Star Wars - The Wrath of Darth Maul Read online

  Star Wars: The Wrath of Darth Maul

  By Ryder Windham

  Cover illustration by Mike Butkus

  For Allan Kausch, who introduced me to Darth Maul

  PROLOGUE

  The prong-nosed rat knew that the dark heap lying in the tunnel was a dead man. He could tell by the incredible stench. Unable to detect any other predators in the tunnel, the rat’s sharp nose twitched with excitement at his discovery, a large and easy meal, all for him.

  The rat edged along the side of the tunnel, stepping over the skeletons of other creatures— - many small skeletons, but others quite large - —as it moved toward the corpse. Ragged scraps of broad, waterproof fabric were piled over the lower half of the dead man’s body. His head, arms, and chest were exposed. A fine layer of dust covered his skin, barely concealing the bold, jagged tattoos that adorned his remains. His head rested at an odd angle against the ground because of the long, sharp horns that jutted from his skull. The rat slunk closer to the body and opened his jaws.

  The rat never saw the fist that crashed down on the back of his neck. And then the man, who was very much alive, opened his yellow eyes as he rolled over and lashed out with his other hand to seize his prey. He kicked away the fabric scraps he’d been using as blankets, revealing the mechanical apparatus that formed his lower body.

  The apparatus was affixed to the man’s midriff, just below his rib cage, and consisted of a droid carriage equipped with six metal legs. The legs were unevenly jointed, cannibalized from the parts of ruined droids, each leg ending with a tapered point. As the prong-nosed rat writhed in his clutches, the man skittered out from under the blankets like a monstrous robotic spider, his metal legs clacking against the tunnel floor.

  He had no recollection of how he’d lost his lower body or who had grafted his torso to the droid carriage. Although he knew the tunnels that had become his domain, he did not know that he was on a planet named Lotho Minor. Nor did he remember his own name. And for the moment he didn’t care. His mind was on only one thing.

  Food.

  He tore into the rat and began eating it greedily, A few minutes later, as he licked the last of the gore from his lips, a familiar feeling returned to him. It was the only feeling he had, the only emotion he knew when he wasn’t delirious with hunger. Hatred. Not just anger and rage, but pure and total hatred.

  He hated his circumstances. Hated the tunnels and all the vermin that ventured into them. Hated being hungry, and being unable to rest without some other creature trying to take a bite out of him. Hated that he knew all those distractions were meaningless. The primary object of his hatred was something far more significant, something he despised with such incredible intensity that he...

  Can't remember.

  Hated his bad memory too.

  How had he arrived at this place? How long had he been living like a wild animal? His yellow eyes darted back and forth, sweeping the tunnel as if he might find a helpful answer in the shadowy nooks, amidst the gnawed bones of small creatures that littered the ground.

  Nothing.

  He grimaced. He wanted to remember. He wanted to know.

  The frustration was like a painful itch that he knew he could never ever scratch. He lowered one hand to his side, and his fingertips brushed against one of his cold metal legs.

  Wasn’t always... like this.

  He knew that he wasn’t a man anymore, that he hadn’t been one for years. He was just a creature in a filthy tunnel. And then he remembered the object of his hatred.

  A man... the man who left me for dead.

  The hatred surged through his veins, filling him with the urge to kill anything within reach. He surveyed the skeletons and rolling carcasses on the tunnel’s floor, then used his droid legs to launch several swift and vicious kicks that sent bones crashing against the wails. Finding a large rib cage, he seized it and brought it down hard across the back of one metal leg, then threw aside the splintered bones. He found no satisfaction in this petty destruction. He only hated more.

  Why can’t I remember?!

  Balling his hands into tight fists, he felt his sharp, dirty fingernails dig into the bases of his leathery palms. He gnashed his teeth and squeezed his eyes shut as he struggled to conjure up a memory, any memory, that would help him recall his own identity.

  It was then, while lit fell his haired burning within, that a spark ignited in his mind. And he saw a sea of fire...

