“I don’t care what you have to say,” Maul interrupted. “You’re a liar.”
“That’s right, I lied.” TD-D9 said. “But I didn’t lie to you. I lied to Master Sidious.”
Maul listened.
“When I told Master Sidious that I lied to you, that was a lie. The truth is that I accidentally broke your ribs. But if I had told Master Sidious the truth, he would have destroyed me.”
Maul looked away from the wall and scowled at the droid. “Are you also going to tell me that breaking my arm was an ‘accident’ too?”
“No, Maul. I did that on purpose, it was the only way to immediately end the exercise. I did not want to prolong your pain. I did not want to hurt you. I hit you so hard that I knocked you out because I did not want Master Sidious to hurt you more than that.”
“You broke my arm!”
“I’m sorry for that. But I believe Master Sidious would have done worse.”
Maul thought about this, then said, “What makes you think I won’t tell Master Sidious that you lied to him?”
“If you do, he’ll replace me with another droid. Maybe he’ll replace me with a droid who actually enjoys inflicting pain.” The droid sighed again. “I told you I’m sorry. Your bandages really do need to be changed.”
“I’ll do it myself,” Maul said sullenly. “I don’t want to talk with you anymore.”
The droid walked out through the doorway, leaving the medkit behind. Maul looked at the medkit and wondered if his Master or the droid had done something to the bandages so he would be in even more pain after he put them on.
He faced the wall that was opposite the doorway. He thought of the tapestries that decorated the walls in Sidious’s chamber, and how one tapestry concealed the passage to the training room. He wondered if a secret passage might be hidden behind the wall right in front of him.
Too weak to walk, he crawled over to the wall and pressed his right hand against it. The wall did not yield to his pressure, but as he removed his hand from its surface, he saw he had left traces of blood. He had forgotten that he had touched his wounded side earlier.
He recalled his Master’s words on Tosste: To live without leaving a mark is a terrible thing. To die forgotten is even worse.
Maul reached to his wound again, then extended his index finger and drew a vertical smear of blood directly onto the wall. He then drew another vertical line to the right of the first one and then added two horizontal lines that connected with the vertical lines to form a rectangle. Next Maul concentrated on the area within the rectangle. It took him just over twenty minutes to fill the rectangle with a drawing of what he remembered of Mustafar from his view through the window of his old room. By the time he was done, he felt very tired.
Maul crawled back onto his sleep mat and lay down again, positioning his head so he could look at the drawing he’d made with his own blood. He wished he could leap into the drawing and run away. He was still looking at the drawing as he drifted off to sleep.
When Maul next awoke, he was still in his quarters but dressed in fresh bandages. He realized that TD-D9 must have taken care of him while he was sleeping. He also noticed that all the walls had been cleaned, and that his drawing had been completely erased.
TD-D9 appeared in the doorway. Maul frowned at the droid. TD-D9 said, “Master Sidious instructed me to bring you to him now,”
Maul decided it was best to not mention the drawing. He thought it would hurt for him to get up, but he felt surprisingly better than he had earlier. He suspected the droid had given him medicine while he had slept. Leaving his quarters, he followed the droid out through the training room and up through the passage that led to Sidious’s private chamber. As they walked, Maul said, “Deenine, do you know if Master Sidious intends to kill me?”
“I don’t think so,” TD-D9 replied. “He has invested so much time into your training that I suspect he wants you to stay alive. But I don’t think you should have drawn that picture on the wall.”
Maul’s steps did not falter as he continued following die droid, but his mind was suddenly racing. He wondered what consequence he might suffer because of the drawing. He said, “Did Master Sidious see the drawing?” “I don’t know. I erased it right after you fell asleep.” “Then how would he even know about the drawing... unless you told him?”
“I didn’t have to tell him,” TD-D9 said. “You should know by now, child... Sidious knows everything.”
