Anakin doesn't know whether to laugh at this turn of events or just walk away and leave Ventress to her fate. How many times have they crossed blades since the war began? How many times has she gotten in his way? Dooku's insidious little warrior-servant, now his prisoner in this desolate hole in the frozen ground. "Looks like working for the Sith turned out to be a bad plan," he says with a grin.
"Shut it, Skywalker," she hisses. "Are you going to stand there or are you going to let me out of this thing?"
He shrugs. "I don't know," he says, pacing before the prisoner's rack that keeps her bound to the wall. An electrical node clamped to her neck fires and delivers a shock of pink lightning, making her grunt and wince. "You seem comfortable. I wouldn't want to mess with a good thing."
"Is this some sort of game for you? What are you even doing here? How did you even find this place?"
"Eh, I'm pretty familiar with Ziost by now," he says, leaning against the opposite wall and crossing his arms over his chest. "You're not in a position to be bargaining, however, so I'll be asking the questions. What you said when you heard me kick that rock: Dooku was just here, wasn't he?"
"Was. And it was a little while ago."
"Where'd he go?"
Ventress spits at him. "Get me down from here and maybe I'd be inclined to share."
"Come on, with the amount of times we've tried to kill each other? It's not going to be that easy," Anakin says. "Look, Obi-Wan says you've changed—"
"If you brought Kenobi with you, then get him down here. I'd much rather talk to him, and you can go feel free to investigate this place all you want. I'd recommend those cliffs around this valley. Maybe you'll like them so much you throw yourself off one."
Anakin smirks. "Charming as ever. But no, it's just me. Sorry. I'm inclined to leave you up there and let Dooku have his way with you, but Obi-Wan says you're not such a bitter and nasty troll as you used to be."
"I'm sure he used those words."
"Paraphrasing. Now—" he pauses, slapping his hand against the side of the rack and sparking another shock. Ventress growls and jerks. "Where's Dooku? Here?"
"I don't know. He said he was leaving to go find Grievous."
"Leaving? So that was his shuttle I saw taking off?"
"Do you think he showed me his in-flight agenda, Skywalker? I don't know any shuttle. I've been stuck here ever since that fool Malicos knocked me out on Mandalore."
Anakin shakes his head. Waste of breath. Obi-Wan told him he'd contracted Ventress to join that Padawan, Tamri Dallin, on her mission to Concordia. He can thank Ventress for finding the Killiks, at least—it would've been a real unpleasant surprise to find out about those killer insects only when coming face-to-face with them inside Tipoca City's halls. Still, it's only one point in Ventress's favor. The past weighs too heavily for Anakin to simply trust her, even if Obi-Wan does.
Although it's better to find Ventress down here than Dooku. Better still that she's trapped in that contraption. In fact, this might be the nicest conversation Anakin's ever had with her. Minutes have passed and no one's drawn a weapon. Miraculous. "Malicos. Dooku's new apprentice?"
"One of a few, from what I gather. Horrid, unpleasant man. Desperately in need of a shave."
"I asked about his loyalties, not his grooming habits. Enough about him. Grievous—where was Dooku going to meet him?"
Ventress scowls. "I didn't hear much."
"Why don't you start with what you did hear?"
"Grievous mentioned something about the moons of Bogden and challenging a Republic squadron at Arkania. That was it."
So Fey'lya was right: Dooku is moving on the Core. Time is running out for the Republic. Anakin frets and balls his fist. He'll have to pass that information along to the fleet once he's done here. "So why's Dooku leaving you behind if he's imprisoning you here? What're you to him if you've left his service?"
"How many times do I have to tell you? I don't know. I'm stuck in this damn thing and pinned to this wall. Maybe if I had a chance to look around I'd know more, but until then, I don't have many answers."
With a sigh, Anakin waves his hand at the contraption's restraints. The bindings split open with a metallic crack and Ventress collapses on the floor, wincing and rubbing her wrists. "Finally."
"Yeah, you're welcome. Now start talking before I decide to put you back up there."
"As if."
With one fluid movement he draws his lightsaber and flicks it on. The blue blade erupts, its tip an inch from Ventress's face as she freezes on the ground. "I have a real short fuse these days, and I really, really don't like this planet after my first trip here," Anakin says. "Add on to it that I'm only half-sold on what Obi-Wan's said about you, and you're a few wrong words away from finding out what it's like to end up in two or more pieces."
Ventress glances at his artificial right arm and smiles. "You'd know better than me."
