Darth Maul rubbed at the cloth above his metal knee and sat back, wondering what he was going to do now. The planet below was a mystery, and Maul was, for the first time in a long time, alone. He had wanted to be back in the arena against the Jedi and had now been thrown out of it again. And in another possibility, his brother would be sitting beside him now. He had not loved Savage, but the lost Nightbrother had been a useful ally, toward the end, and someone whom Maul respected. Meeting the Mandalorians and seeing their varying kinds of honor had reinforced his belief that despite their differences and Maul's general disregard for secular codes, Maul and Savage believed in the same kind of honor.

What would Sidious have done with Savage, if he had lived?

Of course he would not have. Savage had fought against Sidious, against this new blood Dooku, too much. But Maul felt now like his time with his brother was long ago and far away, that there was a world in which Savage's upbringing had aligned with his, in which both of them would be standing here, exchanging glances and needles of emotion in the Force, waiting for orders.

It was a pity that the younger Zabrak had been so thick-headed. He had been stupid, charging ahead at the wrong moment. Maul had, unfortunately, not been able to teach him how to identify the right moments. Maul had felt clumsy trying to be a master.

Now, he wasn't even a clumsy apprentice any more.

His metal legs had been damaged, but not beyond repair. He fingered three blaster holes in his pants, leading to burnt and flaking metal. The metal legs had been an efficient shield, but it would be too dangerous to use that move in the future. He was not harmless without his ability to walk, but he was effectively incapacitated from fulfilling any of his desires.

Or would have been, if he knew what they were.

The escape pod fell. Maul had never been in one before, but he was sure that there was supposed to be this much shaking: the pod was plummeting through an atmosphere, of course, and clouds jostled even vessels made for them. He could land in an ocean or in a farmer's field. It was all - more shaking, lights still green - up to chance.

He closed his eyes and waited for the Force to rise up to meet him like the ground.

Both did.

The pod shook and shook when it hit the dirt. How it stayed upright he did not know: the pod must have had hydraulics and powered brains that he did not and did not need to understand. Maybe it would aim him toward a population center, and maybe it would not. He gritted his teeth, and despite his best efforts at a meditative attitude opened them as the ship ground to a halt, dirt clattering around him. He was not in the water.

One slow blink later the lights dimmed and the door of the pod lurched open with a loud hydraulic cracking sound. When the smell and taste of grass and rich dirt outside rushed in he realized how stale the air of the escape pod had been. He emerged cautiously.

The smell of grass must have been coming from farther up the slope, because he saw immediately that he was in a wide quarry. He was faced with a gray rock face as tall as his ship Scimitar. Black caves opened up into the sloped, rocky bottom of the quarry: from how it looked and from what he knew about this planet, it was clearly a mine. He craned his neck to look around the escape pod and into the other side of the quarry. No one was working here at the moment. There was no machinery left abandoned, although some food wrappers and sundry trash had been washed, presumably during the last rainstorm, into milky puddles of greenish water around the quarry.

The other side had a gentler slope, with a criss-crossing path cut into it for the miners to move up and down. As Maul got closer, tread marks on the dirt seemed to indicate that more droids than organic beings worked these mines. The path was easily accessible, and he started to make his way up.

He still had the blaster he had taken from the captain of the jail ship. He pushed it under his belt, knowing that the makeshift holster would not last if he got in to some serious action, or likely even if he slipped on loose dirt on his way up the switchbacking path. It would have to do for now.

He proceeded slowly, looking at the irregular oval of sky that he could see above the deep quarry. The occasional cloud, heavy but brown with smog, passed overhead through the clear blue sky. It was a contradictory sight, that clean sky and those dirty clouds.

The Force tickled at the back of his head, and Maul stopped, dropping his left hand to his blaster. The metal was cold and smooth, and helped him concentrate as he examined the Force presence that he could sense somewhere nearby. No one was on the path with him, and he could see all the way into the quarry now. That left the caves as a possible source of entry.

It didn't feel like a sentient presence, though. He remembered that Bandomeer was known for dangerous animals.

And he had just landed in the perfect snake pit.

With a scratching, snuffling sound, something burrowed out of the wall next to him. He had time to see a bright green, scaled head and what looked like blue, hexagonal sails before the creature dropped to the pathway and hissed at him. He took one step back, drew the blaster, and fired.

The animal had little chance. He could see that it was a serpentine creature now, thick and short-bodied, with protuberant fangs and four blue sails arranged around its head like puzzle pieces. He could see the purple veins in them, branching. Shot twice in the body, it sank down, its mouth snapping a few times in frenzied attack motions toward him. It could not control the death throes of its body, though, and so the last snap was aimed only at the air as the snake turned belly-up, crushing the sails beneath its own head.

