Space was dark outside of the control bridge. All around the surrounding ships were reorienting themselves for the next jump. The Eighth fleet had been cruising on its mission to crush the Rebels out in the rim for two weeks now, and they were only halfway there. That was why no one was expecting the disaster…
When the computer finally cried out its alarm however, the event was over and everyone had felt it happen.
"What was that! No, I'll be on the bridge in just a second. I'll be right there," said Admiral Neebs, commander of the Eighth Imperial Fleet. The commander was a tall man, over six feet, and wore his Imperial uniform with obvious pride. He had been on his way to the bridge of his personal flagship when he felt the lurch. Power had fluctuated wildly and blown out some of the lights. As he raced out of the turbo shaft he noticed that the exterior lights were also down, preventing him from seeing the rest of his command.
At the entrance to the bridge, Admiral Neebs paused for a moment to straighten his uniform and strode through the gray blast doors onto his command bridge. Walking calmly down the elevated walkway over the huge bridge pits off to each side, he nodded to himself as he watched the numerous bridge ratings and officers scurry from console to console working desperately. Idly, he noticed that the lights in here were all fine. After staring out the front window down the long pointed shape of his powerful warship, he turned sharply and barked out an order, "I want a situation report from all sections! Ensign Lanro, call up the rest of the fleet on Holonet. I want reports from every ship in the fleet!"
Glancing up worriedly at the commander, Ensign Lanro, the new communications rating stuttered, "Sir, Holonet seems to be down!"
"No need for panic, just use the Hypercom. We'll let the others know as well." The Admiral said kindly. But behind his mask of a face, his mind churned, as he listened to the rest of the reports, seeking the most likely cause for this failure. "Find me the Rebel sympathizers that did this!" he finally ordered. "And get the sensors back up, NOW!"
On one of the supply ships, an urgent meeting was taking place. The occasional passerby might have noticed the noises coming out of the humid storage room. Power had not quite been restored to all sections and so the remaining lights flickered every so often. The passerby would have heard several low voices arguing intensely. "I'm telling you, that wasn't us! We might have to reveal ourselves so that we don't get blamed for this," That was the current object of attention for this specific group. "I'm telling ya guys, high command is gonna blame US for this."
"It doesn't matter. They can't touch us. He knows that. Most likely they're going to kill off all the Rebel traitors in their midst." While all the people at this meeting wore long, dark robes, this speaker's seemed to be darker than usual and had the hood up.
One hotshot spoke up, "I say we help them rout out those Rebels! I mean, what did they ever do to help us out? Now we get the scum back for that!"
"Not so fast!" The leader spoke up. "We're not going to help the admiral, and we're not going to reveal ourselves. We need to just find out what happened, and we'll act from there. Fear is running rampant in the hallways, and the commanders are in the middle of working things out themselves. We will take no action for now. Is that clear to everyone? Lars or Tinne, any problems? No? Good. What about you Sara?" he added darkly.
"I'm fine with whatever you say." 'For now, old man…' she thought as she stalked off as they all dispersed.
The real Rebel-lovers were rounded up in a matter of hours. The new problem was that, while the rest of the fleet was here, no one could tell where 'here' was.
"What do you mean, 'It's not on any star charts'!"
"That's exactly what I do mean, sir. And before anyone asks, no, we're not in the unknown regions. I'll explain briefly." Standing up, Lieutenant Sanders proceeded to turn on the holo projector in the center of the table. Everyone was seated around a long oval table and while power had been restored fully, the assembled commanders and captains of the fleet were uneasy. "Even in the unknown regions, we would be able to see some of the stars in the rest of the galaxy. We haven't found a single one that matches yet. Now this next part is just a guess of mine, but based on the last readings we took before the event, I would say that we've been shifted into another galaxy at least." After the room quieted down, Neebs calmed everyone down and motioned for Sanders to continue. Glancing around the dull grey room, so much like the room he was in at the Second Battle of Hoth he continued, "It's pretty simple really. None of the stars match up, and that wave that hit us was very powerful and had some boyse-tachyon elements in it. Both of these mean that we're at least in another galaxy, and at worst —"
"What do you mean at worst?" Rear Admiral Mutabi spoke up. A short mulish looking man he was currently in disgrace and thought by most people to be a little toady for Grand Moff Tarkin. "Surly we can just wait until the Emperor notices we don't show up on time? Surely he would send out someone to investigate?"
