‘Darth Maul:Shadow Hunter’ – Overview

Well, I think the students at school are already on vacation.  In some ways, so are all the staff members.  You can just see it on everyone’s faces.  It’s so hard to get my students to focus and do any work and I keep telling myself, “only twelve more days left”.  Anyway, I started to tear down the stage from the spring concert and musical, finally.  It may take me all week to get it done, but I’m just not in any rush to get it over with.  I’m not going to stress myself out about it.  Lunchtime work was complete insanity.  I’m not sure if the kids even care if they went back to class or not.  Anyway, got through the day and went to my “Visual Communicator” workshop and had a great time there.  I was actually a little depressed that the workshop is officially over.  It was fun and I think we all learned a lot of information from each other.  I got home and my wife had worked her kabooty off!!  She started to shovel the ground out for the retaining wall by our driveway, she moved the hasta plants, filled in the holes in our yard with some dirt, planted grass seed, and was mowing the lawn outback.  Man, I guess that was supposed to make me feel guilty.  Well….it did!  All well, I know my wife does these things just to say she did them, and because she’s proud that we have our own house and wants to use sweat equity to make it look nice.

Okay, time to talk about my overall viewpoint on “Darth Maul:Shadow Hunter” by Michael Reaves.  Overall, the book wasn’t too bad.  I got really excited when I saw that there was a book about Darth Maul.  I thought we would finally get a chance to learn a little something about this dark and evil Sith character.  Well, I was wrong.  I didn’t really learn anything new about the character.  That was dissapointing.  However, the overall storyline of the book had me drawn in.  I liked the idea of Maul trying to chase down Pavan and Monchar looking for the holocron and information before they got to the Jedi.  Really, a good idea that tied into the Star Wars universe very nicely.  I do like some of the action scenes and liked all the creatures that were introduced through this book.  I really liked the concept behind the Taozin.  I-Five was a great human-like robot and reminded me of Data from “Star Trek:The Next Generation” and really brought me back to that concept.  A great conception that Michael Reaves had in the book.  I also like the interaction that Pavan and I-Five had in the book.  It’s not often that we see a robot and human having candid conversations with each other.  The introduction of Darsha Assant was interesting.  I like the idea that the Jedi would send their Padawan’s out to do some small assignments for the Jedi Temple, but would they really send a Padawan to bring back an informant about the Black Sun?  Just not a smart move.  To make matters worse, you send another Padawan in Obi-Wan Kenobi, to search for the answers to her dissaperance.  Just doesn’t seem like something the Jedi would do.

And then I have to talk about the negatives of the book.  First off, Maul seems very wimpy for such a powerful Sith in this book.  He doesn’t seem to get his prey till the very end of the book and doesn’t get Pavan without Sidious’ help.  I was also annoyed with the use of Sidious in this book.  He should have been more assertive with Maul, especially when Maul realized he lost the holocron.  If that were the true Darth Sidious, I think a little bit of a Force Choke should have been in order.  Then, the worst part of the book, which occured during the end.  The love story between Assant and Pavan.  That was the crapiest love story I’ve ever seen.  Or was it a love story?  It was like a love story that never really existed, but did, but didn’t.  I was so confused by the end of the story, I didn’t know what to think!  The ridiculous part of it all was the fact that it felt very forced (pardon the pun).  It was almost equivalent to the love story between Anakin and Padme in “Attack of the Clones”.

Taking all of this into account, it wasn’t a horrible book, but it wasn’t anything to write home about either.  With all of this in mind, I gave “Darth Maul:Shadow Hunter” a……

“Darth Maul:Shadow Hunter” by Michael Reaves:  ****** (6)

‘Darth Maul:Shadow Hunter’ – Chapter 37

Got to get blog out…. Okay, I am extremely tired from today.  I am still realing from yesterday and now Heather having worked till two this morning.  I was exhausted all day today and managed to get back on my feet in the afternoon.

