Star Wars - Episode I Adventures 002 - The Bartokk Assassins Read online

  Table of Contents

  COPYRIGHT

  INTRODUCTION

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  Before the events of the Trade Federation’s invasion of Naboo, the Jedi Council received a mysterious data card that alerted them to the construction of fifty droid starfighters, each equipped with hyperdrive engines. The Council sent Jedi Master Adi Gallia to the planet Esseles in the Darpa Sector to investigate. When Master Adi failed to report back from her mission, the Council sent a rescue team to Esseles.

  Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn led the team that included two Jedi Knights: Vel Ardox, an amphibian from the Ploo Sector; and Noro Zak, a winged Baxthrax. Against the wishes of Mace Windu, Qui-Gon also brought his Padawan apprentice, Obi-Wan Kenobi.

  On Esseles, the Jedi realized Adi Gallia was trapped within a starship factory that had been seized by renegade droids. After the Jedi rescued the factory’s owner, a reptilelike Kloodavian named Boll Trinkatta, they learned the starfighters had been manufactured for the Trade Federation.

  Trinkatta claimed he had not wanted to work for the Trade Federation, but he’d changed his mind after his test pilot had vanished. Trinkatta believed the Trade Federation was responsible for the pilot’s disappearance, and feared for his own safety. The Kloodavian ordered his droids to build the starfighters.

  Before the finished starfighters could be delivered to the Trade Federation, Trinkatta’s droids were reprogrammed by the Bartokks, a species of insectoid mercenaries with a hive mind. The Bartokks had intended to use the droids to take over the starship factory and steal the droid starfighters. Much to the dismay of the Bartokks, the starfighters had already been stolen from Trinkatta’s factory by an unknown enemy.

  The Jedi defeated the reprogrammed droids along with two Bartokks, and Master Adi was found in need of medical treatment. Qui-Gon decided that Vel Ardox and Noro Zak would immediately escort Master Adi to the nearby planet Rhinnal, famed throughout the sector for its citizens’ expertise in medicine.

  Meanwhile, Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan remained on Esseles, where they hoped to track the trail of the stolen droid starfighters. Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan feared that the starfighters might have fallen into the clutches of someone even more menacing than the Bartokks or the Trade Federation. In need of a guide to Esseles’ capital city Calamar, the Jedi enlisted the reluctant Trinkatta.

  Qui-Gon Jinn belted himself into the front passenger seat of the landspeeder while Obi-Wan Kenobi slid behind the controls. Obi-Wan gunned the turbine engines and angled the speeder away from Trinkatta’s starship factory and toward Calamar. The capital city was already visible in the distance, a silhouette of several hundred towers that hugged the lush, green horizon.

  “This is madness!” Boll Trinkatta exclaimed from the speeder’s backseat. “Even if all fifty droid starfighters are still on Esseles, how do you two hope to take them from the Bartokks?”

  While the speeder zoomed over the grassy plains, Qui-Gon turned to his outraged passenger. “As I said, Trinkatta, the Bartokks don’t have the starfighters. If they did, they wouldn’t have left two assassins to guard your factory. With those two dead, the surviving thirteen members of the Bartokk hive are probably still searching for the ships.”

  “Then I should flee this planet immediately!” Trinkatta shouted, his beak opening wide. “And not just because I’m afraid of what the Bartokks might do to me. Since the droid starfighters weren’t delivered to the Trade Federation, the Neimoidians who ordered them are probably already on their way to Esseles to investigate. They’ll kill me if I can’t deliver those ships.”

  “Then maybe you shouldn’t have done business with the Trade Federation in the first place,” Obi-Wan commented as he neatly directed the landspeeder over a dirt road that led into the city.

  “I didn’t have a choice,” Trinkatta insisted. “If I hadn’t built those starfighters, the Trade Federation would have made me vanish without a trace, just like my test pilot. I’m lucky those Bartokks only reprogrammed my droids to cut off one of my arms.” Trinkatta winced at the memory of the violent interrogation. With his left hand, the reptilelike alien massaged his right elbow, where his lower arm was rapidly growing back.

  As the landspeeder approached Calamar, Obi-Wan kept his eyes on the road. “Master! I don’t understand why you suspect the droid starfighters are in Calamar. Wouldn’t it have been smarter for someone to hide them at a remote location or even offworld?”

