Two tall security droids stepped out from the checkpoint booth. Approaching the Jedi, the droid’s heavy metal feet clanked against the smooth stone walkway. One droid raised a hand, signaling a halt.
“What is your business with Trinkatta?” the droid asked as its barrel-shaped head scanned the four figures.
“We’re looking for a friend of ours,” Qui-Gon answered. “She was supposed to meet us here. She’s a building inspector.”
The droid shook its head, which creaked with each turn at the neck. “No building inspectors here. Only droids. You all must leave now. We’re closing off the chimneys. The factory is about to be fumigated.”
“Fumigated?” Qui-Gon asked. “But if there are only droids inside, what are you trying to exterminate?”
“Vermin,” the other droid answered quickly. “Now you must leave…”
“Look!” Obi-Wan called out. Following his gaze, the other Jedi saw that the factory’s three tall chimneys were no longer releasing toxic clouds into the air. Seconds later, the high transparisteel windows went dark as smoke began filling the factory.
Qui-Gon Jinn closed his eyes in meditation. Upon opening his eyes, he stated, “I sense Adi Gallia is within this complex… and she may be injured. We have to rescue her before she’s consumed by the smoke!” Fixing his gaze on the droids, Qui-Gon commanded, “You must let us enter the factory immediately.”
The nearest security droid’s photoreceptors turned red. “Instructions received from central droid control,” the droid uttered as it took a step backward. “Trespassers must be terminated!”
Without further warning, both droids reached for their blaster pistols. Obi-Wan’s hand darted for his lightsaber, but Vel Ardox moved faster. Her lightsaber blazed and lashed out in a sweeping flash, cutting down both droids before they could fire their blasters. The droids crashed to the ground.
“Security droids are supposed to arrest trespassers!” Vel exclaimed. “Someone reprogrammed these units to kill!”
“But who would —?” Obi-Wan began but was interrupted by the bursting wail of a loud siren.
“The other droids must know we’re here!” Noro stated. “One of us should stay here and distract them while the rest of us find a way into the factory. We have to stop that smoke or open those chimneys!”
“If we can reach the central droid control room,” Vel Ardox added, “we should be able to override the system and deactivate all the droids!”
“Adi Gallia is our first priority!” Qui-Gon declared as he drew his lightsaber. “The factory is filling with toxic fumes! We have to find Adi and get her out now!”
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After quickly surveying the Trinkatta Starships checkpoint area, Qui-Gon Jinn turned to Obi-Wan Kenobi, Vel Ardox, and Noro Zak.
“Here’s the plan,” Qui-Gon Jinn told them. “I’ll draw the security droids to the checkpoint and distract them while you three try to find another way into the factory. We’ll have a better chance of finding Adi Gallia by splitting up and searching different areas of the complex.”
“Shall we maintain communication?” Noro asked.
“If the factory droids are monitoring the frequencies, they might intercept our messages,” Qui-Gon pointed out. “Use your comlink only if you need help or have located Adi Gallia. Go now. And may the Force be with you.”
Obi-Wan and Vel ran off while Noro took to the air, leaving Qui-Gon alone at the checkpoint. Stepping over the fallen security droids, Qui-Gon approached the giant sliding door. He heard the sound of clicking gears as the door began to slide up into the high wall.
As the door rose, Qui-Gon could see the wide bridge that crossed the moat and led to the starship factory. Suddenly, six security droids emerged from the factory and lurched forward onto the bridge. Seeing Qui-Gon, the droids raised their blaster arms.
Moving faster than the droids’ photoreceptors could follow, Qui-Gon activated his lightsaber and surged forward. Swinging the lethal blade with deadly accuracy, the Jedi Master cut down the six security droids within seconds. The droids crashed to the surface of the bridge with a clanging racket.
That should draw the attention of the other security droids, Qui-Gon thought to himself, hoping it would allow his friends to find another way into the starship factory.
Qui-Gon stepped over the metal bodies of the fallen droids, passing through the smoke that rose from their fried remains. As he began to cross toward the starship factory, Qui-Gon glanced below the bridge. Suspended ten meters over a deep, water-filled moat, the bridge was bracketed by low guardrails.