"We can't wait around forever, Mutabi. If they don't find us, what then? Let's let the youngster finish talking before we start talking policy." There was a round of 'hear, hears' all around and Sanders continued.
"Ahem. As I was saying, I've done a little testing of the physical constants here, and while they match mostly; there are several discrepancies that indicate, at least to me, that we're not in the same universe anymore. However, we are still running tests on some of the data, so we might find some new contradicting information. It is our belief that we are in another universe, with no sure way of returning."
"Thank you Sanders. You may go." After Sanders left the room, Admiral Neebs stood up. "Here are my thoughts gentlemen. We seem to be stranded in another universe, away from all Imperial support and allies. There is only one thing to do in this case, from my point of view." He stood up and began to pace the room. "We will endeavor to expand the Empire in this new universe, for the glory of Emperor Palpatine!" There was only scattered applause among the assembled officers. "What IS this? I am continuing our mission, just as the Emperor would have willed it. Besides, even if this new empire were in Palpatine's name, we would rule it! Think of it my friends, a whole new galaxy ripe for conquering, by you and me. Together we can expand the New Order and, of course, the Eighth Fleet would rule it all. Right here from our flagship, the Super Star Destroyer, Tyrannus!"
This got much larger cheers. The only noticeable dissenters were Mutabi and his supporters. They still feared the Emperor's power too much to go along with the scheme. It was too bad, thought Neebs; I'm going to have to remove them. What a pity…
Sara knew that she had to get away from the stifling grip of the Order. Unfortunately, the only way she knew how was to volunteer to go on one of the scouting missions being assembled. Officially, she was only a junior grade comms technician, so it might have been hard for her to get what she wanted. If it wasn't for her friendship with the Captain, she wasn't sure that she could arrange it.
As she walked down the halls, she passed several squads of stormtroopers talking along the way. One group was muttering about Jedi, and several others wanted to blame the Rebels, although no one thought they had the power to do this to them yet, so soon after the last battle.
Reaching her destination, and the first test of her old friend's loyalties, she stopped before the turboshaft to Yamato's quarters. The stormtroopers on guard there, snapped to attention, "Hold on there. What's your business here?"
"I'm here to see the captain. I have an appointment." That wasn't a lie, she had actually set up this meeting so she could work unopposed, and unmonitored by the others.
"Ah, right then," the lead guard said, checking his datapad. Motioning with his hands, he waved her through, "Everything seems to be in order. Just one moment." He fiddled with the controls, and the turboshaft opened up. "Just one more thing; do you know the situation is?" he asked hopefully. Shaking her head slightly, she closed the doors. At the top, she walked into a nice, but spartan room. It had a magnificent view of the ship, an Imperial Star Destroyer II.
The captain turned, smiled and asked, "How's it going Sara? I haven't seen you since graduation!" He had been a close friend through training on Cardia and at the Fleet Academy in orbit around Kuat. He pulled up two chairs and sat down.
"I'm doing fine, now. It was kinda rough after I got kicked out of pilot school, but I've recovered well. I see you got in the command track in time?" She relaxed and opened up to him, spending time catching up that she hadn't had the luxury of recently.
Much later after he laughed at one of her better jokes, "Yeah, I guess you're right! But enough about that. What did you want to see me about? You know that I still owe you for that one time, so if there's anything I can do, let me know."
"Oh! I was wondering if you could get me a spot on one of the upcoming recon missions, sir." Watching the startled look that flashed across his face, she knew she had made a slight mistake.
"How, did you — never mind… I guess the grapevine does travel faster than light. Each ship will be sending out one team of four. Why should I include you in my team?"
"For one thing, while I'm one of the best junior grade comms techs! The team will have to communicate by hyperwave, because Holonet is down. They'll need me to communicate with the fleet. Plus I've a degree in linguistics, so I can serve as a translator." She shot back at him, appalled and angry that he would doubt her.
