Star Wars - Episode I Adventures 012 - The Bongo Rally Page 4

  The lift hissed to a stop. Jar Jar stepped out and entered an observation bubble located just above the Bongo Rally starting line. Within the bubble, numerous Gungan dignitaries viewed the arena, which was filled to capacity. Anxious for the race to begin, the spectators demonstrated their enthusiasm by systematically jumping up and raising their arms high over their heads, then sitting down as those seated to their right repeated the action. In doing so, the audience created what resembled a surging wave of Gungans that rippled around the arena in a counterclockwise motion.

  A large chronometer hung from the ceiling of the observation bubble; the Bongo Rally was less than three minutes away. Jar Jar looked out through the observation bubble’s transparent walls and saw Gungan pilots readying their bongos in the launch pool, just behind the starting line. Beyond the launch pool, the race course — a long, water-filled transparent tube — wound like a gigantic, twisted serpent throughout the arena.

  The tubular race course was nearly two kilometers long; the tube’s diameter was wide enough to allow two bongos to travel side by side, but several high loops and tight curves ensured a challenge for any pilot.

  Most of the pilots were already inside their bongos behind the starting line. There were twenty bongos in all, and Jar Jar scanned each one of them, searching for the disguised droid.

  Then he spotted the familiar orange helmet.

  The droid was seated behind the controls of Brooboo Seep’s bongo. Jar Jar figured the droid must have had little difficulty in finding that particular sub. Like Seep’s uniform, his bongo was similarly colored in purple, with swirling orange stripes to match his helmet.

  Jar Jar wasn’t sure what to do next. He was afraid of alarming the droid, since it might take drastic action and possibly injure innocent bystanders. Jar Jar’s eyes swept through the observation bubble, trying to find an official who might be able to call off the race. He prayed that someone would listen to him and take him seriously.

  And that’s when he saw Captain Tarpals.

  Jar Jar was startled to see Captain Tarpals seated in a box within the observation bubble. Tarpals had made it very clear that he had no intention of joining Jar Jar to watch the Bongo Rally, and Jar Jar had assumed that Tarpals had no interest in the Bongo Rally. However, that wasn’t the reason why Jar Jar was startled: Tarpals was seated beside Major Fassa.

  Tarpals and Fassa were each holding ornate beverage containers. Jar Jar watched as Fassa whispered something in Tarpals’s ear, which prompted Tarpals to smile. Jar Jar was astonished. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen Tarpals smiling, and there he was, displaying all his teeth.

  Jar Jar’s imagination raced... and then he remembered the droid who sat in Brooboo Seep’s bongo.

  As Tarpals took a sip from his beverage container, Jar Jar vaulted into the spectator box and landed in front of Tarpals and Fassa. Fassa reared back in surprise and Tarpals choked and coughed, accidentally spraying Jar Jar with a stream of green liquid.

  Jar Jar looked directly into Tarpals’s eyes and said, “Sorry to interrupt, boot Captain Swagg reactivated da two mackineeks un knocked out da Otoh Gunga comm beacon. My no knowen where Swagg isa, boot one mackineek is pasted un da otter one isa sitten in Brooboo Seep’s bongo.”

  “Dat’s no funny, Jar Jar,” Fassa said, recovering from her initial shock at seeing Jar Jar. “Yousa better get outta hair before mesa uncle sees yousa.”

  Jar Jar was crushed. Someone had to believe him. Tarpals was his best hope.

  Without taking his eyes off Jar Jar, Tarpals said to Fassa, “Jar Jar’s onda level.”

  An announcer’s voice boomed within the arena: “Una minute to launchen da bongos!” The crowd went wild.

  “Mesa tellin da Boss to call off da race!” Fassa suggested.

  “Dare’d be a riot,” Tarpals said as he leaped out of the spectator box.

  Fassa watched as Tarpals jumped through one of the observation bubble’s open portals. She realized he was going to try to confront the droid himself. She turned toward Jar Jar, hoping to apologize for questioning whether he was telling the truth, but instead she found herself facing Boss Nass, who had just returned to the spectator box with a large tray of food.

  Jar Jar was gone.

  “Whatsa alla dis?” Boss Nass asked.

  Behind the starting line, Captain Tarpals waded into the launch pool and cautiously approached Brooboo Seep’s bongo. The droid — completely concealed by the stolen helmet and uniform — revved the engine. Tarpals knew that if he tried to attack the droid, it would launch and make a getaway.

