Jacob was cleaning his blaster after going for a walk that included a large amount of shooting at tree branches and large, dangling leaves on the forest world, the name of which he didn't actually know. It wasn't the tiny and finger cramping pistol that Richard had given him, but a better, more balanced blaster given to him by Sabine when she saw the tiny pistol that he was using. He checked every inch of the black and silver pistol, making sure it shined when light struck it. He was just finishing when an alarm blared and his hand slipped, making a streak along the side of the blaster. He quickly rubbed out the streak then ran into the hall, holstering it on his belt.

When he reached the center of the excitement, the hangar, he saw what was the cause of the ruckus. A ship had made a form of emergency landing that was more crash and less land in the hangar, barely missing any of the others ships, which would have been impossible if the Ghost had still been sitting in the hangar. Luckily, Hera and her crew had taken off for their next mission just earlier that day, leaving the gaping space where the seemingly untouched ship now rested, save for the scratches on the bottom from sliding into the hangar, mirroring the channels now dug into the stone floor.

Only one crew member of the light freighter stumbled out when the ramp fell, but something was wrong with him. He collapsed onto the ground when he reached the bottom of the ramp, shaking wildly. Jacob didn't know what could cause this, but there were plenty of things in this galaxy that could cause something like that, and other galaxies once he considered other possibilities. If members of Star Command were present already, there was a possibility other things could also have leaked through thanks to Richard. As soon as this thought occurred to him, he realized it was actually quite likely.

A medical team rushed into the hangar and helped the convulsing man onto a stretcher. Jacob noticed that his skin seemed to have a glow radiating beneath it, a faint blue energy. Jacob meandered forward, not exactly sure on his path as many of the other rebels returned to their jobs, which he had yet to be given, as well as the other travelers. He reached the scene and noticed nothing out of the ordinary. He continued looking around, boarding the ship as Cat and Richard arrived as well, and they all made the same search that he had just made.

"There's nothing too suspicious here, but maybe further in the ship. Should I look?" Jacob called down to them. Richard shook his head, but Cat continued to stare at the ground in the path the man had taken. Jacob noticed her curious look and walked down the ramp to crouch next to her. Their elbows brushed when he crouched and she scooted away to give him a little more space. He didn't see what she had seen that made her so focused until she pointed straight to it. It was the glow that had been beneath the man's skin, but now the floor ever so faintly glowed with that same energy, but it was quickly fading.

"I don't think a creature or person did this," Cat noted, catching Jacob's attention immediately. He had to agree with her, but Richard still looked at the ship with hesitation. Mal and her brother walked up to them along with one of their rebel friends, Marcus Kintel, who was a light skinned human with a mop of dark hair, looking only a year or two older than all of them. He was younger than most of the rebels and a little more "rebellious". He seemed to know more about the galaxies many wonders than anyone else, as, and it was one of Jacob really respected the guy, he was something of a nerd. Before any of them said anything, Jacob walked back up the ramp and hit the button to open the door to the ship.

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Cat followed after the others, who followed Jacob onto the ship, though Marcus stayed behind. As she had suspected, there was no sign of anything hostile, like an animal or enemy, and the ship clearly had no power. She moved to the engineering area and ducked into the panels, fidgeting with several of the components of the ship until suddenly the ships internal lights flickered on. They now had some power, and Mal walked to the bridge of the light freighter. Cat finished up the minor repairs that needed to be made, then followed the others. Mal was checking the navigation coordinates, looking where they had been, and what system could have possibly housed whatever caused this. Cat knew about the little bits of information and what they meant. It came with her gift. Jacob entered the bridge, accidentally bumping into her on the way, though she was beginning to suspect that it might not be accidental.

She had started to consider the possibility that he might be... interested in her when he had given her his lucky coin. To her, it was something normal that was just a thing she was used to seeing or holding, but he had seemed to hold it closely, even cherish it. When he had given it to her, he had seemed on edge, even nervous. It was an odd sight to see. She had seen him keep a confident face while he had a piece of a sword in his shoulder, a deep gash across his face, and blood flowing freely. He had fought off entire parties of orcs, with the other's help, and a camp of centaurs. He had taken on danger after danger with a strong or joking face, but she was beginning to wonder if all of the confidence and humor was just a shield for him to hide behind.

