Maul stopped listening as soon as she mentioned Dathomir. Sidious had told him about the Nightsisters, the Force-using witches who ruled that world. He thought of his most recent meeting with his Master, a week prior to the Gora. when Sidious had cautioned him that “beings of all nature” would attempt to deceive him, to fill his head with lies. There was no question in his mind that the witch who had captured him was associated with Sidious, that she was either deliberately or unwittingly testing Maul. He refused to become a pawn in their game.
“I won’t be going to Dathomir.”
The witch raised an eyebrow. “You’ve no interest in seeing your birth world or meeting the members of your Nightbrother clan?”
“Neither.”
The witch frowned. “You ate fated to serve us. Maul, one way or the other. It has always been thus.”
Staring hard at the witch. Maul said, “I serve only one Master.”
The witch smiled without mirth. “The Falleen you answer to will have to find another.”
The Falleen? Maul was confused. Was she under the impression that Trezza was his only Master, or was she toying with him? He considered mentioning Sidious by name, but decided against it.
A red-garbed Nightsister stepped into the cabin. She was armed with an energy bow and a sheathed energy sword, a fixed-blade weapon that resembled a glowing lightsaber. Maul recognized the Nightsister as one of the warriors who’d attacked him in the Gora. Like the seated witch, she had pale while skin and a tattooed face, but Maul noticed she was younger and did not have such a high forehead. The Nightsister said. “Mother Talzin, we are approaching the station.”
Talzin nodded but kept her eyes on Maul. “Can I trust you to behave while we transfer to our vessel, or do you wish simply to awaken aboard it?”
Maul glanced at the young Nightsister’s weapons. “For the moment, you have the upper hand. I won’t make trouble.”
“Of course you won’t,” Talzin said soothingly.
Maul looked out a viewport and saw they were approaching Orsis Orbital Station. A moment later, the drop ship shuddered as a tractor beam locked onto it. As the tractor beam eased the ship into one the station’s docking bays, Maul considered his limited options.
He knew that the station’s cargo and passenger hubs were linked at several points by air lock corridors. If he could break away from the Nightsisters and get to another ship, he might be able to return to Orsis before anyone at the Academy realized he had left the GORA. He would prove to Sidious that he would not be taken so easily.
The drop ship touched down m the space station’s large, dimly illuminated cargo hay As Maul walked with Talzin and the three Nightsisters down the drop ship’s boarding ramp, he was struck by a sudden feeling of apprehension. Talzin must have sensed something as well, because she turned to look at him, as if he might be the cause of her concern.
Maul said, “Trouble.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Sensing he was being watched by hidden lifeforms, Maul scanned the shadowy corners of the high-walled cargo bay. Without any prompting from Talzin, the three Nightsisters drew their swords and enabled their energy bows. Talzin stepped away from her group, moving out into the middle of the cargo bay as if she were not worried in the least.
Stay right where you are and lower your weapons,” a gruff voice barked from the cargo bay loudspeakers. And then the lifeforms emerged from shadows. Leathery-skinned Weequays stood amongst large-headed Siniteens, all armed with blaster rifles that were leveled at Maul and the Nightsisters.
A towering figure clad from head to foot in garish battle armor moved to the center of the cutthroats. He was a Vollick, a native of Rattatak, an Outer Rim world infamous for its gladiatorial death matches. A remarkably large blaster was holstered to his hip. Each of his arms looked as if they weighed more than Maul’s body.
“You won’t be returning to Dathomir, Mother Talzin” the Vollick said. “The five of you are going to be my guests on Rattatak, where you will eventually become members of my elite army.” He drew his enormous blaster from its holster and fired a shot at the bay’s tall ceiling. “Our weapons are set on stun, but we’ll shoot to kill if you decide to refuse my invitation.”
Maul wondered how the Vollick warlord and his soldiers had known Talzin would be arriving on the space station, and then he wondered if the Vollick might be Talzin’s accomplice. Talzin said nothing. She raised her hands as if in surrender, then extended her fingers.
