Star Wars - Episode I Adventures 004 - Jedi Emergency

by Ryder Windham

  Yoda smacked his lips. “If operational this computer is, learn we might the location of the one named Teela Panjarra.”

  “Teela Panjarra?” the droid repeated in surprise. “Why, she’s being held in a research laboratory on Level fifty-eight.”

  Yoda’s eyes went wide. The girl was in a research lab! Yoda’s suspicions were confirmed: the Academy’s Chief Scientist was not to be trusted.

  “To Level fifty-eight, I must go,” Yoda said. He checked the lift tube near the security checkpoint, and found the sliding doors were still tightly sealed. The controls required extensive repairs.

  Once again, Yoda drew and activated his lightsaber. With only the slightest turn of his gnarled wrist, Yoda plunged the lightsaber’s blade through the doors and carved out a large circle. He tapped at the center of the circle and it fell away into the shaft, leaving a wide hole in the lift tube doors.

  Yoda deactivated his lightsaber and stared into the lift tube shaft. The lift itself was gone, having ferried the first two X10-Ds to another level within the Science Service tower. Yoda didn’t know whether the two X10-Ds had gone up or down, but he knew his own destination was Level 58.

  Above the security kiosk, an air vent rattled on the ceiling. Suddenly, the heavy vent cover swung out on its hinges and two Bartokks plunged down from inside. Just as Yoda had suspected, more Bartokks had been alerted by their fallen comrades.

  Both Bartokks carried cryogen whips, capable of causing a near-explosive chemical reaction when the super-cold tip of the lash struck an object. The Bartokks landed next to the damaged security droid. Before the droid could move, the Bartokks brought their cryogen whips down on him. A stunning blast and loud crack sounded as the whips struck, and the helpless droid was instantly reduced to frozen metal.

  It was fortunate that the brave security droid had disassembled the plasma bomb. Both the security droid and the bomb’s separate components were transformed into useless bits of ice-cold scrap.

  Yoda remained standing near the open lift tube shaft when the Bartokks turned away from the security droid and jumped at him. The elderly Jedi Master ducked, and one of the Bartokks sailed over his back and tumbled through the open lift tube doorway. Yoda kept his eyes on the Bartokk who had stopped short of the open door, and heard the other Bartokk crash down through the lift tube shaft. Even though Bartokks had exoskeletal body armor, it was a certainty that the assassin would not survive the drop to the Science Service’s subbasement levels.

  The remaining Bartokk raised his whip, preparing to strike Yoda. Again, Yoda’s lightsaber flashed. Yoda swung out and high to the right, separating his attacker at the abdomen and removing the claw that gripped the whip. The Bartokk’s body parts attempted to regroup. One arm accidentally lashed out with the whip and struck the Bartokk’s upper torso, which exploded into icy splinters. Seconds later, the body parts were motionless.

  Yoda believed more Bartokks would soon be on their way to Level 7. He looked inside the lift tube shaft, trying to determine whether there was any way for him to reach Level 58. On the inner wall of the shaft, a maintenance ladder offered the possibility for ascent. Yoda glanced back at the nursery and saw a flatboard repulsorlift scooter hovering a few millimeters over the floor. The small scooter was designed for a child, but it looked just about right to Yoda.

  Throughout his life, Yoda found that his size often worked to his benefit. Had he been as large as a typical full-grown human, the scooter would not have been able to support his weight. Yoda climbed onto the repulsorlift scooter and gripped the handlebars. He shifted his balance and aimed for the lift tube, then revved the motor.

  The scooter passed through the hole in the lift tube doors and rocketed up the shaft. Yoda clung to the handlebars and rapidly counted the passing levels as he ascended through near-total darkness. Within seconds, he reached Level 58 and slowed the scooter down. He gripped the shaft’s maintenance ladder and climbed off the scooter, then edged over to an access door. The door was locked, but the locking mechanism was on the inside of the shaft. Yoda’s stubby fingers danced over the lock, opening the mechanism within seconds.

  Yoda stepped through the access door and entered Level 58. Like the nursery fifty-one floors below, all the lights were off.

  An Academy security droid was stationed next to the northeast lift tube. “You are not authorized to enter this level,” the security droid stated. “Command received from Level seven... all organic life-forms must evacuate the building.”

