The Flight of Darth Maul

The hangar in the Senate Building included a secured section reserved for the chancellor's vessels, and as soon as they reached it Maul shoved Valorum off on one of his compatriots and quickly dispatched the guards, his red lightsaber flashing through their necks with ease. He grabbed Valorum, dragging him forward to press his hand into the access panel. Vigdis held onto the chancellor's assistant, who whimpered as the prisoners were forced to march toward Valorum's yacht.

"Wait," Vigdis said as they drew closer to the ship. "We have to wait for the others."

"We cannot wait," Maul said, holding his knife to Valorum's back as he entered the access code to lower the gangway. "There isn't time."

"If we blow those charges, we could end up killing our own people," she reminded him, clearly nervous about his plan.

"Your people," Maul reminded her. He was not concerned with the lives of two dozen soldiers. "A small price to pay." He started to go up the gangway but again Vigdis stopped him.

"What if they're captured?" she pointed out. "They could lead the Republic right to us."

"No, they can't. Not where we are going," Maul said.

"And where is that, exactly," one of the guards asked. Maul looked at the three crew he had left. He could sense their distrust. This was not the plan they'd signed on for. The Jedi were supposed to be dead, not chasing them down. They were on the verge of turning on him.

"I will cut you all down where you stand if you question my orders one more time," Maul said with sinister intensity as he stared them down. Fear was the only way to keep them in line, and he could see them each calculating their chances. Vigdis glanced at the bodies of the decapitated hangar guards next to them, and finally, reluctantly, nodded.

"You're the boss," she said, albeit through clenched teeth. Maul turned and walked up the gangway, pushing Valorum ahead of him, and the others followed. He sent one of the guards to lock up their prisoners, while he and the others went to the bridge.

"Take us into orbit," Maul ordered as the remaining guard settled into the pilot's seat. "It's time for us to rendezvous with our fellow Separatists." He turned back to Vigdis. "You have the detonator?"

"Charges are armed," she said, holding the device up.

"There's nothing like the destruction of innocent life to throw a Jedi off the trail," Maul said, taking the detonator from her. "Say farewell to the leaders of the Republic." As the yacht zipped into orbit he brought his thumb down on the red activation switch.

Adrenaline pumped through Padme's veins as she led Obi-Wan down a back stairwell toward the recently renovated kitchens of the Senate ballroom. If she was being completely honest with herself, she'd missed this: the action, the danger, the imminent possibility of death. It was a rush unlike any other, but now there was a new, nagging voice at the back of her mind, pestering her that it was not just her own life she was risking anymore, but she did her best to tune it out.

"Through here," she said, pulling Obi-Wan around a corner and pausing, making sure the corridor was clear. "

"Where, exactly, are you leading us?" Obi-Wan asked, looking around at the unfamiliar portion of the building.

"They just redid this section of the building a few months ago," Padme explained, moving forward again. "If I'm right and they're operating off an old schematic, they have no idea about this access point to the ballroom."

"Surely they will have found it by now?" Obi-Wan asked, distrustful of her hunch.

"I doubt it," she said. "It's a service entrance, it's not meant to be noticed." Obi-Wan didn't look entirely comforted, but they kept moving. At last Padme found the unassuming little door she'd been looking for. Obi-Wan stood, lightsaber at the ready, as she punched the controls to open it, but she'd been right. There were no enemies here.

They hurried down the narrow passage, which rose up a floor, connecting the kitchens to the lowest level of the ballroom. The area was deserted. Whatever service staff or droids had been humming along it seemed to have fled in the wake of the attack. At the end of the passage was another door, a concealed entrance that Padme knew blended almost seamlessly with the wall panels in the ballroom on the other side.

Ever so gently she pushed the panel open, cracking it just enough to see into the ballroom. Most of the guests were clustered in groups, anxiously whispering to one another. Onlysmall section of the room was visible from her vantage point, but she could see guards posted at every entrance within her range of vision. Padme scanned the crowd for Breha, hoping her friend would be close.

She was lucky. She saw the Princess of Alderaan leaning nonchalantly against a pillar a few meters away, looking more annoyed than worried. Padme understood. It took more than a few armed criminals to frighten those who had spent years fighting on the front lines of the war. Next to her, however, Queen Salma seemed decidedly less relaxed.

Padme pursed her lips and whistled three low notes, an old signal of the Rogues. It was quiet enough not to be noticed in the white noise of an anxious crowd, unless you had been trained to listen for it. Padme saw Breha turn toward her at the sound, but not too quickly. She knew better than to give herself away. She saw Breha's eyes settle on the ajar wall panel, and slowly, carefully, stopping to talk for a moment here and there along the way, Breha came towards her. Finally, Breha reached the wall, which she leaned against, facing out and away from the door so as not to draw attention to it.

