"Goddamn, I'm not Captain Kirk. I never was, to begin with, and discovering a few things didn't make me into him. If you wanted a better comparison Janeway is at least a bit since we're both women. But if anyone else tells me to look up Star Trek rule 34 again I'm sending them out the airlock!."

Kathy Menderson

Chapter 10: Heart of Kyber

Unknown Space

The exploration cruiser UNS Columbia entered the next system it would be charting.

Since earth had developed its first real starships in the 80s it had begun exploring the uninhabited stars that surrounded it. Nearby systems such as Alpha Centauri had been scouted and in some cases, small bases had been set up on these worlds. When its fleet had still been a secret Earth needed places to build its ships and weapons along with training its recruits. Additionally, resources that were available in the Sol system but unable to be extracted due to the secret nature of the fleet back before it had become public knowledge due after the empire had attacked.

Now, these systems held major mining facilities and some shipyards and production sites. These resources were sent back to Earth where they helped fuel its growing war economy.

Finding new resources was a major priority for Earth as it was attempting to produce whatever it needed without having to trade on the black market and with growing capabilities, new resources would be needed to sustain them.

That was what this small fleet of exploration ships was doing at this time. Its Captain, Kathy Menderson wished that they would do some more exploring that wasn't just to find war resources. Granted she understood why she was doing it but she wanted to explore the galaxy and seek out new life and new civilizations.

She had hailed from a family of science that stretched through just about every area of the scientific field. And she had always been fascinated with space. She remembered watching shows like Star Trek when she had been a kid and marveling at what those people had been doing.

And if this war would end perhaps she would be able to do the same thing. She still was happy to do whatever possible to ensure her future would come, so she would do what she could to help this war come to a close as soon as possible. With an earth victory of course.

"Do you have a report on the system makeup?" She asked the vessel's sensor officer.

"Looks like a red dwarf with a few planetoids. Reading major tibanna and helium deposits in a gas giant about 1 and a half times the size of Jupiter. It has about 2 dozen moons that have some mineral deposits, and a few are habitable. There's an ice planet with what looks like a massive amount of water under the surface. A frozen desert world with significant mineral deposits… wait I found one with life!" He exclaimed in excitement.

"They have a lot of flora and fauna, and some primitive animals but some sort of massive mineral deposit that I've never seen before." He continued.

"Cross reference that with the rebel alliance's database." She ordered the ship's science officer, Lieutenant Commander Jake Hutchens. As part of the treaty of friendship and cooperation between Earth and the alliance, the rebel organization had shared a massive database of information about the galaxy with them and even some classified information.

"I'm getting a match captain, looks like these strange deposits are called kyber. They extend from a little below the surface to the core of the world." He said.

"What are this mineral's properties and what is it used for?" Menderson asked.

There was silence before a chuckle came from the sensor operation. "Captain, I think we've hit metaphorical gold here. Kyber is incredibly conductive and naturally increases the amount of power funneled through it by an exponential level. Even a square centimeter could significantly increase the damage of a heavy turbolaser, and there are unconfirmed rumors that large amounts aided in the construction of the Death Star and were used to create its super laser. It was also used to make lightsabers by the Jedi, and considering its rarity the surviving Jedi in the ranks of the alliance have a demand that is not being met." He said.

"You're right, I think we may have just made one of the biggest discoveries for the war effort. Any information on that strange nebula that surrounds the system?"

"I think it might interdict sensor readings into this system. The only thing that let us know that there was a route here was that old beacon or something like that. It seemed to be ancient, and the lab techs say that it looks like it's over a thousand years old."

"There aren't many hyperspace lanes in this area, so it's a surprise there was one in here." She said,

"This planet is uninhabited, but maybe someone got here before and then left."

"Bring us closer and prepare a shuttle team to go down and do a more in-depth survey of the world." She ordered.

Soon a survey team was traveling down to the world on one of the exploration ship's shuttles. These were modified versions of the GN-56 that had significantly fewer weapons but improved sensors and cargo capacity. It would provide close-range sensor support in certain locations, as several large caves had been spotted that held kyber deposits.

The team led by the science officer Hutchens soon was surveying the planet, looking into the caves to see if they could take some samples of the crystals.

One of his members looked at a group of odd crystals that seemed different from the kybers that they were already extracting.

"Sir, I think we struck gold again." The ensign who had been examining the strange crystals said.

"In what regard?" Hutchins asked.

"These are stygium crystals, one of the rarest and most sought-after materials in the galaxy. They can make an object invisible to sensors if it is powered correctly, and this stealth is very potent as well. It is practically invisible to sensors which is why we didn't see it."

"Take some samples of it," Hutchins said.

Soon they had chiseled off some samples of both types of crystals and they realized just how many were on the planet. If they wanted to upgrade the guns of every ship in the fleet with kyber crystals to their full extent they could do so over 10 million times and still have plenty left in the world. It was unknown how much stigyum was in the world but based on the way they were looking it looked like a lot. Of course, it would require some extensive mining operations but the amounts were there.

"I think we are about to crash the kyber market." One of the personnel muttered.

"We're going to have to keep this a secret though, I don't want the empire to find out that this place exists. It could make us a major target." Hutchins said.

Not far away from the caves, the shuttle had detected what looked like starship wreckage. Perhaps someone had been here before. With samples collected, the team boarded one of their shuttles and headed to the prospective wreckage. Most of it was underground and was only viable by sensors and the stuff that could be seen was rusted, but it was there nonetheless.

The ships had largely broken into several pieces but some could be identified. It looked like at least several dozen had been present from small corvettes up to larger capital ships. Cross-referencing them with the alliance database it was soon found that they were vessels of the Old Republic and Sith Empire, dating back way before the Russan Reformation and being well over a millennia old.

Hutchins knew that the vessels would be excavated eventually and the information of their presence here would be known.

Now, this matter was out of his and his Captain's hands. As the team was making it back into orbit, Captain Menderson had already been contacting Admiral Johnson. He ordered a small number of the ship's crew to stay on the world with some mining equipment to start extracting the kyber crystals. Knowledge of the discovery would be kept as secret as possible. Some people would have to know of course but that would be kept to a minimum. The Empire could not find out where these crystals came from or even that they existed otherwise they would become a significantly larger target.

He was also preparing to speak with the Chancellor of the Rebel Alliance, Mon Mothma about the recent discovery along with a few other matters that she would be interested in learning about. Those kyber crystals would give him a massive amount of leverage to get more concessions.

Allison walked into the small room he used as a command center when he was in their house.

"You're excited about something, Will." She said.

"You know kyber crystals right? Well, a survey team found a big ass amount of them on a planet. We might be looking at one of if not the biggest sources of them in the entire galaxy. We had a lot of stigium crystals as well. !"

"Well, that's excellent news, Will!" She said, bending down to kiss him.

"It will both improve our ship's combat effectiveness and give us major leverage with the alliance."

"That's good as well." She said,

"We're going to have to keep this secret though because if the Empire finds out we are definitely in trouble…"