Star Wars - Darth Maul - Shadow Hunter

by Shadow Hunter (by Michael Reaves)

  Lorn wished I-Five was with him. He was painfully aware that since this nightmare had begun, every time his life had been in peril it had been either the droid or Darsha who had saved him. Some hero, he thought.

  He missed Darsha, as well, although he didn't wish she was with him. He wished she were still alive and far away from here, safe on some friendly planet that had never heard of either the Sith or the Jedi. He wished he was there with her.

  The nav computer beeped softly to get his attention, and displayed a course vector overlay on one of the monitors. The Sith's ship had changed course; it was now headed for a large space station in geosynchro-nous orbit over the equator.

  His mouth dry as paper, Lorn instructed the auto-pilot to follow. He had no idea what he was going to do when he got there. All he knew was he had to try, somehow, to stop the Sith.

  For Darsha's sake.

  And for his own.

  CHAPTER 35

  Luden Sal loaded the deactivated I-Five into his skycar and instructed the droid chauffeur as to their destination. The vehicle lifted away from the space-port, sliding smoothly into the airborne traffic lanes.

  He felt sorry for Lorn. His friend hadn't told him very much about the situation he was in, but from the few hints he had dropped and from the look of the goon he was chasing, Sal figured his chances of sur-vival were not great. That was too bad. He'd always thought Lorn had potential, even though he came across as a chronic underachiever. One rogue can al-ways recognize another.

  But in all probability, Lorn was going to die on this crazy quest of his. A shame, but it really wasn't any of Sal's business. He was far more concerned about the droid.

  The Sakiyan had never really understood how Lorn could treat I-Five as an equal-even going so far as to call him a "business partner." Droids were machines- clever ones, to be sure, and able in some cases to mimic human behavior to a startling degree. But that's all it was: mimicry. Legally they were property. Though he'd become somewhat accustomed to it during the year or so he'd known Lorn and I-Five, Sal had never completely gotten over the vaguely creepy feeling it gave him to see the two of them interacting as peers.

  Well, there would be no more of that. He'd had his eye on this droid for some time; the weapons modifi-cations alone would make him a valuable asset. Since Sal occasionally had dealings with Black Sun, it was not a bad idea at all to have a bodyguard, and he was certain that I-Five would make a very good one-once the droid's memory had been wiped, of course.

  He wasn't overly concerned with how Lorn might feel about this. After all, he fully expected never to see Lorn again. And even if he did, it wasn't a capital crime to steal and reprogram a droid. The most he could expect in terms of legal repercussions might be a fine, which wouldn't be nearly as much as the cost of a new droid with I-Five's special features.

  No matter how you looked at it, even throwing in that clunker of a ship, it was good business.

  The Temple's roof sparkled in the afternoon sun as Sal's skycar shot by it. Soon it was lost to sight among the countless other flying craft that filled the skies of Coruscant.

  The Infiltrator settled into one of the space station's docking sleeves, and Maul heard the muffled metallic sounds of the air lock's outer hatch sealing with the station's. He deactivated the life support and artificial gravity systems-then, weightless, he made his way through the ship's dark interior to the air lock.

  This point of egress to the station was in one of the outlying service modules.

  Darth Sidious had promised him that there would be neither human nor droid to interfere with his progress, and as Maul emerged from the air lock he saw that this was so. The lock opened into what appeared to be a service corridor-narrow and low, the walls and ceiling covered with pipes, con-duits, and the like. The artificial gravity was not on in this region of the station, no doubt for budgetary rea-sons. No matter; Maul had operated in zero-g envi-ronments before.

  He pushed himself away from the lock and floated down the corridor, using the impedi-menta that festooned the walls to pull himself along.

  The directions Darth Sidious had given him were clear in his head; he was to proceed down this passage-way to the module proper, and then take a vertical shaft up to one of the larger habitation modules. At a prearranged time-less than fifteen minutes away-he would rendezvous with Maul. Maul would then hand him the crystal.

  And then his mission would be complete.

  Lorn let the autopilot take care of the docking pro-cedure; he wasn't all that good of a pilot. I'm not all that good at anything, he thought bitterly, except get-ting those I care about in trouble. He still had the blaster he had taken from the Raptor, but he only now remembered its power pack wasn't good for more than I

  a few shots. Of course, a few shots would probably be all he would have time for, one way or another.

  After the green light flashed, Lorn crossed into the service shaft. It had been some time since he'd experi-enced zero-g. When he could afford to, he used to work out fairly regularly at a spa that featured null-grav sports. He'd enjoyed the workouts; feeling like he could fly, even if only within the small confines of the spa's structure, had always been good for taking some of the weight of his existence off him.

  He was under no illusions, however, that his famil-iarity with weightlessness gave him any kind of edge over the Sith. He had no doubt that his opponent could handle himself with consummate and deadly skill in any kind of environment. He would need an enormous amount of luck to pull this off.

  Once inside the corridor, he moved very cautiously and slowly. There was no sign of his enemy anywhere ahead, and it didn't look like there was anyplace to hide here. Nevertheless, he was taking no chances. Lorn wouldn't have been surprised if the Sith sud-denly materialized out of thin air in front of him at this point.