Maul lowered the blaster.

The ground shook. He threw his arms out for support as dirt flew into the air and rocks clattered against each other. Taking one step backward, he Force-jumped to the next switch-back, almost at the top now.

A cavernous-mouthed, bright green snake nose emerged out of the dirt.

This, Maul thought, is why he had mostly seen the tracks of droids.

The bigger snake - mother, father, rival, distant relative of the first? - had blue sails too, all along its back. They flashed and wobbled in the sunlight. The snake's mouth opened, dripping spit or poison, and Maul received an unquestionable Force suggestion that he should dash to his left.

The snake spit up a glob of transparent venom. It hit the path where Maul had been standing and sank into the dirt, turning it black with its wetness.

Maul got off two blaster shots, one which went wide and one which hit the snake just behind its left eye and seemed to burn the skin but not actually faze the animal. Then it spat again, and he dashed back to the place he had stood before. With his metal legs he wouldn't even have to worry if he stepped in acid.

(He would have to stop using them as shields some time...)

He fired again, this time hitting one of the blue sails and striking the snake inside its mouth. It had been mid-spit, and the blaster shot knocked a tooth sideways. The venom leaked down the side of the snake's jaw as it fought with whatever numbness or pain was filling its mouth. The third shot blackened one eye.

Now the creature was furious. It coiled its body, waves of muscle seeming to roll up and down the length of it. Its tail was still somewhere in the ground. Maul could see pebbles jump as that latter half of the body created tiny groundquakes further down the path with its thrashing. He wished he had his lightsaber: it would be so easy just to cleave the thing's skull in two.

Instead he had to dodge as the mouth opened wide, umbrellaing wider than he thought it could, and the green maw filled with red tongue and white stalagmite teeth plummeted toward him. When it landed it just bumped the ground and then sniffed, the blind eye not moving, the other one surely rolling around looking for its prey. Maul wanted to get closer, wanted to rip those delicate looking blue scales right out of the muscle of its back, but he knew that the blaster was much more efficient and could get the job done: he sprayed laster blasts from the thing's mouth to its eye and back. It had been, and was still, silent except for the sniffling of its gigantic nostrils, but he could feel its cries of pain in the Force. With sudden violence, a spasmic type of movement completely different from its blind snuffling of the rocks, it reared upward. Maul saw a section of the bottom of its tail breach the wall further down, spilling another section of the switchback path into the bottom of the quarry.

It retreated, sinking back toward the quarry but unable to return to the hole from whence it had come. The wounded eye caused it too much pain to burrow. Maul wondered how long it would be until the creature could move underground again. The miner droids might have a surprise waiting for them tomorrow.

He shook his head, sighed, and looked at the ammo count on his blaster. He had thirty shots left. That would be enough for a bar brawl, but not enough for a Jedi. And he was beginning to hate this weapon. It was so useless next to a lightsaber.

Maul hunched his shoulders and crested the rise.

He emerged into a cleared plain of rocky ground. Behind him, he could see other quarries, and canyon-lands of mines that had been carved into Bandomeer's surface. The natural lay of the ground looked flat. Perhaps there were mountains somewhere else, but here, the miners had had to create their own topography.

The next lot over was a field, in the grass on the edge of land tilled for crops. It felt like high summer, the heat not quite oppressive but fierce enough that he rolled the sleeves of his tunic up, first right and then left. Although at first glance the field had seemed verdant, he could see now that he examined it more closely that the tall crops were withered and small, the stems and leaves the brittle yellow of parchment when they should probably have been green. Smoke or smog filled up the sky to one side, blocking out half of the sun and probably only increasing the heat. The escape pod had ripped a wide path into the dirt, exposing the bedrock, but right in front of him there was a paved road, one that he hoped would lead him to a city with a spaceport.

After a few steps he turned, looking back down at the white escape pod with its blue cushion deflating behind it like spilled guts. Would it be better to destroy it, so that the jailers would not come looking for him? Would they even bother? More importantly, if Sidious did, the Sith Lord would be able to track his wayward apprentice easily through the Force whether or not the escape pod remained in its ruined state. The idea of crawling back down into the pit made his lip curl. Maul left the escape pod behind.