  CHAPTER ONE

  The boy named Maul had to stand on his tiptoes to peer through the thick window in his small room. The window was polarized to block heat and light, but the view was still so intense that it made the boy squint. The light did not come from the sky, which was choked with black, smoky clouds, but radiated from the river of lava that flowed below the facility where Maul lived. Turning his head slightly, he saw the lava empty into what looked like a wide, fiery sea.

  The planet’s name was Mustafar, according to the droid that looked after Maul. The droid also served as the boy’s teacher and had shown him holograms that illustrated Mustafar’s terrain and the planet’s location in the galaxy. The droid had shown him holograms of other worlds too. Maul had a hard time understanding that the holograms represented actual planets, but he had to memorize their names and correctly indicate their locations or the droid would subject him to a painful shock.

  Fortunately, Maul was alone. Looking through the window, he tried to spot any signs of life. Occasionally, he would glimpse Mustafar’s armored natives riding lava fleas in the distance, heading for the northern region where they worked as miners. A few times, he had even seen ore haulers traveling across the sky. At the moment, he could not see any Mustafarians or vessels, just the never-ending flow of lava, fire, smoke, and clouds.

  The droid had told Maul that he wouldn’t last long on Mustafar’s surface, but that didn’t stop him from wanting to venture outside. After all, if the Mustafarians could move about freely, why couldn’t he? He might need Mustafarian armor to protect him from the heat, and also some kind of breathing apparatus. He wondered how difficult it would be to acquire such things. He had no reason to believe a Mustafarian would just give him what he needed to survive. But he did imagine that going outside would be exciting.

  Maul moved slightly and saw something shift across the window’s surface. Maul realized it was his own reflection. He could see only the top of his head, which had multiple small horns. Like the rest of his body, his head was distinguished by red and black patterns. His eyes were bright yellow with small black pupils.

  The first time he had seen his reflection, he had been startled, because he had thought he was seeing another person. For all he knew, his reflection was another person, another boy who looked like him and echoed his every movement. A boy who was semitransparent, suspended in the smoky air outside the room. A boy who was free to roam the planet’s volcanic surface without fear of injury, who could leave Mustafar and go anywhere he wanted. A boy who could help Maul escape.

  Maul wished he were that boy.

  Bracing his hands against the seamless area where the smooth metal wall met the glass. Maul jumped up so he could see more of his thin body reflected in the window. He jumped again and again, fascinated by his leaping reflection as well as the sound of his bare feet smacking against the metal floor. He pushed himself away from the window as he jumped back, still facing the window, and continued jumping for several minutes. He didn’t stop until well after his breathing had become short, his feet had gotten sore, and his leg muscles had begun stinging with pain.

  Catching his breath, he turned away from the window and surveyed his room. The room’s only remarkable features were a single door against
the wall opposite the window and a cold-water faucet that was operated by a palm sensor, positioned over a small drainage hole in one corner. The door was made of thick metal, the same material as the walls, floor, and ceiling. The bottom of the door had a narrow horizontal slot, through which the droid would sometimes shove a small tray of food, usually bits of uncooked meat. Maul could not see through the slot, because it remained sealed when not in use, by a sliding sheet of metal. Above the door was a convex blister that housed an audio speaker and also a photoreceptor, which allowed the droid to watch Maul at all times. There weren’t any controls to open the door from inside Maul’s room, at least none that Maul had ever been able to find.

  A chime sounded from the speaker, alerting Maul to begin his exercises. Even though his room was not very large and his legs were still tired from jumping, he knew better than to ignore the chime. He immediately began running in place.

  At first, Maul kept his arms tucked by his sides. Then he started pumping his arms up and down to match the steady rhythm of his leg muscles. He wanted to close his eyes and pretend that he was somewhere else, perhaps a larger room, but he was not allowed to close his eyes while exercising. He forced his eyelids to stay open and pumped his legs faster.