  Tarpals needed a bongo. And fast. Only thirty seconds remained before the start of the Bongo Rally.

  He stayed out of the droid’s visual range and walked up alongside the bongo that was positioned behind the droid’s. Tarpals hopped up next to the bongo’s cockpit, reached through the hydrostatic portal, and tapped the Gungan pilot’s helmet.

  “What’s da big idea?” shouted the outraged pilot.

  Tarpals said, “Tis emergency. Get out.”

  The pilot obeyed, saving Tarpals the trouble of yanking him out of the cockpit. As soon as pilot was out, Tarpals hopped in.

  A Gungan flagman stepped up to the edge of the Bongo Rally’s starting line and raised a green flag. All the pilots checked their engines and waited for the flagman to lower the flag.

  “Mark-set-go!” shouted the flagman as he swung the flag down hard at the starting line.

  The droid’s bongo blasted over the starting line, leaving Tarpals in a watery spray. Tarpals punched the ignition and his acquired bongo raced after the droid.

  Entering the racing tube, Tarpals ignored the other competitors and stayed on the droid’s tail. The interior of the festival arena was now a distorted blur.

  The droid’s bongo approached a forked divide, which separated the course into three different tubes. Tarpals had studied the course from the observation bubble, and recalled that each tube presented unique navigational challenges. The left tube required a pilot to execute a downward loop. The central tube formed a cylindrical helix that resembled the shape of a plorkscrew — a curly device used for removing plork stoppers from Gungan beverage containers. The right tube was a series of perilous tight curves that zigzagged back and forth until straightening out. All three tubes led into a single large tube on the main course.

  Tarpals was prepared to follow whatever path the droid chose, but the droid suddenly accelerated and left Tarpals in a cloud of bubbles. Steering through the bubbles, Tarpals lost sight of the droid’s bongo. Unable to determine which path had been taken by the droid, Tarpals chose to enter the downward loop.

  Suddenly, the droid’s brightly colored bongo appeared in front of Tarpals. The droid had executed a full rotation and was headed straight for Tarpals, trying to engage him in a deadly game. Tarpals realized the droid must have seen him board the bongo before launching. Tarpals angled off, steering his bongo under the droid, and then threw his controls hard to the side, sending his vessel into a tight rotation until he was racing after the droid, traveling the wrong way up the downward loop.

  The droid returned to the course’s forked divide and veered into the plorkscrew tube. Tarpals followed, whipping around and around after the droid until the tube emptied out into the main racing tube.

  Several other bongos were already on the main course, and the droid wove in and out between the other vessels. Precious seconds later, the droid had taken the lead, but he was unable to shake the persistent Tarpals.

  The racing tube twisted up into a high, tight loop, then unraveled into a long straightaway. The droid reached the loop first, but instead of traveling through, the droid steered his bongo between two utanode braces and sent his bongo splashing through the tube’s hydrostatic portal field. As the field sealed behind the droid’s bongo, his vessel dove through the air, angling for the lower straightaway. His bongo’s hull scraped against one of the tube’s structural braces as the vessel sliced through a second hydro
static portal field... and entered the straightaway.

  “Holy daggerts!” Tarpals gasped.

  It was a daring, reckless maneuver, and one that had never before been attempted in the history of the Bongo Rally. By bypassing the loop and plowing through the hydrostatic fields to the straightaway in the lower tube, the droid had taken an even greater lead and increased the distance between itself and Tarpals. Tarpals imagined that the audience must have been thrilled by the spectacle.

  Tarpals knew he had to keep up with the droid if he was going to stop the fiend. He tightened his grip on the controls and followed the droid’s path. His bongo tore through the tube, soared through the air, and splashed down into the straightaway.

  The spectators roared in appreciation.

  Tarpals was right on the tail of the droid’s bongo when the droid cut power, making his vessel come to a sudden, shuddering stop in the water-filled tube. Tarpals knew the droid was probably expecting him to deploy his drag chute or steer around, but Tarpals wanted to end the chase. Maintaining full speed, Tarpals channeled energy to his hydrostatic field, tightened his safety harness, and rammed the droid’s stern.

