فصل 04

THE MEANING OF DEATH

The Woebegone had just reverted to realspace when 11-4Ds audio sensors registered unusual sounds from aft an activation click, a prolonged hiss of energy, a dopplering slash, a stuttering exhalation of breath. The sounds were followed by a sudden outpouring of heat from the corridor that accessed the cargo bays and what might have been interpreted as a gust of wind. Only by adjusting the input rate of its photoreceptors was the droid able to identify the blur that raced into the cabin space as a male Muun dressed in a hooded robe, trousers, and softboots that reached his shins.

Maa Kaap, PePe, Wandau, and Zuto turned in unison as the Muun came to a momentum-defying stop a few meters from where the four of them were seated.

Clenched in his right hand was a crimson-bladed energy device the droids data bank recognized as a lightsaber—a weapon used almost exclusively by members of the Jedi Order. And yet the recognition prompted a moment of bewilderment.

The Jedi were known to be guardians of peace and enforcers of justice, but the Muuns comportment—the set of his long limbs, the feral working of his jutting jaw, the yellow blaze in his eyes—suggested anything but peace. As for justice, 11-4D couldnt retrieve a single instance of the four crew members having performed an offense that warranted capital punishment.

The humming lightsaber dangling from his left hand, the Muun remained silent, letting his posture speak for his nefarious intent. In turn the crew members, realizing that they were being wrongly accused, clambered to their feet, reaching at the same time for the weapons strapped to their hips and thighs.

That the Muun permitted them to do so furnished 11-4D with yet another mystery—at least until it realized that the Muun was merely courting combat.

The droid wondered what Captain Lah could possibly have said or done to arouse so much wrath in the Muun. It replayed the memory of her priming the blaster. Had she decided that the problems the Muun presented for the Woebegone could best be solved by killing him, only to have misjudged him entirely? Regardless, it was apparent that the Muun believed the entire ship complicit in Captain Lahs actions, and had decided to take it upon himself to mete out retribution of the cruelest sort. 11-4D assumed that this would include him, and instantly initiated a series of redundant routines that would back up and store data, in order to provide a record of what was about to occur.

The face-off tableau in the cabinspace had endured for only a moment when Wandau, who had served as a bodyguard for a celebrated Hutt, leapt into action, drawing and firing his blaster even as he raced for cover behind one of the bulkheads. A split second behind, Maa Kaap raised his weapon and fired a continuous hail of blaster bolts at the Muun. In the same instant Zuto and PePe, crouched low to the deck, sprang forward in an attempt to outflank their opponent and place him at the center of a deadly crossfire.

From the passageway that led to the cockpit came the rapid footfalls of the pilot, Blir, and the ships Dresselian navigator, Semasalli. 11-4D knew that they had been monitoring cam feeds of the cargo bay, and thought it likely that they had witnessed whatever sentence the Muun had levied on Captain Lah.

The Muuns reaction to the barrage of bolts that converged on him required almost more processing power than the droid had at its disposal. By employing a combination of body movements, lightsaber, and naked right hand, the agile sentient evaded, deflected, or returned every shot that targeted him. Slowly surrendering energy, the bolts caromed from the deck and bulkheads, touching off alarms, prompting a switch to emergency illumination, and unleashing cascades of fire-suppressant foam from the ceiling aerosols. No sooner had the Balosar and the Dresselian entered the cabinspace than hatches sealed the corridors, preventing any escape from the melee. Only 11-4Ds ability to calculate trajectories and react instantaneously to danger kept it from being on the receiving end of any of the numerous ricochets.

Spying Blir and Semasalli, the Muun hurled the lightsaber in a spinning arc that took off the Balosars antenepalps and scalp and most of the wrinkled Dresselians left shoulder, misting the already agitated air with teal-colored blood. As alarms continued to wail and foam continued to gush, Blir folded and fell face-first to the slickened deck, while Semasalli, screeching in pain, collapsed to one side, reaching futilely for his severed arm with the other.