Before Maul could ask the droid any more questions, they exited the passage. They found Sidious standing beside the hovering watery orb. Maul noticed that the orb had been restocked with living fish. He spotted the two survivors of the previous menagerie lurking at the bottom of the orb. The big gray fish was looking away from Maul, but the smaller one with red and black stripes had one yellow eye fixed on the boy. The striped fish had grown larger since the last time Maul had seen him.
Sidious looked at Maul, then frowned. “Tell me, do you think I’ve been rough on you?”
“No, Master Sidious.”
“You do understand that your training serves a greater purpose?”
“Yes, Master Sidious.”
Sidious smiled, “I suspect other might question my teaching methods, but I am glad that you do not. I can assure you that you are an excellent pupil. Not once did you cry out during your recent exercises. Not once. You are an exceptionally strong boy, and you are becoming stronger every day.”
“Thank you, Master Sidious,” Maul said as he bowed, ignoring the pain of his aching ribs.
Sidious raised his eyebrows. “Now, there is another matter that has come to my attention. Evidently, you are not entirely satisfied with your quarters. You miss the view that you once had of Mustafar. Is this correct?”
Without hesitation, Maul replied, “I was not thinking clearly when I drew a picture on my wall, Master Sidious.”
“You have no wish to return to your former room?”
“No, Master.”
Sidious smiled again. “I didn’t think you would want to go back to that little box. But if you missed the sight of Mustafar, you should have told me. After all, seeing Mustafar is something that can be easily arranged.” Sidious waved a finger at TD-D9.
The droid responded by firing a tranquilizer dart into Maul’s neck. Maul collapsed to the floor. TD-D9 did not attempt to break his fall.
A loud roar awakened Maul. He coughed as he inhaled hot, acrid fumes, and his eyes stung as he opened them. He saw darkness overhead, and for a moment, he thought he was in a cave. But then he noticed the darkness was moving and alive with dancing bright red stars. And he suddenly knew what he was really looking at.
Dark clouds. And drifting, burning ashes.
He pushed himself up. He was on a broad slab of rock on Mustafar’s surface. The loud roaring sound came from a nearby rocky vent that was spewing lava. He didn’t know how long he’d been outside or even how far he was from Sidious’s facility. But he knew he had not arrived at this place on his own.
He looked around. He saw no sign of TD-D9 or Sidious, or of any kind of shelter. Although they had not taken away the clothes and bandages he was wearing, they had not left him with any provisions. But he did have something to his advantage. He had his training.
Maul was not scared. He felt free. He could live or perish on this hostile world without anyone to tell him what to do. And then he realized he was not in any way eager to die. He became resolved to survive. He would do anything and everything necessary to stay alive.
He saw a dark shape move past the lava vent. Crouching low to the ground, ignoring the pain from his ribs and left arm, he watched with wonder as a tall, masked Mustafarian rode by on a massive six-legged lava flea. Two more flea-mounted Mustafarians followed.
Maul had no idea where the Mustafarians were headed, whether they were going to a mining camp or back to their remote village. He would track them, find their food, and steal it. If it became necessary to kill them to ensure his own survival, he would g
ather rocks to strike them dead or strangle them with his own bandages and broken bones. And then he would find his way back to Sidious and prove that he was indeed a strong boy. He would prove that he feared nothing.
He would earn the respect of his Master.
The three Mustafarians moved off. Maul followed them.
CHAPTER SIX
“Ah, you have returned,” Sidious said to Maul, who stood before him in the tapestry-decorated chamber in the Mustafar facility. Sidious was holding a small container of food pellets, which he had been gently pushing into the hovering watery orb to feed the fish. Maul’s head was covered with soot and dirt, and his torso was adorned with ill-fitting, bloodstained Mustafarian armor. Looking at the armor, Sidious smiled. “I see you kept busy during your little outing”
The spider-legged droid TD-D9 stood a short distance behind Maul. The droid’s right front leg was missing, and one of its left legs was mangled. “I found him outside. Master Sidious,” TD-D9 said, “not far from the landing pad. He’d set a trap. I walked right into it.” Raising one of its pincer arms, the droid held out the shattered remains of its front right leg. “Maul could have destroyed me.”
