Across the Roon Sea

"Across the Roon Sea" is the twelfth episode of Star Wars: Droids: The Adventures of R2-D2 and C-3PO. Written by Sharman DiVono from a story by Ben Burtt and directed by Ken Stephenson, the episode originally aired on ABC on November 23, 1985.
==Plot summary==
===Mungo's quest===
The episode open with a probe droid flying over a winding river and lush landscape. Along the riverbank, R2-D2 and C-3PO are repairing Mungo Baobab's starship. C-3PO, who is fixing the underside of the ship, is jealous of R2-D2 who has been given the job of spraypainting the ship. C-3PO tries to demonstrate but ends up stepping in a pail of paint. After performing the last test-firing, Mungo decides that they should return to Manda.
C-3PO is eager to return home but wishes that their journey to find Roonstones had been successful. Mungo agrees, saying that this trip won't go down in the Baobab Archives as a glowing triumph. He grumbles about losing his father's ship to Governor Koong and not finding the Roonstones. C-3PO reassures Mungo that they have found friends in the form of the Yomm family. A sad Mungo says that Auren Yomm left on some quest and thinks that she doesn't care that they are leaving. The droids notice that Mungo has become attached to Aurem.
Artoo senses something but Threepio thinks that paint has interfered with his sensors. Unknown to the droids, they are being watched by Admiral Screed, Governor Koong, and Gaff via Koong's Sloyd Probe. Admiral Screed is surprised that a backwater planet like Roon can host such an advance surveillance system. However, he then chastises Governor Koong for failing to recover the Roonstones for the Galactic Empire. Koong advises patience since he believes that Baobab will lead them to the source of the Roonstones. He vows that Gaff will be ready.
Later, Auren and her father Nilz Yomm, who are riding rockhoppers, come to visit Mungo and the droids. Mungo is relieved that they have not forgotten about him. Auren says that she is relieved they made it back in time. She gives Mungo a present which turns out to be a Roonstone. When Mungo asks where they go it from, Nilz tells him to speak to the hermit "Old Ogger", an old prospector who lives near the Bantha Garage, to learn more. Mungo decides to seek the "Old Ogger." The Imperials are monitoring their conversation and send Gaff to find out everything he can. Screed sends two stormtroopers to accompany Gaff and warns that any Roonstones will become the property of the Empire. Koong adds "and its allies."
===Meeting Oggem Baobab===
Auren, Mungo and the droids travel through a desolate plain under the cover of rain. They take shelter from the rain in an old agricultural freighter. While exploring the derelict freighter, R2-D2 senses movement but C-3PO thinks that the ship is settling into the mud. C-3PO is startled by a space suit. Continuing their exploration of the ship, they discover "Old Ogger." Auren introduces herself while Mungo says they have come to ask him about the Roonstones.
"Old Ogger" asks Mungo to come closer since he has trouble seeing due to old age. He notices that Mungo wears the colors of the Baobab Merchant Fleet and asks who he is. After Mungo introduces himself, "Old Ogger" introduces himself as Mungo's great-uncle, Oggem Baobab, who left sixty years previously on a quest to find the Roonstones. Oggem explains that he was marooned here after his ship crashed and explains that he found six bags full of Roonstones. Oggem explains that he almost found the source of the Roonstones and longs to share his knowledge with someone. He turns his quest over to Mungo but warns him to put family and friends before treasure. Oggem then breathes his last. Auren and Mungo tend to Oggem in his final moments.
Mungo gathers the six bags of Roonstones, which Auren agrees is a rich fortune that his uncle Oggem left behind. C-3PO inquires about the kit bag which Oggem left for Mungo. Inside, Mungo finds a memling, which C-3PO explains to R2-D2 is a complex element valued for its mutable properties. Auren and Mungo notice that the memling can change its shape. Mungo also finds a blaster–like device within the kit bag, which the droids describe as a weapon.
Another object within the kit bag is a pyramidical device with different languages on its sides. C-3PO reads an inscription that says "In fire and ice, the white stones glow. Frozen forever, yet warmed from below." Mungo believes this riddle is a clue to the last of the Roonstones. He hopes to fulfill Uncle Ogeem's wish and write a historic chapter in the Baobab Archives.
Auren tries to talk him out of it, since he has enough Roonstones without finding the source. She also warns that it could be dangerous and warns him to heed Uncle Oggem's last words that the treasure is secondary to family and friends. Mungo is still determined to continue with the quest and asks Auren where is the nearest settlement to find supplies. She tells him to head to the nearby port of Nime. Despite Auren's pleas, Mungo sets off on his rockhopper to Nime.
===Trouble at Nime===
At Nime, the group meet at an inn where C-3PO attempts to obtain information about the Roonstones from a pair of Lutki information brokers. They give him a bag of coins. Meanwhile aboard his personal ship Roon Clipper, Governor Koong tells Gaff and his troops that Mungo and his companions have been spotted at a nearby inn. Before C-3PO and Mungo can conclude the deal with the Lutki, Gaff and Koong's troops enter the inn under the pretext of recruiting able-bodied volunteers into Governor Koong's navy.
Gaff spots Mungo and demands that he leave immediately. Mungo throws a bowl of soup into his face, causing him to stumble into the rest of Koong's enforcers. Mungo, Aurem, and R2-D2 flee but C-3PO has trouble seeing due to his glasses. Gaff corners the four but Mungo fires Oggem's blaster-like device, which turns out to be a seed launcher which creates fast growing vines that entangles him. The four flee but they find their path blocked by Governor Koong and more enforcers. Mungo uses the seed launcher to entangle Governor Koong and some of his men with vines.
