Chapter 2 – The Force, Wormholes, and Pirates

Four days had passed as Qui Gon Jinn and Obi Wan Kenobi learned as much as they could about where they where. They had soon learned that they where somehow transported to an entirely different galaxy. The Akurians had informed him that they most likely ended up there because of an uncharted wormhole. Though the Akurians had a far stronger military than the republic did in relation to its size, they where a friendly and hospitable bunch. The two jedi also learned about the OISU itself, which was an alliance of 22 different space faring nation that was roughly a fourth the size of the Republic, at least in the number of planets. However the OISU didn't span half of their galaxy the way the republic did, rather they only covered only part of a single galactic arm, but their territory also had a much higher density of habitable planets. They also learned that this galaxy contained thousands of other star faring nations, some of them rivals of the OISU, which explained why they where much more militarized than the Galactic republic. Of course, the OISU was rather surprised to learn that a wormhole leading to another galaxy was located right in the heart of their territory.

Meanwhile Qui gon and Obi wan where staying in the house of the captain of the Selerin, Ryuukei Akavai, located on the moon of Osa, which was a large habitable moon orbiting a gas giant planet. During their stay Qui Gon also learned that the Akurians where a very nature loving bunch. Most of their homes where often scattered throughout the planets extensive forests, and that the Akurians, at least on this planet, didn't care to build large cities. Unfortunately Qui gon had no idea how long they would stay here in this galaxy. Their ship was badly damaged and though it was technically repairable, it was repairable only if they had access to the proper spare parts. The Akurians didn't use hyperdrive technology, so they had no way of repairing the jedi ship. And even then, before they could go back, the Akurians first had to locate the wormhole.

It was during one of their meditation sessions that Obi wan finally noticed what was different about his master. For some unknown reason Jinn appeared to be getting younger by the day. The lines of age was disappearing from his face, and he was getting more energetic by the day, and Obi wan decided to point this out, "Master, have you noticed how you seem to be getting younger."

Jinn was a bit surprised by the statement but then he noticed it too when he looked at his hand. Many of the marks of his age had disappeared, and without immediately answering obi wan, he went to look in the mirror in the bathroom, and sure enough found himself staring at a younger version of himself. "Well I notice it now."

Obi wan looked puzzled as ever, "But how is that possible."

"I'll Just ask Ryuukei about it." Qui gon replied as he left the room. Both Jedi soon found Ryuukei out sitting on the wooden deck that was next to the river. Ryuukei sat at the edge of the deck, his footpaws dangling into the water. Two of his siblings, Weyai and Arumi where next to him, with Arumi gently brushing Weyai's fur. Ryuukei looked up at the tall Jedi master asking, "how are you feeling this morning."

"Younger it would seem," Jinn answered. Ryuukei could.

"Well in addition to healing your injuries we also gave you a pretty standard age reversal treatment," Ryuukei answered indifferently, "It will take a few weeks before the nanoprobes finish treating your body and fully restore your youth."

It took a moment before the implications fully set in, but when it did, Jinn asked, "Your species has the technology for eternal life."

Ryuukei nodded, "With periodic treatments yes it is quite possible for an individual to live on practically indefinitely."

Arumi was the first to realize Jinn's reaction prompting her to ask, "Wait, your society doesn't have this technology does it."

Jinn took a seat on the dock since most of the chairs where far too small for him, "No, we do not. Occasionally a Jedi or a sith may figure out how to live longer by using the force, but other than that no. What you have here, many people in my galaxy would give away everything they had for, and more."

Ryuukei didn't know what to think on the matter, "Well, Its a pretty common technology in our galaxy. Most spacefaring nations have it."

Obi wan found the matter somewhat amusing, "I wonder what some of the ancient sith would think if they knew that technology like this existed."

Jinn didn't answer while Ryuukei, the curiosity getting the better of the small kurokuri, asked, "So what is this force you guys talk about, I'm not really familiar with it."

"The Force," Jinn explained, "It is an energy field that surrounds and connects all living things in our galaxy. Our connection comes through a microscopic life form known as midi-chlorians, which live within our cells as symbiont's."

Ryuukei nodded in acknowledgment, "Yeah our medical scanners picked them up, we didn't really know what to make of them, since we had never seen them before."

Qui Gon didn't expect this development, but he quickly figured that that was the reason he could not detect force presence in the Akurians at all. "For a very long time we Jedi believed that the Midi-chlorians where essential for all life in the universe. It seems now however, that has been disproven." Jinn then looked straight at the kurokuri asking, "But you where able to sense when i reached out with the force, so how is that possible if you don't have any connection to it at all."

Ryuukei thought on the question for a moment before answering, "Well, it is probably because I am an energy manipulator." He then explained, "What an energy manipulator is, is we have multiple bio synthetic implants throughout our bodies, that allow us to control and manipulate various types of energy. But it also allows us to sense various types of energy as well, that is how I felt the force that you used."