Switching on his comlink, Qui-Gon whispered, “I’m on the bridge that leads to the entrance. Are you inside the factory yet?”
“Not yet, Master!” Obi-Wan replied. “We ran into some more droids. Getting in will be more difficult than we realized.”
Switching off his comlink, Qui-Gon was halfway across the bridge when a bright glint from above drew his attention.
Three stories up, on a rooftop that supported an elevated water tower, Qui-Gon caught sight of eight security droids running into position. Suddenly, the menacing droids raised their blaster rifles and fired from above.
Qui-Gon’s lightsaber came up fast, striking at the oncoming energy bolts. He batted them back at the elevated water tower above the droids, striking the tower’s base in rapid succession. As the droids continued firing, the water tower ruptured from the repeated battery and exploded over their heads, knocking them from the roof.
Thousands of liters of water plummeted in a devastating cascade, carrying the droids to the bridge below. Despite the fact he’d targeted the water tower, Qui-Gon Jinn was surprised by the magnitude of the resulting blast and turned off his lightsaber’s power. In an effort to avoid being swept away by the torrential burst or crushed by the tumbling droids, Qui-Gon jumped over the guardrail and dived into the moat below.
After knifing into the water, Qui-Gon arched back to the surface for air. As he broke the surface, he was nearly struck by an energy bolt. Two droids had survived the fall to the bridge, and both were determined to kill the human invader.
Taking a quick deep breath, the Jedi Master dropped underwater and swam directly under the bridge, staying out of range of the droids’ blaster fire. Swimming to the foundation of the starship factory, he saw what appeared to be the opening of an underwater tunnel. Qui-Gon hoped it might be an entrance to the factory. He reached for his utility belt and retrieved his breather. After placing the device over his face, he was soon breathing easily. He propelled himself forward into the dark tunnel.
Seconds later, Qui-Gon was engulfed by pitch-black darkness. The Jedi Master concentrated on the interior of the cave, using the Force to let him sense the rough, rocky walls. Absent of fear, he swam forward.
Soon, the tunnel narrowed, making it difficult to swim. Reaching out with his hands and feet, Qui-Gon could barely manage to crawl through the underwater access. He felt along the walls of the tunnel, trying to grab hold, but the stone walls were covered with an oily muck. He could not find a handhold.
Something slimy bumped against Qui-Gon’s leg. In the next instant, his left ankle was caught in a tight grip.
Qui-Gon had company.
Reaching to his lower leg, Qui-Gon touched a thick tentacle coiled around his foot. Snaking out from a hole in the tunnel wall, the tentacle tugged his ankle, drawing him into the gap. Some broken stones from the foundation lay below the hole.
Despite the creature’s attack, Qui-Gon did not react with violence. It was in his nature to be empathetic to all life-forms. When he had been a Padawan, his tendency for kindness had often confounded his own Master. In the underwater tunnel, Qui-Gon found h
imself wondering, If I lived quietly in a hole somewhere, how would I like it if some large organism came crashing through my home?
Suddenly, the tentacle relaxed its grip and vanished into the gap in the tunnel wall. To Qui-Gon’s amazement, he heard a soft, alien voice echo in his mind, responding to his own thoughts: I apologize for attacking you, strange creature. I mistook you for a large fish. You are welcome to swim these waters, but be careful of the current.
Behind his breather, Qui-Gon Jinn smiled. Thank you.
Leaving the creature behind, Qui-Gon swam on through the underwater tunnel. As he propelled himself through the darkness, his thoughts turned to Adi Gallia. Because she had rescued him some time ago, Qui-Gon believed he owed his life to her. But he also knew it was not the time to contemplate the past. The Jedi Master cleared his mind and swam faster.
A steady, mechanical thumping sound grew louder as he moved forward. He paused to listen to the sound, and realized that although he’d stopped swimming, he was still moving at a steady pace through the tunnel. Caught in a powerful current, he was being dragged deeper into the darkness.
Qui-Gon wished he had paid more attention to the tentacled creature’s warning.