The lightsaber had scarcely left the Muuns grip when Wandau flew from cover to bring the attack to the Muun, triggering his blaster as ceaselessly as Maa Kaap was still doing. This time, though, the Muun merely stretched out his right hand and absorbed the bolts. Traveling up the length of his arm and across his narrow chest, the energy seemed to fountain from the hand awaiting the return of the spinning weapon as a tangle of blue electricity that hissed from his tapered fingers, catching Wandau full-on and lifting him to the ceiling of the hold before dropping him to the puddled deck in a heap, as if his bones had turned to dust.

In strobing red light, Maa Kaaps eyes tracked the rise and fall of his broken comrade. His blaster depleted, the Zabrak drew a vibroblade from a belt sheath and launched himself at the Muun, his large right hand intent on fastening itself onto the Muuns spindly neck.

The Muun caught the lightsaber, but instead of bringing it to bear against Maa Kaap, he danced and twirled out of reach of the vibroblade and commenced parrying the Zabraks martial kicks and punches, until a side-kick to the thorax drove Maa Kaap clear across the cabin and slamming into the bulkhead.

OneOne-FourDees audio pickups registered the snap of the Zabraks spine and the bursting of pulmonary arteries.

Now Zuto and PePe dived at the Muun from both sides and actually managed to get a hold on him. But it was as if the Muun had turned to stone. The Kaleesh and the Quara attacked with teeth and claws, but to no perceptible effect. And when the Muun had had enough of it, he positioned the lightsaber directly in front of him and gyred in their grasp, taking off PePes tusked face and Zutos blunt, whiskered snout. OneOne-FourDees olfactory sensors detected an outpouring of pheromones that signaled the death of the Kaleesh. Zuto, on the other hand—though gurgling blood and moaning in pain—could perhaps be saved if treated in time.

Straightening out of a wide-legged stance, the Muun deactivated the lightsaber and scanned the beings he had killed and those he had maimed with chilling exactitude. His yellow eyes fell on 11-4D, but only for an instant then he fixed the lightsaber to his belt and went quickly to his nearest victim, who happened to be Doo Zuto. Dropping to one knee alongside him, the Muun gazed intently at the Quaras twitching body, but precisely at what the droid couldnt surmise.

Zutos bulging marine eyes seemed to implore his assailant for help, but the Muun did nothing to stanch the flow of blood or offer palliative aid.

He remained by the Quaras side for a few moments, then moved quickly to Maa Kaap, from whose crushed chest cavity blood bubbled with each shallow breath. Again, the Muun ran his eyes over his victim, from Maa Kaaps tattooed face to his large feet. Eyes closed, the Muun adopted a posture that suggested intense concentration or meditation, and Maa Kaap snapped back to panicstricken consciousness. OneOne-FourDee tuned in to the Zabraks pulse and found it regular—but only for a moment. Then the rhythm of Maa Kaaps heartbeat grew ragged and breaths began to stutter from his lungs.

Soon he was dead.

The Muun appeared to be frustrated, and his disappointment increased on finding that Blir was deceased, as well. He spent only moments appraising Semasalli before going to Wandau, who was conscious though obviously paralyzed from the waist down.

You dishonor your heritage and your weapon, Jedi, Wandau managed to say.

You could have used … the Force to compel us to do as you wished. Ive not only seen that, but experienced it.

The Muuns face contorted in distaste. If youve so little will, he said in the tongue of Wandaus species, then youre of no use to me, Klatooinian. And ended Wandaus misery with a click of his thumb and middle finger.

Gradually the spray from the ceiling abated and the klaxons fell silent. His examinations completed, the Muun stood and turned slowly to the droid.

What name do you respond to?

OneOne-FourDee, sir.

Can you pilot this ship, OneOne-FourDee?

I can, sir. The droid paused, then asked Do you wish me to relocate the survivors to medbay or jettison any of the corpses?

The Muun surveyed his handiwork. Leave them. He shrugged out of his sodden robe and hung it over a chair, revealing a second lightsaber affixed to his belt. Captain Lah remarked that you have medical capabilities. I do, sir.

Turning his back to 11-4D, the Muun stripped his bloodstained tunic from his distended lower back. Are you capable of repairing this? The droid sharpened the focus of its photoreceptors and olfactory sensors.

