“I’d offer to help,” Trinkatta moaned, “but I’m no good to you with this busted arm of mine.” Aiming his beak toward a narrow hallway, he said, “That hall leads to the starship assembly room. You can open the chimneys from the assembly operations chamber. From there, you’ll have to cross the spaceport to the observation tower and droid central control. I hope you find your friend.”
“You can’t stay here,” Qui-Gon said calmly. “If the fumes reach you…”
“I can take care of myself!” the Kloodavian snapped back. “I have a secret tunnel that leads outside the factory. You’d better go while you can!”
Qui-Gon didn’t want to leave Trinkatta behind, but the Kloodavian insisted. All his life, Qui-Gon had felt great empathy for all living creatures, especially for those who looked like they could use some help. Trinkatta may have been small, but Qui-Gon had no doubt that he was a strong-willed being, capable of taking care of himself. The fact that Trinkatta owned an entire starship factory was proof that he was a formidable character.
Qui-Gon ran down the hallway. The sound of his footsteps reached the audio sensors of two factory operations droids at the far end of the hall.
The two droids stepped forward, blocking Qui-Gon’s entrance to the starship assembly room. Both droids had broad upper bodies supported on strong but narrow legs. Raising their arms, the menacing droids eagerly clicked their manipulatory claws at Qui-Gon.
Hoping to conserve the charge on his lightsaber, Qui-Gon’s hand darted for his grappling hook. Tugging it from his belt, he played out the thin, strong wire and released the hook’s claws. With a single whipping motion, Qui-Gon threw the hook at the droids’ legs. The hook caught and circled the droids, snaring them below their knees. As the droids tried stepping out of the tangle, Qui-Gon pulled hard on the cable. The droids’ feet flew out from under them, sending the two automatons smashing against the floor.
Qui-Gon leaped over the fallen droids as they clattered to the floor, unable to raise their bulky forms. He entered the starship assembly room and found it filled with a haze of smoke. Looking nine stories up to the ceiling, he could barely see the windows that lined the higher levels.
Across the room, beyond several rows of starships and repulsorlift vehicles at various stages of construction, Qui-Gon saw the assembly operations chamber. According to Trinkatta, the controls for the factory’s chimneys were located in the operations chamber. Coughing, Qui-Gon checked his breather gauge. It was nearly depleted.
Holding his breath, Qui-Gon ran across the room. To his dismay, he found the operation chamber’s computer circuits had been ripped apart. Qui-Gon suspected it was the droids’ handiwork, an effort to prevent anyone from opening the chimneys and allowing the smoke to escape.
Qui-Gon spied an unfinished starfighter resting on a nearby conveyer system. The ship wasn’t ready to fly but its laser cannons appeared to be operational.
Still holding his breath, Qui-Gon ran to the starfighter and leaped into the cockpit. His fingers flew over the vessel’s weapon system as he aimed the laser cannons for the high ceiling.
Qui-Gon pulled the triggers and the cannons fired, launching a powerful blast of coherent lights at the ceiling. The laser bolts punched through the roof in a fiery explosion. The upper beams ruptured and fell. Qui-Gon leaped out of the starfighter and dove for cover into a grease pit. A split second later, the starfighter was crushed by a huge chunk of falling plastoid.
Looking up from the grease pit, Qui-Gon saw he had created a wide hole in the ceiling. His view of the Esseles sky was obscured by rising smoke as the fumes lifted through the hole and out of the factory.
As the smoke cleared, Qui-Gon scanned the area, looking for any sign of Adi Gallia. The Jedi Master sensed Adi had been in this room earlier. Not trusting his eyes, Qui-Gon closed them and opened his mind to the Force.
A picture formed in Qui-Gon’s mind. He glimpsed Adi Gallia lying very still in a chamber. She’s nearby, Qui-Gon suddenly knew. Only… she’s high above ground… somewhere…
Turning his head, Qui-Gon opened his eyes to find he was looking through a window that offered a view of the factory’s spaceport from the assembly room. At the far side of the spaceport, the observation tower loomed over the landing bay.
The tower! Qui-Gon suddenly knew he would find Adi Gallia there. Twenty stories tall, the tower was a new structure built on top of an ancient stone foundation. The first seventeen stories rose from the ground as a four-sided obelisk that supported an inverted dome — lined with transparisteel windows — that housed the three-story observation levels. Five plastoid landing decks jutted out from the inverted dome, adding to the tower’s crude resemblance to a gigantic, machinelike flower.
