Chapter 10
***
After speaking those fateful words, Gage knew there was no turning back. He had to go through with it. He slipped his hand into his side pouch and brought out a tiny circular device, about as big as his thumbnail. He quickly stuck it to Si’s left temple, before she could even react. He took a small remote from his pouch and aimed its small antennae at Si. She collapsed to the ground, unconscious. The dock hands, still loading boxes, didn’t even notice as Gage hoisted her over his shoulder and walked slowly back through the door, his labored breathing echoing off the walls.
***
She was in a dark place. Chittering and murmured words undulating from the black surroundings, circled her like clouds. Suddenly, footsteps echoed off unseen walls and the mysterious whispers stopped. There was a loud boom as a single light shone down from far above. The footsteps continued. Maul stepped into the circle of light, shadows hanging on his face like a funeral veil. He held out his arms and lifted his head to the sky. The white light changed to red, and the whispers started up again, chanting strange words over and over like the drone of bees. Si understood what they were saying.
“Ashuta-dey na Sith. Hanu-muwey da naan.” (Our Master of the Sith. Lead us to victory.) The voices chanted the words faster and faster in the ancient Sith language. Maul raised his hands higher up to the light. Si looked around her and now noticed where she was. She was lying on the floor of an old Sith tomb, the crypt where the very first Dark Lords were kept. She was dressed in a loose black robe made of thick muslin.
Maul looked down from the light and motioned for Si to join him. She walked over and stood beside him. He grabbed her chin roughly, bringing her ear to his mouth.
“Now is the time for our strengths to join together as one. We can rise up and slay our master, and rule as one being. We will have our revenge on all,” he whispered in his husky voice. “You must face this challenge and overcome your aggressor. He is but a mere pebble, lying in a valley of boulders. We can beat him.”
***
When Si awoke, she was lying on the floor in a room. She glanced down, expecting to see the muslin robe from her dream, still wrapped loosely around her, but instead found herself in the light-colored flowing royal gown she had dressed in this morning, The man who had recognized her earlier was sitting in a chair, watching her with interest. She moved her head to look at her surroundings, but when she tried to sit up, a sharp pain shot up her back, and she fell back to the ground in defeat. When someone else entered the sparsely furnished room, she looked up to see a big-breasted girl with blond hair that sweeped down her back in curls, the ends barely touching the heels of her velvet boots.
The girl rushed up to the man. “Gagey, can I help?”
The man rolled his eyes. “No, Stephanie. Just sit over there.” He turned his attention back to Si. “I bet you’re wondering who I am. You probably don’t remember me, but I remember you. How old were you then? Six? No, you were seven,” he said the words as if they were dirty, his lips curling back to show his teeth and gums. It took Si a second or two to register his words, but when they finally sank in, memories from her childhood rose from where they had been buried for years.
***
It was a day like any other for Si. She was helping her mother make sesame bread for her father, when a shot went off, followed by a shriek of pain. Daarnan Tingiri rushed in, holding his side, and stammered breathlessly, “It’s them. Those damned smugglers have come for their money! Soliri, take Si and get out of here!”
Soliri grabbed Si’s hand and headed for the back of their small dwelling. They crawled out through the bedroom window and hid behind some water barrels in the back. Then the men came. They were three dirty men, all dressed in ratty clothes that had never seen soap. The men had blasters and were looking around, calling for Daarnan.
“You owe us money, old man. We’ve come to collect.”
Si and her mother tried to stay quiet, but when Daarnan came around the corner, his hand red from his wound, Soliri gasped. One of the men turned at the sound, then went to the barrels to investigate. He dragged Soliri out by her hair, but luckily didn’t notice Si.
“Hey fellas, forget the money. I found us a wench!” he laughed a mocking, rude laugh, and pulled Soliri to her feet. Daarnan rushed forward, despite his wound.
“You leave her alone. Take anything you want, but leave my wife alone!” he shouted defiantly. The man, startled by his tone, roughly shoved Soliri to the ground and blasted her in the shoulder. She screamed in pain, and tried to move back over to Si who was still behind the barrels. Daarnan grabbed the blaster from his assailant’s belt and shot one of the men. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a killing blow.