"Ventress—"
"Fine, Skywalker, fine. What do you want?"
Anakin deactivates his lightsaber. "That pyramid outside. What's in it?"
"How should I know, being stuck here all this time?"
"Because the Dark Side is overpowering here. I can't even try to ignore it. That storm overhead's circling around this valley, and right in the middle of it is that pyramid. Dooku has some power here, and I need to find out what it is. I'm not leaving until I do," says Anakin. "Dooku wouldn't bring you here for no reason. He wants something from you, doesn't he?"
Ventress scowls and looks away, rubbing her hands. "He wants me to become his apprentice once more," she mutters. "He has some ability he promised me. The ability to see the future, he claims. Claims. I don't know how real it is, or what else is on this planet."
So either it's true or Dooku is quite consistent with his lies. If it's real power, the sort of power that can change the fate of a war, he wouldn't have shared everything about it with Ventress—only offered tastes, a glimpse of its power to lure her to the Dark Side's calling. Everything is lining up, from Dooku's words on Sullust to the first battle over Ziost when Grievous and his fleet ambushed the Republic flotilla, all the way back to the artifact Anakin found in Ternon Tath's cellar on Empress Teta. The pyramid, then. Put it all together. Finish the puzzle. Discover what's been waiting all this time.
"Fine, then," he murmurs. He waves his hand dismissively at Ventress. "Get lost. I don't have any more questions."
"Not even going to offer me a ride off of this frozen dump?" Ventress says.
Anakin scoffs. "Even if I wanted to, I don't have a ship."
"So what, you walked all the way here from Coruscant?"
"No, according to the Bothans, my ship sank into the sun hours ago. So no, I'm not giving you a ride."
She shakes his head. "I can't tell if you're bold, reckless, or insane," she mutters. "I'm finding my own way out of here, then."
"You do that," Anakin says. "I've got a pyramid to check out."
The two super battle droids raise their weapon arms the moment they spot Maul, but they are no more than distractions. He hurls the left droid away, slamming it into the wall of rock. The other he grabs with his right hand, lifting it up as it struggles to aim and shoot. No: He clenches his fist, crushing the droid's internal circuitry as it groans and sparks. Then he lets go and it falls, just a hunk of metal and snuffed-out lights left to freeze with everything else on Ziost.
Two sentries only to guard this great door to the Celestial. The overconfidence. The arrogance. But Maul will not pass up a gift.
As Maul steps towards the wide, gaping maw of an entrance that leads into the Ziost pyramid, a rush of green mist swirls about his feet. Talzin materializes before him, holding up a hand, her face serious: "Stop," she commands, her voice devoid of the usual confidence and suddenly fraught with tension. "This power is not for you, my son."
"I disagree," Maul murmurs, peering into the darkness. It has a fog of its own, fog like black ooze trailing from the maw and curling about the stalagmite-like rocks poking up from the snow. If he focuses, he can almost hear it. Voices from within. Calling—calling him. He is so close to grasping that power.
"It is seduction. It is betrayal. It is corruption."
"It is power, still."
Maul takes another step, passing through Talzin's spirit form. She rushes about him in a wisp of green light, reforming a dozen feet ahead. "You disavow your heritage, but I accept you as you are, child of mine," Talzin says, making a final plea, "but this place unmade the Sith of old. This power drove the Sith Lord Ludo Kressh to his downfall. It destroyed the old Sith who called Ziost their capital, perverted them and left them easy prey to the Republic that hunted them. This will destroy you too, as it is destroying Dooku. It will make you its own, twist you and lead you from the path you must walk."
"My path?" Maul seethes. He stops and cocks his head. "I lost everything when Kenobi defeated me on Naboo. I was not strong enough then. But my path is clear now: I will never be that weak again. No one, neither Jedi nor Sith, will stop me. And yet still Dooku stopped me on Raxus. Dooku and his cyborg and that black-haired woman who killed Savage." He leans forward and raises his fist. "I must be stronger, mother. That is my path. Weakness killed Savage. It will not kill me. I will do anything to ensure that. I will take on any power I must, and I will make it mine. No matter what."
"Maul—"
"No."
He marches through her spirit form. She tries to materialize again, but as she takes shape, he steps up to the mouth of the pyramid and the black fog snakes around his ankles.
Talzin screams. Maul looks over his shoulder just in time to see her dematerializing, wisping away like a cloud blown from a strong wind. "Mother?" he murmurs.
No one answers.
