Lives & Adventures

by Ryder Windham

  The first time he had seen his reflection, he had been startled, because he had thought he was seeing another person. For all he knew, his reflection was another person, another boy who looked like him and echoed his every movement. A boy who was semitransparent, suspended in the smoky air outside the room. A boy who was free to roam the planet’s volcanic surface without fear of injury, who could leave Mustafar and go anywhere he wanted. A boy who could help Maul escape.

  Maul wished he were that boy.

  Bracing his hands against the seamless area where the smooth metal wall met the glass, Maul jumped up so he could see more of his thin body reflected in the window. He jumped again and again, fascinated by his leaping reflection as well as the sound of his bare feet smacking against the metal floor. He pushed himself away from the window as he jumped back, still facing the window, and continued jumping for several minutes. He didn’t stop until well after his breathing had become short, his feet had gotten sore, and his leg muscles had begun stinging with pain.

  Catching his breath, he turned away from the window and surveyed his room. The room’s only remarkable features were a single door against the wall opposite the window and a cold-water faucet that was operated by a palm sensor, positioned over a small drainage hole in one corner. The door was made of thick metal, the same material as the walls, floor, and ceiling. The bottom of the door had a narrow horizontal slot, through which the droid would sometimes shove a small tray of food, usually bits of uncooked meat. Maul could not see through the slot, because it remained sealed when not in use, by a sliding sheet of metal. Above the door was a convex blister that housed an audio speaker and also a photo-receptor, which allowed the droid to watch Maul at all times. There weren’t any controls to open the door from inside Maul’s room, at least none that Maul had ever been able to find.

  A chime sounded from the speaker, alerting Maul to begin his exercises. Even though his room was not very large and his legs were still tired from jumping, he knew better than to ignore the chime. He immediately began running in place.

  At first, Maul kept his arms tucked by his sides. Then he started pumping his arms up and down to match the steady rhythm of his leg muscles. He wanted to close his eyes and pretend that he was somewhere else, perhaps a larger room, but he was not allowed to close his eyes while exercising. He forced his eyelids to stay open and pumped his legs faster.

  The chime sounded again. Maul stopped running, fell back against the floor, and began doing a series of sit-ups and leg lifts. After several minutes, the chime sounded, and Maul rolled over to do his push-up exercises, alternating between one- and two-handed push-ups. Several more minutes passed before the chime sounded again, signaling the exercise session’s end. Maul collapsed against the cold floor.

  Someone’s coming.

  Maul pushed himself up and stared hard at the door. Although he could not hear approaching footsteps, he knew the door would open in a moment, and a visitor would be standing in the chamber outside. He didn’t know how he knew this. He just knew.

  Maul could imagine only two possible visitors. One was the droid that looked after him. The other was the Man, who rarely visited. The Man wore a dark robe with a deep hood that left most of his features in shadow. Maul had never actually seen the Man’s eyes.

  Maul hated the Man even more than he hated the droid. The Man frightened him.

  The door made a hissing sound as it slid up and vanished into a slot in the ceiling. Standing outside the doorway was the droid. Made of shiny black metal, the droid had a bulbous head with five red mechanical eyes called photoreceptors and a mesh-grille vocabulator for speaking, and a cylindrical torso that held four long, jointed pincers for arms. The torso rested on a swivel-hinged abdomen that had six spiderlike legs.

  Maul never knew what to expect from the droid. Sometimes it brought food or medicine or sprayed Maul with antiseptic cleansers or escorted him to a larger adjoining chamber where it would chase him or let him run in circles. Other times, it would talk to him and teach him words.

  Usually, the droid brought pain.

  Once, the droid had delivered a bright green and yellow snake that wasted no time in attacking Maul, sinking its venomous fangs deep into the boy’s arm. Maul screamed and then threw his own body down on top of the snake’s to crush it. As ravenous as he was enraged, Maul had not been able to resist taking several large bites of the dead snake, which had been more than his small stomach could handle. After that incident, the droid had returned with medicine, bandages, and a stomach pump.

