Star Wars: The Phantom Menace

Chapter 4

The early morning mist was just beginning to thin as Jar Jar Binks waded through the Naboo swamp in search of breakfast. Like most Gungans, he preferred to catch his food fresh. The damp air felt good against the reddish ear-flaps that hung halfway down his back, and the murky water was pleasantly warm around his thick toes. All he needed now was -------
    A gleam of white caught his eye, half-hidden in the swamp ooze. Oh, goody morning munchen! Jar Jar thought happily. One wiry arm reached down and retrieved the clam. The smell snapped closed as Jar Jar's hand touched it. Jar Jar settled down to open his meal. When the shell opened at last, Jar Jar scooped the clam out of the shell with his long tongue, enjoying its delicate flavor and smoothness. Dissen the life, he thought. Goody munchen and no Captain Tarpals making fuss about little accidents. He looked up, and froze.
   A giant thing moved through the swamp, a thing like an enormous head without eyes. It was as big as the nightmarish monsters that rose out of the core rifts from time to time. Swamp creatures fled before it. Among the nuna and peko peko came a girl on a back of a giant flying cat-like creature came through the trees. Even the girl and cat could not stay ahead of it, though; the thing gained on them steadily. But Jar Jar could see that the monster was not chasing any of the creatures, not even the Full-Demon and Cat-like creature. It was headed straight for him, Jar Jar Binks.
     "Noooo!" Jar Jar cried. Unfreezing, he dropped the clamshell and the girl on the cat's back, grabbed him. "Hep me! Hep me!"
"Let go!" the girl shouted when he grabbed her, but Jar Jar clung tightly. The girl dragged him through the swamp beside the cat, while the monster gained rapidly. Just before it reached them, the girl ordered the cat to be in the mud. Kirara obeyed and flung her, Alea and the Gungan to the mud. Jar Jar felt a hot wind against his back, and then the thing had passed by. As he pulled himself out of the mud, he saw the huge creature vanish into the mist.
   "Oyi!" he said. In an ecstasy of relief, he hugged the girl and Cat who had saved him. "I luv yous!" The girl left off wringing swamp water out of her clothes to glare at Jar Jar and Kirara shakes off the mud from her fur. "Are you brainless?" she demanded. "You almost got us killed!"
    "I spake," Jar Jar said, taken back. This Full-Demon had no right to be insulting, just because she has saved Jar Jar's life. And now that the creature was gone and Jar Jar was no longer so frightened, he could taste traces of fuel in the swamp air. The thing that had chased them had only been some sort of machine, and not a monster from the core after all. "The ability to speak does not make you intelligent," the Full-Demon told him. "Now, get out of here!"
    Jar Jar stared as the Full-Demon and Cat started off. "No, no," he said, following. "Mesa stay." What was that thing Humans said? Oh, yes ------ "Mesa yous humbule servaunt."
   "That won't be necessary," the Full-Demon said absently, scanning the mist. Jar Jar rolled his eyes. Humans never understanding anything! He told the woman it was demanded by the gods, as a life debt. The Full-Demon did not answer, but she didn't move off again, either. Encouraged, Jar Jar said, "Mesa called JaJa Binkss."
     "I have no time for this now," the tall woman muttered. "Say what?" Jar Jar turned to see what she was looking at. Two strange flying machines broke out of the mist. Each carried a creature like a Gungan skeleton, tall and bone-white. They were chasing two other Humans. A tall, bearded man and the other was younger and had no beard, but they wore the same sort of brown-tan robes as the woman who had rescued Jar Jar.
    "Oh, nooooo!" Jar Jar cried, his voice climbing higher and higher. "Wesa gonna ------" Something knocked him facedown in the mud, and he heard the dog-eared Full-Demon say, "Stay down!" Jar Jar raised his head, spitting mud and water. "----- die!" he finished, just as the flying machine fired two brilliant bolts of light. To Jar Jar's astonishment, a bar of blue light appeared in the Full-Demon's hand and bounced the shots back at the skeleton-creatures. The creature and their machines blew up. The Cat shielded Jar Jar with her body from the explosion. Sparks and hot metal fell hissing into the swamp. Quiet returned, except for the panting of the Humans the machines had been chasing.
    "Sorry, Master Alea," the newcomer said after a moment and the bearded man said nothing. "The water fried my weapon." He pulled a short, blackened tube from his belt and handed it to Jar Jar's rescuer. The Cat walked towards them and stands beside the woman's side. The dog-eared woman examined the tube, than gave the newcomer a severe look. "You forgot to turn your power off again, didn't you?"
    The newcomer nodded sheepishly. A dragon-like creature, a mouse-like, and a horse with flames on its hooves came out of the rupiter trees and they came towards us and stand behind the Full-Demon. Jar Jar cocked his head in sympathy as he picked himself up out of the mud. He understood how easy it was to forget things. He'd done it himself, far too often. "It won't take long to recharge," the Full-Demon woman said, handing the tube back to the newcomer. "But I hope you've finally learned this lesson, young Padawan."
  "Yes, Master Alea," the other man said in a subdued tone. No more lecturings, Jar Jar thought. "Yousa sav-ed my again, hey?" he said, hoping to change the subject. "What's this?" the newcomer said unenthusiastically. "A local," the woman replied. "Let's go, before more of the droids show up."
    The offhand dismissal annoyed Jar Jar briefly . . . and then the rest of the woman's words sank in. "Mure? Mure, did you spake?" He did not want to see any more machines. The two men, the woman, and the creatures began to run without replying. Jar Jar followed, thinking rapidly. None of his usual hiding places would be safe from the machines. But the machines had hovered above the swamp. They didn't look as if they'd work well underwater. And under the water was ------ "Ex-squeezee-me, but da moto grande safe place would be Otoh Gunga," he said as they ran. "Tis where I grew up. Tis safe city."
   The men, the woman, and her animal friends stopped running to look at him. "A city!" the bearded man said. "Can you take us there?" Jar Jar hestiated. Otoh Gunga would be safe for them, but for him . . . "Ah, will, on second taut ------ no, not willy." Seeing their surprise, he looked down. "Iss embarrissing, boot ----- my afraid my've been banished. My forgotten der bosses would do terrible things to my, if my goen back dare."
    In the distance, strange noises echoed through the swamp. "You hear that?" the bearded man said. "That's the sound of a thousand terrible things. Heading this way." The woman and her animal friends nodded their heads. "And when they find us, they will crush us, grind us into little pieces, then blast us into oblivion," the second man added with unnecessary emphasis. "Yousa point is well seen," Jar Jar said with as much dignity as he could manage. "Dis way. Hurry!"