He feels nothing for her, he thinks as he walks into the darkness and into the bowels of the pyramid. Behind him the light narrows and wanes. Dark, almost oily stone draws in on all sides, curving down in a crushing, claustrophobic architecture. Alien aesthetic. Unnatural feelings swirling in the Force. The air smells of chair and industry and pollution. Maul looks into the darkness and squints—and he imagines, down there deep in that black pool of the beyond, that some faint, orange, familiar light is looking back.
No. Just a vision. A trick of the mind. Keep going. Talzin is wrong—this power will be yours.
At last he has come to realize it: Talzin is twisting him just as much as she warns the Celestial will. She tells him to embrace being a son of Dathomir—her world, her power, her people. She tells him to carry out her whims, urges him to follow her path. She is using him. He has listened to her out of necessity, but he is not anyone's puppet. Not if they call him their apprentice, as Sidious did. Not if they call him their son.
"Is that your original thought," a voice calls from the darkness, "or is that your fear talking?"
Maul reaches for his lightsaber and ignites the blade. Red light bends and warps against the ghastly stone. There is no one there. But he knows that voice; he knows it: "Kenobi?"
A familiar chuckle is his only answer. With his lightsaber lit Maul advances, slower now, his shoulders hunched, his muscles tensed. Reveal yourself. Face me.
Only the darkness. The further he goes the more the ceiling closes in—or is that a trick of the eye, as well? Are the walls truly growing so near, this tunnel narrowing into a capillary through the rock? Maul's head grows heavy; his mind feels as if the black fog coalescing about his feet has intruded into his thoughts. He shakes his head and growls. "I will not be denied," he mutters.
"How many times have you done this, Maul?" Kenobi's voice calls from the darkness. Maul spins with his lightsaber raised, but only the void rises to meet him. "I am the object of your hate. Your obsession. How many times have you had the chance to kill me? Florrum, Mandalore—yet still I live on. For a man who claims to be the Dark Lord of the Sith, you seem rather incapable from my point of view. Perhaps the Dark Side has chosen its champion poorly."
"Come out, Kenobi," Maul hisses, turning in the dark, around and around until he has forgotten which way is out and which way leads deeper into the pyramid. "Come out and I will kill you as you deserve."
Another laugh from Kenobi's voice. "Will killing me solve all your problems, Maul?"
Maul plunges his saber into the rock and shouts. He withdraws his blade, grumbling. Only deception. Trying to lure you away. No. He will have the power.
There: The light is back. That way. Forward.
He moves ahead, his lightsaber leading him through the darkness towards the orange ball of light that grows larger with every step. It must be it. So close and he will have it. Give it to me.
The tunnel dramatically narrows. Maul lowers his head and sidesteps through with the light right before him. He bends down to clear the low ceiling, looks up—and suddenly he is no longer enveloped by the dark.
A vision of a world entire before him. Orange light from orange sky. Industrial flame belching from scrap-iron furnaces. Hills of waste metal and garbage littering the rusting landscape. The air smells of old oil and chemical fumes and decay and death, and on the hot, dry wind shrieks the factory scream of twisting steel and forgotten works. Maul knows this place. He called it home for a decade when he was little more than a tangled mind inside a tangled body. Lotho Minor.
There is someone else here, down below him at the base of a pile of scrap metal. Maul squints. Another Zabrak. Yellow and black tattoos. Hulking form.
Savage.
"This," Savage mutters, pacing before the hill of scrap, "is my brother? This beast? This broken thing?" He growls. "He isn't even worth scrapping."
Maul howls. He throws his lightsaber in an arc with enough force that it cleaves Savage's head from his shoulders. As the head flies into the air the scene shatters, breaking like a mirror all around him as the darkness rushes back in. Maul screams and kneels down, clutching his head as lances of pain and agony drill his temples. Get out. Get out!
When he looks up, the darkness is around him once more—but there is another light, right here, so close, just past what appears to be a ring of a viewing platform spaced out around a depression in the earth. A sickly yellow light, a light of a diseased and dying thing. There is a low roar in the air, a thrumming, a drumming. Maul rises, returning his lightsaber to his belt, and walks forward.
A viewing platform stretches out over the pit, and Maul steps up. He peers over the side—and looks into the mouth of the Dark Side.
Below rages a storm to match the one above. A whirlpool of vile feelings and malevolent thoughts, yellow bands of light twisting about its inky center. The vortex churns and struggles and moans, an utterly inhuman thing, anathema to life itself. Then the dark center flinches, ever so subtly, just enough for Maul to notice. An odd feeling creeps up that causes a creeping sensation to crawl along the back of his neck. The vortex. As he looks into it, it is looking back.
