Labyrinth of Death | Chapter 10

Prologue | Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10


Barras deactivated the magnets on his boots and stood, looking around. He closed the hatch quietly and grinned. “Bye-bye, wampa. Can’t catch me.”
He scanned the room with his lights. Boxes stood against the walls, several corroded on the corners. “A supply room?”
“You might be right,” came a voice from behind him. “But you aren’t.”
Barras’ hands slid toward his blasters. “Borj Throdin, I presume?”
A huff and a sigh echoed from the darkness. “What do you want? And why are you in here, anyway?”
Barras pulled his blasters from their holders and turned slowly, his lights landing on a face. The man had close-cropped brown hair, with stubbly whiskers and a ragged beard. A wound over his left eye had turned the eye white and left a permanent scar, and the other eye regarded Barras strangely.
The lights switched on. Recognition dawned in the man’s eyes. “You’re a Sith trooper,” he said uncertainly, his hand on the switch for the lights.
“Obviously,” said Barras, raising his blasters. “Hands on your head.”
The man raised his hands and placed them on his head. “Where’s the rest of your company?”
“Turn around,” Barras commanded.
The man obeyed. “Who’s your leader?”
“Shut up,” Barras growled. “Don’t move.” He holstered one blaster and switched off his lights with his free hand, then looked around. Now, with the room lit far more brightly, a control pad came into view.
The Sith trooper walked towards the control pad, keeping his blaster trained on the man’s back. He glanced at a black screen which appeared to be a detailed map of the labyrinth. “This would have been helpful.”
“Pardon?” asked the man.
Barras glared at him. “Shut up. No, actually, I’ll let you answer one question. Are you Borj Throdin?”
The man nodded. “I am. And you are…?”
“I don’t have to tell you.” Barras regarded the labyrinth map carefully. “So, I came in this way, and…ah. Cool.”
“Why are you muttering?” Borj asked.
Barras shot another glare at the rogue Sith. “I told you before, shut up.” He switched on his transmitter and held down the button while speaking into it. “Captain, this is Barras.”
“What’s the status, Kampion?” came the captain’s voice. “Have you switched off the traps yet?”
“No, sir.” Barras stared over the controls. “I’m at the control pad. And…”
“And what? Speak, before I tie your intestines in knots.”
“I have apprehended Borj Throdin.”
Silence rang loud from the transmitter. Then, the captain’s voice again. “This is not the time for jesting, Kampion!”
“I’m not joking, sir. He was here when I arrived.”
“Deactivate the traps, Kampion, and hurry up with it!”
Barras glared at Borj. “What is the control for deactivating the wampa traps?”
Borj reached over, but Barras pointed his blaster at him again. “Just tell me.”
Borj raised his hand to his head again and nodded towards the controls. “Red and green pads. Red’s for turning them off, green’s for turning them on. Red is activated right now, so they’re off.”
Barras glared at Borj. “Thanks. Now shut up completely.” He spoke into the transmitter again. “Captain, the traps are deactivated.” Without waiting for an answer, he switched off the transmitter.
“Congratulations.”
Barras glared at Borj again. “What’s that for?”
Borj lowered his hands to his side, his voice deep and menacing, a far cry from the meek man of only minutes before. “You have successfully fallen into my own trap, trooper. By your own hand, you have activated the traps.” He unsheathed a vibrosword and pointed it at Barras, taking up a swordsman’s stance. “Drop the blasters.”
Barras fired at Borj. The rogue Sith deflected the shots into the floor and leapt forward, covering an unbelievable distance with one jump. Barras fired again, missing.
The vibrosword smacked him across the wrist, his transmitter sparking. Barras felt a stinging pain in that arm, and his hand went numb, the blaster falling out of his hand. He grabbed his other blaster, but Borj flung out his hand. A wave of invisible power swept over him, flinging him into the wall.
Barras struck the wall with a jolt and slid to the ground, groaning. His helmet flew off, and his head sagged to the side. Through bleary eyes, he watched as the Sith approached, stamping on Barras’ dropped blasters with contempt and finally standing right in front of him. A dark cloak swirled around the rogue Sith’s legs, flapping with an unfelt wind.
Barras groaned. How could he have been so foolish to have been taken in by the Sith’s apparent meekness? He should have known. No Sith was meek. And Borj now revealed himself to be a master at manipulation and deception. Before, he had appeared like a frightened scientist. Now, his eyes blazed with a dark fire that told Barras all he needed to know.
He was going to die.
Borj pointed his vibrosword at Barras, a twisted grin on his face. “In your foolishness, you believed me!” He threw back his head and laughed, his bellows seeming to shake the room.
Barras blinked, his eyebrows knitting. His numbed hand spasmed.
Borj cut off his laughter in the middle and stared at Barras with death in his eyes. “You have successfully doomed all of your companions to death.” At Barras’ stricken expression, he laughed again. “Oh, did you think that I was telling you the truth? The red stands for danger. The green stands for safety. The traps were always open.” He gestured to the screen. “I was tracking you all the time. The labyrinth has doors that can open and close to reveal or hide passages, which I control. And I intentionally lured you here.”
Barras struggled to rise. “You’ll pay—”
“No.” Borj cut Barras off by raising his hand, his fingers clenched in a fist. Barras’ lungs tightened not by his own will. “You are the one who will pay.”
Barras scrabbled at his neck, trying to speak.
Borj released the chokehold and stepped closer to Barras. His menacing eyes bored holes in the trooper’s own. “Say your last words.”
With that, he pulled back his vibrosword and thrust it into Barras’ chest.
Lightning danced inside Barras’ body. He screamed as his legs, then his arms, then his whole body went numb. Feeling bled away, and he swam inside a dark tomb of shadow that had no end.

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Dmitri Pendragon
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