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"I see" he said after a few moments. "I will have plenty of time to study later, from what you've said, we have more pressing matters than the advancement of science to deal with..." he was contemplating the possibilities of extra-dimensional physics. if he could find a dimension where, say, normal hyperspace drives could move at wormhole speeds, and he could get them to make them and sell them to our universe for things made with our physics... he did not voice his ideas, however, as they were currently not within the legal system. Dimitri was a good person at heart, all the Ubinovs were, but he was still prone to personal gain, and like his great great many generations removed uncle, his conscience's view of the common good was open to interpretation. not that anyone knew this about Vladimir Ubinov, as no-one had seen him since his journey to the now vanished colony of krypton, named for its physical similarities to that ancient fictional ice-world. Dimitri's idea was illegal now, but he was sure a few conversations with representatives, telling of the vast amounts of money to be gained, would change some votes. not now, he told himself, the confederacy, and therefore the people, could... would undoubtedly benefit from instantaneous travel without a gate, he was sure this would be a noble undertaking. he would tell his shipmates eventually, when they weren't faced with danger and very busy with their jobs. he didn't let his conscience know what he saw as the inevitable... personal rewards of this plan. he held his thoughts from being uttered now... not now...

"Understood captain" Bravo said as a motor began twitching again and his head spun 60 degrees before stopping and reorienting itself back to normal fixture and he magnetized himself to the deck where he wasn't able to move an inch

Lyngia stood, beginning to make her way to her station. On her way, she stopped in front of Dimitri and lightly tapped one end of the lightsaber. "Don't point this end at your face," she advised with a light smile. Shaking her head, the woman continued walking and stopped when she reached James.

"So, since we're headed there already, what was Wedge's message? Haven't heard from the old devil in quite some time." She stood shoulder to shoulder with James, her voice low so only he would hear, eyes gazing at the rest of the room.

James turned his head slightly towards Lyngia. "Wedge wanted to know if we could aid Rogue Squadron with some covert operation. He knew we could be of use since this Star Runner has a cloaking device, something that even the richest on Courscant can't even afford. He did hint at that it was important to the survival of both dimensions. Now I know what he meant. I have a feeling once we get to Courscant we will know exactly what the New Republic needs us to do." James looked over to see Dimitri trying to turn on the lightsaber.
"You aren't going to get that to turn on without it either being modified or if you have a connection to the Force. It's got an internal switch that can only be activated by a Force User. He then motioned for Dimitri to toss it back, which he did. He handed it to Lyngia.
"If you would please demonstrate." With a flick of the wrist, Lyngia had the lightsaber active, its blade an almost white glow.

"Oh, do I love this thing," Lyngia cooed, stepping a safe distance away from everything and performing a few quick slices and fighting maneuvers before powering the weapon down. "Very efficient, very dangerous. And pretty badass, too." She laughed, hooking the lightsaber to her belt. "Feels good to have that back. I missed it."

"The 'Force'?" Dimitri replied, unsure of what force his captain was talking about. having a doctorate in a physical science, he knew all about forces, but never someone having a connec... ah! the captain had mentioned that they were going to another dimension. perhaps this dimension had some sort of 'psychological force' that activated the light saber. Dimitri was, as was his family, quick with his mind. this is what had allowed them to survive, despite having the least muscle mass you could imagine on a 'healthy' human being. he stared at the lightsaber, then at Lyngia. she clearly had a 'connection' to this force. the matter deserved further study if they were going to be spending any significant amount of time in this other dimension. Lyngia was born on earth, or so her records said, so clearly the force had nothing to do with birth, or at least he wasn't excluded from using it simply because of his universe of origin. after a few moments of thought, he rephrased his question more directly. "what is the Force, and what is a 'connection' to it?"

