Star Wars - Darth Maul - Saboteur Read online

  Darth Maul

  DARTH MAUL

  SABOTEUR

  JAMES LUCENO

  THE BALLANTINE PUBLISHING GROUP

  NEW YORK

  A Del Rey Book

  Published by The Ballantine Publishing Group

  Copyright 2001 by Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM.

  All Rights Reserved. Used Under Authorization.

  All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions.

  Published in the United States by The Ballantine Publishing Group, a division of

  Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of

  Canada Limited, Toronto.

  Del Rey is a registered trademark and the Del Rey colophon is a trademark of

  Random House, Inc.

  www.starwars.com

  www.starwarskids.com

  www.randomhouse.com/delrey/

  eISBN 0-345-44735-2

  v.1

  Also by James Luceno

  The ROBOTECH Series (as Jack McKinney, with Brian Daley)

  The Black Hole Travel Agency Series (as Jack McKinney, with Brian Daley)

  A Fearful Symmetry

  Illegal Alien

  The Big Empty

  Kaduna Memories

  The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles The Mata Hari Affair

  The Shadow

  The Mask of Zorro

  Rio Passion

  Rainchaser

  Rock Bottom

  Star Wars The New Jedi Order Agents of Chaos I Heros Trial

  Star Wars The New Jedi Order Agents of Chaos II Jedi Eclipse

  Star Wars Cloak of Deception *

  *Forthcoming

  Nearly every world in the Videnda sector had something to recommend itwarm

  saline seas, verdant forests, arable grasslands that stretched to distant

  horizons. The outlying world known as Dorvalla had a touch of all of those. But

  what it had in abundance was lommite ore, an essential component in the

  production of transparisteela strong, transparent metal used galaxywide for

  canopies and viewports in both starships and ground-based structures. Dorvalla

  was so rich in lommite that one-quarter of the planets scant population was

  involved in the industry, employed either by Lommite Limited or its contentious

  rival, InterGalactic Ore.

  The chalky ore was mined in Dorvallas tropical equatorial regions. Lommite

  Limiteds base of operations was in Dorvallas western hemisphere, in a broad

  rift valley blanketed with thick forest and defined by steep escarpments. There,

  where ancient seas had once held sway, shifts in the planetary mantle had thrust

  huge, sheer-faced tors from the land. Crowned by rampant vegetation, by trees

  and ferns primeval in scale, the high, rocky mountains rose like islands,

  blinding white in the sunlight, the birthplace of slender waterfalls that

  plunged thousands of meters to the valley floor.

  But what was once a wilderness was now just another extractive enterprise. Huge

  demolition droids had carved wide roads to the bases of most of the larger

  cliffs, and two circular launch zones, large enough to accommodate dozens of

  ungainly space shuttles, had been hollowed from the forest. The tors themselves

  were gouged and honeycombed with mines, and deep craters filled with polluted

  runoff water reflected the sun and sky like fogged mirrors.

  The ceaseless work of the droids was abetted by an all but indentured labor

  force of humans and aliens, to whom the mined ore served as a great equalizer.

  No matter the natural color of a miners skin, hair, feathers, or scales,

  everyone was rendered white as the galactic dawn. All agreed that sentient

  beings deserved more from life, but Lommite Limited wasnt prosperous enough to

  convert fully to droid labor, and Dorvalla wasnt a world of boundless

  opportunities for employment.

  Still, that didnt stop some from dreaming.

  Patch Bruit, Lommite Limiteds chief of field operationshuman beneath a routine

  dusting of orehad long dreamed of starting over, of relocating to Coruscant or

  one of the other Core worlds and making a new life for himself. But such a move

  was years away, and not likely to happen at all if he kept returning his meager

  wages to LL by overspending in the company-run stores and squandering what

  little remained on gambling and drink.

  He had been with LL for almost twenty years, and in that time had managed to

  work his way out of the pits into a position of authority. But with that

  authority had come more responsibility than he had bargained for, and in the

  wake of several recent incidents of industrial sabotage his patience was nearly

  spent.

  The boxy control station in which Bruit spent the better part of his workdays

  looked out on the forest of tors and the shuttle launch and landing zones. To

  the stations numerous video display screens came views of repulsorlift

  platforms elevating gangs of workers to the gaping mouths of the artificial

  caves that dimpled the precipitous faces of the mountains. Elsewhere, the

  platform lifting was accomplished with the help of strong-backed beasts, with

  massive curving necks and gentle eyes.

  The technicians who worked alongside Bruit in the control station were fond of

  listening to recorded music, but the music could scarcely be heard over the

  unrelenting drone of enormous drilling machines, the low bellowing of the lift

  beasts, and the roar of departing shuttles.

  The walls of the control station were made of transparisteel, thick as a finger,

  whose triple-glazed panels were supposed to keep out the ore dust but never did.

