FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

EXODUS - Chapter 3

The Gungans were here first.

Human pioneers--colonists, really--scouted Naboo centuries ago in search of a source of plasma, something with which this planet was teeming. I won't bore you with the details of how plasma is an ionizing gas, how one goes about mining a gas-like substance, or the finer points of what happens when your atomic structure is suddenly robbed of a whole bunch of electrons. Suffice it to say, such an abundant source of plasma on a hospitable planet versus orbiting and slurping up a star was a boon to the careet. And also, of course, to powering all sorts of devices from neon lights to vid screens and, most importantly, weapons.

The colonists made a killing in arms dealing, but the moment they were ready to reap in the profits, the costs reared their ugly head. For one, the secret was out. Other colonists came, fought with the original colonists, and the plasma proved toxic in its raw form. Selling the stuff was becoming expensive.

This is where the Gungans come in. We evolved on this planet, adapted to an amphibious lifestyle both above and below the waves. Now ruins litter the planet's surface as a reminder of this distant past and our ancient, deified origins. Human interlopers polluted our land and our oceans with their refuse and their dead, and Gungans don't go down without a fight. But really, what's the value of a Gungan's life to a Human?

I mean, why build an elevator to last if it's only meant for unpaid Gungan workers to traverse in their thankless task of taking care of the dirty jobs Humans didn't want to do?

I felt a sense of weightlessness when our feet departed the cage floor. My back clung to the rough, chainlink corner where the wall met the ceiling. My stomach clung to my throat. My haillu were pinched painfully between my back and the rusty metal. Rock and earth rushed past in a blur of darkness and I wondered if I'd even see the floor prior to my impending demise. The lift banged against the rock walls, scraping them, showering sparks all about like little glowing fleas hopping aboard my person. My fingers curled through the holes in the ceiling, but there was just no moment to shift the lift in the direction of the wall. I could only really move my legs, and they would be ground to a pulp if I had the looniest inclination they could function as brakes. I let go of the ceiling; my digits would probably be torn off at the knuckle the moment we hit bottom. Might as well try to die in as few pieces as possible.

"Think: 'Stop'."

There really wasn't time to refuse Qui-Gon's strange request. I knew wishing wouldn't save our skins, but gods help me, I etched the word in my mind, if only to drown out the scenes of my life flashing before my eyes.

Before I knew what was happening, my feet touched the floor. My organs felt like they were shifting about inside me ina? ? most uncomfortable fashion, but the lift was decelerating. It bumped against the cavern wall a few more times, but we had reached a speed at which we could all crouch on the floor together. The lift moved slower and slower still, until it levitated to the floor with a gentle tap. That was when I noticed both Jedi were just sitting there, cross-legged with their eyes closed, as though they found our ride rather lacking in entertainment.

I was first to hobble to my feet and out of the lift, my legs quaking something terrible. I held onto the lift's walls to keep upright, but it was a challenge. "Why'd you tell me to 'think stop'?" I asked, my voice shaky and all over the place in terms of emotion. I wasn't sure I felt relieved at that moment. "I don't have mental powers, you know."

Both Humans exited the lift with far more grace than myself. Qui-Gon gave me this textbook-enigmatic smile like he trusted his situation could possibly get better. I saw us as more of an unpopped corn kernal. "Though you cannot guide the Force, the Force listens to all living things," Qui-Gon said.

Yeah. Very selectively. You never know what it's going to do next.

We had entered a dark expanse deep underground. Tunnels stretched out in four separate directions from a wide, oblong chamber. I could hear the trickling of water somewhere far off. My eyes were adjusted to the darkness when Obi-Wan clicked on a light pinend to the lapel of his robe. I was struck with a blinding glare of light while he spoked to his companion. "Master, I think we may have made a mistake following this one."

"Then we shall strive to make the best of our circumstances."

They said some other things, but I wasn't listening very closely. I had found my legs, and was eagerly searching the cavern walls around each tunnel. Engraved in the stone was a symbol only I would've recognized, a little glyph for Gungan eyes only to comprehend. Cyan moss had grown into the grooves somewhat, but I was able to interpret the artist's intention. "Alright, this way. No time to waste, right?"

I led the way down the tunnel, with Obi-Wan shining his light right on me from behind. I followed my wobbling shadow between walls of rough stone, my feet padding upon a well-trodden path. My shin briefly banged into some dusty old cobwebbed boxes filled with broken mining tools, but I managed not to hurt myself. "Uh, watch where you step," I called back to them.

A few minutes later, the path appeared to hit a wall, but this was a trick of the light; the tunnel curved sharply around a shale or limestone deposit or something. The sound of grumbling rock and our own heavy breathing followed alongside us as we made our way to another intersection. I examined the wall about two feet down the right path, then doubled back down the left path.

