QUI-GON JINN'S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE

by ardavenport

- - Part 1

CRAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

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Tic.

A droid head snapped upward to see a body, illuminated from the sunlight above, descending, gaining speed, plunging to the floor.

And then inexplicably slowing down before impact.

Thud.

Other droids, tethered to the walls, clicked on and looked toward the body, unmoving on the floor, amidst the rubble of transparasteel and broken struts.

A line of sentry droids twitched with suppressed action, overridden by their active maintenance programs. Floor cleaners clicked and bleeped, but remained tethered to their recharge sockets. Bulky blue load lifters grumbled in place; one with broken left arm gears made a faint grinding noise. Square eye sensors on metal stalks swivelled to look, even the ones dark and dysfunctional. Plastiform bodies jostled each other in a big wire enclosure on one side of the huge room before settling down.

The body remained motionless.

One sentry droid vocalizer hummed with a modulated voice sound before falling silent. Activity lights blinked back to standby or went out.

An arm moved, the dark brown fabric on it dragging broken wreckage and transparisteel dust with it. Haltingly, the arm rose up, flipping the body over on its side. Plastisteel bits and shards fell clinking down to the floor as legs moved and arms pushed the body upright. And then stood. A few stagging steps dislodged more bits as a tall dark brown robe moved out of the direct light, into the shadows.

A door slid open. A long, distorted rectangle of pale yellow, light spread over the floor. Then a shadow darkened that. The room's own artificial lights came on.

"Whoa!"

Qui-Gon Jinn whirled, his hand going to the lightsaber clipped to his belt. But instinct froze the action and he did not draw the weapon.

The newcomer came in. Droids all along the walls of what was clearly a maintenance bay activated, their attention drawn to a male Human, as tall as Qui-Gon, with similar long brown hair hanging down all around his young but lined face and a fuzzy ball of a beard on his chin. He wore a loose gray shirt and baggy pants on his slender body.

"Whoa!" he repeated before noticing Qui-Gon. "Who are you, dude?"

"I was sent," Qui-Gon said, straightening his robe. More fragments fell away from the rough cloth. "To look at the window." He pointed upward.

"Whoa!" the younger Human said, craning his neck upward, apparently noticing the broken skylight for the first time. "Whoa. That's serious."

A rumble from the roof through the hole above. A huge armored droid transport darkened the blue sky. Voices on a com came closer. Qui-Gon stepped back, away from the skylight, while the Human moved to stand directly under it. A helmeted head appeared and called down.

"Togi! We're under attack!"

"Yeah, man! I saw all the alerts!" Togi shouted back.

"We've got a perimeter penetration! We think a Jedi got through! Have you seen anything?"

"Uh?" Togi put a hand to his beard before turning to Qui-Gon. "Hey man, have you seen any Jedi around here?"

"No," Qui-Gon lied, shaking his head. "I have not."

Togi looked back up.

"Haven't seen anything here!"

"Good! You've got sentry droids down there, right?"

"Yeah! I got lots!"

"Good! Keep your perimeter secure!"

"Okay!"

Togi stared, slack-jawed, upward.

"You want me to fix the sentry droids first?" he asked. But the soldier had gone. The armored transports moved on.

Togi still waited another moment before giving up and looking around, his feet sliding through the wreckage of the skylight. He put a hand to his head.

"You want me to get this cleaned up before you fix the window? I guess if they're all on alert they'll want that done first."

"That would be most helpful," Qui-Gon agreed, nodding and folding his arms before him, his dark robe concealing his Jedi tunics, belt and lightsaber. But he sensed that Togi would not really notice their significance even if they were visible.

"Okay." Togi went to a large yellow box on legs with several flexible silvered arms. "Ekto-53 was just here for a lube on his joints and a recharge." He activated the machine, pointed at the mess on the floor and told it to clean it up.

'Glump, glump,' the droid responded electronically before ponderously moving forward, arms flexing.

"You want to hang with me in the node control room?" Togi invited. "Ekto's good, but slow."

"Thank-you. I would."

- - End Part 1