Dooku Read online

  The desk of a statesman.

  He must have meetings here. That would explain the cabinet replete with bottles and decanters, the bookshelves expertly arranged, Serenno’s greatest works, I assume, displayed for all to see. This is exactly the kind of room people would expect from the Count of Serenno.

  Another lie.

  Another deceit.

  A chair creaks as she sits.

  VENTRESS: (NARRATION)

  I drop into his oversized chair. Into his throne. Run a finger along the arm, the leather squealing beneath my nail.

  I could get used to this. Perhaps I should ask for an airship of my own.

  The droid beeps.

  VENTRESS:

  You can go.

  The droid trills, its beeps telling Ventress that there’s no need to be rude. It wheels from the room, the door sliding shut.

  VENTRESS:

  (SIGHING) Alone at last.

  KY NAREC: (GHOST)

  A Jedi is never truly alone.

  VENTRESS:

  (ANNOYED) So it seems.

  KY NAREC: (GHOST)

  You can’t hide from me, Asajj. You might as well try to hide from yourself.

  VENTRESS:

  I’m not hiding. I have a job to do.

  She scatters data disks onto the table.

  KY NAREC: (GHOST)

  More of Dooku’s messages to his sister…

  VENTRESS:

  If they’re boring you, please feel free to leave.

  VENTRESS: (NARRATION)

  I load the next disk into the player and scroll through the contents. The same boy appears, older now, maybe thirteen or fourteen. A lightsaber has replaced the electroblade on his belt. His shoulders are broader, his smile more confident.

  I lean in, examining his face as he speaks, his voice so eager and bright…

  The hologram beeps and plays.

  DOOKU: (FOURTEEN YEARS OLD, HOLO-NARRATION)

  Hello, sister. You asked me about my day. Well, there isn’t much to tell. We wake at dawn to meditate on the three pillars—that’s the Force, Knowledge, and Self-Discipline. Then we file through to the refectory for breakfast. I always sit next to Sifo-Dyas. I think you’d like him. He’s my best friend, although Master Braylon insists we shouldn’t form attachments. Most of the time I don’t have any problem with that, but Si’s different. He’s from Minashee, at least originally. The son of a fisherm—

  Ventress fast-forwards through the message, the young Dooku’s voice becoming gibberish.

  VENTRESS:

  Seriously. Why would anyone care…

  KY NAREC: (GHOST)

  If they’re boring you…

  VENTRESS:

  Shut up.

  KY NAREC: (GHOST)

  You would have done well there. At the Temple.

  VENTRESS:

  Not that you gave me a chance.

  KY NAREC: (GHOST)

  It wasn’t like that.

  VENTRESS:

  That’s not what Dooku says…

  KY NAREC: (GHOST)

  Dooku says a lot of things…

  We hear Ventress forwarding through more holo-letters under the next speech.

  VENTRESS: (NARRATION)

  That’s true enough. I keep fast-forwarding through the messages, swapping disk after disk. Talk about oversharing. Who would have thought that Dooku was so…chatty. Not that his sister seems to care. The disks also contain her replies, message after message, asking inane questions, urging him to holo more. More? Who could bear it? Was her own life that dull?

  Another disk is clicked into the holocomm. More fast-forwarding.

  VENTRESS: (NARRATION)

  And there she is again. Her perfect hair cascading over a perfect fur-trimmed collar in perfect ringlets. Why would he care about her? Why would he care about any of it?

  She resumes the recording, the message kicking in halfway through, leading us into the next scene…

  YOUNG DOOKU: (HOLO-NARRATION)

  …you should see the libraries, Jenza. So much knowledge, there for the taking. We were there today, being led to the Room of a Thousand Fountains by Yoda. I wished I could have stayed, to explore the shelves for myself, but we were on a tight schedule, not that it stopped Zang asking a question…

  SCENE 18. INT. JEDI ARCHIVES. CORUSCANT.