This morning Heather and I got up and went to church as we always do.  We then came home, finished up the potato salad and headed to our church picnic.  The kids and I all had fun.  We played football with the pastor, the pastor’s son, my friend Jim, and a church member.  We ate some great picnic food (hamburgs and hotdogs) and then had to leave a little early.  It rained the whole time but we still managed to have fun.  Heather and I came home and tried to have what we called a nap.  Well, our nap turned into us sleeping for an hour and a half.  Woops!!  Anyway, we got up, had a light dinner with the kids, gave them a bath and they went to bed.  Heather and I went downstairs and proceeded to watch our typical line-up of shows.  Tommorrow will be busy again because I have a “Visual Communicator” workshop I have to go to (the last one for this workshop) and I won’t get out until 6 p.m.  Which means I won’t be home till 6:30 and won’t eat dinner until after 7 p.m.  Ah, the life of a teacher…..

Okay, time to talk about the last chapter of “Darth Maul:Shadow Hunter” by Michael Reaves.  Chapter 37…..

Chapter 37:  Obi-Wan returns to the Temple and is aksed to report to Master Qui-Gon immediately.  When he arrives, Qui-Gon informs him that the Trade Federation has blockaded the Naboo and they are ambassadors.  They needed to leave immediately.  Obi-Wan tells Qui-Gon that Bondara and Assant were both dead.  Qui-Gon told him he would have to report to the council via hologram on their way to Naboo.  Pavan woke to a nightmare about Darth Maul.  Then he realized he was in a hotel room.  He had been told by Palpatine that the holocron made it’s way to the Jedi Temple and the assassin was captured.  He had been given a chance to either stay on Coruscant or go to an Outer Rim world.  The bank charge alligations had been lost.  he was also promised a stipend to live on.  Pavan got up, got dressed and decided to go outside.  When the door opened, there stood the Sith Lord.  Maul activated his lightsaber as Pavan came at peace with his inevitable death.  His last thought was the hope that his son Jax would become a Jedi Knight.  Then we switch to Darth Maul’s view.  He drew his lightsaber and cut Pavan in two.  Satisfied his mission was complete.

‘Darth Maul:Shadow Hunter’ – Chapter 36

Okay, I thought this would be a nice relaxing Saturday.  Well, not quite the case.  I got up fairly early this morning (early for a Saturday anyway) at 8 a.m.  I needed to be at Binghamton High School for the parade at 9:15 a.m.  When I got there, there were a few marching band members that were excited to see me.  Most of them were students I had before and some were former students of East Middle.  What I really couldn’t tell my students at the time was that I felt completely out of place.  I am no longer a part of this band and it felt a little awkward as I am no longer the director so I felt very much out of place with this band.  In my mind and in my eyes, this band has become the other director’s band, and this is as it should be, but it’s hard for me to go back and be a part of that group without wanting to fix “problems” that I saw.  I had a hard time zipping my lip and not trying to fix issues that I saw.  But, I was a good boy and did very little instructing and decided that I was just going to have fun and act like I was in Drum Corps. all over again.  That worked for me and got me through the parade.  It was a rainy, semi-warm and humid parade which made it harder to march in the rain but overall it didn’t go bad at all. 

Last night, after I got done blogging, my cable box, phone, and Internet was all shut off by Time Warner.  When I called the eight hundred number, they told me they didn’t know why I was shut off.  Great, I was in the middle of watching the movie “King’s Ransom” and never got a chance to finish it.  This morning Heather went to Time Warner and they claim that we underpaid our last bill by $40 last week and that we needed to pay that much in order to turn everything back on.  On top of that, when we asked for an invoice, they couldn’t provide one because there were no supervisors there.  No supervisors?  Okay, if there are people working on a Saturday you would think there were a middle level boss somewhere.  Well, guess what, NO ONE!!  They suggested we come back on Monday.  So, tonight I’m going to try and research satellite T.V. and see if it’s cheaper and if we would get better service.  I am simply fed up with Time Warner and paying for shitty service!  We got home and Heather had gone to Aldi’s to get food while I was marching the parade and we came home and unloaded the car.  Then we ate lunch (soup and corn dogs) which tasted good after marching in such a wet parade.  Then Heather and I watched a portion of “Major League II” before she went to bed for a nap before work.  She got woken up by Austin who said that Time Warner was at the door.  Well, we got excited and thought maybe someone had heard our complaint.  Well, it wasn’t Time Warner, but Rent Way and they were looking for our payment, which isn’t due till Sunday, but they wanted the money today.  So, Heather got out of bed, went to the bank, and ran a payment over to Rent Way.  By the time she got home we ate dinner and she went to work.  I goofed around with the kids tonight playing with lightsabers and getting them amped up for “Star Wars:Revenge of the Sith” as it was going to be on HBO tonight and I knew they would want to see it.

