Soundproof Conference Room, Signal Interception, Imperial II-class SD Quill

Yutu listened to the science team's report with growing concern. The officer before him was a Lieutenant from the Quill's Exploration and Scientific Observation Shop, and therefore directly subordinate to Naval Intelligence, which made Yutu this female's boss. An honor he could have done without at the moment.

"Why don't you sit down and tell me the whole story again like I'm an Imperial Marine." Yutu told the science officer. The woman reached from the chair across from Yutu and laid out several reports and her own personal imagecaster. Several holoprojections of the Galaxy arose next to another stellar body of unknown origin.

"As you can see, sir, the two are very different." She explained. Yutu stared irritatingly at both images, before motioning for the young officer to continue. "We first knew we weren't in the right place by the sheer abundance of visible stars. If we were indeed inside the maw cluster there would have been very little light making it through the series of black holes that ring the maw installation. It was supposed to have been as if we were staring at a barren black canvas except for the light the installation and the fleet emitted. The presence of starlight was an immediate shock to the members of my team."

"I remember the total lack of starship light and power as being a total shock to everyone else aboard Tarkin's Fist when we arrived, but go on." Yutu tried to lighten up the serious minded officer.

"Yes, right. That was a confusing to us as well, sir. Since it was some time before the power was returned, some of my team noticed that they couldn't pick out any of the common constellations in the known Galaxy, such as The Ronto, The Silly Rabbit, The Burning Snake, Eye of the Pirate, Hutt's Tail, or even the Jeweled Lizard. In fact we couldn't recognize one familiar star in the sky."

"So then what happened?" Yutu prodded the woman along.

"Once we had power restored to our large electrotelescopes and long range imaging sensors we were able to take a much more complete look around, and what we discovered was quite startling. First of all, as every youngling knows the Tingel Arm of the Galaxy wraps itself around the exterior portion of our 'home galaxy', well it has come to our attention that we currently reside in a galaxy that has four to six major arms that all come out of its galactic center. The science teams also noted the absence of the Rishi Maze and any of the seven satellite galaxies that orbit our own. We then picked up the presence of a super black hole in the center of this galaxy which is very similar to the one in our own, but we estimate that this one is several hundred times larger than the one in our home galaxy. The flimsi I could write on that find alone could keep me busy until . . ."

"Lieutenant, please you were saying."

"Yes, our galaxy is a Sb type galaxy, while we have determined that this is a galaxy type SBbc, with a diameter of 30,000 parsecs as opposed to our galaxy that has a diameter of on 37,000 parsecs."

"So are you saying there is a lesser potential for close encounters of alien races in this galaxy?" Yutu asked.

"Perhaps so, sir. Our galaxy supports over 400 billion stars of which only half have orbiting planets and only ten percent of those have ever developed any type of life. This new galaxy seems to only hold between 200 billion and 400 billion stars, and my teams are finding that only about nine percent of the ones we've explored so far have had any orbiting planets. We haven't come across a single piece of evidence for the existence of life in the local galaxy, excluding of course the local system we're in right now."

"Of course. Do you have any thoughts on the life we have found so far?" Yutu needed every scrap of information he could get his hands on.

"Just from signals we've intercepted we are estimating that you are dealing with a 0.7 to 0.8 type civilization of several billion individual beings, though from the amount of communications they put out we figured that amount to initially be much larger (It's as if each of them had their own personal mobile communication device), as opposed to Tarkin's Fist which comes from a type 3 civilization of an estimated 100 quadrillion different life forms.. Other than what you probably have already seen, I doubt we can give you anymore to go on until we are able to go over the reports the probots are sending back."

"That won't be too long. Let me tell you we're getting some really good intel from them. When your teams get the reports I want you to focus on power bases and other weaknesses that we can exploit. You can assume most of their stuff is pretty archaic, so they should be easy to cripple. They seem pretty rustic by Imperial standards." Yutu gave her a rundown.

"How do you know they'll be hostile, sir?" The other officer asked.

"We've already lost five of the nine viper probe droids that we sent to the third planet to hostile engagements with the inhabitants. They all had self-destruct mechanisms, so hopefully they won't be able to get much out of the wreckage. Is there anything else, Lieutenant?"

"Just one thing, sir. If we really have left our own Galaxy how did we get here? I mean, for millennia the Hyperspace Disturbance at the edge of the Galaxy has prevented all hyperspace travel from taking places outside the galactic disc, and now suddenly we're in another galaxy far, far away from our own. It just doesn't make any sense."

"Well, we seem to have used up our entire supply of hypermatter getting here if that's any consolation, even though the computer cores are reporting that we didn't, but keep that between you and me. Report to me tomorrow and I'll have preliminary reports for the science teams to go over." Yutu informed the other officer and both Imperials rose as the science officer then made her way to the door. "One last thing, Lieutenant," Yutu added to have the woman pause for a minute.

'Yes, sir?"

"Your top priority is to find our 'home galaxy' above all else. This is of course above top secret." Yutu ordered. Both officers had worked in intelligence long enough to know what that meant.