  “Don’t underestimate the intelligence of the thieves, Obi-Wan,” Qui-Gon stated. “If they could steal fifty starfighters from Trinkatta’s factory without alerting the Bartokks, they’re very smart indeed. And in my experience, the best place to hide a needle is among other needles. I’ve a hunch the starfighters are in a spaceport.”

  “I don’t believe it!” Trinkatta snapped. “You’re risking my life over a hunch?”

  Qui-Gon cast a sympathetic glance at the Kloodavian and replied, “Be assured, Trinkatta, no harm will come to you while you’re with us. All we ask for is your help.”

  “But what can I do?” Trinkatta answered, shrugging his shoulders.

  Qui-Gon raised an eyebrow at the alien. “You can start by telling us about your contact with the Trade Federation. Did Neimoidian leaders come to your factory?”

  The Kloodavian nodded. “Yes, there were two of them. Officers, I think, although they never identified themselves. They brought a prototype hyperdrive engine with them and insisted I duplicate it for all fifty droid starfighters.”

  “And what about your test pilot?”

  “He was a Talz named Bama Vook,” Trinkatta replied. “He was an excellent pilot, even if he was sometimes a bit reckless. His copilot was an LE-PR34 navigator droid called Leeper. They were such good friends the droid didn’t even address Bama as ‘Master.’ Oh, and Bama had a young son named Chup-Chup, a real rascal. The poor lad must be an orphan now. But why do you want to know about Bama? Like I said, the Neimoidans got rid of him.”

  “Actually, you said he vanished without a trace,” Qui-Gon corrected. “Perhaps Bama Vook escaped from the Neimoidians, but they simply let you believe they were responsible. I can’t help but wonder if Bama Vook’s disappearance is somehow connected with the missing starfighters.”

  Obi-Wan shot a quick glance at Qui-Gon, then turned his attention back to the road. “Master, are you suggesting that Bama Vook is still alive, and that he stole the droid starfighters from Trinkatta’s factory?”

  “I’m not suggesting anything,” Qui-Gon replied, then fixed his gaze on the Kloodavian. “Did Bama Vook ever mention that he had any friends in Calamar?”

  Trinkatta scratched his head with his good hand while he tried to remember. “Now that I think of it, Bama did spend some time at a place over by Calamar Intergalactic Spaceport, a saloon that was popular with starpilots. It’s called the Ion Sandbox.”

  “Then that’s where we’re going,” Qui-Gon commanded.

  When the air traffic controllers at Calamar Intergalactic Spaceport authorized the landing of a sleek, dark green starcruiser, they did not notice anything unusual about the vessel. The cruiser’s identification numbers and three-winged profile matched those of an executive trade ship from the Duro system. The cruiser’s two passengers had large eyes and thin slits for mouths. They did not have noses.

  They were all physical attributes of the
Duros species. The only problem was that the passengers were not Duros.

  They were Neimoidians.

  Disguised as Duros traders, Rune Haako and Daultay Dofine wore heavy green cloaks with tapered hoods. They exited their green cruiser and walked down the landing ramp to the gritty tarmac.

  “I never thought we’d have to return to this dull planet,” Haako muttered. “When I get my hands on Trinkatta, I’ll crush his windpipe.”

  Dofine stopped and turned to his superior. “Are you sure we shouldn’t transmit a message to Viceroy Gunray and let him know we’ve arrived on Esseles?” Dofine asked.

  Lieutenant Haako’s smooth brow furrowed. “Don’t be a fool, Dofine! Have you forgotten this is a secret mission? Our orders were clear. We’re to investigate Trinkatta Starships and learn why the droid starfighters were not delivered to us. Also, whoever informed the Jedi Council of the starfighters must be found and silenced.”

  “It was probably Trinkatta who alerted the Council,” Dofine suggested.

  “The Kloodavian wouldn’t have had the nerve,” Haako sneered. “After his test pilot disappeared, Trinkatta knew better than to toy with the Trade Federation.”

  As the pair entered a lift tube to leave the hangar, Dofine dared to ask another question. “How do you think the Jedi Council have responded to the report of droid starfighters on Esseles, sir? I hope we do not encounter any Jedi.”

