Hello and welcome to A Story from the Unknown Regions, Chapter 2!

Reviews:

MatbeK01B Pretty sure 2021 or 2018, Ill add that into the first chapter when i have a chance, it mentions it somewhere next chapter. But the current pandemic does not exist in it.

The-Killer40513 Yup!

er47 thanks!

herbet128 Thanks!

MmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmM

Global Headlines:

Three days after: Unexpected closed door UN meeting is called while many nations go into Red Alert as rumors spread of aliens coming to Earth

NASA official says nothing is happening out of the ordinary, just before cutting the press meeting short

The Jedi and their delegation arrive a week after the initial message was received. The data from the ancient exploration ship proved invaluable to traverse the Unknown Regions. Despite the map being millennia old, a mapping algorithm was able to update the route.

Master Sanova and Padawan Bonta-Mi were the two Jedi assigned to lead the delegation along with Diplomat Meeta Raida, a human from Coruscant. Assigned to assist were three guards. They were on the Consular-Class Cruiser Consultation, with a crew of seven including the captain and a navigator.

They arrived at the final spot the star map would have taken them, the fourth planet from the local star, one which was majority Red. After scanning for settlements, they find the distress beacon is hailing them from the north pole. After travelling through the atmosphere for half an hour, they landed a hundred meters near a sort of crude but space worthy starship.

Equipped with breathing apparatuses and heavy coats, the two Jedi and one diplomat disembark. In front of them are five dome shaped buildings with what looked to be an airlock sticking out of one of them. The airlock opens to two humans in white and orange striped suits walking out, waving them to come follow, which the three do.

They are handed a square device with a metal part sticking out, some kind of primitive communicator. The device turns on.

"We have radios in our suits" the mars person says through the radio, in front of the Jedi. "Our suits can't efficiently transfer sound, but you don't seem to have that issue". After a pause, he continues "Before you follow me, does your biology allow rapid pressurization, and is it oxygen that you breathe?"

Master Sanova speaks "we will be fine with the pressurization process, and yes, we breathe oxygen."

After that the five people enter the pressurization room before coming out the other side two minutes later.

After taking off their suits, the Earthlings ask the visitors to keep their breathing apparatus on just in case.

"Alright" one of the earthlings says. "Before you take those off I would like to make sure you wont suffocate here. The air in this habitat is roughly 75% Nitrogen, 24% Oxygen, and 1% Carbon Dioxide. Our bodies are made up of a majority of Carbon, Hydrogen, and Oxygen, with the majority being Dihydrogen Monoxide, or as we call it, water. If any of that isn't making sense, I can take out a chart".

Meeta Raida responded: "That matches with our biology, Master Sanova, would you be willing to test that theory?" she asks the Jedi Master, aware he can use the force if necessary.

"Of course", he proceeds to take off his breathing apparatus and gives the all clear. The Earthlings write it down in their notes. So far they have similar biology, enough where survivability should work, hopefully both ways.

The rest of the crew from Earth gathers to meet the visitors.

Introductions were shared, and the group began talking about the journey the Republic ship took to get here.

Mira wasn't didn't notice it before, as they were exposed to the environment at the time, but after being able to focus fully on the primitives, she realized they did not have any kind of force signature. Using the force, she tried to connect with one of them as one would a plant or an animal, but it felt like they were void of the force. Not just one of them, but each of the crew at this station didn't have any kind of signature. Her master seemed to have picked that up as well, as he shared an emotion of unease and curiosity through the force.

"This may sound strange, but I want to understand…" one of the earthlings said "you speak the language I am talking to you in? And you are also human?"

"We speak the same language you do, yes. And as far as we can tell, I think we are the same species, we do look extremely similar, I don't see that being out of the question". The diplomat responded.

The earthling thought for a moment. "We have history and archeology showing we are from the planet we are on, with writings from 5000 years ago at the least. And for the record, by year I mean the amount of time it takes Earth… the third planet in the solar system, to revolve around the sun".

"The time we use" Diplomat Raida said "is 24 hours in a day, 368 days in a year".

"That is actually really close to ours. It is 24 hours in a day for us, and 365 and a quarter days in a year".

"Would it be fine if one of you showed my padawan and me the crashed starship?" asked Master Sanova

"Gladly" The captain said, motioning to one of the other crew members to follow. As they walked the captain asked a question. "So those things you put on your mouth, they help you breathe?"

"Yes" Mira said. "It converts the air into something you can breathe. For example, if I was underwater, it would convert the water to oxygen, but would pump the hydrogen out. This world is full of carbon dioxide, so it takes in the oxygen and pumps out the carbon".

"But it is extremely cold outside, you should freeze if anything"

"For normal people, they can survive short times in cold areas like these with the masks on, maybe two minutes at most. The mask heats the air sent in, and wearing coats keeps us warm. Master Sanova and I are Jedi, so we can survive far longer, indefinitely if we need to, with the mask on of course".