Here, the rock opened up like a funnel into a more comfortable size. I cracked my back, glad I could stand upright. A few meters ahead, we hit yet another split, this time in three new directions. I checked back on my guests who were right on my heels, but still, none of us spoke a word to one another. It put me on edge, wondering what the heck they were thinking to be following me down yet another dismal passage that bore no ostensible promise of evacuation.

I didn't see it at first, because my own shadow was obscuring a good deal of my vision. I thought it was just an odd semblance of hefty rocks that looked as though they spilled out from the wall. Among those rocks was a Gungan skeleton. He or she had been trapped in what I deduced to be a cave-in, stuck upright as the rocks crushed and smothered his or her body, likely breaking numerous bones in the process. Another grim reminder of our stark cultural differences, I thought, as I reached out to solemnly caress the snout.

I jerked my hand back in a hurry. The skeleton was rattling, the head bobbing up and down over what little remained of its lower jaw. I pressed my body to one side of the tunnel. "Heads up!"

I watched as blue-green energy issued from the cracks in the rocks inhabiting the skull like a cough or a sneeze. It flared out, but I had erred on the side of caution; the residual plasma didn't reach us.

"Its hands are pointing in two directions," Obi-Wan noted. It was true; the trapped skeleton appeared to have its arms wrenched upwards into the rock, with its hands jutting out in two separate directions. "How do we know which route to take?"

I paused, remorse coursing through my thoughts. "Neither," I finally said when I had gathered my emotions together. "We go this way." Although the only other tunnel we hadn't taken looked as though it headed back in the direction we had come from, I could tell tunnels like this messed with my sense of direction. It was the right way to go, after all.

The sudden flash of conversation stuck with me. The three of us barely knew one another, but we'd managed to get this far underground without complaining. These two Jedi must have been rather disciplined, I thought. The air began to stink of staleness, growing heavier with each step we took. I heard Obi-Wan sputter for a second. When I glanced over my shoulder, I saw that the two of them had inserted some kind of device in their mouths which I presumed would allow them to breathe. Lucky for me, Gungans can hold their breath for a _long_time. We've got great big lung reserves, and we're amphibious to boot.

Perhaps we have greater patience reserves as well, because the rumblings of mutiny were behind me. We had reached an impasse before us in the form of a solid wall, jutting with numerous blunted prongs when I heard Obi-Wan speak. "This alien is wasting our time leading us to a dead end, Master."

I traced a couple of fingers over the surface in front of me. "End? Maybe. Dead? No. How tight can you press one of your electric scalpels to the wall here? Could it be air-tight?"

"Allow me." Qui-Gon drew the handle of his lightsaber from his belt and pressed it hard against the bumpy surface in front of us.

"Try not to ignite the plasma vapors in the air, or we'll all be incinerated," I said, trying to be helpful. "How fast does it take you to turn it off again?"

Qui-Gon didn't answer me. Instead, he flicked some mechanism on the hilt of his lightsaber. I heard the electrical "shoom" of his lightsaber extending, but didn't see a trace of the colorful light. He pulled the hilt away, having clicked it off faster than I could notice. The wall ahead of us stirred and shuffled away from us, deeper into darkness. What it revealed, when we stepped through this new gap, was a massive chamber, almost three storeys high, spreading out like an open field before us. The walls shuddered as the chamber grumbled, and we could hear the distinct splash of rock chucking down into splashing water. The ocean was lapping at the floor on the far edge of the space where we stood, and I knew that we were almost free of this tunnel.

We just had to get past the very large and very angry gastropod in front of us. Stratum snails can grow just as big as the one we were looking at right now. Its massive shell, with its blunt spines, filled maybe a third of the chamber, but it wasn't nearly as intimidating as the slimy protuberance now growing to the height of a small building out from under its protective carapace. It wobbled and flailed like freshly burnt flesh, oozing and dribbling gobs of disgusting gunk down its glistening, textured surface. Swathes of antenna rose from its crown, spawning glassy, unreal-looking eyes that sent my nerves shivering. And then, to make matters worse, a second head emerged just to the left of the first, and it, too, swelled with thrashing antennae. Both heads opened these horrific, gaping maws into darkness, all while dripping slime down themselves like melting oil.

Seeing us faced with this monstrosity, I reached under the back of my vest and twirled out my cesta, a sort of Gungan weapon that resembles a spear with a scoop-shaped tip, usually used for hurtling plasma energy balls we call "boomers". I telescoped it out to its full length and grasped it tight in both hands. Both Jedi had lit up their lightsabers as Obi-Wan said, "Master, I think we may have to fight."

"This ceiling may crumble down on us. Use caution," Qui-Gon said.