The wound shows signs of infection and putrefaction, sir, but, yes, I can repair it.

The Muun lowered the tunic and retrieved a comlink from a pocket in the robe. Activating the device, he spent a moment inputting data, then turned the display so that 11-4D could read it. Set a course for these coordinates, then attend to me in the captains quarters.

Anything else, sir?

Prepare food and drink. Im famished.

With the Woebegone traveling through hyperspace, Plagueis lay prone on the captains bunk, a bacta patch covering the wound on his back, contemplating the results of his attempts to prolong the lives of those crew members who had survived the altercation. Even where he had been successful in effecting repairs to damaged blood vessels and organs, the results had been temporary, as he had not been able to influence or appeal to the midi-chlorians to assist. Calling on the Force to mend ruptured arteries, torn muscle, or broken bone was no more difficult than levitating slabs of stone. But such refurbishments had little effect on a beings etheric shell, which was essentially the domain of the midichlorians, despite their physical presence in living cells.

Among the ships crew, the Togruta, Captain Lah, had been the strongest in the Force, but she was beyond his help by the time he reached her. Had it not been for sloppiness on his part, owing to fatigue and blood loss, and lightningfast reflexes on hers, the lightsaber might simply have pierced her neck and cervical spinal cord. But she had spun at the moment of impact, and the crimson blade had all but decapitated her. The Zabrak, too, had a slightly higher-thannormal midi-chlorian count, but not high enough to make him Force-sensitive.

How different it had been to observe the behavior of the Zabraks midi-chlorians compared with those of Darth Tenebrous, only two days earlier!

The Jedi routinely performed blood tests to verify the midi-chlorian counts of prospective trainees, but Plagueis had passed beyond the need for such crude measurements. He could not only sense the strength of the Force in another but also perceive the midi-chlorians that individualized Forceful beings. It was that dark side ability that had allowed generations of Sith to locate and initiate recruits. The dispersal of midi-chlorians at the moment of physical death was, for lack of a better term, inexorable. Analogous to his fated confrontation with the Woebegone crew, the moment of death appeared to be somehow fixed in space and time. According to his Sith education, since Captain Lah and the others had been in some sense dead from the moment Plagueiss gaze had alighted on the freighter, it followed that the midi-chlorians that resided in alleged symbiosis with them must have been preparing to be subsumed into the reservoir of life energy that was the Force long before Plagueis had stowed away. His attempts to save them—to prolong that state of symbiosis—were comparable to using a sponge to dam a raging river. And yet the Sith Lords of old were said to have been able to draw on the energies released during death to extend their own lives, as well as the lives of others. Unfortunately, much like the technique of essence transfer, that ancient knowledge had been lost.

Feeling the ship revert to realspace, Plagueis rose from the bunk, dressed, and walked forward, stepping over the corpses sprawled in the main cabin, the deck plates awash in fire-suppressant fluid and blackening pools of blood, and through passageways reeking of death. One of the crew members, the now onearmed Dresselian, was still alive but comatose.

In the ships undermount cockpit the droid stood motionless at the control console. Beyond the transparisteel viewport myriad stars hung in space.

Sir, we are approaching the coordinates supplied by your comlink, the droid said without turning from the view.

Plagueis settled into the pilots chair, which barely accommodated his long body. How do you come to be aboard the Woebegone, droid? Formerly I served the needs of a medical facility on Obroa-skai. In what capacity?

Research, in addition to performing a wide range of surgeries on beings of diverse species.

Plagueis regarded the droid. Thus, your many appendages. Yes, sir. But the ones I wear currently were retrofitted when I became the property of Captain Lah, so that I might better serve the needs of the Woebegone.

And how did you become the captains property?

I believe, sir, that I was awarded to Captain Lah in place of payments due for the receipt of certain merchandise. It is also my belief that the exchange was meant to be temporary—

But Captain Lah decided to keep you.

Yes, sir. She decided to keep me. Im sorry to say that I am at a loss to explain her reasons, and I never presumed to ask.

Plagueis nodded. Thats a good quality in a droid.

I understand how it could be, sir.

