Chapter 5
Obi-Wan jerked out of his meditation when he felt something change. They left hyperspace. It was already the second time and Obi-Wan wondered if it would be just another short stop or if the ship finally approached its destination. He did not really look forward to their arrival. But at least, he would eventually come out of this dull room where he could do nothing but meditate and simultaneously worry about his situation.
However, he also knew that said situation would worsen drastically as soon as they arrived.
He shifted to find a more comfortable position, but his body complained anyhow. One could only sit on one's knees for a certain amount of time. He guessed that since his capture, two or three standard days went by. And because he did not dare to sleep, he already was pretty exhausted. The positive thing was that his head did have time to heal and he was no longer plagued by headache.
The Council would by now have heard about the incidents on Florrum. One member dead and another one missing. It were tough times for the Council. For all Jedi. Since the Clone Wars began, everybody has had his share of losses. Obi-Wan still shivered when he thought of all the Jedi who died on that horrible first day of the Clone Wars on Geonosis, to save him. In his dreams, he still saw their bodies lying in the arena, their blood swallowed by the thirsty sand.
Enough. He had to stay focused.
He took one deep breath and released his guilty feelings, his sadness and his fear into the Force. Now he felt empty, for there was nothing to concentrate on. He stayed in this state of mind for some more time, then he felt another shift on the shuttle. It began with a soft creaking of the ship's durasteel, then it felt as if the air became thicker and tried to push him to the ground. He knew that feeling. They were entering the atmosphere of a planet. Finally.
After a short while, the ship landed. Obi-Wan felt the two Zabraks approach, he had stayed aware of their auras in the Force. Then the door opened. Maul stood in the entryway.
"We are there. Get out."
Maybe it was not a good idea to answer him back, but his situation was already unthinkably bad, so what had he to lose...
"Well, I'd rather not, since you have invested so much effort in my current accommodations, and I would not dare being impolite to my hosts." Yes, really wasn't a good idea. Maul's hand grabbed his hair and jerked Obi-Wan to his feet. He was forced to look into the yellow eyes again, Obi-Wan's neck cramping at the awkward position.
"You either walk, or I'll drag you all the way. And let me tell you, this planet would not leave much skin on your frail body."
With the last word, he sent Obi-Wan flying into the corner and the air went out of his lungs.
"Well, then I shall go," he managed, and murmured to himself: "I kind of like my skin."
Obi-Wan used the wall to get up from his place on the floor. His legs did not feel very steady.
He blamed it on the long time in the room. Sure, he had done some katas during his captivity, but with both arms behind his back, it was not very satisfactory and all the exercises seemed to be the same. Additionally, he had lost his balance more than once due to the fact that his arms were immobile. He had not given up, but he could have been more enthusiastic about it.
Now he had to suffer the consequences. He left the wall and immediately felt assailable. Nevertheless, he walked to the door where Maul waited. The Sith stepped aside, and then followed close behind.
In front of Obi-Wan, Opress took the lead. When they neared the boarding ramp, Obi-Wan felt odd. The Force was strangely murky and dull here.
As soon as they left the ship, he revised his earlier assessment. It was not just the Force that was strange, but the whole planet. He had never seen something like that planet before, despite his work-related expertise with them.
The ground consisted of some sort of metal. In fact, there was nothing to see besides that metal. And it was shaped into strange formations. Everywhere, there were sharp cliffs and pinnacles, reaching to unexpected heights. They seemed desperate to leave the planet, but never able to, for they were a part of it.
The low sun sent her rays toward their group, and cast menacing jagged shadows which coalesced with the dark metal, painting an even more threatening picture of the planet.
As far as he looked, he could not find any smooth spot. Just shards and spikes in every size. And some more complex, skillfully formed formations that recalled the memory of old tribal art he had seen once. Now Obi-Wan understood that Maul really meant his previous threat. The planet looked as if it wanted to slice every living being to pieces.
"Move."
Unprepared, he received a shove from behind.
He hadn't even realized that he had stopped, so caught was he by this abnormal planet.
With a bit of luck, he managed to stay standing, and did not make the first test of the repellent ground with anything other than his boot.
When he moved on to gain on Opress, he felt the finest shards of metal crush under his sole.