  Yoda and Braylon lead Dooku’s clan through the Archives, Yoda’s cane tapping on the floor. The Archives echo, and there’s a slight buzz of computers in the background as Jedi work all around them.

  ZANG: (FOURTEEN YEARS OLD, FEMALE)

  Master Yoda?

  YODA:

  Yes, Initiate.

  ZANG:

  These busts? Who are they?

  YOUNG DOOKU: (HOLO-NARRATION)

  It was something I had often wondered myself. I couldn’t help but feel a flush of frustration. I should have been the one to ask the question.

  BRAYLON:

  We haven’t time for this now.

  YODA:

  No, Master Braylon, an important lesson this is.

  Yoda halts, tapping his cane three times to get everyone’s attention.

  YODA:

  Initiates. Stop here we will. Yes. Yes. Gather ’round.

  They do as he says, gathering around the Grand Master.

  YODA:

  Youngling Zang asks about the busts. These are some of the Lost.

  SIFO-DYAS: (FOURTEEN YEARS OLD)

  Lost. Lost how?

  ARATH:

  He means killed, Sifo-Dyas.

  BRAYLON:

  No, he does not. Why don’t you try listening for once, Arath, rather than running that mouth of yours?

  YODA:

  Masters they once were, before disillusioned they became.

  DOOKU:

  Disillusioned? How?

  YODA:

  A good question, Initiate Dooku. A good question indeed. Master Braylon, perhaps explain you will?

  BRAYLON:

  Gladly.

  Braylon walks over to one of the busts.

  BRAYLON:

  They became disillusioned about our principles. Of our very way of life. Take Radaki here, for example. He questioned the belief that to serve, Jedi must sacrifice everything about their lives. Their family. Their riches.

  SIFO-DYAS:

  Radaki? Excuse me, Master, but didn’t he turn to the dark side?

  BRAYLON:

  Someone’s been reading their history.

  YODA:

  Yes, seduced by the dark side of the Force, Radaki was. A powerful Sith he became.

  DOOKU:

  Is that what happened to all of them? They became Sith?

  Yoda walks toward the next bust.

  BRAYLON:

  No. Some became leaders. Others taught, while most simply vanished into history, never to be heard of again.

  YOUNG DOOKU: (HOLO-NARRATION)

  As Braylon talked, Yoda hobbled toward the bust of a female with a proud, defiant expression.

  YODA:

  (QUIETLY, LOST IN THOUGHT) Master Trennis. Hm. Sad, that was. Yes. Sad indeed. (TURNING BACK TO THE STUDENTS) Remember them, we must. Honor them, yes. Learn from our failure.

  DOOKU:

  Our failure?

  YODA:

  To keep them where they belonged.

  He continues to walk, the students following. We stay with Dooku and Sifo-Dyas.

  YODA:

  But the past they are. Our future you will be. Come. Much Master Odell has to teach you. Hurry we must.

  YOUNG D
OOKU: (HOLO-NARRATION)

  I held back, fascinated by the bronzium heads…

  SIFO-DYAS:

  (SHUDDERS) Don’t they give you the creeps?

  DOOKU:

  They’re just statues.

  SIFO-DYAS:

  Reckon there’s one of Teradine?

  DOOKU:

  (SNICKERS) Yeah, like they’d commemorate an expelled Padawan. If he ever existed at all.

  SIFO-DYAS:

  Oh, he existed all right.

  DOOKU:

  Just imagine it: (IMPERSONATING YODA) “Thrown out they were. Honor them we must.”

  SIFO-DYAS:

  (LAUGHING) Your impression gets better all the time.

  DOOKU:

  We hear his voice often enough.

  SIFO-DYAS:

  Would you like to hear Teradine’s?

  DOOKU:

  What do you mean?

  SIFO-DYAS:

  I found this.

  YOUNG DOOKU: (HOLO-NARRATION)

  Glancing about to make sure no one was looking, Sifo drew a rusty datapad from his robes.

  DOOKU:

  What is it?