Okay, so time to talk about Chapter 36 of “Darth Maul:Shadow Hunter” by Michael Reaves.  Only one more chapter after this one and then the overall review.  So, Chapter 36…..

Chapter 36:  Pavan’s shot rang true.  He hit the Sith once, then twice.  The body floated in zero-g gravity and the holocron started to float back to Pavan.  He grabbed it and put it in his pocket.  As Pavan went to reach for Maul’s lightsaber to hurt him, Maul’s eyes opened.  Maul reached for his lightsaber, activated it, and cut off Pavan’s hand holding the blaster.  Pavan pushed off the floor toward the hatch.  Maul made a swipe with his lightsaberand missed.  When Pavan reached the hatch, he closed it and scrambled the code.  The Sith made his way to the door and started to use his lightsaber to melt through the door.  We switch to Maul’s point of view.  He had been taken by total surprise.  He was even more shocked that it was Lorn Pavan and that he couldn’t sense his presence.  Maul burned through the lock and lept forward.  This chase had gone on long enough.  We switch back to Pavan who is trying to run for his life to the main section of the space station.  There he hoped to find some security personnel that would help him.  Then Pavan got to an atrium that had gravity and several Senator’s in cloaks.  Pavan ran at them and the security guards drew their blasters in fear.  Pavan pulls out the holocron and the Senator immediately recognized it.  Pavan tells them that he needs to get it to the Jedi.  The Senator notices he’s injured.  He takes the holocron and gets Pavan medical attention.  Lorn manages to thank…..Senator Palpatine!

‘Darth Maul:Shadow Hunter’ – Chapter 35

Today it seemed like I got a lot of work done.  Students and I had a worth while lesson that worked as we got through the next two tracks on “The Lord of the Rings:  Fellowship of the Ring” soundtrack and reviewed the music.  As one of my students said today, “you’ve solidified yourself in the world of “Lord of the Rings” geekdom!”  Okay, so I’ll agree with that statement.  Anyway, on one of my free periods today I managed to get half of “Springboard #1″ edited.  Unfortunately, there is a strange humming noise on the background of the recording.  I’ve checked everything and have come to one conclusion.  For whatever reason, Nathan Butler and I must’ve had a bad connection on the phone which led to this weird noise.  It’s not horrible, but it’s not going to be as high a quality as all of my other episodes.  I feel bad, but I’ll work with what I have.

Heather has to work late into tommorrow morning again.  So here we go with not being able to sleep again tonight!  I plan on doing some more editing tonight and hopefully getting back to building my “Helm’s Deep” set.  Tommorrow I’ll be marching in a parade for the first time in years!  I was asked to march with the Binghamton Marching Band by the current director because they’re filling ranks with past and present staff and band members.  It’s cool and should be fun.  I just got the music today and I hope I get a chance to memorize it before we hit the streets tommorrow at 11 a.m.

Well, time to talk about Chapter 35 of “Darth Maul:Shadow Hunter” by Michael Reaves…..

Chapter 35:  Tuden Sal loaded I-Five on his ship and lifted off.  Sal decided that he was going to wipe I-Five’s memory clean and use him for a personal body guard.  Sal’s ship flew right past the Jedi Temple.  We switch to Darth Maul docking on the space station.  Maul made his way down a tunnel in zero-g gravity to meet with Sidious to give him the holocron.  Now we follow Pavan as he lands on the same space station.  As Pavan went on, he realized the blaster he had only had a few shots left.  Lorn entered the corridor in zero-g gravity as well.  then he looked down and realized that he either had one shot at full strength or three shots on the stun setting.  He decided he was going to use the latter.  Then Pavan spotted the Sith at the other end of the hall.  Lorn pulled his blaster, readied himself, and fired.

