Chapter 3:

Ranma was surprised on arriving at the med-bay to find that there was no living doctor there. There was only a weird looking robot floating in mid-air and a lot of some sort of high-quality bacteria in patches and the tank she saw over by the corner. She could feel some sort of sentience in the bacteria that was connected to the environment in a weird way, but she could get no other impression out of it other than it was alive.

The protocol droid turned to her and repeated what Ahsoka said in its rough Japanese, "She ask that you remove your clothings and put the hospital dress on and let the medicinal droid check you for diseasedness while she gets you clothings and food."

Ranma nodded, and grabbed the hospital gown; she put the neck hole over her head and then aged herself up. Her "clothes" shredded themselves before she was her true size and age. Then she hopped onto the bed, again making sure to carefully modulate her strength. She doubted it would look good to her rescuers to be putting holes in their ship, even unintentionally. She watched in fascination as Ahsoka shook herself out of some sort of daze and then did… something… with the ambient chi that pulled her clothing scattered on the floor to come into her hand. A spark lit in her mind, there were strange techniques afoot and she wanted to know more.

Ahsoka was dazed by the feeling she had experienced when her guest had changed her age. It is a hard thing to describe feeling what happens when a being bypasses the normal laws of time and age to do in a split second what takes a decade and half to accomplish normally. That is also without the normal energy and mass requirements handy. She shook herself out it and called the clothing rags and stick to her hands. She saw the surprise at what she did register on Ranma's face, and she wandered why that was. Surely with her level of force energy she had done something similar before.

Apparently not considering the droid translated, "She is asking you what it was you just did."

Ahsoka barely kept another confused look off her face and said, "I just pulled her clothes to me with telekinesis. Has she never heard of that before?"

She watched as Ranma shook her head, and then she paused, the droid translated her response again, "She says she has never seen a living person so that, though apparently, if I am translating this correctly, she has seen either an undead or a ghost do it before, but not through manipulating world energy like you did."

Ahsoka gave the droid a confused stare, "Ghost?"

The droid nodded, "Indeed, ma'am."

She turned to Ranma and probed, "So you have no idea what I did?"

The droid translated after Ranma shook her head again, "She is saying something along the lines of she knew what you did, just not exactly how you did it. Apparently, she saw you somehow manipulate… nature energy… I think… to pull her clothes to you, and she is wondering if you couldn't teach her how to do that."

Ahsoka rubbed the back of her head, "Sorry, you would have to ask Master Kenobi about that one."

Ranma sighed at the response, it seems she expected it, and then waved at her clothing, which needed no translation. Ahsoka held it up slightly, "Unless you are in any way attached to them, I am going to throw them out, and you can just use Master Kenobi's robes."

Ranma scrunched up her face as she thought about it, then the droid translated her answer, "Something along the lines of, 'Sounds good to me,' and something along the lines of her not being able to… use them anymore in their current state."

Ahsoka nodded, and she patted the droid on the shoulder, "You are getting better at translating."

The droid nodded, "With every conversation I get better at processing her dialect of Mando'a."

Ahsoka nodded, "Tell her I will get the clothes and be right back. This is for the medical droid so don't translate this, get a midi-chlorian count from her, and give me the results."

The two droids nodded and she walked out of the door. She walked down the hallways of the ship, and with everyone already at their battle stations the corridors were almost empty. She did almost run into a couple of repair crewmen who were sprinting to maintain the integrity of areas of the ship sustaining damage in the fight. Every once in a while she would hear the distant sounds of an explosion as blaster shots from the opposing cruiser's turbo-lasers detonated against the Negotiator's shields. The same was probably happening to the Resolute next to them, but now wasn't the time to be thinking about that. She arrived at her destination and dumped the "clothing" into the garbage chute next to Obi-wan's personal quarters.

She opened the door and walked in. Considering how clean Obi-wan's room was it was easy to navigate it. She chuckled at how unlike her own master's room it was. Anakin's had half-finished mechanical bits and some oil scattered everywhere. Obi-wan's room on the other hand was impeccably clean and decidedly sparse of any sort of decoration. She walked over to his closet and pulled out one of his non-armored robes. She debated on grabbing anything else, but she figured that everything else in the closet was either too large or would be too uncomfortable for a female to wear. It looked like shopping would be first thing on the agenda for her when they got back into familiar territory.