  He had no idea what he was going to do once he spotted him; he hadn't had time to formulate a plan. If the taozin nodule let him get close enough to get off a shot, he had absolutely no compunctions about shooting his adversary in the back-assuming he didn't pass out from sheer terror once he had him in his sights.

  He reached the end of the corridor. An access shaft led up from here. Before following it, Lorn pulled out the blaster and checked its power supply.

  What he found was not good. The weapon had enough power left for one shot at maximum setting, or three shots at the low-level stun setting. After a mo-ment's thought, Lorn adjusted the setting to the lower level, figuring it would be better to have three chances of incapacitating the Sith rather than one chance of killing him. Assuming the stun setting would in fact stun him. By now Lorn wasn't at all persuaded that anything could harm his nemesis.

  He eased himself into the shaft. It led to a larger, better-lit chamber, perhaps ten meters by ten, and fairly empty save for some equipment bins anchored to the walls.

  At the other end of the chamber was the Sith.

  His back was to Lorn; he was entering a code on a wall panel, preparing to open a hatch in the far wall.

  Lorn rose quietly out of the tube and gripped the blaster in both hands. He braced his feet against the edge of the shaft; there would be a slight recoil in zero-g.

  The taozin nodule seemed to be doing its job: the Sith was apparently unaware that Lorn was ten me-ters behind him and drawing a bead right between his shoulder blades. His hands were trembling, but not so much that he shouldn't be able to hit a target as broad as his enemy's back, especially with three shots at his disposal. Once the Sith was stunned, Lorn would finish him off with the lightsaber and then grab the in-formation crystal.

  The Sith pressed a wall button. A light glowed green, and the hatch started to open.

  Now. It had to be now. Lorn drew a deep breath, opening his mouth wide so that the Sith wouldn't hear the intake of air. He exhaled the same way, then drew in another breath and held it.

  He pulled the trigger.

  CHAPTER 36

  The shot was true. The stun bolt nailed the Sith squarely in t
he middle of his back, hurling him for-ward to slam against the bulkhead. Lorn fired one more, which hit the Sith's lower back.

  Lorn couldn't believe it. He shoved himself for-ward, shooting the length of the chamber toward his adversary, who was now floating limply back toward him in a slow rebound from the impact. Blaster held ready-he had one shot left-Lorn grabbed the Sith's robes, pulling the latter around to face him. As he was reaching for the lightsaber he noticed a sparkle of re-flected light coming from a half-open compartment on the utility belt.

  It was the holocron crystal. Lorn grabbed it and shoved it in his pocket. Then he reached for the lightsaber.

  He was staring directly into the sinister tattooed face when the Sith's yellow eyes opened.

  Lorn froze, mesmerized by that ferocious glare. He forgot about the lightsaber he was reaching for, forgot about the blaster still in his other hand. Then he was hurled back by a blast, unseen but nonetheless power-ful, that left him gasping for air.

  The Sith's lightsaber leapt into a black-gloved fist, both blades flashing into existence. One of them flick-ered toward him like crimson lightning. Lorn felt a blow to his right hand, saw the hand, still clutching the blaster, go spinning away in slow motion, a few globules of blood following it. He didn't feel any pain, did not in fact realize what had happened until he saw the blackened, cauterized stump at the end of his arm.

  And now the Sith was spinning around, using the energy of the last blow to rotate himself into attack position again. The moment stretched for Lorn, unbe-lievably clear and sharp. The Sith's teeth were bared in a rictus of animal hatred. The lightsaber started a horizontal arc that would, in less than a second, shear through his neck.

  He was floating in front of the open hatch. His left leg was bent, his foot grazing the side of one of the storage canisters. Lorn kicked against it, propelling himself backwards through the hatch. The energy blade slashed through the empty space his neck had occupied a moment previously.

  He brought his legs up as he sailed through the hatchway. He flipped over in a back somersault, his head coming up and his left arm reaching out for the hatch controls. He saw the Sith hurtling toward him, framed in the opening. His hand slapped the button, and the hatch swung shut in the Sith's face. A red light glowed, indicating the hatchway was sealed. Lorn raked his ringers over the access panel keypad, scram-bling the code.

  Through the hatch's port he could see the Sith's face-a sight to chill the blood. Then, faintly, he heard the sound of metal beginning to melt and saw a faint blush of red building in the hatch's center.

  The Sith was using his lightsaber to melt through the hatch.

  Lorn turned and started pulling himself frantically along the corridor he was in. He didn't know where he was going, or how he was going to escape the vengeance of the monster behind him. There was no room in his head for anything-not even the pain of his severed wrist as the shock began to wear off- except raw red panic.

  For possibly the first time in his life, Darth Maul had been taken completely by surprise.

  He had felt no warning vibration of the Force be-fore being hit by the blaster bolts. The astonishment this caused him was almost equaled by the shock of realizing that the attack had come from Lorn Pavan. He had been so certain of the Corellian's death back on Coruscant that awakening to see him alive and looting his utility belt had caused Maul to momen-tarily question his own sanity.