"Show me," he snarls at it. "Show me your power."
The vortex only watches. Maul growls, pressing his hands to his temples to lessen the pain stabbing his head. "What you gave to Dooku, give me now," he murmurs. "I am the Lord of the Sith. I am the Dark Side. I command the Force. Give me your strength and I will be unstoppable." Nothing. He whirls on the vortex and raises his fist, bellowing, "Give it to me!"
Nothing. The Celestial does not answer.
He steps back from the viewing platform, trying to think—but his thoughts have turned to sludge, his mind a gunked-up engine turning over and over. There must be something he can do. Some puzzle to unlock. Some way to get this power and make it his, just as Dooku did. What did Dooku do?
Before he can figure anything out, however, there comes a noise from back in the tunnel. Maul lights his saber and growls. "Kenobi?" he mutters. Then he reaches out with the Force and feels it—strength. Power. "No. Someone new."
Tamri grabs her knee to stop it from shaking. Breathe. Just breathe. He'll be okay.
Dominion at least had the good sense to remotely send the ship away as soon as he, Neelotas, Falco, and Korkie were attacked in the Baron's submersible launch bay. Upside: If the Baron knows that War Maiden is Tamri's ship, he won't be able to loot it or, even worse, seize it. The downside is that they're now stuck reconnoitering after their reconnaissance in this run-down flophouse that Kesh rented in the middle of Ahto City's kolto refining district. Everything stinks like sea water and fish and worse, and there comes a constant drumming of gearwork and machinery from the choking refineries that litter this place. They're far from the glimmering sights of Ahto's tourist areas and far from the sun here deep within the city's superstructure—and Tamri herself feels far, far from the light.
Breathe. Breathe. It'll be fine. Just be patient.
"Hey," Kesh says, opening the door to Tamri's cramped, dirty, corrugated steel-enclosed room. "Are you okay?"
Tamri shrugs and holds her knee still. They need to see you in control. But, oh, it's hard. "Fine."
Kesh enters and closes the door behind her. She pulls up a chair, dragging its legs along the floor in a grating shriek, and plops down across from Tamri. "Dominion's still trying to find Korkie. He set off his emergency transponder right before their attackers closed in on him, so he might still be alive, but no one knows yet."
"Okay," mumbles Tamri.
Kesh leans closer. "Were…you and Korkie…"
"I don't want to talk about it," Tamri mutters. "There was nothing serious. Just stupid things."
Kesh rubs her snout. "We might—"
"We should focus on what we found in that freight yard," Tamri says, standing up abruptly and trying to sound tough. Failing, but trying. "That slaving op. Did Korkie's team find anything useful from the sub bay?"
"They found one of the Baron's subs parked at its dock. Dominion was able to acquire launching and entry codes before they were attacked," Kesh says. "That's as far as they got with it, it seems."
Tamri bites her lip. If Korkie's gone, then, at least they have a route to the Tath base—assuming the data's in the sub's onboard navicomputer, and that itself is assuming that the Baron and the Tath facility are, in fact, connected. At lot of assumptions. It begins to feel as if it was a mistake to come here. That Tath base might be central to the whole organization, and the question of the workings behind the slavery ring still provokes, but after Korkie's abduction—and Tamri can only hope that's all it was—all she feels is regret.
Please, let it just be an abduction. Don't die on me just yet, Mandalorian.
The door slams open and Falco leans in. He's still clad in his armor, everything except for the helmet, black-and-red plasteel guarding him from foot to neck. "Droid's got something," he says.
Tamri hurries out behind him. In the flophouse's splintering-furniture main room, Dominion holds out a holographic map displayed from his palm as Avea and Neelotas crowd around him. He looks up as Tamri, Falco, and Kesh file in. "Ah, just in time," he says, his voice as calm and polite as if fresh off of the assembly line. "I have confirmation that Master Kryze is alive, but in captivity."
"Where?" Tamri says quickly.
"By a strange turn of fate," Dominion says, "it appears that Master Lam's hail that provoked the skirmish on the outskirts of the system is now paying dividends."
Neelotas scoffs. "Believe that."
"Specifically, the two system patrol craft we destroyed managed to send a warning to Baron Bonamma before their demise," Dominion continues. "The Baron was aware that a Jedi was coming to Manaan, but he was unaware of that Jedi's identity. While I cannot say conclusively, it appears Master Kryze was spotted following Baron Bonamma during the party. Security tipped Bonamma off—"
"And he assumed that Korkie was the Jedi," Tamri finishes.