Qui-Gon surveyed the tower and noticed a vehicle resting on the tower’s uppermost landing deck. The vehicle hadn’t been there when the Jedi had arrived at the factory. It was a bizarre two-seat Skyhopper, a fast repulsorlift vehicle designed to fly above the ground. Qui-Gon didn’t recognize the model.
Remembering that Trinkatta’s central droid control room was on Level 19 of the tower, Qui-Gon thought the presence of an alien Skyhopper seemed too great a coincidence. He suspected the parked Skyhopper belonged to saboteurs, villains intent on taking over Trinkatta’s factory by reprogramming his droids from the tower.
Realizing that Adi Gallia might be at the mercy of an unknown enemy, Qui-Gon ran for the exit to the spaceport.
He prayed he would find her alive.
There were several factory-owned repulsorlift vehicles parked on the tarmac. Hoping to reach Adi Gallia as soon as possible, Qui-Gon ran for the vehicles, planning to ride one to the observation tower.
As Qui-Gon approached, three late-model astromech droids rolled out from a transport that was up on blocks. Armed with beamdrills and welding tools, the battered old astromechs emitted a flurry of threatening beeps as they rolled toward Qui-Gon.
Brandishing his lightsaber, the Jedi Master ran around to the other side of the raised transport. The astromechs rotated their domed heads and turned back, hoping to corner the running man. As the astromechs moved under the transport, Qui-Gon slashed one of the supporting blocks. The transport teetered and the droids accelerated, trying to reach their target. Qui-Gon launched a well-placed kick to the side of the transport. The vehicle toppled off its blocks and crushed the rebellious droids.
Qui-Gon deactivated his lightsaber. As he raced to a parked landspeeder, he wondered whether Obi-Wan, Vel Ardox, and Noro Zak were still battling droids or if they had gained access to the factory. He jumped into a landspeeder, strapped himself in, gunned the engines, and raced for the observation tower. He would make every effort to reprogram the droids or shut them down.
As he neared the tower, Qui-Gon tapped the inertial dampers… but the landspeeder wouldn’t slow down!
He pumped the inertial dampers again to no effect, then reached for the emergency lever. When the lever failed, he unbuckled his safety harness and leaped from the landspeeder. A split second after he hit the tarmac and rolled, he heard the speeder crash into the tower’s foundation.
The Jedi Master rose from the tarmac and ran past the crashed speeder to the tower’s lift tube. He entered the tube and stated his destination: “Level 19, droid central control.”
The lift rose in a powerful rush from ground level. Seconds later, the repulsor field warning light flashed red and the lift screeched to a halt. Qui-Gon was launched off his feet, smashing into the ceiling’s emergency escape hatch before he fell crashing back to the floor.
Rising from the floor, Qui-Gon checked the lift tube console. According to the numerical display, he was trapped between Levels 18 and 19, just shy of his destination. He realized the droids must have tapped into the lift tube computer terminal, and that his destination command alerted them to his exact position.
Reaching up, Qui-Gon opened the emergency escape hatch in the ceiling. Climbing through the hatch, he stepped onto the top of the lift.
Qui-Gon looked up into the cylindrical tube shaft and saw the sealed doors for Level 19. Suddenly, a whirring motor sounded from above. A shaft maintenance droid, clinging to the walls by its magnetic treads, rapidly descended from the upper levels of the lift tube. Aiming a disrupter at Qui-Gon, the droid prepared to fire.
Qui-Gon activated his lightsaber and threw it up into the air in a graceful spin. The lightsaber’s blade sliced through the droid’s left side, separating it from its treads and throwing it off balance.
As the lightsaber fell back to Qui-Gon, he caught it by the handle, then swiftly drove the blade through the doors to Level 19, carving a broad hole. Qui-Gon dove through the smoldering metal hole just as the rest of the dismembered droid came crashing down from above, slamming into the roof of the lift. The lift plunged down the tube, carrying the ruined droid all the way to the bottom. Rising to his feet, Qui-Gon heard the explosive impact as the lift struck the ground level, nineteen stories down. A fireball erupted, and Qui-Gon jumped out of the way.