  It was the combined shock of these two events- plus the confusing fact that, even though he could see Pavan before him, he could not sense his presence with the Force-that had slowed his reaction time just enough to let the Corellian get through the hatchway land lock it in Maul's face. Now he had to burn his way through the lock mechanism. As soon as the hatch came loose, he savagely hurled it open and shot after Pavan, using the Force to propel his weightless self in pursuit. There was no time to lose. He did not know how Pavan had escaped the explosion back in the storage facility, or how he was able to block his presence in the Force-and he did not care. In a few minutes his master would be at the rendezvous point, and Maul intended to be there, as well, holding the holocron in one hand and Pavan's severed head in the other. This had gone on long enough.

  Lorn hauled himself up another vertical shaft, mov-ing as fast as he could with only one hand to aid him. It seemed he could feel the hot breath of the Sith on the back of his neck; he dared not look behind him in case he actually did see the latter's demonic face. To look into those yellow eyes one more time would, he felt sure, utterly paralyze him.

  His one hope was to reach the space station's main section, where he could find some kind of security per-sonnel. Surely, with enough blasters between him and the Sith, he would be safe.

  It seemed impossible now that he had ever seriously intended, even for a moment, to kill the black-robed creature. That he had even managed to take the holocron away from him now seemed a miracle. Not that he would keep it for very long if he didn't find help fast.

  And then he shouldered his way through one final access port and found himself in a large solarium. As he passed through the entry, Lorn felt weightfulness return with a rush.

  He looked around. Plants and dwarf trees were tastefully arranged in a small garden setting. Half of the domed ceiling was made of polarized transpari-steel, affording a magnificent view of the stars and a huge crescent of the planet. And standing in the garden were several people of various species, some of whom were wearing the robes of Republic Senate members, and others dressed in the dark, formfitting attire of Coruscant guards.

  He recognized one of the senators. When he had worked for the Jedi, Lorn had heard him spoken of many times, always as a man of clear-minded practi-cality, a stranger to corruption and intrigue. If anyone could be counted on to protect the information on the holocron and see it safely reach the sanctuary of the Jedi Temple, it would be him.

  Lorn staggered forward. One of the senators, a Gran, saw him coming and reacted with a bleat of fright. Several of the guards moved in to protect their charges, drawing blasters.

  "Wait!" The command came from the senator whom Lorn had recognized. He stepped forward, his expression one of concern.

  "What's the matter, my good fellow? What brings you here in this extreme state?" Lorn pulled the crystal from his pocket and held it out. He saw the other's eyes narrow as he recognized it.

  "A holocron crystal? " "Yes," Lorn gasped, dropping it into the senator's ? outstretched hand. "It must reach the Jedi. Very [important." The senator nodded, and quickly tucked the holo-cron away in a fold of his robe. Then he noticed the stump where Lorn's other hand had been. "You're in-jured!" He turned to one of the guards, summoning him with a quick, imperious gesture. "This man re-quires hospitalization immediately! And protection from assassins, as well, by the look of it." Lorn sagged into a chair. As the others came for-ward he risked a glance over his shoulder at the ser-vice port where he had entered. There was no sign of the Sith.

  Relief flooded over him. The nightmare was over, at last.

  He felt his consciousness starting to slip away and realized that for the first time in days he could allow himself the luxury of exhaustion. "Make sure... the holocron...," he mumbled, but was too tired to finish the sentence.

  His benefactor leaned over him and smiled. "Don't worry, my brave friend. I'll take care of it. Everything will be all right now." Lorn managed to mumble, "Thank you,... Senator Palpatine." And then everything faded.

  CHAPTER 37

  When Obi-Wan Kenobi reached the Temple he could tell immediately that something was wrong. It wasn't just the ominous reverberations in the Force that pulsed invisibly all around him; the Padawans and messengers he passed in the hallways all wore looks of concern and concentration. One of them saw him and stopped.

  "Padawan Kenobi, you are to report to your Master immediately." Then he continued on his way before Obi-Wan could ask what was causing the palpable air of tension.

  He found the door to Master Qui-Gon's domicile open. The Jedi
was inside, loading his utility belt with field items such as an ascension gun and food capsules. He evidenced relief when he saw Obi-Wan standing in the doorway.

  "Excellent. You have returned just in time." "What's happened, Master?" "The Trade Federation has blockaded Naboo. You and I have been selected as ambassadors to the Trade Federation flagship to settle this." Obi-Wan felt stunned at the magnitude of this news. "Surely the Republic Senate will condemn such an action!" "I suspect the Neimoidians are counting on the sen-ate's past record of being. less than effective in such matters. In any event, we must leave immediately." "I understand. But I must tell you-Master Anoon Bondara and his Padawan, Darsha Assant, are both dead. There is no doubt of this." Master Qui-Gon paused in his packing and looked at Obi-Wan. The Padawan could see the sadness in his mentor's eyes. "And the cause of this tragedy?" "I'm still not certain, although I suspect Black Sun involvement." "I want to hear all about it," Master Qui-Gon said, "and so will the council.