They continue walking towards the airlock. "You have the option to put on space suits, unless your Jedi thing will be able to help you. The star ship has not been sealed since we opened it, so we have been needing to wear suits down there. We have two other suits if you want."

"We will take the suits" Pall said. "I assume they will be able to fit the both of us?"

"Of course, it will take us a few minutes to set up, but yes."

A few minutes later, Commander Scott and one of the archaeologists were able to set the sizes for the two Jedi on the spare space suits stored near the airlock. The suits were white with a red green and blue striped flag, and were much less bulky than the ones designed for the vacuum of space. Thirteen suits were sent up, one for each of the crew and three extras if any of the suits malfunctioned. So far, none of the spare space suits had been used, so after a diagnostics test, the four went outside to examine the millenia-old starship.

The archeologists were able to get the majority of information from the ship, but there were still some things they were unable to understand, of which was a blue cube with strange markings on it.

Pall and Mira knew what it was, but Mira had never seen one in person.

Pall talked to the Jedi through the radio "So you have never heard of the Jedi before, right?"

"We have a vague understanding. You are warriors, right?" the archeologist said.

"We like to think of ourselves as peacekeepers. Jedi are those who are able to connect to the Force, which itself is an energy field that connects to life and everything else. This box you see is a storage cube called a holocron, which is only able to be opened by Jedi. Mira, you've never opened one, how about you try it. You guys will probably find this quite intriguing" Pall said with a smirk. Mira sat down, cross-legged facing the holocron.

The two earthlings backed up, not knowing what to expect.

Mira closed her eyes and reached out with the force. After finding the holocron, she tugged on what felt like the right place, the center. The cube lifted up for a brief moment, surprising the earthlings, but it soon dropped. Mira opened her eyes, annoyed. The holocron didn't open.

"You have to let the force guide you" Pall said. "Try again."

She reached out, this time after finding the holocron, she relaxed, not pushing or pulling on the holocron, but this time she could feel that it was working. She opened her eyes to see the cube having lifted up a foot, and could see the corner spinning around, but not soon after, her concentration begins to lose focus, and the holocron reverts to its cubic form and falls to the ground.

The Earthlings don't speak for a good twenty seconds. One of them walks up and waves his hand over the fallen holocron, in slight shock.

"Inconceivable" the archeologist said, having just gotten out of shock, bringing the captain out of shock, and a slight snicker too. The captain reached for a camera, if this works, this will be very important information to show, at the very least the box floating.

"We can practice this again later Mira" Pall said, not giving away any emotion. He closed his eyes and reached out his arm. The holocron opened up the same way it had before, but now the corner pieces floated around the cube, which itself was floating. A hologram appeared of a man in a robe. Using the force, Pall exaggerated the volume so it could be heard through the suits. The Hologram began to speak:

"This is Jedi Master Jon Hader" the hologram said in a solemn tone "Unfortunately our ship has been stranded on this desolate planet. While Sa-Lila, Jacen, and I were out trying to scan for any kind of fuel, we came back to have found the ship had been opened and the air drained. Our only guess is that someone, the Chiss maybe, killed off the crew, including himself in the process.

This turn of events is extremely unfortunate because as we were coming back, a ship was descending near ours. It seemed someone received our distress call. We have not yet been able to communicate with them, but they have been kind so far. I have disabled the distress beacon, but I am going to leave this holocron here as a calling to any Jedi strong enough to sense it.

Our general idea is that we will be going to the third planet or the third sun, we can't fully tell, but I will leave this as a marker in case we are unable to return to the main galaxy.

May the force be with us"

The Holocron recording ended. Mira spoke, confused. "He said he left this as a beacon, but I couldn't sense anything coming from it."

Pall spoke to the earthlings. "Could you please give Mira and me a moment alone?"

"By all means". The commander said, followed by the two walking out.

The two Jedi changed their channel to a private channel. "Were holocron beacons possible?" Mira asked.

"The Jedi of old knew how to do many things we could only dream of, but a holocron beacon, I've never heard of such a thing".

"What if maybe the beacon worked, but something prevented it from activating?" Mira asked.

"I feel that it isn't that, maybe the beacon was activated, and still is active, but is being blocked by some sort. I know this was your first time opening the holocron, but that should be something even a youngling could do. I had to strain a bit when opening this one also. I think there is something about this planet that is just off".

"The humans we met, I couldn't sense them in the force, it is as if they were a void, a black hole of sorts" Mira said.

"I felt the same. This is a very confusing world, and these are confusing humans. I stored a midichlorian counter on the ship. Before we go, I will take a reading. Maybe, and realize this is a very unique situation, maybe on this world it is extremely difficult to use the force". Pall said

"When we left Coruscant, I was thinking this would be more of a vacation, but now it is starting to look like we found a tear of some kind in the force" Mira said jokingly

"I feel you may be more right than you think".