"Correct."
Tamri grimaces. Stupid, stupid. It was your fault, then. You told Korkie to follow him. You gave him no backup. You could've gotten to the Baron's quarters alone—in fact, you did. You put Korkie in danger. You might've gotten him killed. "Are you sure?" she whispers.
"With an over ninety-nine percent confidence level," Dominion says. "After your infiltration during the party, I left one of my logic subroutines within the Baron's security network. It is still there, undetected by Bonamma's internal surveillance software—and I effectively have a link inside of his operation. Specifically, I have audio confirming my earlier speculation."
"Audio?"
Dominion snaps his fingers. The holomap disappears, and in its place forms a small, blue holographic globe that pulses with each syllable from a recording. It is a man's voice, rough, angry, threatening: "Where is it, you shit?" he snarls. A slap. A grunt—Korkie? Tamri cannot tell. "Where is it? I know you're a bloody Jedi. Where is your blasted lightsaber, hm? Where is it? What were you doing?"
"Pitched it into the sea. Why don't you go jump in and find it?" a pained, but still-proud, voice answers. Tamri sucks in her breath. Korkie. They have him. That bastard has him.
Another slap—no, meatier, heavier. A punch. "You liar! What are you planning, hm? How many other Jedi are here? What do you know? Are you in league with Krennic, or with Coruscant? What do you know?"
Dominion closes his hand and the recording stops. "It appears that the Baron is quite frightened of this Director Orson Krennic, possibly even more so than he is of the Jedi," he says. "Frightened enough to think the man may be working secretly with the Order, in fact—even though he is already loyal to this new regime headed by one Wilhuff Tarkin. At the very least, this suggests that Bonamma is not entirely up-to-date with the rapidly-changing political lines in the galaxy, which is a vulnerability that we can take advantage of."
"Tarkin. Krennic," Tamri mutters. "Tath."
"Miss Dallin?"
Five pairs of eyes watch her. That recording washed away her anxiety and her guilt. In its place an ember burns, a little ball of anger growing hotter with each minute, each enraged thought. This mess has been following her for far too long. Telos to Concordia to now—enough. She is sick of always being one step behind. She is tired of always reacting, whether that's via escaping captivity in the Telos base or running from Killiks or this. And she has been hurt far too much. Sae's fate alone was far too much; this is an insult. An offense she won't ignore.
She is sick of being hurt. She is sick of shying away, like she always used to. She wants to reach out and hurt someone. Badly.
If this is what Sae thought when she lost sight of the light and fell into the Sith's arms…well, maybe Tamri is starting to understand the why behind it all. "This son of a bitch," she snarls. "Where's the Baron holding Korkie?"
"Fascinatingly," Dominion says, "right in the basement of his manor."
Avea snorts. "The arrogance of this guy."
"The manor is not just a luxury house, it seems. It also operates as a nerve center for Bonamma's intelligence-gathering operation around Ahto City, a way to collect and collate all necessary information in order to keep a grip on the populace," Dominion says. "There are several holding cells amid that nerve center, including the one holding Master Kryze."
A plan materializes in Tamri's head, hateful thought by thought. "This bastard likes his little parties," she says. "Dominion, when's his next one?"
"He is holding a gathering tomorrow afternoon. Not a major gala as you and Master Kryze attended, but a smaller, more intimate setting inside of the manor for a few dozen local elites. Corporate leaders, social influencers."
"I don't give a damn who they are. They'd better get out of the way when we show up."
"We partying uninvited?" Neelotas says, perking up. "We bringin' the booze?"
"We're bringing the guns," Tamri says. "I'm going to crash this little get-together of his. I'm going to walk down that bridge, barge through his gates, and go right up to his front door. Then I'm going to force him down on his knees and tell him to let Korkie go. And if he doesn't, I'm going to chuck him off of that bridge. In pieces."
Falco shakes his head. "Security was already tight at that place. City authorities will close in if you take too long."
"Then we need an exit plan," says Kesh. "Dominion, you said you got launch codes for the submersible at the Baron's sub depot, didn't you?"
"He did. It was about all we got done before we were attacked," Neelotas confirms.
"Then we could use a sub as a getaway."
Avea nods. "In fact, we can go from one problem to another. Hit the Baron's place, pick up Korkie, head straight for the Tath's undersea installation. No chance for the authorities to nab us."
"Assuming we can get to the Tath base," says Kesh. "And, y'know, assuming everything's actually down there as the Bothan said back on Concordia."
