The Phantom Menace

by Terry Brooks

  wished they could. He liked her as much now as he had before, and to tell the truth he didn't care if she was a Queen or not.

  He glanced over at the girl and the Jedi Knights and thought how different things were here than they had been on Tatooine. Nothing had worked out the way he had hoped for any of them, and it remained to be seen if leaving his mother and home to come with them was a good idea after all.

  The Gungan lookout standing atop a piece of statuary above him gave a grunt. "Dey comen," he called down, peering out into the grasslands through his macro binoculars.

  Anakin gave a yell in response and raced over to Padme, the Jedi, and the Gungan generals. "They're back!" he shouted.

  Everyone turned to watch a squad of four speeders skim over the flats and pull to a stop in the concealing shadow of the swamp. Captain Panaka and several dozen Naboo soldiers, officers, and starfighter pilots jumped down. Panaka made his way directly to the Queen.

  "I think we got through without being detected, Your Highness," he advised quickly, brushing the dust from his clothing.

  "What is the situation?" she asked as the others crowded close to them.

  Panaka shook his head. "Most of our people are in the detention camps. A few hundred officers and guards have formed an underground movement to resist the invasion. I've brought as many of the leaders as I could find."

  "Good." Padme nodded appreciatively toward Boss Nass. "The Gungans have a larger army than we imagined."

  "Very, very bombad!" the Gungan chief rumbled.

  Panaka exhaled wearily. "You'll need it. The Federation army is much larger than we thought, too. And stronger." He gave the

  258=======================================================TERRY BROOKS

  Queen a considering look. "In my opinion, this isn't a battle we can win, Your Highness."

  Standing at the edge of the circle, Jar Jar Binks looked down at Anakin and rolled his eyes despairingly.

  But Padme was undeterred. "I don't intend to win it, Captain. The battle is a diversion. We need the Gungans to draw the droid army away from Theed, so we can infiltrate the palace and capture the Neimoidian viceroy. The Trade Federation cannot function without its head. Neimoidians don't think for themselves. Without the viceroy to command them, they will cease to be a threat. "

  She waited for them to consider her plan, eyes fixing auto^maticallyon Qui- Gon Jinn. "What do you think, Master Jedi?" she asked.

  "It is a well-conceived plan," Qui-Gon acknowledged. "It appears to be your best possible move, Your Highness, although there is great risk. Even with the droid army in the field, the viceroy will be well guarded. And many of the Gungans may be killed."

  Boss Nass snorted derisively. "They bombad guns no get through our shields! We ready to fight!"

  Jar Jar gave Anakin another eye roll, but this time Boss Nass saw him do so and gave his new general a hard warning look.

  Padme was thinking. "We could reduce the Gungan casual^ties by securing the main hangar and sending our pilots to knock out their orbiting control ship. Without the control ship to signal them, the droid army can't function at all."

  Everyone nodded in agreement. "But if the viceroy should escape, Your Highness," Obi-Wan pointed out darkly, "he will return with another droid army, and you'll be no better off than you are now. Whatever else happens, you must capture him."

  "Indeed, we must," Padme agreed. "Everything depends on

  THE PHANTOM MENACE===============================================259

  it. Cut off the head, and the serpent dies. Without the viceroy, the Trade Federation collapses."

  They moved on to other matters then, beginning a detailed discussion of battle tactics and command responsibilities. Anakin stood listening for a moment, then eased his way close to Qui-Gon and tugged on his sleeve.

  "What about me?" he asked quietly.

  The Jedi Master put a hand on the boy's head and smiled. "You stay close to me, Annie, do as I say, and you'll be safe."

  Keeping safe wasn't quite what the boy had in mind, but he let the matter drop, satisfied that as long as he was close to Qui-Gon, he woUldn't be far from the action.

  In the Theed palace throne room, Darth Sidious loomed in hologram form before Darth Maul, Battle Droid Commander OOM-9, and the Neimoidians. Smooth and silky, his voice oozed through the shadowy ether.

  "Our young Queen surprises me," he whispered thoughtfully, hidden within his dark robes. "She is more foolish than I thought. "

  "We are sending all available troops to meet this army of hers," Nute Gunray offered quickly. "It appears to be assembling at the edge of the swamp. Primitives, my lord-nothing better. We do not expect much resistance."

  "I am increasing security at all Naboo detention camps," OOM-9 intoned.

  Darth Maul glared at nothing, then shook his horned head. "I feel there is more to this than what we know, my Master. The two Jedi may be using the Queen for their own purposes."

  "The Jedi cannot become involved," Darth Sidious soothed, hands spreading in a placating motion. "They can only protect

  260=======================================================TERRY BROOKS

  the Queen. Even Qui-Gon Jinn cannot break that covenant. This will work to our advantage."

  Darth Maul snorted, anxious to get on with it.

  "I have your approval to proceed, then, my lord?" Nute Gunray asked hesitantly, avoiding the younger Sith's mad eyes.

  "Proceed," Darth Sidious ordered softly. "Wipe them out, Viceroy. All of them."

