I don't own Star Wars, never have.

More info as to my "absence" is at the end.

The trip through hyperspace was shaky at first, the sensation of traveling at a speed once thought impossible. Although the mechanics of how it worked seemed impossible, being able to travel into another dimension, go faster than light, human scientists, through reverse engineering of alien hyperdrives, showed it was possible. Of the Terrans on the Republic ship, General Grant was the only one who had been at the showcase of the Hyperspace portal on Earth. While before he was able to view hyperspace through that portal, now he was actually inside hyperspace. It was, to him at least, awe inspiring. When he was a child, when he wasn't studying great generals to pass time, or beating his uncle at chess, he was looking through his dads telescope, and imagining what else was out there, what the universe was like. Thinking of the future of humanity. Now he is one of the first humans, or Terrans as they are now called, to set foot on another planet. Many thought that Mars would be the next planet, because of its proximity. Some say that after Mars is touched, Europa could be the next place to visit, for it had water.

Then there were those who thought people would never set foot on a planet other than earth, due to the end of the world, or climate change, superbugs that would end civilization before it could ever reach out among the stars. No one could have imagined this would be man's next great leap. That the first visited world that humans would visit, although in this galaxy, would be far away. Thousands of light years away, near the core of the galaxy. People are not going there to say they did it, or to make a permanent human settlement, but to get out of a potentially disastrous war, one that could mean the end of Earth as they know it. It is so important that Earth gets out of the war, that the unthinkable happened. All the small wars fought on that planet, all the tensions that had existed, were put aside. Earth had united. For the first time, earth had peace. Aside from the occasional terror group, there were no wars. Because of the war with the Republic, and the War with the Separatists, all the Earth nations combined to form the Terran Federation, a feat previously left for the occasional fiction writer.

Now he stares through a side window, at the streaking lines of blue and white. Each white line representing a star. Suddenly, the lines turn back into dots, meaning they have exited Hyper space. What's strange about it is that this is too early. They still have an hour left. As he's looking out the window, he hears footsteps coming from behind. He turns around to see a middle aged man, wearing a whitish… dress? Grant immediately recognises the person, Obi Wan. Maybe a month or two ago was an enemy of all of Earth, but now is a… mostly trusted ally, especially thanks to his ability to negotiate a good enough surrender, he managed to make peace with earth.

He, along with his former Apprentice shared many technologies with the Terrans. Least of which was how to properly use a hyperdrive. The insight on "Bacta", a nearly mythical ointment, which could cure nearly any disease or infirmity within days, or even hours, was shared also, though it was shown that none of its ingredients were available on earth. That didn't stop the biology community from trying to replicate it, or create synthesized versions of it, with varying degrees of success. Also shared was how to make holograms, a type of picture that was 3D, and did not need any special glasses to see. When combined with a radio antennae, or the new Hyperspace Antennae, one could send 3D communication to anyone with a device that supported them. New phones came out that could not only accept 3D calls, but could broadcast 3D calls. By using the cameras on both sides of a general phone, the signal would be sent with the views of both. Many devices accepted 3D calls with AR, letting the receiver be able to turn their phone in certain directions to get a better view of the environment surrounding the caller, letting the caller and receiver have more freedom when trying to show the other something. Thanks to Obi Wan and Anakin, Earth now has not just these but other technologies. But it seems that now, Obi Wan has to discuss something serious with General Grant, and by the look on his face, it doesn't seem good.

"General Grant" Obi Wan says, seeming to be the bearer of bad news. "It seems we have lost communication with the Republic and Earth. Along with that, the location system has shut off. In other words, we are lost.".

"What does that have to do with me?" Grant asked, realizing that he was in no position to help.

"I have a plan to get us back to the Republic, but it will require your assistance" Obi Wan said. Grant, Grant continued to follow Anakin, and together they went to the command spire of the Venator. As they got there, Grant could see the ship exiting hyperspace from the main window. The command crew, all clones, were looking over at one screen. Curious, Grant went over to look at it too. It showed the map of the galaxy, along with their position, which was being thrown all around the map. Obviously this was a failed sensor, but now they had no idea where they were. They were truly lost. It seems that the person who was supposed to bring a basic map of the unknown regions failed to take it with them.

Anakin also looked over at the screen, but he had a plan. After telling the clones to get back to their stations, he went to the one designated for communication. He told him to try to get a signal to Earth. Grant began to figure out why he was called up here.

"So I don't know if you noticed" Anakin said. "But there was a technical issue regarding where we came up at. We were supposed to stop a few light years away from here in order to reverse direction, but there seems to have been a data breach. All of our star charts were removed, meaning we are lost. We need you to help us find a way back to Earth".

Grant took a second to take in the information. So they were pretty much stranded, not knowing where they were. Then there was a flicker of lights, and the computers the clones were using went dark, and the screens were replaced with a red skull, with the word "Viking" being put underneath the skull. Of all the people in the room, only Grant understood what that meant, hoped he understood what that meant. The clones were all trying to clear the screen, and to get rid of the Red skull that covered the screens.

The entire command deck went into full alert, with Grant waiting for the frenzy to quiet down before he explained what it might be. Pretty quickly, it did quiet down, and Grant pulled Anakin over.

"Your ship may have just been infected with a virus, you know, the computer ones. As that is in the English Language from earth, It is safe to assume that that is where it's from".