Sidious set aside the fish food and looked at Maul skeptically. “Is this true? You could have destroyed the droid?”
“Yes, Master Sidious,” Maul replied.
“Then why didn’t you?”
Maul tilted his chin toward the droid. “Because I wanted to bring this thing back to you in pieces.”
Sidious smiled again. “Maul, do you know how long you were running around on Mustafar’s surface?”
Maul grimaced. “I’m not certain. Master Sidious I fell asleep twice while I was outside.”
“Well, I’ll tell you, then. You survived outside for seventeen standard days. I doubt very much that many boys your age - and that includes young Mustafarians - could accomplish such a thing without a wealth of provisions and emergency equipment. I commend you.”
Maul bowed, holding his left arm away from his side as he did so.
Sidious noticed the angle of Maul’s arm. “You didn’t heal properly. Your arm must be broken again and reset. Is it painful?”
“Yes, Master Sidious,” Maul said flatly, his tone not even slightly betraying his extreme discomfort. Out of the comer of his eye, he spied the red and black striped fish with yellow eyes swimming near the larger gray fish at the bottom of the nearby orb that was suspended above the circular dining table. The yellow-eyed fish appeared to have grown bigger again.
Sidious looked to TD-D9 and said. “Take Maul to the training room. Attend to his arm. Clean him up. And then bring him back to me.”
“Yes, Master Sidious,” the droid said, then added, “Afterward, do you wish for me to repair my own legs?”
“Yes, of course,” Sidious said.
Leaving Sidious, TD-D9 hobbled after Maul to the training room. Neither spoke once, not even while the droid reset Maul’s broken arm. Thirty minutes later, they returned to Sidious’s chamber. Maul was wearing fresh clothes. His left arm was wrapped in a bacta splint.
Sidious was seated at the dining table beneath the watery orb. Fine cutlery, dinner plates, and drinking goblets were on the table. Facing TD-D9, Sidious said. “You may repair yourself after you bring us dinner”
“Yes, Master Sidious,” said the droid, hobbling out of the chamber again.
Sidious looked at Maul as he gestured for the youth to sit in the chair across his own. Maul was surprised. His Master had never before invited him to dine in the chamber. And because he was extremely hungry, he also felt grateful. Maul bowed to his Master before he sat down. The fish swimming in the watery orb overhead made shimmering shadows across the table’s surface.
“This is a momentous occasion,” Sidious said solemnly as he dragged his finger around the rim of his goblet. “Because my presence is increasingly required on other worlds, I have arranged for you to attend the Academy on the planet Orsis. It is an institution for training paramilitaries for planetary governments. They also train intelligence agents, mercenaries, and assassins, as well as supplying professional combatants for the gladiatorial arenas. It’s a very exclusive school. To be an Orsis cadet is considered quite an honor.”
Maul was astonished. The prospect of leaving Mustafar and attending a school with other students was almost overwhelming.
“The director of the Academy,” Sidious continued, “is a Falleen named Trezza. He’s a bit short and almost two hundred years old, but do not let that fool you. He is as tough as they come, and mind tricks will not work on him. But there are a few minor challenges. Trezza does not know my name and he never will. And to protect my identity, I shall wear a disguise. Understood?”
“Yes, Master,” Maul said, although he could only imagine why his Master wanted to protect his identity.
“You may use your name, but there is one catch, and this is very important. You are not allowed to use your Force powers on Orsis unless you are alone with me, and unless I grant you permission. When time allows, I will continue to train you in the ways of the Force while you are on Orsis, but you must never use your powers against any other students or faculty members under any circumstances. You must never even talk about your powers to anyone else on Orsis. If you disobey this command, the consequences will be most dire. Understood?”
“Yes, Master.” He knew what dire meant.
Sidious poured a dull-colored liquid into the goblet set before Maul and then his own. Raising his goblet to Maul, Sidious said. “To future endeavors.”
