THE CORE
They were all brought before the leader of Gungan city, Boss Nass. He was a burly-looking Gungan who kept a permanent scowl on his face and didn't look at all pleased to have outsiders just casually walking into the city. He was especially displeased to see Jar Jar again and had him handcuffed at the back of the room.
"Yousa cannot bees hair. Dis army of mackineeks up dare tis new weesong!" Big Boss Nass told them, his whole face jiggling as he spoke.
"That droid army is about to attack the Naboo. We must warn them," Qui-Gon attempted to explain to him.
Boss Nass scoffed. "Wesa no like da Naboo! Un dey no like uss-ens. Da Naboo tink day so smarty den us-ens. Day tink day brains so big."
Obi-Wan furrowed his brows. "After those droids take control of the surface, they will come here and take control of you."
"No, mesa no tink so. Mesa scant talkie witda Naboo, and no nutten talkie it outlander's. Dos mackineeks no comen here! Dey not know of uss-en."
"You and the Naboo form a symbiont circle. What happens to one of you will affect the other. You must understand this," Obi-Wan said, but Boss Nass was far too stubborn and headstrong to listen
Shasta nudged Obi-Wan's arm and leaned in close to whisper. "I don't think he does." She then looked up to Qui-Gon, and he silently nodded his head in approval.
"Wesa wish no nutten in yousa tings, outlander, and wesa no care-n about da Naboo," Boss Nass finished.
Shasta sighed and subtly waved her hand. "Then speed us on our way."
"Wesa…gonna speed yousaway," Boss Nass repeated.
Shasta nodded when Qui-Gon suddenly nudged her, making a gesturing motion. "A transport would be nice too," she said with another wave of her hand.
"Wesa give yousa una bongo," Boss Nass repeated once more. "Da speedest way tooda Naboo tis goen through da core. Now go," he said with a deep, sinister laugh.
Qui-Gon nodded his head and gave Boss Nass a quick bow. "Thank you for your help. We go in peace." They turned around and began to walk off, but as soon as he was sure no one was close enough to hear, he leaned in close to whisper to Shasta. "Much appreciated," he said and patted her shoulder.
"No problem," Shasta replied.
"Master," Obi-Wan spoke up, "what's a bongo?"
Qui-Gon clearly didn't know himself and only shrugged. "A transport, I hope."
As the Jedi passed by Jar Jar, he suddenly leaned in close and whispered a warning to them. "Daza setten yous up. Goen through da planet core is bad bombin."
"Trust us, we know," Shasta said. She could already see what Boss Nass was trying to do. There was just no worry in her mind, and she was confident enough in her abilities to handle whatever was inside the core.
Jar Jar hung his head and slumped his shoulders. "Ahhh...any hep hair would be hot," he said with a sheepish grin while gesturing to the chains.
Obi-Wan saw his master hesitate. "We are short of time, Master," he said.
Qui-Gon thought it over for a second before nodding. "We'll need a navigator to get us through the planet's core. This Gungan may be of some help."
Shasta had to double-take. "He could?"
Qui-Gon turned around and began walking back to Boss Nass. "What is to become of Jar Jar Binks here?" he asked.
"Binkss brokeen the nocombackie law. Hisen to be pune-ished," he said cryptically, but Shasta could tell by the tone in his voice that this punishment wasn't going to be light. She wouldn't be surprised if he had something like execution in mind.
"He has been a great help to us. I hope the punishment will not be too severe," Qui-Gon hoped. He then looked back to Shasta and motioned her over. "But…we will be needing a navigator to get us through the planet's core. My friend here had saved his life. He owes her what you call a 'life debt.'"
Boss Nass looked surprised. "Binks. Yousa havena liveplay with thisen hisen?"
Jar Jar nodded energetically and quickly strolled up between Qui-Gon and Shasta, nearly knocking them both over in the process.
Shasta waved her hand. "Your gods demand that his life belongs to me now."
"Hisen live tis yos, outlauder." Boss Nass repeated, falling easily under Shasta's mind tricks. "Begone wit him."
Qui-Gon bowed his head before turning around and leaving the room, now with one more member added to their team.
Obi-Wan and Shasta stood beside each other in front of what they believed was the transport sub that would get them through the core. It wasn't at all what they expected it to be. At first, Shasta thought it was a living organism but quickly realized it wastheir ship. She could actually see a cockpit with four seats inside.
"This is a bongo?" Obi-Wan questioned doubtfully.
"Oh, I hope so." Shasta walked over to the sub and crawled inside onto the front seat. She opened the control box and started to tinker around with the messy wires inside. She leaned in close to get a better look before abruptly yanking her head away when sparks came flying out.