“I told you to leave my wife alone!” He dropped down beside Soliri and ripped a piece of cloth from his shirt to wrap around her wound. “I don’t want a fight here. Just take what you want and leave,” he yelled at the men.
They glared at him, then went inside the house. They searched through everything, taking what was of value, and breaking everything else. Daarnan still sat with his wife.
One of the men came back and said, “This isn’t over with, old man.” Then he killed both Daarnan and Soliri with his blaster. When Si saw this, she started crying, which got the man’s attention.
“Hey guys, we got ourselves a kid, here! What should we do with her?”
The other two men came back, their pockets filled with valuables. One of them said, “Leave her. She’s too young to be of use to us.” The three men left Si to cry over the death of her parents.
***
Si remembered, all right. She remembered those next few days when she had wandered around the city, looking for someone to help her, but Bakura had proved to be a cruel world, where no one cared about anyone but themselves. Sidious had found her weeks later, roaming around, emaciated from lack of food.
“I remember you. You’re the son of a bitch that killed my parents,” Si growled as her anger rose. She shook with rage and sent a burst of energy outward. It hit the remote in Gage's hand and shattered it. The disk on her temple fell to the floor, useless.
"Shit!" Gage cried, "Stephanie! Get some rope!" Gage fell on Si, pinning her to the ground. She tried struggling, but he was stronger than she thought. She screamed, both out loud and in her mind, calling for Maul, several systems away.
***
Maul tossed and turned in a restless sleep. He was dreaming, but just barely. A cry shattered the silence of the room. Maul sat up, his naked body drenched with sweat.
“Si!” he cried, before throwing the covers back and grabbing his cloak. He rushed out of the room and headed for his ship.
***
When Stephanie returned with some rope and a small black bag around her shoulder, she helped tie Si to the chair. When Si saw the bag, she immediately knew what was in it.
Gage took the bag and opened it. He lifted out a small, worm-like creature and set it on the floor. The ysalamiri woke from its sleep and looked around slowly. Noticing Si, it began to shimmer as it created a Force-absent bubble. It completely surrounded Si, and she felt her Force powers leaking away.
***
Maul punched in the coordinates for M’haeli and went into hyperspace. Almost immediately, he felt an absence. He tried to sense Si through the Force, but could not. He did, however, sense some dark happenings. He came out of hyperspace and activated his cloaking device. Floating somewhere near the inner-rim planets, he sat down and thought.
***
Gage pressed another small disc to Si’s temple, and leaned against the wall to watch what she would do.
She tried to struggle with the ropes, but they were tied securely. She tried to remove the disk by rubbing her head on her shoulder, but that also proved futile.
“Don’t try and escape this time. Within the ysalamiri’s bubble, your Force powers are useless. You’ll notice I’ve attached a containment disc to your head. You won’t be able to move from the neck down, as long as I have the remote to that disk.” Gage pulled another remote from his belt and waved it in Si’s face.
“What do you want with me?” Si growled through clenched teeth.
“What do I want with you?” he mimicked. “Justice, of course.”
“What justice? You killed my parents.”
“Yes, and I’m sorry,” he mocked. “I would have been content, knowing that I never had to worry about them again. I was no longer a thief. Five years in the Kessel spice mines tends to change one’s perspective. But you, acting so high and mighty, had to come along in your fancy ship and kill Nam and Tode.”
“You killed my parents,” Si repeated.
“And that justifies you killing my brothers? We had served our time. We were respectable smugglers after that.”
Si almost laughed.
“We even would have apologized, had you asked us to. But you killed my brothers,” Gage’s voice began to crack as he came nearer to tears. “Now I have nobody but my stupid droid and my accidental wife,” he gestured to Stephanie. “I’m going to go back to my room and figure out what to do with you.”
***
What’s happening? Why can’t I sense her? Darth Maul struggled with his thoughts. His ship still floated in space, caught in Ambria’s orbit. He fought the urge to rush to M’haeli, wielding his lightsaber in unmerciful anger. Anger is good, right? Anger is a powerful weapon, but not when used foolishly. He argued with himself, frustrated that he couldn’t rush in and save the day, rescue his property. And so he waited.
***
“Stephanie? Is that your name?” Si questioned, choosing her words carefully. She didn’t yet trust the girl’s reactions.