  Fine as clay, the resinous dust seeped through the smallest openings and filmed

  everything. As hard as he tried, Bruit could never get the stuff off him, not in

  water showers or sonic baths. He smelled it everywhere he went, he tasted it in

  the food served up in the company restaurants, and sometimes it infiltrated his

  dreams. So pervasive was the lommite dust that, from space, Dorvalla appeared to

  be girdled by a white band.

  Fortunately, everyone within a hundred kilometers of Lommite Limiteds operation

  was in the same predicamentminers, shopkeepers, the beings who tended the

  cantina bars. But what should have been just one big happy lommite family

  wasnt. The recurrent incidents of sabotage had fostered an atmosphere of

  wariness and distrust, even among laborers who worked shoulder to shoulder in

  the pits.

  Group Two shuttles are loaded and ready for launch, Chief, one of the human

  technicians reported.

  Bruit directed his gaze to the droid-guided, mechanized transports that were

  responsible for ferrying the lommite up the gravity well. In high orbit the

  payloads were transferred to LLs flotilla of barges, which conveyed the

  unrefined ore to manufacturing worlds along the Rimma Trade Route and

  occasionally to the distant Core.

  Sound the warning, Bruit said.

  The technician flipped a series of switches on the console, and loudspeakers

  began to hoot. Miners and maintenance droids moved away from the l
aunch zone.

  Bruit looked at the screens that displayed close-up views of the shuttles. He

  studied them carefully, searching for anything out of the ordinary.

  Launch zone is vacated, the same technician updated. Shuttles are standing by

  for liftoff.

  Bruit nodded. Issue the go-to.

  It was a routine that would be repeated a dozen times before Bruits workday

  concluded, typically long past sunset.

  The eight unpiloted craft rose from the ground on repulsorlift power,

  pirouetting and bringing their blunt noses around to the southwest. The air

  beneath them rippled with heat. When the shuttles were fifty meters above the

  ground, their sublight engines engaged, flaring blue, rocketing the ships high

  into the dust-filled sky.

  The ground shook slightly, and Bruit could feel a reassuring rumble in his

  bones. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. For the next hour, he could

  relax somewhat. He had turned from the view of the launch zone when his bones

  and his ears alerted him to a shift in the roaring sound, a slight drop in

  volume that shouldnt have occurred.

  Sudden apprehension tugged at him. His forehead and palms broke an icy sweat. He

  whirled and pressed his face to the south-facing transparisteel panel. High in

  the sky he could see two of the shuttles beginning to diverge from course, their

  vapor trails curving away from the straight-line ascent of the rest of the

  group.

  Fourteen and sixteen, the technician affirmed. Im trying to shut down the

  sublights and convert them back over to repulsorlift. No response. Theyre

  accelerating!

  Bruit kept his eyes glued to the sky. Give me a heading.

  Back at us!

  Bruit ran his hand over his forehead. Enable the self-destructs.

  The technicians fingers flew across the console. No response.

  Employ the emergency override.

  Still no response. The overrides have been disabled.

  Bruit cursed loudly. Vector update.

  Theyre aimed directly for the Castle.

  Bruit glanced at the indicated tor. It was one of the largest of the mines, so

  named for the natural spires that graced its western and southern faces.

  Order an evacuation. Highest priority.

  Sirens shrieked in the distance. Within moments, Bruit could see workers

  hurrying from the mine openings and leaping onto waiting hover platforms. Two

  fully occupied platforms were already beginning to descend.

  Tell those platform pilots to keep everyone aloft, Bruit barked. No onell be

  any safer on the ground than in the mines. And start moving those droids and

  lift beasts out of there!

  A colossal bipedal drilling machine appeared at the mouth of one of the mines,

  engaged its repulsorlift, and stepped off into thin air.

  Thirty seconds till impact, the technician said.

  Jettison the shuttles guidance droids.

  Droids away!

  Bruit clenched his hands. The two rudderless shuttles were plummeting side by

  side, as if in a race to reach the Castle. The technicians had already managed

  to shut down fourteens sublight, and sixteens flared out while Bruit watched.

  But there was no stopping them now. They were in ballistic freefall.

  In the control station, droids and beings alike were crouched behind the

  instrument consolesall except for Bruit, who refused to move, seemingly

  oblivious to the fact that concussion alone could turn the booths

  transparisteel panels into a hail of deadly missiles.

  The shuttles struck the Castle at almost the same instant, impacting it above

  the loftiest of the mines, perhaps fifty meters below the tors jungled summit.

  The Castle disappeared behind an explosive flare of blinding light. Then the

  sound of the collisions pealed across the landscape, reverberating and

  crackling, echoing thunderously from the twin escarpments. Immense chunks of

  rock flew from the face of the tor, and two of its elegant spires toppled. Dust

  spewed from the mine openings, as if the Castle had coughed itself empty of ore.

