Star Wars - Episode I Adventures 009 - Rescue in the Core

by Ryder Windham

  All of a sudden, the cavern ascended at a sharp angle. Jar Jar pulled back on the controls and the sub shot upward. The colo claw fish wasn’t so lucky, and slammed facefirst into the cavern floor. If Jar Jar hadn’t been screaming the whole time, he might have shouted for joy.

  Jar Jar realized the colo had ended its pursuit of the bongo, and he caught his breath. The sub continued to rise up along the cavern’s inclined floor. Strangely, the water level began to drop until it only reached halfway up the cavern walls, then the cavern leveled off. They were now above sea level. The bongo rose to float at the water’s surface, and the top of the sub nearly touched the cavern’s ceiling. Still safe within the cockpit, Jar Jar saw that the sub was now floating down a rapid river within the cavern. The current became faster, and Jar Jar heard a loud surge of water flowing up ahead. At last, he found the source of the strong current.

  It was a waterfall. And Jar Jar was headed straight over the edge.

  Jar Jar quickly studied the bongo control console again. He wished everything wasn’t happening so fast so he could take the time to figure out the function of each switch and dial. He also wished there was a switch, saying:

  IF YOUSA GOEN OVER WATERFALL,

  PUSH DIS SWITCH!

  Obviously, there wasn’t. Jar Jar was about to close his eyes and start pushing buttons again when he located the control lever for the sub’s hydrostatic field generator. He had a hunch that if he could increase energy to the generator, it would strengthen the water-repelling power of the field.

  Jar Jar threw the lever just as the bongo sailed over the edge of the waterfall. For a moment, the cockpit bubble glowed intensely. Then the sub plummeted downward. Jar Jar covered his eyes.

  There was a mighty splash, and the sub descended into a deep pool. Incredibly, the hydrostatic fields held the entire, vessel together. Jar Jar glanced at the bongo’s sensors to learn the waterfall had emptied into a pool that was located in an immense, air-filled, subterranean chamber.

  The sub traveled quickly to the bottom of the pool, which was lined by twelve drain vents. Although the drains were easily over a hundred years old, they remained fully functional, drawing water out of the pool before it could overflow from the waterfall’s discharge. Each drain vent was only the size of a small viewport, and prevented any avenue of escape for a full-grown Gungan, or a tribubble bongo.

  The drain vents tugged at the bongo from all sides, sending the vehicle into a dizzying spin at the bottom of the pool. Jar Jar knew that unless he could immediately bring the bongo to the surface of the pool, the vessel would be pulled apart by powerful suction from the opposing drains.

  He pulled back on the controls, but the bongo remained at the bottom of the pool. Jar Jar wondered why the bongo wouldn’t rise, then saw a warning light flash on the console. The sub’s buoyancy chambers had filled to capacity, and the water was weighing the sub down. Fortunately, the buoyancy control switch was also flashing. With the flip of the switch, Jar Jar emptied the chambers and the sub instantly began to rise.

  “Mesa tink mesa getten da hanga dis,” a pleased Jar Jar said to himself.

  The sub broke the pool’s surface a short distance away from the waterfall. Jar Jar gazed through the hydrostatic bubble canopy, surveying the subterranean chamber. High, rocky walls led up to a natural vaulted ceiling which supported the weight of many conical stalactites. The stalactites were luminous, and radiated a greenish-yellow light across the chamber. A hydrostatic barrier high above and all around kept out the sea.

  Jar Jar had reached the Quarry.

  Surprisingly, Jar Jar marveled at the beauty of the Quarry. Besides the stalactites, the chamber was illuminated by the cumulative glow of over a thousand long-leaved, highly prized woosha plants.

  The bongo drifted to the edge of the pool, where it came to rest on a narrow beach of fine-grained black sand. A tall, thick-rooted cambylictus tree grew up from the edge of the beach, and the tree’s upper branches shaded the sub from the light of the stalactites. The cambylictus tree was also valued by the Gungans, for its roots had many medicinal properties.

  Despite the sub’s rollicking journey through the cavern and Jar Jar’s occasional yelling, both Boss Nass and Commander Wollod remained in a deep slumber. Now that the sub was in a stable environment, Jar Jar did his best to examine them for injuries.