"Implants," Jinn asked?

Ryuukei nodded, "Yeah, its a technology that the Akurian Confederation has had for some time. There is no real species requirement for it, pretty much anyone can become an energy manipulator, though normally it is smart for one to wait until they are an adult before volunteering to become an energy manipulator."

Jinn thought on the matter then asked, "I wonder if it is possible for you to develop a connection to the force. It does have presence in your galaxy, even though you don't have any current connection to it."

Ryuukei shrugged, "I don't see why not, but to be honest I'm not really sure what to look for."

"Well if you want you could join us in a meditation setting," Jinn offered.

"Eh sure why not," Ryuukei replied. Both the Jedi then took their meditation stance while Ryuukei and Arumi decided to join in.

Commodore 2nd class Kio Eriva had been leading the search for this hidden wormhole only hours after the Selerin's discovery. However their available ships where tight. Her original flagship, a battleship was unavailable, forcing her to flag on a Vasko class large cruiser, the Azush, as the largest ship participating in the search. The Selerin had been running with only a partial crew and light fuel load forcing the battleship to return to dock, so this left the Azush as the largest ship in the immediate area that wasn't being serviced. However the cruiser wasn't by itself. At least they had a heavy cruiser, two light cruisers, and seventeen fleet escorts participating. The local self defense forces also donated a number of monitors, fleet escorts and patrol vessels to help. However it was a rag tag force, and they had been at this task for four days.

The Captain of the Azush, Arina Maya was bored out of her mind, as she had been on the command center for hours with nothing happening. But then one of her bridge officers, Inev got her attention," I think I got something."

Arina turned her attention to the Leokuri asking, "what."

"An asteroid," Inev replied, "It just appeared out of nowhere, seven hundred thousand kilometers from our position."

"Turn our ship to investigate," Arina commanded. She figured this was the best lead they had. She they where chasing one of those hard to detect Type 4 wormholes. Even the most advanced ship sensors couldn't reliably detect them unless they where within a few thousand kilometers at most. They could only be detected at a distance if something entered them or came out of them, such as a ship or an asteroid or other space debris.

It was when their ship got within two hundred thousand kilometers of the suspected location when Inev pointed out, "there, another asteroid just appeared out of nowhere."

"Launch a pair of drones to investigate," Arina commanded.

Minutes after her command a pair of recon drones left the cruisers hangar bay, heading in the direction of the asteroid, and towards the suspected location of the wormhole. Sure enough, it didn't take them long to find it.

After studying the scan data Arina turned to her com pad and activated it, contacting the commodore, "Commodore Kio Eriva, can you come to the command center."

Kio Eriva showed up at the command center moments later, asking, "Found something."

Arina pointed at the holo display, "As we suspected, there is a type 4 wormhole, right in front of us."

"Inform admiral Yuvo then," Kio commanded as she looked at the sensor data.

Meanwhile Inev found some rather suspicious looking readings on his sensors. It looked like sensor ghosts, bot their movement was erratic. It couldn't be cased by any drifting space debris. Was there someone else out there. He carefully studied the readings, then the drone's sensors picked up something else.

"Kio, Arina, I think I have something else here," Inev signaled to the two senior officers.

Both Akurians walked over to him, with Arina asking "what is it."

Inev pointed at his sensor readings, "I'm picking up what looks like ionized particle trails. They are too uniform in nature to be natural. I think there may be other ships out here."

Qui Gon Jinn, Obi Wan Kenobi and Ryuukei walked into Yuvo's office. Ryuukei looked at the Kurokuri admiral and the man whom was his uncle and asked," What is it, your call sounded urgent."

Yuvo looked at new arrivals answering, "Well, a couple of hours ago, one of my task forces found the wormhole that you two came through."

Jinn immediately sensed something was amiss and asked," But that isn't the only reason why we are here, is it."

Yuvo shook his head, admitting "No, it is not." He then pointed at a datapad lying on the desk, "We have also discovered ionized particle trails, ones that only could have come from a spaceships engine. We did an analysis of the particles and w can confirm that it didn't come from any engine design used by the OISU."

Jinn knew what Yuvo was about to say so he finished, "So you think it came from a ship from our side."

Yuvo nodded while Qui Gon continued, "Well, I will say that is a possibility, considering the nature of our mission."

"And what was that," Yuvo inquired.

"Ransom negotiations,with a band of space pirates," Qui Gon explained. "A band of space pirates had kidnapped several Trade federation representatives and hijacked their ship, a Lucrehulk class starship. We where ordered to negotiate with the pirates and ascertain their strength, as well as to determine if the hostages where still alive. They had set up this meeting within an asteroid field created by a recent planetary collision. When we left, they tried to ambush us by detonating large mines within the asteroid field. That is how our ship was so severely damaged. How we ended up in the wormhole is unclear, but it is quite likely that the pirates have found it."