‘Darth Maul:Shadow Hunter’ – Chapter 34

A fairly busy day at school.  It definetly kept me on my toes as I finished getting together all of the work that I needed to finish from school.  I had a chance to talk to the other music teacher’s sub today and found out that she has been requested at least through next week Monday.  Tommorrow I’m supposed to find out if that teacher will be back before the end of the year.  I’ve been so busy with TJCS #5 and getting out Springboard #1 on time that I haven’t had time to work on “Jedi Babies”.  I’m hoping I can get that completed with my kids before they leave to go to grandma and pappa’s for summer vacation.  If I don’t, then the project will take a two-week hiatus until I get my children back to continue recording.  I was hoping to have the second script finished by now, but hey, I’ve been extremely busy lately.  I’m even behind on my listening.  I haven’t listened to the latest “Star Wars Action News”, “Chronoradio”, or “Star Wars and Beyond” lately, and it’s really bothering me.

It was so hot and muggy tonight, so Heather and I decided to take dinner downstairs when I got home tonight.  That was alright with me as it was nice and cool and dry in the basement.  I also had a ton of grading to do, so it was good for me to go down there and get caught up on the work.  Heather watched T.V. (and had control of the remote) while I finished grading my papers.  We then had a heart stopping moment when we went to go upstairs for bed tonight.  We got upstairs and I went to take our dog, Clifford, out to go potty when we all the sudden realized that Clifford was missing.  Then we found the back screen door slid open.  Heather and I looked at each other and said, “oh crap!”  We ran out onto the deck and screamed out the dog’s name several times, but no reaction.  I went back inside and grabbed the kids and flashlights while Heather went out the front door to see if he kept to the streets.  The kids and I no more than got out the back door and towards the woods when Heather yelled out to me and said she found Clifford.  Whew, I was really afraid that we lost our dog.  How lucky was that?  Heather found him in the yard of a neighbor’s house just sniffing around and he acted like it was no big deal.  Guess I’m gonna have to come up with some way to latch the screen door tommorrow.

Okay, onto why we’re here.  Time to talk about Chapter 34 of “Darth Maul:Shadow Hunter” by Michael Reaves…..

Chapter 34:  Darth Maul is settling into the cockpit of “The Infiltrator”.  He took one last look at the holocron before lifting off.  Maul thought about the fight that took place and admired his prey’s ingenuity.  He wished to kill more Jedi and hoped his next mission would lead to that.  We switch back to Tuden Sal’s ship.  Lorn asks for I-Five’s blaster.  I-Five tells him he’s a fool for attacking the Sith and would not live.  Pavan tells I-Five that he needs to return to the Jedi Temple to tell them what has happened.  Then I-Five pulls out a white tranparent ball and hands it to Pavan.  He tells him it’s a piece of the Taozin which might help shield him from The Force just long enough to sneak up on the Sith.  On his way to his destination ship, Pavan deactivated I-Five and handed him to Tudean Sal and told him to get I-Five to the Jedi Temple.  Pavan lifted off in the borrowed “Thixian Seven” and found “The Infiltrator” and plotted an intercept course for a spacestation.  He had no idea what he was going to do once he got there.

‘Darth Maul:Shadow Hunter’ – Chapter 33

One word for today.  BUSY!!  I came back from being gone on Friday and Tuesday from my classroom and I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, it’s better to be in the classroom than outside of it.  I’m really ticked off at my substitute.  He took my LOTR:FOTR Special Edition movie out of the DVD player and managed to actually scratch it.  At least that’s what the students told me.  When I got it home tonight, it played fine in my DVD player at home.  Which means one thing.  The DVD player that is in the library at school is a piece of crap and is skipping on DVD movies.  Guess I gotta go back to using the PS2 in school again.  What a pain in the butt!!  Anyway, I was baried in work today.  Paperwork, paperwork, paperwork.  The band director today realized with me that we hadn’t addressed the issue of awards for eighth graders for their last year here at East for choir or for band.  So, I had to panic this morning and get that stuff ordered and make sure it gets back here on time.  I also ordered some rewards for the officers of the choir because they did such a great job helping me out getting the choir ready for the concert.  I also spent over half the day grading the papers that students did (or were supposed to do) on the days I was gone.

Had SMASH rehearsal tonight and then scrambled to get home, eat dinner and then finish so I could finish editing TJCS #5.  Well, it got out on time tonight.  I even managed to get it out a few hours early.  So, “The Jedi Council Speaks” Volume I, Episode #5 is NOW available.  Take a listen at Podomatic.  I think it will interest you all.  Thanks for all that wrote in for comments, emails, and MP3′s.  It is always appreciated.

Okay, onto Chapter 33 of “Darth Maul:Shadow Hunter” by Michael Reaves…..