  Commander Wollod had a nasty-looking cut on his forehead. Jar Jar couldn’t find a med kit in the cockpit, so he figured he’d look inside the port and starboard cargo compartments. Since the cargo compartments were only accessible from outside the bongo, Jar Jar deactivated the hydrostatic field generator, causing all three bubbles to vanish.

  Jar Jar climbed out of the cockpit and found the med kit in the port cargo compartment. He couldn’t believe it, but someone had actually forgotten to put bandages inside. Fortunately, Jar Jar remembered the cambylictus tree, and he tossed the med kit back into the cargo compartment.

  Since no one had ever really taken care of Jar Jar, he had learned many tricks to take care of himself. He’d seen Gungan military troops using a cambylictus tree’s bark as both a disinfectant and a bandage. The cambylictus tree’s roots were within reach of the sub, and Jar Jar did not have any difficulty in pulling a long strip of flexible bark from one root. He climbed back into the bongo’s cockpit and placed the strip across Commander Wollod’s forehead.

  “Unnnn,” Boss Nass moaned. “Mesa gotta maxi-headache.”

  “No moven,” Jar Jar cautioned, keeping his voice low. “Wesa ina Quarry. My afraid dares no go-backie by da way wesa came in.”

  Boss Nass slowly opened his eyes, glanced at Wollod’s prone figure, then asked, “Isa he pasted?”

  Jar Jar shook his head and answered, “No, hissen just pass-ed out. Both-n yousa need rest. Stay ina sub while my lookie for anutter way outta hair. Mesa combackie soonest possible.”

  Boss Nass looked suspciously at Jar Jar. “Yousa no tinken of escapen, isa yousa?” he asked.

  “Heh heh heh,” Jar Jar laughed weakly. “Dat’s a good one, Boss. No, mesa just want to hep yousa out.”

  Boss Nass didn’t hear Jar Jar’s response. He’d already passed out again.

  For the journey to the Quarry, Commander Wollod had brought two weapons: an electropole and a stunner. Jar Jar retrieved both weapons from the bongo and slung the electropole’s carry strap over his shoulder. He checked the stunner and saw it carried a full charge. Jar Jar didn’t know whether he would need the weapons, but he thought it was best to be prepared.

  Jar Jar scrambled out of the sub’s cockpit and jumped down to the narrow beach. Under his tough feet, the black sand shifted with a metallic clacking sound, as if it were composed of minuscule ball bearings.

  On the bottom hull of the bongo, Jar Jar noticed dozens of ringlike marks. The marks looked like they were caused by suction cups, and Jar Jar was pretty sure a tentacled creature had recently secured itself to the sub. As Jar Jar wondered whether a creature might have entered the Quarry with the bongo, the sand slid out from under his feet, knocking him into the side of the sub. He tried to regain his footing, then saw the sand ripple and rise into a small mound as something worked its way up from the surface. A single eyestalk pushed through the sand and fixed Jar Jar with its ugly gaze.

  The eyestalk belonged to a dianoga, also known as “garbage squid.” Dianogas could be found feeding on trash almost anywhere in the galaxy, but this wasn’t an ordinary specimen. It was the rare albino dianoga from the research facility.

  Jar Jar stared at the albino dianoga and tried not to move. He had encountered dianogas in the past living in the bottom of Otoh Gunga restaurant dumpsters where Jar Jar sometimes searched for leftover food. Just the sight of an ugly dianoga was typically enough to send Jar Jar fleeing, but since this was the facility’s dianoga, he wanted to catch it.

  The Gungan set his stunner to full power.

  Suddenly, the carnivorous creature burst up through the beach, revealing seven long, thick white
-skinned tentacles. Dianogas usually attacked their prey from below the surface, pulling them down into shallow water or mud, but the albino creature seemed more than prepared to attack Jar Jar out in the open.

  Jar Jar raised the stunner and prepared to fire, but one of the dianoga’s tentacles slapped the weapon from his hands. The dianoga coiled its lower tentacles and sprang, launching its body at Jar Jar. It smashed into his chest and drove him down into the sand. Pinned under the creature’s weight, Jar Jar was unable to reach the electropole but could feel it pressed against his back. When the dianoga opened its mouth, the desperate Gungan grabbed a handful of black sand and pushed it down the creature’s throat.

