Whispers of Menace
A Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace Alternate Universe
Chapter Five:
The Planet Core
The triangular vessel squirted through yet another of the Gungans' flexible, semi-permeable fields and into open water as I tried not to feel too squashed in the rear seat that I was sharing with Qui-Gon. I doubted that the bongo was designed for three adults, let alone the four we had just barely managed to accommodate.
"Dis is nutsen," Jar Jar muttered as we left the gentle glow of Otoh Gunga's lights behind. He was certainly not a happy camper.
"Master," Obi-Wan asked, almost whining, "why do you keep dragging these pathetic life-forms along with us?" The he pushed the control yoke toward the life-form in question. "Here, take over."
"Heyo? Where weesa goen'?"
"You're the one who's supposed to be navigating," I pointed out.
"Yousa dreamen', mesa hopen'." I groaned, putting a hand over my eyes. This day just kept getting worse.
"Just relax," Master Jinn said soothingly. I got the sense that the comment wasn't just for Binks. "The Force will guide us."
"Ooo, maxibig, 'da Force.' Wellen, dat smells stinkowiff." Obviously, he didn't believe as we did.
For a long while, silence reigned inside the cramped cockpit. Then the Padawan fixed the Gungan with a curious look.
"Jar Jar, why were you banished?" Good question. It couldn't be the accent, which appeared to be common to his species.
"'Tis a wong tale, butta small part woulda be meesa, ah, ah… cwumsy." I groaned again.
"They banished you because you're clumsy?" Obi-Wan didn't seem to understand how that would be a bad thing in a place like Otoh Gunga. I could think of a few reasons: the possibility of damaging equipment vital to maintaining force fields, injuring others in mishaps…
"Meesa caus-ed maybe one or duey littal bitty axadentes," Jar Jar elaborated. "Yud say, boom da gasser, un crash der Bosses' heyblibber, den banished." Our ersatz navigator threw up his hands for emphasis just as a crash sounded from the aft port quarter of the small ship.
I glanced over my shoulder to see the dim shape of a giant crustacean behind the clear outline of a large, fleshy appendage, stuck to our vessel.
"Full speed ahead," Qui-Gon ordered. However, thanks to our resident klutz, we went backwards, straight into the creature's mouth. Kenobi quickly yanked the controls out of Binks' hands, and there was a brief screech of rending metal before we were free. As we sped away, I got a brief glimpse of a much larger aquatic denizen gulping down our attacker.
"There's always a bigger fish," my seatmate said, meeting my eyes with a wry grin. Then the lights flickered, and I heard water trickling in as the turbine died. Obi-Wan leaned forward, popping open a panel as we drifted to a halt on a rock ledge. Wires sparked as he tried to bypass the problem. Jar Jar, though, was freaking out.
"Stay calm," I told him. "We're not in trouble yet."
"What 'yet'?" he protested. "Monstairs out dere, leaken' in hair, all'n sinken', un nooo powah! WHEN YOUSA T'INK WEESA IN TWUBBLE?!" To the accompaniment of a slight whir, the younger human smiled.
"Power's back." The forward spotlight came up and illuminated a narrow-snouted predator right in front of us.
"Monstairs back!" The creature drew back, spots on its side flaring into a cold blue light. Calmly, Obi-Wan pushed the bongo into a hard right and opened up the throttle. "Weesa in twubble now?" Qui-Gon reached forward to touch Binks' shoulder.
"Relax." He reinforced the command with a brush of the Force. The orange-skinned being slumped, completely limp.
"You overdid it," the Padawan accused. I disagreed, but most of the kid's attention was on evading the flatfish we'd startled. "This is not good!" Out of the corner of one eye, I spotted the beast that had munched on our crustacean, or one just like it. For a moment, it seemed to be aiming at us, but its path crossed ours just after we had gotten clear. Jar Jar woke up as the flatfish went down its gullet.
"Weesa dead yet?" He looked past me, eyes bugging out. "Oie boie!" Then he was out cold again.
"Head for that outcropping," Master Jinn directed.
As the voyage continued, the three of us worked on a strategy. Obviously, the Trade Federation wasn't interested in negotiating with anyone, not even the Chancellor's emissaries. That left us two options: give up, or approach Naboo's elected Queen and get her to present her people's side of things directly to the Senate.
And Jedi don't give up.
