EXT. NABOO SUBARCTIC ICE
The cruiser glides upward and surfaces. The settlement in the bubble is like a cross between Venice and Hoth. Icicle-frosted buildings and walkways float on pontoons, forming a network of frigid canals between them. Overhead is a large ceiling of pure ice, lit with an otherworldly glow. Female Nabooans in funeral gondolas with lit lanterns make way toward the rising ship, which remains half submerged, like a submarine.
Medora emerges from a dorsal hatch in the ship, followed by NR-6 and the Royal Troopers. The Nabooans in the gondolas call to her. They wear scarves and are covered in a distinctive polar skein of Nabooan tattoos, different than we have yet seen. Occasionally bubbles from the deep erupt on the surface, supplying the town with a slow but steady stream of air.
Funeral Gondoliers: Medora! Medora! It's Medora! The Queen's Ship has returned!
Medora jumps onto a nearby jetty and is met by a horde of children. Their scarves cover their faces is a sure sign of the plague-times. But Medora is bare-faced and smiling. A Nabooan woman tries to give Medora some space, but Medora embraces them.
MEDORA: Hello! Hello! We bring new medicine. How many left in the sick house?
HEAD WOMAN: Medora, there is only one more still breathing. We just let go of Derode.
MEDORA (stunned by this): Hurry.
Qui-Gon follows the group toward a particular building just as Ransom sticks his head out of the ship's hatch. ODD-1 pops up along with him, hovering like a fairy.
RANSOM: I'm coming too!
QUI-GON: Ransom, stay on the ship with the others.
RANSOM: Why?
QUI-GON: We won't be staying long. ODD-1? (he nods for the droid to keep track of him)
ODD-1 analyzes the boy's disgust at being ordered to be left behind for a moment, then cheerily swings in a circle around him. Ransom watches Qui-Gon hurry off, then gestures sarcastically for ODD-1 to lead the way down the hatch, which the gullible droid does with a hearty 'THANKYOU' whistle. Ransom then drops the hatch on him, shutting the droid's betrayed squeals inside.
CUT TO:
EXT. ICE BUBBLE VILLAGE - DAY?
Ransom wanders the village, which isn't much more than a ghost town. There are black X's on some of the doors. A few women look up from their pontoon weaving work to and watch him with guarded curiosity.
A GIRL that seems somehow familiar peaks around a building at him. She has a marking on her hand that isn't so different from his own.
RANSOM: Hey.
She smiles, her face half-hidden behind her scarf.
RANSOM: Do I know you?
He looks at his own hand, recognizes the similar symbol. She laughs again, vanishes.
RANSOM: Hey, come back!
He runs after her. He comes to a place where the ice wall meets the water. The wall is covered with hundreds of ice-picks, each tied with a scarf that hangs solemnly in the windless air. Markers of the dead. He walks along the jetty for a while before coming to a dark tunnel piercing the wall. The girl's laugh echoes from the tunnel, drifting into a minor key. As if calling him, he notices an empty gondola tied to the jetty.
CUT TO:
INT. ROYAL NABOO CRUISER - MEDICAL WARD
Obi-Wan and Slate look up to a racket coming from the door to the ward, and finally Slate opens it to ODD-1.
YOU ARE READING
STAR WARS - Episode I: Millennium's Dawn
Science FictionThis is a piece of fan fiction imagining what might have happened if 1999's Episode I: The Phantom Menace was rewritten. I kept elements from the film which I liked and freely invented new ones as I saw fit. I wanted to recapture the magic of the or...
