Mace looked back at the floor and finally spotted Jar Jar, floating out before the podium on his platform, flanked by Gungan aides.
"Senators!" Jar Jar called. "Dellow felegates--"
The laughter was almost as deafening as the arguing, but the humor was lost quickly, as jeers erupted once more.
"Stay strong, Jar Jar," Mace quietly mouthed, looking down at the Gungan, whose face and ears were now bright red from embarrassment.
"Order!" Mas Amedda shouted from the podium. "The Senate will accord the Representative the courtesy of a hearing!"
The floor quieted, and Mas Amedda signaled to Jar Jar, who was by this time gripping the front of his platform tightly.
"In response to the direct threat to the Republic," the Gungan began, speaking clearly and directly, "mesa propose that the Senate give immediate emergency powers to the Supreme Chancellor."
There came a brief silence as everyone turned to look at everyone else. Gradually, a clapping began, and when the jeers erupted from opposing factions, the cheering grew even louder, soon drowning out the opposition. Though she wasn't even present, it was Amidala who had done this, Mace understood. All the years she had worked to win the trust of others had led to this crucial victory. If anyone other than a Representative of Naboo, a voice speaking for Amidala, had suggested such a drastic measure, then the debate would never have been so cleanly decided. But since she had apparently thrown in with the other side on the debate for the creation of an army, so, too, did many of those who had originally followed her lead in opposing that army.
The noise went on for many minutes, and while the jeering died away, the cheering only gained momentum. Finally, Chancellor Palpatine held up his hands, asking for quiet.
"It is with great reluctance that I have agreed to this calling," Palpatine began. "I love democracy--I love the Republic. I am mild by nature and do not desire to see the destruction of democracy. The power you give me I will lay down when this crisis has abated. I promise you. And as my first act with this new authority, I will create a grand army of the Republic to counter the increasing threats of the separatists."
"It is done, then," Mace said to Yoda, and the diminutive Jedi Master nodded grimly. "I will take what Jedi we have left and go to Geonosis to help Obi-Wan."
"And visit, I will, the cloners of Kamino and see this army they have created for the Republic," Yoda said.
Together, the two Jedi walked away from the Senate Hall.
* * *
It looked like many of the courtrooms scattered about the galaxy, a round room sectioned by cur ving railings and tall boxed-off areas, with rows of seats behind the main area for interested onlookers. But the makeup of the principals told Padm that the resemblance to a hall of justice ended right there. Poggle the Lesser, the Archduke of Geonosis, presided over the gathering, helped by his Geonosian aide, Sun Fac, but clearly there would be no possibility of open-mindedness. Padm recognized the others as separatist Senators, dignitaries of the various commercial guilds and the InterGalactic Banking Clan.
She watched them carefully, noting the visceral hatred in their eyes. This was no hearing, no trial. It was a proclamation of hatred, and nothing more.
And so Padm was hardly surprised when Sun Fac stepped forward and announced, "You have been charged and found guilty of espionage."
So much for evidence, Padm thought.
"Do you have anything to say before your sentence is carried out?" Archduke Poggle the Lesser asked.
Unshaken, the cool Senator stared the Geonosian straight in the eye. "You are committing an act of war, Archduke. I hope you are prepared for the consequences."
The Geonosian chuckled. "We build weapons, Senator. That is our business! Of course we're prepared!"
"Get on with it!" came the voice of Nute Gunray from the side. "Carry out the sentence. I want to see her suffer."
Padm only shook her head. All this because she had foiled the Neimoidian's plans to exploit her planet when she was Queen. All this because she hadn't rolled over before the power of Gunray and his followers. And to think that she had agreed to mercy for the Neimoidians after their defeat on Naboo!
"Your other Jedi friend is waiting for you, Senator," Archduke Poggle the Lesser announced, and he waved to the guards. "Take them to the arena!"
* * *
At the back of the hall, the young boy soaked it all in and looked up at his father, a perfect older-version replica of himself. "Are they going to feed them to the beasts?" Boba Fett asked.
Jango Fett looked down at his eager son and chuckled. "Yes, Boba." He had many times told Boba stories of the Geonosian arena.
"Oh, I hope they use an acklay," said Boba matter-of-factly. "I want to see if it's as powerful as I've read."
Jango just smiled and nodded, amused that his son was already so interested in such things, and glad for the dispassion in his tone. Boba was being strictly pragmatic here, even in the face of the executions of three people. He was taking in the entire scenario with the cool and collected pragmatism that would allow him to survive in the harsh galaxy.
He was a good learner.
* * *
The jumble of information they were downloading into C-3PO would surely have overwhelmed the droid, conditioning him as intended, had his circuits not already been filled to near capacity with linguistic information. C-3PO engaged in multiple translations of each instruction pattern, and in doing so, managed to water them down enough so that they lost any real effect.
His subtlety seemed lost on the brutes programming him, and after a few short hours, they led him out of the room and across the large assembly hall.
It was there that C-3PO heard a plaintive and familiar whine.