"So we have a group of pirates snooping around our system," Yuvo remarked.

Jinn nodded then added, "It is also worth mentioning, their ships are known to possess cloaking devices."

Yuvo didn't hesitate to contact the fleet and the local government authorities on this matter.

Starsk Gansu observed the incoming data on this new system with patience and great interest. His pirate gang, mostly consisting of trandoshians like himself, had been enjoying their latest prize, a brand new Trade Federation Lucrehulk class battleship, when they stumbled upon a discovery that could make them all rich beyond their wildest dreams. However Starsk wasn't a fool. As soon as he had discovered this wormhole leading to what he figured was another galaxy, he ordered his ships to proceed through under cloak, and it was a good thing he did, as it prevented his forces from being detected by the alien battleship that was on the other side. Fortunately for him though, the battleship didn't remain in the area long, as it pulled out of the area shortly after recovering the Jedi ship. So he had spent the next four days having his fleet scout the area under cloak.

Though the Lucrehulk was certainly his most impressive acquisition, he also had four banking clans frigates, seven interceptor 4 class frigates, eleven Corellian corvettes and dozens of smaller upgunned light freighters, all of them equipped with expensive, but effective cloaking devices.

Starsk studied the incoming data carefully, coldly calculating his next move. The system they where in was a large one, and from the space debris, some of it over 8 millennia old, the inhabitants of this system had clearly been here for a long time. This was also probably one of the largest star systems he had ever seen before. At the center of the system was a stellar mass black hole. Though it didn't emit any light of its own, it had a truly large number of objects orbiting it, including seven brown dwarf stars, thousands of planets, and an uncountable number of asteroids and planetoids within a half a lightyear of the black hole.

Orbiting the black hole at a distance of a fifth of a lightyear where six stars, in three binary pairs. The two largest binary pairs where a K type and a G type, separated by 9 light hours, and the pair had dozens of planets between them, multiple being habitable. The Gas giants also had multiple habitable moons, several of them with complex space elevator networks, and impressively large shipyards. One of the moons even had an orbital ring shipyard similar to the shipyard ring of Kuat.

The other Binary star pairs orbited these larger stars, but at greater distances of several light days, and all of them where red dwarfs of various types, but his scouts had detected habitable planets around them as well. The level of industrialization for this system, and the number of space stations present was truly insane, however a closer look by his scouts determined that many of them where either abandoned or running on minimal power. However despite the number of abandoned installations in the system, he still eyeballed a large military fleet in the system, though most of it appeared to be either under construction or undergoing an overhaul and refit.

Still this was an opportunity Starsk couldn't pass up. If he planned it right, he could gain information on these new aliens that no one else in the galaxy would know. Information and technology that can be sold at a very high price, and potentially make him one of the wealthiest and most powerful pirate lords in the galaxy. However it would be a risky operation, he didn't have much knowledge on the aliens capabilities, and with so many planets in the area, he wouldn't dare try and make a hyperspace jump to escape, especially without any navigational data for the region, so his only line of escape was the wormhole. So he had to be very careful in how he acted.

Starsk's second in command Tssorkh Hsur entered the command center and bowed," Captain, our scouts have completed their survey."

Starsk indicated one of the moons orbiting the gas giant on the holodisplay," Good, assemble a raiding force, send them after this planet. Make sure they are men we can, afford to lose. Also assemble some salvage parties to retrieve some of the space junk in the system, focusing on what is newer. "

"Yes captain," Tssorkh nodded and then he turned and left the bridge, leaving Starsk to think on the matter.

Starsk eyed the alien cruisers hanging near the wormhole, considering his options regarding them. A quick tactical analysis revealed that the alien cruisers appeared to be far less powerful than his own flagship, however he couldn't be entirely certain on the matter, as they could only use passive sensors to roughly gauge their power output. However for now he played it safe, keeping a healthy distance between himself and those cruisers to minimize his chance of detection. As useful as cloaking devices were, he wasn't foolish enough to completely rely on them. But as long as those cruisers didn't get any reinforcements, a captured alien cruiser could prove quite valuable to his fleet or on the black market.

No matter how the raid played out, he would still benefit. If his men succeeded in capturing useful information, all the better, but even if they failed, Starsk would gain valuable insight on how this new civilization fights, information that certain individuals would pay a lot of money to gain. Plus getting rid of some of his malcontents would be an added bonus.

Authors Notes: A little later than my original intended post date, but I had family business to tend to. It may slow with next week's update too. This chapter is pretty exposition heavy, but the next one will definitely be more action driven. Initially I wasn't going to have a pirate group do this, but that would have led to 4 or 5 chapters at least with no real action. I figured this would be a better story. But it is part of the reason for the delay as the idea isn't that old.