"Yes, sir." Both of them saluted and the science officer vacated the room.

Yutu went back to his desk and started storing the classified files into his own secure office safe, when he was interrupted by a knock on the door. "Sir?" Lieutenant Knebler asked as he popped his head in the doorway.

"Come in, Lieutenant. Secure the door after you." Yutu could see the red lit atmosphere of the Signal Interception station for just a moment as the junior officer came through the entrance. Yutu motioned for him to have a seat.

"Commander, this is the preliminary report on the events of the 'big jump'." The lieutenant reported as he handed over a small datapad that Yutu recognized as not being Knebler's own personal one. A good intelligence man knew how to keep sensitive materials from being traced back to him.

"Go on, who do we torture first.?" Yutu asked with a sly grin. "I mean interogate."

"That's just it, sir, we have several."

"Well then start with the most likely."

"That would be someone in Moff Kuat's squadron. You can't make a direct connection, but it seems that the Moff ordered a complete memory wipe of an extensive amount of data systems when his computer cores came back online. We have evidence that he was illegally undertaking research on most of his starships against the Fleet Admiral's direct orders." Knebler informed him.

"We had a suspicion that was going on over there. What can you do when it's a Moff defying your orders though; as long as he didn't kill anyone, I doubt that the Fleet Admrial will raise a finger against Kuat. Was there any type of research that involved nav computers or hyperspace of any sort?"

"Not that we can tell. There was some on new armor systems for the stormtroopers and some hydroponic vegetable nonsense, but nothing overtly obvious." Knebler sounded disappointed.

'Keep digging, Lieutenant, there has to be some reason a research-obsessed Moff got rid of all that data. I want complete background reports on all the scientists doing research during that time, and I want you to check and recheck each one of them." That should keep the junior man busy and his mind off of his failure to find a saboteur, Yos hoped.

"Yes, sir, the next likely suspects are beings who interfered with starship systems during the 'big jump'. While normally this would have affected the operations of only one starship at a time, but we were all connected by an advanced design of a slave rig, based loosely on the Katana Fleet design."

"Yes, there's really no telling what effect that had on Tarkin's Fist." Yutu agreed.

"Several ships had malfunctions of their navigation systems including four cargo ships, a Lancer-class frigate, the Abandoned Hope, although we believe that one was smashed during the prisoner uprising, and even one of the Imperial I-class Star Destroyers in the assault line."

Commander Yutu hadn't heard about that. "Which one, no wait, let me guess, one of Moff Seco's."

"Actually, sir, it was the Insertion in Fleet Admiral Yos's own Subterrelian Squadron." Images on the datapad switched to a three dimensional blueprint of the Star Destroyer in question. "It's captained by Hash Halser. He's been in the service since before the Clone Wars where he earned several commendations for his service on Saleucami," Knebler started going though service records on his own datapad, "but it also says here that he served alongside several men that fell in the Emperor's purges of the Navy after the war. He was then stationed at Kessel and Cilpar before he was transferred a few years ago by the personal orders of Grand Moff Tarkin to serve under Admiral Yos in the Subterrel. The Insertion is his first command and his crew all give him high marks as a Captain."

"He's hardly the sort to sabotage an Imperial Navy plot against the Emperor, especially if Palpatine is behind the deaths of some of Hadrian's friends during the purge. Especially if he was recieving some sort of patronage from the Grand Moff as well. I'm going to need you to also look into the service records of anyone that transferred aboard any vessel in the fleet during that week we were in the Horuz System. For example those pilots that all came aboard this ship to replace the losses in Mynock Squadron." Yutu had his subordinate raise and guided the man towards his viewport, where they gazed at the crippled, defenseless Fleet around them. "I want you to especially focus on the starships that lost their nav computers, and anyone who had access to a nav computer. I suspect that despite Isard's best efforts the ISB may have gotten someone in a position to do some damage."

"It wasn't like it was a big secret what we were up to once you got on board. A newly arrived ISB man would have to have been shocked by what was going on, especially the lack of political officers within the Stormtrooper Corps." Knebler added.

"Yes, that was a calculated risk by Tarkin and Yos. I'm surprised there hasn't been an uprising or mutiny within their ranks. That's another angle to look at for a possible saboteur."

It's minimal, sir, but we'll look into it as well." Knebler assured him.

"Good, we can't afford to leave any glitterstone unturned." There was a small buzz on the intercom on his desk. "Yes, what is it?" he pushed another button and a small blue hologram of Second Lieutenant Murp emerged.

"Commander, we have something out here you should take a look at." The young signals technician reported.

"What is it, Senior Chief?" Knebler and Yutu exchanged curious looks over the desk.

The little hologram spoke. "Sir, we're picking up transmissions in basic from the fourth planet in the system now as well. They seem to be in communications with the third planet."

"Sir, they seem to be advancing on us?" Lieutenant Knebler exclaimed.

"Well someone's just going to have to go out and say hello, aren't they?" Yutu smiled.