Dyad - A Star Wars Story

Chapter 4 - The Depths

  There had been swim lessons in the Jedi Temple, surprisingly enough. Apparently the Jedi's distain for worldly possessions applied everywhere but their own temple. The temple housed a marvelous pool, complete with meditation areas and exotic flowers from around the galaxy. The intent was to train Younglings for survival situations involving water, although it didn't work out very well. The pool was calm and didn't go deeper than 6 feet.
Cora supposed the Jedi strategy for emergency situations was use-the-force-or-die.
She wished now that she had tried harder in swim, instead of opting for literally any other training session. Swimming to the Gungan City proved itself difficult, despite her Jedi breather. Fish darted away as they passed, but she was more focused on trying not to get kicked in the face by either of the two grown Jedi who swam in front of her.
It was only when they parted that Cora was able to get a view of the city. It was gorgeous, a maze of passageways leading to gelatinous orbs radiating with light. It was unlike anything she had ever seen. When they stepped on solid ground, Jar Jar walked straight through the side of the orb without a second thought. Were all of the walls like that? Cora shuddered at the thought of an innocent creature accidentally swimming through the city and becoming a victim of gravity, its fishy guts spattered on the floor. The city was underwater, so she imagined it happened often.
  "So good bein home!" Jar-Jar exclaimed, stealing her from her gorey daydream. Gasps echoed around the chamber, as well as a few nasty-sounding Gungan words she couldn't make out. That didn't sound good.
"I've got a bad feeling about this," Cora muttered.
"Does getting shot sound more pleasing?" Obi-Wan quipped.
"Obi-Wan," Qui-Gon warned. This seemed to remind Obi-Wan of his promise to be kind to her, and he shut up.
   Jar-Jar started walking, and the Jedi had not much else to do but follow him. It didn't last long though, as he was immediately stopped by another Gungan riding a Kaadu. How in the universe did they get a Kaadu down here?
  "Heyo dares Captain Tarpal," Jar-Jar said awkwardly. "Mesa back!" he said, throwing up his hands as if it was the most thrilling surprise.
  Captain Tarpal didn't seem to agree with Jar-Jar's sentiment. "No again, Jar-Jar. Yousa goin to da bosses. Yousa in big doo-doo this time!"
Jar-Jar groaned, and another Gungan guard shocked his shoulder from behind. "How rude," he grumbled.
Cora felt kind of guilty now. The Jedi were supposed to be selfless, and yet, here they were putting Jar-Jar in danger for their own gain. And even worse, the Gungans were less intellectually developed. Jar-Jar had been acting like a child the whole trip because in his brain, he kind of was one. Consequently, they were taking advantage of a kindhearted life form who didn't have any of the cognitive skills to understand it.
They were lead into the largest bubble in the city, which she could only guess was some sort of government office. Multiple lavishly adorned Gungans sat in a round in front of them, the largest of them clicking his lips.
"Yousa cannot beez here," He proclaimed. "Dis army of Mekanics up there es new weesong."
Cora was seriously having a hard time understanding him, but she was lucky that Qui-Gon did. "A droid army is about to attack the Naboo, we must warn them," he replied, indifferent.
To her surprise, the Gungan Chief laughed. "Weesa no liken da Naboo!" he roared, clicking his cheeks again. Cora enjoyed that sound, for some odd reason. "Da Naboo tink dey so smarten, dey tink dey brain so big."
Oh, so the Naboo were supremacists. Great.
Obi-Wan stepped up so he was level with his Master. "Once those droids take control of the surface, they will take control of you," he reasoned.
"Meesa no tink so," the Gungan Boss replied. "Dey know not of uss-en."
Obi-Wan looked concerned now. "You and the Naboo form a symbiont circle. What happens to one of you will affect the other; you must understand this!"
Kenobi was quite the negotiator. He was single-handedly trying to end centuries of rivalry, and it seemed to be working. That was until Boss Nass gargled "Weesa no caren about the Naboo."
Catching on to his Padawan's slip-up, Qui-Gon waved his hand. A Jedi mind trick!