"I see…. You have been busy, but I think we need someone with better combat skills. No offence, but I doubt that you could have the skills of a front line trooper!" He laughed, then paused after hearing an ominous 'snap-hiss'. Turning around slowly he whispered, "I take it that this isn't a regulation weapon?"
Sara smiled coldly. "Of course it is." She enjoyed the contortions his face went through. "Although, only if you're in the right group. No I'm not a Jedi, if that makes you feel any better" She said, forestalling the tremendous flood of questions she knew was coming. "If you'll notice, the blade is red, not blue or green." She paused, to wait for the realization to hit. Then when she was sure he understood, she continued, "Now that you understand my new position, we can get down to business. I'm sorry to have to drag you into this, but you were the only one that I could think of," she pleaded. "I'm out of contact with my superiors, so I'm on my own now. If you think that makes me any less powerful, think again. But enough about that, I can help you, you know. The captains will be setting up a new empire here. I'm willing to place myself at your service, to help you in the internal and external conflicts that are sure to follow."
"I think I see where this is going. Well, I can't say I have any objections to some help, nor can I raise any about combat skills. If you really want to go so badly, you're on the team." Reaching behind him, he pulled out a datapad, and handed it over. "All the information is on here. Good luck on your mission! We'll have to have a longer talk after you get back."
Sara nodded and walked out of the room reading the datapad, deep in thought.
It had been hard finding a secluded, and unmonitored, area to land the shuttle in. The pilot had remarked that that was one of the main problems with the Lambada class shuttles. He also made a recommendation that they be replaced with something stealthier now that they didn't have contact with KDY or anything.
The journey out to this planet hadn't taken too long. The fleet was parked in an interplanetary debris field, constructing a new set of shipyards. This shuttle was one of many being sent out to explore various ports nearby. The mission for this group was to acquire a local vessel and return with it to the Devastator, their base ship.
There were four people on each team. This group had Sara, a comm tech, Kyp Fisto, a demolitions specialist and all-around weapons guy, a slicer named Kelric, and lieutenant Paelleon, not related to the famous one that triumphed at the Second Battle of Hoth after his superiors all died. In the pilot's mind they would get along well.
Since this was a purely informational mission, they had all dressed in local garb, a loose fitting tunic and a robe that went over it. This planet was a minor trading stop in the region. In fact, it was so minor that there was only one important settlement on this planet. While in itself this wasn't too odd, the fact that the settlement had one object that had higher than normal power fluctuations did seem rather peculiar. After a days walk towards the city, they reached the outskirts.
"These people don't seem that much above Tuskin Raiders! I mean, look at the huts and shabby stone buildings they have here! Where is the order in a situation like this? It would be a blessing if the fleet wiped this place out and replaced it with a modern spaceport!" Kelric seemed especially disgusted with the city. Sara and Kyp didn't seem to notice and the LT was studiously ignoring the smell. Kelric did shut up after witnessing the first vessel to leave the spaceport.
It was a brown and gold pyramidal vessel, spreading out to two winglets on either side. There were no obvious signs of weapons, but it still took their breath away with the ease that it maneuvered. "I see you are impressed with our ships!" spinning around to face the voice, they saw a tall man, wearing robe like garments and with a holstered weapon of some kind. The man was oozing anticipation and greed Sara noted but paid more attention to what he said next. "If you're interested in a vessel like that, you've bumped into the right person! My name is Mallar, and I deal in —"
"Old used cargo ships. Don't let him warm up my friends, or you'll never be rid of him." Another man dressed similarly as the first walked up to them. Ignoring the dark look he got from Mallar, he continued. "I am Talar, a humble merchant and let me be the first to welcome you to the port of Sharnish! We deal in every kind of goods imaginable, from old System Lord equipment to free Jaffa weapons, to a few bits of salvaged Asgard technology! If you came to buy, you're in luck! We just got a cache of Tau'ri weapons and comm. gear. Now if you'll step over here, we can get down to the bargaining,"
" Fine by me. Sara, Kyp go take a recon around," The LT said. "Kelric and I will deal with these merchants. We'll meet up in the central plaza near the big ring in say, three hours."
"Yessir!"