  Now, standing before Maul in the doorway, the droid slowly extended one pincer away from its body and swiveled the tip in a broad circular movement. Maul kept his eyes focused on the rotating pincer as he felt his muscles tense, bracing himself to leap away from it. He didn’t notice the small panel that opened below one of the droid’s eyes. The opened panel exposed a socket that housed a telescopic arm tipped with a hypodermic needle. The arm lashed out, jabbed the needle into Maul’s right shoulder, and then rapidly retracted into the droid’s head. The droid had taken just a fraction of a second to make the injection—so little time that Maul barely comprehended that the needle had pierced his skin.

  Maul blinked as he reached up and rubbed his shoulder. He realized that the droid had done something to him and had rotated its pincer only to distract him. And then he felt a strange, warm sensation spreading throughout his body. He frowned at the droid, and then his eyelids drooped and his legs buckled. The droid’s arms extended, catching the boy before he could hit the floor.

  The spider-legged droid picked up the unconscious boy and carried him out of the little room without any difficulty. The boy was not at all heavy. He was barely three years old.

  When Maul awoke, he was lying on a metal bench in a large high-ceilinged chamber that he had never visited before. Three tall, narrow windows were set into one wall, illuminating the floor in front of Maul but leaving most of the chamber in darkness. Through the windows, he saw molten rock cascading past a black jagged cliff.

  Maul did not remember falling asleep or leaving his own room. He suspected he was about to be disciplined. He wondered if he hadn’t done all his exercises correctly or if he had made some other mistake. Not that it mattered. Sometimes he was disciplined without any explanation at all. He had been learning discipline since he had learned how to walk. One of the first things he learned was not to cry. Crying never made anything better. Crying only made things worse.

  Maul slowly pushed himself up from the bench. He felt cool air against his back and suspected there was a vent or a doorway behind him. Looking around the chamber, he noticed five red lights glowing in the darkness of one nearby corner. He recognized the lights as the eyes of the spider-legged droid.

  Maul rubbed his right shoulder. He remembered that the droid had struck him in the shoulder earlier, and suspected that the droid had made him fall asleep. He wondered what the droid might do next. Would it kill him?

  The droid lurched out of the corner. Maul hit the floor with his bare feet, and began running as fast as his small legs could carry him away from the droid. Staying out of the light that stretched from the windows across the floor, he darted toward an inner wall, heading for the source of the draft he’d felt against his back. His vision adjusted to the darkness and he found a quadrangular doorway. He did not hesitate to run through it, even though he had no idea of what awaited him in the next chamber.

  Darkness. A chamber without windows. Then he glimpsed a dim sliver of light ahead. Ignoring the droid’s clattering footsteps behind him, he ran toward the light, which emanated from somewhere beyond a curved wall. He knew he couldn’t outrun the droid, but he didn’t dare stop.

  Maul ran around the curved wall and entered a long, narrow corridor. Illuminated by small rectangular lamps embedded in the walls, the corridor was so long that he couldn’t see the other end. Maul kept running. He heard the droid’s footsteps pause at the corridor’s entrance. He hoped the droid was too large t
o follow him into the corridor.

  Risking a backward glance, he saw the droid had already tilted its body sideways so four of its legs tapped against the wall while the remaining two continued to scramble up the floor, propelling its metal body after Maul. Maul gasped as he turned his gaze forward, never breaking his stride.

  He heard the droid’s footsteps grow louder and knew it was gaining on him. He somehow sensed the droid was about to snare him with a pincer. Desperate and determined to evade the droid, Maul jumped to the side, planting one foot against the wall to his right, then sprang to the opposite wall, keeping his feet moving so that he traveled two steps across the vertical surface in a diagonal descent to the floor. Maul heard the pincer slam into the floor behind him, and he jumped up to make two more quick strides along the right wall before he flung himself back to the floor, still running forward. As he ran, he heard a loud and satisfying crash from behind, and he knew that the droid had tripped over its own legs in its failed effort to keep up with him.