"Artoo!" he called, swiveling his head. There was his dome-shaped companion, working at a console. R2-D2 swiveled his head and gave another _"oooo."_
"Oh, Artoo!" C-3PO wailed, and before he could even consider the action, he brought a laser sight up before his eyes, focusing on the restraining bolt set into his friend.
A single blast flew out, skimming the bolt from R2-D2, then ricocheting about the room.
"Hey!" cried one of the instructor droids, moving fast to C-3PO's side.
"Looks like this one needs more programming," another said.
The chief maintenance droid looked about the room and shook his dome. "Nah," he said. "No damage done. Get this one out to the yard and out of here!"
They led C-3PO away.
Soon after they were gone, B2-D2 rolled away from his console without notice. Since all of the relatively benign droids working in here were restrained by bolts, there were no real guards in the room.
The little droid was out and free soon after.
* * *
The tunnel was dark and fittingly gloomy, and quiet, except for the occasional echo of cheering from the huge crowd gathered in the arena stands beyond. A single cart was in there, an open oval with a sloping front end that somewhat resembled an insect's head with the top half cut away. Anakin and Padm were unceremoniously thrown into it, then strapped in place against the framework, facing each other.
Both of them jerked as the cart started into motion, gliding along the dark tunnel.
"Don't be afraid," Anakin whispered.
Padm smiled at him, her expression one of genuine calm. "I'm not afraid to die," she replied, her voice thick and soft. "I've been dying a little bit each day since you came back into my life."
"What are you talking about?"
Then she said it, and it was real and genuine and warm. "I love you."
"You love me?" he asked, overwhelmed. "You love me! I thought we decided not to fall in love. That we would be forced to live a lie. That it would destroy our lives." But her words had brought a wash of contentment over him.
"I think our lives are about to be destroyed anyway," Padm replied. "My love for you is a puzzle, Annie, for which I have no answers. I can't control it--and now I don't care. I truly, deeply love you, and befor
e we die, I want you to know."
Padm leaned against her restraints and craned her head forward, and Anakin did likewise, the two coming close enough for their lips to meet in a soft and gentle kiss, one that lingered and deepened, one that said everything they both realized they should have spoken to each other before. One that, to them, mocked their false heroics in denying the feelings they'd had for each other all along.
The sweet moment was just that, though, a moment, for a crack of the driver's whip had the cart jerking out of the tunnel and into the blinding daylight, rolling onto the floor of a great stadium filled with Geonosian spectators.
Four sturdy posts, a meter in diameter, were centered on the arena floor, each set with chains, and one holding a familiar figure.
"Obi-Wan!" Anakin cried as he was pulled down from the cart, dragged over, and chained to the post beside his Master.
"I was beginning to wonder if you had gotten my message," Obi-Wan replied. Both he and Anakin winced as Padm was similarly, roughly dragged over to the post next to Anakin, and roughly chained up. They saw her curl a bit, defensively, in what seemed a futile resistance. What they didn't see, though, was the resourceful Padm managing to slip out a wire she had hidden in her belt.
"I retransmitted your message just as you requested, Master," Anakin explained. "Then we decided to come and rescue you."
"Good job!" came Obi-Wan's quick and sarcastic reply. He ended with a grunt as his arms were pulled up above his head, locking him helplessly in place. Anakin and Padm were receiving similar treatment. They could turn a bit side to side, though, and so all three were able to watch the arrival of the dignitaries, the masters of ceremony--faces they had come to know all too well.
"The felons before you have been convicted of espionage against the Sovereign System of Geonosis," announced the lackey, Sun Fac. "Their sentence of death is to be carried out in this arena immediately!"
The wild cheering deafened the doomed trio. "They like their executions," Obi-Wan said dryly.
At the dignitary box, Sun Fac gave way to Archduke Poggle the Lesser, who patted his hands in the air, calling for quiet. "I have decided on an especially entertaining contest this day," he announced, to more appreciative roaring. "Which of our pets would be most suited to carry out the executions of such distinguished criminals? I asked myself this over and over, and for many hours, could find no answer.
"And finally, I chose--" He paused dramatically and the crowd hushed. "--the reek!" At the side of the arena, a gate was lifted and out stepped a huge quadruped with massive shoulders, an elongated face, and three deadly horns, one sticking up from its snout and the other two protruding forward from either side of its wide mouth. The reek stood as tall as a Wookiee, as wide as a human male was tall, and more than four meters long. It was prodded forward into the arena by a line of picadors carrying long spears and riding creatures that were bovine in size, with elongated snouts.
After the cheering died away, Poggle surprised the crowd by announcing, "The nexu!" A second gate rose, revealing a large feline creature. Its head was an extraordinary thing, half the size of its body and with a fang-filled mouth that could open wide enough to bite a large human in half. A ridge of fur stood straight in a line from head to rump, ending right before its whipping, felinoid tail.