"Then speed us on our way," he said.
"Weesa gonna speed yous away." the Boss replied, entranced.
"We could use a transport," Qui-Gon waved his hand again.
"Wesa give yousa una bongo," Boss Nass declared. "Da speediest way to da Naboo is through the planet core," he added ominously. "Go!"
That seemed to be enough for the older jedi, who politely began to leave. It was only then that Cora spoke up, previously staying silent for fear of messing something up. Now she was the one who stopped the Jedi.
"What about Jar-Jar?" she whispered. "We need to take him to safety!"
"We will leave him here with his people, where he belongs. He'll be fine," Qui-Gon replied, taking one step forward.
Cora stopped him again. "No, he won't! They're going to kill him!"
"It isn't our business Cora," Obi-Wan answered. "We can't interfere with personal affairs."
With that, the two Jedi pushed past the small girl, knowing she would have no choice but to follow them.
"It'll be our business when we die in the core of the planet because we didn't bother to bring a navigator," Cora grumbled. She crossed her arms, feeling disheartened. She didn't realize Qui-Gon had heard her until he spoke.
"What is to become of Jar-Jar Binks here?" he asked, despite already knowing the answer.
"Hesa to be... punished," the Boss smiled.
Master Jinn took another step forward. "I saved his life," he revealed. "He owes me what you call a life-debt. Your gods demand that his life belongs to me now."
Cora had no idea how he knew so much about Gungan culture, despite the fact that they had only been there for a solid 10 minutes. Oh yeah! And the whole nobody-knows-we-exist thing too, that would put a stick in the mud.
Boss Nass didn't question it. "Binkssss," he asked. "Yousa haven a lifeplay with thisen hisen?" Jar-Jar nodded, which only resulted in an aggravated mouth-shake similar to what Jar-Jar had done earlier. Cora supposed it was a Gungan thing, although she did find it kinda gross.
"Begone wit him!" the Boss folded, clearly upset that he didn't get to watch the end of his own personal nightmare. Cora couldn't really blame him, even though she was the one who had made sure that Jar-Jar would live to see another day.
Qui-Gon bowed before turning to leave yet again. As he passed her, he took his tone down to a hush. "Watch your feelings, young one."
Cora knew exactly what he meant, as much as she wanted to pretend she didn't. Her guilt for Jar-Jar had manifested into anger, which led to a spat in front of all the Gungan elders. She didn't understand what she was feeling, but she was being quite protective of the childish Gungan.
She gave herself time to think about it as she got into the back seat of the bongo with Master Qui-Gon. Obi-Wan was driving, and Jar-Jar sat with him to navigate.
They dove down to the depths of the lake, light fading as they got further from the surface. Watching the fish became quickly boring, so Cora just sat, holding her head up with her hand.
  "Dis is nutsen," Jar-Jar said, breaking the silence. "Oh! Gooberfish!!!"
Cora decided to ask the question that had been plaguing her mind for the last hour. "Why were you banished, Jar-Jar?"
The gungan turned to look at her. "It's a long-o tale-o but a small part of it would be- uh- mesa clumsy," he admitted, looking away and out the window.
Now it was Obi-Wan's turn to speak up. "You were banished because you were clumsy?"
Jar-Jar turned to look at him, his cheeks pinker than usual. "Yousa might-en be sayin dat." He hesitated, wondering if he should say more. "Mesa maybe caused uh, one or two-y different accidenties heh?" He continued his story, but Cora's attention was drawn elsewhere. Something felt- wrong.
Her suspicions were confirmed when the ship lurched back. She turned to see a giant fish, eyes red and bulging, with its tongue attached to their ship. She would have laughed at Jar-Jar's loud "Whu-oh!" if her eyes weren't so trained on the fish. It growled loudly, pulling their ship back towards it and biting down on its hull.
"Big gooberfish!" Jar-Jar exclaimed. "Huge-o teeth!"
Cora was now hunched over, terrified that the tooth that lay right above her would pierce through the glass- and her skull.