They followed a small path between the excrescences of metal. Opress walked rather secure, so Obi-Wan concluded that the Sith knew this planet. That fit, the planet itself evaporated something dark, and Obi-Wan still felt weak because the Force was dimmed here. He did not think that Maul was responsible for that. The Sith was not that powerful. But Obi-Wan wondered if the planet had been exposed to the dark side for a long time. That would explain the reek of Sith and the dark side here.
Following this thought, he had a strange intuition.
"So, is this the planet were Sith are trained?"
He did not get an answer besides a metal claw that struck his back, sending him on the serrated ground and therefore producing several cuts in his tunic and skin. At least he landed on his stomach, so his unmovable hands were not damaged.
"You will only speak when I demand it," Maul sounded angry, so maybe Obi-Wan was on the right track. But Maul barely had other feelings than anger when he spoke to Obi-Wan, so he couldn't be sure.
"And if he demands it? It would be rather impolite if I didn't answer him," Obi-Wan pitched his head towards Opress, who halted several steps before him.
Shortly after that sentence, he had three metal clamps around his head. With one eye, he could see Maul's face change from an enraged grimace to a despiteful grin when he squeezed his enemy's head and then pressed it to the metal soil.
Obi-Wan suppressed a moan when he felt several cuts on his brow and cheek.
"He is my brother and my apprentice. You will obey him as you will obey me. You will soon learn that we have much in common. More than the hatred against your kind."
"The favour of unsightly tattoos all over your bodies?"
That really made the Sith angry. Maul pressed down his whole weight on Obi-Wan's head. A moan escaped him as he felt the cuts on his face deepen, the metal slicing easily through his skin.
"You will soon lose your smart mouth and I will enjoy watching it. Now move on!"
The claw released him. Obi-Wan stood up, faltering but not tilting. His blood slowly ran into his beard while the group advanced on the slim path. It was a long way, but in regard of the hostile cliffs everywhere, it was a miracle that the brothers found a place to land the shuttle in the first place. Or it was no coincidence. Yes, it was most likely that people constructed the landing spot and the path. The big question was if it was really made by or for Sith. Followed shortly by the question that concerned Obi-Wan in the moment: Where lead this path?
He would soon find out.
When the sun went behind the horizon, they reached a dead-end. At least it looked like a dead-end to Obi-Wan. There was a massive block of dark metal directly before them. And to the left and the right were big serrated blades of metal, which made passage impossible.
Maul stepped before the big block and touched it on several spots. Obi-Wan memorized the spots as good as he could. Every bit of information might be essential for his escape.
Then, a part of the wall just vanished. That had to be a very clever combination of a hologram and an energy shield, looking and feeling as the rest of the rock to the uninitiated.
The two Sith entered the corridor, Obi-Wan between them.
Abruptly, he felt that something was wrong. The Force, normally a bright light all around him, was barely a glimmer. Outside, the Force had been weak, but here, it was barely discernible. He was not even sure if he could lift a lightsaber with the mournful rest of the Force that was left to him.
"The light side has no place in here," Maul appeared to have read his thoughts again, maybe because his mental shields lost a better part of their power. That lead him to an interesting realization. Even though the Force around him was weak, he could feel it more than clear around the two Sith. So this planet and especially this cave really favored the dark side. Another obstacle in his path.
Along the hallway, there were aisles branching off to unknown destinations. He could get glimpses of control panels and storage crates in some rooms.
In comparison to the rough and untouched planet surface, the tunnel system seemed to be extraordinary well-built, with its rectangular halls and its bulkheads every twenty meters. There were even small round lights along the ceiling.
They reached an opening and Obi-Wan was unceremoniously shoved inside. An excessively thick door slid out of the wall and locked him.
He looked around in the room. The furniture was exactly the same as in his last accommodation. None. But it was darker. And not just with regard to illumination.
He felt weak, like the Force. No surprise there, he was deeply connected with it.
At least, he could still feel the auras of his captors. They were in another tunnel, not far from his cell.
He attuned himself to another period of waiting, shoving away the requests of his body for water, food and sleep. At the moment, his most fundamental need was that of freedom, and he would find a way to get it.
