Somehow looking relieved, despite the limited movement the android seemed to have, it replied, "Thank you, Master Luke. She will be most pleased."

He smiled, then looked back to the corridor ahead of them. The android itself did not stop walking with them, and even entered the lounge with everyone else. Obviously, it was some sort of serving android, so she guessed it would next serve them some sort of beverage.

Already waiting in the lounge, seated in a two-person sofa, were two humans. One was a man with an odd looking…uniform on. At second glance, he seemed very uncomfortable in his uniform…but he was ruggedly handsome. The other human was a woman. She seemed modest in most respect, with dark brown hair and a simple, yet still somehow elegant white dress.

Admiral Neylar motioned to the woman and said, "This is Chief of State Leia Organa Solo…Basically, the leader of the New Republic."

Everyone, Chris included, looked surprise when they heard just who she was. None of them had expected to meet someone of such a high stature on a first contact meeting.

The Chief of State nodded to all of them and said, "On behalf of the New Republic, welcome aboard."

Chris nodded his thanks, then introduced himself and the rest of the Dragon crew that was with him. They all sat down, the Dragon crew sitting in their own chairs and sofas while the Hope crew sat in separate chairs.

Before any conversation about how the Dragon crew found itself here, Chris asked, "So tell me, Jedi Master Skywalker…what exactly is this ‘Force?’"

In turn, Luke Skywalker sighed and hesitated for a moment. He looked at Vendar, giving her a clue as to how important this explanation might be.

"The Force is an energy field created by all living things in the universe," he began quietly. "It’s within us…it surrounds us, binds us, and holds the universe together."

Though she was probably out of line, Vendar decided to ask her own questions. "Why am I…somehow…different?"

Skywalker looked at her for a moment, then calmly said, "Simply put, you appear to be quite strong in the Force…meaning, you have an easy ability when it comes to using the Force, should you ever learn how to control it."

Vendar saw Chris frown before he asked, "And what can one do if they can control the Force?" She could hear doubt in his voice about this…after all, he was describing some sort of mystical, unscientific energy field. It was like he was almost preaching a religion to them!

"If one can control, even master the Force," Skywalker said. He hesitated a moment before finishing, "One can do a multitude of things, and is open to an equal multitude of things. For instance, one’s instinct can be greatly heightened by the Force…or as it is put, they can see things before they happen, giving them an edge. Or one can telepathically communicate with others…or even move or change something telepathically."

Obviously doubtful, Ada decided to ask a question. "Move or change something? Like what?"

Skywalker shrugged indifferently. "Anything, really. Any Jedi can simply move something…however, changing something is entirely different, as it involves a much more complex ‘movement’ of things."

Still doubtful, she added, "Well, I don’t mean to seem rude…but could you possibly prove it?"

Skywalker gave a sort of half-cocked grin, then seemed to make a flicking movement of his hand. A moment later, Ada’s comm badge was firmly placed in the palm of his hand. Vendar had barely seen the badge fly across the room, and she felt astonishment cross her face.

Stumbling for words, Ada asked, "How…did you…"

"As I said," Skywalker said, opening his palm. "The ability to control the force means the ability to move all things. Size matters not." With that, the comm badge slowly ‘lifted’ off of his hand and ‘flew’ across the room. A moment later, it was hovering peacefully in front of Ada.

Of course, she hesitated, confused and no doubt somewhat fearful. A moment later, she snatched it out of the air and quickly placed it back on her uniform. She looked content enough…as did Chris and Terry.

To break the tension, the Chief of State asked, "So, how did you end up in this galaxy?"

Obviously relieved that someone broke the tension of the moment, Chris quickly began, "Well, actually, there’s more to it than just being from another galaxy. You see, that anomaly that you saw behind us…That’s some sort of temporal anomaly." The Hope crew looked at him with blank faces, showing that they must not really understand temporal mechanics that well. "In essence…we’re also from another time." Realization then dawned on everyone’s faces. "We just aren’t sure if we’re from your past or your future yet."

After a moment of speculation, the Chief of State beckoned, "Please, continue."

With that, Chris went into the story of where they came from, what everything was like there, and how they managed to end up in the Kalium Galaxy. However, he didn’t say anything about what happened in the Kalium Galaxy, still unsure as to whether they were in the past or future…

He did, however, talk about their current situation.

"I do have some bad news," he started morbidly. "We weren’t the only ship pulled from another time by that anomaly…another ship is here with us. More to the point, a very, very deadly enemy of ours. One that could very easily conquer this entire galaxy in this time period simply because you don’t know how to fight them."

"And who are they?" Admiral Neylar asked, obviously worried.

Chris stared at her for a moment, letting her know that this was a very, very serious situation. "We call them…the Borg. They are a cybernetic society composed of thousands of drones, much like the drones of insect hives. These drones, however, were all once independent life forms…some on the ship that is here may even have once been humans. The Borg, using nanoscopic robots called nanites, can ‘assimilate’ life forms…basically, adding their technology to their own, and taking over the independent mind. That person is then permanently linked to the ‘hive mind’ and is forced to not only do every function the collective forces it to do…but also forced to reveal all memories and thoughts to the collective. They exist to conquer…and they will stop at nothing to achieve their ultimate goal of what they call perfection."