  The impact knocked the droid’s bongo forward through the tube. With some dismay, Tarpals noted that he’d barely dented the bongo’s reinforced stern. Suddenly, the droid gunned its bongo and sped up. The race was on again.

  The droid accelerated, steering through the race course at a ridiculously high speed. The droid swung hard from side to side, swiping its bongo against the inner curves of the braces that wrapped the tube. As Tarpals followed the droid’s bongo, the droid struck one of the braces with such force that the entire tube ruptured.

  Water rushed into the arena. The droid sped away from the rupture, racing forward into the next length of tube. Tarpals transferred all energy to his propulsion system and rocketed after the droid.

  Hot on the droid’s trail, Tarpals approached the finish line. Outside the racing tube, a Gungan racing official stood on a raised platform and waved a yellow caution flag that bore an icon of a broken tube. Although Tarpals had safely passed the rupture, the damage — caused by the droid — had destabilized the water pressure for the entire racecourse.

  Still ahead of Tarpals, the droid ignored the caution flag and maintained high speed. Tarpals’s skin crawled at the very thought of a droid winning the Bongo Rally. Although Tarpals wanted to stop the droid, he also wanted to win the race.

  The finish line was in sight. Against his better judgment, Tarpals decided to go for the finish.

  Tarpals accelerated and dove, hoping that the droid would think he was trying to slip under the its bongo. The droid lowered its forward diving plane, effectively preventing Tarpals from passing underneath without damaging both bongos. It was just the break Tarpals wanted. He pulled back on the controls and shot over the droid’s bongo. The droid tried to pull up, but it was too late; Tarpals had taken the lead.

  The droid’s bongo was just behind Tarpals’s port engine as he crossed the finish line. Beyond the finish, the racing tube curved upward into a steep climb to the arena’s domed ceiling. Although the curve was designed to help racers slow their bongos, the droid increased speed and blasted past Tarpals. Tarpals realized the droid was making a final, desperate effort to escape.

  Tarpals steered straight up through the water-filled tube, chasing the droid’s bongo. Just below the ceiling, the tube curved back down to the arena floor. Because the curve was somewhat difficult to navigate, an emergency escape tube extended from the curve to the Arena’s dome, allowing pilots to abandon the racecourse and steer their bongos through a portal out of the arena and into Lake Umberbool.

  The droid’s bongo bypassed the curve and steered into the emergency escape tube. Once again, it swerved from side to side, smacking violently against the tube’s inner walls in an effort to rupture them. As Tarpals approached the turnoff for the escape tube, the droid zoomed through the portal into Lake Umberbool.

  Tarpals steered into the escape tube, aware that it could fall apart at any moment. He maintained his course, and was three meters from the portal when he heard something behind him. The tube’s hydrostatic field had collapsed. Tarpals’s engines whined as the bongo soared through the air, but his velocity carried him straight through the dome’s portal zone and into the lake.

  Leaving the arena behind, Tarpals steered his bongo into Lake Umberbool and searched for the droid’s vessel. He saw its silhouette floating at an odd angle in the water in front of him. He trained his navigational devices on the droid’s bongo as it drifted toward a rocky reef covered with sharp barnacles.

  Tarpals steered closer to the bongo, then heard a clang on top of his own sub. Tilting his head back, he looked up through his hydrostatic canopy to see the droid clinging to the bongo’s hull.

  It was a perfect sneak attack. The droid pushed one of its skeletal arms through Tarpals’s hydrostatic canopy and tried to grab the Gungan’s neck.

  Tarpals threw the controls hard to the side and accelerated, sending the bongo into a tight roll toward the rocky reef. The droid yanked its arm out of the cockpit and clung to the hull, trying to keep from being shaken from the vessel. The bongo was completely upside down. Tarpals steered as close to the reef as he dared. The droid never saw the barnacles coming.

  The droid’s body screeched against the barnacles. Tarpals’s bongo glided over the reef for several seconds, long enough for the droid to be torn to ribbons.

  Tarpals pulled away from the reef, righted the bongo, and watched the droid’s remains sink to the bottom of the lake. As soon as he could, Tarpals planned to send a cleanup crew to the site. He didn’t want Naboo littered with droids.

  Tarpals was speeding back to the festival arena when he noticed a submersible ferry approaching from the distance. Oddly enough, the ferry wasn’t heading for one of the arena’s sub pens, but straight for the arena’s central dome. Tarpals knew something was wrong. He switched off his bongo’s running lights and altered his course to take a closer look.

