Chapter 4

A small shuttle appeared out of hyperspace over a gargantuan space station. The station seemed to be divided into three spheres slightly smaller than the size of an average moon. But they were no moons. The three spheres were connected by small cylindrical portions eschewing from two points on each sphere, holding the entire station in a triangle shape. In the center of the three triangles were several large half-constructed ships and a wide number of clear, tube-like constructions running along from each of the three spheres in a seemingly pattern-less assortment. The shuttle's sublight engines engaged and began to push the ship towards the station. Slowly, the shuttle entered the station and touched down inside a hangar.

Inside the hangar, the shuttle disengaged its engines and extended a boarding ramp. From inside the ship, two tall figures, and a single short one, all wearing black flight suits with grey robes over the suits. All three had their hoods pulled up and masked their faces.

A young man, not a day standard day older than twenty, with long black hair and a lanky walk, greeted the men from the ship.

The middle figure raised his hood. "Hello, Ritik." said Jogrum Katarn with a smile, one to kind to be genuine.

"Hello, Masters Jedi." The young man named Ritik, bowed.

"Are you prepared for our inspection?" asked Katarn.

"Yes, Master. The speeder is just this way."

Ritik led Katarn and the two other men away from the ship and to the left side of the hangar. A small speeder shaped like a rectangular pod was protruding from a small metal tunnel in the wall. The speeder itself was connected to the sides of the tunnel and, as far as Katarn could tell, was dependent on the tunnel for mobility. Ritik opened the end of the speeder and let the three men enter before him. Ritik entered after and went to the far side of the speeder. He pressed a button and a transparisteel viewport encased the speeder. Afterwards, Ritik laid his hands to several other controls and the speeder took off.

They sped through the metal tunnel and soon entered the tunnel faded, except for the track the speeder was placed on, to reveal a gargantuan metal yard extending several kilometers below the speeder.

"As you can see below you, our new line of Force-class capital ships are currently being worked on down here. The ones you see below are incomplete; however we do have many other complete ships of this class."

The speeder reentered the tunnel, only to exit it within a matter of seconds. Below them was a smaller yard, although still large.

"This is our second fleet of the new line of Saber-class starfighters for the GA. The third and fourth fleets are nearing completion, and the fifth and sixth fleets are well under way."

Somewhere around a hundred starfighters lined the hangar below. The Sabers kept the same cylindrical bodies as the Zayin fighters, but had a long, rectangular wingspan running from each end of the fighter. The cockpit was towards the front of the ships and at the back end, above the engines, was large hump with two circular holes barreled in them.

"This is only one example of the starfighters we've made. This is, however, the most numerous fighter class we've made and contains the experimental dual-navigator technology." Ritik explained.

The man to the right side of Katarn lowered his hood. "Dual-navigator technology?" asked Scorpio Grottl.

Ritik explained as the speeder reentered the tunnel. "Most astromech droids are incapable of piloting a starship on their own without significant tinkering. We believe we have perfected a system of allowing two astromechs to co-pilot the starship. Although these droids serve several new functions, in particular their inclusion allows for the sentient pilot of the fighter to concentrate on the actual fighting functions. The two droids not only pilot the ship, but effectively in combat situations, while allows the pilot to regain manual control almost instantaneously."

"Jogrum?" asked Grottl.

"I am quite impressed. What say you, Osias?"

Farril deigned to lower his hood, but merely nodded in response.

The speeder zoomed out from the tunnel and into a clear tube. The tube was one of many located between the three spheres they made up the entire space station. Above all the tubes were several half-built ships, much larger than the average capital ship. Around them were countless floating construction devices currently building the ships.

"Of course, we have a wide variety of ships, sporting the latest technology," Ritik began, "But here are the strongest ships available to your fleet. The Juggernaut-class Star Dreadnoughts. They'll serve as command ships. Upon completion, this class of battleships will sport over three thousand turbolasers and laser cannons, three thousand heavy turbolasers, three hundred concussion missile tubes, three hundred ion cannons."

