Fear No Darkness by Independence1776

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Chapter 5

B7, Horror, mazes and labyrinths

For those who wondered if Lariesh would return, she's back! Also, I only have one chapter left to write (not to post), so I can definitively say this story will remain rated Teens with an overall warning for canon-typical violence.

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Maglor stepped through the open gate to the festival grounds of the government’s official Empire Day celebration. The entire planet had shut down for the day, not that they’d been given any choice. Maglor had been on planets where Empire Day was less forcibly celebrated. It was just his bad luck that the right engine on the Calanár had indeed needing replacing right when the Shistavanen shipyard owner had told him it would, so he’d brought it back to her. And ended up stuck because of a holiday he never wanted to acknowledge.

Though the eve of Empire Day was worse, for it was when the Jedi Order fell.

He rubbed his forehead and looked around. Off to his left was the hedge wall of the giant maze. To the right was a flat space, mostly filled with games and distractions for children: face-painting, balloons, play areas, even a petting zoo. A lot of young families crowded the area. There was nothing over there for him.

So he walked across the wooden bridge separating the children’s area from the main part of the festival, pausing a moment to study the shooting range to the right side of the bridge. Low-powered blasters from positions underneath the bridge aimed at targets placed to the far right. He swallowed when he saw the holographic forms: faceless people in Jedi robes, each with a blue or green lightsaber.

He hurried on down the ramp into the festival proper. It was crowded with people, but he’d expected that. They had nowhere else to go save private celebrations, restaurants, and bars. Or to stay home, which could very well get the Empire’s attention. It was the only reason he hadn’t holed up on his ship for the day.

The smell of food wafted over the crowd, a combination of fried foods, meats, and other scents he couldn’t tease apart. Booths in rows created makeshift pedestrian paths. Music from speakers and from a couple of stages placed at opposite ends of the grounds hovered in the air, nearly drowning out the sound of blaster fire behind him. Maglor moved out of the way of the path from the bridge and glanced behind him.

The firing range was from the Imperial Armed Forces. A holograph display meant for children to have their holos taken as if they were wearing stormtrooper or TIE pilot or Imperial Navy uniforms stood next to the entrance of the shooting range. Lines snaked out of both. Maglor shook his head and heading into the sea of booths.

He wandered, glancing at some items on sale, and itching for his lightsaber. The last time he’d been among this many people was in the Imperial Museum on Coruscant. He was only marginally safer here. But festival policy was “no weapons” so he wasn’t even carrying his blaster. Not that he needed a weapon; the Force was enough. That realization, and a little more attention paid to the background singing of the Force, was enough for him to relax. Maybe he had to be here because he couldn’t afford to stand out by not attending. Maybe he hated why the festival happened. But people were trying to make a living, enjoying a day off with family and friends, and living their lives as best as they could.

After exploring a chunk of the booths, he ended up standing underneath a shade umbrella, finishing off the last of a sausage from an animal he’d never heard of, and people watching when he felt a whisper of familiarity behind him.

“Malda?”

Maglor turned around and smiled. “Lariesh! I didn’t expect to see you again.”

She wore her bright blue hair up in a braided bun and held hands with a light blue-skinned Twi'lek. “Neither did I. This is my wife Tula.”

“It’s my pleasure to meet you,” Maglor said. “I hadn’t realized you were married, Lariesh.”

She shook her head. “When we were working on the starliner, I wasn’t. I quit half a year after you left and met Tula shortly after.”

“We’re both fans of the same band and… things happened from there,” Tula said.

“What are you doing back here, Malda?”

He shrugged. “My ship needs an engine replaced. It arrived yesterday, but with everything shut down for Empire Day, it’ll be at least another day, if not two, before I’m able to leave. So I decided to have some fun.”

“What have you seen so far,” Tula said.

“Not much. Just a few of the booths.”

Tula said, “Ooh, you haven’t done the maze yet, have you?”

“I’d planned on it, actually. Does it live up to what I’ve heard?”

Lariesh laughed. “Not today, probably. It’s too crowded. If you wanted to solve it properly, wait three or four days. But you’re never here for very long.”

“Only two or three times a year, mostly for ship mechanics I can’t do myself.”

“So you’re enjoying your job?”