Chapter 33:  We start with Lorn Pavan waking up out of his slumber.  He asks I-Five where they are and how did they get there.  Pavan looked and saw the building where they got trapped.  I-Five deduces he has short-term memory loss.  I-Five tells him they must move fast as the authorities could arrive soon and hopefully Tuden Sal would soon as well. Then Pavan realized – Darsha!  I-Five tells him the details of Darsha’s death and about what happened.  He explained that they survived the fire because carbonite was so dense.  They both assume that Maul died in the explosion as well.  While talking, I-Five’s communicator beeps.  I-Five knows this means Tuden Sal has arrived.  Sal lowers his canopied black skycar and tells the two of them that he’s not sure what they’ve gotten themselves into.  I-Five says ti’s a wise choice, less he can be indicted for.  As the craft lifted off, I-Five and Pavan saw a black robed figure leaving the burning building.  Lorn got enhancers and identified the figure as the Sith.  Lorn also saw the Sith holding the holocron.  Pavan asks Tuden Sal to track the Sith from a great distance.  We switch back to Maul’s point of view.  He hils a taxi to take him back to thwer his ship was hidden.  Maul watched for followers.  We switch back to Lorn, I-Five, and Sal following the cab.  The Sith gets out, heads to a rooftop, and vanishes into thin air!  Tuden Sal assumes he’s using some sort of cloaking device.  Horn was torn.  The Sith knew he was dead and wouldn’t come after him anymore, but he also got away with murdering Darsha.  Pavan turned to Sal and said, “we need a ship”.  Sal asked to where, and Pavan responded – “wherever the Sith goes”.

‘Darth Maul:Shadow Hunter’ – Chapter 32

What a fun day!  I had a blast with the choir students on the trip today and found a new favorite amusement park.  We went to Dorney Park today which is near Allentown, PA.  It’s not overly expensive and the food and gift shops aren’t robbing you either.  But that wasn’t the best part of the trip today.  They had some great roller coasters there.  Nothing as high as the Superman, but that’s okay because I didn’t need three people to jam me into any of thier coasters either.  So, I managed to ride “The Talon” (twice), “The Steel Force”, and “Hydra” (twice).  Overall it was a good day but a HOT day.  It got up to 105 degrees in the park.  It was simply steaming.  So, what do you do at a park when it’s that hot?  Simple, hang out in the water park all afternoon long.  And that’s what I did with a bunch of the kids and we had a blast there as well.   Great day and the kids were well behaved.  I came home exhausted and went to be fairly early tonight.  Worked a little on TJCS #5 to get it out on time.

So, onto what you’re all here for, chapter 32 of “Darth Maul:Shadow Hunter” by Michael Reaves…..

 Chapter 32:  We now follow Obi-Wan as he nears the crash site of Master Bondara’s skycar.  Obi-Wan senses death all around him.  As he nears the site he notices the local authorities are near by.  Obi-Wan crosses the police line and lands his speeder.  He talks to two investigators.  The officers inform him of two accidents and take him to the site of the second one.  This is where they find a PCBU.  The investigators inform Obi-Wan that two officers were killed as well.  The investigators are speculating that someone from the Black Sun was involved.  Obi-Wan decided that the “who” situation was bigger than he could imagine and involved more than Padawan Assant and Master Bondara.  He decides to head back to the Jedi Temple and report.  We then switch views to Darth Sidious.  He receives a message from Darth Maul informing him that his mission is complete.  Sidious sends him instructions as to where to take the Holocron he has confiscated.  Sidious told Maul to make sure the Jedi find no answers in the death of their two Jedi.  We then switch back to Obi-Wan who is going back to the Temple in his skycar.  On the way, he witnesses another explosion.  Kenobi lands his skycr near the burning building and goes in.  He feels the presence of Darsha and an ominous evil feeling he had all day long.  Kenobi looked around and found part of a unique section of Assant’s lightsaber.  This confirmed in his mind what he feared, Darshat Assant was dead.