“Yeah, that’s me. What’s your name?” Stephanie replied cheerfully, as if meeting a new friend.
“Um, Caleea Nor,” Si hoped answering with the other name might confuse the girl.
“I thought your name was Si Tin something-or-other.”
“He’s got the wrong girl. I’ve never heard of this Si person before in my life,” Si lied.
“Where are you from, Caleea? I’m from Corellia,” Stephanie asked.
“Onderon. I’m a ruler there. Please, let me go,” Si pleaded.
“Wait a second, I’ve heard of the Nors ruling there, but not a Caleea Nor.”
Si was taken aback. This girl seemed stupid and uninterested in politics, yet she knew about the government of Onderon.
“Don’t look so surprised. I’m not as dumb as I look,” Stephanie’s voice was suddenly callous.
“No offense, but you seemed pretty daft to me, back when Gage was here.”
“Well, I’m just screwing him for his money. I only act stupid so he doesn’t get too suspicious.”
“He doesn’t look like the type of person to be loaded with money.”
“He’s got money. His parents left him and his brothers a whole shitload of money, but none of ‘em get any of it until they get married. When I met Gage on Corellia, he got so drunk, he told me all about it. So, when he ditched me, I started following him, expecting to catch up with him and, hopefully, get him to start dating me or something. We met here, in your hotel, and he took me for drinks. I was cut a real lucky break. He got drunk, again, and asked me to marry him. Of course I took advantage of him, but that was my plan in the first place.”
“Pretty simple plan. Do you think you could let me go now?” Si asked, changing the subject.
Stephanie looked back at Si, as if just noticing that she was in the room. “Huh? Oh, yeah. Sure, I’ll let you go. But, you have to promise not to tell anyone about me.”
“Yes, if you’ll just help me get out of here. I must make it back to my ship. Please!”
Stephanie seemed to think about this a moment. “But wait, there are two things stopping me from helping you. How do I know that you’ll keep your promise? And what about your Force powers that Gage mentioned earlier? Only Jedi have the Force. You’re certainly not a Jedi. Who are you, really?”
“I’m Caleea Nor of Onderon,” Si demanded in a strong voice, despite her growing weakness due to the ysalamiri. Stephanie quickly walked up to Si and slapped her across the face.
“Liar!,” Stephanie spat the words at her, and Si sank lower to the ground as her energy and power continued to drain from her body. The sting from the slap spread across her face, and Si let out a long, unsteady breath before answering.
“My name is Si Tingiri. I am an assassin for a Dark Lord of The Sith and I am here on a secret mission. Gage killed my parents when I was just a girl, and I killed his brothers in turn, many years after that. Apparently he’s still a little... agitated about the whole thing.”
As she listened to Si, Stephanie slowly came to the realization that she and Gage had gotten themselves tangled in something bigger than both of them; something very dark and very dangerous. She quietly picked up the ysalamiri and put it back in the black bag, then moved it far away from Si. Then she peeled the disk from Si’s temple. She cut the ropes from Si’s wrists with her knife, and tossed them aside.
“You’re free to go,” was all Stephanie said before leaving the room and heading back up to her room. She still held the knife in her hand.
Si smoothed her imperial robes and ran from the room.
***
Stephanie walked defiantly to her room, the knife gripped firmly in her hand. If she was going to do this, she would do it now. She threw open the door and stalked toward Gage, murder flashing in her eyes. Gage was at the mini-bar, drinking yet another tiny bottle of vodka. When he noticed Stephanie, he was too drunk to register the knife as it struck him in the side. Stephanie pulled the blade from Gage’s abdomen, then sliced through the soft skin of Gage’s neck like butter. Blood poured from the wound and Gage dropped to the floor. He touched his neck, feeling the blood with his fingers. He looked at his stained hand with puzzlement. Finally realizing what happened, he gasped, a noisy, raspy intake of breath, before his eyes closed for the last time. Stephanie heard a cry of surprise behind her. She turned quickly. Si stood in the doorway, her lightsaber held firmly in her hand.
“Si, I, um....... I was just....... um,” Stephanie struggled for words.
“No, it’s okay. It just caught me by surprise. I came up here to.... well, I guess my job is done.”