"What are you doing?" Obi-Wan asked while walking alongside the transport.
"Making sure they hadn't sabotaged anything."
"You think they would do that?"
Shasta stopped what she was doing and scoffed a little. "Darling…Not everyone is good," she said to him in this ominously harsh voice. Obi-Wan was a little taken aback at first, but what nearly gave him whiplash was when she looked up at him, smiled, and patted his cheek like she was just joking. "Anyone is capable of cruelty. It doesn't matter who it is," she finished in a much casual demeanor before looking back to the wires.
"You lack trust," Obi-Wan spoke out by accident. Although he was initially thinking it, the words flew from his mouth before he could realize.
"Only with those I don't know. Look, I've been around these parts long enough to know that the only one you can trust…is yourself. It was one of the many…" Shasta's smile crumbled, and she abruptly fumbled on her words a little. "It was…one of the lessons my mother taught me when I was young."
"Did your mother teach you how to use a lightsaber?" He saw Shasta's face become puzzled while turning to look at him. Suddenly feeling a little sheepish, Obi-Wan turned away. "Sorry for bring this up all of a sudden. It's just that the Jedi Archives never had a lot of information on the Eve clan. I was wondering how you were trained."
"Oh, that…" Shasta said with a dull and flat voice. "Yes and no. Well, you should know that Eves are not Jedi, but we do have our own rules and traditions."
"Traditions?" Becoming more and more intrigued, Obi-Wan leaned in closer to listen.
Shasta smirked and nodded. "Yeah. Aside from real-life experience like bounty hunting and mercenary work. Eve training is…rather unique. It comes in the form of memory transferring through the Force. We learn over thousands of years' worth of memories from those who had come before us. We experience what they experienced. Culture, history, and especially war with the Sith during the era of the Old Republic. What my people experienced back then had been transferred over from generation to generation."
"All the way to you," Obi-Wan finished with an utterly astounded look in his eyes. Shasta thought it was adorable. He was at least a couple of years older than her, but the curious sparkle in his eyes made him look quite young. "So that's why you know how to do these things. You have the memories of at least a hundred people."
Shasta lifted her hand and gave him a so-so manner. "Sorta. Memories can come and go because people can't help but forget, but muscle memory and Force knowledge remain no matter how much time has passed..." Shasta's words soon drifted off, and Obi-Wan noticed her face contorting slightly. "Unfortunately, though, fresh memories are always the most prominent. Which means I have the memories of my mother and what she had to go through during the Eve tragedy. It's not…" She took a deep breath and looked straight ahead with this thousand-yard stare and a haunted look spiraling in her cosmos-like eyes. "It wasn't pretty, and she lost everything during the mass poisoning. As well as her parents and little brother. She stayed on Lyor for as long as she could until there was literally no one left. After she finally left the planet…I came around sometime later. But if you ask me…I rather had not gotten the memories at all. You wanna know how old I was when she transferred the memories to me?"
For some reason, her question sounded more like a trap that made him not want to answer. "I imagine you had to have been young. Maybe 9 or 10?" He was clearly wrong with the look she was giving him. The same haunted expression from before.
"I was 5. I couldn't sleep because I had nightmares. I cried for months, and you wanna know what my mother said to me regarding it…" she corrected him with a slight shakiness in her voice. "She just said I'd get used to it."
This wasn't…at all what Obi-Wan was expecting. He was at a loss for words, but his mind was still spinning with unanswered questions. While he was eager to learn more about her people, this excitement soon faded, leaving him feeling cold and confused. From the start, he had known about the Eve clan's relationship dynamic, that they were the kinds of people who deeply cared about one another. Yet, he wasn't getting that feeling at all from Jillian Eve. She just sounded cold and cynical.
Shasta took in a deep breath to regain her composure that nearly slipped away. "She was right though…I did get over it. I found my comfort playing with the kyber crystals that my clan left behind after they all passed." She reached around back to her lightwhip and held it firmly in her hand. Relief quickly settled into her face as she ran her fingers over the smooth metal. Even her voice had a gentleness to it. "Making lightsabers and carrying them around with me…I don't know, just makes me feel…less lonely, I guess." She breathed out softly and flipped the weapon in her hand before putting it back. She then looked up and saw Qui-Gon and Jar Jar returning after getting more information about the core. "Qui-Gon. Ready to go whenever you are."
"Is everything alright?" Qui-Gon asked, gesturing to the ship.
"By what I can tell."
Qui-Gon nodded and looked over to his Padawan. "Obi-Wan, would you pilot the ship?"
Obi-Wan blinked rapidly, physically having to shake himself back to the present since his mind had been adrift for so long. "Yes, Master."