  Angling his bongo toward the ferry’s nose, Tarpals peered through his viewport and gazed at the large sub’s cockpit. Instead of a Gungan pilot at the controls, Tarpals saw the form of a blueskinned humanoid alien.

  Captain Swagg.

  Tarpals was surprised by the sight of the viilainous pirate inside the ferry’s cockpit, but he was outright alarmed when he spied the wide net that was secured to the ferry’s nose. The net contained approximately fifty luminescent blue orbs, each one a plasma explosive.

  Given the ferry’s course, it was obvious to Tarpals that Swagg intended to crash the ferry into the arena’s dome. Like Tarpals’s bongo, the ferry’s cockpit could eject as an emergency escape pod; Tarpals imagined that Swagg would try to eject just before the ferry struck the arena. The resulting explosion would cause the mammoth dome to collapse.

  There were over twenty thousand Gungans inside the arena. Tarpals was prepared to do whatever he could to stop the evil pirate.

  With his bongo’s running lights still off, Tarpals drew alongside the ferry, tilting his bongo so that his cockpit faced the ferry’s port side. Tarpals waited until his cockpit was in line with the ferry’s hydrostatic egress hatch, then leaped through his own hydrostatic canopy. He stretched toward the ferry and pushed himself in through the hatch.

  Tarpals scrambled inside the ferry and came up fast behind Captain Swagg. He had hoped to rush the pirate, but Swagg saw Tarpals’ reflection on the ferry’s transparsteel instrument panel. He spun around fast and drew his blaster from its holster.

  Tarpals ducked as he sent a powerful kick at Swagg’s right arm. Swagg cursed as he fired the blaster. The unleashed bolt ricocheted off the ferry’s ceiling, striking the floor near Tarpals’ left knee before bouncing straight back at Captain Swagg.

  Swagg caught the blast full in the chest. He toppled back over the controls and sent the ferry spiraling toward the lake floor.

  Tarpals sprang for the hatch and leaped through
the hydrostatic field. As soon as he entered the water, he began pumping his arms and legs furiously, trying to put as much distance as possible between himself and the doomed ferry.

  The explosion was incredible. The combined destructive power from fifty plasma explosives was enough to create a small crater in the floor of Lake Umberbool, and everyone in the festival arena felt the shock wave.

  Tarpals arrived at the surface of Lake Umberbool. Several minutes later, a large heyblibber splashed up through the surface and bobbed in the water next to him. Tarpals recognized the heyblibber immediately. It belonged to Boss Nass.

  Boss Nass poked his head out of the heyblibber and called out, “Yousa okeyday, Tarpals?”

  “Mesa fine,” Tarpals answered as he swam to the heyblibber. “Boot Captain Swagg no so fortunate.”

  “Yousa got Swagg?” Boss Nass remarked with surprise. “Inda observation bubble, Fassa told mesa yousa goen after da mackineek, boot mesa no knowin about Swagg. How all dis happen?”

  Tarpals climbed up onto the heyblibber’s deck and considered the best way to answer Boss Nass’s question. If Jar Jar hadn’t informed Tarpals of the renegade droid, Tarpals would never have entered the Bongo Rally. And if Tarpals hadn’t chased the droid into Lake Umberbool, Captain Swagg might very well have destroyed the arena. However, since Jar Jar was supposed to have been back in Otoh Gunga, Tarpals wasn’t sure whether he should mention Jar Jar’s involvement.

  Finally, Tarpals answered, “Mesa just followed a hunch.”

  Boss Nass clapped Tarpals on the shoulder. “Dat musta been some hunch,” he said.

  At this point, readers who chose to follow the adventure in the Star Wars Adventures Game Book can return to The Bongo Rally.

  Following the Bongo Rally, Major Fassa returned with Boss Nass and Captain Tarpals to Otoh Gunga. They made the journey in Boss Nass’s heyblibber, along with the Rep Council and several dozen Gungan dignitaries. By the time they had docked in the sub pen bubble below Boss Nass’s mansion, everyone believed that Boss Nass’s party would be the greatest celebration ever. But Fassa was less interested in the party than she was in tracking down the elusive Jar Jar Binks, who had vanished so suddenly from the arena.