  Suspecting that the droid would not only recover but also be very angry with him, Maul ran faster. His heart was pounding as he saw that the corridor terminated at another quadrangular doorway. He exited the corridor fast and arrived in a chamber that was unlike any place he had ever imagined.

  Broad tapestries hung from the walls, which were also decorated with strange sculptures. Carved furniture, made from strangely jointed and highly polished bones, rested on a wide rug that had once been an animal’s hide. At the chamber’s center, an enormous orb of transparent greenish blue liquid, nearly two meters in diameter, was suspended in the air above a circular dining table. Dozens of small, multicolored aquatic creatures swam within the orb, some so close to the surface that their swishing tails sent ripples around the orb’s circumference.

  Maul was so amazed by all the wondrous things in the room that he almost forgot that he had stopped running. He just stood there, looking from the swimming creatures to the decorations. But as he studied the carved furniture, he instinctively realized the chamber was a special place. It was a place where someone sat and looked at all the things in the room. It was a place where someone lived. He knew the droid did not require such luxuries. He was certain that this place was the Man’s lair.

  “Welcome, Maul,” rasped a low voice from behind Maul. “I have been expecting you.”

  Maul froze at the sound of the Man’s voice. He locked his eyes on the floating orb. He wished he could become invisible.

  “I had expected that the droid would lead you here,” the unseen Man continued. “The way you ran along the walls to evade the droid was most impressive. But then you always have been a clever boy.”

  Maul had heard the Man talk like this before. Compliments were almost always followed by punishments. Maul braced himself as he kept his eyes fixed on the floating orb. As unnerved as he was by the Man’s presence, he was more fascinated by the aquatic creatures inside the orb. He wondered if the creatures were edible.

  A screech of metal sounded from the doorway that Maul had just entered, and the droid pushed its body out of the narrow corridor to emerge inside the chamber. After the droid righted itself so that all its legs touched the floor, it moved up beside Maul, stopping short of the animal-hide rug. Maul shifted his gaze from the floating orb to the droid and noticed two of its legs were now bent at odd angles. The droid swiveled its mechanical eyes to stare at Maul and said in a droning tone, “You should not have run away.”

  “Leave us,” the Man snapped at the droid.

  The droid tottered away from Maul, moving toward a wide doorway on the other side of the room. Maul wanted to leave with the droid, but instead he looked at the floating orb and remained where he stood.

  “You may face me,” the Man said soothingly.

  More than ever, Maul wished he were the free-floating boy who appeared to exist beyond the window in his own room. He tried very hard not to tremble as he slowly turned and looked up to face the Man.

  As usual, the Man was wearing his dark robe with the deep hood, but he had pushed the hood back so it was draped behind his head. Maul was surprised to see his exposed face. The Man had blue eyes, fair skin of a singular color, and a head of wavy hair. Maul was also taken aback by how different the Man’s head was from his own. The Man didn’t even have horns.

  The Man lifted his eyebrows as he looked at Maul skeptically. “You can talk, can’t you?”

  Maul nodded.

  “Yes?”

  “Yes,” Maul replied.

  “You will address me as Master Sidious.”

  “Yes, Master Sidious.”

  Sidious smiled. “Excellent.” He stepped past the boy and stopped beside the floating orb. Maul noticed that all the aquatic creatures within the orb swam to the far side, putting distance between themselves and Sidious. Sidious glanced at the creatures as if he found them only mildly interesting. “Maul, I have something important to tell you. I want you to listen carefully.”

  Maul listened.

  Speaking slowly, Sidious said, “You…are…remarkable.” Looking away from the watery orb, he faced Maul and added, “Very remarkable.”

  Maul did not know why he might be considered remarkable, or how Sidious expected him to respond. He decided to remain silent.