The first sign that Maul was nearing a city was the dirt and wreckage along the side of the road: a speeder bumper here, a spilled and torn trash bag there, the road becoming wider and more clearly marked even as the edges became more broken up, and Maul started having to step over chunks of tarmac in the dirt. There were no slidewalks, and not even concrete walkways. He passed a few people, pale aliens with hair of a bright gold that seemed to stand out like a sore thumb on their brown planet. They looked haggard, but also looked up at him as he approached. It said something about a place if the natives were willing to meet strangers' eyes.

Some of them raised their hands and said hello, but he did not answer. He wished that his tunic had a hood he could raise, but he had not prioritized gaining the uniform of the Sith when he had been on Mandalore. He nodded at the occasional Meerian passerby who looked like they might look at him twice. They always decided against it after catching his eyes.

Maul noticed quickly that he had been lucky to land where he did. The farm was a rarity, and clearly struggling to survive. If the escape pod had landed one hundred meters to the left or right, it would have fallen into even deeper pits or mines, perhaps occupied by even nastier creatures.

The Bandomeer town he came across a few miles down the roadway was large, but it squatted alone in the farmland around it. Buildings the beat-up brown color of the dirt sat hunched over the streets crowded with speeders. Maul quickly noticed a variety of cantinas. A popular chain of diners seemed to have taken the green snake creature as its logo. If there was a spaceport, it was clearly not on this side of the city.

There should be an information kiosk, somewhere. He shouldered through an unusually thick crowd of passerby, only to find them watching a video of a newscaster talking about mining operations. In contrast to the demographics of the beings he had seen on the road, this crowd was mostly human, with the brightly-colored head of hair of a Meerian showing here and there between the humans as its owner craned his or her neck to see over the taller beings.

The mining video didn't contain anything that had much relevance to him, Maul thought. He felt some recognition, though, some deja vu, and peered more closely at the images of lifter droids conveying black rocks up into red-hot smelting chambers. The newscaster superimposed in 2-D over the grainy image was a blonde-haired Cathar woman. Nothing about her slitted eyes or short, striped fur was familiar.

The name of the planet was, though. Maul peered at the Aurebesh text at the bottom of the screen. Orsis. He had trained there, at an academy for mercenaries, when he was very young -

The crowd had molded comfortably around him now. Enough pedestrians had stopped that only the people on the outside of the groups were getting glares from those who hadn't. There was in fact less arguing than Maul would have expected, but then, he was used to hurried, crowded Coruscant.

He chose a person standing next to him, a tall human woman who didn't look like she would startle. Maul caught the woman's eyes and then looked toward the screen. "What's happening?"

"InterGalactic Ore is moving some operations to Orsis. Karking great for them, but might not go so kriffing well for us."

"Huh," Maul said.

Orsis.

"I need to get to the spaceport."

The woman looked quizzically at him, and Maul wondered whether she would answer the unspoken question. Maybe she would be too caught up in whatever economic ramifications the InterGalactic Ore news was going to have on her.

"It's on the other kriffing side of town." The woman didn't sound perturbed. "Take this road to Kalor Street."

Maul nodded and left her.

Getting out of the crowd was time-consuming, but beyond that, the walk was easy. Maul's mechanical legs were functioning acceptably, only occasionally listing, and his blaster didn't draw any suspicion. Many people here, of varying species and genders, carried either similar weapons or heavy axes and hammers probably used in mining.

Where was he going?

Down this sidewalk, sure. One foot in front of the other, looking straight ahead instead of at the crowds on either side. There, a girl smoking a death stick. There, that green snake logo above a diner on a corner. There, a driver honking at a traffic light as someone else in a small, beat-up speeder cut him off. Maul wanted a mission. He itched for one, and the mentions of InterGalactic or and Orsis, both entities with which he had tangled before, didn't help. How did people live like this? He was hungry too, and since he had been living off of Death Watch hospitality and the credits stashed in his and Savage's stolen ship, the easiest way to procure food would be to steal it. That was bound to have complications, though, if he was loud and someone caught him.

He had trained on Orsis. He had had friends there, before Sidious had taught him that he was destined to only leave them behind.

He hadn't left Savage behind, though, not really.

The spaceport was small. He saw the domed landing pads peeking out from behind the other buildings of the city - he still did not know its name - before he was sure he was on the right road. The turn off to the spaceport was clear. He hesitated outside one of the diners with the snake logo before opening the door.

The smell of the food was mouth-watering. Something was frying on a grill. The diner was clean and brightly lit, with only a few humans and a few Ithorians occupying the spindly tables. The girl behind the counter was a Meerian, with silvery hair and wearing a baggy shirt under an equally baggy apron.

