Walex Blissex stood in the observation gallery overlooking the orbital shipyards above Dac. Beside him stood Jedi Master Shaak Ti. And below them, was his latest creation. The first of a new class of Star Destroyer. It was being christened Vigilance. And would hopefully be the first of many. The orbital docks above Pammant were also constructing the new ships and the Republic and the Jedi hoped to have them in service quickly.

Walex was immensely proud of this new design, despite his aversion to building warships. The new Vigilance class were just over twelve hundred meters long, had enough space to embark over six thousand troops, stored consumables for two years, carried an entire wing of starfighters and had enough weaponry to go toe-to-toe with an ISD, and come out on top. Yet she required only half the crew.

Walex was also working on a new starfighter design. The design was heavily inspired by the R-22 Spearhead. The pilots who had seen his new design had immediately begun calling it an A-Wing for it's distinctive shape. He'd actually been working with Anakin Skywalker on the design. Not so much on the particulars of the design, but in what a starfighter pilot would consider the ideal qualities to have in a Starfighter. So far, they'd come up with the starfighter having an internal hyperdrive, a socket for an astromech, decent shields and armor, high speed, extreme maneuverability and powerful weapons. The prototype was nearly ready. Master Skywalker would be taking it for a test flight sometime in the next week or two. Walex was supremely confident that the Jedi Master would be more than satisfied with it.

_

At the edge of the landing pad on Tython, Anakin Skywalker stood with his arms folded in front of him, his hands tucked into the opposite sleeves of his Robe, the perfect picture of a Jedi Master. He was waiting for the shuttle from Corellia to arrive. It was bringing fifty new recruits to the Republic Naval Academy that had been established here on Tython. Anakin liked to meet the recruits personally. As a Senior Jedi General and Battlemaster of the Jedi Order, he was in overall command of the military forces at their disposal and felt it was his duty to greet each new officer cadet as they arrived.

As the new cadets walked off the shuttle, some in civilian clothes and some in CorSec uniform, Anakin began his welcome speech. By now, he had it down pat. He still wasn't a fan of public speaking, but he could at least do it without completely freezing up. About halfway through his little speech, he noticed two figures slip down the shuttle ramp and creep away from the platform, doing their best to stay hidden and in the shadows. Anakin immediately went to high alert. Internally. On the outside, you would never know. He had gotten much better at not always wearing his emotions on his sleeve.

Quickly using the Force to track them and feel for their intentions, all Anakin could feel from them was an immense sense of relief, joy and some mild confusion. Deciding that you could never be too careful, Anakin discreetly pressed the alert button his comlink. The Temple defenses would be subtly increased with the Temple Guards and the Guardians of the Whills quietly moving to defensive positions just in case. Anakin didn't feel that the two beings he had seen were a direct threat, but there was always the possibility that they could be ISB agents sent to try and locate the Jedi's hidden base. Better to be prepared. That lesson had been drilled into every surviving Jedi after the Assault on the Temple.

As Anakin finished his welcome speech and turned over the new cadets to their training officers he walked in the general direction that the two apparent stowaways had gone. Never directly towards them, but not very far off either. Fortunately they had gone in the same direction as one of the meditation groves, so Anakin decided to make his way towards that while keeping track of the two with the Force. Doing this made Anakin shake his head. He still couldn't believe that no one had ever noticed that Palpatine wasn't who he said he was before. Force, the Jedi really had been blind. He could still feel his anger at that even now, years after the fact. He supposed that the anger was probably something he was always going to have to deal with. At least now he knew the signs to watch out for. And he had gotten better at not drawing on it during a battle as well. It still happened occasionally, old habits were hard to break after all, but it was rare and he could almost always stop himself once he realized what he was doing. "It really wouldn't do to have a member of the Council devoted to rooting out the Dark Side fall to it now, would it?" he thought to himself. That actually put a small smile on his lips. Good to see his dark sense of humor was still around anyway.

As Anakin made his way toward the ancient Meditation Grove, he began to groan. Of course the two stowaways had gone toward Master Yoda's favorite grove. And of course Master Yoda was there. So much for doing this quietly. Even though Anakin had gotten much better at meditation over the last few years, he still wasn't exactly a frequent visitor to the various groves scattered around the Temple, something Master Yoda seemed to delight in reminding him of every time he saw him in one.

"Young Skywalker," Master Yoda greeted him. "Decided finally to meditate, have you?"

"Master Yoda," Anakin said with a polite nod. Gesturing to the seat next to Yoda Anakin asked, "May I?"

"Own this bench I do not. Where you like you may sit."