Qui-Gon stood in the middle, while both Obi-Wan and myself parted in opposing directions around the vaguely-dome-shaped chamber. The head on my side--the left one--did not track me, and instead slammed onto the ground in Qui-Gon's direction, which he side-stepped like a summer breeze. The entire cavern shook; stones and dirt rained down from the ceiling, and the stratum snail pulled its head up off the grown with a sickening THOK.

I loosed a boomer from the woven satchel on the back of my belt and rolled it into the scoop. "Hey! Hey!" I shouted to the creature, getting its attention. The boomer cracked open against the front of its face, loosing a crackle of rippling blue energy on the spot. All antennae turned on me, and I hugged the rock wall behind myself.

Meanwhile, the other head was still fixated on Obi-Wan alone. Qui-Gon was free to strike; he attacked the shell of the beast with slash after slash of his shimmering, humming weapon, showering sparks as he hacked away at a small portion of the lower shell. I managed to glance in Obi-Wan's direction. I saw the snail huck a great big ball of slime from its screaming mouth at him. Obi-Wan had his palm raised as though he could catch it, and to my astonishment, the ooze-ball redirected in mid-flight and splattered in a grotesque, silvery stain over on the wall.

The head facing me down was ejecting two disgusting strands of adhesive in my direction. I leapt aside, but one projectile still splashed over my precious cesta. Again, I shouted, "Hey, hey!" more out of frustration this time than anything else. Wire-like strands of sticky goop tried to wrest the weapon from my hands, but I stood my ground. This was the only cesta I had, and I wasn't going to let it go that easy. The ground scraped at my feet as I was dragged closer and closer to the behemoth. I flailed my weapon left and right to try and wrest it away, but nothing doing. When I was in range, I swiped the tip of the spear end across the belly, or chin, or whatever it was in front of me. Translucent, viscous humours spilled out from the wound I had sliced open, and the strands clinging to my weapon fell to the floor like drifting cobwebs.

Qui-Gon noted our attacks were inefficient against such a colossal beast. He shouted to Obi-Wan, "Can you get atop?"

"Bit difficult at the moment, Master!" Obi-Wan darted further around the stratum snail until he was almost standing in the water.

"That head can follow you all the way around!" I said. "You'll never get away!" The head facing me slammed forward, but I launched myself sideways, then rolled back to my feet.

Qui-Gon twirled his lightsaber as though he was putting on a show, then held it askew as he walked toward the second head. Being focused on Obi-Wan, it left itself open to a sizzling strike from Qui-Gon's saber, and that ticked it off beyond measure. Once more its dripping face, which looked as though it was liquefying, bellowed at Qui-Gon in its horrible voice. Once more the cavern shook, bringing down with it debris from overhead. A plummeting rock walloped Qui-Gon on the left shoulder, bringing him down to one knee. I flung myself in his direction, grasping him by the shoulders, and pulled him upright and at the same time out of the way of the stratum snail's next smothering face-smash.

On the other side from us, Obi-Wan was leaping upon the thick, blunt spines jutting from the creature's shell. From what I could glimpse, his balance was something to marvel at, and he ended by flipping up onto the apex of the snail's shell. He was poised with his lightsaber.

"Cover me," I said to Qui-Gon. Both heads were now baring down on me. I didn't know what he could do, really, but he held his hand out, deflecting the ensuing projectiles of goop being flung our way.

"Hey!" I shouted for Obi-Wan's attention. "Catch!" I slung another boomer into the scoop of my cesta, spun around to build up kinetic force, then whipped it high overhead. Obi-Wan raised his lightsaber to catch the projectile, and his lightsaber sparkled with a crackling burst of energy when it connected. He then slammed his lightsaber downwards, burying his weapon to its hilt into the stratum snail's topside. A swirl of electricity fanned out around him, searing its way through the monster's body. It heaved once as though struck by lightning, and in a flash, both heads slipped back inside of its shell, hiding from sight.

I was ready to celebrate our victory when Qui-Gon got all up in my face. It dashed my smile to see him staring in this implacable manner he had. I somehow had the distinct sense that he may have been fuming behind his calm demeanor, but of course I couldn't be certain.

"Next time, I would appreciate some preamble about what we're getting into," he said as Obi-Wan leapt down from atop the shell to join us.

"Relax. We got out of it alright, didn't we? And besides, this chamber connects to the ocean. We'll be at Otoh Gunga in no time."

None of us wanted to waste too much time catching our breath for fear our enemy would make a reappearance. I led the pair to the water's edge. The water was black as night, but I could sense the deep grotto that opened below us. I took a few warm-up stretches, bending my knees and arching my back and so forth, then leapt high into the air. I twisted my body around and aimed like a spear thrust downwards. I pierced the water at speed and eased into its cold, all-encompassing embrace.