"Assuming that, yeah."
"Frankly, I don't see too many more options. I don't like waiting until tomorrow and leaving Korkie in their hands, but that little get-together of Bonamma's is a good distraction," says Tamri. She looks around at the others. "I don't want to put any more of you in danger. You all head to the sub base and get us a vehicle. I'll go get Korkie on my own."
Neelotas laughs. "Yeah, no."
"I can handle it."
"I didn't say you couldn't. I'm saying I want to be a bad guy, too," he says. He cracks his neck. "Just like the old pirate days runnin' with Rust and the Brood. Man wants to relive his youth now and then, y'know?"
"I'll come too," Kesh says. "At least one Selkath can offer up some payback for what's happening on Manaan."
Dominion points to her. "Actually, Miss Shurroth, it would be more useful to come with me to the submersible depot. You are most familiar with Ahto City and Manaan among all of us."
"Agreed," Avea says. "Especially if it's just you two going to steal the sub."
"Avea—" Tamri starts.
She cuts her off. "No. I'm not just letting the boy rot. I'll do something about it," she says. She glances at Falco. "Not speaking for you, but I'm assuming you want to get in on the shooting part too."
The clone shrugs. "Kaminoans didn't make me for nonviolent ends."
"As an addendum, my embedded subroutine has enough power to set off false alarms around the Baron's manorial perimeter," Dominion says. "It would likely remove most security from the submersible depot, giving Miss Shurroth and I a clear path to steal a vehicle…at the added problem of increasing your resistance."
"Won't be a problem," Falco murmurs.
Avea raises her eyebrow. "Someone has a high regard for their skills."
Falco's eye twitches. "Won't be a problem."
"So that's it then, huh?" Neelotas says, kicking back in his seat and grinning. "Ah, nice. Life's dull without a nice dust-up every couple of days."
"Call it whatever you want. But we're getting Korkie, and the Force help the Baron if he tries to get in my way," Tamri says. She grits her teeth and clenches her fist. The Baron, or anyone else. Don't try to stop me.
"What the hell is this?"
Sae looks up from her computer terminal inside her living quarters within her personal starship. It's tight confines, but more than enough for one person. A bed, a couch, a chair, a desk with several holoscreens linked to the Holonet. Enough to work out of while on deployment. But nowhere near enough for two people—especially when that other person is Taron Malicos. "Don't touch that."
Malicos snorts as he inspects the innocent white flower in its clay pot. "Getting into gardening, now?"
"Don't touch it."
"Oh come on, it's—"
"I will cut your damn hand off and tell Dooku you had a cooking accident. Don't touch it."
Malicos backs away, raising his hands. "All right, all right. Not touching it. Fine," he says, making a face and sitting down on the bed with a thump.
Sae scowls and inspects the flower. No damage. None of his taint. Not on the white petals, nor in the blue center. Moon's Grief. She can hardly remember the legend behind it that Tamri told her on Ossus, but at least this little, flourishing flower can replace the one that long since dried out and fell to pieces in Sae's pocket. Something to remember her girl by. Something to hold on to, even if it's only a facsimile of what once was.
Malicos claps his hands together, drawing an annoyed look from Sae. "What?" she says.
"What?"
"What do you want?"
He shrugs. "You don't want me looking at your flower. You don't want conversation. You say we're only here to pick up Poggle."
"Yes. To all of those."
"Why am I here? You don't need me for a damn pickup."
"Geonosis is well-fortified by Tarkin; a fleet would just get shot up. Plus, Dooku said to bring you. But he gave me command, and it's my ship. So stop being an idiot. We'll be out at Geonosis any second now, anyway."
Right on cue, the ship's automated systems chime out over the intercom: "Exiting hyperspace."
"Let's go," Sae says.
She heads out of the living quarters and into the narrow cockpit of the sleek, arrowhead-shaped Separatist infiltrator. Seats for a pilot and a copilot and no more. Two is already a crowd, as far as Sae is concerned. "Get in your seat," she mutters as she slips down before the piloting station. "We're coming out."
"How close to Geonosis?" Malicos says, setting down in the copiloting chair.
"A ways. We're out at the fifth planet out from the sun. It's a gas giant with a helium-3 freighter refueling depot. Ambient radiation from the planet should mask our exit from hyperspace in case of hostiles in the vicinity."
"Huh. How clever."
"Shut the hell up."