  “Our galaxy is home to trillions of life-forms. Some are large, others small. But as diverse as they are, the truth is that most life-forms are just like these fish.” Sidious gestured at the fish with a dismissive wave, and the fish appeared to shiver within the orb. “They seldom stray far from where they were born. They spend their time worrying about their next meal, about how they might avoid pain, and how long they might live. They live in fear of one another. And then, they die. It does not matter if they are an insect, a fish, a man, or…a snake.”

  Once again, Maul thought of the snake he had been forced to kill.

  “You have already traveled great distances,” Sidious continued. “You may have been born on the planet Iridonia, but you came to my attention on another world, Dathomir. There, the females rule and enslave the males. You were just an infant, and yet the most powerful beings on Dathomir were afraid of you. They wanted you dead because you were different.” Sidious smiled. “Do you know what makes you so remarkable, Maul? So different from ordinary life-forms?”

  Maul shook his head and answered meekly, “No.”

  Sidious raised his eyebrows slightly and pursed his lips. Shaking his head, he said, “That is not the correct response. The correct response is ‘No, Master Sidious.’”

  Maul swallowed hard, then said, “No, Master Sidious.”

  Sidious smiled again. “You are different because you are stronger. You have powers. You know things in advance. You look at the closed door to your room, and you know it is about to open. You have fast reflexes. Others only dream of anticipating moments as you do, or being able to move so fast. In this way, you and I are alike, Maul, except that my powers are much greater. My powers are greater because I know many things that you have yet to learn, such as how to make your powers work for you. Do you understand?”

  “Yes, Master Sidious.”

  “Good. Good.” Sidious walked around the watery orb until it was positioned between him and Maul. From Maul’s point of view, the orb distorted Sidious’s head and upper body. Sidious said, “I know you imagine a different life for yourself, Maul. An easier life than you have now.”

  Maul remained silent.

  “I know you’re upset about the snake that bit you,” Sidious said, continuing around the watery orb until he had a clear view of Maul. “I know everything about you, Maul. Everything.” Sidious edged around the orb until he was facing Maul again. “While you might think that your life is harsh and unpleasant, and that I am sometimes cruel, there is a reason for you to endure such pain. The reason is that you must become strong in every way. You must learn to overcome pain. Someday, you might become stronger than I. You’d like that, wouldn’t you? To be stronger than I?”

&
nbsp; “Yes, Master Sidious.”

  Sidious beamed at the boy. “Good.” He glanced at the watery orb. “Ah! Look there, at those two fish.”

  Maul followed Sidious’s gaze and saw a small fish with red and black stripes hovering beside a larger dark gray fish that had moved away from the other creatures to the bottom of the orb. Maul replied, “Yes, Master Sidious.” He noticed that the smaller fish had yellow eyes, the same color as his own. The small fish stared back at Maul.

  “How amusing,” Sidious said. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say those two were pretending to be us. If they were, I wonder where that would leave the rest.”

  Maul looked at the fish in the orb’s upper area and saw them begin to jerk and spasm. Several fish puffed up twice their original size, shuddered violently, and suddenly deflated. Others rolled erratically through the water, their eyes bulging as their gills pumped furiously. But after a few seconds, all the fish except for the two at the bottom stopped swimming entirely and began drifting off in different directions. Some floated toward the top of the orb, but most sank down beside the two surviving fish, who continued to hover next to each other. As the fish sank, Sidious recited a strange verse.

  “Far above, far above,

  We don’t know where we’ll fall.

  Far above, far above,

  What once was great is rendered small.”

  Maul wondered what the words meant. He knew Sidious had somehow selected the two fish and maneuvered them to the bottom of the orb and caused all the others to die. He didn’t know how Sidious had done this, but suspected it was some kind of magic. Looking away from the dead fish, Maul faced Sidious and said hesitantly, “Master Sidious…is it possible…to learn this power?”

  Sidious smiled broadly, showing his teeth. “It is possible. But not immediately. You must be patient. I’ve prepared a training room. And today, you will receive personal instruction…from me.”