She giggles.

"What can you tell us about the situation here, Jar Jar?"

He lets go of Anakin's hand and straightens up. "Uhhh. There is bein'... bombad troubles. Droidy machines everywheres, even Otoh Gunga. De big boss says all Gungans go to sacred place for meeting."

"He wasn't captured when your capital fell?"

     "Oh nosa! Droidy machines, they not swim so well."

The Queen steps forward. "Jar Jar, I must speak with Boss Nadd. Will you take us to your sacred place?"

He looks unsure, eyes bulging out slightly more than usual. "Uhmmm... Meesa not sure that is bein' a good idea. Big boss is not likin' outsiders verra much."

Qui-Gon puts a hand on his shoulder and looks him in the eye, speaking seriously. "If the Queen is not able to make a treaty with your people, the Trade Federation and their droid army will control Naboo completely, and slaughter everyone they do not take as slaves."

     "...When yousa is puttin' it like that. Okey. Yousa follow me."

"Being a slave isn't very fun," she says cheerfully. "Which way?"

"Thisa way!"

Using a combination of speeder bikes offloaded from the ship and riding lizards Jar Jar whistles up, the party sets out. The sacred place is in a slightly less swampy swamp, dotted here and there with giant stone Gungan heads. Boss Nadd is holding court atop one of these. He is enormously fat, and shakes his jowls when he wants to emphasize a point he just made.

He looks kind of silly. (She extremely diplomatically does not express this opinion, but does smile, expression probably pleasant). 

"Whata yousa brought to us, Jar Jar?" he bellows.

     "Meesa be bringin' the Queen of the Naboo, boss. She be wantin' to talksies."

"Hoo." Boss Nadd leans forward and narrows his eyes. "Weesa no likin'... de Naboo. Whysa yousa t'inking you can be talking wit' us?"

     "Boss Nadd," the Queen says. "I have come to bargain for your aid in freeing this world that we share."

He laughs, then shakes his jowls. "And why should we be helpin' yousa? These droidy machines are yousa fault!"

     "Only-" the Queen begins, but one of her handmaids shoulders her aside to take her place in front of the Gungan. "Boss Nadd," she says. "I am Queen Amidala. I apologize for the deception, but I could not risk the Trade Federation knowing they had captured me. That would be a devastating blow to my people's morale. I could not allow it. But we cannot defeat the Federation's army alone. We need your help. I beg you to aid us." She kneels down, and after a moment, the rest of her party does the same. "Please."

"Hoo." He laughs again, for longer this time. He steeples his fingers beneath his chin. "Meesa like this. Weesa can be... talkings."

...Huh. She wonders if the person she talked to earlier was the real Queen or a decoy, too...

She follows Elesse's lead in terms of reactions, but does watch the negotiations with interest.

The Jedi stand apart from the display; they're not part of these negotiations. After a little bit, Boss Nadd tells Jar Jar to show the Jedi around following Queen Amidala's suggestion.

Elesse quietly explains to Anakin that this is a deniable excuse for them to inspect the Gungan army's readiness and offer advice about preparations and tactics. Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan will be doing most of that, as they're the ones who have actually fought the droids before.

She nods. "That seems smart. I don't know a lot about that stuff yet..."

"This can be a good time to learn, then. Keep your ears open."

"I will."

The Gungans are not heavily mechanized, preferring living animals when they need assisted transport and for cargo hauling. However, this is not say they are low-tech. They have quite sophisticated shields based on the local plasmids. The basic battle order is to form up beneath a huge mobile shield and slowly advance towards the enemy, bombarding them all the while in an effort to take down their shield first.

She asks questions about typical military weapons and strategy, mostly of Elesse but sometimes of other people. She's right about not knowing much concrete yet, but she's very good at identifying when there's assumptions they're making that don't stand up to questioning.

The Gungans are making a lot of those. They haven't fought a serious battle in quite some time. Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan can talk about droid tactics in particular, while Elesse and Anakin deal more with the matter of making the Gungans realize that some of them are almost certainly going to die.

Yeah that's the thing about fighting someone with superior weapons. Sometimes you die, and you hope that your dying makes it better for the person standing next to you and worse for your enemy. But if you're a slave the only freedom you get is death, yours or your master's or both, and the Trade Federation will make slaves of anyone who survives losing. (She starts mentally sorting through - not the stuff she's read about war, the Jedi Masters know more about that anyways - but the stuff she knows about dying and about freedom. She knows a lot about those.)

The Gungans are not super thrilled with this take.

(This isn't really a super thrilling situation, so.)

"You gotta be smarter and more stubborn, until they're dead or they give up, and droids aren't very smart and the Trade Federation's not very stubborn. Winning means your kids won't be slaves, though, and their kids will grow up knowing they can be brave." The stories she knows about fighting back are mostly very metaphorical, and she doesn't really know if the cultural tricks would communicate... 

That angle is better received. After the inspection, the Jedi have a few moments to themselves before the others are finished.

"Do you think they're ready?" Elesse asks Qui-Gon.

     "They'll have to be," he replies. "The hour is upon them."

"This won't be a ground battle, so their army isn't well suited," she says, suddenly sure. "The droids won't stop as long as they're being controlled."

"The Gungans don't have any ships." Elesse says.

     "The Naboo do," Obi-Wan says. "The Theed Royal Guard. They were captured when we left."

"Their rescue should be a priority."

     "They are few in number," Qui-Gon says. "The Gungans will still be needed to attract the Federation's attention."

"Probably a small group should do the rescue, if we're trying to trick the Federation about what we're doing?"

     "They're likely being held in or near Theed," Qui-Gon says.

"And the Queen will want to make a visit there to deal with the Trade Federation's viceroy in any case."

He chuckles softly. "You know her so well already. That is my own assessment as well. If she does not suggest the detour, we might."

"What order're we doing stuff in?"

"Pilots first, I think. Then everything else needs to happen more or less at once."

She nods.