which it was in communication.

  At a round table in the adjoining room sat a Rodian and two Twileks, ostensibly

  engaged in a game of cardssabacc, in all likelihood. Maul watched them for a

  moment. Their playing was desultory. He observed their facial expressions as the

  security agents continued to converse. When one of the men said something of

  interest, the Rodians faceted eyes would flash and his short snout would curl

  to one side. At the same time, the Twileks head-tails would twitch and their

  pasty faces would flush ever so slightly.

  The Rodians left ear was sporting an earbead receiver, while the Twileks

  receivers took the form of dermal patches, disguised as lekku tattoos.

  Maul was certain that the trio were in the secret employ of Lommite Limiteds

  onworld competitor, InterGalactic Ore. He recognized the Rodian from the disk

  Sidious had given him. It was possible that they were the saboteurs themselves.

  His eyes darted back to the listening device and the security men. Creatures of

  habit, they probably occupied the same booth night after night, completely

  unaware that their conversations were being monitored. Such carelessness

  exasperated Maul to the point of fury. The men were deserving of whatever harm

  would surely come their way.

  The three security men left the cantina on foot and wended their way to a ribbon

  of trail that wove through a dense stand of forest. Maul followed fro m a

  discreet distance, keeping to the shadows when Dorvallas moon came up, full and

  silver-white.

  The trail eventually arrived at a tight-knit community of flimsy dwellings, many

  of them raised on stilts to keep them above pools of runoff water left by the

  rain. The humidity was oppressive.

  The dwelling that was the trios destination was an elevated cube with a metal

  roof angled to channel rainwater into a ferrocrete cistern. The cubes only door

>   was accessed by means of a ladderlike stairway. A rusted landspeeder with a

  cracked windscreen was parked in a muddy front lot.

  Maul kept to the trees while a thickly built human responded to the stout

  agents raps on the door frame.

  Come on up, the man said. Everyone else is already here.

  Bruit. Darth Maul waited until the three agents were inside, then he hurried

  from the shadows and planted himself under an open side window. Not content with

  his choice, he ducked beneath the house and clambered up one of the stilts to

  wedge himself between the floor joists of the front room. In the room above,

  someone was pouring liquid into several glasses.

  Maul extracted a miniature recording device from the breast pocket of his

  utility suit and placed it against the underside of the rough-hewn floorboards.

  Heres the long and short of it, Bruit said while the glasses were being

  filled. Arrant has decided that we need to level the playing field. Were going

  to strike at InterGal at Eriadu. Our shipments will reach the planet, and theirs

  wont.

  Someone whistled in astonishment.

  Does the boss realize what hes letting loose? perhaps the same man asked.

  This is going to lead to a shooting war.

  This comes straight from Arrant, Bruit said. Hes been in the trenches

  before. Those are his words, and this is his show.

  His show and our livelihood, someone pointed out. There has to be a better

  way of settling this. What about petitioning the senate to intervene?

  A cure that can be worse than the disease, another answered, much to Mauls

  amusement. The senate will defer to committees run by corrupt bureaucrats. It

  will take months for it to get to the courts.

  No senate, no courts, Bruit said. That much has already been decided. Its up

  to us.

  So what happens at Eriadu?

  Weve been able to learn the hyperspace route InterGals ships are going to

  take. Theyll arrive by way of Rimma 13, and are scheduled to decant from

  hyperspace at 1400 hours, Eriadu local time. The folks were employing to

  execute the strike will be able to calculate the precise reentry coordinates.

  Who are we employing?

  The Toom clan.

  Expressions of dismay flew from all corners.

  Cutthroats, someone said.

  Exactly, Bruit said. But we need to team up to accomplish this, and Arrants

  willing to spend the necessary credits. By using them, no one will suspect us,

  and Arrant doesnt care, because he doesnt want to know any more than he has

  to. He wants to keep his hands clean while I make the connections. Besides, the

  Tooms have the means to get the job done.

  And no scruples to stand in the way.

  Have they agreed to terms?

  At first contact, Bruit said. Although I have to say that I sometimes wish I

  could see both Lommite and InterGal brought down, so that someone with real

  foresight could build a better organization from the dregs.

  Several glasses clinked together.

  So whats our part in this, Chief, if the deal has already been struck?

  Bruit snorted. We need to prepare ourselves for InterGals counterpunch.

  Maul peeled the recorder from the floorboards and dropped down to the loamy soil

  below the house. He remained still for a long moment, crouched in the darkness,

  listening to sounds of distant laughter and the stridulations of profuse insect

  life. Then he thought back to Coruscant, and the question his Master had put to

  him regarding his double-bladed lightsaber.

  It made sense to me to be able to strike with both ends, Maul had answered.

  With a note of approval, his Master had said, You must bear that in mind when

  you go to Dorvalla.

  Maul reached within his cloak and unclipped the long cylinder from his belt. One

  end, then the other, Maul told himself. Both, to effect a single purpose.