Tell me, droid, what is the possible consequence of low theloxin levels in a Pauan?

OneOne-FourDee didnt hesitate. One possible consequence would be an elevation of the oxidation rate, leading to the growth of an exophthalmic goiter, which in turn would affect the production of roaamin from the anterior lobes of the lutiaary gland.

And?

One result might be giantism, well beyond the Pauan norm. If so?

The connecting ganglia making up the autonomic nervous system and controlling glandular secretion might induce an acceleration of the circular sphincter muscles of the digestive tract, resulting in xerophthalmia. So you are a diagnostician, as well.

In a minor capacity, sir.

Beyond the viewport, growing larger against the backdrop of a behemoth ringed planet, a space station turned in fixed orbit near a heavily cratered moon.

A hodgepodge of interconnected domed modules, the station featured two long, boxy arms to which ships of varying size were tethered. Plagueis called data to the display screen of his comlink and placed it in view of 11-4D.

Transmit this code over the comm.

The droid performed the task and waited at the comm while the cockpit enunciators crackled to life.

Unidentified freighter, Deep Space Demo and Removal is in reception of your request. Give us a moment to authenticate your transmission. Holding fast while you authenticate, Plagueis said.

Freighter, you are cleared for docking, the voice returned a moment later.

My ship, Plagueis said, leaning forward to take hold of the yoke.

As a precaution, the station directed them to a berth at the distal end of the larger of the two arms.

You will accompany me into the landing bay, Plagueis told the droid when he had shut the ship down. Raise the boarding ramp behind us and activate the anti-intrusion system. No one is to board the Woebegone unless I say otherwise. I understand, sir.

Waiting in the gloomy landing bay were a female Nikto and a russet-colored young male Dug, backed by a motley contingent of armed beings. Lowering the cowl of his robe as he approached, Plagueis saw the Nikto stiffen and signal those behind her to leave the area immediately.

Magister Damask, she began in Basic, I had no foreknowledge— Plagueis cut her off. This isnt a social call.

Of course, Magister. Regardless, do you wish me to apprise Boss Cabra of your visit?

Is he on station?

No, sir. But he can be reached by comm.

That wont be necessary, Plagueis said. Ill contact him myself. As you wish, Magister. What services can the station provide? Plagueis gestured in an offhanded way to the berthed freighter. This ship is to be sealed and slagged.

Without salvaging anything? the Dug said.

Plagueis looked at him. I said sealed and slagged. Do you need to hear it a third time?

The Dug bared his teeth. Do you know who youre talking to, Muun? Plagueis cut his eyes to the Nikto. Who is this callow pup? Pup? the Dug repeated before the Nikto could intervene.

Boss Cabras youngest progeny, Magister, she said quickly, restraining the Dug with her extended left arm. He means no disrespect. Plagueis regarded the Dug again. What are you called, pup? The Dugs rear legs were tensed for a leap, but the Nikto whirled rapidly, slapping him across his flewed and broad-nostriled snout and clamping a hand on his windpipe.

Answer him! she bellowed into his snarling face. And with due respect! The Dug relented and whimpered, though certainly more out of humiliation than pain. Darnada, he squeaked at last.

Darnada, Plagueis repeated before addressing the Nikto. Perhaps young Darnada should be muzzled to prevent him from endangering his fathers business relationships.

His brashness reflects his inexperience, Magister, the Nikto said in abject apology. She gave Darnada a menacing glance before continuing. Trust that your orders regarding the ship will be honored in full, Magister. I will also need a change of wardrobe and a fueled, piloted ship. Can we provide the pilot with a destination beforehand? Muunilinst.

Of course, Magister. And what are your instructions regarding the droid? Instructions?

Is the droid to be slagged along with the ship?

Plagueis looked over his shoulder at 11-4D. How much of your memory can be wiped without tampering with your medical protocols?

Im modular in design, the droid said. My memory storage can be erased in its entirety or according to whatever parameters you establish. Plagueis considered that. Remain with the ship until it has been liquefied. I will expect a complete audio-vid recording.

OneOne-FourDee raised its right-side appendages in a gesture of acknowledgment. At your service, Magister Damask.