  The chime sounded again. Maul stopped running, fell back against the floor, and began doing a series of sit-ups and leg lifts. After several minutes, the chime sounded and Maul rolled over to do his push-up exercises, alternating between one-and two-handed push-ups. Several more minutes passed before the chime sounded again, signaling the exercise session’s end. Maul collapsed against the cold floor.

  Someone’s coming.

  Maul pushed himself up and stared hard at the door. Although he could not hear approaching footsteps, he would be standing in the chamber outside. He didn’t know how he knew this. He just knew.

  Maul could imagine only two possible visitors. One was the droid that looked after him. The other was the Man, who rarely visited. The Man wore a dark robe with a deep hood that left most of his features in shadow. Maul had never actually seen the Man’s eyes.

  Maul hated the Man even more than he hated the droid. The Man frightened him.

  The door made a hissing sound as it slid up and vanished into a slot in the ceiling. Standing outside the doorway was the droid. Made of shiny black metal, the droid had a bulbous head with five red mechanical eyes called photoreceptors and a mesh-grille vocabulator for speaking, and a cylindrical torso that held four long, jointed pincers tor arms. The torso rested on a swivel-hinged abdomen that had six spiderlike legs.

  Maul never knew what to expect from the droid. Sometimes it brought food or medicine or sprayed Maul with antiseptic cleansers or escorted him to a larger adjoining chamber where it would chase him or let him run in circles. Other times, it would talk to him and teach him words.

  Usually, the droid brought pain.

  Once, the droid had delivered a bright green and yellow snake that wasted no time in attacking Maul, sinking its venomous fangs deep into the boy's arm. Maul screamed and then threw his body down on top of the snake's to crush it. As ravenous as he was enraged, Maul had not been able to resist taking several large bites of the dead snake, which had been more than his small stomach could handle. After that incident, the droid had returned with medicine, bandages, and a stomach pump.

  Now, standing before Maul in the doorway, the droid slowly extended one pincer away from its body and swiveled the tip in a broad circular movement. Maul kept his eyes focused on the rotating pincer as he felt his muscles tense, bracing himself to leap away from it. He didn’t notice the small panel that opened below one of the droid’s eyes. The opened panel exposed a socket that housed a telescopic arm tipped with a hypodermic needle. The arm lashed out, jabbed the needle into Maul’s right shoulder, and then rapidly retracted into the droid’s head. The droid had taken just a fraction of a second to make the injection, —so little time that Maul barely comprehended that the needle had pierced his skin.

  Maul blinked as he reached up and rubbed his shoulder. He realized that the droid had done something to him and had rotated its pincer only to distract him. And then he felt a strange, warm sensation spreading throughout his body. He frowned at the droid, and then his eyelids drooped and his legs buckled. The droid’s arms extended, catching the boy before he could hit the floor.

  The spider-legged droid picked up the unconscious boy and carried him out of the little room without any difficulty. The boy was not at all heavy. He was barely three years old.

  When Maul awoke, he was lying on a metal bench in a large high-ceilinged chamber that he had never visited before. Three tall, narrow windows were set into one wall, illuminating the floor in front of Maul but leaving most of the chamber in darkness. Through the windows, he saw molten rock cascading past a black jagged cliff.

  Maul did not remember falling asleep or leaving his own room. He suspected he was about to be disciplined. He wondered if he hadn’t done all his exercises correctly or if he had made some other mistake. Not that it mattered. Sometimes he was disciplined without any explanation at all. He had been learning discipline since he had learned how to walk. One of the first things he learned was not to cry. Crying never made anything better. Crying only made things worse.

  Maul slowly pushed himself up from the bench. He felt cool air against his back and suspected there was a vent or a doorway behind him. Looking around the chamber, he noticed five red lights glowing in the darkness of one nearby corner. He recognized the lights as the eyes of the spider-legged droid.

  Maul rubbed his right shoulder. He remembered that the droid had struck him in the shoulder earlier, and suspected that the droid had made him fall asleep. He wondered what the droid might do next. Would it kill him?