Katarn studied the ships. It was difficult to see from where they were, but something seemed wrong. He frowned. "I don't see any tractor beams."

"We've had to sacrifice those."

"And you believe that to be a tactical advantage?"

"Let me finish, Master Jedi."

Katarn indicated with his hand for Ritik to continue.

"The tractor beams had to be sacrificed to make way for greater weapons. With the help of the Yuuzhan Vong shapers you've provided to aid our work, we've been able to create or, excuse me, grow dovin basals and plasma cannons, the Vong call it Yaret-Ko, and attach them to our dreadnoughts."

Scorpio's eyes bulged inside his head. Such a thing was unheard of. "How on Ossus were you able to accomplish that?"

"I am sure Master Shaper Rin could explain better than I, but as I understand it, the Yuuzhan Vong you sent us have found a way of unifying their biotechnology with our technology."

Scorpio scrunched his nose. "I though they deemed that undoable centuries ago?"

"It was. With the banning of Yuuzhan Vong technology, the only people who had access to their biotechnology, besides for the remaining Vong, were GA scientists. They were the ones who tried to unify the two technologies, but without a Yuuzhan Vong shaper to help them, they never succeeded."

Katarn squinted his eyes. On the underside of one of the dreadnoughts, he saw several small, brown protrusions that he assumed where plasma cannons. "If I remember correctly, the dovin basals were grown in the company of a yammosk, the war coordinators to which they were telepathically linked."

"Correct."

"However, all known war coordinators that were not destroyed at the end of the Yuuzhan Vong war disappeared into Zonama Sekot."

"Again, correct."

"So, then what is controlling the dovin basals?"

"As Nli Rin explained to me, the yammosk link with the dovin basals was more of a means to facilitate propulsion. Of course, we have our own engines for this. Master Shaper Rin expounded to me that her adapted dovin basals are able to move independent of the yammosks. However, their propulsion systems are severely limited, but like I said, that isn't what we need them for. Their defense system of the black-hole generators is their main purpose aboard the dreadnoughts, and can also be used to drain enemy shields."

Katarn nodded, observing the spherical black dovin basals that were in the process of being attached to the ships. "And the plasma cannons? How do they work?"

Ritik eyed the adjacent edge of the tube entering into another section of the space station that was fast approaching. "They act like the laser cannons of a starship. They aren't dependent on a computer to function, they can activate manually. The problem is, a dreadnought ship doesn't have enough crew members to stand on the deck to control every plasma cannon. The problem was solved, however, when Nli Rin integrated control of the plasma cannons into the ship's computer targeting systems."

"How do they compare to current GA warships?"

"The GA is in the process of demilitarizing. Enlistment is down and they haven't upgraded their ships' weapons in the last fifty years. At least before I was let off, the GA military barley even trains their pilots to fight Vong technology anymore. Just a small instruction and most GA pilots have logged very little time against Vong simulations. Not only will they be grateful for your help in reversing the demilitarizing process, but for these ships. This new class of dreadnoughts will be the most powerful ships in the GA military."

The tube ended and the speeder entered another tunnel in the space station, leaving the blackness and under-construction Juggernauts.

"Now, as for infantry weaponry—"

Jogrum Katarn cut Ritik off. "Actually, our main concern was the navy. We are leaving the general army to you. The GA has faith in you."

"Yeah, I am sure that's what they thought when they let me go." Ritik muttered.

The speeder stopped in a small corridor. Ritik hopped out of the speeder and onto the platform next to it. The three Jedi raised their hoods over their heads again. Farril moved to the control at the head of the speeder and got ready to send the speeder back to the hangar they arrived in.

"Um, Master Jedi." Ritik looked slightly nervous when he began to ask his question, "When will the Alliance be sending the credits to us for our work here? In fact, other than you Jedi, I haven't seen any Alliance officials here, other than the people you've sent. And those people were all Jedi too."

Katarn, hood raised over his head, turned to Ritik. Ritik couldn't see Katarn's face, but felt a sudden chill run up his spine. Katarn didn't respond and after several seconds, Farril programmed the speeder and it was gone.