The blue whirl of hyperspace recedes and the cosmic black rushes up to meet the ship. A looming yellow gas giant spins off to the left, along with a smattering of orbital platforms spotting its yellow hue. "Firing a long-range probe," Sae says, flicking a switch and sending a small metal globe hurtling out of the front torpedo tubes.
Malicos leans over the scanners as the probe heads off. "There's Geonosis. Whole lot of ships," he mutters. "Buncha star destroyers."
"What'd you expect, luxury yachts?" says Sae.
"Maybe I did. Who doesn't want to come to Geonosis on their next vacation?"
Sae grumbles and pushes him away, eying the scanner herself. She points to an occlusion in Geonosis's scanner image. "The hell's that?"
"Probably one of the moons."
"Not enough mass for a moon," says Sae, narrowing her eyes. "It's big enough to be a small moon and sort of the right shape, but low-res visual's making it out as a sort of skeletal sphere. There's rings around all three axes and a central superstructure connecting them all, but that's it. Some weird dish up in this upper quadrant, too. It's connected to that central area. Dunno what that is."
"Space station?"
"What space station is over Geonosis?"
Malicos points at smaller data readouts around the skeletal globe of an anomaly. "These are more static points near that thing, and they're all inside the planet's rings. Either that's a ton of docked ships, or they're more space stations."
Sae frowns. "Construction yards? Maybe using the rocks of the ring system for construction materials?"
"Not gonna know way out here, what with you bringing us out of hyperspace in the sticks."
"Calm yourself. If we rush in, that fleet's going to shoot us down in two seconds flat," she says. "We need a way to get through undetected."
"I'm guessing you have a bright idea?"
"If you'd shut up, I might."
She looks over the probe's inner-system sensor data, pursing her lips, looking for an in. It isn't long before she finds one: "Heavy freighter on an inbound vector, just inside the fourth planet in the system," she says, pointing to the readout.
"We gonna hitch a ride?"
"We're gonna take the ride, then hitch it."
Malicos looks at her as if she's lost her mind. "I think they're going to know we're not friendlies when we start shooting."
"Not if I have something to say about it," Sae says, warming the hyperdrive back up. "We'll make a micro-jump in-system behind the gravity well of the fourth planet, then burn thrust with the planet as cover. Just keep your hands on the controls and do exactly what I say, when I say it."
"Ooh, don't you just love being in command."
"Malicos, unless you want to end up scattered about local space, do it. I wouldn't mind that outcome, except that I'd be joining you. Dying without the satisfaction of watching you go first just isn't satisfying, so get it together, huh?"
He shakes his head. "Can't please some people."
"You couldn't please a granite slug. Hands. Controls. Now. Hitting the hyperdrive."
They're in hyperspace for less than two seconds, the ship hurtling one planet closer to Geonosis before emerging in the shadow of a rocky world, fourth out from the star. Perfect. Sae is already onto her next moves as they emerge back into realspace: "Keep an eye on the freighter. Hitting main engines, getting our velocity up now. When I say, draw in all radiators and close all emissions vents."
The engines slam on and the ship lunges forward, curling around the rocky world towards the freighter and Geonosis. As soon as it orbits about the world and reaches a line-of-sight sensor angle with the freighter, Sae cuts the engines and lets the ship run on its momentum. "Now," she barks at Malicos.
He swipes at the console. A crunching sound echoes throughout the ship as the radiator spines dip into the hull, venting waste heat into the superstructure's emergency radiators. Anything to keep the ship's sensor profile as small as possible. "Gonna get toasty in here," he says.
"I know. There's exosuits in the back. Get in one," Sae says, rising from her seat.
"What, are we spacewalking now?"
Sae glances at the long-range probe's analysis of its sweep of the freighter. At least fifty crew members. A problem she has the perfect solution to. "Sort of. Just suit up. We have a few minutes."
Two minutes later she and Malicos return to their stations in sealed spacesuits with magnetic boots, their breathing heavy through their suit comms. "Organic crew, but we don't need them alive. Too many in too large a ship to kill quickly with our lightsabers," says Sae. She points to Malicos's console. "When I say, hit the sensor jammer. We'll have ten minutes or so before their internal systems are able to break through and send a distress hail to Geonosis's fleet."
"More than enough time to kill them."
Sae frowns. "Kill them and take their ship. We'll ride it in, pretending to be them. Should get us to their destination without the fleet suspecting a thing."
Closer. Closer. The freighter is near enough that Malicos throws up his hands and says, "You're coming in way too fast. We're gonna overshoot."