***
Just as Maul had finished checking his supplies for the thousandth time, trying to keep himself from going mad with worry, his mind was snapped to attention by a sudden cry. Was it in his head? Or was it real?
Maul felt Si’s presence through the Force and inside his head, permeating his thoughts. A great sigh of relief escaped from his lips, and Maul sank into his cockpit chair in relaxation, the worry dissolving from his mind.
***
The three handmaidens were trying to move boxes around in the cargo hold of the larger ship. The building materials had just been loaded and took up most of the room on the ship.
“There’s just not enough space. We’ll have to risk keeping you guys on the Crown with us,” Da’ie explained. They all walked over to Si Tingiri’s cruiser and entered. The carpeting and upholstery had been freshly cleaned, and the scent of cleaner fluid hung in the air.
Ti’ie opened a door in the back. “This is our space on the ship. When not tending to Si, we stay in here. You ought to be safe, as long as you keep quiet.” The three boys sat down in the small room and made themselves comfortable. The handmaidens went back to the suite to wait for Si.
***
“Well, now that Gage is out of the picture, what are you going to do?” Si asked as Stephanie quickly threw all of her things into her duffel.
“Oh, I’m taking Gage’s ship back to Corellia. There, I’ll probably sell it and his droid,” Stephanie motioned towards Eenine who was standing in a corner.
“He’s a pretty good droid, why not keep him?”
“Oh, I have plenty of droids back on Corellia. My father owns a droid repair business.”
“Well, I’ll give you a couple hundred credits for him. We could use him back on Coruscant.”
“Sure, I mean, if you want to. In fact, just take the driod. I’ve got plenty of money now.”
“Thanks,” Si said as she left. Eenine rolled along behind her.
***
Darth Maul powered up his ship and hit the thrusters hard, trying to lurch it out of the orbit of Ambria’s moon. The ship responded with the whir of engines, then an awful grinding sound as their power was cut short. Maul tried again, but heard the same sound. He cut the ignition sequence, checked the auxiliary cables, then tried again. This time, the ship started up with a groan and blasted out into space.
Ugh! Maul thought to himself. I hate this stupid, lowclass, last-year, third-rate, inferior ship!
***
The handmaidens, Ti’ie, Da’ie, and Jun’ie, were just picking up a few things left behind in Si’s suite, when they heard the door open. They froze, afraid that Si was still angry with them. When they turned, they saw Si enter the room, followed by a green astromech droid.
“Is everything ready?”
“Everything’s packed and ready to go,” Jun’ie replied.
“Okay, let’s go. Girls, you can leave the cleaning to the maids. Let’s get off this rock. Come on, Eenine,” Si commanded the stout droid.
Si walked quickly through the halls, the handmaidens following in a line behind, and Eenine rolling along beside them.
When they arrived at the docking bay, the two ships, the Summer’s Crown, and the cargo ship, were ready for takeoff. The pilots were waiting patiently.
Si noticed General Hundi and the Jedi approaching. She walked over to tell them goodbye.
“Thank you for your service, Your Highness. We look forward to your report on those blueprints,” the general bowed.
“I will be sure to send it back with the cargo ship,” Si turned to the Jedi.
Kel Sagnome stepped forward, “Thank you for allowing my Padawan and me to help in this matter. It has been a valuable experience for us both.”
“It was lovely meeting you,” Junni D’layeo chimed in.
“I wish you both a good journey back to Coruscant,” Si replied, before bowing. The Jedi bowed in return, then turned and left the platform. General Hundi stepped forward, coughing nervously.
“Your Highness, this has been a pleasant visit, and I hope you can return to N’croth on a leisure trip, rather than on business.”
“Kale, it’s been very lovely. Thank you for making us feel at home. Perhaps I will take you up on that offer. I shall see you soon.” Si turned and entered her ship. The engines started, and the cruiser blasted off, followed closely by the cargo ship. The vessels soon became small dots in the sky, only barely distinguishable among the clouds. Kale stood on the docking bay platform, waving goodbye even after he could no longer see them. Finally, he sighed, and turned on his heel. He headed for the door and said silently to himself, “Yeah, I knew she had a thing for me.”
For disclaimer, see chapter 1.