She walked leisurely back, only to speed up a little bit when she felt Ranma's annoyance gradually growing into anger. She rushed back into the room to hear a lot of rapid fire chatter coming from Ranma that the protocol droid was trying to translate as fast as she was giving it. She also noticed bizarrely that the medical droid seemed to be trying to cover Ranma in a white sheet reserved for the dead.

They paused at her entrance, and she asked, "What is going on in here?"

The medical droid spoke up, and it seemed to be glitching, "I-I… am trying to lay… the deceased-ed-ed… to rest-t-t-t-t."

She blinked and turned to the protocol droid, "Why does the med-droid think she is deceased?"

The protocol droid paused, twitched, and said in monotone, "Fact: The medical droid ran the midi-chlorian test. Fact: It came back as her having zero midi-chlorians. Fact: All life in the galaxy has midi-chlorians. Conclusion: Based on medical droid's programing she should not be alive. Conclusion: Based on medical droid's programing she must be put to rest. Fact: Subject does not want to be laid to rest and is willing to violently resist medical droid's attempt to get her to do so."

Ahsoka shook her head in astonishment, she now understood why the droid was glitching, and she wanted to glitch herself after hearing that. Unfortunately nothing would get done that way so she invoked a programming command code put into every droid that was going to be in close proximity to Jedi just in case, "Droid command prompt open. Execute sequence: Mysteries of the Force Protocols."

She waited as both droids' "eyes" dimmed, and then the protocol droid spoke up, "Sorry, ma'am. It seems as though her kind are possibly not from this galaxy, or something else similar. Her transformation did not strain our programming as much as her biology does because of the changelings, but her not having midi-chlorians…"

Ahsoka nodded, "…is unprecedented. How was the medical checkup otherwise?"

The protocol droid motioned to the medical droid, who spoke up, "Luckily I managed to do everything else before that… unpleasantness, and as far as I am concerned she is free to go, although…"

Ahsoka motioned with left hand as she handed the clothes to Ranma, "Although what?"

The medical droid paused, "She has around ninety-percent similarity of genetics with humans and the same number of chromosomes as a human, but her biology, other than the lack of midi-chlorians, is a lot stronger. It is almost like she was designed for a hostile and ever changing environment. Her biology is extremely well-adjusted and adaptable, but her physical capabilities far exceed the human norm."

Ahsoka looked at the droid in astonishment, "By how much?"

The droid paused, "…She is naturally more flexible and agile than even the most nimble twilek, and she is naturally at least twenty times stronger than an average adult Wookie male."

Ahsoka's jaw dropped, "Are you kidding me!"

The droid shook its head, "No, I do not have programing within me capable of joking."

Ahsoka shook her head and then turned to Ranma, "How about we get you cleaned up and then you can get dressed and I can take you to the bridge so we can find out what is going on. I want Sky-guy and Master Obi-wan here so they can make sense of this, cause I sure can't."

Ranma looked amused when the protocol droid repeated it for her, and replied, "Sounds good to me. I don't like being out of the action, or out of the loop."

Ahsoka glanced at the protocol droid, "You can perfectly translate her speech now?"

The protocol droid came as close to shrugging as a droid could, "The margin for error is now around 99% correct. So there should no longer be much of a problem for me to translate for her. This is really giving my circuits a workout though."

Ahsoka smiled, "You can shut down when we go to be tonight, just try and hold on until then."

Ranma then motioned around her, "Where is the shower?"

Ahsoka winced, "Unfortunately showers are a bit of a luxury in space, so we just have the cleaning station in the back of the medical facility as the closest refresher."

Ranma wilted slightly, "Is there any hot water?"

Ahsoka shook her head, "I wish there was. We might be able to heat up some water for you, but unless it is for something essential Admiral Yularen would probably say not to waste water."

Ranma sighed, and Ahsoka figured she would learn eventually why she was disappointed, "Okay, er… could you show me how that thing works?"

Ahsoka nodded, not noticing the uncomfortableness of her guest, "Sure, let's get you clean."

Admiral Yularen sighed, "General Skywalker, how goes the fighting?"

Anakin's voice crackled over the comms, "Very well you know, we almost have them ready to run."

Obi-wan's voice crackled over the comms as well, "By ready to run he means that they are refusing to back down."