‘Darth Maul:Shadow Hunter’ – Chapter 31

Well, today was very much a lazy day off from work for me.  It was good news for all of my listeners of my podcast.  I got up at 9 a.m., since Heather had to be to work early this morning.  That was okay for me because it got my butt out of bed at a decent hour this morning.  I got up and headed downstairs and began to work on “The Jedi Council Speaks” Volume I, Episode #5.  You know, the one I wasn’t sure was going to get out on time.  Well, sure enough, I finished with my editing of the previous five sections of TJCS and got the notes done for the episode.  I got a chance to interview my kids for a section of the show and finally got a chance to finish the last two sections of the episode.  By two in the afternoon I was exporting the show in MP3 format.  So, it’s finnished!  I didn’t think I would get it done on time, but I used The Force and made it happen.  So, TJCS #5 WILL be on time this time around.  Along with that, I was able to start editing my interview with Nathan Bulter over his “Echoes” Podcast novel, and will highlight it in a new TJCS segment called “Springboard” which will highlight new and just released dramas and comedy/parodies.  That will be released on June 15th.  Lots to come on TJCS and my year just doesn’t seem to slow down.  But I guess that’s the way I like it.

Around one o’clock or so, my two youngest children came running inside (since my oldest daughter is being punished and has to stay in her room) screaming in fear.  When I went upstairs, even I was shocked to see what I saw.  There were bumble bees, wasps, and yellow jackets all over the front yard and porch.  Well, when I looked up on the porch, there were two yellow jacket nests, two mud wasp nests, and a bumble bee nest.  NOT GOOD!!  Man, they built those really fast!  Anyway, I use a hammer and mangaed to knock down four of them (the smaller ones) without getting stung.  The advantage was that they were close to the door way, so I could hit them with the hammer and then quick shut the door and use it as a shield.  I really only ticked off the mud wasps.  The yellow jackets just went somewhere else.  The bumble bee nest was in an interesting spot.  It was between the gutter and the roof line.  So, I called Heather at work and told her to get two cans of wasp/bee killer from Lowes on her way home.  When she got home, I removed the gutter and Heather covered my back (from attacks) as I sprayed the nest.  It worked and I didn’t get stung.  Heather did manage to kill about four or five bees that tried to attack me in the process, though.  Okay, so I hope that’s the last time I see that happen again.  Especially for my kids’ sake.  Heather also brought home dinner from Wendy’s and also brought home a sprinkler for the kids to play in.  They definetly enjoyed that.  Clifford (our dog) wasn’t so fond of the sprinkler, however.  We came downstairs tonight to watch our shows, and of course (because it’s officially summer) they’re all reruns.  So, I convinced Heather to watch “Miami Vice” with me and then we watched the History Channel special on George Washington.

Okay, onto our discussion of Chapter 31 of “Darth Maul:Shadow Hunter” by Michael Reaves…..

Chapter 31:  We start by following Maul.  He is no longer impressed with the Padawan and senses she is becoming weak.  Maul prepares himself for the final blow.  We switch to Darsha’s point of view.  She fights hard with the Sith.  Her thoughts wander to Pavan and I-Five.  She hopes they thought to use the carbon freezing unit.  Darsha sees a weakness in Maul’s defense.  She steps forward to exploit it, but Maul beats her into her step and stabs her with the blade of his lightsaber.  Darsha’s thoughts before she died were, “There is no death; there is the Force”.  We now switch to Maul’s point of view.  Maul realizes why she was using the Force attacks and sees a bunch of canisters about to explode.  He jumped to a platform and out a window.  Maul realized her cunning wit, she kept him from his primary target, Pavan.  Maul lept back into the room using The Force to contain the smoke and flames away from him.  He saw no signs of life.  He left the buidling satisfied his mission was complete.  It was time to tell his Master.

‘Darth Maul:Shadow Hunter’ – Chapter 30

Well, today was a long and busy day as well.  Heather and I got up fairly early, 7:30 a.m., to go to church.  We met my in-laws at church and then came home.  My father in-law helped us immensley by finally helping to rip out what was left of our bushes on the front of the house.  So, for all of my friends that have seen my house, the bushes are no more!  On the opposite of that my front yard looks like D-Day happened out there.  There are tracks from the truck on my front lawn and there are impact craters where my bushes used to stand.  We also put up a tire swing in the back yard while the women took Ruth on her birthday gift trip.  They went to Walmart and picked out paint and wallpaper boarder for her room.  Evidently she is going pink for her room with a pretty feminine boarder.  Can’t say I’m surprised.  After they left, Heather and I went back and took a thirty minute nap.  We came out, had some left overs for dinner.  Then Austin and I went downstairs to watch the NASCAR race while Tara and Heather watched some T.V. upstairs.