The rockhoppers run off and Koong tries to round them up despite Aurem's warning. R2-2 uses a lasoo to secure one of the rockhoppers while Mungo struggles to secure the second. R2-D2 crashes into a basket with fruits. Gaff forces Mungo to surrender in order to save Aurem's life. Mungo surrenders for now.
===Escaping slavery===
Gaff orders his troops to capture the rockhoppers and bring them to the Roon Clipper, a galley with sails. Mungo, Aurem, and Threepio are chained to the lower decks where they are forced to join the other slaves in rowing the galley. Governor Koong tells his prisoners that when they reach Koong Island, Screed will be waiting for them. He tells them to tell him everything they know about the source of the Roontsones. The overseer warns the slaves that if the ship goes down, they will go down with it. Threepio's companion is Lin-D, an entertainment droid who tells jokes incessantly. Lin-D tries to be optimistic but C-3PO is pessimistic. Mungo is relieved that they did not catch R2-D2.
Meanwhile, R2-D2 reaches the port just after the ship casts off. Artoo jumps off the pier and swims after the Roon Clipper. During the voyage, Lin-D tells jokes about Jabba the Hutt's weight in an attempt to cheer up the other slaves, who don't take too well to his humor. Meanwhile, R2-D2 climbs onto the deck covered in seaweed. A sentry droid notices him but Artoo electrocutes him. He then rolls down the lower decks and reunites with R2-D2.
Artoo proceeds to release Mungo, Aurem and C-3PO. Mungo tells R2-D2 to cut loose the other prisoners and meet him on the deck since he is going after the Roonstones. Aurem advises against it but Mungo is stubborn. The liberated prisoners overpower the overseer. Gaff senses something is going on below deck and sends the guards to investigate while he checks the cargo hold. Reaching the cargo hold, he encounters Mungo. Gaff accidentally discharges his blaster, setting one of the ship's sails ablaze.
The slaves charge up the deck and fight the guards. Aurem tells Mungo and the droids to get out of here. Governor Koong awakens to find Gaff putting out a fire. By then, the galley prisoners have escaped in the lifeboats. Koong is furious that Mungo has escaped with his Roonstones and orders Gaff to release the drones. Gaff protests that they won't find them in the fog but Koong is determined to recover his Roonstones.
===The drones and whirlpool===
Gaff dispatches two drone fighters into the fog. Mungo, Aurem, the droids and Lin-D find their life boat sailing into a storm. Lin-D tries to cheer them up with a joke about Goflings but C-3PO and R2-D2 don't appreciate his humor. The drones catch up with them and destroy the life boat's motor. Mungo users a laser cannon emplacement to shoot one of the drones down. The ship's sail is damage by a blast and falls on Lin-D. Mungo manages to take out the second drone fighter. Aurem feels sorry for Lin-D's loss.
The Roon Clipper approaches their lifeboat. Gaff tells Governor Koong they have sighted their quarry. Koong orders his crew to charge at them. C-3PO points out that they are approaching a whirlpool. Mungo uses the Memling to create an improvised sail but Aurem points out the boat is too heavy. Mungo tells them to toss anything that is not nailed down. However, it is still not enough.
With a heavy heart, Mungo throws the six Roonstones into the sea. This allows their boat to escape the whirlpool. Koong sends fighters after them, which Mungo easily destroys; the ship's sail falls onto Lin-D, however. Governor Koong and Gaff sight the whirlpool and order the helmsman to steer the Roon Clipper away. Gaff manages to steer the ship away from the whirlpool and issues orders for the crew to set sail to Tawntoon immediately.
===Aftermath===
Via holoscreen, Admiral Screed rebukes Koong for being a fool and warns that the Emperor has no use for fools. Koong protests that Mungo's escape was sheer luck. Screed warns that there may not be a next time after his report. Koong vows to conquer Roon and to have the secrets of the Roonstones and to destroy Mungo Baobab.
Meanwhile, Aurem says that she is relieved to be home and says that she feared that the Roonstones would be the end of them. Mungo has learned an important lesson about friendship and says that droids are also important friends. Mungo puts his shoulder around Aurem, who senses his adventure is not yet over. Mungo resolves to translate the rest of the message on the pyramidical stone once they get to Umboo in order to find the source of the Roonstones.
R2-D2 also repairs Lin-D, who is grateful to the astromech droid. He tells him and Threepio that they make a good team and should go on the road. He nicknames the trio "Lin-D and his Cosmic Cutups." C-3PO asks R2-D2 how he could do this to him.
==Credits==
==Appearances==
==Behind the scenes==
*This episode was released on DVD in 2004 as part of the Treasure of the Hidden Planet feature film.
*The old spacesuits that Threepio bumps into aboard the haunted spaceship wreck, is the same kind of suit worn by Jess Meade in "The New King."
*The slave driver aboard Koong's galley was also one of Kybo Ren's pirates in the Mon Julpa arc, and got his hat and vest borrowed by C-3PO in "The Pirates of Tarnoonga."
*One of the slaves sitting behind Mungo and Aurem in Koong's galley was in charge of the Droid auction on Tyne's Horky in "The Lost Prince."
==Sources==
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==Notes and references==
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