  SIFO-DYAS:

  Teradine’s holojournal. I found it in the dormitory, stashed away for future troublemakers.

  DOOKU:

  Troublemakers like you?

  SIFO-DYAS:

  Troublemakers like us.

  YOUNG DOOKU: (HOLO-NARRATION)

  If you believe the stories—which Sifo-Dyas does, passionately—Teradine was a Padawan from the time of the High Republic. He’d always been what you’d call problematic, testing the boundaries of his Masters, and repeatedly bringing the name of the Order into disrepute. No one really knows why or even if he was expelled. Some say he stole records from the Archives, while others believe he had an affair with the chancellor’s aide. Either way, he vanished from Jedi history, only remembered…well, only remembered by us and every other Initiate that likes to gossip by the light of a glow lantern late at night.

  I always believed that he was legend, a story, but if this was truly his journal…

  SIFO-DYAS:

  You should see the stuff in here, Doo. New ways to sneak down to the stacks. How to find your way into the Bogan Collection.

  DOOKU:

  The what?

  SIFO-DYAS:

  (DRAWING HIM IN EVEN CLOSER) The Archive of Forbidden Artifacts.

  DOOKU:

  Like what?

  SIFO-DYAS:

  I don’t know. But how do you think I found out all that stuff about Radaki?

  DOOKU:

  It’s in here?

  SIFO-DYAS:

  Radaki became a Sith Lord called Darth Krall. It was Krall who won the Battle of Wasted Years. Who tamed the Nightmare Conjunction. Teradine was obsessed with him.

  DOOKU:

  Teradine was a Sith?

  SIFO-DYAS:

  No, of course not. He just liked mucking around with stuff he wasn’t supposed to. Apparently Krall’s lightsaber is in this Bogan Collection, somewhere in the Temple. Teradine saw it. And we could, too.

  SCENE 19. INT. THE WINDRUNNER. DOOKU’S CABIN.

  Atmosphere as before.

  VENTRESS: (NARRATION)

  A serving droid slinks into the cabin, its tray heaped with fruit and cheese. The master is obviously pleased with his rat, or at least knows that she needs to keep her strength up.

  I wave for the droid to leave the food on the desk, picking at grapes as I continue the recording. I’m warming to this Sifo-Dyas. Not only does he seem to be the only one willing to stand up to Dooku, but he has a rebellious streak so large you could fly a Dreadnought along it.

  Not that Dooku was impressed when he was woken in the middle of the night…

  SCENE 20. INT. DORMITORIES. NIGHT.

  SIFO-DYAS:

  (WHISPER) Doo. (BEAT) Doo, are you awake?

  DOOKU:

  (SLEEPILY) I am now. What’s the matter?

  SIFO-DYAS:

  We have to go. Now.

  DOOKU:

  Go where?

  SIFO-DYAS:

  The Bogan Collection.

  DOOKU:

  It’s the middle of the night.

  SIFO-DYAS:

  So old Quist will be tucked up in bed. The library will be empty.

  DOOKU:

  You hope.

  SIFO-DYAS:

  Do you want to come or not?

  DOOKU:

  And if we get caught?

  SIFO-DYAS:

  You worried about getting a black mark on that impeccable record of yours? I think you kinda blew that when you dropped an Assembly Hall on your sister.

  DOOKU:

  Sifo!

  SIFO-DYAS:

  Oh come on. We need to do this. We need to do this now!

  SCENE 21. INT. JEDI ARCHIVES. NIGHT.

  YOUNG DOOKU: (HOLO-NARRATION)

  The Archives were in shadows as we crept through the doors, glow rods gripped in our hands…

  DOOKU:

  Are you sure Quist isn’t still up? Arath says she never sleeps.

  SIFO-DYAS:

  Arath’s an idiot. There’s no one here but creepmice. This way.

  They creep around a corner.

  SIFO-DYAS:

  There. What do you see?

  DOOKU:

  A stained-glass window.

  SIFO-DYAS:

  And what’s different about it?

