RETURN

By Ron Winter

Admiral Ciaran Storm stood watch on the bridge of his flagship. He

enjoyed this time, as long as it was peaceful. His Alliance Star Defender

class vessel, the StarStorm, was the flagship of the Storm Fleet. Despite

the fact that his peaceful watch was to be interrupted, he was to be

overjoyed for the same reason.

He heard the beeping from the comm station. "Sir," the communications officer reported, regarding the beeping signal that all on the flight deck

could now hear. "I've never seen this frequency used before." Storm had

been striding to the station before the comm officer had finished. "It's

Alliance, but not one I have ever seen."

"I have specific instructions, ensign," Storm replied, noting the

frequency and code. He took a data pad from the ensign, keyed in coordinates

and returned it to him. "Head for these coordinates. Close all viewports.

This is top secret, ensign."

"Aye sir," the ensign stated, looking perplexed.

"Don't worry, ensign," the admiral told him with an uncharacteristic

smile. "This is a positive event." He strode away, heading for his office.

It worked! He thought to himself, still smiling. They did it! His

elation changed to solemnity, suddenly.

But at what cost, he worried.

*

Space is quiet. But if sound could travel in the void, the opening of

the portal between dimensions would have been an echoing, thunderous din. A

corona of red, ethereal fire, highlighted by speckles of white energy,

exploded outward as several vessels exited into normal space.

Dral Warthen stood on the bridge of the Alliance Star Cruiser Fury. The

Alliance Star Defender Justice traveled alongside him. A few other vessels

were destroyed in their war with the Monitors. The Imperial Star Destroyer

Stalker broke formation and moved to a position to enter hyperspace.

Dral could not believe his hated enemy, the Sith Lord Vordis, had

sacrificed his life for their success. Nolan Talsiir had taken over command

of the Sith's vessel. Alliance Intelligence had strongly suspected Talsiir

had also been the dark hunter and assassin known only as Shade. It was also

suspected that this dark wielder of the Force was the Emperor's Hand. The

Imperial craft was flanked by a smaller black painted vessel, the ship of

Tolan Modranai, a self styled mage who had been the Imperial Senator from the

planet Chronos. The man was pure evil, just like Talsiir. But after Vordis'

death, Dral felt an even stronger darkness from the mage.

The ISD's engines flared and the Imperial vessel was gone. In a way,

Dral was glad they had departed. Working alongside Imperials had become

difficult to stomach and a dark sider like Talsiir even more so.

Dral reflected on their odyssey. Luke had discovered that an

extra-dimensional threat endangered hyperspace travel as well as sentient

life in their universe. Luke gathered people together who he had discerned

through the Force to be the ones best suited for this mission. A spy had

come to a Jedi stronghold and was discovered. The spy, an operative for an

extra-dimensional race called the Monitors, after interrogation, produced the

conceptual designs for a drive system capable of transmitting vessels and

sentients to the dimension where the Monitors originated. The group

discovered that the plans for our dimension included making hyperspace

inaccessible and then to release their strange energies into our space, the

result of which would destroy all energy, matter and sentient life. Their

dimension would basically usurp ours.

The mission cost them dearly. Lord Vordis sacrificed himself in

Palpatine's name. And then there was Luke. Dral shuddered. Even though, in

some strange way, there had been more than one Luke Skywalker, this was

Dral's Luke, his dear friend who like a brother to him, also died saving

their galaxy. Upon his death, Luke shared his secrets, his knowledge with a

lost Jedi that was held captive by the Monitors since before the collapse of

the Old Republic. All that remained of who Luke was, now resided in this

Jedi's mind. Another Jedi named Cardan Nerise also perished and gave his

knowledge to this Jedi, named Moradin Katar. Nerise had studied the secrets

of the Jedi temples of Zoric, a world that had been destroyed by the Empire

many years ago.

They would all have to deal with the ramifications of leaving our galaxy

like they did. Their departure was sudden and there was no time for

good-byes or explanations.

At least there was an upside to all the deaths. The enemy was defeated

and there would be no reason to ever return there. He had to breath in

deeply. Home at last, he thought !

His thoughts returned to his home galaxy. Dral knew the Trasiir had all

but splintered apart while he was gone. They had been squires and protectors

to the Jedi Knights but many of his number departed service even before he

left. Whether he was to reform his order or not, he wanted to know what had

happened to his friends. And for that matter, what had become of his family.

Dral had also been the Avatar to the Celestial Dragon of Order. This was

still complicated to him but he could feel how disorder had plagued this

galaxy since he had been gone. He recalled the pain he felt when he had left

our dimension so many years ago. Dral knew the Dragon had not been able to

make the transition to extra dimensional space. He wondered where it was.

He spread his senses out, wondering of Arcturus, Sybil ‚^¿¶ and Rachel.

And they would sense his return ...

*

Moradin Katar sat in his temporary quarters on the ASC Fury. He was

trying to assimilate all of the information that had been uploaded to his

mind through the Force from the deceased Luke Skywalker and Cardan Nerise.

There were feelings behind certain things, for a sister and a brother in law

as well as for a wookie friend. He felt the strong bond that had been lost

between Nerise and a dark side woman. He found himself thinking on how this

whole situation started many years ago.

The Clone Wars had just started, as well as the Jedi Purge. A shape

shifter had infiltrated a senator's entourage and Moradin's task was to

capture the infiltrator. Somehow, it got the better of him during a final

confrontation.

Moradin awoke in a craft and soon that craft went through some kind of

turbulence accompanied by flashes of red and white light from outside. He

did not know it at the time, but he had just traversed a bridge between

dimensions. He fell back unconscious, until their ultimate arrival.

The shape shifter brought Moradin to his masters, a race known as the

Monitor's. They were behemoths, large humanoids whose flesh was bleach

white, decaying and they used large elaborate technological armored suits to

keep their destructive energies contained. Behind the eyes, it always seemed

there was something fowl there, smoldering. They never spoke anything

understandable, preferring to have underlings translate.

Moradin was held prisoner for many years. His physical form was tested,

as well as his command of the Force. Eventually, he pieced together that the

Monitors had perfected the spacecraft drive that could traverse dimensions

and the shape shifters had started an infiltration of different political and

military bodies in our dimension. Within the last year, they had implemented

technology that endangered hyperspace travelers and in some instances, small,

remote regions of our galaxy were destroyed.

Then within the last few months, his meditative dreams seemed to finally

contact someone. Anakin Skywalker's son, ironically, was to be his savior,

as well as the galaxy's.

Moradin had wished Luke had survived the deadly encounters with the

Monitors. A Jedi Knight from Zoric, Cardan Nerise, a scholar of old, lost

Jedi forms, was also a casualty of the war. Cardan and Luke's spirits moved

on but their knowledge lived on in him.

If I can focus enough with all of this knowledge and these memories

bombarding me, he thought. Moradin was a Jedi Guardian, a knight of combat forms. He had lost the lust for adventure and other selfish pursuits long ago as a Padawan. But he excelled as a man of action. Moradin was usually an excellent bodyguard. Now he needed to become more of a scholar, especially since hearing of the fall of the Republic and the dark side's rise. But despite this Moradin was looking forward to meeting the Jedi of this age and to help them in any way that he could. Even the others that returned from this odyssey knew they had returned to a changed galaxy. Time, as always, would tell ...

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