As Sidious and Maul drank, TD-D9 hobbled back into the chamber carrying a tray that held plates covered by domed lids. The droid set the covered plates before the seated figures, then said, “Are you finished with me Master Sidious?”
“Most definitely,” Sidious said. Keeping his eyes on Maul, Sidious waved at the droid. TD-D9 lifted off the floor, flew across the chamber, and smashed into the wall. The impact was so great that Maul noticed small shock waves ripple across the suspended orb. The droid’s photoreceptors went dead as its ruined body collapsed in a loud crash.
Maul didn’t flinch. He thought of all the lime he’d shared with the droid, how it had reared him and punished him, and how he’d never expected his Master to destroy it. He wouldn’t have the chance to say goodbye, or to destroy the droid himself. All these thoughts raced through his mind, but he didn’t flinch.
Smoke began rising from the droid’s shattered head. Sidious grinned. “Not the most efficient way to eliminate an old droid we don’t need anymore, but that did feel good. Now, let’s see what’s for dinner.” Ignoring the smoldering droid across the chamber, Sidious lifted the lid off his plate and revealed there was nothing on it He sighed. “Oh, well, I wasn’t very hungry anyway. How about you. Maul? What’s on your plate?”
Maul had no idea what kind of game his Master was playing. He hoped he would find food on his plate but braced himself for disappointment. He removed the lid from his place to reveal the red and black striped fish he’d watched grow over the past four years. Lying on its side, the fish stared back at him through one eye. Maul saw the fish’s gills flex and realized it was still alive.
Maul didn’t flinch.
The fish’s eye shifted to look at its former home, the orb above the table, where other fish continued to swim. Maul doubted that Sidious expected him to pick up the fish and insert it back into the orb.
“Go on,” Sidious said. “Dig in.”
Maul obeyed. He tore into the fish, starting with the head. As he ate, Sidious said, “We will leave for Orsis tonight. Do you have any questions?”
“Yes, Master,” Maul said between mouthfuls. “What will be your disguise on Orsis?”
“Naturally,” Sidious said, “I shall present myself as a man with a lack of vision.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
“Welcome to Orsis Academy,” hissed the short male Falleen, a reptilian humanoid with green skin, as he stepped away from the massive desk in his office
to greet the two people, a man and a boy, who had just entered. “I am Trezza, the Academy’s director.”
“Thank you for receiving us,” said the man, who wore a bulky old set of cybernetic goggles, a sensor-laden metal bracket that completely concealed his eyes and most of his forehead. He clutched a walking stick in one hand and had his other hand placed on the shoulder of his young companion, who wore loose-fitting black clothes, “Allow me to introduce you to Maul.”
Trezza had already noted the boy’s horns and tattooed visage, and assumed he was a Zabrak. Trezza bowed slightly and said, “Greetings, Maul. You may call me Master Trezza.”
Maul bowed deeply. “I am honored, Master Trezza.”
Returning his attention to the sensor-goggled man, Trezza said, “And how shall I address you, sir?”
Sidious sighed. “With all due respect I prefer to remain nameless. For practical purposes.”
“Very well,” Trezza replied with a smooth smile, making it evident that he was no stranger to clients who valued privacy above all else. “So, you came here to discuss...?”
Sidious smiled. “As I mentioned in the holomessage that I sent, I am a modest businessman. But I anticipate my business will expand greatly in years to come and that competition will increase. I shall require a very dedicated bodyguard. One with a good set of eyes. You may have noticed I am somewhat ocularly challenged.” Sidious lifted his walking stick and tapped its handle twice against the side of his sensor goggles. “Maul’s vision is exceptionally good, and his loyalty is beyond question.”
Trezza glanced at Maul again, then returned his attention to the goggled man. “Do you have a certain time frame for when you expect Maul to be... sufficiently grown for such a job?”
Sidious chuckled. “My mind is quite made up about Maul. I can afford to wait. I trust you have received the credits I sent for his registration and tuition?”
Star Wars - The Wrath of Darth Maul Page 5
