CHAPTER 4

Piper led the three Jedi into the doorway where Motz had gone down, revealing a large room only lit with blue light. There was a full bar at the far end of the room where Motz was placing bottles on the shelves. The bar was partially empty with the exception of a few passed out liquidators sitting at the bar. A twi'lek drunkenly singing with his three friends at the far end of the room and a family sitting at one of the booths playing cards.

"This place gets pretty full at night," Piper stated as she lifted her hand to one of the booths, telling them to sit down.

Motz then walked up to them with four cups of a weird brown liquid. "Hey sorry if I was a little rude early, the rain puts me in a bad mood, you guys must be off worlders. This stuff is pretty tasteless but you need to make sure you drink all of it." "It's on me."

"Thank you." Obi-wan started with a smile.

"Thanks, Motz!" Piper smiled with a sarcastic smirk.

"I can never understand you, Piper, please make sure these Jedi don't get themselves killed," Motz stated.

"How did you know we were Jedi?" Anakin asked.

"I'm old, you learn things with age. Most people here think you guys are a myth. If I figured you out then the wrong people might." Motz shrugged. "Just be careful," then he turned to Ahsoka. "Especially you."

"Seriously make sure you drink all of it," Piper told them all before they could ask Motz anything else. "It's mostly Iodine, which will help protect your hormone glances from the Radiation."

"Radiation?" Ahsoka stated. "Why would we need protection from it, I have never heard of it being dangerous."

Piper laughed. "Well it's Ionized Radiation and you probably have never been exposed to it as much as you will be here." "That's why the rains are so dangerous, and why everyone has a mask and wears lead-lined clothes. And why all the buildings have those disgusting rusty looking panels on them."

"What happened here? The planet couldn't have always been this way?" Obi-wan asked while Anakin and Ahsoka tried sips of the Iodine drink. Ahsoka gagged as it tasted really thick and was hard to swallow. Anakin made a face as he felt the clumps slide down his throat.

"Well, of course, it was never this way, we used to be very prosperous, very head of our time." Piper began.

"How Come you don't have space travel?" Obi-wan asked.

"Oh we do, but because of the Radiation space travel has been suspended for about 500 years, well pretty much indefinitely."

"Oh my apologies, we were under the impression that you guys have not developed space travel yet."

"We," Anakin looked at Obi-wan. "You and the council were under that impression, Ahsoka and I believed otherwise."

Obi-wan made a face that looked as though he was gonna roll his eyes, then he continued. "If you have had space travel until recently why has the Republic not made contact with you," Obi-wan asked.

Piper gave him a look, a look that made it seem like that was a dumb question. "Space is big." She replied. "Like really really really big."

"Yes I am aware of that, the Republic has its forces spread very far throughout the galaxy, we should have made contact."

Piper smiled a little. "I'm sorry how small is your Republic?"

Ahsoka looked up at her, she had never thought of that question before. She had heard of "how big is the Republic?" But "how small is it?" That was a question that never crossed her mind.

"The Republic I assure you is not small at all, it's made of 1024 planets."

"Wow! That is a lot!" Piper was surprised.

"Yes, you see it is quite odd we haven't made contact with you."

"What? No! I'm sorry you misinterpreted my surprise, I mean that is a lot of planets for one government to control, how's it holding up?"

"We're at war right now," Ahsoka stated bluntly before Obi-wan could sugar code it.

"Yeah, that sounds about right," Piper stated. Then she turned to Obi-wan. "Have you heard of the Nova Empire?"

Obi-wan and Anakin gave her a surprised look.

"The what?" Anakin asked.

"The Nova Empire, they thought they were the biggest empire too, they pretty much thought they owned the M. C. Galaxy."

"There are other Galaxies?" Anakin asked.

Piper nodded.

"There can't be!" Obi-wan stated. "I have never heard of this or any Nova Empire!"

"Nah.. they were blown up anyway." Piper shrugged. "But just the fact that you don't know that there are other Galaxies means that your 'Republic' must be very small."

"How many?" Obi-wan asked.

"Don't know I honestly couldn't tell you."

"Why not."

"Because there are trillions of them!" Piper stated. "We can't even comprehend how many there are and or how big space actually is!"

"So what does that have to do with this planet?" Anakin asked.

"Well, we used to be the pioneers of Space travel and our planet was very popular. One day however a virus outbreak turned into a pandemic and instead of our planet working together, all of our nations went back to olden days and like a bunch of toddlers, started fighting again about how to contain the virus. About five years ago someone pushed the button and turned the war nuclear. It's rumored that it was an accident, but it didn't matter because the second a nation breaks the unspoken rule of not using nuclear weapons, every other nation uses it. It ended the war, but it also almost destroyed the planet murdering over 50 percent of the world's population. The rest of us were left with the horrid aftermath of a radioactive wasteland. And because of this, the whole world agreed to bane space travel."

"Why is radiation so bad?" Ahsoka asked.

"Well, it's only bad if you're exposed to high levels of it and also only if you're exposed to it for too long. It can make your body grow deadly tumors and such. It will tear your DNA apart which will tear your growth cells apart and if you're exposed to too much it will essentially make your body rote from the inside out."

Upon hearing this Anakin and Ahsoka both glanced at each other then proceeded to chug down the Iodine drink, till it was gone.

"Is there no cure for this?" Obi-wan asked.

Piper shook her head. "No there's not, it doesn't matter who you are or what you want, nobody survives a nuclear apocalypse."

Just then the drunk Twi'lek ran into Motz who was carrying a bunch of glass drinking mugs. Anakin upon instinct lifted his hand up to call upon the force to catch them, however, nothing happened and the mugs shattered on the floor.

"What the?" Anakin muttered to himself but caught the attention of the three at the booth.

"What?" Obi-wan asked.

"I can't... I can't connect to the force." He stated.

"What! That's absurd." Obi-wan stated.

"You try it then." Anakin gritted.

Obi-wan looked at the glass of Iodine in front of him and then reached out his hand to move it, nothing. "This doesn't make anything sense?" Obi-wan stated. "I can still feel it's presence."

"I know!" Anakin stated. "That's why I am confused."

"Radiation," Piper stated. "It has a weird effect on things."

"No, the force doesn't work like that," Obi-wan stated.

The sound of the rain came to a stop.

Obi-wan sighed and got up. "Thank you for your help Piper, but we need to get back to our ship. We have to inform our superiors about our progress."

"I would wait till morning if I were you," Piper stated.

"Why?" Anakin asked, moving out from the booth.

"The Calvary," Piper stated. "Well we call them the Calvary, they call themselves 'The Keepers of the New World Order', but that's too long to say each time so we call them the Calvary. They are part of the percentage of this planet that believes the Jedi exist and they take things much too far. And they love to 'parade' after a rainstorm."

Anakin almost laughed to himself. "So they are a bunch of fans, that's great."

"Not fans in the way you would like." Piper started following them to the exit of the building. "Look, because space travel is exiled, it's made things difficult and the Calvary wants to get off-world, they're gonna want your ship, and there's nothing they won't do to get it."

"I appreciate your concern, but we can handle a group of wannabe Jedis," Obi-wan stated.

"Not the Calvary," Piper stated. "You guys have no idea what you're dealing with."

"Hahaha." Anakin chuckled. "They have no idea what they are dealing with." He opened the door to reveal the night, the clouds began parting revealing a star sky.

Piper sighed. "Good luck then." She stated as she hesitantly watched them leave.