---Two Weeks Later, Festival Day---
Finishing our food preparations and sign placement with a few minutes to spare, Angelica, Clarice, and Olivia let out nervous sighs. While they were happy with the design of the booth and our menu, they were a bit conscious of their appearances in their costumes. Having left everything up to Luxion, my AI pal had gone the extra mile to base our attire on Victorian era servant attire. Setting me up with a crisp, black tuxedo, he had made custom maid outfits for the ladies. Using their existing size measurements to construct the clothing, they were embarrassed by how curvy it made them look.
"Luxion, I think you messed up my measurements. I do not remember looking like this when I wore the royal palace's maid outfits.", Clarice said, fidgeting around uncomfortably in her outfit.
"Yeah, I feel like it highlights our bodies a bit too much.", Angelica agreed, losing her apron a bit to hide her curves a bit more.
"If you feel this is bad, do not ever work for the Adventurer's Guild. My outfit back then was much more revealing than this.", Lucoa remarked, with a playful smile, "Victor, what do you think of the outfits?"
"I think you five beauties look drop dead gorgeous. While it does highlight your natural beauty, you must admit it shows far less skin than the dresses you wore to the party at the end of last semester.", I said, "No matter what those former fake friends of yours think, do not forget, I have your backs."
Flustered by my honest opinion, Angelica, Clarice, and Olivia fidgeted around in place while Lucoa and Roxanne smiled happily. Knowing they just needed reassurances that they looked fine in their outfits, I honestly felt they looked amazing in anything they wore. Leaving things at that, as the clock tower struck nine in the morning, the six of us quickly settled in for the long haul.
Getting to our assigned stations, Lucoa, Olivia, and I began cooking in the kitchen while Angelica, Clarice, and Roxanne manned the counter. Hearing the first wave of students approaching, the ladies took a few sips of lemonade before pumping themselves up. While they prepared themselves for chaos, I established a remote connection with my laboratory via my Neural Network. Checking my remote connection, I did a quick stress test to ensure I would not overwhelm my mind with the raw stream of data.
'Perfect, I do not feel any ill effects like I was concern about.', I thought, relieved that I did not immediately get a headache, 'Time to do some reading.'
Setting myself to autopilot, as the orders came flying in, it was clear that we would not see a break till our ingredients ran out. Knowing that we could pull this off as a team, the six of us dug our heels in and got to work.
---3rd Person POV, Galactic Republic, Coruscant---
Helping guide his heavily damaged vessel into drydock, Captain Gibson noticed a group of aid workers waiting for them along with three Jedi. Having met one of the Jedi in the past, he was happy to see a familiar face there instead of the typical jackass Jedi Master. Philip understood that the Jedi Order was an important part of the Galactic Republic's continued existence, but he personally felt they had been straying away from their roots over the past few generations. Having heard stories from his old man about the Jedi Order in its heyday, he honestly felt they currently had one foot in the grave so to speak.
Feeling the ship lock into place, the crew and refugees speedily disembarked the vessel. Relieved to be on solid ground again, everyone let out a sigh of relief as their treacherous journey was now at an end. Sending the refugees off with the aid workers, Captain Gibson approached his old acquaintance with a big smile.
"It is good see you, Samuel Gulliver.", Philip laughed, "Or is it something else now?"
"Haha, so you do remember me!", the Jedi Master chuckled, as the two men shook hands, "It is good to see you alive and well, Philip."
"Aye, it is good to be alive and in one piece, Obi-Wan Kenobi.", Philip said, "I assume you are here to discuss the group that came to our aide out there, correct? Do you need my entire crew to stay, or can I dismiss them so they can return to their residences and decompress?"
"They can return home, I do not want to hold everyone up after such a stressful voyage.", Obi-Wan stated.
"You heard the man, all of you get out of here.", Philip told them, with a smirk, "I do not want to see any of you till my bloody ship is space worthy again!"
Happily complying with his request, the crew picked up their baggage and ran away as fast as they could. In desperate need of cold beers, pizza, and hot showers, all of them were ready for a nice vacation. Turning back to Obi-Wan, Philip glanced over at the two other Jedi with him. Realizing he had yet to introduce them, Obi-Wan stepped back and cleared his throat.
"Sorry, I forgot you never got to meet my padawan, Anakin Skywalker. He was recently promoted to Jedi Knight and took on his own padawan, Ahsoka Tano.", Obi-Wan said, motioning to them respectively.
"What do you mean recently? I was promoted a few months ago…", Anakin sighed, with a friendly smile, "You are starting to lose it, old man."
"It still seems like it was just yesterday I was teaching you the very basics. They grow up so fast.", Obi-Wan chuckled, patting his close friend on the back, "Come now, lets grab something to eat and discuss things. I am sure you could use a stiff drink after the voyage you just had."
"You have no bloody idea…", Philip agreed, letting Obi-Wan lead the way.