Hirim Tam sat in the floridly decorated Chief of State's office in Alliance Palace. The office had just finished undergoing redecoration for Tam. The new arrangement reflected a combination of water and industry. The room was square in shape, except for the window to the back of the Chief of State's desk, which was shaped in a semicircle. The walls had been overlaid with a brown-grey scheme they reminded Tam of the buildings on his home planet of Borderion, and one wall to the right of his desk was covered in a large control panel that acted as a transmitter to nearly every government building on Coruscant. It was intentionally expanded to cover the whole wall, even though his smaller transmitter on his desk served the same purpose. The carpet had a blue color scheme that seemed to get dark as it stretched from the far end of the office to the entrance, giving the impression of running water. The blue ceiling added to the water-based feel of the office.

Tam yawned. "It's late, Elana. Why don't you get some sleep? I can handle the rest."

Senator Elana Athos played with her dark hair for a short second. She was the senator for Coruscant and the system. Both her eyes and hair were dark, and her face ended in a stately point. Her fingers, as well as her figure, was slender and she seemed portray the ideal Coruscanti woman—a fact the senator had not forgotten when reelection season came around. "Are you sure, Hirim? Really, I don't mind."

Tam waved Athos off. "The Senate meets early tomorrow for those new trading bills. You'll do the planet a favor by going to sleep."

Athos bowed deeply. "Thank you, Chief."

Athos briskly walked over to the door and out. Tam smiled briefly as he watched her leave and then turned to his work.

Once again, Tam yawned. It was tiring, and more importantly, boring work. It had been over a month since his induction as Chief of State and the Senate had wasted no time shoveling work on him. He had rarely slept more than four standard hours in the last month. All the work weighed heavily on his large, fatty shoulders. The words on the flimsiplast and datapads seemed to blur. Soon, they were indistinguishable from the surfaces they were displayed on. Soon, the displays themselves blurred into the desk and Tam fell into darkness…

"Chief Trell?"

Tam jumped in his seat. At first he was confused as to where he was, until he remembered he had fallen asleep. Glancing behind him, he could see it was still dark, but in the distance the sky was vaguely grey, signaling the coming morning.

"Ah, you were sleeping. We should have accounted for local time."

The voice was coming through the comm station implanted in his desk. Tam checked the transmission line and noticed it wasn't a Coruscanti code. In fact, it wasn't even an Alliance code.

"Hello? Who is this?"

"Trell, you know well enough who it is. Now turn on the holoprojector, please."

Confused, Tam complied. The projection turned on to show a minuscule figure of a woman in a military-looking uniform. She was hard to distinguish in the hologram, but she had dark hair pulled back in a bun down towards her neck. The one thing that stood out was the crest adorned on her upper arm, just below her shoulder. Tam's eyes widened slightly. Tam had never seen the symbol outside of history holobooks or museums.

"Oh," the woman looked over Tam. "You are not Chief Trell."

"Um, hello. No, Chief of State Hydan Trell was assassinated over two standard months ago…you didn't hear?" Tam asked, wary of the woman he was talking to.

"Of course not, why would we—" The woman stopped, realizing what she was saying. "Right, new, sorry. May I ask whom I am addressing?"

Tam brushed his messy, sleep hair out of his eyes and sat up straight. "Chief of State Hirim Tam."

"Well, it is very nice to meet you, Tam. I am Dima Orothi, but you knew that."

"No."

Orothi looked confused. "I'm sorry?"

"No, I didn't know who you were."

Orothi pursed her lips and thought to herself for a moment, "Have you read the Chief of State's protocols?"

Tam moved his eyes from the hologram. He could feel his cheeks reddening. "Um, well, I've started…however, I've been rather busy."

"I see. Then I don't suppose you know who I represent?"

"No, I don't."

Orothi moved looked intently at Tam's face and read it like an unlocked datapad. "But you have a guess."