Maul was surprised to see dozens of Nightsister warriors materialize from the sidewalls and upper levels of the docking bay. However, he instantly sensed they were insubstantial, that the new arrivals were nothing more than a powerful Force illusion created by Talzin. The warlord and his soldiers fell for it. They rapidly reset their blasters’ selector switches from stun to full power, angled their weapons away from Talzin, and opened fire at the apparitions. Genuine blaster bolts and illusory arrows began crisscrossing the bay.
The real Nightsisters drew their energy bows and began launching very real arrows at the Weequays and Siniteens. They dropped several soldiers before Talzin's conjured illusion evaporated unexpectedly. Maul glanced at Talzin, saw her frustrated expressions, and wondered if she had complete control of her powers.
“Cease fire!” yelled the startled Vollick. “Cease fire’” But his men ignored him and turned their weapons on the genuine Nightsisters who remained in the bay. As Maul ducked for cover, he saw a Weequay blast one of the Nightsisters at the same moment that a Siniteen fired a shot that tore through Talzin’s thigh. The Nightsister dropped her energy bow as she collapsed. Talzin stumbled and fell on the deck several meters away from Maul.
Maul considered running back into the drop ship, but he doubted that it had sufficient power to escape the bay’s tractor beam array. And looking at Talzin sprawled on the deck, he also began to wonder whether Sidious wanted her dead. He thought, If this is a test, it's for keeps.
He ran toward the fallen Nightsister, leaping and tumbling across the deck until he reached her energy bow. He didn’t have to look at her to know she was dead. Snatching up her weapon, he darted back to the drop ship, took cover behind one of the landing struts, and began firing back at the warlord’s men. Talzin was still lying on the deck. The two remaining Nightsisters had moved beside her and were unleashing a barrage of arrows at their opponents.
Maul scanned the cargo bay. Recalling the space station’s layout from previous visits, he visualized the shortest route to a neighboring bay where he hoped to find another drop ship. He was still working with his rough plan to return to Orsis before anyone discovered he was missing. Although he would have accomplished this goal more easily if he used the Force, he did not want to disappoint his Master again. He was about to make a break for the nearest hatchway when he heard Talzin call out “Don't leave us, Maul!”
Talzin was on her feet, supported by one of the Nightsisters while the other was covering them. Blaster bolts whizzed past them. Talzin cried, “Maul!”
Maul didn’t know what to do. Would Sidious expect him to show sympathy? Was Talzin even one of Sidious’s agents? Either way, how would he better serve the dark side of the Force? By helping the Nightsisters, or leaving them to die?
Maul cursed through his grilled teeth. He honked the energy bow over his right shoulder, then ran through a hail of blaster bolts to reach Talzin. He heaved her up from the deck, flung her over his left shoulder and raced for the entrance of a cylindrical corridor that led to the safety of an adjacent bay. The two Nightsisters followed, firing arrows at the warlord and his soldiers behind them as they moved after Maul.
Maul was fifty meters shy of the connector’s entrance when a hail of blaster bolts cut him off. He carried Talzin behind a large cargo container for cover, then propped her up on the deck beside the container. The other two Nightsisters arrived, positioned their bodies to protect Talzin, and returned fire. Maul looked at Talzin.
“Our magicks don’t work in this sterile place,�
�� Talzin said bitterly as Master bolts ricocheted off the container. “That’s why I could not sustain the illusion.”
“The illusion that nearly got all of us killed,” Maul said.
Talzin winced as she moved her hand over the deep wound in her outer thigh. ‘“On Dathomir, I would be able to heal myself.”
“No one asked you to come here,” Maul said, but then thought maybe she had responded to an invitation from Sidious.
“We came for your sake.”
“That’s a lie.”
Talzin’s silver eyes flared. “You fail to grasp that you belong to a great heritage, Maul. That you were spirited away from Dathomir doesn’t alter the fact that you are a Nightbrother, and that your fate is joined with ours.”
Maul snorted. “Everyone has a plan for me.”
Talzin’s brow furrowed, then she said, “I don’t understand.”