  As the lift tube came to a stop, Haako replied, “I doubt the Republic would send their precious Jedi to this horribly distant world.”

  The lift tube doors hissed open, and the disguised Neimoidians stepped outside. It was the end of the business day, and the streets of Calamar were filled with pedestrians and vehicles. The citizens of Calamar paid little attention to the two hooded aliens that walked away from the hangar entrance.

  “We’ll hire a landspeeder and approach Trinkatta’s factory with caution,” Haako declared. “If he’s up to something, I want to catch him by surprise. But before we go, I need a little refreshment.”

  Daultay Dofine silently followed Lieutenant Haako into a nearby saloon. Over the entrance, the establishment’s name was prominently displayed on a glowing sign: ION SANDBOX.

  The Ion Sandbox resembled any number of spacer bars throughout the system. Aliens from all over and beyond the Bormea and Darpa Sectors swapped stories and rubbed elbows at the cramped tables. Instead of a live band, a holographic quintet shimmered and gyrated on a small elevated stage, their prerecorded performance dominated by thundering drums and blaring horns. Customers shouted their conversations over the music, and the air was filled with heavy smoke.

  As the disguised Neimoidians stepped up to the bar, Dofine noticed a furry Talz seated at a corner table. One of the Talz’s four eyes was covered by a black patch. Dofine nudged Haako and whispered, “That Talz over there looks a lot like Trinkatta’s pilot.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous,” Haako replied. “Bama Vook didn’t wear an eye patch.”

  As the Neimoidians ordered drinks, the tall Talz slowly rose from his corner table and headed for the back door.

  Obi-Wan Kenobi guided the landspeeder through a narrow alley and parked next to the receptacles behind the Ion Sandbox. As soon as Obi-Wan turned off the speeder’s loud engine, the noise was replaced by the sound of bizarre music and alien laughter that drifted out from the saloon.

  Trinkatta jumped out of the speeder and adjusted his cape to cover both his head and injured arm. He didn’t want anyone to recognize him. “Come quick,” he urged Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon. “We’ll enter through the back door.”

  The two Jedi climbed out of the speeder and followed the Kloodavian to a high oval doorway. Trinkatta was just about to step over the threshold when he bounced off a tall alien who was exiting the saloon. “Oof!” Trinkatta expelled as he hit the ground. When he looked up, he saw that the alien was a Talz. Trinkatta’s jaw dropped open in surprise.

  The Talz was covered in thick white fur and stood just under two meters tall. Around his neck, a collar was equipped with an expensive vocabulator that could translate his own guttural language into Basic. At his right hip, a heavy blaster was holstered to his weapons belt. His most distinguishing accoutrement was a black patch over his upper left eye.

  “You don’t fool me with that eye patch, Bama!” Trinkatta snarled as he pushed himself up from the ground. “How dare you let me think the Trade Federation killed you!”

  “You must have confused me with someone else, stranger,” Bama Vook replied via his vocabulator. Then he leaned forward so his nose nearly touched the Kloodavian’s, and raised the black patch to reveal a perfectly healthy eye, which he winked at Trinkatta. In a low voice, Bama said, “Yes, it’s I, Trinkatta, but keep your infernal voice down. There are two Neimoidians inside the bar. They’re the same pair that threatened me at your factory.”

  Bama Vook rose to his full height and readjusted his eye patch. “Sorry about pulling a vanishing act on you, Trinkatta, but I didn’t want to wind up working for the Trade Federation. The owner of the Ion Sandbox owed me a favor, so he let me hide out here. You could have blown my cover, blundering into the bar with these two humans.”

  Trinkatta nodded to Qui-Gon, allowing the Jedi Master to make his own introduction. “I’m Qui-Gon Jinn and this is Obi-Wan Kenobi. The Jedi Council sent us. You must be the one who sent the data card that alerted the Council to the droid starfighters.”

  “You’re Jedi?” Bama asked with disbelief, but something in Qui-Gon’s expression convinced him otherwise. “Thank the stars, you came to help! Yes, I sent the data card.”

  Obi-Wan was stunned by this latest revelation. “Excuse me, Master, but how and when did you figure out that Bama sent the data card?”