  “Came from Level seven, I did,” Yoda proclaimed, ignoring the droid’s directive. “Here to help, I am. Search, I do, for a six-month-old girl named Teela Panjarra. Held in a research lab on this level, she is.”

  “Teela Panjarra is in the care of Chief Scientist Frexton,” the droid answered. “I will direct you to the nearest exit.”

  Yoda stood his ground and asked, “On this level the Chief Scientist is, or leave, did he, with the girl?”

  The droid quickly reached out to grab Yoda’s arm. “Warning... You must leave immediately.”

  The Academy security droid might have been merely following orders, but Yoda sensed the droid was deliberately not answering his questions. Yoda imagined it was possible the droid was acting under direct orders from the duplicitous Chief Scientist.

  “An attack on Level seven, there has been,” Yoda told the droid. “Needed there, you are.”

  The droid pulled Yoda by the arm. “You are trespassing. You will leave here at once.”

  Yoda sighed. “Leave me with no choice, you do.” The Jedi Master concentrated on the droid’s fingers, and the fingers drew back, releasing Yoda from their grip. Before the droid could process what invisible power could have caused his metal fingers to open, it fell back to the floor.

  While the droid tried to raise itself, Yoda proceeded into the lobby. On a wall next to a reception desk, he saw a map that revealed ten different research laboratories on Level 58. Each lab was represented by a color-coded rectangle. Yoda raised his walking stick to tap at each of the rectangles, and a monitor displayed a readout of the respective lab’s purpose and contents.

  According to the information on the monitor, Teela Panjarra was in the fifth laboratory. Yoda did not see any sign of the infant on the monitor, but he sensed she was indeed there. He moved quietly toward the lab.

  Yoda reached the fifth research lab and peered inside the dark chamber. The lab was a long, deep room, dimly illuminated by the city light that seeped through a tinted picture window. Looking outside, Yoda saw starships flying to and from the Academy Spaceport.

  Yoda’s eyes adjusted to the darkness and he scanned the lab. Electrical equipment was set up on a thick plastoid table. Hundreds of chemical vials were neatly displayed upon a series of wall-mounted shelves. Below the window he saw a dispersal canister for destroying trash and a portable fusion furnace for power generation.

  Suddenly, the silhouette of a tall, slender man wearing a laboratory tunic moved in front of the picture window. The man was transferring something that looked like a bundled sack from a shallow rectangular tray into a medium-sized box. Despite the darkness, Yoda recognized the box as a Live Organism Comfort Conveyor (LOCC), a contraption used to transport small animals during interstellar journeys.

  Yoda reached for the emergency glow rod on his belt. As soon as the slender man closed the lid on the LOCC, Yoda activated the glow rod. Instantly, Chief Scientist Frexton was caught in the rod’s bright projected light, and he threw a hand up over his eyes. A small transparent viewport was built into the side of the LOCC, and it revealed that the bundled sack was in fact an infant swaddled in pale gray fabric.

  Teela Panjarra was sound asleep.

  The sleeping infant was humanoid. She was so safely nestled within the LOCC that Yoda did not want to disturb her. Keeping his voice calm, Yoda commanded, “Surrender at once, Frexton.”

  “Security!” Frexton yelped as he squinted into the glow rod’s light. “Security! Get here at once!”

>   “Help you, the security droid cannot,” Yoda informed the scientist. “Deceived the Jedi Council, you have. Now, away from the child you will step or ...”

  Before Yoda could complete his sentence, the Chief Scientist drew a concealed blaster from his lab tunic. He raised the blaster fast and prepared to fire at the small Jedi Master.

  Yoda threw his glow rod at Frexton’s blaster, his arm moving so fast that Frexton never knew what hit him. The blaster was suddenly slammed out of his hands. The room was again cast into darkness.

  Frexton cursed as his blaster smashed to the floor, ruined. Yoda was about to reach for the box containing the sleeping Teela Panjarra when he was distracted by movement outside the tinted window. Rising from a lower level, a wide viewport-cleaning drone rolled on magnetic treads up the tower’s inclined exterior. On the drone’s broad back stood two Bartokk assassins and a pair of X10-D draft droids. With some frustration, Yoda realized it was possible the Bartokks were drawn to the window because of the light from his glow rod.