Maul ignored her as he tried to find a way out. Looking to the area between the cargo container and the soldiers, he saw a dozenautomated load-lifter droids. Apparently oblivious to the firefight, the simple-minded droids were hauling similar cargo containers to different areas of the bay. The containers were drifting slowly into the bay on powerful tractor beams from a cargo ship that was too large to be berthed inside the station. Maul knew enough about starship technology to know that a computer housed in the bay’s upper-level control room was guiding the droids and tractor beams. Looking up, he found the control room’s window.
We’ve one chance to make it through the connector and into the passenger pod,” Maul said. He looked at Talzin. “I’m going to need one of your energy swords.”
“You’ve no training in the use of that weapon,” said Talzin.
Maul shrugged the energy bow from his shoulder. “I’ll just have to improvise.”
Talzin grabbed an energy sword from one of the Nightsisters and handed it to Maul. Taking the sword, he leaped away from the cargo container, hit the deck, and then sprinted for the control room’s bulkhead.
The soldiers turned their weapons and fired at Maul. Gripping the energy sword with both hands, he sprang from the deck, launching himself up toward the control num. He plunged the sword through the control room’s window, creating a vertical hole, then flipped his body to kick the window and shatter it. As he landed inside the control room, the soldiers fired more blaster bolts after him, and the bolts ricocheted off the room’s walls. One stray bolt grazed the side of Maul’s upper right arm, drawing blood.
Ignoring the pain. Maul dropped to control room’s floor until he reached the main control board. His education at Orsis Academy had included learning how to override computers, and he quickly reprogrammed the cargo bay’s tractor beam array.
Almost instantly, the cargo containers that had been drifting slowly into the bay were suddenly soaring in at rapid speed. Although the increased speed had no effect on the cargo ship parked outside the space station, the containers began piling up inside the bay faster than the load-lifter droids could catch them. The pile quickly accumulated into a wall of containers that separated the soldiers from the Nightsisters, but left the Nightsisters with a clear passage to the connector that led to the space station’s passenger hub.
Rising from the control room’s floor, Maul glanced down to see several soldiers trying to run to the far side of the bay before the incoming containers cut them off. The containers moved faster than the soldiers could run and they were crushed. The remaining soldiers retreated.
Maul jumped down from the control room and returned to Talzin and the two Nightsisters. He wrapped his arm around Talzin's waist and helped her to her feet The Nightsisters followed Maul and Talzin into the air lock corridor.
With the Nightsisters bringing up the rear, the two of them hurried to the entrance of the cylindrical corridor. Maul saw the entrance’s sealed hatch, but because he didn’t want to lose hold on Talzin, he used the Force to open the hatch. After they all moved through the hatch and into the corridor’s first airlock, Talzin used the Force to seal the hatch behind them, and the pair of Nightsisters launched their energy quarrels to destroy the hatch’s control panel. An alarm began blaring. Maul ignored it and kept moving.
Working as a team, they repeated their actions as they moved through several more hatches until they reached the station’s passenger hub. Maul wasn’t sure what Sidious would think of his use of the Force, but as they moved into the passenger hub, he became absolutely certain that his Master was testing him. He was so certain that he stopped in his tracks.
“Why are you waiting?’” Talzin said. “Our ship isn’t that far.”
“You can stop pretending,” Maul said.
Apparently confused, Talzin shook her head. “About what?”
“About Dathomir, the Nightbrothers, and the rest. I know that you were sent by my Master. I know, because I sense him. My Master is here.”
Moving through a maintenance level to avoid more soldiers, Maul, Talzin, and the Nightsisters finally arrived in the hangar that housed Talzin’s starship. Maul had expected to find the warlord’s soldiers stationed in the hangar to prevent Talzin from reaching her ship, but he had not expected to find over a dozen Weequays lying dead on the hangar’s deck.
Although none of the Weequay bodies bore obvious wounds, Maul knew how they had died, and also the identity of their killer. Leaving Talzin standing with her Nightsisters, he moved across the hangar to face a dark alcove. He slopped, dropped to one knee, and bowed his head.