  The air filled with billowing clouds, white as snow. Almost immediately the ore

  began to precipitate, falling like volcanic ash and burying everything within

  one hundred meters of that side of the mountain.

  Bruit still didnt budgenot until the roiling cloud reached the control station

  and the view became a whiteout.

  Lommite Limiteds headquarters complex nestled at the foot of the valleys

  western escarpment. But even there a half a centimeter of lommite dust covered

  the lush lawns and flower gardens LLs executive officer, Jurnel Arrant, had

  succeeded in coaxing from the acidic soil.

  The soles of Bruits boots made clear impressions in the dust as he approached

  Arrants office, with its expansive views of the valley and far-off tors. Bruit

  tried to stomp, brush, and scuff as much dust as he could from his boots, but it

  was a hopeless task.

  Jurnel Arrant was standing at the window, his back to the room, when Bruit was

  admitted.

  Some mess, Arrant said when he heard the door seal itself behind Bruit.

  You think this is bad, just waitll it rains. Itll be soup out there.

  Bruit thought the remark might lighten the moment, but Arrants piqued

  expression when he turned from the view set him straight.

  Lommite Limiteds leader was a trim, handsome human, just shy of middle age.

  When he had first come to Dorvalla from his native Corellia, he had not been

  above rolling up his shirtsleeves and pitching in wherever needed. But as LL had

  begun to thrive under his stewardship, Arrant had become increasingly fastidious

  and removed, choosing to let Bruit handle day-to-day affairs. Arrant favored

  expensive tunics of dark colors, the shoulders invariably dusted with lommite,

  which he wore as a badge of honor. If his nonindigenous status had been held

  against him initially, few had anything disparaging to say about the man who had

  single-handedly transformed formerly provincial Lommite Limited into a

  corporation that now did business with a host of prominent worlds.

  Arrant glanced at the white prints Bruits boots had left on the carpet. Sighing

  with purpose, he motioned Bruit to a chair and settled himself behind an old

  hardwood desk.

  What am I going to do with you, Bruit? he asked theatrically. When you asked

  for enhanced surveillance equipment, I provided it for you. And when you asked

  for increased security personnel, I provided those, as well. Is there something

  else you need? Is there something Ive neglected to give you?

  Bruit compressed his lips and shook his head.

  You dont have a family. You dont have a girlfriend that I know about. So

  maybe you just dont care about your job, is that it?

  You know that isnt true, Bruit lied.

  Then why arent you doing it? Arrant put his elbows on the desk and leaned

  forward. This is the third incident in as many weeks, Bruit. I dont understand

  how this keeps happening. Do you have any leads on the shuttle crashes?

  Well know more if the guidance droids can be located and analyzed, Bruit

  said. Right now theyre buried under about five meters of dust.

  Well, get on it. I want you to devote all your resources to rooting out the

  sab
oteurs responsible for this. Do you think you can do that, Bruit, or do I

  have to bring in specialists?

  They wont be able to learn any more than I have, Bruit rejoined.

  InterGalactic Ore is becoming as desperate as LL is successful. Besides, its

  not just a matter of industrial rivalry. A lot of the families that work for

  InterGal have vendettas with some of the families we employ. At least two of

  these recent incidents have been motivated by personal grudges.

  What are you suggesting, Bruit, that I terminate everyone and ship in ten

  thousand miners from Fondor? Whats that going to do to production? More

  important, whats that going to do to my reputation on Dorvalla?

  Bruit shrugged. I dont have any answers for you. Maybe its time you brought

  this to the attention of the Galactic Senate.

  Arrant stared at him. Bring this to Coruscant? Were not in the midst of an

  interstellar conflict, Bruit. This is corporate warfare, and Ive been in the

  trenches long enough to know that its best to resolve these conflicts on your

  own. Whats more, I dont want the senate involved. It will come down to a

  contest between Lommite Limited and InterGalactic, as to who can offer the most

  bribes to the most senators. He shook his head angrily. Thatll bankrupt us

  quicker than this continued sabotage.

  Bruit had his mouth open to reply when a tone sounded from Arrants intercom,

  and the voice of his protocol droid secretary issued from the annunciator.

  Im sorry to disturb you, sir, but you have a priority holotransmission from a

  Neimoidian, Hath Monchar.

  Arrants fine brows beetled. Monchar? I dont know the name. But go ahead, put

  him through.

  From a holoprojector disk set into the floor at the center of the office rose

  the life-size holopresence of a red-orbed, pale-green Neimoidian draped in rich

  robes and wearing a black headpiece that aspired to be a crown.

  I greet you in the name of the Trade Federation, Jurnel Arrant, Hath Monchar

  began. Viceroy Nute Gunray conveys his warmest regards, and wishes you to know

  that the Trade Federation was sorry to learn of your latest setback.

  Arrant scowled. How is it that whenever tragedy strikes, the first ones I hear