She shook the train of thought off its track as she tried to dig out the previous coordinates from the ship's data. It wasn't something to worry about right now, or ever really. If he had something to say, he would say it eventually. She continued moving wires and rerouting signals from one diode to another, bypassing the security blocking the data. It fizzled out for a second and lost power, so she smacked her fist into the console and it jumped back to life again. She was surprised at first that it had worked, but it had felt natural like everything else she did. Working with this tech just came to her. If any of the others decided to ask her what she was doing, she wouldn't have possibly been able to explain, though perhaps that might be part of her gift as well. Soon the holographic navigational console was displaying the previous coordinates for Mal. Mal, however, looked quite confused.

"What's wrong?" Cat asked.

"These coordinates," Mal noted with skepticism, "They don't exist. I don't know how I know this, but they just don't exist."

"They would have to exist for them to be in the ship's navigational data though, right?"

"I should think so. Maybe it's just a glitch," Mal admitted. She sat for a long time simply glaring at the coordinates. Cat sat with her wondering what they should do about this situation. An idea seemed to flash across her face, and she sat up. She flipped a switch on the dashboard, pushed a few buttons, and the ship started to move. Cat could see many people outside the ship frantically scampering out of the way, and they turned toward the open mouth of the hangar, but a blast shield was lowering on the gaping opening. Mal punched a lever forward and they shot out the hangar, the safety systems blocking any sort of pursuit, and Mal pressed a few more buttons as Cat sat in the co-pilot's chair. They shot into hyperspace, the rebel base vanishing behind them.

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Mal's hands felt the comfort of controls as he hands had flicked across the board, pushing buttons and flipping switches. She felt at home in the chair of the ship, their ship, her ship. She had noted it was similar to the famous ship flown by Han Solo, the Millennium Falcon. It was of a similar model, she knew instinctively. This was clearly a YT-2300 freighter, while the Falcon was a modified YT-1300 from Corellia. Stars blurred into streaks as they shot through hyperspace, covering distance faster than they could possibly without the ability to travel through this alternate dimension. She had used the coordinates they had found, though she didn't feel as though they should be possible, to make the jump into hyperspace.

She toured what was now the travelers' ship. She found that it didn't actually have a name, and if it did she decided that it was under new management, which meant it needed a new name. She considered Traveler, but quickly decided against it. She tried to take into account everything she expected this ship to do for them. She knew it would gain something of a reputation. She wished Rose had been there to help her, as it had been her that had named the Watchers, but she hadn't been present this time during their meeting.

Going over all the many adventures they had, an idea dawned on her as to what she could call the ship. She decided on the Hero's Blade. It was a fitting name after both the nature of what they did in these stories, and their third and first adventures could be taken into account. She decided to tell each of the others to see if they agreed, and found them each performing various tasks around the ship.

Jacob had found a small armory in one of the cargo holds, but he had found that the large blaster rifles and even a heavy minigun were just as awkward in his hands as if he had no talent at all. It was frightening to know they had several explosives on their ship, along with so many plasma cells for the heavy weapons. What had been the previous rebel cell's mission, and how had they failed despite such a large amount of ordinance?

Cat was performing a similar task, making repairs to the ship while they cruised through hyperspace. She emerged with a small amount of grease on her hands, and a little on her face. She must have wiped her brow while she worked. She agreed with the name, as Jacob had. Mal looked at her curiously as she worked, knowing something was on her mind. She decided to ask after they solved this little mystery of the unknown coordinates.

She found Richard next, sitting in his quarters, silently kneeling in the middle of the floor. Around him, items floated through the air gently. She noted the fact that though he was learning to use the force, he didn't have a lightsaber. It didn't quite seem jedi-like of him to not have a saber, as they were the signature weapon and tool of the jedi, though she knew he would disagree. Jacob, Richard, or maybe even Calen would have pointed out that a jedi's most important tool was actually their connection to the force, which she knew existed in this world, but she wasn't exactly sure she wanted it to work. She didn't think it would be wise to disturb him right now, but he spoke right before she closed the door.

"What's up? Something you needed to say?" he asked without opening his eyes

"Just trying to decide on a name for the ship."

"What did you have in mind?"