It took around 17 minutes for the signal to be sent to Earth of the recording of the Jedi managing to levitate the blue cube and the hologram's story, and for their reply to arrive back. There was some surprise, but it was also assumed that if there were a group capable of breaking physics by going faster than light, this isn't too out of the box, but many were still shocked. It was decided that the medical officer on the mars base would offer to test the blood and get a sample of the Jedi to make sure it is safe for them to come to Earth.

The Jedi responded by asking the same of the humans, for a simple blood sample. After the signal was received by those on earth, permission was given.

They both, independently, came to the same conclusion. The Jedi would wait on mars for the next few days, but for different reasons. Those on Earth wanted to confirm that the Immune system of the aliens could handle common bacteria and viruses, and the Jedi learned the humans they met had absolutely no midichlorians, something which was immediately shared with the Jedi High Council.

The Jedi did not mention to the humans their newfound curiosity, and remained as diplomatic as possible.

After a few days of the remaining crew of the Republic meeting the Mars explorers, arrangements were made to visit Earth, specifically the United Nations in New York, but the Jedi and Republic team had to abide by some rules when visiting Earth, for the time being at least.

Any that were willing to leave their ship were required to wear HAZMAT suits, and were to be escorted by Earth Security forces. All food the Republic crew wanted had to be approved by both the Republic Medical officer and a designated Medical Officer from Earth.

After a total of seven days on Mars, the Republic starship and the crew on it left its temporary home, and an hour later it was coming up on Earth.

The Planet Earth looked much different to its red counterpart, much different. Most planets, Mars included, had one or two biomes, three if fate really liked it, but according to a NASA officer, Earth had a minimum of five biomes, seven depending on who you asked. It wasn't until the Republic crew saw the planet that they finally believed it.

"Master, It looks like a mix of Aldaraan, Korriban, and Mon Cala" Mira said.

"Who taught you about Korriban?" Pall replied, confused as he had only heard of it a few times, and never around her.

"I decided to do some research on the Sith in the Republic Archives since I had never heard of the battle of Ruusan before, thought I would give it a look" she nonchalantly said. "Surprised I haven't heard of it before, seemed pretty big"

Pall didn't respond, and they both looked back at the planet below.

Twenty minutes later they entered the atmosphere. Once they got low enough, they were accompanied by two Military Aircraft, who guided them down, and communicated to them how and where to land. They flew over a massive city, one that was partially visible from space.

After they got near the helipad they were to land on, the two aircraft left them and ground control took over.

Soon after, the ramp to the ship opened, but the crew waited to receive the special suits per the local government's instructions, which arrived a few minutes later.

After another few minutes of putting the suits on, which were colored Red and Yellow, the Jedi and diplomat stepped out to find two columns of soldiers lining the path to a long black vehicle, itself surrounded by vehicles lined with blue and black stripes.

To meet them at the bottom of the ramp were two men and a woman in gray suits, themselves surrounded by five men in black suits.

The man in the front spoke. "Hello, I am President Hamilton of the United States of America, I would like to be the first to thank you for visiting our world".

The Republic delegation walked down the ramp. "And we consider it as much a pleasure to meet you Mr. President" Meeta Raida said. She had taken the time to learn the customs of Earth politics from a lengthy brochure provided by the Mars' Mission control.

The group walked to and entered the black vehicle, which the president called a car. The route they would take had the streets blocked off, letting them go to their destination in under five minutes.

During that time, the President asked about their time on Mars, and some information on the workings of the Republic.

The Jedi, on this world too, were unable to sense any of the life on this world, not even the plants or animals. Only those who were from the Republic could be sensed. They were going here completely blind, forcewise at least, but thankfully, it wasn't their job to talk to the governments, that was the Republic Diplomats job. They were asked by the Jedi to learn some more about this species, and how they learned about this species deficiency to them was up to their judgment.

While in the car, Pall asked the president for a deal. Pall decided to explain how the humans here were missing a vital part of life, and that they were curious why that was. The President recommended they visit a Laboratory, and asked that they do their research with humans from Earth. It was agreed and while Meeta would talk to the nations of the world, the Jedi would visit a laboratory, under close scrutiny.

At the Research lab, the Jedi and a group of scientists took turns looking at each other's blood under the microscope. The Jedi explained midichlorians as a necessity for life, but left out the part that it was the entire basis of the Jedi, and cause of most major wars in the galaxy.

It took some time, but after a few hours, it was, at least partially, understood why midichlorians were not present in life on Earth. Midichlorians were like a virus to those who didn't have it. A normal lifeform from the galaxy would have cells reproduce midichlorians when they got in contact with each other, which itself would connect them to the force. On Earth, when the midichlorian cells tried to attach to the host cell, the midichlorians were immediately dissolved. For one reason or another, cells were toxic to the midichlorians.