The mechanical thumping became increasingly louder. Battling the current, he extended his arms and legs, trying to brace himself within the tunnel. Unable to get a grip on the smooth, slick tunnel, he was dragged onward. In an explosive surge, Qui-Gon was launched out of the tunnel in a concentrated waterfall, spilling him into a wide, circular silo.
Tumbling through the air and falling water, he splashed down into a deep pool at the base of the silo. The thumping sound was nearly deafening, echoing off the silo walls in thunderous booms. Like a gigantic drain, the water churned and swirled around Qui-Gon, dragging him below the surface. Underwater, he realized the cause of the horrendous noise.
At the base of the silo, a giant hydraulic propeller spun rapidly, drawing the water down and circulating it in the factory’s moat. Qui-Gon knew the great propeller would slice him to ribbons unless he could escape the silo.
Struggling against the downward flow, Qui-Gon broke the surface of the pool. Pounded by water falling from above, he swam for the silo wall. The inner silo appeared to be lined with thick layer of ferrocrete, a mixture of concrete and steel-like materials bonded at the molecular level. Like the tunnel, the slick walls allowed no purchase.
Looking up to the top of the silo, Qui-Gon saw a maintenance hatch. The hatch was illuminated by several greenish-yellow glow rods that dangled from a narrow beam. Qui-Gon considered throwing his compact grappling hook to the glow rods, but with both arms busy keeping him abovewater, he knew it would be a difficult effort. He also knew his breather’s air supply was nearly exhausted.
Another possibility occurred to him. Saving his energy, Qui-Gon let himself be pulled beneath the surface. As he drew closer to the propeller, he concentrated on the spinning blades, visualizing them bending and twisting as they rotated. A loud cracking sound followed, then the propeller wobbled in its fixed setting. Using the Force, Qui-Gon had turned the machine’s power against itself.
The result was an underwater explosion that shook the interior of the silo and shattered the propeller. Large bits of shredded metal sailed past Qui-Gon in a rush of bubbles as he broke for the surface. With the propeller’s destruction, the steady thumping sound ended and the water level began to rise.
As the rising water carried him to the top of the silo, Qui-Gon quickly reached the hatch. Grabbing the wheel-shaped opening mechanism, he turned hard.
The rusted wheel crumbled in his hands as the water continued to rise.
He was trapped!
Qui-Gon tried concentrating on the hatch’s unseen inner lock mechanism, but he found it difficult to remain calm. The rising water would soon be over his head.
The Jedi Master’s hand reached for his lightsaber, tore it from his belt clip, and activated the blade. With a single, circular swing, he drove the lightsaber deep through the metal hatch. Then he deactivated the lightsaber and threw his weight hard against the center of the hatch, pushing it through its damaged frame. As the battered hatch crashed onto the floor of the next chamber, Qui-Gon leaped headfirst through the hole. A loud crunch sounded from his belt as he landed within a dry chamber. He had accidentally crushed his own comlink.
Qui-Gon quickly rose to his feet and lifted the hatch’s wreckage. He jammed the cut metal back in the hole just as water began to spill into the chamber.
With the hatch sealed, Qui-Gon removed his breather and inspected his new surroundings. He stood in a large subterranean chamber. Dimly illuminated by glow rods, the stone-walled room smelled of dust and decay. In the center of the chamber, three tall pillars rose from the stone floor to the brick ceiling.
“Unnnnn,” a voice moaned from behind one pillar. Running around the column, Qui-Gon found a semiconscious alien lying on the floor. A small yellow-scaled reptilian creature with a pronounced beak, the alien was clothed in a fine tunic. His left foot was chained to the pillar and his right arm was missing below the elbow joint.
“Are you okay?” Qui-Gon asked as he checked the alien’s pulse. In this close proximity, Qui-Gon could tell that the alien’s right arm had only recently been removed.
“Oh, I’m just fine,” the alien groaned, “except that the droids cut off my arm and locked me up here to die.”
Qui-Gon’s eyes went wide. “The droids cut off your arm?!”
“They were trying to get information out of me,” the alien said with a sigh. “No big deal. I’m a Kloodavian. The arm’ll grow back in a couple of days.” “What are you doing in here?” Qui-Gon asked.