Level 19 was filled with sophisticated computers but appeared to be devoid of any saboteurs or droids. Qui-Gon headed into the central droid control room and passed a window that offered a view of the starship factory at the other side of the spaceport. Across the tarmac, droids poured out of the factory and advanced toward the observation tower. There were over a hundred of them of various sizes, all brandishing weapons and lethal tools.
Every droid at Trinkatta Starships was coming after him.
In only a matter of minutes, they would reach Level 19.
Qui-Gon turned his attention to the interior of the control room. While searching for the main terminal that regulated all of the factory’s droids, Qui-Gon stepped into a detention center.
The detention center was a long corridor that ended in a large black metal wall. Five cells lined the right wall and another five cells were built into the left. Instead of having sealed metal doors, each cell was viewable through a transparent energy field. From where Qui-Gon stood, he couldn’t see directly inside any of the cells. He moved cautiously forward to inspect them.
Much to his amazement, he saw the same view in each cell: Adi Gallia’s motionless body. Qui-Gon realized nine of the cells contained holographic projections, decoys to delay any rescue attempt. In every cell, Master Adi appeared in the same position. She was slumped on a metal bed with her multi-tailed headdress spread out under her. Her eyes were closed. Her heavy brown robe prevented Qui-Gon from being able to see whether or not she was breathing. He yelled her name, trying to wake her. But it was no use.
A command console was located within the middle of the detention center. Qui-Gon eyed the ten unmarked switches on the command console, guessing that one of them should deactivate the cells’ energy shields.
He cautiously selected a switch and threw it. Without realizing it, he had deactivated the holoprojectors built into each cell. Suddenly, all of the holograms vanished, and only the real Adi Gallia remained.
But the energy shield remained activated. There were nine switches left and Qui-Gon gave them a quick study. He suspected the switches next to the holoprojector switch might trigger a trap, so he reached for the fifth switch.
After throwing the switch, Qui-Gon heard a clicking sound from behind him. He spun to see a hidden door slide back fast from the black metal wall. A tall guard droid stepped out from a compartment within the wall. It was humanoid in design, but the droid’s two arms ended in menacing, double-barreled blaster rifles. At the sight of the human intruder, the droid’s photoreceptors glowed red.
The guard droid lurched forward. Qui-Gon’s hand flew to his belt and his lightsaber was suddenly ablaze. The droid rapidly squeezed off a double burst of blaster fire from its arms, but the Jedi Master’s blade struck each blast, hammering them back at the droid. The bolts pounded at the guard droid’s armor and tore through its neck and joints. The droid’s head exploded as its shattered body toppled to the floor, causing a crash that echoed through the detention center.
Qui-Gon deactivated his lightsaber and turned his attention back to the remaining switches. Normally, he enjoyed solving puzzles to keep his mind sharp. But with Adi Gallia’s life at stake, he knew this wasn’t any game.
Taking a chance, Qui-Gon threw both the seventh and eighth switch at the same time. He didn’t know which switch had done the job, but all ten energy shields dropped.
He ran into Adi Gallia’s cell, bent down, and checked her vital signs. She was unconscious and her pulse was weak.
But she was alive.
Barely alive.
Realizing she required medical attention, Qui-Gon moved fast to the main terminal of the control room. He hoped to transmit an overriding command signal to the droids, stopping them in their tracks before they could assault the tower.
After entering the commands into the computer, Qui-Gon ran to the window. Outside, the droids advanced closer to the tower.
Soon, they would arrive.
The saboteurs must have tampered with the computer. Qui-Gon wondered what to do next. Looking out the window, he could see the alien Skyhopper was still parked on the outer deck that jutted out from the tower. Qui-Gon decided to make a run for the Skyhopper, but not before he did something to stop the droids. Unless the droids were terminated, they might escape the factory and cause even more harm.
Turning back to the control room, Qui-Gon spied a red-and-yellow-striped emergency cabinet. Popping the cabinet open, Qui-Gon found it contained an auto-destruct initiator. Qui-Gon thought it was a dramatic bit of security for Trinkatta to have installed, but the device appeared to be the only way to destroy the droids. Wasting no time, Qui-Gon threw the initiator switch. The countdown began at three minutes.
Evacuation warnings sounded. Hopefully, the other Jedi would heed them.
