In later years, Morru could never clearly recall the events of the next day; for the most part, they were just one grand blob of conversational snippets and mediatorial actions. She seemed to recall spending most of her time waiting for Maldad to make up his mind already and kill her.

He didn’t.

And as time wore on, as one day threatened to stretch into two and Morru’s role as resident peacemaker was constantly tested, she began to wonder if perhaps this was how Maldad meant to punish her - simply put her in the midst of a living time bomb, composed of the most volatile ingredients, and wait for it to blow up. The ingredients: Jedi and Sith.

Amendment: young Jedi and Sith.

While the members of the Council seemed to have no trouble understanding the directive "no fighting," the younger Jedi (who would, she thought wryly, remain nameless, although their initials were Obi-Wan Kenobi and Men’del Punt) seemed to want to die. Almost as much as she did.

Oh, no blows were exchanged. No harsh words said - oh no, that would not be the way of the Jedi knight. No, sir.

Just the occasional hiss. The hard stare. The "accidental" ramming brush-past in the hallways. Apparently, innuendo of any kind was not directly forbidden in the almighty Code of the Jedi.

It was an absolute conflagration waiting to happen. Morru had to wonder if Maldad would bother to let them kill each other before cutting off their life fields and destroying them all himself.

And then... to add the complication of the Chancellor.

Obviously, Morru had never been in such close quarters with him for such an extended amount of time before. He was a strange man, to be sure, charming, and yet... there was something about him that bothered her greatly. About him and the Sith together.

Alone of all the company, Palpatine did not seem to be afraid of Maul. In fact, they seemed quite comfortable in one another’s presence. Correct that - Palpatine was quite comfortable in the Sith’s presence. Maul, on the other hand, seemed almost... afraid. Well, intimidated, anyway. Slightly cowed.

Subordinate.

Morru recalled somebody saying to her that there had to be two Sith at all times, a master and an apprentice.

And laughed at herself for being so silly.

And then three things happened at the tail-end of the Nothing Day that changed everything Morru had ever been taught to believe as true and forever tainted all she would learn in the future.

***

The Jedi sat alone in the lounge and stared at one another.

Food had been eaten; none wanted sleep even though it was very late at night; those who could had taken advantage of the large "gym" area and done whatever it was Jedi did when they were alone. Even Maul had had a turn there, and was, to the relief of all, in there now.

Discussion at that point was less than futile. Mace Windu had made his own position quite clear - priorities - many before the few. It was, of course, hoped that all aboard the vessel could be saved, but if it was necessary to sacrifice Morru to Maldad for the sake of the Chancellor and the Council, then so be it. The stability of the Republic must be their first concern. Of course, Mundi would have none of it; sacrificing was not to be allowed, under any circumstances, and so the two were locked in a silent battle of wills.

The other Jedi, Yoda included, did not have much to say on the issue one way or another.

Maldad had been eerily silent since his last interruption of the day before, making more than one of the company wonder if he remembered that they existed. And then, at half past midnight CST (Coruscant Standard Time), just when the Jedi had decided that no more could be accomplished, things began to move very quickly indeed.

"Hello, everybody!" Maldad said far too cheerfully. "Thought I’d forgotten all about you, didn’t I? Well, I didn’t. I’ve just been rather busy getting things ready for Morru. Everything has to be just so for her, you know. Picky woman.

"Anyway, I’ve decided it’s time to play a game. It’s called, 'Priorities.' I’m going to start killing each and every one of you - until somebody goes to the sleeping quarters and kills the Chancellor. Now, I know you may think this sounds like a stupid game to play, and perhaps even a little dangerous, but I've been listening in on your conversation (I'm such a busybody), and I want to see just how selfless you Jedi really are."

And then for a few moments, nothing at all happened.

"He wouldn’t dare..." began Windu, and then Men’del Punt screamed. The air around him shimmered, went blue... and then got very, very hot.

"Men’del!" Cried several people at once, and leaped toward the burning Jedi, who was at this point too bright to look at directly.

Their life-fields ricocheted off his like positively charged ions and flung the would-be rescuers to the floor.

There was nothing to be done but watch him die, his writhing perceivable only as a vague, twisting shadow in the blinding blue. Fifteen seconds later, he was dead.

Not just dead - gone. Completely incinerated. As if he had never existed. The only remaining indication of what had happened to him was the charred sofa on which he had been sitting.

And of course, the air smelled very, very bad.

"But you can’t...." began somebody, and then it happened again.

This time, it was Shuri ka Lin’s life field. After the screaming was over, Maldad spoke again, still far, far too cheerful, and Anakin wished dearly that he could do to Maldad what Maul had nearly done to him the other night.

"Well... that was over more quickly than I thought it would be. Trust Anomaly to overcook his occupants. Well, now that you've seen what I can - and will - do, you have a decision to make. I'm going in Iridonian standard Alphabetical order, you know, so next I will kill Kenobi, and then Skywalker, and then I will start on you Council members. Unless of course, somebody kills the Chancellor."

Right on cue, somebody’s light saber shot out of the ceiling and landed in the middle of the floor with a clunk. It rolled to Windu's feet, and he picked it up.

