Scene 13: Obi-Wan, Padme over his shoulder, runs through the corridors, making his way back to the hangar. Padme stirs, and begins pounding on Obi-Wan’s back. “Let me down!” she yells. Obi-Wan does, but checks her over for a moment. “Are you alright?” he asks.

“I’m fine, just rattled,” she says. The ship shakes with another bad hit. “What’s happening?”

“Your value to the Trade Federation seems to have depreciated,” Obi-Wan says, as they continue on. “My Master, Qui-Gon Jin, is holding off our attacker.” They reach the hangar bay, which has already been emptied out of any ships they may have used, besides droid fighters – except for the sleek silvery ship that was there. “Blast,” Obi-Wan says. “We’ll have to find another way off - I’m not familiar with that ship design.”

“I am,” Padme says, grabbing his hand and pulling him toward it. “I should be, it’s my ship!”

“What?” Obi-Wan asks, as they reach it.

“I was flying when they invaded,” she replies. “Captured me in a tractor beam, pulled me in.” She puts her palm against the ship’s surface, and ripples of light expand from the contact point. The ship’s seamless body splits open, exposing a walkway, and Padme and Obi-Wan rush inside.

There, they find themselves face-to-face with two battle droids, standing guard. Obi-Wan ignites his lightsaber, but before he can use it, the droids are electrocuted by an unknown source. As they crumple to the ground, everyone’s favorite Astromech droid rolls out, chirping happily at Padme.

“Artoo!” Padme calls to him, grinning. “Get the engines spun up, we’re getting out of here!” Artoo squeals, and turns down the corridor to do just that.

Padme and Obi-Wan make it to the cockpit, and Padme starts throwing switches to start the ship up.

We cut to an exterior shot, as Padme’s yacht flies out of the hangar bay, as a torpedo slams into the side of the Federation ship, triggering a series of explosions across the whole vessel.

Obi-Wan’s reaction at seeing this is one of immense pain. “Master…” he whispers.

Scene 14: The whole place is falling apart around the two lightsaber duelists, but their battle continues. Darth Maul fights with mad, exhilarating speed and intensity, while Qui-Gon counters with precise, smooth blocks and sweeps. This fight scene should visually illustrate the differences between the Sith and Jedi philosophy – passion against composure, aggression against peace.

“We’ll both die if we continue,” Qui-Gon says, calmly, even as he sweeps aside one of Maul’s attacks.

“Do you fear death, Jedi?” Maul demands.

“A Jedi fears nothing,” Qui-Gon replies. “But it is our duty to preserve all life.” An exchange of blows. “Even that of our enemies.”

“And that is why you are weak,” Maul snarls, and attacks with an acrobatic flurry of strikes.

Qui-Gon leaps back from the blows, and suddenly sheaths his lightsaber, shaking his head. “You do not understand,” he says, sadly. Then, just as Darth Maul moves in for the kill, Qui-Gon Force-pulls several chunks of debris between them, forming a grid-wall. Darth Maul swiftly begins cutting through this barrier, but by the time he gets through, Qui-Gon has disappeared. Maul shrieks in anger, as more of the corridor falls down around him.

Qui-Gon runs down the corridor until he locates an unused escape pod. He enters it, Force-sealing the hatch.

Cut to an exterior shot, as the pod rushes down towards Nabooine’s surface, just as Ship 217 finally explodes under the withering fire from its sister-ships.

Scene 15: Six droid fighters have pulled in behind the Queen’s yacht, licking blaster fire across the hull. We’ve moved away from the planet, now, but we’re still in range of the Federation’s blockade.

“Artoo, activate the hyperdrive!” Padme calls into a headset she’s wearing, as she yanks the controls back and forth, trying to dodge the fighters’ shots.

Artoo, in the ship’s engine room plugged into a terminal, bleeps something back at her.

Padme growls in frustration, turning to Obi-Wan. “They yanked the hyperdrive and the communications antennae!”

Obi-Wan, who has been holding on to the back of the Queen’s pilot chair, turns around, looking through the back of the ship’s bubble cockpit. He extends a hand, his face flushing and wincing with effort. He manages to jiggle one of the fighters a little, but it regains control, and swoops in for another attack. Obi-Wan’s powers are still not the equal of Qui-Gon’s, and it shows.

He gathers his will again, and tries once more. This time, he manages to send the fighter spinning away, right into the path of its compatriots’ blaster fire. As it explodes, we see the five remaining fighters sweep past the camera, showing us that our heroes aren’t out of the woods yet.