Gathering Adi Gallia from the floor, Qui-Gon carried her up an access stairway to the tower’s upper deck. Exiting the stairwell, he noticed the exit door had been kicked in from the outside. Proceeding through the damaged doorway, Qui-Gon wondered where the saboteurs had gone.
Reaching the upper deck, Qui-Gon Jinn carried Adi Gallia toward the parked Skyhopper. Without warning, two tall insectoid aliens stepped out from behind the Skyhopper. With their black body armor and segmented movements, Qui-Gon recognized the aliens at once.
They were Bartokks.
A race of bloodthirsty mercenaries, the Bartokks were notorious throughout the galaxy for their assassin squads. With their hive mind, they worked together to kill their assigned targets. Their intelligence was distributed through nerve centers throughout their bodies, so cutting off their heads would not stop them, since the severed pieces would continue to attack. Each Bartokk stood on two powerful legs and had four arms: two manipulatory arms extended from their waists while their upper arms ended in long hooked claws.
Before Qui-Gon could address the Bartokks, the two insectoid aliens raised their claws and stepped forward.
Quickly placing Adi Gallia on the floor of the deck, Qui-Gon drew his lightsaber and extended its blade. Like all Jedi, Qui-Gon did not believe in killing unless it was absolutely necessary. But he knew the Bartokks were professional killers who wouldn’t hesitate to slice him from head to toe.
Seeing Qui-Gon’s activated lightsaber, the Bartokks took a step back. The Jedi Master’s eyes fixed on both of them as he warned, “This encounter doesn’t have to end in your deaths.”
The Bartokks exchanged a chittering communication, then sprang through the air.
Qui-Gon Jinn’s lightsaber came up fast.
In a single sweep, Qui-Gon cut one Bartokk in half while relieving the other of an arm. The Bartokks screeched, and their severed parts clattered across the deck, reacting independently. Cutting down the upright Bartokk, Qui-Gon saw the insectoid body fragments scramble toward Adi Gallia’s prone form.
Qui-Gon leaped to Adi Gallia’s side. His boots landed on one of the Bartokks’ writhing arms with an ugly squish. His lightsaber crackled as he brou
ght it down again and again, hacking at the insectoid pieces. Qui-Gon knew he was running out of time. Since activating the auto-destruct mechanism, he knew he only had less than a minute to escape the tower. Switching off his lightsaber to lift Adi Gallia, Qui-Gon was nearly snagged by one of the Bartokks dismembered claws.
The Bartokks’ body parts pursued Qui-Gon as he ran for the Skyhopper. Placing Adi Gallia into the cockpit, Qui-Gon jumped in beside her and punched the controls. Although the Skyhopper was designed for the Bartokks, it reacted to Qui-Gon’s touch.
As the Skyhopper lifted off the deck, a thunderous explosion erupted from below. The force of the blast pushed the Skyhopper forward, nearly knocking the vehicle out of the sky. Gripping the controls, Qui-Gon banked hard to the left and came around to see fire and smoke streaming out from the top of the tower.
Glancing down to the spaceport below, Qui-Gon saw that the droids had all frozen — most were knocked down by the explosion. By destroying the central droid control room, Qui-Gon had prevented the droids from wreaking more havoc.
Landing the Skyhopper outside the barricades surrounding Trinkatta Starships, Qui-Gon saw Obi-Wan Kenobi running from the factory’s security checkpoint. Vel Ardox and Noro Zak were several steps behind him.
“Master Qui-Gon!” Obi-Wan called out as he approached the Skyhopper. “We saw the tower explode! We couldn’t even get into the factory. The droids held us back and…” Upon reaching the side of the Skyhopper and seeing Adi Gallia’s body, Obi-Wan was speechless. “You found Master Adi! Why didn’t you tell us?”
“My comlink was damaged,” Qui-Gon replied as he checked Adi Gallia.
“Good work, Qui-Gon,” Noro congratulated.
“It’s hardly time to celebrate!” Qui-Gon snapped. “Adi is unconscious and requires medical attention! Also, I couldn’t find the fifty droid starfighters. But I learned they were ordered by the Trade Federation. Even worse, I had a run-in with Bartokk assassins.”
Star Wars - Episode I Adventures 001 - Search for the Lost Jedi Page 3