"Mure clan dat," Spleed responded as she broke off a fresh rod for the sub's port trim control oil cyclers. "After wesa snap da snout un shave da flippies, dis swimmer's ganna do some bombad plorkscrewen dat'll leave da fun-boggers cryen dry!"
Lobb Dizz closed her eyes and shook her head, trying to purge the lingo-riddled banter from her skull. Except for the word "bongo," she couldn't fully grasp what they were talking about.
There was a heavy knock at the sub pen entrance, and Lobb Dizz turned to see a female Gungan under the arched doorway. "Major Fassa! Mesa almos no reckonize yousa outta uniform."
"Mesa on short leave," Fassa said as she stepped forward and handed the scroll to Lobb Dizz. "Dis for yousa from Boss Nass."
Lobb Dizz unrolled the scroll, read the message, and sighed. "Da Boss wanten to take hisen new bongo for a test plunge tomorrow."
Fassa looked at the bongo floating in the pool and nodded at Neb Neb and Spleed. "So, dat's mesa uncle's newest toy, huh?"
"Toy?" Spleed said. "Wit all due rispict, Major Fassa, dis no toy! Dis bongo ganna make Boss Nass da Boss Nastiest!"
"Is ganna what?" Lob Dizz said with some alarm. "Yousa tryen to maken da Boss angry?"
Neb Neb chuckled. "No worry, Dizz. Spleed no meanen da Boss ganna be angry. "'Nasti-est' meanen no sluggin un sleepen, da exspeediest un moto maxi-bombad bongo on Naboo."
Lob Dizz looked at Fassa and asked, "Yousa know what daza sayen?"
"Sorta," Fassa admitted, and her tone revealed that she did not like the sound of it. If Boss Nass wound up owning the fastest bongo on Naboo, his head would swell so much that he would require a larger crown.
A squawk sounded from Lob Dizz's communications console and a voice barked, "Lobb Dizz, yousa dare?"
"Yep, my hair," Lobb Dizz said into the comm.
"Dis Wilk Nilkers of da Cleanup Squad," the voice bellowed. "Wesa gotta 'mergency. An outlaunder at da Bigspace Hotel axadently flush-ed some boiled quench weed down a wastepot, un now all da hotel's waste pipes is stuck shut."
In the sub pen, all four Gungans groaned. It was common knowledge that flushing even a small amount of boiled quench weed down a waste-pot would plug up the waste pipes for days. Not even the most simple-minded Gungan would do something so foolish.
"Lousy tourists," Lob Dizz grumbled into the comm. "My on mesa way." Lob Dizz grabbed her utility bag and headed for the doorway, then stopped, turned to Fassa, and whispered, "Pliz stay hair til mesa get back. My afraid if nobody watch dem, Neb Neb un Spleed is ganna taken da bongo out for a test run."
"Okeyday," Fassa said. She didn't have any other plans anyway. As she watched Lob Dizz leave, she caught sight of a large object gliding past the exterior of the laboratory bubble.
It was a military bongo. And Squidfella Quiglee was in the cockpit.
* * *
It hadn't been easy for Squidfella Quiglee to return to Otoh Gunga and evade detection after the race. It had been even more difficult to steal a military bongo from a Gungan Grand Army sub pen and locate Neb Neb and Spleed. But Squidfella was determined, and he knew his way around pretty well. He wanted to restore a good reputation to the sport of bongo racing by making sure that Neb Neb and Spleed would never compete again.
Squidfella had faked the call from "Wilk Nilkers of da Cleanup Squad" to get Lobb Dizz out of her laboratory bubble. From the military bongo, Squidfella peered across the watery expanse that seperated him from the bubble and had seen Lobb Dizz grab her utility bag and leave. He had hoped that the other Gungan who had just arrived -- a female whom he didn't recognize -- would leave with Lobb Dizz, but when she stayed behind, all Squidfella could do was shrug. "Yousa win some..."
Squidfella fired an energy torpedo squarely at Lob Dizz's bubble. "... and yousa losen some."
* * *
"Get down!" Fassa shouted as she hit the floor and rolled under a sturdy table. Spleed and Neb Neb flinched at Fassa's command and snapped their heads to look in her direction.
There was a loud explosion as the energy torpedo detonated against one of the bubble's utanode braces. The bubble's hydrostatic field flickered, and a brief, hard shower of lake water thundered down into the bubble's interior before the emergency generator kicked in and restored the field.
Soaking wet, Fassa sprang out from under the table. Neb Neb had been driven headfirst into the open cockpit of the bongo, and Spleed was cursing as she hopped out of the work-pool. Fassa looked out through the bubble's transparent walls, trying to locate the military bongo, but water was still fizzling against the re-energized hydrostatic field and she couldn't see a thing.
"What da boom-hey happened?!" Neb Neb shouted as he righted himself in the cockpit.