---Random Bar---
Selecting a relatively quiet bar to sit and talk, everyone placed their food and drink orders before getting to business. Going over the initial incident with Philip, Obi-Wan wanted to confirm the exact events that led up to his encounter with the unknown vessel. Giving him the same information he gave Victor, Philip let out an exhausted sigh as he took a sip of his beer.
"Let me ask you, have you heard about Space Station Polaris?", Philip asked, uncertain if the news had reached him yet.
"No, did something happen out there?", Obi-Wan replied, having heard nothing about the remote space station.
"Those bastards destroyed the station; it is just a heap of scrap now.", Philip told him, "They looted the place, started their return journey back to their base, and happened upon as my helmsmen was charting our next jump. My blasted bad luck damn near got us killed…"
"Hmm…", Obi-Wan said, looking at Ahsoka and Anakin, "Were either of you aware of this information?"
Shaking their heads no, neither of them had heard anything about a space station being destroyed. Uncertain why it had not been brought up yet, as it was the last settlement in the Galactic Republic before crossing into the Algrand Empire. It served as an important trading hub for that area so hearing nothing about its destruction was disturbing to him. Wondering if the military was hiding it from the Jedi Council and the Senate, Obi-Wan decided to do some further digging after lunch.
"So, this mystery vessel showed up after your last distress call was sent out? Did he happen to mention where they came from before answering your call?", Obi-Wan inquired.
"He said they had come straight from Polaris.", Philip answered, "Frankly, if his ship had not come out of a bloody wormhole, I would have not believed him."
"There is a wormhole out there?", Obi-Wan said, looking at the Daedalus' report again.
"No, I am saying the wormhole appeared out of nowhere and his ship sailed out of it. I know they are the stuff of legend, but…I think that ship had a Folding Drive.", Philip admitted.
Currently in very early development in several different countries, an actual prototype had yet to be built by any nation. Everything scientists knew about them came from heavily corrupted data retrieved from various unearthed Ancient's strongholds. Believing his friend may have been mistaken about what he saw, Obi-Wan was going to continue but Philip saw the doubt in his eyes. Pulling out his data recorder, Philip presented them with the video recording of their first contact.
Silently watching the video feed, just as Philip had said, a massive wormhole appeared out of thin air. As the vessel began to sail out of it, Obi-Wan had him pause it when the emblem on the bow became fully visible. Using his computer to scan the emblem, he ran a quick search to see who it belonged to. After a few moments of searching, the computer came up with "No Data Found".
"Try scanning again once the ship is entirely out of the wormhole.", Anakin suggested, "It could be a bug in the database."
Doing as Anakin suggested, again the computer came back with "No Data Found". Sitting back in his seat with a perplexed look, Obi-Wan did not know what to make of the situation. At this point, the only information he had was the vessels name and that it potentially had a functioning Folding Drive. Knowing this lack of information would make the Senators uneasy, as this ship could abruptly pop up anywhere, he wished he knew more about them so could soothe their fears. Not wanting to start a manhunt for these Good Samaritan, Obi-Wan asked if he had anything else that could help identify who they were.
"Well…I think he was using that Force stuff you Jedi use.", Philip remarked, fast forwarding to the fight with the Black Legion and pirates, "See here, watch how he mangles these space marines."
Watching Victor use the force to crush five space marines like they were made of paper, Anakin and Obi-Wan looked at one another. Both had fought corrupted space marines before and knew pulling a stunt like that off was no small feat. Space marine armor was rigid, thick, and incredibly strong, to crush it and the superhuman in them…that would easily make Victor one of the most powerful Force users in the universe.
Continuing to let the video continue, all three Jedi froze as they witnessed Victor activate his red and blue lightsabers. Having Philip pause the video again, Obi-Wan immediately took a photo of it and transmitted it to the other council members.
"Did you forget to include this information in your report?", Obi-Wan inquired.
"No, I included a copy of everything when I sent it to my superiors and the Daedalus' captain.", Philip said, with a confused look, "You saying that this was not the reason you came looking for me? I figured he was a rogue jedi or something like that."
"The Order and Senate sent us so we could get further details. All we knew was that you were attacked in a remote part of the republic, and that an unknown vessel came to your aid.", Obi-Wan stated, before flagging their waitress down, "My apologies, could we please get our food to go? Some came up and we need to leave immediately."
Nodding her head, the waitress ran to the back while Obi-Wan paid the bill. Thanking his friend for the valuable information, they took the food from the waitress when she returned and quickly ran off. Sending Obi-Wan the data he had, figuring he might need it, Philip took a sip of his beer and let out a sigh. Closing his eyes to relax, a burning sensation quickly came over him as a knife was driven through the seat and into his back. Knocking the wind out of him, Philip was about to call for aid when an unknown person moved next to him.
"You should have kept your mouth shut.", the masked man said, quickly vacating the bar.
"Damn it…all…", Philip wheezed, before slumping over in the booth.