  Both Bartokks held X10-D remote-control devices in their lower set of hands. With their upper limbs, one Bartokk operated the window-washing drone while the other fired a shoulder-mounted Squib battering ram, unleashing a powerful burst of alternating energy pulsations. The transparisteel window shattered.

  Frexton ducked behind a cabinet. Some of the transparisteel shrapnel struck the lab’s utility wall and punctured a plastoid plumbing hose, causing water to spray out all over the floor. Fortunately, Teela Panjarra was shielded from the shrapnel and water by her protective LOCC.

  One of the two Bartokks wore a vocabulator. “Nobody movessss!” he hissed.

  As the two Bartokks leaped into the room, the Chief Scientist cowered behind the cabinet. The Bartokk assassins ignored the cringing scientist and focused their attention on the weapons in Yoda’s belt.

  “Brave warrior, are you, little one?” asked the vocabulator-equipped Bartokk. “We’ll sssssee how tough you are.”

  The two Bartokks adjusted their X10-D remote-control devices, and the X10-D draft droids raised their extendable loader arms and lurched toward Yoda. Water from the punctured plumbing hose had formed a large puddle in the middle of the lab. Yoda noticed the Bartokks were standing in the puddle.

  Yoda jumped on top of the nearby table as he pushed the electrical equipment hard. The equipment crashed into the watery puddle, and sent a massive electric jolt through the two insectoid assassins. A fizzing sound filled the air as the Bartokks appeared to be frozen in their tracks. Without anyone to control them, the X10-Ds ceased their movement. After several seconds, the Bartokks were completely fried. Yoda carefully deactivated the equipment’s port from the fusion furnace, and the electric shock ended. The two Bartokks collapsed into the puddle.

  The frightened Chief Scientist Frexton whimpered from behind the cabinet. Yoda looked at the LOCC and was amused to see that Teela Panjarra was still fast asleep.

  The vocabulator-equipped Bartokk twitched on the wet floor. Still alive, the fiendish assassin looked up at Yoda and hissed. Yoda could see the Bartokk was mortally wounded, and felt something resembling remorse. However, Yoda was confident he had done the right thing. If he had not fought the Bartokks, he and Teela Panjarra might have been their next victims.

  Yoda wanted to know the nature of the Bartokks’ murderous assignment. With this information, Yoda hoped he would have a better chance of stopping any other bomb-carrying X10-Ds. He gazed into the dying Bartokk’s multifaceted eyes and relaxed.

  “How many plasma bombs are there?” Yoda asked the Bartokk. “Many more droids you have, hmmm?”

  Unable to resist Yoda’s power, the Bartokk answered, “Six droids... three bombs... destroy the Science Service tower... that is our assignment.” As he uttered the last word, the assassin’s bulbous eyes seemed to flex in his insectoid skull.

  “Assigned you were, by whom?” Yoda asked, but it was too late. The vile Bartokk’s facial mandibles clicked as he exhaled his last foul breath. He was gone.

  “Is it true?” asked the frightened Chief Scientist Frexton. “Are those creatures really going to blow up the Academy?”

  “Their intention, it is, yes,” Yoda replied as he examined the two fallen X10-Ds. Without telling Frexton that one of the three bombs was no longer a concern, Yoda carefully opened the panels on the droids’ chests. One of the droids contained a plasma bomb.

  Suddenly, two grappling hooks sailed through the open window. Both hooks were tied to climbing cables. The cables were drawn taut and the hooks were secured to the base of the windowsill.

  Yoda fixed his eyes on Frexton and whispered, “Move not!” The fearful Frexton ducked back behind the cabinet.

  Yoda moved to the window and glanced down. Gripping the lines, two Bartokks pulled themselves up to Level 58 from a balcony below.

  The Jedi Master realized how the Bartokks could have known where to look for him. Before the vocabulator-equipped Bartokk died, he had sent a telepathic communication to his comrades.

  Yoda sighed.

  The trouble was not over yet.

  Yoda knew if the two Bartokks reached Level 58, they would do whatever they could to recover their plasma bomb. They wouldn’t hesitate to eliminate everyone in the room.