The odd, froglike native led Alea, Beau, Entei, Pikachu, Kirara, Qui-Gon and his apprentice to the shore of a lake. After warning them not to expect a warm welcome, he leaped high in the air and dove into the water. The two Jedi pulled breath masks from their belt packs and waded in after him. Alea and her animal friends decided to wait for them to come back and they took naps in the trees. Sunlight barely penetrated the murky lake water. Less than a meter below the surface, the light began to dim. Soon it was hard to see. As Jar Jar led the two Jedi deeper and deeper, Qui-Gon began to fear that they would lose him in the increasing darkness.
   Suddenly Qui-Gon saw a gleam of light ahead. In another moment, he could make out a string of amber bubbles, shining warm and bright through the dark water. Their rich yellow glow lit the water for meters around. The bubbles varied in size; the largest looked to be nearly seventy-five meters tall. A lacework of metal the color of old bronze topped each globe, helping the walls keep their shape and providing a place to link bubbles together. As they drew nearer, Qui-Gon could make out buildings inside the bubbles. Gungans walked casually along the streets, while fish swam past a few meters away outside the bubble wall. They had almost reached the bubble city, and Qui-Gon began to look for a door or an air lock. But Jar Jar swam straight toward the side of the bubble ----- and passed right through it into the city inside. The bubble wall sealed seamlessly behind him. Permeable hydrostatic membranes, Qui-Gon thought. They keep the seawater out, but let people through, so the city doesn't need an air lock. Impressive. He followed Jar Jar, beginning to hope they reached the Naboo palace in time after all.
   But the bosses of Otoh Gunga were not willing to help. "Wesa no like the Naboo!" the head Gungan, Boss Nass, declared when the Jedi were brought before him. "Un dey no like uss-ens. Da Naboo tink day so smarty. Day tink day brains so big." Obi-Wan tried to argue, but the bosses did not want to listen. "Wesa no care-en about da Naboo," Boss Nass said flatly. Talk was getting them nowhere. And if we don't reach the capital soon, the Trade Federation's droids will have taken over. Qui-Gon gestured, reaching out to touch the Gungan's mind. "Then speed us on our way," he said. "Wesa ganna speed yousaway," the Gungan Boss said, responding readily to Qui-Gon's suggestion. "Wese give yousa una bongo. Da speedest way tooda Naboo tis goen through da core. Now go." Qui-Gon thanked him and turned away. As they walked toward the exit, Obi-Wan whispered, "Master, what's a bongo?"
    "A transport, I hope," Qui-Gon murmured. Preferably a fast one . . . He stopped. Jar Jar Binks stood between two guards, wearing handcuffs and plainly waiting for judgment. Catching Qui-Gon's eye, Jar Jar said, "Ahh . . . any hep hair would be hot." Obi-Wan frowned. "We are short of time, Master," he objected. "We'll need a navigator," Qui-Gon said. "This Gungan may be of help." Besides, we talked Jar Jar into coming here. If it weren't for us, he wouldn't be in trouble. Qui-Gon turned back to the Gungan bosses. "What is to become of Jar Jar Binks here?"
"Hisen to be pune-ished," Boss Nass said. "Pounded unto death." Jar Jar moaned. Obi-Wan looked startled, then worried. Plainly, he had not realized how serious Jar Jar's problem was. Qui-Gon comlinked Alea to tell about Jar Jar's death that was going to happen. "I'm on my way," Alea said. One minute later, Alea on Kirara's back, came to the bubble shield and walked toward Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan. Alea studied the head Gungan. "I have saved Jar Jar Binks' life," she said to the Boss. "He owes me what you call a life debt." She gestured, nudging the Gungan's mind. "Your gods demand that his life belongs to me now."
   "Hisen live tis yos, outlander," Boss Nass said. "Begone wit him." Jar Jar looked from one to the other, and shook his head. "Count mesa outta dis! Better dead here den deader in da core . . . Yee guds, whata mesa sayin?" As the guards removed Jar Jar's handcuffs, Qui-Gon, Alea, Kirara and Obi-Wan exchanged looks. Traveling through the core doesn't sound much safer than facing the Trade Federation's battle droids, Qui-Gon thought. But at least this way, we have a chance of getting to the Naboo Queen before the droids do. If we survive the trip.