Star Wars - Episode I Adventures 011 - Pirates from Beyond the Sea

by Ryder Windham

  Boss Nass grimaced and asked, “Why dis Swagg usen yousa to make distraction? Why hisen on Naboo?”

  “He plans to loot the statues from your sacred place.”

  Boss Nass’ eyes bulged in their sockets. “WHAT?!” he bellowed. “Pirates from beyond da sea taken our sacred artifacts? Call da militia! Da Grand Army gotta go tooda sacred place at once!”

  “Moto of da militia is at Lake Umberbool,” Lob Dizz reminded Boss Nass. “Wesa can senda message tooda militia, boot wesa get tooda sacred place faster dan anyone else. Be dare in less dan half un hour.”

  Boss Nass gestured at the two manacled droids and asked, “What about dese mackineeks?”

  “Daza secure-ed, so mesa just switch dem off,” Lob Dizz replied. She held up a palm-sized remote control device, aimed it at the droid with the dented head, and pushed a red button. The moment the button clicked, the droid deactivated and his photoreceptors went dim. She repeated the process with the second droid, who slumped back against the metal table. “Mesa goen wit yousa, Boss,” Lob Dizz added. “If wesa run inta mure mackineeks, mabee mesa could hep switchen dem off.”

  Boss Nass and Lob Dizz exited the lab and found Captain Tarpals, Major Fassa, and Jar Jar Binks. “Get moven, yousa three!” Boss Nass said. “Wesa taken da Rep heyblibber tooda sacred place. Wesa senda message to Lake Umberbool onda way, un wesa summon da troops.”

  The five Gungans ran through a transport tube to the nearby sub pen. Inside the pen, they found Commander Wollod, who was tuning the engine of Boss Nass’s heyblibber. Commander Wollod snapped to attention at the sight of Boss Nass, who demanded, “Where’s da Rep heyblibber?”

  “Rep Been took it tooda sacred place,” Commander Wollod answered.

  Boss Nass scowled. “Rep Been cowdabe in maxibig danger. Wesa take annutter sub. Wesa gotta speed tooda sacred place un stop da pirates immidyit-ly.”

  “Pirates?” Commander Wollod inquired with surprise.

  “Wesa tell yousa onda way,” Boss Nass said. “Now let’s get goen!”

  At this point, you must decide whether to continue reading this adventure, or to play your own adventure in the Pirates From Beyond the Sea Game Book.

  To play your own adventure, turn to the first page of the Game Book and follow the directions you find there. To continue reading this Gungan adventure, turn the page!

  “Mesa wundrin sumptin,” Jar Jar muttered as Commander Wollod steered Boss Nass’s private heyblibber out of the Gungan sub pen. Jar Jar was seated in the luxury submersible's aft cabin with Captain Tarpals, Major Fassa, and Lob Dizz. Boss Nass and Commander Wollod were in the forward cabin, seated behind the heyblibber’s controls.

  Captain Tarpals ignored Jar Jar’s comment. Given Jar Jar’s tendency for trouble, Tarpals couldn’t believe Boss Nass allowed Jar Jar onto the heyblibber. Tarpals could easily imagine Jar Jar causing some sort of accident that would disable the ship. Or worse. Actually, Tarpals could hardly believe that Boss Nass had decided to use his prized heyblibber at all, since Boss Nass seemed to spend more time having it polished and tuned than piloting it through the sea. In any event, Tarpals knew better than to engage in any conversation that might encourage Jar Jar’s antics.

  Fassa turned to Jar Jar and asked, “What yousa wundrin?”

  Tarpals closed his eyes. He fought the urge to squirm in his seat and tried to ignore Fassa’s words too. Every time she spoke to Jar Jar, Tarpals became very uncomfortable. He couldn’t understand how Fassa could have ever pledged a life debt to Jar Jar, even if Jar Jar had risked his own life to save her from a sando aqua monster. Tarpals knew that Jar Jar was more lucky than he was brave. Unlike Jar Jar, Fassa was strong, graceful, intelligent, beautiful...

  Beautiful?! The moment the word entered Captain Tarpals’s mind, his eyes popped open and his purplish-brown face flushed red. Fassa was not only a major in the Grand Army, but the niece of Boss Nass, and Tarpals hadn’t allowed himself to think of her as anything but a fellow soldier. At least, he had tried to think of her only as a fellow soldier. Since Fassa was a major, she outranked him, so any thoughts of romance were...

  Romance?! Tarpals’s face flushed a deeper shade of crimson. Hoping no one would notice his complexion, he tried to look casual as he turned his head and peered through an oval viewport to the water outside the sub.