"Please tell me this is a rescue operation," Breha said quietly, her lips barely moving as she continued to look out, away from Padme.

"Hopefully the beginnings of one," Padme answered. "Tell me what you see."

"The blast doors are down and every entrance is guarded," she said. "Well," Breha conceded. "every entrance they know about."

"How many enemies?"

"Maybe two dozen?" Breha whispered with a shrug. "It's hard to say for sure, but enough that they dispatched with the door guards easily enough. I don't know where all the Jedi ran off to." There was a note of bitterness in her last remark that Padme couldn't help but take a little personally.

"There was another incident that drew them away, they were all in the command center when the attackers struct," Padme explained.

"How convenient," Breha muttered.

"We'll work on fixing that," Padme assured her. "In the meantime, start prioritizing an evacuation and we'll try and smuggle some people out through this passage."

"I'm on it," Breha said, moving away from the wall and back into the gathered throng. Padme tip-toed back to Obi-Wan.

"You won't be able to get many out before being noticed," Obi-Wan said as she related her plan.

"I know, that's why I need you to go roundup as many Jedi as you can and bring them back here," Padme explained. "For every person we take out of the ballroom, we need to put a disguised Jedi back in. If we're careful, we can get enough Jedi inside to subdue the attackers without risking too much collateral damage."

"It's still risky. We could be caught before we're ready to make our move."

"It's better than doing nothing," Padme said. "Go, I'll keep an eye on things here." Padme watched Obi-Wan sneak back out into the hall, then turned to go back to her hiding spot at the top of the service tunnel. She reached the door just as the whole world fragmented around her in a burst of fire.

Anakin ran beside Barriss toward the command center, shortening his strides somewhat to allow his smaller comrade to keep up. They didn't speak, for which Anakin was grateful. He felt ill. Darth Maul was alive. His thoughts were racing, pulling him back to the fight on Maul's flagship above Alderaan. Over and over in his mind he saw his mother hesitate at the final moment, giving Maul the chance to cut her down with his terrible red blade.

His meditation on that painful memory was interrupted, however, by a tremendous boom that suddenly echoed through the halls, shaking the entire building. Anakin and Barriss both froze in their tracks.

"An explosion," Barriss said, breathing fast."It must have come from somewhere near the ballroom." Anakin felt the knot in his stomach tighten. He'd sent Padme back to the ballroom. Barriss noted his look of panic.

"Anakin, stay focused." she said. "We have to get to the command center." Every muscle in Anakin's body demanded that he rush to Padme, but he held it in check. He reached out with the Force, trying to find her. He still felt her presence, though his mind was too distracted to see anymore. It would have to be enough. He gave Barriss a nod and they broke back into a run, headed for the command center.

Dust choked the air. Padme's ears rang, drowning out all else. She pushed herself to her feet, wincing as she tried to use her left arm. Her shoulder throbbed and when she reached out to touch it her fingers found the sticky wetness of blood. She'd been lucky though, the wall had taken the brunt of the blast, shielding her from more serious injury. She moved slowly toward the hole blasted out of the ballroom wall.

The ballroom swirled in a grey haze as she clambered through the opening. Through the settling dust, faces began to emerge. Faces streaming with tears, faces streaked with blood. As the ringing subsided, muffled moans of pain began to replace it. A few people began stumbling toward her. A senator supporting his wounded assistant came forward, and Padme grabbed the man's other arm, slinging it over her shoulder. She led them to the service passage she and Obi-Wan had come through.

"There's a way out, through here," she said, extracting herselt as they reached the hole in the wall. She tried to push aside some of the debris to make a better path. The senator and his assistant picked their way through and out of the ballroom. Others came after them, with Padme directing them toward the exist. "That's it, follow the others," she said encouragingly as she pulled another wounded person from the floor and handed her off to someone walking toward the way out. "Keep moving, quickly."

As people began to stream out, Padme continued to move forward, navigating through the rubble and the bodies, desperately searching for Breha. There were plenty of walking wounded, but also many who were more seriously injured. And then there were the dead. Padme turned over one limp form after another, feeling relieved each time it was not her friend.

She found Salma first. The Queen of Alderaan lay partially buried under the broken pieces of a granite pillar, her brown eyes open but unseeing. Padme's stomach dropped at the sight. Next to her lay a form Padme instantly recognized as Breha, face down, one arm clutching her sister's body. Padme felt a chill run across her skin as she moved forward and gingerly rolled Breha over, hoping against hope that her friend was still alive.