  - -==20= =-

  By midday, with the sun overhead in a cloudless sky and the wind died away to nothing, the grasslands lying south of Theed between the Naboo capital city and the Gungan swamp lay empty and still. Heat rose off the grasslands in a soft shimmer, and it was so quiet that from a hundred meters away the chirp of birds and the buzz of insects could be heard as if they were settled close by.

  Then the Trade Federation army's bubble-nosed transports and armor-wrapped tanks roared onto the rolling meadows, skimming the tall grasses in gleaming waves of bright metal.

  It was quiet in the swamps as well, the perpetual twilight hushed and expectant beneath the vast canopy of limbs and vines, the surface of the mire as smooth and unbroken as glass, the reeds and rushes motionless in the windless air. Here and there a water bug jumped soundlessly from place to place, stirring puddles to life in the wake of its passing, bending blades of grass like springboards. Birds swooped and banked in bright flashes of color, darting from limb to limb. Small animals crept

  262=======================================================TERRY BROOKS

  from cover to drink and feed, eyes bright, noses twitching, senses alert.

  Then the Gungan army surfaced in a rippling of murky water and a stream of bubbles, lop-eared heads popping up like corks, - first one, then another, and finally hundreds and eventually thousands.

  Both on the plain and in the swamp, the small animals raced back into hiding, the birds took wing, and the insects went to ground.

  Astride their kaadu, the Gungans rode from their concealment with armor strapped to their amphibious bodies and weapons held at the ready. They carried long-hafted energy spears and metal-handled ball slings for long-distance fighting and energy shields for close combat. The kaadu shook themselves as they reached dry ground, shedding the swamp water from their smooth skins, eyes picking out the solid patches of ground as their riders urged them on. Numbers swelling as they reached the fringes of the swamp, the Gungans began to form up in ranks of riders that stretched away as far as the eye could see.

  As the first wave rode clear, the swamp boiled anew with the appearance of fambaa-huge, four-legged lizards with long necks and tails and massive, scaly bodies. The fambaa bore shield generators atop their broad backs, machines that when linked would activate a force field to protect the Gungan soldiers against Trade Federation eaponry. The fambaa lumbered heavily beneath their loads, necks craning from side to side as their drivers pro
dded them impatiently.

  Jar Jar Binks rode with them at the head of his new command, wondering what it was he was supposed to do. Mostly, he believed, he was supposed to stay out of the way. Certainly the other generals and even his oWn subordinate officers had made it

  THE PHANTOM MENACE===============================================263

  clear that this was what they preferred. Boss Nass might think it clever to make him a general in the Gungan army, but the career officers found it less amusing. General Ceel, who was com^mander-in-chief, grunted sourly at Jar Jar, on being informed of his new position, and told him to set a good example for his people and die well.

  Jar Jar had responded to all this by keeping a low profile until the march out of the swamp began, and then he had assumed his required position at the head of his command. He had gotten barely a hundred meters after emerging from concealment when he had fallen offhis kaadu. No one had bothered to stop to help him climb back on, and so now he was riding somewhere in the middle of his troops.

  "Tis very bombad," he kept whispering to himself as he rode with the others through the marshy haze.

  Slowly, steadily, the Gungan army cleared the tangle of the swamps and moved out onto the open grasslands where the Trade Federation army was already waiting.

  Anakin Skywalker hunkered down in the shadows of a building directly across from the main hangar of the N aboo starfleet in the city of Theed. It was quiet here as well, the bulk of the battle droids dispatched to the field to deal with the Gungan army, the remainder scattered throughout the city in patrols and on perimeter watch. Nevertheless, tanks crowded the plaza fronting the hangar complex, and a strong contingent of battle droids warded the Naboo fleet. Seizing control of the starfighters was not going to be easy.

  Anakin glanced over at those with him. Padme, dressed as a handmaiden, crouched with Eirtae beside the Jedi, waiting for Captain Panaka's command to get into position on the other side

  264=======================================================TERRY BROOKS

  of the square. Sabe, the decoy Queen, and her handmaidens wore battle dress, loose-fitting and durable, with blasters strapped to their sides. R2-D2 blinked silendy from behind them in the company of twenty-odd Naboo officers, guards, and pilots, all armed and ready. It seemed to the boy like a pathetically small number of fighters to carry the day, but it was all they had.

  At least Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan were talking again. They had ri begun doing so on the journey in from the swamps, a few words here, a few there, exchanging comments guardedly, testing the waters. Anakin had listened carefully, more attuned to the nuances of their conversation than others could be, hearing in the inflection of their voices more than simply the words spoken. After a time, when the words had healed enough of the breach that they felt comfortable again, there were smiles, brief and almost sad, but clear in their purpose. The Jedi were old friends and their relationship that of father and son. They did not want to toss it all away over a single disagreement. Anakin was thank^ful for that-especially since the disagreement in question was over him.

  Padme had spoken to him as well, joining him for a few moments as they approached the city through the forests east, her smile banishing all his doubts and fears in a moment's time.

  "I'm sorry I couldn't tell you sooner," she said, apologizing for hiding her identity. "I know it was a surprise."

  "It's okay," he said, shrUgging bravely.

  "I guess knowing I'm a Queen makes you feel differendy about me, doesn't it?" she asked.