  Jar Jar turned to Fassa and answered, “Mesa wundrin about what da droids spake of dis Captain Swagg fella. How would da pirates know about da sacred place? Isa well guarded secret, tis.”

  “Dat's a berry good wundrin, Jar Jar,” Lob Dizz said. “Mesa wundring da same ting. My suspect dat da pirates gotta sophisticated sensors on dare ship. Usen da sensors, dey mighta scanned for architectural formations. Dare’s only una way we ganna find out for certain.”

  “How’s dat?” Jar Jar inquired.

  “Dat’s simple,” Lob Dizz said. “Wesa ganna have to seize da pirate ship un inspict it wit our own eyes.”

  “Dat no sound simple to mesa,” Jar Jar protested.

  Without warning, the heyblibber veered hard to port. Major Fassa leaned over so she could look out the oval viewport next to Captain Tarpals’s seat. “Is wesa headen into da Paonga Strait?” Fassa asked.

  “Dat’s what it lookie like,” Tarpals answered. With Fassa so close to him, he couldn’t help but notice that she smelled like fresh seaweed. He tried to clear his mind and concentrate on the mission. He turned to Fassa and said, “Da Paonga Strait tunnel is da moto speedest way tooda swamp. Boss Nass must tink isa good shortcut tooda sacred place.”

  “Boot dare’s monstairs in da Paonga Strait!” Jar Jar exclaimed. “If my was da Boss, my go round da Ostrad Peninsula tooda swamp. Dat route is moto safe, tis.”

  “Yousa ’fraid,” Tarpals muttered as the heyblibber entered the underwater tunnel. It was the first thing he’d said to Jar Jar since the heyblibber had left the sub pen in Otoh Gunga, and the words stung Jar Jar like a slap in the face. Any Gungan took offense at being called afraid, let alone being called a ’fraidee-frog.

  Fassa glared at Tarpals and asked, “Are yousa afraid of anyting, Captain Tarpals?”

  Staring into Fassa’s eyes, Tarpals felt his throat go dry but he managed to keep his voice even as he replied, “Right now, nutten scares mesa mure dan bean inda same sub wit Jar Jar Binks.”

  Before Jar Jar or Fassa could respond, Commander Wollod called out from the control cockpit, “Better buckellup back dare! Wesa got trouble comen.”

  “No be silly,” Boss Nass said. “Isa just un opee sea killer.”

  “Opee sea killer?!” Jar Jar exclaimed. He looked out the oval viewport and found himself staring right into the large yellow eye of the giant creature.

  Boss Nass pushed the throttle, and the heyblibber rapidly accelerated, leaving the opee far behind. “Mesa always race dat opee when mesa taken da tunnel route,” Boss Nass claimed. “Mesa always win too.”

  Seconds later, the heyblibber exited the tunnel and Boss Nass steered it up to the shore of an immense swamp. The vessel broke through the surface and Boss Nass brought it alongside a marshy bank of high grass. Commander Wollod dropped the anchor, then followed the other Gungans out of the sub and into the swamp.

  Jar Jar was the first to spot the Rep heyblibber, moored a short distance from Boss Nass’s vessel. “Lookie dare!” Jar Jar said in a hushed tone. The Rep heyblibber rocked slightly in the water, even though the water itself was quite still.

  Boss Nass turned to Captain Tarpals and said, “Tink Rep Been cowdabe on board?”

  Tarpals shook his head and answered, “Moto doubtful. If Rep Been was on board, he woulda signalled uss-ens.”

  “Den mabee dare-sa pirates on board,” Boss Nass said. “Wesa better chekkit out. Jar Jar, yousa gonna be da scout.”

  “Mesa?” Jar Jar gasped.

  “Yes. Yousa da most expendable. Dis is yousa chance to be brave. Now go.”

  Jar Jar didn’t see that there was any way he could say no. Fassa tried to take his place, but
Boss Nass wouldn’t allow it.

  After Jar Jar left, the rest of them watched him scrambling through the high grass toward the moored heyblibber. Jar Jar’s only weapon was a long spear called a cesta.

  “Wesa gotta stop him!” Fassa said. “If daresa pirates on board, Jar Jar could get maxibusted!” Boss Nass grabbed Fassa’s arm and held her back. “Yousa no go runnen inta trouble too, Fassa,” he said. “If Jar Jar is so determine-ed to prove hisself as a warrior, wesa ganna let him do it his way.”

  “Hisen made it onto da sub,” Lob Dizz observed.