  The dianoga made a horrid rasping sound, slowly gulping down the sand. Quickly, Jar Jar rolled away and grabbed the fallen stunner. Just as the dianoga coiled its tentacles to spring again, Jar Jar fired. The single blast caught the dianoga’s midsection, and the shock caused all seven tentacles to extend outwards. Jar Jar released the stunner’s trigger and the dianoga’s tentacles and eyestalk flopped against the beach.

  Jar Jar took a cautious step over the limp tentacles and placed a hand on the dianoga’s broad stomach. He found a pulse, and sighed in relief. If Jar Jar had accidentally killed the creature, Director Huff Zinga wouldn’t have been pleased.

  Jar Jar scrambled back up into the bongo and found a strong net in the cargo compartment. He returned to the beach, stretched the net out over the sand, and rolled the dianoga inside. As the dianoga’s body shifted, it released a noise similar to a gulliball when deflated of air.

  “Phee-yooo!” Jar Jar winced, wishing he had sealed off his nostrils. Looking at the snared dianoga, he commented, “Bad enough yousa maxi-ugly, but even worsen is yousa maxi-gassy.” As Jar Jar tied the net to the bongo’s hull, he hoped the dianoga would be the last creature he encountered in the Quarry.

  Leaving the bongo, Jar Jar scanned the subterranean chamber’s rocky walls, searching for a passage that might lead out of the Quarry. High on one wall, a small window was inset just below the chamber’s sloping ceiling. The window was barred, and appeared to have been carved out of the wall itself. Jar Jar wondered if the wall concealed some kind of fortress. Because of the window’s elevation, there didn’t appear to be any way to reach it from the outside. Jar Jar was so frustrated by his predicament that he almost walked past a stoneframed doorway, partially hidden by a long, petrified log and a cluster of glowing woosha plants.

  Brushing past the woosha plants, Jar Jar stepped around the log and studied the doorway. The door itself appeared to be made of a single piece of thick wood, designed to slide sideways into the wall. Jar Jar suspected the Quarry’s actual prison was on the other side.

  Jar Jar placed his hands on the door and tried pushing it into the wall. When the door didn’t budge, Jar Jar inspected it more closely and found a grime-covered metal locking mechanism that secured the door to the frame. Above the doorway, several rocks had fallen away, leaving a large hole in the wall.

  Jar Jar scrambled quickly up to the hole over the doorway. But once he reached the hole, he found it was filled with the green leaves of an orange chak-root plant. Jar Jar looked at the plant’s edible root and decided to clear the way.

  “Yumminy!” he mumbled, chomping down on the chak-root while he tore the leaves off and tossed them to the ground. Jar Jar had always enjoyed chak-root, and this one was especially flavorful. He thought if he could find more chak-root, imprisonment in the Quarry might not be so bad.

  Licking his lips, Jar Jar crawled through the cleared hole and jumped down into the next chamber. A curved stone wall wrapped around a wide circular floor. Just as Jar Jar had suspected, it was an old fortress. Like the beach area, the fortress’s interior was illuminated by glowing stalactites, but in here the light was dimmed by the presence of thickly layered green vines that dangled from the ceiling to the floor. On the cylindrical wall, numerous wide cracks and dislodged stones indicated an ancient battle within the circular chamber.

  The room was also crowded with large, oddly shaped white objects, randomly propped up across the floor. Jar Jar wondered if they were sculptural pieces, perhaps created by former prisoners of the Quarry. Looking past the objects to the far side of the room, he saw an open doorway that led to a low-ceilinged corridor.

  He made his way across the chamber, pushing aside the dangling vines while stepping over and around the cumbersome shapes. As he neared the entrance to the corridor, his right foot caught on a loose stone and he stumbled to the floor. Rising from his fallen position, he gazed back into the chamber from a new perspective, and discovered the horrifying truth about the white objects.

  The skeleton of a large creature. Jar Jar didn’t know what it was — or used to be. He only knew it had been big.

  Jar Jar looked again at the damaged walls, then back at the skeletal remains. He moved his hand over one of the large bones and brushed away a thick layer of dust to discover the bone had been picked clean. Had a furious battle indeed taken place within the fortress? If so, perhaps the large creature had not only lost but had been devoured by another beast.

  A beast that might still be alive.

