Whispers of Menace

A Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace Alternate Universe

Chapter Sixteen:

The Queen's Gambit

and

A Plea to the Gungans

Upon arrival in the Naboo system, Anakin sat as close to Ric Olie's elbow as possible, giving the man quiet directions so that we could avoid the notice of the single remaining Trade Federation ship. I suspected that it housed the controls for the droid armies, as well as whichever Federation employees were supervising the whole farce. Between them, we managed to set down in a clearing just barely big enough for the cruiser.

Everyone but a pair of guards trooped through the forest to the nearest lake, where Jar Jar dove into the water, leaving us to wait. I tried to start teaching Ani to meditate, but he was fidgeting too much to settle down. Instead, I sent him to talk to Padmé.

"Ani!" I heard her exclaim. "What are you doing here?" She must have been very focused on coaching her doppelganger, not to have noticed him.

"Serra's my Master now. I'm really gonna be a Jedi!" Then his face fell. "I don't think the High Council likes me much. They don't like Serra, either."

"This is going to be dangerous, Ani," the young woman warned.

"I can help," he insisted. "Where are we going?"

"To war, I'm afraid." Padmé sighed. "The Queen has had to make a very difficult decision. She doesn't believe in fighting. We're a peaceful people."

"How can I help? There must be something," the blond said sincerely. Of course he wanted to do something, not run off and hide. Now, if the grand plan involved those yellow-and-chrome starfighters that had shared the hangar with the cruiser, I'd be just fine with him flying. Surely the control ship would have to be disabled in order to really stop the droids.

That thought in mind, I joined Qui-Gon where he stood, staring out across the water. His mind seemed to be light-years away. When he shifted and sighed, I glanced over.

"I suppose you're the one who gave my Master the motivation to get out of his funk." My lips quirked momentarily with the ghost of a smile. "He wouldn't let me in when I tried to see him."

"I didn't actually ask, just…" I wiggled my fingers.

"So what was wrong, and what did Komari have to do with it?"

"She found out she wasn't going to get any further in the Order, and so she got into a snit and talked her way into a group of young Knights headed for a war zone. She wasn't among the very few survivors, and he was blaming himself."

"That foolish, reckless, selfish little girl!" He visibly reined in his temper, nose flaring. "I told him she wouldn't want to learn the control a Jedi must have. He should have let the kriffing Corps have her."

"Yeah, well, it took pointing out that she'd manipulated him before he got mad enough to see it for himself." That received a snort and a rueful shake of Qui-Gon's head.

"It figures. He occasionally needs to be shown that he's out of balance so that he can regain control." Silence lingered for a few minutes.

"Do you think that the Queen's idea will work?" I asked. Part of the deal that would be offered, I knew, was a much more open and equal relationship between the Gungans and the Naboo.

"They won't be easily swayed, and we cannot use our powers to help her." Not like he had in Otoh Gunga just over a week earlier. No, this agreement would have to go through without any interference.

"Thanks for standing up for me yesterday," I murmured. "And for Ani, too."

"Sifo-Dyas taught you well; it was past time for you to take a Padawan." He turned to face me squarely, some unidentifiable emotion glimmering deep in his crystalline blue eyes. "In many ways, you are far wiser than I."

I opened my mouth to ask what he meant by that, but was cut off by a loud splashing as Jar Jar resurfaced. The non-human's face was bleak.

"Dere's-a nobuddy dere," he explained as the entire party gathered around him. "All gone. Some kinda fighten', my t'ink." He shrugged nervously. "Sorry, no Gungans… no Gungans." Whatever he'd found down there had really frightened him.

"Do you think they might have been taken to camps?" Panaka suggested.

"The Nemoidians are more likely to have wiped them out," Obi-Wan corrected.

"No, meesa no t'ink sos," Binks answered. "Gungans be hiden'. When in twubbles, weesa goen ta da sacred pwace. Dese mackineeks no finden' dem dere."

"You know where they are." The confident, competent Jedi Master was back, and his words were an order, not a question. The orange-skinned being nodded jerkily, then headed into the denser vegetation with his awkward gait.

"Dissen's it," he finally said as we stepped into a small, unremarkable clearing. There was nothing to distinguish it from any other, until our guide let loose with an odd, high-pitched chittering noise. Seven Gungans mounted on kaadu emerged from the brush within moments.

"Heyo-dalee, Cap'n Tarpals." Ah, so the leader was indeed the same individual who had greeted us so kindly in Otoh Gunga.

Note the sarcasm.

"Binks! No ahgain…" It sounded as though he was used to saying that every time he saw Jar Jar.

"Weesa comen' ta see da Bosses. Da Queen, she's-a wanten' talkie wit da Bosses sos uss-ens c'n be busten' oop da mackineeks." Tarpals rolled his eyes skywards and heaved a sigh, as though praying for more patience. I didn't blame him one bit.

"Ouch time, Binks," he warned. "Ouch time fer all'n yous."

In the middle of a large building's ruins— and I mean Coruscant-scale large— Gungans of all ages, colors, and presumably genders wandered about, each obviously trying to make themselves or someone else feel more at home in this temporary refuge. Our group, escorted by Captain Tarpals and his fellows, were led to stand before a massive humanoid head which had been carved from a solid piece of stone. Boss Nass and several others whom I recognized from our last meeting appeared, seating themselves on various protrusions.

"Jar Jar, yousa payen' dis time. Whosa bees dese udders?" The ersatz Queen stepped forward, and Padmé winked at me.

"I am Queen Amidala of the Naboo," the girl in the facepaint said confidently. "I come before you in peace."

"Naboo biggen," Nass interrupted. I wasn't sure quite what that was supposed to mean. "Yousa bringen' da mackineeks. Deysa busten' uss-ens oop." He paused. "Yousa all bombad newsen. Yousa alls dyen', meesa t'ink."

"We wish to form an alli—" The decoy fell silent when the real Queen held up a hand and stepped forward.

"Your Honor," she greeted her counterpart in her real voice, not the 'royal' tone that was so stilted and formal.

"Whosa dis?!" I almost expected the fat Gungan to burst like a youngling's over-filled water bomb.

"I am Queen Amidala." As murmurs ran through the crowd that had gathered around us, the hand extended toward her doppelganger turned palm-up. "This is my decoy, my protection… my loyal friend and bodyguard." Anakin was openly gaping, and Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon exchanged looks that almost screamed 'How did I miss that?' Jar Jar simply stared, while the Naboo security guards and other handmaidens seemed to be wondering what to do now.

"I am sorry for my deception," Padmé apologized, "but under the circumstances, it has become necessary to protect myself. Although we do not always agree, Your Honor, our two great societies have long lived in peace, until now." The mutters rose and subsided again. "The Trade Federation has destroyed all that we have worked to build. You are in hiding, and my people are in camps. I ask… no." She dropped to her knees in a gesture of humility, and I quickly followed. "I beg you to help us."

One by one, the entire contingent copied her, bowing to the species that had evolved here.

"We are your humble servants," the true Queen conceded. "Our fate is in your hands." After a moment, Boss Nass began to chuckle, then laughed wholeheartedly.

"Yousa no t'inken' yousa greater dan de Gungans?" he asked rhetorically. "Meesa liken' dis. Maybe weesa bein' friends."