Sitting next to Yoda, Anakin looked at the aged Jedi Master and said, "Master, I have to ask. What are you ever going to call my son and daughter? We can't all be 'Young Skywalker.' And well, we'll all be young to you no matter how old we get."

Grinning at Anakin with a twinkle in his eyes Yoda replied, "Why? Call you all what I like I will. Certain I am that figure it out you can who I am talking too."

Shaking his head, but laughing just the same Anakin admitted defeat and simply said, "Yes, Master."

"Why come to the meditation groves have you? Not to meditate, surely?"

Lowering his voice Anakin said, "No, Master. There were two stowaways on the shuttle from Corellia. They headed in this direction and I'm trying to keep track of them. It would be a disaster if they turned out to be from the Empire."

Laughing, Yoda responded, "Your stowaways, from the Empire they are not. Sensed this much I have. Behind those trees you will find them. Confused, scared and happy they are. The extra defenses that alerted you did, needed they are not."

"I didn't think they would be, Master. But after the Temple..."

"Understand I do. Now, interrupted my meditation for long enough you have. Business you have to attend to Young Skywalker."

"Yes, Master. May the Force be with you."

"And with you, Master Skywalker."

As Anakin stood, he felt the two stowaways attention briefly focus on him, but knowing they'd be watching him, Anakin continued walking along the path towards the fountains in the center of the grove. Whenever he did meditate, the fountains were his favorite spot. The flowing waters calmed his mind and helped to relax him. Having grown up on Tatooine, he appreciated just how special water could be.

Reaching the fountains, and still sensing the stowaways back by Master Yoda, Anakin slipped off the pathway and into the trees. Using the Force to cushion his feet and reduce his already minimal amount of noise, he quickly moved through the grove. Coming up behind the two stowaways, he saw that they were a human man and woman. Neither looked to be more than seventeen or eighteen years old. And from the looks of things, they were pretty underweight. More than they should have been, even assuming that they hadn't eaten during the several day flight from Corellia.

As the two whispered back and forth, they kept an eye on the trail. Their conversation seemed to be, "what do we do now?" Apparently, they had thought that the shuttle would be going to a slightly more developed world where they could get a ship, buy or steal apparently, Anakin couldn't quite catch that part, and disappear among the stars. That last part Anakin could completely empathize with. He and Padme had talked about doing just that many, many times in the past. Actually, they still did. Especially when the weight of their offices was weighing especially heavily upon them.

Deciding that the two were no threat to the Jedi or the Republic, Anakin tapped the alert button on his comlink twice, sending the "All Clear" code to the Temple. Slipping up behind the two Anakin decided to borrow a line from Obi-wan.

"Hello there."

The two teenagers stiffened and swung around immediately. The male immediately went into a defensive posture and moved in front of his female companion. "The kid had good reflexes. Almost as quick as a Jedi's." Anakin thought.

"You two appear to be lost. Anything I can do to help you find your way?"

Eyeing him warily, the two didn't seem to know what exactly to make of Anakin. The young man eventually said, "No, were fine. Just out enjoying the scenery."

"This one was smooth" Anakin told himself. "Quick reflexes, quick mind and a quick mouth. Force, it was like looking at himself minus the Force."

"Uh-huh. You know it never pays to lie to a Jedi, right?" "If only that were true," Anakin told himself. "Palpatine had managed it for decades."

Hearing him identify himself as a Jedi caused the two to relax slightly. "On the run from the Empire, maybe?" Anakin wondered.

"Well, it never hurts to try," said the boy. "They say a sucker is born every minute."

Laughing, Anakin said, "That may be so. But I think you'll find that you'll have rather less success trying that approach here."

"Speaking of 'here,' where exactly are we?" asked the girl.

"Where are my manners? Let me introduce myself. My name is Anakin Skywalker. Let me be the first to welcome you to Tython."

"The Anakin Skywalker? The Hero With No Fear? The only human to ever win the Boonta Eve Classic Pod Race? That Anakin Skywalker?" asked the boy.

"Yesssss," said Anakin, giving the boy an odd look. "How did you even know about that Pod Race? That was almost twenty years ago. You couldn't have been more than a year old then."

"Don't get him started," said the girl. "Anything to do with any sort of flying, he's obsessed with. And hearing about the only human to ever win, let alone compete, in pod racing, well, he devoured anything he could get his hands on."

"Actually, I wasn't even born yet," said the boy.

Shaking his head, Anakin asked them, "So, I've told you who I am. Who are you? You're obviously not with the other cadets that were on the shuttle."

"I'm Han."

"And I'm Qi'ra"

"Well Han and Qi'ra, why don't we get you up to the barracks and see about getting a meal into you and you can tell me all about why you wanted to get away from Corellia so desperately that you stowed away on a shuttle."