Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars. I do own my original characters a plots.
A/N: This chapter is much longer than the first, which was very short. All the usual stuff...R&R...bla bla bla...and lots of confusion and excitement. And a cliffhanger at the end. But chapter 3 is done, anyway, so it won't be a long wait for that. Enjoy!
"You ready for this?"
"I was born ready."
"Good."
Jordi, Karwyn, and two very old, unsociable scholars lifted of the landing platform in Coruscant, a week after the council that gave Karwyn this mission. The sleek, silver cruiser, modeled after the Naboo Royal Cruiser from the time of the Clone Wars, flew through the atmosphere and into space effortlessly.
Karwyn nodded and Jordi commanded, even though there was no crew, "Entering coordinates for the outer spiral of the Milky Way Galaxy." A pause while he did so. Then, with a glance at his young friend, "Activating Galaxy Transfer Portal."
A shiny, much too elaborate portal opened in front of them. Jordi scoffed, "Your ancestors had no trouble making things look superfluous."
"I think it looks nice with the blue, glowing edges," replied Karwyn with every possible hint of sarcasm in his voice.
Behind the portal could be seen more stars, but it was very, very far away and soon to be much, much closer. The ship went through the portal which disappeared behind them, and entered hyperspace to reach the solar system and planet desired. After a while they slowed down and in front of them was a small, blue planet. Earth.
The two Jedi glanced at each other and Karwyn commented, "It looks pretty nice. Lots of water."
"That is a heck of a lot of water."
"Here goes." Jordi patted him on the back. Karwyn got up and went to the door that had been added to allow the ship to carry his fighter. The hatch opened and then the hatch to his fighter underneath. He climbed in, settled down, and buckled up. He put on a headset, closed the hatch, separated himself from the ship where the other door automatically closed, and turned on the engine. He flew closer to the planet but not yet into it's atmosphere. He first scanned the planet for larger cities and found 'San Francisco' a reasonable destination. Contacting his master one more time he spoke into the headset, "I'm about to enter the atmosphere. I'm headed for San Francisco."
The headset answered back with Jordi's voice, "Good luck. May the force be with you."
"Thank you."
They disconnected and Karwyn sent a signal to the airport he found located within his destination, which he figured was a docking place for air and spacecraft when considering its name. Also when considering its name he realized it was his own language. What an odd thing for a completely separate galaxy to use the same language as another. So he thought he might as well say, "Requesting permission to land small spacecraft at San Francisco airport. Do you copy?"
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"Tom look at this! We're getting a signal from 10 miles elevation!"
"What?" the manager, Tom, questioned.
"Listen to this."
One of five men working night shift in the control tower at the San Francisco airport was excited as a kid with a new toy. He pressed a button and a signal was played back saying, "Requesting permission to land small spacecraft at San Francisco airport. Do you copy?"
"Spacecraft?" Tom asked.
All five men were now paying attention.
"What should I say?" the first man asked.
Tom took the headset, put it on and sent back, "How many aboard?"
The man's reply came. "One, and a droid."
The men whispered to each other. Was it real? Tom thought for a moment, then asked, "Alien spacecraft?"
The response did not come immediately, but finally the man's voice returned. "Confirmed."
The men gasped. It seemed unlikely an alien would speak perfectly good English, but if he didn't know that airports didn't normally land spacecraft, then he couldn't possibly not be an alien.
Tom continued, "Permission to land granted, but wait for signal."
"Waiting for signal," came the answer.
"Any free airways?" Tom asked the men around him.
Another man sat back down and searched for the requested information. "Yes. Flight path 54 going into gate 12 is open."
"Good. Send him the coordinates." Into the headset again Tom stated, "We're sending you the coordinates to follow, you may land at gate 12."
After another moment the alien confirmed, "Coordinates received. Now following flight path 54. Over and out."
Tom took off the headset and wiped his brow. "I gotta see this." The five men sent the message to the airport executive and all the main building that a spacecraft was going to land at gate 12, exited the tower and ran to find out what would happen next.
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Karwyn sighed. He'd done it. He entered the coordinates given to him into the fighter's system and started to follow the path. "We did it, R2," he exclaimed to the droid unit.
His exclamation was met with excited beeping and Karwyn smiled. He had done it. Thank God they spoke the common language of the galaxy, or he may have never achieved what he did. His ship descended quickly and slowed as it approached the ground. A long lane extended forward, which slightly confused him that there was no actual platform. But it went toward a large building, so he flew low over the lane until he reached what must have been the airport headquarters or something. He saw a massive protrusion from the building that had "Gate 12" painted across it, so he approached it and landed. But already people were crowding around the craft as he lowered it and had to be extra careful so he wouldn't crush anyone. But everyone was safe and the young Jedi opened the hatch and jumped out of the small fighter, landing gracefully on the ground. He didn't want to appear hostile, so he set his lightsaber on the ground and held his hands up shoulder-height, palms out. "Uh, hello."
All the surrounding faces had mouths agape and wide eyes. Many more were staring through windows in the building ahead. A wheeled vehicle of some sort with 'News 10' painted all over it and a satellite protruding from the top sat nearby. Cables from it led to a large camera and crew that was getting nearer by the second.
Five men in uniform stood closest and one of them picked up the lightsaber. Karwyn was about to protest when the camera came right up close and a man with a microphone shoved it in front of his face and asked, "Where are you from?"
Karwyn quickly looked side to side, then at the man with the mic and answered slowly, "I'm here from the Andromeda galaxy to find other life forms, as I...I see I have." The man who picked up his lightsaber ignited it and everyone around looked amazed and whispered to each other. He moved it around, then faster to make whooshing noises and everyone remained dumbstruck. Karwyn could hear some words, like "Star Wars" and, to his astonishment, "lightsaber." But it was dangerous for anyone but a Jedi to wield a lightsaber, and this man obviously wasn't one, so Karwyn turned to him and pleaded, "Could you not...please don't touch that."
The man deactivated it and put it back on the ground to much of the audience's dismay, but Karwyn nodded a thank you. As he turned back, the man with the mic interrogated him again. "What's your name? How'd you get here? Are you human? You speak English, how is it possible?"
Now he was too close. He may have landed safely, but Karwyn hadn't realized that perhaps the people would be interested in him. But he couldn't take it anymore. Fear was not an emotion he was familiar with, but he was beginning to feel it. Leaving the ship and his lightsaber where they were, he ran for it. Past the man with the mic, under the camera, through the crowd, across a field, along a road, and into the city. It was bitter cold and windy, and smelled a little like fish, but Karwyn kept going. He got strange stares, probably because his clothes were so different from others. He didn't run for very long, since no one was following him for some reason. He wandered aimlessly, then felt something in the force. The presence of someone nearby that was full of potential. He followed his feelings to a large building, inside, up many floors, through a cold hallway. And finally a door with a number. It was locked. And inside it was dark. Next to the door was a button, which he pushed. Inside, it rang.