Okay, onto Chapter 30 of “Darth Maul:Shadow Hunter” by Michael Reaves…..

Chapter 30:  maule entered the room and realized the three of them were trapped.  He used the skycar, scanned them just enough with The Force to not be noticed and waited to trap them at the top.  Maul stepped forward and activated both blades on his lightsaber.  Darsha was afraid, but tried to talk herself into the fight using the Jedi Code.  Assant let herself relax into The Force.  She Force-pushed I-Five and Lorn into a storage chamber and locked it for their protection.  Maul lept forward with dual blades spinning.  Lorn tried to bust the door opn, but nothing worked.  Lorn watcehd as Darsha battled the Sith.  He yelled at I-Five and then realized he was turning on the carbon-freezing unit.  Maul was impressed with the change in Assant’s power with The Force.  But he pressed the attack and toyed with her.  Both of them knew she was going to die.  The battle betweent the Sith and Jedi raged on.  The further out that Darsha reached with The Force, the harder Darth Maul battled her.  Then she found what she thought was her chance.  We then switch back to I-Five and Lorn Pavan that are still trapped.  I-Five continues to try and carbon-freeze the two of them.  In the meantime, Pavan aims the blaster at the door, till I-Five reminds hi that it’s magnetically sealed and that would kill them both.  I-Five reminds Pavan that Assant is sacrificing her life for them.  I-Five coaxes Pavan into the carbon freezing chamber and they being the process of going into a deep carbon-induced sleep.

‘Darth Maul:Shadow Hunter’ – Chapter 29

Well, I woke up pretty late today.  I got up around 10 a.m.  Only because I was so exhausted from yesterday having run around with teenagers at a park all day long.  I’m also sore from all of the walking I did yesterday.  I guess that’s to be expected.  I got up and got some breakfast and Heather and I proceeded to head downstairs.  She found out yesterday that we had about two weeks worth of episodes from T.V. that we hadn’t watched yet.  We spent most of the afternoon catching up while I graded papers.  I guess I got behind on grading papers as well.  This took up most of the afternoon and then we got ready for dinner.  We all ate quesadilla’s and Ruth got herself into trouble for something pretty big that she has been doing lately.  It’s not the act of what she’s doing that has Heather and I upset, but the lying that she is doing to cover it up that is making us upset.  Well, Heather condemned her to her froom for the next week.  Of course, she forgot Ruth was supposed to celebrate her birthday with the in-laws tommorrow.  So, we agreed she could come out long enough to celebrate, but then had to go right back into her room.  Anyway, Heather left for work and I watched three movies this afternoon and tonight.  I watched “Saving Private Ryan” (I do every Memorial Day weekend), “The Great Raid” (really good movie), and “The Perfect Man” (which was okay, but a chick flick).  Went to bed at 1:30 a.m.  Pretty late because I couldn’t sleep withouth Heather.

Okay, time to talk about Chapter 29 of “Darth Maul:Shadow Hunter” by Michael Reaves……

Chapter 29:  We follow Lorn and Darsha as they lead Green Hair toward the upper levels.  We learn that Lorn is starting to grow fond of Darsha.  Darsha continued to probe for danger with The Force.  She couldn’t sense anything, but was tempted to use The Force to probe Lorn to see if he had feelings for her like she did for him.  Just then Green Hair threw himself on the floor and found a yellow DNA activated button.  Lorn stopped him before he could touch the button.  They uncover a covered tripod mounted blaster and realize that is what the button was for.  Then Lorn suggested that Darsha use her ability to manipulate minds.  Sbhe took over Green Hair’s mind and he led them upstairs.  Darsha let Lorn know that she deactivated the device where the gun was.  Green Hair led them on to a pipe in a winding alley.  I-Five opens the hatch to the pipe and finds a ladder that goes up at least ten levels.  Green Hair gave them the access code for the top of the tunnel and then was released from Darsha’s mind grip.  They get to the top, open the hatch, and enter a room that used to be a central power dispensing agency.  I-Five suggested against firing any blasters in the room as there were explosive tanks all over the room.  Darsha gave Lorn a hug as they saw the sun peak through a high window.  then she pulled out her lightsaber and spun around.  A door opened and in walked the Sith.