He picked up a menu off of the counter. In small text on the back, it explained that the chain's logo was the sun snake because it exemplified beauty, grace, and, in myth, had warmed lost travelers with the heat that it absorbed through the sails on its back.

It didn't seem likely that he would find spacers here.

He shoved the front door open just in time to see the woman he had talked to in front of the news broadcast walking toward the spaceport. She had dark skin and black hair fading to gray. Her chin and neck were wrinkled with weight and age, but she didn't look elderly - probably fifty. She wore a blue flightsuit with black trappings, and didn't appear to be carrying a weapon or expressing anything besides slightly grumpy acknowledgement of the world around her.

The human did not glance back when Maul fell into step behind her. Maul reached out to tap her on the shoulder, but did not want to frighten her - he had no idea what this woman was, but it was possible that she had a spaceship. It was also possible that she was a provincial miner who had never been off world, but Maul didn't know.

The woman ignored him. Maul quickened his pace and looked her in the eyes when he got a chance. What was he supposed to say here? 'Hey you?' 'Excuse me?' This person was not a Force-user. She only deserved a certain measure of formality and respect.

Luckily, the woman made the first comment. "Are you kriffing following me?"

"I am looking for the space port."

"Yeah, you told me. And I told you." She shrugged.

I'm hungry, Maul thought, but he wasn't going to say that. "Do you have a ship?"

"Who are you?" The woman stopped, leaving Maul backed against the wall of the chain diner.

Maul spread his hands. He was not good at supplication, but he had a feeling that she wouldn't like to learn, suddenly, that she was talking to a Sith Lord or a mercenary. "I'm a freelancer. I landed on this planet without anything, and need to leave it."

She looked at him suspiciously. Maul rankled: he hated asking for help. Maybe he could just threaten her. That would work better.

"A freelance what?"

Bounty hunter, assassin, psychic, Maul thought. I could slam her against the wall and force her to take me to her ship. But there are police in this city, there are crowds and crowds of miners, and -

His stomach growled.

Some of the suspicion faded from the woman's eyes.

"I need to get to Orsis," Maul said. "One planet. One stop."

Her eyes narrowed again. She looked back and forth along the street for help. "Do you want some caf or something?"

Maul nodded.

They went back into the store with the snake logo. The woman ordered him a caf and a sandwich thick with meat, bread, and beans.

"It's hard to grow anything above the kriffing ground here. And as soon as you start, they kriffing dig the ground out from under you." She sat down with a smaller sandwich in her hand.

She talked nearly non-stop.

Her name was Kasen. Maul had not yet determined whether she was a spacer or not, but miner seemed more likely from the way she talked. Maybe she was an out-of-work miner, her job taken by the droids. That would explain the anger. She talked like she was planning on wearing her lungs out before the rock dust could eat them.

"The Republic won't help, the Hutts won't help, and it's not their kriffing fault - what InterGalactic Ore gives, InterGalactic takes away, you know? It's not like we didn't love their kriffing mining droids before they started taking over every inch of the place and practically driving us into the ocean. One chancellor is just like another one out here, mate. And Governess Rava just sits in her kriffing palace and eats up her family's money like her father and his father have done since the planet kriffing formed out of the primordial dirt."

"You are a miner?"

"Yeah. I came here to make my fortune. You ever notice how no one ever says that in the present tense? Ah yes, here I am making my fortune right now. No one says that. You know why not? Because they don't talk to the people who never made it."

Maul said, "Do or do you not have a ship?"

She moved her sandwich around in her mouth and swallowed dramatically. "What did you say you do again?"

So she's hiding something, just like I am. Or is only willing to take information like an eye for an eye.

Maul still hadn't seen any weapons on her, which probably meant that she didn't have any. There wasn't even a bulge in her boot.

"I am a mercenary."

"I had a feeling so." Kasen chewed. "I have a ship."

Maul wanted to lurch forward, wanted to grab her by her lapels and order her to grant him command of her ship. He almost did. The table rattled. Even after all the abuse he had put them through, his mechanical legs still worked naturally.

Kasen must have seen the anger in his face, because she leaned back slightly, not fearful so much as suddenly quizzical about why Maul was so passionate about getting off the planet. A mercenary might see this as just another opportunity, he thought. A mercenary might be laissez-faire, might take it as a chance to make friends.

Maul could only act for so long before he got tired of pretending.

"I'll take you one way," Kasen said. "But you have to do something for me in return."

"What?" Maul tipped his head.

"I don't know," Kasen said. "Clean the hyperdrive, do the kriffing dishes or something. We'll work it out on the way."

Maul nodded.