James looked at Bravo, then at Lyngia, and chuckled. "Here we go again," he thought as he prepared his explanation. "The Force is this great mysterious power that binds the universe together. It permeates all things, living or not. We have reason to believe that the Gatekeepers were once in touch with powers like these. That is why they became so powerful near the end of their reign." James then reached out his hand and with a slight motion he made the lightsaber fly into his hand. He saw the surprise on Lyngia's face, and returned it to her. "I have learned how to use the Force in a very limited way. I prefer not to use it, though, as it would give away too much about our previous encounter. We have technology which can imitate the Force, but as with all machines, it requires electricity. The Force can't be worn down, only the user."
As they were speaking, Enterprise dropped out of Hyperspace, alongside the rest of the fleet. Within moments the viewscreen switched to Pierson's face. "Captain, I see we have a problem." Pierson made a mental note to ask about the lightsaber, then continued. "I feel that I'm not going to get much from you about your mission, so all I will say is best of luck. We will be on alert and battle ready. Pierson out." The viewscreen returned to normal, and James went to the center seat. He turned to Lyngia. "Time to get underway." He then turned to the rest of the crew. "May fortune favor the bold."

Pouting slightly over the loss of the lightsaber - she hadn't been allowed to use hers since they had come back from that mission, and she didn't appreciate having it stolen, even for a short time - Lyngia took her place, shoving the junior officer out of her seat and sitting down. The poor man hurried to stand, apologizing. The pink-haired woman rolled her eyes and waved him off. "James, when are we going to get a crew that doesn't balk at the thought of speaking with me?" she asked, watching the man scurry off, an expression of utter terror on his face. "Am I really that frightening?"

James shrugged, not really knowing what to say. He felt the deck plate shudder slightly as the star drive was activated and it lifted off from the hangar deck. Within seconds the ship had cleared the hangar and was headed off to its destination. He turned to Dimitri. "Chief, I want you to calibrate the hyperspace engines to a quantum frequency of 219875.312. That is the logged frequency of the dimension we want to go to." He could hear the hyperspace drive activating, and knew that they would soon be at their destination. Within moments the engines were calibrated and the ship jumped into hyperspace.

As soon as they dropped out of hyperspace, they were nearly rammed by a large bulk freighter that was on the run from two squadrons of fighters. "Looks like we made it. Bravo, take out those fighters before they can get a lock on us. They are Imperial. I am not in the mood for a large-scale engagement today."

Dimitri made a mental note of the quantum frequency. he would remember that this was the dimension that he came to. the core wasn't happy at the change in the laws of physics, but the residual quantum frequency was enough to keep them from exploding. he made some quick adjustments to keep it calm.

Bravo got onto the nearest console and linked himself up with a few turrets as he began shooting out fighters that were chasing the bulk freighter. one by one the fighters exploded and eventually they had all began retreating and Bravo unlinked himself from the turrets and addressed James with a salute "task completed captain"

"Aw, I wanted to show off my fancy flying skills," Lyngia said with a pout. "Ah well, I'm sure there'll be a chance for that later; after all, we're back and Wedge wanted help. You know what that means." She grinned mischievously, thinking happily of all the fighters she might fly. "So, where are we off to, James?" She rolled her shoulders back, relaxing into her seat as she took in the familiar constellations.

James returned the salute to Bravo, then turned to Lyngia. "Set course for Courscant. If I'm correct that is where our friends are going to be. Wedge said that General Solo would meet us there whenever we crossed over."

Once again the ship was in hyperspace, hurtling towards the center of the galaxy at nearly two lightyears per second. "At this rate we should reach our destination in ten hours. I'd suggest you all get some rest. We have had a long day, and have an even longer one ahead of us."

After the ship was travelling towards Courscant, Lyngia stood and stretched, looking over at James. "Sleep? I'm way too excited to sleep, Captain," she said, laughing. "It feels good to back here, lightsaber on my hip, meeting up with old friends. I wonder how that rascal Solo is doing." Grinning, she moved off to find a comfortable chair to doze in; but she stopped to look back at the others. "Bravo, Dimitri, I trust you know that this mission is a secret, and that you can tell no one about this place." Her eyes, cheerful and happy a moment earlier, were steely and firm, threatening.