  "I guess, but that's okay. Just so you still like me. Because I still like you." He looked over at her hopefully.

  "Of course, Annie. Telling you who I really all doesn't mean

  THE PHANTOM MENACE===============================================265

  my feelings for you have changed. 1 was the same person before, whether you knew the truth about me or not."

  He thought about it a moment. "I suppose." He brightened. "So 1 guess my feelings for you shouldn't be any different now either."

  She moved away, smiling broadly back at him, and just at that moment he felt ten meters tall.

  So now he was at peace with himself about the Jedi and Padme, but was beset with new concerns. What if something happened to them during the fight ahead? What if they were hurt or even...He couldn't bring himself to finish the thought. Nothing bad would happen to them, that was all. He wouldn't let it. He glanced at them, kneeling in silence at the edge of the plaza, and promised himself he would keep them safe no matter what. That would be his job. His mouth tightened with determination as he made his pledge.

  "Once we get inside, Annie, you find a safe place to hide until this is over," Qui-Gon advised suddenly, bending close, almost as ifhe could read the boy's mind.

  "Sure," Anakin promised.

  "And stay there," the Jedi Master added firmly.

  Across the way, Panaka and his contingent of fighters were in position now, placing the tanks and battle droids in a crossfire with Padme's group. Padme produced a small glow rod and flashed a coded signal to Panaka across the square.

  All around Anakin, weapons slid free of holsters and fasten^ings, and safeties were released.

  Then Panaka's fighters opened up on the battle droids, blasters shattering their metal bodies in a hail of laser fire. Other droids wheeled about in response and began exchanging fire,

  266=======================================================TERRY BROOKS

  drawn toward the source of the conflict and away from Padme's group. Qui- Gon came to his feet. "Stay close," Qui-Gon whispered to him. A moment later, the boy was running with the Jedi, Padme, Eirtae, R2-D2, and their Naboo contingent of soldiers and pilots toward the open door of the hangar.

  Jar Jar sat tall astride his kaadu, having regained his composure and resumed his position at the head of his troop. The Gungan army was spread out all along the grasslands on either side of where he rode for as far as the eye could see. Birdlike, the kaadu picked their way through the tall grasses, heads dipping, Gungan riders swaying with the motion. The Gungans wore leather and metal headgear and body armor, with small, circular shields strapped at their hips and tri-plate energy packs for abetting the force field jutting like metal feathers from their saddle backs. The fambaa, bearing the shield generators, were spaced evenly down their lines to achieve maximum protection once the generators were activated. Like tanks, the massive lizards lumbered amidst the more nimble kaadu, and the grasslands shook with the weight of their passing.

  At the head of the army rode General Ceel and his command unit, the flags of Otoh Gunga and the other Gungan cities borne in their wake at the end of long poles.

  The army crested a rise, a great, rolling wave of dark bodies, and on a hand signal from General Ceel, drew to a halt.

  Across a long, shallow depression, its position secure on the next ridge over, the Trade Federation army waited. Lines of STAPs and tanks formed the first rank, spread out over a distance

  THE PHANTOM MENACE===============================================267

  of more than a kilometer, armor plating and weapons gleaming in the midday sun. Buttressing the smaller vehicles were the huge Federation transports, massive bodies hovering just off the ground, bulbous-nose gates closed and pointed forward toward the Gungans. Battle droids controlled tanks and STAPs, faceless and empty metal shells impervious to pain, devoid of emotion, and programmed to fight until destroyed.

  Jar Jar Binks stared at the droid army in awe. There was not a living creature in sight, not one made of flesh and blood, not one that would react to the terrible roil of battle as the Gungans would. It made his skin crawl to think of what that meant.

  The fambaa were in place now, and General Ceel activated the shield generators. The big turbines hummed to life, and a pulse of red light arced from a generator atop one fambaa to a dish atop the next, the beam widening and broadening as it grew in size to encompass the whole of the Gungan army until each soldier and kaadu was safe
ly enfolded. The coloring of the protective light changed from red to gold, shimmering like a mirage on a desert. The effect was to make it appear as if the Gungan army was underwater, as if it had been swallowed in a bright, clear sea.

  The Federation was quick to test the shield's effectiveness. On a signal from Droid Commander OOM-9, who in turn was responding to a command from the deep-space control center, the tanks opened fire, their laser cannons sending round after round into the covering. Searing beams hammered into the shield and shattered ineffectively against the liquid energy surface, unable to penetrate.

  Within their protective covering, the Gungans waited patiently, weapons ready, trusting the strength of their shield.

  268=======================================================TERRY BROOKS

  Astride his kaadu, Jar Jar Binks flinched and squirmed fearfully, muttering various prayers to ward off the destruction he was certain would find him otherwise. Relentlessly, the Trade Federation cannons continued their attack, streamers of energy lancing from their barrel mounts, pounding at the covering. The flash and burn and explosion were blinding and deafening, but the Gungans held their ground.

  Finally, the Trade Federation guns went still. Try as they might, they could not break through the Gungan energy shield. Within their protective canopy, the Gungans cheered and bran^dished their weapons triumphantly.