Obviously, everything he told them took several minutes to sink in. Realization, fear, and even anger was showing up on all of the Hope crew’s faces. It was obviously something new to them…and something that was very frightening.

"How…many of their ships came to our time?" Admiral Neylar asked.

"Just one," Chris stated. "However, that one ship, cube shaped, is huge. Each face of the cube is approximately three kilometers by three kilometers…maybe even bigger, this class of cube is unlike any we’ve seen before, heavily armed and armored. One standard cube…was enough to destroy an entire Federation fleet…" He looked at their faces morbidly. "One ship is very dangerous…

"Which actually brings me to another point," he suddenly said. "We can not stop this ship from changing the events of this time line by our selves. We need your help to stop it. If we can’t stop it…then this entire galaxy could very well be ultimately conquered by the Borg."

The Chief of State looked at the floor solemnly for a moment as all eyes fell on her. It was rather quite fortunate that she had actually been aboard the one ship that stumbled onto the Dragon…for things could get done fast that way.

Finally, she looked up at Chris and nodded. "Then it’s settled…we’ll help in any way we can."

Chris nodded and smiled. "Then we can win." He then looked over to Ada, who probably expected him to ask the question that he did. "Ada, you saw the scans on their weapons. How can they help?"

She shrugged simply, as if the answer were self-evident. "That’s easy. Their warhead-based weaponry has a very, very high destructive yield. Furthermore, they don’t have any type of real energy output like our torpedoes do. That being the case…they would have no trouble getting through the Borg’s shields. I say we draw the Borg to this location and have them fire everything at the Borg’s weapon and Transwarp systems."

Chris seemed to consider this for a moment, giving Vendar a moment to glance over at the other Jedi. Once again, she had caught him staring at her. Now that her apparent aptness to the force had been brought out in the open…why was he still staring at her?

She shrugged the thought away for the moment as Chris nodded his head. "Agreed. Chief of State, if you could call as many of your vessels to this region as possible. We can’t wait too long, however…we can’t let the Borg get too far away from us."

She looked to Admiral Neylar and nodded to him. "Admiral, I leave that up to you."

"Of course," he replied, standing up to leave. "If you’ll all excuse me."

Everyone politely nodded as Admiral Neylar left, leaving the Chief of State, her husband, Captain McCleod and the two Jedi to talk to the Dragon crew.

However, Vendar knew that they didn’t have time for socializing. The Chief of State stood up, as did everyone else after her. "I am sure that you have your own preparations to make, as well as repairs to your vessel," she said, her voice one of calm and coolness that only an experienced, but sympathetic politician could acquire.

"Indeed," Chris stated, indicating with his voice that it was an understatement.

"We should have a liaison accompany you, and maybe you should leave one here as well," the Jedi Master suggested quietly.

"Agreed," Chris replied. "That way any and all questions can be answered personally if the need arises." He looked to Terry and said, "Terry, you’ll stay here. Give them full cooperation, but at all costs, you must not inform them of any events that we have witnessed in this galaxy in our time. Understood?"

"Of course, sir."

The Jedi Master then looked to the other Jedi, then nodded to him. He stepped forward and moved towards the Dragon crew. "This is Kyle Aurain, one of my past pupils," he said, keeping his calm, quiet voice.

Chris extended his hand, and he took it. "Nice to meet you, sir."

Kyle then quietly took his place next to Chris…avoiding Vendar’s look the entire time. She found that curious and decided she’d ask him why he was acting the way he was before they left for their time. Terry moved away from the crew and stood next to the Chief of State.

Chris nodded to her again and said, "We’ll send you the information we’ve collected on this new cube as soon as we compile it."

"Thank you," was all she said before Captain McCleod motioned towards the exit. With that, the crew left the lounge and headed back for the Meridian.

Although Leia was his twin sister, she didn’t possess nearly the skill in the Force that Luke held. As a result, after Captain McCleod and Lieutenant Latrael left the lounge, she turned to him, poised to ask the question…just as he had expected.

However, she paused when she saw the smile edging at Luke’s face. "And what precisely are you grinning about?"

Luke’s grin turned into a full-blown smile when she asked that. "The way Kyle kept staring at that one woman…you could tell he was quite taken with her."

Leia grinned and rolled her eyes, shaking her head. "Looks like you didn’t instruct him in how to show his interest in a girl yet, eh kid?" Han asked.

"Considering my experience, I wouldn’t be the best teacher," he replied. "You’ve had far more experience, why don’t you teach him?"

Han looked taken back by the comment, almost hurt as he replied, "What…and spend time away from my two ladies?" By two ladies, he meant Leia and his most prized possession of all: the Millennium Falcon.

Leia rolled her eyes yet again, but Han was behind her so didn’t see. As a result, he frowned questioningly at Luke when he grinned again.