She was dying. Soniee could feel the Force ebbing out of her. And there was something else. Something inside of her was also dying, something small and indistinct but very precious. She couldn't save herself but she was trying to save the other thing, that small precious thing that had never had a chance to really live.
And then she heard the alarm, the warning that her freighter would be dropping out of hyperspace, and she jerked awake. Soniee had had the dream before but it was never so vivid. Usually she would forget it as soon as she woke up but this time it stuck with her, the fear and the sadness and the helplessness. But she didn't have time to think about the dream or the intense feelings it left behind.
In another few minutes her careful calculations would bring her right to the edge of the Mandalore system, the system she had called home for all of her nearly eighteen years. She had spent a month away on Coruscant, since that awful day when Maul killed the duchess and she had been forced to fly Master Obi-wan Kenobi back to the Jedi Temple. Then she had been compelled to tell the council her story about the goings on in Sundari and plead for their help to rescue her planet. They had refused and sent her on to speak her case before the Republic Senate but before she was able to do so the Temple had been bombed and she was brought in to testify to her innocence. Her ship had been in the hanger at the time of the bombing, but she had been cleared of all charges and had then prepared to present her story to the Senate with the help of Padme Amidala.
She hadn't gotten the chance to say goodbye to Padme before she left Coruscant. The senator from Naboo was on a mission to Scipio to learn what the hold up was with the Republic's loan from the banking clan. Soniee could never repay all that Padme had done for her while she was stuck in Galactic City. She had been guardian and mentor and friend and she had allowed Soniee to stay in her home, her penthouse apartment.
Soniee checked the readouts on her instrument panel. She would send Padme a comm once she was settled back on Mandalore. For now she really needed to focus on dropping safely into real space. It was her least favorite part of piloting. Her mother had gone into labor in hyperspace and had dropped to sublight speed into a firefight just moments before Soniee was born. She knew the odds of something like that happening to her now were minimal. She had programed the jump to conclude far enough out in the system that no ships should be flying anywhere nearby when she arrived.
She wondered what Lux would say about her worries. Lux Bonteri was from Onderon just like her mother and he had become her friend early on after her arrival on Coruscant. He joked with her about appointment to be Mandalore's Representative to the senate and how she had planned to tell the Chancellor that he had make a mistake and decline the offer. She and Lux had shared in the humor over the rumors of their love affair that had never really happened and the stories that they might be related. She hadn't said goodbye to him either but she had asked Fox to pass on the message.
Oh Fox. Her heart broke for him. CC-1010, Commander Fox of the Coruscant guard had fallen in love with Soniee during her stay and she had found it very difficult not to return those feelings. She was certain however that any romantic venture that she attempted on the Galactic capitol was doomed to fail. Not just because of the fact that she had someone else waiting for her back home but also because of the influence of a dark presence that seemed determined to get her to show her Force sensitive powers and draw on her emotions to become stronger. Lux had gotten a cracked skull when the, whoever it was, had used him to tempt Soniee. And she had nearly broken Fox's hip when she Force pushed him across a room.
No, it was better that she had left all that behind her. Better that she and Korkie had finally gotten back in touch. The son of the duchess had asked her again to marry him and just a few hours ago they had exchanged their vows. Soon she would be with him again, in the arms of her husband. Soniee smiled as she pulled back on the lever and watched the stars condense again into pinpoints of light as she returned to real space.
Proximity alarms blared and it was only her quick reflexes that allowed her to swerve to miss the three red and black Kom'rk class fighters that were clustered around her exact reentry point. It was like they were waiting for her and any doubt that this wasn't the case vanished when the ping for the holo comm informed her of an incoming message relay. The message itself didn't come from one of the ships but was being passed on from Sundari.
Still shaking from the shock after the drop from lightspeed, Soniee took a deep breath and activated the comm. The image that rose from the projector was a well dressed older gentleman and he addressed her with all the esteem and politeness of a life long politician.
"Representative Ordo, I am so glad to see that you have made it safely back from Coruscant." Prime Minister Almec gave her a slight bow. "And may I be the first to congratulate you on passing your Royal Academy of Government final exams." He clapped his hands together.
"How did you know?" she asked.
"Well you turned in the documents just a few hours ago, did you not?"
Soniee gulped. She had turned in her last exam paper from the comm system of this ship. She hadn't even considered that they might be able to track her from the chip she had taken from the datapad that Almec had sent her.
"When you didn't show up for the Senate session this morning we started to worry about you." He was watching her for a reaction and she attempted to keep her face blank. "Mr. Bonteri seemed a bit worried as well."
The image shifted to a recording from that morning's senate meeting. Lux was sitting alone in his repulsor pod listening to the Chancellor give testimony about how he had been attacked by a clone trooper who had succumbed to some sort of virus. They had reason to believe that the virus was a Separatist plot, as usual. But Soniee wasn't thinking about the conspiracy. She knew Lux would be rolling his eyes at the a theory, just as he had refused to believe that Ahsoka could have been allied with the Separatist when she was accused of bombing the Jedi Tempe.
No, Soniee was thinking about Fox. He had been in contact with this infected clone. Fox had been the one who killed him. Soniee bit her lip and continued to listen intently to the Chancellor's speech. His doctors had come up with an inoculation to the virus and it would be sent out to every soldier in the Grand Army of the Republic. She sighed with relief as Almec's image once again appeared in the holo projection.
"Relieved to know that your guard will receive the vaccine for the virus?" Almec asked.
"Well, yes. Yes I am." She answered honestly.