"Now, I will metaphorically close my ears and eyes and hum very loudly so I won’t know what you’re doing as you speak amongst yourselves; machinations can be so dull when spied upon. You have thirty seconds, gentlemen."

Just at that moment, with timing that for the life of her she could not place as monumentally good or monumentally bad, Morru entered the room. Looking from shocked face to shocked face and wrinkling her nose at the odor in the air, she said, "What...." and that was a far as she got.

Windu lunged toward Morru, grabbed her by the hair, lit the saber and put it to her throat.

She gasped but did not move; the hum of the saber was making her neck vibrate.

"Windu, what are you doing?" she hissed.

"Trust me," whispered the Jedi, and then Maldad spoke again.

"Okay, gentlemen, your time.... what? What? What are you doing with her?"

"I am going to kill her, Maldad, unless you stop playing this game."

"You... don’t you dare!" Maldad’s voice was infuriated, but infused with whiny tones. He sounded like a petulant child robbed of his plaything by a bigger bully.

"No one has the right to take her but me! NO one! She was mine before her birth! You will release her right now, Windu, or I will make you all suffer!"

"You were going to do that anyway," Windu replied in those infuriatingly non-reactive Jedi tones with which Morru was becoming very familiar. "If you are going to threaten someone with something, professor, you had better be sure it is a threat not previously used - it tends to lose its impact a second or third time." And he yanked Morru’s hair again, eliciting a small sound - for the benefit of the audience, of course.

She knew that whatever was going on, he wouldn’t really hurt her.

Would he?

There was a silence, an ominous, full silence that seemed to last much longer than it actually did. And then Maldad spoke again.

"Allright," he said quietly, slyly. "You win." A derisive snort. "I had no idea the Jedi knew how to play this sort of game."

"I am not an average Jedi," said the warrior Mace Windu with a smile.

"I can see that," said Maldad. "Fine," he said. "The game is over for now."

And then all was silent again.

More roughly than he needed to, Windu released Morru. She fell to the floor, and looked up at Windu, who was holding his saber and looking at it as though he had never seen anything like it before.

"I don’t supposed anybody wants to tell me what the hell is going on," Morru prompted, looking around. Her eyes went wide. "Hey - where are Jedi Punt and ka Lin?" she asked, and the warrior Windu turned toward her.

"You should have told us," he said, in a low, stern voice. He pointed his saber at her. "You should have told us he would do something like this. Now two of our number are dead and we could do nothing."

Was he daring to insinuate that she was partly to blame?

Morru made a face. It was an insulting face, an expression confirming beyond doubt that she viewed Windu to be only slightly above the average mental ability of a half-bred wampa. But before she got a chance to say as much, Darth Maul quite literally burst into the room.

Still sweaty from his practice, Maul’s eyes went riveted on Windu - who was still holding the light saber in Morru’s general direction. Growling, Maul lunged. Windu raised the saber, ready….

Very fortunately for all, Anomaly was still awake and following his orders; he sent a brief but momentarily debilitating glow in Windu and Maul's lifefields then sent both to join Morru on the floor.

"No fighting, now," Anomaly happily chided, and then was silent.

Mundi, looking much older and sadder than he had in Morru’s memory, rose slowly to his feet. Defeat was in his every gesture even as he helped Morru, then Windu regain their footing. "The light saber has disappeared," he observed.

"Helpless, we are," said Yoda. "To blame the girl, help us does not."

"Oh, ka Lin!" bemoaned Anakin softly. Maul scrambled to his feet and exited as abruptly as he’d entered.

Windu glared at Morru, then turned to walk away from her.

"You wouldn't have really killed me, would you?" Morru said quietly, stopping him in his tracks. "Even if he had continued playing his game?"

Windu turned and looked at her impassionately.

"Of course not."

Morru looked into his eyes for a long time. Neither flinched. And the first seeds of doubt began to grow in her mind.

"I wish I could believe you," she said, and turning, walked out of the room.

No one even bothered to look for the vanished light saber.

***

Far away, at two separate ends of the galaxy:

On Naboo, Queen Amidala restrained herself from undignified pacing, waiting desperately for an important transmission from the Bothans.

On Ord Mandell, Trade Federation Neimoidians also waited for their own spy network to send word.

One was looking for the Chancellor's ambassadorial ship, which had mysteriously disappeared en route. The other was looking for Maldad, who had failed his mission of Jedi assassination and then disappeared.

Both were looking in the correct sector of space.

Both were going to find Anomaly.

***

The night wore on. Morru, upset beyond reason at the events of the evening and her own heart’s fears decided to take Maldad’s previous advice and began to explore. He was right - she did have more command codes than she had possessed previously, although they seemed to be mostly composed of access to formerly forbidden levels.

For once, she was allowed out of the "living" section and down into the bowels of the ship. The storage area was very dark, and she felt a bit lonely - Anomaly's sleep circuit had, for some reason, been triggered for the second night in a row. Very strange.

And that’s where the second surprise of the day awaited her.

Down in the storage units, buried deep beneath where she slept, Morru found some moonglow.