Dimitri melted under her gaze. of course! this mission was secret. his duty to his job and his fellow shipmates overcame his scheming. he forgot the frequency and simply said "yes lyngia". so much for a scientific report on this universe.

"All knowledge gained pertaining to this sector shall be placed as classified to everyone except the crew and placed under lock down in my data storage" he said and his head began twitching some more as old motors were a common issue with Bravo he gripped his head and held it in place as he walked out of the room to go get it repaired

"Thank you," Lyngia replied, her expression shifting again to a bright, sunny smile. "Just you wait till we get to Courscant. You two are in for a treat." Eyes sparkling, the woman left to find a spot for relaxation.

Eight Hours Later:

James awoke to the sound of the Red Alert alarm going off. He hurried to the bridge, only to see a New Republic Interdictor Cruiser on the viewscreen, surrounded by two squadrons worth of fighters. He quickly pulled up the communication grid. "This is the Republic Interdictor Corusca Rainbow. You have trespassed into our territory. Identify yourselves or prepare to be boarded." James quickly sent his reply.

"This is the Star Runner Cavalier. We have been invited to Courscant by General Solo," he replied. By then everyone had returned to the command deck. There was a momentary pause from the Interdictor's captain.

"Star Runner Cavalier, you are cleared to approach Courscant. No hard feelings. We just believed you were Imperial agents when the ship appeared to have no transponder and had no logged flight path to the system."

After the comm closed, James went about checking the systems. "We should be able to return to hyperspace in a few minutes. The Interdictor did not damage the hyperspace coils, just knocked a few components out of alignment. With a few calibrations we should be good."

Seeing that everyone was awake and ready, James had them return to their normal stations. He needed them there incase if they ran into someone that wasn't so friendly.

(Since I left the last post with an unusual ending, I will continue.)

The Star Runner dropped out of hyperspace in orbit above Coruscant, and within minutes it was escorted by two X-wings to the Imperial Palace, the location of the New Republic government. As everyone exited, James and Lyngia were greeted by two very familiar faces. "General Solo, General Antillies. It is good to see you two again," James aid as they approached. He shook the others hands and introduced the others. "You both know my first officer, Lyngia. As for the other two, The droid is Bravo. He is the head of security on my starship. The other, Dimitri, is the chief engineer."

General Han Solo returned the greeting. "I am Han Solo, captain of the Millennium Falcon and Strike Force coordinator. This is General Wedge Antillies. He is the leader of Rogue Squadron and one of our senior veterans of the war against the Empire." Han then turned to James. "Why the sudden visit?"

James suddenly got very serious. "We have a problem. A huge problem. We have evidence that Thrawn's fleet has the ability to cross over between realities. We found an ancient fleet of starships that are the most advanced ones in my universe, and they were destroyed by a handful of Super Star Destroyers and their escorts."

Han shook his head. "I had heard Thrawn had dropped off the map for awhile back a couple months ago, but I thought he had just went in hiding after his defeat at Mygeeto. He must have found another operational Hypergate. I thought we had the only surviving one documented."

"This looks like a problem for Rogue Squadron," Wedge said, giving a slight nod to Lyngia. James could see Lyngia get very excited at the notion.

"Captain, we have some prototype X-Wings that we need to test out. If you and your crew would like to get training to use them, we would be more than willing to loan them out for this mission."

James pondered it for a moment. "Hmm, sure. The sooner we can solve this mystery, the sooner we can restore the two dimensions." He turned to the others. "It's time you got some proper fighter training. If we are going to fly with the best, we have to train with the best. Let's get a move on it."

Bravo saluted "Agreed captain, no force shall stand a chance against us when we're behind fighter controls" he said and point to the Star Runner "and captain, i've been meaning to tell you, I have made room for necessary modifications to the Star Runner's engines with the engineers, we will be able to move faster when the modification is complete sir" he noted and his voice modulator beeped then switched off