Tam shifted uncomfortably in his seat. It was true he did have a nagging suspicion about the identity of the woman, but he didn't want to say it, for fear of confirmation.

"Well, your accent. It sounds like a Core world accent, but with some slight differences. And the symbol on beneath your shoulder blade; that's the crest of the Empire. The Fel Empire. You're Imperial."

"Correct. I'd like to say more now, but you're new. Your office may have been bugged between Trell and your appointment. So, I'll be brief. The Empire still exists, deep in the Unknown Regions, and we are preparing to return."

Tam's face instantly turned pale. "What do you mean by return? What are your intentions?"

"I am not at liberty to say, but suffice to say our intentions are not hostile. That is the point of telling you now." Tam's face showed he was obviously confused. Orothi dropped her head briefly and return to face Tam. Orothi was clearly annoyed with the obtuse new Chief of State. She rubbed her temples and said curtly, "Look, essentially what I am calling to tell you is that you and a small delegation are required to come to the Ankus system."

"And if I refuse?"

She didn't seem to even consider this. "The Empire is returning, whether you show up or not. It would be in your best interest to come. Orothi out."

The projection disappeared. Tam leaned back in his chair and took a long, shaky breath.

"So, where have you two been for the last two hundred years?"

Kieran Horn and his companion, Nastra Vao had spent the entire night working on the droids. Now, early morning, they were nearly complete.

"I am sorry, Master Nastra?"

Nastra looked up from the hard oil scrub he was giving the protocol droid. "The two of you droids were once the most recognizable mechanicals around. But then you disappeared from history."

"Well," Kieran looked to Nastra from his tinkering of Artoo's middle leg. "Artoo disappeared at the same time the Empire disappeared. You, Threepio, left history a lot earlier. Care to tell us what happened?"

"Yeah and how you two ended up on Ossus?"

Threepio cocked his droid head, as if in thought. He paused and raised his head again. "Well, it is a rather long tale."

Kieran wiped a small bead of sweat off of his forehead and turned to Threepio. He smiled, interested, and said, "Summarize it for us. Tell us a story."

"A story? Oh, I'm not very good at telling stories, I'm afraid." Threepio must have seen the two Jedi's forlorn faces through his photoreceptors because he then decided, "However, since you've taken the time to care for my counterpart and I here, I'll try my best."

"Artoo was once in the care of Master Luke and Mistress Mara and I was in the care of Master Luke's sister, Leia and her husband Master Han. Artoo and I had previously traveled together for years, and even after our separation, often ended up together on some dangerous and frightening adventure."

Kieran shot a glance towards Nastra. It didn't sound like anything they hadn't read in the histories.

"But, after a time our paths split for good. Mistress Leia died at a very old age. When she did, Master Han and I were invited by their granddaughter, Allana Solo, Queen Mother of Hapes to live with her. Master Han and I went to the Hapes Consortium when we lived for several years. After a couple of years, Master Han died. Poor Master Han."

It was common knowledge that after Leia Organa Solo had died, her husband Han Solo had disappeared into the Hapes Constortium, rarely seen in elsewhere in the Galaxy again. However, something Threepio had said struck Kieran as strange, "Why 'poor Master Han?'"

"Oh it's a sad tale, really. He seemed to be the most affected human I knew. He had lost so much. His sons, his wife, his life-long partner, Chewbacca. He even felt as though he lost his daughter."

Nastra perked up his head, recognizing the mention of another of their ancient Jedi heroes. "Jaina Fel? The Sword of the Jedi? The slayer of Darth Caedus?"

"Yes, her own brother. Master Han always felt as though he lost her to the Empire."

Kieran, normally a master of his own emotion, let a small whimper through. "Wow, I…never read that in any of the records. It's so…sad."

"Oh, yes. In the end I think he died happy though. He still had his granddaughter, and she loved him to his dying breath."

Kieran let a small smile pass through his lips, content to know the old smuggler had a happy ending, at least. "So, what happened to you after Han died?"

