"I swear man, you gotta get yourself a girl."Lando Calrissian sat in the lounge of the Millenium Falcon as it rocketed toward Earth. Jim sat back at the tech station, where he was tinkering with some spare parts. He was silent. "Really," Lando continued, "You are too uptight. A woman would cool you down. You can't always be by yourself."

"He's right you know," Han, who sat next to Lando, said, "I was kinda like you. At first I didn't even want Chewie around, but I got used to it. Now I cant get along without him."

"Han..." Jim said, "...Chewbacca is a Wookie."

"I know that!" Han said as Lando collapsed on the holochess table, laughing, "Chewie showd me that I couldn't live alone. Once I met Leia, well...."

His voice trailed off. "...I couldn't get along with out her. When she was asked for marriage by Prince Isolder of Hapes, I had to kidnap her to keep her."

"I remember that," Lando said, "You wanted to elope too. She wouldn't let you." This time Chewie began to bark a laugh with Lando, causing Han to lose his temper again.

"Yea, Yea, it has to be a big wedding. Women love big weddings." Jim still fiddled with the spare part, and looked back down at the floor.

"Seriously though," Lando continued when he saw Jim turn away, "Find yourself a nice female and get to know her. The companionship would do good for someone like you. You spend way too much time with this war. You can't do it all, you know."

Jim shrugged. "I'm no good with women. No sense having them seeing a freak. I'm not like everyone else, you know that."

"Come off it, Jim," Jacen said, who was sitting against a bulkhead. "You aren't a freak. There are plenty of meta-humans out there. Come on, I'm technically one, being a Jedi and all."

"Yea but you don't cause damage to a whole city block when you lose your temper. I'm dangerous. Nobody deserves that."

"Jim take it from me, " Jaina said, who was sitting next to Lando, "I've dated many men, and none are more thoughtful than you are. Don't be so hard on yourself. You'll find someone."

Jim scowled. "I've had enough of women already, you know about my past. I'm tired of getting screwed over by everyone. I am better off being left alone, for everyone else's sake."

"Jim!" Han said, "That was just a boyhood crush. Its normal!"

"To hell with normal! I'm not normal!"

"Alright, Alright!" Lando said, "Leave the kid alone. He will find someone sooner or later." He stood up to go to the cockpit. As he passed Jim up he said, "Keep your chin up kind, we are here for you."

"Yea, you got people with you," Jaina said. "You are never alone."

Jim got up and left the room, saying nothing.

"Hes depressed," Jacen said aloud. "His life was hard, nothing can change that. He has got to find his own path. The force will guide him."

"How? He's full of anger toward everyone." Jaina said. "He can't go far like that."

"The force is with him, don't worry." Jacen said. "It has to be, look at who he is."

"Look," Han said, getting up to go to the cockpit, "Everyone has their thing. Let him have his. He is quite capable of taking care of himself."

"If I might say so sir," Threepio chimed in, "He may be suffering fr-"

"No you can't say so, Goldenrod. I've had it with this conversation. Its depressing." He turned and left for the cockpit.

"I only meant to say that he may suffer from a human disease called depression. The only way he knows how to feel better is to feel worse, if you follow me sir."

"Depression, huh?" Jaina asked. "Hes going to need our help."

"The least we can do is be there for him." Jacen said. "I can sense his loneliness. He literally thinks he has nobody, and can't convince himself otherwise."

"That is another symptom, Master Jacen," Threepio said. "Your brother Anakin had the same problem, if you remember."

"Jacen found Tahari. Jim will find someone."

"An opinion, if I may sir?" Threepio asked. "Jim doesn't seem to even want to accept anyone else. Quite an opposite of Anakin, who actually needed someone to stay alive. Jim is totally independent. His logic suggests that he need nobody else to be with, and simply doesn't want anyone."

"Lets get Tahari on the line," Jacen proposed, "Lets get Jimmy some help."

As the Pennsylvania dropped into the Mobius System, Max eyed his sensors. Mobian traffic was normal, showing that the news of the Imperial invasion had not been spread.

"Captain Sika, has command issued any orders regarding the invasion? Mobian traffic should include escaping civilians, not normal traffic."

"As of now, the only thing we have received referring to the invasion has been to keep it quiet. I don't know why Alliance command didn't issue evacuation orders immediately."

"And we can't warn anybody?"

"Well, seeing as we are in system, I am to alert the King, also relaying the secrecy order to him."

"King Acorn?" Brenton asked. "Isn't he related to..."

"Yes he is, but keep him quiet. He is on special assignment with the Mobian Royal Guard."

"Understood." After the communication had been completed, The Pennsylvania entered hyperspace, moving toward the abandoned system of Ross 128.