"Quiet and get ready with the jammer," Sae growls. Closer. She grips the controls for the ship's maneuvering thrusters. Just a little closer. "Now!"
Malicos activates the jammer. A hideous static yowl tears out over the system's comms as Sae jams her hand down on the thrusters. The ship spins about until its rear faces forward—then Sae jams on the main engines. The ship executes a hard braking burn, decelerating as it veers in to the comms-scrambled freighter. "Ships of this type have the main computer core near the rear, by the main reactor. That's where we're going," Sae says, guiding the ship in backwards as it slows. "Matching velocity and getting us as close as possible."
"To do what?"
"That spacewalk you mentioned," Sae says, slowing the ship down until it levels out with the freighter. Good thing that boat's unarmed. "Unlock the hatch. We're going out."
"What?'
"Stop being a baby, Malicos; I have the ship's controls remotely linked to my suit. Now get to the airlock."
When they're both in the airlock, Sae throws open the outer hatch. Space beyond, stars twinkling so many light-years away. Sae grips the outer handles on the hatch and pulls herself out of the airlock and into space. Below the freighter continues on its course, too cumbersome and heavy to evade at the sudden arrival of the Separatist infiltrator. "Let's go," Sae says.
She kicks off from the ship hull straight at the freighter. Too fast: Activating her suit's flight jets, she slows just enough to cushion the impact as she lands on the hull. Malicos slams into the metal at a much faster velocity, bouncing off it until Sae grabs him and hangs on. "Idiot," she says, pulling herself along the hull and dragging Malicos to her. "Hang on to something."
"Beginner's luck."
"Did you do anything in the Jedi Order? How did you ever become a Master?" Sae says. "Just hold on to something. We'll be in in a sec. Let me find the nearest hatch."
Malicos holds up his lightsaber. "Nah. Watch."
Admittedly, Sae thinks as Malicos slices open a hole in the freighter's hull, that is a faster way in. And given what Sae has planned for the crew, it really doesn't matter if they maintain hull integrity. Malicos wrenches the sliced hull free as soon as he's made an entrance, then pulls himself through the hole, Sae following right behind him. They land inside the atmosphere-free freighter hallway, red emergency lighting flashing in response to the loss of air. "Follow me," says Sae, magnetizing her boots to anchor to the floor and igniting her lightsaber. "It's not far to the core."
She opens an internal door to reveal two human security members waiting to intercept them. However, the hull breach Malicos opened isn't closing any time soon, and the vacuum exposure draws the air straight out of the hallway. The security guards fly forward in the decompression, neither managing to even fire a shot before they're sucked out of the hole into space. Sae pushes forward, down the hall, down another, venting each to space as she goes, internal atmosphere bleeding away with each hall she opens.
Down one more hallway, and then she reaches the computer core in a secluded alcove just off of the main reactor. One crewmember mans it, furiously barking instructions over a mic as Sae enters. No need for the decompression to do its thing: Sae casually swipes with her lightsaber and lops the man's head clean off. "Keep me cover," says Sae as she works the central computer terminal.
"Don't think anyone's coming in the vacuum, but sure, whatever. Your word is my command, boss," Malicos mocks, watching the hall with his lightsaber held out and ready.
"That's a good dog," Sae mutters.
He glowers at her. "Why does Dooku put up with you?"
"Because it beats putting up with you," murmurs Sae.
She finds what she needs quickly. These big, mass-produced bulk freighters aren't designed with military-grade computer security, or even anything close. It's too easy to get through to the primary systems processing units and shut out access from the bridge as the ship's officers try to keep Sae out. Then she brings up the atmospheric systems diagnostics, bypasses the ensuing digital security checks—and opens every hatch and internal door on the ship.
"See ya," she mutters.
What a satisfying sight. If only Malicos was joining the rest of the suit-less freighter crew as the decompression sucks them out into space one by one. Sae watches through the internal cameras as one crewmember manages to hold on to a hallway strut, only for the lack of oxygen to weaken him enough until his grip fails. Then—out you go.
Less than two minutes, and every last person aboard the freighter save Sae and Malicos is now either floating around in outer space or is a vacuum-exposed corpse somewhere inside the ship. "That's that," Sae says, closing all hatches and sealing both hallway doors around the hull breach Malicos opened. "Easy part's done. Let's get to the bridge."
"Now we get to pretend to be freighter crew, huh?" says Malicos.
"Something like that. Now we get to see where this boat goes," says Sae, "and find out just what the hell Tarkin's people have in orbit over Geonosis."