“I should be asking you that question!” the Kloodavian snarled. “I’m Boll Trinkatta! I own this starship factory! But my droids went berserk and took over. I don’t know how, but someone must’ve reprogrammed them! The droids brought me down here and left me to die.”
Before Qui-Gon could ask any more questions of Boll Trinkatta, an eight-armed maintenance droid rolled out from behind one of the other pillars. Hiding out of view, it had waited for the right moment to attack. Each of its eight arms wielded a different tool, including a beamdrill, fusioncutter, macrofuser, and power prybar. Extending its appendages, the droid accelerated on its treads and headed straight for the Jedi Master.
When the droid was nearly on top of its prey, Qui-Gon leaped aside. Unable to stop in time, the droid crashed into the stone wall. Falling back from the wall, the droid’s eight arms flailed as it tried to recover its balance and get a position on the attacker. Before the droid could fire its fusioncutter, Qui-Gon’s lightsaber blazed and arched through the air, slicing through the droid below its eight shoulder joints. The droid’s head and shoulders tumbled from its body, sending a shower of sparks all the way up to the brick ceiling. Crashing to the floor, the droid lay motionless.
Stepping away from the remains of the fallen droid, Qui-Gon approached Trinkatta, who still leaned against the pillar. With surprise in his eyes, the Kloodavian remarked, “Only a Jedi moves that fast!”
“My name is Qui-Gon Jinn,” the Jedi Master stated. Looking Trinkatta in the eyes, Qui-Gon came to the point. “A woman came here to inspect your building,” he continued, maintaining secrecy by not mentioning Adi Gallia’s name. “You will tell me where I can find her.”
Trinkatta glared at Qui-Gon but did not answer.
“You’re in a lot of trouble, friend,” Qui-Gon continued. “I know you’re selling fifty droid starfighters. I want to know the identity of the buyer. Direct me to your factory’s central droid control room.”
“I… I don’t have to tell you anything!” Trinkatta insisted.
Qui-Gon was uncertain whether the Kloodavian was arrogant or afraid to answer his questions. Relying on the Force, Qui-Gon attempted to make the alien talk.
“You can tell me everything,” Qui-Gon coaxed as he made a waving gesture with his hand.
Trinkatta’s reptilian lips dre
w back into a good-natured smile. “Kloodavians are immune to Jedi mind tricks,” he boasted. “But I’ll answer your questions if you unchain me.”
“Done,” Qui-Gon agreed.
While the Jedi Master set to work on opening the lock, careful not to injure the Kloodavian’s leg, Trinkatta spoke. “I don’t know anything about a building inspector. It’s possible she was captured by my droids after they’d already locked me up.”
“What about the location of your central droid control room?” Qui-Gon asked.
“It’s on Level 19 of the observation tower, on the other side of the factory’s spaceport.”
Working a thin wire into the manacle at Trinkatta’s foot, Qui-Gon inquired, “And who ordered the fifty droid starfighters?”
Trinkatta gulped, nervous to answer this final question. “I… I built them for the Trade Federation.”
“The Trade Federation ordered these?” Qui-Gon said with surprise. “But this planet isn’t anywhere near Trade Federation routes. Why did they commission you to build droid starfighters?”
“I don’t know why they picked me,” Trinkatta admitted. “Every starship maker in the galaxy knows the Xi Charrians have an exclusive contract to build droid starfighters for the Trade Federation. When the Neimoidians told me they wanted me to install hyperdrive engines into the fighters, I protested. The next day, my test pilot vanished! I was afraid if I didn’t follow the Trade Federation’s orders, they’d make me disappear, too.”
“Where are the droid starfighters now?” Qui-Gon asked.
“I wish I knew!” Trinkatta squawked. “That’s what my own malfunctioning droids kept asking me when they locked me up. Someone stole all fifty starfighters. When the Neimoidians find out, they’ll kill me!”
“We’ll worry about the Trade Federation later,” Qui-Gon remarked as he removed the manacle from Trinkatta’s leg. “Your droids closed off the factory’s chimneys and the whole complex is filling up with fumes. If my friend is in the building, she’ll die unless I can rescue her!”
Star Wars - Episode I Adventures 001 - Search for the Lost Jedi Page 2