The Millennium Falcon dropped back into realspace just outside the SOL system. Earth was heavily protected, and a series of checkpoints must be passed to enter without incident. The first checkpoint was at the Jupiter inner defense station. No ship could enter the inner rim of the SOL system without passing through Jupiter first, which is the stepping stone into the only safe path through the SOL Asteroid belt.

"The asteroid belt in SOL is the densest ever discovered." Lando explained to Threepio, who seemed confused as to why it wasn't navigated manually.
As they got their clearance, the moved toward the "Great Gate," which was the only way into a gravitationally secure path through the belt. The gate was huge, so ships like the Corellia could fit through. Heavily fortified, it was hoped to cause a bottleneck in the event that an Invasion of the inner system occurred.
The gate actually protected seventy large gravity projectors, which beamed into the belt, creating a tunnel straight through the belt. The Asteroids simply bounced off of it, creating a painless way through the rocks.

It took a day to travel through the tunnel, and the opposite end was even more secure than the entrance at Jupiter. The gun count was amazing, and the fleet of warships patrolling the area rivaled the battle group that attacked Deneb.
Passing through the sector into their next checkpoint, the Mars Shipyards.

"What kind of ships are built here, if you have to spend days leaving the system?" Lando asked Jim, who was smiling slightly, as if to be happy to be returning home.

"Well, larger ships, like the Corellia, could be built here. Most of the inner defense fleet is built here too, including the majority of Federation ships. Every ship to be named Enterprise was built over there." Jim pointed to a huge drydock, "That's Utopia Planatia."

Once the checkpoint at Mars was cleared, the path led them into Earth. The final checkpoint was at the Lunar Defense ring, which surrounded the moon, and contained many gunnery platforms and fighter pads.

Finally reaching their destination, the Falcon set down outside the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The town was called Baden, the location of Jim's first house. Jim had returned home for the first time in nearly twenty years, making him smile like Han had never seen before. Han insisted on a tour.

"Has it really been that long?" Jim asked when he returned to the house on Market Street.

"You lived in that?" Jacen pointed to the abandoned white house on the corner.

"I know it isn't much, but I was born in that house. We moved to a city to the North West called Cranberry when I was seven. I spent the last part of my adolescence there, before college, and then the war..."

They then, of course, had to go to Jim's parents house in Cranberry. His parents never approved of him taking the path he did, thinking he was getting in over his head. They wanted him to be a doctor.

"Mom, I am a Jedi, can I please do my own thing?"

"You will do as I say while you are still in this house, James Thomas George, now forget that levitating nonsense and go outside and get some drinks for our guests."

Han and Lando had an interesting conversation about the game of Football with Jim's dad, Jim Sr. Football had slowly become popular all over the galaxies and Han and Lando had to learn more about it. While Jim served them hand and for his mother (Han and Lando loved it) his mother was busy entertaining Threepio, who enjoyed her very much.

"I'm convinced that Threepio has female programming," Han said to Mr. George, "Look at them go at it! Dusting, polishing, cooking... Luke cant defend him after this."

After departing the George household, Jim was once again in his darker state. Obviously no longer happy to be home, he suggested that they skip the rest of the tour and pick up General Brenxor.

The Falcon took off toward Roger's Air Force Base in Virginia, and met Marcus there. He was sitting in a computer terminal, playing what looked like a video game.

"God damn it! I died!" He jumped up and kicked his computer. Han and Jim looked at eachother, skeptically, and then laughed as Marcus swept the broke glass under his chair. They departed at once for their first stop, Mobius. Marcus needed a drop off.

I can't believe we made it out of there, Lorenz thought as he pulled into the Jupiter defense station.
"This is Allied Command to the USS-Corellia, please respond."

"We have you, command," Lorenz replied.

"You have exclusive rights to procede through all safety checkpoints. Admiral Madison will meet you."

"Thank you command. Corellia out."

They proceded through the gate, ending in the Mars dock yards. They docked at a dock called Magnacarta Terra, where the Corellia was to undergo repairs. As they finished docking, they recieved a hail from Commander George, who was passing by on the Millennium Falcon.

"John, I'm glad to see that you got out. Hows the old girl doing?"

"Shes in bad shape, Jim. Dock personell tell me we are looking in a six month downtime. Bad news, seeing as Command might not want to fix her up. Shes old, Jim. She isnt as powerful as she used to be."

"You tell Madison that I want it fixed and ready to fly in three months time. The newsof the invasion, a bit delayed, has finally been spread. evacuations to the Inner defense rim will be going on constantly. This is a very dark time for us. The invasion is going to need all the ships in the fleet to hold back the Imperials."
Jim looked toward the astroid belt exit, now brimming with refugee ships from all over the quadrant.

"John something tells me that the invasion will end here, at Mars. The bottleneck will eithe breach our final defenses or be held here. Get her ready to fly, I won't be gone long."

"Alright, Jim. Hopefully madison will listen to you."

"He has no other choice."