Before the surprised crowd could erupt again, Poggle shouted, "And the acklay!" and a third gate rose and the most hideous creature of all rushed in. It moved spiderlike on four legs, each ending in huge elongated claws. Other arms waved menacingly, similarly topped with claws that snapped in the air. Its head, crested by a long and wavy horn, was more than two meters above the ground, glancing about hungrily, and while the other two creatures seemed to need the prodding of the picadors, this one surely did not.
This last one, the acklay, seemed to be the true crowd-pleaser, especially to the young boy, Jango Fett's cloned son, sitting with the dignitaries. Boba grinned and began reciting all that he had read of the deadly beast's exploits.
"Well, this should be fun--for them, at least," lamented Obi-Wan, watching the frenzy mounting around him.
"What?" Anakin asked.
"Never mind," Obi-Wan replied. "You ready for the fight?"
"The fight?" Anaki n asked skeptically, looking up at his chained wrists, then back at the three monsters, which had been milling about, and only now seemed to take note that lunch had been served.
"You want to give the crowd its money's worth, don't you?" Obi-Wan asked. "You take the one on the right. I'll take the one on the left."
"What about Padm?" The two turned to discover that their clever companion had already used the concealed wire to pick the lock on one of her shackles, and had turned her body about, facing the post. She climbed right up the chain to the top of that post, then went to work on the other shackle.
"She seems to be on top of things," Obi-Wan commented wryly.
Anakin looked back just in time to react to the charge of the reek. Acting purely on reflex, the young Jedi leapt straight up, and the beast plowed into the pole beneath him. Seeing an opportunity, Anakin dropped upon the beast's back and wrapped his chain about its strong horn. The reek bucked and tugged, tearing the chain free of the post, and they were off, the reek bucking and Anakin holding on for dear life. He slapped the free end of the chain at the side of the reek's head, and the vicious beast bit it and held on, its stubbornness providing Anakin a makeshift bridle.
* * *
After downloading the schematics, R2-D2 had little trouble navigating the huge factory complex. The small droid rolled along, whistling casually to deflect any suspicion on the part of the many Geonosians milling about.
None of them seemed interested in him, anyway, though, and R2 thought he knew why. He had learned of a huge event taking place, a triple execution. He could easily enough guess the identities of the unfortunate prisoners.
He wandered along a meandering course through the complex, avoiding as many Geonosians as possible, passing those he could not with an air of detachment, trying not to look out of place.
He knew that it would get more crowded as he neared the arena, though, and could only hope that the Geonosians there would be too distracted by the thrilling events to bother with a little astromech droid.
* * *
Obi-Wan quickly came to learn why the acklay was such a crowd-pleaser. The creature reared up high and came straight in at him. When Obi-Wan rushed behind the pole, the acklay took a more direct route, crashing into the pole, its gigantic claws snapping the wood and the chain. Freed by the beast's fury, Obi-Wan turned and ran, sprinting right at the nearest picador, the acklay in fast pursuit. The Geonosian lowered his spear at the Jedi, but Obi-Wan dodged inside and grabbed it. A sudden tug pulled it free, and Obi-Wan snapped it against the picador's mount, causing the creature to rear. Hardly slowing, Obi-Wan planted the butt of the lance in the ground and leapt, pole-vaulting the picador and his mount.
Again the acklay took the more direct route, slamming into rider and mount, sending the Geonosian tumbling to the sand. Grabbing the picador up in the snap of a claw, the monster crunched the life from him.
* * *
Atop her post, Padm worked frantically to free the chain. But already the felinelike nexu was leaping up to swipe at her with its deadly claws. She dodged, but the nexu came on again.
Padm whipped it with the chain.
The beast didn't stop, its claws tearing into the pole as it climbed. Then, with a sudden burst, it leapt up to the top and reared before Padm issuing a victorious roar.
The crowd hushed, sensing the first kill.
As the nexu slashed, Padm turned in a circle the other way, and while the claws tore her shirt and superficially raked her back, she came around hard, delivering a solid blow across the beast's face with the free-flying end of the chain. The nexu fell back off the pole. Padm leapt out and back, away from the creature and to the side, and let the chain tug her back, sending her in a spin about the pole. She tucked he
r legs as she spun, then double-kicked out, knocking the nexu to the ground.
Hardly pausing to consider her handiwork, she scrambled back up the pole, working furiously to free herself completely.
* * *
The crowd gasped as one.
"Foul!" cried Nute Gunray in the dignitary box. "She can't do that! Shoot her or something!"
"Wow!" Boba Fett yelled in obvious admiration. Jango put his hand on his son's shoulder, enjoying the show every bit as much as Boba.
"The nexu will have her, Viceroy," Poggle the Lesser assured the trembling Neimoidian.
Gunray remained standing, as did everyone else in the box, as did everyone else in the stadium. The crowd gasped again as Obi-Wan ran around behind the picador's fallen mount, then launched the stolen spear into the neck of the furious acklay. The beast screeched in pain and slapped the struggling orray mount aside.
Star Wares Episode 2 Attack of the Clones Page 28