“Master.”
Sidious stepped out from the alcove. He wore his dark robe, and his face was concealed by the shadows beneath his deep hood.
Talzin and the Nightsisters fell back a step. Evidently, they could sense the man’s power in the dark side of the Force. As the Nightsisters kept their energy bows aimed at the deck, Sidious turned slightly toward them, gestured to Maul, and said, “This one does not belong to Dathomir. He is mine.”
Talzin said, “Then you didn’t merely abandon him to the Falleen.”
“On the contrary,” Sidious said.
Talzin glanced at Maul. “You have trained him well.”
Sidious motioned to Talzin’s ship, “You’ll find the body of your fallen Nightsister aboard,”
Talzin nodded her head in gratitude. Sidious folded his hands into the opposite sleeves of his robe and said, “Now, be gone from here before I have a change of mind.”
Talzin was unaccustomed to Inking orders, but she gestured to the Nightsisters to board the ship. The Nightsisters walked past Maul, who was still kneeling with his head lowered. As Talzin limped past Maul, she casually allowed her dangling left hand to brush the bloody wound that had been opened in his upper right arm. She proceeded up the boarding ramp. Neither Maul nor Sidious noticed her move her left hand to one of the talismans that dangled from her neck, and press Maul’s blood upon the talisman before she entered her ship.
Talzin’s ship lifted from the deck and glided out of the hangar. Sidious moved to an observation window that overlooked Orsis. Maul followed obediently, then dropped to a kneeling posture and waited for his Master to speak.
Staring out the window, Sidious said at last, “You did well, Maul. It pleases me that you showed restraint and betrayed none of your deep training in the dark side of the Force.”
Maul bowed his head. “I did so in the hope of one day becoming your apprentice ”
Sidious glanced back at Maul. “Then consider yourself one step closer.”
“Thank you. Master.”
Sidious stepped away from the window. “The time has come for you to learn certain things about the nature of our undertaking. As I told you, I have been putting into motion the stages of a Grand Plan, a plan you may play a part in if you can continue to demonstrate worthiness and loyalty. You should know, though, that this plan has in fact been in the making for a millennium. It springs from the minds of many who serve a great tradition.” He paused to look at Maui. “A tradition of far greater import than the Dathomiri
brotherhood Talzin surely told you about. It is the tradition of the ancient order known as the Sith.”
Surprised, Maul narrowed his eyes. “You told me of the Sith when I was young, Master.”
“What I kept from you then is that I am the Sith Lord, Darth Sidious. My Master both named and conferred the title on me, and at my discretion, you may one day be afforded the same honor by me.”
Maul swallowed hard. “I will strive to prow my worth to you, Master.”
“Yes, you will,” Sidious said. “From this point on I will begin to tutor you in the ways of the Sith. We are opponents of the Republic, and the sworn enemies of the Jedi Older. It will be our task to see the former brought down and the latter expunged from the galaxy. Where I will remain the guiding hand in this, it will fall to you to execute missions that could pose a risk to my position should the true purpose of our acts be discovered.
For years, Maul had wondered the purpose of all his training. Now he knew. His heart pounded.
“Nothing less than perfection will be sufficient, Maul,” Sidious said, “Do you understand?”
Maul bowed his head again. “I understand, Master.”
“Then let's put that to the test, shall we?”
Maul looked up. “Another?”
Sidious’s brow furrowed. “Another?”
“As you engineered with Mother Talzin?”
Sidious grinned faintly. “What happened on Orsis and aboard this station was not set in motion by my hand, Maul. In fact, you were betrayed by one who told Talzin where to find you, and then aided and abetted her plan to capture you.”
Maul’s eyes widened with surprise, and then he felt a wave of anger. “May I know the identity of my betrayer, Master?”
Sidious looked at the ceiling for a moment as he considered Maul’s request, then replied, “Meltch Krakko.”
Krakko?! Maul scowled, wondering how long the Mandalorian had been plotting against him. “Did Trezza know, Master?”
Star Wars - The Wrath of Darth Maul Page 9
