William Shakespeare's The Phantom Menace by Ian Doescher Read Free Book Online Page A

on the morrow.
    KITSTER
    â€”Eh?
    With this most scrap-infested heap of bones?
    WALD
    Na jesko joka, Anakin, ho ho!
    AMEE
    Thou hast work’d on the podracer for years.
    It never shall give thou the speed thou need’st.
    SEEK
    Come, let’s be gone unto some other sport.
    If he keep’st on, he will soon smashèd be.
    [Exeunt Wald, Amee, and Seek .
    ANAKIN
    I bid thee, Jar Jar, keep thy distance from
    The binders of vast energy thereon.
    Shouldst thou e’en get a finger caught within,
    Thou shalt for hours bear with its numbing pain.
    JAR JAR
    [ aside: ] The little master doth instruct me right,
    Yet so that he shall think me quite unwise
    I’ll risk a moment in the binder’s beam.
    [Jar Jar bends down, catching his mouth in the energy binders .
    [ To Anakin: ] My tonguee sisso rubba innee.
    C-3PO
    I find the creature Jar Jar rather odd.
    R2-D2
    Beep, squeak! [ Aside: ] Yet who is odder, Threepio?
    KITSTER
    Hear, Anakin: how canst be sure ’twill run?
    ANAKIN
    Have faith, good friend: the pod shall serve us well.
    QUI-GON
    The time hath come to test thy surety.
    Behold, a power source that thou mayst use.
    ANAKIN
    Forsooth, I shall—in every good thing!
    PADMÉ
    The Gungan now is caught in th’afterburner.
    I shall release him now, the silly fool.
    [Padmé moves to free Jar Jar as Anakin starts the podracer .
    C-3PO
    Indeed, the beast is odd beyond degree.
    ANAKIN
    Now, rise, you swift podracer, rise and fly!
    It comes to life beneath its master’s touch—
    The fleet machine doth work, it shall succeed,
    And with it ev’ry hope that’s in our hearts.
    [Exeunt Padmé, Jar Jar, Shmi, R2-D2, and C-3PO in mirth .
    QUI-GON
    An excellent a’testing of the pod,
    Young Anakin. Yet now I see thou hast
    Been hurt—a scratch from thy wild metal beast.
    I bid thee, sit thou here and I’ll mend it.
    ANAKIN
    Behold the stars above, so numerous!
    So brightly do they shine upon the world
    That I can almost see my future by them.
    Do all have planetary systems, sir?
    QUI-GON
    Belike near all the stars have planets, too.
    ANAKIN
    Has e’er there been a voyager who hath
    Made journey unto each and ev’ry one?
    QUI-GON
    Nay, nay.
    ANAKIN
    â€”In that I shall be primary,
    Should Fate weave me a way from this bleak place.
    [Qui-Gon takes a small sample of Anakin’s blood as he finishes the bandage .
    QUI-GON
    See? Thou art whole again. Now, off to bed.
    ANAKIN
    What are your good intentions for my blood?
    QUI-GON
    Naught but to see thou hast infections none.
    And now, I prithee, take thy needed rest:
    Tomorrow is a vital day for thee.
    [ Into communicator :] I bid thee, Obi-Wan, art thou about?
    Enter O BI -W AN K ENOBI , on balcony .
    OBI-WAN
    Aye, Master. How may I fulfill your needs?
    QUI-GON
    Make thou what keen analysis thou canst
    Of this blood sample I send thee e’en now.
    OBI-WAN
    It shall completed be upon the instant.
    QUI-GON
    The count of midi-chlorians I need.
    OBI-WAN
    What strange monstrosity is this I see?
    What cunning twist of nature’s pure design?
    I ne’er encounter’d such as this before—
    A count of midi-chlorians so vast,
    Surpassing twenty thousand—O, ’tis dire!
    â€™Tis past all reckoning, past thought or sense,
    What creature can it be that Fate hath wrought
    To be so strong and powerful as this?
    Is it the boy? What wonder to bethink—
    His count is higher e’en than Yoda’s is.
    QUI-GON
    No Jedi hath a count so high as that.
    OBI-WAN
    O, Master, tell me then: what doth it mean?
    QUI-GON
    I do not know. So many things today
    Have been beyond my understanding that
    I know not what the sum of them shall be.
    [Exeunt Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan from balcony .
    Enter D ARTH M AUL .
    MAUL
    Here on the planet Tatooine I’ve come
    To seek the Jedi and the errant queen.
    The glory of her capture and their deaths
    Is expectation sweet unto my soul.
    [Darth Maul sends out probes to search for the Jedi