"Why did you leave so suddenly, if I may be so bold as to ask? We would have sent for you soon in any event. We mean to celebrate your graduation. There will be a ceremony here in Sundari in your honor."
"I was..." Soniee sought for an answer. "homesick. I haven't seen my mother in weeks. I just wanted to go home to Concord Dawn and visit with her."
"Ah." The Prime Minister nodded. "Then your decision had nothing to do with this..." Another image replaced his in the projection. It was of Fox kissing her on the balcony outside Padme's apartment and then he swept her up into her arms and carried her inside. Almec's voice began shortly before his image returned in the holo. "You know of course that it wouldn't be seemly for the Representative of the Neutral System of Mandalore to be seen fraternizing with a clone trooper..."
Maybe it was because the feelings from her dream were still so raw in her mind. Maybe it was because the real person she was afraid of seeing this video was now her husband. Or, maybe it was just because she had thought about doing it for so long. Soniee raised her hand toward the image and imagined that it was gripping the Prime Minister's throat. She squeezed and as she did, he began to gasp for air. She felt the intoxicating power of having him at her mercy, finally.
But then, as Almec continued to struggle, someone else calmly stepped into the holo image that was being projected before her. He was tall with red and black patterned skin and a ring of horns protruded from his skull. She knew him at once even though they had never met.
"Fascinating," Maul smiled. He circled Almec but didn't immediately make a move to help his puppet ruler. "Your power is quite extraordinary, Miss Ordo."
Soniee almost smiled. His words gave her the same feeling of pride as they would if Momma or one of her Academy instructors had praised her work.
"However..." The Zabrak Sith snapped his fingers, a sharp pain shot through her hand, and she released her victim. "I'm afraid we still need this pretender for a while longer."
Almec coughed and rubbed at his throat. "Thank you, My Lord," he rasped.
Maul ignored him and focused on Soniee. "I believe you were already aware, my name is Maul and I have heard so much about you. You wish to go home and visit your mother?"
"Y-yes." She answered, rubbing her hand, which still stung from his admonishment. She was ashamed at the way his approval had affected her. He was the enemy. He had killed Korkie's mother.
"You were adopted by Mandalorians, were you not?" He asked her. He paced back and forth with his hands clasped behind his back and she noticed his prosthetic legs. That's right! She remembered the story now. Master Kenobi had cut him in half! How had he possibly survived? She had to admit an awestruck curiosity.
"I was." She refused to qualify her answers with a title like sir or lord. It was a small defiance but one she was determined to continue, even if the power he wielded was darkly seductive.
He stopped his pacing and looked at her, sincerely it seemed, from the holo image. "I too am attempting to adopt your Mandalorian culture as my own. I feel it will help me better rule my people if I accept your history, your Resol'nare."
She nodded noncommittally.
Maul smiled and gestured broadly with his hands. "I see no problem with your going to visit your... buir is the word, is it not?"
"Yes," Soniee nodded again.
"And there was no one else you wished to visit here on the planet Mandalore?"
"I can't think of anyone," she answered slowly. "My fellow cadets were all sent home from Sundari or..."
"Oh, that is right. Your... friend, Amis was killed in the unfortunate violence brought on by our changing of the guard."
"Yes, he was." Soniee swallowed. She was so glad that she had had the presence of mind to use this as her cover story when Almec had first questioned her about her reasons for staying in Sundari when the rest of the cadets had been sent home from the Academy. She was now franticly trying to think of how she would get word to Korkie and the others that she couldn't meet them in Keldabe.
Then he changed the subject and caught her off guard. "There is no one then who would warrant your wearing that... it is a wedding gown, is it not?"
"What this?" Her mind worked feverishly to come up with a reason. She stood up from her pilot's seat and revolved in a slow circle. "It's... well, you can't fault a girl for a little dress-up while enduring the boredom and loneliness of hyperspace." She was smiling when she came around to face him again. "Especially when I have so many lovely things to choose from."
"Of course." Maul nodded with a small, indulgent smile. "It was not for the benefit of the clone trooper in those holoimages then?"
"No, of course not," she scoffed.
"And there is no one who would be particularly bothered by seeing those images?"
"W-well," she faltered. "As the Prime Minister said before." She gestured toward the pitiful creature who was still cowering before his master. "It wouldn't quite be seemly for the indiscretions of a system representative to be blasted all over the holonet. But bothered? No, I can't think of anyone in particular."
He nodded, approval again. "Not even that Senator Bonteri?"
"Lux?" Soniee rolled her eyes. How many times did she have to explain? "It was my friend, Lux Bonteri, who suggested that I get on with my life and let my hair down a bit. He would have a good laugh about it."
He was silent for a moment, thinking, then he noticed Almec and gave the Prime Minister a kick. When he turned back to face Soniee, Maul was smiling again. "Well, my dear, Representative Ordo, I do look forward to our meeting face to face when you come here to Sundari for your commencement ceremony."
She bowed her head slightly in acknowledgement.
"Enjoy your visit with your buir. And please don't be upset by your escort..."
Soniee realized that he was talking about the three Kom'rk fighters that had taken up positions on either side and in front of her freighter. "We only mean to see you safely to your planet."
She wanted to tell him that it wouldn't be necessary but he cut the transmission before she got the chance. Soniee slumped down into her seat and followed the lead of her escort. What else could she do? She'd been more or less given an order by a Sith Lord who now knew exactly what she was capable of. She would find some way to get word to Korkie and the others. For now she was just happy that the interview had gone so well, although she had no idea what Maul might have planned for her in the future.