Anakin still didn't fully understand, but that didn't matter at the moment.

Grant decided to take charge. "Close all communications to Earth, even if you have to go outside, block all communications, jam it if you have to". He did this in the hope that they could block the signals to earth, and figure out the cause of the hacking.

At first, the clones just stood there. General Grant, after all, wasn't their general, but then again, he seemed to know what he was saying.

"Go on" Obi wan said to the clones, wondering what plan Grant had in mind. Anakin, though realized what was going on. Although he wasn't in space during the battle for Earth, he heard about how their cruisers were taken down, and with only the press of a button, all of the computer systems in the Republics ships were no longer in their control. It may have been that similar event is happening right now. But was it from the Terran government, or someone else? The CIS likely couldn't do this, if they could, it would have already happened to other ships. Either way, something is happening, and the Terran General seems to have it under control. At least it seemed he had it under control until the blast doors were sealed shut, leaving the Jedi and clones stuck together in the room with Grant.

One of the clones decided to try force opening the blast door, but after that failed, the two Jedi turned on their lightsabers, and decided to make their own entrance. In the meantime, Grant, after watching the duo successfully turn solid steel into a molten mess, wondered if he could try to get the earth to send him some ideas to help him. As his watch was not connected to anything in the ship, it could not have been the cause of the hack, and as it also had a special type of signal that could instantaneously contact Earth, by sending radio signals through hyperspace. It wasn't fully tested when his watch got the update that included it, so it was only used if worse came to worse, basically, it was experimental. He watch on, and dialed the emergency office of interplanetary affairs (aka Area 51).

"General Grant, requesting immediate support dealing with a sabotage of the Republic ships systems. The virus in question is by a group called Viking. I am requesting for the most effective way to deal with this virus".

Five seconds later, a video call began on his watch. Grant explained the situation they were in, and asked how to deal with it. Apparently, the Viking virus was using government security software, thus its ability to hack Republic ships. It also seemed to be tapping onto something in order to locate the ship, and as the Venator was many light years away, it must be that someone has to be on the ship, someone trying to sabotage the diplomatic envoy. It is true that many people were unhappy with the way Earth was treating it's galactic neighbors, as in trying to friend those who had attacked them. It was an unpopular move, but it was the most sound reasoning there was, especially since continuing the war would have been a terrible choice with likely devastating results. It would make the most sense tf the saboteur was doing that for that reason. So in order to try to keep anything else from happening, the Jedi and some clones went to try to find the saboteur. Grant, meanwhile, stayed on the command spire.

Five minutes later, he could faintly hear repeating gun shots, then quiet. He held his breath, hoping for the best, when the communicator of one of the clone captains on the bridge went off. They were safe, and the clones had managed to stun the human who did it. When they brought the man to the bridge, Grant immediately recognized the man. It was none other than the ambassador to the Republic, James Miller.

It took about an hour before he woke up from the stun blast, which was set on high, but since he was an ambassador, he could not be held accountable for crimes unless his title was revoked by the Terran Government. It didn't take long for the Terran government, based on the testimony of the Two Jedi, who directly saw the firefight started by the ambassador, and some security tapes to back up their statements, the Terran government revoked his title, and gave Grant the go ahead to question the former ambassador. Unfortunately, when the ambassador realized we would be captured, he destroyed the device that let him into the system, leaving the Security branch of the government to create a plan to remove the virus that was still crippling the star destroyer.

The interrogation administered by General Grant confirmed the case that the ambassador was in fact opposed to any alliances or treaties with the Alien governments. Apparently, the ambassador had family that were killed during the Republic invasion of earth. They were drafted pilots with the vaguest knowledge of flying, and were some of the casualties. When he heard that he had the option to go with Skywalker and Kenobi to Coruscant as a representative of Earth, he accepted, if only to get revenge on Anakin and Obi-wan, who were both generals during the attack. The only reason he didn't open any windows to vent the air was because something was keeping him from doing it. He didn't understand it, but something made it impossible for him to kill those two.

After General Grant informed the Terran high government what had happened, it was decided that the ambassador would go to a court when they get back, and may be in jail for up to 30 years. Also, after a few hours of work, the Terran security branch formulated a plan to remove the virus, letting the Republic ship continue on it's way to Coruscant.

MmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmM

Well Well Well. I have a feeling some of you are mad at me. Idk if that's the case, but it has sorta been half a year. I think the big reason was that I lost interest in the story, and mainly writing in general. As you could probably see, this was a short chapter. It may not be my best, but I will try to get back to work on this story, and sometime in the future, I may go and edit this chapter. I want to thank all of you who sent me PM's and reviewed the story to remind me about this, especially all those who did it in the past few weeks. Many of you gave great ideas that I will be and have kept in mind. Once again, this chapter is short, and may be a bit boring, but I felt that some problem had to occur on the trip back to Coruscant, so I came up with this after a few failed ideas. If you are curious as to what the next few chapters will bring, I will spoil them without doing it too much. Pretty much, the next few chapters will deal with the Republic Senate, and the corruption that comes with it (idk about that last one). Somewhere in the next few weeks, I may add a side chapter as a break from politics to deal with a side problem... Enjoy.

And feel free to send me PM's or say a positive or negative review if you so choose, as long as your not just saying it's terrible with no extra info as to why. And I hope you all have a nice day.