Shasta sat in the backseat beside Qui-Gon as Obi-Wan drove the ship outside the city and into the deeper, darker parts of the ocean. She looked back at the city as it got farther and farther away, and soon enough, she wasn't able to see the lights anymore. The only source they had now was inside the cockpit and the headlights illuminating the path ahead.
"Dis is nutsen... Ooo, gooberfish!" Jar Jar said while slumping down in the seat beside Obi-Wan.
"Why were you banished, Jar Jar?" Obi-Wan asked out of curiosity.
"Tis a longo taleo, buta small part of it wawdbe mesa... aaaa... clumsy," he said sadly and lowered his head.
Obi-Wan gave him an odd look. "You were banished because you were clumsy?"
"That's a thing?" Shasta chimed in from the back seat.
Jar Jar made a face. "Ahh... Yousa mighten be sayin dat. Mesa cause-ed mabee one or duey lettal bitty axadentes...yud-say boom da gasser, un crash Der Bosses heyblibber...den banished."
As the little sub glided deeper into the planet's core, it soon attracted the attention of a giant sea creature. Suddenly sensing a presence now behind them, Shasta turned around and saw a fish, bigger than the sub swimming after them. Instantly, her heart began to race as it opened its mouth, revealing sharp teeth inside its jaws.
"Ah... Qui-Gon?" Shasta called out while tugging on his robe. "We seemed to have…gotten something's attention."
Just as Qui-Gon turned around, the giant fish opened its mouth and hooked onto the sub with his long gooey tongue.
Jar Jar began to panic instantly and flailed around like a mad Gungan. "Uh-oh, Big gooberfish! Huge Opee!"
The fish pulled them in close and clamped its jaws down on them, sinking its sharp teeth deep into the metal. If this went on, the sub would break before they could make it to the surface.
Shasta stood up. "Ok, let me out there. I'll get him to let go." She looked like she was about to leave when Qui-Gon reached out to stop her.
"There's no need." He gestured outside as a different but equally as big sea creature emerged from the depths and attacked the fish. It released the ship immediately and allowed them to swim away. "There's always a bigger fish."
Obi-Wan guided the ship into a nearby cave where it would be hard for any large creatures to chase after them.
"Where wesa goin?" Jar Jar asked.
"Don't worry, the Force will guide us..." Qui-Gon assured him.
Jar Jar rolled his eyes. "Ooooh, maxibig...'da Force'...Well, dat smells stinkowiff."
They didn't make it far when the alarms inside began to sound, and the power began to shut down.
"We're losing power," Obi-Wan alerted them.
"Oh, no..." Jar Jar whined as the sub crawled to a stop and the lights turned off. "Oh, wesa diein here."
"Just relax. We're not in trouble yet," Qui-Gon said. "Shasta."
"I'm on it." Shasta moved to the front and squatted in front of the control box. She flipped open the panel and reached inside to start sparking wires together, hoping the electric charge would reignite the engines and get them moving again.
"What yet? Monstairs out dare! Leak'n in here, all'n sink'n, and nooooo power! You nutsen! When yousa tinken wesa in trouble?!"
Shasta sparked the wires together a couple more times, and the sub hummed to life. "Haha! Power's back," she said proudly. As the headlights turned back on, it revealed an ugly eel-like fish with even bigger teeth. "Ooh! Big fish! Really, really big fish!" Shasta yelped and stumbled back.
The eel-like fish reared away from the sudden bright lights as the sub turned away and sped into a different path. Jar Jar was nearly inconsolable though, panicking and babbling incoherently.
"Relax," Qui-Gon said to him. He reached over and placed a hand on Jar Jar's shoulder, and the Gungan immediately slipped into a relaxed coma.
"You overdid it," Obi-wan said.
As the sub fled from the caves, the eel leaped out after them but was caught in the deadly jaws of a literal aqua beast. Its rumbling voice made the whole sub vibrate as they sped away, leaving both the monster and the core behind as well.
"Good grief." Shasta huffed while looking back. She cringed while watching the beast bite the head of the eel off.
"Head for that outcropping," Qui-Gon pointed.
Slowly Jar Jar began to regain consciousness and shook his head. "Oie boie!"
The sub finally bobbed to the surface right beside the heart of Naboo. A rich city filled with pearly white stone walls, beautifully designed buildings, and crystal blue waters. But like the blockade right outside the planet, the city was infested with thousands of battle droids too.
Shasta grabbed the top of the sub and pulled herself up. "Alright…now we just gotta find the queen and get back to Coruscant. Sounds easy enough."
"We can only hope that it is," Qui-Gon said while standing up slowly, looking around to ensure the coast was clear. "Come on."