"Well, I thought Hero's Blade would be fitting and cool," she told him. He simply nodded and she shut the door, moving on to find her brother. Though everyone else had liked the name, she figured she should at least check on Calen's opinion. She checked everywhere looking for him, but didn't find him anywhere she hadn't been. She must have passed him somewhere.

She went back to ask Jacob if he had seen him anywhere, only to find Calen testing out the heavier weapons himself. He flicked a heavily modified F-11D blaster that looked familiar. Jacob explained it was the same model, though it seemed impossible, as the special blaster that the First Order trooper Captain Phasma armed herself with. She knew that he also owned a toy version of the weapon back in their home world. The movement was fluid and easy for him. He had found his talent.

"Thinking about naming, what do you think about Hero's Blade?" She asked as he slowly let down the balster. He shrugged and nodded at the same time, clearly not caring all that much. She turned away and walked back to the bridge. Only moments later, a signal indicated they were dropping out of hyperspace. The stars around her returned to their pinprick points in the vast black, but the sight that made her breath caught was the system before her. She saw several planets and moons orbiting the nearest star, but around them was a blue band of... something. She wasn't sure what it was, but it seemed odd. There was even a massive ship that glowed with that same blue hue.

She approached the ship as it was the nearest thing to them. A signal beeped, indicating an incoming transmission, sound only.

"You are approaching the Alliance capital ship without proper clearance. Declare your business, turn around now, or be blown out of the sky."

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Richard felt something disturbing in the force as they exited hyperspace, something he hadn't felt before. Something foreign and exotic, that flowed and moved through most things, much like a limited version of the force itself, but it seemed powerful. It's power was no light or dark, but neutral. It occurred to him that this could be the presence of the "middle" force user that identified as the Bendu, but this was a different power. This was a force outside of the force.

He opened his eyes as he meditated and stood, breaking his focus. He walked out of his quarters and down the hall to the bridge. He walked through the door to find Mal and Jacob, who had dubbed himself the co-pilot and Traveler-2, but he also saw a large ship in his sight line, with several planets visible behind it and a band of blue energy flowing beyond those. He heard a message on their receiver, coming through.

"This is your last warning, declare yourself or be shot down!" The man on the other end was clearly irritated.

"Well, they no longer are offering retreat as an option," Jacob noted, flicking the mic on after. "Sorry for the delayed response, we were having some difficulties. We need to dock now as we are running low on supplies due to damage to some of our fuel systems. This is the first warning we've heard." The last part of this was obviously a lie, but it was possible that this massive ship was the cause of what had happened to the original owners of this ship.

"Give us the name of your ship for our documents and the number of your crew, then proceed to dock."

"Thank you, sir. This is the Hero's Blade, with a crew of 5 members, docking now." Mal pulled the ship toward the opening that was now revealed in the side of the massive ship. They landed and Richard left the bridge to see where they had landed. He opened the ramp and walked out onto the massive ship, though he obviously couldn't see the entire ship in the tiny hangar, which was barely large enough to fit the Blade. The others exited behind him, with Jacob glancing at his hands curiously, Cat looking off into the distance as though looking at a distant star, Calen shaking his head every so often, and Mal seemed undisturbed. It was this unknown energy, the one outside the force.

Jacob reached out to shake the hand of a man approaching them, preparing to greet them, but when his skin was about to touch the man's a bolt of electricity jumped into the man, shocking him. The man withdrew his hand surprised, but moved back and shook his hand this time with no interference from static electricity, though he wasn't sure how Jacob had built up on the metal floors.

Cat shook his hand next, but seemed to stare past him, like she had everything so far. Mal shook his hand normally, and Calen shook his head once again as he shook the man's hand. Richard felt no different, but perhaps that was due to his connection with the force, which none of the others had. The man shook Richard's hand last and introduced himself Marzek Fulcen, a representative of the Alliance. Jacob seemed to have something occur to him, and he looked at his hands.

"Cat, what are you seeing?" Jacob asked, ignoring the man.

"Everything. I see so much it's overwhelming. The smallest details, and the whole picture," She told him.

Richard knew Jacob would explain soon what he knew, but not in front of the man. They all talked with him for a few minutes, settling that they would remain living on their ship, as there were no quarters on the alliance capital ship for them. Jacob seemed to quickly end the conversation and returned to the ship, with all the others trailing behind them, muttering something about fates.