  The silence was suddenly interrupted by a low, animalistic grunt. Jar Jar turned around fast to see two broad-shouldered veermoks standing in the low-ceilinged corridor. Normally found in Gungan wasteyards, the black-haired simians had powerful legs and long, claw-tipped arms. Jar Jar doubted they could have accidentally reached the Quarry, and believed the veermoks must have been brought to the prison several generations ago. To his chagrin, the veermoks had survived.

  The nearest veermok howled, displaying a mouthful of sharp fangs, then leaped at Jar Jar. The Gungan yelped as he ducked, and the veermok soared over his back. Jar Jar winced at the sound of the veermok smashing headfirst into the wall. As the veermok dropped senselessly to the floor, the second veermok snarled and spat at Jar Jar.

  Jar Jar didn’t like to fight, but he knew he couldn’t easily run away from the fierce creature. He activated the stunner, but the veermok dodged the blast and dove between the bones that made up the fallen beast’s rib cage. With fluid grace, the veermok gripped one of the large bones and swung up to the skeleton’s skull. Jar Jar stepped away from the skeleton, trying to get a clear shot at the veermok.

  Balancing on the skull, the veermok yanked a large tooth from the skeleton’s jaw bone, then hurled it. Jar Jar tried to duck the oncoming tooth but it struck his right hand, making him fire the stunner into the ceiling.

  Although the stunner was merely designed to immobilize targets, its blast carried enough power to dislodge three thick vines from the ceiling. The vines fell down over the skeleton, knocking the veermok from from its perch. The veermok hit the floor in a rolling dive and came up standing. Slightly dazed, it roared at Jar Jar, who took careful aim with the stunner and sqeezed the trigger. But nothing happened.

  The stunner’s charge was empty.

  “Nutsen!” Jar Jar whimpered.

  Jar Jar threw the stunner at the veermok, and the enraged beast snatched it from the air. As the veermok tossed the stunner aside, Jar Jar quickly unslung the electropole from his back, thumbed the shock generator, and threw the pole at the veermok.

  The veermok caught the pole’s conductive tip and received a massive jolt. Collapsing to the floor, the creature released the electropole. Jar Jar ran to the electropole, carefully picked it up by the insulated handgrip, and switched off the high-powered current.

  Jar Jar took a deep breath. He couldn’t believe he had survived a confrontation against two wild veermoks, and he knew that no one else would believe it either. While he gathered up the fallen vines and tied up the two defeated veermoks, Jar Jar wished someone had been around to witness the fight.

  He left the two defeated veermoks with the skeleton and entered the corridor. Jar Jar figured other veermoks could be nearby, so he walked quietly. Noting the corridor’s low ceiling, he realized it would have been impossible for a creat
ure as large as the fallen skeleton to have traveled through this particular route. Since the beast couldn’t have squeezed through the stoneframed doorway to the beach either, Jar Jar wondered how the mammoth monster got into the previous chamber. Before he could dwell anymore on the subject, he arrived at an ancient lift tube at the end of the corridor.

  The first thing Jar Jar noticed was that the ceiling inside the lift had been smashed in. He looked up through the ruptured ceiling to see a long, metal rail rise into the dark shaft. A level indicator marked with old Gungan letterforms was on the lift wall. According to the level indicator, the lift accessed only three levels: the main level on which Jar Jar stood; a guard post on the upper level: and a detention block on the lower level. Two arrow-shaped buttons indicated up and down.

  Jar Jar hoped there might be something in the guard post that revealed a way out of the Quarry. He pressed the up button with his thumb, but the lift didn’t move. Frustrated, Jar Jar pressed the button again. Still, nothing happened.

  Then he noticed the antique lift’s service control panel. Opening the panel, Jar Jar found two wires that had been disconnected. He decided to connect the two wires and see if the lift would start.

  Jar Jar was nearly blinded by the bright spark that flared as the two wires were crossed. He let go of the wires and jumped up through the lift’s ruptured ceiling.

  Gripping the lift rail, Jar Jar shimmied up to the upper level and entered the guard post. Inside, light poured through a barred window. To the left of the window, a large star-shaped bell hung from the ceiling. Jar Jar suspected the bell was part of an old alarm system.

  Ducking past the bell, Jar Jar peered through the barred window and viewed the subterranean waterfall, pool, and narrow beach where he had left the tribubble bongo. From his elevated perspective, he realized he was behind the window he had seen earlier. In the distance, the forms of Boss Nass and Commander Wollod were visible, still resting within the bongo.