Relief flooded over her as Breha responded to being moved with a grimace and a moan. But her happiness was soon tempered by the sight of the gaping wound in Breha's abdomen. Frantic, Padme quickly pulled the cloak off a nearby body and tore it into bandages. She wrapped the makeshift dressing around her friends bleeding torso, pulling it tight.

"Padme?" Breha's eyes flickered open for a moment. Padme leaned down close to her.

"It's alright, it's alright, I'm here," she said, taking Breha's hand in hers. But it wasn't alright. Breha's wounds were serious. She's going to die. You know she's going to die. "Just keep still." Padme choked back tears, screaming internally at the voice in her head to shut up. She was not going to let Breha die.

There were rattling sounds from above and Padme leaned over Breha, sheltering her as fresh debris fell from the disintegrating ceiling. It would not be long before everything left standing came crashing down on them. Padme knew they couldn't wait here for help. They had to move.

Knowing she lacked the strength to carry Breha out, Padme came around and grabbed her under her arms. She got a firm grip and began to drag Breha toward the service passage, stumbling backwards over the debris-laden floor as she went. Breha cried out in pain, but Padme didn't stop, afraid any delay could be a death sentence as she kept a wary eye on the teetering structure above them. Other people were beginning to notice the imminent collapse of the floors above as well, and panic began to spread as everyone who could stand made a mad rush for any exit they could find.

Terrified that they would be trampled, Padme pulled Breha to the side and stopped. She tried to position them beneath a broken pillar propped up against its base. Her hope was that if everything fell in on them from above the pillar might shelter them. She tried not to think too hard about the possibility of being trapped under a pile of rubble, waiting for rescue.

"Padme!" She heard her name shouted through the crowd.

"Obi-Wan!" she shouted back, "over here!" A moment later she saw the Jedi push his way through the throng and scramble toward them through the destruction.

"Are you alright?" he asked, laying a hand gently against her arm as he crouched next to them.

"I'm fine," Padme said, but she nodded to Breha, "You have to help me get her out of here." Obi-Wan quickly took in the extent of Breha's wounds, his brow furrowed. He took something from his utility belt, a small syringe, and injected something into the princess's neck.

"For the pain," he explained to Padme, offering her a hand up. She took it and he hauled her to her feet, then bent back down and scooped Breha into his arms. "Lead the way," he said. Padme took another look at the now jammed-up service corridor and decided they would need another way out. She led Obi-Wan over to another door, half-blasted down from the explosion. A few uninjured people had managed to scramble over the door remnants and get out.

Padme pulled out her blaster and fired repeatedly at what remained of the lower half of the door, then kicked in what was left, clearing a better path. Obi-Wan and Breha went out first, with Padme right behind them. They were only a few meters clear of the ballroom when they heard the mighty crash of the ceiling collapsing behind them.

Anakin and Barriss were both breathing hard by the time they reached the command center. Hurrying through security, they charged into the main room, calling for General Palpatine. Everyone turned to look at them upon their raucous entrance.

"I know about Maul," Palpatine said, raising his hands as they both began to report what they'd seen.

"We have to send reinforcements to the hangar bay," Anakin insisted, forgetting his rank for a moment.

"It's too late for that," Palpatine said, letting Anakin's out-of-turn order slide. "The Jedi failed to catch up with our enemies." His voice dripped with distaste and disappointment. "Maul commandeered the chancellor's yacht."

"But he'll never get past our fighters," Anakin said confidently. He was relieved. Maul was a fool. He'd flown into a trap.

"We cannot risk any attack on the yacht while the chancellor is a hostage," Palpatine reminded Anakin, deflating the young man's hope.

"Sir, the yacht is making for the prison ships," a captain at a nearby console reported.

"Then what do we do?" Anakind demanded.

"Patience, my young friend," Palpatine said, resting a reassuring hand on Anakin's shoulder. "We must watch, and wait."

"They're coming up on us, fast," Vigdis said as she looked out the viewport from the bridge of the yacht.

"They won't fire on us, not while we have Valorum." Maul knew the Republic could be counted on for that much.

"Their patience may not hold out forever," she reminded him.

"Put the assistant in an escape pod," he ordered, waving a hand dismissively. "They'll have to mount a rescue, it will buy as more time." Vigdis nodded, disappearing down the corridor. A few minutes later a small escape pod shot into the space between the yacht and the oncoming clone and Jedi fighters. Maul smiled as the fighters scrambled to get to the pod.

"Full power to the rear thrusters," Maul ordered. They had to take advantage of the distraction while they could. They were almost within reach of the prison ships now. Several minutes passed, then a large Republic cruiser drifted into view and the comm lit up. "Put them through," Maul said.