  While everyone else watched Jar Jar’s progress, Fassa fixed her gaze on Boss Nass and said, “Mesa know what yousa tinken, Uncle. Yousa hopen Jar Jar is ganna get pasted.”

  “Now, rilly, Fassa,” Boss Nass replied. “Whatever gives you dat idea?”

  Jar Jar tried to push the fear from his mind as he edged his way over to one of the heyblibber’s viewports and peered inside. He looked for movement within the vessel, but saw nothing.

  He went carefully to the main hatch and opened the door to the passenger cabin. The lights were off, and he let his eyes adjust to the darkness. As he passed through the hatch, he was thinking that maybe it had just been a small wave that had caused the heyblibber to rock in the water. But a second later something reached out from the shadows and clamped down around his neck!

  Gasping, Jar Jar dropped his cesta. He was gripped by a chrome-plated droid that had been hiding behind the cabin door. As the droid held him tight against its chest, Jar Jar’s right hand brushed against an exposed cable on its hip. Jar Jar wrapped his fingers around the cable and tugged as hard as he could.

  Incredibly, the droid lost its balance, opened its arms, and released Jar Jar. The droid stumbled and fell backward onto a communications console. There was a great burst of bright blue light as the droid smashed into the console, causing a powerful electrical surge. The droid’s body twitched, then slumped to the deck in a heap.

  Jar Jar was picking up his cesta when two more droids leaped into the passenger cabin from the aft hold. Both droids wielded blaster pistols. Startied, Jar Jar leaped for the main hatch, hoping to escape into the swamp, but he tripped over the fallen droid and his cesta struck the opening mechanism of a stowage hatch. The stowage hatch door flew open just as the two droids fired at Jar Jar.

  Jar Jar shouted as he fell against the deck, believing he must have been shot. He heard a loud crash, and looked over to see both blaster-wielding droids sprawled on the deck. The droids were motionless, but smoke rose from their chests. Jar Jar wasn’t certain of what had just happened, but it appeared as though the droids had shot each other at point-blank range.

  Then he saw the stowage hatch door, and noticed two deep dents in its surface. Jar Jar was not a natural detective, but he quickly guessed that the droids’ bolts had struck the stowage hatch and ricocheted back, striking them in their chests. Jar Jar could hardly believe his good luck.

  Suddenly, Major Fassa came leaping through the main hatch and landed on the deck. “Jar Jar!” she said. “Wesa heard da blasten, un I thought—” Fassa stopped talking when her eyes fell on the three droids that lay like so much litter in the heyblibber’s cabin. She looked up at Jar Jar and asked, “Yousa do dis?”

  Jar Jar grinned nervously and answered, “Uh... yeah.”

  Captain Tarpals entered the cabin after Fassa. When he saw the droids on the deck, he rolled his eyes. Since Jar Jar wasn’t skilled in the art of warfare, Tarpals knew immediately that Jar Jar had probably been saved by his only defense: his notorious clumsiness. Without a word, the three Gungans quickly inspected each cabin on the heyblibber. When they didn’t find any sign of Rep Been, they exited the vessel and stepped onto the swampy shore, where Lob Dizz and Boss Nass waited.

  “Jar Jar pasted three mackineeks in dare,” Fassa reported.

  Before Boss Nass could respond, Captain Tarpals added, “Rep Been no onda sub. Mabee hisen hiden, or mabee hisen prisoner of da pirates.”

  Boss Nass did not seem impressed with Jar Jar. Instead, he pointed to some tracks on the ground and said, “Da mackineeks walked hair. Probably left dare ship near da sacred place. From da depth of dese tracks, metinks da mackineeks like da ones back in Lob Dizz’s lab: no so heavy or bombad.”

  Jar Jar looked at the ground, but wasn’t really paying attention or studying the tracks. He had just survived a skirmish with three droids, but Boss Nass didn’t seem to care one way or the other.

  “Wesa should split up, un approach da sacred place from different directions,” Tarpals suggested. “We gotta better chance of finden Rep Been dat way.”

  “Agreed,” Boss Nass nodded. “Wesa meetin at da sacred place in twenty minutes. Just one mure ting before wesa go.” Boss Nass stepped close to Jar Jar, and said, “Yousa lucky fellow, Binks. Luckiest fellow mesa know. Mabee even mure brave dan mesa thought, boot mesa thought yousa no brave at all.”

  “Tanks, Boss,” Jar Jar brightened. He was pretty sure that Boss Nass had just paid him a compliment.

  “Boot just remimber sumptin,” Boss Nass added. He leaned so close to Jar Jar that their noses touched, then said, “Yousa still on probation.”

