Part IV

I enter Scimitar and make my way up to the second level of the ship, to the communications consul to monitor local happenings. The Republic police have found the gang of males that had attempted to attack me and 6 blocks have been cordoned off as they attempt to search for the ones who have apparently murdered the males.

I chuckle. They were too easy. Not even worth my skill. And the local law believes that a number over one killed the gang.

I sit down in the pilot's chair and check ships' systems for readiness. I had to learn on my own how to pilot and use Scimitar's systems, and luckily, my father had hidden schematics and finely detailed logs with the full rage
of workings and systems that makes up Scimitar.

All checks out according to my father's levels of preparedness and I will maintain it.

Then, just as I am about to rise from the pilot's chair, I hear over the com system that the Republic has just been dissolved and has become an Empire under the rule of the newly ordained Emperor Palpatine, the previous
Supreme Chancellor of the Republic. I instantly sit myself back into my seat as I listen to the news reports streaming in, listing the number of Jedi being slaughtered wholesale for no apparent reason other than being Jedi.

The news fills me with rage – the Jedi are being slaughtered while the Sith apparently have remained hidden in the shadows. But no doubt that in some way the Sith Lords of my generation have a hand in it. Yet what fills
me with rage is the fact that the Jedi I have been hunting down for the past five years may have already been killed before I have tasted the bitter sweetness of revenge.

But I am quickly filled with some relief as I hear the list of slain Jedi. Obi-Wan Kenobi is not among the thousands claimed by death.

I WILL have my revenge!

Finally, after listening to the news about conflicts arising in the Outer Rim systems, I rise from the chair and I enter the lift to the lower level to inspect the Sith probe droids and the speeder for readiness and working
condition. All is in perfect working order. I have inherited my father's gift of technological mastery – quite helpful for I have quietly taken my father's place.

"*Soon my father…soon they all shall fear your name again. *"

*******

Darkside energies surround and fill me as I let myself become one in the Force, letting my mind, body and soul drift along the always chaotic currents of the Darkside. I can feel the minds of the trillion of beings that make up the population of Coruscant – the center of the now Empire. The Republic is no more and I can already feel the suffering and despair.

" My daughter. The time has come. Present yourself before the Emperor, but carefully. Use my name and remember at all times he can read you as if you are an open book to him…for he was once my master. Guard yourself well."

And then I see him…my father in my mind's eye, standing before me, his arms crossed over his broad chest, the look of great pride of me upon his face, his golden yellow and red eyes glowing brilliantly in the darkness
about us. Then he vanishes suddenly he fades into a fog.

"I am proud of you my daughter…Khameira."

I slowly open my eyes, a single tear slipping from the corner of my right eye. He had never said my name before - he had always called me daughter…until now.

"As you wish father." I speak and carefully, I rise from my meditation posture and make my way to the refresher to prepare myself for my first true appearance…as Darth Maul, Dark Lord of Sith.

I bathe myself following Sith tradition and I dress in my father's clothing, pulling my long hair back into a tight tail behind my head, I slip into the hooded black robe. Pulling the black leather gloves onto my hands, I place my weapon upon the hook on the wide black belt and I slip the hood of the robe upon my horned head, making sure my hair is held under the neck of the robe and out of sight.

With a press of a series of keys, the doors of Scimitar open and then press of another series of keys. A beep sounds and the sounds of unlocking safety mechanisms are heard and I leave the ship and hiding in Scimitar's
cloaking field, I make my way to the head of the ship and I enter the cargo drop panel. I move to the front of the panel and standing before a small control panel, I type in a key code and another safety mechanism unlocks. I
move about the control panel and I raise the speeder bike from its transport position and activating the power system of the speeder, I move it from the cargo panel and toward the rear of Scimitar.

Glancing toward the ship, I raise my left hand and looking upon the metallic bracelet upon my wrist, I press a certain series of buttons and glance toward the rear of Scimitar and watch the ramp ascend up and in and
the doors slide close and seal. Then the cargo panel rises up and locks into the underside of Scimitar's hull.