Padme throws the yacht into a spin, dodging another round of blasters, and then hits the brakes, and the fighters sweep past them. One of the fighters doesn’t quite react in time, and it clips its wing against the yacht. The yacht gets a nasty scrape, but the smaller fighter is done for – it goes spinning off into space.

Obi-Wan snags another fighter with the Force, and manages to actually shred the fighter in two parts. However, the Jedi is looking exhausted and tense now, grabbing Padme’s chair for support. Padme looks up at him, worried, and calls into her headset: “Artoo, boost all the power we’ve got into the engines, we’ve got to escape now!”

Sure enough, the yacht’s engines flare, and they start pulling away from the fighters. The fire doesn’t let up, however, and the ship continues to take hits. Padme grits her teeth, speeding them forward. The ship takes a hard hit, and the internal lights flicker for a moment. Things aren’t looking good…

…and then the three remaining fighters stop firing, their engines sputter out, and they start drifting forward, carried by their own inertia.

Scene 10: On the Federation command ship, a communications droid turns to face Ursana. “Commander, Ship 217 is reporting intruders – Two Jedi.”

Ursana spits something into a spittoon, and almost rises up from her command throne. “Blast! What about that girl-Queen, isn’t she on 217 as well?”

Droid: “Affirmative.”

Ursana’s face twists in disgust. “Bah. She’s more trouble than she’s worth… Order Ships 93 and 504 to destroy 217. We’ll take no chances with these Jedi!”

The ship’s living officers stare in shock at Ursana, but the droids simply carry out their tasks. Comm Droid: “Repeat, target Ship 217, fire at will.”

Scene 11: Qui-Gon, on the bridge of Ship 217, is interrogating the Federation commander. “The Queen? Amidala, she’s here?”

“Yes,” the Federation captain blubbers. “In the detention block. She was supposed to issue a full surrender, submit the planet to Federation rule, but… but now you two have gone and ruined all that, and I-”

Before he can finish whining, the ship is hit with a sudden, rocking blast. “What was that?” Qui-Gon asks.

“We’re being fired upon by Ship 93,” a droid answers. “Ship 504 is locking torpedoes on us.”

“What?!” the Federation commander yells. “They, they can’t, what?!”

“Get your people to escape pods!” Qui-Gon orders the commander. “Now!”

Before the commander can issue any orders, the bridge starts emptying itself, as people and droids alike run for exits. Qui-Gon himself, looks up, concern. “Obi-Wan…” he, too, runs out of the bridge, but not in the same direction as all the others.

Scene 12: Aaand, we’re back with more lightsaber fighting. Obi-Wan is starting to tire, and we can see that Maul is playing with him now, relishing what will soon be the kill. Even as the ship rocks and parts spark and fly away, Maul never turns his attention from vanquishing the young Jedi.

We can see on Obi-Wan’s face that he knows he’s lost already, but he refuses to give up – his swings become wilder, riskier, but not desperate – even now, he does not succumb to fear.

Just as Darth Maul seems ready to deliver the killing blow, he hesitates, and spins on his heel to block a blow from behind him – this time from Qui-Gon. The two begin their own duel.

“Go, Obi-Wan!” he yells. “Get her out of here!”

“Master, I-”

“Go!”

Obi-Wan hesitates a moment longer, watching the two battle, Maul now evenly matched with his opponent. Still, Obi-Wan manages to get himself together, and lifts the Queen over his shoulder, and makes a run for it.

We hold on Qui-Gon and Maul for a moment, their lightsabers crossed, sparking and humming with tension. “Who are you?” Qui-Gon demands.

“The beginning,” Maul replies, before swinging the other end of his lightsaber at Qui-Gon’s head. Qui-Gon blocks the attack, and the fight continues.

Scene 4: The Jedi ship drifts in closer to Nabooine. From inside the cockpit, we see Qui-Gon’s furrowed-brow and Obi-Wan’s startled reaction. Then we see the planet itself – Nabooine is practically encrusted with matte-black Trade Federation ships, droid fighters zooming past in swarms, other independent-looking ships all docked with and, presumably, being boarded by, Federation vessels. High over the planet hangs a huge hemispherical vessel or station, watching over it all.

“This is insane!” Obi-Wan says. “They must have their entire security fleet here… I didn’t think the Federation had this many vessels!”

“They don’t,” Qui-Gon says, shaking his head, appearing a little worried for the first time. “At least, they never appeared to… this is far bigger than we thought.” He turns to Obi-Wan. “We must return to Coruscant, my padawan, and inform the Senate. There is nothing we can do here.”

Obi-Wan: “What? Master, that planet is being invaded, who knows what the Trade Federation is really doing down there, these people need our-”

Qui-Gon: “Obi-Wan, we are walking in a blind corridor. We are Jedi – we must proceed with reason and knowledge, above all other concerns.” He sighs. “We cannot win in a battle against these foes. You are a formidable fighter, Obi-Wan… but there are alternatives to fighting.”