Admiral Yularen shook his head, "How did I end up with you as the Jedi I am paired with? That was a rhetorical question General, so do not answer that. *sigh* We need them away from the entrance to the hyperspace lane."

Anakin sighed, "We are also kind of blocking access to the hyperspace lane they need to get back to Separatist space so this battle is liable to go on until one or the other retreats… Contact the Jedi Council and see if they can find us a route out of here we aren't aware of."

Admiral Yularen nodded to some communications officers nearby, "It is being done. What is so special about this girl anyways?"

Obi-wan spoke up, "She has an unusually powerful and strange connection to the force. Just standing next to her… well… it is hard to explain to someone who can't feel through the force, but it is almost like standing next to a living star. She also seems to have some sort of impact on the force itself. Exactly what kind, I am unaware of, but I can feel it. Undoubtedly the Sith can feel it as well, and it seems they don't want her making that kind of impact."

Admiral Yularen watched as Ahsoka and a young woman he had never seen before entered the bridge, trailing a protocol droid behind them, "It seems our guest is here, but I thought you said she was a little girl."

Ahsoka piped up before Obi-wan could ask anything, "She is some sort of shape-shifter, but instead of her physical appearance she is able to change her age at will."

The Admiral shook his head and decided not to touch that one, "Barefoot Ahsoka?"

Ahsoka sighed, "The only thing we have remotely in her size was one of Obi-wan's robes. Shoes and socks aren't the right size."

The Admiral saw a beep on the console, he pressed a button and up popped Yoda and Mace Windu, "Hold on a second, Commander Tano. Master Yoda, Master Windu."

Yoda nodded, "Admiral Yularen, troubles have you?"

Anakin piped up from his end, "That is one way of putting it Master Yoda."

Obi-wan sighed, "We need an alternate route out of the system we have found ourselves in. Dooku has our way out of here blocked off, and we have his blocked off. We are at an impasse, and I doubt we will be able to leave or even call off this impromptu battle of ours, considering we have the force anomaly in our possession and Dooku seems keen on killing her."

Master Yoda nodded, "Use my connection with the Wookies I will. Find you a way out I will."

Master Windu nodded as Yoda temporarily left the holo-cam's range, "In the meantime, how is the battle going, and can I see this female force sensitive that has caused such a stir."

Admiral Yularen stepped out of the way as Ahsoka gently pushed Ranma forwards along with the protocol droid, and Ranma looked curiously at the holo-projection of Mace Windu, "How is that doing that?"

Mace Windu kind of figured by the protocol droid that she had no understanding of Basic, but it was still a little odd, "What do you mean?"

She waved her hand through the projection, "Is this contained light?"

Mace Windu nodded, figuring out what she was talking about, "Have you never seen anything similar before?"

She shook her head, "Not replicated by technology no."

Mace raised an eyebrow at that, "Intriguing. Do you know what is going on?"

She nodded, "Some sort of battle, I think over me. I don't know why though."

Mace moved over to allow Yoda back into the frame, "Once here at the Temple, maybe answers we can find."

Yoda nodded to Admiral Yularen, "Transmitting I am, new coordinates for hyperspace jump. Bring you to Tatooine it will. From there, know how to get to Coruscant you do."

Admiral Yularen stepped back into range of the holo-cam and nodded, "Thank you, Master Yoda."

Anakin sighed then, "YIKES! Rex, watch your six. You almost hit me."

Rex's voice crackled over the comm, "Not my fault, General. You know I don't fly these things very often. How did I let you convince me to go outside my area of expertise?"

Anakin chuckled, "You need your horizons expanded, and I know you do good in the simulations. Anyways… thank you, Master Yoda."

Yoda bowed slightly as he chuckled, "Welcome you are, young Skywalker. May the force be with you."

Obi-wan said, "And with you Master. Now we just need to get these droids to spontaneously detonate and we can use those coordinates to get out of here."

Yoda chuckled some more as he and Mace blinked out, and Admiral Yularen examined the battle again, "Crew of the Resolute and Negotiator, target the hanger bays of the Separatist ships with your turbo lasers. Maybe we can get a lucky shot off."

A voice called out to him from somewhere in the bridge, "Admiral, our shields are currently at seventy-five percent and our turbo-lasers are locked on the targets you have requested. The Resolute is currently sitting at seventy percent shielding and have also carried out your orders."