It took time, but we finally settled the details as we approached the planet's capital city of Theed. The battered little vessel bobbed to the surface of the river with the sun near zenith, a day after our arrival in the system. Buildings crowded both banks, separated from the water by wide stone walkways.
As soon as the force field over the cockpit was deactivated, I stood and stretched, feeling several joints pop. I looked back at the ship's rear. The turbine's streamer-like blades were no longer moving, but there was still a rushing noise…
Then I saw the drop-off.
"Weesa safe now," Jar Jar sighed with relief. As I reached for Master Jinn both physically and through the Force, I marveled that someone so unobservant had survived on his own at all.
"Get this thing started," Qui-Gon ordered as he, too, saw the waterfall. I dove headfirst into the front seat, my montrals briefly hitting the console as I started working through the wiring mess that had helped before. Something had to have some power left that could be rerouted to the engine.
"Dissen berry good, hey?" If I hadn't had my hands full of electrical bits, I would have hit Binks. Hard.
"What is it?" Obi-Wan pulled himself out of the cockpit and looked back, answering his own question. "Kriff." From the corner of my eye, I saw his Master's disapproving look for the swearword.
"What?! Oie boie!" I found a live lead, quickly connecting it to the engine circuits and getting the turbine spinning again. The ginger-haired youth reached down to carefully steer us closer to one walkway. Then his mentor took careful aim with a cable gun.
"Iyiiyi, weesa dyin' hair, hey!"
"Shut up," I growled, managing to catch Binks' shoulder with one boot in lieu of a fist. The cable gun's discharge coincided with a cough from the engine as the new power source began to fail. A faint but reassuring 'clink' reached my hearing just before Qui-Gon looped his end around an exposed structural member.
"Come on!" he called, and I gladly pulled myself out of the wiring chaos. Obi-Wan beat me to the lifeline, and I let him get a few meters out before starting my own crossing.
"Come on, Jar Jar," I heard the Jedi Master say as I hung below the cable and pulled myself along.
"No! Too scawy!" Klutz, blind, and cowardly? Fantastic.
"Get up here!" The Padawan reached for the railing as he shouted. Then I realized that the cable was swinging closer to the artificial shore, which meant that the bongo could go over the waterfall at any moment.
"Get up on the cable, you frakking ninny!" I wasn't a Padawan anymore, so I could get away with the mild profanity.
"No, a mighty no!" I caught the sturdy metal railing, using the Force to flip myself over it as I looked back. Qui-Gon was more than halfway across, leaving Jar Jar alone on the tiny ship. Then the bonehead realized the danger he was in. "Oie boie… Meesa comen'!"
Obi-Wan shot me a questioning glance as I began straightening my tunic and tabards underneath the knapsack's straps, and I nodded back. I'd sealed the waterproof lining even before we'd gotten to the Trade Federation ship; a little climb like that wouldn't have dislodged anything.
Master Jinn joined us, managing to twitch his robes back into place before I'd finished with mine. I had half again as many panels to deal with, but that wasn't fair… The trick smacked of Master Dooku, and I made a mental note to wheedle it out of Qui-Gon's mentor once we got home. As though he'd heard the thought, he looked up at me, a twinkle in his blue eyes and a tiny smile tugging at his mouth.
"That was close," the younger human said with a sigh.
"Drop your weapons!" The familiar vocoder timbre made me roll my eyes. Battle droids had spotted us, probably on their patrols. My knees flexed as I prepared to fight the ones that had found us.
Binks clambered over the edge of the walkway and clumsily rose to his feet.
"I said, drop your weapons!" The programmers had made at least one mistake: drawing weapons on members of the Order had become known as 'suicide by Jedi.' A single green blade came to life.
The droid's first two shots were easily deflected, the third going so wide that Qui-Gon didn't even bother trying to redirect it. By then, he was turning the electromagnetic menace into scrap.
A sudden loud 'thwang' caused us all to turn and look. Somehow, the droid's third shot had struck the cable, and now the bongo was slowly going over the waterfall. The prow rose from the water briefly before the vessel succumbed to gravity. A moment later, a muffled explosion announced its demise beneath the sound of rushing water.
"Whoa…" I couldn't tell whether Jar Jar was awed, overwhelmed, or just scared out of his tiny little mind. Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan didn't even pause before heading down the nearest narrow street, so I seized the Gungan's arm and dragged him after them.