This trait was shared across all life on Earth, from tiny bacteria to plants to humans. Somehow, life on Earth was toxic to midichlorians, which was explaining why it was so difficult to use the force here.

Depending on how much bacteria was in the air, this cellular toxicity to midichlorians could also be harmful to any visitors, if life was truly dependent on midichlorians as the Jedi said.

The Meeting at the UN was closed doors, and included the diplomat Meeta Raida explaining a general history of the Republic over the past few thousand years, and focusing on the past hundred, as not much had actually changed. The Republic had a senate, who voted on a Chancellor, who was currently Chancellor Valorum

The UN also decided to choose a name to represent the people on Earth. Since "human" was already taken, they chose Terran when discussing both humans from Earth compared to humans from other worlds, but would keep the name of the planet Earth. So now, someone from Earth was a Terran.

Works were already put in place to do what had already been in the works, the Unified Space Force. Effective the following year, and with unanimous support from the Security Council, all military actions in space, along with border control and immigration from other worlds would be under this department until a new solution was devised. It would be separate from the UN, but would be automatically made up of spaceflight ready nations. The head of this new United Branch of the Military and its powers would be decided in the coming months.

The UN also decided on the creation of an ambassador to the Republic, who would be chosen over the next month. After they are chosen, preparations would be made for them to visit Coruscant and meet with the leaders of the nation along with the Senate.

Uniting with the Republic was voted on, and was decided by unanimous vote of the General Assembly that the request would be denied. It was decided that in ten years time they would return to that issue, as recommended by the Republic Diplomat.

An agreement was also made that the Republic would send assistance to Earth by way of engineers and schematics once preparations were in place for the safety of any who come, to assist in the development of starships for transportation.

Aside from a question and Answer regarding the workings of the Republic, not much else happened.

Three days later, the crew of the Republic began to make their long journey back, but not before establishing a direct communications link from Earth to Coruscant, allowing instantaneous contact to be sent and received.

Two weeks later, Jedi Council Chambers, after the crew returned to Coruscant.

Jedi Master Sanova and Padawan Bonta-Mi stood before the Council, having come directly from the landing pad. This was a special meeting, and all members were there in person.

"Read your report, we did" Yoda said to the two Jedi.

"This information is quite concerning" Mace continued. "You are certain there are no midichlorians there?"

"There are midichlorians in the atmosphere, but there are very few. Working with the natives, we scanned and found only one or two per square meter at ground level, but higher up, ten thousand meters, there were four per square meter. Their records show there has been life on their world for nearly a billion years. If life there has always been as toxic as it was, that could explain why".

"What of the remains of Project Endeavor?" Plo Koon asked, changing the topic.

"The project was partially a success. One of its goals was to meet a species known as the Chiss, which it claims to have succeeded in doing. They took a Chiss as a guide, but according to the records and a message left in a holocron found aboard, the ship was vented by what the Jedi assumed was the Chiss, killing the crew while the two Jedi and one crew member were away. The last part of the message mentioned that them three had been rescued by a nearby starship, but he left the holocron as a beacon".

"A beacon you say? A holocron as a beacon?" Plo Koon asked.

Master Giiett responded "I could see that happening, if you infuse a holocron with the force a certain amount, you could make it act like one. It wasn't unknown for the Jedi back then to be extremely powerful in the force. Master Yoda, what do you know of holocrons as beacons?"

"Only stories was I told of them, yes. Always two there are, a beacon, and an amplifier. Why we did not sense the beacon, the answer may lie with the placement of the amplifier". Yoda looks down slightly. "Search the records on holocron beacons, we must, to find where the missing Jedi are".

During this meeting, Mira is wondering why these two Jedi are so important, since they died so long ago. Plo Koon notices, and asks her to speak her mind.

"These Jedi were assigned to a mission that we know failed, a thousand years ago. By now they are long gone, and all the information their ship had is now back with us. Jedi died all the time back then, why are these ones important?".

Mace Windu responded "Because there is reason not to trust the Project on face value. The Jedi have always stayed away from politics if we couldn't help it, and collaborating with the Chancellor on a one time mission in the middle of a major war with the Sith to explore the Unknown Regions was a waste of Jedi and resources when it was needed most."

Master Sanova replied "So you feel there was something of greater significance happening?"

"Yes" Mace Windu sighed. "The records are very sparse on this project, but I and the rest of the council feel that there was a more important purpose for the Jedi to go on that expedition".

"So you want us to go back?" Mira asked.

"Indeed" Plo Koon responded. "The species you met along the way may be of use to you. They were able to get to space without any assistance, thus they may also have star maps you can use to aid in your search. We are in an age of peace, let us use it wisely".