  “As soon as I realized Bama Vook was still alive, it all added up,” Qui-Gon answered. “Since Trinkatta didn’t send the data card, I surmised Bama must have done it after he escaped the Neimoidians.”

  “Indeed, that’s exactly what I did,” Bama beamed. “As soon as those two Neimoidians arrived at Trinkatta’s factory, I knew the Trade Federation was up to no good. It’s bad enough they’re operating outside their own territory, but it’s worse that they commissioned droid starfighters with hyperdrive engines. With those ships, they could level most of Calamar! Well, I wasn’t about to let that happen.”

  Qui-Gon smiled at Bama. “Your experience as a pilot for Trinkatta Starships must have made it easy for you to liberate the droid starfighters from the factory.” Qui-Gon’s statement amazed Obi-Wan, who felt as if he were always three steps behind his Master’s deductions.

  “It was hardly easy,” Bama confessed. “I kept my eye on the factory from a distance. At first, I was trying to figure out a way to break in and destroy the starfighters. But two nights ago, I saw someone loading the starfighters into a spike-covered freighter. I figured they were working with the Neimoidians. While my copilot Leeper distracted them, I bypassed Trinkatta’s security system, broke into the factory, and stole the freighter. I thought it would be best to hide the ships until the Jedi Council could investigate the Neimoidians.”

  Trinkatta was stunned. “You admit you stole the starfighters?” he cried.

  “I got more than that,” Bama said with pride. “The freighter also contained the Neimoidians’ prototype hyperdrive engine. Without that prototype, they’ll have a tough time building any more droid starfighters on Esseles.”

  Trinkatta fumed. With his left arm, he pushed back his cape to reveal his injured arm. “Forgive me, Bama, if I don’t applaud!”

  Seeing Trinkatta’s mangled limb, Bama gasped and his four eyes went wide. “The Neimoidians cut off your arm?”

  “No, it was my droids.” Trinkatta sighed as he readjusted his cape. “They were reprogrammed by Bartokks who were trying to steal the starfighters, but you’d already beaten them to the job. You stole the Bartokks’ freighter, you imbecile!”

  “Bartokks?” Bama exclaimed as his eyes rolled in their sockets. “Why are those
assassins on Esseles?”

  “We don’t know for certain,” Qui-Gon admitted. “But it’s an easy guess the Bartokks are on an assignment to kill someone. We suspect they want the Trade Federation’s droid starfighters and prototype hyperdrive engine to carry out their own plan. We’re wasting time here. Where did you store the freighter?”

  “In Docking Bay 28,” Bama answered. “That’s where I keep my own ship, the Metron Burner. Leeper and my son, Chup-Chup, are guarding the freighter now. I only came to the Ion Sandbox to find out it there were any reports of Republic ships in the area. I never imagined the Jedi would get here so soon.”

  “With both the Bartokks and the Neimoidians on Esseles, I hope our arrival isn’t too late,” Qui-Gon said. “Our landspeeder’s right here. Will you guide us to Docking Bay 28, Bama?”

  “Gladly!” Bama answered with enthusiasm.

  “I still can’t believe you broke through my security system,” Trinkatta grumbled to Bama as they climbed into the speeder.

  Back in the saloon, Rune Haako lowered his empty glass onto the bar. “We’re done here,” Haako announced, “Come along, Dofine. Time to pay a visit to Trinkatta Starships.”

  The two cloaked Neimoidians made their way out of the Ion Sandbox and onto the street. “Now, find us a taxi,” Haako ordered as he pulled his cloak lower over his forehead.

  Dofine heard the roar of a landspeeder engine and turned just in time to see the vehicle launch out of a nearby alley. Dofine raised his hand and was about to call out to the speeder’s driver — a young male Human — when he recognized Trinkatta and Bama Vook as the passengers in the backseat. An older male Human sat beside the driver.

  Dofine’s arm dropped to his side as the speeder zoomed down the street. He turned to Haako and said, “Sir? I think we have trouble. I just saw Trinkatta and Bama Vook in a landspeeder. They were with two humans.”

  “What?” Haako snapped. “Which way did they go?”

  Dofine pointed down the street, where the speeder was still barely visible.