I take a deep breath. I can feel my father's Zabrakian blood course through my body like fire, and the energies of the Darkside give me strength and I use my fear to strengthen me ever more.

"Fear… fear attracts the fearful, the strong, the weak, the innocent, the corrupt… fear… fear is my ally."

My father had said that once…I remember it even now, though I was but a small baby, still within the protection and warmth of my mother's womb.

"* I will not fail you my father. *"

I straddle the curved seat of the speeder and taking the control handles into my hands, I set off, passing through the edge of Scimitar's cloak and out the open doors of the hanger.

I travel north, along the carefully plotted course through the under city of Coruscant for some time. Finally I come to the end of my destination – the point where my father use to enter the old Republic Senate house to reach then Senator Palpatine's offices.

One night, my father had shown me all the routes he would traverse when in the underbelly of Coruscant. He showed me how to enter various Government buildings without notice, and taught me all the codes I would need to enter many of the hidden entrances.

But this will be the first time I make use of the knowledge my father has given me.

Carefully and with great stealth, I hide the speeder where my father had shown me and I make my way toward the hidden entrance at the end of a dark and foreboding passageway.

Though it is almost pitch black, I can see quite well, for I have inherited my father's excellent eyesight – he is Zabrak and his kind are known to have exceptional sight in the darkness.

Finally I come to an old doorway in the wall ahead of me, a still functioning keypad upon the wall beside the doorway. Standing before the door, I press the appropriate code upon the keypad and I wait for the code
to be accepted.

It takes only minutes and with a hiss, the door slowly slides open with a creak of old age and long unuse. It is dark beyond the doorway, but I can just make out the light of another keypad beside another doorway that
appears to be that of a lift, at the end of another passageway.

I enter with caution, prepared for anything, and with all my senses set at their highest possible, I move along the passageway until I come to the lift. I carefully type in the code needed and the lift door slides open as a soft beep sounds, before me.

I enter the lift and turning about, the lift door closes before me as I catch sight of another keypad, and I enter another code and immediately, the lift begins to rise.

The lift travels quickly, ten levels in less than a minute and my fear and nervousness rises with each passing moment, but I use it and it makes me stronger. And then the lift slows quietly to a stop and the door opens
slowly before me, and beyond I find a medium sized room with what appears to be a table in the center of the room and chairs surrounding it and at one end, the back toward me is a single large chair at what must be the head of the table.

Slipping my hand into my robe as I cautiously enter the room, I take hold of my weapon carefully and remove it from under the folds of my robe, and I hold it at the ready, my thumb tracing about the switches which activates
it.

My mind races and heartbeat thuds in my ears and my breath comes in hard gasps but are as silent as death.

I move toward the large chair before me, prepared to activate my weapon in less time it takes to think. My steps are carefully chosen and as I grow nearer to the chair, I hold my weapon up before me, prepared to strike – only having to thumb the activation switch.

I suddenly charge forward but as I come to look upon the front of the chair, I let out a hushed gasp then sigh of relief when I find the chair perfectly unoccupied.

I lower my weapon to my side, holding it in a way as to slip into the long sleeve of my robe to keep it hidden but perfectly accessible. I turn and look for a doorway along one of the four walls and behind me, I find a sealed double pair of doors. I move toward the doors, and coming to them, I must have stepped on a pressure sensor for the doors open before me, revealing another room, but much larger than the one I am in.

I sense no presence of anyone within the room just beyond. With no apparent threat, I pass through the doors and into the larger room, finding it to be a massive office of some kind and by the looks of the opulence of
the place, I'd say it belongs to someone high in power – but not the Emperor. Yet, I can feel the touch of the Darkside about the place. Someone of the Darkside resided here…must have been my father's master…Lord Darth Sidious aka Ex-Senator Palpatine of Naboo, Supreme Chancellor of the Republic and the now the Emperor.

The energies of the Darkside permeate everything about the place…and it has not been long since Palpatine last occupied this office – no more than a few days from what the Force tells me. I must look somewhere else then…but where?

~ To be continued in Part V ~