  The droid lurched out of the corner. Maul hit the floor with his bare feel, and began running as fast as his small legs could carry him away from the droid. Staying out of the light that stretched from the windows across the floor, he darted toward an inner wall, heading for the source of the draft he’d felt against his back. His vision adjusted to the darkness and he found a quadrangular doorway. He did not hesitate to run through it, even though he had no idea of what awaited him in the next chamber.

  Darkness. A chamber without windows. Then he glimpsed a dim sliver of light ahead. Ignoring the droid’s clattering footsteps behind him, he ran toward the light, which emanated from somewhere beyond a curved wall. He knew he couldn’t outrun the droid, but he didn’t dare stop.

  Maul ran around the curved wall and entered a long, narrow corridor. Illuminated by small rectangular lamps embedded in the walls, the corridor was so long that he couldn’t see the other end. Maul kept running. He heard the droid’s footsteps pause at the corridor’s entrance. He hoped the droid was too large to follow him into the corridor.

  Risking a backward glance, he saw the droid had already tilted its body sideways so four of its legs tapped against the wall while the remaining two continued to scramble up the floor, propelling its metal body after Maul. Maul gasped as he turned his gaze forward, never breaking his stride.

  He heard the droid’s footsteps grow louder and knew it was gaining on him. He somehow sensed the droid was about to snare him with a pincer. Desperate and determined to evade the droid, Maul jumped to the side, planting one foot against the wall to his right, then sprang to the opposite wall, keeping his feet moving so that he traveled two steps across the vertical surface in a diagonal descent to the floor. Maul heard the pincer slam into the floor behind him, and he jumped up to make two more quick strides along the right wall before he flung himself back to the floor, still running forward. As he ran, he heard a loud and satisfying crash from behind, and he knew that the droid had tripped over its own legs in its failed effort to keep up with him.

  Suspecting that the droid would not only recover but also be very angry with him, Maul ran faster. His heart was pounding as he saw that the corridor terminated at another quadrangular doorway. He exited the cor
ridor fast and arrived in a chamber that was unlike any place he had ever imagined.

  Broad tapestries hung from the walls, which were also decorated with strange sculptures. Carved furniture, made from strangely jointed and highly polished bones rested on a wide rug that had once been an animal's hide. At the chamber’s center, an enormous orb of transparent greenish blue liquid, nearly two meters in diameter was suspended in the air above a circular dining table. Dozens of small, multicolored aquatic creatures swam within the orb, some so close to the surface that their swishing tails sent ripples around the orb’s circumference.

  Maul was so amazed by all the wondrous things in the room that he almost forgot that he had stopped running. He just stood there, looking from the swimming creatures to the decorations. But as he studied the carved furniture, he instinctively realized the chamber was a special place. It was a place where someone sat and looked at all the things in the room. It was a place where someone lived. He knew the droid did not require such luxuries. He was certain that this place was the Man’s lair.

  “Welcome, Maul,” rasped a low voice from behind Maul. “I have been expecting you.”

  Maul froze at the sound of the Man’s voice. He locked his eyes on the floating orb. He wished he could become invisible.

  “I had expected that the droid would lead you here,” the unseen Man continued. “The way you ran along the walls to evade the droid was most impressive. But then you always have been a clever boy.”

  Maul had heard the Man talk like this before. Compliments were almost always followed by punishments. Maul braced himself as he kept his eyes fixed on the floating orb. As unnerved as he was by the Man’s presence, he was more fascinated by the aquatic creatures inside the orb. He wondered if the creatures were edible.

  A screech of metal sounded from the doorway that Maul had just entered, and the droid pushed its body out of the narrow corridor to emerge inside the chamber. After the droid righted itself so that all its legs touched the floor, it moved up beside Maul, stopping short of the animal-hide rug. Maul shifted his gaze from the floating orb to the droid and noticed two of its legs were now bent at odd angles. The droid swiveled its mechanical eyes to stare at Maul and said in a droning tone, “You should not have run away.”