The Admiral nodded, "Open fire!"

Anankin's voice crackled over the comms, "Blue Squadron. Get out of the way and launch a salvo of proton torpedoes at their communications arrays, let's see if we can't mess them up."

A call went out as the renewed salvo of the turbo-laser batteries opened up, "Sir, Yes sir."

Ranma watched in awe as the opposing ships were injured by the combined salvo. She saw the explosions through the viewport and watched as the crab ships became noticeably less organized. There were commands flying everywhere as the capital ships and star fighters turned their full attention to the crab ships. She winced whenever she felt a life snuff out, and was slightly upset that it was because of her. She didn't know why this was happening, and wished she knew more so that she could do something to help.

Helplessness did not suit Ranma Saotome, at all. It looked to her like they were winning now, though. She figured out that that was a false impression when the ships she was in started turning away from the battle and the star fighters seemed to be retreating towards them and re-docking as soon as they were protected by the ships shadow. The ships traveled a little ways around the planet while shooting behind them, sniping any crab ship that was coming close to them. The enemy ships with the grumpy man in them pursued, and eventually all ships started moving away from the planet below.

She sent one last feeling of smugness towards the grumpy man before something happened that she could not explain. She basically felt space tearing apart as the stars elongated. Then they were traveling through some sort of odd energy tunnel. She watched as the people in the bridge whooped with joy and the Admiral sighed in relief.

Ahsoka motioned to her, "Let's go meet up with Master Obi-wan and Sky-guy in the hanger."

Ranma nodded and said, "That sounds good to me. Maybe they can help me figure out what is going on?"

Ahsoka nodded, "You and me both."

They walked out and went into the elevator that would take them down to the lower levels of the ship. Ranma sighed and looked down at her borrowed clothing. It was a little drafty, though wearing only a gi in the middle of the Chinese winter in the Bayankala mountains was much worse in her humble opinion. She could feel her current escort's confusion and scrutiny of her. Considering her biology was apparently very alien to this universe that was to be expected. It helped her really understand that she was no longer anywhere near earth despite the fact that almost everyone she had seen so far were humans, current company excepted.

She chuckled, "All those alien movies Nabiki watched will be of no help to me here."

The droid translated that even though she didn't intend it to, and Ahsoka asked, "What do you mean?"

"My Fiancée's sister like alien invasion movies, and in those things about the only things aliens did was kill and destroy human civilization on Earth."

"An imaginatively named planet, I have never heard of it before though, and aren't you a near human yourself, so wouldn't those movies be about you?"

Ranma raised an eyebrow, "Humans aren't the only sentient species on my planet, but most others have either died out or are descended from humans and small in number. This just means I most likely had some non-human among my ancestors."

Ahsoka gave her a look, "I am very confused right now."

Ranma waved her hand, "I will explain it better later, but I used to be human until I was zapped to that world you found me on."

Ahsoka just ended up even more confused, "Zapped?"

Ranma nodded, "Yup, one of my frenemies chucked a potion at me that sent me to this universe."

Ahsoka's eyes widened, "That would explain some things."

Ranma nodded again, "If my biology is weird like you and that doc-bot said it was, then that means I am very much alien to this universe. You don't seem as shocked about that as I thought you would be."

Ahsoka shook her head, "I am, but if you are from a different universe that would explain things, and at the Jedi Temple the masters were fond of telling us that the force works in mysterious ways."

Ranma didn't get a chance to question that because the elevator stopped and the doors opened, and standing on the other side was the man whose robe she was wearing and the other one in black armored robes. There were a couple of the white armored troops with them, and they motioned for Ranma, Ahsoka, and the droid to follow them. They walked quietly to the white armored man's room and after they were in there the dark-armored one started lounging on the bed, causing the white armored one to roll his eyes.

He held out his hand and said, "My name is Obi-wan Kenobi, and the lazy lay-about is Anakin Skywalker."

Ranma shook his hand, ignoring the indignant noise that Anakin had made, "My name is Ranma Saotome."

Obi-wan winced slightly at the strength of her grip and then turned to Ahsoka, "Her strength must be equal to a Wookie's. What was the result of the midi-chlorian test?"

Ahoska rubbed the back of her head, "Actually she is a lot stronger than a Wookie, and the test came back negative. She has no midi-chlorians."

You could have heard a pin drop as the shock registered on all their faces.