One of the most poisonous fruits in the galaxy, moonglow had to be prepared with 90 some steps in order to make it benign - and then it was absolutely delicious. Morru had almost forgotten that it was one of Maldad's favorite foods. And of course, Maldad being Maldad, he usually brought a liberal supply with him, previously prepared to facilitate late-night snacking.

Before her on the shelf sat four beautiful preserved blue crystal containers of moonglow.

Morru smiled. Did she dare? This food was obviously not meant for the likes of her - he would be infuriated if some were missing. And much worse, although highly unlikely, what if for some reason it had gone bad or had not been prepared correctly...

Well, wouldn’t THAT put a stick down Maldad’s craw.

Smiling wickedly to herself and feeling more mischievously alive than she had in years, Morru took a bottle of the shelf and began to work on opening it.

***

Maul paced back and forth in his room, furious with himself. He had lost his self control. He had simply… sprung at that damned Mace Windu like a half-assed Jedi Padawan. If Palpatine had been there and figured out from his pupil’s moron behavior what was really going on, it would have fully served said moron pupil right.

Fortunately, Palpatine had not been there.

The younger Sith lord had not been able to help himself. In the middle of his training exercise, just like before, he had suddenly felt Morru’s fear, felt her pain and shock... and just as suddenly, found himself lunging like an amateur at Mace Windu.

He could not even remember how he’d gotten to the lounge.

Damn.

Damn, damn, damn

And then, for the first time in days, something quiet and serpentine stirred in the back of his mind, gently brushing his thoughts like a soft night breeze.

The voices. The Voices were speaking to him again - quietly, for his midichlorians were still not allowed full range, but discernibly.

A walk? They wanted him to go on a damned walk? All right. Fine. A walk it would be.

Not really paying attention to where he was going, Darth Maul left his practice robes on the floor of his room and began making his way deep into the ship.

Into the bowels, as it were.

***

Morru sat on some crates in the dark, happily licking her fingers and finishing off her second jar of moonglow.

The fact that she had just eaten two years’ average pay on Coruscant was making the whole situation quite amusing.

The fact that the moonglow was ever-so-slightly fermented made it even more so.

Feeling very good indeed and a little bit warm, Morru carefully replaced the empty jars and tried to imagine the look on Maldad’s face when he realized that his prized moonglow was half gone.

A presence.

Spinning around (and immediately regretting it), Morru looked into the dark of the store room and tried to feel out what (or who) was there.

Maul stood in the shadow of the far doorway, his hands on either side of the door frame, leaning ever-so-slightly into the room and looking far too… something for her comfort.

"Morru," he acknowledged with a slight bow of his head.

"Maul," she nodded back.

She began walking away from him, along the wall, when suddenly he was standing right in front of her.

"It is time," he said without preliminary. She blinked.

"What?"

"Your oath. It is time."

Morru swallowed and tried not to look scared.

"You want your one kiss?"

"Yes."

"Now?"

He smiled, sending delicious shivers down her back. Morru cursed herself for being so weak. Privately, she swore never to eat moonglow again.

"Bad time?" he asked.

She wondered what would happen if she said yes.

And then Maul simply bent down and kissed her.

She was so surprised at the abruptness of his action that she did not think to pull away until it was too late.

Too late…

A delicious warmth, like nothing she had ever felt before, spread upward from between her thighs, making her back arch and her hips move against him lightly even as she gasped at her own inability to stop. His hands, now placed on the small of her back and between her shoulder blades, pressed her gently closer to him even as her own moved onto his chest, his torso, as if to push him away… His lips, his soft, strong lips, delicately searching her own, tasting, possessing, exploring. And she did not push him away.

Her body and her soul responded. Slowly they began moving against one another, moving in time with each searching motion of their lips, their rhythm bringing them together and apart like liquid surgings in the sea... Maul slid his tongue into her, tasting her essence, tasting the sweet moonglow on her palate and…

And suddenly a flash of something startled across his mind, so intense in its sharpness that he jumped. And she shuddered, but not from pleasure, and with a jerk and a gasp she wrenched away.

Maul stood where he was with his hands still out as though in supplication, maintaining enough presence of mind not to lunge, groping after her like he had so clumsily lunged after the Jedi earlier that evening. Her face… there was fear in her face. No, not fear, that was not right… she was…

But before Maul could place her expression, she tucked it away somewhere and replaced it with one that was very hard and very stern. She had gone very pale.

"Well," she said, unable to conceal the tremor in her voice. "My debt is paid. I'm going home now." And with that, she turned and went past him and out, toward the sleeping quarters.

Maul stood watched her leave. What had happened? He had felt them connect…. Felt how - dare he say the word - good it was. She had known, known it was right, must have known it was right…

And then something replayed in his mind. That image - the one that had actually startled him in its intensity - that had come from her. From deep inside her mind. Something about some woman….

Puzzled but willing to admit that no answers would be forthcoming in the dark of the storage unit, Maul decided to go to his own room and mediate. But first…

Licking his lips and enjoying the lingering taste, he ransacked the shelves until he found the two remaining jars of moonglow and took them to his room.

To the IndexTo Chapter SixteenTo the Previous Chapter