"Well, Mistress Allana ruled for many years. The Consortium became famous for their Jedi Queen, as the stories went, who ruled from the white throne as the friend of all species. Allana had her own child who became Queen Mother after her and then she too had children. One of them, the first born daughter became the next Queen Mother. One, a son, joined the Jedi Order. The last child, Ania Solo, left Hapes, rejecting both her heritage as a Jedi and royalty of Hapes."

"Ania left for the Outer Rim and at first, she took me with her."

"But you didn't finish the trip with her?" Nastra guessed.

"Correct. We were on our way when we were intercepted. It was during a war, I am not sure what you call it now…" Threepio looked questioningly, as much as a droid could, at Nastra. Nastra, realizing what it was the droid was asking for, pulled a small metallic chip from within his robes. Nastra inserted the chip into the droid's golden head.

Kieran saw what Nastra was doing and inserted a similar datachip into the cylindrical droid. They were now both completely updated with the most current specifications and galactic history.

"Thank you, Master Nastra. We were intercepted during the Second Imperial Civil War. Our captors were pirates, hoping to sell Mistress Ania to the Sith. Ania escaped but the cost was me. The pirates, disappointed, gave me over to their boss, a pirate named Rav. The pirates that captured me presented me to Rav. Rav saw no use for me and handed me over to another group of pirates, a blonde man and a dark-skinned man. They blonde man seemed to recognize me, although I was quite sure I had never met him before."

Nastra and Kieran both looked at each other, realizing the same thing. "Threepio," Kieran hesitated. "I think that was Cade Skywalker you met. Check your new databanks. He's a descendant of Luke Skywalker."

Threepio paused, searching his new memory. Then he threw his hands in the air. "That was Master Luke's descendant? Thank the Maker!"

"So what happened then?"

The two men took me on their ship. The dark skinned one deactivated me and the next thing I knew I was in droid memory terminal being activated by my counterpart here."

Kieran thought about what the droid had said. "I suppose they must have dropped you off on this planet?"

"Droo-doee. Rata-scree-ooo."

See-Threepio looked surprised. "Really, Artoo?"

Neither Kieran nor Nastra were particularly good at droidspeak, preferring to have it translated for them over trying to decipher what the buzzing actually meant.

"According to Artoo, when he came aboard Cade's ship, he found my body discarded in the hold. It was destroyed beyond repair and he was unable to activate me."

"You were deactivated?"

"No. As it happens, I had my memory and personality backed up in a droid memory terminal during the Yuuzhan Vong War by Master Han. Eventually, Master Luke had the backup transferred to Ossus."

"So, your original body was destroyed sometime during your possession by Cade Skywalker but you lived on in a terminal on Ossus." Kieran reviewed.

"Dreeoot. Do rareet-doot."

Threepio translated Artoo's interjection. "And after Cade disappeared, Artoo returned to Ossus and joined me."

They had reached the part of the conversation Kieran was more interested about. "Why did you return to Ossus, Artoo? Where did you go?"

Artoo whistled a long explanation to Kieran.

"Artoo, says he can't tell you what happened to Cade because he doesn't know. One day, Cade told Artoo he was leaving and he wasn't coming back. So Artoo returned to the last place he had been before leaving with Cade, Ossus. Artoo wants to know how you knew to find us."

Kieran looked uneasy. "Um, well…our families found you, Artoo, about a century ago in the forest on Ossus, deactivated. They realized who you were and transferred you to a cavern underground, to hide you. They realized you might be the only connection to the lost Skywalker family. That's why I was looking for you. I had received a notice on my datapad triggered by your activation in the underground cavern. If you've been activated…then that must mean Skywalker is returning."

Kieran connected a few last wires in the rounded droid's chassis. Suddenly, Artoo backed up fast and began to whistle loudly.e

"Toodle-dreet-deet!"

Nastra looked at the protocol droid. "Threepio, what did he say?"

Threepio looked from his counterpart to the two Jedi. He let out the droid equivalent of a sigh and said, "We need to depart immediately for the Ankus system. Something is waiting for us there. And someone."