In the cargo hold, Maul squatted in the corner, staring protectively at the crate in front of him. He could feel the lethal warmth and vitality of the weaponized uranium, and knew that its deliverance here into the hands of Komari Vosa meant that he had been successful. But it meant little to him.
Although he been released from Cog Hive Seven, the electrostatic charges deactivated and dislodged from his hearts, some part of him still felt caged.
He had not yet heard from his Master.
Rising to his feet, he paced the length of the hold, turned, and walked back again, his eyes never leaving the crate. Until such time as Darth Sidious came to him directly to commend him on the success of his mission, he remained restless and pensive.
The hull of the Star Jewel trembled slightly around him, its great engines gnashing their way from the Tharin sector through the Sisar Run on its way back to Hutt space, where Maul would part ways with Eogan, Komari Vosa, and the weapon itself.
From there, the future was uncertain. He was acutely aware of Sidious’s instructions not to reveal himself as a Sith Lord or rely upon the Force.
Unless …
No. There could be no mistaking the message. Sidious had intended for him to unleash the full strength of the dark side, and the final moments in the prison—with the worm, with Vosa herself—had been another test, in which he only hoped he’d proven himself worthy.
So why hadn’t Sidious come to him yet? And when would he hear from his Master again?
He began to pace the hold again, then stopped at the sound of the hatchway hissing open behind him.
“Maul.”
Spinning, he dropped his hand to the hilt of his lightsaber, where it remained, even as he recognized the face of the woman emerging from the shadows.
“What do you want?”
At first Vosa didn’t answer. It was impossible to say what she was looking at. From the angle of her head, Maul assumed that her attention was fixated on the crate he’d been guarding … although she might have been looking at him.
“Just checking on our cargo.”
Maul didn’t move. There seemed to be no appropriate reply to this comment, and he gave none.
“Jabba’s chef is preparing dinner in the galley,” Vosa said. “I’m fairly sure that he won’t poison us … but we should let the boy eat first.” Then, venturing a step nearer: “You do eat, don’t you?”
Maul glared at her, held up one hand. “That’s close enough.”
“He worships you, you know. The boy. What he saw you do back there—”
“The galaxy will harden him soon enough,” Maul said. “If it doesn’t kill him first.”
“Perhaps you should take him with you. As an apprentice.”
Maul eyed her speculatively. “What would you know about apprentices?”
“Nothing,” Vosa said in a quiet voice, and then gave a vague, noncommittal nod in the direction of the crate. “I don’t need to know the details of your mission on Cog Hive Seven. I know that your mission there was in service to a sovereign purpose far beyond yourself.”
“As was yours,” Maul said. He’d expected her to deny it, to assert that the Bando Gora served only their own purposes, but Vosa actually nodded again.
“Perhaps that’s so,” she said. “Yet when I look at you, and the way that you and I fought that worm together, I can’t help but wonder …”
“Don’t,” he growled.
“I only meant to say—” She faltered, weighing her words carefully. “We’re neither of us the people that we once were. Who’s to say where we might end up?”
Maul flicked his gaze in her direction, his yellow eyes meeting hers for a fraction of a second. What he felt there, that uncanny familiarity, felt more dangerous and potentially ensnaring than it had back on Cog Hive Seven, and he dismissed it at once.
“How long until we arrive?”
“You’re impatient?”
Maul dismissed it. “Simply ready to put this business behind me.”
“I see.” Vosa smiled at his tone, as if she’d expected nothing less. “Not long now.”
“Then leave me.”
“Perhaps I’ll see you up above?”
But Maul had already turned his back on her to stare down at the crate in the corner of the hold. It wasn’t until he heard her leave and the hatch seal shut behind her that he took his eyes off the crate and turned to glance back at the door through which she’d already disappeared.