  After the six Gungans split up, Jar Jar headed for a nearby stream that would bring him to the sacred place. Boss Nass had ordered Jar Jar to take this particular route because it was the most direct. Jar Jar was still nervous about the possiblity of running into more droids, but he knew it would have been a bad idea to volunteer to guard the heyblibbers. He didn’t want Fassa to think he was a coward.

  Jar Jar dove into the stream and began swimming long, broad strokes. A large-mouthed eel spotted Jar Jar and tried to coil around one of his legs, but he kicked it off and kept swimming. Several minutes later, he reached the edge of the forest and swam to the stream’s bank.

  The sun was shining, and Jar Jar was soaking wet. Before entering the dark forest, he stood with his arms out at his sides, letting the sun and warm air dry his clothes and skin. He was momentarily distracted by the beauty of his surroundings. If it weren’t for the fact that Naboo had been invaded by pirates, Jar Jar would have been happy to lie down on the marshy bank and take a nap. But he reminded himself that Rep Been’s life was in danger, and proceeded into the forest.

  The trees rose up like organic pillars that supported a great canopy of thick green leaves. Sunlight shafted down between the leaves and upper branches, and cast golden beams across the forest floor. Jar Jar imagined there was a droid invader behind every tree, and he had to bite down hard to keep his teeth from chattering.

  The forest became increasingly dense, and Jar Jar did his best to maintain silence as he stepped through a cluster of young trees. He reached a clearing, and saw a lone, heavy-footed jaboon standing in the shade of a tall tree while it chewed on the broad leaves of a tentacle fern. The fern’s leaves stretched out over the forest floor, spreading out in ail directions from the plant’s roots. The keen-eared jaboon heard Jar Jar’s approach and raised its head.

  Keeping his eyes on the jaboon, Jar Jar stepped over one of the tentacle fern’s leaves. Suddenly, the forest floor gave out from underneath his feet, and he plunged into a deep pit.

  Before Gungans learned the art of gasser cooking, they often baked food in pits that they covered with heavy leaves and dirt. Depending on how much food was prepared, some baking pits were quite deep. After the food was cooked, most pits were filled with soil to prevent anyone from accidentally falling into the hole. Jar Jar had fallen into an old, unfilled pit that had been obscured by the overgrown tentacle fern.

  He looked up and tried to determine whether he could jump out of the pit. It was a high jump, but he decided to try it. He bent his knees, then sprang up into the air. His head hit something hard, and he fell back into the pit.

  Slightly dazed, Jar Jar looked up to see the jaboon peering over the edge of the pit. It also looked slightly stunned — Jar Jar realized his head had smacked against one of the jaboon’s tusks.

&nbs
p; Looking at the tusk, Jar Jar had an idea. He motioned with his hands for the jaboon to lower its head into the pit and coaxed, “Nice jaboon! Lookie down hair. No, down hair, jaboon. Dat’s right, lower yousa head.”

  Despite having been accidentally struck by Jar Jar, the jaboon complied and lowered its head down into the pit. Jar Jar seized its left tusk, and the creature raised its head, lifting him up to the surface. Jar Jar released the tusk and patted the side of the jaboon’s belly. “Tanks, pal,” Jar Jar said. Then he continued through the forest.

  Jar Jar scrambled up a hill and arrived upon a stratified shelf of rocks on top of a steep cliff that loomed over a shimmering pond. He wasn’t sure where he was, and he was afraid he’d taken a wrong turn somewhere. A mammoth tree rose from the edge of the precipice, and some of the tree’s roots trailed down the cliffs face. Jar Jar looked for a way down, but he saw only one narrow ledge below his position.

  The pond’s still surface was broken by two big dorsal spines. Jar Jar recognized the spines, and realized the pond must have become the temporary home to a pair of migrating fanbacks. The long-toothed amphibious carnivores raised their green heads from the water and gazed at the Gungan, then opened their wide jaws.

  They were hungry.

  Suddenly, Jar Jar heard a grunting sound behind him, and he turned to find he had been followed by the jaboon. As Jar Jar turned, the loose rocks slid out from underneath his feet and he accidentally tumbled from the cliff.

  Hoping to stop his fall, Jar Jar desperately reached for one of the tree’s roots. The dried root snapped off in his hands, and he fell past the ledge and plunged into the pond.

  “No!” he screamed.

  The male fanback did not hesitate. It plowed through the water with its teeth bared. Jar Jar yelped and swam for the base of the cliff. As he pulled himself onto the ledge, one of his feet whacked the attacking fanback hard in the nose. The beast jerked away, retreating to his mate.