Obi-Wan looks ready to protest again, but then he closes his eyes, breathes for a moment, then nods. “You’re right, of course, Master. I-”

But, of course, before Obi-Wan can continue, an alarm goes off, and Qui-Gon, examining it, says “it seems we may have to fight after all.”

A trio of droid fighters peels off from a patrol group, heading straight for the Jedi ship. Obi-Wan switches the engines back on, but they start up with a coughing, backfiring sound – they don’t like starting cold. The fighters open fire on the limping vessel, and fire rakes the hull.

“Obi-Wan,” Qui-Gon says, calmly. “We need to leave, now.”

“I’m trying, I’m trying!” Obi-Wan says, panic edging into his voice, as he throws switches and turns knobs.

Qui-Gon turns his attention to the fighters, and extends a hand out, fingers splayed in a warding gesture.

Suddenly, one of the droid fighters careens into one of its partners, destroying both of them – the shrapnel from the explosion gets caught in the third fighter’s engine, and it, too, explodes. Just as the debris is clearing, however, more fighters, nine of them this time, are swooping in.

Obi-Wan seems to have gotten the cantankerous freighter moving finally, and he dips and spins away, trying to avoid enemy fire, though he doesn’t succeed entirely.

Scene 5: Inside the Trade Federation’s command station, we can see the distant laser flashes through a giant observation window. Federation personnel, living and droid alike, are hard at work at consoles and desks. A Federation commander, Ursana, in an absurd-looking uniform, leans forward in her command throne, examining the battle. “Who is that, down there?” she asks. “Those little twinkling lights… so pretty.”

“Sector seven reports an intruder, commander,” a console droid says. “Came out of nowhere.”

“Well, we can’t let them escape,” Ursana says, though somewhat dismissively. “Go ahead and smash them already.”

Scene 6: Two larger Federation vessels are moving in to pin the Jedi ship inside the blockade, to prevent their escape.

Qui-Gon: “Can we go to lightspeed?”

Obi-Wan: “Not in the middle of all these ships, we’d smash right through them and blast ourselves in the process-”

A solid hit slams the ship about.

Qui-Gon: “It would appear we are headed that way nevertheless.” He looks around the battlefield, and then makes a brushing motion with his hand, as if shooing away a fly. A droid fighter that had been headed straight for them is knocked away, and instead smashes through a set of bay doors on one of the Federation ships. “There!” he says, pointing. “We cannot escape out – we may try to escape inside. Find out what we can about what’s happening, maybe take the ship ourselves.”

Obi-Wan, slightly amused: “What was that you said about avoiding fighting?”

Qui-Gon, who doesn’t have time for Obi-Wan’s sarcastic shenanigans: “Go, now!”

Obi-Wan slams the throttle forward, and their ship spirals out and away from the fighters toward the damaged ship. The ship’s landing bay has defenses, though (think the little roof-mounted laser that blows up the ship in LI), and Obi-Wan’s landing doesn’t quite come off all that nicely – in fact, the ship skids in on its side, smashing an engine off or something cool and explosive like that.

The landing bay (which contains a sleek, drop-of-mercury-chrome ship as well) is quickly flooded with battle droids, all of them taking up cover positions and pointing their weapons at the crashed ship. For a moment, there is tense silence, and some of the droids move forward, covering the entrance with their guns.

“Go check it out,” one of the droids says.

“Roger roger,” it replies, and it and four of its buddies enter the ship, staying low, just in case. Nothing happens at first…

And then we hear the iconic sound of two lightsabers starting up and cutting through something thick and metallic, and a great big piece of bulkhead drops onto the battle droids standing guard in front of the ship.

Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon jump down from a giant hole in the ship, its edges still glowing with heat, their lightsabers ignited. The battle droids behind cover open fire, and Qui-Gon sets to work deflecting their blasts. The droids inside the ship start to rush back out, but Obi-Wan slams the ship’s door on them, cutting of one of them in half. The torso-head of the battle droid says “Uh-oh,” as it flies through the air.

Together, Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan advance on the battle droids, and make quick work of them (thirty second battle, tops – we’ve got things to do and people to see).

The Jedi escape into the corridor, but start heading in opposite directions. They stop and turn to each other. “The control room will be this way,” Qui-Gon says.

“Yes, Master, but… there’s something this way, too,” Obi-Wan says. “Someone, I think. Important.”

Qui-Gon considers this, then nods. “Go. Meet back here.” The Jedi go their separate ways.