  Maul waited until the moon was low in the sky before he went to Lommite

  Limiteds headquarters at the base of the escarpment. The incidents of sabotage

  had caused the complex of buildings to be placed on high alert. Armed sentries,

  some accompanied by leashed beasts, patrolled, and powerful illuminators cast

  circles of brilliant light over the spacious grounds. A five-meter-high

  electrified stun fence encompassed everything.

  Maul spent an hour studying the movements of the sentries, the periodic sweeps

  of the illuminators, the towering fence, and the motion detector lasers that

  gridded the broad lawn beyond. He was certain that infrared cams were scanning

  the grounds, but there was little he could do about those without leaving

  evidence of his infiltration. A probe droid would have been able to tell him all

  he needed to know, but there wasnt time and he wanted to do this personally.

  To test the possibility that pressure detectors had been installed in the

  ground, he used the Force to propel stones over the fence. As they struck

  specific places on the lawn, he waited for some response, but the guards

  stationed at the entry gates simply continued to go about their business.

  When he was satisfied that he had committed the results of his reconnaissance to

  memory, he shrugged out of his cloak and leapt straight up over the fence,

  landing precisely where some of the rocks he had tossed rested. Then he sprang

  to a series of other sites that ultimately carried him to the wall of the

  principal building, moving with such speed the entire time that whatever

  holorecordings were being made wouldnt show him unless they were played in slow

  motion.

  He reached one of the doors and found it locked, so he began to work his way

  around the building, testing other doors and windows, all of which were

  similarly secured.

  He tested the buildings flat roof for motion and pressure detectors as he had

  the lawn. Vaulting to the top, he was confronted with an expanse of solar

  arrays, skylights, and cooling ducts. He moved to the nearest skylight and

  ignited his lightsaber. He was ready to plunge the blade through the

  transparisteel panel when he stopped himself, and peered more intently at the

  panel. Embedded in the transparisteel were monofilament chains, which, when

  severed, would trip an alarm.

  Deactivating the blade, he reclipped his lightsaber and sat down to think. It

  was unlikely that Lommite Limiteds central computer was a stand-alone machine.

  It would have to be accessible from outside locations. Bruit would have remote

  access. Maul berated himself for not having recognized that fact earlier. But it

  wasnt too late to rectify his oversight.

  * * *

  Maul returned to Bruits dwelling just before sunrise. Unlike the headquarters

  complex, the stilted house had no security. The chief of field operations either

  didnt have enemies or didnt care, one way or the other. Perhaps Bruit was that

  resigned to fate, Maul thought. It scarcely mattered, in any case.

  He circled the house, occasionally chinning himself on the windowsills to peer

  inside. In a rear room Bruit was sprawled atop a knocked-together bed, half in,

  half out of a net tent that was meant to keep nocturnal insects from feasting on

  his blood. He was fully clothed, snoring lightly, and dead drunk. A half-emptied
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  bottle of brandy sat on a small table alongside the bed.

  Maul gritted his teeth. More carelessness, more lack of discipline. He couldnt

  summon any compassion for the man. The weak needed to be weeded out.

  Maul let himself in through the unlocked door and scanned the front room. Bruit

  was a man of few worldly possessions, and not a particularly orderly one. His

  dwelling was as chaotic as his life appeared to be. The confined space smelled

  of spoiled food, and lommite dust coated every horizontal surface. Water dripped

  from a sink faucet that could have easily been repaired. Arachnids had woven

  perfect webs in all four corners of the room.

  Maul searched for Bruits personal computer and located it in the bedroom. It

  was a portable device, not much longer than a human hand. He called the machine

  to him and activated it. The display screen came to life and a menu presented

  itself. It took only moments for Maul to find his way to Lommite Limiteds

  central computer, but for the second time that night he found himself locked

  out.

  The computer was demanding to see Bruits fingerprints.

  Maul might have been able to slice his way inside the central computer, but not

  without leaving an easily followed trail. What is done in secret has great

  power, his Master had said.

  Maul gazed at Bruit. With a scant motion of his left hand, he caused the man to

  roll over onto his back. Born of some uneasy dream, a prolonged groan escaped

  the human. Maul gestured for Bruits right arm to rise, wrist bent, with the

  palm of his hand facing outward. Then he stealthily carried the computer to

  Bruits hand, easing the display screen into gentle contact with the

  outstretched fingers. When the machine had toodled an acknowledgment, Maul

  dropped Bruits arm and rolled him back onto his side.

  By the time Maul left the bedroom, the directories for the database were

  scrolling onscreen. Maul pinpointed the files relating to the imminent Eriadu

  delivery and opened them.

  The cantina was doing a brisk lunchtime business when Darth Maul stole through

  the entrance and took a seat at a corner table in the smaller room. Outside, a

  gloomy downpour was inundating the town. He kept the dripping hoo d of his cloak

  raised, and he angled himself away from the crowd, ignoring the few second

  glances he received.

  Two of Lommite Limiteds security men occupied their usual booth, feeding their