The Phantom Menace by Terry Brooks Read Free Book Online

waving. “Oh, bot tis necessary! Tis demanded by da Guds. Tis life debt. Me know dis, sure as name be Jar Jar Binks!”
    The swamp reverberated with the sound of STAP engines, and now two of the gun platforms burst from the mist, bearing down on a fleeing Obi-Wan Kenobi, battle droid drivers wheeling their speeders to the attack.
    Qui-Gon pulled free his lightsaber, motioning Jar Jar away. “I have no time for this now—”
    “But must take me wit yous, keep me—” Jar Jar stopped, hearing the STAPs, turning to see them bearing down, eyes going wide all over again. “Oh, oh, we gonna—”
    Qui-Gon grabbed the Gungan and threw him facedown in the swamp water once more. “Stay put.” Heflicked on the lightsaber, bracing himself as Obi-Wan and the pursuing STAPs approached.
    Jar Jar’s head popped up. “We gonna die!” he screamed.
    The battle droids opened fire with laser cannons from their gun platforms just as Obi-Wan reached his friend. Qui-Gon blocked the bolts with his lightsaber and deflected them back into the attack craft. The STAPs exploded in shards of hot metal and fell into the swamp.
    An exhausted Obi-Wan wiped his muddied brow, gasping for breath. “Sorry, Master. The swamp fried my lightsaber.”
    He pulled out his weapon. The business end was blackened and burned. Qui-Gon took it from him and gave it a cursory inspection. Behind him, Jar Jar Binks pulled himself out of the muddy swamp water and blinked curiously at the newly arrived Jedi.
    “You forgot to turn off your power again, didn’t you, Obi-Wan?” his friend asked pointedly.
    Obi-Wan nodded sheepishly. “It appears so, Master.”
    “It won’t take long to recharge, but it will take some time to clean it up. I trust you have finally learned your lesson, my young Padawan.”
    “Yes, Master.” Obi-Wan accepted the proffered lightsaber with a chagrined look.
    Jar Jar pushed forward, amphibious feet flopping, ears flapping, long limbs looking as if they might take him in almost any direction. “Yous save me again, hey?” he asked Qui-Gon rhetorically.
    Obi-Wan stared. “What’s this?”
    “A Gungan. One of the locals. His name’s Jar Jar Binks.” Qui-Gon’s attention was directed out at the swamp. “Let’s go, before more of those STAPs show up.”
    “More?” Jar Jar gasped worriedly. “Yous say more?”
    Qui-Gon was already moving, shifting into a steady trot through the mire. Obi-Wan was only a step behind, and it took a moment for Jar Jar to catch up to them, his long legs working frantically, his eyes rolling.
    “Exsqueeze me, but da most grand safest place is in Otoh Gunga,” he gasped at them, trying to catch their attention. All about, lost somewhere in the mists, STAPs sounded their high-pitched whine. “Otoh Gunga,” Jar Jar repeated. “Tis where I grew. Tis safe city!”
    Qui-Gon brought them to a halt, staring fixedly now at the Gungan. “What did you say? A city?” Jar Jar nodded eagerly. “Can you take us there?”
    The Gungan seemed suddenly distraught. “Ah, oh, oh … mebbe me not rilly take yous … not rilly, no.”
    Qui-Gon leaned close, his eyes dark. “No?”
    Jar Jar looked as if he wished he could disappear into the swamp completely. His throat worked and his billed mouth opened and closed like a fish’s. “Tis embarrassment, but … me afraid me be banished. Sent oot. Me forget Boss Nass do terrible hurt to me if go back dere. Terrible bad hurt.”
    A low, deep, pulsating sound penetrated the whine of the STAPs, rising up through mist and gloom, growing steadily louder. Jar Jar glanced around uneasily. “Oh, oh.”
    “You hear that?” Qui-Gon asked softly, placing a finger on the Gungan’s skinny chest. Jar Jar nodded reluctantly. “There’s a thousand terrible things heading this way, my Gungan friend …”
    “And when they find you, they will crush you into dust, grind you into little pieces, and then blast you into oblivion,” Obi-Wan added with more than a little