“I am. What are you doing now?”

“Odds and ends. Tula’s an accountant at one of the medcenters downtown, so I don’t need a full-time job.”

“Good for you.”

Tula said, “I see them.” She met Maglor’s eyes. “I’m sorry. We’re meeting friends here. We’d love to have you over for dinner tomorrow evening, though.”

Maglor smiled. “I will be honored to join you.”

Lariesh nodded. “Don’t bring anything but yourself. We’ll see you at seven?”

“That’s fine. See you then.”

They said goodbye to him and met a group of mixed-species people near the entrance to one of the paths through the booths. Maglor tossed his sausage wrapping into a nearby trash can and headed in the opposite direction, to the maze’s entrance.

Ten acres, multiple paths that ended in dead ends, and a persistent rumor that people disappeared in it. That he’d chalk up to the usual horror stories surrounding mazes, though he had heard that last year two families had reported their of-age teens missing only to find them three days later in another town, having used the chance to elope. Today, given the presences of stormtroopers and local police (some of whom were surely to be undercover), plus the abundant crowds, he doubted much would happen.

So of course when he rounded a corner only to see a dead-end and the closing of a camouflaged trap door, he sighed. Prudence dictated that he ignore what he’d seen and go back to where he made the wrong turn. Curiosity and the Force humming a worried pitch told him otherwise. Now he really wished he had his lightsaber.

He glanced behind him with the Force and walked forward. There was no hollow sound, no give to the ground. It was like the trapdoor wasn’t there at all. He turned in place, looking and sensing for any mechanism that would open it. There was none.

Maglor rubbed the bridge of his nose. A useable trapdoor with security and designed to stay hidden. At a festival known planet-wide for its maze. On Empire Day. A chill went down his spine. This was planned by whoever owned the grounds and that he knew for a fact was the Imperial governor of the planet, a man who had been duly elected by the people and worked willingly with the Empire.

Whatever was going on here was known-- and known by the populace. Rumors hiding truth, the only way some information could be spread in the Empire. But disappearances? Those were common now. All too common. What could he do, report what he saw?

That might be all he could do. Further involvement-- when he was sure that some form of security was recording all his actions here-- would put his life in danger. And truly, he had no idea what happened. All he’d seen was a trap door closing. Maybe it was a maintenance shaft. But the Force told him otherwise. Something had happened.

If this was the Republic, Maglor would not have hesitated to use the Force to enter the trapdoor. But it wasn’t the Republic. It was the Empire. And he had to weigh his safety over everything else, as much as he hated the guilt. It would not be the first time he turned away from something he questioned. His best course of action was to pretend like nothing was wrong and finish the maze. So he did, not enjoying a moment of it. After he left, he approached the nearest stormtrooper. “Sir?”

“What it is, citizen?”

Today of all days they made the effort to be approachable. “I saw something odd in the maze. I turned the corner and it looked like there was a trapdoor shutting.”

“Ah. That’s nothing to worry about. The irrigation system runs under the hedges. Something must have happened, so one of the gardeners was checking on it.”

The ground hadn’t been wet. “That must be it. I was remembering those rumors about people disappearing--”

The trooper chuckled. “ Don’t let your imagination ruin your day. It’s usually kids playing tricks on their parents. Or eloping.”

“I won’t. Thank you!”

Maglor walked off. Known to the Empire, then. Nothing good could come of that. Maybe after the fireworks were over and the park closed, he could return and investigate-- and he flinched when the Force screamed at him about how terrible an idea that would be.

He moved to the side of the pathway, out of the way of the flow of traffic, his right shoulder brushing the hedge wall, and breathed. In for seven, hold for seven, out for seven. The Force hadn’t been that loud since… since the Jedi were massacred. If he went tonight, he would die.

He hated leaving the matter alone, but he was one Jedi against an Empire full of people who worked for evil purposes. Whatever was going on here was something he’d need a team-- or even a battalion-- for, with no guarantee of learning exactly what was going on. People who vanished in the Empire stayed vanished.

If he pushed further, he would become one of them, shortly to be executed for the crime of surviving. That was not a tenable solution to the problem. Neither was ignoring it, but there was nothing else he could do.

Maglor rejoined the flow of the crowd.