  DOOKU:

  I don’t know. Nothing.

  SIFO-DYAS:

  Are you sure?

  DOOKU:

  (REALIZING) It’s on an interior wall.

  SIFO-DYAS:

  Exactly. Then how is moonlight streaming through?

  DOOKU:

  It’s fake.

  SIFO-DYAS:

  Illuminators behind the glass. It’s not a window. It’s a door.

  DOOKU:

  To the collection.

  SIFO-DYAS:

  According to Teradine’s journal.

  A squeak of fingers against glass as Dooku checks the window.

  DOOKU:

  But how do you open it?

  Sifo-Dyas rummages about in his robes.

  SIFO-DYAS:

  With this.

  He produces a small tub.

  DOOKU:

  A tub of sand.

  Sifo-Dyas unscrews the lid.

  SIFO-DYAS:

  I scooped it up when Odell wasn’t looking.

  DOOKU:

  And what are we supposed to do with it?

  There’s a sudden noise from nearby. A scrape of a chair.

  DOOKU:

  What’s that?

  SIFO-DYAS:

  Quick. Get back here.

  They hide and we hear their nervous breathing close to the mic as they wait. A droid stomps past, and we listen to its whirring servos and heavy feet as it leaves the Archive.

  DOOKU:

  (WHEN IT’S GONE) That was close.

  SIFO-DYAS:

  It’s just a maintenance droid.

  They go back to the window.

  DOOKU:

  Which means it’ll probably come back. We should go back to the dormitory.

  SIFO-DYAS:

  You can’t. I need you for this bit.

  DOOKU:

  Me? Why?

  SIFO-DYAS:

  Remember levitation, when Yoda taught us to focus on small particles?

  DOOKU
:

  The Shifting Sand meditation. What about it?

  SIFO-DYAS:

  You were the top of the class.

  DOOKU:

  But how will that help?

  SIFO-DYAS:

  The door has a magnetic lock. Slide the sand between the frame and the wall, and it’ll break the connection.

  DOOKU:

  It can’t be that easy.

  SIFO-DYAS:

  You don’t think you can do it?

  DOOKU:

  (SIGHING) Hold out the tub.

  SIFO-DYAS:

  I knew you wouldn’t let me down.

  DOOKU:

  Shut up and let me concentrate.

  Dooku regulates his breathing.

  YOUNG DOOKU: (HOLO-NARRATION)

  I held out my hand, the sand stirring in the pot.

  DOOKU:

  I feel the Force in everything. Flowing through me. Flowing through the sand.

  The sound of the sand scraping in the container.

  YOUNG DOOKU: (HOLO-NARRATION)

  Sifo-Dyas grinned as the individual grains rose in the air, twisting and turning like a swarm of beta-flies.

  SIFO-DYAS:

  That’s it. Now push them toward the door.

  A bucket clatters at the back of the library.

  SIFO-DYAS:

  Stang! It’s that damn droid again.

  DOOKU:

  The Force is forever in motion. Rising. Flowing.

  The droid starts clanking toward them.

  SIFO-DYAS:

  Can’t you make it flow any quicker?

  DOOKU:

  I’m trying!

  The droid is nearer.

  SIFO-DYAS:

  That’s it. Into the gap.

  DOOKU:

  I don’t think I can.

  SIFO-DYAS:

  I thought you could do anything! Why else do you think I hang around with you?

  YOUNG DOOKU: (HOLO-NARRATION)

  The droid squeaked closer, its joints in desperate need of lubrication.

  The slightest scrape of sand against metal.

  SIFO-DYAS:

  (HISSING) Dooku!

  DOOKU:

  I can’t find the lock.

  SIFO-DYAS:

  You have to!

  DOOKU:

  I can’t…Hang on. There!

  The clunk of a magnet releasing.

  SIFO-DYAS:

  You did it.

  DOOKU:

  Did you have any doubt?

  YOUNG DOOKU: (HOLO-NARRATION)