"We know you still have the chancellor," the Republic captain said, standing sharply at attention. Maul could hear the annoyance in the man's voice. "You will release him to us immediately and surrender, or face the consequences" Maul smiled.

"If you interfere with this vessel or the prison ships, Valorum dies," Maul hissed into the comm before switching it off. He was not afraid to call their bluff. He knew there would be no consequences. The Republic military didn't have the stomach for such things.

"The fighters are holding position," his crewman reported, still dressed in his Republic guard armor, though now minus the helmet.

"Are any of the prison ships under our control yet?" Maul asked him as they came within range of the three prison ships.

"Just the Selonia."

"Make for their hangar bay," Maul ordered. The yacht continued forward, followed but unimpeded by the Republic ships. The yacht slid into the hangar bay of the Selonia without incident, and soon Maul was striding down the gangway to the racous cheers of freed Separatist prisoners, with his small crew and Valorum behind him.

He marched to the bridge, stepping over the bodies of slain guards and officers as he went. and immediately approached the navigator's console. He set the coordinates from memory, though they were headed to a destination he had not been to in years.

"Prepare for the jump to lightspeed," he said, signaling to the prisoner sitting in the pilot's chair. Maul settled himself into the captain's position at the center of the bridge.

"What about the prisoner?" Vigdis asked, pulling Valorum forward.

"Take him to the nearest airlock," Maul said, sneering at Valorum as the chancellor's eyes went wide with fear, "and wait for my signal."

"Sir, we've just received another communication from the Selonia," a captain manning one of the console's reported.

"Put it through," Palpatine ordered.

"They've taken the armory!" the ship's captain shouted, his panicked face projected before them. "We've barricaded ourselves in the bridge, but it's only a matter of time before-" The holo fizzled as blaster fire and shouts came through the comm.

"Sir," the captain said, "the chancellor's yacht has reached the Selonia." Palpatine stalked around to another section of the holo, his eyes focused on the prison ship in question as he contemplated his options. Anakin looked on to, his mind working frantically to offer up a solution, anything to stop Maul from getting away.

"What is that?" Anakin asked as movement near the Selonia caught his eye. "Something just went flying out an airlock," he said as he looked closer. The captain at the console magnified the area Anakin was pointing to, giving them all a close-up view of the grisly scene.

"Stars' end," the captain breathed, as they all watched the frozen body tumble through space, "it's Valorum." There was a gasp in the room. The chancellor was dead. Palpatine straightened up, pulling his military tunic tight, his eyes flashing with anger.

"This ends now," Palpatine said, his voice icy. "Activate the emergency self-destruct on the prison vessels."

"What?" Barris exclaimed, staring at Palpatine. Anakin was taken aback too, but kept quiet. Palpatine's order was extreme, but Anakin did not believe any price was too high if it meant the end of Darth Maul.

"Sir?" The captain looked at Palpatine, bewildered.

"There are thousands of people on those ships!" Barriss protested, taking a step toward the general.

"I am not concerned with the welfare of traitors," Palpatine said dismissively.

"What about our own forces?" she demanded.

"Sir, the Selonia is preparing to jump to lightspeed,"

"I cannot risk the security of the Republic in exchange for their lives," Palpatine said coldly. "Begin the activation process."

"Yes, sir," the captain said, clearly trying to conceal his misgivings.

"This is madness!" Barriss said, her voice raised. Anakin grabbed her arm for fear she might actually physically attack the general.

"This is justice," Palpatine said, turning and moving in close, looming over her. "Stand in its way at your own peril, Jedi." Barriss lowered her eyes, cowed by Palpatine's menacing presence, but Anakin knew she was still boiling mad.

"We're ready, sir," the captain said, looking at Palpatine as though he hoped the general might still rescind his order. But Palpatine's face was fixed with resolve.

"Do it," he ordered sharply.

Anakin watched the holoprojector, still holding Barriss's arm. He was frozen in place. As they watched, the silhouette of one of the prison ships suddenly elongated and disappeared. A millisecond later, the projection erupted into twin flashes of light and a muffled boom rocked the Senate Building as the shockwave of the massive explosions reached the planet's surface.

Next to him, Barriss slumped forward in shock, leaning against the projector. He let go of her. He could see the tears streaking her face. He'd felt it too, the instantaneous deaths of thousands seared through the Force like a bolt of lightning. But Anakin could spare no part of himself in mourning for strangers. He was numb with disappointment and anger, and his eyes lingered on the spot where the Selonia had jumped to lightspeed. Darth Maul had escaped, again.