  The Jedi Master did not falter. He activated his lightsaber and slashed the climbing cables. The severed cables whipped out of the window, and the Bartokks fell.

  The Jedi Master did not enjoy watching the two assassins plummet down the side of the pyramidal tower. But he watched them long enough to make sure they were no longer a threat. Only when he was satisfied that there were two less Bartokks did he look back into the lab.

  Yoda hunkered down over the plasma bomb within the X10-D draft droid. While he removed the bomb from the droid’s torso, Chief Scientist Frexton made his move. Frexton grabbed the LOCC by its handle and ran through a triangular doorway, carrying Teela Panjarra with him.

  Yoda heard Frexton slip through the door and realized he should have subdued the Chief Scientist when he had the chance. Although Frexton had Teela Panjarra, Yoda was compelled to get rid of the plasma bomb before pursuing the scientist. The laboratory was outfitted with the perfect utility for disposal.

  Yoda carried the bomb to the waste dispersal canister and raised the canister’s lid. He dropped the bomb into the unit, sealed the lid, and activated the contained fusion reactor. The canister hummed, and the plasma bomb disintegrated.

  Almost too easy, that was, Yoda thought to himself as he hobbled to the triangular doorway. Yoda meditated and exercised every day, but he knew that age had taken its toll on his body. For a fleeting moment, he wondered if it had been unwise for him to have insisted on rescuing Teela Panjarra. Rescue missions were for Jedi Knights, not elderly Jedi Masters. Still, Yoda moved faster than most beings who were over eight hundred years old.

  Yoda reached the doorway only to find it was sealed by a transparent energy field. He realized Frexton must have activated the field as soon as he’d entered the next chamber. Yoda gazed through the invisible field and into the adjoining laboratory. From what he could see, the lab was dedicated to hydroponic research. The lab was filled with water tanks that contained large alien plants. Frexton was at the far end of the lab, carrying the conveyor as he walked toward a lift tube.

  Yoda considered using his lightsaber to carve through the wall, but the walls appeared thick and it could take more time than he could afford. Then he remembered the Bartokks’ Squib battering ram.

  The Jedi Master turned and hobbled back to the fallen Bartokks and picked up the battering ram. The weapon was larger than Yoda, but he hefted it over his right shoulder and aimed it at the laboratory wall.

  Yoda fired. With a single blast, the battering ram punched a broad hole through the thick wall. Yoda dropped the weapon and scrambled into the hydroponics laboratory.

  At the other end of the lab, Frexton was standing in front of a lift tube door, waiting for a lift to arrive. He had turned
at the sound of the battering ram, and gasped when he saw Yoda.

  “You can’t have the child!” Frexton shouted, clenching the live organism comfort conveyor tightly against his chest. “My research depends on her. She belongs to the Academy!”

  “A piece of property, Teela Panjarra is not,” Yoda replied. “Still in great danger, we are. Surrender, you must.”

  Frexton ignored Yoda’s order and ran behind a barrel-shaped transparisteel water tank. The tank contained an immense purple plant. The plant’s thick, leaf-covered vines extended out of the top of the tank and brushed the ceiling, then curved out and dangled down to the white-tiled floor.

  Yoda pushed his way through the plant’s leaves. Moving forward, he felt one of his legs become entangled by the plant’s vines. Suddenly, he was yanked off the laboratory floor and raised toward the ceiling.

  Yoda was in the grips of the alien plant. As he struggled against the vines, the plant positioned him over the top of the water tank. Inside the tank, under the water’s surface, Yoda saw the plant’s central stalk widen to reveal a mouth filled with razor-sharp teeth. The stalk rose and broke the water’s surface. Yellow foam spilled out of the plant’s mouth.

  The plant was very, very hungry.

  Despite his situation, Yoda did not panic. He knew that survival depended upon maintaining a clear mind.

  Yoda concentrated, reaching out to communicate with the plant. The plant’s mind was primitive, and its thoughts were only centered around light, warmth, and food. Unable to make any mental connection with the plant, Yoda redirected his concentration on the vines themselves, forcing them to release their grip on him. The plant relented, and Yoda fell to the laboratory floor.

  The lift tube doors opened. Frexton ran away from the barrel-shaped tank and jumped into the lift tube.